New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-06

lividuality is = The Cannot" @'The Cannot" be
says "a name suggested by poem written ny "a
member of the class long ago. represents prihancy
without literary principle, the love OF technical
effect. regardless OF the intellectual conception OF
work. This is a class which 10 always large ana
more or less successful-for time" Inc
Gannet was Fitz-James OBrien.
Mr.. Winter has given us q list of the publications
TO which Fitz-James OBrien contributed. and list
Of bis friends of about The same length, ana Win
these his knowledge of the carly life OF his nero
ends. He did not know him personally until witnln
two or three years of his death precisey when they
first met he does not state and what he has TO say
of him before that time is chiefly derived from hear
say. He has added to his Sketch the Rocollections
of five of Fitz-James OBriens friends, but they are
neither full nor accurate the most inaccurate OF
all being those of Mr.. George Arnold. "When l
first knew him. in 56l57" he wrote, in The hec- York
Citizen about three years after his death, " lie hau
elegant rooms, with q large and valuable library
niles of manuscripts dressing cases. decantels pipes
pictures O wardrobe Of much splendor, and ali
sorts of knickknackery such as young OacDeiorS
love to collect" The personality OF Fltz-James
O'Brien must have cast glamour over the poetic
soul of Mir. Arnold, or be wonld not have magnlhed
his surroundings as he did. The rooms OF winch ne
wrote were in no elegant nor did they contain
books enough to be called library, valuable OF
otherwise. Pictures, beyond few engraVlngS'
there we're none. The decanters were there no
doul t, and the pipes, but not the dressing cases.
nor the splendid wardrobe. Fitz-James OBrien
lived very much like other young men who follow
literature as profession At one time he occuoled
good apartments at another, and not very remote
time. he occupied indifferent lodgings. II 1T had
rested with himself he would certainly have been
surrounded with elegances and luxuries, but I'M
fortunately it did not rest with himself His land
lord had something to say about 1t, and even MS
confiding laundress, who could not afford 10 walt
forever So he changed them both. and changed
them often and what Mr.. Arnold called his prop
critics were lett, melancholy TRAIL among the
lodging houses in which he hved,-or ratheI
through which he passed,-for the partial lndehni-
fieaton Of the disappointed keepers thereof Ihere
was no reason why he should have been lmpccu-
NOUS for he earned, or could earn, enough TO i've
handsomely. His abilities were everyvh here recog-
nized, and he was personally q 1aVorlte VIII pun
fishers 4
Whether any young writer, before or SINCE
eyer stood so well as he with the magnates
Of Franklin Square, may be doubted. Their
Monthly and Heekly were always open to him.
Mr.. Winter has traced his pen in sixty-six contri-
buttons to the former, and he intlmates. IN his
Preface that he has collected material enough from
various sources for two or three more volumes OF
the size of the one before us. He was ready and
a rapid writer and he possessed an accomplishment
which was less common here twenty-five years ago
than it is to.day-he could write acting plays. lie
wrote two which were produced successfully: "
Gentleman from Ireland" which Mr.. Winter says
still holds the stage land of which Mr.. BToughain,
we imagine, was the herO, and another the plot OF
which was the same as the plot of his story of
md n
which was probably the same also He adopted
burlesoue of Brough's the English dramatst, which
he rechristened The Tycoon" and his friend, Mr..
Thomas f. Davis. remembers to have seen the
manuscripts of two more plays of his" The Two
Opbelias" and Blood will Tell There was no
reason as we have said. why he should have been
impecunious, but he was, so much thai he was
sometimes obliged to dine with Duke Humphrey.
His poem, I" The Sewing Bird" was written in Dir.
Winters lodgings presumably because he had no
lodgings of his Own in the course OF two nights,
when he was destitute, cherries, and hungry.
He sold it for 500. and few hours later was as
merry as bird in springtime. Another OF his
poems "A Fallen STAR was written at Mr. Win
teI's lodgings. between midnight and morning. at
sitting and one Of his stories, What Is 1t y was
written in the lodgings of Mr.. I. b. Aldrich. Mr..
Winter met Fitz-James OI}rien in Boston.
Batelnan, who was then directing professional
tour for Miss Matilda Heron. lie astOnished some
of the quiet literary circles OF that stad and deco
rOus region by his irfeveTence for what MIR. Winter
calls "yarious canphOrated igureheads which
were then an incubus upon American letters" This
irreyerence was unaffected Mr.. Winter thinks, and
it may have been, but it is likely, Notwithstanding,
that there was little personal pique in it, for BOs
ton had refused to recognize him as a coming man.
Three of his best frendt. poets of repute, had
warmly recommended his poems to the considera-
ton of a leading Publishing house, with which
poetry was speciality, and the hOnse in question
would not consider them The rejected poet was
Celt enough-was human enouCh-tO feel this
slight and no doubt revenged himself accordingly.
d. He was now considerably changed from what he
had been when he came to America. Mental toll
and bodily privation, the hardshps Of a gypsy
life the reactionarv sense Of being in false posi-
tions and of being msundefstood,-whrch often will
embitter natural sweetness and turn amIabity to
proud and gtterIng dehance.-had done their work
mon his nature, and made him, in Some Of his
moods, as lawless arrogant, and truculent as in
others he was gentle, resigned, alectiOnate and
almost torlorn" Mr. Winters judgment is tenn
pered with mercy, as all human Judgment should
be- but he IS by means blind to the faults OF his
dead friend. 1.-THE attIition Of his character with
his circumstances developed faults and impeled to
errors He was personally very far from being
perfect creature He was not deficient in moral
sense on the contrary, his perception OF right and
wrong was uncOmmOnly keen; but he was deficient
in moral courage and IN stability Of principle, and
what was originally noble in his moral nature had
been to some extent marred, though not spoiled. by
conviviality and chronic lmprovidence. His con-
Duct was never Intentionally wrong, but it was
sometimes marked by needless irregularty in the
ordinary affairs of life, such to many persons, is
almost as culpable as bad intention. lie knew
this. and his realization of it only enraged him
against his own detects"
When our great civil war broke out, Fitz-James
OBrien joined the Seventh Regiment,and proceeded
with IL tn Washington where he remained i'm camn