The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-08-21
HITS AND MISSES.
CONTRIBUTED BY A. sPARRER.
"De omns re sciaH ct qui6usdam alas "

''De omnE re Sci5iR ct Qaibusdam dl'is.
The sign of Gemini is in the ascendant in the
literary heavens. To produce novelette, with
which to beguile the weary business mans
half hour requires partnership of intellect.
Smith and Brown concoct our literary sweets,
while John Bull and Uncle Sam play shuttle
cock across the waves with the international
novel.
The airy forms of fancy vanish at the tread
romance, folding her wings of poetic imagin-
ings, steals silently away to the past.
The first half of the present century saw
the one mind producing many books; will
the latter half usher in the one book, the pro-
duct of many minds?
Our novelists of two, three, four genera
tions ago, Scott, Maria Edgeworth, Richard
son, Fielding, would look askance upon our
our literary menus, couched in hybrid
tongue more CALLING to their usage, than Gal
lie flavor is to Germany's king
The literary Brotherhood of Master Novel
they awaken some fiue morning to the fact
that Palmer Cox had secured monopoly
aud with his band of Brownies working over
night could furnish all the public asks in the
way of light refreshment.
~
We do not criticise the matter of these
composites the majority are clean, whole
s,me and entertaining, NOR is their brevity
quite reproach in an age when steam and
electricity have set every nerve to dancing
to "a time.
The story that covers just twenty -four hours
in the action and requires but three quarters of
an hour TO carry the reader from chapter 1st
to Finis, is part of our later civilization.
But here the puzzle-is the multiplication
of brain power also a sequence?
Must the quantity, if not quality, be in in
verse ratio to the motive power?
Does the expansion of means with the con-
traction of results become law in letters ?
The twentieth century critic may answer
the query in the interim, Imagination pic
lures Homeopathic school of belles-lettres
All stimulants denied the imagination, no
outward applications of vigorous, fun-loving
tilts with our foibles, pellets of super-refined
realism, followed by infnitesimal doses of
diluted genius.
What we want is more TRANSMISSION of pow
er from the old masters, such grating of
their strong vigorous life on the electrical in
tensity of nineteenth century realism, as will
ensure fair play to the Imagination combined |
with the terseness of thought and expression |
demanded by this latter day hurry and rush. |
~
The tendency of the age is towards cooper |
alton. Cooperative shops, homes and |
churches threaten personal identity when
such q system enters the domain of letters,
we foresee deathblow to originality.
The homely proverb "too many cooks spoil
the broth" falls in with the thought.
Our brave old Wizard of the Nerth would
bow his noble head in shame to find his art
so minimized, his wealth of imagery and lux
uriance of fantasy-exchsnged for what?
Either the bald repetition of minutia from
from the realistic school, or the flaming phan
tasmagoria of the super-sentimentalis'.
How is this for the make up of one class
of our modern novels?
Two lines of Subscription by some stock job
Der who does the word-painting, paragraph
or so of dissection or vivisection by the char
acter grinder, word or two on art and mu-
sic, the poisoning scenes filled in by an impe-
cunious M. D., the love passages torn from
the bleeding heart of "a maiden whitening on
the stalk, /" the grand finale and summing up
by the so-called literateur, who gives to the
the public "our latest charming novelette"e
-
That enterprising genius, who was sent to
Texas TO operate our rain supply, has been
recalled just in time to spare our tomato in
dustry to say nothing of other crops.
His experiment was not only success, it
was entirely too successful in our immediate
vicinity.
This time farmers have had something to
creak about. Flowers, fruits and vegetables
had luxuriated into wonderful foliage, but |
fears were entertained about their fruitage.
Now that the sun has been allowed to
SHINE once more, the only possible grumbe
we can have is about the heat, ard that is
kept well under our breath.
We are too well regulated to quarrel with |
the dispensations of Providence, it is only |
when human agency is employed that we
dare vent our spleen.
1t was positive relief 10 feel our constant
rains were all due to that other fellow down
in Texas, and we did not spare him either.
~
There's one thing though, one thing only
directly under mans management that we do
not quarrel with. Not the Erie railroad, nor
the Hudson river road, nor yet the Baltimore
and Ohio but our own Little local affair.
This may people our section with the MAIN
and the halt, run backwards, and turn as
many somersaults as its ingenuity may devise,
and all because it is our own we say not one |
word
Thus is illustrated the difference between
urban and suburban public spirit.
What makes a great city is the pride
which reaches always out for something bet
ter, which is not content with the philosophy
that because thing has once been good, it
must perforce always exhibit the same valu-
able properties.
~
once heard quite little homily preached
on the above subject, from the feminine
standpoint, dictated by Dame Fashion, and
all because ofa bonnet.
One piece of femininity was arguing with
another of the same sex, who was so masculine
in her tastes as to be above the charms of
new bonnet ergo-so reasonable as to be al
most logical.
Sister Sophia maintained that if last sea-
sons bonnet was the very thing for last sea-
son, was suitable and becoming and what the
united genius of the family had selected for
her comfort therefore IL could not so change