Duff

“ Duff-Scott's) substance in riotous living. That little incident, so slight and momentary as it was, would have been as terrible a blow to them as was Paul Brion's refusal of their invitation to tea, had it not been that they were no longer poor, but in a position to discharge their obligations. She thought how Mrs. Duff-Scott would come to Yelverton by-and-bye, and to the London house, and how she (Elizabeth) would lavish the best of everything upon her. ”

“ I said humbly.
"I've asked him over to dine on the day our fishing-boat will be launched," said Father Letheby, after a pause. "Some of the brethren are coming; and you'll come, sir? Duff is very anxious to meet you."
"Of course," I replied. "I never refuse so delightful an invitation. But why should Duff be anxious to meet me?"
"I really don't know, except that you are, as you know yourself, sir, a celebrity. He thinks a great deal of you." ”

“ Leastways, that's what they are saying."
"He cannot be dead."
"He's as dead as a door-nail!" affirmed Duff, with decision. "I can't be mistaken in a dead man. I've seen enough of 'em, father being the grave-digger. They are bringing him on, ma'am, now."
Even as Duff spoke, sounds of the approach stole on the air from the distance—the measured tread of feet that bear a burden. It came nearer and nearer; and Philip King, or what was left of him, was laid on the large table in the hall. As is the case in some country houses, the hall was furnished like a plain room. ”

“ Maybe she was looking for Mr. Heneage, too. At any rate, there she was, and with nothing on, as if she'd started out in a hurry, and had forget to dress herself. And if she don't catch a cold, it's odd to me," added Duff. "The fog's as thick as pea-soup, and wets you worse than rain. 'Twas enough to give her her death."
Duff's report was true. As he spoke, a bell called Jemima up again. She came back, laid hold of me without speaking, and took me to the drawing-room. Mrs. Edwin Barley stood there, just come in: she was shaking like a leaf, with the damp and cold, her hair dripping wet. ”

“ Duff would have said she was to be pitied; for, like most individuals who are constantly sitting in judgment on their neighbours, he felt quite certain that he was right, and whoever thought otherwise was in the wrong.
Mrs. Brown's reply was irritating. "I always think Mr. Burton and Mr. James favour one another in looks."
"Tut, tut! Looks are not of much account. People's ways are more than faces. ”

“ This made him the most popular actor with the stage director.
In Silverton, before we went to Portland, Duff did more tricks than I could tell you of in a day’s talk. He carried in stove wood; he rode up on the hay fork holding to a sack; he sat on the cowcatcher of the locomotive; he was the retriever, the bird dog, the shepherd, the clown. He could catch a coin or a baseball that was laid on the top of his nose. He would turn a back somersault just for the asking. What is more, he understood any plain language, the kind we used in Silverton. ”

“ They're the kind of human vultures who flock after large pay rolls in any place where men work without having their families in near-by homes. If Duff had enough men of his own way of thinking, they might try to ride out here to camp and clean us out. If they did, then all the decent men in this part of Arizona would take to the saddle and drive Duff and his crew into hiding. After what happened to-day you won't find Duff daring to do anything too open.”
“Excuse me, Sir, but there's a train coming,” reported Foreman Rivers, thrusting his head in at the doorway of the little office building. ”

“ A fall might easily be fatal, for a torn suit would bring quick death from the temperature.
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Rob found Duff jumping up and down to keep warm. He looked like a frolicking polar bear in his frost-whitened suit. Gently Rob handed the limp body of Jim Hawley down to Duff. Then Rob leaped to the ground. Together they started off, supporting Jim between them. Suddenly Duff halted, jerking Rob backward. Rob turned and saw Duff pointing upward at the Capella, which was tottering on its base fins! The fire blasts had obviously upset the ship’s balance. ”

“ It now became a Celtic fort. In 965 Duff defeated Colin, the son of Indulph, supported by the abbot of Dunkeld and the chief of Athole at Drumcrub in Strathearn. Two years later Colin reversed this victory and expelled Duff, who, according to a later chronicle, was afterwards, when attempting to recover his kingdom, slain at Forres. His body was hidden under the bridge of Kinloss, and the sun did not shine till it was found and buried. ”

“ Dec. 20th. The s.s. “C. S. Butler,” with 900 tons of coal, of London, wrecked on Hasbro’ Sand, but her crew of 17 saved by the “Tyro.”
Dec. 23rd. Lieut.-Colonel James Duff, M.P. for North Norfolk, died in London, aged 47 years. His remains were interred in the quiet churchyard at Westwick, Westwick Park. As a Statesman, an officer in the army, a Freemason, or a private gentleman, Col. Duff’s general manner, his courtesy, and his hospitality endeared him to the hearts of all classes and sects who had the honour of his acquaintance. ”

“ They are no better than any other, but he thinks they are. You get out there to-night, Duff, and get in on that thing. You will get a commission, too. Now hike! Hike! Go! Honest to God, Duff, I want you with my battalion, and if I can work it afterwards, I'll get you exchanged, but your only chance now is Wapiti. Go, for God's sake, go quick!”
“What do you say, boys?” asked Duff, wheeling upon his men.
“I say, go!” said Knight.
In this decision they all agreed.
“Go it is,” said Duff. “Right about turn. Good luck, Kavanagh, damn you. I see you have got a good sergeant there.” ”

“ Duff did not live to complete the defence which he proposed to write. From the spring of 1915 the mental strain of the war had gradually worn down his health, and he suffered much from sleeplessness. When he returned to England the effects were evident to those who had known him before 1914, He died in London 20 January 1918.
Duff married in India in 1877 Grace Maria, daughter of Oswald Wood, Indian civil service, of Glenalmond, Perthshire, and had two sons and one daughter; his daughter died in 1897, and the elder son, Captain Beauchamp Oswald Duff, fell in action near Ypres 7 November 1914. ”

“ Duff died at Sydney on 15 March 1895, and was temporarily buried in the Waverley cemetery on 17 March, his remains being afterwards removed to Scotland. After his death Sir Frederick Darley, the chief justice, was sworn lieutenant-governor. On 21 Feb. 1871 Duff married Louisa, youngest daughter of Sir William Scott, ninth bart. ”

“ Ahern, "Goodness help us all. There's poor Mrs. Duff thravellin' off to-morra, to go stay wid her brother at Gortnakil. Very belike she'd take him along; and he'd be aisy landed home, once he'd got that far."
And on the morrow Con did actually set off with Mrs. Duff, feeling half appeased and half compunctious, as people do when they get what [Pg 241] they have clamoured for; sorry a little to lose sight of Bran, staring open-mouthed after him down the lane ”

“ He was also a magistrate of the city.
23.—Died at his town residence, 36, Upper Brooke Street, Lieut.-Colonel James Duff, M.P. He was born at Innis House, Elgin, on July 29th, 1831, and was the son of General Sir James Duff, who married Miss Eliza Charlotte Prescott, eldest daughter of General Sir Beeston Prescott, Bart., of Theobald’s Park, Herts. Educated at Rugby, he entered the Army in 1851, as ensign in the 23rd Fusiliers, with which regiment he afterwards went to the Crimea, and obtained his captaincy in 1854. ”

“ Tea is awaiting us in the hospitable messroom of the Citadel, and from its windows, which command an unrivalled view of this pearl of Eastern cities, we can watch the countless domes and minarets of Cairo, now all suffused with the golden haze of sunset, grow gradually clearer and sharper in that intense olive green gloaming which melts so gradually into the magical Egyptian night. ”

“ An imperfectly classified, or unclassified, library resembles chaos as nearly as anything can do, and want of classification renders the finest collection of books useless except to those who already know all there is to be known of any subject in which they may be interested, and who can therefore find the books by other means. ”

“ Usually, the schoolmaster's list is full of vapid, colourless and goody-goody stuff which children will not read. They cannot be expected to take great delight in literature which is reminiscent of school lessons, or which is calculated to hurt their self-respect, by being what a London lad once contemptuously called them—'Kids' Books'. ”

“ The staff of every public library should learn as a first lesson that they are the servants and not the masters of the people, and that mutual self-respect can be maintained without undue familiarity on the one side or aloofness on the other. ”

“ If it is not a wise and proper policy to commence with the authors generally recognized and acclaimed as the best in the realms of pure literature, what principle can be adopted as a guide to such an immense labyrinth as the field of general literature? ”

“ Book selection should be conducted upon the sound principle of buying only the best representative works on all subjects, whatever may be their cost or place of origin. A more haphazard and ineffectual method of building up a public library than buying cheap series and libraries of reprints can hardly be imagined. It is almost equivalent to advising a committee to buy cheap books by the yard in order to fill the shelves, and let the proper representation of great subjects depend on chance. ”

“ Nothing is more repulsive to any healthy-minded youngster than to have these incarnations of all the namby-pamby little virtues set up as patterns for imitation. So exemplary biography is, on the whole, rather a fetish, and calculated to make the 'men who have made themselves' unpopular, and the record of their deeds a wearisome grind. Popular accounts of voyages and travels, and historical books like Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, are on quite another level, and, if such works were not to be had in abundance in Public Libraries, it would be necessary to specify a few. ”

“ Lecture Room and Platform.—Library development is a somewhat elastic term covering the various active measures taken by librarians to attract readers. It is now a commonplace that while the prime purpose of the library is to supply and circulate literature—that is to say, everything in literary form from books to news-cuttings—modern librarians increasingly adopt the point of view that it is part of their duty and privilege to create readers. ”

“ Fortunately this attitude is becoming more common, if it is not universal, and the whole tendency of modern public library work is to break down all barriers between the readers and the freest use of books. Indeed, it is better to lose a few books yearly than to protect them from the very few dishonest people who may live in the community by means which militate against the liberty of readers. ”

“ It is perhaps desirable, before quitting the subject of Household Libraries, to devote a little attention to a department which is generally overlooked, either because it is not considered sufficiently important, or from motives of mistaken delicacy. Sir Walter Scott, with the plain, honest frankness which characterized him, describes what arrangements he made at Abbotsford to make this part of his house attractive, by papering it with amusing caricatures; but very few others, save occasionally architects or builders, ever give the apartment in question a thought. ”

“ But, instead of equipping himself with the tools of knowledge for the benefit of himself or his family, he prefers to grope blindly along in his own pigheaded way, like his fathers before him, a prey to every intelligent American or German who cares to take advantage of his blunt indifference to the power and value of book-learning. ”

“ The attempt to classify books into grades, to suit the supposed tastes and mental abilities of children of various ages whose minds are awakening to activity and acquiring powers of observation, is a complete mistake. So is the plan of separating books for boys and girls, or setting aside those of a low literary quality, but undeniably moral tone, for juvenile consumption. ”

“ By literature they seem to recognize only novels and poetry; never, as a rule, the books in which are recorded the world's history; the facts of life as seen by successive observers; the technique, history and special advantages of every trade, process or profession; the wisdom of the world's best men; in short, the only permanent records of what has already been accomplished by human beings in every department of life. ”

“ Public library buildings should be erected, not on the principle of storing as many books as can possibly be collected in fifty years’ time, but of restricting the book accommodation to the reasonable limits which careful selection and cautious discarding will fix, and increasing the space available for readers, and giving them only the very best literature, imaginative or instructive, that the world has to offer. ”

“ CHILDREN'S HOME LIBRARIES The most elementary form of small library is that which belongs to the Baby who, as yet, has not acquired the art of reading. He or she—it matters little how they are named, as both are clad alike in petticoats and bibs—prefers the pictorial tale of love or glory, or treatise on natural history, or handbook to the labyrinth of the alphabet. ”

“ A library being but a collection of books, it becomes business men to assemble as many as possible in the shortest time, in order, perhaps, to outshine an adjoining township, or to satisfy the ratepayers that they are hard at work in the interests of education! To many library committeemen a book is just a book, and like bricks, or paving stones, or potatoes, or other realizable stock, the bigger the accumulation the better. ”