New-York tribune., 1920-12-22

tinct in aspect /. vas just as -vident
that he had not succeeded. DIM" was
The adjective upon which Bcerbohm
decided. soames wrote poetry and
essays. His hlst volume was called
"Negations.' His second he contem-
plated bringing out without a title.
beerbobm's friend Rothstein OBJ
lected 10 this "'lf,' he 4rged 1 went
into booksellers and said simply
'Have you got > or Have yon a
coy of p how would they know
what wanted %
Eventually, Soahes WAS convinced
and the book Of verse appeared as
fungods- Three copies were sold
Still, popular approval seemed to be
the last thing in the world in which
Soames was in.crented Even the
judgement Of posterity be regarded
acornfulig. This was a pose, as Beer
bohm discovered one afternoon in the
Restaurant du Vingtieme Siecle, where
he found Soames in a fr OF the ut.
most detection, a fit which finally in
spired the dim poet into an outburst
Of passionate longing 30 know what
posterity would have to say about him.
"Posterity What use Is il to me ?
4 dead man doesn't know that people
are visiting his graYe--visitins his
misunderstanding Up tablets to hlnl--
anveilng statues Of him q dead man
can't read The books that are writ
ten about him A hundred years
hencel Think Of it If could COM
back to life then-just r fcu
houra-and go TO *hs reading room. and
zcad! Or, tetter still: if | could be
projected, now, st this momea1 inJo
that future, into tha. ieading room
ius' for this one afternoonl I'd sell
myself. body and soul, TO thc 1pvil for
that Think OF the pages and paoes
in the catalogue: 'SOAMES, ENOCH'
endiessly-endless editions, col Mon
taries, prolesomena, biogra phies7--
It is at this point that the stout
foreign gentleman across the aisle in
PRODUCES himself as the devil and
agrees to make the offer to Soames
STR which he has expressed the willing
ness to barter his soul n spite Of the
objections of Beerbohm, Soamez ac-
cepts. He is to have an afternoon in
the reading room Of .he British
Museum one hundred years hence Then
nc is 70 return the restaurant.
Beerbohm finds HIM there that eve
ming, and the detection now has grown
colossal. In all the encyclopedias and
other reference books offered by the
queer folk at the library OF the future
(they all wore uniform suits with num-
bers) Soames found not d single men
tion Of himself. but at last he was
directed TO a book By T. K Nupton.
English Littracher lS90-l9O0 hi T. K.
Nupton, publishd b tn stait 1892"
The phonetic spelling both 81 ed
Soames. but he did find his name at
last in paragraph which he copied
and brought back to Beerbohm. On
page 234 of T. K. Nuptons book he
found.
"Fr egzarmpl, ritter OF tn time
naimd Max Beerbohm. hoo was still
a i've in th twentieth senchri, rote d
stauri, in wich partraid an immai~
mari karraktcr kauld 'Enoch Soames'
"A thurd-rai pot, who beicevz imself
CRATE jcneus an maix bargin with
tn Devil in auder ter no wot pos
territi thinX ov i'm! 1t IL sumwot
labud satire, but not without vallu
az showing hou seriusli the yung men
by the aiteen-ninctiez took themselvz
Nou that the httreri profeshn haz bin
auganizcd as departmnt of plblik
servis. our ritcrs hav found their levvl
an hav lernt ter doc their duti with
out thort ov tn MORO. The laibrcr IL
wcrthi ov hiz hire an that is aul
Thank hcvvn we hav no Enoch
Soamescs nmung us to-dal"
BY reading the words aloud Beer
oohm was ableto understand it all