The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-17
estate AIDED"
ENGLISH AUTHORS
Discussion Shows How Much
Better OFF British Writers
Are Than American Ones.
From a Staff Correspondent

From Staff Correspondent.
| LONDON, April 5.-In spite of an OBJ
! lection in parliament the other day Aus
| tin Dobson is to go on drawing the 81 $50
| which the government allows him besides
his regular pension of $2.665 yearly, and
English writer folk ought to congratulate
themselves on having an advantage in
| this respect over those in America. At
| home, unless one is mistaken, an author
gone broke" can look for aid only to
friends and his own exertions, but in this
| country there are several avenues through
| which assistance may come to him, es-
pec1ally If he has rendered any really nota-
| Die service to literature. Had Mark Twain
| been an English writer no doubt funds
would have been forthcoming from the
civil list" to tide him over his financial
straits several years ago, instead of the
veteran writer's being obliged to struggle
| to make both ends meet. Whether Mr.,
clemens would have accepted such as
SlStance is, of course, another matter,
| but many English writers of prominence
nave done so, among them Matthew Ar
mold w. e. Henley, George Augustus Sala,
Herman MeriVale and William Watson.
The act of parliament which gives the
prime minister authority to advance funds
TO authors out of the British civil list
IN this way was passed in the reign of
| William the Fourth, and as Mr. Balfour
| explained to the house of commons the
otner day, allows the premier a good deal
OF latitude In making such requests. Mr.
Osmond- Williams NJ P. for Merioneth
shire, whose knowledge Of literature evil
gently has Its limit since he spoke of "a
MT. Austin Dobson," demanded what prec-
edent there was for that authors drawing
$1,25O per annum from the civil list, when
as retired "civil servant he already re-
ceives a pension Of $2,665? This, said the
critic, amounted to nearly as much as
MI. Austin Dobson's full pay when in the
governments services-$4, 900. Mr. Bal
1ours answer was to point out that Glad
stone placed the name of Matthew Ar
mold on the civil list while the author of
Literature and Dogma was still in the
| government employ, and not even a, pen
sloner like the graceful biographer of
Hogarth, Goldsmith and Richardson. The
prime minister also expressed his regret
that the civil list pension fund was so
small, mere $4,000 year. Among those
who have benefited from it, however, have
been Huxley's widow and those of An
thony Irollope and Charles Dickens Jr
The Royal Literary Fund.
English authors In difficulties can be
helped also from the royal literary fund,
as Well as through the Society Of Authors
Some interesting details of the founding
of the former institution have just come
TO light through the discovery of an old
pamphlet. 1t seems that club Of
wealthy men about town used to exist
at the old Prince of Wales Coffee House
near Bond street, and to the ears of its
members came the story of an elderly
Greek translator of much renown who
had died in consequence Of being arrested
and thrown into prison for debt to a
restaurant keeper who had supplied his
scanty meals. The royal literary fund was
organized Immediately by these club men,
and the first meeting for election of Of
h0l in fret no
donations were decidedly meager one of
those mentioned in the old pamphlet be-
ing the sum of $25 to a widow with
family of four young children unproVided
for"
KIpllng's New Home. m
Almost everything closely associated
with Rudyard Kipling is of so much in
tereSt that it is no wonder that a good
deal has found it's way into print re-
garding his various homes, including the
historic residence at BrattleborO, the re-
treat at Nottingham and 'Burwash,' the
authors present English abode, near
TUnbridge Wells. But South Africa is
another matter, and though Mr.. Kip
ling now has spent several winters in
the climate which he finds so much more
to his liking than that of these Islands,
nothing has been published, up to now,
regarding the house which he inhabits
when at the Cape. A recent private letter
from South Africa, however, gives some
information that is we'll worth quoting for
the benefit of Kiplingites at home.
Apropos of Kipling's recent political
speeches in Cape Colony, its writer says;
LAS / dare say you know, he has got a
house here called The Woolsack. 1t is
in the suburbs, on the slopes of Table
mountain or rather Devils Peak; and
it looks over a wide expanse Of wooded
country to the blue hills far away.
1t is in it's own terraced garden, edged
and backed with pines. The house was
left him for life by Cecil Rhodes. 1t is
modelled on the style of an old Dutch
house, and is built round sort of Roman
atrium with a veranda around the inner
square and round the outside also. 1t is
tiled and paneled in a fine old fashion, and
1t is only to be beaten for charm by
Mrs. Kipling And Kipling himself Is the
pleasantest host in the world
Madame Sarah Grand made the edify-
ing discovery the other day that some
body bearing a distinct resemblance to
herself has been INDUCING in the amuse-
ment of impersonating her. Madame Grand
lectured at Tunbridge Wells day or two
ago, and during her stay there received
a call from two elderly women. Upon
entering her drawing room to greet them,
however the authoress was greeted with
a hesitating observation that they had
"called to see Madame Sarah Grand"
''That is my name" replied the writer
of 1.-The Heavenly Twins" Whereupon
the visitors explained that at any rate
their hostess was not the lady whom they
had previously met and believed to be
Madame Grand, though they admitted that
there was a resemblance. Inquiries on
the authoress' part revealed the fact that
while staying at a boarding house In
Folkstone a woman had represented her
self as Nine. Sarah Grand" to the two
old people, and had even presented them
with her autograph, copied, apparently,
from one of the real Sarah Grand's in an
illustrated magazine.
Hayden Church.