The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-15
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

| there steals the low Eolian music o
of the hazy past, and now and again the cage
ear catches strains, almost forgotten, so ten
der, so expressive that the youth-life comes
| to US, and the "was" becomes the sis" The
secret closets of the heart throw open theil
doors and the wealth Of by-gone treasures are
once more exposed to the less gladstone eye
of age. In the twilight of our years sound
voice, sends the memory rushing back to the
sunlit pastures of youth, and attic and garnet
prison and mansion fade away in the misty
picture of those days when Cinderella was q
reality and Jack and the Beanstalk near &C.
quaintance.
This fairy age, the time when the plastic
mind is awaiting the delicate touch of the
artists hand, is our golden age, and in other
years neither adversely nor prosperity can re.
strain ones taking longing look back "and
thinking of the days that are no more" The
| merry music of Queen Mab's chorus, the
silvery echoes of elm voices, the sweet faces
of poetic "faeries," all hover about us as the
name of Hans Christian Andersen is told; and
summer afternoons, when weakly boy pored
over the magical pages of his creations, are
once more here, and time seems dead.
Thackeray, in the tenderness Of his noble
spirit, describes very tearfully how old Mr..
Newcome, after long and eventful life, re-
turned to his old college room and falling
sick saw the approach of his last day. The
evening light stole in through the window,
the echo of the boys shouts followed the
light, and when the end came the tired
scholar answered his masters call with
"Adsum Il am here
Hans Andersen, too, has had his name
called. The gentle spirit which in it's purity
had sought to throw around the lives of others
the softenipg influences of higher, ideal,
existence has answered "adsum," and now
the boys on the playground become silent,
the school room is hushed. The story teller
has ended his greatest tale-his life.
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Den
mark, in the small town of Odense, on April
2, 1906. Ms father was a poor shoemaker of
the place, and his labors brought but poor
return, for the family were at times sorely
pressed for the bare necessities of life. The
rugged fields of this Norseland home afforded
the scantiest means of subsistence for those
who titled the soil, and those who depended
upon the surplus Jared badly indeed.
1t an early age Hans was sent to charity
school in the neighborbood, where besides
OF reading the Danish language
be heard the wild and wierd legends SO COM
mon to those les bound lands.
When nine years old, just as he had mas
tered the art of reading, he was taken from
school and sent to the house of the widow of
4 Clergyman near his home, where he was en-
ployed, even at that early age, rs reader
1t was whilst reading aloud to his mistress
that he became acquainted with literature,
aud received as it were his first glimpse at
the world of beauty beyond. The boy, some
what precocious, imbibed in grateful draughts
Of knowledge, and during the three
years he remained with the widow he
advanced considerably. However pleas
INT this employment may have been to Hans it
brought in but little to the family of his then
widowed mother, SO he was compelled to leave
The situation and enter upon more severe labor
n mandatory near his native town. 1t was
mere, it might be said, his life really began.
Thrown as he was upon the world, with a
mother to assist, his latent energies were
brought out, and we find the boy of thirteen
working hard all day, and devouring every
hing readable within his reach at night.
Naturally, the stories he gathered of "the
world ava produced a feeling of discomfort,
md Re expressed resolution of joining
land Of plhysfs from Copenhagen, and
doping the stage Tor livelihood.
In this he failed, and still filed with the
anne strong desire, he applied to the manage
nent of the theater at the capital for posi-
ion and again met with rebuff. This ap- |
'arently cured him, for shortly afterwards he
ried to apprentice himself to master car
,enter. but without success. Then came the
lark days Of his life. Without money or
riends who were able to assist, he was re-
uced to the verge of want, and many were
he nights he went supperless to bed, and
many the days he Jared on only one scant
zeal.
Necessity seemed to have drawn him out.
lis mind could not bear to be confined to the
assive endurance Of his troubles, and break
ag through the cares surrounding him he
olowed his literary inclinations and wrote
everal Danish tragedies which, however,
ever received public notice, and they fell
feless without having made the least i'm
ression. They, however, had one effect
'hich afterwards benefited him greatly, and
nat was that Counsellor Co lin, wealthy and
lhuential man who welded considerable
over, became impressed by the young mans
bilities. He interested himself in Hans be-
alf, and obtained from the King an order for
is free admission to the government gym
asia. From this school Andersen went to
ollege, and soon became favorably kno Tn by
is poetical writings.
He was oranted q 1aaye of ahcpona ond ar