New-York tribune., 1903-03-29
Gbe Ne1uUork Grib1e1r&
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT-
SUNDAY, MARCH %, 1903.

q
frey Leland, which were printed win thc receIs
announcement Of his death at Florehce' .ouIu ~
rot but give, even at their baldest, susSestloilS
- ~ essentially romantic career. "Hans Brett
mann, had In him rich vein OF pracucahty'
which served him we'll in his JOURNALISTIC
x-ontureS and in many another field. Among
his hooks are certain manuals OF craftsmanship
which show that he was no idle Dreamer ne
had indeed. q positive influence upon pracucdA
education But there hung ABOUT MIN 'ne
glamour of the gypsy, OF man VINO was ai""Ss
travelling, until age crept on, ana "ho' "neh
ever he went looked upon life with the eyes VI
q poet. His only prototype in his own tiile
WAS tie late Richard f. Burton the Oriehtalis''
traveller and author. Like Burton, ne was d
man of genius, with devOurlng curiosity Lor
the obscurer phases Of racial history, and liAe
Burton. he difused his powers in perhaps too
MANY directions so that his fame as man OF
letters was never rounded out as it deserved 10
bo Inv the suffrages Of the great public. That
public has always valued him more LOT his
Rreitmann Ballads md his translations from
Hcine than for anything else, though ne wrote
many other books especially in the field OF 1olk-
lore which in their way are equally valuable
One Of the mysteries which we suppose Will
90 down the centuries unsolved is the antaS-
onism reused by the Authors Society among
many p2rsons who nevertheless claim TO nave
the welfare Of the craft at heart 1t olten
snems as if Sir Walter Besant, to whom the
society has owed SO much, was personally Tue
object of the sneers and innuendoes constantly
lpypIIed at it but his death has apparently
failed to remove the cause of complaint The
other dav an article in the London saturday
Review" revived the old objections. Promptly
Mr. G. Bernard Shaw comes to the rescue, ana,
among other things states that "men OF letters
of the better sort do not join professional asSo-
citation for what they can individually get out
of it. They do so because they know tnat the
rights of the whole community OF authors must
be sustained by 4 permanent organization
which by being ready TO meet all attacks, pre-
vents attacks being made" Precisely; ana IS
there any earthly reason to be given for regard
ing this perfectly legitimate and dignlfled pur-
pose with contempt? DetI1ctorS OF Besant ana
his work for his fellows in authorship have
been went to assail that generous soul with
declarations that literature was being degraded
by his efforts TO establish it among his con-
tcmDOraries on Il paying basis. The commercial
fever has undoubtedly hurt modern literature,
but it is all mOOnShnc to identify the Authors
Society with that influence. Perhaps the best
of all answers to its critics is embodied IN the
list Of it's members. which includes practically
every writer of real emnence in England today
Mr.. J. w. Mackail, who wrote the official
biography of William Morris, has recently
printed lecture which he delivered last Octo-
Der and in which he had much to say about his
hero. The subject of the lecture was The Part
ing Of the Ways" but Mr. Mackail declared that
"in a sense, there was never any parting of the
ways for Morris, because throughout life his
way was to 4 degree almost uneXampled in our
time single and straightforward. As soon as he
was convinced that thing right, however
strange or difficult imprudent it were, his
choice was already made. and he simply did it."
The lecturer considered that Morris thus offered
ali example worth following. No doubt he did;
yet to many, fear, Morris must always re-
main i curiously ambiguous type, one who may
have been single and straight forward in the
pursuit Of his aims, but who managed III his
artistic, literary and hortatory activities to
hibt the most contradictory tendencies lie
loved beauty and he preached it in season and
out of season. But while he told the world to
make itself beautiful lie practised a style which
drew its inspiration so constantly from antique
models that great deal of his work clashes
with modern life, seems arbitrarily Overlaid
instincts. He an enthusiastic socialist and
advocated the noblPst humanitarian ideals but
while he eager to turn the artisan INTO an
artist, talked of making the humblest things
objects Of bpaUtV and. in fine seemed have