New-York tribune., 1903-06-21

of fine text previously printed by Judge Parry, |
and was carried into court for his pains, he |
excited a good deal Of sympathy. we sui leei
sorry for him, for he seems to have been apso-
IuteIy unconscious of wrongdoing, and the ques-
Tin of copyright involved was one so delicate as
TO be almost imperceptible But the eplsode |
has served to bring up for discussion the gen
eraI question as to how far writer should
make use of the labors Of any predecessor ana
oven those who felt for Mr.. GOancZ in his
Might have concluded that it was well, under
the circumstances, to have the air cleared Ihe
AthenRum'' says: 1--WE have great sympathy
with the general position that undue use shouiu
not be made of any mans text and notes. anu
that q most reprehensible looseneSs I'D thlS
matter has become the almost universal usage.
The public spirit Of scholars has become such d
matter of course that even the formal courtesy
of applying for leave to use the materials
which another has brought to light has become
the rarest execution 1t is time that this evil
usage was stopped and Judge Parry has iald
the Republic of Letters under an obligation by
his action" Mr.. Lang, in a playfully serious
contribution to the subject, characterZes the
nractice as "cannibalism among authors"
II is coming at last the book which any one
might have prophesied. 1t is to be called
''Stevensoniana," and it is to be hlled WIN
articles about the romancer, for which the COM
piler has been delving "only in the forgotten
pages of English and American periodicals, ana
In books by writers of emlnence not ehureIy
devoted 10 Stevenson" We suppose it fore
shadows another volume drawn from the
writer's who have written about the writers
who have written about Stevenson. But appar-
emily there are people who will be made happy
nv this compilation One English Journalist
has taken the trouble to reckon up the quota
tions and illusions Of his contemporaries IN q
single week. and he has found that they have
all gone to Stevenson "for their pregnant ana
fecitous sentences" He adds that 1T Is
case indeed of Stevenson first and the rest
nowhere Milton comes in a bad second, and
Shakespeare is only quoted three times" AS
suredly there is no danger of our being allowed
TO forget him. A Scotch sheriff has just pub
Ifsbed an article on Stevenson as Advocate.
He remembers that when warned against allow
ing his practice to injure his health Stevenson
replied: Man, 1 got guinea last week. wait
till YOU an idle dog like you, see what I'll do,
now I've tasted blood" The anecdote will, of
course he cherished in ten million hearts. Mr..
Sidney Colvn it appears, has been engaged to
marry Miss SitweII, to whom many Of Steven
sons letters were addressed. Ergo, according to
one ecstatic commentator, the marriage mas
special interest for Stevensonians" The let
ters written by Stevensons mother to her Sis
ter when she cruising with her son among
the islands of the Pacific to be published in
a book called Prom Saranac to Marquesas."
Ard so on, and SO on.
When Carlyle was thirty years of age and !
lived in Bloomsbury the one or two books he
had published had not sold, and his genius was
practically unknown. Mr.. W. 3. Yeats, who is
still young man, is living in the same street
in bloomsbury, he has published number of
books which have been widely circulated, and
he is certainly not languishng Tor want OF pub
lie appreciation in any sense of the term. The
contrast has impressed Mr.. Shorter, who main
tains that Mr.. Yeats and another young writer
who has won much success, Mr.. c. *. Chester
ton, have fallen upon happy times, and that
even thirty years ago "the struggle for recog- |
milton that would have taken place between
their twenty fifth and their forty-ffth years
would have been something tremendous" All
of this is true. The generosity with which the