New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-01

dent-elect said If the old CarthdGnian was missing
he should feel bad and the ball season Is OH anu
we are creeping on the fshy borders OF Lent per-
haps can be spared for o few days. The CABINET
will all get buttOnhOle posey and feel smart. AL
nv veteran age it is coming to Do matter OF re-
memhrance to be poseyed up by the original anu
cnly John who wandered from the marrs OF ola
clothes and cheap auctions to be florist ana III
terateur.
THE OLD BOHEMIAEs.
How thin is the skin of poets and particularly OF
poetical critics Praising Willie Winters revival
of Fitz James OBrien week ago L am re-
warded with such tears and boOhOO as are ascnDed
to little Monk Lewis at some great ladys reception
"What's the matter. Lewis !" asked plain prose
writer coming il. "Why do you cry into your
soup7"
"Oh!" exclaimed the tender-sOuled Lewis, the
Duchess spoke so kindly 20 mel"
Never mind my dear fellow, dare say she
didn't mean it,"
don't think all that stale beer is worth two live
peoples quarreing over it. One trait of the little
Bohemian junta in New-York twenty years ago was
their excessive jealousy of any fresh writer and it
is to he hoped that particular folly buried with the
majority of them. The assembling of literary
women and in beer cellars publicly to celebrate
their brief nOtOriety nightly and sing 1T in set songs
as if it was something praiseworthy cannot be
made into anything regrettable, and has gone like
other humbugs. He is not wise friend who raises
an issue on Of that junta and all that survive
are not on speaking terms with each other. Inc
poet and talemaker OBren was theeXceptional man
of achievement there, and was possible precursor
of Bret Harte The patron of Harte IL California Joe
Lawrence, publisher of The Golden Era paper was
buried recently at Bayside, Long Island.
In individuality O'Brien's poetry is long way be-
hind Poe's but it is more stalwart, gracious and
heathful. He came to New-York about two years
after Poe died. He had his nose broken by prize
fighter, and was killed by riding into troop, hrlng
his pistol Fontenoy fashion. Ont Of half dozen
prefaces about him, the following. from Winter is
all can find satisfying to the curiosity;
81 first met him in Boston as literary agent for Ma
tilda Heron (about 1850 He had an utter and unai
fected irreveTence for various camphorated hgure-
heads which were then an incubus upon American
letters observed that stalwart mind and formula
BILE frankness of temperament for which he was re-
| morkabe Mental toll and bodily privation, the
hardships of gypsy lifo the reactionary sense OF
heinq in false positions and of being misunderstood,
had done their work upon his nature and made him
i'm some of his moods awless, arrogant ana trucu-
lent as in others he was gentle, resigned, affection
| nte and almost forlorn. In his face and carriage
| there was the strong and splendid freedom OF the
will, winds; yet at times there came INTO his eyes
weary look of unrest and quite indescnDaole hsht
of dangerous, half-sumbrring wrath, rs OF a soul
that was a hunted yagabond standing sentinel over
! its own desOation."
! This Is rather better Than any OF CBrlen's own
prose HIS short stories neither poetica in Ian
! guaqe. nor remarkable III human pOrtralture. nor
designed with tinesse or dramatic finish. There 10
narrative individuality about them. and often
triteness of story motive, seeming to SHOW that
they were ground ont for money, without either lire
o fancy OF the authors reasonable interest IN his
| own.
"Tbe Diamond Lens better known than any
! thing he ever did, has this plain anatomy Inc
| story teller is monomauiao for microscopy he
co,splts n spiritualist and is told BY au ancient
nlcroscope-makers ghost to get certain quali'y OF
diamond and use il for lens lie murders Jew to
steal such a diamond. and looking at drop OF water
| through il sees a world, in which is ~ woman 40
beoutful that he loves her madly, yet she dies of
the evaporation of her world, while he observes her
| shrVel with il.
"The Golden Ingot" is n better idea: an achemist
making gold ne supDoses, and accusing ms
daughter of squanderIng it, while she, by her labor
provides the only ingot that results, and sips 1t
again and again into his assay, fearing he may die
of 4 broken heart if not successful He finds 1t out
| at last, and dies.
| would not have it understood that OBrien's
tales were not in their day surprising and do not yet
deserve place in tho permanent laboratory Oh the
protesque and goblin
PSYCHOLOGICAL STORIES.
! This branch of literature the Psychological story
| took its rise with William Godwin's novels pub
! li,hed in England in Washiugton's Administration
| which Influenced those Of BrOckden Brown IN
| America Brown died in ISL at forty
years of age. and that year Edgar
| 4 Poe was born Poe shows the influence Of
hut, n
guardians he also fell under the spell of Goethe, and
nf German literature, all more or less metaphysical
which ColeridQe, Walter Scott and others wero
translatinQ and initiating Kit North began
BIocklroofs Magazine IN 1917, and the short story
and the goblin poem became necessity to all maya
zines and Continental literature was the source Of
noply. Now observe the dates OF these pubhca-
! lions in order:
Goetne's Faust, 1905.
| Mrs Shcllcy'S Frnkenstein. 1910.
! Irying'a Iap YIN Wrinkle. ISIS
Po,'s TIir-. 1si3.'IO
| Hmwthornc'- scarlrt Letter, 1850
| O'Buru's Tales, ls5b'5D.
Germany SGT England aud America the model
Of the fantastic prose- tale. ana william
| Codyyin and Charles Brlckden Brown were
its apostles. Dickens upearcd with such characters
49, Ouilp and Barnaby .iudgc, and tales Of the hoTd
aud tho monstrous. by 1871, and there is little
doubt Of Poo having got from BArnaby Rudge the
! idea of both the Man OF the Crowd" and the
"R,ven.D while the influence of Dickens also pene-
trated Hawthorne and gave the flavor Of sentiment
| To his clfn folk.
Tn, short story has ceased to be imaginative and
has come TO be snowy and ilmSy
There was an influence also eXerted by Dumas ana
Victor Hugo in favor Of tho dread and horrible be-
| tween 1923 and 1882, tho dates of Bug Jdr5dI ana
La Tour de Ncsie. and from 1925 to 1913 Heinrich
Iene, the Poo of Europe, was darling his prodlgal
Lar IlnI lHpI