The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-02-27
LONDON LETTER.
A GREAT SCHOLAR sUCCUMBs TO THE
EFFECTS OF La
GRIPPE.
He Defends Ouida, Pointing Wherein
Her Writing Is to Good
Purpose.
Special Correspondent of the Statesman

man mas dleu In Heldelburg from pneu-
monia following upon Russian influenza
who is sincerely mourned by all the most
prominent literati and savants of Europe.
A man who will be sincerely and widely
missed among class Of which he is a type,
type which may say is wholly unknown
In America. 1t has been my good fortune
to number him among my friends for up
wards OF twenty years, meeting him frs
when pursuing course of literature in a
German University, and he aside from the
warm friendship that quickly sprung up
between us attracted me by reason of his
!. marko talents and unusual accomplish
ments. He was of one of the noblest and
most ancient families of Southern Europe,
with great name and but little
patrimony, although his income was
sufficient to meet his modest wants. I
know him as a man of quiet but elegant
tastes and with love for literary and sci
entitic pursuits, for his love, his life, his
very existence was the the life of the ideal
student. 1t was pleasure and a gratifica-
ton TO him to be absorbed in scientific re-
search. 1t was joy and delight to find
himself successfully following step by step
some new path of Investigation, and the
full fruition of his labors, the satisfactory
possession of the ultimate end of his re.
search was to him browning glory, which
brought that sweet mental thrill of which
these savants are wont to discourse as
a higher joy to which gross and
physical delight can only be contrasted,
not compared. | said he was a TYNE
of man such as is not met with in
America, for in America, youth becomes
student in some university as means to
cell 1nE ,1ll Il r
has followed the regular classical curricu-
lum prescribed, in the nature of things he
graduates and becomes an alumnus, then if
he turn to some special course thereafter or
enters professional department, he in
three years more at most, becomes a post
graduate there, and steps out to follow his
profession, or in the case of the special
course student, he feels that he has fitted
himself for teaching in those special
branches. Here, however, was man who
for more than twenty-five years-excepting
some eighteen months which he devoted to
travelling around the world-lived
the methodical, grubbing life of university
student, following thoroughly and exhaust
lively to the very end all that the best
authorities, each in his own particular
branch, could teach, and going from uni.
yersity to university to follow at the heels
of each celebrity in his methods and work.
What an encyclopedia was this student,
not in general information only, but in the
highest and most advanced erudition; I'M
pretentious, retiring, modest in his asser-
tons, never urging his opinions, not Access
sible to strangers though they might be of
royal blood, genial aDd cordial with his
friends, his friendship was sought by the
best known literary and scientific people
and his jrdyment d his views were al
ways highly priced by those who were so
fortunate as to receive them. How often it
bannnnpl n Dna Jyban I falt tho Of
my ground to have him show me
only too clearly the error of my ways. l
so well remember q certain lovely June
evening in Paris. We had dined with a
mutual friend and chairs having been
brought to the garden, we three sat and
- smoked and talked. What a treat to me
We're such times, what red letter days will
khose spent with him ever remain to me.
remember the conversation had gradually
drifted round from one writer to another
until we had hit upon Ouida. ] took up
the thread and spoke of this author and
her work in no uncertain tone, how I'M
fortunate for the race that it should be
possessed of such uncanny productions,
what mental degradation was there. AT
this point tcame listener:
"Ouida is of French parentage," said my
friend, but born in England. l last visited
her at her home few miles from Florence.
A grand old house, which has weathered
Tic SuOTluS duU oUlll bEdIS 1JSCll tIcCb Will
the memories of seven long centuries clus-
tering around its caves. Here is her de-
lightful old home world, within sight of the
Apennine Hills, amid glowing VINEYARDS,
waving corn fields and hills clothed to
their very summit with dense woods, lives
this famous authoress, whose books have
alternately delighted and shocked the
world of modern readers. She is a bril-
liant woman, very feminine for all her al
eyed misognomy, admirable in converse
ton and learned almost to blue stocking
ism. Her name is Louisa de la
Rance, and her non de plume,
"Ouida," was the invention of her
little sister who in endeavoring. to pr
nounce Louise would manage to artlcu-
late something that sounded more like
'Ouida.' Not forgetting that what are
called the pure and sublime truths of an
enlightened morality are varying guam
THY. to say the least, at different periods of
time and In different localities we can look
upon "Ouida" as one of the imaginative
school of writer's who should never be taken
seriously. She writes to amuse and having
done that she is satisfied. Her methods Ill
achieving this end are a knack of eXagger-
alton, a neat trick of dialogue, in fact
rather brilliant pen, but more than any
lining else she is indebted to that open sug-
Egestiyeness which runs through all her
Ebooks. Her characters are always
men are odd compounds OF heroism and
scoundrelsm, and her women are too often
ali they should not be. lola. who is much
more rallied at than Ouida, depicts vice as a
monster of hideous mien while Ouida on
the contrary associates vice with the po-
etry of life. l remember | told Ouida in
NV last tete-a-tete that aiming as she did
to amuse she should be satisfied. As far
as | was concerned, l owned to being
amused with her fictions, for her false ideas
of life and her distorted views were sources
of amusement to me and also said that to
INV mind all her imagination, command OF
pathos and sweet ripping prose could not
excuse or condone the foolishness OF her
views of life and so jiety, and her exalta-
tion of the lower abO'e the higher
side of nature" True" 1 said, as he
ceased speaking even though | never forget
your marvellous knowledge of men and
things, still must say am taken aback
nv t6e way you have just handled Ouida
and her work. should not have been
more surprised had you shown an. init
macy with the police courts news in the
daiIy papers. Ny friend displayed in his
manner a little annoyance at this. 1t was
nroverbial among those who knew him that
he kept aloof from the newspapers, and he
had been credited with saying that the law
Of compensation brought to the great dis
coverer of new ideas or new facts neWspa-