Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-26
Special Correspondence.l J

ONDON, teD. lb.-AuStlU DoD-
son has been receiving warm
congratulations on the attain
mcnt of his SEVENTEEN birthday
A letter assuring him of the esteem
with which he Is regarded, not merely
by his many personal friends. but by
nm ever widening circle of readers" ac-
companies the gift Of a beautiful set OF
eighteenth century silver ware consist
ing of a rose bowl saIvcr. and two
pairs OF candlesticks from some of tho
loading writer's OF this country. Among
the signutories arc Rudyard Kipling.
G. T.. Shaw, Andrew Lang. Maurice
Hewlett. y. c. Benson, William Archer.
Bernard Partridge and Mrs. Humphry
Ward
The charm OF his writing Is reelected
in Mr.. Dobsons personality He IS
short thick-sct and a mass of grey
hair crowns his clean cut features. Gen
teness of youth not Of age. radiates
from him.
Yes. l am 10 today" he said when
interviewed In kls home at Ealing. "nDu
feeling we'll and strong. One has not
the creative force at 20. that is all. But
Ing the Board OF Trade In 1901 l made
literature my hobby. The difference Is
that whereas / used then to write be-
tween 10 and II at night. l now write
between 1G and IL In the morning.
In the afternoon | go out-sometimes
TO my club In town, sometimes for
walk After dinner at home I spend the
later hours in reading. I read up tho
subjects with which l happen to be
dealing. / am engaged now In writing
essays dealing with my favorite eigh-
tcenth century topics or personalities
In these last few weeks 1 have also
written a rondeau which is to be pub
lished shortly. The idea of 1t is that 1t
g too late; l am no longer able to do
what a younger man might do
ALSO WRITES PROSE.
Verse represents only part of Dob
sons output, though. as he says, 1t Is
idle ever to expect the world to realize
this
The public are always intolerant to-
wards versatility. and. apparently, have
ticketed me off as poet. and poet
must remain; but have tried very hard
to write prose- and / am always more
pleased when 1 write a successful piece
OF prose than verse, though poetry
comes easier to me-
Dobson's best known works of prose
are his lives of Fielding, Steele and
Goldsmith
When asked how the eighteenth CEN
tury camo to attract him so strongly.
he said that 1t came about from his
study of Thackeray and also from his
Interest in Hogarth. Then he looked
into the period further. partly from the
notion that In these days 1t was neces-
aat IL, ,iro
eventually his name became indissolu-
bly, associated with the age. Yet. as
he whmslcally declares, II have some
times wondered II have done right In
painting that century so pleasantly
and suppressing so much that was
Vile"
FORGOTTEN METAL FOUND
AGAIN.
Orlchalcum, an alloy known to the
Greeks forgotten for centuries. re-
vived. and lost again, has been recently
redlscovered by means OF a poem. Att
er reading about the metal under the
name of latoun in one OF Swinburne's
Songs OF Sunrise" the professional
zeal of Bond street goldsmith was
aroused. and he traced It's history with
Il view to reproducing IL.
Once he had found that orichNlcum
and latoun were the same thing. he had
little difficulty In discovering more of
its history. Plato, he found. while oft
EN- mentioning 1t. stated definitely that
the metal was no longer to be had In
his time.
1t appeared again In the fourteenth
In England for Chaucer men
tions 1t by the name of latoun. and
later. Spenser speaks of costly ori-
After learning everything possible
from literature this goldsmith set to
work to find out the composition by
experiment. BY mixing zinc and cop
Der In Just such a proportion as to
avoid being brass he obtained orichal-
cum which presents an appearance
resembling gold,
AWARDED NOBEL PRIZE.
Selma Lagerlof who has just been
awarded the Nobel prize for literature
IS the author of COSTA Behring'S Saga"
the most popular novel ever written In
Sweden. Since 1891. when 1t first ap-
oeared. some 10000 copies have been
sold this means much in a land OF
only 100000 Inhabitants. Miss
Lagerlof was an unknown school |
teacher when it appeared, she Is now
the most famous woman In Scandi- |
navia.
One of her first recollections was a
longing to be an authorcss. At % 1t
become necessary for her to earn
living and she went to Stockholm to
study for teaching Attending Il lee
ture there. she heard that the greatest
authors had succeeded best in describ
ing what they had seen In their own
homes. On her way through the
streets it occurred to her to write Of
ler "Vermland," portion of her re-
sulting manuscript she sent to magn-
zine: 1t was rejected.
'sIts all out of KEY with the times"
,aid the editor. I'VE want realism |
md this IS romantic nonsense"
In 1890 n Swedish magazine offered |