The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-06
Literature and
Literary Workers.

1t is not generally known that the au-
thor and playwright, Israel Zangwlll,
mad a hard struggle with adversely be-
Tore he achieved fame. Born in the
Ghetto, of very poor parents-they were
lmmigrants-he received his education
at the Jews free school in Spitalhelds,
where he rose to be a fletcher at the
same time that he graduated and took
nigh honors in philosophy at the Uni
Verslty of London. The amount OF nara
work that he got through at the free
school was extraordinary. His days
were spent in the exhaustive labor OF
teaching large, unruly classes; ms
nights were divided between studying
Tor his degree and writing for the
press. Until he was 81 he never knew
what it was to spend an idle hour. He
was a poor youth, unknown and abso-
lutely friendless, when in collaboration
with another free-school teacher he
produced 1.-The Premier and the
Painter" The work was full of clever
wit and sparkling epigram and appear
ed under the pseudonym Of Freeman
Bell" 1t was we'll spoken of and
achieved a certain measure of success.
The two teacher now entered into III
erary partnership, contributing under
their joint title sketches and stories to
the ''St James Gazette" One day the
editor of that journal wrote to offer
Freeman Bell'' regular work, and ask
ed him to present himself at the office.
AS it was impossible for two men to
divide a post of the kind between them,
the situation thus created was an awk-
ward one. Mr. Zangwill sent the other
half of freeman BelI' to represent
them both, and from that time until al,
most the other day Zangwills clever
associate-who now edits and partly
owns two important English weeklies
was known in the journalistic world
by the pseudonym that originally be-
longed to two men.
1t is one of the penalties of success
In literature that the authors best
work is almost invariably made the
subject of parody. No one from Ho'
mer down to Kipling has escaped this
rather unpleasant compliment to his
popularity, and many have been ths
heated interchanges of views on the
practice between the much-enduring
poets and their imitators. In the sec
ond paper on this subject, which APP
pears in the current number of Lit
erature" some of the best examples of
the parodists art are cited.
It is difficult to imagine the feelings
of the author of the Psalm of Life"
when his famous lines came back to
him distorted into:
Wives of great men all remind US
We can make our own sublime.
And even more of a sacrilege, though a
delightfully."- humorous one, is the IA"
nous parody of the Burial of Sir John
Moore with it's
We silently gazed on the man that was
wed,
And bitterly thought on the morrow.
Some poets have suffered more than
others, but the highest record achieved
by any one poem in this unwilling COM
petitiop was, according to Literature"
that of Miss Taylor's famous poem,
My Mother" which has undergone the
indignity of parody no less than one
hundred and eight times.
On the whole. from the poets stand
point, it must be argued that, as Mat
thew Arnold put it, parody is vile
art"
c. F. Kenyon, a friend of Hall Caine,
rises to explain the remarkable parallel
between the passages in THE Christ
IAN and passage in Swift noted in
the New York Times" Mr. Kenyon
writes: Mr.. Game acknowledged to
his readers through the medium of in
terviews, ETC., that he had used freely
extracts from books. newspapers, dia-
ries letters and many other quite legi-
innate sources of information for ths
purpose of making his books as true
and lifelike as possible" This explains
the coincidence" of course, but IT
would seem that the author owes some
explanation to the readers of THE
Christian who are not perusers of in
terviews.
M. H. Spielmann, the historian of
punch" has denied Thackeray's re-
sponsibility for certain sketches. at
f. tributed to him in the Critic by F. S.
Dickson, among them the one repro
dueed in Public Opinion" May 11th,
entitled Beau Brummel's Statue" Mr..
Spielmann Identifies it as one of Doug
las Jerrold's entered to him in the
managerial book and duly paid for. In
Mr.. Dickson's reply, appearing in the
current number of the Critic he says
of this particular error:
Nothing hardly could surprise me
more, in this connection, than Mr..
Spielmann's information that Douglas
Jerrold wrote Beau Brummell' S
Statue" It is like Thackeray, and
not, to my comprehension, like Jerrold.
Compare, if you will, George ". in
1.-THE Georges" Punch" October II,
1916, or any one of the edition of Con
tributions to Punch" not previously re-
printed. Is it possible the same man
did not write both?
The death of Professor William Gar
den Blaikie, for long leading person
age in the religious literary world, will
call forth many expressions of regret.
A native of Aberdeen, where his father,
a public-spirited man, filled the position
of Lord Provost, William Blake re-
ceived every advantage of moral and
intellectual education. Ordained to a
country charge the year before the Dis
ruption, he "came OUT with Chalm-
ers, and shortly afterward removed to
Edinburgh. Twenty-Five years later.
having meanwhile distinguished hims If
as writer and editor, he was ap-
pointed to the chair of apologetics in
the Free Church College, Edinburgh.
He was thus the teacher of Ian Macla-
( rem, Henry Drummond, George Smith.
: and a number of other prominent men.
At Edinburgh University the eccentric
John Stuart Blackie, also an Aberdon-
ian, was at the same time Professor OF
Greek. and amusing mistakes resulted
from the constant confusion of their
names. Among Blaikies best known