The Washington herald., 1906-12-16
Howard.

snip, and a pleasant pastime fer the
evening hours. (New York: Doubleday.
Page & Coz
George Meredith. poet and philosopher.
who is. in the natural course Of events.
standing on the Threshold of the other
life. finds his views Of men and taings
softened with advancing years He has
lived much, known much, written much.
and IS wise with the wisdom OF many
years. In what he writes now there is 10
note Of skepucism or cynieism, but as
simply as a child. but with the fine
craftsmanship Of the true poet. he
speaks:
Could ind place 70 be alone With Heaven.
would SPEAK ny heart cut; hesven in ny need
Every woodland tree Is flushing Ike the d6gwood
Flashing Ike the whitebesm. swaying ike the reed
Flushing ike the dcgwoOd crimson IN October:
Streaming Ike the hag-reed southwest blorn
Flashing as n gusts the sldden-lightsd wbifsbesu
All seem to know whst is for heaven alone.
Before this. says G. n Trevalvn.
whose volume on The Poetry and Phi
losophy OF George Meredith" has ius+
been published. criticism drops lie
weapons. One can only be thankful that
50 great an inspiration has been clothed
in form 50 nearly perfect
a never-ending joy are the blunders
made by the literary translators. wh..b
seem TO grow worse with the Increasing
opportunity. Il may be years. OF course.
before any blunderer will come up TO the
standard Of that classic blundere- who
translated La Derniere Chemise de
i fArmouT" into Loves Last Shift bur
there are others pretty nearly as good.
There is for instance. that man who
wrote 'Frappe OF Mademoiselle' as a
translation Of the farce Hit or Miss.
and the other Frenchman. who an
nounced Barrie : book The Stickit MIN
lster as lie Ministre Assassin One
OF the best Of them all Is the Gallo rem
deTing OF the line from Goldsmith's De
serted village as ocean sweeps the Ia
Dored mole away as "Comme Ia rner de-
truit les travaux de Ia Iaupe.
II seems probable. such is the pres
ent-day worship Of Lsfcadio Heara. that
this writer's vogue will grow with the
coming years. As it is. there is a great
and growing interest in everything he
wrote. and while most Of his present
Gay fame Is based on his writings on
japanese subjects. his earlier works are
coming in for a good deal OF attention II
may well be that the man who onlv a
ie" years ago was begging any sort Of
an assignment from the city editor Of
cincinnati newspaper VIII eventually
oe accorded high rank in the world az
letters. The memoirs Of Hearn are be-
ing published by Houghton. Mif7in & Co
and this firm has prepared a special @ji-
ton Tor book lovers. in every volume. Of
| Whlcn there Is inserted one leaf iof
| HeaTns s delicateiy written manuscript
MS handwriting. though small vas very
beautiful. He was entirely blind in oDa
eye. and the other eve was SO weak that
when writing he bent over the sheet Of
paper SO close that he literally touched
II with his nose
A volume that has been published in
England, and whose appearance is await
ed with considerable interest or thfs
side OF the Atlantic. IS Sir Thomas Law
renees Letter-Bag The famous art
/ lists letters have been edited by 9.
sommes Layard. They cover the period
between the last quarter Of the eighteenth
and the first quarter Of the nineteenth
century, and they would indicate Sir
! Thomas large acquaintance with many
OF the more prominent people OF his
/ time. There are letters in the volume
/ 70 Sir Thomas Lawrence from Charles
Lamo, Sir Robert Peel. Sir Walter Scott,
Wellington Cowper. Thomas Campbell.
William Goodwin. Canova Lord Castle
reigh. the Countess Of Derby. LADY Caro-
line Lamb. the Duchess Of Devonshire.
Mrs. Jordan. the KembIes, Metternich.
| and other celebrities The book Is pub
lished in London BY Longmans, Green,
* Co, who will probably handle tie
| American edition.
II any one should doubt that the holl-
| days were coming on, he would doubt no
longer after learning what were the
most popular books taken out Of the
| Public Library these days. The demand
was most inSistent for the two OF the
| first fairy books edited by Andrew Lang.
the Pink and the Blue. The. two
most popular works Of fiction were Ralph
| Connor's. The Doctor, and FoEazzaro's
/ The Saint" The most popular two
| books OF nonfction were Bishop Pot
ter's "reminiscences Of Bishops and
| Archbishops.' and Elsie Parsons The
Family" II is probable that the ''popu-
larity' Of the LAST named arose through
| q apprehension in the public mind.
II is hard to say, Of course. what might
or might not have been. but there has
been much evidence adduced TO the ef-
fecr that the Prince Imperial. son Of Eu-
genie and Napoleon III, was a man Of
such sterling character that had he lived
he might have changed the destinies Of
the nation for which his famous ances-
ter won so much and such costly
glory II was with the greatest risgiv-
ingS that the British government al
lowed the young prince to take part in
the campaign against the Zulus. where be
was killed. and his death there caused
great sorrow The real story Of his death
has never been published. though il IS
known that he was surrounded by Zulus.
was deserted by a British soldier, who
should have died with him, and that he
fought bravely to the end Now comes
the autobiography OF Sir Evelyn Wood.
who tells how. in 1880 he escorted the
Empress Eugene 10 the scene Of her
sons death in South Africa. Here on the
spot Zulu. who had taken part in the
night told of it. Sir Evelyn Wood writes.
his account taken from the Zulus:
The patrol rested on the hn1 for a while and then
descended 10 SsobuZa's kTzzl. watched By the Zulu
scouts friendly native went up TO warn the Brit-
ish othcer IN command and the men at once
mounted their horses. The Zulus waited for this
and began firing and throwing their asseglis. IN
the words Ct LansaAbalele, the prince imperial
fought like lion
Continuing, an old Zulu said:
The prinos imperial fred two shots bat without
effect He drew bis sword from his scsbbaTd aud !
threw ssssssi az him, which struck him as 7
said at the time. but | always allowed Zabsngas
claim 70 have killed him. for his asssesi hit the
prince IN the shoulder. mortal wound. TIE prince
fought with ny Ssssgai. and we did not dare 20
Close with him until he sank down OF the gound.
facing MS, shen We rushed in.
The young Napoleon. in this fight. was
engaged with seven men and wounded
most of them.