The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-06-23

tnere appeared In the advertising col
uIiIns Oh at teast one OF the Richmond
papers a notice wherein Captain Holm
Cussons, the talented litterateur and
veteran or Glen Allen, Va. made a
strange reference TO his Charming
DOCK "A Glance at Current History. I"
g., Inc stu1, said he. was written
IN passion and ought to be destrove5
dollar volume will be paid for N
Va SA A'ieii'
Captain Cussons, who is a man tba,
keeps his own counsel. has never
vouchsafed a detailed explanation 81
the reasons prompting this strange mo-
tee and the incident now annaTantI,,
Is forgotten by most of his friends.
Inc temptation to recall 1t here.
however, is irresistible, not because
"A Glance at Current History" in anv
way merits its authors own severe
estimate OF the book, but because he
set precedent which, in the case of
tne voIume under review, is wen
worthy Of imitation.
Verify, this novel, 'The Betrava ,,
by Walter Neale and Elizabeth Han
COCK, is sui generis"-a thing ouite
unto itself-end not at all likely to be
! initiated. ~ NC
That it will attract attention and
arouse a storm of criticism can hardly
| be denied. But assuredly the criti-
clSms can be nothing but adverse. and
the unfavorable comments are more
than likely to touch every feature of
the stOry-itS historical accuracy its
strange literary style. its numberless
incongruitieS and anachronisms its
fantastic welding together of fact and
fiction and most of all, the motives
underlying its production
So far as Miss Hancock Is concerned
1t is but fair to explain that she has
nao but small hand in this dreary
business In predatory note she saws.
IN the preparation of this book. 1
helped Mr.. Neale TO collect data. TO
search records and to develop severa
of the minor characters, but the story
is his conception and is wholly from
his pen"
Miss Hancock won her literary
spurs when she edited the splendid
autobiography of the Rev. John +
Massey-a work commanding the most
generous praises. Her wisdom In
holding Mr.. Neale almost entirely re-
sponsible for The Betrayal" is OBJ
vious to all who read-or attempt to
read-this story.
Hard to Define 1t.
The critic who essays to tell, in brief
compass, what this work is about. or
to properly classify it. shudderingly
pauSes Tor a moment in a Precipitation
OF doubt and hesitancy.
We have started out by referring
to the book as a novel" but it might
be called almost anything except an
epic poem, which IL certainly is not.
There is within the covers of the
Noiume the Vertebra of a story but il
is an amorphous thing as strangely
amphibious and freakish as an ante
ulluVlan saurian undergoing a meta
morphosis into turkey gobbler
one hardly gets to reading the plot
before the author begins jumping back
and forth into outside subjects-sub-
lects dealing, for the most part. with
Virginia politics. customs and man
ners-or injecting his views as to cur
rent events.
And to get at the subject matter OF
the 800 pages, the reader has to strug-
gle through a maze Of dialect like
American soldiers, machete-equipped
cutting their way through a Philippine
jungle.
The late Professor Max Muller and
others of like biological acumen per
| maps would delight in The BETRAYAL. -
Tor 1t apparently offers every conceiv-
able kind of American patois. let alone
the Eapid utterances of many supposed
virginia aristocratS whose speech is
intended to typify the culture of the
Old Dominion.
In few chapters. when the au-
thor is holding in check his evident
desire TO comment on almost every
thlng conceivable, he really finds n
medium of expression in excellent
English, and more than once he dis
plays vivid powers of description But
alas. he proves himself q literary
Srasshopper who hardly attracts ia
vorable attention in one spot before
ne taxes lying jump into another
nelu and coaXes his followers into "A
slough.
Rough on the MahOneites.
me story part of the book, as well
as the 'personae libri" deals with
Readjuster times in Virginia. and the
action begins in 1879. And then COM
mences the saturnalia of fanCies. Sev-
eral of the characters are thinly veil
ed pictures OF Nirginians who actual
ly existed in those DAYS.
The head devil of the "betrayers''
IS one Timothy Murphy" an ex-Con-
tederate general, who is recognizable
as General William Malone.
In the Reverend John Henry
Jones' the old-time Virginian. we
see Parson John +. Massey. who is
described as part saint. part sinner.
but always Parson Jones"
The artistic touches in connection
with the ''parson" are probably those
or Miss Hancock, and none can dis
pute their cleVerneSS. But il is to
be doubted if the unsparing refer
ences to General Malone, at this late
day, will be reliShed even by those
who were the most ferocious and mn
compromising Bourbons in the early
eighties.
a third character in the book.
captain Temple" is most unfavor-
dDlN IlHlneu along lines partially sug-
gested by the political career of a
certain eX-Congressman. the son of a
Virginia Governor who served the
Confederacy as a general and hailed
from Accomac county. But so much
tlction is interviewer with the frail
thread of fact identifying Captain
Temple" that ii wouldn't be fair to
call names. especially as the gentle
man in question. is now practicing
law in New York
Low Bridge-Everybody Duck!
But this trio does not constitute all
who come within the scope OF the
authors disapprobation. When The
Betrayal was belched out Of the
presses of the Neale Publishing Com
pany, of which the author is presi-
dent, someone should have yelled
Low bridge-everybody duck" for
many swat is given both to the liv-
ing and the dead.
In several instances the buccaneer-
ing novelist comes right out. and for
getting that he is writing fiction.
calls names"
The list of his pulverized victims
Is numerous one. He trims" r
fOpkinSOn Smith, the artist and mn