The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-17

II
Concord home relate a story of Emerson
which touches side of him as poet
/ which no one had hitherto remarked
| This sense of hythm or time in mus
| ic," writes Mr.. Sanborn, The had per-
| fectly;. when he transgressed 1t was from
/ purposed disregard thereof; but of tune
in music he had none or the very faint
| est conception He shared this defect
with many eminent poets; but his young
| friends, Thoreau and Ellery Claiming,
had the musical ear, and therefore have
occasionally surpassed Emerson in the
harmonies Of verse. When they did SO
he was not always aware of the fact,
from this very defect OF that, however,
he was fully aware, and used to tell
story against himself on the subject. He
said that, when he went with other
lads. to be taught vocal music by
blind vocalist, and they were all re-
quested to 'sound'-that is, to run up and
down the scale a little with their voices,
! the blind man said, when he heard
| Emerson's Intellectual notes: That boy
need not come again; he cannot learn to
sing"
/ have just finished reading Forster's
Life of Dickens, as abridged by Mr..
George Gissing into one volume and re-
Gently published in England and this
country. 1t is a wonderfully interesting
story of great novelist, who had been
able, at the same time, td remain the
kindest and most charitable of men.
This is saying much, considering Dick
ems first American visit and his Ameri-
can notes, but, at that time Dickens was
much troubled, not only by the unfort
unate contracts he had made in England,
whereby he was enriching his publishers
and starving himself but also by the
many pirated editions of his works in this
country. There is little doubt that Dick
ems fastened the coming of the Interna-
tional Copyright Law by many years
through his efforts in it's behalf which
began at that time. Later on in his life
Dickens made most complete amends
for the unfortunate opinions he had form
ed of this country. The remarkable fact
is that, scarcely to this day has an au
thor been accorded such receptions as
were given him during his reading and
lecture tour here. For thirty-four read
ngs, during the winter of '67-'6S, he
ceived nearly $4,000. His account of his
worries on account of the spectators
who bought tickets in advance and sold
them again at tremendous profits reads
as though the tour happened very recent
ly, for the same worries beset all great
attractions today. Dickens, writing to
his friends in England at the time, tells
OF the excitement in New York City over
his reading. The ticket office was to
open at nine on Wednesday morning. By
midnight on Thursday long line OF
spectators were assembled; later on
few honest buyers arrived and by eight
O'Clock in the morning, there were 5000
people in two lines. AT nine o'clock
when the office opened, each OF these
lines was more than three-quarters of a
mile long, and they seemed to get no
shorter during the whole morning. All
OF the available tickets were sold by
noon, but, during the time of waiting,
members of families relieved each other;
walters flew back and forth from the res
taurants to the waiting lines to serve
customers; and excited men offered five
and ten dollars for the mere permission
to change places with other persons
standing in line nearer the head.
Admirers of the work of Mr.. Frank
nouncement that there will shortly be is
sued in book form collection of his
essays on literary topics, most of which
appeared in various magazines and news
papers, and volume of short stories I'M
der the title "A Deal in Wheat and
Other Stories" This will make eight
books to the credit of writer who died
before he had been writing that many
the quality of his work and the fact
that. at the time he wrote most Of these |
books, he was obliged to carry on other
work for living. Not until within
three years of his death did his income
from his books provide for him freedom
from the drudgery of newspaper work or
of editorial work for publishing firm.
The other day one of the leading New
York yellow newspapers decided to
secure story of New York for a daily |
serial, and, as one of the editors had |
dipped into e. w Townsend's Lees and
Leaven," recently brought out in book
form, ne was directed to secure the right |
from the publishers. The publishers ar |
ranged with Mr.. Townsend for the use
of the story in this manner, but, mean
time, the yellow papers editor had |
found time to finish the story.
Were awfully sorry" he telephoned |
to the publisher, 'but when we finished |
the story we found that Townsend had !
painted too accurate picture of US in |
the latter part, and We'll have to give UP |
the idea of using the story"
1t was an unconscious bit of praise for /
Mr.. Townsend's book that, because he !
had shown up yellow Journalism SO
keenly, a self-confessed yellow newspa |
per did not dare publish 1t. although they |
were anxious to have it. When Mr. |
Townsend heard of the curious decision, !
he chuckled and said;
Il hardly thought they would be able |
to do it, but | thought they might have |
the nerve to run the story and, when they |
came to the yellow journalism part, TO
illustrate it with pictures of the editors
of rival yellow paper"
The following letter in rhyme from |
Charles Battell Loomis to Henry Wallace |
Phillips, will interest all those who like |
to hear about authors and their doings |
Fanwood, the second month, the second |