Evening journal., 1911-12-12
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Heredity and the BaCOnian
Controversy
By Holland.

One very hot day in June, 1894,
was a witness before the committee Of
the United States Senate which had
been appointed 10 investigate the ac-
cusation that the so-called sugar
trust had, by indefensible means, at
tempted to secure the favor of the
Senate in fixing the sugar schedules
of the so-called Wilson tariff bill.
| observed that Of the five Senators
who composed the committee-Senator
George Gray, of Delaware, who is now
a United States Circuit Court Judge;
Senator William Allen, Of Nebraska;
Senator William Lindsay, of Ken
lucky; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge,
of Massachusetts and Senator Cush-
man X. Davis, OF Minnesota-Senator
Davis was the only member of the
committee who did not insist upon
very severe cross-eXamination Of
me. Instead, this Senator, who a few
years later was to serve on the United
States commission appointed to frame
the peace treaty that ended the war
with Spain, took a seat by an open
window and began to read from a
small book of a size convenient 10
carry in the side pocket of a summer
coat.
The committee took a recess of a
few minutes in order to examine GER
tain books or papers that had been
brought into the committee room l
went out into the corridor to get a
breath of air and while pacing up and
down | observed Senator Davis at a
"a srfoannncltr NJ
large and fat cigar and reading from
the little book
He happened to look up from the
book and, noticing me, beckoned to
me. | thought that he probably had
something to say about the investiga-
tion. To my intense surprise he asked:
Did you not at one time live at New
Haven, Conn. ?"
l replied that that had been my
home for some twelve years. Then the
Senator asked i | knew the Rev. Dr.
Leonard Baker, or any OF his family.
II have many times heard DR.. Baker
preach" / answered, "and l realize
the truth of the remark made of him,
that he could be "A very Titan of the
pulpit or he could be the dullest and
dreariest Of preachers, according as
his imagination or passion was stirred
or not"
THAT is exactly what / wanted to
find out" said Senator Davis you
may know that it was Dr. BacOns
niece. Miss Della Bacon, who conceiv-
ed the idea that Lord Bacon was
really the writer Of the plays of
Shakespeare and that he concealed his
individuality by means OF cyphers. /
have always thought that Miss Bacon
had a touch of the genius which
characterized her uncle, Leonard
Bacon, and of the impulsive. imagina-
tive intellect which also characteriz-
this imagination which led her to
conceive that Lord Bacon wrote the
plays of Shakespeare.
Now, / have been especially inter-
ested in this Bacon hypothesis, be-
cause for me Shakespeare is really a
Bible. When ! was in England some
years ago | went TO Stratford-on-AvOn
and made inquiries about Della Ba-
cons visit to Stratford with the pur-
! pose of opening Shakespeare's grave.
/ was told that Miss Bacon did receive
the consent of the rector Of the Shape
speare church to open the grave,
where she expected to find proof of
Lord Baccn's authorship of the plays.
! But when the moment came for her to
do this she shrank from It, and her in
tollect yielded TO the tremendous
strain caused by her excitement so
that she became a mental wreck.
Il am a good deal of a believer in
| heredity or in family traits, and | am
| persuaded that it was a peculiar strain
| of the Leonard Bacon blood which in
Della Bacon created the great contro-
| yersy, not yet ended--never to be end
Fed, probably-as to the authorship Of
! the Shakespearean plays.
You see. l am reading Shakespeare
| now" Senator Davis went on. Il have
read Lord Bacon's essays and his phil
osophy I don't believe Della Bacon
ever read them. If she had read them
as understandingly as l believe have,
| she would have known--as l am sure
/ can demonstrate abstractly and log
ically-that the man who wrote the
essays and who developed the Bacon
ian system Of philosophy could never
have written the Shakespearean
plays"
The Senator turned to the volume,
and fingered it lovingly:
Did you ever know that Tennyson
died with a copy of Shakespeare in his
hand. open at the play of King
Lear? he asked, quietly. when my
time comes | should be content if
passed away with my conscious eyes
having rested for the last time upon
those stupendously pregnant words in
Hamlet. The rest is silence
Copyright, 1911. by Z j. Edwards
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell Of
/ gghorfHous1 Rravo.. of noftIog