Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-01

COUNT TOLSTOI'S early love of fame
seemed to him in his old age particu-
larly contemplate vice. He avoided all OPP
portunities of exhibiting himself in public,
and detested the lion hunter who tracked
him to his lair. Perhaps the American vari-
ETY. pleased him less than any other. The
Count loved to recall an incident that hap
pened when he was recuperating from long
illness in the Crinea. A party of rich Ameri-
cans arrived in yacht and asked permission
to see the great Russian. Tolstoi sat upon
his balcony, like Buddhist IDOL as he
said, and the Americans filed silently and
slowly before him. They had promised not
to speak word a glimpse was all they
wanted. One woman however, refused to
be bound by the contract.
"Leo Tolstoi," she exclaimed, call your
writings have had profound influence on
my life; but the one that has taught me the
most is your Here she awkwardly forgot
the name of the work.
The sick author leaned over the rail of the
balcony and whispered, with a smile, "'Dead
Souls ~
ayes, yes!' she replied.
3That book said Tolstoi, @was written
by Gogol, not by me-"
GEORGE MOORE, author of ESTHER
- Waters and other novels more read,
perhaps, in England than in America, also
has his story about an American admirer.
This was young Western woman. bright
and animated, whose warm praise had
pleased him much.
ave think heap of your writings out
Kansas way, Mr.. Moore, the girl said.
"How jolly! And what story of mine do
ooh, 'Lalla Rookh,' ar and away said
she
A GUSHING woman who prided herself
upon her literary tastes, hailed Bret
Harte with rapture when he was introduced
to her. Il am so delighted to make your
acquaintance, Mr.. Harte!" she said Il
have read everything you ever wrote, and OF
all your dialect verses think there is nothing
better than your @'Little Brooches. -
Il quite agree with you, Madam an
little breeches on the wrong man. They be-
long to Mr.. John Hay
TT is not only the Eighty and the ignorant
who make mistakes of this sort. Dante
Gabriel Rossetti found much amusement in
the fact that when Longfellow, "the good
old bard as he called him, paid visit to
his English fellow bard, he fell into the error
of thinking that Rossetti the painter and
Rossetti the poet were different men.
II am very glad to have met you, Mr..
Rossetti,' he said, upon taking his leave,
@and should like to have met your brother
also. Pray tell him how much | admire his
beautiful poem, The Blessed Damozel. -
|NOR is this form of malapropism confined
: = to Americans. 1t was an Englishman
and professor at Oxford who, when Thack-
cray came to that collegiate town to lecture,
confessed that he had never heard of the
novelist.
aWhy," said a friend, adon't you remem-
Der the author of Vanity Fair'?"
a.Oh-ah, yes! Bunyan. Clever, but not
orthodox"
THERE are many educated people in
England who believe that Henry Clay
makes the cigars that go by that name, and
confuse Daniel Webster with his namesake
Noah Webster. "The London Telegraph"
repeated the latter error quite recently.
"A city magistrate had discharged a pris-
oner, charged with statutory offense under
recent act, upon finding by the dictionary
that the word used in the law did not cover
the case webster commented "The
Telegraph, @when a lawyer, got off many
defendants. and his dictionary still continues
the good work.