New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-07-06

/ ~ TO him. The son of a Leeds mer-
chant, he inherited, or. came into later,
n competent fortune He loved litera-
ture and Italy and the English coun-
try and could and did crafty all these
| tastes. Bred to the bar, he turned
away from it to pursuits more con-
| genial He wrote satires, lyrics. novels,
blank verse dramas, mystery plays,
THE Garden That Love-" and lead
ers for "The Standard" He lived dur
! ing most of his life in Swinford Old
Manor, near Ashford. in the county of
| Kent justly known as the Garden of
! England and the Garden ne Loved
was his own Garden Of Swinford Old
Manor. He cared for friends and he
had many. Lady st. Heller was one Of
them, and he used to stay with her
when he came to London.
Our Mr.. Astor-he once was ours,
! Mr.. William Waldorf Astor-was an
other. The last time / met Austin was
/ at Hever Castle; one of large week
end party, which filled the castle and
the Tudor village thereunto appertain-
| ing. If you did not know otherwise
you might have thought Hever be-
! longed to Austin and not to Mr.. Astor.
/ He had, there and elsewhere, pro-
prietarv manner. He seemed to expect
| a kind of homage which it is not usual
TO pay even to men whose claims 10
! homage are much greater than MS.
| People who met him for the first time
were puzzled and perhaps sometimes
resentful. But his friends accepted II
all with an amused tolerance. To them
: and ito others he could he extremely
! agreeable. for he had culture and
cleverness and large sympathies under
| living these airs and graces. with all
these friends, and with literature ana a
charming home and sufficient means
what more could a man want for hap
piness?
| But Austin had one thing more Whlch
TO him was the most essential: COM
plete self-confidence and unfailng faith
in himself and in ali his works. TO
most men il would be a purgatory 10
devote their lives to the writing oi
poems which nobody else thought
poems; which the critics derided; which
the public neglected. But in Austins
belief in himself there was something
heroic. He knew-he could not heip
knowing-that the world laughed ~
him suppose he would have liked
better to be admired. but from the
mockerv of his own age he found d
refuge with posterity. He looked TO q
nosthumous fame. This expectation
was the more sure because he was con-
WINGED that the opinion Of this genera
tion and the last about the poetry OF
its own time was all wrong. lie thousn'
neither Tennyson nor Browning a poet
/ He held both up to contempt and part
! ~ because people declined to cohteH'n
them he was the more positive that
/, they were wrong about himself
He was not less content with himselr
IN other matters. Two years ago ne
published his Autobiography, when ne
hogan nv asking: what IS eeotismY
and the rest Of the two volumes were
devoted 10 answering this question. a
| single quotation will be enough. In his
capacity as leader writer for The
/ standard" he was much In communica-
/ ton with the late Lord Salisbury lie
tells US that on important questions
they used generally TO agree. FROM
which," remarks Austin, 1t appears
evident that our minds are east in the
| same mould" He sometimes offended
people by his air OF superiority he
could not conceal or disguise his belief
that he really was superior person
and the aggressiveness and even arro-
ganee of his bearing were disllked by
people who could not, or would not
| take a humorous view OF II. and OF
! him. In stature as expressed I'm the
ordinary height measurements, he could
not have exceeded five feet by moro
than an inch or two. But from that
altitude ne contFived 10 look down on
those who were head and shoulders
above him,
When Tennyson died, In. 1892, Mr..
! Gladstone being then Prime Minister,
the Laurea teship was left vacant ana
remained vacant for four years.
Neither Mr.. Gladstone nor Lord Rose
berry could make up his mind that the
post ought TO be filled, or that there
was any suitable candidate since Mr..
SWinburne had made himself impossl-
bic. Nor could Lord Salisbury TIL he
had let a year pass then he tossed 1t
rather carelessiy TO Austin; as II, af-
ter all, it did not much matter. But
II mattered to Austin. He took 1t as
an instalment of the debt posterity
was to pay him, and he set himself
10 vindicate his titie allowing no &C
casion for verse TO pass; and produce
ing verse more labored than ever. I'm
happily. a conscientious desire TO pro-
duce verse is not q guarantee OF pro-
ducing good verse. But he had the salts
faction Of writing now and then some
thing which pleased the good Queen
Victoria, whose view, If not critical,
WAS charitable. Austin himself, how
aver. thought "The Human Tragedy"
nubilshed in 1862, his finest piece Of
work. More than that. he thought, and
said, that IT was to be regarded as one