The Brookhaven leader., 1888-11-08
MRS. CHAMBERS CRITICS.
Particularly One Of Them, with Appius
Claudian Propensities, writing to
the Chicago Times and Mis-
calling Himself
vIrginius.

something, nothlhSi
/ Twas mine, It's his, and has been slave
tO thousands;
/ But he that filches from me my good
name,
/ RoLs me of that, which not curiches him,
| Aud makes me poor indeed.
-OheIlo, Act Ill.
The IIcrod and Miriamne of Amc-
| lie Rives Chanler, as was the case
with The Quick or the Dead, for some
strange reason, seems to have excited
great deal of virtUous Indignation
among the literary and unlitcrary
/ Pharisccs. 1t is interesting to see
( newspapers tccming every day with
/ filth and slime. arrOgate to themselves
! the authority for dOCtoring the public
taste and condemn the chaStc, the
noblcst and most graceful images rs
accused things. 1t is amusing to oh
serve critics obscure and critics con-
/ spicuOuS lcvcling their lances at the
/ productions of the Young Nirginian,
raising the most absurd and ridiculous
objections to the situations which she
introduces as well as to the behavior
of her characters, and speaking of her
works as if they were unfit for the pc
ruSal of modest women and Christian
men. But it is in the highest degree
eXaspcrating to hear of unworthy mo-
tiveS being enormously and shame
lessly attributed to genius whose
most serious fault is youth, whose
greatest shortcomings are innocence
and inexpericnce, and whose only
crime has been to invade the provin-
ceS Of the human heart and to portray
i'll vivid cOlOring its weakness and its
strength. More detestable, however,
than either of the former classes of her
apparently malicious detractOrs are
those hyenas lurking i'll various por-
tons of this blessed and enlightened
country, who affirm upon their reputa-
scribe in words sensation she has
never felt, that she cannot surround Il
heroine with environments that have
never been her own, either in her
physical or mental nature; that Bar
bara POmtIet and the authOrcsS of the
Quick or the Dead are one and the
same person, and that, therefore, the
. latter must have experienced the
scenes her imagination has depicted
with so much cleverness and deXterity
Among the individuals with so small
a sense of honor and propricty, and
with an ef1rontcry that is shameless
enough to acknowledge such opinions,
is awriter signing himself'' NirginiuS,
whose real name is"Appius Claudius, :
and whose letter i'll the Chicago Times,
a few days ago, was dated from the
Capital of her native State. In one
he takes this startling position, while
with a pious philanthropy that is
nothing if not Sublime, comedies that
her outward life has been above re-
preach, and in the next he mentions
incidentally and unconsciously Il
circumstance in literary history which
condemns his own vicious hypothesis
and proves by demonstration that
what he assumes is not only insolcnt
and cOwardly but foolish and ridicu-
| ln,,c If - -, tb,t Nil =
have had experiences to relate them,
then TOlstOi had been killed instantly
by bomhshelI before he wrote Sc
bastOpOl; Dickens must have commit
ted assassination or he could never
have described the feelings of terror
and remorse which pursued the muir
dercr in Martin Chuzzlcwit; AleXan-
der Dumas must have been Il woman
to have conceived the thoughts of
Marie Duplisse, and Queen Mary of
among the nobility of France, during
her lifetime, had necessarily been IA
harlot before she invented the Hep
cameron. There is just as much log
ical reason in assuming that Shake
Speare was the Duke Of GlOster, that
jules Verne commanded the "Nautil-
us, and that these two authors would
have acted as their heroes did under
the same circumstances, as there is in
assuming that the brilliant Southern
cr and her heroine are identical and
inScparable. With such reasoning rs
is employed by "Virginius" anything
could be proven easily and conclu-
sively. He would say, A great battle
was fought at Watcl,oo. Stonewall
jackson was great General who
fought battles. Therefore, Stonewall
Jackson fought at Waterloo; or he
would declare that Raphael SemmeS,
having been ii great admiral, destroy
ed the Armada,
1t is impossible to point out IL single
immoral lesson in any of the writings
which this literary genius has so far
given to the public. What are the
feelings of the cultivated reader who
has calmly, carefully and iudiciously
perused her tragedy? He is filled
with horror at the ruthless sacrifice
of human life; with contempt and
and loathing at the jealous passions
of the King of Jewry; with admiration
for the sense of duty, the sentiments
Of faith and love, and for all the high
er qualities exhibited by the heroes
and herOines of this tragic drama
/ Honesty and courage are exalted,