Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-09
THE DEAD POET LAUREATE
And His Successorship Nearly all
That Brit0ns Now Consider.
LADY CAVENDISH'S DISCLOSURES
And the Manner in Which They We're
Received BY Her Hearers
COLONEL CONGER'S MISSION IN WALES
rBY CABLE TO THE prsPArcHl


and Tennyson are the two names on the lips
OF all Europe. The coincidence of death
has brought comparisons which never would
have been made in life France mourns
with an almost personal grief her greatest
scholar and grandest philosopher. England
pays tribute TO mighty genius, lofty art
no longer incarnate
Tennvson's great mind and boundless
sympathy had compassed more of the
mysteries of human nature; but the events
OF the week suggest tnat Renan was per-
sonally closer to the hearts of his country
men. Tennvson, within recent years, has
become more an impersonal grandeur in the
ewes of the English people. They know
him by his works, and by his works only.
The man himself has been almost as much
mystery to his admirers as is the personal
ity of Shakespeare. This is as the poet
himself would have it. He was a recluse
almost to the point of a monomaniac
A Personal Sorrow to All Englishmen.
So it follows that the passing away of
Tennyson is in strict sense personal sor-
row to his countrymen. His immortality
began when he wrote the 'Idyls of the
far greater manifestations of popular grief
when the son of the heir apparent was
taken away, a few months ago. The tributes
of the press and the occasional display of
draped portraits Of the laureate in shop
windows have been the only recognition,
thus far, OF the worlds loss of the grandest
interpreter of the humanity of the ages
There has been no stint in the intellec
tual recognition of Tennyson's greatness,
and no honors will be spared in giving him
fitting sepulture. For several years there
has been tacit understanding that the
laureate would be laid by the side of
Browning in the Poets Corner at West
minister Abbey. The ceremonies attending
the interment on Wednesday will be men,
orably imposing.
Consistent on His Deathbed
The poets dream of the worlds interest
in himself, which was never more than idle
curiosity in his eyes, was manifested even
upon his deathbed He begged that no de- 1
tails OF his illness be made public Accord /
ingly, the task of the reporters who were
sent to await the end was a most repugnant 1
one. On the night of his death the newspa-
per men stood in the mud outside the rope |
bound gate toAldworth H House until o'clock. !
There was no shelter within a mile, and /
the town was four miles away. There is a !
limit to an English reporters patience, and I
finally the assembled scribes made an OATH |
bound agreement to return to Hazlefnere
and sleep till z o'clock. Fifteen minutes
after the watchers had gone, nurse crept
down the garden walk and attached to the
gate the fatal bulletin. The papers went to
press without the announcement.
Now 1t appears probable that after his
death the world will learn to know Tenny-
son as man. Those who were competent
to speak of him in his social and domestic
relations during life kept silent out of re-
gard for his great sensitiveness
The Ban on Tongue and Pen Removed.
Now that the ban upon their tongues and
pens has been removed the great humanity
Of the man is being uncovered The press
OF all England teens with personal anec-
dotes and sketches 1t is made clear that
the moroseness, the churlishness, the saw
age resentment which all saw who sought
to evade his privacy on any pre-
text was but cloak.
Tennyson himself was "a man of like
passions as we are, " of gentle tenderness.
a boundIess charity, an infinite compassion,
and also of a sterling, intrepid manliness.
Already the subject of the succession to
the laureateship is being agitated. The
horizon is being carefully scanned. but no.
body has the temerity yet to speak name
to follow that of the great master. The sug-
gestion of the Daily Nesrs, therefore that
The Office should lapse is meeting with
prompt popular favor The function of the |
aureate is gone, and his tIerce of canary wine,
he former method of compensation. has |
'een taken away. The post is practically
'nly an honorary one, the yearly emolu-
nent amounting to but e72.
The Post Always One of Ridicule.
Before the days of Ternyson and Words
Forth the appointment was the subject of ,
popular rdlcule and contempt 1t was the I
port OF wits, as when Peter Pindar sang. {
On tlp-toe gazing, 10, 1 stand, to see the !
uture laureate OF the land Spenser and !
Sen johnson were poets laureate, but from ,
Dryden to Southey there is scarce a name =
hat survives except upon the official
ecord Such great names as Shakespeare f
illton, Pope, Swift, Burns, Byron and 1
cott were not thus honored. Scholar and
ritic though he is, no greater embsrrass. =
lent could be put upon Mr.. Gladstone than h
o require of him to name tine successor of a
,ord Tennyson. t
1t is not improbable that tribute to the 0
,emory of Lord Tennyson may take the :.
orm OF purchasing his birthplace and nre- -
'rving it through all time as a personal il
lemento. The proposal was mooted some e
onths ago when the estate came into the a
arket, but nothing came OF 1t and Somersbv a
still to be had. 1t stands in the most y
cturesque part of the Lincolnshire wilds. q
miles from Louth. II