Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-12
MIR. cox OWNS UP.


MIR. COX OWNS UP.
He Did Run Away from Chester with
Another Mans Overcast.
''Yes," said Representative 8. q. Coz to /.
srAn reporter, to-day. 81 admit that took
the overcoat."
Mr.. Cox's attention had Just been directed 10
q dispatch which stated that he had lectured
before the Moore Literary society of the normal
school in West Chester, Pa, ON Saturday
night, and in his hurry to catch Q train had
gone of with someone else's overcoat, leaving
his own behind.
81 was in great hurry" explained Mr.. Cox
time for church in the morning. 1 was
piously inclined, and whenever I feel
that way something is almost sure to go
wrong. Somebody handed me an overcoat and
l crawied into II and rushed for the train.
Of the pockets to get handkerchief,
that usually nestles there, and you may Judge
now surprised l was when found a large
bag OF fine and apparently. luscious
How kind these dear old Quakers are anyhow;
some good soul thought I would need
refreshment after my great exertion
and he or she has filed my pockets with pea
nuts just then, however, discovered that
with Turkish astrachan, and 1 immediately
realized that was in some other mans coat.
have heard from the good folks at West
Chester, however, and my coat is now
where it ought to be. The coat I
Internationally purloined is on its way back to
its owner, and the remaining space in that
peanut pocket has been filled up with candy.
No one could charge me with taking the coat
Intentionally, for ! am a New Yorker who was
born in Ohio; and, then, the coat was the less
costly Of the two"
POking Fun at Miss Rives' Book.
From the Saturday Review.
After all the monstrous deal Of talk over the
new American novel, 'The Quick or the Dead"
an insular reader is apt to be disappointed by
the book. At last it has been published (cost
you 6d.) by the Messrs. Routledge, and is now
within the reach Of the hnmblest purse and the
heast-experIenced curiosity. And, after all, it
is only the old. old passionate business"
which any one can study for himself in Miss
Broughton's early novels. Perhaps THE Quick
or the Dead" is more like the parodies than
the originals Of these romances, but the arms,
the shoulders, the lips, the kisses, the strain
ing, clinging embraces; the wild. weird, tear
fraught eyes; the romping. and the rest of it
are after the ancient pattern.
Barbara Pomfret was the widow of Valentin
Pomfret, widow but recently bereaved She
had an elastic night-cool cheek. Mr.. Pomfret
had been accustomed to tell her that her curled
lips were a cup, and her breath wine, and that
they made him drunk, drunk. She was eternally
posturing, dashing herself about. gigging
Historically, and striking attitudes, like queen
In Greek play, over her marriage bed. She
sometimes drank three. cups of tea. and ate
two cartridges, together with numberless bis
cults, for supper. She met her husbands cou-
sin. Jock Dering. and nestled in his arms in a
afn and hr% 4lI h. xI1<- IT,
golden. uncanny thing. Style appears to have
run in this gentleman's family, as wicket-keep-
ing does in others, because the late Mr.. Pom
frets remarks, as reported. were similar in
character. Mrs. Pomfret was all eyes, and a
blowse Of red-gold hair. She played her graces
in the hall on a wet day with Jock, and, as the
piper said, lit was not in nature there should
not be kissing" Kissing there was. 1t was an
eager kiss; it was light as flower leaves. fine as
fire. Her stormy bosom tossed some little dia-
mond pins she wore into iridescent sparkles
She then took his face into both hands, and
held 1t near her own. and remarked that there
was an open grave between them, which says
little for American cemeteries. When Mrs
Pomfret came to reflect on her conduct, she
says she was wanton. She did penance by
sitting up all night with the thermometer at
zero. Perhaps we have forgotten to mention
that she had rathe arms, padding step. and
that she smelt like sponge. 'that exquisitely
fresh fragrance" She wore q Dense vet filmy
gown. and delicate foot in a web-ike stock
ing and riotous masses Of copper-colored hair.
Perhaps it is superhuous to add marks of quo
tation. The style betravs itself.
The adventuresSof Barbara and how she sent
her dead husbands cousin away and called him
back again, and the number and variety of
their kisses, and how Barbara repented and
Tilted Jock, absolutely for the last time, are
written in The Quick or the Dead" They are
all perfectly familiar in character and manner
to the most ordinary student, and it is hard to
explain why they have attracted so much
notice in America. In one respect the volume
deserves its popularity. Not even Miss Brad
don or Ouida has described more dresses, some
with wool of fire and web of smoke. some of
peach-bloom colored silk, and so forth. Per-
haps it was on account of her varied costume
that Barbara's lover, now seemed affianced to
some eastern houri, languid in rich embroid-
cries among many cushions. and the next fol-
lowed a modern Atalanta through the brown
vistas of her familiar woods On the whole
it seems pity that the widow Pomfret did
not marry Mr.. Dering. As Miss Squeers re-
marked of 'Tilda Price it was most desirable,
from the very nature of her failings, that she
should be married as soon as possible"