The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-02-20

Underneath Ills heel Of mine
deserves the man whose deed,
he II vice or want OF heed,
Stops tho pumps that give us BREATH
Stops the pumps that suck the death g,
From the poisoned lover levels OF the mineF'
No one answered for n cry
From the shaft rose uD on high
And stunning, scrambling tumpng from below,
Mon noun 'ns G on ins SSn ~. shoulder.
Irapplue, clingng TO their hold or
From S' Ssf aSdc s1 70 tSs 'S sa ie
To Be- bsRPS Oisse SISS pit Of he'll
"1o the man who sets them free"
Harry Lee TIE Engli.a foreman mar, Of the mi, mine
VIII give that man. said he,
PACE SSf ps lace s1 Vita S bSa S's .Sa GSrc
Hold your peace y some one replied,
There has one already eone whoeer he be-"
Then they held their breath with awe,
Painting figures feappear
on "a the 6ocs reps s ssna ,pg
1illas the level gained
And hut one alone remained
He the hero and the last,
He whose skiiful hand made fast
The long line that brought them OacN to nope and cheer
Hsggard. Vasping. down dropped no
At the feet OF Harry Lee
Harry Lee the English foreman o. the mine;
b otSf rs e%d ne se sSSoI' MY nS no S"
l. Ramonl
I'm The coward schor-" Hero
Dead AZ stOnel
It's hardly necdful to call attention 20 the
contrast as to freedom aud strength, terseness
and vlvacity, between these verses and the
story OF Chiquita; OF to comment upon the
plain diffuseness, repetitons, tautologies,
and puerilities into which the necessity for
logical continuity Of thought, and the con-
straints OF more conventional versincation have
forced the author.
He delights In melodramatlc characters,
melodramatic costumes, melodramatlc sur
prises, emotions. effects. He never rises TO the
dignity Of tragic passion. rarely preserves, even
for a short time, the repose Of the idyl, only oc-
casionally touches what. in the narrower sense
OF the term, Is called sentimental, and then most
briefly. Not infrequently he gives graphic aud
tasteful sketches OF natural scenery, which are
never too minute, never too much prolonged
Nevertheless. the stage on which his personages
move is, for the most part, decorated with
melodramatlc adjuncts bright colors, harsh
contrasts, lime lights, red 1re, storms, foods
caverns, preclpices.
We checked our pacc-thc rcd road sharply rounding
We heard the troubled nov
thousand feet below.
Above the tumult OF tho canon lfed.
The gray hawk hreathess hung;
Where iurzo and thorn-oush elunRi
or where halfway the mountain side was funowed
y. win many a seam sn t,,,s scar
mole hill seen 30 far.
We looked in silence down across the distant
silence sroscn by TIC GUIDES consistent
And realistic speech.
Walker OF Murphey's blew hole through Peters
Then NJ and an.tsd n, ont n Of g souh uOrnrO,
Across the ong DIVIDE.
We run him out OF stronss and up through Eden
And up tins canon Peters brother l,adinD.
And me and Clark sna Joe.
"He four us game somehow dlsrcmcmecr
Some say Twas wsddas some Ga Scattered smDe,
From nres On the ground.
But ip one minute AZ the sin below him
And, well. the dog was game
HE made no SIGN the nres of he'll were round him.
We sat ana waited. but never found him;
And then we turned TO go.
And ihen- you see that rock that's grown so bristy
suthin' .crep' eul il might hey been grizzly.
II might hey been man,
suthn that hovled and gnashed teeth and shouted
In sinoSe and duet and hame;
Suthn that surang into the depths about It,
Grizzly or man-but game
That's all. Well. yes, It does look rather risky,
And dizzy looking down. drop u whIskey
Amt a bad thing night here"
In all this authors writings the continued and
often very strong and rapid movement is char
acteristic Of a humorist's fancy. which, when his
at ention IL aroused. can never be kept at rest.
HIS diction, both in prose and verse, is not
rich, his vocabulary not large. He Is often at
loss for synonymes, and repetiions OF the
same words and phrases are sometimes so fire.
quent as to attract the readers attention. In
each kind OF writing he SO uses the language At
his command that his meaning Is, at least gen.
orally, expressed with force: and what he says.
especially In prose, fairly brstes with suR-
Restions. His pictures are strong, clearly
and sharply defined, very rarely epcumb ered or
confused by even the lightest superfiuous
strokes. II he cannot create or construct large
ly, he has unusual skill In augmenting and col
orng. In bringing salient points into high relief
Yet when reading his netrical omposltions you
feel the want Of genuine poetic enth usias m you
miss the grace and the sweep OF truly poetic
Imagination you perceive that the stanzas are
not the irrepressi ole product of teeming In.
spiraton
Hts prose IL, In almost every respect, better
than his verse In both kinds OF work he con-
stanuy exhibits tho same characteristics. and
the same limitations. these are not such as
circumscrlbe and distinguish the great poet or
novelist but they clearly indicate nigh order
and exquisite kind Of humOrist.