New-York tribune., 1900-09-29
HARUM AND HANNUM.
THE HERO OF DAVID HARUM" AND HIS
PROTOTYPE.


The real David Harum" is still the quaint
figure portrayed by Mr.. Edward Noyes West
colt to the delight of many readers and not
the David Hannum. whom Mr. Arthur T Vance
has described in little book called The Real
David Harum,'' published by the Baker & Tay-
Ior Company Mr.. Westcott seems undoubtedly
to have taken for his model the person desg-
mated by Mr.. Vance. with whom the novelist's
father was connected by marriage; but whatever
interest may be felt by neighbors and friends in
the model from whom the picture was painted,
it is the picture, the artists work of portraiure
with which the public concerns itself and for
which it For this reason Mr.. Vance's
book has slender basis of real utility, though
it may feed little passing curiosity and give
a few amusing glimpses of quaint personal
ity by gathering together considerable material,
much Of which has appeared in the newspapers.
He has established the fact that the village of
Homer. Cortland County, N. Y, is the Home
willie Of the book; that Preble is the Feeble; that
Buxton Hill is the Truxton; that the Eagle
Hotel is in reality called by a different name,
and so on. The Homer people are Jealous of the
fame that has to their fellow townsman
They are prone to say:
do not see why this here Westcott picked out
David Hannum to put in book. The town has
a heap sight bigger men than Dave Hannum
ever was. Why, we sent men to Congress, and
there lot of fellows who went West and
made their fortunes, and was much more dis
tinguished than Dave Hannum ever thought of
being. Dave Hannum was an ordinary
sort of amusing cuss and though he had lots
Of money one time he died poorer than church
mouse.
The real not so illiterate as Mr..
Westcott made his character, and the inhabi-
tants of Homer-as do most people who find
themselves Incorporated in work of fiction
resent the manner in which they depleted.
There number of characteristic anecdotes
in this book that sound natural enough to read
ers of Mr.. Westcotts novel. and that seem to
bear out the reality of the likeness he drew
One Of the most curious is that of David Han
NUNS connection with the Cardiff Giant, that
clever hoax of a generation ago, in which he
secured interest with DR. Westcott. the nov
elists father. His management of this piece
Of property brought him into relations with
Boston scientific committee, including Holmes
and Emerson, whom he allowed to bore a test
hole in the figure. He finally sold it, when the
tide Of ncredulity rising to a man who
could not redeem his promise to pay, and David
Hannum died sole owner of the famous humbug
The important collection Of pictures at Apsley
House, the Duke of Wellington's London resi-
dence, has a curious history that will be ex-
planned by the Duchess Of Wellington in two
sumptuous volumes to be issued this autumn by
Lorgmans, Green & Co. descriptive and his
torical catalogue Of the collection. The pictures
forming the nucleus Of this collection fell into
the great WengtOns hands his victory at
Vittoria, in 1913 They belonged to the royal
collections of Spain. and were captured while
Joseph Bonaparte was trying to remove them.
| 1t has frequently been asserted that Wellington
retained these pictures loot OF war. The
Duchess of Wellington. however. by means of
/ letters and documents which she reproduces
controverts this charge, and undertakes to show
/ that the first Duke returned the collection to
/ King Ferdinand OF Spain. who sent II back.
begging him to retain it a slight acknowI-
edgement OF the services he had rendered TO
Spain This catalogue will have fifty photo
engravings. The edition will consist of four hun
dred and fifty copies, OF which three hundred
and fifty will be for sale.