Life — September 23, 1886 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

478 Every adjective in that brief sentence counts for a color, a line, or a pose that is immediately suggested to the mental vision of the reader. * * * O make one’s vocabulary as effective as a well-set palette, to blend words as colors are blended, to raise the vision of an evanescent tint by a commonplace adjective — that is the-true literary art of description. That Vernon Lee has this, skill in an unusual degree is shown by the following color-phrases : “ The dark green compact hop-fields, with the | blue and hazy tree-tops of the horizon getting bluer and more hazy as the yellow light began to graze the ground.” “The wind blew in our faces, and bent the ragged, warped, bluish tops of the firs.” “That sanguine sunset, washing like a sea of blood over the heather.” “The white mists rose from the Park land, and the rooks formed long black lines on the | palings.” “And last of all that brief picture of the coming of a storm in the heavy air: “ All around there arose a shrill, quavering bleating of lambs and calling of sheep, whzle the wind began to catch the topmost branches of the trees.” Such strong simplicity of phrase is in marked contrast with the high-sounding weather bulletins which Miss Murfree has | of late issued for the Tennessee mountain region. W* almost destroyed, in our writers, the eye for color. We have almost forgotten that we live in a beautiful world, while anal- | yzing the ugly and commonplace people who dwell in it. Droch. * NEW BOOKS « ELPING HIMSELF, or Grant Thornton's Ambition. Alger, Jr. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. A White Heron and other stories. By Sarah Orne Jewett. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. A Romantic Young Lady, By Robert Grant. The Boys’ Book of Sports. The Century Co. By Horatio Boston : Boston : Ticknor & Co. Edited by Maurice Thompson. New York: GYMNASTIC table ware — Glass tumblers. INSCRIPTION for a chestnut bell —“ Ring out the old, ring | in the new.” HE Queen's second lot of Leaves from the Highlands has been translated into Gaelic. It is expected that they will be issued in good English like- wise, in the course of years. It is not true that Her Majesty is a regular contributor to Punch. AT RICHFIELD SPRINGS. IRST GENT: begun to sing, SECOND GENT: First GENT: the Ball ? SECOND GENT: Not at all; it’s the bawl of the Belle I have no homage for. Let’s return. Miss Oltherage has Thanks; rawther be excused. What! have dwelt at length on the picturesque quality of | Vernon Lee's style, because realism seems to have | Refuse homage to the Belle of | > LIFE: | ON THE PIAZZA. ENGAGED. LL the week she has sat, from morning till eve, With a far-away look on her face, Complained of the dullness, and threatened to leave, And remarked, now and then, that she couldn’t conceive Why people should come to the place. But a change has to-day come over her, quite : She is blithe as a robin in spring, And she’s put on her filmiest gown of pure white, All in honor of him who is coming to-night — O, love is a marvelous thing. WEDDED. LL the week she has waltzed and flirted and smiled In that charmingly feminine way That sets both the young men and old men just wild — As sage as a matron, as gay as a child — She's the belle of the house, so they say. But a change has to-day come over her, quite, And her laughter is lacking its ring ; She ’s a headache — feels stupid — is not very bright — The fact is, her husband is coming to-night. Wedded life’s a curious thing. CS. W. IN PLAYFUL MOOD. OVERTY, the skinny hag, has her favorite children and her playful moods. Of all her moods the playful is wickedest — of all her children the favorites unhappiest. She dandles her darlings— because she loves them so—without saddle, or any kind of interposition whatever, upon her boniest knee, and laughs the echoes of the painful gayety she invokes. I came in to-night as light of heart as of pocket. In my soul was song. I caroled of love! Zove/ Did not the sweetest maid of all the town smile upon me from her win- dow as I plodded by? And I hastened onward impatient to indite my swelling song. Letters three awaited me—the first from Snip; tailor Snip, whose pockets reek with ill-gotten gains; for, oh Snip, do not the knees of the trousers for which I promise to pay you bag? Do not your coats get shiny, napless, and button- less? Answer me, good Snip, if these charges be not true? The second missive — an elaborate card : You are invited to inspect the new vestibule, doors, etc., and vaults of THE HANMATTAN SAFETY DEPOSIT VAULT COMPANY. Present this card to the officer in charge. What better evidence is required that the skinny hag has her playful moods! She fetters her favorites to barren rocks and bids them eat; mockingly implores them to slay her, and places the only weapon so fashioned as to reach her | vitals under double lock and key! Thus doth mythological | history indulge in repetition and the skinny hag in playful | mood. The superscription of the third epistle sent a tingling | thrill from heart to finger-tips— for, O eyes of Love! did I comicbooks.com