e was safe
home. To tell the truth he writes extraordinarily well; one's only
feeling is that the simplest idiom would be best for such an amazing
narrative, and Mr. PYKE is too young and too clever (both charmingly
venial faults) to write simply. When I tell you that this persistent
youngster, hardly out of his teens, patiently worked out a plan of
escape which depended for its efficacy on an optical illusion (the
precise secret of which he does not give away), and with his friend, Mr.
EDWARD FALK, a District Commissioner from Nigeria, part tramped, part
_bummel-zugged_ the two hundred and fifty miles or so from Ruhleben to
the Dutch frontier, disguised as tourists, with a kit openly bought at
WERTHEIM's, living, when marketing became too dangerous, on potatoes and
other roots burglariously digged from the fields at dark, you will
gather that this is some adventure. But I am afraid the publication will
not assist any other prisoners at Ruhleben to escape. It is pleasant to
note that the Commandant of the Camp, VON TAUBB, was a sportsman and
none too thickly tarred with the brush of Prussian efficiency; and that
the Governor, GRAF SCHWERIN, threatened resignation if a no-smoking
order, sent from headquarters, were insisted on. Indeed, the fact that
our young friend was not shot out of hand must stand as a small entry on
the credit side, not inconveniently crowded, of Prussia's account in the
recording angel's ledger.

* * * * *

In _A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War_ (CONSTABLE) Mademoiselle CLAIRE DE
PRATZ discourses pleasantly and patriotically of sundry effects of the
War on French life and character. She is excusably proud of the part
which her fellow-countrywomen have played. The women of France seem to
have accomplished to admiration what we in England are only beginning to
understand. Quietly, almost automatically, Frenchwomen have slipped into
the men's vacant places and carried on the work of the country. The
industry and resourcefulness of the average Frenchwoman are proverbial,
but the author ascribes the peculiar readiness they have displayed at
the present time largely to compulsory military service, as well as to
the Frenchman's habit of discussing his work with his wife and daughters
and awakening their interest in it. Thus, when the local paperhanger was
called to the colours his wife repapered the author's country cottage
"quite as efficiently"; and thrilling indeed is the