Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-10-03
ia MARY ANGELA DICKENS.
Dick slowed: :

/ have beef, a gentle model of all the
virtues, and had she lived he might
have been a different man: she dled
however. leaving him with Two young
sons. Z The cldef+a and more promising
of these two boys did not live to grow
up, and in Soane's relations With ms
Younger son---Hho made a sad failure
Of life-4we have a 5pitiful revelation OF
character. 1t Is a revelation which the
father himself has forced upon us ana
forced upon us in manner typical OF
the mans vanity and egotism. He LETT
at his death three boxes of papers to
be opened at certain stated Intervals,
Much curiosity was rife and many
We're the speculations as to the prooaDls'
contents of these boxes The first two
contained nothing but private papers
Of the most trivial character But the
third box when it was opened proved
to contain all the details Of his long
quarrel with his e'cr-do-weel son--5 de-
tails which should long ago have passed
into the realm OF things forgotten and
forgiven.
CANKERED WITH BITTERNESS
The life OF the successful bricklayer's
son. therefore, in its domestic aspect
was q life cankered With bitterness and
disappointment Such n life is not the
less but the more ptifui when its bit
$terness and its disappointmentsa arc the
result OF character and not of circuin-
stance A lonely old age Is not the
less hut the more sad when It's lnneli-
ness is created by vanity, selfshness
and petty spite. The house on the North
side of Lincolns Inn Fields has Wit
messed tragedies not the less genuine
for the touch of sordidnesa which per-,
vades them, and ii gives only anotner
interest to Sir John Soane's collection
that it hears throughout the impress Of
a personality singularly and even pitt
fully human.
ROOMS. WITH HISTORIES.
1t is the personal note that sounds
first of all for the imaginative man
who steps across the threshold of No.
Ia I.ncoln's Inn Fields bearing Sir
John Soane's story in his mind. AL
most all the mans work has passed
away Most of the great buildings
which he designed and which he saw
in his minds eye standing till London
itself should be a ruin have disap-
peared or have been altered almost out
of recognition in the course of swiftly
passing years. For all the embodi-5
lnent of his intellect that remains, Sir
John Soane, little as he would have be-
.lieved such a thing possible. might
never have existed. And here. never
theless, still standing Where 50 much
has gone, are his living rooms exactly
as he left them. Here In the han his
sons unhappy wife sat waiting. hour
after hour. for an interview with her
.father-in-law of which he has left us
the painful record. The rooms beyond
must have seen many and many q ter
.ribe meeting Between the father and
son One of them must have wit
messed the packing of those pitifulS
boxes
OF the growth of Sir John Soane's
record, but it is easy TO balieve that
1T must have come in time to take that
which should have been filed by his
children and His cllildren's children
And the impulse which prompted him
to leave the greater part of his for
tune ito his treasures as 1t were--to
leave it for their maintenance and to
preserve them Sinviolate--is one which
need not be ascribed wholly To vanity
though vanity no doubt had its part
III 1T.
Z In the year 1885 he obtained an act
of parliament which .settIed and pre-
served, his tMuseutn, library and
works OF art. And his object In doing 4
so, on his own showing. was the bene-
fitting of future generations of students
in painting, sculpture and architecture
Such students would have benefited
more easily had he willed his cotlec-
ton where It would have been more
widely visited and more generally use
full Theirs is not the gratitude he has
earned. 1t is the iInaginative amateur
who is genuinely Indebted to him. To
such dilettanti the most superb treas 4