The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-08
LITERARY GOSSIP
OF LONDON TOWN
The Many.Sidedness of DR..
Samuel SmlIeS-What Cecil
Rhodes Said "SeEf-HeIp."
Staff Corresnondent

From Staff Correspondent.
LONDON, April 23.-Most Of the
biOgraphers of the late DR.. Samuel
Smiles failed to mention that the ia
nous author of Self Help had de-
cided talent for painting, and originally
wanted to be an artist. The fact is
worth mentioning, however, as an ad-
dluonal proof of his many -sidedness.
Surgeon, editor, railroad man, lecturer,
chemist, biographer, he not only turned
his hand TO many varied employments,
but made some sort of a success of
each of them. And the themes of the
whole shelf of works turned out by
this literary veteran who has Just
passed away at ninety-onef is signifl-
cant, as showing how many different
subjects appealed to him. Physical
Education" THE Huguenots in Eng
land and Ireland" and Thrift" are not
titles that would suggest works by the
same author, and though most of his
many works are similar in being bio
graphical, the careers that he under
TOOK to trace We're unlike enough
comprising, as they did, those of
Stephenson, the engineer; Thomas Ed
ward, the naturalist; John Murray, the
publisher; Jasn1in, the barber, poet
and philanthropist, and Josiah Wedge
wood, the potter.
In spite Of or perhaps, because of the
fact that few mems works ever APP
preached the circulation of ''Self-
Help" no one seems to have any idea
of how much DR.. Smiles made out of it,
For "A Publisher and His Friends"
however, DR.. Smiles received $4,000
down. Out of the profits of Self
Help" it's author built himself an I'M
commonly comfortable house in the
suburbs of London, and on the founda-
ton stone was placed a copy Of the
! book from which young men of so
many nationalities have imbibed it's
writer's principle of reliance on ones
self. Cecil Rhodes was one of these
( Opening a new library in a small South
AFRICAN town, the colossus once said:
81 have been called an empire maker.
/ l don't know about that. But there's
one thing l know and am sure of, and
that is" and here he lifted DR.. Smiles
! "Self-Help," that we have here what
is still better-a man-maker, a charac-
/ ter-maker." A query made yesterday
at one Of the largest public libraries in
London as to whether there still was
any considerable demand for self
! Help" ELECTED the reply that only one
work of the kind was called for so
often. That, Americans will take some
pride in hearing, was Lorimer's Let
ters From a Self-Made Merchant to
His Son."
DR.. Smiles immense vigor even when
nearing ninety excited the wonder of
every one who met him. Within a year
of his death-at ninety one-he still
took his morning walk, smoked three
or four cigars a day, INDUCED in GER
tain number of glasses of port, and did
a good deal of reading without glass
es. One of the last books that this old
ScOtchman read before his death was
''Wee Macgregor."
1t will be welcome news to the ad-
mirers of the late George Gissing that
an opportunity is now offered them to
show their appreciation both of the
man and his books. The English So
ciety of Authors, London has invited
contributions to fund for the purpose
of keeping flowers on his grave in the
little cemetery of st. Jean de Luz in
the south of France. 1t is from a
Frenchman that the suggestion orig
finally emanated that this tribute
should be paid to Gissing's memory,
and in making it he recalls the fact
that when Guy de Maupassant's moth
er died she bequeathed a sum of money
to the French Society Of Authors to be
devoted to a similar pious purpose.
Some critics of the late Sir Edwin