The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-20
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD.
His Ideas of America and Some
Of Hell Writers.
MEsDAMES WHEELER AND RIVES.
ut Is Sad Spectacle, Disgusting Thing
for the World to be Ashamed Of
Beauty"-A Poem.

SAN Francisco, October 19.-[Special
Telegram to The HERALD. Sir Edwin
Arnold and daughter sailed for Japan this
week on the Pacific mail steamship Belgic.
"A large delegation from the Century
y club of this city, and many personal
friends babe farewell at the steamship
wharf to the gifted poet and his charming
daughter
AS a parting word Sir Edwin said that he
left America with much reluctance.
This, his first visit to the United States,
will form the subject of a series of graphic
essays in the London Telegraph, of which
newspaper the author of 1.-THE Light Of
Asia is chief editor To THE HERALD
correspondent, Sir Edwin, few hours be-
fore his departure, expressed himself as
charmed with America and American peo-
Pile. He pronounced New York as grand
in its men; Boston a welcome home for the
traveller and student; Washington the
vmost beautiful city on the continent; Phil
adelphia as charmingly picturesque;
Chicago as phenomenal; Denver as an oak
of steady, substantial growth; Omaha, a
lUOutEu ludTl, anu Dan L IduClSCO HOSI dL-
tractiye to the tourist.
Upon the morning of his departure, Sir
Edwin smoked an after breakfast cigar in
his rooms at the Palace hotel, and chatted
pleasantly with a HERALD correspondent
upon timely literary topics. As moralist,
as poet of sweet purity, as man of fine
senSlbilities, there is scarcely an English
man to-day better qualified to speak in
terms, i'll or good. of recent American liter
SJHfe, and more especially of erratic fiction
and poems of passion, than is the well known
!. student of ancient Asiatic literature.
Il have read Ella Wheeler Wilcox and
fAmelie Rives," said Sir Edwin, knocking
bpthe ashes of his cigar 1.-The others l have
not read. You speak of Mrs Atherton,
Edgar Saltus, Abby JaclIman. and other
writers of whom / know nothing, and of
whom l have not heard. The Quick or the
DE nj | read with u vast deal of interest
do not regard this recent American liter
ature as new school, and most certainly
such school should not be established. l
90 not think there exists to-day a separate
distinct school of this kind. There are GER
tain writers headed by our own Swinburne
and the gifted men of France, men whom
know. | do not admit that these men con-
Stitute school in literature characterized
as teshliness Their work is the old eter-
nal classic revolt against Puritanism and
the narrower forms of Christianity The
first of them all was the Emperor Julian,
one of the finest fellows that ever lived. In
his heart there was a revolt against Christ
and His teachings, for in his breast was the
old grace of Greece and the glory of Rome
This new religion of Christ, draped in
gray seemed odious. Look round about
and see the clergy damn the babies to ever
lasting hell, and say it is wicked for men to
look at women's ankles. Do not misunder-
stand me. l should never excuse immoral
cCrum. Let US remember Swinburne's
verses, and believe that the poets of the
present make but a natural and even use
full protest against the eXtravagances of
Puritauism. | agree with him who writes,
'DOst thou believe. because thou art virtu-
Gus, that there should be no more cakes
and ale!i l was sitting with Walt Whit
man, the other day, and l repeated 70 him
some of his own verses and explained their
Philosophy and their beauty. He said to
Ne: You are the first man to explain my
own lines. At this l said to him, Il am no
more ashamed of body than of soul look
largely, broadly at men, at literature, at
right. l swear l am nc more ashamed of
body than of soul. Read those lines of
Robert Browning in which he says: Nor
soul helps body more than body once helped
soul All me, it is a sad spectacle, dis
gushing thing for the world to be ashamed
81 bSAuIS' us oOOo uOG Apply W UdhUJ
books. There IS no excuse for
their birth or their existence.
There is no enemy to the beauty Of
the world, the Greek of life, like the OBJ
scene man. Heis the guerilla that defaces,
mars the shape and form of nature. If
slch books are written to sell, to pander,
~ man who writes them is a villain and
Should be cast headlong into the broad
Pacific, and the woman-yea, she is worse
than the man. There is Rider Haggardl
L know him well, and meet him frequently
on the underground His work is clever;
his She even better, l think, than
Cleopatra. There are beautiful things in
his books, yet people will not read them.
But then you cannot judge Cleopatra by
the young women of Boston. You Amer
leans are very moral, except on Dupont
street. There is more propriety here than
across the sea. You must read the carpen-
ter's story in Chaucer Read the things
those dear, old men so blandly printed
One day last winter, Edwin Arnold was
walking along Piccadillv. Soon it was
raining hard. He took refuge in a museum
OF Egyptian antiquities. There he saw
the slippers Of an Egyptian mummy. He
tQpS them up, and his quick perception saw
ug. aaiden of the Nile who wore them
standing before him as a living reality.
He drew an envelope from his pocket, took
hurried notes, and some time since COM
pleted a poem of great beauty. The
HERALD correspondent has secured these
verses for exclusive publication in Amer.
lea. and they are printed to-day for the
first time in this country.