The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-06

to his account in the payment Of debts
contracted by his old firm of Charles
L. Webster & Co., the disastrous fail
ure of which few years ago surpris-
ed and panied thousands who thought
him rich man. The debts are under
stood now to have been reduced to the
extent of Is per cent of the whole. We
think here of Sir Walter Scott. Moth
ing in his books was finer or better
showed his title to the worlds regard
than the way he conquered adversely
In old age. And so of Mark Twain;
MS determination to meet obligations
ne might have passed aside, gives the
man a new and stronger title to esteem
and fame. Mere authorship is one
thlng; but a brave and manly spirit.
uneonquerable and incorTuptible, is
quite another.
1t may not be very long before an
other book will appear from Carl
Schurz. and it is sure to be a worthy
one. Carl Schurz in his time has been
Volumfnous Writer-perkapS this
word IS a mlsnOmer, however, for lit
Tie or his work has actually gone into
round volumes. But he is the author
OF at least one volume that belongs
among the best things in biography
ana history that an American has pro-
duced these twenty years. Except for
John Fishes writings, I know nothing
pertaining to our political history that
mas stronger claim to regard than Carl
SchurZ's two volumes on Henry CLAW
"a lucid, forceful, altogether splendid
record of a great political favorite and
great political period. There is such
knowledge in it, such grasp Of main
facts and Indifference to small ones:
SUCH clearneSIs OF speech that his new
work, dealing with another man who
was a leading figure in public life long
a1ter Clay. Charles Sumner must be
awaited with very genuine and whole
some interest. Here the man and the
topic will very fifty have met. Carl
Schurz was long eminent in public life.
so that we well might say of his pres
ent topic that he saw it all and was
himself part Of it.
There is need Of a compact life of
sumner. The late Edward L. Pierce.
summers lifelong friend, performed a
notable and devoted service to Sumner
IN the four volumes, octave, which he
gave to Summers life Some twenty
years or his own life We're given to
that undertaking. But the book is too
large. Merely the story of a single
mans life, it rivals in length Hume's
History OF England" or Gibbon,s
Decline and Fail" the latter e,nbrac-
ing the story of civilization for a thou
sand years. Biography carried to this
length has its value only to those who
want storehousets Of Acknowledgements TO
those who read. To the same class
belong the Nicolay and Hay work on
Lincoln. Very few persons in this
short life and these busy times will
ever read such books through Hern-
don's Life of Lincoln" must have
been far more widely read than ever
Nlcolay ard Hays ten tall octavos.
And so we may expect that Carl
Schurz's Life Of Sumner" will be
known and read in houses to which Mr..
Plerce's four stately volumes must, on
purely physical grounds, fail of en-
trance.
We may say that "Quo Vadis" is the
book of the hour, or that Hugh
Wynne" holds that eminence. and sta
tistics may show US still other books
ranking among the most widely 1ead
at this hour: but none of them really
possesses title to chief eminence among
the winters publications, provided we
take the larger view and bring into our
reckoning the future as well rs the
present. First rank, to my mind, will
then be accorded to a certain lal ge
work in two volumes, of which the sale
cannot have been more than 4 Very
few thousand cCpies-the Journals" of
Audubon, the great naturalist, the
friend of all four footed creatures and
Of all birds. There are nine If these
journals, making in printed form some
800 of LOCO pages. They take the read
er all over this country. south. east.
west and north. and also to Europe,
and they take him into the finest men
tai atmosphere. whether it be he hab-
its of animals their author writes a bout
or the meetings he had with Francis
Jeffrey. Sir Walter Scott, Sir Thomas
Lawrence and Cuvier
Strange has been their history One
OF them not many years ago was found
in the back of an old secretary: an
other in a barn on Staten island. Re-
searches for material have been made
for years by his granddaughter in
New Orleans. San Domingo. France
and elsewhere, resulting in the finding
Of material five times more than what
is printed-four-fifths of it having not
been used. In these volumes we have
not only Audubon's life, but local his
tory. and frontier life depicted, Daniel
Boone's later times illustrated the toll.
the knowledge, the splendid spirit of
one of the most inspiring men in our
annals, unfoided in his own language
When Quo Vadis'' is unread. AMI It's
very title forgotten. these Journals
Of Audubon will be known and ad-
mfred. Such is the Importance to US
all of real mans devoted and nemo-
rable achievements. as compared with
a mere piece of fiction writing After
all, nothing so we'll endures in this
world as records of the deeds of our
own kind. whether they were those Of
Leonidas or Bruno, those of Jean dare
or of Scott, those of Lincoln or Audi
bon
FRANCIS w. HALSEY