Tribute to David Pae by Mr. W.D. Latto, editor of the People's Journal. It was published in the Dundee Advertiser and People's Journal, May 10 1884, and was reprinted in Eustace the Outcast.

To-day it is our melancholy duty to announce the sudden death of Mr. David Pae, which occurred at his residence, Craigmount, East Newport, at an early hour yesterday morning. Although it had been known to himself and to his intimate friends for some time back that his life might be cut short at any moment, yet death, as generally happens in such cases, has come with startling suddenness. About a couple of years ago he had a bad attack of spasms in the region of the heart, which greatly alarmed his family, and since that time his health has never been so robust as it was previously. Yet, so far as appearances went, he might have been judged by the casual observer to be in a condition of the soundest bodily vigour. But "things are not always what they seem." There lurked in his system the seeds of that fatal disease which has all too surely done its work. On Tuesday he was in the Advertiser Office in his usual health of body and genial frame of mind, unfolding a design for the composition of a new novel to succeed those presently running in the People's Journal. On Thursday evening he worked in his garden till eight o'clock, took his supper at ten, and retired to rest seemingly m his ordinary health and spirits. At about three o'clock yesterday morning, however, he was seized with severe spasms in the heart, from which death resulted in the brief space of little more than an hour. He leaves behind him a widow and two sons to mourn their sad and sudden bereavement.

Being naturally of a quiet and retiring turn of mind, Mr. Pae did not mingle much in society, and took no part whatever in public affairs. He lived in his study, and had few enjoyments outside his own happy domestic circle. For this reason he was not personally or even by name very widely known in the literary world, and still less was he known to the world at large. Many persons, therefore, whose eyes may alight on the heading to this notice of his death may be excused if they inquire, "Who was Mr. David Pae?" We shall endeavour to answer this question by giving a brief narrative of the leading incidents in his life, and enumerating a few of his literary achievements.

[Here follows a biographical sketch, and list of Mr. Pae's literary works, which will be found in the paper from the Friend.]

The amount of brain work implied in this long tale of literary labour only those who earn their bread by the pen can adequately realise, and, long as the list is, it by no means exhausts the enumeration of his works. He had written many novels, besides other works, before he had formed a connection with the People's Journal. When he began to write in the Journal, on Sept. 5, 1863, the circulation of the Journal was but 49,250; today it is 156,190, and it is not too much to say that for not a little of this amazing growth in its circulation the Journal has been indebted to the indefatigable zeal and rare literary skill of Mr. David Pae. Shortly after the People's Friend was established Mr. Pae was invited to undertake the editorship-in-chief of that popular weekly miscellany; and with the assistance of his able coadjutor, Mr. Andrew Stewart, its success has been hardly less gratifying than that of the Journal.