The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-30

morning and an evening cane" IL
change my cane as the gun fires, and
hope to carry them both on to Cairo,
1t Is wonderful what effect these magi-
cal wands produce. ] owe to them
more attention than to being the sup
posed author of-what is it'll forget"
Who but the same correspondent CHM
self unimaginable in a binding unlike
that of his folios in old brown calf)-
who but his father must be told that
"Ralph's handkerchief which he
brought me from Paris is the most sue
cessful thing I ever wore" or of the
costume-part English, part Spanish,
part "fancy"-which had so wonderful
effect on the people of Janina?" The
Grand Vizier himself remarked and ev-
identity coveted it. Curious that while
Disraelt is revealing in these and SINH
lar glories he can call Bulwer stump
tuous and fantastic"
These are only a few of many signs,
repeated over a long stretch of years,
that, though Disraeli's bizarre attire
was calculated means of attention, it
pleased something in his remarkably
sane mind at the same time. Toward
the end of his life, indeed, he scornful-
ly denied the black satin shirts, the
lace ruffles, the diamond rings over
white kid gloves as stupid and ridicu-
lous Inventions: he did so in a letter
addressed to the writer of these pages.
But Lady Dufferin's account of his ar
ray when she first met him Is not the
only one of its nearly Incredible kind;
and Lord Dalling (Sir Henry Bulwer)
told me Of a really memorable little
dinner party which is more illustrative
of this high matter than any of them;
wherefore it is repeated here, though |
told the forgotten tale some years ago.
| AS everybody has read, one of Disra-
ellis first friends In the world of genius
and fashion was Sir Edward Lytton
Bulwer. And" said Lord Dalling,
I'VE heard so much at that time of Ed
wards amazingly brilliant new friend
| that we were the more disinclined to
| make his acquaintance"
| At length, however. Sir Edward got
up a little dinner party to convince his
| doubters. 1t was to meet at the early
! hour of those days at one of the Picca-
| dilly hotels. There was my brother,
| Alexander Cockburn; myself and q
| think Mines: but, for a considerable
time, no Mr. Disraeli. Waiting for Mr..
Disraeli did not enhance the pleasure
of meeting him; nor when he did come
| did his appearance predispose us in his
| favor. He wore green velvet trousers,
a canary colored waistcoat low shoes
with silver buckles, lace at his wrists
and his hair in ringlets." forget how
the coat was described, but it was no
ordinary coat 1--WE sat down. Not
one of US was more than five-and-
twenty years old. We were all--if you
will allow me to include myself-all on
the road to distinction, all clever, all
ambitious, and all with a perfect con-
| ceit of ourselves. Yet, If, on leaving
the table, we had been severely taken
aside and asked which was the clever
est of the party, there would have been
only one answer We should have
been obliged to say, The man in the
green velvet trousers
In considering what Disraeli was,
rather than what he did, the more no.
ticeable thing in all this is not the sue
cess, but the attempt; ! mean the
| method Of the attempt. We see here
| the earliest manifestation-in its draw
backs, to be sure-of what gave Disra-
eli his distinction over every other
! statesman of his time. England was
his country; he was earnest for its
/ good and it's renown; but he was I'M
/ English, quite. Bred in England,
where all his associations We're, he was
| in mind and intellect completely alien;
and therefore his calculated surprises
] overshot the mark in way and to a
degree that he was insensible of.
Those congenial affectations of his We're
| pushed to an extreme in order to
make an impression" fix atten-
ton on himself as a self-steering, self
/ confident challenging Potentially; but,
as have said before, he could not have
gone to such lengths If he had owned
4 any share in the peculiar sensibilltles
4 and prepossessions of those among
whom he was making way. Had he
i been more of Briton, he would have
| shrunk from an experiment which
| might possibly profit him, but at a cost
too dreadful for British contemplation;
| ridicule when his back was turned. At
/ the least, his English sensibilities
would have warned him of the over
much. arresting the experiment at
some distance short of the excess
| winch QlQ IlllIl iluCl illole VI i'ottiiSo
harm than temporary good. The ira
| dition Of these absurdities never ceased
to color the general conception of him.
Nor did he ever quite rid himself of the
mistake Late in life, on the famous
occasion when he declared himself ION
the side of the angels" he dropped in
| upon grave diocesan assembly at Ok
| ford in a black velvet shooting-ja Jacket
with b "wide-awake" hat.
Here was purposed affectation quite
on the original plan Other varieties
| Of 1t seemed to have no object in the
world except mystifcation; and not al
| ways, by any means, was the mystify-
| ing to his own glory. His constant
practice Of ALTERATION and his pro-
! fessed contempt for it can be explained,
| but hardly such bewildering contradic-
lions as he sometimes launched with
an evident attention of having them
talked about OF such was the story
that went the round of the gossip jour
nails lately with half the point omit
| ted, of two emphatic and diametrical-
ly opposite judgments on English art
the one publicly delivered at a Royal
| Academy dinner, the other addressed
| fifteen minutes afterward to Mr..
Browning, with the first speech still in
his ears. In that speech, what struck
Mr.. Disraeli most when he looked upon
those walls was the Astounding inven-
ton. the exuberance of fancy dis