New-York tribune., 1903-03-08

German Elzevir. and the great KI0pstock wsu
moved to enter into literary relations with him
not an unmlxed joy. if We may credit the
anacdote which describes the poet as answer
ing a query as to the meaning Of an obscure
passage: Il know very well that meant some
thing when I wrote II, but what that some
thing was I myself don't know now"
1t is a wonder that any man IN Goschans day
had the courage to become a publisher IN Ger
many. The censorship was troublesome to a
vvofuI degree; in SaXony. IN 1880 nothing for ex-
ample which discussed the rights Of man could
get into print Worse than the censOrs were the
pirates, who stole right and left without com
Functions. Each little German kingdom, duchy
and principallty had It's own laws differing
from those OF every other, and there was 10
general copyright. To make a book really profit
able, all Germany must buy il; but as matters
stood then a publisher who. ike Goschen, had
strained all his resources to pay his authors
handsomely had to meet the competition OF
cheap piratical reprints brought out promptly
by men who had paid nothing FOR the work.
Nothing could be done save through the Joint
action OF thirty-eIght federal States. the gov
ernments OF which were quite Indifferent to the
weIIbeing OF authors. Goschen ragged in vaIn-le
was not for thirty years after his first strenuous
efforts were made that piracy was checked In
Germany and legal protection secured FOR au-
thOrs and publishers. It is odd that the vide
prevalence Of the abuse did not work its own
cure-that SO many cheap editions OF book
could mean a profitable sale for any one Of
them. Poor Goschen's worries from this source
were not the least hard 70 bear n his many
troubles. Let it be Remembered that his iEd.g-
nation never served to CorroIe Z singularLy
loyal clean and upright nature
Many OF Goscheu's ideas and methods would
seem strange indeed to the authors and publish
ers of this century He abaorrad personalities
Possibly" says his biJgrapherr my grand
father would have rebuked the degree to Thi-a
I am giving the world details about himself
and he goes on to quote the Pubi.sheTs deeL-ra-
ton:
I won't print Wialand's letters That great
intellect and the man himself are sumo lehily
well known through what he has himself pro
duced and il is in that way that NJ u...SL oe
presented to the cyrs ~ the World TO lnsP"Gt
and gape al what he has &. o";r1on with an
mortaIs is a pitiabl@ kind ~ cuT--S-ly "Ll-A =
OF no use at all 1 cannot l-l- th- craze IJE
such things.
A delightful, almost pa,r5a-cHa. relation eX-
listed between Goshen ard the large body OF
workmen whom h. Employed n his printing es-
Establishments. For Cr-ty years perfect harmony
and a deep affeecia1 united master and men
There is a touchgr- story Of the way in which
the men worked sear-..y for ti-.a --.-.,S .5 =..-
ready in time a book % rEa lsst" oi WEBS. ''-
publisher was pledged They s1rI1.Sai nm
with It, and "au had tears in th..r eyes "nen
they saw his happy emotion Goshen 5 ialH-
fly life was one Of rare beauty and slrhi'"e''S,
and his grandson has described IT Win a GOO-
taste and fIfaI reverence which might well rec
onciIe the elder to the revelation OF 50 L---1
personal detail
Csoscban.s work was done IN a tine when the
Continent was rapidly making history, and the
biopraphpr has deftIy improved his oFpoTtlnl-
ties Germany as a literary Olympus, Germany
struggling under the heel Of Nlp0l7oH-heFe are
pictures set forth with al art as persuasive d
It is unaffected.