The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-20

0NE OF the most important books
Of the spring is 1.-THE Life of Ed.
~ ward Fitz Gerald" written by
Thomas Wright and published In this
country by the Scribners. The sub
ject of the biography is known chiefly
as the translator of Omar Khayyan,
the Persian philosopher and poet, whose
exquisite Rubayiat is familiar to us all.
But aside from this F'itz Gerald was an
interesting and unique character. He
was a contemporary and intimate
friend of Thackeray and Tennyson,
both of whom have left accounts of his
genius and ability. Mr.. Wright has
gathered much hitherto unpublished
data in connection with F'itz Gerald,
which makes a most readable book,
and here for the first time is told the
complete story of his unfortunate mar
riage Though Fitz Gerald wrote much
and wrote we'll, his work outside of his
translation of the old Persian poet, has
slipped into oblivion. When the Ru-
bayiat first appeared it was unnoticed
and the publishers destroyed the copies
to get rid Of them; it was, however, res
cued from obscurity by Swinburne and
Rossetti who made a sort of cult Of
the pagan philosophy therein contain
ed, and from that time to this, it has
had an increasingly large vogue, and
today without certain knowledge of
the exceedingly quotable lines Of
Khayyam, one is hardly considered Of
the elect When he was approaching
middle life Fitz Gerald established a
warm friendship with certain Bernard
Barton, who lived alone with daugh-
ter by no means young and who was
two years older than Fitz Gerald. When
years after, Barton died, leaving his
daughter in the care Of the poet, Fitz
Gerald felt 1t his duty to marry her.
There could not have been a more i'll
assorted match; the woman was prim,
precise and conventional; the man a
Bohemian, a poet caring nothing for
law and order and putting the things
of the mind above everything else. His
wife wanted Fitz Gerald to dress for
dinner every night; to do the same
things at the same hour every day.
Matters went from bad to worse and in
six months they parted. He never saw
his wife again. A writer says In con-
nection with these two: Zone may be
solitary. 1t takes two to be lonely.
Solitude has it's charms. Loneliness is
unbearable.' This book of Mr.. Wright's
may not appeal to the reading world
at large, but it will be 4 fascinating
interest to those on - inside who
have long wanted tC KNOW more of the
man whose fame has been greater as
the years passed.
A book which has been making a stir
in Europe and which has been bought
up and destroyed in Germany, and re-
Gently appeared in an English dress
over here, from Frederick A. Stokes
company, is "A Little Garrison" bad
translation of the German title which
meant more than is here conveyed.
The trouble with this book, and the
cause of the disturbance it has
made. is that it is probably true.
and when it is known that it is an
expose of the great army of the great
est ruler in the universe, William of
Germany, it is sufficiently evident why
it has been barred from the realm Of
the kaiser. 1t is in the shape of nov
ell, but each character is q type of
something from which the rank and
file of the German army has to suffer.
immortality, injustice, usury, vanity.
fraud, drunkenness, vices of all kinds
are here depicted. A tremendous SEN
sation has been made by the appear
ance Of the book, and its author, Lieut..
BilSe, has been court-martialed and
dismissed from the army in disgrace,
but he has the satisfaction of knowing
that his book has done what he wrote
it for-exposed those high in authority
and shown that the army the emperor
- Il
world, is honeycombed by corruption.
The story is of German officers and
their wives, bad men and bad women
all intriguing for place and power,
while the men under them are suffering
untold things, from which there seems
to be no escape. But when fraud is
exposed to the light of day, if only for
a short time, some good has been done,
and in this case, though the book has
been suppressed, the German people
will never rest now until they either
verify its truth or discover it a SLAM
der. No one, however, even hints that
the book is a libel; had it been, so
much trouble would never have been
taken to destroy it. The book will
probably be merely signal for fur
Their investigation and publication.
A Preachers Story of His Work-By w.
look company, New York. For sale by
St. Paul Book and Stationery company
DR.. Rainsford's account of his life
and work, which appeared serially in
the Outlook, has now been gathered
into a good-sized book and a most
readable one. He writes straightfor-
ward story Of his life, in no self glori-
flying manner, rather does he give a
most modest account of the great work
he has done at st. Georges church,
New York, and one who knows what
he has accomplished there would have
excused him if he had taken more
credit than he does. DR.. Rainsford was
born in Dublin, in 1850, son of a clergy
man of that city and grandson, on his
mothers side. Of another clergyman.
When the writer was still a boy his
father was put over a London church.
where he attracted great crowds by his
forceful preaching. and through his
fathers desire young Rainsford de-