New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-02-27

limned that to attempt to realize him as he was
is to amaze the neighborhood. from Maidenkirk
to John o Groat's. The Burns Of fact. the
Burns OF history and life has disappeared; and
in his room there is shown a kind OF popular
transparency In the foreground are Mouse
and Mountain Daisy; to the right wounded
Hare lirnps painfully across the muir: 10 the
left Soutar Johnnie and Tam O Shanter; in
the centre the Poet, the ideal Of housemaid's
dream embraces chastely. his plough laid by
a lady-llKe Young Person in short pattcOats
cOnspcuOusy "snooded" hosed and shod and
from the background the Kirk. persOnihed in
the Genius of Caledonia bends in act 10 crown
her own inspired Bard" with holly. It is not
the least bit like the real Burns, or the real
anything. for that matter In fact. II Is
Christmas Number. published a month later
But it serves-it. or something ike 1t: some
thing done in kindred ternis-to prove that
Burns was wholly and sentiment1lly admirable
and. year by year. it is reproduced with as
tOnishing success as often as the TWenty-iifth
comes round. And what makes il the more
amusing is that it could scarce have begun 10
be. 50 far as | can see. but for that rare and
excellent hater Of all things magnifcated and
nsincere. Thomas Carlyle.
That. at any rate. is my impression at the
moment of writing ! had not read the famous
till the other day, when, having been visited
fOr special and peculiar reas0ns) with sh0al
If provosts. and sheriffs. and dvnes and the
like. turned To il for comfort in adversely. and
found that Carlyle, who couldn't drink, and
therefore hated liquor. is practically the father
Of All Them that Babble in Burns Clubs and
that all the half-read divines and provosts and
sheriffs and NJ. P.'S which 20 on distinguishing
themselves surely the Birthday dawns
are, in fact the work of his hands. and, con-
sciOusly or not, exist to cherish eXtenuated
shadow Of his stirring and intoxicating present
ment. II was done when he was young. ardent
and jealous is, indeed. n PEASANTS shout over
"A peasant. But il is canorous ,as it were) from
end 10 end with the "Thalatta. thalatta" OF the
war-worn trumphng Greeks. 1t tells of
dreams-dreams; yet ii has something
noble. and romantic. and Misunderstanding as
of an outlook mot silent. certanyD from a
called a Pzgah-Sight across the land Of (what
milk and honey and Athole-brose. 1t ignores
Carlyle, however deep in Goethe and Schiller
excellent dynasty Of Nernacular Poets which
claims the songs for the finest outcome OF
Burns's genius without so much the hint OF a
suspicion that Burns owed at least as much to
his ancestors as Scots song owes TO him. II il
complain, and loudly. that Burns couldn't govern
his own life. and was ruined from within, Il
powerfully impeaches on the hand society
1T large and on the other the meagre Pitt
though Pitt, by the way. in smashing Napoleon
was doing as good and noble work as falls to
the lot OF most to do. 1t sets forth the amazing
hypothesis that in the life at Mount Olphant-
in which. the Bard himself reported, were
blended the toll Of q galley slave" and "the
cheerless gloom Of q hermit''-was Burns's best
and happiest time.
1t does many other things At least as discon-