Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-21
LONDON LITERATURE
NOTES ON FOREIGN TOPICS OF
BOOK INTEREST.

special correspondence OF The Star
LONDON, April = 1907.
These is no accounting for dreams. and
DIR. Robertson Nicol, the erudte editor OF
the Bookman and the British Weekly. dis
creetiy leaves it to his readers to make
what comment they please on a dream
which he thus relates.
"on Tuesday night. March 10. | happened
to be reading about a prize competition in
the Westminster for the best lyric of the
twentieth century. II came to my mind
that If I. r. Aldrich had written any recent
lyrics he would stand a good chance OF
being named as the most success full. Then
| began to think OF my meetings with Al
drich in America. OF his comparatively adj
Nanced age, and particularly of a certain
poem he wrote anticipating his death. |
do not know how IT was. but the thought
pursued me. and next morning I woke to
find that | had been dreaming Of Aldrlch
dreaming in particular that his charming
wife showed me a little volum" in which
he had written:
To my wife, Lillian, after seventeen
happy years with her
Il thought, too. of the lyric" adds Or.
Nicoll. and then | opened my daily paper.
The first thing my eyes fell upon was AN
announcement Of Mr., Aldrich's death"
The lyric to which Or Nicoll refers is
called An Untimely Thought" and was
published in a volume, Flower and
Thorn, issued in 1878 1t begins
4 wonder what day Of the week
| wonder what day Of the year
VIII it be midnight morning
And who VIII bend my bier
The coincidence between the dream and
the death of the gifted American poet I5
certainly somewhat startling and doubtless
many will attribute ii to telcpathy. But
Or. NicOll is too much accustomed To the
impartial weighing OF evidence to make any
such claim on behalf Of his singular NOE
turnal vision.
The discovery OF az autograph letter
by Charles Dickens IN the Powy sand Mu-
scum. Welshpool. has directed attention 10
his ill-starred and long forgotten brother,
Office OF the ''IioUschOld Words"
Thursday, Fifth February. 1881.
Dear Frederick am sorry 10 be obliged
TO reply to you before. l cannot lend
you the $50. Firstly. because | cannot
trust you, and because your bad faith with
VIII and Austin makes the word lend
an absurdity. Secondly, because. il this
were otherwise, it would do you no real
good, and would not in the least save YOU
against creditors who have already power
OF taking you in execution.
AffeCtonately. c. II.
Frederick was once nearly drowned be-
fore the eyes of the novelist in the Bay or
Abaro, In September lsi4 He was then
bright young man of twenty -four, but Ee
lived to sorely disanpoint the expectations
entertained of him. That, despite the tenor
OF the authors letter. he did not forsake his
unstable and shiftleSs brother is well
known at Darlington, where Frederick
spent the last years of his life. and died
there in 1868 In letter to his biograp her.
John Forster. communicating the fact OF
his brothers death, Dickens wrote: lie
had been tended with the greatest care
and affection by some local friends. 1t
was a wasted life, hut God forbid that
any one should be hard upon it. or upon
anything in this world that is not DELHI
cratrlN and Colby
Sudbury, in Suffolk, has just decided that
1t is the veritable and original "Eatans-
Will of the great novelist which PiCkwick
visited for the purpose of witnessing the
tremendous conflict between the Hon. Sam
uel Slumkey and Horatio Fizkn. esquire.
1t has formed an EatanSwill club, with
the EatanswiIl Gazette as its official or
gan. The objects of the club to en-
courage fraternal disposition among its
members. to ''enliven our dull and prosaic
lives with Pickwickian humor' and to emu
late the immortal San in all kinds OF sport.
With such a laudable ambition 1t deserves
to succeed. In its aims II presents a re-
freshing contrast to most literary clubs
established ostensIbly to perpetuate the
fame of some great author. but which gen.
orally serve as an excuse for oycrfeeding
and garrulous pomposty.
The Academy. a literary journal which
has been running much to seed of late
years, mas again changed hands. Its
proprietor has placed il under the editorial
control of Lord Alfred Douglas, the brother
of the present Marquis of Queensberry.
Lord Alfred at one time acquired an UNI
enviable reputation through his association
with Oscar Wilde. but he has lived down
that unsavory episode in his career. He
is man of undoubted talent and has re-
Gently published a volume OF decidedly
clever but somewhat Rabeaisian verses
under the title of The Placid Pug and
Other Rhymes" The Academy has
great reputation for responsibility, but for
some years that responsibility has been
associated with dullness of the most I'M
compromising sort. There is no doubt that
Lord Alfred Douglas can make 1t lively,
but if he let's himself go he will make
havoc of It's responsibility.
Another literary landmark of London is
to be sacrificed to the march of modern
improvement. 1t is the old manor house
standing back from the road opposite
footing Junction, and surrounded by an
old-world garden, in which Daniel Defoe
wrote Robinson Crusoe." 1t affords q
striking commentary on the apathy of
Englishmen to places associated with
their shining lights Of literature that few
of them ever visited the Defoe residence,
while every summer brought many Amerl-
can tourists to its doors.
The house in the Boulevard Montmartra
in Paris where Rossinl lived for some time
anu " iele ne 'oHlpoSeu inc BARRIER 10
Seville" Is to be distinguished by a COM
memorative tablet. The Barber was
only a qualified success, and the story
goes that when Rossini left this house to
go and live at Passy some one told him
that he would be deafened from morning
to night by the whistlng (siffeU on tho
Ceinture railway. The composer answered
with the utmost nonchalance "A fter being
present at the first night OF the Barber
de Seville | stand any amount of
whistling." CHARLES OGDENS
Physical Degeneration.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.