New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-15

the wife who she foresees will soon die, ana WIN
the darker intention of marrying the elderly gentle
man. and of poisoning him for his property, I'D order
to marry man of her own age whom she loves one
accomplishes her objects and with no compuhctiohS
Of COINCIDENCE or NOT enough to deter her from at
tempting to poison his daughter Wne, sue 70 Ciu
ononoI fo make will in her favor. To be sure, she
f,;l in ber second attempt and is rewarded by being
discarded and turned out of the house by her own
son the loss of whose love (which he has bestowed
unon his stepsister and her station in life being the
only "noisoned chalicer that is commended to the
Inns Of this new Madame Lafiarge. What notions OF
iustice these sensational noveliss have, and what
beautifrl morals they teach MS! They understand
these things better in the sums of ST. Giles, one oil
whose poets sings, in his own beautiful Doric,
"The chap vot prigs wOt isn't hisn,
When he's cotched he goes to prison.
They have changed all this In May fair; lor' no
matter who is &" cotched" no one goes 10 PRISON -
the worst ofenses as that of poisoning, being con
doned nv = reduced income and an enforced resi-
denee in some out-of-theway watering-place on the
Continent On the whole we think we prefer the
Newpate Calendar to Gwendolines Harvest"
TILE LADY OF THE ICE Novel BY JAMES ODE de
MILF author OF THE Dodge cup Abroad, p CoIu
and Cieese" Sc with illustrations by c. G. Bush.
New-York: ID. Appleton Co.
II IN worth while to do everything well but is it
while for example TO paint Indifferent pictures, or
to write indifferent novels 1t may interest and oc-
cnpv an amateur to do these things. and for that
reason. perhaps, he should be allowed the privilege
but with the understanding that he is to keep his
work 10 HIMSELF for of amateur-wOIk Of all sorts
the world has already more than enough If he will
make an exhibition of himself, however he must
take the consequences of his temerity Ike the
boomeranp player who pays for his want OF skill by
tba raturn of his weapon on his own sconce. We
can laurb at such one for his misfortune; but his
fellow. who has just skill enough to miss himself
and TO hit u.s. him we can neither lGGs4 az noi Loi-
give. For worse than no skill ia half skill, are
worse than the stupid man, from whom We expect
nothing Is the clever man, from whom We expect
much, in vain. Mr.. De Mile is a clever man; Dut
we expect nothing from hIh now, whatever we may
have done once. He belongs TO a class of writers
common enough at all times, spawned in the shallow
streams of periodical literature which is becoming
abundant in sprats The Lady of the Ice bears
about the same relation to a novel that paIlOr
charade does to an acted play; we may pretend to
follow its characters, and TO laugh in the night
places but the pretense is too thin to deceive any
body. There are in this charado Of Mr. DE Miles,
two officers attached TO Her Maics'y5 Boh'a.ls, 5-
Toned in Canada one of whom believes himself 10
he love WIFI IOuT E,ul'S IT f4lit .iti'l iI't y
while the other knows that he love- bu5 one lady
whom he has rescued from death hy &c breaking NJ
of the ice on the st. LawrencC-" Tie Lady of the
IceD There u.s. besides merry widow. who does not
appear upon the stage, to whom officer No. ! IS
engaged, and by whom he is punished mp TO the
last moment even going to church to be
married to her, when he discovers that he is
fooled and that she has started her wedding tour
LASTLY there is an old Alilesian gentleman as pro-
found a scholar I'VE can say morcl as the heroues
of Miss Evans that was mot the author of " Ro-
mola" who is really learned woman, but the lady
who wrote St. Elmo" ard "Yashd,'D profound
scholar we repeat the business of whose life il Is
after FORMULATING Fenianism, to translate Homer
into IIish-English These are Mr.. De Miles char
actcrs and brislly enough they rattle OF the non
sense which ne puts in their mouths; bat for any
of them making for moment believe that he, or
she. is human being. or that they are acting their
clever, shallow parts well-pshaw we are none of
us Young enough to be interested in such puppets.
What we admire i'll Mr.. De Mile Is the confidence
with which he writes and publishes such material
as this He il too clever not to know that il is stuff;
does he not know that his readers viii discover it
also! Sydney Smith is said to have rcyenged him
self upon forward young gentleman one night at a
London party, by calling him "the cool of The even
ing" But the GOODNESS Of this person was nothing to
that Of Mr. De Mile who viii excuse MS trust il
we name him The Gentleman Of the lee"
/ MISS VAN KORTLAND. 4 Novel BY the author Of