The record-union., 1899-10-09


Mr.. Russell, the actor, assumes in the
play of Peaceful Valley offends,
when as a college bred man, and max
ing his Virgil very wade mecum, ne
violates all the requirements of gram
matical speech.
But these defects of improbability
and inappropriateness which the book
illustrates upon almost every page, are
altogether aside from what appears TO
me to be the real weakness of the work
as a moral instructor in any high and
ennobling sense, for it must have been
for its assumed moral instruction that
my clerical friend gave to it such an
emphatic Endorsement.
If the unquestionably high character
of John Lenox is to be put in evidence,
he illustrates nothing but the natural
development of a rich and gracious ma
ture, even amid surroundings not NOR
ally or Intellectually stimulating. A
man of intelligence and refinement, one
inheriting all the traditions of culture
and respectability, the wonder of it is,
not that he maintained his integrity
under many so-called temptations, but
which could have been no temptations
to him, but that he could have put up
with an environment of ignorance and
vulgarity as long as he did 1t is good
taste as much as high principle that
controls in many of the circumstances
Of life which make for moral ends, and
John Lenox was above contamination
by the littlenesses and meannesses
bonneville life.
The story is not very pleasant read
ing, of that episode when Harum tells
I-enox to put back into the general cir
culation of the bank two counterfeits
which the young man had withdrawn
and charged to himself, because of his
feeling of accountability respecting
them. How degrading the suggestion
was to both Lenox and Harum: to
Lenox because as a subordinate he
could not properly resent it, and to
Earum because of the vulgarity of the
test, and because it cast a suspicion
upon Harum himself who felt, how
ever, that he was strong enough, and
sure enough in his position of en-
ployer, to let time correct any errone
Gus impressions of his character that
might be formed. The unreality, how
ever, of the recital becomes apparent
at once, if one should try to imagine
any such instructions being given by
any reputable banker to any clerk of
such presumed character and respecta-
bility as to be intrusted with a posi-
tion in his employ.
But if Harum in his somewhat in
tricate and Altogether egotistic nature,
could cloak at times the real motives
of his conduct, or put embargoes OF
secresy respecting his character upon
individuals even to their personal
county official that he will stand good
for his disreputable brothers mainte-
nance, provided the source of the succor
is never divulged, but at other times
he wants stage upon which to dis
tribute his benevolences, for when the
Widow Cullom's mortgage is cancelled
it is done amid all the tawdry accom-
paniments of dramatic play.
By his own acknowledgment Harum
must have been a pitiful clown upon
some of the salient occasions of his
life, as when guest of a. business &C
quaintance at Newport, he breaks an
egg over his clothes, and speaks in
tones of apology respecting the napkin
he had soiled as of something to be
used in general circulation upon many
subsequent occasions without any at
tention from the laundress, or when
he allows himself to be arrayed in the
full-d dress raiment of his host, ana
made the guy of the dinner table. All
this is vulgar, but if the public de-
mands farce instead of the geGteel
comedy furnished by such writer's as
Howells, or Warner, or Eggleston, 1t
can obtain a surfeit Of it in David
Harum." When Silas Lapham, in
Howells' story of that name, sits down
in his gloves at the dinner to which he
and his family have been invited, and
tucks his napkin into his collar, we
simply see a man unaccustomed to the
customs and conventions of good So
ciety, and who is painfully and mod
estly conscious of his ignorance, but
Harum in the same situation is moth
ing but an ignorant and impossible
boor.
The mingling of the facetious with
the serious in that story of the pur-
chase of the crazy bonnet which so
aroused the Indignation of his wife as
to lead to the premature birth OF son,
and his wifes subsequent death. is
painful illustration of poor taste in the
author. In Harums reflections which
follow, however, upon the story Of TINS
incident, in which he is made to COM
ment upon the loss of his boy, after
the child had reached his sixth or sew
enth year, and when he tells Lenox
that it is not the present loss alone
from which parent suffers in the
death OF a child, but that there is as
sociated with it the after loss Of all
the affection, companionship and con-
ISOLATION which the future years could
be accounted as holding for him. the
book attains to one little summit OF
comparative excellence.
But as 1 write l am thinking of my
clerical friend and wondering what
could have been the particular moral
that the story of David Harum" SEEM
ed to him to enforce. Harum is vul-
carly horsy, and although a banker,
and, presumably in daily contact with
men of standing and refinement. the
metaphors with which he embellishes