Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-05-24
CHISPAS FROM CHAS. READE.
Unique Sayings Of the Famous En-
gIish Writer.
Carefully cuIIed and Compiled by Geo. W.
Smith.
San Francisco Argonant.

San Francisco Argonant.
The late Charles Reade was unique il
English literature. He builded in let
tiers after no model. and he leaves n,
imitators worthy of recognition. 1t i
true that, like Dickens, he wrote novel
to mitigate or destroy certain social an,
political evils, but the styles of the tw,
mems work were dissimilar. While h,
lacked the stately strength and repos,
of conscious power of the master hant
whose touch tumbled the debtors 2ris
ons of Britain, he denounced and expos
ed with nervous vigor and keenness
which were characteristic, the abuse.
and crimes Of the English mad-houses
the iniquities of the English prisons, and
the misery and injustice of the English
workshops "What does any master
care for mans life?" he makes Bayne
say, in "Put Yourself in His Place.
book which every artisan ought to know
by heart "Profit and loss 60 down in
figures; but life-that's cipher in all
their ledgers." 1t has been the practice
of the classes whose knuckles he raped
and whose somnolent conservatism he
crossed, to sneer at him as a rider of hob
bies, sensation writer. without SEN
sation," he replied, "there eau be no in
terest but my plan is to mix little
character and little philosophy with
the sensational element" Smaller men
than he have had their filings at his nov
els as the unbolted grist of unnumbered
scrap-books, deriding his system of clip
ping, arranging, pasting, and indexing
the remarkable facts and strange incl
dents which are constantly coming to
light and being forgotten by everybody
but men like Reade, the system which
he described in his sketch ofhinself and
his study in Terrible Temptation" and
upon which his matter-of-fact romances,
as he delighted to term them, like "Clois-
ter and Hearth" and "Hard Cash." were
constructed. His judicious admirers will
not claim for him rank with the great
masters of English fiction, but he is a
story-teller whose books hold the atten-
ton of all classes. They are wrought
with the skill of an intuitive and prac.
ticed dramatist. No other English writ
er of this generation equals him in this
form and quality. The kecnness of his
wit, the sharpness of his repartee, and
the point of his satire, are also remarka-
ble-qualities which are displayed with
rare force and finish in the tongue-fence
between old Colley Cibber and E<g Wof-
fington in his tale of the note &ttress OF
the latter name. Nst1 -
His style was terse and of rare nervous
vigor, and if the writers of the daily
newspapers will pardon the assumption
that their style might be improved, and
should be in mercy to their readers,
Charles Reade's is the best model for
them Ia the language. His style is like
a cascade, rushing and leapiag onward
within its banks, and over an uneven
bed, and playing constantly in little ed
dies as IF g, stream dashes on. These
little swirls are his delight-little dIa-
matte asides, flashes of wit, humor, cpl
grams, satire, dicta, didactics, maxims,
axioms, nuggets of observation and re-
fection; OF. as he put it, mixing a lit
tie philosophy with the sensational ele-
ment." In our placer mines, before they
were exhausted the lads used to go out
after heavy rainfall, to look along the
riyulets and among the crevices of the
limestone powders, for chispas-bits OF
yold that had l"'n ucovered. The
works of our dead noveIist are strewn
With chispas. Let us pick up few from
ameng the pages as specimens OF his ore
gathering at random as they glitter here
and there, without especisl arrangement
as to size, shape, or value:
Life is an Intermittent fever."-Cloister
and Hearth.
.Our foibles are our manias. ."-Griffith
Gaunt.
"self-deception will probably cease ut the
first blast of the archangels trumpet; but
what human heart viii part with II till theni
The circumstances under which human be
ing could not excuse or delude or justify him
self have never yet occurred In the huge an
nails of crime."-It Is Never Too Late to Mend.
Beauty is power; smile is its sword. -
White Lies.
Good things have to be engraved on the
memory; bad ones stick there Of themselves -
Ibid. H"
"Beware of jealousy-cursed jealousy II
ia the Sultan Of all the passions ami the Tar
tar chief of all the crimes. Other passions af
feet the character; this changes, and. If good,
always reverses It'll Mind that, reverses; turns
honest men to snakes and doves to vultures.
Horrible, unnatural mixture OF love with hate.
You poison the whole mental constitution:
you bandage the Judgment; you crush the
sense of right and wrong; you steel the bow
els of compassion; you madden the brain; you
corrupt the heart; you damn the soul. Is
Never Too Late to Mend. tS$
The sacred principle of justice was as strong
in Mrs. wonington as in the rest Of her sex;
she had not one grain of it."-Peg wofiington.
Happy the man who has twoidhaip1Vfesr II
merit and men."-Cloister ard HSRtg>0
Memory sometimes acts hke an sd mint
gun; IL hangs fire. yet ends by 5gulng <&1
Put Yourself in His Place. =
"All men of that day are dust; they arc he
gold-dust who died with honor."-Christie
Johnstoue. FT a..
"0f the stage James Quinn was character;
his eccentricities were three-a humorist, q
gfutton and an honest man-traits that often
caused astonishment and ridicule, especially
the st."-Peg wofington.
''rhe landlord poured them" the robber-
band in the Black Forest Inn).' ''out neat bran
dy, blood's forerunner in every age."-Clois-
ter and Hearth. ~ ,,.' f.i ~
'what is popularity? Asks Aristides and
p - !. = = -.