Evening star., 1925-01-31
THE LIBRARY TABLE
ny THE BooKLovER

The rather bilious and irritable do
nestle life OF the Carlyles is again
brought TO mind by new volume of
Carlyle letters, written by Jane Welsh
Carlyle to members OF her family
between 1889 and 1858 and now edited
by Leonard Huxley. These letters. the
| last dated only three years before
her death, are over 200 in number and
are addressed to her uncle, John
Welsh OF Liverpool, and his two
daughters, Helen and Jeannie Welsh,
IL and Is years the juniors of Jane
Carlyle. The letters were carefully
preserved by Jeannie Welsh, after
| ward Mrs. Andrew Chrystal and de-
scended TO her only daughter, who
has recently been persuaded to permit
their publication.
| 4 4 X II
The daily life at No. 5 Cheyne row,
| with Mrs. Carlyle's frequent house
cleaning upheavals and her unremit-
ting efforts to prevent all noise, is
alluded TO and described with an in
timacy possible only to the nearest
relatives. Her lifelong struggle with
Ill health, due TO some obscure cause,
appears as a constant handicap. In
spite of it, however she seems almost
| always to have seen the passing
show" with the eyes of a huraorist.
After the death of Mrs. Sterling.
mother Of Carlyle's friend, John Ster-
ling, her husband, to whom Mrs. Car
lyle always refers as "old Sterling"
eleng to Mrs. Carlyle for comfort. She
gave 1t freely, as she always gave
OF herself to friends in trouble, but
her keen mind ironically estimated
the intensity OF his need. She says:
But I begin to see he is merely pro-
longing his wailing In the view of
exploiting my compassion and get
ting better treatment from me than
he has been used TO. His real sor-
row is already pretty we'll curedl AL
ready" After a prolonged bout OF
housecleaning and refurnishing on
Mrs. Carlyle's part, during one OF
Carlyle's ''journeyings in quest of
health" he returned "as bilious and
out or sorts as he went away" and
proceeded TO upset everything she had
done, all because a cock in the neigh :
borhood crew at 6 for two mornings
and disturbed his sleep. So the car
penter was brought back and ordered
to seal the windows of Carlyles sleep
ing room with wooden shutters pad
ded with cotton. Then "as these will
prevent the sleeping with windows
open, zinc pipes are to be introduced
thro' the walls to let in a suff1ciency
of fresh air! You are TO observe by
the way that it is only when the win
dows are wide open that this distant
cock ever makes itself heard and
that the simple expedient which
Pearson suggested-of shutting the
window and opening the door-would
have solved the problem effectively
and much more cheaply than all this
apparatus OF stuffed shutters and zinc
pipes" Later, when the noises OF
4 ~ Af M
much for Carlyle to endure, he had
a silent room" lighted from above,
built on the roof.
| y X 4
Mrs. Carlsle's jealousy OF Lady Har-
riet Barring, afterward Lady Ashburton,
the devoted friend and admirer of
Carlyle, also appears from time to time
in these letters. Usually, however. her
attitude toward Lady Harriet is one of
half-ar1used admiration, with intervals
Of genuine liking. She seems never to
have really disliked her, at least suf-
fleiently to prevent her spending weeks
at time at Lady Harriet's homes at
Addiscombe and Bay House, ,Alverstoke.
On the whole. her feelings toward Lady
Harriet were probably not altogether
uniform, but varied with circumstances,
as do the feelings OF most human beings.
At different times she writes:
Lady Harriet Is the woman of largest
intellect have ever seen" Her lady
ship was, as usual. without caprices or
any sort of questionabilties for me-
Lady Harriet asks in her last letter
will I come to Rome next Winter, and
she always means every least syllable
she says" But there are other letters in
which piqus and feeling Of being
sighted are evident. 'I begin to have a
real admiration for that woman-her
fascination OF Carlyle proves her TO be
| the most mastery coquette of modern
times" Lady Harriet, like the queen
must have her court about her wherever
she goes or stays, she has summoned
Carlyle down to the Grange for q week
at the least-and he never by any
chance refuses q wish of hers-the
clever woman that she is" Lady Har-
riet will need him at the Grange-at
various placea" so the Lady Harriet
willis at present-and her lady ships will
Is become the law of this house-even
her whirns are as imperative as the ten
commandments" Almost any woman
will sympaNhize with Mrs. Carlyls's re-
sentiment at Lady Harriets neglect OF
her during an illness suffered on one OF
her visits to Bay House. Lady H, OF
course never once came near me-and
IL was By q sort OF continual interposi-
tion of Providence that l could get a cur
of tea or anything / needed-one morn
ing my breakfast was brought in and
. placed on my bed by one Of the foot.
men!, :! who had been entreated by c.
to see after it. and who could not find
any woman servant at leisure" These
letters confirm Mrs. Carlyle's statemen,
in one Of them that there is no sorrow
in life, no weakness in human nature
that is not Ineligible through my own
| experience"
Two translations of Russian hctiou
which have recently appeared seem
to show that the traditions OF Dostoi.
evsky and Turgeniev are being kept
alive In Russia OF today. The Clock, ,
by Aleksei Remizov, translated by
John Cournos, has the typicaliy mel
ancholy, hopeless atmosphere which
we associate with Russian literature
1t is a brief novel with simple
theme-a family struggling against
the triple misfortunes OF poverty
disease and general bad luck and
succumbing finally to elemental
forces too pow werful for any human
resistance. The clock, with its blind
mechanical movement, is the symbol
or the eternal monotony and inevi-
tableness Of life. The second piece OF
nction is Tales Of the wilderness, -
by BORIS Pilniak, translated by F
ODempsey. There are IL tales in all
and most of them are so chaotic that
it 10 difficult to find in them any real
narrative. In fact, the author seems
at times far more interested in va
rious side discussions than in the
thread OF his story. Nevertheless
some of the tales have a haunting
impressiveness. Death" describes the
gradual decline of a very old man
"A Year OF Their Lives" is a strone
plcture OF brief, unhappy period