REVIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 3119, 17 February 1873, Page 2

REVIEW.

Bread and Cheese and Kisses, By B. L. Far jeon, London : Tinsley Bros. The quaiut title given to this most interesting tale affords no clue whatever to its subject. It has its origin in a domestic incident, which Mr Favjeon relates in a very natural style in his introductory chapter, and which leads to a form of expression, very appropriately used by the kind-hearted Englishwoman, who is mother to the hero of the story. We do not wonder at the rapid sale this work has had, for it is intensely interesting. The characters are, with one exception, in humble life, but a grade higher than many who play such prominent parts in several of Dickens’s novels. In this we think Mr Farjeon evinces truer judgment than the great departed novelist, who delighted to depict nobl® characters, rising superior to the degradation of squalid poverty, filth, vice, and misery, apparently without adequate cause. He found cultivated flowers springing where seeds of weeds only bad been sown ; nobility of soul and capability of self-sacrifice where the child had been educated in selfishness ; and enlarged mental capacity where all life’s training had been amid abject ignorance. Avoiding this extravagance, Mr Farjeon chooses his characters from the ranks of mechanics of the better class, among whom we are not surprised to find faith, truth, and love. The story is a simple one, and is so well analysed in the European Ma'd that we avail ourselves of its notice, which is as follows :

Nearly all the persons with whom this story has to deal are in the same station of life, and live within a stone’s throw of each other, in the well-known neighborhood of Westminster. Ben Sparrow, an old man who keeps a shop and carries on trade as a grocer, but in a poor way of business, has living with him a granddaughter Bessie, who supposes herself to be an orphan, having no recollection of either father or mothei. The truth, however, is that her father—who was employed as a collector by Mr Million, wealthy brewer -made wrong use of his master s money. This was kept secret from Bessie, whe thought her father to be dead. Ben Sparrow has also under his protection* little girl, Tottie, for whose maintenance he is paid by George Naldret, a young carpenter, and son of Mr Jim Naldret; he has a friend, Saul Fielding, who, through joining the strike movement, brought misery upon himself, and dragged down with him Jane, a woman who loved him and whom ho had robbed of her good name, but who, being donscious of the wrong life she was leading, resolved to leave him until he should be able to procure the means to support her as and make his wife. George Naldret is in jove with Bcfsip, but finding his means insufficient to keep a wife, thinks of emigrating to and young Mr Million, under the pretence of friendship for George, gives him a passago-ticket. This was done for the purpose of getting him out of the country, so that he himself might pay his addresses to Bessie. But this comes to nothing in the end. George goes to Ben Sparrow’s shop to take his farewell of Bessie before leaving, and she then seizes the opportunity of asking hint something of Tottie’s history, for she has a secret idea that he must be the father of the child- George, however, declines to answer any questions telling her that when they are Quarried he will explain all. The parting, therefore, is rather col 4, fqt Beggie thought something must he wrong. George, on his way home, moots with who tolls him, to his great surprise, that hp has seen young Mr Million and Bessie in company together. George then thinks he has found out the cause of Bessie’s coldness to himself, «uid at last resolves not to leave the country, but gives his passage ticket to Saul, who also has an intention to emigrate. Saul leaves England, and reaches his destination, New Zealand, in safety, where he finds a friend at the gold diggings— David, David’s wife and little daughter. Saul is successful in finding gold, but the snowseasou sets, iu and one night the tent in which David and his wife lives is walled in, and there they meet with their death. Saul manages, however, to save the little daughter, aud after a time returns to his native home, bringing his gold and his little charge with him. He is not long in finding out Jane s whereabouts, and he marries her. They then go together to Ben Sparrow’s, whose shop in the meantime has been seized for rent. Saul places Tottie in Jane’s ai ms, for she is none other than her own child, the mother, to save her from disgruce, having got Saul, through his kind friend George, to see her comfortably provided for. During the conversation which is going on in Ben’s house, George Naldret enters, and ho and Bessie are true lovers again, now that she knows the full history of Tottie. Saul and George go into business together, and all are once more happily united in their respective homes, and pass a life of contentment Oh bread and cheese and kisses. It is evident, from this outline of the story, that there is room for details of stirring adventure. Many of the descriptions ayq most vivid, and aro rendered not less intelpestihg bedaifse Mt ! Farjeibn, avoiding tod much minuteness, has assumed escapes frbm situations by modes which he leaves to the imagination of his readers. He has availed himself, too. of the opportunity of showing how strikes interfere with the comforts of the working classes, involving alike thd agitators and the unionists in common consequences, ■vyhile tj}C rtfa]*ke4 rpap, bqoausf of oae ipistajce '-became avoided’ by his ♦ and persecuted oy Uls employers, _ If he had it in bis mind to give a lesson ip political economy, it' must, however, he ' gathered rather fpom jnfereripe than direct instruction. From the highly dramatic arrangement of the story, wo shall be surprised if it is not quickly adapted to the stage. In the bands of a clever playwright, we are of opinion it could be transformed with very little trouble into a drama which would become most popular. Mr Farjeon’s style is free, clear, yd fIOTjSi.MSI t he .. Bt ?iL'!2 ”2 less valued in Duueum .—. ~-.,ug made his first effort as a novelist and dramatist here,