Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-08-25
o FOR ANOTHER ,
An Interview with Thomas Carlyle, the
Great English Essayist- He Thinks
Everybody Going Wrong.

Al AuAtENlth MitN AHOHldS NaAAgACs I'M
Great English Essayist- He Thinks
Everybody Going Wrong.
Rev. DR.. Cuyieri in the New York Evangelist
LONDON, July 22-Twenty-nineyea
acquiring a cOllege-bOy visit to Eng
landI had a most interesting interview
with Thomas Carlyle. His conversation
proved very fertilizing. Having a great
desire to see once more the veteran who
has placed thirty volumes Of his produe-
tons in English libraries, Isent him a
friendly message He invited me 10 his
little plain house in Cheyne row.
Chelsea. Taking an intimate friend
into the "bansOmn with me, we sailed
off on a hunt for the lion. We drove
through fashionable West End, on to
! the banks Of the Thames. There we
found an antique house, on whose corner
we read the Inscription. "rhis is Great
/ Cheyne Row" In n Of the oldest Of
the brick houses in this row dwells-and
for forty years has dweit-the most ex-
traordinary Of living English mel Of
letters. Not an article seemed to have
been changed I'm the house since nv
previous visit in 1872. The good faithful
wife who dWelt there then has since
UHA-eQ away " Tie ElltlL AduN.- an
else looked unaltered. L sent ND our
names, and We were shown into a plain
" furnished ROOM, on whose walls hung
a rugged portrait Ofbrave Oliver Crom-
well. Presently an old nan apparently
over three score and ten, walked very
slowly into the rOOm. He was attired
in . long blue wooden gown reaching
down to his feet His gray hair was in
an uncOmbed mop on his head. Bis
clear blue eye was sharp and piercing
A bright tiDge of red was on MS thin
cheek; and his hand trembled as he took
our own. This most singular parsonage
who reminded me Of an old alchymisJ
was the author of "HerO Worship
and the French Revolution He
commenced at Once-after a few iDquir-
les about LOngieilOw, Bryant, and other
American Tiends-a most characteristic
discourse on the fearful ~degeneracy of
this wretched age of decisions and i'm
pOstures. With great vehemence of
manner be said that " England has gone
clean down into an abominable and
damnable cesspOOi o lies, and shOddies
and shamel" The first of these which
he specified were the swindling Joint
stock company, and new schemes for
turning everything into gold. "AbOmi-
nable cOntrivances for turning commerce
and rade into a villanOus rouge e HOir.n
He described the present turmoil on the
labor question as simply a lazy trick
Of both master and man TO get as much
pay and to do as little work as they pos
sibiy can" He then broke out into a
terrible denunciatiOn of dramshops and
" whUskey,' which il did my soul good
to hear. Cough never surpassed the
red-hot vehemence of the old mans
philippe against " the horrible and
detestable damnatiOn of whuskey and
livery kind O. strong drink" He is
heartily in favor of the p~rOhibitOry
movement, but has no faith in parlia-
ments, and none at all in any living
man now controlling civil affairs. He
gave US an intensely ludicrOus picture
OF a night he once spent in Parliament
listening to An 4" infinite babblement Of
windy talk, and endless grinding Of
hurdy-gurdies, grinding out lies and
inanities.' But at last the old Duke of
Wellington arose, and then, said Carlyle,
" he stammered away for fifteen min
utes; but he was the only man in the
House who gave me any credible pOr-
traiture of the facts 1 asked him his
opinion Of the man whom we in Anne
RIGA honor as the most eloquent and
brave Of living British statesmen.
Carlyle's c-OntemptuOus reply was,
. Only a shOp-keeper-a mere bagman
man VINO treats England as only q
big shop; he ought never to go into the
of Commons without a white
apron tied under his armstff 80 for
another Oliver CrOmweIlt'i exclaimed
the old man. 81 have gone down to the
very bottom Of divers speeches; and
let me tell YOU that nothing in Demos
themes or any other man can compare
with him in the piercing into the verita-
bic and credible core of the fact. But in
these days parliamentary elOquence is
only a detestable and damnable babble-
nent Of impOsture and lies ~ And this
red-hOt a of denunciatiOn was poured
out in n unceasing stream for nearly
half an hour, until he wound up by cOn-
pretty much everything and
everybody to a "bOttOmless POOL Of
everlasting damnation-in whatever
meaning you may give to that word"
This wonderful harangue was delivered
n broad Scotch brogue, and with the
most lndicrOus twistings Of c-Ountenance.
At times the old man stopped and
aughed heartily at his own ~caricatures.
IN TACT / was constantly puzzled to detect
whether he was in downright earnest, or
vas only an intellectual Samson pulling
1AA6 AA@AAAA IL ANAlNI AA1hE
port" for bis wondering guests. But
here was something indescTibably sad
q the spectacle Of this powerful old
,cOtchman hurting contempt at almost
'veTything under the sun, and venting
utter despair of anything hopeful in
he providence of God or the future of
humanity. Carlyle, in days past, has
sOme of the grandest truths
our times have heard But his
ynicism has grown morbid. And as
be Oldham shambled away in his blue
own I looked after him in mingled
maZement and tenderest pity. He is
be psychological marvel of the age.
UGH astonishing a~cuteness, and yet such
stOnishing absurdity-sUeh faith in the
everlasting facts" and vet such scott
lg scepucism-such hatreds of wrongs,
yet such defenses Of certain wrongs
were eve before combined in any
of genius in u generation. 1t is
that Bible-IOving Scotland
lOuld be represented in the same aer
y Thomas Chalmers and Thomas