Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-28

1
gruntled manner, and Mandelbaum
stepped up.
elm case, mine friendt, dot you
shouldn't be successful in your negotia-
tions vid dot chendleman up dere, would
you mindt maxim me de same PROPOSE
| tion? Dose tairms seem fair =
Poor old Josh, how l pity him. He
was once successful merchant. but he
wrote his name too often on the backs
| of his friends notes, and had to pay
them himself. He is now old and poor,
and has declined dozen offers of free
passage back to Boston. With all earth
ly ambition wholly forgotten, he sits
there from day. to day in his chair,
calmly waiting for rest and the end.
THE AUSTRALIAN NovELIsTs
(For fear have already dwelt too long
ber, but high in quality. The gentle
man who wrote The Story of Sydney
Sovereign, achieved a story that had no
element of depth in it until the last
chapter, and then it seems to have
probed every human heart. But the.
foremost of all Australian novelists up
to the present date was the late Marcus
Clarke. He was clerk in one of the
banks in Melbourne and had as lovely
face as ever God put upon a man.
To have been more manly in its express
sion, it must have lost some of it's rare
beauty; and to have been any more beau
tiful, it must have been absolutely effem-
mate. During that mans life (and he was
less than 40 years when he died, he res
cued no less than twenty-seven young
girls from lives of shame, and obtained
them honest employment. His portrait
hangs between the front windows of the
library room of the Yorick club, and un.
der it hangs motto, an extract from
one of his own works: Remember the
masters teachings. He remembered
that he was the Son of Man, and called
ye all his brethren" One day lady
said to him: "Mr. Clarke, you have
face like the picture OF Christ" II have
been told that before, madam" replied
Marcus, "but / regret that all resem-
blance ends with the face. | shall new
er be able to afford the world repeti-
tion of his beautiful example. You are
bright woman, but you do not discern
the difference between the human and
the divine" He wrote
ONE OF THE GREAT NOVELS
OF the century. 1t is called "His Natural
Life," and is fit to rank with Victor
Hugo's ''Miserables." The last chapter
but one in that book, entitled, "The Re-
demption," is one of the strongest bits
OF writing in the common tongues of
England, Australia and America. The
whole book is highly dramatic, and
written with glow that could only have
been derived from an atmosphere of
perennial sunshine and yet it was the
work of one who had been for years q
martyr tn an innu~ablv diaan SO ---i:-l
finally carried him off after years suf-
fering in bed. Then it was that the
sublime patience, which was the dis
tinguishing trait of his beautiful char
acter, shone forth in all it's radiance. In
all the slow revolving changes of twelve
months, not querulous whisper ever
escaped him. His experience with his
great book was almost romance in
itself. He had all his life been a
firm believer that Australia would, some
day or other, become a republic like the
United States. His boyhood's dream
was to visit America, and, when he be-
came old enough to marry, his choice of
a wife fell upon Miss Rosa Dunn, daugh-
ter of the America comedian, John
Dunn, who was always known in Aus
tralia as "that rascal jack" Rosa was
of America he drew the inspiration
which pervaded his marvellous descrip
tions of Yosemite, written in 1882. As
said before, he had always been sort
of badly drudged clerk in bank, and
never had any money. In his odd hours
at nights, he would contribute literary
work to the weekly papers, and from
this he progressed gradually towards
the proficiency which shows SO clearly
all through the pages of
HIS GREAT NOVEL
Which is based upon the abuses perpe-
trated upon the convicts by their keep
ers, who were simply so many two-leg-
ged British brutes. The novel begins
with story of one Sir Richard Devine,
a great ship-builder, who amasses
colossal fortune and marries widow,
who has an illegitimate son by her
cousin, an earl, who is gambler and
everything else that is prohigate. A
young curate is entrapped into playing
cards after supper with the earl, who
strips him of his last shilling. An ap-
pointment upon the heath is made by
the curate, to pay off his gambling
the preacher and the blackleg
peer, and the former strikes bis
antagonist fatal blow. Fleeing in
stantly from the scene of his crime, the
perpetrator escapes, but at that very
moment along comes the illegitimate
son of Lady Devine, and is arrested for
murder and robbery. The testimony of
the dying man was enough to acquit
young Devine of the murder, but the
peers pockets were empty, and those of
| the young man were full of money. So
| the young man ia convicted, and, under
! the assumed name of Rufus Dawes, is
sent out to Van Diemen's Land for ten
| years. He thrasbes one of his keepers,
and il sentenced then ''for his natural
| life," and upon that turns the whole
story. When Clarke got ready
TO PUBLISH THIS BOOK.
Most of the materials facts of which
were corroborated by the records of the
convict system, he knew very well that
it would not pay to print it in Australia,
on account of the cost of paper and the
high rates of composition. So ne went
to England by the Suez route. Not a
publisher in England or Scotland
would touch the manuscript. He then
went over to Ireland, but there was a
wholesome fear of incurring the enmity
of the crown. Clarke took in the situa-
ton at glance, and America was the
only place open to him. Hecame to New
York, and the old firm of Putnam's Sons
gave him $4,000 for an edition OF 5000
copies, with a promise OF 81 per copy il
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