The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-19

neys, too, of which more anon. In per-
son, Mr.. Weyman is small and slight
! troubled somewhat by a, shortness of
sight, and not much above the middle
stature. He is a type Of the student
whose sympathieS are not confined to
books, who is, first and foremost, a
man of letters, but has so much of the
country spirit about him that he will
never, in all the pressure of his en-
gagements, decline into a dry-as-dust
He fees that TO keep the brain clear
the body must be given free play, and
his work amply manifests the advan-
tages of this, the Surest system of sue
j cess.
WEyMAN'S SCHOOL CAREER.
In word, Mr. Weyman is a typical
example of the child of our English
public school and university education,
when that education has been allowed
its perfect work, when classics have
not drowned out athletics, nor the
claims of the running ground prevent
! ed distinction in the schools. Mr.. Wey-
man was educated at Shrewsbury
school, that sound home of learning,
at which, half a century ago, every
boy was supposed to write Greek
verses with the fluency of a .Kynaston.
No details of his school life are known,
but, when he passed in due course to
Christ Church, oxford, he left a more
indelible mark behind him He was no
great worker, it is true, but the mc1
at the head of the class-list are not al
ways the best grounded for after
life; and Mr.. Weyman had other
claims. He did nothing conspicuous
upon the river or on the cricket
/ ground, but among the men of his
time he was a familiar figure on the
cinder-path. During the winter he ran
pretty regularly with the Christ
| Church beagles, q pack that still con-
tinUes 10 be the bugbear of the farmers
about the Hinkseys, and occasionally
/ brings a too ardent sportsman under
1.-THE eye of the Woodstock magistrate,
with charge of breaking fences and
Iretarding cropsi In the spring the
training Of the winter told, and in 1876
! Weyman won the mile ana two mile
races at his college sports, finishing up
his career by carrying off the latter
event second time in the succeeding
year At the close Of 1877 he took his
degree with the creditable but brilliant
frecord OF second class in modern his
tory. He had taken a third in classi-
cal moderations the year before.
TRIES THE LAW BUT DRIFTS
INTO LITERATURE.
! A large proportion Of Oxford gradu-
ates, as soon as the degree is taken,
turn to tutorship for the moment,
while they are looking round for some
more permanent employment, and Mr..
Weyman followed in the common
stream. For a year or more after leav-
ing Oxford he took a mastership at
Kings school. Chester, where he filed
in the intervals between school hours
and games by studying for the bar.
TN nn IN hal OF l1a
Inner Temple, and joined the Oxford
circuit, where he practiced for some
ten years with varying but moderate
success. 'fThe dusty purlieus of the
law were not congenial to him; for a
long while he had set his heart upon
literary work. While at Oxford he
sent a short story to London maya
zine Chambers Journal; it was ac-
cepted; q cheque for Ga followed, and
says Mr. Weyman himself, visions OF
opulence followed" Reality, however
did not come up to the dream. His first
experience in journalism was failure
He had written some skitS which ap-
peared in the St James Gazette, and
Mr.. Frederick Greenwood, who was
then editing the paper, was taken by
his flumor. and sent him down to
Windsor to write an article on Prince
Leopold's wedding. Mr.. Weyman had
a good view Of the proceedings. and
wrote what seemed to him a good
enough account, but it never issued
from Mr.. Greenwood's waste-paper
basket. And that" said Mr.. Wey-
man, was the end of my writing for
the press"
But in fiction he had been more sue
cessful. Mr.. James Payn is proverb:al
for his skill in discovering young tai
ent; was he not the first to recognize
the merits of Mr.. Anstey, and one of
the first to print Mr.. Barry Pain? To
his other discoveries Mr.. Weyman
must now be added, for in 1883. a short
story, king Pepin," appeared in the
Cornhill Magazine, of which Gas every
one, / suppose, is alvarez Mr.. Payn is
the editor. Mr.. Weyman always speaks
with gratitude of that early recogni-
ton. In the same year the English
Illustrated printed "Bab,' and The
Story of a Courtship" appeared in
Longman's. In 1885 and the following
year he determined upon q more am
bilious fight, and set himself to write
a full-length novel. But the result
was unsatisfactory, and, when two
publishers had refused the manuscript, |
Mr.. Weyman had the courage to de-
stroy it, Some of the material, how
ever, he afterwards used in THE New
Rector"
FIRST CONSPICUOUS SUCCESS.
His first conspicuous success was (as
so many successes are) the result of an
accident Spending an idle afternoon
at his club in 1883, he CHANGED upon a
copy of Raird's Rise of the Hugue-
nots," AID was greatly interested by it. |