Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-11-30
U'IlD ON FICTION.
a Little Episode from Real Life
iFs " hich She Relates in an English

\, llll,iA'=.. YIN sflCllVN.
A Little Episode from Reai Life
Which She Relates in an English
Newspaper. & ss ss1 81. "a q =
From the London Times. All
I think the following story may inter
est your readers. / will not give the
names Of the persons concerned in it,
but I will vouch for the absolute truth
fIthe narrative, indeed, the little drama
has been acted within stones throw OF
the gates. A cantatrice of obscure posi-
tion had lover in a Genoese gentleman
who not only had many claims on her
fidelity by reason of his devotion to her,
but also to the education which he had
given her when poor girl, an the Lib
erality which he had shown to her fam
lily; nevertheless, she betrayed this gen
erous lover, and carried on an intrigue
with q young noble fthe neighborhood
a youth much younger than herself and
very RICH For some time the Genoese
gentleman, only able to visit her at inter-
walls in the Tuscan village where she
lived was without much difficulty de-
ceiyed, and, when he did see the young
noble, was assured that he was a rela-
ton Of her be-rolhed. At last. how
ever. his suspicious were fully aroused:
instead Of going back to Genoa he one
day unexpectedly returned and had full
proofs OF the Torthlessness OF his siren.
He pursued his rival to his villa, and
failing to provoke him to duel swore
that he won d kill HIM. The carabin-
GERS intervening, be found himself de-
prlved OF his just vengeance, and, IN
the madness OF his despair and agony,
shot hinselt by, the rivers side, while
lis taithIeBs m stress jeered at him trsm
her Open window, in the lovely Stiffness
OF the nloonliI September eve. This
was but few nights ago; be is not dead,
near where he ell. The sympathy ofthe
whole rural population is with this man,
who at least knew howto love and how
to avenge his honor. The village pop
uIace were with trouble prevented from
lynching his worthless coQuette; and
the veteran brigadier Of the guard wept
like child at the fate of this Wilma
d'amore. This is only one out of a thou
sand tragedies VIII ch yearly occur in this,
the homo OF Romeo and Juliet, where
love is not dead letter. Why are not
those who can love and suffer thus as
deserving Of portrayal in fiction as the
epicine beings who know no woes but
passing iysteria Of conscience or disil-
fusion before the melting of q foggy and
ilupa pable ideal?
Because passion has never touched
with its fire and glory tbs prim life Of
the @'thetic prig or the rotund Philis-
tine, it is not for that reason persisted off
the face OF the earth. 1t exists in
the same force and the same favor as in
the days of Othel]o and Stradella; and, I
confess, seems to me much more filthy
a subject for the novelist or the drama
tist than the fictitious "realisms" OF the
spinel+ IS commonpl After ali, there
is no ,rore vivid reality than love. The
Genoese lover lying here, now, shot
through the chest by his own hand be-
cause his generous faith mad been de-
ceived by heArtless mistress, is ev"
cry wit as legitimate centre Of interest
as Anthony rrollope's gossiping bishops
or Henry James heroines perplexed by
a plethora or paucity of proposals.
remember when George Lawrence
was told that the end Of "Sword and
Gown" was Improbable. He answered
improbable? Oh, very likely: only you
see, it was true" The eternal senti-
ment is as real as the infinite prosaic. I
believe atm sometimes accused Of writ
ing fairy stories," but is not life itself
very often fairy story, if too often,
alas! one in which. the evil spirit pre-
poaderates, and the wishing cup is fool.
i-hly used by the unw,se? To some of
US, at least, q dreary and insipid story
ofan uneventful and unilnpassioned life
seems much more unreal Ii. e., unlike
our own experiences) than the most ro-
mantle narrative conveived by the Wild
confess, among the number--the world
seems marvellous union of tragedy
and comedy, which run side by side
like twin children; like "web OF Tyrian
LOOMS" with the gold threads crossing
and recrossing on the dusky purple of
its intricate meshes.
The amorous, magnificent, heroic life
Of Skobelef would, no doub', seem in
credible to the London litterateur, with
his prim domesticities bound up in a
duodecimo suburban villa, pampered
by Morris, or the rural clergyman
solemnly pacing his treadmill Of weekly
u:ouotonies. At this moment, fighting
tor the French flag at Tonquin, is
young man, the fame Of whose nom de
plume (were TO give 1t here) you would
at once recognize as that OF one of the
masters Of French fiction; this gallant
sailor ia also a great musician and 40 ad-
mirab!e artist, and he may very likely
die in a barbarous country Gas Henri
Riyiere died. burying with him his geni-
us. his youth and his marvellous and
multtudinous powers. Well. is not this
man every whit as *'reap as Mr.. Precis-
ian Dulle, passing his life between civil
service desk and ACCUSE in South Ken
sington, or Mr.. Smalle. Joker pennng
his nameless. fiction. which 'never
brings blush on the cheek" ETC., with
his six daughters playing lawn tennis in
his back gardeu, aud his physical and
pots?
Nodoubt. all the world over, charac-
ter creates circumstance, and the tor
only it need not disbeieve in the grey
hound and the horse. Z No doubt lad
ventures are t, the adventurous in tho
most extended sense of the word, and
romantie:and brilliant lives will not fall
to the lot Of the dull. and the mediocre.
But such lives exist, nevertheless, and
it is not true that q spale uniformity ex-
tends like pail over the whole Of the
human race r. 3t.ta.s SS&
A novel is-nets necessarily any the
more like realslife becatlse it is sorry
about nothing, leading to nowhere,
which might 44ieander on through half q
century for any climax that it ever
reaches - :s**5y3I* II I;9 cannot suppose
that nv own experience can b wholly
exceptional ones, YETI have known very
fine characters, I have also known
some very /: wicked ones, and
circumstances so romantic that were
they described in fiction they would be
rld.euled as exagge rated and impossible.
In real lite there are condolences 80