Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-05-12
GenIusin q Ferment.
Correspondence New York Herald ]
IoHnnN Anril % 1879


1t was the talk of London not a
very long while ago that Mr., Swim
burne, the most popular of Eng-
lands poets, had been expelled
from one of his clubs-the Arts
Club-although the cause of this
rebuke, thanks to the reticence of
the aggrieved members, was not
made public. On the whole, con-
siderable Indignation prevailed that
the members Of the club had not
been willing to condone the poets
ofense for the sake Of his genius.
The facts of the case were these:
Swinburne, as is unfortunately too
well known, although it is at the
shrine of Aphrodite that he offres
incense in the verse, is himself pos
sessed and tormented by an imperi-
ous demon in the service of Bac-
chus - humiliating confession |!
Much had the members of the
club endured from his vagaries
and caprices in moments of excite
ment, and hitherto endured in
silence. But on one unfortunate
evening he encountered a friend
one of those friends who are al
ways ready to prove their devotion
to a man of genius by hattering his
yices-and who became his COM
panion in an orgy of debauch,
Proposing to leave the club, the
poet could not find his hat, when
| yielding to the frenzy to which
such temperaments, wrought upon
by unnatural stimulants, are liable,
| he seized the hats of the members,
hurled them in a wild rage upon
the floor, and performed upon them
| what must have been, according to
the description | have had of it, an
| Indian war dance, with an accom-
paniment of ferociops gesture and
outrageous war-whoop. What were
those injured and hatless members
to do? The time had come when
endurance ceased to be virtue.
Respect for the genins Of the au-
thor Of "Atlanta" and the "Songs
before Sunrise had persuaded
| them to submit to many annoy
lances, bnt the destruction Of
twenty or thirty polished stove
pipes, danced before their eyes to
| q shapeless mass, was the final blow
which arouses to rebellion. Was
this likewise to be endured ? The
gods of Philistia forbid the newt
able decree. Sternly they met to-
gether with the set lips and reSo'
lutte brows, resolving that the time
for action had come. AS respect.
able British citizens no longer could
they allow decency to be outraged
and hats inundated even by
genius who had proclaimed "mau
| the master Of things y who had
wiped out God with a sneer; over
turned His desecrated affairs and
danced upon them with the nimbl(
| feet of his resounding rhythms ;
war dance not less frantic than the
one Just executed for their OWL
beneft-not even to such a geniu;
could be allowed the privilege o
destroying hats with impunity
They would have preferred to avoi(
| the scandal, but it was in vain
Swinburne was expelled. The poe
is a warm and devoted friend o,
the painter and poet Rosetti, an(
has proved his devotion in man,
ways, not only in their persona
Intercourse, but in the splendit
tribute which he has paid Rosetti'
genius in his critical review of hi
poems and yet even this friend
ship has not always been undim
med by clouds. Some years ago h,
was in the habit Of spending
great deal OF his time at RosettP
house, and on one occasion, sool
after he had left him, a lady in
ouired of the artist hoy he haC
been able to separate from bis be
loved Pythias. "Alas madame,
Rosetti replied, zone grows wear,
) of carrying even ones best frien'
up stairs every night" Anothe
lady expressed her regret that Mr.
Swinburne's habits were such tha
she was unable to invite him to he
sho,isa posatti aroused her iOVfu