The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-11-14
'oU1DA" ON MODERN FICTION
A Little Episode From Real Life
Which She Rel atee In an
English Newspaper.

GuxAASAA 0WSQApoT.
think the following story may |
interesting to your readers. wi
3 not give the names of the person
e concerned in it, but l will vouch IL
the absolute truth of the narrativ
Indeed, the little drama has bee
acted within.a stones throw of m
r gates. A cantatrice OF obscure pos
3 ton mad a lover in q Genoese gentl'
t men, who not only had many claim
on her fidelity by reason Of his d,
l voti0n to her, but also to the educs
ton he had given her when a poo
: girl. and the liberality which he ha
shown to her family; nevertheless
she betrayed this generous lover, an
carried on an intrigue with a yOuDI
noble of the neighbnrhood, a you'll
: younger than herself and very rich
For some time the GenOese gentle
man, only able to visit her at inter
walls in the Tuscan village where sh'
lived, was without much difficulty
deceived, and. when he did see tn
young noble, was assured that he Wa!
q relation of his betrothed. At last
however, his suspicious were fully
aroused; instead Of going to back t.
Genoa he one day Unexpectedly re
turned and had full proofs of the
wOrthlesSness of his siren.
He pursued bis rival to his villa
a%ndofailing to provoke him to q duel,
he swore that he would kill him. The
carbineers interfering, he found him.
self deprived of his just vengeance,
and, in the madness of his despair
and agony, shot himself by the riv-
ers's side, while bis faithless mistress
ieered at him from her open window,
in the lovely stiffness OF the MOON
light September eve. This was but
q few nights ago; he is not dead,
but still lies in great peril in a cot.
tage neal where he fell. The sympa-
pathy of the whole rural population is
with the man, who at least knows
how to love and how 10 avenge his
honor. The village population were
with trouble prevented from lynch
| ing his worthless c.,quette; and the
veteran brlgadier of the Guard w-pt
like q child at the fate OF biz. ritin1u
d0MOre. This is only one of the
thousand tragedies which yearly oc-
cur in this, the home of Romeo and
Juliet, where love is not q dead letter.
Why are not those who love and suf-
.er thus as deserving of portrayal in
fiction as the epicene beings who
know no woes but u passing hysteria
of conscience or disillusion before
the melting of foggy and impalpa-
BILE idea:
because passion has never toucred
with its fire and its glory the prime
of life Of the aesthetic prig OF the ro-
tund Philstine it is not for that reason
it is persisted off the face of the earth.
1t it exists in the same force and the
same favor rs in the days of Othello
andeStradella; and l confess, it seems
to ME much more fitly subject for
the novelist or dramatist and the fic.
titious, ''realism' of the spineles com.
monplace. After all, there is no more
vivid reality than love. The Gen.
oese lover now lying here, shot
through the chest by his own hand
because his generous faith had been
deceived by 4 heartless mistress, is
every whit a. legitimate a center Of
interest as Anthony Trollope'sgossip-
ing bishops or Henri James hero.
ines perplexed by a plethora Or a
paucity of proposals.
remember when George Lawrence
was told that the end of "Sword and
Gown" was improbable. Hereplied:
improbable? Oh, very likely; only
you see it was true" The eternal ,
is as real as the infinite
prosaic. I believe I am sometimes
accused of writing fairy stories,"
but is not lite itself very often a fairy ;
ii too often, alas! one in which
the evil genius preponderates, ana
the wishing cap is fOolishly used by
the unwise: To some OF US, at least,
Il dreary and suninspired story of an
uneventful and unimpassioned life
seems much more unreal" Ii. e.,
our own eXperiences) than
the romantic narrative conceived by
The widest fancy. To many of us
to myself, l confess, among the num-
berthe world seems a marvellous
union of tragedy and comedy, which
runs side by side like twin children;
ike a web of Tyrian looms," with
he golden threads crossing and re-
crossing on thu dusky purple Of its
intricate meshes.
The amorous, magnificent, heroic
life of SkObeleoff would, no doubt,
'eem incredible to the London litter
with his prim dome. ticities
pound up in a duodecimo suburban
'illa, papered by Morris, or the ru-
al clergyman solemnly pacing his
Of weekly monotonies. At
his moment fighting for the French .
lag at Tonquin, is young man, the !
anne of his nom dc plume (were I to :
i've it here you would at once recog- :
lize as that Of one of the masters of
french fiction; this gallant sailor is T;
lsO a great musician and an admir- :
ble artist, and he may very likely :
lie in the barbarious country las !
Henri Riviere died. burrying with :
his genius, his youth. and his :.
marvellous and multitudinous DOW q
rs. Well, is not this man every :
hit as real" as Mr.. Precisian Dulle :
his life between q civil SER !.
ice desk and a house in South Ken :
or Mr.. Smalle Joker pen :
ing his blameless fiction. which T
never brought a blush on the ::
ETC., with his six daughters !,
lawn tennis in his back gar =
en-, and his physical and mental -
isiOn limited to the chimney pots. a
No doubt, all the world over, char ~
cter creates circumstance; and the v
'rtOise is moi to blame if it cannot -
ap, only it need not disbelieve in {,
le Greyhound and the horse. No q
Dubt "adventures are for the adj u
in the most extreme dead y
'nse Of the word; and romances and =
.illiant lives will not fall to the dull ',
Id the mediocre. But such lives u
list. nevertheless, and it is not true It
I q pale uniformity extends like a y =
Ill over the whole Of the human l.
&C.!
A novel Is not necessarily any the r
ore like real life because it is a sto-
about nothing, leading to no.
here, which might meander on OF
rough half-a-century for any eli ii
that it ever reaches. . it
suppose that my own expert bt
lces can be wholly EXCEPTIONAL ones. bl
t l have known very handsome III
o lie, l have known very fine char d.
ter. l have also known very wick in
ones, and 1 have also known m