Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-12-02
Dr. George w. Bagby and Ruhinstein'
WILCOX WHARF,
CHARLES CITY COUNTY,

November % 1S9i
To the Editor Of the Dispatch:
Your article In Thursdays Dispatch
headed "Rubinsten and Or. Baeby" was
opportune, and i only regret that
YOU did not have room for the whole OF
DR.. Bagbys "unequalled production" IL
IS one OF his very best. and he far sur
passed any man Of his time, or OF any
time. In this line, or in the mingilng OF
pathos and bathos.
This criticism, he told me, gave him
considera bic thought. and more satsfac-
ton than any he wrote, except, probably
Uncle Flatback's Plantation
What can be more exquisite than the
sentence: II heard little bird waxing
up away OF in the woods. ana Calm
seem like to his mate. 1t was the peep
day. Some more birds waKed up
In the orchard. Then some more in the
trees near the house. and all begun singin
together. People begun TO stir. an the gal
opened the shelters. Just then the hrst
beam of the san Cell upon the blossoms
n little more. and il fetched the roses ana
the bushes, and the next thing 1t was
broad day The sun fairly blazed. the
birds sang like they'd split their little
threats. All the leaves was moving and
fashin' like diamonds of dew.
Seemed to me like there was good
breakfast In every house. and not a SICK
child or woman anywhere. II was hne
morning"
Had Or. Bagby lived at a little later
day. what he wrote would have made
him n rich man. The splendid scintilla-
tons OF his genlous would have brought
him thousands Of yellow gold where they
brought him coppers in his day.
o. Ca
Pags. "Rnl Arp" "Bn Nye," and a host
Of others have sold their work through
| the MAGAZINES aud have been made indie
pendent while poor Basby. the greatest
genius Of them all. living d little too soon
for this opportunity, was kept in poverty.
Flatback's Plantation was written for
Harpers MagaZine-he was to get, think,
! $50 for it-but the war came on ana
caught it in Richmond, and II was pub
llshed In the Southern Literary Messen-
| ger, and he got little. il anything, for II.
He has drawn in that paper two of the
| finest pictures ever given 10 the public
| one. the description Of a young lady S
room where he was put to stay in her alb
sence. and that OF "Uncle Flatback' as
| he cut "watermillion ut for the gods
| TO eat" Then bending his head to look
| out under the lOw-top porch at the light
| IliP tNIitaa li2NAsit, eo i4I A'e'i i'N''~''
| every morning for forty years, and say
Ing as he had said every morning FOR
| forty years. L George. boys: she's a-goinG
| OF it," q quote from memory; have
none OF his works by me)
"Meckinses' Twinses" would have sold
well but copy OF IT got inadvertently
| into a Baltimore paper and was published
| all over the country and in Europe, and.
| &c course, made his copyright Of little
| value.
There is some very quaint wit In This
proauetlon-for instance. telling OF the ar
| rival of twins. he says: MANY women
| arrives at your mansion and there is much
mirating': and again: "There she was
| abusing poor little Mrs. Meekins. as good
| a little woman as her husband is no
| count"
In his lecture on "Love" ne is in many
| passages equal in sublime pathos TO Dick
| ems in "Dombcy and SON. especially
where he pictures the bereaved man look
| ing out of the window all day long, and
| intently looking all the time towards
| the spot where she is sleeping"
His nature was highly emotional. This
| Is easily gathered from single and
| magnificent passage in What i Did with
MY Fifty Millions" After he had built g
| great cathedral with portion Of It, he
-
| and while its strains were echoing through
| the corridors and arches and filling his
heart with rapture he fell upon his knees
| I'm the middle aisle and cried out, "Oh
| God this may not be religion. but oh let
me die feeling thus" DR.. Bagby was In
the truest sense original. He initiated no
one. indeed. was a pioneer in the dialectic
| line. and wrote truer to the dialectie text
| than any writer who has followed him.
hot hA
| Library OF American Literature should
REPRODUCE the fine tribute to Rubinstein,
| No man but Edgar Poe could have writ
| ten the Bells" No one but Gray could
have written the ''Elegy." None but
| Tennyson could write His apostrophe 10
| the sea. and no one but Dr. Bagby could
| write "Ruhnsteln." II is quaint and
| weirdly beautiful.
| ISAAC III. CHRISTIAN.