The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-11-04
JAYS LITERARY EFFORT.
Bill Nye Writes q Belated Review of
Mr.. GOuld'S Book.

L should daily . little with the hteratl and
speak u few words pro and con regarding
authors and their works. Unfortunately,
| am a great boOkworm and an omnivOr-
Gus reader. lately l have been able,
through the influence of Mr.. Champion,
Of Stamford, N. Y, who is the veteran
editor of the State, having run the same
paper, l think, for over forty years, to
obtain a copy of The History Of Delas
ware County" By my friend and fellow
itersteur Mr.. Jay Gould
The book is said TO be quoted now at
$40 per volume, owing to its great scar
city and the fact that M. Gould is on the
watch for ell the copies he can get, anC
that he is said to destroy them as som as
they are secured. No money could pur-
chase my own volume, l assure you, for
1t Is thoroughly pure in tone, and no one
can read it understandiugly without be-
coming a better man.
After read ng a chapter of Count Leo
TolStOi and then burning q rag l love to
take down Mr.. Gould's The History Of
Delaware County and read it till far into
the silent night.
The book contains 426 pages and two
plA.e engrAVings of men who had agreed
to subscribe for it. 1t is bound in slate
coloTed cloth, and shows in every page
the fly purity and noble impulses
Of the struggling young author.
l cannot help while reading "The His
tory of Delaware County " contrasting it's
beautiful purity with the ferocious and
savage cussedness of TOlstoi. We could
hardly imagine two more widely and
Numerically different toilers IN the great
field of literature than Jay Gould and
TOlstOi One is gentle, refined and pure ;
the other a gifted & crank. | have spoken
heretofore to some extent of M. G uld's
methods in business, or t~icislng them in
az honest yet unSparing way, hoping
thereby to call his attention to the fact
| that at his time of life. with all his means,
he might do so much good and die so
much happier if he would pause in his
mad race with to eCioy aud in
vite others to enjoy Chei interest on his &C
cumulating millions.
But as a fellow author | have nothing
but admiration for him and praise for his
work. His language is highly g amatical
in some places and his spelling is above
the average. OF course | could crtici, e
some of his methods; for instance. such
as abiding to himself as q" and then
dSdIu as VIC q HUG IhI Gl6T uO"u
the page, but this might happen, of cour e,
for he no doubt wrote at times when he
regarded himself as extremely singular,
whist a. others he felt more plural.
Mr.. GDulu has a square cut Western
Union style of expressing himself by cur-
ting out needless words, which cannot
fail to meet with the Endorsement of all
good writers OF good English. I think
,ro ChN,1iA hoy-n NJ N,,,lI IN - H.
Authors club, and ask him to come and
1ea from his book Selections from the
ticker and other little skits of his would
be received with unbounded delight.
For the past sunmar by accident l
have been located in Delaware county,
which is nowadays a great summer resort
for the elte. 1t was for many years the
home of the GOuldS, and every hill ale
valley was familiar to Jay, the bright
young author. 1t was there that be got
together the material and published his
map of Delaware county. II was a bright
aud extremely attractive map, with ple as
ant, fragrant vArniSh on 1T. Although
Nj, Gould does not think it begins to
rank with some of his other and later
literary work, he does not in any way
feel that it was unworthy of him.
TolStOi, on the other hand, is a man of
genius, but he declines to make himself
at all submissive to the Cons tuition of
the United States or the ordinances of
the town TOlstOi tells the truth, but so
does the coarse member Of Congress, per-
hapS; yet the ed tor of The CON-
greSSjyn0t Record wisely emoves some 0
the chOicer idiOms of speech with a pair
of tOngs before he prints 1t.
TOlstOi tells ONE disagreeAble truths,
but he ought not to refer to them as lit
erature. Descriptions of the treatment of
bolts and .Og cholera are not untruthful,
and yet they should be so labeled and so
entitled that those who may be suffering
from bolts or hog cholera will be able to
get hold Of the book and no one else
That is what l like about the writings
of Gould. He calls lis book The His
tory Of Delaware County," so that those
who want a history of Delaware county
may avail themselves of it.. He does not
call it "The Kreutzer Sonata" and fool
musical young ladies' and girls in panIa-
lettes Into reading something that does
not coLcern them.
Mr.. G0uld's work shows great familiar
ity with quotations also, most all of them
closing finn. He shows a literary style
somewhat-resembling that of the author
of Rays Arithmetic" 1t is clear, ner
Vous jerky, disconnected, something after
the methods of Noah Webster, but more
pure and chaste, | think
Referring again 10 Mr.. Gould's slight
tendency to regard himself as plural even
in his younger days, | WILL quote from
the History of Delaware County" 1t
seems that the a I'll rent excitement which
had 81 own itself in SchOoarie county in
1913, was successfully introduced INTO
Delaware county in the following year,
a d on pages 26O-5 inclusive Mr., G uId
speaks of an Inci0ent which occurred,
Roxbury was the first to suffer, and the
dlSturoers were. it SEEM, disguised as In
q ans. They were what the prosperous
author called artificial Indians, for Jay is
not above shy little bon mots and little
squIrts OF ref ed humor as he goes along.
Z ynT1t 49,