Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-12-03
AS YOU
LIKE 1T
oRlANDo--hs remember, it wa, upon this
fashion.
(AcT l, SCENE ~
A LITERARY GEN.
ACT l, SCENE ~
S+@~@.+9~@~@.%..&+.armaesM

page. 6x9. oblong shaped literary gem
bound in crushed-Strawberry paste
board. in which my soul has been DELI
ciously stepped for the past half hour.
a great gurgling joy possessed me as
pcrused the engrossing narrative of
| which my friend j. Lud Hill is the au-
| thor and responsible party Ito whom all
disputes and claims of foul must be re-
ferreD. and which bears the strikingly
| picturesque title of "A Directory OF
Newport News. Hampton. Phoebus and
Old Point
While the work lacks good plot and
many OF the situations are devoid Of
dramatic strength, the characters are
all real and the book is ingeniously con-
structed. on the whole. The theme is
| plain enough but it deties analysis. the
thread of the story Lud has to tell be-
ing somewhat anacoluthic. He pitches
| The first scene OF action in Newport
News. the second in Hampton and the
third in Phoebus. while the closing
chapter has to deal with Old Point
Comfort.
There are Williams in it-some very
vilanous Williams. I doubt me not,
though their villiany is not exposed in
| the conventional style. and virtue does
not triumph with any great eclat to
| speak Of Nevertheless the Williams do
not seem to be pursuing anybody. so far
as the eye can discern. One deficiency
| in the work l would like to direct the
authors attention to is the lack of dia-
| loSuc. The extent of the absence of
quotation marks is abnormaly out Of
proportion t" the number of characters
| that he has grouped together There
| isn't a speaking female in the four
| chapters. In gathering his material,
too. Lud seems to have given himself
carte blanche and reached out in every
direction with telling effect. He has not
| only pcorled his book on the wholesale
plan. but drawn also on the animal.
mineral and vegetable kingdoms. 10 say
| nothing of the elements. for material.
| lud's book is likewise unique in that
| it may be perused With the same de-
gree of satisfaction backward or for
ward. VI.
! But the browning tiara of originality
| in this cnronct of literary pearls, If
may so term it. is the refreshing vari-
ETY. Of the dramatis personae. There's
an Able. to begin with. who isn't an
able at all. but stationer. Conrad
| Bacon is. more consistently. a grocery
man Eighteen Bakers show UP at the
proper juncture. following four Austri-
ans. There is a Barber who appears in
the first chapter and who turns out t
| be a steamship agent.
J The Hon. John w. c. Blackstone Is
very properly a jurist. No Coke or
Lttlci"n mlteralize. hut there are
| !nnumerablc coal dealers and half
dozen Coles.
! Mack Blackman is 4 colored driver
G; r. ~ Booker books theatrical COM
pancs for his Opera House and the two
Misses Eoyl" run a steam laundry.
| The Brown family shows UP strong
sending !. dclega ton Of eighteen to
! T.ud's net, but are outclassed by the
Smiths Cone of whom bearing the eN
ltraordinary Christian name of Perlander
| II. is Il negro waiter at the Ivy Ho1eD,
| who number sixty. Both yield to the
Jonses in numerical strength. the
| wn-Smith-Jo race in Newport
News being Won by head BY the ,s
Joneses in numerical strength tn
| Enrtv-two- folks -'Suve the misfortune t
: bear the name of Johnson.
. There is one BuEg. two Bulls and fou
y Rullocks. There are three Byrds. al
black Ryrds. eight Buffers. a Cave an
a Cavalier. though just what they hav
| to DO with one another the reader 0
l-ud Hills book may guess three time
, in vain and still have other guesse
coming. Chas. a. Black is white an,
. Geo. White is black: so is Thoma
! Green and William Gray. There ar
= eight more G;rays. eleven Greens an
/ twenty-five Blacks. There are thre
Mills against nineteen Millers. On
. Midget is in evidence. one Dove an,
, one Darling. Three men are name,
Dennis Four Fishes. with Mrs. Pix
. Fish. who keeps clothing store. ap
: pear in their proper places; and John
or Jack. Frost is a shipyard employee
: Three men are Gay while two men an.
S three men and a woman are Fureys
One fellow is named East and anothe
8 West. There is a Fortune too, to b.
! looked UP and a Friend Is very close Il
t him
: Two men rejoice in the name o
Smythe. The Williamses show a poll
ing strength Of flfty-nine Georg
Washington is negro laborer: so il
Thomas jefferson. Andrew johnson i
G. 4 @. clerk. Two Foxes a Crane
three Peacorks. two Swans. one Trout
one Kidd TWO Lyons and one Lamb arr
to be found for the looking. Three mer
are Small ana five are Long. There art
Woods TO burn" exclusive of one Ce
dor .I,is... l.