The sun., 1918-10-06

hale and hearty and familiar as SAINTS
Claus himself.
I, too, have lived in 1883, in Indiar
summer, in town of the middle West
and while I never knew the Smiths, and
never inhabited q house exactly like theirs,
recognize the picture as absolutely true
to life. II takes me back TO the days Of
my girlhood, and / can feel again the
tight sleeves that bound my arms and the
narrow velvet bonnet strings that eneir-
cled my youthful chin. I can remember
the games we played and the books we
read and the great commotion caused by
the startling heroine Of John Ward
Preacher. (By the way, know a very
interesting story about that book
But alas! must confess that / never
read The Quick or the Dead. And would
You know the reason why7 Because j
lived in a Scotch Presbyterian family
where Sdraeinesed, or Only q Gorerness,
or even John Ward, Preacher, would
never have been opened on the Sabbath
day. Our literature on Sunday beyond
the Bible and the Shorter catechism was
confined to the memoirs Of very pious
people, st. Louis, Nine. Guyon, Charles
Wesley, Mr.. Hare, ct al, for the most
part bound in excellent black bindings
and in very bad print. Bossuet's Funeral
Orotions were regarded with suspicion
because they were in French, and though
I was forced to study Buffers Analogy at
school was never allowed to look at it
on Sunday because that would be doing
unnecessary work. I remember my father
asking me if wanted to read it because
/ loved it. l could not tell lie. No
body could love Buffers analogy. If I
did not love it and long TO read it then
it was only task and must be post
poned to a weekday. That seemed TO me
to cap the climax Of strict Sabbatarian-
ism.
But even on a weekday The QUICK or
the Dead would never have been tolerated
l was not allowed to read any works of
any kind except Dickens and Thackeray.
Even Villette was snatehed away from me
just as I was luxuriating in that most
charming Of all beginnings, the arrival
of Paulina and her introduction to Lucy
Snowe and the Breton family. 1t was
years after that before / saw the book
again. Is that perhaps one of the reasons
why VIlette is my very favorite novel
to this day--not to me the finest, or the
greatest, or the most artistic, but the
farorite' There is always a charm about
the things that Eve have loved long since
and lost a while" and Vllette is no ex-
ception to the rule.
OF course I heard people discussing
The Quick or the Dead, and of course
l was wildly curious to see this shocking
book. But I never did Gradually ''the
tasks Of real life" crowded out the long
hours Of reading that used to
have. "Some things never come back, and
youth is one of them" 1t is impossible
to feel the same vivid curiosity about
The Quick or the Dead that / felt thirty
long years ago. / doubt if any novel of
Amelie Rives could stir my blood or
chill my marrow now. And, Of course,
what was very outspoken and very shock
ing thirty years ago will be "dull as
grammar on the eve Of holiday, in this age
Of blatant revelation and deliberate in
decency. The very fact that may go
and buy the book and read il openly
wherever and whenever / choose takes
away half the charm. And yet, as I read
what the "middle aged reviewer" has to
say about "that furious little work Of the
lost year 49," some faint, far, elderly
phantom Of my youthful longing comes
back to me, and 1 determine not to give
sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eye
lids until / have found and read The
Quick or the Dead. E. C. MCKSIGHT.
SEwrcKLEY, Pa.