New-York tribune., 1903-01-18

The public would not swallow.
And since they cannot be all Gaines.
They wallOw.
Mr. Robert Chambers the author OF Car
digan,'' is still pursuing his plan OF writing
history of the American Revolution IN the form
of fiction He has calculated that his scheme
will be complete in four books the first and see
ond of which are already published-"Cardl
and ''The Maid Arms
William Morris's Red House" at Bexley has
Just been sold for S14.250. 1t seems small
price when one remembers that the house con-
tains wall paintings by Burne-Jones. and beau
tifuI stained glass windows and furniture de-
signed and made under Morris's own super
vision
Miss Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler has been Ia
menting that everything has got mechanical
and that in particular much is done for
children so much thought out for them and
constructed for them that their imagination is
Stunted eff children go they are now,
she saws dreadful disasters will happen-crea-
tive art is bound eventually to die out Poets.
novelists. actors, artists of any kind. how can
they be unless they've had their dreams IN
childhood? Child -drea ming is a lost art now
adays-one wishes chiId-steaIing were. instead!
child corrected me once quite seriously: There
aren't any fairies now Miss FO"ier-WhatS 5
more. there never were What is one to do with
any like that?"
Professor knight has been telling some pleas
ant stories about Christopher North One OF
them shows the big Scotchman as very kindly.
delightful person among the EdlueurSh STU
dents. There was a great SNOWFALL riot which
made the college quadrangle unappTOachable for
two days The situation had become serious,
and he students. through Unskilful, not to say
rough repression had got out of temper. Kit
as Wilson was called. harangued the students
then and there. He told them that no one en-
jOyed a good snow ball fight more than he did,
and he asked them to accompany him 70 Hun
ter's Bog to have it out There, knee deep in
snow-when two sides had been made-Kit dis
tinguished himself by his long range and the
size of his projectiles, until tired out in per-
feet good hunOr. the students went home and
quietly resumed work next day
1t was Christopher's daughter Mrs F'errier
who described Jowett as the little dOWny OWL:
and it was her husband. the learned philosopher.
who. with all his learning. could not understand
mathematics On being told that his
backward in arithmetic, he said. That proves
clearly that he is my son. for when boy was
very backward in arithmetic For instance at
the multiplication table 1 could never distin-
guiSh seven times eight from eight times seven
s'd o. 'ne tutor dld Jy1, you not see mat
fessor Ferrier. Il never thought Of that
The Browning societies are no doubt preparing
to defend their idol from the structures OF the
writer in The Contemporary Review who lays
stress upon the poets want Of ethical earnest
ness and of anything approaching to social en-
thusiaSm. There is resentment of social
wrong. vision of the kingdom of heaven or
earth, he says, to be found in BrOwninS's poetry.
1.-The feeble traces of il in 'ParacelSuS' and 'SOr-
dello present it only In the form of wiII-Of-Jhe-
wisp, and indeed as conceived by these heroes it
is nothing better. And in the later work il
seems to disappear altogether. Browning is an
individualist if he is anything The rights and
wrongs, the habits. the fears and the fateS OF
classes do not interest him. Now this is a very
startling fact, because most people. say between
the years of 1880 and 1895. if asked what poet
best represented the life of the nineteenth cen
tury in all its aspects, would have answered.,
Browning, and most of those same people II
asked what was the most characteristic trend,
the most proper passion of their time, would
have answered, The sense of social wrong and
social hope Thus the characteristic poet Of the
time is free from the characteristic impulses Ct
the time, the man VIII say most truly Te-
fleets the age entirely fails to reflect il in ItS
most characteristic aspect. Here IS j paradox
indeed
Joseph Chamberlain appreciates the fact that
Caricature sometimes means for man IN pubic
life not undesirable public attention. and he