The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-14

|
that, II slave property il safe In the Union y
and that these border counties would con-
thine. as at present, a bnlwark for the more
inland tier, with the additional safeguard of a
vigilant police In fine, disnnion, instead of
endangering slave property, wonld present
no increased facilities for escape, and would
provide additional securities for its safety.
-~-------------s
Weems' Life OF Washington and Life or
Marion. a $50
We took occasion, yesterday, while ahud-
ing to the literary achievements of General
LEE, to remark that very few Virginians had |
written books that a man can read through
There are not many we presume, who will |
dispute this proposition. We had great po-
htical writers in the olden time. but there
are not many who care to read their WORKS
from title page to colophon. Of the Few
Virginia written books which we can read
with unwearied interest, we are not ashamed
to confess that the Life of WAsHiNaTos, oy |
MASON L. WgRMs and the Life OF MARION, by |
the same author, are among our Iafori'es'-
People tell us of books for children, ana they
give us books full Of baby-taik Inc chiio'
wa believe by the time he learns to read,
has no tas to for any such BOOKS. he hAoe
something stirring 49, something aniinatea-
something full of action-it may be the actioh
of grown men or giants, but not OF children
When the boy gets beyond the nursery, nc
despises Goody Two Shoes, and Little $50
Peep. and Jack and his Bean, and the whoie
array of nursery heroes and heroines. lie Is
| for stronger food. He is very apt II ne mas
| turn for books to take at a tender age TO iE-
TENACIOUS, or TooKEs pantheon, or the liiao
| and Odyssey by PorR. 1t is astonishing now
! many boy read the aforementioned works Win
! the most eager delight. Not large boys, out
! little fellows of nine or ten but OF aii
/ books, the most captivating to a Virginia boy,
| is the Life of WASHINGTON, With wooo cuts,
| BRAppocK and the Indians, CoRSwALLIs and
the British army, WASHINGTON and the hes
slams. &c. We are not ashamed to confess
that we read the book, whenever we can get
hold of it with infinite zest, from beginning
| to end, and we like it better than the biogra-
| phies of WASHINGTON IRVING and Chief JUS
| tice MARSHALL.
II asked to give a reason for this strange
| preference we should be totally at a loss to do
| it. The book is, certainly, a very ridiculous
book, in all the lights that are generally sup
| posed to make a book respectable. The Ian
euage is the ludicrous jargon in which any
man ever conveyed his ideas. The style is
unlike any style that ever man wrote or
spoke in There is scarcely an idea that is
not tame and common place There is moth
ing so serious that he does not make us
Taught at it, There is nothing so lmpos-
ing that he does not render it rldlculous.-
The very slaughter of the battle-nelC'
the very groans of the wounded, the very
grief of the bereaved, become subjects OF
laughter under his treatment. Yet little boys
gloat over it, big boys dream about 1t, grown
men read it, laugh at it, and read it again and
again Ask them why they read such intol-
cradle stuff and they cannot tell you. Ihey
profess the utmost contempt for it, and yet
they 90 on reading it, to the end of the chap
ter.
The nearest approach we can make to q
reason for this unaccountabie infatuation is
this: The man tells his story in his own
way The style is his own, the language is
his own and the sentiments are his own. II
, he attempts to be fine, it is after his own
> fashion He borrows from nobody. Wha1
, he tells us may be told in homely phrase bu'
be it as homely as it may, it is his own. 1t Il
. natural even where it is turgid. Others may
! laugh but he is in earnest. Others may SEE
that he is making a fool of himself, but III
. never suspects anything of the KIND. From
this results a strong sense of reality, which
most trihing incidents of his hero's childhood
Y as we'll as in the most momentous passages o
/ his extraordinary life, we feel as though w
q We're present, and witnesses to all. 1t is tn
;, simple tale of a child, telling what he know
n with all the simplicity of childhood. 1t
h. nature that attracts us, nature will al
'e ways attract
p In childhood, we read the life of MARIO
It with eager curiosity. The author receive
lie all his intelligence from Col. HUGH H0RRY-
l. A gentleman told us, many years ago, tha
e, HoRRY was very much annoyed by the oool
d. on account of many of the ludicrous scene
I'd therein detailed, supposing them to be pre-
III sented with coloring which might bring h
Id veracity somewhat into quest ton. We kno'
ad not whether this was so or not; but we d
n know that Mr.. SINS, in his life of MARION
n. far more pretentions work-has told US NJ
,h thing that WEEMs had not told before, and hf
a added nothing to what WREAs had said
ne Every incident, every anecdote, that had bee
" recorded by WEEas, is faithfully transcribe
al by SINS and, apparently, he did not think
nd worth while to look beyond his volume,
al fully had he covered the entire ground.
es We recollect having seen MIR. WEEMs wh'
he we were a very small boy 1t was memoir
e. bile day with us-one which we shall new
IL
IS elections used to be held on the April Coun
n Court days, long before the Convention
n 1929 80 fixed all upon the same day. 1t w
in the first election we had ever been at, and '
,te had been brought up in very quiet nook
", a bend of the river, mile from any pub
lily highway, and far removed from anything a
~ preaching a public spectacle. We had heI
ar, tofore entertained a secret belief, that
al, biacksmith's shop in the neighborhood, viii
CO. we had been allowed, occasionally, to Wis
the was the emporium of civilization. We
nj been told that the Courthouse was SUI
&C. rior place, but we doubted it greatly. To
mt cleo ton, however, we Went and the
rn- among other strange sights, we saw an
the man sitting behind a table, under large c
md tree, with a pile of books before him.
not were told that was the renowned "Rector
ely Mount Vernon parish $50 he wrote himse
tel that was MAsoS=L. WEEMs--that was
md man who wrote the life of WAsHISGToN!
not had read the book until we had worn it o
md We had never thought it would be our f
tune to see the author. We had thought Il
/ as a man who could write book, must
ton something more than mortal. we gaZeo
uRE stupid admiration. We wish we could
, if mire anything whatever, now, as much AS
my admired that old man. We dared not SIP
alb to him. We were too much awe struck
t of that. We could but gaze in stupid wonder
the a Chinaman gazes on his Idol, when h
In /" Chin Claiming Josh" Nothing could div
ore our attention. There were cakes and gins
the bread around, and we had half dollar to b
ger There were sheriffs and deputies calling
ans soyereigns to go to the polls, and they "