THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A "NEWSPAPER GIRL."
The Autobiography of a "Newspaper Girl." By Elizabeth L. Banks. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—This is a very entertaining, though also in places too strident, book. It is the story of a lonely Wisconsin girl, who, after a school and college education, graduates "in a white frock with a piece of embroidery round the bottom," returns home with a sheepskin diploma, and sets herself to learning stenography and typewriting with the view of becoming a newspaper reporter. How she fails and succeeds, in both cases to some extent by her very audacity— and in both the Old World and the New—is hero set forth in a narrative the veracity of which is as obvious as the vivacity. It is hardly necessary to say that while she was engaged on American newspapers she had to submit to "adventures "—no other word can well be used—which threatened to besmirch her self-respect. But she came triumphantly through the ordeal, and survived even experiences in "yellow journalism." In the course of the twenty-eight chapters into which this book is divided, and which deal in about equal measure with her life in America and in England, she tells how she became a parlour-maid and very nearly became a Salvation Army girl ; how she fell in with an American millionaire, but for whose death she would probably be now actively engaged in conducting a magazine ; how she interviewed Mrs. Lynn Linton and Sir (then Mr.) Walter Besant ; and how " proposals" were made to her. The adventures and experi- ences of others are quite as well told as her own ; take, for example, the chapter which tells "The Love Story of Miss John- stone, Journalist." As a rule Miss Banks takes a genial view of life, but "In the Name of Christ" shows that she can be severe on what she considers austerity that amounts to self-righteousness and results in cruelty. More will be heard of Miss Banks, and her next work will be better than this.
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