Life — December 17, 1885 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BITS OF NEWS. RISH — dynamiters are preparing to celebrate the recent | grand explosion at Flood Island. THE idea of sub- | stituting — messenger boys for carrier-pig- eons is not meeting | with favor. THE “ Disestablish- ment of the Ticket Speculator ” would be a popular plank in any platform. PUBLISHERS of maps are at present leaving a blank space for the Balkan Penin- sula, A MAN was shot re- cently, in Minnesota, while putting on a clean shirt. People are allowed great license in the West, but they go too far when they attempt to outrage es- tablished customandto overthrow the idols of a common inheritance. Effie: Aunt Elizabeth: SITTING THERE AND I HAVE BROUGHT AUGUSTUS WITH ME YOU SEE, AUNT ELIZABETH; I WAN1 YoU TO KNOW HIM BETTER, FOR I AM SURE YOU WILL LOVE HIM aS I DO, HUG AND KISS HIM ALL DAY, THE BEAUTY. MY LANDS, EFFIE BriGGs! ‘TALKING LIKE THAT ABOUT THE YOUNG TO! AND RIGHT BEFORE HIS FACE, TOO! Tableaux and Explanation, 1 couLp TO HEAR YOU, MY OWN SISTER'S CHILD, MAN SHE'S ENGAGED ONE OF OUR READY-MADE BOSTON NOVELS. NE of the choicest specimens of the Boston novel, with | all its time-honored features, is an anonymous story called “ The Dawning " (Lee & Shepard). So full is it of the rare old Bostonese flavor, that we are inclined to think that operative production of novels out of ready-made material. As no name is on the title-page we cannot identify the writer als,” but the circumstantial evidence strongly indicates that he is one of them. . . . HE first sentence of the novel lands the reader on ground sacred to all Boston writers, ‘ The pride of Boston is Beacon Hill. On that classic height Conservatism —the panoply of the wise and good—has sat intrenched for acentury.” (We have recently added to our stock of artis- tic scenery a fine representation of Conservatism sitting on Beacon Hill, with one foot resting on Ben Butler and the other on Joseph Cook. 12mo., $5; 8v0., $10.) The characters of the book have all the qualities which antiquity has made venerable. “ Langdon Bowditch was an enigma to his friends ;" sonof a “respected Boston mer- chant ;” “disciplined by the best culture of the schools ;” “entrance to the most exclusive and refined society ;’ “at Harvard he was always reading when other boys were at play ;" “drifting into absurd and offensive ideas.” Any Par | reader of our prospectus, published last week, will immedi- it is one of the first fruits of LtFe’s great scheme for the co- | Pees B ately recognize Langdon Bowdttch as “Class A of Assorted Characters, No. 1, The Indifferent Harvard Man, age | twenty-eight to thirty, cynical, but ready to be redeemed by with any of the patrons of our Depot of Novelists’ Materi- | vey ee opr rt ne ned 10 De Feceemed’ OY a rich young girl of good fami . . . HE aforesaid girl is introduced, on time to the minute, page 10, as follows: “Mr. Bowditch’s face lighted again. That young girl standing before him, with the fire in her eyes and the glow on her brow, quickened all that sense of purity and loveliness which unites a beautiful face and a noble soul.” We need hardly add that this is Class A, No. 4, of our assortment, “ The /mpertous Beauty with a Misston.”