The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-16
THE DAILY STAR
BUTToSHOLDING WITH THE PEN.
Writers Who Make Personal
BOres of Themselves.
saturday Raview.l

There are plenty OF amlaDie people IN
the world who can not pass the most cas-
ual acquaintance with bow, but must
stop him and tell him about their con-
Germs and those Of the world. Their talk
is obviously only spoken continuation
of their thoughts. They prose away
about whatever has been run
ming in their heads-about their
wives, their children, their broth
ers-in.law, their investments the
most recent movements of the
British feet, the Pluvial period in geol-
Ogy, or their arrangements for next sum-
mer. All this seems slightly impertinent
in the Streets when the buttonheld vic
tim is in hurry and has mind full of
other things. Every one has not the
presence of mind of Charles Lamb, who,
being buttonholed by Coleridge in
country lane, cut off the button and
made his escape. When Lamb returned
by the same path in the evening, he
found Coleridge still saving the air, and
contentelly declaiming with the button
between his fingers.
The habit of buttonholding is very
ancient one, and the common pressing
bore was described by Theophrastus-not
Such-but the much more terse and lively
classical writer. Bad as the custom is in
common life, it is even worse in litera-
ture, where it has long been rampant.
Instead of writing about his subject, a
reviewer, an essayist, or even poet,
sometimes finds it easier and more pleas
SAINT to chatter about himself, his likes
and dislikes, his relatives, his tailor's bill,
nay, the place and circumstances in
which he happens to find him
self when he takes up his pen.
1t is uncommonly easy to scrib-
BILE about such matters, and generally to
take the public into confidence about
the first nonsense that comes into ones
head. Suppose that the literary button
holder is reviewing novel, by Mr.. Troll
lope, say, there is no reason why he
should elaborate with pains and thought,
y criticism of the romance. 1t is much
easier To write like this: Gas we were
leaving our rose-hung cottage in a nook
OF sunny, sea-girt Rutlandshire (reaIer;
you will look nj vain for this paradise Of
cheapness- Landscape and 1nn, . p,ai,,
ctSkery on the county map, or among
the advertisements in Bradshaw we
deserted 4he rural postman plodding
MP the lane. Now, this is no com
mon postman, this postman of ours be- no
indeed, postwoman, or a postgir', who
often takes the place of 'her. father n
worthy man, but not the redastr;an he
once was. Susan, wifi . r&5ral Ill conrtosv
presented us with orown-paper parcel reel,
a."4 ih mlilch a. a Pra' >.lced eye could readily
nesee' ,e, ,t ene P' .esence OF novel-Mr. Trol-
MRI w, i las' = The buttonholding reviewer
.a m,,' len give some account Of his per
=" al acquaintance with his author, and
ne will get, a paragraph Or two out of the
shady nook in which he was reading the
last masterpiece when sweet sleep sur
prised him. After all this the critique is
az good as finished, at no great expense Of
witor thought or judgment.
Probably Jhe most awful buttonholdel
who ever wrote was A. K. H. B. in his
palmy days. He used to write essays in
such remarkable places-in his stable
for example, using the nose Of a favor
ite mare for desk-that the description
of the steed and the stable entirely
swamped the rest of the performance
There can be no doubt that garrulity is
not unp popular for its own sake, and that
many Of the public prefer picture OF
A. K. H..B. in hay-rack, or of the
Spectator mapping on the sands, to the
most elaborate and ingenious .criticism
Thus, it is scarcely fair, perhaps, to blame
these artists for drawing portraits ot
themselves; at the most, we can only
say that bald disjointed chat fits badly
into an essay which pretends to deal will
Hindu pantheism. pr with Grimm's law
When reader is in earnest about a sub
iect then he gets fierce with the button
holding review. As to the feelings o.
the author reviewed, they may be easily
imagined. Perhaps he has composed |
historical tragedy. He takes up review
he sees the name of his own poem at tn,
head Of six columns of closely-printet
matter. This must be favorable, think
the victim; no one would damn my poem
in six columns So he begins, and reads
and reads, while the clutch of the but
tqnholding critic grows closer and close
upon him. The critic takes him into hi
confidence about modern and Byzantine
art,sabout what Mr.. Ruskin says and Mr.
Arnold thinks, and about the transition
al character Of the nineteenth century
Then he maunders away to the infuenc
of depressed trade upon literature and 0
suntspots upon depressed trade. Thi
brings him to the cyclic year of Plate
which in turn suggests some appropriat
remarks on Indian theosophy, Swami
ard Zogis, and the rest, while the pei
Torrance closes with the observation tina
it is difficult to write historical drama
in period Of School Boards and elener
tary education. This is the most commo
and perhaps the most annoying form {
literary buttonholding.
A,writer may seem to take the publ
into his confidence, and even to paw an
fondie his unhappy readers, through Il
use Of seme tedious trick of style. The
are authors who not only twaddle insu
I