, 1889-06-21
JNo. y. CAHHOLL. Editor
LOWELESD DECLINE.

~ ELL - IL
James Russell Lowell slipped away for
his annual %soiourn in England on Satur-
day last, but his departure was an event
of such small consequence that the papers
gave it merely a line. This is owing to
the fact that the distinguished Angloma-
MAC and Mugwump leader is not nearly SO
prominent a parsonage as he once was.
Society displayed no regret at his depart
ure, a circumstance which contrasts sug
gcstively with the small social upheaval
which attended Mr.. Lowelrs departure
for Europe. aud, in fact, his every move
mcnt. in other days. The fact is that
people do not take to Lowell so kindly as
they used to. While it is true that he
still enjoys the doubtful distinction of be-
ing the high priest in the lettering temple
of the Mugwumps, yet, among the peo-
ple, and also among a considerable faction
OF the upper 10000, the statesman liter
ateur has lost prestige, and he is no longer
followed with the consuming interest of
years ago.
"A good man gone wrong, that was
the verdict sadly given by many Of his
friends when he went back on the party
he had so yaliantly helped to build up.
While they still continued to admire his
literary worth, his friends, many of them,
could not stand his political treason. and
loud were the fault findings and bitter the
criticisms expressed over his unexpected
somersault. Lowell must have known
about them, too, and it would be strange
if they did not arouse in him some pangs
of regret, but if so, he did not betray the
fact. At all events, from the tune of the
birth Of the Mugwump revolt in 1884, his
star, then in the ascendant, began TO
wuue, and the political eclipse of the
Mugwumps later on well nigh obscurcd it
entirely.
When Lowell took up with the Mug
wumps, a poet Of some note, who, from
boyhood, had followed his career with an
admiration that amounted almost to rev.
eronce, was so overcome with what he
was pleased to call the downfall of his
idol" that he began n poetic remon.
STRANGE, which he never had the heart to
publish.
When he returned from England after
the appointment of Mr.. Phelps to sue
coed him at the English court he found
himself accused of Anglomania. There
was a great deal of justice in the charge.
HIS standardization was marked in
many ways, but in none so conspicuously
as in his dress, which was for one so near
the biblical three score and ten, decidedly
l0ppish. But the Boston Anglomaniacs
liked it, and they were never so pleased
as when he paraded his English clothes
in the down town streets. Only OCCASION
ally did he do this and then the spectacle
he presented was the talk of the town
Tor a week. lie usually wore his trous.
ors turned up at the bottom and a very,
very short covert coat of pale imported
goods was on his back with the tails of
his inner coat peeping from beneath. In
his hand he inevitably mad a cane and he
swung his arms always bent out at the
elbows after the fashion of the dudes who
make a weak imitation OF John Bull
out for a vigorous constitutional.
The reflections suggested by this
melancholy picture of one so talented
aud supposedly so intensely American in
thought, taste and conduct we're by no
means complimentary to Mr.. Lowell, and
1t was quite commonly admitted that his
four years hobnobbing with British
princes, lords and dukes had made of him
an insuftcraole cad, completely beyond re-
generation. That he should, as he has
done, return every spring to the company
of his English friends was not thought
strange, and if this old defender of the
principles OF Democracy should have an
nounced his desire to return to the pomp
and trappings of royalty it would have
been put down as simply the natural act
OF a man thoroughly at war with the
spirit and the name of his native land.