The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-20

of his death. And yet 1t is only this
month that some letters which passed
between Burns and one of his publish
erS, George Thomson, have been made
public. Thomson was publisher Of
songs, and applied to Burns for copy,
but he seems never to have paid him
at all adequately In one instance
compensation which, in its absurd
smallness, surpasses what Hawthorne
got for some of the "Twice Told Tales"
SO each. One Of Burns letters gives
a fine example of Burns Independent
spirit. He was writing of money mat
ters and said: Burns character for
generosity of sentiment and independ-
ence of mind will, 1 trust, long outlive
any Of his wants which the cold unfeel-
ing ore can supply" Burns returns from
his writings were always miserably
small. Only three weeks ago there was
sold in Edinburgh copy of the Xii
marnock edition Of his Poems Chiefly
in the Scottish Dialect" The first
volume he ever published, and now one
of the scarcest volumes in modern
literature. 1t brought rather more than
S2.S00-a sum in excess Of all that Burns
ever received for all his writings-a
sum. moreover, which in his lifetime
might have made him independent.
Strange indeed have been the re-
wards which literature has won for
some of her greatest sons-and has not
won. When we think of the princely
sums that writer's have earned in our
day, the Hall Gaines, the Kiplings, du
Maurier and Sienkiewicz, it is
startling to think of the i'm
mortal Burns and his immortal
poverty, or of Milton selling paradise
Lest" for a flo note. In our day negro
poet, Paul L. Dunbar, does better than
Burns or Milton did. Little more than
a year has passed since Dunbar's
''Lyre's Of Lowly Life" came out, and
already more than 5000 copies have
been sold. Dunbar is certainly the best
read poet of the year. In England one
of the magazines, following a French
custom, has just "croWned' a certain
volume of verse by Stephen Phillips,
and the paper chronicles as a great sue
cess, the sale of 500 copies, with an
other edition of 700 on the year. But
here is the cOlOred man whom nobody
has crowned, boasting his 5000 copies.
But it is not poetry, nor is it such.
that win the greatest pecuniary re-
wards in literature 1t is the man who
PERFORMS some great feat, usually in
exploration, but sometimes in other
fields. that gain the greatest-prOvided
he writes book. 1t was this fact that
made Gen. Grant most successful
writer from d pecuniary point of view.
and that made Stanley another and
hansen a third. The returns hansen
gained are we'll known to have made
him quite Independent in life. Whether
any success at all compared to Nam
sens will come to Lieut.. Peary from
the book he has almost ready, may be
doubted and even denied: and yet 1t is
no small sum that he will gain.
But fancy that among all books of
the memoir class none will have a
wider reading this spring than Eliza
beth Cady Stanton's volume of which
I wrote last week. Whatever ridicule
may have descended upon the woman's
rights movement twenty or thirty
years ago. one finds little Of it extant
now. and to more than any other cause
this is due to Mrs. Stanton. She, from
the first, gave the movement character,
dignity and grace. Here was a woman
in the highest American sense-well
born, well educated. at home in po-
lite society, welcome everywhere,
mother of many children, a devoted
wife, an ornament alike to society and
her sex. twenty-five years ago, when
I was a student in an American col
lege. one morning in a lecture room
there appeared in one Of the front
seats, to which she had been escorted
by the president Of the college, a Wom-
an with white hair; with a round, cheer
luI, IduIdVl CldO, Will
a carriage all grace and gentleness, to
whom every boy in that crowded
room would gladly have made respect
full obeiSance. She had a son in that
class room. a boy whom we all loved,
who was the peer Of our best, and the
woman was Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
One quotation I must give from Mrs.
Stanton's book, at the risk Of making
this letter too long. A rough sort Of
man, with small stature. crooked legs
and ungainly habit. once said to her
in a superior way: Don't you think
the best thing a woman can do is to
perform we'll her part in the role of
wife and mother? My wife has present
ed me with eight beautiful children
is not this a better life work than that
Of exercising the right of suffrage?"
Mrs. Stanton scanned the small man
from head to foot, and then said de-
liberately: 81 have met few men in
my life who were worth being repeat
ed eight times"
Francis w. Halsey.