The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-27

evening he took an active part In the con.
vcrsation Of his friends. His pipe was nj.
most indispensable to him. and I remember one
time when I and several friends were staying ut
the house the question OF tobacco turned up. l
confessed that for years l had been u perfect
slave Of tobacco, so thtt ] could neither read nor
write a limo without smoking, but that. Mt last,
! had rebolled against this slavery, and had en-
tirely given up tobacco. Some of his friends
tainted Tennyson that he could mover give up
tobacco. Anybody can do that he said, III hc
chooses TO do IT. When his friends still con.
tinued TO doubt and TO tease him. WE'LL he
said, Il shall give up smoking from tonight
The very same evening I was told that
he threw his pipes ard his tobacco out OF his
bedroom window. The next day he was most
charming, though somewhat sclfrighteous.
Tho second day he became very moody and cap
tious, tho third day no ono know what to do
with him. But. after n disturbed night, I was
told that he got out Of bed in tho morning, went
quietly into the garden, picked up one of his
broken pipes, stuffed 1t with the reiGains OF the
tobacco scattered about. and then, having had n
few puffs, came to breakfast all right again.
Nothing was said any moro about giving up to-
bacco."
1t is we'll known that tourists were n plague
to Tennyson. who told the Queen that they
would drive him from the Isle of Wight. Touch.
ing this curious desire of people to set eyes upon
Il famous man, Max Muller inquiries. Why
should not people be satisfied with the best that
a poet is and can give them. namely, his poetryi
Why should they wish to stare at him . There
are cases where personal acquaintance with
poets actually spoils our taste for their poetry,
which we might otherwise have enjoyed; to
imagine that one knows n poet better because
ono has once shaken hands with him is q fatal
mistake. Few people indeed are greater
fhnn thair ppatry and Ta.o,.an ,,.a -A 800
them. Like all really great men, Tennyson
disliked the worship that was paid him by
many who came to stare at him and to pour out
tho usual phrases of admiration before him.
Tennyson frequently took fright from his in.
tending Boswells. and he was the very last man
to appreciate the n Parlc,' by which, in
Paris. all conversation was hushed whenever
Victor Hugo was present at dinner, and spoke
tn his ncighbor, possibly to ask for the MENU
Among other men Of letters or OF science
about whom we hear something in this volume
are Macaulay, Ruskin, Emerson. James Russell
Lowell. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Faraday, and
Darwin. But, for the authors "reminiscences |
of these. we must refer the reader TO the book
itself. The pages which are allotted to "recol.
~lections Of royalties" have given us least !
pleasure, thou h. under the term royalties"
are comprehended not only Kings and Queens
and members OF reigning families, but also those
mediatized German princes who have lost their
but retain tho barren honor of their
rank. The section Of the book in which the
author tells us Of the beggars he has known is
much moro interesting. especially the account Of !
Simonides, the famous forger Of Greek manu-
scripts. who. If he had applied his ingenuity to
editing instead Of fabricating codices, might
have attained a very high position. 1t will be
that he actually sold to the Royal
Berlin Academy a forgery of the lost history Of
Egypt by Uranios. A number of mis- fabrica-
tions exist in England, in public and private
among them portraits of the Virgin
Mary and some of the Apostles, alleged to have
been painted by st. Luke; a copy of Homer,
with a dedication from Pericles to the tyrant
of Syracuse. and other Greek manuscripts
written on paper made of human skin.
nj w II |