Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-06-25
My First Interview With yyords.
worth,

I walked. says Captain Trelawnv. Ia
Lausanne to breakfast at the hotel vim
an old friend, Captain Daniel Roberts.
OF the navy. He was out sketshipr'
but presently came in accompanied nv
two English ladies. with whom he had
made acquaintance while drawing. and
whom he brought to our hotel. The
husband OF one Of them soon followed.
saw by their utilitarian garb, Is we'll
~ by the blisters and blotches on their
cheeks, lips and noses, that they were
pedestrian tourists, fresh from the snow
covered mountains, the blazing sun and
frosty air having acted on their un-
seasoned skins Is boiling water does on
the lobster, by dying his dark coat
scarlet. The mau WAS evidently den.
izen OF tho north, his accent harsh, skin
white, Of an angular and bony build.
and self-conident aad dogmatic in his
opinions. The precision and quaint
ness Of his language, as we'll as his &c.
centric remarks on common things,
stimulated my mind. Our icy islanders
thaw rapidly when they have drifted
into warmer latitudes- broken loose
from its anti.social system, mystic
castles, coteries, sets and sects they
lay aside their purse proud. tuft-hunt-
ing and toadying ways, and are very
apt to run riot in the enjoyment OF all
their senses. Besides, We are COM
PEELED to talk in strange company, if
not from good breeding, to prove our
breed, as the gift of speech is often our
principle il not sole distinction from
the rest of the brute animals.
10 return to our breakfast. The
travellers, flushed with health. dslighte
with their excursion, and with appetites
earned by bodily and mental activity,
were 10 such Ligh spirits that Roberts
and caught the infection of their
mirth we talked as loud and fast as if
under the celebrating influence OF
champagne, instead of such sedativo
compound as cafe au iait. l can rescue
nothing out of oblivion but . few last
words. The stranger expressed his dis
gust at the introduction of carriages
into the mountain districts of Switzer.
land, and at the old foRies who used
them.
las to the arbitrary, pitiless. Goddess
wretckes," he exclaimed, "who have
removed natures landmarks by cutting
roads through Alps and Apenninas, I'M
til all things are reduced to the same
dead level, they will be srraiened here
after with the uni ust-they have 70 bbed
the best specimens of what men should
be of their freeholds in the mountains !;
the eagle, the black cock and the red
deer, they have tanned or exterminated.
The lover of nature eau nowhere find a
solitary neck to contemplate her beau
ties. Yesterday" he continued, sat
the break of day I sealed the most rug
ged height within my reach; it looked
mace essible; this pleasant delusion was
quickly dispslled; was rudely startled
cut of q deep reverie by the accursed
jarring, jingling, and .rumbling Of Q
caleche, and harsh voices that drowned
the torrents fall"
The stranger, now hearing commo-
ton in the street, sprang on his feet,
locked out of the window, aud rang. the
bell violently.
Waiter he said, " is that our car
riage7 Why did you not tell as?
Come, lnssies, be stirring. the freshness.
of the day is gone. You May rejoice t
not having to walk there 10 chance
Of saving the remnants OF skin tho Gun
has left on our chins and noses. To-day
We shall 10 stewed instead of bar
becued."
On their leaving the room to get
ready for their journey, my friend
Roberts told me the strangers were the
poet Wordsworth his wife, and sister.
Who could have OWNED this? !
could see no trace, in the hard features
and weather stained brow of the outer
man, of the divinity within him. In u
few minutes the travellers re.appeared |;
We cordially shook hands, and agreed
to meet again at Geneva. Now that l
knew that was talking to one OF the
veterans Of the gentle craft, as there
was no time to waste in idle ceremony.
asked him abruptly what he thought
of Shelley As o poet.
Nothing" he replied. as abruptly.
Seeing my surprise, he added. "A
boet who has not produced good psem
before he is twenty-five We may con-
clude cannot, and never will do So"
".Tne Cenci 2" I said eagerly.
"Won't do" he replied, shaking his
ueAu, No hO SOe Ahso s>~S wa
rough coated Scotch terrier followed
him.
This hairy fellow is our fea, trap
he shouted out as they started OH.
When recovered from the shock OF
having heard tho harsh sentence passed
by an elder bard on younger brother
Of the muses., l exclaimed
after all. poets are but earth. 1t is
the old story-envy-Caln and Abel.
Professions, sects, and communities in
general, right or wrong, hold together.
men of the pen excepted II one OF
their guild is worsted in the battle,
thew do as the rocks do by their inky
brothers-Ay from him, cawing and
screaming if they don't fire tho shot,
thew sound the bugle to charge"
l did not then know that the full
OF his contemporaries. except to cut
them up in = revisw-ttat being work
of love. In after years, Shelley being
dead, Wordsworth confessed this fact:
He was then induced to read some OF
Sheliey's poems, and admitted that
Shelley was the greatest master OF hsr'
monious verse in our modern literature.
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