Talk:Jess & Co.

Reviews

 * The Bookman, October 1904:
 * An author who serves as an apt illustration of the ability to use local colour as to make a picture of world-wide application is Mr. J. J. Bell, the creator of the inimitable Wee Macgreegor. It would be difficult to imagine anything more intensely local than these stories were in atmosphere, in association, in the small, familiar touches of every-day life, and yet the appeal which these books made to a reading public in two continents was quite independent of Glasgow speech or Glasgow life. It was based upon those fundamental human instincts and feelings which are world-wide, the instincts of paternal pride and a mother's love, and the contentment of a happy home. Mr. Bell is a man worth watching. He may occasionally bore us with volume of inanities like Ethel, which recorded with the fidelity of a phonograph all the foolish, fond, tiresome things that young couple find to say to each other during the long months of courtship. But sooner or later he makes amends with anther of the volumes that are really worth while,—in the present instance with Jess & Co., the undoubted charm of which lies chiefly in its simplicity. It is just the story of a man who is a born procrastinator, and who, added to this, has made the mistake of choosing an uncongenial trade; he is a glazier, when nature plainly intended to make him a gardener. But his young wife, Jess, has not been marled to him more than a month or two when she discovers that he is letting his business go to rack and ruin, through sheer lack of some one to pull him up with a strong, resolute hand. Jess is Glasgow bred, and, besides, she has had a hard, practical schooling in a wholesale business house. David, the husband, has lived all his life in the little coast town of Kinlochan,—a town that deserves a niche in fame alongside of Drumtochty and Lisconnel, and other famous towns of fiction. His business methods are simple in the extreme; his books are kept by fits and starts; he is ignorant of the meaning of a balance-sheet; when, at long intervals, some tradesman in Kinlochan sends in a bill, then he in turn sends out one or two of his long-standing accounts to get from Peter the wherewithal to pay Paul. For the most part, however, instead of going to the shop, he lingers at home to "tak' a dauner roon the gairden," to see how his beloved roses are progressing, and, before he knows it, the afternoon is gone. The story deals with the resolution that the young wife makes to transform her man, in spite of himself, into a good, industrious, systematic business man; and this she does, though at a cost to herself that makes one fairly ache with sympathy while reading it. These are real people whom Mr. Bell shows us, essentially Scotch by birth and blood and training; and yet they are as near to us, and they teach us as practical and personal a lesson, as to any family in his own big city of Glasgow. Mr. Bell has got down to a fine point that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin.

Frederic Taber Cooper.


 * The Outlook, 24 Sept 1904:
 * Mr. Bell's latest Scots are even more enjoyable than those introduced along with "Wee Macgreegor." David Houston (joiner and glazier by trade, gardener by nature) and Jess, his wife—these are the firm of "Jess & Co.," and the reader will do well to have dealings with them as speedily as possible. Mistress Wallace, aunt to one of the partners, and, Maister Ogilvy, the grocer, are to be welcomed also as most entertaining acquaintances.