OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 106, 28 January 1908, Page 7

OBITUARY.

■, A NOVELIST AND A VIOLINIST. • T ISI.IqiI^rB—PRESS -ASSOCIATION —COPIHIOIIT. 'London, January 20, 1 Tho death is annqijnsodiof Quula, tho novelist, . . • Auguste Wjlhclmj, tho violinist, OUIDA, ~ ■■■:■ : By the death of QiUGa,i which is' chronicle® in our cablcs to-dnv, the world hns- lost a nguro of picturesque interest, but not a living force. There was a time when tiio yollow-! backed books, published ntitwo'lihfllinff.'ij'woro eagerly bought, read with avidity, and -put awaj on the top shelf iofvthe,-library,- 'where the children would not got them- s If "they tiro still read, it if, probably :jn the -sixpennyi edition. Reviewers., paid respectful attention to her last novel, " 'i'jifi Waters of Edcra," when It first appeared, but her successes and ljpr voguo wow .matters: of the sixties;'.*seTen>..ties, _and eighties. It was" her fourth, book, 'tinder Two Plugs,'!'.published W IN(>7, that won for hqi' moat praise, n\ '-plory of French military Jifo, that revealed a knowledgo o( nulitao alhur.i ltsmarkable in a woman. i Oiuda," as Louieo do la Bamce. when a baby nicknamed hersoll, wan boru m hngInml.at Utiry St, Ldmonds, in 181Q, Her father was of English -farmer;- stoskrj-hetf-wotfojts-French. She lived long in London, and from 187 V made, hor home hi Italy, ffrsf. Nt Florence, and then at Lucou, wliero alio occupied a splendid threQ'Story villa, Slip began to publish in IW, when nho contributed' to "JBentley's Magazine' l an dpthor. imblicatiens;' rand her last- book, " btrcot. Dust,'' "was published in 1901:' Betwgqn those two dates sb? published mora than forty novels,, besides dramatic sketolies, critical studies,; and contributions to magazines- The beeMui'owh-'pfCli'cr 'novblsi aro fetrathmore,' " Idalia;'-'■ "Vndor Two 1' lags," " Puck," •" Moths," " Ciuilderoy," andThe Mussarenes.". »-.• 'fl'ivQ , Little -Wooden Shoes" is always mentioned ?-ns::.''nib66k that anyono can road." It was generally understood that all of her books did not come under that description. Colour, and -verve, and go, gl.amqur and pictliresriueness were characteristics of -her novels,. but "she was' in insight and accuracy of• nibsepvat'Qn, her stories were unreal, her ideals tawdry and unwholesome, her stvlc totally without beauty or distinction.'' Away from tho world of books pho had many,'ardent?imij. noble-Ayinr pathies, hhu was iv vjgoMus-.assjiilant of vivesectors,'and an ardent "clramyiiitref'tlio Italian peasant. She wrote bitterly about "the woman who worn dead birds as millinery, and dead seals .as coats, who would nttend 'racas, steeplechases, and courslngv,ißal'?lie§, .'-.Qtifwitflk .J&th. the suns,' or make no attempt to interest herself, in her ■ sarYnnts;'.:.in.: her. animals, 1 in the poor slavos of hor tradespeople '' ■ It wag o(iida wUo , /Baid,.»"JPhu.-moro ti eco of men, tlio mora 1 like dogs," ahd Qmdirin hor Italian homo surrounded beriiglf with'po | many dogs that alio- was known 1 in" Lucca' as i VSignora d?i Cam,"."the, Lady, pf thcnDpgs, l ' 1 Oil ono occasion she gave'a meal of milk, i bread, and- meat' to every - ' dog" in' Lucca:. -She was at that tune in financial difficulties, and in the end the landlord 1 of'the villa'where she lived turned her outi ■: Thpre was a dispute about some furnitnra. and sho brought ■' lin action against the landlord, and ' won her case in threo court?. The legal expenses, how-1 ever, still further crippled hor ..parse. Onto again Her thoughtless' expenditure - exhausted her resources, and her plight was such that on one occasion s)io passed 1 tho night under j the treos on the sea-front- Her main's mother I found her at five o'clook in the morning on tho 'beach, and took Mile, de la.Rameo.to hor own humble cottage at'.Monti,:. and; kept hor there for. some months. That homeless higlit on the cold boach caused " Ouida" to lose totally tlio sight of her loft eye, and alsp brought about a ' deafness, from which , slio never recovered. When the English papers published an ac-1 count of hor destitution, she resented it. bitteHy. i At the end of last year- slio was. granted a . Civil; List pension of .£l5O a year, a pension by which eho has 'only -benefited for a ■ fow nioaths., n ! WILHELMJ. "Willielmj, whoso daiith'is'reported, was: ono-i of the world's greatest violinists, and a composer of talent. He' was 'born" in 'ÜBingen, Nassau, on September 21, 1845. - After establishing himself as anviartist pf rare talent on tho Continent, he emburjeed on.a tour of- tho. colonies .in tho TO'sj-'-about''the'sami/tl'mc- as the great Bemcnyi- toured Now Zealand. People; of those day's' did not get the attractions iye do noiy, and the visit pf two such masters of the violin caused quito a sen-, sation, and many wd-re tW arguments among tho musical and music-lovers, as to which: was. tho better player. They,' however, " were not comparable, as they, ,werj) ,of, entirely, different tomporamonts, and jook ;an - opposite, view of thoir art oil that account. Eemenyi was jvcry warm aud emotional, audi proctieod all teprts of tricks with his instrument, as subscqnently did Ovido Musin, the Belgian. But notn'itllstanding his love far tho fantastic, lie was a beautiful player that-'reoched tlio heart, while pleasing tlie ear.' Willielmj'was coldly classical, but a master.of tone;,a bawist, and faultless 111 lua' toclmiquo; and if a distant comparison is made botween Remenyi and Musin, it could be .reasonably said that WiK holmj's temperament 1 was not uplilio tlyit of Heerman, who in Wellington a couplo of years ago; <