Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / Oct. 25, 1901, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
frheNatk!^ of American Literature | BY LORENZO 8EIRS, LIT. D., 5 jk Prof em >r of American Literature in $ f, Brown University. ???*******<?***<??? jc*fefcte1l??X'.C *5 m.-Ewty Rtflte: ~r' f FICTIOV followed the drama In America. ai elsewhere; also, as In the caee of the drama. Its beginnings were feeble. Susannah Husivell came to Nantas ket. Mass., na a child with her father, a British naval officer. In 1766. In clined to literary pursuits, she was encouraged by James Otis and others and In 1786 wrote "Victoria." a two volume story from rval life, marrying the same year William Itowson of London, trumpeter In the llorse guards. Two years after she published "The Inquisitor," a three decker In the manner of Laurence Sterue, and returned t England. There In 1700 she Issued "Charlotte Temple; a Tale of Truth." and came hack to the United States three years afterward. It is the last story, reissued here In 1704. and somtimes called the tlrst American novel, that has survived the earlier. It was as little a creation of the imagination as were the names of the principal characters. Charlotte Temple being Charlotte Stan lay and John Montravtlle being John Montressor. But the book was a great success In s day. Twenty-five hundred copies were sold within a few years. Its popularity was long lived, aud as late as 1892 it was republished. The plot Is simple and the story as old as the captivating fascination of brass buttons aud epaulets. A British officer bound for the American war entices a ?cboolgtrl to share his fortunes. She trusts in the usual vows of fidelity. Both belonged to the nobility. That was the English aide of the story. The American was the customary sequence of desertion, disgrace and death, ail of it told in a style that never was on land or sea, except In an eighteenth ckntujv novel. ? "Where W Charlotte?" said he. "Why does not tny child come to welcome her doting imrent?" "Be composed, my dear sir," said Mme. Du Pont. "Do not frighten your eelf unnecessarily. She is not In the house at present, but, as mademoiselle la nsdoubtedly with her, she will speedily return in safety, aad 1 hope they wUl both be able to account for this unseasonable absence in such a manner as shall remove our present uneasiness." And so on through 35 chapters, each interlocutor waiting his turn and adjusting himsslf, hia pose, vocabu lary and punetuatlou to stage effects of melodramatic intensity. It was the theatrical age of fiction. People who were at home reading a novel instead of going to tin play demanded that it he illumined by footlights and be enlivened by something of the rant they had lately heard on the boards; hence muoh of ceremonioi and unnatural orotundity and chapters headed, "Which people void of feeling need not read," meaning, "If ye have tears te shed, prepare to shed them now." This was taken as a stage direction by readers and com plied with to the letter. They sighed and wept to order. Mrs. Itowson continued to write until her demise in Boston In 1824. Two men took up the new literary trade almost simultaneously, Henry Hugh Brackenridge getting the start of Charles Brockden Brown by a year only in his "Modern Chivalry." A graduate of Princeton In the class with James Madison and Philip Freneau, It is not strange that the young lawyer entered into the arena of polftics early and took his literary capability with him as an assistant. The experiences he passed through in the whisky insur rection of 1 794 furnished material for the above story, with the subtitle of the "Adventures of Captain Farago and Teague O'Hegan, His Servant," the first part being published at Pittsburg in 1796 and the second ten years later. The ?tory smacked of border life, If It did not have the odor of a tavern tumbler about It, since the writer did not have so utter an abhorrence of mooDshinera as the exciseman did. Altogether it conveyed a useful lessfcn to a rough and raw popul: tion who had just acquired the new and dangerous possession of freedom and were handling it carelessly, not knowing that it was loaded. Teague O'ltegan. the Sancho Panaa to Captain Farago, has as great difficulty to keep out of office as his illustrious prototype bad to get in. At any moment he might hud himself u member of u philosophical society, of the legislature or an association of clergymen. Societies of colonial and other wars had not then been established or he might have fared still worse. length he has greatness thrust upon him as collector of the excise among the whisky stills of the Alleghanlee and eventually tar and feathers, by all of which it may be observed t iat politics was not in pulpits alone, but in literature as well In the early days o( the republic. Brockden Brown's novels were a nearer approach to a purely literary per formance. A Philadelphia youth of studious ways, having a mind divided between practical views and an eccentric fancy, he abandoned law for litera ture and became the first in this country to pursue letters as a profession. Recovering speedily from an attack of the epic epidemic then prevailing, he began to cultivate fiction?pure, but uot simple. It was his misfortune to be caught in New York in the plague year of 1798, when the yellow fever was desolating the city. His nearest friend was taken, but he was left to describe the horrors of the pestilence in books which a;e yellow with fever and black with death. Besides, there is In them a large accompaniment of the preternatural?ventriloquism, somnambulism and splr Itlam?uncanny agencies to have in the house, but convenient In a nov 1, especially when plots get so complicated that the author t annot recall evet.> knot that he has tied, as was sometimes the case with this one. However, a writer who produced so much in so short, a time ought not to be taken to task for not keeping all his threads straight and well in hand. Six novels in three years and three of them in one year is a feat to Justify the employment of the supernatural. "Wielaud" in 175)8, "Ormond" In 171)9, "Arthur Mervyn" In 1800, "Edgur Huntley," "Clara Howard" and "Jane Talbot" In 1801 formed a pyrotechnic display of romance worthy to celebrate the going out of the eighteenth century and the coming in of the nineteenth. Moreover, there was no lack of unearthly colors in this flaming apotheosis of life and death or of visible and invisible hands to manage the catastrophe. Note this high light for example: "Death seemed to hover over this scene, and I dreaded that the floating pestilence had already lighted on my frame. I approached a house before which stood a hearse. Presently a eoffln borne by two men issued from the house. One of them as he assisted in thrusting the eoffln into the cavity pro vided for it said: 'I'll be d d If I think the poor dog was quite dead. It wasn't the fever that ailed him, but the sight of the girl and her mother on the floor. It wasn't quite right to put him in his eoffln before his breath was fairly gone. 1 thought the last look he gave me told me to stay a few miuutes.' " 'Pshaw! He could not live,' suld the other. 'The sooner dead the better for him as well as for us. Did you mark how he eyed us when we carried away his wife and daughter?' " Here is another: "Welbeck put bis hands to his head and exclaimed: 'Curses on thy lips. Infernal messenger! Chant elsewhere thy rueful ditty! Vanish if tiou wouldst not feel In thy heart fangs red with blood less guilty than thine! " And one more: "Shuddering, I dashed myself against the wall and turned myself backward to examine the mysterious monitor. The moonlight stream ed into each window, and every corner of the room was conspicuous, and yet I beheld nothing. If a human being had been there, could he fail to have been visible?" Brown's nntrpa nro no* nil fillori onnb ~ ? 41 1?A 1 * , o~~ ? ~ "?v U? u?vu T? ?V?? ouv.il iwoou^cn ttS LllfHf, UUl ILiey occur often enough to keep the renter awake with their crawling shivers. It la the riot < the improbable and the Impossible In action, based upon the fact of a pestilence or the red Indian. The last was an element which our early and later writers found too useful to leave out of the new American fiction. But in his yellow literature Brown had a good purpose to accomplish in enforcing lessons of justice and humanity and in attempting incidentally to have something done to head off the ravages of the plague. He was a voice crying in t <e wilderness of New York and Philadelphia for sanitary reform. He would not find himself out of date In this respect if he were still living. Adapted t the present style of fiction he might still do good service. As It was, he hit the taste of his own time, not overnice, and the temper of an age of restless and daring speculation, with its new Hedged theories In medicine, philosophy and social science. His gbastlj- and ghoulish treatment of his theme was not altogether Inappropriate to Its horrors or out of harmony with the demands of readers who were familiar with them. After all, these weird productions were an advance upon the plaintive and melancholic wall that was started by Susannah llowson. They were at least a howling wilderness of misery, with an incidental inculcation of constancy in friendship and forti tude in suffering. These and other virtues were bravely held up for admira tion and Imitation with shrieks and fainting, floods of tears and tearing rant and the crippling paralysis of nightmare. Possibly this generation needed this heroic treatment. At any rate, they took his medicine greedily and called blm the first great American novelist?after England bad approved. He wrote political papers also of considerable value, advocating the Louis iana purchase and the territorial extension of the United States, and an ad dress to congress upon foreign trade, exhibiting in these the practical side of his nature. In addition, his contributions to the periodical press were numer ous. He was au Incessant and rapid writer, with premonitions that his life work must be done early. He died at the age of 39. His novels, recently republished, may be regarded as the climax of Amer ican fiction In the eighteenth century In Its late movement. They stand on the dividing line between two centuries, gathering up the romanticism of one Into a focus and foreshadowing the realism of the next in a baleful glare shed over uncommon experiences. There Is little else to mark the passing of the second century of literary performance iu America. In some directions there was much to be attained, but at the same time much had been accomplished In the eighteen decades since Bradford began his diary. A great advance had been made in spirit and expression; the new nation was beginning to create a new literature. [Cosyrtght, 1900] My Sisters. Now list while I a story tell About my sisters twain, Tli ? older we called "pretty Nell." The younger Nancy Jane. Sis Nain"\ was a homely girl As everv one could see, ller reddish bair refused to curl? Iler face was "freckled)." Of sylph like form she could not boast. No wasp-like waist was her'n, But when it come to bake and roast, She knew it to a "turn." A beauty was my sister Nell; The neighbors prophesied, She'd cut a "flgger" ts a belle And be some great mail's bride. And pap and mam, they thought so too, And cautioned me and Nance We'd have the hardest work to do And let Nel have a chance. By sun rise Nanc" the breakfast got, Nell took her "beauty nap," Then me and Nance, or cold or hot. Went to the field with pap. A teacher-man came by one day And said that sister Nell, Such marks of talent did display, tVe ought to school her well. I Then pap and mam, they talked a spell And called In Nance and me, And told us that our sister Nell Must graduated be. And said we'd have to learn to slave And stint and little eat, The necessary funds to save Nell's schooling to complete. ! Then sister N 11 to college went To work went me and Nance, And every nerve and muscle bent To give our Nell a chance. Her first report we thought was good; The'Kessor said that she Wiih proper application would Kise 'bove mrdiocrity. | And pap and mam were tickled well When that report was read, And said they always knew that Nell Would some how get ahead. Nell's letters m' stly were demands For money to buy clothes, While Nance's shoes and my "brogans" Were gaping at the toes. At last by some hook'em a crook Sis Nell got her "Diplome," | And pap and mam the old mare took I To bring her safely home. No such day had we ever known Our Nell you ought to have sten, If she had only had a crown You'd thought she was a quetn. Nell's gowns reci ived admiiing looks From all the neighbors there; For she it seems had studied books Much less than things to wear. And soon we found ber but a sham, Nothing we did was right; "Backwoodsy" she called pap and mam, And Nance "a horrid fright." And as to me she scarcely deigned To give the slightest look; A h'gh and haughty air maintained Whene'er to me she spoke. And what the neighbors piophesicd Did not materialize; Though with her rarest charms Nell tried To capfivate the boys. Nance, scarcely to the parlor went, Unless 'twas to be swept, While Nell her days and nights there spent, ? And sang love songs?or slept. And Nance?old Nance who would have thought She with that reddish hair, Could ever In this world have caught A fellow like Jim Blair. How Jim and Nance settled the thing Blamed if I ever knew; lie must have caught her on the wing, As back and forth she flew. But Jim's right " cute"?he knows what's ! ? good. He come a courtin' Nell? But when he found who cooked that food ^ 'Twas "Nellie fare-you-well." I love to visit Jim and Nance, It's fun without alloy; They let a fellow skip and dance? And "gosh!" they've got a boy. And Nance seems better looking now, Her hair's not near so red; Jim swears the freckles on her brow Have just about all fled. But Nell has grown quite "wrinkledy," Her neck measures a span; She sits and prays?"Lord give to me A man?most any man." I fear that there's no such good luck For this proud Sis of mine; No hand yill dare this fruit to pluck, 'Twill dry up on the vine. Tu: Stepped Into Live Coals. "When a child I burned niy foot frightfully," writes W. ll.! Pads, of Jonesville, Ya., "which caused horrible leg sores for 30 years,but Bucklen's ArnicaSalve. wholly cured nie after everything else failed." Infallible for llurns. Scalds, Puts. Sores, Bruises and Piles. Sold by Hood Bros., 2">c. 1*3 Exisr Symptoms. The blood may be in bad condition^ yet with no extern .1 signs, no akin eruption or sores to indicate it. The symptoms in such cases being a variable appetite, poor digestion, au indescribable weakness and nervous aess, loss of fleoj and a general run-dovt.i condition of the system ? clearly showing the blood haj lost its nutritive qualities, has become thin and watery. It is in just such cases that S. S. S. has done some of its quickest and ' most effective work by building up the blood and supplying the elements lacking to make it st-ong and vigotous. " My wife used sev eral bottles of S. S. S. as a blood purifier and to tone up a weak and emaciated system, w ith very marked effect by way of improvement. "We regard it a ^ great tonic and bloodwj purifier."?J. F.DUFP, % Princeton, Mo. is the greatest of all j tonics, and you will ' find the appetite im proves at once, strength rich pure blood once more circulatts through all parts of the system. S. S. S. is the only purely vegetable blood purifier known. It contains no min erals whatever. Send for our free booh 1 on blood and skin disease.? and write oar physicians for any inforniaiion or advice wanted. No charge for ciadical advice. THE SWIFT SPECIFIC CO., ATLANTA, GA. Notice, Taxes! I shall attend at the following times and places to collect the County and State taxes for the year 1901: Clayton, Monday, October 21 Cleveland, Tuesday, " 22 Pleasant Grove, Wed nesday, " 28 Elevation, Thursday. " 24 Banner, Benson, Fri day, " 25 Ingrams, Four Oaks, Monday, " 28 Meadow, Home, Tues day. " 29 Bentonville, Wednes day, " 30 Boon Hill, Princeton, Thursday, " 31 Beulah, Kenlv, Fri day, November 1 j O'Neals, Hare's Store, Monday, " 4 Wilders, Arch'rLo'ge, Tuesday, " 5 Wilson's Mills, Wed days, " 6 Selma, ? Thursday, " 7 Smithfield, - - Friday, " 8 The books will be kept open at the office in Smithfield all the time. J. T. JILUNOTOX, Sheriff Johnston County. sss FACTS. Our Garbolized Healing Cream 18 MADE ONLY BY US, of the most soothing and healing medicines known, and will do all an ointment can do for the relief and cure of Sores, Burns, old Ulcers, Creaked Skin, Eczema, and Skin Diseases. A Large Box at our store for 25c., or by mail if you would like to try it. MONTAGUE. Druggist, ?^?GARNER, N. C. BARBER SHOP. Wheu you come to Smithfield ( be sure to pet n first-class share and an up-to-date haircut at iny shop. Mack Hawkins, An Experienced Barber, is with inc. Prof, Matthew McCauley, The Old Reliable Barber. MARKET ST., SMITHFIELD, N C. Hiph prices at tlie Farmers Warehouse at all times. ?L_ M'l; - l-i; '; APJU ITttlA J2U2 1 u 11 '?"1E-*IA*? -Jfl vf ? ?& *52J!T!#12iT2tE yxtyxl *t* >Xw*L /^^%7E33S!i3S ?^I?5i55?fs3S x* SA Cordial Invitation #?*2 Is given to the general public to call and examine our fall ?M stock of goods. We have goods that will please and our jfj prices are satisfactory. We have a large and complete jR stock of Dry Goods, JY Notions, ijjj f j ' hats, Shoes ? 3 and all other goods in this line which we are selling at |ja 11 prices to please. -.1: I 1 I We have a good stock of |j i Groceries | | jj and can save money to all who buy from us. 11 1 WE ALSO .BUT 111 : * $ Country Produce L ;; II | g AND PAY T1IE HIGHEST MARKET PRICES | 5 2 3 FOR SAME. GIVE US A' TRIAL. | BENJ. HUDSON & SON, * x g BENSON, N. C. f j W ?liTrCT)iOTi;^^ aaaaaasiaasuassB w x*?x*jcb * ? >. "jL \.?m * *.*>* YiCi XKX..V *> YSXXWbi j v^iSS<ftXkS< Hardware! F"itz Lee and VA/etter Stoves FOR COOKING AND HEATING. \ Big stock of Farm Implements, Carpenters' Tools, Builders' Material, Cutlery, Tinware, Crockery, Paints, Sash, Doors, Blinds, &c., always on hand. GOOD STOCK OF GUNS OF THE BEST MAKES. % We Have Taken out License to Sell Pistols. COUNTRY MERCHANTS, We are prepared to give you wholesale prices on Nails by the keg, Tinware, Cobblers' Shoe Nails, Axes, S. & W. Cartridges Everybody asked to come and trade with us. Clayton Hardware Company, C. W. CARTER, Owner and Proprietor, DIO-tf. CLAYTON, N. C. NEW FALL GOODS. My new stock of Dry Goods, Notions, Millinery, Cloaks, Capes, Shoes, Hats Caps, Clothing and Gents' Furnishing Goods is now complete and up-to-date in each depaitment. IN DRESS GOODS, I have a full line of the latest weaves and colors in dress goods. Also a full line of trimming in silks, velvets, gimps, braids, jets and applique. SHIRT WAIST GOODS. My line of shirt waist goods is ' bang-up." I have a nice line of silks, flannels, all wool Albatross, Percales. All in beautiful shades. I^ly Millinery Department is Full and Complete. I have put in a full stock of the latest shapes and colors for fall and winter. Also full line of CAPS for misses and chil dren. Ladies wishing anything in this department will find Miss Beckwith at her post ready and willing to serve them in a strictly up-to-date style. SHOES, SHOES. ^ SHOES, SHOES. ?V I carry a full line of Zeigler Bros.' fin; shoes for ladies, misses and child- en, the best shoes made for wear. Every pair war ranted. I also carry a full stock of other makes of fine shoes for men, ladies, misses and children, which are first quality and you can buy them very cheap. CLOTHING! CLiOTHING! I have put in a full stock of clothing of newest make-up styles in all sizes for men, youths and children. Trices from $1 to $12.50 per suit. Also a nice line of PANTS from $2 to $5. Aso I have a good line of FINE HATS, all colors, and a good line of GENTS- FURNISHING GOODS. Don't buy your goods until you get my prices, as I am sure that I can save you money, as I discount allot' my bills and will give my customers the benefit of it. YA/. G. Yelvlngton, SMITHFIELD. N. G. S. R. Morgan, Cabinet Maker smitheield, n. c. and Undertaker, will repair furniture and frame your pictures. Full line of Caskets and Cofflnt Men's, Ladles' and Children's Burial Robes and Shoes, Hose. 0lores. Jfcc. Thanks to my friends and natrons for past patronage. Hope to serre you In future HERALD AND HOME AND FARM," ONE YEAR EOR $1.25.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 25, 1901, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75