The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-10-06
cs.e;nded frsm Pare Two.

@ ne moss popular of all vas :. 7he seventh,s ' written just as the New va,k Seventh regiment was leaving for \. M sess of var. Refecting the feelings .ha, then moved all ii vas warmly vel somed by the New York press and sent syoadcass over the land to be read a, a million 6resideS
 Three poems which do not admit of a .,.ce elsewhere may be mentioned here. !. Oar Chrissmas Tree is child poem. ,,sht and chcery, and The Song of the Ioromoeive," like the object if celebrates. . x,ronf lusty and sonorous, while The TbaIlenxe uniquely expresses thought sombre and full oftrufh.
 The poems of Fiz-james OBrien, ,sken in body, finger between fine verse r,aking aad true poeesy, for they ire ouently lack fhoss qualities that consti- ,a,e the hieAest, finest and most difficult Tar, of the poetic art. lie often failed to soIlow the canons of art most essential to .,ocess, though none recognized more -leariy than he that depth ef thought. selicscy Of fancy and beauty of expres- ..cn must ever 20 hand in hand. When , poem began to grow in his soul il tould not let him rest until 1t had found .oun in verse this done, he was too apt n rest content and not bestow the final
 .ouches. the dainty finish that character
 z the careful artist. That, had he lived,
 i, ,br,en would have won higher standing as poet is improbable, for at the time \, ,ss death he had passed the supremely -<s:ive period, and in after years, though .-e perhaps would have softened and .e.lowed the flow of his song. he would 70. have written anything oi more
 n:rinsic worth. After all its faults have cen admitted, what he did write bears
 ne impress of a inc. susceptible mind, n intense nature and an acutely sensi-
 we temperament, and this gives i.
 .eep and vital worth. As his highest ,raise it may be said that he never wrote line which one cannot take to his heart AS a wholesome lesson of life.
 II is by his stories that O'Brien will be 5es, remembered. The fact tha, stories published in the magazines had fallen a.mos, to a mediocre level, coupled with heir surpassing excellence, made his surprisingly popular when they first ap- peared. The publication of his best and nos, widely known stories. = The Won 3ersmith,'' "Toma,oo," The Las; aoom.n "The Golden lngot" and . What Was It." was heralded by the
 Diamond Lens" published in the .ia1nAr .Honthy for January is5s. Nothing so original and startling had ever before been known in the annals of lar current fiction. The story een,ers ipon young man with whom micro s.opical investigation has become pas son. and who, by the most heartiess and
 uhuman means. constructs lens of ~on-
 ierful power. In drop of water placed beneath this lens he discovers an animula 90 elongated that 1t seems woman of ne most bewitching beauty. With this heing the microscopist falls m love, and
 ay by day as he watches its playing and ioa,ing beneath his eye he grows to love
 : the more. But returning when he has been absent longer. than his wonted ,.me. he finds that the drop of water has :lowly oozed away, and the Animula is 1gng. The shock which follows this
 -Iseovery dethrones his reason, and with )ae fierce blow he breaks his microscope no an hundred fragments. About the 9.ece IS thrown such an air ot versimili- :ade that, with the tender way in which me microscopist tells his love for Ami mula, one finds Ii hard to believe 1t only sc;ion.
 The Wondersmiih. published in October, 1859, and the first of the group spder notice that followed The Dia- rnond Lens," fully satisfied the expec,a- :!ons aroused by the latter. The con- -ep,ion, finely worked out, is as weirdly tanciful and grotesque as anything ,ha, ever came from Hawthorne or Fouque /" Tomatoo." published posthumously, is perhaps the most popular of any ofthese stories. The persons introduced, es- 2ecially Tomatoo and her father, the poor old opera manager, Signor Baioccho. are 1elioately drawn and the opening and ending, which with many decides story's popularity, are most opportune. The Room," IS vague and s,.adowy, full of sof, shading and half tints- What Was !,r shows the same reaching after things abnormal displayed in The Diamond Lens" No one had ever conceived such a strange, sinful creature before; or if hey had enveloped it in such an air of 'ez life. The Golden lngot's" meri,
 s in the tender way in which is de- s.Hbed child's strong. self-sacri6cing love for the paren,-a love exercised the nos, when derided and heaped with abuse.
 Other stones by 'Brien are Mother oi Pearl" My Vines Tempter,' {" The Bohemian" "The Pot of Tulips, ''' Milly oave,' Duke Humphreys Dinner, ' and The Dragon Fang" My Wife's lemp,er and The Mother of Pearl . he incidents of which are well-worked. are directed against great wrongs, the ne agains, Mormanism and the other against the use of that terrible drug suAeesE, and this gives them a value. above and beyond their artistic worth
 The Pot of Tulips though a ghos. s,ory, possesses a sesnblance of reality hat places it above most pieces of the and. - The Bohemian which oensers on mesmerism and claravoyantism dealized, is the best of :his latter group, he character of Phillip Brown, the Bohemian. being particularly interesting. The or~u,r1 nf ' N,llv nzvAr ,~ m ~