New-York tribune., 1901-10-20
NETWORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT-

| how much I used to long for it in old days; how
1 used to go and look at the trains leaving. and
wish to so with them L must be a bit
| of a yagabOnd-
The fufment of this destiny In which he had
SO firm-fxed a belief led him to Paris and
| some of the smaller French towns and villages
! to Italy. to the United States and ultimately
to the South Seas His i'll health had some
thing to do with these journeyings, particularly
with his choice of Samoa permanent resi-
| dence But Mr.. Baifour shows us TO him he
seems a man who would have ramb!ed up and
down the world whether in good health or bad.
unconventional. Bohemian. with high ideals OF
conduct and art always before him. but with
an ineradicable fondness for going where the
! impulse led him and for living in the pleasure
of the moment. His family seems to have been
! sympathetic enough toward his theory OF life,
| though not perhaps. as sympathetic as he
would have wished. His allowance up to
| his twenty-third year only a pound
month. and for some time afterward he had
less money than he wanted But. reading
| between the lines of Mr.. BalfOur's narrative. We
get the impression that Stevenson pere was. on
the whole. generous enough from beginning to
end When has justified the aspirations
of his boyhood it is always tempting to criticise
| the parents who failed to give him his head in
all things before they knew what he was going
| to- amount to- and though the author OF thess
volumes tries very hard To be fair We do not feel
that he has said all that might be said for
Thomas Stevenson That gentleman was pro-
foundly disappointed in his sons abandonment
| Of the profession which had come TO seem the
| very expression of the genius OF the family: he
showed his love for his again and again in
a very practical manner. and it is to be regret
ted that MIR. Balfour lacked the courage to speak
| to the point in regard his cousins Departure
1 for California in 1879 lie knew his parents
would not approve. and he sailed leaving them
without word and in almost total ignorance OF
| the hopes and motives which inspired him" Il
was cruelty selfish act. the blot in
otherwise remarkably fine record
| If there is thing more than another demon
strated by the facts of this biography it is that
for all his illness. for all his impecuniosity for
all his terrible uphill Tight toward fame and
| fortune Stevenson had happy life He had
| many stanch friends He reveIed in his work
| He made a very happy marriage. and all fric-
| ton between himself and his father ceased He
found in Samoa an ideal home. and for
years before his death. the age Of forty-four.
/ he knew that he famous and enjoyed an
/ income in due proportion 10 his merits
writer His troubles We're largely of his own
making In fact. it is time for the legend of a
| tragiCally used Stevenson TO disappear IL viii
disappear as his letters and this biography be-
| come better known. They serve to show not
only the tenderness of his family. the loyalty Of
his friends and the good nature of the fates in
| all the matter Of bodily health but that
he at any rate the last man in the world to
feel mawkishly sorry for himself ''I haven't
had fair chance" he said MI Balfour one
day in Samoa I've had 10 spend nearly an
my life in expectation of death" but he was too
brave. too sunny To long repine. II was made
for contest" he wrote Mr. Meredith. "and the
Powers have 81 willed that my battlefield should
be this dingy. ingIOriOus one of the bed and TIE
phySic bottle" but he vaantly kept the atnus-
phere of the sick room out of his work He
could not always keep il out of his letters which
now and then disclose. indeed. a streak OF urn-
inistakabe morbiiity. But in his daily life ~
was as high spirited in his literary produc-
tlons. and the character presented in these pages
stays in the mind as something, ind0mitably
noble and endearng
THE LOST IRT OF LETTER WHITING