The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-04-07

The last Of an immortal choir,
Who crowned AmeTica with song,
He, whom the gods 70 verse inspire
lie cannot die for long
No Severance Of life from flesh.
has poEer TO XIII the mind.
No such spirit. fair and fresh.
Could leave 10 love behind.
Mortality alone TO dust returns
That which love EARTH more than It's form,
Lises after us and
Immortal peace that follows on the Storm
Not % fargetfulness is that consigned
Nhich stiA records the beauties Of the mind.
o master Of the ieWeled muse!
Creator OF mdyiHg art
Into our souls. from heaven infuse
Some truths. some thoughts that shall not part
Let fall the mantle aud the hays
That crown your brOE-on some young head
Some votary who with feror pgays
And wake the living from the dead
March .. 1917.
No death in the world of letters has
called forth such a nked of comment as
the recent death of that fine poet. Thorn
as Bailey Aldrich. Nearly every one who
has written of his death has quoted the
words OF Edmund Clarence Stedman. who
called him THE most exquisite OF our lit
erary craftsmen" and it is a fact that of
all our poets, Mr. Aldrich gives the
impression of best expressing himself.
He owed. that IS. less than others to
what he read-more than others to the
gift within himself He was born IN
Portsmouth. n H, November L. 1896.
lie was to have been educated at Har-
ward. but his fathers death left him i'll
provided for. and he went TO the count
fng-room instead. But even while book
keeping. be was writing. and he con-
tributed to Putnam's Monthly and to the
8nickerbocker Magazine, and soon be-
came a reader for a publishing house
In 1855 be published "The Bells: A Col
lection or Chimes" and in 1856 THE
Ballad of Baby Bell and Other Poems"
Afterward he was employed on the New
York Mirror, \. P. Willis Home Jour
nal. and other periodicals, and was a
contributor 10 many other publications,
notably the Atlantic Monthly. He sue
ceeded Mr.. HoWells as editor Of the At
lantic in 1881. lie closed his work In 1890
II has been said that under the editorship
of Mr.. Aldrich, the Atlantic won its in
ternatlonal reputation of being the best
edited magazine in the English language
o.
but he never succeeded, and his most
dire failure-the one that grieved him
mosL-was his Judith of Bethu-I
lia,' which failure he attributed almost
wholly to a conspiracy between the the
atrical syndicate and the dramatic critics
OF New York
lie was a writer OF enormous vitality
of wide range OF catholic outlook, His
style was refined he cultivated distinc-
ton, and held aioof from publicity with
assIduous care. Perhaps the best-known
the most popular of his poems was The
Ballad of Baby Bel" exquisite in its
simplicity and freshness. Here IS the last
stanZa of il:
At ast he came the messenger.
The messenger from unseen lands;
And what did dainty Baby Belle
She Cnly crossed her little hands
Size only looked more meek and fair
We parted back her sken hair,
We we've the roses round her brow
White buds, the summers dTifted snow
WuDt her from head % foot in flowers.
Ana thUs went dainty Baby Bel
out Of this world Of ours.
In ali he wrote. the qualities of ideal
ism are most marked. The stern realism
OF his predecessors in literature-LOweI
and LOngfollow and the other New Eng
landers-had no appeal 10 him. 1t has
been said of him that he was a combi-
nation of Lafcadio Hearn and Lowell
In his death The world has lost a great
poet; America one of its most distinguish
ed men of letters.
A new book by Mrs. Wharton has been
for some years an event IN the world OF
letters on this side of the Atlantic. but
now With the House Of AIirth" she has
become so well known OF the other side
Of the ocean that her books are impress
sively reviewed both in the French and
English periodicals and reviews In a
recent number Of the Revue des Deux
Mondes appeared long and elaborate ar
ticle by tn. Benton (AIadame Blanc) on
the House OF 1fiTth'' which also discuss
ed Madame de Treymes" and said of it:
''rhe authors fellow-countryme can feel
(after reading Madame de TTeymesfD
that Mrs. Wharton has only one object,
10 fay the degeneracy of the upper class
es in every country of the world. She
can write nothing which Is not unusual
and distinguished, but here, beside de-
hghtful descriptions Of Paris and keen
comparisons of national characteristics
there are also unexpected disclosures. We
see, among osher things, how the Ameri-
cans are exploited among us not only by
vite them 20 all their charity sales, and
Yer for all that never open the doors Of
their salons to them"
Get leave 70 work
IN this wOrld-'tis the best you get at all:
Ter G0d in oursing gives Us better gifts
Than men In benedicti0u. God says sweat
Tor foreheads-gnen say crowns-and 50 we are
Gashed By some tdmenting circle Of steel
Whie. snaps with a secret spring. Get work
Get work!
Mrs Browning.
So successful have been the pocket edi-
tons Of Honore de Balzac's works In thir-
" volumes that the publishers. Little
Brown & Co. Boston. are about to issue
pocket editions OF the masterpieces OF
Alexandra Dumas and Victor Hugo. These
very desirable sets include the most IA
nous works OF these two great authors,
printed upon light. Thin opaque paper Of
superior quality and attractively b0un
in both cloth and limp leather. The
translations arc faithful and unabridged,
the type is clear and beautiful, each vol
uTne contains a phOtOgravure or etched
frontispiece. and two haIf-tono plates.
A newly discovered autobiography of
Victor Huso-'A Post-Seriptum TO Ny
Life''-Win soon be published by Funk &
Wagnalls Company, in a translation by
Lorenzo O'Rourke. A considerable por-
ton of it was written during Hugo's ex-
lie at Guernsey.
Prince Kropotkin's ''The Conquest Of
Bread" win appear shortly ia translation
under the imprint of G. P. Putnam's Sons.