The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-09
(snecial Corresnondence. J

who has the double distinction Of hav-
ing been a schoolfellow of Mr.. Rudyard
Kipling at the English boys school (the
United Service college) of which Mr..
Kipling is now writing series Of
stories, and Of having known very well
Robert Louis Stevenson and all his
family. He told me q number Of inter
esting and new things about Stevenson,
and one of these L will venture TO re-
peat The story was told to Mr.. White
by Stevenson himself, in San Francisco,
in December, 1891
Like most other famous people, Stew
enson was afflicted with a tide of letters
from complete strangers soliciting
counsel, and sometimes money. Even in
so far off a 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 least shadow of a claim.
One day there came a latter under a
Scotch pOstmark, in which the writer
presented himself as 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 a man of some
consequence in those parts, and he,
therefore, addressed him in the hope of
deriving information that would be Of
service to him in his prOpect. He de-
sired especially to know if Samoa. it
self was a promising field for mission
airy labor-if the climate was fairly
healthful and the natives reasonably
harmless; and, in case it answered his
requirements in these respects, would
it, he desired further to know, afford
the missionary an opportunity to sup
port himself in part at least, by the
pursuit Of poultry farming. Finally
with fine condescension he expressed
himself as willing TO sail for Samoa
and take up the work of its regenera-
ton if only Mr. Stevenson would
promptly forward to him q sam of
money sufficient to pay his passage out
Letters of this general kid were
much too frequent to be, as a rule, re-
piled to- but out of Difference TO the
special ''quaintnesS" of this enc, an
exception was made in its favor. An
answer was promptly sent to the fol-
begged to acknowledge the receipt Of
the unknown correspondent S let e., and
in reply desired to state that VIII - FIR
tunateiy. all the Savages on his Island
diligently said. their prayers morning
and night, unfortunately poultry had
Of late, became a serious drug in the
market. Still, there was an island about
a thousand miles distant which might
be an excellent field for q combination
of missionary and poultry pursuits,
where the natives were all cannibals,
the climate of a. most deadly character,
and where myriadS Of mosquitoes and
other poisonous insects swarmed in the
air. To that island Mr.. Stevenson would
willingly pay the young mans passage
upon receipt of a letter intimating that
he was ready to start.
Strange as it may seem, to this gen
erous proposal there came no response.
The Atlantic Monthly, I see, an
nounces q series Of papers by Professor
William James on psychological and
metaphysical subjects that it prom
Uses, shall be popular reading. Profess
scr James has already, in various eS-
says, proved his ability to fulfill such
q promise, and thus While his brother,
Henry James, was writing in the de-
paTtment that we commonly account
Tight literature" with a ccmDlexity
that gave even skillful readers a hard
task in following him. Professor James,
in d department where we rather look
for nothing but Subuety and obscUrity,
wrote so that even the ordinary reader
accompanied him without the least
difficulty. Psychological refinement is
hereditary with both; their father,
Henry James. gave his life to the med
itation and exposition Of mental prob
lens. but in some respects the novelist
seems to be the truer son than the
psychologist. Professor James is year
older than Henry, and was educated
for a physician, as Henry was educated
for q lawyer. In his youth he passed
much time in Europe, as Henry did
also but since coming to manhood he
has resided rather constantly at home.
Since 1880 he has been a professor of
philosophy in Harvard college Prior
TO that, for several years he was a
professor Of physiology il the Harvard
medical school
The James heredity suggests the
Adams heredity. Indeed there is never
any talk OF families in this country
that we don't, in the course of it, come
around the Adams. Mr.. Brooks Adams,
in the pursuit OF his social and eco
nomical studies, set off a few days ago
for the West Indies. He desires to study
the new conditions there with his own
eyes. What specially interests him now,
as his recent writings in the magazines
show, is the profound struggle between
the leading civilized nations of the
world for commercial supremacy. He
studies the subject not only by reading
all the literature that bears upon it,
but by making long journeys and see
ing countries and talking with people.
And this is the form in which the public
spirit and political interest that made
John Adams an American patriot and
the second president OF the United
States reappears in the youngest of his
great gfandsons There are four of
these great grandsons (grandsOns of
the elder John Quincy Adams; sons of
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 90. and bearing the name of the
grandfather, John Quincy, had in years
past a good deal Of prominence and in
fiuence as a politician. The second,
year or two younger, VINO bears the
fathers name, Charles Francis, is the
we'll known authority on the econom-
les of railroads, particularly in their
relation to society and the state. The
third, a man now approaching CO. is
Henry Adams who has written the au-
thoritative history Of the United States
for the period of 1S01-1S17. Brooks is
considerably younger than either of the
others, being now about so. He has
his home at the ancient seat of the
Adamses. Quincy, Mass, president
John Adams great grandfather re-
ceived q grant of forty acres of land
there in 1880, and Charles Francis and
John Quincy live there or in Boston,
which is not far off, but Henry lives in
Washington.
made mention a few weeks ago of
some forthcoming stories of political
life by new writer, DR.. Walter Barr
In the thirty-eight years of his life he
has had a variety and picturesqueness
of experience that ought to provide ma
g. J., 81