New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-15


J ome>of Langs genius. using that much
abused word in a restricted sense. At
/ any rate. it is a gem added 20 Eng
/ llsh literature. II has been often re-
printed i'm England, and. being uncopy-
( righted, too often in America 10y a too
/ enterprising publisher The first edi-
/ ton Of Lang's version is scarce ana
! dear book. That pleased him, for he
/ was a hibliophie, a man who with all
/ his equipments and capacities in liter
| allure liked and sometimes loved a book
/ just as book: for its rarity, It's
/ beauty. its binding. His treatise on
THE Library" shows how much he
! cared and how much the spirit Of the
Book Lover was his.
! Now let us go to the other extreme.
! He was journalist During a great
part Of his life and to the very last he
wrote for the newspapers. He was
/ long a leader writer on "The Daily
/ News; when il was a paper in many
respects unlike the present sheet which
/ goes by that name; though suppose 1t
never was so great a power as now.
Lang gave to il l do not say the dregs
OF his mind, for there were none. The
stream ran limpid and pure and strong
! always. But it was his habit to do his
proper days work first; history, poetry,
/ FOLKLORE, myth--whatever II might be.
! To that he devoted his mornings, and
/ that done he wrote his leader for The
Daily News: late in the afternoon. or
sometimes In the evening
/ The art Of Underwriting. or what We
call the editorial. was a thing he under
stood; special and exceptional as it Is.
/ This. like other mysteries and like so
many sorts Of literature, he had mas
tered; quite easily TO all appearance,
/ since with all his erudition and crafts
manship his work had commonly the
air Of doing itself OF recent years he
wrote a weekly column or more for
THE Morning Post; an occasional ar
/ ticle Of which l imagine he chose the
/ brought the habit Of accuracy, Of finish,
( OF fulness, in which he had trained
/ himself for other work. In his case,
certainly, there was between Journal
ism and literature no divorce. He was
q Saturday Reviewer and for The
Saturday Review he during many
I years wrote two articles a week: and
on his death that organ of the select
U
contributor a discriminating eulogy by
/ Mr.. Charles Boyd, his friend and dis
/ ciple; with something Of the felicity
which was Lang's; and Of his spirit
and with real personal knowledge. II
/ is also true of Lang that when he was
I not writing he was reading; or In some
way accommodating facts. With mem
DRY which absorbed everything he was
/ perhaps little careless. and he would
not always verify. Brt who is always
accurate?
II you read a book OF Langs on
Scottish history or on some abstruse
/ Jacobite problem YOU see how easily
/ he shoulders a burden beneath which
/ so many men stagger. He handles his
| masses Of complicated facts with the
mastery ease OF a great lawyer argu-
/ ing great cause; or Of a juggler who
/ without apparent effort keeps q dozen
/ balls in the air at once. Emerson would
never have said Of him that his learn
/ ing-library was Emersons word
I overloaded his wit. The great Ameri-
can uses wit, ! imagine, in the sense
Of esprit a word which goes further
! than any other one word toward de-
( scribing Lang's quality OF mind. What
I he wrote he wrote cheerfully; or as
! Stevenson said, daintily; and you read
/ il cheerfully. He was good company
no matter what his subject He did
vast quantities of the kind Of work
] commonly called routine work, but IN
! his hands II seemed original and cap
/ tivating.
On certain matters he was a fanatic.
Mary Queen OF Scots was one. Joan
/ OF Arc was another. When NJ. Anatole
France published his Jeanne dare"
some two years ago. a book Of deep re-
! search, Lang reviewed it savagely. II
was nothing to him that NJ. Anatole
France is the foremost living writer IA
/ France, student, an historian TO whom
I the period was familiar. Lang would
allow no man 10 write on Joan Of Arc
who was not. like himself. an idolater,
or who did not accept the legend as
whole. NJ Anatole France was skep-
! teal on certain points which with Lang
were matters OF faith;-perhaps the
kind Of faith which has been defined as
an unqucstioning belief in what Is OBJ
yiously untrue. Because the French
man had not this, and because his
elaborate biography was not through
out a Qualification OF the uncanonized
saint the Englishman attacked him in
what | am afraid / must call an un-
mannerly way. He imputed motives,
yilful untruths, and ] know not what
els. not content with that. he forth
with wrote a new Life of his heroine;
q very good one II you accept his point
of view and emit the controversial part
az II. II was all very characteristic;
merits and defects alike. His lance
...g g., ,oct nd he or the enemy must