New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-29

Candidly malevolent friends were tnere' roi u"
blessings he was thankful. He had capltai mousse
frst-ate chef six fine horses, and as for society-a
little CORPS d,plomdGqae of pleasant folk and their
| wives, with whom they lived on easy terms Oh
| familiar intercourse; meeting every evening some
| where and dining occasionally at the Grand Duhe
! court when asked-an this very socially and very
happily. There were neither beauties nor geniuses
to make their wives jealous or themselves uneasy
| and g. p II. James aud he had very comtortaDie
time of it, the game all their own. The royal u'h-
ners took place at two with lots of Grashen whist
| in the evening" Here Lever kept open house. lie
| waylaid all bis travelling friends, and his mousse
was always full. Through the straight and regu-
larly built streets of CarlsTuhe, which radlate from
the Palace like the spokes of a wheel Lever daily
drove puzzing people rather than creating the SEN
| sation he aimed to produce. One of his most at
tached friends through life and his daily companion
at this time is reluctantly bound to admit that he
was not without some eccentrcitesi suoh as ridihR
at full speed through the streets OF Carlsrnhe' WIN
| his children, and sometimes even Mis- Lever at
tired in very conspicuous habiments with long
flowing curly locks of auburn so that the people ~
! first took him for a circus proprietor"
After leaving Carlsruhe in 1916 he travelled up
and down in different parts of Europe ana al length
settled for time among the romantic passes OF
|
| franlness of detail. "Our carriage was large ana
comfortable oalecbe and our team, four horses the
leaders of which, wcll-bred and thriving-ooking,
served as saddle horses when needed There was
something very glpsy-ike in this rowing uncertain
existence that had no positive bent or limit, and
! left every choice of place open question, that
gave one intense enjoyment. 1t opened TO me views
of Continental lie, scenery, people, and habits
should certainly never have attained to by other
modes of travel Not only were our journeys neces-
sarly short each day, but frequently sojourned
in little villages, and Out-oftheworld spots where,
pleased by the place itself and the accommodation
afforded we would linger on for day havingat our
disposal the total liberty of our time and all our
nearest belongings around u.s."
In 1S47 he bent his way to Florence, where his
mode of life and family surroundings were no less
| strongly marked by his whimsical cratic tenden-
cies than they had been in Northern Europe. The
Tuscan capital was O gay place In his time. lie
specially liked It's Cascinethe Hyde Park of Flor
ence-full of bright parterres and brighter flower
girls selling bouquets with the langmd grace pecu-
liar to Italian fe or rendering refreshing fruit to
the half-baked traveller in view of the yneclad
hills from which their baskets had been filled.
Eventde, which in Italy brings increased life and
| movement, found the Cascme lit up with the glow
worm and freely rushing ia meteOrc flight. 1t
never occurred to Lever that the whipcord of COM
ment was welded unsparingly over his own turn
| OUT Horses were his harmless hobbies, some of
them of piebald hue, and these he drove en- srande
caualodde through the crowded avenue of La Cas-
cine People gaped at his party as they passed, and
more than one sarcastically said that the dashng
| Irshman must be Pablo Fanque, or Franconi from
| Paris. HIS children on horseback, and all very
Electrically attired usually accompanied him."
Pleasanter IL was after one of those delightful dinners
for which he seemed 10 mold patent, 10 SIT on the ter
race of his Villa slipping caret eysum Of creations
his fertile fancy In view OF maze OF richly wooded
| gens, from some of whose depths gusled the light
| spray of boiling mountain torrent and from others
the blue SMOKE of some humble homestead curling up
| wards. In the distance mountains rose snOw-capped
and Jagged hut at last brilliantly red as the rays Of the
setting sun kissed their brow; while, home the
rich soil, rent with heat, threw up from It's afiuence
yellow gourds and luscious melous In cooler weather
he danced and fenced 10 the same ghtheart2d way as
in early sehooldays when supeysed by Montague ana
Sateile. Pleasantly challenging captain M ana SELF
ING the FOIL lie discarded the mask when urged 10
wear it, simply replying, OF course you won't bit Inc
the face" and then proceeded to strike out with
The Grand Dukes Court at Florence was very splen
did spectacle HIS income was considerable aud the
entire style observed in his household in keeping
with the solid gold plate from when MS guests were
! Hospitality served He spoke English fuently, and
room TO and from coterie 10 coteIie, Offering
| pleasant words to everybody.
| slant guest In one part of the palace" observes
Mrs. NJ csrd-playing would be going on while the
intoxicating whrl of the dance would hold in
other When deep in his Of whist and with me as his
| partner he often. hearing tayore air struck
up by the band. flung down his cards saying, must
give my little wife turn : which having done, he
at all times the dance of which he was most fond Mrs
Lever snail and nc so fat that in heeng and toe
ing 1t must admit he cut rather cOmical figure but
ali admired bis abiding love for her; and he certainly
looked supremey happy IN her eompsnlonsiP
rehuquished dancing, and emsrked that nothing short
Of an Irish jig could temp hum to the effort But
diligence ere obesity compelled him to abridge It,"
The last important remove in Levers wayward
career was to the little cosmopolitan city of Trieste,
where he was appointed TO a sineoure office con-
| sui. He accepted the appointment with alacrity,
but according to his own account, it was "One of
the drearest, duest, vulgarest dens IN all Europe
| From this time his fortunes began more and more
to droop, and his life, which had passed INTO the
sere and yellow leaf" became almost painful bur-
| den. The Spring of 1868 found him unable to do
aught but nurse his poor wife who grew weaker
| and weaker aud her suffering acute. He de-
scribed himself disabled by watching and anxiety
he had engagements and work to do, but could not
do t-a thought even harder than not to be able to
| find employment; fort sent the canker back into
! mans own heart, and made him regard himself as
| exhausted and worn out One more turn of work
| out of his tired brain was, he said the most he
could hope for ere he finished but he really desired
| that peace which avoids discussion as to ones
writings-that wearsome inquiry as to whether
you are growing better or growing wOrse-showing
new signs of vitality, or living the memory of
past successes He added that life. after fye-and-
thirty was very poor fun if it were even pleasant
UP to that but the run homo after man had
Turned the corner Of middle age was unmitigated
drea1iness. On the whole however, he bore his
trials philosop hicay-using btters just a man
would tonics-in order to purify and strengthen q
shattered system"
The literary position of Lever is slightly, but
Justly enough, summed up In an estimate quoted by
his biographer, which describes him as eclpsed in
analytic power, like that OF Balzac, by Thackeray,