Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 28, Number 31, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 29 January 1898 — Page 6

TRIBUTES TO BURNS.

BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY OF THE

GREAT SCOTCH POET.

"Burnsiana" at Washington—A Remarkable Private Collection of the Poet'« Works—How It "Wan Gathered and What

It Contains—A Botanist's Lore and Pride.

[Special Correspondence.]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.—Robert Burns was a prophet as well as a poet a seer as well as writer of verses, as instanced by his deathbed declaration to his wife, "A hundred years after tnis they will think mair of me, Jean." And the next century, as we know, all the civilized nations of the earth, especially those where the English language is spoken, united to honor the hundredth anniversary of his birth, in 1759. Again, in 1890, summer before last, the prophecy of the Scottish poet was fulfilled by the universal tributes from all classes to his genius, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his death.

The 25th of January, then, the day on which Burns was born, is held by Scots in reverence almost as great as we Americans hold the 22d of the month succeeding. It is a day in the Scottish calendar .to which Scotsmen turn and point with pride and which they celebrate with feasting and with song. And no one grudges the admirers of Caledonia's bard their enthusiasm, for are not we all the beneficiaries of this heritage of genius? Have not the pens of all our greatest men of this generation and the one preceding written admiringly of his verse? Have not their voices been raised in testimony to bis talent?

Says the poet Whittier: "When I was 14 years old, my first schoolmaster brought to our house a volume of Burns' poems, from which be read, greatly to my delight. I begged him to leave the book with me and set myself at once to the task of mastering the glossary of

WILLIAM R, SMITH.

the Scottish dialect at its close. This was about the first poetry I read, with the exception of that of the Bible, of •which I had been a close student, and it had a lasting influence upon me."

Says Doan Stanley, "Burns was the prodigal son of the church of Scotland, but ho was still her genuine offspring."

Thus the great poet and the great preaoher viewed Robert Burns from their different standpoints. It is not for us of the present day to criticise him in the slightest degree, for his place has been assigned him, his fame has been aocorded by the greatest critics of the century. Burns, like Whittier, was nature's poet—her interpreter. Like Whittier, ho first took hold upon the "common peoplo," who at once and instinctively perceived the beauty of his verse. Later the more educated saw its literary values.

A Burns Admirer.

I had the sad pleasure in 1882 of being present at the burial of Whittier, whose friendship I had enjoyed for a few years. Iu the West Indies! had the great pleasuro of discovering a copied letter from Burns, which I later contributed to tho first collection of "Burnsiana" in this country. When it occurred to mo that my letter of this week would fall upon the datoof Burns' birth, I bethought mo of something appropriate to tho occasion and naturally sought out this collection, which belongs fortunately to a friend of mine and a gentleman.

Forty-three years ago there came to this country from Scotland a young man, then 27 years of age, who, after a few days iu New York and Philadelphia, came to Washington and found employment as a gardener. Ho has been hero ever since and fur 40 years past has been the superintendent of our National Botanio garden and has contributed more perhaps than any other man to the adornment of the capital by a practical application of his knowledge of botany and horticulture.

He was born in tho little town of Athelstonford, not far from Edinburgh, a village nearly 1,000 years old, but which has not had more than 200 inhabitants for the past 900 years. From the first he was a devoted lover of Burns, and the first 2 shillings be ever earned, which he won as a prize for reciting Gray's elegy at school at the age of 10, was spent for a copy of Burns. Today, although he has received for 40 years a small though comfortable salary from the government, he is a poor man, all through his devotion to the Scottish poet, and ho declares that as he expended his first 3 shillings for a copy of his favorito so he will spend his last half dollar.

I said he had kept himself poor by his mania for Burmiana, but 1 am wrong. He has spent a

fortune in getting to

gether the finest private collection of Barns' works in the world, but he has thereby enriched himself and the conntry of his adoption in a measure beyond the means of sordid calculation. Liku that

great botanist Bar tram of the hwt j.

century, he has ennobled the calling he pursues as a means of livelihood and dignified labor by his literary attribute.

No man can devote himself to any one subject, pursuing and studying it exhaustively, without becoming oi greater value to himself and the community in which he dwells. So it hat been with Mr. Smith in this avocation which he has chosen. His collection ol Burns' works is larger and more valuable than any other in Alnerica, public or private, and ranks only third oi fourth among those of Great Britain, surpassing even that of the British museum.

He has in all nearly 1,000 volumes oi Bums, including more than 150 different editions, and every edition but one which was published during the poet's lifetime. Of this the first edition, called the "Kilmarnock," the centenary oi which was celebrated in 1886, he has a facsimile, He has, however, a copy oi the first Edinburgh edition, 1787, in a good state of preservation, and one oi the second edition. This latter is known as the "stinking edition," from a curious typographical error in the "Address to a Haggis," by which the words "skinking ware," or cheap goods,. werj printed "stinking ware."

Bare Editions.

"They all have defects," says Mr. Smith, when asked why so many editions of the same author. "There is scarcely a perfect edition among the whole 150." He ought to know, having carefully collected every edition oi value since the great work began. Besides all the rare British and Scottish editions he has all the early Americans, including a volume of the first Amercan, published in 1785, a copy of which was once in the library of George Washington. And, by the way, Mr. Smith is very much interested in restoring to the shelves of Washington's library at Mount Vernon copies of all the works which once adorned them and which have been scattered, owing to the mercenary disposition of a Washington executor.

The first edition of Burns in America was published in New York in 1788, a year after the first Edinburgh and twe years after the very first of all, the Kil marnock. Two or three of these American volumes are in a sense priceless and one is owned by a certain western congressman, who on learning that Mr. W. H. Yanderbilt was after it declared most emphatically, "Vanderbilt can't buy that book!"

There are certain books which a bibliophile like Mr. Smith regards as really beyond price, and the little volume published in Alexandria in 1818 is one oi that number. These thousand volumes or so of literary treasures are held in a little room in the cottage provided foi the botanist adjacent to the government greenhouse, a cottage only one and one-half stories in height, overgrown with vines, and in a room scarcely 14 feet square. In all, Mr. Smith's library contains perhaps 4,000 volumes, being arranged around the walls of these low studded rooms in cases and stowed away in odd nooks and corners. Here, surrounded by his books and in the company of his favorite shepherd dogs, he passes his leisure time in study and literary recreation. fly-

He declares, what I myself have observed in my travels about the world, that it is the traveled Scotchman—and the exile from home—who best appreciates the worth of Burns. A niece oi the poet once wrote to him, "A Scotchman always begins by finding fault with my uncle, but the Americans—they never find fault with him."

Barns Souvenirs.

Scarcely less valuable than the poet's volumes are the various souvenirs Mr. Smith possesses of the land of Burns— photographs of his birthplace and his cottage at Dumfries, memorials of the birthday centenary of 1859, and a cast of the skull obtained when the Burns mausoleum containing his remains was opened in 1884 to place by bis side the remains of "Bonny Jean," his faithful wife and widow.

An admirer of Mr. Smith has sent him a pen and ink sketch of the "haunted kirk of Allo\vay"and another a "quach or nuggen"—oaken whisky cup—made from a chip of a rafter from that same old church. These relics, together with the bust of Burns and the great Burns Bcrapbook, which the owner has been gathering these 40 years, are interesting and valuable.

In tliat same old scrapbook I found a translation of some of Burns' verse into French which is full as funny as Mark Twain's "JumpingFrog" rendered into the same language, as for instance:

Willie brewed a peck o* n-.atrt, And Rob and Allan cam to pree Three blither hearts that loe-long night

Ye wad aa find in Christeadie. The French of it: O Willie, brasse un demi-boisson do malt

Et Rob et Allan vinrent le gouter Pendant toute cette nuit troia cceurs plus joyeux

Vous no les auric* pas trouvea dans le chretiente. But the Frenchman excelled himself in his translation of the "Address to the De'il," beginning, "But fare yott well, auld Nickie—ben," which is Gallicized into, "Allons, bon soir, vieux Nic," "Good evening, old Nick, let us go!" That other Frenchman did no worse when he translated "All hail,Macbeth," into "Bon jour, M. Macbeth."

But that is about as near probably as the French, or any other of the 16 languages into which Burns has been translated, can come to rendering faithfully the beauties of the English bard and Scottish poet 1 said to Mr. Smith, "I suppose the Congressional library will eventually possess this valuable collection of yours?" "What?" he replied, a sudden fire flashing from his eye. "When that library has not the name of Burns upon its walls!"

Then I remembered that he had once mid, "Robert Burns is my prophet, priest aud king," and was silent, respecting his just resentment of this implied slight to his beta

F. A.

.\~3zl

ANEW B00K ON FIELD

TRIBUTE TO THE LATE HUMORIST BY FRANCIS WILSON.

The Comedian Is a Great Lover of Books. win Notable Collection of First Editions. Mrs. Ban's Mysticism Why L'Enfant

Terrible Has Not Been Issued.

[Special Correspondence.]

NEW YORK, Jan. 24.—As I understand it, Francis Wilson'8 forthcoming "Tribute to Eugene Field" will .be his first regularly published book. It will not be the first production of his peu to go into type and betweenjjpvers, however, by several volumes, tuiice he has been practicing for open authorship by issuing daintily printed books in editions of 200 copies or thereabouts at irregular intervals, to be privately circulated, for several years.

Eugene Field himself furnished the copy for what is in some respects the most interesting of Mr. Wilson's sub rosa output. The author of "Casey's Table-dote" and the star in "The Oolah" were very good friends and "visited back and forth" a good deal. Field rarely set foot in Wilson's house without leaving an impromptu bit of original verse as a memento of the occasion, and he included a couplpt, a quatrain or something of the sort in every letter he sent to the comedian. After the humorist's death Wilson gathered all these things up, had them printed and bound under the title of "Eugene Field to Franois Wilson" and sent copies to the close friends of both. Upon the fly leaf of each copy Mr. Wilson inscribed an appropriate presentation motto, which no doubt added much to the pleasure felt by each recipient.

Francis Wilson's home is at NewRoohelle, just outside the boundary line of the consolidated greater city. His house is a handsome, well furnished edifice, and the choicest room therein is the library. He is a great lover of books and a worshiper of first editions. He began collecting several years ago, and at first devoted a good share of his own time to the old bookshops. But as the passion grew upon him he found that personal collection took too much of his attention, and now a certain well known dealer in whom he has great confidence has a practically unlimited commission to buy for him.

Mr. Wilson's library includes many interesting books besides first editions. Some of his volumes are strictly unique. Whenever he is specially interested by an article in one of the periodicals he detaches it from the remainder of the number, adds certain appropriate matter and has it bound by a master of the( bookbinding art. For instance, when Carl Sohurz contributed a paper upon Grover Cleveland to one of the reviews Wilson had it put between flexible leather covers with two or three fly leaves at the front and back. Then he sent the thin volume to Mr. Schurz, with a request that he write something appropriate upon the fly leaves at the front. When Mr. Schurz bad done so, Wilson sent the book to Mr. Cleveland, asking that he write something upon the fly leaves at the back. It now reposes in the comedian's library.

Mrs. Amelia E. Barr's recent contribution to anew periodical telling how she made a success in literature after passing the age of 50 and the publisher's note that her books yield a yearly income of $20,000 have created much interest in her personality.

Mrs. Barr lives at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. Her writing room is a small apartment on the second floor of the house, and when she is ready to make copy she enters this room, shuts the door and writes steadily and rapidly for hours at a time. She never begins until she has thought out her work with considerable detail and she rarely finds it necessary therefore to change or rewrite. She is a hard student and whenever she wishes to write about something upon which she is not already well posted she goes to one of the great libraries and consults everything it contains upon that subject.

Gelet Burgess, formerly of San Francisco, is now making quite a stir in the metropolis. Burgess was the editor and founder of The Lark, a curious periodical issued in San Franoisco for about 2 years. Its illustrations were printed on india proof paper and gummed to the rough heavy stock on which the letter press was printed. Many of the drawings were made by Ernest C. Peixotto, but Burgess, who wields a deft pencil as well as a clever pen, mado some of them.

Mr. Peixotto is also in New'York just now, but the two are not working together. Mr. Burgess has conceived a strong liking for Oliver Herford's pictures, and these two some months ago planned to establish a periodical here to be entitled L'Enfant Terrible. It has undoubtedly received a larger amount of free advertising in advance than any other similar venture ever projected. Both Burgess and Herford have many friends among the newspaper editors and literary critics, and upon receiving notice of the proposed publication these gentlemen almost fell over one another in their ha&te to compliment it ahead of publication.

But for reasons which have not been widely explained L'Enfant Terrible has not yet made its appearance and the date of its first issue seems still to be unfixed. A friend of Mr. Herfor#'s, on meeting him the other day, inquired with some solicitude as to when publication would begin. The artist looked searchingly upon his inquisitor and then said in the most solemn manner possible: "Well, really, I don't know that we shall get it out at all. We have been thinking it over and have about concluded that publication, in view of the high reputation L'Enfant Terrible now enjoys, might irretrievably injure its circulation."

Mr. Herford's friend is still pondering this statement DKXTEB A

RSH AIJU

Times Have Changed.

"No such times as there used to be," sighed the gray haired but vigorous traveling man who was enjoying himself with the usual Saturday night crowd. "There was a time when they were booming those western towns that I saved about all my expense money, and that was a mighty big item in. flush times." "Give us your recipe, old man." "It's of no use now. They're bumping along on rock bottom out in that country. But then money was no object. When approachfng a boom town, I'd discover some resident of the place aboard the train and casually let drop to him that I was looking for a good real estate investment. That was all, and it was worth from $50 to $100 a drop. I'd start innocently for a hack, knowing as well as I lived I'd never reach it. Some speculator would seize me by the arm, introduce himself, put me in his private carriage, whirl me to the best hotel, get me the best room, make a date to drive me over the place and solemnly inform me that the town was mine. "Live high? Higher than a wild prince. They would take no money at the bar, the hotel clerk never had a bill against me and I couldn't spend a cent. It was one constant round, as the boys say. You know my line then. I sold to one man in a place and only called on him once a year. He always stood in, kept mum and shared in the good things. I made a pile of money, for expense bills ran high those days, but I gueiss it is just as well for me that the bottom dropped out. A man's stomach won't stand everything.*

A Change at Benin.

The English occupancy of Benin has resulted in so complete a change that the field of execution—where slaughter pits and crucifixion trees abounded, and sometimes the bodies of thousands of victims lay in heaps, polluting the air—has been laid out in polo grounds and golf links.

Judged by Appearances.

Magistrate (who has lately taken to himself a wig)—I think I've seen you nore before on a similar charge.

Drunk and Disorderly Female—No, yer washup, s'elp me! The last beak I was up afore was a baldheaded old cove.—London Telegraph.

If you feel weak, dull and discouraged you will find a bottle of Hood's Sarsaparilla will do you wonderful goocL^,^

A Modern Youth.

"Ha, ha, my proud beauty," said he, "you love another 1" "I do," said the blushing maiden.

He pondered. "Well," said he finally, his features lighting with fiendish joy, "you ain't in it if you do. Within 24 hours I shall have procured an injunction against your marrying him." —Indianapolis Journal.

An Old Beverage.

Next to our grape wine it is believed that Japanese sake, or rice wine, is the oldest alcoholio beverage known to man, its use in Japan dating back over 2,000 years.

For sick headache, sick stomach and loss of appetite take Dr. Bull's Pills, the best medicine for the common, every day complaints. 25 cts.

(reporter

Sj_

Elizabeth, N. J., Oct. 19, im

ELY BiiOS.,Dear Sirs:—Please accept my thanks for your favor in gift of a bottle of Cream Balm. Let me say I have used it foi years and can thoroughly recommend it for what it claims, if directions are followed. Yours truly, (Rev.) H. W. HATHAWAY.

No clergyman should be without it. Cream Balm is kept by all druggists. Full size 50c. Trial size 10 cents. We mail it.

ELY BROS., 56 Warren St., N. Y. City.

HPi

Give the Children a Drink called Grain 0. It is a delicous. appetizing, nourishing food drink to take the place of coffee. Sold by all grocers and liked by all who have used it because when properly prepared it tastes like the finest coffee but is free from all its injurious properties. Grain-0 aids digestion and strengthens the nerves. It is not a stimmulant but a health builder, and children, as well as adults,- can drink it with great benefit. Costs about as much as coffee. 15 and 25c/^^j^

Rebecca Wilkinson, of Brownsvalley, Ind.,says: "I have been in a distressed condition for three years from nervousness, weakness of the stomach, dyspepsia and indigestion until my health was gone. I had been doctoring constantly with no relief. I bought one bottle of South American Nervine, which did me more good than any $50 worth of doctoring I ever did in my life. I would advise every weakly person to use this valuable and lovely medicine a few bottles of it has cured me completely. I consider it the grandest medicine in the world." Warranted the most wonderful stomach and nerve cure ever known. Sold by all druggists in Terre Haute, Ind.

Itelief In One Day.

South American Nervine relieves the worst cases of Nervous Prostration, Nervousness and Nervous Dyspepsia in a single day. No such relief and blessing has ever come to the invalids of this country. Its powers to cure the stomach are wonderful in the extreme. It always cures it cannot fail. It radically cures all weakness of the stomach and never disappoints. Its effects are marvellons and surprising. It gladdens the hearts of the suffering and brings immediate relief. It is a luxury to take and always safe. Trial bottles 15 cts. Sold by all druggists in Terre Haute, Ind.

Queen & Crescent.

96 Miles Shortest to New Orleans, 109 Miles Shortest to Jacksonville from Cincinnati. Cafe, parlor and observation cars. Through Pullman sleeping cars.

.Everybody Says So.

Cascarets Candy Cathartic, the most wonderful medical discovery of the age, pleasant and refilling to the taste, act gently and positively on kidneys, liver and bowels, cleansing the entire system, disjiel colds, cure headache, fever, habitual constipation and biliousness- Please bay and try a box of C. C- C- to-day 10,25, fiO cents. Sold and guaranteed to cure by all druggists.

gjp.

mMWii,

wfo*.:

UpI

A HELPLESS FARMER.

William Stimpson Stricken with Paralysis of His Lower Limbs-Caused by Overwork,

IYom the New Era,

Many of our readers may remember an item in this paper a year ago last fall which stated that Mr. William Stimpson, a well-to-do farmer, living near Rugby, Ind., had been stricken with paralysis of the lower limbs, and his recovery was doubtful.

The case which was an unusually severe and complicated one has at last been entirely cured, to the utmost surprise and joy of Mr. Stimpson and his family.

Mr. Stimpson was pleased to.relate to a

the particulars regarding his case,

and his subsequent recovery. jU

fy helpless and my right

was fast becoming so. My physician became uneasy, and after attending upon nie for a week or so, he brought me a box of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People, sayine that lie believed they would do me more good than anything which he knew of, as he had used them -vith great success in a case very similar to mfne \ik?r» ill other remedies had failed. The case in question was that of L. Phillips, Of Petersville. "About the time I began taking the second box of these pills a decided change was

-t

jt'1

r" r"

A.'1**

to-date ....

Upl«U'^

25c 50c

Oreensburg, 2nd. 'u*

"A year ago last fall," began" Mr. Stimpson, "I did a large amount of work. My hired help left me in the middle of corn cutting and I finished the fall work myself, doing an unusual large amount of work. I put up several hundred shocks of fodder, and also husked all my corn. To accomplish this I had to work early and late. "About the first of December, as I was getting my fall wor«c about done, I suffered a

B. G. HUDNUT. President. WILLARD KIDDER. Vice- President.

Vigo County National Bank

is--

Printing'

'••-LOOK HERE!

If you are going to build, what is the use of going to see three or four different kinds of contractors? Why not go and see

Greneral Contractor

416 WILLOW STREET,

As he employs the best of mechanics in Brick Work, Plastering, Caroenterine. Painting, etc., and will furnish you plans and specifications if wanted.

mm* mm

CANDY :4

CATHARTIC

CURE CONSTIPATION

When You Order Your

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Get the rery best, and that Is the product of the

TERRE HAUTE BREWING CO.

noticed, and when I had taken two more boxes we discovered that I was actually getting well. You can probably imagine what a relief and feeling of gladness this was to me, after being conhned to my bed for nearly two months. Well, I kept on taking the pills according to directions, until I had consumed nine boxes of them, which completely cured me.

I am sound and well to-day, with not a sign of the returning affliction and can affirm that Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People did me a wonderful good and probably saved me from the grave."

To allay all doubt as to the truth of his statement, Mr. Stimpson made out the following sworn affidavit:

RUGBY. IND., Feb. 2.1897.

This is to certify that I do hereby swear that the foregoing statement is absolutely true. WILLIAM STIMPSON." COUNTY OF BARTHOLOMEW I

STATE OF INDIANA. & Sworn to and subscribed before me, a Jus«* tice of the Peace, in and for said county in said State.-, A'BNTSR NORMAN.

cONZMAN. Cashier.

•,

Capital $150,000. Surplus $30,000.

O, FOBEIGIA" IBZXIC'EI-A-LSRQ-IE: wmm

624 Main Street. TERRE HAUTE, IND.

Just ice of the Peace,

The New Era was also informed that Mrs. Cffarles Williams, of the same neighborhood, had been cured' of rheumatism, and Henry Johnson, of Hartsville, who was troubled with neuralgia, was also cured by Dr. Williams' Pink rills. It seems that this remedy is in great demand in that neighborhood.

Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People contain in a condensed form, all the elements necessary to give new life and richness to the blood and restore shattered nerves. Pink Pills are sold by all dealers, or will be sent post paid on receipt of price, 50 cents a box, or six boxes for $2.60 (they are never sold in bulk or by the 100), by addressing Dr. Will" Medicine Company, Schenectady, N. Y.

itis

& Langen's

ALL

DRUGGISTS