The Spite Fence by Emma Speed Sampson
“The Spite Fence” by Emma Speed Sampson
Original publication date: 1929
Bound in green cloth with gilt lettering on the cover and spine; originally came with a dust-jacket
Published by the Reilly & Lee Co.
A tale of an orphaned girl. But not the usual kind. This orphan is not a sad little piteous thing. She’s a 17 year old with grit, who faces hardship with a grin and quick-witted ambition–including an assumed identity, running away from her landlady, feuds with a millionaire, and dealing with the hosts of young fellows who hang on her every glance…
All things considered this is a very simple story. But that is where much of it’s charm lies. There and in the contagious attitude of the Peggy, the heroine. The thing I love about Peggy, and also about Judith in Emma Sampson’s “The Comings of Cousin Ann,” is that they are thrown into very tough situations. Not to mention what the millennial generation would call quiet, unfulfilling, lives of thankless drudgery. But they don’t see themselves as victims. Neither do they just sit around and talk and dream up all sorts of solutions to their fears and hard lives. The are doers in the here-and-now. They attack the hardship with grace and a grin–with such jovial grit and action. That’s what I like about this tale.
These sorts of books are just the sort of antidote our weary world could use. Old books have a breath of freshness that drifts out of the musty pages. It pays to learn the attitudes of a generation besides your own. It gives one perspective. That’s one of the biggest takeaways I’ve had in the hundreds of simple old stories: the attitude and atmosphere of the protagonists contrasted with my generation and my culture.
And that’s my two cents on why it’s such a fun and charming read from yesteryear–even though it is a very simplistic story. The charm lies in the attitude and sweetness, not in any masterpiece of a story. “The Comings of Cousin Ann” however, is still my favorite of Sampson’s works!
There is currently a copy of The Spite Fence available here in the shop! *SOLD OUT*
“She might have added that she had never expected to be doing what she was doing. There were times when she felt as though she could not go on with the drudgery of her days, but she had a certain sturdiness of character that made it impossible for her to give up a task once begun.”
“Occasionally, when she had saved up a little money, she would go to a book store… One must have books. Mrs. Fitzpatrick was waking up to that fact, and now that the piano was paid for she was buying the Five Foot Shelf, which was all very well, but Peggy wanted some books of her own–little chunky books she could slip in her pocket, long slim books of poetry, with deep margins and one poem on a page.”
~The Spite Fence