Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-10-25

guine temperament, and oyerweenIng ambition
to make his residence the seat of baronial
splendor and hospitality. All the magnificent
sums which he made by his prose and poetry
were lavished upon AbbOtsford. He even
mortgaged the books yet unwritten to add
field TO field. until his domain grew to more
that twelve hundred acres. stretching for miles
along the Tweed. He spent $4,000 in land
purchases, $50 900 in planting and gardening,
and hundred thousand for building castel-
lated Gothic or congiomerate palace, which he
made museum of antiquities and military
curlosities. This was the weak side of his
nature. and it was this that ruined him. He
lad incautiously embarked in partnership with
a publishing firm without accurate knowledge
OF their business. and was bound for all their
liabilities. In the very tide of his greatest glory
and success the tempest struck him. The year
1920 brought TO England and Scotland one of
those great commercial panics. the fruit of IN
wise speculation which so often sweep away
the accumulation of years. ScOtt's publisher.
Constable. failed. owing G256, COO or a million
and a quarter OF dollars. His estate paid in the
settlement (such was the humiliation of values
IN literary property Is. Cd. in the pound; or
about Ia per cent. Baantyne failed owing
t1I7.000; nearly 5000 0O0 and this was paid in
full, owing to SCOTS heroic eXertons and the
prodiGious value of his name in letters Half of
it was paid before he died. the rest by his life
Insurance and the sale of his copyrigtts, actually
But it was a bitter blow to the proud. high
toned and labOrious Sir Walter; when it came,
sudden rs clap of thunder in clear skv. he
saw himself standing on his own hearth a pau
per- with all his household gods shivered around
him. All his private fortune his copyrights
his magnificent home of Abbotsford were
swallowed up in this colossal bankruptey But
he met adversely with the same serenity as good
fortune. He told his creditors and those of Bal
lantyne Il Co. that all he asked was time and
r.l~A
have been released by proceedings in bank
ruptcy. which would have left his
splendid powers untrammelied to create
for himself new fortune, but he refused to do
It, Was it stoicsm or rectitude of mind? His
resolution knew no respite every morning
found him early at his desk. and he increased
his working hours. now that they were for
Others, from or to 12 and even IA hours a
day with calm courage he tOiled on.
Coming MS brain into guineas, turning out
book after book, with diminished pOwer-for he
was now graphing with disease that in few
years proved fatal. He made light of his loss of
fortune, and wrote to a friend, ''the blowing off
of my hat in a stormy day has given me more IN
easlness. Yet his private journal evinces the
fact that much care and labor were gradually
sappng his strength. On the first of January
1851, he wrote: II have had paraytic tOuch
L am not sOlicitOus about this only if | were
worthy would pray God for a sudden death.
and no interregnum between cease to exercise
IoaSoh, oiiu CcdSe 10 eNlSt- he Wrote TO
Lockhart, who demonstrated with him upon his
overwork ''if did not write should 90 mad"
The same year under medical orders he made
voyage to Italy amid the gradual failure and
breaking up OF his physical powers. On his re-
turn he insisted On~being carried into his lib
rary. and though he had come home to Abbots-
ford manifestly to die, he made them place him
once more at his desk. But the pen dropped
from his nerveless hand. When he first reached
the house, his dogs. those household pets who
loved him, and as he always said understood
him, rushed jOyfully to lick the hands of the
poor invalid Sir Walter could not repress his
tears. just as the aged Ulysses, returning infirm
and tottering to his own palace. and finding his
dog Argus feebly wagging bis tail as he lay DYING
Wept tears which Homer has preserved to US in
the touching story. Attended by his loving
daughter, who did not long survive him. Sir
Walter fingered a few weeks with gradually fail
Ing powers. passed peacefully away and was
laid to rest on the 2lst of September, 1882.
Honors almost unexampled followed him, His
death-iar more truly than Doctor Johnson said
OF Garrich. may be said to have eclipsed the
gayety of nations. His fame and memory are
Cherished throughout the world. His home at
Abbotsiord visited yearly by more than two
thousand pilgrims. 1t is one OF those 'Meccas
OF the mind That evince the immortality of
genius. His place in the Temple of Fame is Sc
cure; for his works have delighted and will con-
tlnue to delight whole generations of man.
kind"