The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-04

and speech, and love. Nor could any
thing alter or mar the tender radiance
of the dead girls face.
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
An American Writer Who Has in His
Day PLAYED Many Parts.
Correspondence of the Press.l
HARTFORD, Conn, Jan. 2.-Once, In
my early newspaper days, 1 snapped
condolences with an associate, who had
gained more than ephemeral notoriety
for the interesting and graceful produc-
lions of his quill. With flush of pride
he told me that he became an author be-
cause there was never scarcity of
books at his fathers house. My literary
friend spoke of a period when the steam
press was regarded as great curiosity,
when the printing of books was vet
costly enterprise and when most of the
volumes, by authors of established repu-
tation in our language, were imported
from London or Edinburgh.
This incident comes to my mind linked
with thoughts of the boyhood of Charles
Dudley Warner. His father was known
as man intelligent above the average
He loved 10 read. His choice books,
however, were of too somber a character
to amuse OF fascinate budding Ameri-
can humorist of the vintage of 1929.
There is no doubt that piety often resem-
blcs forbearance, and ceases to be a vir-
tue. The home library to which Charles
Dudley Warner had access. while as
good as any in his native town of Plain
field, Mass, was, in his juvenile estma-
ton, really good for nothing. He, there
fore, concluded that it was his mission
to write better books than those which
his father gave him to browse over when
he was a tenderling of four or five years
What thoroughly United States sort
of career his has been! He has related
something of his early life in s'Being a
Boy" which was published in 1877.
At the age of % he graduated from
Hamilton college, taking the first prize
tor English composition. Already he had
contributed to the old Kuicberbocker
and its now almost forgotten rival, Put
MANS Magazine. 1t was in 1868 that he
became one of surveying party on the
prairies of Missouri Within year he
returned to New England. Then he de-
cided there was more money in litigation
than in literature-providing you are
counsel for the litigant who has the most
money and the greatest amount of stub
bornness. So, in 1856, he graduated from
the law department of the University of
Pennsylvania. The four succeeding years
he practiced at the Chicago bar, with
fair prospects Of being elected a judge
before the Twentieth century flickered
and expired.
There was an evening paper here in
Hartford looking for an assistant editor.
He was the fortunate applicant. In
twelve months he had full charge of The
Press and made it attractive enough to
be respected. About the year 1867 it
was consolidated with The Hartford
Courant, of which Mr.. Warner was ap-
pointed co-editor. In 1869 he went be-
yond seas and travelled extensively in
Europe's beaten paths and alluring by
ways for nearly fourteen months. His
letters of travel, written for The Courant,
were SO sparkling that his dream of book
making took business shape.
These are the titles of works that have
made him widely and favorably known:
"My Summer in a Garden" QS70);
"Saunterings" Same year.; Backlog
Studies" QS72); 1.-THE Gilded Age" in
collaboration with his brother humorist,
Mark Twain QS73): ''Baddeck. and That
Sort of Thing" (1874; "My Winter on
the Nile 1S76); SIN the Levant" QS7D;
I'm the Wilderness" 1S7S; "Capt. John
Smith," burlesque biography, written
in 1881; Washington Irving" in the
Men of Letters series (the same Year,;
Roundabout Journey" 1883; "Their
Pilgrimage 1885: "On Horseback
Through Virginia and North Carolina"
(1886), which volume includes his "Mex-
lean Notes." and his recently published
book containing 'Studies in the South
and West, with Comments ON Canada"
In 1884, Mr.. Warner succeeded the
late William A. Seaver as editor of that
humorous spice box known to all readers
of Harper's Magazine as 1.-THE Drawer"
This connection has brought him closer
than ever to the people who greatly ad-
mire him for the force and sprightliness
of his writings. His latest novel, en-
titled "A Little Journey in the World"
has just been completed, 1t was written
as serial, during 1899. for Harpers
Magazine. More than any of his previ-
GUS works it strongly reflects the genial,
philosophic humanity of Charles Dudley
Warner. His portraiture of the gro
tesque has long been regarded, by those
competent to pass Judgment, as being of
the highest order of literary art. There
is depth as well as breadth in his quaint
fancy. Mr.. Warmers greatest charm is
the undercurrent of tender sympathy
with and for all mankind. He is a stout
friend of the toiler. His hand is extended
to help; his words written to encourage
and instruct, quite as much as to tighten
and brighten honest labor.
He has found time to interest himself
in social science. His thoughtful essays
on prison discipline have attracted the
attention of foreign governments, and
many Of his suggestions have been put
to trial with happy results. As q lecturer
ON miscellaneous topics he has won favor
by telling his audiences something that
they liked to hear and which was of
benefit to them and to others. Charles
Dudley Warner is Samaritan rather
than a sermonizer. He had quite enough
of prosiness, without active performance,
In his youth. Born and bred in an at
mosphere where it was sinful to laugh
between shutdown on Saturday and sun
rise on Monday, his healthful mental ac-
tiyity is direct result of travel and a
keen habit of observation. He is now
80 years of age.
Mr.. Warner wears a full beard, a con-
tented (serious) expression, and upon oc-
casion neatly fitting dress clothes, Like
James Russell Lowell, the poet-humor-
ist-dipiomate, Justin Winsor, the cru
dite librarian of Harvard college, and
John Charles Fremont, the soldier, path
finder and veteran claimant, he parts
his hair in the middle. This popularity
does not in the least affect the nice bal
euce Of bis brain.
Fl. G. l..