The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1899-07-29
THE PASSING SHOW
VILLA GATHER

kail-yard fiction. l believe Hamlin
Garland il credited WI h once saying
that the time had come when a man
could take cod house aud suDflDwer
and make literature. Recently much
literature has been made OF a stout
Sec tch dialect, a bit OF heather. a
funeral and a parson or two. The par.
son and the heather were sometimes,
though seldom omitted, but the dialect
and the funeral, never! The sameness
and the drearinees Of their inventions
has begun to pail on the world. 1s
there nothing but funerals in Scotland.
pray? Are people never born, or do
they never get married there? ls the
entire population composed Of ministers
little or big-and have the Scotch
got corner on death Az ere they run.
ming the mortality Of the world to suit
themselves? Yet there was time
when q certain cheerful gentleman, one
Robert Louis Stevenson, wro'e tales OF
the highland and the heathe-, when a
tale from Scotland brought other It'd.
ings than those OF woe and another
message than one from the grave, when
stories came 20 US from Scotland full OF
high doings by land and sea, and OF gal
liant gentlemen who were not above
being merry sometimes and who could
talk OF something beside their Kirk"
and their prayers, stories with the ring
OF swords in them and stout hearts and
high hopes and the faith of "Charley
over the water" All! those were indeed
the days "when the wind was BLOWN
bonny In the North Countree!'
Well, since have read Mr.. John
Buchan's "A Lost Lady Of Old Years.
l have almost fancied that those good
old daye. or some like unto them, might
come again. At any rate this is the
first hook have read that l have felt
like comparing with the Incompatible.
romances Of Mr.. Stevenson, and indeed
l feel myself almost q trator while | do
it. Mr.. John Buchan is not unknown
to fame. Certain people about the
world have had their eye on him ever
since the publication OF highly meri
torious novel John Burnet OF Barnes"
reviewed in these columns last winter.
But "a Lost Lady OF Old Years" shows
long stride to the forward. 1t is more
dramatic, more direct, the author has
struck better balance between atmos-
phere and action, and above all he has
gained immensely in the massing OF his
material and the mastery Of form. This
is one story to which one does q gross
injustice to attempt to give ever an
analysis, for the plot and the style here
are inseparable, and the style is a liv
ing thing. not to be dissected in cold
blood. Master "Francis Birkenshaw"
was the scspe-grace son OF an old
house, reared by a common enough
mother in the glorious Edinburgh OF
the early years OF the last century. q
frequeuter OF taverns and boon com
panion Of low persons Of both sexes, yet
with little vice in him beyond the
natural fire Of youth. and living his
loose life chiefly because it was the only
sort he knew. Thus he played roughly
enough at life until he met Lady Mar.
garet Murray. one Of the cleverest and
most beautiful ladies OF the old years, a
staunch Jacobite and prime mover 10
the Princes cause. 1t was she, none
too scrupulous in her own living, as
rumor had it, who reused the latent
idealism in Master Francis and made a
man OF him, q sad, grave. gray man,