New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-09-28
must tell You that sometimes we find occasion to use

must tell you that sometimes we ma occasion W use
an 'obit' during the life OF the subject"
Nor is this the worst of Mr.. Blacks Affections. A
magazine agent wrote to him for critical biogaDh
zeal sketch of his life and works, i'll what seemed TO
Mr.. Black menacing tone He does not tell us
whether he sent it or not but presently out comes
Appletonst Jounal-wh was not the one for which
the application had been made-with not merely
biography but portrait With the portrait Mr.
Black is plainly dissatisfied for he hints that he had
no chance of revising his own features" The
biography he regards as too fa.teriug, though the
likeness was not, but feels surprised and amused
at certain details about his dress his bearing ana
his domestic affairs. All this" he says, rs done
with such ndU simplicity and with such an unmis-
taxable good nature that one perceIqes at glance
that the writer was not aware he was doing any
thing singular or unusual" And the question Mr..
Black repeats is: "Do Americans as a nation see
nothing odd in this curiosityf" The American on
foreign service is hardly in position to answer for
Americans as a nation" so l pass the question on
to the Home Guard. Mr. Blacks letter is not only
humorous but good-humored and nobody need feel
called upon to be indignant at his confession OF the
shock bis modesty has had to sustain at our hands
portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson appears in this
weeks Graphic, accompanied by what is called "a
sketch of the career of this gentleman" The por-
ago. The biographical notice is of the Philistine
kind Some facts of Mr. Emerson's life are given,
with list of his published writings, and painful
effort at an appreciation of them. Thus his " Rep
resentative Mem were, when they appeared consid-
cred to be the most Ineligible of his works. Some
critics. we are told, shave declared him to be one
of the most profound men of the age, while others
have pronounced him to be (sc) a mere seolist and
charlatan. Perhaps the truth lies midway" And
then follow dozen more sentences OF seesaw criti-
cism, such as might have been looked for thirty
years since in o weekly semi-religious country
paper They are out Of place in journal edited, for
the most part with good sense and discrimination.
The Graphic was under obligation to publish
portrait or biography of Mr. Emerson. 1t was under
an obligation to publish, if any, such one as
should be in some degree accurate and worthy OF
the subject, aud not wantonly offensive to Mr.. En-
erson's friends.
current rumor is mentioned as q matter of press
news by The Ahen9um that the London and North
Western Railway Company intends shortly to IN
augurate" train-seryice, by which the London
morning papers may possibly reach Manchester and
Liverpool about o'clock each morning-a service
for which should say the Manchester newspaper
propretors would not thank the London and North
Western Railway. The Manchester papers are.
however, peculiarly well able to hold their own
against the threatened competition. Two of them,
The Guardian and Examiner, are wealthy enterpris-
ing able, and have views of their own which they
know perfectly well how to state. They are IN
fact provincial in almost nothing except that they
are published in Manchester, are they inferior
in any essential particular to several Of the London
dailies What excites my American curiosity is the
statement that this service is to be inauguraed
for find in the first dictionary open that inau-
guraten means "to commence with suitable cere-
moniesn What The AhenGum says, therefore, is
that the London and Northwestern Railway Com
pany intends shortly to commence with suitable
ceremonies new train-service, and l have an ex-
treme desire to know what those ceremonies are to
be G. w. S.