The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-05-26

less lover, nor Dove, nor Palmer, he
concludes that he is tolerably safe and
at some distance from all such stirring
incidents.
But when he peruses the latest novel
| from the circulating library he is recall
ed to sense of his insecure position.
Bowers and poisoned goblets are all
moonshine and nonsense. The thing is
done every day much more simply,
and with less ostentation, at picnic.
Blanche finished off Augustus when she
handed him the cold pigeon pie with a
joke about his appetite, and hope that
he would tell her if he felt inclined for
tensibly to gather a wild rose in the
hedge, she was in reality delayed for a
minute or so in the occupation of stab
bing Reginald and burying his body in
ditch. When she skips up, rose in
hand, quarter of an hour later, her
laugh is just as genial as ever, and she
will distribute five o'clock tea to her
friends the same afternoon without a
cloud on her sweet sunny brow. Such
is the teaching of the novel of the age.
A quiet man thinks all this very terri
BILE, and opines that the book must have
been written by she fiend. Nothing
of the kind. 1t has been written by the
wife of the curate in an adjoining par
ish, or by clever governess, or an ami
able blue-stocking, whose time hangs
heavy on her hands, and who compOses
this sort of thing when she is tired of
composing hymns. 1t would indeed be
unjust to represent the literary perform
ances of this kind as coming from femi-
nine pens only. Male writers turn out
lovely murderesses also, but not so well
got up, or so piguante or dashing, and
they cannot, at best, help making their
heroine look little CHASTITY in spite of
all effort. The homicidal heroine of
1" Armadale"-with respect to Mr.. Will
lie Collins be it spoken-is not so fresh
or so virginia. or so natural as, let us say,
Miss Braddon would have made her.
Due .fHmiua .fdcti. AuthorcsSes have
led off in this line of late years, and any
| uttCiIipt VII tiiN ptit VI o''t'ioio w N'pN
with or toimitate them is visited with the
failure it deserves. The picnic and poi
son school is feminine school of art,
though masculine proselytes are admit
ted. This makes it all the more bewil-
! dering, as we have said, to ordinary OBJ
servers. Assuming that incidents of
| this kind are not the more real or COM
mon because they are so commonly de-
scribed, what are we to think of the
Imagination that loves to brood on them?
In what strange grooves his feminine
genius begun to travel!
The three-volume homicidal heroine
may or may not have been, in the begin
ming, an attempt to introduce into the
educated market an article which has
been found productive of much em0lu-
ment in lower walk of literature, by
the London Journal and other periodi-
Gals of the sort. If so, the adventure
has been justified by success. If Bel
gravia and Mayfair did not tolerate tales
of murder and of moOnshine, the lend
ing libraries would cease to patronize
them and the h0micidal heroine, after
walking the literary market in vain,
would be compelled to fall back into her
accustomed columns in the penny week
lies. AS long as she fetches price in
the higher circles, she will continue to
be produced with rapidity and facility
that is in itself mark of some clever
ness. Looking at the phenomenon from
the economomical point of view, its oc-
currence is capable therefore of eXpla-
nation. AS it is in other things, so it is
in three-volume novels. The supply
keeps pace with the sale, and if the table
talk of Asmodeus would sell, whole edi-
tions of it would be written, printed,
and published without any serious diff
Guilty. But there are doubtless other
causes that account for the manufacture
of hOmicidal heroines. A romance
=. Mist have something to hang itself
upon. 1t may turn on the delncation,
whether humorous or sentimental, OF
the shades of human life and character,
or it may depend on the delineatiOn OF
passion, or, lastly, it may be strong in
incident of a sensational kind; but il
must be one of the three, or it is no 70.
nance at all.
The gift of knowledge of the shades OF
life and character is not an ordinary one.
1t presupposes in the fortunate possessOr
either II keen observation Of men and
manners, coupled with some experience
of both, or else, in some singular and
exceptional cases, a rich and sensitive
imagination, which makes up for want
of experience of life by drawing on it,
own admirable resources. A real artist
who labOrs at this class of creations does
not necessarily attempt a universal por.
trait of mankind. If wise, he bounds
his ambition by his powers or his eXpe-
rience, and confines himself to what hl
: has studied, or seen, or felt himself
: Within narrow limits, therefore, women
are often really successful in this line
; They cannot photograph the wide
World; for 0ne-hpndredth part Of it,
folljes or vices or pursuits, unless they
are unusually uplucky, they Heyer cal
haye observed, But give o tirst-ratC
altboress her own village or her owl
tireside. which she bas seen, and she vii
produce upon tBGm an ADMIRABLE, Qpd
occasionally, humorous work. The
creators of homieidsi EeYoines gro de
= baFred from this feld Of operation faI
Ln l., H. AI