Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1892-07-21

both. John Durbeyfield and his ancestors
are as wearisomely inseparable as Carker
and his glittering smile. The same false
note is struck when Glare, in the midst
Of his anguish of disappointment in Tess,
hanks back to the idea that it is his pun
ishment for marrying into an exhausted
family. If "Tess OF the D'Ubervilles"
lives, it will not be because Of the ele-
ments that give it its present vogue; but
because, since Burns, no man has so truly
entered into the spirit Of peasant life as
Hardy. To him the early dawn yields
!, up new mysteries, and the language OF
nature is to him mother tongue. (For
sale by A. f. Stevens. Price $1,000
The place of landscape in fiction has
been increasingly large for the last
fifty years. Thackery has scarcely tree
or shrub with which to bless himself
with, his Adams and Ewes could never
hide themselves from him in his garden /,
Dickens used nature as the storm in
Macbeth is used, to heighten dramatic
effects. George Eliot began to use it in the
modern way, for background and to aid
in giving local color. Blacks romances
would be Hamlet with the part of Ham
let left out without his heather and
winds, and Miss Murphree has no more
important characters in her stories than
her mountains To Wordsworth and the
school Of Lake poets is largely due this
general awakening to the artistic pcssi-
bilities of nature in literature, and now
that "all have got the seed," we often
long to be delivered from the rioting lux
uriance OF nature, in printers ink. The
laborious accuracy with which Mrs. Hum
phrey Ward described the setting of
David Grieve" was actually oppressive.
1t seems scarcely tair to the lawiess grace
of brier and tangle to make such serious
inventories Of their charms,
II don't like the catalogue style, do you?
AS if to sell off nature by vendu."
Even the masters OF landscape are
sometimes too generous with their sky
effects, their days in October and June.
In the earlier part OF a story we are in a
passive acceptive frame OF mind and are
willing to loiter about among the fields
and pastures in which the drama is
about to be enacted but toward the end,
the action of the story should flow swift
and strong, carrying us breathess to the
finish. On the three hundredth page OF
thrilling tragedy we resent bling ar
rested in the story and made to lay our
ear to the heart of nature; if the story
has any life, its pulse is decidedly stronger
and more interesting at that stage. No
matter how profound the tragedy, there
is no need to break it to us by slow de-
grees, like piece OF bad news written
tragedies are usually quite endurable.
Master though Hardy is of his English
landscape, the action OF the latter half Of
his story 'Tess Of the D'Ubervilles" is
seriol-s:y clogged by the long descriptions
OF the farm at Flintcomb-Ash, descrip-
ton forciblc in itself, but irartistic in
that place, since it impedes the dramatic
flow OF events.
st. Nicholas Magazine has been getting
suggestions from its readers as to a |
national song. "The Star-Spangled Ban
ner" seems to have the strongest existing
claim to that honor, but one young per-
son, who objects to the words but thinks
well OF the music, makes the novel prop
osltlon to fit the words Of "My Country
tits OF Thee" to the music of ''The Star
Spangled Banner" The editor of St.
Nicholas suggests that she seek some |
quiet place and try the effect Of mixing
the two very cautiously.
We have just received immense ship
ments of decorated semi-porcelain ware