The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-10-31
LITERARY.
Kiss and he Frien.ls.if

."kiss and be Friends" is published by
noted house, and belongs to class OF
American novel literature much read. Its
class is of the prevailing class, and this
novel embraces the common faults ana
virtues Domestic gush is the character.
istic. Morbid sentiment, afiectation OF
fine writing. want of artistic form. with
bright CLEANS of truth, and total lack OF
invention, as far as human probabilities
20. with thin and unnatural romance pad
| them out. But even the current literature
that dies serves an end. The himsiest of
books will convey an impression, good or
bad, from musty pages, of the day and
generation they represent. The female
bird has done most of the singing in this
matter of novels in America. 1t is too
much a question of national peculiarities
to analyze at present the fundamental
points involved in each novel of this class,
hut promising that the whole is mixture
of good and bad, general account of
kiss and be Friends" will throw some
light upon the larger matter suggested.
This story is that of the quarrel, separa-
ton, and reunion of two very silly people.
The reunion is brought about by variety
of means. incidents, and personages not
worthy of detail, but in the main trivial.
DR.. Eustacc Winchester young man of
| the clubs, with ambitions and idleness, is
married to Bessie Wolcott, an emotional
Young lady Of society, and they live in Il
house and home furnished by Wolcott
perp 1t seems that the butcher, the
baker. the candle-stick maker, and the
grocer are duly Modified by Winchester
pre- There are glimpscs of "porticres of
heavily brocaded silk" for the windows,
and the reader is soothcd by the assurance
of a andaulet and foaming steeds. Mrs.
Winchester. the mother law, appears
on the scene and later on Mrs. Gumrill, a
former "Hirtcc" (whatever that may be) of
DR.. Winchcstcr's. Bessie throws up" to
Eustace that the house is hers Qncluding
the heavily brocaded porticrcs and the
landaulet) Eustacc announces his inten-
tion of going 10 the opera with the Gum
rill (his 'iirtcc") hc goes, and on his
return finds that Bessie has fled to her
father. "a bunch of gcraniumS and the
question of smoking cigars is mixed up
with the landauct and the GumriI, and
the porticres and the mother-in-law in
some way. which we shall not attempt TO
account for.) Eustace goes off South,
becomes hero on the first occasion,
which is railway smash up, and develops
into frst-claSs phvsician-in short. gets
to be Il man. He meets with Andrew
Ashcraft, Il stroling piano-tuner; Andrew
meets with Nan, n waif-Nan meets with
two tramps, later on with Andrew, who
was mashed in the colisiOn-gocS home to
/ icfa 1o
place, and there meets Bessie. who meets
him, after Blanca has met her and her
baby, and Nan meets the tramps; who
kidnap her. In the meantime mother-in-
law and Mrs. Gumrill meet them, and
| EuStace comes on and meets them. and
from this on. hv 4 system Of miSundcr-
standings and couquctry the two come
together again, and the mothcr-in-law
and Gumrill arc bailcd The German
critics describe underlined and badly drawn
characters az schabIoncn-that is. cxecu-
| ted by stencil after the common literary
! type. The characters in this novel do not
even present this merit They are unlike
any known species of the human biped.
Perhaps we may except the mothcr-in-law
and the Gumrill People come and go,
sary manner. but they are as the clouds
that obscure the landscape for moment,
except. when they have all vanished. Mrs
Gumrill and the mothcr-in-law hold the
memory. The novel is a complete hand
book against the mother-in-law. Space
only prevents Il complete vindicaton here
OF NOTWITHSTANDING in general, and this one
in particular, a. in fact this paper has
among its cardinal principles justice TO
this misunderstood cXogenOus and flower
ering plant. The novclist's description Of
her is unfair She is represented as hay
ing "a whcczy, heightened voice." as
"snilIing" (Which. if it rested upon the
statement Of other than an Interested
witness. would cause us to abandon the
mothcr-inlaw caSc). as being fat. idle,
selfish, and concctcd;" she has "a flaccid
smile, II tlabby. sickly SMILE" sometimes
even habhier than usual" her accents
arc oily" she padded" and "waddlcd. >"
and she .naggcd the old gentleman,
whose acquaintance we are not granted,
although he pays the grocery bills of
EuStacc Mrs. Gumri!l widow is fit
companions; she is IAN old hirtce" of
Eustace's, and is very elegant and bril-
| liant. although there is no positive evil
dcncc to that effect. and we are inclined
to doubt her elegance from the solitary
remark she makes on the occasion of
well cooked" dinner. to-wit, page rs: Il
have dccavity in my tooth which
Troubles me: it makes me feel quite
dlapidatcd." said Mrs. Gumrill, LAYING
her rings against her check. she wore
great many rings on her pudgcy fingers
The Gumrill it is that causes the jealousy
and separation. The elegant Bcrintha,
whose ears. we learn for the first time in
the latter part of the book, "stick out"
The name Bcrintha Gumril is striking.
but it is one with the most remarkable
feature in the book-thc cxaspcrating
names. The gcnealogics in the Penta-
tcuch are expressive and patriarchal but
here we have names that neither beget
nor are bcg0ttcn.
The characters are in numbers as the
seed of Moses. a handful of them. Miss
Quipscy, Miss Fogg Foggson, Mrs. PEREZ
val Pendragon, Mrs. Flatboy, Mrs. Bother
body, Jessie Wilmerding. Mrs. Capt.
Slocum, Mrs Lampcr Calidore, Clafton.
Dempstcr, Petingill, Bisbec, Upton. Pixie,
France Pedlow. Mrs. Jan Ncdder, most of
whom simply send in their cards to the
reader and vanish. a large number of
the characters do escape the novelist, and
are now roaming over the country. The
closest analysis fails to discover what be-
comes of Winchester pers. 1t is authori-
tatively stated in one place that he has
left for San Francisco in another, for
New Orleans. 1t is not essential to know.
but it is no way to treat an cstimable
gentleman. Mrs. Wolcott is made to dis
appear on a convenient occasion to please
..Rob - whom wc had MT hc, rd If hoforo