The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-11
WITH THE COFFEE.
90 ~s0~ &009N909 $4,000

There exists a morbid desire on the part
of some writers of fiction TO kill. They
create characters. cause them to pass
through exciting scenes and then hor-
ribly butcher them at the end; the de-
movement, as the chirruDers love to call
it. This desire exists in hearts where
its presence would be least suspected.
Take Ambrose Bierce for an example.
Ambrose writes some very readable stun
in the New York Journal, under various
captions. and permits his characters to
live. after enduring all that mortals can.
in peace and joy. But when he comes to
homicide right away.
Bierce wrote a collection of tales of
Soldiers and Civilians" which was no
doubt intended to be q wholesome lot of
anecdotes of the war and elsewhere. But
the gruesome ending of all the principal
characters makes ones blood curdie and
robs one OF the satisfaction which ought
to be derived from reading a good story.
True, his language is excellent; but one
doesn't read tales of murder and blood
for language: one doesn't have 10. He
can take Thackeray's insipid Vanity
Fair and get that: peruse the ''Decam-
eron'' or other classics and set language
The first tale in this collection is en-
titled "A Horseman In the Sky
catchy title enough. but when one pc
ruSeS ii and discovers that Private DruSe
of the federal army is the direct means
of causing a horse to jump over a cliff
and kill his father (Druse's father, not
the horses S. the narrative lacks pleas
antness And the ale stops there II
doesn't say that the sergeant, to whom
Druse confessed, ordered the soldier into
confinement, or thai the company held
2 kangaroo court and mollyhaWl1ed Priv
ate Druse one evening after tattoo. or
punished him in any way. For all the
book says Private DrlSe NAV have be-
come a brigadier general afterwards 1t
would have been so soothing to have
heard of Private Druse being caught in
bear trap or having been bitten by a
snake or something of the sort, just to
have evened things up.
Anecdote No. . is AN Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge Peter FraQuahar. a
rebel, in civilian clothes stands on a
bridge with n rope around his neck. about
TO be executed by a squad of Union sol
oiers, commanded by captain The
word is given. the board on which the
condemned stands is yanked away and
down he goes. Then the rope breaks.
Peter dives. and while under water gets /
the moose OF his neck, Bierce at the same
time Dortraying all his sensations with /
an acuteness which one would think
could not be manifested. except by man |
with actual experience in having been
the principal character in a hanging bee: I
comes TO the surface and is fired |
at by the entire squad. The au- /
thor makes him wait until the commands, |
Company. Attention. Ready, Aim. F. /
have been given. when he dives and /
lodges the entire mess of lead which has |
been shot at him To make long story
short, he swims around a turn in the /
river, comes TO land, walks home and is |
greeleG by his loving family and then !
suddenly falls asleep. Then Bierce calm /
" announces that the man IS dead and |
that all this shooting and swimming and |
walking home were the dying hallucina-
tons ne enjoyed just previous to the i
time when his lamp went out. Just at a
time when the reader is entranced with
the idea that Fraquahar is making good \
ms ESCAPE and feels like saying: Bully 4
for you, Pete he kills him and again
knocks ali the romance out OF the r)er-
son whose feelings have been wrought up
'Chickamauga" is the name of another.
The fight is on and the shells are scream
Ing through the air. while the sharp
ping OF the long-range bullet makes a
note IN the music of death. Long lines
of blue file across the field and through
the woods and charge long lines of gray
intl the ground is strewn with the
,ent and terrible glory of war is
depicted with an accuracy true to the
zeal and IN reading one fancies he can
near the sharp ringing notes of the bu-
sleS sounding the charge. Just then A
sttle child figures on the scene of acton:
/ fair skinned little fellow. armed with a
iry wooden sword. who gets right into
ne midst OF the action as il were The
aan who reads instinct1vely feels for fine
)oyS safety He devours pages in the
rope that some strong fellow, he doesn't
are whether he be Union or rebel will ,
ONE gallopsnS along, and with a Here !
ny Httbe man. this is no place for you.
axe h1m on the horse with him and con-
'ey him to a weeping mother three miles
n the rear of the lines. But Bierce doesn't
10 anything of the sort. He just has
nat kid wander over the ground and
llroueh the tangled underbrush until he I
els back where he started from, his
ome, 20 find II on fire and mis- mother
wing on her back with her brains oozfs,ar !
ut of an ugly wound in her head. as
cad as Pharaoh. Bierce however. is I
lercifui. He does not kill the child:
hat would be infankfcide, and they hang
ecDle Tor killing children. He simply !
lakes deaf mute Of the kid and leaves !
I'm standing there. instead Of sending !
i'm 10 an orphan asylum and having '
ONE mercy on the fellow who has pasd [
ne train boy 80 cents for the book S
. &. q I
In "A Son Of the Gods Bierce creates p
4 army officer in battle, riding a White
orse with q red housing VINO commands
skirmisf line The general sits on his
orse and sees the young chum ride away I
certain death. Now, any ordinary gen. S