Show CearWoss 1p The historical manuscripts commission commis-sion of the American lliatorlcil association asso-ciation proposes to publish the papers of Chief Justice Salmon P Chase and Mr Herbert Friedenwald Is preparing them for the press 4 p Gilbert Parker jiuthor of The Battle of the Strong which has now reached 10000 impressions has been elected a member of Parliament from Gravesend an old town Iyhlg a ross the Thames from Tilbury in London lliklebrand ITaimsworth one of Harmsworth Bros the publishers of cloen or so magazines maga-zines and periodicals was his Liberal l opponent but the novelist denounced the Boers called for a strong govern nti in the Transvaal rebuked the antiImperialists and wOn by a handsome hand-some majority The Battle of the I Strong has been dramatized and Is I now on tour liss Marie Burroughs taking the part of Gulcla The novel has been continuouslysuccctfsfurslncc its publication o S Mr Andrew Lang protests that he doesnt know much about Mrens but he nevertheless declines to take Lady Pippinuorth In Tommy and Grizcl as the real Ailing We arc not made to realize her unholy fascinations he complains Mr Barric uCter cataloguing cata-loguing her perfections bays Now w c have the hecrot of her charm but I do not feel that we really 1 cIt c-it Lady PIp > iirworVh I perhaps docs r not greatly mater She i Is I not at any rate the heroine of the book But Mr I Langs Indictment could be so drawn I as to include most of the personages supposed to be fascinating contemporary contem-porary fiction This is Indeed the one conclusive proof of the difference between I tween the average ldV listbe he never so successful andthe fqw really great figures lu the history of the art How many speeches i ii novels bavd we been asked to take as brilliant when they have been almost prcternaturally dull How much talk has J been poured upon us from the Uns of novelistic heroes which has boon flat boicdom in I essence How much beauty have AVO I been asked to admire without a lithe I of being made manifest on the printed print-ed pageN Y Tribune Iio a A story of Tano AuiUens dealings with her Bath nubHshersreJates how like Milton she sold her first book for 550 outright JLhe publisher allowed Northanger Abbey to lie on his desk for fifteen years wh6rf Miss Austen bought back her manuscript at Its original tigure She had become famous I during the limo but obviously this had not affected the Bath publisher < i 0 Hero Is Tennyson on > Idea of the general drift of his In Memoriam Iiis I he said once to the Bishop of IxIJn a kind of small Dlviua Corn media ending in marriage It NKW IITSTOTIICAL ROMANCES I am bound to say that I think the grotesque the lUdiciou immorality of the new historical romancers does not include the sort uf Immorality which we have first In mind when we use the word The relations of the sexes so fat as I have noticed are mostly most exemplary In them There Is nowhere anything but a wish to get the lovers married allhaxaids or as many hazards possible Perhaps the books would be a little truer tohuman experience inLIeetrjot to say the present if the behavior of their heroes and heroines In this rospeet was not so Irrcpiouchable bulIam not going to make this leproaoh to the authors who have enough to answer I for in their inculcation of revenge pride anger contempt and other bad passions It seems to be a condition of getting their tremendous atfalrs transacted that the hero should often be a ruthless homicide homi-cide but he really must be a tiresome ass or an Impossible peacock not to be mismaled with the pert and foolish doll that passes for the heroine Characters Char-acters Are they characters any of those figments which pass for such In the new hlaloilcal romances They arc hardly so by any test of comparl son with people we know in life or in I I f the great fictions They are very simple sim-ple souls whose main business Is to Impersonate a single propensity and Immediately or remotely to do the hero and the heroine good or harm to show them off to die by his hand or to cherish cher-ish a baffled ambition for hers When they are historical figures their deportment de-portment Is such as would be Imaginable Imagin-able of the historical figures In the Eden Musee if these were called upon to leave their statuesque repose and move and speak I do not think It by any means a despicable de-spicable thing to have hit the fancy of our enormous commonplace average But what Is despicable what Is lamentS lament-S able Is to have hit the popular fancy and not to have done anything tc change It but everything to fix it tc flatter with false dreams of splendoi in the past when life was mainly ac l simple and sadcoloied as it is now to corrupt it to an Ignominious discontent I discon-tent with overydny < duty and opportunities oppor-tunities William Dean Jlowells In thc T Tnth AXUVIUW xiiLtriiiuMi ANuriii vmuiniui New York Condensed for Public Opinion Opin-ion tt O S Slnekiewlcz has take posscsslon of the place which was given to him by his admirers In Poland It lies about MO miles southwest of Warsaw in Klclce one of the little Polish governments govern-ments Tho name of the estate Is OWe gorck I which means a besieged mountain moun-tain which shows that It has some connection with the stormy past that the novelist has pictured with such 1m pr s > lvc vividness The house b large and comfortable it Is surrounded by a lovely park and the orchard at last accounts was heavy with the finest fruits of which south Poland boasts The novelist found good cattle and sheep in his pastures 300 acres of ploughed lands ripe with wheat and other cereals and stables well stocked with horses carriages and agricultural Implements Si Sinckiewicz writer honored in his own country In his own day a iI Mr Horace E S udder has Just finIshed fin-ished the first draft of his biography of Lowell It is to be published early In the autumn of 1001 a u t The New York Press ias the following I follow-ing I suppose remarked thc Boston young lady that you are quite conversant con-versant with the poetry of the world Well replied the bright man Ive only read poetry in two languages Ive only read English and Kipling 0 > 15BBT1D15 OF POETRY AND CRITICISM CRITI-CISM < The Rev Stopford Brooke one of the finest critical minds of Kngloivl and author au-thor of the classic little primer of English Eng-lish literature agrees with most critics I I that English poetry of today is not worthy of its great traditions In a recent book containing two lectures on Religion in Llleratuie and Religion In Life he refers to the prolific HUll JIPSS In poKry that prevails at the present period and comments on what he regards as the surprising ttatc of contemporary crltlcusm Should thce conditions continue he pays line literature litera-ture would die ot1 disgust and poetry be drained nf its lIes blood Tho Westminster Gazette rjuotes his views on this subject as folljws We arc left so far as poetical i literature litera-ture Is concerned as vv wvre after the day of Keats in a world almost destitute desti-tute of leading Iders of Ileas which have growth In them Ioeicy has no captains Uehe < < It a steady dirowlion I No inasternHeus such at Tennynon and Browning had to urge Us foiiK i toward to-ward a clear end or till its sails with a steadfast wind It amuses itncll with dilllcult mqtrrs and Ulr I iEil1g rhymes and elnbo atul phrasing nd painting in woidw and scientific trlncs of versing It has no great matter nu line thinking and no profound mission and it Is the icveisj ot sinoli Every magazine nil Pie daily papers pa-pers every pubhshmAhouse Is I filled I I with books about poetry Carping or denouncing or satirizing or praising I without IcnowIofiKO and in astqnlHhinn 1 excess In cannot holt how often I huvc S lately seen in the yarfrs and In hooks that a poet if not superior then equal to Shakespeare has appeared on the stage And all this overwhelming I showerbath of criticism has chilled the world which wanfj nay hungers lot I some warm and living J creation Moreover More-over we are still like Arnold wonrleii 1 by endless dlacusulona uv nothing tiw said Icople who wwt ss of lug who rClllLC non prnvPol v he that cannot mnlerluillun wi 1 v1hl not al thnconl by Julmt eCCflL In lOW 111 to with Jo eilice who pinnflg nccordnnce only forbId u I this worJol to Uft lown ilumlng walls find go to overtlimb the the irtnl gyIit4ics itl 111 like gy wandering Hint tWO ana tics as we are cert an two make four a letter John Ruskin wits a persistent and there fire consequently a writer I int1C in th auto great many oC his opstea lrl I ortens a inn dealer rj graph market One ert1a shillings of Ruskin letter at a few I ely Jn one of these letters I he say apiece clHHnilt everyday mors to me It seems own iut > 10 f day uc It may become little my us I can 1C I live at least on as t of life un would enforce simplicity of life In o Ho had dreams others I time It was his failure rret at that gnrret out In exwrnola us well as in to carry the spirit this course of renunciation one ai letternot that made him slim a the letters now on saleuUr poor friend John Ruskln p S THE LATE OSCAR WILDE About three weeks ago T was fcour tlu address of IiI Ins Purls to discover M Scbastleu Mel no h for the uniposo p statement that he hail of verifying a been unjustly hlHiJ 1 ot a certain ra miulc rights of uilhormlj > AtiUfJS1 Xrlen1 liifornTglf me a French llterarv that the object of my search was lying J faroff Rue little hoel in tic III nt a To save time he had des Beaux Arts called upon him In IMV name M Mel noth wns Oscar Wilde On tlw imo letter In answer to evening I received a my petit blea L InsUnilv answered I ami tjiis in person The once brilliant adulated poctplnwright though in bml looked well Jn he face I The ftrsL part of the couv oration tn his Hid Inllfl > fltlfl hlllll UILLII a s a mixture OL uenanco uim u less I did m best to console him and no suddenly bum into tuarg I felt Icoply moved as he told the sad tnlc I f blight nud miscY through which lie had passed Menwho had been thu recipients ort ri1s generohlly had lx 1 traycd him and trodden him under their cot Perhaps there was some justice in his Availing Then he turned lo religious snbject5 and muttered almost savagely Mucln of my moral obliuuUy is due to the fact that my father would not allow me to become a Catholic The artistic aide of the church and the fragrance of IIH teaching would have curocd my iligon crncles I Intend to be received before long He spoke almost smilingly oC his operation saying that it would eos him fJO adding that he owed nearly hotel VI OOO francs to the 6 The operation In question was lutes yl r linaj and then symptoms of cerebral meningitis set in Leeches were applied to the oars but the patient sank rapidly rapid-ly away Two kind friends Mr Robert Ross and Mr Turner nursed him while Father Cuthbert Dunn one of the British Catholic chaplains from lImA lIm-A vcnue Iloche administered the customary I cus-tomary rites of the church Oscar Wilde tried to articulate the prayers which accompany extreme unction and his I deathbed was one of repentance Tomorrow morning the funeral ser vice Avill take nlace at the Church St Germain des Pres after which the body Avlll be Interred In the Bagneaux cemetery ceme-tery A small cross Alll surmount the grave with the following Inscription Cl git Oscar Wilde Poele et Aulcur Dramatlnue R I PPlllls Correspondence Corre-spondence of the London Chronicle 9 p 0 Mark Rutherford in his forthcoming Journal describes a visit lo Carlyle ut Chelsea In 18G8 The sage who sat at breakfast In a cheerful room was agreeable and frankly talkative Everything Every-thing In the room was in exact order the books on the shelves for instance i being in perfect evenness Mark Rutherford noticed that when Carlyldt replaced a book he took pains togc It even with the others There are left only a few Scotchmen who remember Carlyle In his prime Some old men at Cralgenputtoch describe him sometimes as a sourtempeiod body who did not got on well with his brother the then 1 farmer of Cralgenputloch I eo a I ALFRED AUSTIN AND IIIS CRITICS We have upon more than one occasion occa-sion commented upon the sr > nnt I courtesy 1 sy with which Mr Austins poems have been received by a large section of the j press a scorn which often approaches personal vituperation and which to many appears unseemly A recent number num-ber of the St Paul Pioneer Press contained con-tained a communication headed PaintIng Paint-Ing the Devil Too Black In reply to a recent bitter attack on the poet laureate laure-ate by Mr William Archer of the London Lon-don Chronicle The writer pleaded for at least a small amount of fair play as due alike to a poet anl a gentleman of high mind and noble Impulses It was unjust he contended to denounce Mr Austin for minor blemishes such as can be found In the works of every poet from the time of Shakespeare to that of Browning lie also refreshed American memory by referring to ilr Austins ode of conceded power and grace In which he pealed a trumpet note for AngloAmorlran sympathy at the time of the SpanishAmerican war Mr Austin has hitherto maintained complete silence under the numerous I attacks of his enemies but his defense by l an unknown friend evidently touched him for he wrote as follous to the Avilter In the Pioneer Press Swlnford Old Manor Ashford Kent September 16 1000 Dear SitI have not seen nor am I likely to sec the k 1 criticism by an English writer of whom if I knew nothing but the name your f protest against which you tell me has been publlsed n SCA rrtl American papers pa-pers I read as lltlle as possible of what is written either deprecatory or the reverse concerning myself wishIng wish-ing tobe preserved from that Irritation under censure and that craving for flat 1 tering recognition wnicn you probaoiy l have observed are the most conspicuous conspicu-ous foibles of the artistic temperament as they arc the besettingilstj ers of n literary I I career To have the esteem of the estimable without cultivating an uneasy desire for the praise of those who arc perhaps scarcely qualified lo bestow it ought to content every sensible Avrltor and one has had and Is daily accorded quite enough admiration from those who arc themselves admired to satiate the selflove whlrh must be more or less thC portion of all frail mortals and to satisfy the more worth tho more dignified and the more discriminating discrimi-nating ambition of which no man need he ashamed Nevertheless I thank you and am touched by your wish to discourage what you call unjust criticism jiml h means protest by no by your generous the first that has reached mc from country and you may rest qulto your could confident that nothing any one do will deter me from continu say or Avhcnever the occasion ing to express Impulse accom arises and spontaneous desire lot panIcs it my deepseated for of a manly and inseparable the establishment o d separable friendship between my on of the the people countrymen and United States of America and not to be din For the rest 1 couitcously silent respecting a point on which you insist a very slight acquaintance with human nature Avlll account quaintance then for much count as it acountetf that was written probably little of it sincere In those who wrote and stra less of It believed by those who road it concerning a certain appointment that was mado some four or five years by the sovereign of these realms on ago tho recommendation of her chief Minister l Min-ister who doubtless acted in conformity 1 believed to be the preponderant with what he 4 ponderant ty genuine literary opinion of I bin fellowcountrymen Could Apollo I himself have been appointed Marsyas and his friends and In saying this I t have no Individuals In my mind but only a type and class would hardly have been satisfied But their expressions expres-sions of chagrin have I am told perished I per-ished Of inanition and their own Alo > I lt > noe on this side of the Atlantic and T suppose they will In due course subside j sub-side on yours if they have not don soalready t 4 < I |