The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-11
"THE YELLED DOCTOR"
CONCISE REVIEW OF MISS WINNIE
DAVIS book
Well Written and Strong story,
with the Scene Laid in the south.

With the Scene Laid in the south.
Jeanette l. Glider, in St. Louis Post
Dispatch
| Great curiosity has been manifested
regarding The Yelled Doctor" Miss Win
ME Davis first venture in the realm Of
| fiction. but this curiosity will soon be
satisfied. for Messrs. Harper & Bros. will
/ publish the book on the I'D OF this month.
1 have had the privilege Of looking over
/ the advance sheets of the story. and can
| assure her many friends in the north,
as well as the south, that Miss Davis
has written a most readable story.
/ 1t is not. as most people will surmise.
a story of the south, founded on the
writer's own experiences. Miss Davis
has not seen a great deal of southern
I life. In her early girlhoOd days she was
I at school in Germany, and she has spent
a large part Of the time since leaving
school either in Europe or in the north.
| OF course, she did pass many happy days
at Beauvoir, but not as many as she
| has lived elsewhere.
The story of THE Yelled Doctor is
| for the most part true; in fact, there is
so much truth in 1t that Miss Davis
has made the scene of the story some
what vague, so that it could not be
traced 10 its fountain head by the curl
Gus. Her mother not only vouches for
the truth of the main incident of the
story, but remembers having on several
occasions in her childhood seen the doctor
with his veil as he passed from house
I to house on his professional rounds.
The scene of the story would appear
to be laid along the Maryland or Vir
! ginia coast, and the time is apparently
the first quarter of the present centu-
~. The little old seaport town where
the action of the story takes place is
described "as well out of the present
line of travel In the center of the
old town, "a jewel in a fit setting, there
stands the large and quietest house
of all. The fanlight above the colonial
doorway has looked down upon the
same ruts in the streets for over CEN
fury. its brass horiated hinges have re-
Elected generation after generation of the
same families as they passed to and fro
on their business in life"
The family belonging TO this old home
stead are the Wickfords, the wives of
whose eldest sons are always spoken of
by the village folk as madame" ITO be
Madame Wexford was, as the quaint IL
tie applied. to be at the head of such So
ciety as the town Afforded; it was the apex
of every well bred girls hopes and the
end of every mothers scheming."
Gordon Wexford. the last of his line
to inherit the old house, brought young
wife from the city to wear the title and
share his home. The new Madame Wick
ford was a great beauty, but in character
she was quite unlike those who had pre-
ceded her. No one could deny the beauty
of Gordon Wickford's bride, though it
was of such perfection it almost "antago-
nized the beholder. 1t certainly went far
toward her undoing with the good folk
whom she was to live"
Z nd
long limbs that ended in slender feet and
hands" There were red flashes in the
depths of her brown eyes, that looked
out from under straight black brows. Her
nose was delicately formed, with just the
slightest inclination to acquilimity-her
lips were thin and refunded, at times
1 their color seemed almost unnatural
| against the rosy tint of the skin. 1t was
the scarlet mouth Of a sensuous, beauty
\ loving woman set in a child's face. But
/ her glory lay in her hair; each thread of
! it replete with its own gIad, golden life,
/ ripled from the very roots in luxurious
| fluctuations, and broke at last into
| foam of little curls wherever it escaped
/ confinement How she and her black
maid brushed it How they washed it
| and rubbed in the poma tums before they
| built up the towering bows Of the fash
| ionable couture of that day! 1t was the
| pride of her life, and took precedence Of
the superb young husband she had
achieved for herself in her second sea-
son."
1t was in the early spring when Gordon
! Wickword brought his city bride, to his
country home Miss Davis describes the
/ season prettily.
las yet the trees in the street had
not completely hidden their graceful
| branches in the new spring greenery;
there were still light young shoots in
! he hon baI nd he OH f,tn Of
the breath of the spring. In the old gar
den long lines of crocus. yellow ionquils
and single blue hyacintns hedged in the
grass plots. The snowballs were cover
ed with great foamy white balls. periwin-
kles looked up clear-cyed from under
the parlor windows, and everywhere the
single blue Violets were making the air
sweet with their spring thanksgiving.
The tall standard roses had thrown out
! pale-green racemes, and the bridal wreatn
/ bushes were just commencing to powder
/ their branches with miniature blossoms.
| A young moon hung like reap-hook in
the evening sky; the bride and groom
could see it between a fret-work of flow
cry apple and pear branches as they
paced backward and forward in the soft
] air.
As they walked under the young moon
through the old garden Wexford talked
10 his bride of the past and the future. He
told here what his mother had been like,
and adjured her TO follow her example
/ He had mapped out a career for her to
the minutest detail. Not unnaturally, "a
sense of mutinous impatience began to
burn in Isabers hot young heart" She did
/ not have red flashes in the depths of
her brown eyes for nothing; and stop
/ ping short in her walk she asked in a
sarcastic tone, Docs it not strike you,
| Gordon, that 1 have been phenomenally
/ patient under your sermonizing? You
could hardly imagine that you have made
| yourself particularly gay and amusing on
my first evening at home, which you have
I spent in lauding another womans perfec-
| tons to my disadvantage"
Gordon was Mortified, as was not I'M
natural, either. for he loved his wife dear
/ ly, and he also worshipped his mother s
memory In the latter, however, he had
! forgotten the former and the high strung
/ young wife resented his dictatorial tone.
| This was the beginning of the end. Never
were two people less suited to one an
] other. He became absorbed in his pro-
/ fession and she grew more and more bored