The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-01-14
ANTICIPATING FAME.
sEsANT's PATHETIC sToeY "PAUI
THE WANoEReR."

Il
eESANT's PATHETIC sToeY oF"PAUI
THE WAN0ERER."
The Quiet Dignity of Man Who Was Liv-
ing For Posterity--A Pretty Little Skit
Writtcn In the English Novelist's mimi.
table Style.
knew him for several years before
his death When l first made his &C
Quaintance, he was already an old man.
He was also, as was evident from the
frst, a very poor man. He went about
stability dressed He carried biscuits
in his pocket to the reading room on
which he lunched or took snacks at in
tervals during the day. Perhaps he had
dinner afterward, but always suspect.
ed his dinner to be an uncertain and a
movable feast 1t was understood that
be was something in the literary way.
got to know him by sitting next to
him day after day. We exchanged the
amenities of the reading room, apollo
gized for crowding each other with
books, abused the takers, remarked on
the impudence of those who go to the
room in order to fiirt and so forth.
When | got to know hila better,
made little discoveries about him, as,
for instance, that be liked d glass OF
beer in the middle of the day and that
he could not afford the twopence. Imay
say, not boastfully. that | was able to
offer him this little luxury. We used
to go out together for the purpose. He
was good enough to take an interest in
my work He proved to have a consider
able knowledge of books and gave me
considerable help in this way.
One Sunday met him in the street
We stopped to speak. He lamented the
closing of the museum on Sunday. For
his own part, he said, he would have
the reading room open every day in the
week Why close the avenues of knowl
edge? Why damn the fountains and
springs of wisdom? So we walked and
talked He was perfectly dignified in
his manner, though his great coat was
so thin and shabby that cue might be
ashamed to be seen with him. He stop
ped presently at the door of house in
aigh street, Holborn.
81 lodge here" he said. will you
come up stairs and see my hermitage?"
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-t fifth, floor. He liv.
ed in the back attic.
This, he said, SIS the cell of the
seG.use. live here quite retired. There
are other dodgers, believe but l do
not 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 CRATE; on shelf were about %
boohs-his library. The man looked per-
fectly contented with his hermitage
There were no papers on the table,
nothing to show that he was writer.
do not know how he lived-certain-
" he did no work at the museum-but
he never borrowed. In one corner stood
wooden chest He lifted the lid and
nodded and laughed.
''AhaI' he said, "now am going to
reveal secret. You didn't know, no
body at the museum knows, the people
in the house don't know, that 1 am
what 90 you think?-a poet. 1t is 80
years since L paid for the publication
of my collected poetical 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 friend!" Hepro-
duced thin volume. 81 am Paul the
Wanderer In fact, the title page bore
the legend, COLLECTED Political Work
If Paul the Wanderer.
Thirty years., - he repeated. '"There
we're 500 copies. The press received so,
che 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 ma
ton. Sir, you are young You will
yourself perhaps publish your poems.
Remember for your comfort that 1t
takes 30 years, or two generations,
for the noblest poets to take their
| proper place. Greatness-true, stable
solid greatness, not the empty applause
given to an ephemeral favorite-re-
quires so years at least Go, sirl Take
the book have given you, and in after
years, when [ am gone, tell the world
that you knew-Paui the Wandered"
I wrung his hand IL silence and left
him More than so years have passed
since he published that work. No one
has yet spoken to me of Paul the Wan
derer. But l now understood his digni.
| ty, his self respect and his content. He
was anticipating and enjoying his flu.
ture fame He was living for posterity
Present poverty and neglect were moth
iug,-Walter Resant in London Queen
THE VATlCAN'S kELTGs-
loaned by the Pope to the Columbian E1
position and Not Yet Returned.
The state department at Washington
Is considerably troubled with the care O.
certain large packing cases piled up II
the cellar of the building marked, 1.-The
Vatican, Rome, Italy" They contain
the priceless manuscripts and relics n
Columbus lent by his holiness the pop'
to the Columbian exposition.
By an arrangement made with th'
American minister to the Italian cour
the Columbus collection was brought
to the United States on board an Amer
lean man-of-war, and guarantee wa
given that it should be returned to TIN