New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-06

| pains to show her that his opinions were
considers Robesperre the greatest man that ever
| lived his speeches far SURPRISING Demosthenes I
| He begins to be too absurd, that John MIL !
| heard Mines saying at the Shutteworths tnat
| Lord Ashley was the greatest man alive; ne was
| the only man that Carlyle praised In HE DOCK. L
daresay he knew was overhearing him."
with sketches like these she enlivened her CO.
pious domest tic correspondence, while she was bur-
dened with household vexations made almost intol-
cradle by her husbands peculiar requirements, and
tortured by physical sufferiugs which seem to have
been hardly realized until she died under them.
Drollery, imagination and acute original criticism
| flashed out amid the chronicles Of the kitchen.
But the charm of Jane Carlyle's letters, like the
| charm OF the woman herself something far
| moro precious than intellectual acuteness or brill
| liant wit II is impossible to read them without
| conceiving a sort of attachment to her. She was
one of those rare beings sent into the world as IL
for the comfort Of their acquaintance. whom one
loves by instinct. 1t is impossible to tell" she
wrote during long illness, who is kindest to me ;
my fear ia always that shall be stied with roses
They make much of me, and am so weak Inc
Countess of Alrlie was kneeling beside my sofa
yesterday, embracing my feet and kissing my hands
| A German girl SAID the other day; Il think, Mrs
Carlyle, many, many peoples love you very
dearp It is true. and what have done to deserve
| all that love / haven't the remotest conception"
| 1t was not by auy means from tho sentimental
| alone that she received such demonstrations OK
affection. Some remarkable illustrations are given
in these volumes of the regard with which she IN
spred very different sorts of persons from the great
TO the humble from the of letters to the Scotch
| peasant. 81 have been beIated in my letters and
| In everything this week." she writes, "by having
had to give from two to three hours every day to
man who has unexpectedly lost his mother. He
frinn da III
out end-is in fact, of all men know. the most
popular: and such is relationship and friendship in
| London that he has fed away from everybody to
me- who wasn't aware before that was his particu-
lar friend the least in the world But have
always had the sort of attraction for miscr-
abe people and for mad people that amber has for
straws. Why or how, / have no idea" Nor can
any of us exactly tell the secret OF such women
Transparent simplicity Of character. quickness OF
sympathy fneness as we'll as warmth of feeling
generosity high-mindedness, good sense There are
II part OF their gIfts; but there Is an indefnable
something besides which goes to our hearts. We
turn TO them oy impulse.
Itwasa strange fate which united this bright.
sensitive and loving creature to u man who had 10
little power of repaying her devotion as Thomas
Carlyle. Her family were somewhat higher than
his IN the social ORDER and at tho time OF their
marriage Carlyle was not only poor but undistIn-
guished. She was the first to perceive his
genius She believed in him. We can hardly
doubt that from tho beginning she resolved to sac
rifcs her own life in helping him to bear poverty.
in saving him from all and annoyanccs that
would interfere with his intellectual work to use
her own illustration, she stood between him and
trouble, "imitating In q small humble way the
Roman soldier who gathered his arms full Of the
enemy Is spears and received them all INTO his own
breastD It was q noble Fact Of self-efaccment;
whether she might not have been fitted for hsp-
pier lot she seems never to have paused to wonder
at any rate before II was too late. Appropriately
enough the GLstiers and Memorials" begin with
the removal in 1884 to the house in Chelsea where
for moro than thirty years she was TO labor and
suffer as a patient drudge. "Nevcr." says her hus
band. did zee such suffering from llhealth borne
90 patiently az by this most sensitive OF delicate
creatures all her life long" She worked like an
upper servant. Before long there was plenty Of
money In the purse, but Mr. Carlyles exactons
were always hard to meet tho mistress must DO
often in the kitchen. or there was violent ex-
plosion of wrath at the table over some unsatis-
factory Bit Of cookery; il weary journey
from the sick chamber to the kitchen because the
master required two whole floors of the hodse for
his exclusive His nerves were always In u
state of irritation whom he was writing" says Mr..
Fronde; noises drove him nearly frantic; he was
teen miserable years especially which he spent in
tie composition Of his Frederick "a task under
which he often lost heart-he a torment to him
self and to all around him. He speaks Of the night
in 1865 when he went out TO post the last leaf nr
the manuscript of that work; I" sad rather. mourn
fully thankful. but indeed half killed and utterly
wearing out and sinking into stupefed collapse"
aOn her face, too, when went out. there was q
SILENT faint and pathetic SMILE which well felt at
the moment and better now Often enough had il
cut to the heart to think what she suffering
by this book, IN which she had no share. no inter-
est, nor any word at all and with what noble and
perfect constancy of silence she bore IL ALL" The
long story of her struggles with workpeope and
house cleaners; her devices, always adroit and
successful for slencing neghboring dogs, parrots.
poultry and pianos; her weeks OF confusion and
hard manual labor Mt home while Carlyle was try
ing to refresh himself by travel-is pathetic and
yet not without an element Of the grotesque. She
wrote thus to her ssterinlsw after of the peri
odcal household earthquakes
"Carlyle returned from his travels very bilious, |
and continues very bilious up TO this hour. The |
amount of bile that he does bring home 10 mv in |
these cases, is something 'awfuy grandp Even |
through that deteriorsting medium no coud not |
i Tuu Of needework had aceompli.hod in
his absence, In the shape OF chair covers, sofa
covers. window curtains etc. etc.. and all the other
whole genius and industry and SO little money as |
was hardly 70 20 conceived For three days his |
satisfaction over the rehabiltatsd house lasted |
on the fourth, the Young lady next door took fit |
Of practising on her accuIsed pianoforte, which he
had quite forgotten seemingly, and he started up |
disenchauted In his new library and informed |
heaven and earth in peremptory manner that |
there he could neither think live, that the /
carpenter must sbrought back and steps taken to
make him quiet place some " hore-perhaps best of |
all on the root of the house, Then followed iG-
terminable consultations With The said carpenter,
estimates Tho root on the house could 10 made all
that living author of irritable nerves rcould |
desire silent as a tomb, lighted from above; but it
would cost us f120l impossible. seeing that we
may be turned out OF the house any year. So one