DOI article:
Harland, Henry: Dogs, cats, books, and the average man: a letter to the editor
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26393#0025
From “The Yellow Dwarf”
21
that it is “ nothing better than a Scottish title,” and Drumpipes
retorts that the Pilliewillies were great lords in Slug-Angus
“ before the Campbells were ever heard of, or the Gordons had
learned not to eat their cattle raw.” Whereupon they almost
come to blows about the compensation to be paid for a ruined
“ moosie.” After some persuasion, however, Mosscrop good-
naturedly consents to assume his friend’s embarrassment, and
while Drumpipes, as Linkhaw, makes love to the dark Adele,
Mosscrop, as Drumpipes, arranges a coaching-party, a luncheon,
and a tableau—whereof he and Vestalia are the central figures.
Then the waiter comes in with the tureen ; and the Cat’s play is
•ended. Voila, as the French say, tout.
March Hares, by George Forth. Who is George Forth ?
I’ll bet half-a-sovereign that “George Forth” is a pseudonym,
and that it covers at least two personalities, perhaps three or four.
If March Hares is not the child of a collaboration, then my eye-
sight is beginning to fail. Who are the collaborators ? Oddly
enough, they are quite manifestly members of a group I have
never professed to love—they are manifestly pupils of Mr. W. E.
Henley. I can only gratefully suppose either that the Master’s
influence is waning, or that the Publisher’s Adviser pruned their
manuscript, and the Printer’s Reader put the finishing touches to
their proofs ; for Brutality is absent. I saw it stated in a daily
paper, a week or so ago, that George Forth was Mr. Harold
Frederic; but that’s a rank impossibility. Mr. Harold Frederic
has proved that he can cross Bulldogs with Newfoundlands, that
he can write able, unreadable Illwninations in choice Americanese.
He could no more flitter and flutter and coruscate, and turn
somersaults in mid-air, and fall lightly on his feet, in the Cat-
fashion of George Forth, than he could dance a hornpipe on the
point of a needle. It is barely conceivable that Mr. Harold
Frederic
21
that it is “ nothing better than a Scottish title,” and Drumpipes
retorts that the Pilliewillies were great lords in Slug-Angus
“ before the Campbells were ever heard of, or the Gordons had
learned not to eat their cattle raw.” Whereupon they almost
come to blows about the compensation to be paid for a ruined
“ moosie.” After some persuasion, however, Mosscrop good-
naturedly consents to assume his friend’s embarrassment, and
while Drumpipes, as Linkhaw, makes love to the dark Adele,
Mosscrop, as Drumpipes, arranges a coaching-party, a luncheon,
and a tableau—whereof he and Vestalia are the central figures.
Then the waiter comes in with the tureen ; and the Cat’s play is
•ended. Voila, as the French say, tout.
March Hares, by George Forth. Who is George Forth ?
I’ll bet half-a-sovereign that “George Forth” is a pseudonym,
and that it covers at least two personalities, perhaps three or four.
If March Hares is not the child of a collaboration, then my eye-
sight is beginning to fail. Who are the collaborators ? Oddly
enough, they are quite manifestly members of a group I have
never professed to love—they are manifestly pupils of Mr. W. E.
Henley. I can only gratefully suppose either that the Master’s
influence is waning, or that the Publisher’s Adviser pruned their
manuscript, and the Printer’s Reader put the finishing touches to
their proofs ; for Brutality is absent. I saw it stated in a daily
paper, a week or so ago, that George Forth was Mr. Harold
Frederic; but that’s a rank impossibility. Mr. Harold Frederic
has proved that he can cross Bulldogs with Newfoundlands, that
he can write able, unreadable Illwninations in choice Americanese.
He could no more flitter and flutter and coruscate, and turn
somersaults in mid-air, and fall lightly on his feet, in the Cat-
fashion of George Forth, than he could dance a hornpipe on the
point of a needle. It is barely conceivable that Mr. Harold
Frederic