The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-25
WILMINGTON. \. C.
TUESDAY, APRIL %, 1899.


preceding Thursday, we made brief
reference to the most celebrated pro-
duction of it's kind in literature-the
REJECTED Addresses" by James and
Horace Smith. We read this very re-
markable production more than a half
century since, and have held the little
volume in much favor until the present.
OF it's kind it is really unique, and
some of the parodies are exquisitely
happy and ingenious. In truth the best
of each brother is of an order Of excel
lence that is unsurpassed, and but very
rarely equalled. The Smiths were
brothers, and were business men finely
endowed naturally as to mind which
had been well cultivated. They are
said to have been very pleasant COM
panions and were held in high regard
last Monday the New York Saturday
Review reached us, and it has two pa
pers on the Rejected Addresses" and
the gifted authors. We think the judg-
ment is good that gives the parodies of
Scott and Byron the preference. They
are capital in inspiration and express
sion, an the two really gifted men of
genius must have enjoyed these de-
lightful literary skits. The paper by
MI. A. Blackwood is much more elab-
crate than the other paper, and is
~n1Is-~ * xyapo o~a,J-n1 ~
the beginning of the discussion at a lit
tie experience of the author. He writes
of how prone the average reader is
to pretend to no ignorance but to have
read every thing. It is a peculiar af-
Fiction but common. Walter Pater died
a half dozen or less years ago. He was
a writer of much studied care and YER
bal particularly and skill. Mr.. Black
wood met an "old lady friend" and
wickedly conceived the idea of asking
eff she had read the Addresses but
mysterious scruples turned the question
no Pater's CASTOR de Latour, which she
Immediately admitted not having read
for a very long time. On our remaining
silent and putting on a look of interest
she added, not since she was "a slip of
"a girl and we thought,
oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive
How very rich in men of genius
was England in the first quarter of this
a~ffluent century, Since S~hakespeare's
age, "the spacious times of great Eliz-
abeth" there have been no such pro-
ductiveness in great and gifted men of
genius, some of almost the very first
rank, and after Shakespeare and Mil
ton of that rank. Mr.. Blackwood
writes: 1T is in the early spring of
the century. In England the time of
the singing of birds had come. Crabbe
was fifty-eight, and at his zenith;
Rogers, forty-nine; Wordsworth, forty
two; Scott, forty-one; Coleridge, forty;
Southey, thirty-eight; Lamb, Landor,
and Monk Lewis, thirty-seven; Camp
bell, thirty-fve; Moore thirty-four;
Hunt, t~wenty-eight; Byron, twenty
four; Hook, twenty-five; Shelley,
twenty and Keats, seventeen" There
were other gifted authors not included
here, some of poetic gifts as we'll as of
rarest skill and power in prose. Indeed
in the above enumeration there are
some strange omissions. There were
Carlyle, T~ennyson, two of the greatest
men CT the century, and the second
equal if not superior to any poet men
toned by Mr.. Blackwood. There were
Macaulay, Talfourd, Lord Jeffrey,
Macintosh, Hallam, John Sterling and
a dozen others, including writer's of un-
common endowment. 1t was indeed a
most fertile period in genius and every
young man who has any taste for let
tiers should give especial attention to
the writer's between 1775 and 1850. But
to return to the classical "Skit," Of
eighty six years ago. Drury Lane
Theatre in London burned, and when
the new building was ready for use a
poetic address was needed for the open
ing. Lord Byron produced in a hurry
the one that was spoken. 1t is not re-
markable. The brothers Smith con-
rceived the idea of writing some imagi-
nary addresses in imitation of ten or
twelve living authors, in prose and
verse. Their success is such that to
this day among literary men they are
much esteemed. Of course the true
appreciation of the excellence of the
work can not be fully seen unless you
are really familiar with the styles of
the men burlesqued. The felicities of
imitation of style and treatment can
moi we'll be exaggerated. OF their sort
they are well nigh perfect. Mr.. Black
wood writes: