The Portland daily press., 1881-01-08
PRICE 3 CENTS.

thy that is foremost requirement of a critic
in any department Of journalism. Again. the
sense of comradeship is strong with Journal
ist fortunately placed among bright and effec-
tive literary men. And in reading this sketch
of George Arnold, it is needful to take into ac-
count the gentle and enthusiastic nature Of
his biographer, and the pleasant days of which
it is a reminiscence. Mr.. Arnold seems to
have been one of those characters, very popu-
lar in the days when crude Bohemianism was
the literary fashion and literature and prac-
tical plain sense were not thought to pull well
together, and when the ideal journalist was
sort of gloriied Harold Skimpole. World
WEAKNESS, sombre demeanor alternating with
fevered gayety, and disposition to dodge
small bills made up the mould of fashion for
the.young men of letters. Mr.. Arnold con.
formed more or less to all but the last Of the
requirements Of this standard; and yet again,
honesty, warmth and lovableness of nature are
prominent traits in Mr.. Winters portrait of
him: and it must have been easy for personal
friends to overlook the faults and failings of a
man most ready to understand and answer to
the good wherever he met it. His poems
are hardly at the level of the magazine verse
of to-day, but the democracy Of letters has
made great advance during the past few years;
and the minor poems of to-day average very
much better than the verses that made the
name and fame of those wonderful Philadel-
phia magazines which some of the foremost
literary men OF to-day recall with kindly
amusement. Some of Mr.. Arnold's lines have
fresh and tuneful Tilt, many of them show
touches of an unframed but natural genius.
His fun--and a mans ideal OF fun is a curious,
but, in the hands of skilful analyst,
nice test of his qaality-lacks the
fine essence of the best humor and most of the
laughter-evoking spirit of humor of any de-
gree. His parodies were bad; but the satiri-
cal poem, Song of the Home Guard, is good.
and the War Poets Lament is better still.
His serious songs are sometimes very delicate
and tuneable, often full of genuine emotion,
when these pretty flowers of poetry are not
gnawed in unseemly fashion by the neatly in
serted cankerworm of perfunctory poetic des-
pair. Had he been, born in these later years,
when journalism has grown into a serious and
dignited profession, when poets walk singing
in the sun, and nobody but young Mr.. NAL
lock and other genteel and unoccupied dys-
peptics ask whether life is worth liying-Mr
Arnold might have been an ornament to the
newspaper profession, his evident gifts strength
ened and steadied, his brightness and his
many delightful traits held in place by out
ward pressure of useful routine, and respect
for a sound and well-employed talent have
been added to the attractive memories which
Mr.. Winter has recorded. ,....,,.-- --......
'1rt " q. ~ 19l nl .Hf
Another recent work of Mr.. William Win
ter is his Trip to England Boston: j. r. Os-
good Co.; Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon) Few men--in these days when one
runs over to Europe in the same easy fashion
that he would cross the ferry from New York
to Brooklyn-would have written so delicately
picturesque volume of transatlantic sketches
as this of Mr.. Winter. The first chapter, in
which he notes the impressions of the ocean
voyage, may seem little too naively serious,
considering that the Cunarders with their
freight of lives tempt the dangers of the sea
twice week; and the reader will smile some
times at the solemnity and poetry of the writ
er's manner. But, in continuing to read, one
sees that Mr., Winter, profoundly impressed
with the great debt that our land owes to the
history and the letters of the mother country,
sees in this voyage the first steps of the pill
grimage to Shakspeare's home and to the
tombs of kings And SO it is, that the thought,
have we here new Sentimental Tourist
makes place for the pleasant perception that
in Mr.. Winters sketches we are to enjoy sem
sitive, artistic and clear description with no
flaw of fippancy or self-conscious posing Mr..
Winter is greatly to be congratulated upon the
very refined and poetic tone of his work. The
atmosphere of his sketches is admirable; his
fancy and sight are brilliant and instant; his
touch is as delicate as it is sure, and he en-
ploys language with fine effect The elegant
and dignifed fashion of these letters which
describe with fresh and genuine sentiment the
familiar scenes of England, are models in
their way, and prove the writer to be a worthy
inheritor of the royal treasures of historic
memory which we share in common with the
dwellers upon English SOIL
1AETl L.ar-- EHT
Two recent volumes of the charming Little
Classic Series Boston: Houghton, Mif1in &
Co; Portland: Loring Short and HARMONY are