New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-05-12

sould ask across the dinner table Madame
Md LORD Melbourne eVer tell your majesty that |
you were not to do this that? and the |
Queen would take it as the best of jokes. Those
who present at dinner when Disraeli sud- |
denly proposed the Queens health as Empress |
of India. with 4 little speech as floWery as the |
Grafton of maharaj ah, used TO describe the |
pretty smiling bow, half courtesy, which the
Queen made him as he sat down. She loNed the
East, with all its pageantry and all It's trap |
pings. and she accepted Disrael as a picturesque
image of ii. 1t is stiil remembered now iluch
more she used to smile in conversation with him
than she did with any other of her minister's.
Lord Rosebery's book Napoleon has APP
peared al last IN French translation. and has
been heartily welcomed by Frenchmen. 1t is
said interpret the dearest sentiments OF
Frenchmen with an accent of sympathy
DR. George Macdonads health is SO broken
that he is unable to remain in Britain and he
spends the larger part of the year in Italy. He
is somcN hat better of late and celebrated the
other day his golden wedding. His first volume
of poems. Within and without" was issued
forty-fve years ago and his first popular novel.
David Eleinbrod." appeared in lSt2 The
father OF the distinguished novelist, preacher and
poet was a farmer and miller. who lived long
enough To witness the Gawning fame OF his
son.
The extremely costly maps in Sir William
Smiths Classical Atlas are to be issued sep
arattly a popular price, and they will thus
be accessible to many students not able hereto
fore to indulge in such a luxury. An ehtireiy
new map of Greece and remarkably good one,
has been made for the series.
Some punCent and certainly not unjust para
graphs are devoted by The Saturday Review
10 Mr. Richard lie Gaenne. his latest publica-
tions. and some other literary men OF his
stripe The Saturday critic observes that he
did not know before that there were so many
distinguished literary men in the whole wide
world may apparently be found in Mr. lie
Gallienne's tiny circle Not to be dstin-
guished must be a distinction there. We have
felt compelled inquire into this curious
. phenomenon. How did all these people-these
lyric poets known to fame and young Sebastans
the dewy thresholds OF brilliant literary repu-
tatiOns-how did they come by their regulations.
who are they, and how IS II we have never heard
of them before? The explanation is not so COM
plicated might be thought. There are in Lon
don. and dare say in other cities. numerous
groups of men. young or old. engaged in htera-
ture some other of the arts. None of them is
known outside his circle; but by some quaint
tacit agreement it is understood in the circle
that all members of il distinguished because
they belong to il. So when they get into print
they write merely what they think about each
other; and in some cases they have persuaded
the public To think with them. Far be IL from
us TO disturb any OF these dreamers in their
fools paradise They hurt no one; the harm
they do To literature and art is infinitely small
because in the majority Of cases no one knows
anything about them And they are very anus
ing. But must admit that the logrOllng pro-
duCed by this system is distinctly inferior to the
logrolling Of the last generation. Messrs Lang
and Gosse and the late Robert Louis Stevenson
and others have been accused OF lOgTolling: and
II is true enough that when they admired each
others work they wont To express their
admiration with copi BUSINESS in the public prints
Eut these men knew something: they were work
ers and produced something. The men Of the
present day groups which Mr.. lie Galliennc
seems to understand 50 well. have produced
nothing If any Importance; their business in life
Is 10 gain these bogus regulations by any means
rather than by working for them. For Il dozen
men who have done good work to recognize each
other is one thing If a doZ men recognize each
other and not one has done auythinl-that sure
ly is a totally different matter"
The critic concludes his article thus and be il
said 1t IS the truth and nothing but the truth
Mr.. f.e Gallenne calls himself 4 literary man:
and he therefore invites to judge his novel as
the work of a literary As literature il is
simply beneath contempt. There is no inVen-
ton; nothing is Nividly told: there is "A pun
gent phrase in the book Weak words are thrown
together To form weak phrases: weak phrases
are heaped on one another 10 form weaker para
graphs; the chapters are weaker than the para
graphs. and the whole book is the very quntes-
an ineptitude is missed If this is literature
then the commOnest advertisements Of patent
medicines are literature But why talk of lit
erature? To vary Mr. BirrelTs question. What
in the name Of the Bodley Head has Mr. L.. Gal
lienne to do with literature?'"
There is indignant comment in Paris over NJ
Claretie's discovery that Nine Michelet had Sc
Eercly edited her husbands posthumous works
NJ. DescareS, in the Echo de Paris" declares
That French contemporary literature abounds
in widows comfortably installed in their hus-
bands work as in a cheese which they SCOOP
out up Ia the crust. 1t is their means of sub
sIstence their occupation for their old age. 1t