The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-10
OF BURNS
SELL AT AUCTION
FOR GREAT PRICES
One Epistie Sells for Twice as
Much as the Poet Received
for the FRS tVoIume of His
Observation-Disclosures Keeps
Five T,pewriters at Work.
Snecial Foreign Service.

Special Foreign Service.
LONDON, Aug. 1.-TWO characters.
tic glimpses of Robert Burns have just
been revealed at sale of autographs
in stuffy London auction room. one
of the letters, which was dated from
Edinburg, April %, 1887, to DR.. Moore,
Clifford street, Burlington Gardens. ac-
knowledging the receipt of some BOOKS,
continues thus: ITO the Rich, the
Great, the Fashionable, the Polite, /
have no equivalent to offer, and am
afraid my meteor appearance will by
no means entitle me to settled CORE
spondence with any Of you, the perma.
nent lights of genius and literature
That MS. brought $200-just twice
what Burns got from the whole first
edition of his poems.
The second letter is addressed 70
Miss Dunlop, from Ellesland, June IL,
1888: This is the second day, my hon.
ored friend, that 1 have been on my
farm A solitary inmate of an old
smoky Spence far from every object L
love, or by whom l am beloved. nor
any acquaintance older than yesterday
while uncouth caves and nov
ell plans hourly insult my awkward ig-
norance and bashful experience" This
letter brought $3.50.
One copy of the little blue paper
covered book of 240 pages which was
the first edition of Burns poems has
lust sold for $4,000 to the Burns Cot
tage trustees, who have placed beside
it the edition of Burns owned by Lord
Byron, specially bound for him, and
stamped with his coronet-affording as
great a contrast to it's humble, but far
more valuable, neighbor, as the lives
of the two men did. The fact that
both poets died at 81 was about all
thew had in common.
Literary Landmarks Disappear.
Ancient literary landmarks are rap
idly disappearing from London without
causing much comment, except when
some relic-loving American comes
along who buys a doomed building fo-
the purpose of preserving it and setting
it up for veneration on the other SIDE
of the Atlantic. Such enterprise is
imputed unto the American for vandal-
ism-which is a queer freak of human
nature considering that his reverence
for such landmarks have saved num-
Der Of them from destruction. 1t was
considered a rather good joke on
Brother Jonathan when it was reported
that 1.-The Old Curiosity Shop was to
be moved bodily from Lincoln's Inn
Fields to the United States. for it is
now pretty well known that the orig
inal shop that gave it's name to Dick
ems novel was down in Fetter Lane,
and was torn down several years ago.
The amusement at the deception that
was practiced on the confiding Amer
lean sight-seer, turned out. however,
to have been founded only on one
Of those wild offers that museum man
ayers make every once in a While just
to startle the natives. The self
styled "O1d Curiosity Shop" is not go
ing to America.
The troops of Americans who visit
this bogus land mark every season are
Indicative of the extraordinary hold
Dickens still has. With the possible
exception of Shakespeare. no English
author has been cause of so many
books dealing with the places he had
made famous. Another of these is
coming out few weeks hence under
the title "The Real Dickens Land" 1t
is done by Mr.. and Mrs. Snowdon
Ward, who have described and photo
graphed most of the places made ia
nous by association with Dickens.
Dickens Discovered Farjeon.
1t was Dickens, by the way, who was
responsible for the return to London Of
B. L. Farieon, whose sudden death has
just been recorded. This interesting
son-in-law Of Joe Jefferson was living
out in Australia when his first novel,
Grief was published, and it was con-
gratulatory letter from Dickens which
decided him to return. Farjeons pro-
digious output Of novels was explained
by his own statement that he kept five
typists busy steadily. Even when he
went on a holiday he took two along,
and merely slowed up a little in his
dictation. He used to get going
sometimes when the plot became ex-
citing and work steadily from ten in
the morning until three the following
morning, living on soup and tobacco"
in the meantime.
Although Ibsen will never write
again for publication, he is so far re-
covered from what was supposed to
be his final illness that he is now MAX
Ing plans for an excursion this sum-
mer to St Petersburg and Finland,
with the idea doubtless of seeing for
himself what Russia is doing in the
way of crushing out the rights and
liberties of the Finns Russia is sus-
pected of designs on Norway and
Sweden after she has brought their
cousins the Firms into subsection. De-
spite his resolution to write no more,
the aged dramatist may succumb to
the temptation of speaking out his
mind on the subject to the public An
other aged author who has had the
privilege of reading in the papers that