The San Francisco call., 1905-08-13
MRS. John LANE
HAS PRETTY WIT
American Wife of English
Publisher Adds to Gayety
of British Metropolis
DISCUSSES EYEGLASSES
Wonders Why Even Realistic
Writers Never Put Spec
tacles on Their HerOines
Special Dispatch to Tn. Call

Special Dispatch to The Call
LONDON, Aug. 12.-Every now and
then the gayety OF the metropolis is
augmented by Apostle suggestions or
queries by Mrs. John Lane. A really
pretty wit is possessed by this Ameri-
can wife Of an English publisher and
her dissertations on domestic and other
problems In the pages Of the Fort
nightly" and kindred reviews are In
variably stimulating. Mrs. Lane, who
10 a Boston woman, has now called at
tention to the significant fact that even
the greatest realists have not ventured
to bestow eyeglasses on their heroines,
and asks why, in literature. glasses are
incompatible with romance with
woman while they never damage
man? "The hero's eyeglasses may
grow dim with emotion" observes Mrs.
Lane. "but If the heroine weeps behind
her glasses, she is lost" The fair writ
er does not attempt to explain the mys-
terry, but winds UP by declaring that
the place Of female spectacles in ro-
nance Is that of the famous blue ones
in East Lynne"-to disguise the hero
inc.
Some little regret has been expressed
over the decision of the London author
tiles to make way with the ancient obe-
lisk at the end of Blackfriars Road.
It Is to be replaced by big clock. The
obelisk may be described as literary
relic, for it was erected to commemor-
ate Crosby's battle with Parliament
which ended with permission being CIV
en- to the press to publish the debates.
DR.. Johnson often drove past the
obelisk on his way down to Streatham.
and in 1875 Mrs. Thrale wrote to him
I'VE have had a great thunderstorm.
It has even split the obelisk in the
Blackfriars Road; no exaggeratlon In
this; you may see the crack when you
come home"
All lovers of Goethe will be inter-
ested in g. volume of conversations be-
tween the poet and the French savant.
Frederick Soret which Is about to be
translated into English. The conver-
sations, which have never before been
made public, have been collected by DR..
Hugo, the director of the Weimar State
Archives. and have just appeared in
print in the fatherland. The volume
will consist Of some hundred and sixty
eight special talks between these two
remarkable personalities.
Apropos Of the admitted need for
genuine sympathetic life of George Bor-
row, new story of the author of La
vengro" has just found it's way into
print. When he set out for Russia Bor-
rows sole funds consisted of a five
pound note, change for which into gold
his mother procured for him at his re-
quest. Writing to her from st. Peters
burg, Borrow urged her to be more
careful IN the future as one Of the five
sovereigns which she had given him
proved to be bad. However" added
this strangest of missionaries, thank
the Lord, I succeeded in passing it in
London"
The famous Greek towns that claimed
Homer dead" were only slightly more
numerous than the houses in Paris that
claim Hugo during some portion of his
career The author of Les MiserabIes"
began his married life in winding little
Slum dwelling. Later he lived In the
Place des Vosges. And this week upon
the festival of st. Victor, Hugo's name
day, quite number Of youthful enthu-
siasts went in procession to a house in
the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne, where
he lived at the moment Of his Danish
ment Of the second republic. In apart
ments on the first floor overlooking a
courtyard Hugo had his residence for
year. The concierge who served the
great novelist is still at his post hale
and hearty and full of "reminiscences,
while the house contains a lodger who
lived there in Hugo's day. The authors
youthful admirers placed a small bust of
him in the courtyard.
The last home of Victor Hugo in Paris
will be commemorated by means of a
memorial tablet, which will be affixed to
the mammoth apartment building soon to
be erected on its site. This small, two
storied house is now being demolished,
and in another fortnight or so will have
disappeared altogether. Standing in what
was formerly the Avenue dEylau and is
now the Avenue Victor Hugo, the little
fraQ-hOwAr0d hQ
tions with the great novelist's declining
years. Here 1t was that in January, 1882,
all Paris gathered to honor the poets
eightieth birthday. On the same day all
the children of the Paris schools marched
past Hugos window singing his songs
and throwing wreaths of flowers as they
passed on to a pile, which before all the
children had gone by reached to the win
dow sill, above which the writer's white
bearded face smiled down his thanks.
He left the house for the last time in
his coffin. All who bore names In Frances
literature, arts, sciences and music fol-
lowed the casket ten or more wagon
loads OF flowers followed and hand-in-
hand behind the flower laden wagons
walked Jeanne and Georges Hugo, the
descendants for whom Victor wrote his
famous book on the "Art Of Being Grand
father" The furniture which his house
contained has been placed in the Hugo
Museum In the Place des Vosges.
1t is when Irishmen are enraged that
they are most prolific of bulls. The out
burst OF wrath occasioned by the pro-
posed redistribution bill, which would
considerably reduce the number Of rep
resentatives of the Emerald Isle at West
minister, has produced some gems. The
following extract from a leading article
in tho Galway Western News contains
more Of them than I can remember ever
having seen before packed In such small
space: Being the weaker England has
planted her heel on the throat of Ireland
for a century and robbed US without pity
or remoree. To rob man of his purse
and then maltreat him for not having IL
would pass muster among pitiless brutal
crimes, but to kill and slay man to the
point of death and then murder him for
not dying quick enough Is one point bet
ter in the catalogue Of human infamy.
It is enough to make Irishmen set their
teeth and talk silently in groups" How
ever, the redistribution bill stands small
chance of being passed. and humor will
be a sufferer thereby.