The Friends of Newburgh Free Library found another review for our enjoyment. I can see why Cable though so highly of himself after this show. The reviewer was certainly pleased with Cable. > Newburgh Daily Journal November 21, 1884 p.2, col 5 > > > The Twain-Cable Readings. > > > A Newburgh audience has had the pleasure of spending an evening with > “Mark Twain” and George W. Cable. And enjoyed it to the utmost. The > Opera House, where the entertainment was given, was only half filled. > This may be accounted for by several reasons: Weather—several other > largely attended first class entertainments on preceding evenings this > week—the price of reserved seats—another reading in town the same > evening—the night on which several church organizations hold weekly > service, etc. But the gathering was select and appreciative. > > > Gifted as Samuel L. Clemens is as a humorist and amusing as his > writings are, it is questionable whether the author is not more > delightful still when as a reader he gives additional life and color > to his characters on the stage. As a reader Mr. Clemens is utterly > outside and beyond the reach of all conventional rule. But coming from > his own lips his lines gather and convey innumerable new and charming > significancies. He is a wonderful story-teller, and, with one or two > exceptions,--when he read about “King Sollermunn” from the advance > sheets of “Huckleberry Finn,” and the “Tragic Tale of a Fishwife”--it > seemed as if he had just dropped in to tell a story. When telling > about “the duel,” and the “ghost story,” and his “trying situation” at > Luzerne and how the stranger was cured of stammering, it was difficult > to realize that he was reciting from a book. He found the listeners > bubbling over with expectation and welcome, and more and more > demonstrative as he from time to time presented pictures extremely > ludicrous. Mr. Clemens may have over-estimated his reputation when he > assumed that the audience would willingly tolerate from his lips > occasionally what some of his hearers considered coarse or unrefined > sentences that could have been modified or dispensed with—that added > nothing to the pleasure of the entertainment. > > > It is now about eight years since Mr. Cable's first story appeared in > “Scribner's Monthly” and at once proclaimed to those who were on the > watch for such things that a new literary field was being opened up. > Then followed “Les Belles Demoiselles,” “Cafe des Exiles,” “Posson > Jones,” etc., till this unique and spontaneous literary growth seemed > to culminate in that prose epic of Creole pride and decline, “The > Grandissimes.” As might be surmissed from his writings Mr. Cable is a > Southerner. Family misfortunes compelled him to leave school at > fourteen; at nineteen he entered the Southern army and studied his > Bible and Latin grammar in his leisure moments. Afterwards he became a > civil engineer and studied the Southern swamps and bayous which he > describes so wonderfully. Next he entered a cotton mercantile house, > where he studied Creole manners and dialect from contact, and in the > intervals of his leisure began to write the stories that have since > revealed him to the world. He is said to be of Virginia cavalier stock > on his father's, and Puritan New England on his mother's side. But > surely there must be a strong infusion of the French element on some > side for the man's mental make-up and sympathetic insight is as Gallic > as is his physical appearance. > > > Mr. Cable's reading consisted of a number of the most striking scenes > from “Dr. Sevier,” interspersed with snatches of Creole songs. In the > scenes in which the interviews between the widow Kate Riley and > Narcissae and the courtship and capture of the impressible Kate by the > Italian Ristofallo are re-enacted, the unctious brogue of the widow > and the “cheek” of Ristofalo were set forth by the author in capital > style. The gem of Mr. Cable's reading was “Mary's Night Ride.” He > re-enacted this exquisite chapter with great dramatic power and fire, > and held his audience almost breathless. He pictured out the story so > eloquently and vividly that it seemed as though one could almost see > it for himself. It was a literary gem beautifully recited. > > > It was a treat to hear these two great writers interpret their own > imaginations. It will be a long time—or until they come again—before > Newburgh will hear another entertainment of the kind equally > meritorious. > > > > -- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. http://bscottholmes.com