The Rambler Papers. By Jeffery C. Jeffery. (W. H. Allen
and Co.)—If the reader should expect to find in this volume anything like the essays which are to be found in the famous Rambler of the last century, he will be disappointed. Indeed, it is not easy to see why the book has had this title given it. It is, in fact, a story of garrison life in times of "piping peace," told by a bystander who assumes the name. And an attractive, well-told story it is. Possibly there is some exaggeration about the slander- mongers and gossips who appear in it. Colonel Dropper, for instance, is a little too bad. He must have been called to account pretty sharply for such language as he uses. Meg's mother, too, is more outrageously selfish than any lady could show herself,— we do not say, be in her heart. On the other hand, Meg herself, the Drews, father and son, and the good characters generally, are well executed. Young writers—and such we imagine Mr. Jeffery to be—paint their bad people with too dark a brush.
Previous page
