Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-13
AMELIE RIVES WORK
TlNcINo or HER LITERATURE WITH
ouT-oF-poOR IMPRESSIONS.
beauties OF Her Description-Use Of
Clouds, Hairs, Eyes, and Pools OF
Water in Smile.
washington Pos.I

Out of doors with Ameiie Rives. Ihere
you find her at her best. She could not be
a southern writer and keep her works tree
from out-of-door. impressions. Crudities
of style she may have. One could wish
that in the Quick and the Dead" for in
stance, she might have become, as did
Barbara Pomfret, mistress of rare art,
that of controlling her thoughts" in the
little matter of word-painting, and have
found that lby tremendous effort, she
could whistle them TO fist" IL would not
have impaired the phraseology OF apart OF
the opening chapter could some OF the
fancies there framed have been " whistled
to fist and never allowed TO take Hight.
As to her motives, confessed OF mis-
understood, in handling her thoughts, mas
auy one q right TO question those OF
writer who, as she does in The Witness
Of the SUM- makes the hero Nadrovine
give the key TO the plot by saying: L
have had my mothers belief in me TO live
M TO. / owe much-nearly everything
10 nv mothern2 Cannot the cynical, igno-
rant, or Jealous criticism be hushed when
Amelie Rives voices herself in the utter
ances of Iva TO Nadroyine: Writing IS
hard art. One has to suffer, especially
woman. especially woman VINO mas inc
VI uoE ObihiOhHs
NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.
Consider, though, the chief charms or
Amelle Riyes. Should Mrs. Chanler never
write another line of fiction. should that
rare gift of hers-a powerful yet artistic
imagipation-fnd expression hereafter
only upon canvas, Amelie Rives as an au-
thor would not be forgotten unless per-
sons cease to read. And she would be re-
membered best because of her faithful re-
production of nature in conjunction with
tbe mysterious labyrinth the mind ex-
Dlores in dealing with that phase OF hu-
man nature which the English-speaklng
Frenchman would call the grand pas
sion.n
Amelie Rives il local. IL that great
fault2 Her locality is Virginia, the stage
of much of the stirring romance and har-
rowing tragedy of American history. But
her description of Peters Mountain would
do for any of the spurs of the Blue Ridge
which was always such an inspiration TOR
Sidney Iauier. If j. ID. Hurrell, who, " la
DAYS with Amelie Riyes," writes very much
as a woman might, had not told the world
that Amelie Rives was worshlpper OF
out-of-doors, her works would have be-
trayed her. Take away nature from them
and Ameiie Rives disappears; take away
| Amelie Rives and there Is no nature. You
see her love for it in the Brother 70
Dragons where Butter describes. the
Lady Margaret. She lin her loneliness
grew into many strange ways. she ala
outride any man in the country ana sne
| had blue roam horse by the name OF
Robin Hood, which come, methinks, no
man in or ont o. the country would "a
cared TO bestride She could walk over TO
Pebworth Dipping Pebworth, as Master
| Shakespeare hath dubbed it,, and back
| again. O distance of some six miles, and
| afterward set forth for O gallop on ROBIN
| Hood, and be no more a-weary, come even
tide, than myself from q trip around the
| gardens. She swan like a sea-mad. she
| had fenced even better than her brother,
| and, methinks, she was the bOnnlest shot
with long bow than any woman in old
| England" A reflection of Lady Margaret
| is had in Barbara Pomfret, substituting
| for her widows weeds "a dark-blue fam
mel shirt, a short, clay-stalned corduroy
skirt. leather belt, pair of chamois-shn
| shooting CATERS, and o pair OF stuut-!acCd
boots" and in Virginia Horrick wearing
| a soft hat OF the same stuff az her DARK
| gray Jacket and kirtle, reaching just below
| her krees. and russet-leather shooting
| CATERS on her legs and carrying gun on
| her shoulder and game-bag hung ut heI
side"
Keren Lemon, 1.-THE Farrier's Lass o
| Piping Pebworth," was q curious comblna-
| ton of man and woman nature, and at bel
| best in the open air, while even the child
| Ilya, preferred TO read Aristo unabridged
as she lay on the marble seat on the olive
crowned Italian hill, with only grasshop-
| pers, lizards. and rose-tree as her imme-
| date companions, to driving with hel
mother along the fashionable, artificial
| boulevard.
BIER LOVE OF DOGS.
| Am6lie Rives il surrounded with dogs IN
| her stories as completely as Virginia Her.
rick appeared 10 the young Englishman
| Roden. bounded on the east, west, north
| and south by dogs" Lady Margaret had
her hound, which she dashed fnriously for
| some trivial offence; Barbara POmfret heI
| two greyhound pups, and Miss Enrol heI
| German sleuth- hound, rampant against
sheep in a country where 1t Is bad polite:
to advocate a dog-law. Jock Dering
| settling in his wonted style before
| the fire, reminds Barbara Pomfrei
"of dog turning around before he lies
| down ~; as she HISTORICALLY gazes at her.
| self in the mirror, she calls her tell-tale
| eyes "real dog eyes--truthful. honest, and
! deep" Lady Margarets eyes were sc
| clear and honest, like dogs" Ilya's eyes
at one stage had those golden light;
which flash in the eyes of some angry
| dogs" and NadrOVlne Delieyed tnat Jne
most faithful thing after dog is woman
whom one has ceased TO love "-Nadrovlne
had enjoyed little experience. however.
With dog is generally associated the
open air unless the dog be dapper fox
terrier, such as that of Madam Nadroyine,
which was only an apology for a dog, used
as foil by its owner on the same principle
as that adopted by pretty girl in choosing
as her promenade companion the most un-
| favored one of her female acquaintances
But the woman who loves dog and who
lives in the country is pretty certain to be
one who. when she goes to stroll through
the woods, will have mo skirts TO tear OF
under draperies of lace to draggle."
Honesty of dogs eyes might easily be
noted as he lies before the open fireplace
but when AmGlie Rives likens the color OF
Dering's eyes to autumn pools in sun.
light" and tells in Nurse Crumpet how
that Mrs. Marion's eyes were dark and
cool to gaze into, like pool o. clear water
DER autumn leaves" one knows she ha;
been many hours away from the house al
| Castle Hill. Did she not rs Barbara Pom.
fret. believe that " it was as if happiness
lurked somewhere in the golden, GLAD
depth of the woods" those same woods
which at another time she found full OF
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