The Overland Monthly Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 Excerpt: ...observes) "for cracking a crib." Nor is the Captain any more successful with American society. Even when he attempts to portray what we fondly call " our best society," he endues his characters with insufferable vulgarity, and makes their dignity only rise to a dreary turgidity. Think of a lovely young belle lecturing her cousin on the wrongs of Ireland, the attractions of life in New York, and the superiority of the male sex, all in one breath. This is highlife below stairs with a vengeance. Captain Reid is one of those authors who find it much more convenient and agreeable to say "apr'cs le bal" than "after the ball," and consider " chambre de coucher" vastly more elegant than any Saxon phrase could possibly be. These French phrases are only the thin varnish which he makes use of to conceal his congenial savagery; and, with the habitudes of his legitimate trade strong upon him, he must have his " Zenaida dove" and boa constrictor occasionally, even in the society of impossible aristocrats and gentle-folks. Mayne Reid without his war paint and hunting shirt reminds us of nothing so much as the homely old figure of " a bear in moccasins." Nor is he any more skilful in his plot than might be expected of a compilerof thrilling adventures by field and flood. One sees the end from the beginning, and though lords and ladies take the place of "Red Dick" and his wild congeners of the Brazilian forests, you are calm in the belief that all of this premonitory fiddling is to eventuate in the red and blue fire of the closing tableau, in which all the leading virtuous characters choose partners for life and occupy striking positions, while vice receives a cleaving stroke upon its crest and ...