The San Francisco call., 1905-03-16
SHAKESPEARE'S
NAME AN ASSET
1t Is Worth Fifty Thousand
Dollars a Year to His Old
Home, Stratford- -on-Ayon
NEW FRENCH MAGAZINE
Will Be Remodeled on Amer
lean Lines and Seek to Oc-
cupy Untitled Field in Paris
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LONDON, March 15.-Apropos or
the plan to set UP a Shakespeare me-
mortal in London, It has just been re-
vealed what the bard's memory s
worth in dollars and cents to the town
of Stratford-on-Avon. 1t seems that
the people from all parts of the world
who visit this literary shrine every
year total 10000 and leave behind
them a trifle over $4,000. The cash
value" of Shakespeares house last
year, when 26,510 persons visited II
at sixpence each, was $3.50; and
S2165 was paid at the museum, $3.50
at the memorial, s1310 at Anne Hath
away's cottage, and s2875 at Trinity
Church. Thus in fees alone Stratford
receives over $4,000 year from
Shakespeare pilgrims.
This week the scheme to found a
great Shakespeare house in London
is denounced in letters to the Times
by such prominent literary men as }.
M Barrie, Edmund Gosse, Maurice
Hewlett, Lord Lytton and Pinero, who
declare that such a building as is
proposed, consisting of museum, il
brary and lecture hall. would be SUI
perfiuouS and even embarrassing. All
the authentic and interesting relics OF
Shakespeare" assert these writer's.
ARE already assembled at Stratford-
on-Avon, and any museum which
could be formed in London would be
a rubbish heap of trivialities.'
1t is true that Stratford has nearly
all the genuine relics of Shakespeare,
but there are some oddly interesting
things carefully preserved in private
collections. DIR. Furnivall has pair
of buff gauntlets, embroidered in gold,
which were once worn by the poet
and in the possession of an old Eng
lish family is a carved oak tinder box
which belonged to Anne Hathaway.
In a country house in Warwickshire.
too, there is a small cupboard made
of oak said to be by the same hand
that wrote King Lear" On 1t are
the words: 1856, June. l bought It,
/ sawed it. May, 1885. l nailed it.
1 carved it. VIM. Shakespeare
Gabrielle d'Annunzio's next publica-
ton will be a collection of his political
articles and speeches. 1t will be pre-
ceded by a preface in which the now
elist will set forth his ideas on the
functions of Italy in the political
world. A good many of these speeches
by D'Annunzio were delivered dur
ing the short time that he was men,
Der for Pescara in the Italian Cham
Der of Deputies.
WILDE,S LAST BOOK.
Wherever authors have met in Lon
don hardly anything has been talked
of during the last week but Oscar
Wilde's DE Profundis.' The general
feeling seems to be that Wilde's new
found humility was sincere, but that
he was unable to shake off the poseur
in giving 1t expression. In reviewing
DE Profundis' in the Telegraph the
other day. w. L. Courtney asked
whether the book was in any sense
edited and why there was so much
delay in giving 1t to the world. To
these questions Robert Ross, who re-
ceived the manuscript from its au-
thor, replies that it was sent from
Reading Jail couple of months be-
fore Wilde's release and that he edit
ed it after it came into his hands. The
complete document consists of $1,000
words. He used his discretion in
Withholding certain parts and also
gave the work its title. Ross says 1t
was his first intention not to issue the
work for several years to come, but
repeated applications from America
and Germany led him to change his
mind.
Regarding Oscar Wilde after his re-
lease, there are articles this week in
two of the Paris reviews. One is by
Joseph Renaud who writes from per-
sonal experience and draws a dis
agreeable picture.
Incapable of writing a line" he
says, with atrophied brain, Wilde
had only as listeners men who haunt
ed the restaurants and stood him
drinks. There only remained to him
his musical voice and his large, blue,
childish eyes,
Ernest La Jeunesse also describes
how this piteous wreck asked of the
sea, of Paris, of Naples a new era of
fables and dramas and asked in vain.
Several young writer's pressed round
him with their sympathy. and encour-.
agement He was offered the chance
of a weekly article in a Partisan jour-
nal, but refused it; Fernand Xau made
him this offer. Then came the sor-
did tragedy Of his death, awful in it's
squalor, it's loneliness and its ugli-
ness"
MRS. GLYN'S LATEST.
"Elinor Glyn,' who wrote The Wis
its of Elizabeth came UP to London
a day or two ago to get copies and
read notices of her latest book THE
Vicissitudes of Evangeline," which is
just being published. AS usual she
has supplied her publishers with a
long list of people to whom she wishes
presentation copies" sent. A good
many of these folk are titled. Few
English authors possess more intimate
friends in fashionable society than
Mrs. Glyn. She was recently the
guest of James Van Allen at Rushton
Hall. where the American millionaire
sought her advice on many points In
connection with the redecoration of
his new country house, Mrs. Glyn's
taste in such matters being exception
al. For the last few weeks, however,
the author of Elizabeth" has been at
her home, Sheering Hall. in Essex,
where the work of getting her new
book ready for publication has kept
her uncommonly busy. Mrs. Glyn
says her literary plans are unsettled
and that she has no idea when she
will begin on another book.
NEW PARIS PERIODICAL.
For the first time, a magazine con-
Quoted on American lines is to be
launched in Paris, under the title of
"Je Sais Tout know everything y
Hitherto. France has had in the way Of
magazine literature only such serious
reviews as the Revue des Deux
Mondes," the Revue de Paris,' the
Revue formerly known as the RE-
yue des Revues," appearing monthly or