The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-07-26

50, kr OF his old master and mistress ne nept
,npfuSely and hlessed their mrmorcs. On
th, pa 4, the golden past! You NAV tell melt
WAS grand revolution. You may prate 10
me that Ftrginia's greatness Is all OIL 'he
times vet to come. But still my heart goes
beck to the days when the grand o'd, oia
customs. the old, old ways. tue o'u, oio
folks. were all in vogue; 10 the haicvon GAYS
v hon peace and property were IN rue 'eno,
and the hearts Of the people were happy ln-
deed : when afar and aDear, the broad State
over the men aud women OF me o'dro
school lived in their ancestral homesteads
and dispensed. IN manner prlncely, the opeh-
handed hos p,taity and hToad-hearted 6eneoo.
lcnce that were once the pride aud glory ot
our people.
The above is the article for which its au'
thor received high honor ut the late COM
mepcemeut Of the University OF Virginia,
and the one as TO whose merits the feters-
burg Appeal has asked our opinion. Un.
asked, We should have said nothing on the
subject and, rs it is, we shall say but little.
1t is, we should say, a production creditabie
to young and inexperienced writer, and
ought as such to escape criticism. But as
the a. hest article" that appeared in The UNI
uersity Magazine in the course OF whole
Scholastic year, and as one that mer'ted 'he
laudations Of professors and brought TO lis
author high honors in the greatest of south
ern universities, it may well be critically ex-
anined.
First, there are many ill-choseu words, ana
some incorrectly used. We have put some OF
them in italics. 'Carries me back INTO my
life " is no, allowable. The writer speaks as
OF going backwards anto a path instead OF IN
it, In "Into the ecstacieS Of the dance
! Unto 4" is again used for "nI.' "Summer
of The year" is bad "Snmmer OF the
heart" was in the writer's miCd. "Ot
the year" i, redundant. "Away" ana
| "rT" are almost synoDymcS; but
"away, way off" il childlike EXPIRE sion
and was probably used as such. AT night,
when tae stars ecouid be out" &C., is another
sentence of the same sort. "A black face"
"noddcd his head" and "cslied the steps"
&C.. i Objectionable phraseologv. In the
last Paragraph marked" ought to be
/. mark" land called u> master " Is in bad
taste. He wcpt proiusel! Is such an eN'
acscraton as 10 cause the story TO lack
yralscmblsuce. Beneyolence" is inielici-
touSly employed.
Secondly, the sentences which we have
| enclosed IN brackets are out OF place. The
author when he spoke of family prayers
could rs appropriately have braEc1ed of1
| into 4 dissertation upon the Christian reli-
zion is he here branches eff into a disqaisi-
| ton upon "Old Virginia hospitality" lt IS
foreign TO (uot irom) his su jet. Ii Wou'o
have been admissible at the close OF the
article. and would have made better
ending than the present one, when lol'
lows too closely after SAMBo's unexpected
weeping not to jar upon the ears OF hard
hearted city folk; and is indeed so full OF
words that it causes sucn folk TO think that
the author has supposed that he could COM
pei the sympathy ol bis readers by using
rautolo.ic sentences. He has tried to pump
up sympathy with 4 rhetorical lever.
And now We have the key to the success
Of our author and also To The failure OF the
.ADpeal and the Dispatch 10 appreciate bis
tti)rt al its true worth. The University is
iu the country. The professors are much
j. better men and more tcnder-hearted than
those m"n who live III cities and have all
their feelings hardened by contact with
the cast-iron world Of trade. Our author
touched the professors feelings. PcrAal 5
whcu they read biz article they W,pt
~ bis SANDo d!d->o protu>ely that thclr
c,c> were blinded Even we, VINO are
: no III 10 unlUo>e the latchcts of their shoes,
an whose hearts are as "dry Us sum
mcr dust" felt a glow Of enthusiasm over
the "oid, old times when We read
the gushing language OF our author.
We. too, have gone through the iden,i'
cal scenes he pictures. Alas, that we should
now be unable to appreciate such pie
ture. Bu, 90 it i. We recognize much of
truthiulucss to paturc in il, but poor. miSera-
bic cynicS that we are, we think Of THACKE.
RAYS pOeticaI version Of the "Sorrows of
Wcr,her," and smile at the urcorrupted
simplicity which we envy in our University
professors and students, whilst we too 20
on eating our :. bread and butter" The
fault is in ourselves and not in our stars ~
in us and not in the essay, GREGORY. Let
us say 30 more about it.