'"White Dandy", Or, Master and I. A Horse's Story'
is [sub-subtitled]
"a Companion Story to "Black Beauty"
Thus the title page of this story designed to encourage sympathy for animals, and published in 1898.
The author Velma Caldwell Melville (July 1, 1858 to August 25, 1924)
intended her story as a parallel to Anna Sewell's 1877 famous Black Beauty. Melville's devotion to the ideas of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, is apparent in her story telling.
The author of White Dandy was an editor and writer whose article appeard often in women's periodicals. We have looked for a writer's story about her but she seems little recalled.
We of course learn a lot from her writing, and find a graceful and imaginative writer. The novel opens this way:
'MASTER is Dr. Richard Wallace and I am Dandy, the doctor's favorite horse, long-tried companion and friend. Neither of us are as young as we once were, but time seems to tell less on us than on some others, though I have never been quite the same since that dreadful year that Master was out West. He often strokes my face and says: “We're getting old, my boy, getting old, but it don't matter.” Then I see a far away look in the kind, blue eyes—a look that I know so well—and I press my cheek against his, trying to comfort him. I know full well what he is thinking about, whether he mentions it right out or not. Yes, I remember all about the tragedy that shaped both our lives, and how I have longed for intelligent speech that I might talk it all over with him. He is sixty-two now and I only half as old, but while he is just as busy as ever, he will not permit me to undertake a single hardship. Dr. Fred—his brother and partner—sometimes says: “Don’t be a fool over that old horse, Dick | He is able to work as any of us.” But the latter smiles and shakes his head: “Dandy has seen hard service enough and earned a peaceful old age.” Fred sneers. He says he has no patience with “Dick's nonsense;” but then he was in Europe when the tragedy occurred, and besides I suppose it takes the romance and sentiment out of a man to have two wives, raise three bad toys and bury one wilful daughter, to say nothing of the grandson he has on his hands now; and I might add further that he is a vastly different man from Dick anyway. It is a grand thing to spend one's life for others; that is what my master has done, and it is what we horses do. Of course he is looking forward to his reward, but we are not expecting anything, though he insists that there will be a heaven for all faithful domestic animals. Fred says there is no Bible for it, but Dick says that they could not mention everything in one book. '
Later on there are cats mentioned, and it is plain her sympathy extends to all creatures. Though maybe not all doctors.
'HERE was a very learned (?) young man—a lately fledged M. D.—who, while spending a few weeks in the town, often sought my master's company. Among other things he, the young man, talked pompously and heartlessly of his love for using the knife. “I just delight in surgery,” he affirmed. “Whespan I first went to college the sight of blood unmanned me, and I was weak enough to shrink from cutting up even a cat; but I soon cut my eye teeth, and now I don't mind anything; would like no better practice than to dissect a live human being.”'
The whole text is of course available at Google Books, and very useful for a realistic view of the attitudes toward animals in the late 19th century. (Be careful though of reprints that parade as recent books, and for which Google doesn't even off their (wonderful) "other editions" option.)
Velma Melville, in conclusion, earned the title "writer", though this label is not always even mentioned in commentary about her. Her prose is sparse, and she presents at least two points of view realistically. I predict a revival for Velma Caldwell Melville.
The author Velma Caldwell Melville (July 1, 1858 to August 25, 1924)
intended her story as a parallel to Anna Sewell's 1877 famous Black Beauty. Melville's devotion to the ideas of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, is apparent in her story telling.
The author of White Dandy was an editor and writer whose article appeard often in women's periodicals. We have looked for a writer's story about her but she seems little recalled.
We of course learn a lot from her writing, and find a graceful and imaginative writer. The novel opens this way:
'MASTER is Dr. Richard Wallace and I am Dandy, the doctor's favorite horse, long-tried companion and friend. Neither of us are as young as we once were, but time seems to tell less on us than on some others, though I have never been quite the same since that dreadful year that Master was out West. He often strokes my face and says: “We're getting old, my boy, getting old, but it don't matter.” Then I see a far away look in the kind, blue eyes—a look that I know so well—and I press my cheek against his, trying to comfort him. I know full well what he is thinking about, whether he mentions it right out or not. Yes, I remember all about the tragedy that shaped both our lives, and how I have longed for intelligent speech that I might talk it all over with him. He is sixty-two now and I only half as old, but while he is just as busy as ever, he will not permit me to undertake a single hardship. Dr. Fred—his brother and partner—sometimes says: “Don’t be a fool over that old horse, Dick | He is able to work as any of us.” But the latter smiles and shakes his head: “Dandy has seen hard service enough and earned a peaceful old age.” Fred sneers. He says he has no patience with “Dick's nonsense;” but then he was in Europe when the tragedy occurred, and besides I suppose it takes the romance and sentiment out of a man to have two wives, raise three bad toys and bury one wilful daughter, to say nothing of the grandson he has on his hands now; and I might add further that he is a vastly different man from Dick anyway. It is a grand thing to spend one's life for others; that is what my master has done, and it is what we horses do. Of course he is looking forward to his reward, but we are not expecting anything, though he insists that there will be a heaven for all faithful domestic animals. Fred says there is no Bible for it, but Dick says that they could not mention everything in one book. '
Later on there are cats mentioned, and it is plain her sympathy extends to all creatures. Though maybe not all doctors.
'HERE was a very learned (?) young man—a lately fledged M. D.—who, while spending a few weeks in the town, often sought my master's company. Among other things he, the young man, talked pompously and heartlessly of his love for using the knife. “I just delight in surgery,” he affirmed. “Whespan I first went to college the sight of blood unmanned me, and I was weak enough to shrink from cutting up even a cat; but I soon cut my eye teeth, and now I don't mind anything; would like no better practice than to dissect a live human being.”'
The whole text is of course available at Google Books, and very useful for a realistic view of the attitudes toward animals in the late 19th century. (Be careful though of reprints that parade as recent books, and for which Google doesn't even off their (wonderful) "other editions" option.)
Velma Melville, in conclusion, earned the title "writer", though this label is not always even mentioned in commentary about her. Her prose is sparse, and she presents at least two points of view realistically. I predict a revival for Velma Caldwell Melville.
No comments:
Post a Comment