Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-09
The Manuscript of His French ReVo-
luton Was Used by a Bright
Servant to Light Fire.
HOW TIE AUTHOR FELT ABOUT IT.
An Injury to the Brain Impedes Mans
Speech and Makes Him Absolutely
Insensible to Pain.
EFFECT OF LIGHTNING ON THE AIR
Playwright Barnard Does Most Of His Work in Barn
Instead Of in q Library

q fire on a boat in Samoan seas recently,
recalls to the blind chaplain of Con-
gress, Rev. DR.. W. II. MIlburn. the story OF
Thomas Carlyle's loss OF his manuscript for
the first volume OF hi" French Revolution"
Mr.. Milburn was a close friend of the great
author. In speaking of him to Frank G.
Carpenter, THE DIsPATCH's clever corre-
spondent the other day he said: MANY of
Carlyle's conversations with me are photo
graphed as Ii were on nv brain, and 1 can
repeat them word for word and almost tone
for tone as he uttered them. 1 asked him
one day to tell me the story OF his loss and
be did so in his own characteristic way.
think can give you the words verbatim.
He said:
"'I never think of it without a shiver.
After many and many weary month oftoil
had finished the firstvolume:of the French
Revolution" history, and at his earnest
desire had lent it to John Stuart Mill,
friend who had helped me largely in the
work and to whom was beholden for not a
little sympathy and encouragement in nv
task. After reading it himself he lent it to
his friend, Mrs. Taylor, without my knowl-
edge and she as she afterward declared was
beguiled by reading it far into the night
and before she was aware the dawn was
streaming in through the library windows.
Laying the manuscript upon the library
table she hied her to bed and in due time
Betty, the housemaid, came into the library,
to make aud light the fire and looking
around for something suitable to her pur-
pose she saw what seemed loose heap of
rubbish upon the table, gathered it up, gave
II twist, thrust it into the CRATE, applied
the lucifer match ana up the chimney went
the French Revolution, fame and SCOT,
like the thing OF which it was the story.
For days they kept the fact from me, but
al last Mill, with face as pale as stone
came and broke the tidings to US. 1t is a
terrible thing when through long years. by
night and day, you have wrestIed grimly
with the spirits of Erebus, and after patient.
painstaking toll have made for yourself
way through the trembling bog, worse almost
nan Serbonian-a way that bears the pres
ure Of your own loot, and which you trust
Eill be a highway tor generations of men
through the wide quaking morass-when
Eros promises to come, instead of Erebus. as
certainly as by the blow of Titan's club,
ourself to be overthrown, lying senseless in
he bog, your highway engulred and Tar
1rus come again-an experience which one
lay we'll cali terrible. l was as a man
.azed-al thought, power, even lie itself,
Zone from me. 1 sat bewildered, and FOR
days and weeks there in nv study in the
top Of the house, sought to begin the work
again, filed page after page and then tore
them up and cast them from me.
At last one day sitting by the window in
the front 1 looked away and saw a man
standing upon a scaffold, a man of nv own
gr l. l..
house. With his trowei he laid the mortar
and on it laid brick after brick, striking
each with his trowel, and so was the pile
raised under his hand. He was whistling
as blithe and merry as a lark. The wind
was fair and caught the sound and said:
Poor fool, standing there encompassed by
the vile atmosphere OF this dim planet
whistling gaily as thou there was no sor-
row and misfortune in the world-fool
rather though 1 said to myself, sitting here
whining and moping like child whose house
OF cards has fallen in the dust. The man
wonder is doing a mans work, in manly
v5av building house that shall be British
home where men shsll be welded and
children born and lilies experiences wrought
nto the fabric Of character. He does his
cork bravely and thou art sitting here help
sss and moaning.
with the thought took heart, arose and
ssolved once more to strive that my work
should be done in manly fashion. took a
holiday. For three weeks | read the issues
of the Minerva Press and all sorts of things
they call polite literature; the story of
man who was once an ornament OF the Brit
ish navyi about dogs that had their tails
cut of and people in search of their father;
and after toiling through deserts o. sand
and mountains of chatf gained heart and
grace and sat me down at my work, and in
time, as all things will in this planet the
French Revolution" got done."'
USES OF THUNDER-A writer in The
Speaker explains how the familiar wea ther
expression that thunder clears the air. is
justified. The experiments of DR.. B, W,
Richardson have made US acquainted with
the fact that although the lie-sustaining
element IN the composition of the common
air is oxygen, animals are unable to live in
oxygen which has become devitalized-that
is, after passing repeatedly through the
lungs of warm-blooded animals. However
much such oxygen might be purified from
carbonic acid, watery vapor, and ammonia
it was incapable of sustaining life unless
subjected to electricity. Bv passing
through the devitalized oxygen currents Of
electricity from set of brushes connected
with the positive pole of a frictiouaI ma
chine, DR.. Richardson succeeded in restor-
ing the vital energy of the gas and animals
again lived in it with customary buoyancy
and vigor.
Thus 1t was found that electricity restores
to its vital state oxygen which has been rem
dered noxlous by passing through the lungs
OF animals, and what is true in the case of
laboratory experiments is also true in
regard TO the entire economy of
nature. Before q thunderstorm every
thing has been so still for davs
that the oxygen In the air has been to some
extent deprived of its life-sustaining power.
and feeling of drowsiness comes over all.
In fact, the air has become partly deyital-
lied, and is not capable of producing in
man to the same degree the usual yitalizinp
effects. But the lightning flashes restore the
lost energy to the oxygen, and in place of
the murky turgid temperature there is an
odor of ozone which exerts an exbiIarating
and buoyant influence Oh all animated
nature.
Schonbein has shown that ozone is a
peculiariy allotropic modification of oxygen.
and it is suggested that the VITALITY of
oxvgen depends on a trace of ozope-too
minute to be detected by ordinary chemical
methods-absorbed by the lungs of warm
blooded animals, and reproduced by electric
action, But not only does the thunder.
storm act thus benefcislly in restoring the
air to its normal grade of energy, but the
rain which accompanies or follows the
thunder also clears the air. Measurements
show us that in dry weather the air near
large towns contains 100, 900 organic dust