The age-herald., 1902-05-18
Harte Knew His Doom
 Weeks Before He Died


 London Correspondent in the New York i World
 London. May 6.-The death of Bret Harte, which took place at o'clock yes- terday afternoon at Red House. Cam berley, Surrey caused a profound shock of sorrow throughout this country where his circle of admirers was nearly as great as that of any flying writer.
 Since last December Re has been suf- fering at times acutely from an extre- mely painful and distressing throat af- , lection. Early in March his disorder was recognized as incurable because an operation would have been certainly fatal, owing to the vital organs involved.
 Bfet Harte took his sentence of death then pronounced. with greatest of forti- tude and in the intervals of poignant suffering he continued his literary work. For nearly three months he had taken none but liquid food, but he was in Lon don as late as April 26, when he came to consult a specialist.
 On EAnday morning at breakfast be seemeA comparatively well, but about
  which however, the doctors succeeded in stopping. Late in tho afternoon there was a recurrence of the hemorrhage | and already weakened by the attack of l the morning, the utmost efforts of doc 1 tors and nurses failed to check 1t, and | the patient passed away at o'clock very l peacefully
 He was conscious up to within forty | five minutes of his death and was sur
 rounded by his family at the end. II l is probable that the funeral and burial
 will take place in America
 For the past nine years Bret Harte
 had passed his time between No. "A Lan-
 caster Gate, London, where he had | apartments in a select private hotel, and l Cahber1ey, near which place his son, l King Harte, and his family live. He | mixed little in society, and steadfastly | resisted all attemtps to draw him into l the social vortex
 He had a charm of manner that en- l deared him to all who had the privilege 1 of his acquaintance. His conversation
 was full of quiet humor and had occa- | sional satiric gleams that made it pun
 gent and incisive but always kindly
 Last December, upon an alarming re- l port being published in New York con- | cerning his health, he wrote from Lan- l caster Gate to the World correspondent | a letter which Is now of some interest l Yesterday afternoon a gentleman | connected with press agency called up-
 on me, stating that 1t had been cabled | from New York that I was seriously i'll 1 at this address, and he came for par
 ticulars He was apparently surprised
 to find me in my usual physical condi-
 ton and promised to correct the infor-
 nation. Half an hour later I had a call i from another gentleman connected with | a magazine on the same sympathetic | kindly errand. I know not how this ru- | nor came about. Except for some dis | comforting visits to a dentist, l am in | my normal condition"
 l This was the beginning of the illness
 which has now carried him of. Bret | Harte of late years was not in very flour | ishing financial circumstances. He had
 been som ewhat unfortunate in money
 matters and his failing health prevented
 him from writing regularly.
 l Yesterday a new volume of short stor- | ies by him was favorably noticed In the
 London papers. and he has left further | series of Condensed Novels" on which | he had been engaged almost to the day | of his death.
 | Bret Harte has been called the most | original contributor of American liter
 ature. From the time he found him.
 self in "The Luck of Roaring Camp
 until the present he has written assid-
 uously, and been universally read. He
 has been generally recognized as the
 originator of the short story of contem- 1 porary life in the English tongue, and 1 'Harteism" has been coined to describe the haff-humorous, half-pathetic yet real
 and active spirit which make the charm | of his works.
 Francis Bret Harte was born in Al-
 bany, N. r.. on Aug. 25, 1899. His father
 was a poor instructor in a female semi
 nary. When he was aged eleven he wrote | a poem called "Autumnal Musings" which was published in a New York | Weekly and called down upon him the wrath of his relatives, who had little lik- | ing for poets.
 Lack of sympathy in his vocation in duced him to join a caravan while still in his teens, bound for the new Eldo- rado. He turned his hand to anything