The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-21

when NOT COMPOSING, which is pleasing
in view of the poets occasional need or
cooling; that Mr.. Blackmore goes IN
for the rowing of flowers and fruit;
and that Mr.. Hardy's recreations are
chiefly confined to "arboriculture, ar
chitecture and cycling.
What Hall Game does in his off hours
we are not told though we should very
much like to know We suspect, how
ever. that when not actually engaged
| in writing. in collecting material or in
interviewing himself, Mr. Game gets his
recreation from the popular but not
| wholly exciting game of solitaire that
suggests Mr. Caine in one of his most
companionable moods.
| Mrs. Julia Ward Howe relates that
she once invited Mr.. Sumner to meet
distinguished guest at her house. lie
replied: Il do not know that | wish to
meet your friend I have outlived the
| interest in individuals" In her diary
| of the day Mrs Howe recorded the
somewhat ungracious sentence, with
| this comment: God Almighty, by the
| latest accounts, has not got so far as
this" Mr.. Sumner was told of this in
her presence, though not by her.
What a strange sort of book your
diary must be!' he exclaimed. You
ought to strike that out Immediately.
| Louisville Times: 1t is astonishing
what a human interest the reading
public takes in an authors heroes and
heroines Snowden Ward declares when
Dickens was writing The Old Curiosity
| Shop" he was overwhelmed with letters
from the most distinguished men ana
women begging him not to Kill Little
| Nell. They declared it would be too
cruel, and waited on his verdict as an
anxious family on that of the physician.
| Dickens did not care to do away with
her himself, but it was necessary that
he should do So Little Nell was char
acter with too little of the earth-earthy
about her to assin1ilate with those
around her. no matter how well-mean-
| ing they might have been. Her finer
feeling would have made her unhappy,
and the little country churchyard was
| the best place for her.
| And Thackeray. How he was i'm
plored not to kill Colonel Newcombi
How he was rated for reducing so no
BILE a man to poverty in his old age,
while the meaner mortals around him
lived and throve. Kipling had to give
a second version of his 1.-The Light That
| Failed" in order to please the public,
and who knows but Shakespeare was
chided for the unhappy taking off of
Lear and Cordelia? But the public,
| though soft-hearted in the concrete, is
a flint in the abstract. 1t soaks its
handkerchief with tears over the con-
sumptive cough of that shady Partisan
Camille, and turns a nice home made
understudy out on the cold world to
eat snowballs or cold potatoes.
Professor Hiram Corson, professor of
English at Cornell, began life as a re-
porter in the United States Senate.
James Bryce is making a study of
the government of colonies by repub-
lies which is to have special applica-
ton to the United States.
Helen Keller, the dumb and blind
prodigy, recognizes people on meeting
them for the second time by their man
ner of shaking hands.
William N. Evarts, though by no
means in physical good health, is as
sound of mind as ever and his friends
ridicule the report that he was losing
his reason.