Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-07-25
Carlyle Upon Men and Things.

A charming companion with his
friends. he has no love for promiscuous
acq uaintance, and in fact sincerely
holds to his famous article of belief,
that most men are fools, at all events,
most Englishmen; for he thinks at
heart that most Germans are, to say the
least of it, good fellows. As to his
opinion of Americans it is briefly ex
pressed in the pithy saying that Amer.
lean institutions have SIMPLY produced
a population of forty thousand bores.
Frenchmen he disiikes with an unrea.
soning aversion. He does not believe
in them, not even in NJ. Gambetta. He
never did believe in them. Being in
Paris drawing-rOom on the oath of
February, 1SiS, deputy rushed in,
almost wild with excitement, and au-
nounced the proclamation of the re
public. Instead OF exhibiting Il proper
amount Of awe at the tidings, Mr.. Car
lyle burst out into an immOderate tit of
laughter, and almost immediately af-
terward took leave from his hosts, still
laughing. He considers the abolition
Of slavery q mistake, and the benefits
of free press altogether illusory. The
Catholic Church aud Mr.. Darwin are
both hopelessly in The wrong. The lat
ter is an atheist without knowing it. As
for the former, Mr.. Carlyle has all the
old Scotch Presbyterian prejudices
against the scarlet lady. The true re-
ligion is one which Goethe imagined,
but forgot to explain. Meanwhile
everybody's duty Is to obey-whom,
Mr.. Carlyle is not quite sure.
In his habits Mr.. Carlyle is above all
things regular aud temperate to de-
gree. He has none OF what are fairly
enough described as the minor
vices" at least, {" hardly any, for he
loves pipe, and could not, therefore,
qualify for admission into the most vir.
tuous of societies, the anti-tobacco
league. So far from being an epicure,
he rather disconnected the company at
a memorable supper party given by Sir
William Hamilton, by refusing to take
anything more than potato. He ex-
pressed himself by saying that in those
days q potato constituted al excellent
supper, and regrets that potatoes, like
other things. have since degenerated.
Talking of vegetables, he once described
Lord Clarendon as u" boiled leek kind
OF statesman, clearly not fit to tie the
shoestrings Of Bismarck. This was ut
dinner party given in 1866, and Mr..
Carlyle, at the same time, took care to
express his contempt for the English
reform agitation, then at its height
"Of ali the proposals ever made" he
observed in grave, sad tone, this one
to give power to the uneducated is the
most fatuous. M. Walpole should not
have she'd tears into Edward Beales
hat, but have kicked that gentleman
down the stairs of the home Office"
We all know he is a worker; but not
all men know to how severe test his
industry patience and courage were once
put. He lent his manuscript OF the
French revolution to the late Mr.. Mill,
who in turn lent it to Mrs. Taylor. She,
through some unaccountable careless
ness, allowed it to drop from her
hand to the floor 1.-THE lady cannot have
slept over that most glowing and pic
turesque of narratives p without pick
ing it up, and the next morning a
housemaid duly lighted the fire with
the priceless leaves. Mill went to re-
count the mishap to his friend. and
looked SO thoroughly syllable of re-
proach, that he was at much pains to con-
sole him. But the loss was u real calam-
ity, for Carly had kept no copy, and the
rewriting of the work he has described
as "anguish." 1t was accomplished in
six months.-Load0n Truth.
Trodo in ChiIdrnn