Whitmore

“ On some occasions, it is well known, the men have been so worn out by the unmerciful exactions to which they have been subjected by Whitmore’s ideas of discipline, that they were utterly unfit to take the field. They dare not complain; for should one of them presume to write to a newspaper on the subject, and the name of the writer be known to Whitmore, expulsion from the Constabulary as a “dirty bird” would be the probable consequence. There is no doubt the colony has lost the services of good men in this way, and no one seems inclined to put a stop to such a state of affairs. ”

“ At about that time Whitmore called his men close around him, gave his opinion of the situation, and asked them if, in view of all the circumstances, they were ready for a fight. The fact was that every man was anxious for some excitement. ”

“ When this distinguished customer had been accommodated with a seat by the jeweller—whom I may name Mr Ward—he managed to produce a card-case, and then dropped a card bearing the name of Samuel Whitmore. The address at the corner at once gave the jeweller a clear idea of the identity of his customer. The Whitmores were a wealthy family, having an estate of considerable size in the West, and had, in addition to the fine house on that estate, a town residence in Edinburgh and another in England. There was a large family of them, but only one son ”

“ There was no gainsaying the likeness; even the rakish tilt of the jaunty felt hat, caused by the wind and that wild dash across country, was painstakingly reproduced. And the fanciful tucks on the sleeve of the gown—“and I didn't suppose he had deigned so much as a glance!” was her first coherent thought.
Miss Whitmore's soul burned with resentment. No woman, even at twenty-three, loves to be called “the old maid”—especially by a keen-witted young man with square chin and lips with a pronounced curve to them. ”

“ None of Mr Whitmore’s friends had looked near him during his illness, and to complete the impersonation, it was necessary that they should have had his ring and watch, which he declared had never been out of his possession.
The discovery of these facts narrowed down the inquiry considerably. They all seemed to focus towards that invisible and mysterious footman who had taken in the parcel.
There is a great deal in a name. The lad Price had used the word “footman” in describing the servant, probably because he had a vague idea that any one was a footman who wore livery and opened a door. ”

“ Of the forty odd men in the outfit more than one half of them had seen active service in the Civil War just ended, and there was a good rifle for nearly every man. No better, braver, or more vigorous body of men could easily be found.
"All right," said Whitmore, "I'm going to get those oxen before I leave Ham's Fork. I am going to take one man with me over to the ranch beyond the hill yonder. I want all of you to get your guns and lie down out of sight on this side of a slope which lies off north, and where two or three of you can, at all times, see me. ”

“ For a girl of seventeen, Gertrude had no small amount of worldly wisdom. People said that Miss Whitmore had great individuality of character, she thought and decided so largely for herself, and often got her own way by dint of steady determination. And it was a remarkable fact that whilst each of the younger sisters had her pet name, and were Mina, Jo, and Molly, no one would ever have presumed to call the eldest Gerty.
CHAPTER II. "SILENCE IS GOLDEN."
GERTRUDE went early to bed that evening. ”

“ J. G. Whitmore had been going his way and refusing to grow old for a long time—and then an accident, which is Time's joker, turned the game against him. He stood for just a second too long on a crowded crossing in Chicago, hesitating between going forward or back. And that second gave Time a chance to play an accident. A big seven-passenger touring car mowed him down and left him in a heap for the ambulance from the nearest hospital to gather on its stretcher. ”

“ He retired to Apley in Shropshire, the seat of Sir William Whitmore, with whom he subsequently visited France. He died unmarried in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 10 May 1658, and was buried at St. Michael's, College Hill. ”

“ It was a young American whom they had met at the hotel in Paris.
"Well, Monsieur Whitmore!" cried Madame Tousseau, gaily, "here at last you've found a place where you can't possibly help enjoying yourself."
"For my part," answered the American, slowly, "I find no enjoyment in seeing the people who haven't money making fools of themselves to please the people who have." ”

“ I had the lad Price brought up from the hall, and he said most decidedly that the valet before us was not the man who had taken in the parcel.
“Why did Atkinson leave you?” I resumed, to the master.
“He did not leave exactly. I was tired of him. He put on so many airs that some thought that he was the master and I the man—fact, I assure you. He was too fast, and conceited, and vain; and I thought—though I’d be the last to say it—he wasn’t quite what you call honest, you know.”
“Good-looking fellow?”
“Oh, passable as to that,” was the somewhat grudging reply. Mr Whitmore himself was very ugly. ”

“ As a slave-owner he is as grasping and cruel as Legree, whom Mrs. Stowe immortalised some years later. His character, though drawn with strength and vigour, is inconsistent. He is a miser, yet he is a gambler and a spendthrift, qualities not often found together. He is not a true representative of the son of a pioneer. Clio Whitlaw, the aunt of the hero, belongs more truly to her environment. One suspects the English family at Cincinnati had received neighbourly kindnesses from women like her. With her physical strength and great courage she is kind and neighbourly to all who need her help. ”

“ Summoned straightway to the east coast to oppose Te Kooti, who, after some fresh successes, had fortified himself in a pa on the crest of a hill called Ngatapa, Whitmore joined forces with the friendly natives and invested the pa, which after five days' siege fell on 3 January 1869; 136 Hau-Haus were killed, but Te Kooti escaped. This was the last important engagement fought in New Zealand. Whitmore left Ropata, the leader of the friendly Maoris, to deal with Te Kooti, and returned to Wanganui to pursue Titokowaru. ”

“ S. of Gen. Sir George Whitmore, K.C.H., Col.-Com. Royal Engineers; m. 1845, Elizabeth, sister of Sir Robert Brownrigg, Bart.; has three sons. M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge; a barrister; a bencher of the Inner Temple; app. a Q.C. 1855; recorder of Gloucester; judge of the Southwark County Court (Oxford and Cambridge, and Travellers’ Clubs; 12, King’s-bench-walk, Temple, E.C.)
58. RAGLAN, 2nd Baron (Somerset)
B. at Paris, 1817; suc. his father, the Field Marshal, 1855; m. 1856, Lady Georgiana, sister of Earl Beauchamp; has issue, two children. Educ. at Westminster ”

“ To Forbes, a brave and capable soldier, was given the task of avenging Braddock; Loudon was abruptly recalled; and (Pitt’s only mistake) Abercrombie, his second in command, was left in his place. For the conquest of Louisbourg, the most important task of all, he recalled Amherst, then a colonel, from Grermany. His brigadiers were also men of comparatively humble rank, Lawrence and Whitmore of proved efficiency and American experience, and lastly James Wolfe, the eventual hero of the war. ”

“ Stockmen began to graze their herds of cattle and sheep on the plains of the Arizona strip. Some time prior to 1863, W. B. Maxwell established a ranch at Short Creek; not long after, James M. Whitmore located ranches at Pipe Springs and Moccasin, and Ezra Strong of Rockville settled on Kanab Creek. In the spring of 1864, several ranches were established in the mountains and two settlements were started, one at the present site of Kanab, where a small fort was built, and another housing eight families at Berryville (later Glendale) in the north end of Long Valley. ”

“ Rugged mountains with their concealed valleys, whispering forests which the eye cannot penetrate, Gothic ruins with vaulted chambers and subterranean passages, are the scenes of her stories; while event after event of her complicated plot happens either just as the mists of evening are obscuring the sun, or while the moonlight is throwing fantastic shadows over the landscape. It is an atmosphere of mystery in which one feels the weird presence of the supernatural. ”

“ But Catharine is married to Edgar, and for three years her better nature triumphs. Heathcliff is away; Edgar Linton loves her truly, and their home is happy. Catharine alone knows that that house is not her true place of abode. She alone knows that Edgar has not touched her inner nature. She knows that her real self, the self that must abide through the centuries, is indissolubly linked with another's. And when Heathcliff returns, the intensity of her joy, her almost unearthly delight, she neither can nor attempts to conceal. Not once is she deceived as to his true nature. ”

“ As we picture Anne Brontë, with her light brown hair, violet-blue eyes, shaded by pencilled eyebrows, and transparent complexion, she seems a spirit of goodness and purity made to behold daily a depth of evil in the nature of one dear to her, which fills her with wonderment and horror. ”

“ It is a noteworthy fact that while Scott was casting over all Europe the light of romanticism, the women writers of the time, with but one or two exceptions, were viewing life with the clear vision of Miss Edgeworth and Miss Austen, as if the world obtruded too glaringly upon their eyes to be lost sight of in happy day-dreams. ”

“ His preparation for a frontiersman’s life began early for young Whitman. Born in Connecticut when the eighteenth century had all but run its course, he was still in his swaddling-clothes when his parents, falling victims to the prevalent fever for “going west,” piled their lares and penates into an ox-cart and trekked overland to the fertile lake region of central New York, Mrs. Whitman making the four-hundred-mile journey on foot, with her year-old babe in her arms. Building a cabin with the tree trunks cleared from the site, they began the usual pioneer’s struggle for existence. ”

“ Even the sky, beautiful as it is, has the look of that one sometimes sees in a very bright moonlight night—deeply, intensely blue, with white fleecy clouds driven vigorously along by a strong breeze, now veiling and now exposing the dazzling luminary around whom they sail. ”

“ But Charlotte Brontë, with a woman's sympathetic eye made doubly penetrating and loving by genius, chose this outcast from romance as a heroine, a woman without beauty or charm, and boldly proclaimed that moral beauty was superior to physical beauty, and that the attraction of one soul for another lay quite beyond the pale of external form. ”

“ Wuthering Heights is a novel not of externals, not of character, but of something deeper, more vital. The love of Catharine and Heathcliff has no physical basis; it is the union of souls evil, but not material. It is the sex of spirit, not of body, that adds its might to the resistless force that unites these two. Notwithstanding the external pictures are so distinct that a painter could transfer them to his canvas, the book is a soul-tragedy.
Wuthering Heights cannot be classed among the so-called popular novels. It has appealed to the poets rather than to the readers of fiction. ”

“ Mary Barton is a work of genius. Only a woman of high ideals could have drawn the character of Margaret Hale, an earlier Marcella, or Molly Gibson, or Mr. Thornton, or Mr. Holman. Only a woman of deep insight could have created a woman like Ruth: a book which in its problem and its deep earnestness reminds one of Aurora Leigh. But her readers will always love Mrs. Gaskell for the sake of the gentle ladies of Cranford. ”

“ The perfect assurance with which men have asserted their own sufficiency in all lines of art would be amusing if it had not been so disastrous in distorting and warping at least three of them: music, the drama, and prose fiction. ”

“ Like Shakespeare Jane Austen knew the inner nature by intuition, and had learned its outward expression by observation. Character not only affects the speech of each one of her men and women, but determines their destiny and shapes the plot of the story. The class she has chosen to represent is the least under the sway of circumstances of any in England. ”

“ The heroine of the story is a child of that nature, over whose birth the fairies of air, earth, and water preside. But at the will of Nightstar, Queen of the Fairies of the Air, she is left with her mother, but adopted and watched over by the fairies as their own. Their great gift to her is that of loving and being loved. The human element is not well blended with the fairy element. ”

“ The providential arrival of the poor castaway negroes, and then of the schooner,—all—all working together to give us the means of providing every comfort, towards planting a colony of refuge in that blessed haven of our own preservation,—seem to me, in solemn truth, as so many signs from the Divine Will, that it is our duty to fulfil a task allotted to us, in that long unknown island. ”

“ And in the final outcome of the story, one can but hope that Catharine's restless spirit, as it watches and waits for Heathcliff, is striving to bring some blessing upon her house. The awakening of a better nature in Hareton, through his love for Catharine's daughter, is a pretty, tender idyl. The book is like a Greek tragedy in this, that at the close the atmosphere has been purged; the sun once more shines through the windows of Wuthering Heights; hatred is dead, and love reigns supreme. ”