, 1873-03-09
Baron Stockmar's Memoirs
The Literature of
America.
"Penny-AWfuls "--. DarWin's Scientific
Observation-Disclosures and
His Daughter.
How Charles Lever Got the Materials for
His Charaeters---The Children OF
the London Poor.


In the Cornhiu,
THEoPHlLE GAUT1En,
whose death has evoked 80 wide sympathy and
lament, is described with very keen apprecia-
ton OF his character and his formative circuu-
stances. To those who take their French Iite1a-
ture Us one takes IN ice or cobbIer, Gautier is
KNOWN as writer OF popular books OF travel,
or again OF short stories, or critical feuilotona
On painting and the drama in the newspapefs.
Scarcely any ono who reads any French literature
at all but will have come ACROSS, whether at rail-
way booksta]ls in vacation or otherwise, one OF
the volumes of travellers descriptions, such as
"Tra Los Montes,"-the earliest Of them all !;
such as the "Voyage en- Russie," the "Ita1ic,'
the "Quand on Voyage" and the rest; or, ngain,
one of the volumes Of short atories, such
as that ca1lod "Eomans ct Confess" or 'La
Peau de Tgro." But his greatest work was
in journalism That it should have been 30 is
not strange, in riew Of his facile and manifold
abilities for that pleasant style, that plant
humor md large gayety, that fau1tlessness OF
descriptive nrt, could not fail to hare been
swept into the all-compclling current of jour-
nalism but it is ln singular contradiction to tie
ferceness OF his early denunciation Of TINT
profession:
Tho reading Of nenspapera he had satd, interfsrea
ing. Newspapers the death Of books, as artillery
had been tho death Of individual prowesa Newspapers
stripped everything Of It's freshness They made It in
possible to have the first Of anything ali to yourself
They spoiled the surprise Of the theatre by telling you
beforehand how the play was going to end. They
and tttieatte and docked your drawing-room priv.
leBe OF being week before the rest Of the world In
they desteuod you despite Yourself Sh res5made @
Es Sis you sansa 4ns ~ gse oo 1's a
Of hearing each native and individual speak
secondhand edds and ends Of newspaper wisdom You
hours old, and knew a the wllo that every baby in
Rims Was as well up yourself. Your trste got dead
reading. Within few mouths Of this trade, tho cur
rent had caught him. Ba1zac just starting his
Of de- snssine JOIN bis sta ou1g Ghs 1os
the origin OF friendship OF Gautier for Ba1zac which
ONLY ended with Balances death.
In 1887 began his connection with La Presse,
which continued seventeen years, until 1856,
when ha joined the staff Of the Aoniteur.
THE AGRICULTURAL 1ADoRER
Is the most troublesome member Of the British |
economy. So wretched is his fare, and so de- |
plorable his condition, that he is almost in real
ity skeleton in the cloaot of English states
manship. 4 writer in the Co1zhiU, who does
not believe, with Goldsmith, that all the charms
which solaced the lot Of the British peasantry
are gone:
1ne7e id hodna tny oo"ess tneaz eneer7oA anauence
These thy charms but Ill these charms are aod
nor: with Crabbe, contrasting the fancled happi-
~ ~, w ,,.,taa 49, han,.,, han1.,,- s..a
Fjenteons and rla,n. which harry ne.sants s,,ra,
Oh, trihe not with wants you cannot feel
oe1 ua he e5y Ct a ao penv such
a. you who praise would never de'gn to touch,-
gives this description Of their daily labor:
goes forth to his abor amid the scenes Of nature
tudes, which never ouotonous, nerer depressing,
never squalid- His work Is Of kind which to many
down the winding path through the copse where the
Noodpgeons are coong past the old gray church, and
noisy 70 rest up the Struggling street eotasss Iii
reaehes his own Little home with its gasden its apple
trees and nd It's To say TINT be ts insen1iee i1
which only cultivated taste can apprecdate, is to be-
tray stark ignorance Of his nature Ha aa moreover
personally 10 the heads Of it whom in sickness,
o 10 o. bsa an1 nes
labor il besthy and dgnied lis neahbors sre Gndly
aud generous.
The discussion which follows, concerning the
Interest 1or 4fnerican readers. Va ronrint a.
tot t1.,a ~ ~ ~
wages of English fa1m-laborers:
The mean money vaecs OF the English agricultural
ed oa sea as IS wesk to
pccount Of piece work harvest work and perqusites
and Thai when ,ve hive done TINT We hoye further to
add on The earnings Of his wife and children wher-
ever these are employed In tho lowest paid districts
Mr. Bailey Denton sets weekly wages los I'd week.
Rnd the value OF MI extras at IS cd. A Hampshire
rnruar tells the preseut writer that during tho
ses1s 1884, 1857 and l0ss hs average aborefs got from
hing, money Tor beer. pece work md harvest Work, no
other per9uisites being allowed but The carriage Of
XII ovss ~ "reraga For the hree xe5rs of 15a ID
Tees. And neither he nor Nj. Denton takes into ac-
ben ine t a ~hs ns os l s
md as their nay when e1nployed, would be about
= ca ~eeT We san1os allow lsta u thsa e - ~esh tof
IS Cd, would be below the average, so TINT gives Us
otal Of e for the family earnings independently Of
;ether. we get rs wee5. or s5e 1os year a. tie
alue Of the earnings Of regularly employed Hamp-
,elp him. Ne have pu1poaely put the earnings OF vile
md children ut lower amount than we believe them
then.