The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-29
HENRY LABoucHERE.
The Only Genuine English Eccentric
in the House Of Commons.
Oondon Corr New York Commercial
Advertiser)

(London Corr New York Commercial
Advertiser)
A very curious study would Mr.. La
bOuchere make under the proper an
alysis. He is the nephew of a peer,
and yet perhaps the most advanced,
most logical and most consistent rad
zeal of the day. He has thought things
out and he knows to an inch how far
his radicalism goes and where il stops
short of the YagarieS Of socialism. he
was for awhile an attache in the dip
lomatic service and saw the best that
Europe and America has TO offer. Tales
innumerable are told Of his colossal
sangfToid and cheek and turn for
practical jesting. These are not pre-
cisely the qualities that make the dip
lomatic apprentice a valuable subOrdi-
nate. Mr.. LabOuchere soon gave up
his chance Of an embassy and passed
out of the service that he has enriched
with several excellent yarns He was
shut up in Paris during the Franco
Prussian war. and his Letters Of a
Besieged Resident" contributed TO the
Daily News, a paper of which he was
a part proprietor. are still. I think, the
most vivid pictures of those terrible
months. From that time till now jour
nalism has more or less claimed him
for her own,
He was the first to perceive the pos
sibiiities of a weekly society paper of
good standing. The World was the
result. and il owed its initial success
mainly TO the excellence and honesty
of its financial article, which LabOu-
chere wrote himself But il is, of
course, with Truth that 'Labby's'
name is most associated, and a con-
cfanf zff1du Of that er1f nv.fo inir1cr vr-nnl--
III would probably leave little of its
owners character or opinions to be
exploited. "Labby" writes the cIearest
and most wOrkmanlike sort of Eng
lish, flowing from point to point in
way that lays bare the most hidden
details Of the most complicated mar
rative. The style in his case, if it is
not the man il is at least the mans
mind. The writer, you feel, is dealing
honestly with himself and with his
readers; nothing interpOses between his
brain and yours but print. Mr.. La
bouchere has the mental taste of a law
yer and a good deal more than the
average lawyers experience. No case
is so bewildering that his head can not
hold it or his pen make as clear as day.
Through ali the intricacies of finance
and stock jobbing, as though ali the
details Of the innumerable swindles he
has exposed, he moves with cOmpre-
bending and unclouded certainty. Had
he ever been called to the bar Sir
Charles Russell could not have excelled
him in luciditY of exposition.
An experience of life that not one
man in ten thousand could boast-of
the city, Of politics. of society, of the
stage-has made "Labby' an admir-
able raconteur and a convinced cynic.
and yet each year he organizes a gi-
gantic doll show and induces the read
ers of his paper to dress thousands Of
dolls for the children in the London
hospitals. He is a cynic, and yet ne
plays the part Of universal detective on
behalf Of the poor and oppressed. He
is q, cynic, and yet he has spent a for
tune in exposing quacks. usurers and
swindlers that have preyed upon the
public. At this very moment he is in
the thick Of a. libel action brought by
Lord Sufield. He is a radical, and yet
Truth owes a large proportion of its
success 10 the accuracy of its society
naSs and of it's gossip about the royal
family. In politics he Cultivates siren
uously the bias Of anti-patriotism. He
is anti-everything. He would demolisk
the house Of lords tomorrow: he is ..
rampant pro-BOer, a home ruler. the
most misguided Of little Englanders.
Everything, in fact, that ninety-nine
Englishmen out of one hundred op-
poses, he favorB; everything they h a.
set their hearts on he kicks from hi-%
in joyous contempt He has been called
the Puck Of English politics. In real
ity he is simply a slave to English
logic. But his constituents love him.
His seat is one of the safest in the
kingdom, because, / suppose. under
meath all his airy cynicism there is
profound earnestness and q. Sruainstinct
for democracy. But he - a curious
compound. and I have heard more
than one man say that there will be
nothing on judgment day that viii
quite equal the examination Of Henry
Labouchere.