Telegram-herald., 1889-08-08

tie pope u Chicago. Strangers SiS-t
Cen1ral Aasie h4u oat II gentle defer
snee 70 religion and urgent response Z
curiosity. reckon thS- good part Il
tae worldly 'enlnsncss has spread forth
from tas.
II town there Is resentuaenE against
David swing. The Phllistine declares
that SWING pFs2ches - anlhhcnalres.
clauasd him for II yesterday. He said Il
Vas q lie tie pEsaches 10 800 poor
men ezch sunday. He tod me that
over = Thousand did not pay cent lie
did not regret ths lie lie merely o.
served that Il was lie. as he would no
tire shat the electric lights q Tie res-
taurant were a part Il the architecture.
would love him II could get near
70 him. In telling him thi5 learned ne
hsd never had an intimate Ran asso-
riate-he said -chum. We talked u
Robert Mcintyre, and tie great man SAID
Aclntvre was deiighting the people.
NcIutgre Vas u1g bogus. told the
.,reat man that Robert and had debated
coming over - 403 Superior street. Il
feel. said David Swing of the stranger,
that | am a. well acquainted with Nc
Inryre a. with you" True. every word.
Were | 10 live ten thousand years
should never be nearer u this thinking
nan-a man Of solitude hurt by almost
every word be hears. yet not once com
plAining-not learning -stabbing with
las own words, as he Is stabbed. III
there were a woman who constantly
retreated from men-whO had read all
the books that all her circle together had
read this woman would be David
Swing.
There have existed tentatively on the
outskirts OF journalism IN Chicago
number of weekly and monthly maga-
zines. These flowers have IN no single
instance gone beyond demonstration 81
their own vanity. The almighty dollar,
creator Of the heavens and the cart
hereabouts, has refused them his lad.
or his other patronage. and they have
expired. Their withered memories sire"
these parts. For every one OF them DAVID
Swing wrote. He wrOte--as q man rarely
refuses 10 act for pall5earer. He wa
the head and front OF literature, ano
literature was 10 die cutting its teeth.
We spoke yesterday of the envious, an
their glee at all these obsequies. Both oi
Us noted the naturalness of events. But
be would not hope for literature. He
lives, like Socrates, in the testimony Of
his disciples. and | must doubt that
David Swing viii ever speak. except
4. ,aa faf-
+ written on his face. There is nothing
70 write" he says.
And |. who am buckled with the
harness and hope 70 write until the day
Of my d,4th-and always write Of this
valley strive 20 understand the forces
that hold him SO true to solitude and
laissez-faire. Sometimes / attribute ms
difference to the environment of the
olosv. l told him l discovered the
preacher in him. He said it narrowed
his thoughts 10 the moral. lie must put
only certain stuff over the signature
David Swing" | answered him that
learning was all moral and severe. He
at once admitted it. He could not
| be Arist0phanes. Yet | believe the
man would be glad if he had been a
voice Of the soil, like Walt Whitman.
/ Great Is the man who writes as Whit
man wrote, though fate has happily
saved ne from habiting the tenement
Of the gray poet.
David Swing has written some Of the
wisest and strikingest things have seen
on paper. His Il Have Forgotten" in
the celebrated Easter Current Of 1886,
/ gave me hope. His latest scripture
have in a recent paper. "Of course,
he says, "we can live and move and
finally die, without having any new
forms or new hopes for the western in
tellect. We can have our thinking and
creating done in New York, Boston or
London, but but it is difficult to avoid
the wish that the Mississippi valley
might cease to be a literary beggar and
might aspire to a personal independ-
ence."
it is difficult, but David Swing is
| ready to do it, IL is his disciples, not
he. who have declared that they sepa-
rately exist. He said he had been up
late at a dinner l found it TO be lit
erary club. asked if there were any
other scribe in the lot except himself.
/ He named Frank Gilbert. There are 100
/ men i'm the society. But he SAID all men
we're literary men. He said Gunsaulus
could edit The Herald or Tribune.
In the eyes of this master his disciples
could do so little, what was the sense of
one pretending to be better scribe than
The others? | find him in himself well
welded to the statu quo. The lIterati OF
| Chicaeo-not a one Of whom can write.
fear this suits him. His own English
Is careless What odds?
He kindly went with me to our Press
| club The fellows received him with
| distinction, such "a | have not seen them
/ accord % another Chicagoan. OVie
Read took his pipe ont Of his mouth and
talked Ike a father. The guest safe
shrinkiDgly. irresponsive- ready 10 go.
/ The young men caue forward and ex-
pressed felicitousIy their deep sense Of
respect for him and hisaiiainments. ~
tAe billiard table on the way out he took
g cue aad observed that be should have
played billiards but for the fact that in
most things save writing he was lsft
handed To hear people remark the
FAC, ohastised him. At the foot Il the
stairs his face was flushed. He had
passed through a scene that tried lis
nerves JOIN McGovERs.
Tha Court Tn1~r F-ror.