Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-21

CARLYLE Byron and an hundred others
whose houses are still to be seen. But
would Dickens have maintained his abode
| in the Marylebone road had the notorious
arisen in his day to turn that neighbor-
hood into pandemonium. and would
Byron have fingered on in st. James street,
Piccadilly had one of the longest and nois-
| lest cab-ranks in London then occupied
| that thoroughfars? 1t is unlikely. No, the
change Is quite evidently in the metropolis
itself and not In what is known as the lit
erary temperament.
~
Norris R. Cohen. Ph.D.. Of Harvard Uni
| versity, q disciple Of Thomas Davidson. the
| wandering scholar. is In this country col
/ lectlng material for Life and Letters
| Of his master. He has visited the Aber-
deenshire district. In which Davidson's
youth was passed, and received consider
able information from Mr.. Wilson, the old
parish schoolmaster. while DR.. Alexander
Whyte OF Edinburg. Lieut.. Col. Sir George
King. Emeritus Professor ]. G. McKen-
drick-all old friends OF the wandering
scholar-have exhibited their interest n the
prospective life. Prof. Blackwell. Thomas
Davidson's literary executor. has placed all
manuscripts and letters in the hands OF Mr..
Cohen.
Lichneld, Dr. Johnson's native town, re-
Gently celebrated the great photographers
birthday in fine style. Apropos Of this,
literary critic has been throwing cold wa
ter on the local enthus asts by asserting
that such a commemoration would have
been distasteful to the object of it. Short
of interviewing Dr. Johnson's ghost, there
Is no means OF ascertain.ng wat vew ne
would now take of 1t. He may have
) changed a great deal In the more than hun
dred years that have elapsed since his
death. But II he Is anything like the man
he was when alive there is good ground
for thinking he would have regarded with
unalloyed delight the spectacle of the
mayor and sherins and all the other
worthless OF Lichield turning out to honor
his memory. Modesty was never one OF his
weaknesses. Boswell worshined him after
a fashion that appeared ludicrous to most
of those who witnessed It, but Johnson
himself hugely enjoyed 1t. On one occa-
sion he wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds from
Lichfeld. expressing satisfaction that lot
OF people had seens~and admired Sir
Joshua's portrait of him. Every man." he
added. has a lurking desire to appear con-
siderable in his native place" That would
appear to settle It, Lichfield can get up
show In DR.. Johnsons honor as often as
It pleases without any misgiv ang as to
what the doctor himself would think of IL
Or. johnson was wont to silence all who
INQUIRED of his ancestry by declaring that
1t was of no account. But that was prob
ably because he did not know so much
about his forebears as is known nowadays,
thanks to Allen Lyell Reade's exhaustive
researches. They make 1t clear that back
of him was some very good stock. One
lord mayor of London sheriff of that city
and sundry prosperous people Of consider
able standing were genealogically con-
nected with him. But his family had
fallen on evil days when he came into this
world and those of his kindred whom he
knew best were not the sort of folk to re-
fleet any credit on him.
CHARLES oGDENs.