Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-02-28
A Defense of .sThe Quick or the
DeAd.v

/ AhOA y hP PSoiSN ~ VSOA otO Al VIC va
umns OF your journal scathing criticism
of the unfortunate authoress of this novel
from the keen pen of its editor.
| 1t has been for some months past the
pleasing, if somewhat unchivalric pas
time of critics to hurl denunciatory shafts
at the poor little Virginian who, having
set the vast wheel in motion, Is now
powerless to- arrest its progress. But
equally great as my own, must have
been the astonishment of the readers oi
the serene HERALD, to discover that its
Anacreontic and good-natured editor
had joined in the universal crusade, dis.
cardng for brief space that attitude OF
gallant Difference and mild forbearance
towards the gentler sex that has ever
been his distinguishing characteristic.
| The intention OF this article is q defense
of the "Quick or the Dead" not of Mrs.
Amelie Rives Chanler. Still it must be
confessed that it would be a great
privilege to take up the cudgels
against the world in behalf of poor,
illuminated, ridiculed woman like Mrs.
Chanler, against whom SANDER has
wagged its venomous tongue. 1t is for
hidden her sex to sit in charitable judg-
ment on her offences, lest we raise that
easily provoked popular shout of Down,
down with the heretic," which is the in
evitable doom of all who display toler-
ance to the misguided creature who has
set at defiance the accepted creed of con-
ventional morality.
But the most liberal minded vindicator
of Mrs. Amelie Rives Chanler would find
it irrecon cilable with all arguments of a
fresh and virginia. purity that widow
devoted to amatory and conjugal recollec-
tions should be conceived in the uncor-
rupted imagination of a refined unmarried
woman. Fifty years from now will see q
marked change in the physical and moral
training of girls, and perhaps Mrs. Chan
ler has anticipated that epoch. Like the
erstwhile maiden, Miss Amelie, young
ladies will be in possession of as
replete knowledge ofthe natural laws
as the mature matron. If there will be
fewer wives then, there will be fewer vic
tins and fewer faithless spouses. the one
longing cry that breaks the dumb and
sullen resentment at the eternal servtude
OF many women, eff had known" will
be superseded by the more cheerful re.
frain, "I knew, but then my love is
great" The desirability of such
state of morality, from the ideal and
artistic standpoints, which demand that
the husband be the instructor of inno-
cence in the mystic science, and Cupid
be represented blindfold, may be dis
puted, but until society is 60 reyolu.
tionized, young women cannot create
such characters as Bar bara Pomfret with
out an imputation on their chastity.
But while Mrs. Chanler surrendered
her reputation to a harshly judging pub
lie, in giving existence to Barbara Pom
fret, Barbara herself may be the very
incarnation cf virtue. A woman keenly
alive to the passions and subtle sympa-
thies of life, certainly, but that
is an affair of temperament. A
creature of magnificent animal develop
ment united to nervous, hysterical Or
ganization, the happy harmony OF whose
forces are ''like sweet bells tangled and
out of tune" from a bereavement that
has torn the very heart out OF her body,
and laid it pulsiDg in that grave that
contains part of her own flesh, all of her
best life, she returns to the scene Of
her married existence, hallowed by
thousand suggestions of that period Of
blissful abandonment to love, when hus-
band and lover, duty and desire blended
and commingled in melting hours OF
ecstasy, when voluptuousness was con-
secrated by o pure and absolute fealty:
when Gods blessing and mans ex-
ample encouraged her to love and be
loved, when all the wealth OF fancy, Ter
vor Of soul, passion OF being, were her
divine right, acknowledged by the world,
recorded in heaven. When, with the
eager ardor of possession, she could
point to her husband and say:
"See this god of mine,
And / as rich in having such jewel
As twenty seas, If all their sands were pearls,
The water nectar and the rocks of gold"
But now that glorious period Of owner
ship is past. Sorrow "has come down
with the rush of Storm" leaving only
the death knell of her broken hopes, a
great war of rebellion surges through her
as she views all the personal belongings
of her husband, fresh, unchanged, while
their owner is gone forever. Oh mel
ancholy thought ''to lie in cold obstruc-
ton and to rot" The pettiness, the
insignifcance of life appals her,
it's dreariness desolates her, its soli-
tariness frightens her, when, sud
denly. like Phoenix arising triumphant
from its own ashes, she sees an exact re-
production of Val in feature, lineament
and coloringy but exhaling a
warmer vitality, fresher life,
and presto! of course they fall
in love. Barbara feels the emotion
more fercely, because she has felt what
its loss means to her. What need for
prudish shrinkings from caress that
comes to her clothed in all the out
ward aspect of her holy love.
She need not repel those lips,
so very, very like, that whisper
the old seductive burden in her hungry
ears, but with more passionate protesta-
ton. She must meet those kisses that
electrify and intoxicate her; she feels
constrained, by a terrible fascination, to
yield to that hot rapture OF love that
seems to have defed death for her, and
risen from the grave, more irrepresslo ole
after its imprisonment, to exalt her soul,
delight her senses. And then comes an
agony of retrospection, in which she
ruthlessly compels that tortured heart
to review, in every cruel detail, that flag
rant treason to her buried husband. 1t is
when she has divested John Dering OF
all morbid and supernatural identity to
her husband that che makes, to her,
the blasphemous self-acknowledgment
hat she loves-loves more than ever
she loved Val-this man, this cousin.
this usurper. With the realization tf
her wrong comes the absorbing desire
4 f,r raparation: the Speedier, the