Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-13

| going TO say or do anything that the peo-
pie have not a right to know at once"
Here two other governors hastily arose
and both spoke at once. one OF them said.
AT the same time" and the other said.
But. Mr.. President" or something like
II, and II was too hot for me. and the ada
mantine audacity of the successful reporter
deserted me- and / fed into the outer air.
or course got a fragmentary report when
the TAX was over, but always thereafter
looked upon Gov. Curtin as sly. IL / had
had twenty years more newspaper expert
| ence 1 might have stayed and broke up the
meeting.
1t was my pleasant privilege. ten or
| twelve years ago. TO render n slight service
| TO Gen. Fremont. in obtaining a publisher
| for the two volumes of his Memoirs" and
until his death was permitted to continue
| the agreeable acquaintance thus begun.
Last month in reading the account OF his
perflous expeditions, l was struck with the
name Basil Lajeunesse" - remembering
that 1t was the name of Longfellow's black
| smith in ''Evangeline." who Took In his
leathern lap the hcof of the horse for a
playthinS. The name of Gabriel. Long
fellows hero. also occurred among the trap
pers. IT REQUIRED TO my mind that the poem
was written shortly after the Pathfinder's
return, and wrote to Mrs. Fremont ask
| ing her If she could explain the coincidence
She replied last week, as follows:
es. you are right in your conjecture
Longfellow himself told me where he got
| the names. 1t was at n dinner in Wash
ington, at Robert c. Winthrop's who had
Just been appointed to succeed Webster in
| the United States Senate. Longfellow was
there, and he said that he had taken a pro-
found interest In the generals explorations
ana that he had adopted in his new poem
the musical names Of some of the explorers
lie had. he added, first called his heroine
| Gabrielle but afterward found the longer
name EvanGeline' better adapted 10 his
dactylic verse
Mrs: Fremonts memory, I find Is con-
hrmed in Getail in Samuel Longfellow's
memoirs of his brother. where stand the
following entries from the poet diary:
1876 December ,. In the evening F.
tMrS. L.2ngfelow, who spared her husbands
| eyes by reading to HIND read F'remcit's OK
| petition TO the Rocky mountains in 1872:
| highly interesting and exciting What a
| wild life, and what a fresh kind OF exist
| ence. Eut. ahi the discomfort.
9th. We'll! Another week gone II has
| given IRE no literary result. but much ma
| ter!aL Fremont has particularly touched
my imaSinattCn; and trust something may
The loth. Commenced the second part
| Of EvangeiEe"
1850. May 18th, Washington. Diuol at
C2ldtr";i'a Evening at EnthroP'S. where
L met Ieaton, BCdisco, Webster, Mrs FIRE.
mont Lady Bulwcr and Mrs. - 4 bcau-
| tiful lady from Philadelphia"
1t is evident enough from an This that
! LonSfeilows Imagination was kindlcd and
! his repertory OF frontier incident enriched
| by the hcroism Of Fremont and his men,
| bat to speak OF the results OF their some
times reckless courage, their terrible eX-
p1sUr2s, Their Indian lights. wounds. losses
| Vanishing, starvation and death as dis
| comfort" shows that he had no scales with
which to weigh with accuracy the words
| which he put in his diary.
Mrs. Fremonts friends Will be glad 10
Know that after years Of nervous Irostra-
| ton she has recovered her health again
| and that in pleasant home in California
N mi ACf Of
and surrounded by children, grandchildren
and agreeable neiShbors, she Is probably I'm
possession of as much comfort and hapui-
| ness as falls 10 the lot of most people.
Theodore T,lton was one of the most
| promising and is one of the most gifted Of
American writers. He has not lived in the
United States for twenty years, and has not
been here since his lecture tour of ten years
ago. l believe He has his permanent resi-
dence I'm Paris, where / found him a little
while ago in his pleasant and comfortable
home on ST. Louis Island in the Seine Til
| ton and studied photography in the same
class when We We're boys end have kept the
old friendship alive. The great stone house
on whose first moor Is his rambling suite Of
rooms is on the very banks of Bohemia but
he lives neither like a Bohemian nor an an
chorite, but like a quiet gentleman sur
rounded by comfort, content TO get through
| life pleasantly and do no harm. In the
midst of libraries and galler IS. he has rare
| opportunities to study, and such leisure or
activity as he prefers; and his quarters
| probably cost him only a fraction OF what
they would in New York or Washington.
He has written enough good things to es-
tablsh any mans permanent reputation,
such as his "Confab with a Cricket" The
Meadows of Asphodel.'' My Creed" ETC.
and when l said TO him, Theodore your
Baby Bye, Here's Fly is in a million
American school books; I'd give my pen-fin-
ger to have written It," he answered That
little song was written some thirty-fve
years ago for my daughter Florence, then a
child. was spending my summer vacation
at Observation-Disclosures My neighbor
was the well-known New York physician,
Or. Carroll Dunham. He was a great lover
OF natural history, and a daily devotee to
the microscope. We USED TO ride together
over the Newburgh hills, examining every
nook and corner to find strange flowers and
insects. One day he burst out with r.at
ircignation at the flimsy and inaccurate
| use of scientific facts in the prevailing liter
allure for children. He had bought an H.
Illustrated book for his little boy, and dis
gusted TO find in IT picture of spider
with six instead of eight legs the offended
scientist tore out the offending page and
flung ii away. / was much impressed by
this act. So Immediately set at work and
wrote The Fly When the verses were
finished, L handed them TO him. Let us
see. he said. If they Will bear the test of
the microscope His wife vas an accom-
plished woman-author of the Mary Brown
books for children. The two critics did me
the honor TO say that my little piece did not
Violate the facts of nature, and that AZ con-
tanned no stanza TO be angrily torn out and
hung away. How long ago that song was
written! Ana how long, alas! those two
friends-the first to take an interest I'm the
verses-have now been in their grayes"'
Tilto1s Washington friends may like 10
know that he has been spending this sum-
mer down at the seaside on the Enslish
Channel. where he has been one of a charm
Ing party at the Villa Castlemar As he
loves salt water like a crab, he may not
have gone back to Paris yet
w. A. CROFFCT
IDA WEII.S, CHI ABE