If this was an unpublished manuscript, rights of first publication would apply and it might be covered by a kind of copyright that would vary depending on the country. Since this was "rediscovered" after first being unambiguously published back in the 1890s, it's pretty clearly in the public domain.
OP got incredibly lucky though that the author's name was included in the original publication - things like this (i.e. contributions to newspapers or magazines) were often published under obscure pseudonyms, initials, puzzling hints like "By the author of Such-and-such" or no author indication at all.