TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11503, 9 February 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The December number of Butleriana. the " Eagle" prints an article <m Samuel Butler with fresh biographical details, by hie Wend, Henry Feating Jones. It was a theory of Sutler's own that the author is far more interesting than the book, the painter than the picture, the composer than the music"Art is only interesting in so far as it reveals the personality of the artist." In this spirit nearly every memoir dealing with the author of "Erewhon" insist* upon the whimsical, original, vividly picturesque quality of the man behind the book. There wae an odd combination, too, i& But!er, of the recluse and the humanitarian, which theee personal details bring out. For thirty-eight years he occupied the same rooms in Clifford's Inn— improvement in financial matters making no change in his mode of life, except that, as he often said, he "bought a pair of new hair brushes and a larger wash-hand basin." He cooked bis own breakfast in the campoven, familiar since New Zealand days, and fetched hie own water from'the Court tap, with a quaintly socialistic sharing in the necessary household toils. - When v colonial friend called unexpectedly about noon one day, soon after he settled in London, he went out to the nearest cookshop in Fetter Lane, and returned carrying a dish of "hot roast pork and greene." He belonged to no club, seldom accepted invitations, and had no provision for returning hospitality. Yet both in London and in Italy he won the affection seldom tjiven to a recluse, and really earned, in hie case, by a simple kindly sympathy. -Hβ always remembered about all 'these | people," says Mr Festing Jones, " asked how the potatoes were doing this year, and whether the grandchildren were growing up into fine boys and girls, and never forgot to inquire after the eon who had gone to be a waiter in New York." There, was personal feeling as well as regard for scholarship in the Sicily proclamation that the street leading from the Nuovo Mercato towards the famous ruins of Segesfca should henceforth be called Via .Samuel Butler, "thus honouring a gnat man* memory, handing this name down to posterity, and doing homage to the friendly English nation." Italian influence aocounta for manjs of tie books, aa New Zealand inspired his first and last. It was Napier Broome, we are told, who first suggested his rewriting the New Zealand "Press" articlee, a echeme which, finally worked out to "Erewhon," and began his literary fame. But to his last- year Italy was the land of holidays, where, above all, he was delightful and gay. ' "A man's holiday, , he would cay, "ia his garden"—and he set out to enjoy it, and make others enjoy, in a spirit very far removed from the ordinary Englishman abroad. It was the freakish Butler, however, who, on one occasion, having two teetotal ladles in hie company, maliciously instructed La Martina of the restaurant to make the "sabbaglione" so that it ehould be "forte" and "abbondante," and to cay that the maraala with which it was more than .flavoured, was nothing but vinegar. Very like too, wae the generosity exercised, ac Mr Jones says, in unexpected ways—"aswhen he gave my laundress a shilling beoawee it wm 'tuch • beastly foggy morning. , "

Mingled, ea the title might Anecdotes suggest, with i little egotr of ism, tome interesting anecCelebrities, dotes and reminiscences are toldbyMiesHenriette Oorkian in a volume called "Celebrities and I," which baa juet been issued. It was Mrs Lynn linton, herself desoribed as a "literary duenna" with a "h&wk-ljk* etare," who introduced the aufchorwe to the first distinguished persons with whom she became acquainted. The occasion was one of Dr. Weetland Mamton'e Sunday evening*, and the company, who drank and talked and laughed amid a perfect haze of tobacco emoke, included quite a galaxy of talent. Among them w«re "Earthly Paradise Poet Morris, in a rough grey coat and Mue, collariess shirt, looking handsome and unconventional," the painters Moddox Browne, Theodore Watra, Swinburoe, "a email, slight man with a big tawny heajd," and" a great, sprinkling of budding poets, wearing their hair long, and attitudinising a great deal." On another occasion Mi» Oorkraa met Lord Leighton, whom the describee ac "the ideal prince of painter*.," in his appearance rather effeminate and Greek, but with a vulgarly British appetite for roast mutton and met pudding. Sir Frederick cavilled at the subject of one of the authoresse'e sketches which she showed him. "Why choose such an •ugly subject," he exmarked, "as a grimy street boy? Art ought to be beautiful. Of course Velasquez, I Murillo, Rembrandt, those grand old fel- ' lows, could make everything beautiful, but tibey are gone, and have no successors." He was opposed to the impressionist*, and thought it dangerous for students to attempt quick effect*. "To complete satisfactorily is what we painters live for," he exclaimed, and the attention which Velasquez, gave to detail was cited in this connection. With Mia Ellen Terry, Miss Corkran had as interesting- talk on the subject of acting. The great actress lamented that her art allowed of no withdrawal or correction uncase of pnjj+aW- "Then there is the <Hfferei>ce in one's mood*—one cannot always feel tbe same. In Portia, which I have acted over eight hundred tomes, one grow* to be like a machine." Speaking of her wonderful facial expressions in tbe pait of Lucy in "Ravenswood," tbe actress stated, "The expression was the real outcome of my feeling at the time. Sometimes I feel quite the girl, all the passion of the moment masters me, and thxiCe through me, and makes me act «c if I were the heroine of the moment r at others I merely walk through, the play, not attempting the pourtrsyal of emotion I really dontfeeL"

.Under ihW. An Interview presumably, thai with body should Ranjitsinhji. sound mind, from W*ltiamrt(liSlli cently asked Ranjitnnhji, the, .*ijSSi||O cricketer, to stand for P&rlia&uott-; request is one which has made before, and ,r ßanji" bw cused, quite unfairly it would *ppeisvyri§§«j hostile journals, of "tuft-hunting strength (literally) of 'athletic «■**&s» legs. , " Interviewed on the subject representative of the London press," the celebrated baUman that nothing was further from hie tlmj*ttlfj| than entering politics, and when the feation turned to cricket, and. the' qw».| WjL tion of widening or heightening ■ twl "Wi ■wickets, be was obviously much wliewi 3 m£~ The interviewer found him strongly |k. posed to either alteration. The object , I|f|| be assumed, was to reduoe the drown games, but this would be better it'tiU feezed by improved fielding, and by an improvement in holding c*tche,->J* "Cricketers, , he said, "do not lay itwp'Ml enough on the all-importance of. firidiuSMi as the first of arts and the most thing to their side. Look at Jtoopa*- 1" j the finest fielder, bar none, in the vot}&~« Hβ justified over and over again hit j*^?. , lection for test-match teams on Moamfc. of this alone." Bowling has aleo <$eleriW>, ted, he thought, the reason probably txtiai ,_' that proficiency in this department o| tM ' ; game does not impress the imaghntton '' m" much as a big score in batting, tad '-I the finest performance is quickly forgotteni ' J I Consequently the nun who might reason- I ably hope Jo excel in either branch givei.;. most of his attention to batting. Amcnf ■; bowlers -whom he feared most hirosdf, Ranjiteinhji ranked Lockwood, PeeH,Nobh, .. and . Mold, in' the order given, but not' for* , getting Richardson, " whose bowling w«r, alwaya of a sporting sort, and he had theknack of 'all sorts' of balle." Though-' opposed to altering the wickets, "Ranji" ' was strongly in favour of gauging bate. ,"- ---"A man could be stationed to your bat as you went out to the wjktot, and your bat should be able to go- in tb»V ; gauge before you were allowed to pl»y ball." ' -;jii