The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-10-08
ben boil" ''TRILBY'
Dr.. English Chats About Du
Maurier's FamouF
Novel.
From the Meworh Daily Advertiser.

from tne NeiUu1E Ddtty AdreTttSef.
o don't have to knock twice at the
door of DR.. Thomas Dunn English. Con-
gresham, and the author of Ben Bolt"
a song that has been sung around the
circle of the earth for fifty years and
is not yet out of tune.
DR.. English is Democratic in fact as
well as in politics.
He is lying on a leather covered lounge
in the back parlor+-he calls it his den
of a substantial, somewhat old fash
toned house on State street, as you obey
his cheerful answer to your knock
Enter"
You don't notice anything in the room
other than that 1T is disordered and
cozy. The personality of the owner fills
it and claims all your attention.
He is an old man You see that at a
carelessly on a frame that shows the
wear and tear of a busy life. There are
many, very many lines in his face; lines
had more to do with the digging than
his Is years. He was born June 20, 1919,
in Philadelphia.
at you, but you do not catch his eye
This is because his sight is bad. Without
his glasses he hardly sees at all.
But his voice is strong and musical n
- - etAN " ASAA Sbtho " AiNC
to listen to him.
There was a copy of his poems among
the litter on the table,
has been published by subscription. AS
you will see 1t is edited by my daugh-
ter Alice. 1t contains Ben Bolt as it
lished for the first time in the New
York Mirror" In it's travels it has
met with some hard knocks like its ia
Their, and there have been many mutila-
thong Gf ito 1fnnG
II have seen the use made of Ben
Bolt in Du Maurier.s novel, 'Trilby,' =
went on the doctor, al it is by no
means to my liking. But, after all, what
does 1t matter?"
He laughed and went on
A this controversy about the author
that he must AVE been a Briton is sur
prising to me. Now let me read you
this'':-
The doctor took up a copy of ''Trilby."
Svengali,'" he read, were all magni-
fed into a strange, almost holy. poetic
dignity and splendor quite undreamed of
by whoever wrote the words and music
of that unsophisticated little song, which
has touched SO many simple British
hearts that don't know any better-and
scribe-long, long ago."
The doctor laid down the book.
Now" he said. had anyone read
.hSy 'NNo
ten by an American"
"Pourquoi?"
81 will tell you. There are certain
words in the poem that would only ave
been written by an American. The
word slab which occurs in the first
stanza is an Amerieanism. 1t is not
tree is used, There are no hickory trees
in England known by that name. When
the Englishman speaks of a tree, he
T'bar tho docfor grew rariniscent
When I first foated into Congress
on the Democratic tidal wave" he said.
some of the newspapers speaking of
the newly elected member, fell back on
my literary record and dragged Ben
Bolt from its lurking place. The re-
suit of this was a sort of Ben Bolt re-
vival through the country, but a source
of great to me.
81 was assured by one member of the
House that his wife had won him years
ago by the pretty and pathetic manner
him. Another told me that. like DR..
Coan, in the Sandwich Islands, his
mother had suns him to sleep with Ben
Bolt and to cap. the climax, l was in
troduced to a lady who had been chris
tened Alice Ben Bolt"
''Who was the lady, doctor?"
"She was a daughter of General Pick
EFT, of Confederate fame.
whenever l got into a mood of in
dignation at some legislation adverse TO
my views" he. went on in his musical IL
way, dItQ 0ApIcSSSA NY LHoiShoti|N- ~
strong and perhaps emphatic terms,
some of the members you clap me on
the back and sing:-
Don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben
Bolt?
Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown
This would put me in q rage. Con
found it, l have often said, L begin to
wish that either ben Bolt' or 1 had
never been born"
And then the genial poet, journalist,
physician and statesman saw his visitor
to the door with true old-fashioned po-
likeness.