Lippincott's Magazine, December, 1885

In Short

This issue of a prominent nineteenth-century American monthly offers an eclectic slice of Victorian literary and cultural life. Blending investigative regional reporting, biographical nostalgia, natural history, light theatrical farce, and critical essays, the volume moves seamlessly from the sweat of Southern agriculture to the quiet cloisters of an Italian monastery. Readers are invited to reflect on the legacy of famous authors, observe winter bird migrations in Texas, and ponder the mechanics of human memory. It endures as a vivid snapshot of the period’s reading tastes, capturing the era’s anxieties, domestic humor, and intellectual curiosity.

The Story

The volume opens with a detailed survey of a post-emancipation Virginia tobacco plantation. Here, black field hands navigate an arduous routine of manual labor—pinching away unwanted shoots, hunting down destructive tobacco-flies, and carefully curing the harvest over open fires in flammable barns. From this dusty agricultural landscape, the narrative shifts across the Atlantic to Brussels. A traveler wanders through a cramped, high-walled convent school garden, tracing the "allée défendue" where Charlotte Brontë once walked in lonely isolation and gathering vivid associations of her real life and her novel Villette.

The scene then transitions to an informal colony of bohemian artists lodging in a Continental inn, where canvas criticisms are shouted over dinner, table-cloths are ruined with quick caricature sketches, and practical jokes blur the line between friendly advice and spiteful sabotage. Broadening its horizon to the North American wilderness, the collection pauses to study the winter fauna of Texas, zeroing in on the stoic, unfeathered snow-bird, the erratic jack-rabbit, and the teeming waterfowl population surrounding Eagle Lake.

Fiction takes center stage in a multi-part romantic narrative. Young Symington lazily waits in a rowing boat, singing verses of "Twickenham Ferry," only to be surprised by Rosamond, a schoolteacher looking for passage across the water. Symington pretends to be the ferryman's temporary substitute. Over successive trips across the sunlit river, an unavowed affection deepens into a tense, agonizing struggle. Symington discovers Rosamond is engaged to a local professor; during a final emotional crossing, his quiet irony and desperate song break her composure. She rushes off toward her impending marriage, leaving him trapped in bitter grief.

Turning back to historical reality, the narrative offers personal letters from author Charles Reade detailing his anxious efforts to publish his works in New York during the American Civil War while navigating theatrical rights and copyright piracy. A quieter travelog follows three women exploring a suppressed Tuscan monastery, where they admire sacred gold robes, tour ancient cloisters, and joke playfully with Fra Lorenzo beneath cypress trees.

The volume then shifts to domestic comedy with a dramatic script about Nokes, a hypocritical suitor delighting in the tragic orphanhood of a chambermaid named Susan, followed by an archival study of New York City’s premier historical libraries. Moving from public archives into the home, an essay gently satirizes young children who mockingly mimic their fathers' church habits, while a psychological piece explores why the mind forgets proper names. Finally, the collection closes with reviews of current holiday literature, leaving the reader with a full panorama of Victorian publishing.

How It Unfolds

The labor of the field Laborers spend grueling autumn days tending Virginia tobacco crops, meticulously stripping away shoot growth, destroying insect eggs, splitting ripened stalks, and monitoring smoky barn fires to cure the leaves.

Ghosts in the garden Tourists visit a secluded Brussels schoolyard, identifying the pear trees, damp gravel paths, and quiet benches that inspired Charlotte Brontë's lonely days and romantic fiction.

Bohemian antics In a vibrant European inn, painters critique each other's daily work over dinner, defacing dining linens with quick sketches and altering a colleague's sea painting with morbid caricatures.

Wilderness observation A naturalist details the winter habits of Texas wildlife, describing the unfeathered resilience of snow-birds, the deceptive speed of giant jack-rabbits, and the rich bird life of Eagle Lake.

The substitute ferryman Symington takes the oars at a river crossing, striking up an immediate, blushing acquaintance with Rosamond, a young woman who mistakes him for the official boatman.

A painful farewell On their final boat ride together, Symington sings a sorrowful song of departure, confronting Rosamond over her upcoming marriage to a professor before she retreats in distressed confusion.

Publishing amid war Author Charles Reade corresponds frantically with his American representative, worrying over wartime book sales, international copyright theft, and the exact financial terms for licensing his play.

Twilight in Tuscany Three travelers journey to the ancient monastery of Monte Oliveto, exploring vaulted cloisters, admiring golden vestments, and crowning a handsome friar with a wreath of moist ivy.

The orphan's suitor In a farce, Nokes interrogates the chambermaid Susan, celebrating that she has no living parents or impoverished siblings to demand financial help once they are wed.

Archives and institutions A historical survey outlines the growth of New York's primary libraries, highlighting rare early American newspapers, extensive family genealogies, and the strict rules governing the Lenox collection.

Children at play An essayist observes how young boys in new trousers delight in performing brutal parodies of their fathers' church behaviors and domestic mannerisms to amuse their siblings.

The mystery of memory A commentator explains that proper names are notoriously hard to recall because they lack associative details, recommending an automatic writing exercise to coax hidden memories back into consciousness.

The People

• The Virginia Tobacco Laborer: A field worker navigating the hard routines of post-emancipation agriculture. Though legally free, his daily life remains bound to the exacting cycle of planting, suckering, cutting, and smoke-curing the crop.
• Charlotte Brontë (and her alter ego Lucy Snowe): A haunting presence in the Brussels essay. As a lonely teacher, she paced the secluded convent alleyway, harboring forbidden thoughts while enduring the trials of her daily teaching duties.
• Symington: A proud young man who impulsively pretends to be a river ferryman. He falls deeply in love with a female passenger, but his pride and jealousy surface when he discovers her upcoming marriage.
• Rosamond: A soft-spoken schoolteacher. She enjoys her quiet boat rides with Symington, but finds herself torn between her genuine feelings for him and her duty to the professor she is pledged to marry.
• Charles Reade: An anxious, highly practical English novelist and playwright. He writes sharp letters demanding strict financial accounting, constant copyright monitoring, and rapid publication schedules in wartime America.
• Fra Lorenzo: A hospitable Tuscan monk. He guides visiting women through his quiet monastery, proudly displays rich altar robes, and gently tolerates lighthearted banter beneath the cypress trees.
• Nokes: A calculating, self-absorbed suitor. He shamelessly rejoices over his sweetheart's total lack of living family, seeing her orphan status as a convenient way to avoid troublesome in-laws.

In Its Own Voice

"Day after day they go over the same fields, finding newly-laid eggs and newly-hatched young where only twelve hours before they brushed their counterparts off to be trampled under foot."

A vivid look at the unrelenting labor required to protect a young tobacco crop from destructive pests.

"Deep beneath this 'Methuselah of a pear-tree,' the one nearest the end of the alley, lies the imprisoned dust of the poor young nun who was buried alive ages ago for some sin against her vow..."

An evocative description of the spooky folklore lingering in the quiet Brussels garden frequented by Charlotte Brontë.

"I had always understood that even the happiest fiancée was somewhat pensive and melancholy as the day of fate drew near."

Symington's biting, sarcastic remark to Rosamond as they step out of the ferry boat for the last time.

What It's Really About

Behind its light entertainment, the collection wrestles with the tension between past systems and modern realities. The tobacco essay exposes how post-war freedom left black laborers bound to old agrarian routines. The travelogs grapple with how modern tourists invade romantic, historical spaces—whether disturbing the ghost of Charlotte Brontë in a quiet schoolyard or filling the silent halls of a suppressed Italian monastery once closed to women. The fiction and comedic essays probe social class and personal vulnerability, questioning how people protect their dignity when bound by financial strain, social duty, or approaching marriages. Threaded throughout is an obsession with preservation: preserving crops, preserving artistic works, and preserving historical records against time and decay.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers who enjoy micro-history, literary biography, and regional color. It captures the authentic texture of late nineteenth-century culture without modern hindsight. Reading it feels like flipping through a pristine parlor reader: one moment you are observing the precise mechanics of Virginia agriculture, the next you are overhearing gossip about Charles Reade’s financial anxieties or reading about practical jokes in a French art colony.

The prose is refined, lucid, and remarkably accessible, though modern readers will notice dated period perspectives. The opening essay views post-emancipation African American workers through an upper-class white lens that can feel distant and clinical, and the theatrical farce relies on exaggerated Victorian conventions. Yet these elements ground the book in its authentic era. The issue excels in its small, quiet details—such as the explanation of why our brains drop proper names or the description of Texas hares freezing into giant V-shapes in the tall grass. It remains a deeply satisfying time capsule for curious minds.