The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-27

line of which was full of wit and in
good literary form.
1t was this extraordinary quality which
first attracted the attention of Charles
Dickens to him, when Sala, a young au-
thor. as yet completely unknown. began to
write for Household Words Dickens has
left on record in his letters his astonish-
ment of the work of Sala; and he was the
earliest to recognize his great ability, to
take him by the hand and to lead him into
Then the mastery descriptive skill. the
overlooking humor. the Gautierlike facility
for ringing together sentences which
seemed studded with gems-displayed in
"A Journey Due North"-did the rest.
Thirty-seven years ago the journalist, re-
turning from filling a newspaper commits
sion in Russia, found himself famous And
no one applauded him more heartily than
Dickens.
Sala had the salary of an ambassad dor
when he traveled-a British ambassador
who gets three times as much as an
American one. He knew everybody from
the russian Car of. the gay to the latest
pugilist in the fashion. He was, and is
living epitome of knowledge about EURO
pean society. With Paris at his fingers
ends and London in his vest pocket and
with personal remembrances of nearly
every great parsonage in Europe since
1850, no wonder that his charmingly writ
ten homilles brought him perpetual en-
gagement from the Telegraph, at a salary
which, in London, is considered magnifi-
cent. believe that in Paris he would have
received more, but there he would have
been obliged to move from one paper to
another, in obedience to the mania which
Paris editors now have Of competing for
star contributors
Sala was described when he first an
peared before the American pulpit as the
envoy of the Telegraph TO write letters to
person of gentlemanly ways, with a bui.
bous nose" This pictured him pretty ac-
curately, so far as his personal appear
ance is concerned. But 1t did not convey
the impression that he was one of the
most brilliant takers in England which
he is to this day, or that he could make
a better and especially a more amusing
after dinner speech than any noble lord in
politics or out of IL.
the illusions to his nose were quite
frequent IN his militant days, and rarely
drew remark from him, save that once he
ventured to demonstrate, through the
press, with an impudent individual who
attributed the shape and rubicnnd nature
of that organic too frequent libations to
Bacchus. In denying the assertion Sala
pointed out with some little. asperity that
Tor many years his health had permitted
no libations. and that the rosy color of
his nose was product of these Identical
years
Sala has always had a cordial contennt
for the "Philistine," and he has shown
II in his writings. In his wilder days he
sometimes manifested il in his actions
IL IS reported of him that, being one eve
ming at a club after dinner he heard
some noisy person, evidently little ac-
qudlnted with literature or its deVOtees
declaiming against Victor Hugo
lie Is an idle, empty-handed, believing
coxcomb, said the ass, mixing his SMILES,
as might have been expected of him.
Sir, SAID Sala, is it possible that it is
Of Victor Hugo, the greatest Frenchman
of the century, that you are speaking?''
lie Is reiterated the ass, "a vain
glorious. Dragging old humbug."
Pardn me. sir" said Sala assuming
a grand air. Victor Hugo is not only a
man of surprising genius, but he Is a
friend of mine. If you make any further
insulting comments upon him L Will throw
this lnkStand at your headp'
And he took up and balanced In one
hand a huge, old-fashioned instand such
as may still be found in the smoky 5aT Flor.
of clubs in London.
But the ass did not know sala. nor
understand that the journalist was a man
of the world. So ne LAUGHED a third TRADE
against the great Frenchman.
Crash! went the inkstand, scattering
Ph f head i'ra He % s the Se9Sy
despatched, and so was the furniture.
and the ink splaches are still shown as
proof Of the Vigor with which one author
defended another.
Mr.. Sala comes of theatrical stock: his
parents were connected with the stage
and his memory is a perfect mine of ira
ditions and tales, tragicai and comical
of the histrionic profession. As a critic
he is prime authority, and no ''frst
night" can be considered complete in Lon
don unless il includes the spectacle NJ -.
acts and turning around calmly to con-
template the audience in the fashion which
he learned in the continental theaters /
hear that his fine library accumulated dnr-
ing more than forty years, has now been
dispersed, and that there was a battle
royal for the possession of the rare and
curious works on the stage.
The great journalist always enioved
travel. He has the journalistic Instinct
for being interested in everything. and
consequently, he wrote Interestingly about
all things. He paid a second visit to the
United States a few years ago. and told
his countrymen more about America than
could learn ro
kilograms for half a century,, His four
ney to Australia to lecture brought him
in a small fortune, but il was saddened
by the death of his wife. Later IN life he
married again, choosing a charming lady
of literary tastes, who is his faithful COM
panion in his declining years. lie will be
remembered far better as the contribu-
tor to the Telegraph than as the some
time editor of Temple Bar or the author
Of several sprightly but rather ephemeral
novels.