Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1903-12-02
A LITERARY MAN

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Pingwill was a nuisance. He
) married a respectable young woman
of mature years and lives on her
sulliciency, and he goes about pre-
tending to be literary character
on the strength of an edition of a
classic, an examination success at
some university place or other, and
occasional reviewing. He likes to
talk about books and is Extensively
familiar with all the masterpieces
and most of the rest of English lit
erature. He considers gable about
books intellectual conversation. He
regards quiet man smoking in a
chair as fair game for his scraps of
quotation, which he is as eager to
void as he is greedy to acquire, and
he cannot understand that people
who write books never read them
and are full of bitter memories of
their own adventures in authorship.
lie wears pince nez, and Mrs.
Pingwill, when present, echoes all
his quaverlng seventies with the
explanation that George is so satir-
ical." He is exasperatingly reliable
IN the matter of names and dates,
and at first perhaps we made the
mistake of encouraging Pingwill.
Heydinger was the chief encour-
ager of Pingwill. He is humor-
list, kind of person who sees jokes
in things that rouse the passions Of
ordinary people, and he found an
unaccountable pleasure in develop
ing one particular aspect of the
Pingwill constitution. No retired
pork butchers lady, no wife of
village rector who has married be-
meath him, could be more punctil-
ious of her intimacy than Pingwill
among his authors. And Pingwill
was just as intensely sensitive to
the breath of scandal, which in mat
tiers literary is called criticism. No
one could be thicker with a really
chic author, no one reader to "cut"
the writer who fell under the shad- (
ow OF adverse comment. '
He was, in fact, a literary snob, a /
by no means rare variety, and he {
had an almost passionate dread of I
the wrong man. He took t
reviews in the wceklies quite seri- /
ously. Naturally he had nothing @
out serene contempt for Dickens 4
md Jerome and Mark Twain and 1
people of that stamp" And Hey
linger never tired of drawing him p
nut upon Kipling. In a careless d
moment he had informed us that
\ipling's style was rough and I'M CT
1t seems he tried for once h
o form judgment for himself and G
ad happened upon really quite vul.- OF
ar and coarse expressions. After q
e had learned better from a review ca
he mere name filled him with UNI HI
comfortable memories. 1t was as tie
the rector's wife had cut the bl
uchess by mistake. Horrible! /
However, after awhile we tired tn
t this creatures odd way with of
Doks, and his proximity then be- H
lme, as | say, a nuisance. But sill
eydinger, who had formed an ad- co
luate conception of his character, Sc,
lggested the remedy, and together er
e routed him. Both Heydinger of
I'd | had got through a mornings 10,
ork, and in he came, fresh and oil
eshly primed. He dropped into a
air and emitted some Indifferent
marks.
81 have heard" he said, chat
csc delicious child sketches of mo
enneth Graham's are out in Gig
ok by themselves" wo
''Read 'em; ?" said Heydinger bru. onl
ly. tive
''No-hardly-yet," said Ping ciaI
u, "but they're good, aren't onl
ey?" his
Very" said l, "but that's no Fra
lson why you should go about ula
ling them delicious before you eacl
We read Them" TO
Perhaps not" said Pingwill. ma,
erhaps not" bee,
'They remind me very much of call
ndle Hooper," said Heydinger. wifi,
on know him, Bellows?" nee,
ultimately" l said. 81 have
of his first editions at home"
You will be reminded very much A
Nendle Hooper" said Heydinger, lean
ming to Pingwill. in
Indeed~ said Pingwill, stepping roor
} the trap. won
The same subtle suggestiveness wait
phrase" said Heydinger. "The thae
e delicate yet penetrating SYM 5000
n.y." doot
| must certainly read them," ter. y
Pingwill, evidently searching mari
mind for the name of Wendle "Go,
per and flushing slightly. don
know of no man," said Hey doni
!er. Except perhaps Liant. who ont