The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-31
One of England'S Greatest Fiction Authors
Death of a Leading Southern
Editor.
By DR.. T. B. Kingsbury.
By DR.. T. B. Kingsbury.

humble ss-we enter the Church OF
the Holy Serulchre, where azaru is
said to have lain. and find it the score
of strange and revolving idolatries-
we visit, too, the Mosque of Omar, and
gaze through mingle awe and sorrow
upon its dread magnificence and stu
pendouS grandeur; with him We
tread the narrow streets. until we
reach the Garden of Gethsemane,
sanctifed by the last hours Of the
Saviour Of the World. We see, too,
Bethlehem and the waters of Silica
lowing so gently. Standing on an emf
nence we look down upon Jerusalem
with it's nineteen centuries. on n
lying rather dismantIed and dilapi-
dated of most of it's original beauty
and attractions, and our minds are
deeply moved and our hearts pro-
foundry stirred by the wonderful rec
objections hat rush unbidden from
the sad past.
The style Of Curtis is exceedingly
we'll adapted to the description of
Eastern life and cenery. There is a
sweetness and grace in the flow of his
unmeaSured words which delight the
ear and fascinate the taste greatly and
which would have carried very sue
ceptable. ~succeptive readers into ecs-
tacies if they had been written in
rhy1ned couplets. It seems to be
thoroughly imbued, too, with the
spirit Of Oriental imagery, and fairly
sparkles continually with the brilliant
antitheSis which appear to belong to
the and vOluptuOuS genius
of the Orient.
Over fifty years ago 1.-THE Hold
wadji," so faS a I could judge or
rectly, seemed to me the best written
book of travels that was written by an
American, and certainly was the very
best that had been written then by
any one concerning that part of the
globe SO poignant with interest to
every Christian and scholar. 1t i'm
pressed me then as superior in style
to Chataubriand's travels in the East
and to all other books Of which I had
any knowledge. Since then a vast
number Of books devoted to Eastern
travel have been produced, but 1 have
to admit my incapacity for judgment
here. What books I have read with
perhaps one Or two exceptions have
fallen below our American author.
I do not regard Curtis as equal to
Nathaniel Hawthorne in the matter
of style, however delightful he is. To
me for a full half century Hawthorne
has seemed to be the foremost of
excellence and classes of Washington
Irving, for he has produced some very
attractive and delightful books, among
them his inimitable "Knickerbocker"
and some Of his best articles in the
sketch Book" and "Salmagundi' and
ter.
In England he received gold
medals from Sena as a %recogni-
ton Of his historical eminence. Irving
was born in New York City in 1888,
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at
Salem. Mass, in 1907. His produc-
tons are of a very superior grade.
He died in 1864, aged ST, and a great
loss to American literature.
The Howdji has faults of course,
for it takes sometimes clearneSS and
Some of the interests are
underlined and are now and then are
described with too much ornament,
which, though appropriate and rich,
is SO thickly streWn as to make the
characters and incidents entirely SUI
1t is like an Oriental
robe, the texture Of which is conceal
entirely from the eye by the I'M
broken surface of ruby and emerald,
of pearls and diamonds. It was to
&c a delightful companion that
can scarcely refrain from even
it's very faults. Like a
mothers love for her erring child, I
it, not because of it's faults and
which renders it wholly of
elSewher
Thousands of years ago, Job de-
expressed the wish, "Oh that
mine adversary would write a book"
which. in the language of these times
means, to give your enemy a full ben.
eft of savage criticism and
shall presume to bring before the
public of merit toll and merit. The
force of this wish so praisely INDUCED
IN by the great, illustrious Idurean,
have been fairly broken and
1%espoiIed of its bOldness, if directed
against the work I have but hastily
at, for it's many exce1lencies
would forbid the Indulgence of any
intention as the expression and
prayer Of the pious Job of antiquely
would indicate. What a prodigy of
was Job. How very little there