, 1890-10-12

is thoroughly pure in tone, and no one
eau read It understandingly without he
coming a better man.
Alter reading a chapter Of Count Leo
Tolstoi and then burning = rag | love to
take down Mr.. GOuld's The History of
Delaware County" and read 1t till lar into
the silent night.
The book contains 425 pages and two
steel plate engravings of men who had
agreed TO subscribe for 1t. 1t is bound IN
slate oolored cloth, and shows in every
page the lofty purity and noble impulses
of the struggling young author.
IcAnnot help while reading The His
tory oil Delaware County contrasting its
beautiful purity with the ferocious and
savage cussldness OF Tolstoi. We could
hardly imagine two more widely aud dia
metrically different toilers in the great
field of literature than Jay Gould aud
Tolstoi. One is gentle. refined and pure;
the other a gifted crank. | have spoken
heretofore TO some extent of Mr.. Gouli's
methods in business. criticising them in
an honest yet unsparing way. hoping
thereby to call his attention to the tact
that at his time Of life, with oil his means,
he might do 50 much good and die So
much happier if he would pause in his
mad race with mammon to enjoy and .iu-
vite others to enjoy the interest on his a
cumulating millions.
But rs a fellow author | have nothing
but admiration for him and praise tor hi.
work. His language is highly grammlt.
ical in some place and his spelling is
above the average. Of curse | could
cnticise some OF his methods; for instance,
such as alluding 20 himself rs II" and
then again as I'VE" a little farther down
the page, but this might happen of course,
Tor he no doubt wrote at times when he
regarded himself as extremely singular,
whilst at others he felt more plural.
Mr.. Gould has a cleAI out Western
Union style Of expressing himself by cut.
ting out needless words, which cannot
fail to meet with the Endorsement OF all
good writers of good English. | think
we should have Mr.. Gould up at the
Authors club, and ask him to come and
read from his works. Selections from
the ticker and other little skIts of his
would be receivei with ~unbounded de-
light.
For the past summer by accident
have been located in Delaware county,
which Is nowadays great summer resort
for the elite. Ii vas for many years the
home OF the Goulds, and every hill and
valley was familiar to Jay, the bright
young author. Ii was there that he got
together the material and published his
mar Of Delaware county. 1t was a bright
and extremely attractive map, with pleas
ant. fragrant varish on it. Although Mr..
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 constitution Of
the United States or the ordinances Of
the town. Tolstoi tells the truth, but 81
does the coarse member OF congress, per
haps; yet the editor Of the Congressional
Record wisely removes some OF the
choicer idloIns of speech with a pair OF
tongs before he prints it.
Tolstoi tells some disagrceable truths.
but he ought not to refer to them as lit
OF bolts and hog cholera are not untruth-
ful. and yet they should be so labeled and
so entitled that those who may be suffer
ing from bolts or hog cholera will be able
TO get bold of the book aud no one else.
That is what | like about the writings
Of Gould. He calls his book The His
tory of Delaware County, " SO hat those
who want n history of Delaware county
may avail themselves OF it. He does not
call 1t The Kreutzer Sonata, aud fool
musical young ladies in pantalettes into
reading something that docs not concern
them.
Mr.. Gould's work shows great famil-
iarty with quotations also, most all oil
them closing firm. He shows q literary
style somewhat resembling that Of the
author of Rays Arithmetic" 1t is
clear. nervous, jerky. disconnected,
thing after the style OF Noah Webster,
but more pure and chaste, / think.
Referring again to Mr.. Gould's slight
tendency to regard himself as plural even
10 his younger days, | will quote iron
The History Of Delaware County" Ii
seems that the anti rent excitement which
had shown itself in Schoharie county, in
l843, was successfully introduced into
Delaware county IN the following year,
and on pages 2G0-5 inclusive Mr.. Gould
speaks OF an incident which occurred.
Roxbury was the first to suffer. and the
disturbes WERE it seems, disguised
as Indians They were what the
prosperous young author called artificial
Indians. for Jay is not above sly little
bon mots and little squirts OF refined
humor as he goes along.
II would seem that during the summer
OF this year these Indian outlaws showe5
the first act of hostility on the 9th day
OF July upon the premises of John B
Gould. who. regardless OF the threat anS
the timely warning of the association Il
desist from blowing his horn, had con
tinued to use it as a signal to call hi
workmen to dinner. Upon the day ii
question. he had as usual blown his hor
at noon. when five Indians. equipped an
armed for fgh', presented themselves a
III donr and damandad radroaa fnr th