New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-15
OLE Nesna;pork gribata1es
SUNDAY. MAY Is, 1910.


Inks the names of Stevenson and the E'tricA
sbonberd It apDears that in 1924 Hogg pub
Iisbci ANONYMOUSLY book long since forSotteh'
confessions of Justified Sinner. lime
rolled on and in 1886 the Longmans, VINO hau
printed Hogs book, brought out Ut. Jehy..
and Mr. HYDE" The writer in Tine Academy
has not the faintest thought of accusing Ste'eh-
son of plagiarism, but he points OUT tha1 'iie
two hooks in question resemble each other 81
closely that they form an intensely euiiou'
literary coincidence. He says:
Both books treat of double personality, Inc Inc
machinery used by Hogg is demon ana .iie
impossibilities he imagnes are ciumsly 90.
The machinery used by Stevenson Is orus'
and the impossbities he iinaslnes are st. ~ ~
bic usual neatness Both books begin with a
preliminary narrative of the events uesoiioeN
as witnessed by bystanders, and botn pouhs t Son
cIude with the written confessions OF TIE Hei
Mo had caused the events Both books ten
p story Of sin including murder ana SulC it
and in both books the EVIL personals ~ coo
GtrGng dislike in all honest peopio "0
Inn
Among the extracts cited in ''The Acad-
en,y" are two which establish fairly starting
DaraIlel between one Of the murders III hoss
book and one Of those In SteVenSohs- Inc
latter has recorded that the idea Of "Dr JekyH
and Mr. Hyde" came to him in dream one
may confidently acquit him OF plagiarism anu
still speculate as to whether he may not have
utterly forgotten it, UNTIL in slumber. an Old
memory was revived and he proceeded to use
If in absolute innocence of its origin.
It is said that George Meredith was once
heard to declare that "Beauchamps Career"
vas his favorite among his own novels Partly,
perhaps this may have been due to the fact
that Neyil Beauchamp was, in truth, the
authors friend, Admiral Maxse, friend held
by him in peculiarly warm affection Apropos
Of Meredith, it is worth while to refer to
recent after-dinner speech by Mr.. Henry Arthur
Jones' That experienced maker Of plays de-
clared that the one quality which had distin-
guished all the great permanent dramatsts was
the quality of common sense and large sanity.
1t was, he said pre-eminently the distinguish
ing characteristic of Molere. Going on to refer
to the comedy by Meredith which had not long
before been presented in London, he remarked
that it was written in chiselled and jewclled
English and that connoisseurs in style had
been ravished by it; they felt that they had
never heard such English On the modern stage.
But, added Mr.. Jones, the great general public
went further ard said very emphatcally that
they never wished to hear such play again.
The fact was, he declared that it was not a
play at ALL Meredith, though he had written
on Moliere in essay that was born classic,
had forgotten of the French masters
habits which was, before submitting his plays
TO the public, to read them always to his house
keeper. Readers Of Meredith will accept these
observations and still decline to be at all wor-
ried by them. So long as they may have their
authors comedy in a book they will not trouble
themselves to whether or not it makes its
way upon the stage. His fame is secure enough
to need no aid from the theatre.
Among the speakers recently occupied in vel
coming Commander Peary to London was
Conan Doyle He had some amusing things to
say on the grievance held by himself and other
writer's of fiction against the explorers who
are always encroaching the domain of ro-
nance. There was time in which the world
was full of blank spaces, in which ina gination
had free scope, but owing to the iIl-directed
energy Of Commander Peary and other gentle
men of the same sort these spaces were rapidly
disappearing. In his younger days there used
to be Tibet. When they wanted to place q |
mysterious old person who could foretell the
future it was a most useful spot, but in the
last few years commonplace British army had
passed through it, and now would as soon
think of placing his occult oracle at PiccadilIy |