New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-06-15
ON PLUMBERS
MIR. Andrew Lang on One of the
Trials of Life.

From Inc Illustrated LONDON News.
Lord Byron, in his domesic misfort-
unes told the world and his wife that
his household gods lay in ruins around
him. The same calamity has befallen
him who pens these few melancholy
lines, and, like Lord Dorset in his song
First would have you understand
How hard it is to write.
II began with a strange. low and not
unmuSical humming sound which haunt
ed the house. In earlier days this noise
would have been deemed ominous of
misfortune. and the mystery would have
found its way into ballads like that on
the Drummer of Tedworth:
The chamber floors did rise and fall,
With never a board diSjointed
The omen has been punctually fulfilled,
but in place of invoking the aid of the
parson of the parish, or some other dis
Greet and learned person to wrestle with
the evil, modern science called in the
plumbers. That conscientious squad
has pulled my dwelling place to pieces,
perforated the walls, and caused me to
sit, like Lord Byron or Marius, among
the ruins. Like the poet Southey:
Around me L behold,
Where'er these casual eyes are cast,
The mighty minds of old,
no longer arrayed on bookshelves, but
piled in disorderly heaps of books upon
the floors, tiny Elzevirs mixed up with
elephant foltos-" My mind is as mixed
up my poets and philosophers, his
torians and folklorists-or as the mind
of a little girl whose essay on Joan of
Arc l have just been reading. She
caused George VII to be crowned at
Rheims says the fair historian. An
other says that Queen Elizabeth would
not allow Queen Mary to go to Scotland
from France through England, so she
was obliged to go by boat" Aeroplanes
not being then invented, no other course,
it is clear, was open to her majesty
The Life and Times of Mrs Sher-
wood has just been published, edited by
Mr.. Harvey Denton, and is reviewed in
the "Athenaum." Mrs. Sherwood lis
now either totally forgotten or remem-
bered only as writer OF children's
stories," which must be deprived of
their most striking characteristics" be-
fore they can be put in the hands of the
young. This is hard on Mrs. Sherwood,
but is probably true Her masterpiece,
The Fairchild Family" fell into my
hands at a tender age, and was a source
Of modifying mirth. The extreme Sc
verify of her religious views, however,
could do the young very little harm.
The religious views could be skipped,
while attention was fixed on the very
young lady who, after partaking freely
of cherry tart, complained of agony lin
her chest" The youngest anatomist
could perceive that chest was a glossy
periphrasis.
The Fairchild family were a joyous
crew; no severity of religious views
checked their natural gayety. When
Harry Cor Tommy0 was shown his first
Latin leSSOn-penna, pen; pennae, of
pen-he observed that he could do it on
his head; but he knew that Latin would
not stop there. There would be plenty
more of it. He therefore declined to
have any dealings with penna or musa,
and had TO be starved into submission.
When left to themselves for day the
Fairchild family were glorious Once
the little fiends got drunk; they were al
ways falling into the pig-sty- Once they
We're taken to see d gibbet on which
man was hung in chains, by way of a
moral lesson. Mrs. Sherwood was full of
her fun; and when she arrived at less
severe religious views she made no al
teration in this sense in her books al
ready published" No wonder: had she
once begun to alter The FairChild Fam
lily she must have ruined II.
She was the kipling of the period,
writing novels about the army in India.
One of her books was about Nautch girls
and young officers. Whether or not the
young subaltern converted the Nautch
girl l have never been able TO discover.
The book is not easily to he found. But
Mrs. Sherwood much admired the graces
Of the dancers. The reviewer complains
that she does not speak of Sir Walter
Scott with familiarity and affection.
She did not know him. but crossing the
Channel with him on his way home to
die she lent him the only pen on board
ship. The ruling passion was strong on
him even then; he wanted to write
Mrs. Sherwood was thoroughly good
woman. it is acknowledged. and had an
abundance of humor not remarkable
among the gifts of fair novelists now
practising