The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-21
cited as to the attention he pays to
small things.
NO RAD HARITS

N6IOpeQ. w HdleNSIs LIE WOIk may Ue
he has in lland,'' said a recent visitor
at Hawarden. 1T takes hold of him so
entirely that he has to be reused from
it as most are reused from sleep" This
enabled him to be almost totally in
different to his surroundings, facul-
ty simply invaluable to him, when as
leader of the house of commons he had
to sit for hours listening to the monot-
cnous drone of irrelevant debate.
Whilst able to concentrate himself SO
absolutely upon the subject in hand,
he was capable with the utmost ease
OF varying his subjects. 1t has long
been his habit always to have three
Docks in reading, at the same time, and
with all his strenuousness, Mr.. Glad
stone is well aware of the advantage
OF occasionally unstringing the bow.
He reads novels with hearty gusto,
and Miss Frederichs in her little vol
ume, Mr.. Gladstone in the Evening of
his Days" mentions that when he was
worn out with several hours steady
continuous work at indeXing Bishop
butler he recovered the tone of Ais
mind by RECALLING himself in the even
ing with Robinson Crusoe," and 1.-The
Arabian Nights Entertainments"
HE READS BUT ONE NEWSPAPER
Another thing which might perhaps
be classified as merely another phase of
the same faculty, but one which never
theless helped to prolong his vigor, was
that he sedulously eschewed the prac-
tlce OF promiscuous newspaper read
ing. Arthur Balfour, the present lead
er OF the house of commons, has always
made a point of never reading a news
paper at all unless he is compelled to
do 80, a rule which certainly has its
advantages, but Which could hardly be
adopted by anyone less audacious than.
Mr. BaHour. He told me once that not
only did il save a great deal Of time
TO let your newspaper reading be done
by other people, but it was so much
more interesting TO hear things at first
hand yourself than to take them at
second hand from newspaper reporters.
Mr. Gladstone in the matter Of news
paper reading stood midway between
Mr.. Balfour and Mr. Bright. Mr.. Bal
four read nothing, Mr. Bright read
every word in a morning newspaper,
devoted regularly two hours a day to
its perusal. Mr.. Gladstone usually reads
one newspaper regularly. 1t used to
be the Pail Mall Gazette before it
changed hands and latterly it has been
the Westminster Gazette The Times
Mr.. Gladstone has never read regular
ly. l remember him telling me in 1877
that he never looked at the Times for
any CHER reason excepting to read the
kilograms which w. j. Stillman the
Times correspondent in Montenegro.
DISPATCHED as to the progress of the
campaign against the Turk.
ENJOYS ABOUT EVERYTHING BUT
RACING AND GAMBLING.
Another achievement that must be
taken into account is the immense di-
versity of interests which Mr. Glad
stone enjoys in life. He touches life
at every side, with the exception of rae
ing and gambling, and wherever he
touches it he thrills responsive to its
touch. Merely TO be prime minister of
the queen is of itself sufficient to pro-
vide topics of interest for any person
for the rest of his life. But MIR Glad
stone was never able to devote more
than section of his time to politics;
he has probably spent more time over
/ Homer than ne ever did over the ques-
ton of parliamentary reform, and at
all times his interest in theology out
balances his interest in mundane af-
fairs.
THE HOBBY OF HIS OLD AGE.
1t is thoroughly characteristic that
his favorite hobby at the present mo-
ment should be the institution of the
illogical library which he has founded
warden, providing 1t with a hosiery
where students who desire to study the
! theological books may be boarded and
lodged for Sc or Is shlllings a week. st.
Deiniols library contains on its shelves
10000 volumes. chiefly theological
which have been weeded from Mr..
Gladstone's own library and the insti-
tuition has been endowed by him to
some 100000. 1t is the hobby Of his old
| fhSJ11a IF ~
aroused the veteran so surely as an
allusion to st. Deiniols, which has the
reverend Mr.. Drew, his son-in-law, as
its warden and librarian.
HIS CONVERSATIONAL POWERS.
1t is almost impossible to start any
subject of conversation in which Mr.
| Gladstone cannot more than hold his
own. Admirals in the navy have told
me how amazed they have been when
seated next him at dinner they have
ventured to raise some question relat-
ing to the service. Mr.. Gladstone they
said always seemed to know more
about it than they did, at least when
ever 1t was a question of statistics,
even although the statistics related to
the number of stokers in the fleet or
the average height and weight of sail
ors in the navy. There is a tradition to
the eject that on enc occasion when
NJ. Chevalier, the eminent French econ
omist was invited to Downing street
to breakfast, he came away sadly dis
appointed, for Mr.. Gladstone, and Mr..
Bright, happened to raise the subject
of corns, discussing chirpody in all its
branches with a wonderful array of
personal experience and literary refer
ence which bewildered the Frenchnan,
who at first was under the illusion that
the prime minister and the great free
trader were engaged in the discussion
of the corn laws.
HIS INTELLECTUAL vIGOR UNA
BATED
| Wide as are the interests of this life
Mr.. Gladstone is not content Herewith
and he is devoting his declining years
to re-statement of his ti1e1ry of the
next life. The last post card had from
him, and Mr.. Gladstone always uses
postcards, was to express the great in
terest he felt in reading some articles
dealing with the results of psychicad re
search published in Beforehand, anc
promising to refer to the subject ct
SpiritiSm when ne came to revise hi.
article on immortality. Add to all these
things the fact that Mr.. Gladstone ha:
always lived a country life when HI
could get the opportunity. Down a.
Hawarden in the midst Of the stately
/ park which his wife inherited from he
father, he has ever shown the keenes
enjoyment of the pleasures of rura
life. Not that he has devoted himsel
to practical agriculture. He is interest
ed in the subject, no doubt, and IA
done what ne could to raise the stand
ard of farming in his own neighbour
hood, but his interest in agriculture
was more that of the observer than o
the expert.