The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-02-25
Copyright by R. H. RI

him arm. an de Judge say:
What you got?'
An de boy say:
'Parch peas. sab"
what you goin' to do wild itT
An de boy say:
Plant it,
An de judge say:
But parch peas won't grown
An de boy say.
IAN poach eggs won't hatchr
80 de judge laugh. An he nebber make
de man pay anything, An de man was so
thankful to de boy dat he took him home
wild him, an he grow up an get all de
mans money when him go away wild
Death.
Dis story prove dat No catchee. no
habee'"
rAnnancy Stories" BY Pamela Colman
Smith r. II. Russell & Co. $175 For
sale by I.owman a. Hanford)
~
What is the secret OF the hold Of the
Bronte novels over the affections of a
fckle public? How Is 1t that the trade
absorbs edition after edition of these
books, which yet are so remote from the
fiction demanded by the current taste?
Inc lntlOuuctlOnS 10 the volumes VI tlt
beautiful "Haworth Edition" which is now
coming from the press OF the Harpers.
are written by Mrs Humphry Ward and
in her discriminating preface to ''Villette"
she tells us that the modern mind Graves
for knowledge and the modern novel re-
fleets the craving; but the craving for
feeling is at least as strong, and above
all for that feeling which expresses the
hearts defiance of the facts which crush
It, which dives. as Renan says. into the
innermost recesses of man, and brings
up, or seems to bring up. the secrets OF
the infinite. and here the women
novelIsts are at no disadvantage Their
knowledge is of tho center; 1t is adequate
and 1t is their own Broadly speaking.
they have thrown themselves on feeling.
ON poetry"
II is because Charlotte Bronte is a poet
in the larger sense, the poet of exalted
and transfgured feeling. then, that Mrs.
Ward ascribes to her the power to affect
the world and live In its memory But
this is not all the truth That Charlotte
Bronte could not retain the place she
holds were 1t not for her poetic vision.
her sense of the strenuousness OF love
and life. is true of course. But her
especial note. her individual sign, Is to
depict the union of sharp feeling with
logged endurance. II Is not enough for
her that her characters should love and
do and dare. suffering In action. They
also must suffer passively. They must
bear. up to the limit of human endur-
ance. Her heroines are shaped by tenn
permanent In the self-same mould In which
she and her sisters were cast, and We can
read the tragedy of their ardent souls
between the lines. II is the tragedy of
all riehy-endowed natures. the eternal
conflict between that to which the heart
aud soul aspire and that which they know
TO be right. reasonable and for them. Per-
haps the acuteness of that conflict and the
bitterness OF the constant acceptance OF
| the thing that is reasonable in place Of
| the thing that Is desired was never better
expressed than In the passage which de-
scrihes the emotions Of the lonely Lacy
Snow when in the hour of her greatest
| need she finds again the friends OF her
| youth, when had said my prayers, and
| when | was undressod and laid down, l
| felt that | stiii had friends Friends, not
| protesting vehement attachment, not Of
fering the tender solace OF wol-matc he'd
| and congcnial relationships on whom.
| therefore but moderate demand Of arec-
| ton was TO he made but toward whom
| my heart softencd instinotiyely. and
! yearned with an lmportunate gratitude.
which ! entrested Reason hetlmes to
| check.
Do not let me think Of them too