The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-07
F. MARION CRAWFORD IN
HIS LECTURES.
NOVELIST SHOWS HIMSELF
NO LESS INTERESTING AS A
TALKER THAN AS A
WRITER.
LIFE IN EUROPE's BOOTLEG
Is PfcturesqueIy Described by the
Author of Saracinesca and Other
Charming Novels.

Author of Saracinesca and Other
Charming Novels.
An audience of generous proportions,
and discriminating withal. gathered
last night at the Peoples church to
hear Francis Marion Crawford, the ia
NOUS novelist and author Of DIR
Isaacs," Sara cinesca," Paul Patoff"
and other works which have fairly en-
titled him TO a place in the world of
letters.
Mr.. Crawford told his audience. after
a brief but graceful Introduction by
Archbishop Ireland, great many in
teresting facts about Rome and some
of the people who made its history dur
ing the middle ages When the ap-
plause at the appearance of the two
gentlemen had died away, the arch
bishop rose and said in substance, by
way of introducing the other:
when We honor intelligence we hon
or ourselves, and we are here tonight
to honor Francis Marion Crawford.
Mr.. Crawford is we'll known in the
world of letters His books lie upon
the library ia BILE and are upon the
shelves of many intelligent readers of
the English language. They even
reach cut in the language of other ma
tiCns. They are perused with profit
and pleasure by many people. His
books interest, elevate and instruct.
His descriptions, matchless in their
ingenuity, sustain the attention and
hold the fancy through stories told in
a never-tfring sty-e.. Geography and
history, made living by his Inasterful
delineation, make his books admira bic
text works Of the life of the people.
Mr. Crawford has written much of
Italy, a country of which I know a lit
tie something, ard after having read
them I can say 1 find them the best
stories of the poetic and picturesque
life of the sunny country of azure
! skies. l have the fullest faith in the
accuracy of the pictures he loves to
draw Of other lands, and the highest
need Of praise which can be given his
fiction is that IT refnes and elevates the
mind. Mr. Crawford is one of US. He
is an American of the deepest fibre Of
the heart, man who, although made
much OF abroad, still is content to re-
main an American. After hearing him
talk and seeing his face we shall have
even greater interest in his books
Whlch we have read, and in the char
acterS about whom he has built his
stories 1t is my privilege to introduce
Francis Marion Crawford"
MI Crawford at once plunged into
one OF the most instructive and inter
est1ng discourses that has been heard
from st. Paul lecture platform.
He spoke without notes Of any sort
| gracefully, easily, and with Just the
slightest English accent
Beginning with a brief account of
how the population of Rome had been
greatly reduced at about the time
Rienzi, the tribune, was born, the
| speaker told of the partial destruction
and later demolition, of the big build
lngs. BY the destruction of the big
aqueducts, drinking water became
luxury, and one of the industries was
that of selling Tiber water in small
quantities, a trade in which the moth
er of Rienzi herself was engaged.
AT that time Rome consisted of some
400 or 500 houses or fortresses and
many novels. Each fortress was
equipped with a tall, square, brick
| medieval tower in which the family
| sought safety in times Of trouble The
simple patriarchal system is still in
herent in Rome and Italy. and the old
| custom which makes the father of the
| family the ruler and despot is still OBJ
| served in odd corners of the country
| although the laws which forbade a son
| to hold property during the life of his
| father was repealed before the end of
| the old empire. The married sons
| lived with the parents. the younger the
son the higher up in the house 1t was
uncommon for any but the eldest son
to we'd unless he found an heiress in
| her own right. Mr.. Crawford cited an
| instance where six married sons all
| living at home brought the number of
covers at dinner up to thirty. The
| cuisine was looked after by a steward,
| but even a daughter who had brought
| a big dover to her husband and the
family could not have as much as a
plate of bouillon or a pair Of gloves
| without going to the steward and his
accounts. Mr.. Crawford entered into a
| most interesting account Of how the
| houses were built surrounding court
yards, for the double reason that thus
constructed they offered the best
means of Defense and as we'll gave
the sun as much play for both heat
and light as possible. The great halls
of the palaces were grand and dark,
while the apartments of the royal in
! mates were invariably on the sunny
the same stuff as the state canopy,
were used, he explained, when the
princes went to the Vatican, or to
other church functions, or weddings,
and were all that is left of the feudal
powers of the middle ages.
Mr.. Crawford explained the presence of
so many artocious oil pantings-ali of a
size-hung in the castle halls alongside the
works of the masters. by pointing out that in
these days it was the custom when guests or
relatives ended their visits to these palaces
70 send portraits of themselves one would
party. They WERE result, run off by the
square yard, and obviously did not bring their
painters much, and were atrocious in conse-
| quence The speaker related how the bou-
DORIS or bowers of the royal ladies appeared,
| and in speaking of the retinues of the
! princes added laconcally that, a rule,
they were made up of 300 or 400 Of the tough
est men in the land who sought the proIec-
ton of their chosen master. These men were
| kept religiously apart from the women, even
! the food which the latter prepared for the
men being passed to them through a thick
wall by means of a revolving wheel. Each
| prince had three or four literary fellows in
his retinue who must know Hebrew, Greek
Latin and Italian that they might send liter
arg letters to other princes who might also
be unable to read or write.
| In those times the aristocracy predomi-
| mated although there was a smaller class of
merchants and bankers, whose principal bus
mess was loaning money to these princes,
who, In many cases, never paid it back.
The houses were dark and candles were used
| SO that the bringing on of dinner became a
sort of a function with it's little procession Of
| lunkeys bearing lights.