Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-03-15
oLT AND ABOUT.
ANECDOTES OF CELEBRITIES
FROM A RECENT BOOK.

ANECDOTES OF CELEBRITIES
FROM A RECENT BOOK.
Max Mueller on Some of the Men He
Has Known-Tennyson Humboldt,
Lowell and Ruskin-Miss Howison's
Lecture-The Coming of Mr.. Thomas
and His Orchestra Rev. Calvin
Stebbins Last Milton Lecture"
"Some of my beggar Gcquaintances
were 50 clever and so we'll educated that
for themselves; but, as one of them told
me when l thought | had made him
thoroughly ashamed of himself, and
quite confidential, they preferred beg
ging to any other kind of occupation,
says Prof. Max Mueller in his lately
published volume, Aud Lang Syne,"
Talk of shooting partridges or pleas
ants he said, talk of racing or gamb-
ling, there is no sport like begging.
There must always be risk in sport, and
the risk in begging is very great. You
are fighting my half penitent informant
said, against tremendous odds. You ring
at the door, and you must first or all
face a servant, who generally scrutin-
ICES you with great suspicion, and de-
clines to FAKE your name or your card,
unless you have clean shirt or a de-
cent pair of boots. Then, after you have
! been admitted to the presence, you have
TO watch every expression of your en-
envy or your friend, as the case may
be. You have to face the cleverest peo-
pie in the world and you know all the
time that the slightest mistake In your
looks or in the tone Of your voice may
| lead to ruin. You may be kicked out of
| the house, and if you meet with high
| minded and public spirited gentleman,
who does not mind trouble and expense,
! you may find yourself in the hands of
| the police for trying to obtain money I'M
der false pretences. No. he concluded, Il
| have known in my time what hunting
and shooting and gambling are; but
assure you there is no sport like beg
ging.'
IF ever there was an active, power
full brain, it was Ruskin's No doubt he
worked very hard, but l doubt whether
nard work by itself can ever upset a
! healthy brain. / believe it rather
strengthens than weakens it, as exercise
strengthens the muscles of our body
HIS was, no doubt, a sensitive nature,
| and an overweight sensltiVeness is
much more likely to cause mischief than
| steady intellectual effort. And what a
/ beautiful mind his was, and what les
sons OF beauty he has taught us all. At
| the same time, he could not bear any-
thing unbeautiful; and anything low or
| ignoble In men revolted him and made
| him thoroughly unhappy. I remember
| once taking Emerson to lunch with him
IN mis- rooms in Corpus Christi College
/ Emerson was an old friend of his, and
/ in many respects a cognate soul. But
some quite Indifferent subject turned up,
heated discussion ensued, and Ruskin
was SO upset that he had to quit the
room and leave us alone. Emerson was
most unhappy, and did all he could to
make peace, but he had to leave without
a reconciliation"
| "Lowelfs conversation was inexhaust-
ible, his information astonishing. Pleas
ant as he was, even as an antagonist,
/ he would occasionally hose his temper
and use very emphatic language. I was
once sitting next to him, when I heard
him stagger his neighbor young lady,
by bursting out with: But, madam,
| do not accept your major prelniser Poor
thing, she evidently was not accus-
| toned to such language, and not ac-
! quainted with that terrible term She
collapsed, evidently quite at a loss as
to what gift on her part Mr.. Lowell
declined to accept"
another though less frequent visitor
to Oxford was Tennyson. His first visit
to our house was rather alarming. We
| lived in small house in High street
nearly opposite Magdalen College, and
our establishment was not calculated to
receive sudden guests particularly
poet laureate. He stepped in one day
/ during long vacation, when Oxford
was almost empty. Wishing to show
the great man all ciVility, we asked him
I to dinner that night and breakfast the
next morning. At that time almost all
| the shops were in the market, which
closed at one o'clock. My wife, a young
! housekeeper, did her best for our hon
ored guest. He was known to be a
! gourmand, and at dinner he was evil
I IDENTIFY put out when he found the
sauce for the salmon was not the one
he preferred. He was pleased, how
ever, with the wing of a chicken, and
said it was the only advantage he got
| from being poet laureate, that he gem
orally received the liver wing of the
! chicken. The next morning at break
| fast we had rather plumed ourselves on
having been able to get a dish of cut
when our guest arrived to see him whip
! off the cover of the hot dish and to
hear the exclamation: Mutton chops!
the staple of every bad inn in England
| However, these were but minor mat
ters, though not without importance at
the time in the eyes of the young wife
to whom Tennyson had been like one Of
the Immortals. He was simply delight
full and full Of inquiries about the east
more particularly about Indian poetry
and / believe that it was then that 1
told him there was no rhyme in Sans
krit poetry and ventured to ask him
why there SHOULD be in English. He was
not so offended as Samuel Johnson
I seems to have been when asked the
same question. The old bear would
probably have answered my question
by You are great fool, sir; use your
own Judgment while Tennyson gave
the very sensible answer that rhyme as
sisted the memory"
Some of his friends tainted Tenny-
son that he could never give up tobacco.
Anybody can do that he said, If he
chooses to do it, When his friends still
continued TO doubt and tease him,
Well he said, I shall give up smoking
from tonight The very same evening
] was told that he threw his pipes and
tOpdccO OUT Ol tLS WlHuOW OF MS Deu-
room. The next day he was most charm
ing, though somewhat self-righteous
I The second day he became very moody
and captious, the'third day no one knew
what to do with him. But after a dis
turbed night, was told that he got out
of bed in the morning, went quietly into
the garden, picked up one of his broken
pipes, stuffed it with the remains of the
tobacco scattered about, and then, hay-
ing had few puffs came to breakfast
all right again. Nothing was said any