The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-20

expected of Miss Murfree; interest of
plot, vividness of description, spirit,
and naturalness of dialogue. Yet the
hand which, as by magic, lifted the
mists from the Tennessee mountains,
has lost something of it's cunning in
this last story. The bitterness
Of sectional feeling, so strong in those
fatal early sixties, is almost ignored;
1.-The ladies' are tiresome, the heroine
is most unlovable, the hero. as has
been shown, a cad-and worse. But
there are elements of power in the
novel,"
Mr.. Armistead c.. Gordon, a promin-
ent, gifted lawyer of Staunton, Va.
has published his first novel he calls
THE Gift of The Morning Star" It is
in one volume of 373 pages, price
$3.50. Not reading new novels l am
unable to write of it, and deliver judg-
ment Of my own. I have seen but two
notices of it as yet, one of which was
appreciative and cordial, the other IS
kind but guarded. The criticism in
the New York Saturday Review" has
this:
1.-THE rural idyl--which deals with
one of artistic soul born into a sect
which follows a religion of ugliness-
is unusually well done, in the manner
of doing suggesting that Of Mr.. James
Lane Allen. 1t is, of course. a leisure
ly manner, and dwells with loving
touch upon nature. In this
old man, (Benamine) with his six
foot staff, his senile talk, his fantastic
quoting of maledictory Scripture, Mr..
Gordon has got hold of a very realistic
effect. He is Gordon's trump card.
He does well enough with the other
enthusiastically he has studied
their lives and characters; but with
nona ca we'll with this -
1t thinks the first part is better
wrought than the last part. and that
the material is "Sonerretical incOngru-
GUS" I shall watch for other critical
views, as / am interested in the sue
cess of the author who is half North
Carolinian as to blood, his mother,
Mary Long Daniel, being the daughter
of the late Judge Joseph J. Daniel, Of
the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
His father was a member of the Con-
federate Guards, a company of Edge
combe county commanded by the late
Captain Turner Battle, whose wife
was a sister of Mrs. Gordon, and he
was killed in the charge at Malvern
Hill. His only surviving child is the
gifted gentleman who gives to the
reading world "The Gift of The Morn
ing Star" So North Carolina has n
right to be specially interested in this
new lOI ldIAc
Personal.
I have seen it mentioned more than
once that 1 delivered a speech at the
banquet given to Governor Glenn at
Wrightsville, in response to a toast
to the Press. I never heard of the
banquet until it was over, and was
mentioned the following day in the
newspapers. l returned to Whining
ton the evening before after some
weeks of absence, and knew nothing
of the preparations, arrangements,
etc. I never in my life attended
banquet, nor made an address at one.
1t is nearly a third of century since
1 drank any champagne, or wine or
beer or liquors Of any kind, even draw
ing the line at hard cider So I would
be a very incompetent speaker at
banquet. Lest my friends should
think that at nearly seventy-seven I
had become speaker in response. to
'Toasts," I make this explanation.
Wilmington, n. G.