576 



The Review of Reviews. 



December 1, 19^6. 



"THE APOTHEOSIS OF BRITISH SCULPTURE." 



The iK-vv Victoria and Albert Museum at South 

 Kensington is described in the Pal/ Mall Magazine, 

 bv Mr. Edgcumbe Staler, as a Valhalla for London. 

 The genial chief of the modelling school, Professor 

 Lanteri, is said to have created a new period in 

 British art: — 



The influence of Professor l.anteri UDon British sculpture 

 has l,.een. .ind is. immense. Coming over to England from 

 Prance during the disastrous war of 1870-71. he. together 

 with Dalou. Gerome. l.e Gros, and other artists, found a 

 heart?- welcome and ready assistance at the hands of Leigu- 

 ton and other British confrPre*. Dalou became Master of 

 Modelling at South Kensington, and when he returned to 

 France in 1874, Lanteri was appointed his successor. Con- 

 sequently, for ,1 generation and more the latter has been 

 moulding not only British clays, but British sculptors. 



When Lanteri's great stone figure of Fame crowns 

 the new national Palace of Art, it should, the writer 

 says, be hailed as the apotheosis of nineteenth cen- 

 turv sculpture in Britain. A curious story is told 

 of the selection of sculptors for some of the work : — 



The allocation of four subjects to present students of 

 the Royal College was due directly to the hearty patronage 

 <if Sir Aston Webb. Their assignment was managed quite 

 after the method .idopted in old Florence — the names of 



Constable," " Leighton." " Millais." and " Watts " were 

 written ttpon slips of paper, one of which was drawn by 

 oach student from a hat. 



MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



The First Instalment. 



The editor of the North AnKrican Review begins 

 with the publication of Mark Twain's autobiography 

 in the number for September 7th, the first of the 

 fortnightly series. He says that he has read a 

 quarttr-million of words of the autobiography which 

 Mark Twain has already WTitten, and he declares 

 that he is convinced that a life story of such sur- 

 passing interest was never told before. 



Mark Twain himself speaks in even more glowing 

 terms of his autobiography. He begins in the fol- 

 lowing characteristic fashion : — 



I intend that this autobiography shall become a model 

 for all future biographies when it is published, after my 

 death, and I also intend that it shall be read and admired 

 a good many centuries because of its form and method- 

 It is based on a. system which is a complete and purposed 

 jumble. The book is never to end until I die. If I could 

 talk to a stenogr.apher two hours a day for a hundred 

 years, I would still never be able to put down a teuth 

 part of the things which have interested me in my life- 

 time. 



I told Howells that this autobiography of mine would 

 live a couple of thousand years, without any effort, and 

 would then take a fresh start and live the rest of the 

 time. 



He said he believed it would, and asked me if I meant 

 to make a library of it. 



I said that that was my design; but that, if I should 

 live long enough, the set of volumes could not be contained 

 merely in a city; it would recuire a State: and that there 

 would not be any multi-billionaire alive, perhaps, at any 

 time during its existence who would be able to buy a full 

 set, except on the instalment plan. 



Howells applauded, and was full of praises and endorse- 

 ment, which was wise in him and judicious. If he had 

 manifested a different spirit, I would have thrown him 

 out of the window. I like criticism, but it must be my 

 way. 



With this amusing introduction Mark Twain pro- 

 ceeds to begin at the beginning by recording the 

 fact that the Clemenses of Virginia were pirates and 

 slavers in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He says 

 that ■' this was no discredit to them, as it was a re- 

 spectable trade then and monarchs were partners 

 in it. In my time I have had desires to be a pirate 

 mvse'.f. " In the following reign one of his ancestors 

 was British Ambassador, and married there and sent 

 down a strain of Spanish blood to warm them up. 

 This man, or another Geoffrev Clement, helped to 

 sentence Charles I, to death. Upon this claim Mark 

 Twain says : — 



I have always been obliged to believe that Geoffrey Cle- 

 ment, the martyr-maker, was an ancestor of mine, and to 

 regard him with favour, and, in fact, pride. This has not 

 had a good effect upon me, for it has made me vain, and 

 that is a fault. It has made me set myself above people 

 who were less fortunate in their ancestry than I, and has 

 moved me to take them down a peg, upon occasion, and 

 say things to them which hurt them before company. 



After passing through a more or less distinguished 

 series of Clemenses, Mark Twain tells how his 

 mother was a Lambton, a native of Kentucky, who 

 married his father in r823. They removed to James- 

 town, in Tennessee : — 



There their first crop of children were born, but as I 

 was of a later vintage I do not remember anything about 

 it. I was postponed — postponed to ilissouri. Missouri was 

 an unknown new State, and needed attractions. 



He wrote about Jamestown in the " Gilded Age," 

 and Mark Twain tells us that Colonel SeLers, the 

 delightful enthusiast of that story, was in real life 

 his mothers favourite cousin, James Lampton. 

 James Lampton floated all his days in a tinted mist 

 of magnificent dreams, and died at last without 

 seeing one of them realised. 



The Diversity of Messenger Duty. 



In the October number of the Roxal Magazine 

 Mr. VV. B. Northrop wTites on the strange duties 

 which a London District Messenger Boy may be 

 asked to undertake. Not long ago a messenger was 

 sent for to perform the duty of changing poultices 

 for a cantankerous gentleman. But baby-minding 

 seems one of the most important occupations, and 

 another is leading the blind. 



Here is a table showing the employments in which 

 they are most Frequently engaged: — 



Baby-minders and nursemaids. Attendants for new M.P.'s, 

 Government couriers. Messengers to Royalty, Trained 

 nurses, Globe-trotters on one-minutes notice, .ittendanta 

 for T.aluable pets. Reminders for' the absent-minded. At- 

 tendants on the blind. Guards for the dead. Public car- 

 riers. Bootblacks, Shopping commissioners. Burglar catch- 

 ers, Caddies for golfers. Cricket and Tennis attendants. 

 Models for artists. Theatre attendants. Guides of all kinds. 

 Secret service work. Lunatic minders. Lift operators. Rapid 

 travellers. Special clerks. Waiters, Grooms, Actors. 



