El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-23
"ScarecrOw" Makes Mirth
Laurence SterEe, Mfsshnppen and in
Bodily Pain, Wins Fame as
Greatest of HumOrisfss
By Madison g. Peter
AURENCE sTERNE was an Irish

AURENCE STERNE was an Irish
man by accident Of birth His
- father was an Englishman. a
lieutenant in a marching regiment,
which happened to be in Clonmell, in
county Of TippeFary, where he was
sterne was almost dwarf, a weak.
/ pulling creature. He croaked like a
! frog, because there was always a spawn
/ in his chest and his weak breath came
I out in little piping trebles like the
/ tweak of an asthmatie bag pipe. He
/ had round shoulders, knock knees, flat
! feet and altogether he looked but a
parody on humanity. He would not
I even have made a respectable scare
crow for a field of newly sown wheat
y ct there was a wonderful brain in
this misshapen being and he produced
some wonderful work. Who has not
dallied with "Tristram Shandy" and
! idled away his hours with the "Sentf-
mental Journey" and been entertained
with the quaint pathOs of Uncle Toby
and Corporal TrimP" Those works are
read today with as much pleasure as
they We're 100 years ago. They still
have the gripping" power which lays
hold Of the reader and compels him to
peruse them.
Clergyman But Not Moral
Sterne was clergyman of the Eng
nsh church, but that doesn't say much
for his morality, that is another story
which it is better to leave untouched.
He had been called a scOundreI a dis
grace to his sacred profession, a man
who could SWIVEL over a dead donkey
and allow his mother to starve. a faith
less husband and many other titles
which go to show him in the light of a
monster. But all these charges are be-
yond the mark When the world COM
menceS to pelt man after he is dead
II does not stop at trifles and the
or.
Spoiled By FIattery.
The times in which he lived spoiled
Sterne- The batteries he received he
could not bear and he became for a
time what he should not have been-a
1easter on the heights, INDUCING his
animal prOpensities, instead Of serv-
ing mis- master to whose service he was
called He was a poor Sickly person
IN Yorkshire when he gave 'HTristram
Sandy to the world 1t took London
by storm. Edition after edition was
exhausted and its little twisted author
stepped out from amOn0 the country
nobod1es to become hero in the draw
ing rooms of London.
he placed his goddess on a pedestal,
q thlng with flashing eyes and vOluptu-
Gus bosom, with rainbow hair and mo-
bile mouth and painted cheeks and
called her woman He knelt before her
and Worshfpped her but in the end he
found she had only feet of clay
His first great success was followed
oy other volumes and then came THE
sentimental Journey which capped his
fame. He had made a name for himself
in English literature
Was Hard Worker
He was a worker. When he got
away from the drawing rooms of Lon
don he buckled down to hard toll and
rev authors We're ever so heavily han
dlcapped physically. His body was so
weak at times that he could scarcely
mold the pen and yet this man wrote
In humorous vein as if he were viewing
the world through rOSeate glasses.
Cleopatra, tits said. smiled as she
clasped the asp to her bosom and felt
its sting. Sterne smiled and wrote
things to cause others to smile. while