Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-09-04
ANTICIPATING FAME.
.ss.Nr,s PATHETIC STORY OF "PAul
 THE WANoERER."

f1E NFNiNChit-ths
 me Quiet Dignity of a Man Who Was his- M For postesity-A Pretty Little siSit
 .r.,t4sn In the English Novelist's Inimi- table Style.
 knew him for several years before ~ death When first made hls aes n intanoe. he was already an old man. as''e ne Tas also, as was evident from the '. a very poor man. He went about shtilv Aas dressed. He carried biscuits = s.'', bis nooket to the reading room on ztiob he lunched or took snacks at ln- ss-o1s ao during the day. Perhaps he had 's;,,ner ,afterward, but l always suspect sa lis dinner to be an uncertain and arabIe 0 feast. It was understood that ,'a was something in the literary way. .at to know him by sitting next to ,.;n, day after day. We exchanged the assenities of the reading room, apolo= n;1ed for crowding each other with 5aoks. abused the takers, remarked on st1se innndenee of those who go to the
 ,n in order to flirt and so forth. 4rben I got to know him better, l $ |..,a aa little discoveries about him, as, tT'r instance, that he liked glass of s,sor in the middle of the day and that ss eonld not afford the twopence lmay ssy not boastfully, that 1 was able to a4sa, pg him this little luxury. We used fo eo out together for the purpose He ss,aS good enough to take an interest i'll W work. He proved to have consider slla knowledge of books and gave me Considerable help in this way.
 One Sunday l met him i'll the street. U stopped to speak. He lamented the nlosinq of the museum on Sunday. For I,s own part he said he would have fhe reading room open every day in the sgeek. Why close the avenues of knowl. aloe? Why damn the fountains and snrings of wisdom? So we walked and falked. He was perfectly dignified Ill ajs manner, though his great coat WAS sa thin and shabby that one might Do asbamed to be seen with him. He stop. 4 4ed presently at the door of a house in High street, Holborn.
 T lodge here, he said. Will yeu come up stairs and ses my hermitage3a'
 [ remember that he called it grandly his hermitage. He led the way; the stairs were dark and dirty; he took me to the fifth, or fifty fifth, floor. He liY- ed ill the back attic.
 f.This, he said, lis the cell of the recluse. live here quite retired. There are other lodgers, l believe, but do 1ot know them. l live here with my library in simplicity. The air is whole some at this height. ''
 He threw open the window and sniff ed the fragrance of the neighboring chimneys The room was clean; the furniture was scanty; there was no fire in the grate; OH q shelf were about a books-his library. The man looked per fectly eontented with his hermitage. There were no papers on the table, nothing to show that he was 9 writer.
 l do not know how he hved-certain N he did no work at the museum-but he never borrowed. In one corner stood q wooden chest He lifted the lid and nodded and laughed.
 ''Ahal' he said, "now am going to reyeal a secret. You didn' t know, #no- body at the museum knows, the people in the house don't know, that 1 am- what do you think?-a poet. It is 30 years since l paid for the publication of my collected poetieal works Yes, Sir, and am going not only to commu nicate this secret to your honor-in safe keeping-but to present you with a copy, There my young friendp' He pro- duoed a thin volume. T am Paul the Wanderer. " In fact the title page bore the legend, "Collected- Poetical Work of Paul the Wanderer.
 Thirty years, , he repeated. "There were 800 copies The press received 50. the public bought four; there remained 446. l have now given you one. There now remain 445. I have bequeathed these to the public libraries of the na- ton. Sir, you are young You will yourself perhaps publish your poems. ] Remember for your comfort that it takes 50 years, or two generations, Tor the noblest poets to take their proper place. Greatness-true, stable, Solid greatness not the empty applause given to an ephemeral favorite--re- qulres 50 years at least. Go, sirl Take the book have given you, and in after years, when I ain gone, tell the world that you knew-Paul the Wandererl9 N wrung his hand in silence and left z him More than 30 years have passed g sinee he published that work No one has yet spoken to me of Paul the Wan oerer. But now understood his digni- < " hts self respect and his content He s was anticipating and enjoying his flu < lure fame. He was living for posterity Present poverty and neglect were noth- hg. Walter Besant ill London Queen.
 Another Mammoth Statue.
 The sculptor Nikolaus Geiger is put. tlng the last touches to his statue of < barbarossa, which is to symbolize the