The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-23
MIDDLEBURG ANGRY
OVER 1.-THE MIXING"
TOwn>peOple Say Novelist Put
Them i'm His Book and
Libelled Them.
HIS ARREST ASKED FOR
EX-Preacher Says They Are
Peasants and a Flock
Of BleaterS.

BoucN Whites old school chum Matt
Wood-Matts a lawyer now and has
risen until he's on the seventeenth floor of
the Woolworth Building-has asked Dis
trict Attorney Whitman to have Bouck
arrested for criminally libelling the town
and people of Middleburg. Schoharie
county. where both Matt and Bouck were
born and went 10 school together until
the one entered Yale and the other Har-
ward
Mr. White. who is Soc.alis, and an
ex -Episcopalian minister recently pub
lished "A novel. The Mixing" In which lie
pictured Middleburg as a decadent COM
munity inhabited by sheeplike peasants
and without civic consciousness. He
gave some OF his characters the real
names OF men who have stores and banks
and butcher shops and newspapers IN the
village.
Assistant District Attorney Perkins Is
reading the novel When he is through
he will decide whether or not Lawyer
Wood possibly Is right when he says that
Bouck White has held up the town and
its inhabitants TO public hatred. contempt
and ridicule.
May Apply 10 Magistrate.
II the District Attorney rules that he
shouldn't prosecute the novelist Mr.. Wood
says he will apply for warrant before
a Magistrate. The lawyer sorrOwfully adj
mitted yesterday that as one of Middle
burg's outraged sons he believes his ola
comrade ought to be put IN jail for carl
ca turing the village and its leading citi-
Gems.
Middleburg lies west OF the Catskills
on SchoLarte Creek, thirty miles south
west of Albany. at the end OF branch OF
the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. Its
population according to the census OF
1879 vas 1.ll4, a decrease of q since
1900.
In his novel Mr., white used the name
"Hillport." bu: in reviewing IL for THE
EVENING Sun he said he meant Middle
burg. He added that he could acknowl-
edge It with safety because Middle
burgers don't much read the metropolitan
papers their literature is the almanac
and patent medicine advertisements In
the weekly papers. Indeed II Is a ques-
ton II they know that such book has
appeared and is carrying the story OF
their dilapidation--and imagined redemp-
ton
But "rhe Mixing" did penetrate to the
vale beyond the Catskills and for several
weeks Sweet Auburn has been boiling
over. The villagers had no trouble iden-
| tifying themselves.
Characters In the Mover.
There was Bert Requa. for instance.
| a boyhood friend Of Mr. White. new
| head OF a mutual insurance company !;
Wellington Van Wormer. county superin-
tendent of schools William Beekman--
Willie Beekman in the book-cashier OF
| the First National Bank, and brother of
County Judge Daniel Beekman . Jim Borst
who retired after making $4,000 or $780,
900 out of his butcher shop and hop
I
| ing "cracker barrel philosopher :
Peter Mattice, who owns a big part OF
! Schoharie Valley; w. f.. Bassler. editor
| of the Middleburg NeDs. ex-Assembly
/ Leader Daniel d. Fribie and dozen
| more, besides others whose real names
were not used but who are glOomily
! suspicious that they're also in the story
! The first burst OF public resentment
appeared In the form of a letter in IA
! local paper, signed Jane Ann Smith"
| but supposed to have been written by
Briggs Lynes. Jane Ann spoke of "men-
tai jimjams," said 1.-The Mixing was
| 'riterary hash that has the same value
IA meat market" and referred to her old
| friend Bouck White as "a male child
horn some years ago In this village whose
early stupidity gave no indication Of his
future precocity."
! Lawyer Wood. as a native who felt
that Middleburg had been grossly in
suited. asked Mr., White and the pub
fishers of 1.-THE Mixing" Doubleday. Page
g. Co.. to suppress the book. The pub
fishers plaintively replied that 1t hadn't
sold very well. that they had no inten-
ton of harming any village and that
to make fuss would merely advertise
"The Mixing" The author, when in
formed that Mr.. Wood intended to have
! him Jailed replied IN part:
mot only Middleburg. but the bulk Of