Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-30
Some "Reminiscences of John Howard Payne.


 Payne.
 President 1yler's son, John Tyler, jr l writes to the Washington StGr column o1 "reminiscences of John Howard Payne. Ht
 relates the following incidents:
 We formed the acquaintance of Johr Howard Payne, and introduced him in tht social drawing-rooms of the Presidential Mansion. He was medium-sized man, al
 ways neat and careful in his dress, gentle as
 woman, modest in his bearing, of delicate
 sentiments, and mild of speech. I had known him for months and seen much o1 him before ever suspected that he was re.
 stricted in his means At length, however, it so happened that obtained from him an
 expression that was thoroughly informing as to his pecuniary condition. In visiting him at his lodgings had always been struck
 with his tidiness and yet with the entire ab
 sence of everything luxurious about him. noticed, further, that he never seemed to in duJge in any personal expenditures. This led me finally, without offence, to draw from him some indication of his condition. Then it came in this manner and in these words:
 ''Mr. Tyler, it has cost me more diploma. cy since have been in Washington to con. ceal my poverty than would be necessary to conduct the foreign affairs of the govern ment."
 This was enough and it was not long be- fore he was nominated, confirmed and com missioned as consul to Tunis. It required little persuasion to induce my father to ap point him. While my grandfather was Gov ernor of Virginia, and my father was a stu dent at law in the office of Edmund Ran dolph, Payne, then on the theatrical 1ards as ''The Young Americas Roscius," visited Richmond, and Governor Tyler was so much pleased with him as to extend to him an invi. tation to dinner at the gubernatorial mansion with distinguished company especially invi- ted to meet him. President Tyler was thus already prepared to yield willing ear to the petitions of my brother and myself in his behalf for foreign appointment.
 In the recent interesting sketch hy Mir. Ford in the Baltimore Suz, after detailing to some extent the part Payne played during 1872 in the war between Great Britain and the United States, it is stated that in June 1913, he proceeded to London, having just completed his twenty first year, and acted at Drury Lane and other theatres, with "abun- dant success,'' but relinquished the stage for literary pursuits with the pen producing "Brutus ; or, the Fall of Tarquin, in 1917 ;; and that six or seven years later, surrounded by penury, in an attic in Paris, faint and i'll for the need of noprishing food, he wrote ''Clari, the Maid of Milan, and gave the world within it tHome, Sweet Home"
 As to this I am led to state what derived from his own lips, that in consequence of the part he played in regard to the difficulties GreaG his pen, but for having raised in Boston and commanded g company for service against the British, he was so badly received in Lon don that his efforts on the theatrical boards of Drury Lane, so far from being sabun- dantly successful, {" were absolute failures in a pecuniary point of view; and 1t was at this period, his money having become utterly exhausted for the want of patronage on the stage, that he took to his pen, and one night, in state of great dejection and desponden- cy, wandering about in the streets of Lon don for the want of 8 shilling to pay for bed, he finally sat down on the front steps of nobleman's mansion, and beneath the entrance lamps wrote with pencil, on some blank paper he carried in his pockets, the original lines of ''Home, Sweet Home Af- terward, it is true, he introduced them in his drama of "Clari, the Maid of Milan," and so made them famous.
 He was ultimately more successful with his pen while in London than he had been on the stage, and thence proceeded to Ireland, where at Sligo public dinner was accorded to him, on which occasion, and in compi ment to him, the Irish barrister Phillips delivered his celebrated eulogium upon Washington. He furthermore told me that he was in Paris on the return of Napoleon from Elba and saw him in the TuiIeries, de- & .bing to me his person, his manner, and the immense energies that marked his move ments. I