The sun., 1909-05-26

town, and he ca me there to visit his
aunt, a sister Of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe.
Although he came from Italy he dressed
as an English lad. with high hat, Eton
jacket, wide collar and long trousers,
You can imagine the sensation he made
in that quiet New Jersey town. From
those days. which were filled with youth
ful escapades, did not see Frank Craw-
ford, as he was then called. until he was
a full grown man and had knocked about
the world a bit. His uncle. the well
known Sam Ward, brought him to the
Office of the Critic. This lad wants to be
writer, said his Uncle Sam. l wish
that you would give him chance to learn
the business We gave him the chance.
not only for old times sake but because
we liked his looks. He wrote
book reviews. editorials and even poetry;
and after that he wrote Mr.. Isaacs.
You know the rest. He won out and we
knew that though we ha d given him the
chance he wanted at he time that he
wanted it, he would have found it quick
enough anywhere else
MIR. Alonzo Barton Hepburn in his
article on The American Business Man
in the June Century says: "Our business
men ought to break away from trade
exactions long before they do-ought to
do 90 as a matter Of volition and ethical
judgment rather than Of physical neces-
sity. They ought to get and give more
enjoyment in life; they ought to do less
for self and more for others; they ought
to live more in books and more in the open
and less at their desks and realize better
health and longer lives as a result. More
and more culture in all it's forms is exer'
cising a growing influence which must
manifest itself in lessened effort along
the lines Of money getting and the devo-
ton Of more time on the part of on r
business men to the pursuits which natu-
rally accompany fortified leisure. Aris-
totle said, The end of labor is to gain
leisure. and Aristotle was wise man.
The old lady " no nursed Walt Whitman
through his last illness up TO within a
short time before his death has written for
the June Putndms her recollections Of
her famous patient. She paints a realistic
picture Of the old man and his rather
saualid surroundings. There were no
bookcases. large shelves or writing desk
in his room. The floor received most OF
his newspapers and magazines and most
of those which had been read during two
years were piled, about yellow with age
and soiled with the tramping Of feet As
Whitman never bought any stationery
he utilized wrapping paper, old letters
and envelopes for the writing of his poems
over and over, afterward tearing them to
pieces and scattering them with the rest
of the litter. The tables stood like
cows in a meadow with the grass up 10
their bodies, and the legs Of the bed also
were buried out OF sight,
Justin Mccarthy, the author Of A
Short History Of Our Own Times. recently y
revised 10 cover the late Victorian era,
writes his opinion of the Carlyle love
letters in the current Forinightly Roreu.
Mr. Mccarthy refuses 10 believe that the
author and Jane Welsh irritated each
other TO the point Of frequent disputes.
Each, it seems to me-" he says, thor
oughly understood the other. Each knew
that both alike were endowed with some
thing Of what might he described as in
tellectual as well as argumentative vehe-
mence and were inclined to maintain
any opinion with something like an out
cry Of assertion. Both too felt an evil
dent enjoyment in this occasional combat
and il would have pleased Carlyle Just
as little to see Jane Welsh becoming his
merely submissive and self-prostrating
pupil as it would have gratfied her TO see
him becoming her obedent humble SER
want"
John Ford Rhodes. the historian. has
written an appreciation Of Gibbon, the
author OF The Decline and Fall He
pictures him as the greatest modern his
torian." and calls the account OF Gibbons s
conception OF his history and the twenty
years which he devoted to it one of the
romances OF literature. Although the
idea was conceived when Gibbon was
27. he was 81 before ne set himself seri
ously at work to study his material
He was 30 when the first quarto volume
was published. The history had an i'm
mediate suocess. My book" he wrote,
was on every table and almost on every
tOllelW, tne historian was crowned Dy
the taste or fashion Of the day" The
last sentence OF the work written many
years later Mt Lausanne Ia: 1T was among
tho ruins Of the Capitol that first con
ceved the idea OF work which has amused
and exercised near twenty years Of my
life and which however inadequate
to my own wishes finally deliver 10 the
curiosity and candor Of the public
Prof. Wilbur l.. Cross. having had
Access to many letters and documents
whose existence was unknown to previous
historians, has been able to present many
interesting autobiogr aphicai details in
his book published this week under the
title Of The Life and Times Of Laurence
sterne- Following Sternes career in
Prof. Cross's pa ges the whole OF eighteenth
century England is revealed. The quarrel
some and rather unpopular parson, the
friend Of Hall Stevenson and an associate
Of his -demoniacs,- the pot OF the great
worlds Of London and Paris, the hero
Of various sentimental adventures, the
fugitive from III health rushing hero and
there on the Continent-all these varied
aspects OF the man attest as many sides
Of the timea In which he lived. An i'm.