The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-04

Allan Cunningham tells this story of
Robert Burns. Strolling one day in
Cumberland the poet lost his friends, and
thinking to find them at a certain tavern
he popped his head in at the door. Seeing
no one there but three strangers, he apollo
gized, and was about to retire when one
OF the strangers called out. YCome in,
Johnny Peep. This invitation the con-
vivial poet readily accepted, and spent
very pleasant time with his newly-found
companions. AS the conversation began
to flag, it was proposed that each should
write verse, and place it together with
two-and-six under the candlestick, the
best poet to take the half-crowns, while
the unsuccessful rhymers were to settle
the bill among them. According to Cum
ningham Burns obtained the stakes by
writing:
Here am I, Johnny Peep;
saw three sheep,
And these three sheep saw me,
Half-a-crown apiece
Will pay for their fleece
And so Johnny Peep goes free"
Doubtless many of our readers will re-
member the story of how Hogarth painted
Fielding's portait. We are told that the
painter tried in vain to persuade the au-
thor of Tom Jones to sit for him, and
that Hogarth was unable to paint the face
from memory. Mentioning this fact one
day to Garrlck, the great actor suddenly
said, us this likel" So like to Field
ing's was the face which Garrick made up
that Hogarth seized his pencil and drew
the portrait of the novelist which he has
given to posterity. Now the French have
an anecdote about the painting of the por-
trait of Villele, on all tours with the
above. Coulon, who united the offices of
court jester and physician to Louis
XVIII, was famed for his powers of
mi mi nv nno dow xx,bo, tI,n TO-
was complaining that no portrait existed
which, did Justice to Villele, Coulon an
swered, "None shows the profound no
bility of his character and his evanes-
cent expression" While he spoke the
words seemed to come from Villele him
self, so like had the doctor grown to the
minister. eros hastily sketched and then
painted Coulon's transformed face, pro-
ducing the best sketch of the French
statesman which, we believe, exists.
Monk Gerbert, who assembled the papal
throne under the title af Sylvester H., an
head, which, like that owned by the re-
puted inventor of gunpowder, was capa-
BILE OF answering him like an oracle. From
this head he learned that he would not
die until ne rformed mass at Jerusa-
lem, and SO he determined to live forever,
by taking especial care not to go to the
Holy City. Unfortunately Gerbert soon
found that brazen heads, like other Jug
Cling fiends, "but keep the word of prom
Use to our ear and break it to our hopes"
for one day he was taken seriously i'll just
after he had celebrated mass in one of the
churches at Rome. On inquiring the
name of this particular church, he heard,
much to his dismay, that it was popu-
larly known as Jerusalem" and he died
in great agony a few hours afterwards.
Five hundred years after this Master
Robert Fabian gives us the story of the
death of King Henry w., and tells us how
that in his youth it had been prophesied
that he would die in Jerusalem, and that
the prophecy, as in the case of Gerbert
was in a way fulfilled by the. King dying
in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminis-
ter. Space forbids us to multiply examp-
les of paralleled stories such as the above,
although it would be an easy task to fill
whole volume with them. In such cases
it is probable that one of the stories only
is authentic, the other being but
second edition of the first, slightly changed
and attributed to some else. On the other
hand, if they are simply condolences, we
can only say, in the words of Celia, in
AS You Like It, 30, wonderful, wonder
full, and most wonderful, wonderful, and
yet again wonderful, and after that out
of all whooping.'