The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-10-10
THE o GOES ON.

AMELIA RIvEs' last story, "According to
ST. JOHN" was about as pure as any re-
cent rot which is called literature. The
last jag Of the business though, Indicates
that the girl who is now a wife and g
woman-has still stuck to her early
theme-to write stuff that was just be-
yOnd what LEVER called "The frontier Of
prudence" That is to say she has not
exhibited anything particularly vulgar,
but she has written lines between which,
no man can fail to read. If it be true
that to the pure all things are pure, as
was written Of old, then it may be that
MRS. CHANDLER is guilty of nothing
erotic. However, it must occur to those
who read that she is guilty of a great
deal Of rotic.
The last batch of stuff which the en-
terprising proprietor, editor and maybe
~janitor Of the magazine which bought
her story, doled cut through three num-
bers, is not as good as she has written.
Her miserable Vulgarity "The Quick
or The Dead" caused a sensation and
brought her before the people. Her
name was in the mouths of all men and
many women. The best work she ever
did, and no one can deny it, was the
"Story Of Arnon." People generally
know that COLONEL ARNoN was the son
of Moan, the gentleman who had charge
Of the water works during the Flood.
ARNoN loved the girl-and he placed
her among the beasts of which there were
many in the raft, and carried her through
the Long Damp Spell which We are told
lasted some Forty Days.
That story was published in Harper,
many years ago, and it is said, and the
story is doubtless part true, hat the
grandfather of Amelia wrote the story
and created it. That the girl author en-
belIished and thus obtained a triumph
which is great to those who write,
namely: HARPER to buy and a large
number to read. Those who will take
the "Story Of Arnon" and read it, in it's
wonderful beauty, and then "The Quick
or the Dead" or even According to St.
John" will confess with tears in their
eyes that al idol has been crushed and
hat it has crumbled.
1t occur to THE GLOBE that this wo-
man saw a point. She wanted to intro
duce in literature what a merchant intro
duces in his store-a bargain counter.
The colors were there the shade was
perfect-but the Internal cheap stuff,
going at three cents q yard, would not
wash.
That is all there is Of it, all that can be
said. She knew how to build around
her frail structure a string of almost
lines-she approached the vulgar and
the sensual, yet did not quite reach them;
she painted a picture in your mind which
disappeared just before you had COM
pleted.
She said much without saying any
thing. And she did all this for money
to make safe the sale of her wretched
manuscript. She tried to write beauty
but the quill scrawled vulgarity and sem
NSsAA AN AN LAo liz Ho4l1 W q
~deing-but she so young-well, of course
the quotation was pertinent again, ito
the pure all things are pure" And she
wrote.
Her style is Of the Roman candle kind.
She can shoot her colored pYrotechnics
of literature into the dark all around
those who Pant for something awful
and she holds an audience and book
publishers know what will sell.
Anything that tends to reach the alb
surd with a vulgar trimming will sell in
this world-and why not?
Simply because the world is vulgar
and abandoned in many ways is why
such rot becomes s. co nmodity with a
price.
SALTUs writes the most miserable stuff