The San Francisco call., 1899-05-21
! EDITORIAL VARIATIONS,
BY JOHN McNAUGHT.

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of Miss Helen Wright of San Jose, and
few therefore outside that citv and the
beautiful valley that surrounds it gave
much if any heed to the recent an
nouncement of her death. To most who
read the brief notice sent out through
the Associated Press it was but the rec
ord of another woman gone. and that
was all. Nevertheless all California
and perhaps it would be no exaggera-
ton to say all the United States, suf-
fered loss by that Death.
In comparison with the career of
noted women, Miss Wright,in her work
at the State Normal School lived a Sc
cluded life: but the influence and the
issues of that life were not shut in by
any narrow seclusion Her nature was
animated by what may be termed an
elemental spiritual force having power
to shine and to warm not only by di-
rect rays, but by reflection from the
minds and the hearts of others; so that
from the pupils of the school and from
the circle of her friends, her exalting
and purifying influence was radiated
and spread, heaven alone knows how
far or how strongly, through all the
homes of this broad land of ours.
Miss Wright had public career Wis
ible to the general eye or audible to
the general ear, but Providence has or
dained that the blessings which fall
upon the lives of all us come Oft
times in ways of which we are not con-
scious, and none can tell how much of
the good we gain from our experience
with the world has been due to per-
sons we never knew, of y Iom we never
heard, and the re- of whose death
is to us less notable than the fading of
a rose in our garden or the flying away
of a singing bird from our window.
This much, then, is due this Sunday
morning by way of tribute to one Of
the most potent personal influences in
our commonwealth; tribute which
may be taken in itself as a faint proof
that the twilight of that influence still
fingers on earth, though the radiant
sririt of the light Itself has passed up
ward into the perfect day and van
ished in the infinite.
The heated controversy over the pub
lication of the love letters of Robert
and Elijah beth Barrett Browning, which
had begun to give way to other sub
jects of discussion in literary circles,
has been revived and famed to
fiercer heat than ever by letter re-
Gently published in the London Stand
ard from C. j. Moulton- Barrett, the
only surviving brother of Mrs. Brown
ing. The letter is of such brevity and
of such interest. to all who give any
heed to literary matters it is worth
reading in full. No digest could do 1t
justice. 1t runs thus:
I'm spite of earnest protests, Mr.
Browning, with a want of delicacy
hardly conceivable, has published the
letters of his father and mother pre-
vious to their marriage. The careless
indifference of Mr.. Robert Browning,
There they are, do with them as you
please when l am dead and gone, was
no excuse for the sacrilege. His mother
would have been Mortified. She loved
her father
The notices of the book have gem
orally been so cruelty unjust to my
fathers memory that l consider it
my duty, as his eldest surviving son,
to relate the facts. My father acted
as his own merchant for his Jamaica
estates, and on that account went daily
to the city. He never met Mr.. Brown
ing. He was aware of his visits, and
he regarded them, like the visits of
Miss Milford and Mr. Kenyon, as af-
fording my sister pleasure. My sister
had been an invalid for years. BY the
directions of DR.. Chambers her room
was kept al a certain temperature and
she never left it. Under these circum
stances my father lost his daughter.
He had loved her from her childhood.
He never recovered it. l venture to
say few fathers would take the hand
of a man who had so acted. And l
would add, few sons, either for gain
or love of notoriety, would make public
the confidential letters of their mother.
Yours, etc,
&c. j. MOULTON-BARRETT.
Grove, Jacksontown, Jamaica,
March 30''
Concerning the charge made by Mr..
Moulton- Barrett that the letters of his
sister and her lover do an injustice to
his father nothing can be said by the
general public. That can be dealt with
only by those who know the facts. 1t
is strictly family affair. The two
other points of the letter, however, are
as dscussable as anything under the
canopy of heaven, and every human
being has full liberty to join in the de-
bate and help to swell the hullaballoo.
The question whether it is morally
right for a man welcomed into any
home to induce a daughter of that
home to elope with him in defiance of
a fathers command raises the whole
of that world old controversy as to
whether love or duty has rightful par
amount authority over conduct; while
the other question of the right or
wong of publishing to the world the
love letters and sweet private conf
dences of eminent people involves
determination of how far literary art
lists are to be bound blythe conventional
moralities of private life. Either ques-
ton is one over which even the least
talkative people may talk until they
are ready to fight and yet never fight
because they can never get through
with all they have to say.
=.
It is to be noted that in his poems
Browning always takes the side of love