The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-13


of VoItaire and Rousseau-New
BYRON Letters-Dean LiddeII and
His observation-disclosures HuttOn's
Able TitIe-John j. Astor's Life.
Correspondence of The st. Paul Globe.
NEW YORK, Feb. 10-Tne month of
January ranks with July as n dull
month with the publishers. More and
more in late. years has the business of
publishing been crowded into the late
autumn and Christmas season. After
extraordinary activity comes the jan
nary activity. But with February now
upon US. signs of spring books are
been-4and first among them. from many
points of view, is the second collection
of Victor Hugos letters. About four
been months have passed since the first
collection appeared. Two weeks hence
1he public will have the second, which
embraces the middle period of Hugo's
life and his old age.
>. In his early life Hugo saw something
of poverty; at its close he saw what,
6or an author, was affiuence. When he
had reached middle life Hugo was fair
5y independent, but with revolution
overturnirg France ard with exile for
his own personal lot, Hugo again look
ed into a lean pocketbook and saw
labOriCuS days. Some years before the
revolution of 1S4S, he had been accuS-
ed Of possessing richeS-aS if that were
criminal-and with characteristic ener-
gy and directness he replied to the &C
cusation. He said he had been work
ing for twenty-eight years and the
total Of his earnings had been about
five hundred thousand francs" all
earned by his pen-an average, we will
say, of about $4,000 a year-surely not
a bad income for an author of fifty
years ago. Meanwhile he had educat-
ed four children, and, with true indie
pendence. had: declined to accept
Scholarships, not wishing to Saddle th+
state with what could pay myself
OF these SOC, 900 francs Hugo still pos
sessed 900 francs, all invested and
yielding an income. from, which, were
he to die his wife and children could
live. From this income and from the
writing he was still doing he was now
able to support eleven persons. He
owed no man anything. He had made
nothing in trade or speculation. He
gave something to charity; wore over :
coats that cost him twenty-five francs;
seldom had a new hat; walked in win
ter without a fall and went to the leg
living happy in that he preserved the
two blessings without which he could
not live-"a tranquil conscience and
complete independence"
Then came the revolution and his
eXile-first in Brussels and next in the
island Of Guernsey, where he establish
ed his home ION the summit of rock
with all the grandeur Of the world and
the sky before me-" Here at Guernsey
Ihe wrote THE Toilers cf The Sea"
Poverty fenced him round. 81 must
live like a stole and poor man." he
wrote. With a bed a table and two
chairs. he toiled with his pen all day
and lived on 1900 francs a year
s E@WasSwhile living in Guernsey that
be heard of John Browns death. 81 am
pveEWAe l med with rgrief." he wrote 70
George sand. "They have killed John
Brown. And it IS a republic which has
done this. Here is free nation putting
Ito death a liberator! The crimes or
kings one can understand. A kings
crime has nothing abnormal about IL,
but crimes committed by people are
ltntolerabfe to thinker" .-.
I When war was at hand in America,
his mind was undope. 'Henceforth,"
he wrote, "the American Union may be
looked on as broken up. / deeply re-
gret it, but it is foregone conclusion
Between the North and the South
there stands the gibbet of John Brown.
HugO's books are often taken for
sober history, but readers should always
bear in mind with what license he used
the facts of history. His aim only was
TO give it spirit of an epoch; its actual
incidents he left to. graver historians
to record correctly. But it is not easy
for The public to beeproperly warned
properly on guard. A notable Hugo
case; in point is shown in the recent
10 ha T01o IF
Noltaire and Rousseau. Again and
again has it been asserted that both
We're buried in the Pantheon in Paris,
but that during the first revolution the
bodies were exhumed by a mob and
cast into a quicklime hole. Guide books
have told this story. Biographers have
set ii down, and in how many newspa-
per letters from Paris has it not hon
estly been repeated? At last, some
months ago, it was resolved to make
an exploration among the. dead in the
Pantheon, in order to verify the tale.
The result was that both bodies were
fourd there precisely, as they had been
lad away when those great men died.
. No revolutionary mob had ever violat-
ed the tcmbs of Voltaire and Rousseau.
But how originated the gruesome
story? Hugo himself, it now appears,
vas it's author, and the book in which
he tod il was his William Shake
sps are " published in 1864. Very circum-
stantal had been Hugo's narrative. In
an open field. he said. had been dug
a hole. In the hole had been thrown.
quicklime. Having taken the bodies
out of the Pantheon after midnight.
and placed them in a sack. several men
went in a carriage to this hole in the
field, where they "commingled pell
mel. the skeletons of Jean Jacques and