The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-17


beautiful photograph of him, like one OF
Raffael's children, taken when his years
were three or four But | never had
heard of his existence till, in 1873, think,
| was at Mentone, in the interests of my
health. Here I met Mr. Sidney Colvin,
now of the British Museum, and, with
Mr.. Colvin, Stevenson He looked as, in
my eyes, he always did look. more like u
lass than lad, with rather long,
smooth oval face, brown hair, worn
at greater length than is
common, large lucid eyes, but
whether blue or brown ] cannot remem-
ber if brown, certainly light brown. On
appealing to the authority of lady, |
learn that brown was the hue. His color
was a trihe hectic, us is not unusual at
Mentone; but he seemed, under his big
blue cloak, to be OF slender, yet agile
frame. He was like nobody else whom |
yer met. There was u sort of uncommon
celebrity in changing expression. in thought
and speech. His cloak and Tyrolese hat
Che would admit the innocent impeach-
ment) were decidedly dear to him. On
the frontier of Italy, why should he not
do as the Italians do? 1t would have been
well for me if / could lave initiated the
wearing of the cloak
| shall not deny that my first impress
sion was not wholly favorable. Here,
thought, sis one of your aesthetic young
men, though very clever one" What
the talk was about, | do not remember;
probably of books. Mr.. Stevenson after
wards told me that | had spoken of Mon
sieur Paul de st. Victor, as fine writer,
but added that ''he was not a British
sportsmen." Mr. Stevenson himself, to
my surprise, was unable to walk beyond II
very short distance, and, as it soon APP
peared he thought his thread of life was
nearly spun. He had just written his
essay, Ordered South, the first of his pub
Ished works. for his Pentland rising
pamphlet was unknown, boys per-
Torrance. On reading Ordered South,
saw at once that here was new writer, q
writer indeed; one who could do what
none of us, nous autres, could rival, or
approach. 1 was instantly sealed of
the Tribe of Louis, an admirer, a
devotee, fanatic, if you please. At
from this essay it is plain
enough that the author Gas is so common
in youth, but with better reason than
many have) thought himself doomed.
Most of us have gone through that, the
Millevoye phase, but who else has shown
d
parently inevitable? We parted; 1 re-
member little of our converse, except a
shrewd and hearty piece of encourage
ment given me by my Junior, who already
knew so much more of life than his senior
will ever do. For he ran forth to embrace
life like a lover his motto was never
Lucy Ashton's-
"Vacant heart, and hand, and eye,
Easy live and quiet die"
Mr.. Stevenson came presently to visit
me at Oxford. | make no hand of rem
iniscences | remember nothing about
what we did or said, with one exception,
which is not going to be published. |
heard of him, writing essays in the Port
folio and the Cornhill, those delightful
views of life at %, so brave, so real, so
vivid SO wise, so exquisite, which all
should know which | could not re-read
Just now How we looked for "R. LIS, "
at the end of AN article, and how devout
was our belief how happy our pride, in
the young one!
About 1878, | think I was now slave
of the quill myself, | received a brief note
from Mr.. Stevenson, introducing to me
the person whom, in his essay ON his old
college magazine. he called Glasgow
Browne. What his real name was, whence
he came, whence the money came, never
knew. G. B. was going to start a weekly
to see me. MIR. Stevenson has described
him, not as | would have described him.
He was not my sort " and, like Mr.. Bill
Skies dog, | have the Christian peculiar
my breed" G.. BIS paper, London,
was to start next week. He
had no writer of political leading articles
Would l do LEADER But was not in
favor of Lord Lytton's Afghan policy.
How could do a leader? Well, l did a
neutral-tinted thing with citations from
Arstophanes! | found presently some
scribes for G.. B. What paper that was I!
] have heard that G. B. paid in handfuls
of gold, in handfuls Of bank notes.
Nobody ever read it, or advertised i'll it,
or heard of it. 1t was full of the most Won
They were Git afterwards appeared) by
Mr.. W. f. Henley. Mr.. Stevenson
had met him, while he was doing his
series of hospital sonnets in Edinburgh.
and they became very close friends. Mr..
Stevenson himself astonished and delight
the public of London Chat is, the con-
tributors) by his New Arabian Nights
Nobody knew about them but our
selves, a fortunate few. Poor G..
b. ;, died s,a;+ and Mr. m. Henley eyt became
the contributors, the flower of the young
lions, elderly lions now, there is "A new
race. But one lion, distinguished and
learned lion, said already that fiction, not
essay, was Mr. Stevenson's field Well,
both fields were his, and | cannot say
4
Virginibus Puerisque and Studies of Men
and Books or Treasure Islands and Catri-
ona. With the decease of G. B. Pactolus,
dried up in its mysterious sources, Lon
don struggled and disappeared.
Mr.. Stevenson was i'll town, now and
again, at the old Seville Club, which had
the tiniest and blacklist of smoking rooms.
Here or somewhere he spoke to me OF an
idea of tale, q man who was Two Men.
/ said civilian Wilson, and declared it
would never do. But his Brownies, in
II 'vision OF the night, showed
him the central scene, and he
wrote Jekyll and Hyde. My ''frend
of these days and of all days" Mr. Charles
Longman sent him the manuscript. In a
very commonplace London drawing room,
at 10 30 p. M, began to read it, Arriv-
ing at the place where Utterson, the law
yer and the butler wait outside the doc
tors room, | threw down the manuscript
and fled in hurry. | had no taste for
solitude any more. The story won
its great success partly by dint of
the moral (whatever that may be-,
more by it's terrible lucid, visionary
power. | remember Mr.. Stevenson tell
ing me, at this time, that he was doing
some regular crawlers,'' for this purist
had boyish habit OF slang, and / think
it was he who called Julius Caesar ''the
howlngest cheese who ever lived One
of the 'crawlers' was Shraun Janet ;
after Wandering Wille's Tale. but Ger.
tainly 'supernatural' in our language.