1
THE HESPERIAN
11
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'HE serious manner with which the press of the
state received the cadets' offer of their services
to the governor was very gratifying to the students.
Even the Omaha Bee forgot its prejudice long enough
to thank the boys for their generous offer.
LITERARY.
Among the many features that have made the monthly
magazine popular none have been more potent to produce
that result than memoirs. Aside lrom the momentary inter
est thev excite as the account of great events by "one who
was there," memoirs arc not unfrcquently a valuable con
tribution to history.
The history of one man's life very often is the history of
.in epoch, and about such a man myths gain currency in an
incredibly short space of time, which totally conceal the
truth of the matter or rear upon it a structure of fiction that
should have no place in history. No one is more competent
to dispel or prevent the myth than the man himself. The
fulsome flattery of biographers too often negatives or hinders
the labor of the historian and gives currency to talcs that re
flect or magnify the glory of the subject. Usually this is
lacking in a memoir, which therefore presents the best and
truest basis for the labors of the historian. On the other
hand the memoir occasionally degenerates into mere matter
of excuse.
Public opinion often too rashly and too hastily condemns
a man, and a sentence once passed, any attempt at justifica
tion or defense is futile. After his death public opinion just
as cageily receives what explanation his memoirs may offer
and giant the justice to his memoirs denied to him living.
Tally rand was never a leader; he lacked the settled and
detci mined policy that is essential to leadership, yet his
name is connected with every event in the most momentuous
epoch of French history. His talent as a diplomat insured
him employment under each successive victor in the strife
and turmoil of his time. History has pionounced him as
profligate as he was diplomatic, and no doubt any effort to
excuse his profligacy, or icturn the baseness of Ins character
would be useless. Yet his memoirs will be read with more
ihan common interest. His acknowledged diplomacy fitted
him to estimate the abilities of the celebrities of the stirring
age in which he lived; 'while the character of his narration
will illustrate the spirit of the times. The current number of
the CeiUury contains the first installment of his memoirs.
In plain and concise language he has told the story of his
boyhood, and his entrance into politics. His position at the
out-break of the revolution, and his part in the assembly on
the 14th of July, he bus only mentioned. His exile and visit
to America, he has related somewhat more in detail, and he
seems to have been interested to know tlic statesmen of the
new American nation, some of whom he was later to astound
bv demanding from them as envoys a tribute and a bribe.
Of Hamilton he has expressed a high opinion, and indeed
considered him the equal of any living statesman. As an
economist he was quick to understand the situation of the
struggling nation; whose efforts to establish commerce he
condemned.
Although the narrative is concise, it is the conciseness of
the diplomat. There are many incidents in this period of
Tallynuid's life one would like to have explained, but of
them he is cautiously silent, seemingly content that so good
an opinion of Jiplomacy should prevail and careless of Jiis
moral reputation, or perhaps content that it was no worse.
His relations with Napoleon will form the topic of the next
installment of the memoirs, which will no doubt illustrate the
versatility that enabled the secretary of Mirabcau and the
bishop of the revolution to become the servant of Napoleon
and the empire.
Mrf, Barr's "Friend Olivia" will be read with delight by
those who feel the lack of idealism amid the realism of the
day. The history of England under the commonwealth and
the rcstoratiofi of Charles II is fertile in romantic incident.
The stern and forbidding temper of the Puritan was well
fitted to display the restrained intensity of emotion; the
Quaker represented intense devotion, calm firmness, and un
ostentatious bravery; among the royalists unrestrained pass
ion found its true representatives. The history of the per
iod is the history of violent and tragic struggles both physi
cal and mental. It is from this period that Mrs. Barr has
drawn her inspiration.
The plot of the story is founded upon the destinies of a
Puritan, a Quaker and a royalist family. Baron Kelder of
Kcldcry represents the fidelity of the ideal Puritan to the
commonwealth, while he displays that devotion to conscience
that marked the early Puritans before their opinions became
a creed. Roger Prideaux is the ideal Quaker, with enough
faith in his religion to realize his favorite bible promise that
the Lord shall be an ever present help in time of trouble.
Dc Burg is the descendent of an old Norman family whose
members had always been renowned for the alacrity with
which they shifted their allegiance. The Commonwealth
found them ready to forsake the king and become its loyal
adherents, all but the son who incurred the wrath of Crom
well and of his father. Banished from home and country, he
gave himself up to deeds of lawlessness. An act of kindness
precipitated a vengeful prosecution of the Quaker by the roy
alist. Roger Prideaux received the exiled son, Olivia Pri
deaux won the love of Nathaniel Kildcr, son of the baron,
when Anastasia De Burg had failed. The resentment of
father and daughter at the Quaker family found willing in
struments among those who hated the Quakers for their
opinions. 1 lie persecutions ot tne (Quaker, hcginning lrom
such motives and sustained by the continual intrigue of the
royalist and his daughter, display in n vivid manner the
effect of success upon the Puritans. To succeed it was nec
essary to form an organized body; organization could only be
effective when it united men in opinion, partisan against the
world. Creed took the place of conscience, and persecution
fixed it as the standard of belief. The interference of Crom
well himself alone was potent to free the Quaker from im
prisonment. His experience in guilt had fitted Roger with
the zeal of an apostle against the persecutors of his brethren.
Set at liberty, he departed for the colonics where there was
much need of help for the Quakers. New England Puritans
were more dogmatic than their brethren at home, and their
influence had sufficed to turn the good naturcd people of New
Amsterdam against the new sect. Br.ron Kelder had had
reason to fear that the malice of the royalist might ruin him
and had made many journeys to Cromwell's court, lie had
been Cromwell's comrade in arms, and his familiarity en
abled him to observe that varying joy or sternness which was
peculiar to the great man's temper. His son Nathaniel, too,
had occasion to visit Cromwell, and wus able to detail to his
neighbors the story of the storm llint immediately preceded
and the calm that followed Cromwell's dentil.
Dc Burg's machinations at last worked his own ruin. IIq
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