The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-08
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
\ NEW REMINIsCENCE OF ROBERT
LOUIS STEVENSON.


Brooks Adams Voyage of ObserVa-
ton to the West Indies--A New
story Writer-A. Hare OppOrtUnity
Missed by the PmbIishers-WeII-
Known Authors who stiII with
hold Their Hemis:scences.
New York Jan. I'll was talking
the other day with Mr.. NJ Clifford White,
who has the double distinction of having
! been school-feIlow of Mr.. Rudyard Kip
ling at the English Boys School 0he
/ United Service College,, or which Mr. Kip
/ ling is now writing a series Of stories, and
Of having known very well Robert Louis
! Stevenson and all his family. He told me
a number of interesting and new things
about Stevenson, and one Of these I will
venture to repeat The story was told to
Mr.. White by Stevenson himself, in San
! Francisco, in December. 1897.
Like most other famous people. Stew
enson was afflicted with a tide of letters
from complete strangers soliciting coun-
/ sci, and sometimes money. Even in 50
far off quarter of the world as Samoa
he could not secure immunity; every mail
| brought appeals of one sort OF another
from people who had upon him not the
east shadow of a claim. One day there
came letter under a Scotch oostmark, in
which the writer presented himself as a
young man who had had an Irresistible
call to become a missionary among the
heather of the Pacific islands. He had,
| he said, heard of Mr.. Stevenson as man
of some consequence i'm those parts, and
| he, therefore, addressed him in the hope
| OF deriving information that would be Of
/ service TO him in his project He desired
/ especially to know if Samoa itself was a
| promising field for missionary labor-if the
climate was fairly healthful and the ma
! tVes reasonably harmless; and. in case il
| answered his requirements in these re.
! spects, would it, he desired further to
know, afford the missionary an opportul-
| lty 60 support himself, in part at least.
| by the pursuit of poultry farming FINAL
| ~, with fine condescension he expressed
| hlmsen as willing to sail for Samoa and
| take up the work Of its regeneration il
on4y Mr. Stevenson would promptly for
Matu 20 MN sum of money sufficient to
pay his passage out
Letters of this general kind were much
| 100 frequent 10 be, as rule. replied to.
but out Of Difference to the special QUAINT
ness of this one, an exception was made
in lis favor An answer was promntlv
| sent to the following effect: That Mr.
stevenson begged to ACKNOWLEDGE the re-
celpt oil the unknown correspondents let
ter, ana in reply desired 10 state that
| While, fortunately, all The savaees on his
island diligently said their PRAYERS morn
ing and night unfortunately poultry had
Of late, become a serious drug in the
market Still, there was an island about
| l,OO miles distant which might be an ex-
| celent field for combination of mission
airy and poultry pursuits, where the ma
| uves were all cannibals, the climate of a
most deadly character, and where nvri7ds
Oh mosquitoes and other poisonous insects
sWarmed III the air. To that island Mr..
| Stevenson would willingly pay the youns
mans passage upon receipt of a letter in
umating that he was ready to start.
strange as II may SEEM to this gener-
Gus proposal there came no response.
| The Atlantic Monthly, see. announces
a series of papers by Prof William James
| on psychological and metaphysical sub
| Jects that. 1t promises. shall be poDular
reading. Prof. James has already. in va
rious essays, proved his ability to fu'fU
such promise, and thus. while his brotb-
err Henry James, was writing in the de-
| partment that we commonly account
tlght literature with a complexitv that
| gave even skillful readers hard tasl, in
| following him, Prof. James, in a denart-
ment where We rather look for nothing
but subtlety and obscuriy. wrote so that
even the ordinary reader accompanied him
without the least difficulty PsychoIoqieol
refinement Is hereditary With both: their
father Henry James, gave his life TO The
| meditation and exposition of mental prob-
iems but in some respects the novelist
seems 10 be the truer son than the psv
choioglst. Prof. James is a year older
than Henry and was educated for a nbv-
sician. as Henry was educated for law
yer. Ia his youth he passed much time in
Europe. as Henry did also but since COM
| ing to manhood he has resided raj her CON
stantly at home Since 1880 he has been
a professor of philosophy IN Harvard COL
iege. Prior to that, for several years
he was professor of physiology in the
| Harvard Medical School.
The James heridity suggests the Adams
| heredity. Indeed there is never any talk
| of families in this country that we don't
in the course of 1t come around to the
Adams. Mr.. Brooks Adams. in the pur-
suit of his social and economical studies.
set off few days ago for the West In
dies. He desires 20 study the new condi-
tons there with his own ewes What
specially interests him now as his recent
writings in the magazines show, is the pro
found struggle between the leading civil
lied nations of the world for commercial
supremacy He studies the subject not
only by reading ell the literature that
bears upon it, but by making long Jour
news and seeing countries and talking
with people. And this is the form in
which the public spirit and political inter-
est that made John Adams an American
patriot and the second President of the
United States reappears in the youngest
of his ereat-grandsons. There are four of
these great-grandsons (grandsons of the
elder John quincy Adams; sons aof the
elder Charles Francis Adams; and they
have all given some clear token of their
possession Of this bias. Three, at least,
OF the four are lawyers by education, and
somewhat by practice. The eldest of the
four, now a man Of about Co. and bearing
the name of the grandfather John Ouin-
cy, had in years past a good deal of
prominence and influence as a politician
The second, a year or two younger, who
bears the fathers name, Charles Francis
g.s