The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-03-10

Entertaining Remarks GA ParneIl
Mr.. Justin Mccarthy possesses pre-
teminently the art of being entertaining.
He has caught from Macaulay certain
e'fhetorfcai tricks that reconquer for the
commonplace the original vitality which
forced their universal acceptance. He is
not a great thinker, he is not a great
doer he is not great literary artist. But
his deeds have always been honorable
and his thoughts and words have always
won a certain need Of honor. He has
written histories that are ever readable,
and will live as pleasant gossip about
events rather than authoritative records
Of those events. He has failed as nov
elist because he had neither the intuitive
perception nor the mastery of form which
are necessary for the artist. But he
has failed agreeably and honestly. No
body has ever regretted reading his fc-
lions, and nobody has ever remembered
them after reading save "a transitory
pleasure. His personality appears to have :
the same charm and the same defects a.
his writings. He has met almost every
body of his own generation who was
worth meeting. He seems to have won
universal liking and universal esteem
Yet it was the liking and esteem that are
accorded to the less forceful individuali-
ties. He never evoked the agonsns
inevitable in the career of "a great pro-
tagonist. His constitutional .urbanity
met answering urbanity, even from the
men who disagreed with him politically,
socially and religiously, but who never
feared him.
NGp1lGSS n kind.
ly and agreeable type is especially fitted
for the chronicling Of acceptable gossip
about his more famous contemporaries.
Two volumes of "Reminiscences which
the Harpers have in press for >publlca-
ton early next week amply corroborate
this view. They constitute a storehouse
of anecdotes and impressions that will
remain as permanent possession of the
world.
1t was in February 1852 that Justin
MCarthy, then am eager young 1rlsnman
of twenty-five, born and bred in Cork
city in the South Of Ireland, first came
to London. Long before, he tells us, he
had somehow made up his mind that he
would settle in the metropolis some time
land live by writing for. newspapers and
magazines, and even became the tau thor
2 Of beekss.s H is pn1ent consisted Sofs a
tolerably good literary education and a
certain mastery of shorthand. In Ireland
at that time young men of his creditor
Mccarthy was and is a Catholic-were cut
off from any share in the ihonoFS and the
practical advantages of "a n.versity
education. So he was forced to be con-
tent with such education as he could OBJ
tain at a private school. Luckily me fell
in with competent teachers, but, luckier
still, he had the faculty Of absorbing
knowledge through omnivocous reading.
Mine, in fact, was a literary education
altogether, the sort of education inspired
and directed by love of reading for
readings own sake. The only science OF
which I knew anything was astronomy,
and even that knew in a literary and
picturesque rather than scientific sense.
One way and other I had made myself
acquainted, and in many cases well ac-
quaintcd, with all the great authors of
Greece and Rome, of England, and France,
of Germany and Italy. This, then, was
the sort of literary outfit with which I
hoped to make a way for myself into
London journalism land iEpglash litera-
ture"
But he confesses that, looking back
ward now upon those early days, lie feels
almost lost in wonder at the lack of
Judgment he showed in the direction of
his first experiments. HE sent "a bundle of
of TRANSACTIONS from Uhland's Ballads
to Dickens Household Words, which
cared little for poetry and not Mt all for
transla t1ons he began a translation of
Richter's 'Levana," and he forwarded a
biography Of Regrard the French dra-
matte poet. to London magazine of that
. time devoted altogether to smart essays
about London life and London society.
about St. James and st. Giles. All these
ventures proved disappointments, and
Mr.. Mccarthy laughingiy acknowledges
that they remind him OF Thackeray's
amusing essay about the early career of
the Cornhill Magazine and about the lady
who favored its editor with the sugges-
ton that a translation of FenelNn's 'Te-
lemauuP' would make most Interesting
serial Tor the new periodical. .:
If at first. however, his literary anbi-
lions were rebuffed, the young Irish lad
found glorious food for his literary i'm
agination in the sights aid scenes of
London town.
Every spot I passed brought to me
some association out of a book The old
inns on the south side called hack Chau-
Ger to my mind. The Temple gtrdens
were alive with Shakespeare ant Addison
and Dickens and ThackeraW. Eastcheap
was place to linger in and to haunt
bee ause of the memories of Prince Hal
and t'alstaf. One can never again feel
as he felt when he first made holiday in
London, especially if he were a uooksh
sort of young man who had filled his
provincial life with associations drawn
from English LITERATURE
AS a lad who took interest in politics as
we'll as in literature, it was only natural
that he was eager to see something of the
houses of parliament. The first chance he
got introduced him as a spectator in the
house of lords. g&sll
The debate was dry and dull. There
were only few peers there, but among
those few was the Duke of wellington.
That fact compensated for every draw
back. II watched the duke as he sat with
bowed head and STOPPING shoulders. and
revelled in sense of positive wonder at
my own good fortune to be there and see
him. There sat the victor of Waterloo
the man who had dethroned the Great
Napoleon. was egotistfc enough to ex-
uft In my own mind even then, over the
important figure which / should be GER
tain ito make among my friends in my ma
them that had seen the Duke of yelling
ton sitting in the house of lords
Mccarthy did not merely see the duke
he also heard him. He heard him make a
speech, and, although it was but q short
speech and not remarkable for Feloquence,
1t astcnished and impressed the young
Irdshnan more at the time than the great
est Grafton by the greatest parliamentary
orator could have done. The duke had
been Offering to the house his opinion on
the measure under consideration Anoth-
er lord was now criticising his remarks.
In the course Of his criticism this noble
and learned parsonage ventured on the
observation that he feared 1.-THE illustrious
duke had not quite understood TIE mea-
sure now before the house, This drew the
illustrious duke. He sprang to his feet
nant gesture. NY LORDS. 2, he said, 18th
noble and learned lord has said that q
don't understand this bill Well. my lords.