The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-10-27
FOR MY LADY.


s.Ail the world loves a lover and most
OF the world "adores'' a love-story. Dis
finctively feminine is the word "adores''
when applied to the apprecia ton of
books, and distinctively feminine is that
portion of the world that adores love-
stories. Patience, my lady, we make no
I charges against you. Why should you
not adore love-stories? No reason at
all is there TO the contrary, and, though
you form the great majority Of those to
whom the tale of love appeals, yet is
there many a man who enjoys the stories
that you revel in. However that may be,
and however you may comfort yourself
with the support of the mind masculine,
there is yet a wide difference between the
1ore-story that She adores ana the one
that He admires. The love-story that
appeals to women cannot be limited in
scope or style. All love-stories appeal to
her. Fie, tie, my lady. Do not mlsun-
derstand your great adnirer and honest
critic; a love-story, as we are now con-
s:cering it, is q loye-story, and there are
love-stories ana love-stories. The love-
Story may be as colorless-aIways saving
the 1ose-as gray mist. 1t may be as WV
idly brilliant as Neapolitan sunsets The
heroine-1ong live the eternal feminine
may be one of the thousand characters
in which we find the woman of fiction
She may be blonde or bruno, or one of
those indefinite Intermediates that blend
the dark and fair. She may have the at
tributes of Minerva-not the favorite
type. or those Of Juno, slightly preferred,
or Of Venus Aphrodite blended with those
of Lucretia, most chaste Of women =
Careless is my lacy of these differences
of description, if only the heart is the
heart of love, which is the heart OF
gold Indifferent to the characteristics
CT the heroine she may be; but those of
the hero-ahl that is another matter.
Here enters, and with positiveness, the
question of taste; here is the manifesto
ton Of the doctrine of selection. Any
woman, il she loves. will find an audi
ence; but every man will not. Physical
attributes play an important part in the
st is that we cannot define them, that we
cannot say just what hero will please
this or that fair reader: yet when all is
summed up and the balance struck, we
may hazard the opinion that the hero
must be true to his convictions, be they
what they may, ana steadfast to carry
them out He must be influenced by the
~,
all matters save the decision between
right and wrong; here she must be the
arbiter. The love-story that pleases a
woman does not absolutely require a
plot, though plot is n thing to be de-
sired. But, plot or no plot, the book
must abound in situations. Incident is
welcomed, movement is appreciated. but
SITUATIONS are imperative II matters not
whether they have raison a etre; it mat
tiers not whether they are si.nDl,- stare
groupings; but it does matter whether ~.
not they are in plenty. This, then, is the
,ore-story for my la6s-a hero who is a
man; variety to taste: woman who
loves; tie only absolute requirement;
enough plot to keep a connection between
situations; of situations many. This is
why a pictur-play attracts and move
mcnt and incident to suit the temoera-
ment of the reader. In all, and about all,
must be the atmosphere of true love.
THE CIVIL. WAR AND THE CONSTR
4 TUITION. BY John ". Burgess. Two
volumes. Charles scribner's Sons, New
York.
The iong-delayed work by Professor
Burgess on the Civil War has appeared.
IT is entitled The Civil War and The
Constitution and it is in two volumes.
The author begins his work with a com
parison of the three great leaders in the
political strife which nreceoed the Civil
War. lie compared Jefferson Davis, Alb
raham Lincoln anu Stephen Arnold Doug
las. We quote the following opinion of
our author: I'm two things these three
great characters resenbled one another,
VIZ: in personal bravery and in loyal te-
nacity to conviction. Nobody has iisput-
ed the former quality to either of them
but in regard to the latter there is, and
always has been, difference of opinion"
This quotation will furnish a key to Mr.
Burgess discussion of the great leaders
Our author next proceeds 10 consider
'Ant-SiaSery Sentiment in the South Be-
tween 1857 and 1860" We then find an IL
Illuminating chapter upon the '.Presiden-