By the time this meets the eye of the reader the grave will have closed over the mortal remains of my dear friend and chief, Mr. David Pae, editor of the People's Friend. The sad news is not many hours old as these lines are being penned, and I find it difficult yet to realise the fact that he will no more occupy his accustomed arm-chair on the opposite side of the desk on his bi-weekly visits to the office. Only last night he was working in his garden at Craigmount, Newport, and writing at his desk, apparently well and in his usual health, and by half-past four o'clock in the morning he had passed into his rest, having died of disease of the heart, after an hour's illness, on the early morning of Friday, May 9th.

My dear friend had a severe attack of heart spasms about two years ago, which brought him to the verge of the grave, but he rallied, and was spared to recover almost his normal good health, and to resume his duties, though cautioned by the doctor to take things easier, and avoid excitement of all kinds. It was not, therefore, without a premonitory warning that death came to him, and, in the satisfaction of enjoying much of his inner thoughts and confidences, I am glad to testify that he was fully prepared for the great change to which we are all hastening.

His loss will be deeply felt by a wide circle of friends, to whom he was endeared by his sterling qualities as a man, and the kindly, genial warmth of his disposition. Beyond the immediate circle of his personal friends, to whom his loss is irreparable, the death of Mr Pae will be a sad blow to many a young literary aspirant whom he has helped by his kindly counsel and encouragement. These, as I know, are not few, and by them all he will be sincerely mourned as a "guide, philosopher, and friend," whose place in their hearts and help in their life will not be easily filled.

David Pae was born, on 6th May 1828, on the banks of the Almond at Buchanty, Perthshire, and was therefore aged 56 at his death. His father was a master miller, who was drowned one stormy night while attempting to ford the Almond on horseback, within sight of the lights of his home. Young David, then only six weeks old, was taken by his mother to Coldingham, on the Scottish Border, where she remained with her family, and here he grew up among that delightful Border scenery he was afterwards to weave in so deftly to the descriptive passages of many of his serial tales. He was educated at the Parish School, and when quite a youth came to Edinburgh, and found a situation as warehouseman with Mr. Thomas Grant, printer and publisher, George Street.

He had all through life a strong fancy for the drama, and it was as a dramatic critic that he was to make his first literary effort. I have heard him express his feelings of fear and anxiety as he slipped into the Post Office his first dramatic criticism addressed to the Editor of The Theatre, a short-lived periodical published at that time in Edinburgh in the interest of dramatic art, and of his joyful excitement when he saw his contribution in all the glories of print in the next number. This led, I understand, to his afterwards being appointed to the editorship of the periodical, which he conducted for the following twelve months.

But it was not in this line that David Pae's finest talents were to find their fullest development. He was an earnest Bible student, and had so familiarised himself with the sacred writings that he was able to quote almost any passage; and the way in which he could supply in after life apt quotations from Scripture to point a conversation or illustrate a thought was somewhat remarkable. As an evidence of his Biblical study and research, and of the early bent of his mind, it may be mentioned that at the time the Crimean war was about to begin, he issued anonymously a shilling pamphlet with the title, "The Coming Struggle," the design of which was to warn the people of this country against an alliance with Continental and Papal Powers, bringing prophecy to bear upon the events then transpiring with an ability and vigour that created a most profound impression, and caused quite a stir throughout the country. This was followed shortly after by a more comprehensive work, entitled "The Second Advent," in which the views set forth in the previous one were elaborated and enforced with singular skill and address. They are both remarkable productions as coming from a young man of twenty-six years of age; but he was still only feeling his way in literature. Not yet had he found the true vein in which he was destined to spend his best energies and years. A treatise upon "Mesmerism and Animal Magnetism" - a subject at the time exciting great public attention - was his next literary effort. This was followed by "A History of America," but not even yet had he touched the proper key, though he was struggling on perseveringly to find it. His literary style was now well formed, and he wielded a singularly graceful and facile pen.

About this period he broke new ground in a serial story, entitled "Jessie Melville, or the Double Sacrifice," or, as it was first entitled, "Jessie the Bookfolder." This story, I understand, appeared simultaneously in the North Briton, published in Edinburgh and in the Penny Post, published in Glasgow - and it is not going too far to say that the success which attended it was something astonishing. It sent up the circulation of both papers with a bound. I have a vivid recollection of the first appearance of "Jessie the Bookfolder" in Glasgow, and of the eager interest with which each weekly instalment was received. It was afterwards published in book form, and is eagerly read to this day.

Shortly before this time the stamp-duty had been taken off the newspapers, and the penny paper was still something of a novelty. But a greater novelty was the appearance of a serial story in a weekly newspaper, and this innovation became popular at once. David Pae may therefore be credited with the origination of newspaper story writing, at least in Scotland, and by the wondrous success and popularity of his stories he has given an impetus to this important branch of literature that is felt over the length and breadth of the land. He had the field - now crowded with competitors - all to himself, and for many years he ruled, if not without a rival, at least without a compeer in the domain he had made his own.

When it is known that his stories for a considerable number of years back have been appearing in perhaps twelve largely circulated newspapers simultaneously, after being first published in the People's Journal, it will be readily believed that he was one of the most extensively read novelists of the present day. As regards the number of serial stories alone that he has written, he exceeds by far Sir Walter Scott, and is at least equal to Anthony Trollope - the exact number being fifty. I have mentioned his first story. The last serial he penned was the one just concluding in the People's Journal, entitled "Done in Secret; a Story of Two Border Marriages."

To give the reader an idea of the literary labours of Mr. Pae in the field of fiction, I give here, so far as I can find, a long, yet incomplete, list of the serials in the order of their publication :- "Jessie Melville, or the Double Sacrifice;" "The Merchant's Daughter, or Love and Mammon;" "Frederick the Foundling;" "Fraud and Friendship;" "Clara Howard, or the Captain's Bride;" "Lucy the Factory Girl, or the Secrets of the Tontine Close;" "The Heiress of Wellwood;" "Nelly Preston, or the Lawyer's Plot;" "George Dalton, or the Convict's Revenge;" "Nora Cushaleen, or the Murdered Wife;" "Biddy Macarthy, or the Hunted Felon;" "Flora the Orphan, or Love and Crime;" "Basil Hamilton, or the Ticket, of Leave;" "Very Hard Times, a Tale of the Cotton Famine;" "Helen Armstrong, or the Rose of Tweedside;" "Effie Seaton, or the Dark House in Murdoch's Close;" "Captain Wyld's Gang, a Glasgow Tale;" "The Smuggler Chief;" "Mary Paterson, or the Fatal Error;" "The Cloud on the Home;" "The Gipsy's Prophecy;" "The Haunted Castle, or a Brother's Treachery;" "Eustace the Outcast;" "Jeanie Sinclair, or the Lily of the Strath;" "The Heir of Douglas;" "Cast on the World;" "Annie Grey;" "The Laird of Birkencleuch;" "Clanranald;" "Isaac Barton's Crime;" "Helen Moir, or Love and Honour;" "The Foster Brother;" "Annabel, or the Temptation;" "Mayhew the Millspinner;" "Victor Mordaunt;" "Harold the Outlaw;" "A Shadowed Life;" "Mabel's Love;" "The Exploits of Rob Roy;" "Paul Jones;" "Deacon Brodie;" "Grace Darling;" "The Lost Heir of Glencorran," &c.

Nor was his talent by any means confined to novels. He was a man who could write gracefully on almost any subject. Essays, descriptive articles, sermons, reviews, flowed from his pen without apparent effort; and on all subjects of wide human interest that did not entail the massing of scientific facts or the piling up of wearisome statistics he was quite at home.

I have mentioned his fondness for Biblical lore, and his wide grasp of Scripture language and imagery. It was the desire of his life, as he has more than once stated, to write a book upon the River Jordan. He felt it would be a congenial theme, and that he could write an interesting and instructive book upon it - its banks were so crowded with Scriptural events, and associated so closely with the history of God's people, but he always said he must first visit the Holy Land before he would undertake to write about it. And he was only restrained from carrying out this project by the fear that the worry and toil of travel would excite him too much, and prematurely hasten the end he knew was appointed unto him.

Mr. Pae wrote for nine years to the North Briton and the Penny Post. He was also two years in Dunfermline - viz., in 1859-60 - as editor at the starting of the Dunfermline Press, where several of his stories first appeared. He married when he was 31, and lived a wedded life of singular felicity and happiness, and he is survived by his widow and two sons, for whom the deepest sympathy is felt in their sore bereavement. Upwards of twenty years ago his services were secured exclusively by Mr. Leng of the Dundee Advertiser as a story writer for the then recently started People's Journal, and since that time he has written steadily, at the rate of almost a serial novel every six months, a series of tales which have been read with keen interest by the immense multitude of the Journal's readers.

In 1869 he was appointed editor of this miscellany at the same time as I myself was appointed sub-editor, and let me bear witness to the cordiality and good feeling that has throughout marked our intercourse during all the intervening years.

Twenty-five years ago, when he married, he purchased Pentland College, at the base of the Pentland Hills, near the village of Loanhead, and devoted himself exclusively to literature. About twelve years ago he left Loanhead and came to reside in Newport. Here he built his handsome villa residence, Craigmount, on the slope of the hill to the east of the village, overlooking the broad estuary of the Tay, and had sat down, surrounded with all the comforts and elegances of life, to enjoy, as one might have hoped, the welcome leisure earned by years of incessant toil in the quiet evening of life, when the sudden summons came that called him hence.

It may perhaps be difficult, if not quite impossible, to estimate the place of David Pae in the rank of novelists, seeing that he preserved his anonymity so carefully, and that critics outside the circle of his acquaintance could not, therefore, pass an opinion upon his tales. This, however, may be said: he wrote for a purpose - to supply a demand for serial stories in weekly newspapers. He discovered the vein that best pleases newspaper readers, and with unflagging energy supplied the demand for upwards of a quarter of a century, writing sometimes two stories simultaneously. The high tone of his stories is worthy of all praise. With every temptation to pander to the craving for excitement, he has, while enchaining his readers with a striking plot and well worked out situations, spoken to them from a lofty moral altitude, the effect of which cannot but be for good. He had a keen eye and warm heart for the beauties of Nature, in all of which he saw with a feeling of reverence the evidences of design, and was able with devout spirit to look "from Nature up to Nature's God."

He had a high ideal before him as editor of the Friend. He wished it to be in the fullest sense an instructive, elevating, and interesting miscellany, and, with a calm impartiality that admitted of no favouritism, he selected his material wherever he found he had the true writer, and the reader can judge for himself with what result. On the starting of the Dundee Evening Telegraph he was appointed dramatic critic for that paper, and up to the note of his death discharged his critical duties with rare ability, combining fairness and candour with sympathetic generosity. To him also was allotted the difficult and responsible duty of selecting tales both for the Journal and Friend, and in the Christmas competitions in connection with the Journal his critical judgment determined the prizewinners.

Among his minor writings may be mentioned a delightful book upon Rosslyn and Hawthornden, published about ten years ago; and a drama entitled "Drumclog," founded upon Scott's "Old Mortality," which was enacted some years ago in Edinburgh. He was also the author of many essays, short tales, and sketches, as well as of three or four of the serial tales in the Friend of past years, the names of which will be found in the list already given. The evening before his death he was busily occupied with the forthcoming Holiday Number, and thus literally died in harness.

And now, dear friend. adieu. With a full heart I have hastily penned these lines. I feel how all inadequate they are to do justice to the chief under whom I have served so long, but, in the hope that they will be accepted in the spirit in which they have been written, I permit them to go, as the expression of my sincere sorrow for the loss of a friend I have esteemed so highly, and whose death I mourn so much.

BACK TO DAVID PAE

BACK TO THE SENSATION PRESS MAIN INDEX

Maintained by Jennifer Carnell: jennifercarnell@sensationpress.com

Copyright © 2003 - 2005, The Sensation Press, All Rights Reserved.
webmaster@sensationpress.com

The Sensation Press
116 Sedlescombe Road North
Hastings
East Sussex
TN37 7EN
United Kingdom