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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39406-8.txt b/39406-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2200988 --- /dev/null +++ b/39406-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14959 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2, by +John Wilson Townsend + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2 + 1784-1912 + +Author: John Wilson Townsend + +Release Date: July 6, 2012 [EBook #39406] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. Alley, III and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + + +KENTUCKY IN +AMERICAN LETTERS + + + + +OTHER WORKS BY MR. TOWNSEND + + +_Richard Hickman Menefee_. 1907 +_Kentuckians in History and Literature_. 1907 +_The Life of James Francis Leonard_. 1909 +_Kentucky: Mother of Governors_. 1910 +_Lore of the Meadowland_. 1911 + + + + +KENTUCKY IN +AMERICAN LETTERS + +1784-1912 + +BY +JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY +JAMES LANE ALLEN + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOL. I + +THE TORCH PRESS +CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA +NINETEEN THIRTEEN + + + + +_Of this edition one thousand sets have been printed, of which +this is number_ + +241 + +COPYRIGHT 1913 +BY THE TORCH PRESS +PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1913 + +[Illustration: (Printers' Union Logo)] + + + + + +To My Mother + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Mr. Townsend's fellow countrymen must feel themselves to be put under +a beautiful obligation to him by his work entitled _Kentucky in +American Letters_. He has thus fenced off for the lovers of New World +literature a well watered bluegrass pasture of prose and verse, which +they may enter and range through according to their appetites for its +peculiar green provender and their thirst for the limestone spring. +This strip of pasture is a hundred years long; its breadth may not be +politely questioned! + +For the backward-looking and for the forward-looking students of +American literature, not its merely browsing readers, he has wrought a +service of larger and more lasting account. Whether his patiently done +and richly crowned work be the first of its class and kind, there is +slight need to consider here: fitly enough it might be a pioneer, a +path-blazer, as coming from the land of pioneers, path-blazers. + +But whether or not other works of like character be already in the +field of national observation, it is inevitable that many others soon +will be. There must in time and in the natural course of events come +about a complete marshalling of the American commonwealths, especially +of the older American commonwealths, attended each by its women and +men of letters; with the final result that the entire pageant of our +literary creativeness as a people will thus be exhibited and reviewed +within those barriers and divisions, which from the beginning have +constituted the peculiar genius of our civilization. + +When this has been done, when the States have severally made their +profoundly significant showing, when the evidence up to some century +mark or half-century mark is all presented, then for the first time +we, as a reading and thoughtful self-studying people, may for the +first time be advanced to the position of beginning to understand what +as a whole our cis-Atlantic branch of English literature really is. + +Thus Mr. Townsend's work and the work of his fellow-craftsmen are all +stations on the long road but the right road. They are aids to the +marshalling of the American commonwealths at a great meeting-point of +the higher influences of our nation. + +Now, already American literature has long been a subject in regard to +which a library of books has been written. The authors of by far the +most of these books are themselves Americans, and they have thus +looked at our literature and at our civilization from within; the +authors of the rest are foreigners who have investigated and +philosophized from the outside. Altogether, native and foreign, they +have approached their theme from divergent directions, with diverse +aims, and under the influence of deep differences in their critical +methods and in their own natures. But so far as the writer of these +words is aware, no one of them either native or foreign has ever set +about the study of American literature, enlightened with the only +solvent principle that can ever furnish its solution. + +That solvent principle is contained within a single proposition. That +single proposition is the one upon which our forefathers deliberately +chose to found the civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race in the New +World: that it should not be a civilization of States which were not a +Nation; that it should not be the civilization of a nation without +states; but that it should be a Nation of States. + +Now, if any man aspires to draw from American literature the +philosophy of its traits, if he sets it as the goal of his wisdom to +explain its breadth and its narrowness, its plenty here and its lack +there, its color in one place and its pallor in another, let him go +back to the will of the fathers in the foundation of the Republic and +find the explanation of our literature at the basis of our whole +civilization. He will never find it anywhere else. He will find it +there as he there finds the origin of our system of government, of our +system of industry, of our system of political barriers, of our system +of education: in the entire nature of our institutions as derived and +unfolded from the idea that we should be a nation of states. Our +literature--our novels and our poetry--have been as rigorously +included in this development as all the other elements of our life. + +For the first time in this way he may come to see a great light; and +with that light shining about him he may be prepared to write the +first history of American literature. + +None has yet been written. + +[Illustration] + + + + +PREFACE + + +I + +What is a Kentucky book, is the one great question this work has +elicited. Surely a Kentucky book is one written by a Kentuckian about +Kentucky or Kentuckians and printed in Kentucky; surely it is a book +written by a Kentuckian upon any subject under the sun, and published +in any clime; surely it is one written in Kentucky by a citizen of any +other state or country, regardless of the subject or place of +publication, for, "in general, I have regarded the birthplace of a +piece of literature more important than that of the author." But is a +book, though treating of Kentucky or Kentuckians, regardless of its +place of publication, whose author was not born in, nor for any +appreciable period resided in, this state, entitled to be properly +classified as a Kentucky work? The writer has responded in the +negative to this question in the present work. + +There have been several noted American authors who have written volumes +about Kentucky or Kentuckians, and they themselves were not natives of +this state, nor resided within its confines. Those early Western +travelers rarely omitted Kentucky from their journeys. The first of +them, F. A. Michaux, published his famous _Travels to the West of the +Alleghany Mountains, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee_, at +London, in 1805; two years later F. Cuming's _Tour to the Western +Country, through Ohio and Kentucky_, was printed at Pittsburg; and in +1817 John Bradbury got out the first edition of his now noted _Travels +in the Interior of America_, at London. Bradbury died in 1823 and +to-day lies buried in the cemetery at Middletown, Kentucky, near +Louisville. George W. Ogden's _Letters from the West_ (New Bedford, +1823); W. Bullock's _Sketch of a Journey through the Western States_ +(London, 1827); and Tilly Buttrick's _Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries_ +(Boston, 1831), round out fairly well that group of Scotchmen, +Englishmen, New Englanders, and what not, who found many interesting +things in Kentucky a hundred years and more ago. Ogden spent two summers +in Kentucky; Bullock owned a river-side tract near Ludlow, Kentucky, and +old Bradbury sleeps in a quiet Kentucky hamlet, but neither of them may +be properly classified as a real Kentuckian. + +The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy of 1825 was the one Kentucky event that +kindled the imaginations of more alien writers than any other happening +in our history. Edgar Allan Poe, William Gilmore Simms, Charles Fenno +Hoffman, G. P. R. James, James Hall, and several others, wrote plays, +novels, and poems based upon this tragedy. In 1832 James Kirke Paulding, +the friend of Washington Irving, published one of the earliest Kentucky +romances, entitled _Westward Ho!_ which name he got from the old +Elizabethan drama of John Webster and Thomas Dekker. Two years after the +appearance of Paulding's tale, William A. Caruthers, the Virginia +novelist, printed _The Kentuckian in New York_; and in the same year +Thomas Chandler Haliburton ("Sam Slick"), put forth one of his earliest +works, _Kentucky, a Tale_ (London, 1834). In 1845 Charles Winterfield's +_My First Days With the Rangers_, appeared, to be followed the next year +by William T. Porter's _A Quarter Race in Kentucky_. + +These writers hardly did more than point the way to Kentucky for Mrs. +Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose world-famous novel, _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ +(Boston, 1852), was set against a background of slave-holding +Kentucky. This is the most famous example our literature affords of a +writer of another state or country coming to Kentucky for the +materials out of which to build a book. + +In 1860 David Ross Locke, the Ohio journalist and satirist, discovered +the _Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby_, postmaster at "Confedrit X Roads, +Kentucky," and his political satires on Kentucky, the _Nasby Letters_, +tickled the readers of his paper, _The Toledo Blade_, through many +years. These alleged communications from poor Petroleum may be read +to-day in Locke's _Swingin' Round the Cirkel_, and _Ekkoes from +Kentucky_. J. G. Marshall's _The Outlaw Brothers_ (New York, 1864); Miss +Martha Remick's _Millicent Halford: a Tale of the Dark Days of Kentucky +in the year 1861_ (Boston, 1865); two novels by Edward Willett, entitled +_Kentucky Border Foes_, and _Old Honesty: a Tale of the Early Days of +Kentucky_, both of which were issued in the late sixties; Constance F. +Woolson's _Two Women_ (New York, 1877), and Mrs. Anna Bowman Dodd's +story, _Glorinda_ (Boston, 1888), concludes the group of writers of the +comparatively modern school who did not linger long in the "meadowland," +but who found it good literary soil, and helped themselves accordingly. + +In recent years Mr. Winston Churchill's _The Crossing_, Dr. James Ball +Naylor's _The Kentuckian_, Mr. Augustus Thomas's _The Witching Hour_, +and the Kentucky lyrics of Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, the Ohio +poet, have drawn fresh attention to Kentucky as a background for +literary productions, although they are written by those who cannot +qualify as Kentuckians. But to claim any of these writers for the +Commonwealth, would be to make one's self absurd. Dr. Naylor's lines +upon this point are _apropos_: + + I must admit--although it hurts!-- + That I was born unlucky; + I've never, literally, had + A home in Old Kentucky. + And yet I feel should wayward Chance + Direct my steps to roam there, + I'd meet you all and greet you all-- + And find myself _at home_ there! + +As has already been indicated, the good physician-poet is not by any +manner of means the only alien bard who has remembered Kentucky in his +work. No less a poet than the great Sir Walter Scott celebrated +Kentucky in _Marmion_--the State's first appearance in English poetry. +The passage may be found near the close of the ninth stanza in the +third canto. Lord Marmion and his followers have ridden "the livelong +day," and are now quartered at a well-known Scottish hostelry. They +have all eaten and drunk until they are on the borderland of dreams +when their leader, seeing their condition, + + ... called upon a squire:-- + "Fitz-Eustace, know'st thou not some lay, + To speed the lingering night away? + We slumber by the fire."-- + + VIII + + "So please you," thus the youth rejoined + "Our choicest minstrel's left behind." + +And while Fitz realizes that he cannot, in any degree, equal the famous +singer to whom he has referred, he now further praises him, calls down +curses on the cause that kept him from following Marmion, and ventures + + "To sing his favourite roundelay." + + IX + + A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had, + The air he chose was wild and sad; + Such have I heard, in Scottish land, + Rise from the busy harvest band, + When falls before the mountaineer, + On lowland plains, the ripened ear. + Now one shrill voice the notes prolong, + Now a wild chorus swells the song: + Oft have I listened, and stood still, + As it came soften'd up the hill, + And deem'd it the lament of men + Who languish'd for their native glen; + And thought how sad would be such sound, + On Susquehannah's swampy ground, + _Kentucky's wood-encumber'd brake_, + Or wild Ontario's boundless lake, + Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain, + Recall'd fair Scotland's hills again! + +After Sir Walter, the next English poet to tell the world of Kentucky +and one of her sons, was George Gordon (Lord) Byron. His references +are found in the eighth canto and the sixty-first to the sixty-seventh +stanzas inclusive, of _Don Juan_. This poem was begun in 1819 and +published, several cantos at a time, until the final sixteenth +appeared in 1824. The sixty-first stanza will serve our purpose. + + LXI + + Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer, + Who passes for in life and death most lucky, + Of the greatest names which in our faces stare, + _The General Boone, back-woodsman of Kentucky_, + Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere; + For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he + Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days + Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze. + +In 1827 Alfred Tennyson, with his brother Charles, published a slender +sheaf of juvenile verses, entitled _Poems By Two Brothers_. _On +Sublimity_ contains eleven stanzas of ten lines each. The poet +disdains "vales in tenderest green," and asks for "the wild cascade, +the rugged scene," the sea, the mountains, dark cathedrals, storms, +"Niagara's flood of matchless might," and Mammoth Cave. + + The hurricane fair earth to darkness changing, + _Kentucky's chambers of eternal gloom_,[1] + The swift-pac'd columns of the desert ranging + Th' uneven waste, the violent Simoom + The snow-clad peaks, stupendous Gungo-tree! + Whence springs the hallow'd Jumna's echoing tide, + Hear Cotopaxi's cloud-capt majesty, + Enormous Chimborazo's naked pride, + The dizzy Cape of winds that cleaves the sky, + Whence we look down into eternity, + The pillar'd cave of Morven's giant king + The Yanar, and the Geyser's boiling fountain, + The deep volcano's inward murmuring, + The shadowy Colossus of the mountain; + Antiparos, where sun-beams never enter; + Loud Stromboli, amid the quaking isles; + The terrible Maelstroom, around his centre + Wheeling his circuit of unnumber'd miles: + These, these are sights and sounds that freeze the blood, + Yet charm the awe-struck soul which doats on solitude. + +Tennyson was the third and last English poet of the nineteenth century +to make mention of Kentucky in his works. + +Much writing has been done by Kentuckians from the beginning until the +present time, but most of what is usually termed literature is the work +of the school of today. That much, however, of the early productions, +especially the anonymous and fugitive poems, have been forever lost, may +be gathered from a letter written to Edwin Bryant, editor of _The +Lexington Intelligencer_, by an Ohio correspondent, which appeared in +that paper in January, 1834, a part of which is as follows: + + There were a vast number of rural and sentimental songs, sung by + the hunters and pioneers, that, in this our day, to the present + generation would be truly interesting. Would it not be wise for + you, Messrs. Editors, to publish a note in your valuable paper, + offering the "Poets' Corner," and save what you can of the + fragments of "Olden Times?"... I know that there were many + sentimental pieces--some written by a Mr. Bullock--many war songs; + one on St. Clair's defeat; and there was a wonderful flow of + poetical effusions on the first discovery of a settlement of + Kentucky. There was a wooing song of the hunter--one stanza I can + only repeat: + + "I will plough and live, and you may knit and sowe, + And through the wild woods, I'll hunt the buffaloe!" + + To many these things may appear as ... light as empty air, but + look to the future, and you will at once discover the inquisitive + mind will earnestly desire to look into such matters and things. + +The pity is, this admonition passed unheeded by Bryant and his +contemporaries, and much that "the inquisitive mind" would revel in +to-day, was thus lost. The most famous, however, of the pioneer songs +that the above quoted writer probably had in mind, _The Hunters of +Kentucky_, the celebrated ballad of the Battle of New Orleans, has come +down to us, but it was written by the alien hand of Samuel Woodworth, +who achieved a double triumph over oblivion by also writing _The Old +Oaken Bucket_. And were other "wooing songs of the hunter" extant, we +would certainly discover that many of them were done by non-Kentuckians. +Even _Kentucky Belle_, ballad of Morgan and his men, was the work of +Constance Fenimore Woolson, the famous author of _Anne_. + +In recent years the ballads of the Kentucky mountains have been +investigated by a group of scholars, and Dr. Hubert Gibson Shearin +will shortly publish a collection of them. It is impossible to discuss +them at this time; and as nearly all of them are offshoots of the old +English ballads and Scottish songs, done over by their Kentucky +descendants, the ever-recurring question: "Are they Kentucky +productions?" will not down. + + +II + +THE KENTUCKY MAGAZINES + +Kentucky has failed to produce and maintain a respectable literary +magazine for any considerable length of time. Many magazines have been +born in Kentucky with high hopes, and a few of them have braved the +storms for a number of years, but all of them have gone the way of all +the earth after a pathetic struggle for existence. + +The reasons for this lie not far afield: the leading magazines and +periodicals of the east through the immensity of their circulation +secure that large patronage necessary to maintain a publication +conducted on a generous basis, ensuring variety and excellence. +Experience has long since demonstrated even to the bravest of the +inland publishers that the point of distribution is the controlling +factor in success. The means of transportation which have so +miraculously improved, have annihilated distance and along with it to +no small extent the Western and Southern periodical of literary +flavor. The opulent publications are enabled through their very +prosperity to command contributors not to be approached by a +periodical circumscribed in means and constituency. Again, the +Kentucky magazines have all along made the fatal mistake of truckling +to dead prejudices and sectionalism. The material and the moulders +have long been with us, but the wide popular support, which after all +is the first essential, has failed to materialise, and it may be +regretfully apprehended that it now lies as far away as ever. + +The first magazine issued in Kentucky or the West was _The Medley, or +Monthly Miscellany, for the year 1803_, which was edited and published +by Daniel Bradford, son of old John Bradford, the editor of _The +Kentucky Gazette_. _The Medley_ lived through the year of 1803, but in +January, 1804, Editor Bradford announced that he was compelled, from +lack of appreciation, to abandon its publication. The twelve parts were +bound for those of the subscribers who cared to have them made into a +single volume, and probably not more than two copies are extant to-day. +_The Medley's_ literary merit was not impressive, and its death can only +be deplored because it happened to be the first Western magazine. + +_The Almoner_, a religious periodical, the first issue of which was +dated from Lexington, April, 1814, and which died a twelvemonth later, +was published by Thomas T. Skillman, the pioneer printer. Its account +of the preacher, John Poage Campbell, and his many theological works, +is about all one finds of interest in it. + +William Gibbes Hunt, a Harvard man, who later took a degree from +Transylvania University, established _The Western Review_ at +Lexington, in August, 1819, and this was the first literary magazine +in the West worthy the name. Hunt was a man of fine tastes, and he had +a proper conception of what a magazine should be. He worked hard for +two years, but in July, 1821,--the number for which month is notable +as having contained the first draft of General William O. Butler's +famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_, which is there entitled _The Boat +Horn_,--Hunt rehearsed the pathetic tale of the lack of support and +appreciation for a Western magazine, and, without any expressed +regret, entitled it his valedictory. He had survived twice as long as +any of his predecessors, and he probably felt that he had done fairly +well, as he undoubtedly had. The four bound volumes of _The Western +Review_ may be read to-day with more than an historical interest. Hunt +returned to his home in New England; and the only other thing of his +that is preserved is _An Address on the Principles of Masonry_ +(Lexington, 1821), and a very excellent oration it is, too. + +There were brave men after Hunt, however. _The Literary Pamphleteer_ was +born and died at Paris, Kentucky, in 1823; and in the following year +Thomas T. Skillman established _The Western Luminary_ at Lexington. This +was a semi-religious journal, but its publication was shortly suspended. +_The Microscope_ seems to have been the first magazine published at +Louisville, it being founded in 1824, but its life was ephemeral. Under +a half a dozen different names, with many lapses between the miles, _The +Transylvanian_, which Professor Thomas Johnson Matthews, of Transylvania +University, established at Lexington in 1829, has survived until the +present time. It is now the literary magazine of Transylvania +University. Mr. James Lane Allen, Mr. Frank Waller Allen, and one or two +other well-known Kentucky writers saw their earliest essays and stories +first published in _The Transylvanian_. John Clark's _Lexington Literary +Journal_, a twice-a-week affair, was founded in 1833; and the +_Louisville Literary News-Letter_, edited by Edmund Flagg and issued by +George D. Prentice, lived in the Kentucky metropolis from December, +1838, to November, 1840. + +Far and away the most famous literary periodical ever published in +Kentucky, was _The Western Messenger_, founded at Cincinnati in 1835, +and removed to Louisville in April, 1836. James Freeman Clarke +(1810-1888), the noted Boston Unitarian preacher and author, was editor, +publisher, and agent of _The Messenger_ while it was at Louisville; and +he solicited subscriptions throughout Kentucky. Ralph Waldo Emerson +first appeared as a poet in his friend Clarke's magazine. His _Goodby +Proud World_, _The Rhodora_, _The Humble Bee_, and several of his other +now noted poems, were printed for the first time in _The Messenger_. +Clarke also published papers from the hands of Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and nearly all of the +writers now grouped as the New England school. He printed a poem of John +Keats, which had never been previously published, the manuscript of +which was furnished by George Keats, brother of the poet, who lived at +Louisville for many years. Clarke later wrote an interesting sketch of +George Keats for his magazine. During parts of the four years he +published _The Messenger_ at Louisville he had as assistant editors +Christopher P. Cranch and Samuel Osgood, now well-known names in +American letters. Clarke returned to Boston in 1840, and _The Messenger_ +returned to Cincinnati, where it was suspended in April, 1841. "The +periodical was an exotic," wrote William Henry Venable, "a Boston flower +blooming in the Ohio Valley;" and this is the one-line history of it. +Its like was never seen before, never since, and will never be seen +again in the West. + +Thirteen years after _The Western Messenger_ left Louisville, _The +Western Literary Magazine_, a monthly publication, was begun; and +three years later, or in 1856, _The Louisville Review_, another +monthly, was established. But the war clouds of civil strife were +gradually gathering, and the endless pen scratching of the Kentucky +magazinist was lost in the cannon's roar. Newspapers were the only +things Kentuckians had time to peruse. + +Since the war Kentucky periodicals have been, almost without exception, +rather tame affairs. They have all been most mushroomish. A few of them +may be singled out, such as _The Southern Bivouac_, which was conducted +at Louisville for several years by General Basil W. Duke and Richard W. +Knott; _The Illustrated Kentuckian_, founded at Lexington, in 1892; _The +Southern Magazine_, of Louisville, published papers by Mr. Allen, +stories by Mr. John Fox, Jr., and several other now well-known writers; +and Charles J. O'Malley's _Midland Review_ ran for some time. These are +the comparatively recent Kentucky periodicals which have bloomed in a +day and wilted with the earliest winter. _The Register_, official organ +of the State Historical Society, is still being issued three times a +year. It is unique among Kentucky magazines in that it is the only one +that has had adequate financial support, which, however, comes to it in +the form of a State appropriation. For the last twenty-five years _The +Courier-Journal_, of Louisville, has devoted space in its Saturday +edition to reviews of new books; and in recent years _The Evening Post_, +also of Louisville, has maintained a similar department. + + J. W. T. + + Lexington, Kentucky + June 13, 1913 + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] The italics in which the three Kentucky lines are set, are my own. + + + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + + +The last several years have been devoted to the collecting and +classifying of Kentucky books and authors from Filson, in 1784, to Mr. +Allen, in 1912. While the author has done other things, this has been +his most serious business. + +Of the more than a thousand Kentucky writers, one hundred and +ninety-six, or those who achieved considerable reputation in their day +and generation, or others to whom fame came late, are now discussed. +The author hopes to publish within the next two or three years a +_Dictionary of Kentucky Writers_, which will attempt to bring together +in brief biographical and critical notes all of Kentucky's literary +workers from the beginning until the present time. The crossroads poet +is a most elusive, most diffident figure, but I shall do my best to +bring him into the _Dictionary_ that is to be. + +I have received assistance from many quarters. Colonel Reuben T. +Durrett, Dr. Henry A. Cottell, General Bennett H. Young, Colonel +Robert M. Kelly, Mrs. Evelyn Snead Barnett, Mrs. Elvira Miller +Slaughter, and Mr. George T. Settle, of Louisville, Kentucky, have +aided me in many directions. Mr. George McCalla Spears, of Dallas, +Texas, author of _Dear Old Kentucky_, and the owner of one of the best +collections of Kentucky books ever gotten together, I have to thank +for a catalogue of his library and a dozen informing letters. Judge +James H. Mulligan, Miss Anna Totten, Mrs. Annie Gratz Clay, Miss Jo +Peter, and Mr. James M. Roach, of Lexington, Kentucky, have loaned and +given me many rare Kentucky items; to Mr. William Kavanaugh Doty, of +Richmond, Kentucky, Mrs. Daniel Henry Holmes, of Covington, Kentucky, +Mrs. Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Kentucky, Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, +of Maysville, Kentucky, State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of +Frankfort, Kentucky, Mr. Alexander Hill, and Miss Marian Prentice +Piatt, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Henry Cleveland Wood, of Harrodsburg, +Kentucky, Mr. Paul Weir, of Owensboro, Kentucky, Mr. Ingram Crockett, +of Henderson, Kentucky, Mrs. Mary Addams Bayne, of Shelbyville, +Kentucky, Miss Leigh Gordon Giltner, of Eminence, Kentucky, and Mrs. +Caroline S. Valentine, of New Castle, Kentucky, the majority of whom +are writers, I am doubly indebted for facts regarding their own work, +as well as for what I now more especially thank them--information +concerning other Kentucky writers. + +Death found the two best friends, perhaps, this work had during the +course of its preparation, when it took Charles J. O'Malley, the +Kentucky poet and critic, and Jahu Dewitt Miller, the Philadelphia +lecturer and bookman. Both of these men had just gotten into the +spirit of the work when they died within a year of each other. +O'Malley wrote the most illuminating letters concerning Kentucky +authors it has been my good fortune to receive; Miller made the most +gratifying and surprising additions to my collection of Kentuckiana, +exceedingly scarce volumes and pamphlets which he alone seemed able to +unearth from the old bookshops of the country. The memories of them +both must be ever green with me and in this work. + +I have to thank Mr. Allen for his very fine introduction. To have +one's name associated with his is reward sufficient for the years of +toil and sacrifice this work has demanded of its author. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +JOHN FILSON 1 + THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY 2 + QUADRUPEDS 3 + BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY 4 + +JOHN BRADFORD 5 + NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I 6 + +MATTHEW LYON 8 + REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 9 + +GILBERT IMLAY 11 + THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER 13 + +ADAM RANKIN 17 + ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER 18 + UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE 18 + +THOMAS JOHNSON 19 + EXTEMPORE GRACE 21 + DANVILLE 21 + KENTUCKY 21 + HUDSON, WIFE-MURDERER 22 + PARSON RICE 22 + THE POET'S EPITAPH 22 + +GEORGE BECK 23 + FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE 24 + ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE 25 + ANACREON'S FIRST ODE 26 + +HUMPHREY MARSHALL 26 + PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY 28 + +STEPHEN T. BADIN 30 + EPICEDIUM 31 + +CHARLES CALDWELL 34 + GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE 35 + +ALLAN B. MAGRUDER 37 + CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON 38 + +HENRY CLAY 39 + REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH 42 + ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE 43 + +JOHN J. AUDUBON 45 + INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO 48 + +HORACE HOLLEY 52 + MR. CLAY AND COL. MEADE 53 + +CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE 56 + GEOLOGICAL ANNALS 58 + +MANN BUTLER 59 + PIONEER VISITORS 60 + +ZACHARY TAYLOR 62 + A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY 63 + +DANIEL DRAKE 65 + MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 67 + +MARY A. HOLLEY 69 + TEXAS WOMEN 70 + +JOHN J. CRITTENDEN 71 + EULOGY UPON JUSTICE MCKINLEY 73 + +JOHN M. HARNEY 74 + ECHO AND THE LOVER 76 + THE WIPPOWIL 77 + SYLPHS BATHING 78 + +GEORGE ROBERTSON 78 + ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 80 + EARLY STRUGGLES 80 + LITERARY FAME 81 + +SHADRACH PENN 82 + THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE 83 + +WILLIAM O. BUTLER 84 + THE BOATMAN'S HORN 86 + +HEW AINSLIE 87 + THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY 89 + THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK 89 + THE INGLE SIDE 90 + THE HINT O' HAIRST 91 + +JAMES G. BIRNEY 91 + THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES 93 + +THOMAS CORWIN 95 + THE MEXICAN WAR 96 + +HENRY B. BASCOM 98 + A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA 99 + +JAMES T. MOREHEAD 102 + JOHN FINLEY 103 + +LEWIS COLLINS 104 + PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 105 + +JULIA A. TEVIS 107 + THE MAY QUEEN 108 + +ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE 112 + SANCTIFICATION 113 + +CAROLINE L. HENTZ 114 + BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING 115 + +JOHN P. DURBIN 117 + IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON 118 + +FORTUNATUS COSBY, JR. 119 + FIRESIDE FANCIES 120 + +THOMAS F. MARSHALL 123 + TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS 124 + +JEFFERSON J. POLK 126 + THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS 127 + +GEORGE D. PRENTICE 129 + THE CLOSING YEAR 131 + ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY 133 + PARAGRAPHS 135 + +ROBERT M. BIRD 135 + NICK OF THE WOODS 137 + +JOHN A. MCCLUNG 139 + THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION 140 + +JAMES O. PATTIE 142 + THE SANTA FE COUNTRY 143 + +WILLIAM F. MARVIN 145 + EPIGRAM 146 + THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING 146 + SONG 147 + +ELISHA BARTLETT 147 + JOHN BROWDIE OF "NICHOLAS NICKLEBY" 148 + +SAMUEL D. GROSS 150 + KENTUCKY 151 + THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY 152 + +THOMAS H. CHIVERS 152 + THE DEATH OF ALONZO 154 + GEORGIA WATERS 156 + +JEFFERSON DAVIS 156 + FROM THE FAREWELL SPEECH 158 + +WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER 160 + THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST 162 + +THOMAS H. SHREVE 163 + I HAVE NO WIFE 164 + +ORMSBY M. MITCHEL 166 + ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD 167 + +ALBERT T. BLEDSOE 169 + SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR 171 + +RICHARD H. MENEFEE 173 + KENTUCKY: A TOAST 174 + +GEORGE W. CUTTER 176 + THE SONG OF STEAM 177 + +MARY P. SHINDLER 179 + THE FADED FLOWER 180 + +MARTIN J. SPALDING 181 + A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL 182 + +JOHN W. AUDUBON 185 + LOS ANGELES 186 + TULARE VALLEY 186 + CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO 187 + +ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE 187 + SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY 189 + +EMILY V. MASON 191 + THE DEATH OF LEE 192 + +EDMUND FLAGG 194 + THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST 195 + +CATHERINE A. WARFIELD 197 + CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY 198 + A PLEDGE TO LEE 199 + +J. ROSS BROWNE 200 + LAPDOGS IN GERMANY 201 + +ROBERT MORRIS 205 + THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE 206 + +AMELIA B. WELBY 207 + THE RAINBOW 209 + ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET 210 + +CHARLES W. WEBBER 211 + TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER 212 + +LEWIS J. FRAZEE 216 + HAVRE 217 + +THEODORE O'HARA 218 + THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD 220 + THE OLD PIONEER 223 + SECOND LOVE 225 + A ROLLICKING RHYME 225 + THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY 226 + +SARAH T. BOLTON 228 + PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE 229 + +JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE 231 + HENRY CLAY 232 + +JAMES WEIR, SR. 234 + SIMON KENTON 235 + +MARY E. W. BETTS 237 + A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD 238 + +REUBEN T. DURRETT 239 + LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE 241 + +RICHARD H. COLLINS 244 + PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 245 + +ANNIE C. KETCHUM 247 + APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH 248 + +FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD 250 + ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON 252 + AN AMAZING PROPHECY 254 + +STEPHEN C. FOSTER 255 + MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT 256 + +ZACHARIAH F. SMITH 258 + EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS 259 + +JOHN A. BROADUS 261 + OXFORD UNIVERSITY 263 + +MARY J. HOLMES 265 + THE SCHOOLMASTER 266 + +ROSA V. JEFFREY 269 + A GLOVE 270 + A MEMORY 271 + +SALLIE R. FORD 272 + OUR MINISTER MARRIES 273 + +JOHN E. HATCHER 276 + NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS 277 + +WILLIAM C. WATTS 279 + A WEDDING AND A DANCE 280 + +J. PROCTOR KNOTT 282 + FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH 283 + +GEORGE G. VEST 285 + JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY 286 + EULOGY OF THE DOG 286 + +WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON 288 + BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING 289 + +WILL WALLACE HARNEY 291 + THE STAB 292 + +J. STODDARD JOHNSTON 292 + "CAPTAIN MOLL" 293 + +JULIA S. DINSMORE 295 + LOVE AMONG THE ROSES 295 + +HENRY T. STANTON 297 + THE MONEYLESS MAN 299 + "A MENSÁ ET THORO" 300 + A SPECIAL PLEA 301 + SWEETHEART 301 + +SARAH M. PIATT 303 + IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD 304 + A WORD WITH A SKYLARK 305 + THE GIFT OF TEARS 306 + +BOYD WINCHESTER 307 + LAKE GENEVA 308 + +THOMAS GREEN 310 + THE CONSPIRATORS 312 + +FORCEYTHE WILLSON 313 + THE OLD SERGEANT 314 + +W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE 319 + IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON 321 + +BASIL W. DUKE 323 + MORGAN, THE MAN 324 + +HENRY WATTERSON 325 + OLD LONDON TOWN 327 + +GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN 331 + THE GYPSIES 332 + +JOHN L. SPALDING 334 + AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE 335 + +NATHANIEL S. SHALER 336 + THE ORPHAN BRIGADE 337 + TOM MARSHALL 339 + LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY 341 + +WILLIAM L. VISSCHER 342 + PROEM 343 + +BENNETT H. YOUNG 344 + PREHISTORIC WEAPONS 345 + +JAMES H. MULLIGAN 348 + IN KENTUCKY 350 + OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE 351 + +NELLY M. MCAFFEE 353 + FINALE 353 + +MARY F. CHILDS 356 + DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS 357 + +WILLIAM T. PRICE 359 + THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS 361 + +GEORGE M. DAVIE 363 + "FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE" 363 + HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL 364 + +JOHN URI LLOYD 364 + "LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT" 366 + + + + +KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS + + + + +JOHN FILSON + +John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at East +Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated at the academy of +the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, Maryland. Finley was afterwards +president of Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the +Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about 1783. In Lexington +he conducted a school for a year, and spent his leisure hours in +collecting data for a history of Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel +Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and +the information they gave him was united with his own observations, +forming the material for his book. Filson did not remain in Kentucky +much over a year for, in 1784, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and +persuaded James Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his +manuscript as _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of +Kentucke_; and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, where +his map of the three original counties of Kentucky--Jefferson, +Fayette, and Lincoln--was printed and dedicated to General Washington +and the United States Congress. This Wilmington edition of Filson's +history is far and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever +published. Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six extant +copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250--the highest price +ever paid for a Kentucky book. The little work was divided into two +parts, the first part being devoted to the history of the country, and +the second part was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever +published. Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the +Pennsylvania pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, yet +several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." Boone +is the author's central hero straight through the work, and he is +happier when discussing him than in relating the country's meager +history. Filson's _Kentucky_ was translated into French by M. Parraud, +and issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German version was +published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it into the several editions of +his _Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North +America_ (London, 1793). And several subsequent Western writers also +reproduced it in their works, seldom giving Filson the proper credit +for it. The last three or four years of his life John Filson spent in +Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was one of the founders of +Cincinnati, which he named "Losantiville;" and a short time later, in +1788, he wandered into the Miami woods one day and was never seen +again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, wrote his +biography, and established an historical organization, in 1884, which +he named the "Filson Club." Filson's fame is secure in Kentucky, and +Colonel Durrett and his work have made it so. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Life and Writings of John Filson_, by R. T. + Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); _Kentuckians in History and + Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907); _The First + Map of Kentucky_, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, 1908). + + +THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY + +[From _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky_ +(Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)] + +This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts +of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and +Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter, +which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom +severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly +supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about +the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that +month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring +storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of +weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are +sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and +there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping +along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract +of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the +Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these +winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very +much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture. + + +QUADRUPEDS + +[From the same] + +Among the native animals are the urus, bison, or zorax, described by +Cesar, which we call a buffalo, much resembling a large bull, of a +great size, with a large head, thick, short, crooked horns, and +broader in his forepart than behind. Upon his shoulder is a large lump +of flesh, covered with a thick boss of long wool and curly hair, of a +dark brown color. They do not rise from the ground as our cattle, but +spring up at once upon their feet; are of a broad make, and clumsy +appearance, with short legs, but run fast, and turn not aside for any +thing when chased, except a standing tree. They weigh from 500 to 1000 +weight, are excellent meat, supplying the inhabitants in many parts +with beef, and their hides make good leather. I have heard a hunter +assert, he saw above 1000 buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so +numerous were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away +their lives. There still remains a great number in the exterior parts +of the settlement. They feed upon cane and grass, as other cattle, and +are innocent, harmless creatures. + +There are still to be found many deer, elks, and bears, within the +settlement, and many more on the borders of it. There are also +panthers, wild cats, and wolves. + +The waters have plenty of beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats: nor +are the animals common to other parts wanting, such as foxes, rabbits, +squirrels, racoons, ground-hogs, pole-cats, and opossums. Most of the +species of the domestic quadrupeds have been introduced since the +settlement, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, which are +prodigiously multiplied, suffered to run in the woods without a +keeper, and only brought home when wanted. + + +BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY + +[From the same] + +It was on the 1st of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my +domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable +habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through +the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in +company with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, +and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; and after a long and +fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward +direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on +Red river, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the +Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the +beautiful level of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time +we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather as a prelibation of +our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a shelter +to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt and +reconnoiter the country. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts +of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloe were more +frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the +leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, +fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw +hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were +amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every kind +natural to America, we practiced hunting with great success, until the +22d day of December following. + + + + +JOHN BRADFORD + + +John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born near Warrenton, +Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in the Revolutionary War, and came +to Kentucky when thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at +Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia to +Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. Two years later he and +his brother, Fielding Bradford, founded _The Kentucke Gazette_, the +first issue of which appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787--the second +newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The following year John Bradford +published _The Kentucke Almanac_, the first pamphlet from a Western +press; and this almanac was issued every twelvemonth for many years. +Fielding Bradford withdrew from the _Gazette_ in May, 1788, and "Old +Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until 1802, when +his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. In March, 1789, under +instructions from the Virginia legislature, Bradford discarded +"Kentucke" for "Kentucky," one of the many interesting facts connected +with the _Gazette_. John Bradford was the first state printer; and the +first book he published was the laws passed by the first Kentucky +legislature, which assembled at Lexington in 1792. The Bradfords +published many of the most important early Western books, and a +"Bradford" brings joy to the heart of any present-day collector of +Kentuckiana. The column in the _Gazette_ devoted to verse, headed +"Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western poems; but the +little anecdotes which seldom failed to be tucked beneath the verse, +were nearly always coarse and vulgar, giving one a rather excellent +index to the editor's morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford +appears to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau +(1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he "picked up" more +than twenty of them from the _Freeman's Journal_. The most complete +files of the _Kentucky Gazette_ are preserved in the Lexington Public +Library, though the vandals that have consulted them from time to time +have cut and inked out many valuable things. John Bradford was a +public-spirited citizen, being, at different times, chairman of the +town trustees, and of the board of trustees of Transylvania +University. He was a profound mathematician, astronomer, and +philosopher, his contemporaries tell us, and in proof thereof they +have handed down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though his +fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author his +reputation rests upon _The General Instructor; or, the Office, Duty, +and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, and +Constables, in the State of Kentucky_ (Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal +compilation; and upon his more famous work, _Notes on Kentucky_ +(Xenia, Ohio, 1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed +in the _Gazette_ between August 25, 1826, and January 9, 1829. Upon +this work John Bradford is ranked among the Kentucky historians. At +the time of his death, which occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March +31, 1830, he was sheriff of Fayette county. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. No biography of Bradford has been written, but any + of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of his life + and work. + + +NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I + +[From the _Kentucky Gazette_ (August 25, 1826)] + +This country was well known to the Indian traders many years before +its settlement. They gave a description of it to Lewis Evans, who +published his first map of it as early as 1752. + +In the year 1750,[2] Dr. Thomas Walker, Colby Chew, Ambrose Powell +and several others from the counties of Orange and Culpepper, in the +state of Virginia, set out on an excursion to the Western Waters; they +traveled down the Holstein river, and crossed over the Mountains into +Powell's valley, thence across the Cumberland mountain at the gap +where the road now crosses, proceeded on across what was formerly +known by the name of the Wilderness until they arrived at the +Hazlepath; here the company divided, Dr. Walker with a part continued +north until they came to the Kentucky river which they named Louisa or +Levisa river. After traveling down the excessive broken or hilly +margin some distance they became dissatisfied and returned and +continued up one of its branches to its head, and crossed over the +mountains to New River at the place called Walker's Meadows. + +In the year 1754 James McBride with some others, passed down the Ohio +river in canoes, and landed at the mouth of the Kentucky river, where +they marked on a tree the initials of their names, and the date of the +year. These men passed through the country and were the first who gave +a particular account of its beauty and richness of soil to the +inhabitants of the British settlements in America. + +No further notice seems to have been taken of Kentucky until the year +1767, when John Finlay with others (whilst trading with the Indians) +passed through a part of the rich lands of Kentucky. It was then +called by the Indians in their language, the Dark and Bloody Grounds. +Some difference took place between these traders and the Indians, and +Finlay deemed it prudent to return to his residence in North Carolina, +where he communicated his knowledge of the country to Col. Daniel +Boone and others. This seems to have been one of the most important +events in the history of Kentucky, as it was the exciting cause which +prompted Col. Boone shortly afterwards to make his first visit to the +Dark and Bloody Grounds. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Marshall in his _History_, v. i, p. 7, says it was 1758. Mr. H. +Taylor thinks Dr. Walker informed him it was in 1752, but Col. Shelby +states implicitly that, in 1779 in company with Dr. Walker on Yellow +creek a mile or two from Cumberland mountain, the Doctor observed "upon +that tree," pointing to a beech across the road to the left hand, +"Ambrose Powell marked his name and the date of the year." I examined +the tree and found _A. Powell 1750_ cut in legible characters. + + + + +MATTHEW LYON + + +Matthew Lyon, "the Hampden of Congress," was born in County Wicklow, +Ireland, July 14, 1750. He emigrated to America when he was fifteen +years old, and settled in Woodbury, Connecticut, as an apprentice of +Jabez Bacon, the wealthiest merchant in all New England. Lyon left +Connecticut, in 1774, and removed to Vermont, where he became one of the +famous Green Mountain Boys of the Revolution. He was a member of the +Vermont legislature for four years; and in 1783 he founded the town of +Fair Haven, Vermont. Lyon became one of the great men of Vermont, a +disciple of Thomas Jefferson, "the pioneer Democrat of New England." In +1796 he was elected to Congress and he went to Philadelphia in May, +1797, to enter upon his duties. He at once became one of the powerful +men in that body. Lyon had published a newspaper at Fair Haven for +several years, besides issuing a number of books from his press, but +during the years of 1798 and 1799 he edited the now famous _Scourge of +Aristocracy_, a semi-monthly magazine. At the present day this is a rare +volume, and much to be desired. In 1801 Lyon cast Vermont's vote for +Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr for the presidency, and this vote is +said to have made certain Jefferson's election. Late in this year of +1801 Lyon left Vermont for Kentucky, and he later became the founder of +Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. The county, however, was named in +honor of his son, Chittenden Lyon. In 1802 Matthew Lyon was a member of +the Kentucky legislature; and from 1803 to 1811 he was in the lower +House of Congress from his Kentucky district. His opposition to the War +of 1812 retired him to private life. At Eddyville he was engaged in +shipbuilding, in which he had great success, but after his defeat for +reëlection to Congress, in 1812, disasters came fast upon him, and he +was reduced from affluence to comparative poverty. At the age of +sixty-eight years, however, he recovered himself, paid all his debts, +and died in easy circumstances. In 1820 Lyon was appointed United States +Factor to the Cherokee Indians of Arkansas territory, and he set out for +his future home at Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. He was later elected as +Arkansas's second delegate to Congress, but he did not live to take his +seat, dying at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 1822. Eleven years later his +remains were returned to Kentucky, and re-interred at Eddyville, where a +proper monument marks the spot to-day. Matthew Lyon's reply to John +Randolph of Roanoke, in 1804, in regard to the old question of the Yazoo +frauds, is his only extant speech that is at all remembered at the +present time. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins + (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin + (New York, 1900). + + +REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE[3] + +[From _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin (New York, 1900)] + +The Postmaster General [Gideon Granger] has not lost my esteem, nor do +I think his character can be injured by the braying of a jackal, or +the fulminations of a madman. But, sir, permit me to inquire from whom +these charges of bribery, of corruption, and of robbery, come? Is it +from one who has for forty years, in one shape or other, been +intrusted with the property and concerns of other people, and has +never wanted for confidence, one whose long and steady practice of +industry, integrity, and well doing, has obtained for him his standing +on this floor? Is it from one who sneered with contempt on the +importunity with which he has solicited to set a price on the +important vote he held in the last Presidential election? No, sir, +these charges have been fabricated in the disordered imagination of a +young man whose pride has been provoked by my refusing to sing encores +to all his political dogmas. I have had the impudence to differ from +him in some few points, and some few times to neglect his fiat. It is +long since I have observed that the very sight of my plebeian face has +had an unpleasant effect on the gentleman's nose, for out of respect +to this House and to the State he represents, I will yet occasionally +call him gentleman. I say, sir, these charges have been brought +against me by a person nursed in the bosom of opulence, inheriting the +life services of a numerous train of the human species, and extensive +fields, the original proprietors of which property, in all +probability, came no honester by it than the purchasers of the Georgia +lands did by what they claim. Let that gentleman apply the fable of +the thief and the receiver, in Dilworth's Spelling Book, so +ingeniously quoted by himself, in his own case, and give up the stolen +men in his possession. I say, sir, these charges have come from a +person whose fortune, leisure and genius have enabled him to obtain a +great share of the wisdom of the schools, but who in years, +experience, and the knowledge of the world and the ways of man, is +many, many years behind those he implicates--a person who, from his +rant in this House, seems to have got his head as full of British +contracts and British modes of corruption as ever Don Quixote's was +supposed to have been of chivalry, enchantments and knight errantry--a +person who seems to think no man can be honest and independent unless +he has inherited land and negroes, nor is he willing to allow a man to +vote in the people's elections unless he is a landholder. + +I can tell that gentleman I am as far from offering or receiving a +bribe as he or any other member on this floor; it is a charge which no +man ever made against me before him, who from his insulated situation, +unconversant with the world, is perhaps as little acquainted with my +character as any member of this House, or almost any man in the +nation, and I do most cordially believe that, had my back and my mind +been supple enough to rise and fall with his motions, I should have +escaped his censure. + +I, sir, have none of that pride which sets men above being merchants +and dealers; the calling of a merchant is, in my opinion, equally +dignified, and no more than equally dignified with that of a farmer, +or a manufacturer. I have a great part of my life been engaged in all +the stations of merchant, farmer and manufacturer, in which I have +honestly earned and lost a great deal of property, in the character of +a merchant. I act like other merchants, look out for customers with +whom I can make bargains advantageous to both parties; it is all the +same to me whether I contract with an individual or the public; I see +no constitutional impediment to a member of this House serving the +public for the same reward the public gives another. Whenever my +constituents or myself think I have contracts inconsistent with my +duties as a member of this House, I will retire from it. + +I came to this House as a representative of a free, a brave, and a +generous people. I thank my Creator that He gave me the face of a man, +not that of an ape or a monkey, and that He gave me the heart of a man +also, a heart which will spare to its last drop in defence of the +dignity of the station my generous constituents have placed me in. I +shall trouble the House no farther at this time, than by observing +that I shall not be deterred by the threats of the member from +Virginia from giving the vote I think the interest and honor of the +nation require; and by saying if that member means to be understood +that I have offered contracts from the Postmaster-General, the +assertion or insinuation has no foundation in truth, and I challenge +him to bring forward his boasted proof. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] This reply was made in answer to one of Randolph's ranting Yazoo +philippics, several of which are among the bitterest speeches ever heard +in Congress. Lyon at this time (1804) was a member of Congress from +Kentucky. The Yazoo land grant frauds had aroused the public mind, and a +commission had endeavored to settle by compromise the claims of Georgia, +and those holding under the Georgia act of 1795, to the vast territory +in dispute. Randolph denounced the frauds committed, and opposed any +settlement of the controversy, while Lyon desired to see the country +settled, and the compromise of the commissioners carried out. + + + + +GILBERT IMLAY + + +Gilbert Imlay, the first Kentucky novelist, was born in New Jersey, +about 1755. He was captain of a company in the Revolution. The war over, +Imlay turned his face toward the West; and he reached the Falls of the +Ohio--Louisville--in 1784. In the little river town he worked under +George May as a "commissioner for laying out lands in the back +settlements." Imlay had not been a Kentuckian many months before he had +obtained patents for many thousand acres of land--all of which he +subsequently lost. It is not certainly known how long he remained in +Kentucky, but it was about eight years. He went to London in 1792 and, +in that year, the first edition of his _Topographical Description of the +Western Territory of North America_ was published. This work is made up +of a series of descriptive letters which the author wrote from Kentucky +to an English friend. The second edition of 1793, and the third edition +of 1797, reproduced John Filson's _Kentucke_ and Thomas Hutchins's +_History_, together with much new material. While a resident of Kentucky +Gilbert Imlay wrote the first Kentucky novel, entitled _The Emigrants, +or the History of an Expatriated Family, being a Delineation of English +Manners drawn from Real Characters. Written in America, by G. Imlay, +Esq._ (London, 1793, 3 vols.; Dublin, 1794, 1 vol.). The epistolary form +is adopted throughout, and the narrative relates the fortunes of "an +eminent merchant in the city of London," Mr. T----n, who loses his great +fortune and emigrates with his family to America. His daughter, the +beautiful Caroline, is the heroine of the story. Landing in +Philadelphia, they travel to Pittsburgh, and from there drift down the +Ohio river in a Kentucky flatboat, or "ark," to Louisville. Caroline's +lover, Capt Arl----ton, had preceded the family and gone on to +Lexington, but he soon returned to Louisville when he learned that his +sweetheart awaited his coming. "The emigrants" remained in Kentucky some +three months, or from June until August. Caroline's capture by the +Indians in August decided the family to forsake the "dark and bloody +ground," though she was safely rescued. They finally find their way to +London, and all ends well. _The Emigrants_, in the three-volume edition, +is exceedingly scarce, but the Dublin one-volume edition may be +occasionally procured in the rare book shops of London. In 1793 Gilbert +Imlay went to Paris, where he met the famous Mary Wollstonecraft, with +whom he was soon living, as they both held mutual affection equivalent +to marriage. In 1794 a daughter was born to them, Fanny Imlay, who +committed suicide at Swansea, October 10, 1816. In April, 1796, Imlay +and Mary agreed to go separate paths after much stormy weather together; +and a short time later she became the wife of William Godwin, the +English philosopher and novelist. In giving birth to the future wife of +the poet Shelley, she surrendered her own life. Mary Wollstonecraft's _A +Vindication of the Rights of Woman_ is the chief memorial of her +pathetic and eventful career. After having parted on that April morning +of 1796 with the woman he had so outrageously treated, Gilbert Imlay, +"the handsome scoundrel," is lost to history. When, where, or how he +died is unknown. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _London Monthly Review_ (August, 1793); _Kentuckians + in History and Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, + 1907); _Dictionary of National Biography_; biographies of Shelley, + Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. + + +THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER + +[From _The Emigrants_ (Dublin, 1794)] + +LETTER XLVI. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY. + + Louisville, June. + +It is impossible for me to see Caroline in the present state of my +mind, and therefore I hope you will not look upon it in the least +disrespectful, my friend, if I should happen to be absent when you +arrive; for to be candid with you, I shall make a journey purposely to +Lexington. + +Your obliging favour from Pittsburg, which you meant should give me +spirits, has had quite a contrary effect. + +By attempting to soothe my mind, I discover that secret poison, +flattery, ever contains, and which I consider the principal cause of +my present wretchedness. + +The image you have given of Caroline makes her appear to me more +lovely than ever; and when you say that enchantment seems to spring up +where e'er she treads, I feel the full force of all her charms, and +conceive that I behold her in this season of fragrance and beauty, +decorating those gardens which you passed through on your return from +the fatal view upon the Allegany, + + While the blushing rose, drooping hides its head, + As Caroline's sweets more odorous prove, + And op'ning lilies look faint, sick, and dead,-- + For things inanimate, feel the force of love. + +She is irresistible--and it is only by absence that I shall ever be +enabled to forget my misfortunes, and therefore, my dear friend, I +must request that in your future letters, when you mention that divine +woman, you will not appreciate that beauty which has ten thousand +charms to fascinate and fetter the soul. + +She has not only all the symmetry of form, the softness of love, and +the enchantment of a goddess; but she can assume an animation and that +surprising activity of motion, that while you are suspended in the +transports of astonishment, you are lost in admiration at the +gracefulness with which she moves--I have seen her bound over a rock, +and pluck a wild honey-suckle, that grew upon the side of a precipice, +and while I stood gazing at her in amazement, she has brought it as a +trophy of her exertions. + +Believe, my friend, that if ever nature formed one woman to excel +another in personal charms, it must be Caroline. + + * * * * * + +I leave this enclosed in a packet for General W----. I am this moment +informed there are boats making round Diamond Island. Who knows but one +of them contains the lovely Caroline? Ah! my friend, I feel every +emotion of love and shame so powerfully, that I must instantly fly to +avoid exposing myself--curse that mandate which banished me from the +lovely tyrant of my heart--curse the vanity which exposed my +weakness;--for damnable is that fate which compels a man to avoid the +object of all others, which to him is the most interesting--I must this +instant be off. O Caroline!--Caroline! while my soul deadens at the +thought, I abandon the spot which will be converted into elysium the +moment you arrive. Forgive me, my friend, this effusion of nature--this +weakness, for it prepares us for those delicious raptures, that flow +from the source of sympathy, and while it softens us to that tender +texture, which is congenial to feminine charms, it invigorates our +actions, and fosters every generous and noble sentiment. + +The streamers of your vessels, for it must be you, are playing in the +wind, as if enraptured with the treasure over which they impend, seem +eradiated with the charms of Caroline; while the gentle Ohio, as if +conscious of its charge, proudly swells, and appears to vie with the +more elevated earth, in order to secure to its divinity, upon which to +tread at her disembarkation, the flowery carpet of its banks. + + Adieu. I am off. J. A. + + +AN EXASPERATED MATCHMAKER + +LETTER XLVII. MR. IL--RAY TO CAPT. ARL--TON. + + Louisville, June. + +My dear James, + +From the time we left Pittsburg until our arrival here, which was ten +days after our embarkation, we were all appreciating the pleasure we +should derive from finding you at this place. + +I had expatiated largely upon the satisfaction we should experience +from the information you would give us of the country; and no sooner +were we in sight of the town that we hung out a flag of invitation; +not doubting that you would observe it, and immediately come off to us +in a barge; but what was the surprise of the whole part, and my +mortification, when we learned upon landing, you had left the place +not more than half an hour. + +The letter you left enclosed for me in General W----'s packet, to be +sure, informed me of the cause of your absence; but it by no means +justified the action. And I demand as a proof of your respect for your +old friends, that you instantly return. + +Remember, James, this is the command of a friend, who is anxious to +restore you to a state of reason, which it appears you have not +possessed for some time past. + +Caroline was in tolerable spirits until within two days of our +arrival, when she suddenly appeared to be pensive and in a state of +extreme trepidation; and since we arrived she has been confined by +indisposition. + +If you have a delicate and tender regard for this charming girl, you +will fly immediately to enquire after her health. But to put it out of +your power to frame a shadow for an excuse, I inform you that it is my +intention first to visit the Illinois, and to view this country on my +return. + +I waited during yesterday for an opportunity to send this, and as I +could not meet with one, I send a person I have hired for that +purpose, as my men are unacquainted with the country. + +Believe me to be your sincere, but unhappy friend, + + G. Il--ray. + + +THE BASHFUL LOVER'S RETURN + +LETTER XLVIII. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY. + + Lexington, June. + +Your express has this moment reached me: and to convince you, my dear +Il--ray, that no man can be more alive to every sentiment of love and +friendship, I shall not defer my return to Louisville a single hour; and +I merely dispatch this by the return of your messenger, to let you know +I shall be with you tomorrow in the evening; and that in my present +distracted state of mind, I think it most advisable to make my _entre_ +under the cover of the dark, to prevent my being perceived, as I wish to +devote the whole evening in sequestered converse with you, my friend. + +Caroline is ill! Ah! Il--ray I am wretched in the extreme. I am burnt +up with a scorching fever--I am wrecked in the elements of every +painful passion, and my every effort to reason is baffled by my +reflections upon past occurrences. + +But I am your indissoluble friend, + + J. Arl--ton. + + + + +ADAM RANKIN + + +Rev. Adam Rankin, author of the first book ever printed in Kentucky, +was born in Pennsylvania, March 24, 1755. He was graduated from +Liberty Hall, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, +when about twenty-five years of age; and two years later he was +licensed to preach by the Virginia Presbytery. Rev. Rankin came to +Lexington, Kentucky, in 1784, to accept the pastorate of the +Presbyterian church. He also conducted a school for some time, but his +one thought was Psalmody, which became "his monomania." He created a +schism in his church by insisting that Dr. Watts's imitation of the +Psalms of David be expelled from the church worship, and that the +Psalms in their most literal dress be chanted. His brethren +disapproved of his views, but they could not discourage him or cause +him to discard his contention. Everywhere he went he preached and +wrote upon his favorite subject. Rev. Rankin's Kentucky brethren made +life unbearable for him, and he went to London, where he remained for +two years. When he did return to Kentucky it was to face accusation +after accusation, and church trial after church trial, until he was +finally suspended. Rev. Rankin was a strange, eccentric man, a dreamer +of dreams, a Kentucky Luther, and, perhaps, a bit crazed with the +bitter opposition his views received. His latest, boldest dream was +that Jerusalem was about to be rebuilt and that he must hurry there in +order to assist in the rebuilding. He bade his Lexington flock +farewell, and started to the Holy City, but, on November 25, 1827, +death overtook him at Philadelphia. Rev. Rankin was the author of +several theological works, but his _A Process in the Transylvania +Presbytery, &c._ (Maxwell and Gooch, At the Sign of the Buffalo, Main +Street, Lexington, 1793), is the first book ever printed in Kentucky, +if the _Kentucky Acts_ which John Bradford published in the same year +be excepted. Many days were required to print this little book of +Rankin upon the hand-press of the publishers, though it contained but +ninety-six pages, divided into five parts. Although it is not great +literature, it is the first book that can, in any wise, come under +that term published in this State. It is surely of more literary +importance than Bradford's _Acts_. Rev. Rankin was, as were nearly all +of the early Kentucky theologians, a prolific pamphleteer. His +_Dialogues_ (Lexington, 1810), is really his most important +publication, but it has been greatly overlooked in the recent rush +among Kentucky historical writers to list _A Process_ as the first +book published in Kentucky. His eccentric career as a man and preacher +is, after all, of more interest than his work as an author. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by + R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _The Centenary of Kentucky_, by + R. T. Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892). + + +ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER + +[From _A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery_ (Lexington, Ky., +1793)] + +We believe, that as it respects the outward means, the ambassadors are +authorised to publish, proclaim, and declare the counsel of God, as it +stands connected with our salvation; and that all, who hear the sound, +have an equal and indefinite warrant, not only to embrace the means as +offered to them indiscriminately, by which comes faith, but have a +right to believe, that Christ, with all his benefits, is freely +offered to them, as sinners, without ever enquiring, into the secret +purposes of God, whether they are elect, or non-elect. + + +UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE + +[From the same] + +Seeing, under our government, it is not purchasing a liberty by +pecuniary rewards, further, than compensating a prothonotary, for +taking bond and security, that guardians are agreed, and keeping a +just register, for the credit and safety of the rising family. And as +the contract is partly civil in its nature, and civil government is +bound to defend the civil rights--we believe it perfectly consonant to +the analogy of faith, which might be evinced from the fourth chapter +of Ruth. But as it is partly social, and the parties contracting come +under the mutual obligations to fulfil their relative duties, it ought +to be consummated before witnesses. And as it is partly religious, +every family appertaining to the Church of Christ, commences a +nursery, or infant society, to train up their family in the nurture +and admonition of the Lord. We believe it right, that whenever a +church in full order exists, that the pastor, or church officer should +consecrate them, to the business assigned them as a Church of Christ, +taking their obligations for the due performance of their duty. + + + + +THOMAS JOHNSON, Jr. + + +Thomas Johnson, Junior, the first Kentucky poet, who, for many years, +enjoyed the sobriquet of the "Drunken Poet of Danville," was born in +Virginia about 1760, and he came to Kentucky when twenty-five years of +age. He settled at Danville, then a village, and immediately entered +into the role of poet, punster, and ne'er-do-weel. Documentary +evidence is extant to prove that Danville was a gay little town when +the young Virginian arrived there about 1785; and he was early drawn +into excesses, or led others into them. Johnson was a rather prolific +maker of coarse satirical rhymes, which he finally assembled into a +small pamphlet, and published them as _The Kentucky Miscellany_ +(Lexington, 1796). This was the first book of poems, if they may be so +termed, printed in Kentucky. The original price of this pamphlet was +nine pence the copy, but it is impossible to procure it today for any +price, and there is not an extant copy of this first edition. _The +Kentucky Miscellany_ went into a second edition in 1815, and a third +edition was published a few years later, but no copies of either +edition are extant. The fourth and final edition appeared from the +_Advertiser_ office at Lexington, in 1821, and a dog-eared, +much-mutilated copy of this is in the collection of the Filson Club in +Louisville--perhaps the only copy in the world. _The Miscellany_ +contained but thirty-six small pages, about the size of the medical +almanacs of to-day. Many of the little verses are very vulgar and +actually obscene, perhaps due to the fact that Johnson could never +quite bury John Barleycorn alive. The most famous of them is the +_Extempore Grace_, which the bard delivered one day in the tavern of +old Erasmus Gill in Danville. In his cups he stumbled into the tavern +dining-room, where he found the meal over, and the guests gone, +nothing being left but the crumbs. He glanced at the tables, then at +Gill, and offered _Extempore Grace_. His lines on Danville, on +Kentucky, and on several other subjects reveal the satirist; and the +verses to Polly, his sweetheart, and to his favorite physician the +better elements in his nature. That these rather vulgar verses of +Johnson did not escape the censorship of Western advocates of the pure +food law in literature, is made certain by a letter from an Ohio +critic which appeared in the _Lexington Intelligencer_ for January 28, +1834. After having made a strong plea for the preservation of early +Western verse, the writer added: "I do not mean to embrace the low +doggerel of _Tom Johnson_; this was published some years ago, and I +never felt _decency_ more outraged than when it was handed me to read +by _mine landlady_! My stars! Save us from the _blackguardism_, for +the world is sufficiently demoralized." Had this early critic of Tom's +verses presented a bundle of them to some library, how many Western +writers would rise up and call him blessed! Johnson died and was +buried at Danville, but the date of his death or the exact place of +his burial is unknown. He had passed and was almost forgotten by 1830. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by + R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Centre College Cento_ + (Danville, Kentucky, January, 1907); _Kentuckians in History and + Literature_, by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +EXTEMPORE GRACE + +[From _The Kentucky Miscellany_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1821)] + + O! Thou who blest the loaves and fishes + Look down upon these empty dishes; + And that same power that did them fill, + Bless each of us, but d---- old Gill! + + +DANVILLE + +[From the same] + + Accursed Danville, vile, detested spot, + Where knaves inhabit, and where fools resort-- + Thy roguish cunning, and thy deep design, + Would shame a Bluebeard or an Algerine. + O, may thy fatal day be ever curst, + When by blind error led, I entered first. + + +KENTUCKY + +[From the same] + + I hate Kentucky, curse the place, + And all her vile and miscreant race! + Who make religion's sacred tie + A mask thro' which they cheat and lie. + Proteus could not change his shape, + Nor Jupiter commit a rape + With half the ease those villains can + Send prayers to God and cheat their man! + I hate all Judges here of late, + And every Lawyer in the State. + Each quack that is called Physician, + And all blockheads in Commission-- + Worse than the Baptist roaring rant, + I hate the Presbyterian cant-- + Their Parsons, Elders, nay, the whole, + And wish them gone with all my soul. + + +HUDSON, WIFE MURDERER + +[From the same] + + Strange things of Orpheus poets tell, + How for a wife he went to Hell; + Hudson, a wiser man no doubt, + Would go to Hell to be without! + + +PARSON RICE + +[From the same] + + Ye fools! I told you once or twice, + You'd hear no more from canting R----e; + He cannot settle his affairs, + Nor pay attention unto prayers, + Unless you pay up your arrears. + Oh, how in pulpit he would storm, + And fill all Hell with dire alarm! + Vengeance pronounced against each vice, + And, more than all, curs'd avarice; + Preach'd money was the root of ill; + Consigned each rich man unto Hell; + But since he finds you will not pay, + Both rich and poor may go that way. + 'Tis no more than I expected-- + The meeting-house is now neglected: + All trades are subject to this chance, + No longer pipe, no longer dance. + + +THE POET'S EPITAPH + +[From the same] + + Underneath this marble tomb, + In endless shades lies drunken Tom; + Here safely moored, dead as a log, + Who got his death by drinking grog. + By whiskey grog he lost his breath-- + Who would not die so sweet a death? + + + + +GEORGE BECK + + +George Beck, classicist, born in England in 1749, became instructor of +mathematics at Woolwich Academy, near London, at the age of +twenty-seven years; but he was later dismissed. Beck married an +English woman of culture and emigrated to the United States in 1795, +reaching these shores in time to serve "Mad Anthony" Wayne as a scout +in his Indian campaign. The wanderlust was upon George Beck, and he +became one of the first of that little band of nomadic painters that +came early to the Blue Grass country, and having once come remained. +He arrived at Lexington in 1800; and it was not long before he began +to send short original poems and spirited translations of Anacreon, +Homer, Horace, and Virgil to old John Bradford's _Gazette_. At about +this time, too, Beck was doing many portraits and a group of +landscapes in oils of the Kentucky river country, a few of which have +come down to posterity. Eighteen hundred and six seems to have been +Beck's best year in Kentucky from the literary viewpoint, as the +_Gazette_ is full of his verses and translations. He was widely known +as the "Lexington Horace." Besides painting and poetry, George Beck +was a rather learned astronomer, as his _Observations on the Comet_ of +1811 prove. With his wife he conducted an "Academy for Young Ladies" +for several years. His last years were much embittered by the lack of +appreciation upon the part of the Western public. The Kentucky of 1800 +was not a whirlpool of art or literature by any means, and this +cultured man languished and finally died among a people who cared +very little for his fine learning or his manners. George Beck, poet, +translator, mathematician, astronomer, artist, died in Lexington, +Kentucky, December 14, 1812. His wife survived him until the cholera +year of 1833, which swept away nearly two thousand citizens of +Lexington and the Blue Grass. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky Gazette_ (Lexington, December 22, 1812); + Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, 1887, v. + i). + + +FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE + + A New Translation of the Fifteenth Ode of Horace, or Prophecy of + Nerceus, from which (according to Count Algorotti and Dr. Johnson) + Gray took his beautiful Ode, _The Bard_. + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (October 27, 1806)] + + What time the fair perfidious shepherd bore + The beauteous Helen back to Ilion's shore, + To sleep the howling waves were won + By Nerceus, Ocean's hoary son, + While round the liquid realms he sung, + From guilty love, what dire disasters sprung. + + Thee, tainted Youth, what omens dire attend! + Thy neck and Ilion's soon to Greece shall bend. + To man and horse what sweat and blood, + What carnage float down Xanthus' flood! + What wrath on Troy shall Greece infuriate turn! + What glittering domes, and spires, and temples burn! + + In vain you boast the Queen of beauty's smiles, + Her charms, her floating curls, her amourous wiles, + These, these alas! will nought avail + While Cretan arrows round you sail! + And, tho' the fates awhile such guilt may spare, + Vile dust at length shall smear that golden hair! + + Trace back, vain Youth! sad Ilion's fate of old! + Ulysses' sons and Nestor's yet behold, + Teucer's and Diomede's more dread + Horrific war shall round you shed; + Then shall ye trembling fly like timid deer + When hungry wolves are howling in their rear. + + By promise Vain of Universal Sway + Lur'd you from Greece the beauteous Queen away? + In less than ten revolving years + Achilles' dreadful fleet appears! + His bloody trains of Myrmidonians dire + Shall wrap proud Ilion's domes in Grecian fire! + + +ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (November 3, 1806)] + + What deathless Artist's mimic hand + Shall paint me here the Ocean bland, + Shall give the waves such kindling glows + As when immortal Venus rose? + Who, in phrenzy's flight of mind + Such touch and tinctures bright may find + To match her form and golden hair + And naked paint the heavenly fair? + While every amorous rival billow + Strives her buoyant breast to pillow? + 'Tis done! behold the wavelets green + Softly press the Paphian Queen, + Around her heavenly bosom play, + Kiss its warm blush and melt away. + Her graceful neck of pearl behold, + Her wavy curls of floating gold: + But none but lips divine may tell + What Graces on that bosom dwell! + Such bloom a bed of lilies shows + Illumin'd by the crimson'd rose. + Rounding off with grace divine + Like hills of snow her shoulders shine. + While streaming thro' the waves she swims + The silvery maze half veils her limbs, + Else where's the eye that durst behold + Such beauty stream'd on heavenly mold? + Th' enamour'd Triton's glittering train + Sporting round the liquid main + Waving their gold and silver pinions, + Bear her o'er their deep dominions, + While infant Loves and young desires + Dancing 'mid the choral choirs + Clasp the beauteous Queen around + And sail in triumph o'er the bright profound. + + +ANACREON'S FIRST ODE + +[From _The Western Review_ (Lexington, March, 1821)] + + I would Atrides' glory tell, + I would to Cadmus strike my shell; + I try the vocal cords--in vain! + Love, only love, breathes through the strain. + I strip away the truant wire, + And string with deeper chords the lyre, + Then great Alcides' toils would sing: + Soft love still sighs through every string. + Hence, themes of Glory, hence! adieu! + For what have I to do with you? + My heart and lyre in union make + Resounding Love and only Love. + + + + +HUMPHREY MARSHALL + + +Humphrey Marshall, author of the first _History of Kentucky_ that was +in any wise comprehensive, was born near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1760. +What little school instruction he received was from the young woman +whom he afterwards married. Marshall removed to Kentucky in 1782, +after having served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. He was a +member of the Virginia convention of 1788, as a representative of the +district of Kentucky, which adopted the Federal constitution. +Marshall was in the Kentucky legislature for several terms and, from +1795 to 1801, he was United States Senator from Kentucky. Some years +later he was again in the State legislature; and at about that time +his famous duel with Henry Clay took place. The first edition of his +_History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1812), appeared in a single volume +of 407 pages; but the second and final edition was greatly revised and +augmented and published in two octavo volumes (Frankfort, 1824). +Humphrey Marshall's pen was pointed with poison for his enemies (and +he had more of them than any other Kentuckian of his time, perhaps), +and in his book he lashed them ruthlessly. He was the first as well as +the last of Kentucky's "personal" historians. He first endeavored to +silence his foes with newspapers and pamphlets, but, not being +satisfied with the results, he poured out his wrath in book form to +the extent of a thousand pages and more. While prejudice is the most +descriptive word possible to use in characterizing Marshall's work, it +is not all prejudice. He wrote with wonderful keenness concerning the +Spanish conspiracy in Kentucky, his views upon the men that were +guilty of bartering Kentucky to Spain in order to obtain free +navigation of the Mississippi river having been abundantly affirmed by +the latest historical work upon that subject. He also wrote of the +Burr conspiracy with great clearness of vision, all of which is very +remarkable when one stops to consider that nearly every one of the men +connected with these two conspiracies were his bitterest enemies. That +Marshall was an able writer all of the Kentucky historians have freely +admitted, notwithstanding the fact they have quarreled with his "copy" +many times. He is, as his biographer writes, "the stormy petrel of +Kentucky's earlier years," a most remarkable man from several points +of view. His _History of Kentucky_, in either edition, is rather +scarce at this time, and it is not to be found in many of the rare +book shops of the country. Humphrey Marshall died at Lexington, +Kentucky, July 3, 1841. He lies buried upon the banks of the Kentucky +river, near the capitol of the Commonwealth, Frankfort. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_, by A. + C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892). + + +PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY + +[From _The History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i)] + +The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, +and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the +attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North +Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the +great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are +assured that the effect lost nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters +had seen--mountains they had ascended--valleys they had traversed--deer +they had killed--and bears they had successfully hunted. They had heard +the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; and the heart-rending +yell of the savage man; with correspondent sensations of delight, or +horror. But these were all lost to memory, in the contemplation of +Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and adorned with all +the majestic grace and boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's +children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the +feelings of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the +sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn was +in the dawn of summer; when the forests, composed of oaks of various +kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, sugar trees, +locust, sycamore, coffee tree, and an indefinite number of other trees, +towering aloft to the clouds, overspread the luxuriant undergrowth, with +their daily shade; while beneath, the class of trees--the shrubs, the +cane, the herbage, and the different kinds of grass, and clover, +interspersed with flowers, filled the eye, and overlaid the soil, with +the forest's richest carpet. The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile +than Egypt's boasted Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious +nutriment; and in rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless +verdure. + +Here it was, if Pan ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, he +held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmolested by Ceres, or +Lucina, for centuries. + +The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise +of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation +raised: even the red man of the forest had not put up his wigwam of +poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose +productive power we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great--had +not spread out this replete and luxurious pasture without stocking it +with numerous flocks and herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, +who prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. +Here was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the +surly bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; +the insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable +other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, at some +time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the leviathan of +the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, like that of the +famous Trojan horse, would have held an host of men; and whose teeth, +nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, on both animals +and vegetable substances--until exhausting all within its range, +itself became extinct. Nor is it known, although the race must have +abounded in the country, from the great number of bones belonging to +the species, found in different places, that there is one of the kind +living on the American continent, if in the universe. + + + + +STEPHEN T. BADIN + + +Stephen Theodore Badin, Kentucky's earliest Catholic bard, was born at +Orleans, France, in 1768. Though very poor he received a classical and +theological training in Paris and Tours; and in 1792 he emigrated to +America. In the following year Badin was ordained by Bishop John Carroll +at Baltimore, he being the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in the +United States. He was subsequently appointed to do missionary work in +Kentucky, which was then in the old Baltimore diocese, and he made his +home at Georgetown, Kentucky. During the next few years Badin rode more +than one hundred thousand miles on horseback in order to meet all of his +appointments. He was then the only Catholic priest in Kentucky, though +he did have assistants from time to time. In 1797 Badin was made +vicar-general, and the large Catholic emigrations from Maryland to +Kentucky about this time greatly increased his labors. His _Principles +of Catholics_ (1805) was the first Catholic book published in the West, +and it gave him a larger audience than his voice could well reach. Badin +later organized missions and built churches in Louisville and Lexington, +St. Peter's in Lexington being made possible by the generosity of his +Protestant friends, of whom he had many. Badin and Bishop Benedict +Joseph Flaget, of the Bardstown diocese, had a misunderstanding as to +the settlement of titles to certain church properties which Badin had +acquired before Flaget came to Kentucky, and, rather than to have an +acrimonious argument with the Bishop, he quit Kentucky, in 1819, and +spent the next nine years in European travel. From 1830 to 1836 he +worked among the Pottawatomie Indians in Indiana with marked success. +Father Badin died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. He was the author of +several Latin poems in hexameters, among them being _Carmen Sacrum_, a +translation of which was published at Frankfort; _Epicedium_, an elegy +upon the death of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess at the battle of +Tippecanoe; and _Sanctissimae Trinitatis Laudes et Invocatis_ +(Louisville, 1843). His brief in memoriam for Colonel Daviess is his +best known work and, perhaps, his masterpiece. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_, + by M. J. Spalding (Louisville, 1846); _The Centenary of + Catholicity in Kentucky_, by B. J. Webb (Louisville, 1884). + + +EPICEDIUM + + In Gloriosam Mortem + Magnanimi Equitum Ducis + Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Patrii Amoris Victimæ + In Tippecanoe Pugna ad Amnem + Wabaschum, 7. Die Nov. 1811. + Epicedium; + Honorabili Viro Joanni Rowan + Meo Ipsiusque Amico Dicatum. + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (February 18, 1812)] + + Autumnus felix aderat granaria complens + Frugibus; umbrosas patulis jam frondibus ulmos + Exuerat brumoe proprior, cum Fama per orbem + Non rumore vago fatalia nuncia defert: + "Sub specie pacis Slyvæcola perfidus atra + "Nocte viros inopino plumbo occidit et hasta; + "Dux equitum triplici confossus vulnere, fortis + "Occubuit; turmoe hostiles periere fugatoe, + "Hostilesque casas merito ultrix flamma voravit." + Mensibus Æstivis portenderat ista Cometes + Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; ægre + Volvit sanguineas Wabaschus tardior undas + Ingeminant Dryades suspiria longa; Hymenoeus + Deficit audita clade, et solatia spernit + Omnia; triste silet Musarum turba; fidelis + Luget Amicities, lugubri tegmine vestit + Et caput et lævam, desiderioque dalentis + Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes + Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba! + Ergo piæ Themidis meliora oracula poscunt + Unanimes; diram causam Themis aure benigna + Excipit, et mox decretum pronunciat oequum: + "Davidis effigies nostra appendatur in aula; + "Tempora sacra viri quercus civilis adornet, + "Ac non immeritam jungat Victoria laurum. + "Signa sui Legislator det publica luctus; + Historioe chartis referat memorabile Clio. + "Prælium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra. + "Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet; + "Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro + "Condat Amicities; præsens venturaque laudet + "Ætas magnanimum David, virtute potentem + "Eloquii, belli et pacis decus immortale." + Vita habet angustos fines, et gloria nullos: + Qui patrioe reddunt vitam, illi morte nec ipsa + Vincuntur; virtutum exempla nepotibus extant. + Pro Patria vitam profundere maxima laus est. + + Stephanus Theodorus Badin, + Cathol. Mission. + + Moerens canebat 15. Dec. 1811. + + +A TRANSLATION BY "WOODFORDENSIS" + +[From the same] + + On the glorious death of Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Commander + of the Horse, who fell a victim to his love of country, in + the late battle on the Wabash, the 7th. Nov., 1811. + Dedicated to John Rowan, Esq. + + 'Twas late in autumn, and the thrifty swain + In spacious barns secur'd the golden grain; + November's chilly mornings breath'd full keen; + No leafy honors crown'd the sylvan scene. + When Fame with those sad tidings quickly flew + Throughout our land; (her tale, alas! too true): + "The savage Indian, our perfidious foe, + Pretending peace with hypocritic show, + Surpris'd our legions in the dead of night + And urg'd with lead and steel the mortal fight; + Our valiant warriors strew th' ensanguin'd plain, + Ev'n our great Captain of the Horse is slain + With triple wound!!! At length the foe retires, + With loss; and leaves his town to our avenging fires." + + When summer gilded our nocturnal sky + With astral gems; a comet blazed on high, + Portentous of these fates!--the earth, in throes + Repeated labors; rueful Wabash flows + With slower current, stain'd with mingling blood! + The _Dryads_ fill with plaints the echoing wood! + Hymen, the slaughter heard, dissolves in grief! + Naught can console him, naught can yield relief. + In woeful silence sits the muses' train + And Friendship mourns her fav'rite hero slain. + The funeral crape, vain badge of grief! she wears + Upon her head, her arms the emblem bears, + Her sorrowing mind no moderation knows, + Admits no measure to her boundless woes. + + Ah, what avails the vain expense of tears? + Fate still unmov'd this fruitless anguish bears! + Therefore to Themis' shrine, with one accord, + They come to crave a more benign award. + The direful cause the attentive Goddess hears, + And soon this just decree her record bears: + "Let Daviess still in semblance grace my halls, + Let his bright portraiture adorn my walls; + The civic oak his sacred brows entwine, + And vict'ry to the wreath his laurel join. + Let Legislative acts of mourning show + The voted ensigns of the public woe; + In the historic page be ever read + The fierce encounter, when great Daviess bled, + And be the fatal spot with cypress shade o'erspread; + His noble heart let Hymen's care enclose + In the rich urn, and friendship's hand compose + His other relics in the marble tomb. + Then let the ages present and to come + Just praises render to his glorious name; + Let honor'd Daviess gild the page of fame, + A hero, fit a nation's pow'r to wield, + In council wise, and mighty in the field." + + His mortal life a narrow space confines, + But glory with unbounded lustre shines. + Those virtuous souls, who shed their noble blood + A willing off'ring to the public good, + Who to their country's welfare freely give + The sacrifice of life, forever live + As bright examples to the unborn brave, + To shew how virtue rescues from the grave. + The noblest act the patriot's fame can tell, + Is, that he bravely for his country fell. + + Thus sung the missionary bard, and paid + This mournful tribute to the mighty dead. + + + + +DR. CHARLES CALDWELL + + +Dr. Charles Caldwell, versatile and voluminous writer of prose, was +born at Caswell, North Carolina, May 14, 1772. He entered the medical +school of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1792; and he won the +city's gratitude in the following year by his medical services during +the yellow fever epidemic. In 1810 Dr. Caldwell became professor of +natural history in the University of Pennsylvania; and four years +later he succeeded Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) as editor of _The +Port-Folio_, a Philadelphia magazine of high character. In 1819 Dr. +Caldwell came to Lexington, Kentucky, to accept the chair of materia +medica in Transylvania University. Some months later he was sent to +Europe to purchase books and apparatus for his department. He returned +to Transylvania and continued there until 1837, when he removed to +Louisville and established a medical institute. Some years later he +and the trustees disagreed and he left. After leaving the institute, +Dr. Caldwell continued to reside at Louisville, in which city he died, +July 9, 1853. Dr. Caldwell was the first distinguished American +practitioner of phrenology, if he did not actually discover this +alleged science. From 1794 until his death, Dr. Caldwell was an +indefatigable literary worker. He was the author of more than two +hundred pamphlets, essays, and books. He translated Blumenbach's +_Elements of Physiology_ (1795); _Bachtiar Nameh_ (1813), a Persian +tale which he translated from the Arabic; edited Cullen's _Practice of +Physic_ (1816); _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon._ +[General] _Greene_ (Philadelphia, 1819); _Elements of Phrenology_ +(1824); _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace +Holley, LL.D., late President of Transylvania University_ (Boston, +1828); and _Thoughts and Experiments on Mesmerism_ (1842). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His _Autobiography_ (Philadelphia, 1855), published + posthumously, has been regarded by many as an unfortunate work, as + in it he made some rather severe pictures of his contemporaries. + That the work contains much excellent writing, and is often very + happy in the descriptions of the country through which the author + passed, no one has arisen to gainsay; _Autobiography of Samuel D. + Gross, M. D._ (Philadelphia, 1887, v. ii). + + +GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE + +[From _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene_ +(Philadelphia, 1819)] + +Nathaniel Greene, although descended from ancestors of elevated +standing, was not indebted to the condition of his family for any +part of the real lustre and reputation he possessed. As truly as is +the case with any individual, he was the founder of his own fortune, +and the author of his own fame. He was the second son of Nathaniel +Greene, an anchor-smith, of considerable note, who is believed to have +had the earliest establishment of the kind erected in America, and, by +persevering industry in the line of his profession, an extensive and +lucrative concern in iron-works, and some success in commercial +transactions, had acquired a sufficiency to render him comfortable, if +not wealthy. + +He was born in the year 1741, in the town of Warwick, and county of +Kent, in the province of Rhode Island. As far as is known, his childhood +passed without any peculiar or unequivocal indications of future +greatness. But this is a point of little moment. The size of the oak it +is destined to produce, can rarely be foretold from an examination of +the acorn. Nor is it often that any well defined marks of genius in the +child afford a premonition of the eminence of the man. + +Several of his contemporaries, however, who are still living, have a +perfect recollection that young Greene had neither the appearance nor +manners of a common boy; nor was he so considered by his elder, and +more discerning acquaintance. + + * * * * * + +Being intended by his father for the business which he had himself +pursued, young Greene received at school nothing but the elements of a +common English education. But, to himself, an acquisition so humble +and limited, was unsatisfactory and mortifying. Even now, his aim was +lofty; and he had a noble ambition, not only to embark in high +pursuits, but to qualify himself for a manly and honourable +acquittance in them. Seeming, at this early period of life, to realize +the important truth that, knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it +became, in a short time, his ruling passion. + +He accordingly procured, in part by his own economy, the necessary +books, and, at intervals of leisure, acquired, chiefly without the aid +of an instructor, a competent acquaintance with the Latin tongue. + +This attainment, respectable in itself, was only preliminary to higher +efforts. With such funds as he was able to raise, he purchased a +small, but well selected library, and spent his evenings, and all the +time he could redeem from business, in regular study. He read with a +view to general improvement; but geography, travels, and military +history--the latter, more especially--constituted his delight. Having, +also, a predilection for mathematics and mechanical philosophy, and +pursuing, in most cases, the bent of his inclination, as far as +prudence and opportunity would admit, his knowledge, in the more +practical departments of these sciences, became highly respectable. + + + + +ALLAN B. MAGRUDER + + +Allan Bowie Magruder, poet and historian, was born in Kentucky, about +1775. He received an academic education, studied law, and was admitted +to the Lexington bar in 1797. He contributed very fair verse to the +_Kentucky Gazette_ in 1802 and 1803, which attracted considerable +comment in the West. That his fame as a poet was wide-spread, is +indicated by a letter from an Ohio writer published in the _Lexington +Intelligencer_, January 28, 1834, in which Magruder's verse is highly +praised and further information concerning his career is sought. After +stabbing poor Tom Johnson's little pamphlet of rhymes to the heart, +Magruder is placed upon his pedestal as the first real Kentucky poet; +and that his work was superior to either Johnson's or George Beck's is +obvious, continues the caustic correspondent. The truth is, of course, +that the verses of neither of the three men merit mention for anything +save their priority; and the young Lexington lawyer's muse was not as +productive as Tom's or Beck's, no more than three or four of his poems +having come down to us. His first prose work was entitled _Reflections +on the late Cession of Louisiana to the United States_ (Lexington, +1803). This little volume of 150 pages was issued by Daniel Bradford, +for whose periodical, _The Medley_, Magruder wrote _The Character of +Thomas Jefferson_ (June; July, 1803). This essay attracted the attention +of the President, and he appointed Magruder commissioner of lands in +Louisiana, to which territory he shortly afterwards removed. He was +later a member of the State legislature; and from November 18, 1812, to +March 3, 1813, Magruder was United States Senator from his adopted +State. The next few years he devoted to collecting materials for a +history of the North American Indians; and he also made notes for many +years for a history of Kentucky, which he finally abandoned, and which +he turned over to his old friend, John Bradford, who made use of them in +his _Notes on Kentucky_. Allan B. Magruder died at Opelousas, Louisiana, +April 16, 1822, when but forty-seven years of age. He was a man of +culture and of high promise, but once in the politics of the country his +early literary triumphs were not repeated, and he appears to have never +done any writing worth while after his removal from Kentucky. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Lexington Intelligencer_ (Lexington, Kentucky, + January 28, 1834); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv). + + +CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON + +[From _The Medley_ (Lexington, Ky., July, 1803)] + +When Citizen Genet, the ex-minister of the Robesperian fanaticism, +appeared in America, he attempted to impose his new philosophy of +light and liberty upon the government. He had nothing to boast of, on +the score of superior diplomatic skill. His communications to the +secretary of state, were evidently of the tampering kind. They were +impressed with all the marks of that enthusiastic insanity, which +regulated the councils of the faction; and which, were calculated to +mistake their object, by disgusting their intended victims. The mind +of Mr. Jefferson, discovered itself, in an early period of his +correspondence with the French minister. The communications of Genet +were decorated with all the flowers of eloquence, without the force +and conviction of rhetorical energy. Accustomed to diplomatic +calculation, and intimately combining cause with effect, Mr. Jefferson +apprehended the subject, with strength and precision; considered +it--developed it--viewed it on all sides--listened to every appeal, +and attended to every charge--and in every communication, burst forth +with a strength of refutation, that at once detected and embarrassed, +the disappointed minister of a wily and fanatic faction. + +It is, in most instances, useless to oppose enthusiasm with the +deliberate coolness of reason and argument. They are the antipodes of +each other; and of that imperious nature, which mutually solicit +triumph and disdain reconciliation. The tyranny of the Robesperian +principles, were calculated to inveigle within the vortex of European +politics, the American government and people. The coolness and +sagacity of the secretary of state, composed their defence and +protection. The appeal was mutually made to the government; and it is +a fortunate circumstance, that there existed this tribunal to +approbate the measures of the secretary, and to silence forever, the +declamatory oracle of an insidious faction. Checked and defeated on +all sides, his doctrines stripped of their visionary principles, and +himself betrayed into the labyrinth of diplomatic mystery, their +ex-divinity, shrank into the silence of contempt; declaring with his +last breath, that Mr. Jefferson was the only man in America, whose +talents he highly respected. + + + + +HENRY CLAY + + +Henry Clay, the most famous Kentuckian ever born, first saw the light +in the "Slashes," Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. When +twenty years of age, he settled in Lexington, Kentucky, as a lawyer; +and Lexington was his home henceforth. In 1803 Henry Clay was elected +to the State legislature; and before he was thirty years old he was +filling an unexpired term in the United States Senate. In 1811 he was +sent to the National House of Representatives from the old Lexington +district. He was immediately chosen Speaker of that body, a position +to which he was subsequently elected five times. This was the period +of his greatest speeches. His utterances upon American rights did much +to bring about the War of 1812. In 1814 Henry Clay went to Europe as a +peace commissioner, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, +1814. He had resigned the Speakership in order to go to Ghent, but on +his return in 1815, he found himself reëlected; and he presided as +Speaker until 1820, declining two diplomatic posts and two cabinet +offices in order to continue in the chair. In 1820 Henry Clay +advocated the Missouri Compromise, and a short time afterwards he +retired from public life to devote his attention to his private +affairs. He was, however, in 1823, again elected to the lower House of +Congress, and was again chosen Speaker, serving as such until 1825. In +1824 he announced himself as a candidate for president, but he was +defeated by John Quincy Adams, who made him his Secretary of State. +Andrew Jackson was elected president, in 1828, and Mr. Clay--to give +him the name he was always known by, regardless of the many positions +he held--once more retired from American politics. In 1831 the people +elected him United States Senator from Kentucky, and in that body he +fought Jackson's policies so strenuously that the Whig party was born, +with Mr. Clay as its legitimate parent. The Whigs nominated him as +their first candidate for president, but he was overwhelmingly +defeated by his old-time enemy, Andrew Jackson. He was the author of +the Compromise tariff of 1832-1833, which did much toward winning him +the sobriquet of the "Great Compromiser." Mr. Clay was reëlected to +the Senate, in 1837; and two years later his great debates with John +C. Calhoun took place. Late in this year of 1839, the Whig political +bosses set him aside and nominated William Henry Harrison for +president and he was elected. In 1842 Henry Clay was retired to +private life for the third time, but two years later he was again the +candidate of the Whigs for president, and he was defeated by a +comparatively unknown man, James K. Polk of Tennessee--the only +Speaker of the House who has ever been elected president of the United +States. The year of 1849 found Henry Clay once more in the Senate, but +he was now old and very feeble. The great Compromise of 1850 sapped +his rapidly waning strength, though it greatly added to his fame as a +statesman. On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay died at Washington City, in +the seventy-sixth year of his age. His body was brought back to the +land he loved so well, and to which he had brought world-wide fame, +and was buried at Lexington, where a grateful people have erected a +cloud-tipped monument to his memory. He is one of the American +immortals, though it is not at all difficult to quarrel with many of +his public acts. He carried the name and fame of Kentucky into the +remotest corners of the universe, and it would be indeed surprising if +it were not possible to find flaws in a record that was as long as +his. His connection with the Graves-Cilley duel in 1838 appears +unpardonable at this time, but perhaps the whole truth regarding this +infamous affair has not yet been brought out. Considering the patent +fact that few orators can stand the printed page, and that the methods +by which Clay's addresses were preserved were crude and +unsatisfactory, many of the speeches are very readable even unto this +day. They undoubtedly prove, however, that the man behind them, and +not the manner or matter of them, was the thing that made Henry Clay +the most lovable character in American history. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. There are many biographies of Clay, and numerous + collections of his speeches. Carl Schurz's _Henry Clay_ (Boston, + 1887, two vols.), is the best account of the statesman; _Henry + Clay_, by Thomas H. Clay (Philadelphia, 1910), is adequate for + Clay the man; and Daniel Mallory's _Life and Speeches of the Hon. + Henry Clay_ (New York, 1844), is the finest collection of his + speeches made hitherto. + + +REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH[4] + +[From _The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay_, edited by Daniel +Mallory (New York, 1844, v. i., 4th edition)] + +Sir, I am growing old. I have had some little measure of experience in +public life, and the result of that experience has brought me to this +conclusion, that when business, of whatever nature, is to be transacted +in a deliberative assembly, or in private life, courtesy, forebearance, +and moderation, are best calculated to bring it to a successful +conclusion. Sir, my age admonishes me to abstain from involving myself +in personal difficulties; would to God that I could say, I am also +restrained by higher motives. I certainly never sought any collision +with the gentleman from Virginia. My situation at this time is peculiar, +if it be nothing else, and might, I should think, dissuade, at least, a +generous heart from any wish to draw me into circumstances of personal +altercation. I have experienced this magnanimity from some quarters of +the house. But I regret, that from others it appears to have no such +consideration. The gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say, that in +one point at least he coincided with me--in an humble estimate of my +grammatical and philological acquirements, I know my deficiencies. I was +born to no proud patrimonial estate; from my father I inherited only +infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects; but, so far as my +situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, say +they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I regret my want +of ability to furnish to the gentleman a better specimen of powers of +verbal criticism, I will venture to say, it is not greater than the +disappointment of this committee as to the strength of his argument. + + +ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE + +[From the same] + +General, + +The house of representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its +own feelings, and by those of the whole American people, could not have +assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of presenting to you +cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the +United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure +you of the very high satisfaction which your presence affords on this +early theatre of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members +who compose this body shared with you in the war of our revolution, all +have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, a knowledge of +the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily +encountered, and the signal services, in America and in Europe, which +you performed for an infant, a distant, and an alien people; and all +feel and own the very great extent of the obligations under which you +have placed our country. But the relations in which you have ever stood +to the United States, interesting and important as they have been, do +not constitute the only motive of the respect and admiration which the +house of representatives entertain for you. Your consistency of +character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the +vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also commands its admiration. +During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amidst, as after the +dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the United States +have beheld you, true to your old principles, firm and erect, cheering +and animating with your well-known voice, the votaries of liberty, its +faithful and fearless champion, ready to shed the last drop of that +blood which here you so freely and nobly spilt, in the same holy cause. + +The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow +the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate +the intermediate changes which had taken place; to view the forest +felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the +highways constructed, the progress of the arts, advancement of learning, +and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the +United States is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You +are in the midst of posterity. Every where, you must have been struck +with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since +you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike +endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then +covered its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and this is in +the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection +and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of his +country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates in the field and +in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which surround us, and for +the very privilege of addressing you which I now exercise. This +sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, +will be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through +the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to +the latest posterity.[5] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This reply to Randolph was made in the House of Representatives, +in 1824, in the course of the debate between Clay and Randolph. +"During the session of 1823-4, attempts wore made to run at Mr. Clay, +on account of his peculiar situation in being named for the presidency +while Speaker of the House of Representatives, and for his zealous +support of the American system. In a debate on an improvement bill he +encountered Mr. Randolph of Virginia, who had endeavored to provoke +him to reply," and the bit of the debate reproduced here is the answer +the gentleman from Virginia received for his pains. + +[5] After the above address, La Fayette rose, and in a tone influenced +by powerful feeling, made an eloquent reply. In 1824 La Fayette +visited the United States, as "the guest of the Nation," and he was +gladly welcomed in many parts of the country. And "on the tenth of +December, 1824, he was introduced in the House of Representatives by a +committee appointed for that purpose. The general, being conducted to +the sofa placed for his reception, the Speaker (Mr. Clay), addressed +him" in the very happy words given above. + + + + +JOHN J. AUDUBON + + +John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, was born at +Mandeville, Louisiana, May 5, 1780. He was educated in France under +private tutors, but his consuming love of Nature and especially of +bird-life, was too strong to keep him in a beaten path of study, so +most of his time was spent in the woods and fields. When seventeen +years old Audubon returned to the United States to settle upon his +father's estate, "Mill Grove," near Philadelphia. There he devoted his +entire time to hunting, fishing, drawing, and music. Some months later +he met and fell in love with his nearest neighbor, Lucy Bakewell, a +young English girl. "Too young and too useless to be married," as he +himself afterwards wrote, his about-to-be father-in-law, William +Bakewell, advised Audubon to become a New York business man. With his +friend, Ferdinand Rozier, whom he had met in France, and who was then +connected with a French firm in Philadelphia, he visited Kentucky, +late in 1806, "thought well of it, and liked it exceedingly." But his +great love of Nature was not to be denied, and his business suffered +accordingly. On April 8, 1808, Audubon was married to Miss Bakewell, +and the next morning left for Pittsburgh, where he and his bride, +accompanied by Rozier, floated down the Ohio river in a flatboat, +which was their bridal tour, with Louisville, Kentucky, as their +destination. Upon reaching Louisville Audubon and Rozier opened a +large store which prospered when Audubon attended to it; "but birds +were birds then as now, and my thoughts were ever and anon turning +toward them as the objects of my greatest delight." His first child, +Victor, was born at Louisville, in 1809. Rozier conducted the store, +and Audubon spent his days in "the darling forests." In 1810 Alexander +Wilson, the Scotch ornithologist and poet, called upon Audubon at his +store in Louisville hoping to obtain his subscription to his work +upon American birds, but Audubon showed him birds he had never seen +before, which seemingly angered the Scot as he afterwards wrote +slightingly of the Kentucky naturalist. Late in 1810 Audubon and +Rozier removed their stock of goods to Henderson, Kentucky, where +their trade was so poor that Rozier was left behind the counter, while +Audubon was compelled to fish and hunt for food. A short time after +their arrival in Henderson, the two partners decided to move to St. +Genevieve on the Mississippi river, but Audubon disliked the +community, sold out to Rozier, and returned to his home in Henderson. +His second son, John Woodhouse, was born at Henderson, in 1812. Two +daughters were also born at Henderson, the first of whom, Lucy, died +in infancy and was buried in her father's garden. His pecuniary +affairs were now greatly reduced, but he continued to draw birds and +quadrupeds. He disposed of Mill Grove and opened a small store in +Henderson, which prospered and put him on his feet again. Audubon was +doing so finely in business now that he purchased a small farm and was +adding to it from time to time. His brother-in-law, Thomas Bakewell, +arrived at Henderson about 1816, and finally persuaded Audubon to +erect a steam-mill on his property at a great expense. For a time this +mill did all the sawing for the country, but in the end it ruined +Audubon and his partners. He left Henderson in 1819, after having +resided in the town for nearly ten years, and set up as a portrait +painter in Louisville, where he was very successful. From Louisville +Audubon went to Cincinnati and from there to New Orleans. In October, +1823, he again settled at Louisville as a painter of "birds, +landscapes, portraits, and even signs." His wife was the only person +in the world who had any faith in his ultimate "arrival" as a famous +naturalist, and the outlook was indeed dark. Audubon quitted +Louisville in March, 1824, and two years later he went to England, +where the first public exhibition of his drawings was held. His first +and most famous work, _Birds of America_, was published at London from +1827 to 1838, issued in numbers, each containing five plates, without +text, the complete work consisting of four folio volumes. Audubon +returned to America in 1829, and he was with his sons at Louisville +for a short time, both of whom were engaged in business there. He went +to New Orleans to see his wife, and together they came to Louisville, +in 1830, to bid the "Kentucky lads," as he called them, goodbye, +before sailing for England. At "the fair Edinburgh," in the fall of +1830, Audubon began the _Ornithological Biographies_ (Edinburgh, +1831-39, 5 vols.), the text to the plates of the _Birds_. In 1840-44 +the work was republished in seven volumes, text and plates together, +as _Birds of America_. In 1831 Audubon and his wife returned to +America, and they were again in Louisville with the boys for some +time. In 1833 his famous trip to Labrador was taken, and the following +year found the family in England. The next ten years were passed in +wandering from country to country in search of birds, but, in 1842, +Audubon purchased "Minniesland," now Audubon Park, New York. With his +sons and the Rev. John Bachman he planned the _Quadrupeds of America_, +the last volume of which was issued after his death, which occurred at +"Minniesland" on January 27, 1851. His wife, who wrote his life, +survived him many years, dying at Shelbyville, Kentucky, June 19, +1874, but she is buried by his side on the banks of the Hudson. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John James Audubon_, edited by his Widow + (New York, 1869); _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R. + Audubon (New York, 1900); _John James Audubon_, by John Burroughs + (Boston, 1902). + + +INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO IN 1810[6] + + [From _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R. Audubon (New + York, 1900, v. ii)] + +When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself were returning +from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found it expedient, the waters being +unusually low, to provide ourselves with a _skiff_, to enable us to +proceed to our abode at Henderson. I purchased a large, commodious, and +light boat of that denomination. We procured a mattress, and our friends +furnished us with ready prepared viands. We had two stout negro rowers, +and in this trim we left the village of Shippingport [now within the +corporate limits of Louisville], in expectation of reaching the place of +our destination in a very few days. + +It was in the month of October. The autumnal tints already decorated the +shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every tree was hung with long +and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with +clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine +mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage which now predominated over +the yet green leaves, reflecting more lively tints from the clear stream +than ever landscape painter portrayed, or poet imagined. The days were +yet warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that +season produces the singular phenomenon called there the "Indian +Summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian of her grandeur. We +glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that +formed by the propulsion of our boat. Leisurely we moved along, gazing +all day on the grandeur and beauty of the wild scenery around us. + +Now and then a large catfish rose to the surface of the water, in +pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from the +liquid element like so many silver arrows, produced a shower of light, +while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, and, with a +splash of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other fishes we heard, +uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the strange sound of which +we discovered to proceed from the white perch, for on casting our net +from the bow, we caught several of that species, when the noise ceased +for a time. + +Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality +towards this portion of our country. As the traveler ascends or +descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking that alternately, nearly +the whole length of the river, the margin, on one side, is bounded by +lofty hills and a rolling surface, while on the other, extensive +plains of the richest alluvial land are seen as far as the eye can +command the view. Islands of varied size and form rise here and there +from the bosom of the water, and the winding course of the stream +frequently brings you to places where the idea of being on a river of +great length changes to that of floating on a lake of moderate extent. +Some of these islands are of considerable size and value; while +others, small and insignificant, seem as if intended for contrast, and +as serving to enhance the general interest of the scenery. These +little islands are frequently overflowed during great freshets or +floods, and receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber. +We foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would +soon produce along those delightful banks. + +As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the river, +our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered far beyond +the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that the cattle +which bore them were gently roving from valley to valley in search of +food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of the Great +Owl, or the muffled noise of its wings, as it sailed smoothly over the +stream, were matters of interest to us; so was the sound of the +boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar. +When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth with echoing notes, +more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely +cabin of a squatter struck the eye, giving note of commencing +civilization. The crossing of the stream by a Deer foretold how soon +the hills would be covered with snow. + +Many sluggish flatboats we overtook and passed; some laden with +produce from the different head-waters of the small rivers that pour +their tributary streams into the Ohio; others, of less dimensions, +crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in search of a new home. +Purer pleasures I never felt; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless +indeed you have felt the like, and in such company. + +The margins of the shores and of the river were, at this season amply +supplied with game. A Wild Turkey, a Grouse, or a Blue-winged Teal, +could be procured in a few moments; and we fared well, for, whenever +we pleased we landed, struck up a fire, and provided as we were with +the necessary utensils, procured a good repast. + +Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, when, one +evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream which runs into the +Ohio from the State of Indiana), a loud and strange noise was heard, +so like the yells of Indian warfare, that we pulled at our oars, and +made for the opposite side as fast and as quietly as possible. The +sounds increased, we imagined we heard cries of "murder;" and as we +knew that some depredations had lately been committed in the country +by dissatisfied parties of aborigines, we felt for a while extremely +uncomfortable. Ere long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we +plainly discovered that the singular uproar was produced by an +enthusiastic set of Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the +common way for the purpose of holding one of their annual +camp-meetings, under the shade of a beech forest. Without meeting with +any other interruption, we reached Henderson, distant from +Shippingport, by water, about two hundred miles. + +When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the grandeur and +beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself +the dense and lofty summits of the forests, that everywhere spread +along the hills and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by +the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe +navigation of that river has been, by the blood of many worthy +Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found +there, and that the vast herds of Elk, Deer, and Buffaloes which once +pastured on these hills, and in these valleys, making for themselves +great roads to the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I +reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in +a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms, +and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly +heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and +the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro, +over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing commerce to take +root and to prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population +of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest, and +transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses; when I remember +that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short +period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be +a fact, can scarcely believe its reality. + +Whether these changes are for the better or for the worse, I shall not +pretend to say; but in whatever way my conclusions may incline, I feel +with regret that there are on record no satisfactory accounts of the +state of that portion of the country, from the time when our people +first settled in it. This has not been because no one in America is +able to accomplish such an undertaking. Our Irvings and our Coopers +have proved themselves fully competent for the task. It has more +probably been because the changes have succeeded each other with such +rapidity as almost to rival the movements of their pens. However, it +is not too late yet; and I sincerely hope that either or both of them +will ere long furnish the generations to come with those delightful +descriptions which they are so well qualified to give, of the original +state of a country that has been rapidly forced to change her form and +attire under the influence of increasing population. Yes, I hope to +read, ere I close my earthly career, accounts from those delightful +writers of the progress of civilization in our Western Country. They +will speak of the Clarks, the Croghans, the Boones, and many other men +of great and daring enterprise. They will analyze, as it were, into +each component part the country as it once existed, and will render +the picture, as it ought to be, immortal. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] Copyright, 1897, by Charles Scribner's Sons. + + + + +HORACE HOLLEY + + +Horace Holley, old Transylvania University's celebrated president, was +born at Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781, the son of Luther +Holley, a wealthy merchant. He was fitted at Williams College for Yale, +from which institution he was graduated in 1803. Holley studied law in +New York for awhile, but soon relinquished it for theology, which he +returned to Yale to pursue. In 1805 he was appointed to his first +pastorate. Going to Boston in 1809, as pastor of the Hollis Street +Unitarian church, he at once made a great reputation for himself as an +eloquent pulpit orator. Holley was at Hollis Street for nine years, +during which time he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard +University, as well as a member of several civic boards. He was elected +president of Transylvania University, of Lexington, in 1817, and he +journeyed to Kentucky in the following spring, where he went carefully +over the ground and finally decided to accept the position. He entered +almost at once upon the most difficult task of converting a grammar +school into a great university. Success soon crowned his efforts, +however, and Transylvania took her place by the side of Harvard, Yale, +and Princeton, as one of the higher seats of learning in the United +States. In at least one year under the Holley régime, Transylvania had +the largest student body in this country. The institution was as well +known in New York or London, among scholars, as it was in the West. +Several of the professors were men of national reputation, and the +students came from all parts of the United States. Never before in the +South or West has a seat of learning had higher hopes for the future, or +greater success or reputation than had Transylvania under Horace Holley. +Then the Kentucky Presbyterians and others launched Dame Rumor, +freighted with falsehoods and misrepresentations galore. The president +was charged with every crime in the calendar: he was an atheist, an +agnostic, a blasphemer, a wine-bibber, and all that was evil. The whole +truth was this: he was a Unitarian, holding the Christ to be the +greatest personality in history, but denying him as the very Son of God. +This his prejudiced, ill-advised enemies were unable to understand. +Driven to desperation by the bitter crusade that was being waged against +him, Holley resigned, in March, 1827, after nine years of great success +as head of the University, which after his departure, fell away to +almost nothing. He went from Kentucky to Louisiana, where he endeavored +to re-organize the College of New Orleans, and in which work he wore +himself out. Late in the summer he and his wife took passage for New +York, but he contracted yellow-fever, and, on July 31, 1827, he died. +His body was consigned to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but his fame +is secure as an American educator of distinguished ability. The finest +bit of prose he ever wrote, perhaps, is contained in one of his Kentucky +letters to his wife in Boston, written while he was in Lexington looking +over the lay of the land, which, as subsequent events proved, he utterly +failed to anticipate in its most dangerous and damning aspect. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. + Horace Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828); + _More Colonial Homesteads_, by Marion Harland (New York, 1899); + _Lore of the Meadowland_, by J. W. Townsend (Lexington, Kentucky, + 1911). + + +MR. CLAY AND COLONEL MEADE + + [From _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace + Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828)] + + Lexington, May 27th, 1818. + +I wrote a hasty letter to you on the night of my arrival. I shall now +he able to speak a little more in detail. + +The town and the vicinity are very handsome. The streets are broad, +straight, paved, clean, and have rows of trees on each side. The +houses are of brick almost universally, many of them in the midst of +fields, and have a very rural and charming appearance. The taste is +for low houses, generally two, sometimes even but one story high, like +English cottages. This taste gives an effect that eyes accustomed to +the high buildings of an Atlantic city, where there is but little +room, are not at first pleased with. But it is a taste adapted to the +circumstances, and to me is not unpleasant. + +I have taken lodgings at the principal hotel of the place, where I have +a drawing-room to receive calls, which were yesterday until dinner +almost innumerable.... In the afternoon I walked about town with Mr. +Clay, and called at a few charming houses. I visited also the Athenaeum, +an institution not yet furnished with many books, but well supplied with +newspapers, and the best periodicals. I find everything of this sort, +which is valuable, from Boston and the other Atlantic cities. + +This morning I breakfasted at Mr. Clay's, who lives a mile and a half +from town. He arrived here only three days before me. Ashland is a +very pleasant place, handsomer than I anticipated. The grounds are +beautiful, the lawns and walks extensive, the shrubbery luxuriant, and +the garden well supplied. The native forest of ash in the rear adds a +charming effect to the whole. After breakfast Mr. Clay rode in with +me, and we went with the trustees, by appointment, to the college, to +visit the professors and students. They were all collected in the +largest hall to receive us. I made a short address, which was received +in a kind manner. I was then conducted to the library, the apparatus, +and the recitation rooms. The library is small, and the apparatus +smaller. There is no regular division of students into classes as in +other colleges, and but few laws. Everything is to be done, and so +much the better, as nothing is to be reformed. Almost the whole is +proposed to be left to me to arrange. I am now making all necessary +inquiries, and a meeting of the trustees is to be called next week. + +After this visit, I went with a party of ladies and gentlemen, nine +miles into the country to the seat of Colonel [David] Meade [1744-1838] +where we dined and passed the day. This gentleman, who is near seventy, +is a Virginian of the old school. He has been a good deal in England, +in his youth, and brought home with him English notions of a country +seat, though he is a great republican in politics. He and his wife dress +in the costume of the olden time. He has the square coat and great +cuffs, the vest of the court, short breeches, and white stockings, at +all times. Mrs. Meade has the long waist, the white apron, the stays, +the ruffles about the elbows, and the cap of half a century ago. She is +very mild and ladylike, and though between sixty and seventy, plays upon +the piano-forte with the facility and cheerfulness of a young lady. Her +husband resembles Colonel Pickering in the face, and the shape of the +head. He is entirely a man of leisure, never having followed any +business, and never using his fortune but in adorning his place and +entertaining his friends and strangers. No word is ever sent to him that +company is coming. To do so offends him. But a dinner--he dines at the +hour of four--is always ready for visitors; and servants are always in +waiting. Twenty of us went out today, without warning, and were +entertained luxuriously on the viands of the country. Our drink +consisted of beer, toddy, and water. Wine, being imported and expensive, +he never gives; nor does he allow cigars to be smoked in his presence. +His house consists of a cluster of rustic cottages, in front of which +spreads a beautiful, sloping lawn, as smooth as velvet. From this +diverge, in various direction, and forming vistas terminated by +picturesque objects, groves and walks extending over some acres. Seats, +Chinese temples, verdant banks, and alcoves are interspersed at +convenient distances. The lake, over which presides a Grecian temple, +that you may imagine to be the residence of the water nymphs, has in it +a small island, which communicates with the shore by a white bridge of +one arch. The whole is surrounded by a low rustic fence of stone, +surmounted and almost hidden by honey-suckle and roses, now in full +flower, and which we gathered in abundance to adorn the ladies. +Everything is laid out for walking and pleasure. His farm he rents, and +does nothing for profit. The whole is in rustic taste. You enter from +the road, through a gate between rude and massive columns, a field +without pretension, wind a considerable distance through a noble park to +an inner gate, the capitals to whose pillars are unique, being formed of +the roots of trees, carved by nature. Then the rich scene of +cultivation, of verdure and flower-capped hedges, bursts upon you. There +is no establishment like this in our country. Instead of a description, +I might have given you its name, "_Chaumiere du Prairies_." + + + + +CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE + + +Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, the learned, eccentric scientist of +Kentucky and the West, was born near Constantinople, Turkey, October +22, 1783. He was of French-German descent. His boyhood years were +spent in Italy and in traveling on the Continent. Rafinesque came to +America in 1802, and he remained in this country but three years, when +he returned to Italy; and there the subsequent ten years of his life +were passed. In 1809 he married, after a fashion, a Sicilian woman, +Josephine Vaccaro, who bore him two children. Rafinesque returned to +America in 1815, and a short time after his arrival, he met his former +friend, John D. Clifford, of Philadelphia and Lexington--twin-towns in +those days--"the only man he ever loved," who persuaded him to come +out to Kentucky. At Henderson, Kentucky, Rafinesque met the great +Audubon, who took him under his roof, and who told him many amusing +tales of the fishes of the Ohio--which the little scientist believed, +as coming from a famous man--and which caused him no end of trouble +and work in after years. Audubon ridiculed him to his face, which the +simple-minded man could not understand; and in his _Journals_ the +ornithologist has much fun at his guest's expense. That he treated him +very badly, no one can deny. Through Clifford's influence, probably, +Rafinesque was appointed, in 1819, to the chair of natural science and +modern languages in Transylvania University. This was during the +presidency of Horace Holley, when the old University was at the +high-tide of its history, but the diminutive scientist, though +heralded as "the most learned man in America," was not received as +such in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky an hundred years ago. From +the president down to the children of the little city he was looked +upon as an impossible creature. Seven of the best years of his life +were spent in the service of the University and of the town. His +boldest dream for the town was a Botanical Garden, modeled upon the +gardens of France, and though he did actually make a splendid start +toward this ideal, in the end all his plans came to nothing. In June, +1825, Rafinesque left Lexington, never to return. He went to +Philadelphia, where the remaining fifteen years of his life were +spent. Death discovered the little fellow among his books, plants, and +poverty, September 18, 1840, in a miserable, rat-ridden garret on Race +street, Philadelphia. Rafinesque's publications reach the surprising +number of 447, consisting of books, pamphlets, magazine articles, +translations, and reprints. His most important works are _Ichthyologia +Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio +and its Tributary Streams_ (Lexington, 1820), a reprint of which his +biographer, Dr. Call, has published (Cleveland, 1899); and his +_Ancient Annals of Kentucky_, which Humphrey Marshall printed as an +introduction to his _History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1824). The +oversheets of this were made into a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages. The +little work considers the antiquities of the State, and is the +starting point for all latter-day writers upon "the prehistoric men of +Kentucky." Imagination and fact run riotously together, yet the work +has been correctly characterized as "the most remarkable history of +Kentucky that was ever written, or ever will be." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Kentucky Cardinal_, by James Lane Allen (New + York, 1894); _Life and Writings of Rafinesque_, by Richard E. + Call (Louisville, Kentucky, 1895); _Rafinesque: A Sketch of his + Life_, by T. J. Fitzpatrick (Des Moines, Iowa, 1911). + + +GEOLOGICAL ANNALS OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF NATURE IN KENTUCKY + + [From _Ancient Annals of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824)] + +1. Every complete history of a country ought to include an account of +the physical changes and revolutions, which it may have undergone. + +2. The documents for such geological survey, are to be found +everywhere in the bowels of the earth, its rocks and strata, with the +remains of organized bodies imbedded therein, which are now considered +as the medals of nature. + +3. The soil of Kentucky shows, like many other countries, that it has +once been the bed of the sea. In James's Map, the primitive ocean is +supposed to have covered North America, by having a former level of +6000 feet above the actual level. Since the highest lands in Kentucky +do not exceed 1800 feet above the level of the actual ocean, they were +once covered with at least 4200 feet of water. + +4. The study of the soil of Kentucky, proves evidently the successive +and gradual retreat of the salt waters, without evincing any proofs of +any very violent or sudden disruptions or emersions of land, nor +eruptions of the ocean, except some casual accidents, easily ascribed +to earthquakes, salses and submarine volcanoes. + +5. There are no remains of land or burning volcanoes in Kentucky, nor +of any considerable fresh water lake. All the strata are nearly +horizontal, with valleys excavated by the tides and streams during the +soft state of the strata. + +6. After these preliminary observations, I shall detail the successive +evolution of this soil and its productions, under six distinct periods +of time, which may be compared to the six epochs or days of creation, +and supposed to have lasted an indefinite number of ages. + + + + +MANN BUTLER + + +Mann Butler, the first Kentucky historian who worked with +comparatively modern methods, eliminating personal prejudices and +imagination, was born at Baltimore, July, 1784. At the age of three +years he was taken to the home of his grandfather in Chelsea, England. +Mann Butler returned to the United States, in 1798, and entered St. +Mary's College, Georgetown, D. C., from which institution he was +afterwards graduated in the arts, medicine, and law. His tastes were +decidedly literary, and he preferred law to medicine as being, +perhaps, more in line with literature. He emigrated to Kentucky, +locating at Lexington, in 1806, for the practice of law. He later +abandoned law for pedagogy, opening an academy at Versailles, +Kentucky. Some years later he taught in Maysville and Frankfort, and +was then called to a professorship in Transylvania University, +Lexington, where he remained for several years. In 1831 Butler removed +to Louisville, where he was engaged in teaching for fifteen years. His +_History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1834; Cincinnati, 1836) was, after +Filson's florid sentences, Rafinesque's imagination, and Marshall's +prejudices and castigations, most welcome and timely. He was +microscopic in finding facts, fair, having no enemies to punish, an +excellent chronicler, in short, and doing a work that was much needed. +The Kentucky legislature took a keen interest in his history, +rendering him great assistance. Butler's _Appeal from the +Misrepresentations of James Hall, Respecting the History of Kentucky +and the West_ (Frankfort, 1837), was a just criticism of the +Cincinnati writer's _Sketches of History in the West_ (Philadelphia, +1835), a work in which fact and fiction are well-nigh inseparable. +Mann Butler spent the last seven years of his life in St. Louis, +teaching and in preparing a history of the Ohio valley, which he left +in manuscript, but which, together with his library, was afterwards +destroyed by Federal soldiers during the Civil War. He was killed in +Missouri, in 1852, while a passenger on a Pacific train which was +wrecked by the falling of a bridge spanning the Gasconade river. Mann +Butler had many of the qualities required in a great historian, and +the work he did has lived well and will live longer. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, + 1887, v. i). + + +PIONEER VISITORS + + [From _A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_ (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1834)] + +During this same year [1769], a party of about forty stout hunters, +"from New River, Holstein and Clinch" united in a hunting expedition +west of the Cumberland Mountains. + +Nine of this party, led on by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky; and, +from the time they were absent from home, they "obtained the name of +the _Long Hunters_." This expedition reached "the country south of the +Kentucky river," and became acquainted with Green river, and the lower +part of the Cumberland. + +In addition to these parties, so naturally stimulated by the ardent +curiosity incident to early and comparatively, idle society, the +claimants of military bounty lands which had been obtained from the +British crown, for services against the French, furnished a new and keen +band of western explorers. Their land warrants were surveyed on the +Kenhawa and the Ohio; though most positively against the very letter of +the royal proclamation of '63. But at this distance from the royal +court, it was nothing new in the history of government that edicts +emanating, even from the king in council, should be but imperfectly +regarded. However, this may be, land warrants were actually surveyed on +the Kenhawa as early as 1772, and in 1773, several surveyors were +deputied to lay out bounty lands on the Ohio river. + +Amongst others Thomas Bullitt, uncle to the late Alexander Scott +Bullitt, first lieutenant governor of Kentucky; and Hancock Taylor, +engaged in this adventurous work. These gentlemen with their company +were overtaken on the 28th of May, 1773, by the McAfees, whose exertions +will hereafter occupy a conspicuous station in this narrative. + +On the 29th, the party in one boat and four canoes, reached the Ohio +river, and elected Bullitt their captain. + +There is a romantic incident connected with this gentleman's descent of +the Ohio, evincing singular intrepidity and presence of mind; it is +taken from his journal, as Mr. [Humphrey] Marshall says, and the author +has found it substantially confirmed by the McAfee papers. While on his +voyage, he left his boat and went alone through the woods to the Indian +town of Old Chillicothe, on the Scioto. He arrived in the midst of the +town undiscovered by the Indians, until he was waving his white flag as +a token of peace. He was immediately asked what news? Was he from the +Long Knife? And why, if he was a peace-messenger, he had not sent a +runner? Bullitt, undauntedly replied, that he had no bad news; was from +the Long Knife, and as the red men and the whites were at peace, he had +come among his brothers to have friendly talk with them, about living on +the other side of the Ohio; that he had no runner swifter than himself; +and, that he was in haste and could not wait the return of a runner. +"Would you," said he, "if you were very hungry, and had killed a deer, +send your squaw to town to tell the news, and wait her return before you +eat?" This simple address to their own feelings, soon put the Indians in +good humor, and at his desire a council was assembled to hear his talk +the next day. Captain Bullitt then made strong assurances of friendship +on the part of the whites and acknowledged that these "Shawanees and +Delawares, our nearest neighbors," "did not get any of the money or +blankets given for the land, which I and my people are going to settle. +But it is agreed by the great men, who own the land, that they will make +a present to both the Delawares and the Shawanees, the next year; and +the year following, that shall be as good." On the ensuing day, +agreeably to the very deliberate manner of the Indians in council, +Captain Bullitt was informed, that "he seemed kind and friendly, and +that it pleased them well." That as "to settling the country on the +other side of the Ohio with your people, we are particularly pleased +that they are not to _disturb_ us in our hunting. For we must hunt, to +kill meat for our women and children, and to get something to buy our +powder and lead with, and to get us blankets and clothing." In these +talks, there seems a strange want of the usual sagacity of the Indians +as to the consequences of white men settling on their hunting grounds; +so contrary to their melancholy experience for a century and a half +previous; yet, the narrative is unimpeachable. On the part of Bullitt, +too, the admission of _no compensation_ to the Delawares and Shawanees, +appears to be irreconcilable with the treaty at Fort Stanwix with the +master tribes of the confederacy, the Six Nations. However, this may be, +the parties separated in perfect harmony, and Captain Bullitt proceeded +to the Falls. Here he pitched his camp above the mouth of Bear-grass +creek, retiring of a night to the upper point of the shoal above _Corn +Island_, opposite to the present city of Louisville. It was this +gentleman, who, according to the testimony of Jacob Sodowsky, a +respectable farmer, late of Jessamine county, in this State, first laid +off the town of Louisville, in August, 1773. He likewise surveyed +Bullitt's Lick in the adjoining county, of the same name. + + + + +ZACHARY TAYLOR + + +Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, was a Kentuckian +save for his accidental birth near Orange, Virginia, September 24, 1784. +His father, Richard Taylor, had been planning for many years to remove +to Kentucky, but his vacillation gave Virginia another president. When +but nine months old Zachary Taylor was brought to Kentucky, the family +settling near Louisville. He "grew up to manhood with the yell of the +savage and the crack of the rifle almost constantly ringing in his +ears." The first twenty-four years of his life were passed wholly in +Kentucky amid all the dangers of the Western wilderness. He was +fighting Indians almost before he could hold a rifle at arm's length, +and in such an environment his education was, of course, very limited. +Taylor entered the army, in 1808, serving in the War of 1812, in Black +Hawk's war of 1832, and against the Seminole Indians (1836-1837). In +1837 he was brevetted brigadier-general. In 1838 General Taylor was +placed in command of the military stations in Florida; and in 1845 he +took command of the army on the Texas border. The next five years of +General Taylor's life is the history of the Mexican War. At Palo Alto, +Monterey, and at Buena Vista, on February 22-23, 1847, where he crushed +Santa Anna, he was the absolute man of the hour, the hero of the +country. On the strength of his military renown, General Taylor was +elected as the Whig candidate for president of the United States, in +1848, defeating General Lewis Cass of Michigan, and former president, +Martin Van Buren, of New York. He was inaugurated in March, 1849, but he +died at the White House, Washington, July 9, 1850. The country was torn +asunder with many important questions during Taylor's administration, +which, though brief, was a stormy one. His remains were interred at his +old home near Louisville--the only president ever buried in this +State--and a ruined monument marks the grave at this time. In 1908 a +volume of his _Letters from the Battlefields of the Mexican War_ +appeared. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Some Notable Families of America_, by Annah + Robinson Watson; _The War with Mexico_, by H. O. Ladd (New York, + 1835); _General Taylor_, by O. O. Howard (New York, 1892). + + +A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY + + [From _The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay_, edited by Calvin + Colton (New York, 1855)] + + Baton Rouge, La., December 28, 1847. + +My dear Sir,--Your kind and acceptable letter of the 13th instant, +congratulating me on my safe return to the United States, and for the +complimentary and flattering terms you have been pleased to notice my +services, I beg leave to tender you my sincere thanks. + +The warm and hearty reception I have met with from so many of my +fellow-citizens, where I have mingled among them since my return, in +addition to their manifestations of their high appreciation and +approval of my conduct while in Mexico, has been truly gratifying, and +has ten-fold more than compensated me for the dangers and toils +encountered in the public service, as well as for the privations in +being so long separated from my family and friends; yet there are +circumstances connected with my operations in that country which I can +never forget, and which I must always think of with feelings of the +deepest sorrow and regret. + +I left Mexico after it was determined the column under my orders was +to act on the defensive, and after the capital of the enemy had fallen +into our hands, and their army dispersed, on a short leave of absence, +to visit my family, and to attend to some important private affairs, +which could not well be arranged without my being present, and which +had been too long neglected. After reaching New Orleans, I informed +the Secretary of War that should my presence in Mexico be deemed +necessary at any time, I was ready to return, and that a communication +on that or any other subject connected with my public duties would +reach me if addressed to this place. I therefore feel bound to remain +here, or in the vicinity, until the proper authorities at Washington +determine what disposition is to be made of or with me. Under this +state of things I do not expect to have it in my power to visit +Kentucky, although it would afford me much real pleasure to mix once +more with my numerous relatives and friends in that patriotic State, +to whom I am devotedly attached; as well as again to visit, if not the +place of my nativity, where I was reared from infancy to early +manhood. And let me assure you I duly appreciate your kind invitation +to visit you at your own hospitable home, and should anything occur +which will enable me to avail myself of it, I will embrace the +opportunity with much real pleasure. + +I regret to say, I found my family, or rather Mrs. Taylor, on my +return, in feeble health, as well as my affairs in any other than a +prosperous condition; the latter was, however, to be expected, and I +must devote what time I can spare, or can be spared from my public +duties, in putting them in order as far as I can do so. + +Should circumstances so turn out as will induce you to visit Washington +the present winter, I trust you will take every precaution to protect +yourself while traveling from the effects of the severe cold weather you +must necessarily encounter in crossing the mountains, particularly so +after having passed several of the last winters in the South. + +The letter which you did me the honor to address to me, referred to, +reached me on the eve of my leaving Monterey to return to the United +States, and was at once replied to, which reply I flatter myself +reached you shortly after writing your last communication; in which I +stated, although I had received some letters from individuals in +Kentucky, calculated, or perhaps intended, to produce unkind feelings +on my part toward you, even admitting such was the case, their object +has not been accomplished in the slightest degree, and I hope it will +never be the case. + +Please present me mostly kindly to your excellent lady, and wishing +you and yours continued health and prosperity, I remain, with respect +and esteem, etc. + + + + +DANIEL DRAKE + + +Daniel Drake, "the Franklin of the West," was born at Plainfield, New +Jersey, October 20, 1785. When he was but three years old, his family +removed to Mayslick, Mason county, Kentucky, where they dwelt in a log +cabin for some time. When he was sixteen years of age, Drake went to +Cincinnati to study medicine, the city's first medical student. He +later attended lectures at the medical school of the University of +Pennsylvania. On his return to Kentucky, Dr. Drake practiced his +profession near his home at Mayslick, Kentucky, but he shortly +afterwards went to Cincinnati, where he became a distinguished +physician and author. In 1816 he was appointed professor of materia +medica and botany in the medical school of Transylvania University, +and he held this chair for one year. He returned to Transylvania, in +1823, and this time he remained for four years. In 1835 Dr. Drake +organized the medical department of Cincinnati College. Four years +later he went to Louisville to accept the chair of clinical medicine +and pathological anatomy in the University of Louisville, which he +occupied for ten years. He returned to Cincinnati two years before his +death, which occurred there, November 6, 1852. Dr. Drake's +publications include _Topography, Climate, and Diseases of Cincinnati_ +(1810); _Picture of Cincinnati_ (Cincinnati, 1815); _Practical Essays +on Medical Education_ (1832); _Systematic Treatise on the Principal +Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America_ (Philadelphia, 1850; +1852), a work which was characterized by Judge James Hall of +Cincinnati as "the most important and valuable work ever written in +the United States. The subject is large. The work could not be +compiled. The subject was new, and the materials were to be collected +from original sources, from observation, personal inspection, oral +evidence, etc. It occupied many years; and was, probably, in +contemplation during the whole or most part of Dr. Drake's long +professional life." To-day Dr. Drake's most popular work is _Pioneer +Life in Kentucky_, a series of reminiscential letters addressed to his +children, concerning early times in Kentucky. It was issued by Robert +Clarke, the Cincinnati publisher in his well-known Ohio Valley +Historical Series. This is a charming volume and it has been much +quoted and praised by Western writers. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. ii); _Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio + Valley_, by W. H. Venable (Cincinnati, 1891); Allibone's + _Dictionary of Authors_ (Philadelphia, 1897). + + +MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 + + [From _Pioneer Life in Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1870)] + +Mayslick, although scarcely a village, was at once an emporium and +capital for a tract of country six or eight miles in diameter, and +embracing several hundred families, of which those in father's +neighborhood were tolerably fair specimens. Uncle Abraham Drake kept a +store, and Shotwell and Morris kept taverns; besides them there were a +few poor mechanics. Uncle Cornelius Drake was a farmer merely, and +lived a little out of the center of the station; the great men of +which were the three I have just named. With this limited population, +it seems, even down to this time, wonderful to me that such gatherings +and such scenes should have been transacted there. They commenced +within five years after its settlement, and increasing with the +progress of surrounding population, continued in full vigor long after +I left home for Cincinnati. It was the place for holding regimental +militia musters, when all the boys and old men of the surrounding +country, not less than those who stood enrolled, would assemble; and +before dispersing at night, the training was quite eclipsed by a +heterogeneous drama of foot racing, pony racing, wrestling, fighting, +drunkenness and general uproar. It was also a place for political +meetings and stump conflict by opposing candidates, and after +intellectual performances there generally followed an epilogue of +oaths, yells, loud blows, and gnashing of teeth. Singing-schools were +likewise held at the same place in a room of Deacon Morris's tavern. I +was never a scholar, which I regret, for it has always been a grief +with me that I did not learn music in early life. I occasionally +attended. As in all country singing-schools, sacred music only was +taught, but in general there was not much display of sanctity. I have +a distinct remembrance of one teacher only. He was a Yankee, without a +family, between forty and fifty years of age, and wore a matted mass +of thick hair over the place where men's ears are usually found. Thus +protected, his were never seen, and after the opinion spread abroad +that by some misfortune they had been cut off, he "cut and run." + +The infant capital was, still further, the local seat of justice; and +Saturday was for many years, at all times I might say, the regular term +time. Instead of trying cases at home, two or three justices of the +peace would come to the Lick on that day, and hold their separate +courts. This, of course, brought thither all the litigants of the +neighborhood with their friends and witnesses; all who wished to +purchase at the store would postpone their visit to the same day; all +who had to replenish their jugs of whiskey did the same thing; all who +had business with others expected to meet them there, as our city +merchants, at noon, expect to meet each other on 'change; finally, all +who thirsted after drink, fun, frolic, or fighting, of course, were +present. Thus Saturday was a day of largely suspended field labor, but +devoted to public business, social pleasure, dissipation, and beastly +drunkenness. You might suppose that the presence of civil magistrates +would have repressed some of these vices, but it was not so. Each day +provided a bill of fare for the next. A new trade in horses, another +horse race, a cock-fight, or a dog-fight, a wrestling match, or a +pitched battle between two bullies, who in fierce encounter would lie on +the ground scratching, pulling hair, choking, gouging out each other's +eyes, and biting off each other's noses, in the manner of bull-dogs, +while a Roman circle of interested lookers-on would encourage the +respective gladiators with shouts which a passing demon might have +mistaken for those of hell. In the afternoon, the men and boys of +business and sobriety would depart, and at nightfall the dissipated +would follow them, often two on a horse, reeling and yelling as I saw +drunken Indians do in the neighborhood of Fort Leavenworth, in the +summer of 1844. But many would be too much intoxicated to mount their +horses, and must therefore remain till Sunday morning. + + + + +MARY A. HOLLEY + + +Mrs. Mary Austin Holley, the historian of Texas, was born at New +Haven, Connecticut, in 1786. On January 1, 1805, she was married to +the Rev. Horace Holley, who, in the fall of that year, became pastor +of a church at Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. Mrs. Holley, of course, +was in Boston with her husband from 1809 to 1818; and she accompanied +him to Lexington, Kentucky, when he accepted the presidency of +Transylvania University. Mrs. Holley was one of the few persons whom +the eccentric scientist, Rafinesque, set down as having been very kind +to him while he was connected with the University. She lived in +Lexington until the spring of 1827, when she went with her husband to +New Orleans. She wrote a poem, _On Leaving Kentucky_, the first stanza +of which is as follows: + + Farewell to the land in which broad rivers flow, + And vast prairies bloom as in Eden's young day! + Farewell to the land in which lofty trees grow, + And the vine and the mistletoe's empire display. + +She later embarked with her husband for New York, and it was her pen +that so vividly described his death on shipboard. After Dr. Holley's +death his widow returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and wrote the memoir +for Dr. Charles Caldwell's _Discourse on the Genius and Character of the +Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D._ (Boston, 1828). Mrs. Holley left Kentucky in +1831 and emigrated to Texas under the protection of her celebrated +kinsman, General Stephen Fuller Austin, a Transylvania University man, +and the founder of Texas. Her _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836), was +one of the first histories of that country ever published. Mrs. Holley +was a widely read woman, theology being her favorite study, and, like +her husband, she was a Unitarian. In person she was said to be a very +charming woman. Mrs. Holley spent the last several years of her life at +New Orleans, in which city she died on August 2, 1846. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Transylvanian_ (Lexington, January, 1829); + Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +TEXAS WOMEN + + [From _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836)] + +Living in a wild country under circumstances requiring constant +exertion, forms the character to great and daring enterprise. Women thus +situated are known to perform exploits, which the effeminate men of +populous cities might tremble at. Hence there are more Dianas and +_Esther Stanhopes_ than one in Texas. It is not uncommon for ladies to +mount their mustangs and hunt with their husbands, and with them to camp +out for days on their excursions to the sea shore for fish and oysters. +All visiting is done on horseback, and they will go fifty miles to a +ball with their silk dresses, made perhaps in Philadelphia or New +Orleans, in their saddle-bags. Hardy, vigorous constitutions, free +spirits, and spontaneous gaiety are thus induced, and continued a rich +legacy to their children, who, it is to be hoped, will sufficiently +value the blessing not to squander it away, in their eager search for +the luxuries and refinements of polite life. Women have capacity for +greatness, but they require occasions to bring it out. They require, +perhaps, stronger motives than men--they have stronger barriers to break +through of indolence and habit--but, when roused, they are quick to +discern and unshrinking to act. _Lot was unfortunate in his wife._ Many +a wife in Texas has proved herself the better half, and many a widow's +heart has prompted her to noble daring. + +Mrs. ---- left her home in Kentucky with her six sons, and _no other +jewels_. There was good land and room in Texas. Hither she came with +the first settlers, at a time when the Indians were often troublesome +by coming in large companies and encamping near an isolated farm, +demanding of its helpless proprietors, not then too well provided for, +whatever of provisions or other things struck their fancies. One of +these _foraging_ parties, not over nice in their demands, stationed +themselves in rather too near proximity to the dwelling of this +veteran lady. They were so well satisfied with their position, and +scoured the place so completely, that she ventured to remonstrate, +gently at first, then more vehemently. All would not do: the +_pic-nics_ would not budge an inch; and moreover threatened life if +she did not forbear from further expressions of impatience. The good +woman was _armed_. She buckled on her _breastplate_ of _courage_, if +not of _righteousness_, and with her children and women servants, all +her household around her, sent for the chief, and very boldly +expostulating with him, _commanded_ him to depart on the instant at +the peril of his tribe; or by a signal she would call in her whole +_people_, numerous and formidable, and exterminate his race. She was +no more troubled with the Indians. She lives comfortably with her +thriving family and thriving fortune, and with great credit to +herself, on the road between Brazoria and San Felipe, in the same +house now famed for its hospitality and comfort. It is the usual +stopping place for travellers on that route, who are not a little +entertained with the border stories and characteristic jests there +related, by casual companies meeting for the night and sharing the +same apartment. It was thus that the above incident, much more +exemplified, was drawn from the hostess herself. A volume of +_reminiscences_ thus collected, racy with the marvellous, would not be +_unapt_ to modern taste, and the modern science of book-making. + + + + +JOHN J. CRITTENDEN + + +John Jordan Crittenden, a Kentucky statesman and orator of national +reputation, was born near Versailles, Kentucky, September 10, 1787. He +was graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, +Virginia, studied law, and was admitted to the Frankfort bar. +Crittenden served in the War of 1812; and in 1816 he was a member of +the Kentucky legislature. In the following year he was elected United +States Senator from Kentucky, his party, the Whig, then being in power +in this State. From 1827 to 1829 Crittenden was United States +Attorney for the district of Kentucky; and in 1835 he was again sent +to the Senate, with Henry Clay as his colleague. President William +Henry Harrison made him his Attorney-General, in 1841, and he resigned +his seat in the Senate. When John Tyler succeeded to the presidency +six months later, on the death of Harrison, Crittenden withdrew from +the cabinet portfolio, and he was almost immediately returned to the +Senate by the legislature of Kentucky. He served until 1848, when he +was elected Governor of Kentucky. Governor Crittenden was the most +distinguished, if not indeed the ablest, chief executive this +Commonwealth has ever known. He resigned the governorship, in 1850, in +order to become President Fillmore's Attorney-General, which position +he held for three years. In 1855 Crittenden was for the fourth time +elected United States Senator from Kentucky. As the war between the +States approached, Senator Crittenden, though a Southerner, chose the +cause of the Union, lining up with the administration heart and soul. +In the beginning he did his utmost to prevent the war, and, failing, +he exerted his entire energies to aid Abraham Lincoln and the North to +prosecute it. In 1860 the Senator urged his famous Compromise, +providing for the reëstablishment of the old slave-line of 36' 30 N., +and for the enforcement of the fugitive-slave laws, but it was never +moulded into law. The last two years of his life were spent as a +member of the lower House of Congress, where he continued his fight +for the supremacy of the Constitution. Senator Crittenden died near +Frankfort, Kentucky, July 26, 1863, thus surviving his greatest friend +and fellow patriot, Henry Clay, more than eleven years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John J. Crittenden_, by Mrs. Chapman + Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, 1882). + + +EULOGY UPON ASSOCIATE JUSTICE McKINLEY + + [From _The Life of John J. Crittenden_, edited by his daughter, + Mrs. Chapman Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871)] + +At the opening of the court this morning, Mr. Crittenden, the +Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the court as follows: + +"Since its adjournment yesterday, the members of the bar and officers +of the court held a meeting and adopted resolutions expressive of +their high sense of the public and private worth of the Hon. John +McKinley, one of the justices of this court, and their deep regret at +his death. By the same meeting I was requested to present those +resolutions to the court, and to ask that they might be entered on its +records, and I now rise to perform that honored task. + +"Besides the private grief which naturally attends it, the death of a +member of this court, which is the head of the great, essential, and +vital department of the government, must always be an event of public +interest and importance. + +"I had the good fortune to be acquainted with Judge McKinley from my +earliest manhood. In the relations of private life he was frank, +hospitable, affectionate. In his manners he was simple and unaffected, +and his character was uniformly marked with manliness, integrity, and +honor. Elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court made no change in +him. His honors were borne meekly, without ostentation or presumption. + +"He was a candid, impartial, and righteous judge. Shrinking from no +responsibility, he was fearless in the performance of his duty, seeking +only to do right, and fearing nothing but to do wrong. Death has now set +her seal to his character, making it unchangeable forever; and I think +it may be truly inscribed on his monument that as a private gentleman +and as a public magistrate he was without fear and without reproach. + +"This occasion cannot but remind us of other afflicting losses which +have recently befallen us. The present, indeed, has been a sad year for +the profession of the law. In a few short months it has been bereaved of +its brightest and greatest ornaments. Clay, Webster, and Sergeant have +gone to their immortal rest in quick succession. We had scarcely +returned from the grave of one of them till we were summoned to the +funeral of another. Like bright stars they have sunk below the horizon, +and have left the land in widespread gloom. This hall that knew them so +well shall know them no more. Their wisdom has no utterance now, and the +voice of their eloquence shall be heard here no more forever. + +"This hall itself seems as though it was sensible of its loss, and +even these marble pillars seem to sympathize as they stand around us +like so many majestic mourners. + +"But we will have consolation in the remembrance of these illustrious +men. Their _names_ will remain to us and be like a light kindled in the +sky to shine upon us and to guide our course. We may hope, too, that the +memory of them and their great examples will create a virtuous emulation +which may raise up men worthy to be their successors in the service of +their country, its constitution, and its laws. + +"For this digression, and these allusions to Clay, Webster, and +Sergeant, I hope the occasion may be considered as a sufficient excuse, +and I will not trespass by another word, except only to move that these +resolutions in relation to Judge McKinley, when they shall have been +read by the clerk, may be entered on the records of this court." + + + + +JOHN M. HARNEY + + +John Milton Harney, the first of the Kentucky poets to win and retain +a wide reputation, a man with the divine afflatus, whose whole body of +song is slender but of real worth, was born near Georgetown, Delaware, +March 9, 1789. He was the second son of Major Thomas Harney, of +Revolutionary War fame, and the elder brother of General William S. +Harney, a hero of Cerro Gordo. When John Milton Harney was but two +years old, his family emigrated to Tennessee, and later removed to +Louisiana. He studied medicine and settled at Bardstown, Kentucky. In +1814 Dr. Harney married a daughter of Judge John Rowan, the early +Kentucky statesman; and her death four years later was such a shock +to her husband that he was compelled to abandon his practice, and seek +solace in travel and new scenes. Dr. Harney spent some time in +England, and on his return to America he settled at Savannah, Georgia. +He over-exerted himself at a disastrous fire in Savannah, which +resulted in a violent fever and ended in breaking his health. He +returned to Bardstown, Kentucky, became a convert to Roman +Catholicism, and in that place he died, January 15, 1825, when but +thirty-five years of age. At the age of twenty-three years, Dr. Harney +wrote _Crystalina, a Fairy Tale_, in six cantos, but his extreme +sensitiveness caused him to hold it in manuscript for four years, or +until 1816, when it was issued anonymously at New York. This work was +highly praised by Rufus W. Griswold, John Neal, and other well-known +critics, but the unfavorable criticism far outweighed the favorable +criticism, so the author held, and he published nothing more in book +form; and he did all in his power to suppress the edition of +_Crystalina_. William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic of a later time +in the West, went over Dr. Harney's manuscripts and from them rescued +his masterpiece, the exquisite _Echo and the Lover_. This Gallagher +published in his _Western Literary Journal_ for 1837--the first form +in which the public saw it. No Western poem has had a wider audience +than the _Echo_. It has been parodied in Europe and America many +times, and is the finest expression of Dr. Harney's genius. It is to +be regretted that no comprehensive account of the poet's life and +literary labors has come down to posterity. As a poet and as a man his +merits were of the truest sort, but a handful of facts, a suppressed +book, a lyric or so, are all that have been brought to the attention +of the literary world. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by + Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892). + + +ECHO AND THE LOVER + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + _Lover._ Echo! mysterious nymph, declare + Of what you're made and what you are-- + _Echo._ "Air!" + + _Lover._ 'Mid airy cliffs, and places high, + Sweet Echo! listening, love, you lie-- + _Echo._ "You lie!" + + _Lover._ You but resuscitate dead sounds-- + Hark! how my voice revives, resounds! + _Echo._ "Zounds!" + + _Lover._ I'll question you before I go-- + Come, answer me more apropos! + _Echo._ "Poh! poh!" + + _Lover._ Tell me, fair nymph, if e'er you saw + So sweet a girl as Phoebe Shaw! + _Echo._ "Pshaw!" + + _Lover._ Say, what will win that frisking coney + Into the toils of matrimony! + _Echo._ "Money!" + + _Lover._ Has Phoebe not a heavenly brow? + Is it not white as pearl--as snow? + _Echo._ "Ass, no!" + + _Lover._ Her eyes! Was ever such a pair? + Are the stars brighter than they are? + _Echo._ "They are!" + + _Lover._ Echo, you lie, but can't deceive me; + Her eyes eclipse the stars, believe me-- + _Echo._ "Leave me!" + + _Lover._ But come, you saucy, pert romancer, + Who is as fair as Phoebe? Answer. + _Echo._ "Ann, sir!" + + +THE WHIPPOWIL + + [From the same] + + There is a strange, mysterious bird, + Which few have seen, but all have heard: + He sits upon a fallen tree, + Through all the night, and thus sings he: + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + + Despising show, and empty noise, + The gaudy fluttering thing he flies: + And in the echoing vale by night + Thus sings the pensive anchorite: + Whippowil! + + Oh, had I but his voice and wings, + I'd envy not a bird that sings; + But gladly would I flit away, + And join the wild nocturnal lay: + Whippowil! + + The school-boy, tripping home in haste, + Impatient of the night's repast, + Would stop to hear my whistle shrill, + And answer me with mimic skill: + Whippowil! + + The rich man's scorn, the poor man's care, + Folly in silk, and Wisdom bare, + Virtue on foot, and Vice astride, + No more should vex me while I cried: + Whippowil! + + How blest!--Nor loneliness nor state, + Nor fame, nor wealth, nor love, nor hate, + Nor av'rice, nor ambition vain, + Should e'er disturb my tranquil strain: + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + + +SYLPHS BATHING + + [From _Crystalina_ (New York, 1816)] + + The shores with acclamations rung, + As in the flood the playful damsels sprung: + Upon their beauteous bodies, with delight, + The billows leapt. Oh, 'twas a pleasant sight + To see the waters dimple round, for joy, + Climb their white necks, and on their bosoms toy: + Like snowy swans they vex'd the sparkling tide, + Till little rainbows danced on every side. + Some swam, some floated, some on pearly feet + Stood sidelong, smiling, exquisitely sweet. + + + + +GEORGE ROBERTSON + + +George Robertson, the most widely quoted Kentucky jurist, and an able +writer, was born near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, November 18, 1790. He was +educated in the arts and in law at Transylvania University, and +entered upon the practice of his profession at Lancaster, Kentucky, in +1809. In 1816 Robertson was elected to Congress, where he remained for +two terms. He drew up the bill for the establishment of Arkansaw +territory; and he projected the system of cutting public lands into +small lots, selling them to actual settlers for one dollar and +twenty-five cents per acre. He declined another term in the House, as +well as the attorney-generalship of Kentucky, in order to devote his +whole attention to the law. Robertson was elected against his desire +to the Kentucky legislature, in 1822, and he was a member of that body +for the next five years. This was the time of the struggle between the +Old-Court and New-Court parties, which was one of the most bitter +political fights ever seen in Kentucky. Robertson consistently and +vigorously championed the cause of the Old-Court party, which finally +won. That this disgusted him with political life in any dress, is +shown by his subsequent declination of the governorship of Arkansaw, +and the Columbian and Peruvian missions. In 1828 he was elected an +associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and, in the +following year, chief justice. This position was George Robertson's +heart's desire--he hated politics with a never-dying hatred, the law +and the bench being his earthly paradise. He was chief justice of +Kentucky for fourteen years, when he resigned to return to the active +practice of law. From 1834 to 1857 Judge Robertson was professor of +law in Transylvania University at Lexington. He died at Lexington, May +16, 1874, generally regarded as the ablest jurist Kentucky has +produced. He was also the author of four books: _Introductory Lecture +to the Transylvania Law Class_ (Lexington); _Biographical Sketch of +John Boyle_ (Frankfort, 1838); _Scrap-Book on Law and Politics, Men +and Times_ (Lexington, 1855), his best known book; and his very +interesting and well-written autobiography, entitled _An Outline of +the Life of George Robertson, written by Himself_ (Lexington, 1876), +to which his son contributed an introduction and appendix. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Judge + Robertson's life is, of course, his autobiography; Samuel M. + Wilson's study in _Great American Lawyers_ (Philadelphia, 1908). + + +ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY + + [From _Scrap Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times_ (Lexington, + Kentucky, 1855)] + +Yet we have hopes that are immortal--interests that are +imperishable--principles that are indestructible. Encouraged by those +hopes, stimulated by those interests, and sustained by and sustaining +those principles, let us, come what may, be true to God, true to +ourselves, and faithful to our children, our country, and mankind. And +then, whenever or wherever it may be our doom to look, for the last +time, on earth, we may die justly proud of the title of "Kentuckian," +and, with our expiring breath, may cordially exclaim--Kentucky, as she +was;--Kentucky, as she is;--Kentucky, as she will be;--Kentucky forever. + + +EARLY STRUGGLES + + [From _An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by + Himself_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1876)] + +Yet, thus juvenile, poor, and proud, I ventured not only on the rather +hopeless prospects of professional life, but, on the 28th of November, +1809, when I was only ten days over nineteen years of age, I ventured +on the far more momentous contingencies of marriage, and, linking my +destinies with a wife only fifteen years and seven months old, we +embarked without freight or pilotage, on the untried sea of early +marriage. I had never made a cent, and had nothing but ordinary +clothes, a horse, an old servant, a few books, and the humble talents +with which God had blessed me. I borrowed thirteen dollars as an +outfit, and out of that fund I paid for my license and handed to my +groomsman, R. P. Letcher, five dollars for paying the parson, Randolph +Hall, father of Rev. Nathan H. Hall. Some days afterwards Letcher +rather slyly put into my hand a dollar, suggesting that he had saved +that much for me by paying the preacher only four dollars. This looked +to me as such minute parsimony as to excite my indignation, important +as was only one dollar then to me. And I manifested that feeling in a +manner both emphatic and censurious; to which Letcher replied that +four dollars was more than was then customary, and that Mr. Hall, when +he received it, expressed the warmest gratitude, and said that, old +as he was, he had never received so large a fee for solemnizing the +matrimonial rite! This reconciled me to the return of the dollar. + +My wife and myself lived with her mother until the 9th of September, +1810, when we set up for ourselves in a small buckeye house with only +two rooms, built and first occupied by Judge [John] Boyle, and +respecting which I may here suggest this remarkable coincidence of +successive events:--That Boyle commenced housekeeping in that house, +and, while he occupied it, was elected to Congress; that Samuel McKee +commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded Boyle in +Congress; that I commenced housekeeping in the same house, and +succeeded McKee in Congress; and that R. P. Letcher commenced +housekeeping in the same house, and, after an interval of two years, +succeeded me in Congress. I was unable to furnish it with a carpet, +and our only furniture consisted of two beds, one table, one bureau, +six split-bottomed chairs, and a small supply of table and kitchen +furniture, which I bought with a small gold watch. I had bought a bag +of flour, a bag of corn meal, a half barrel of salt, and two hams and +two middlings of bacon; and these, together with the milk of a small +cow given to my wife by her mother, and a few chickens and some +butter, constituted our entire outfit of provisions. But all our +supplies were stolen the night we commenced housekeeping. This was, at +that time, a heavy blow. I had no money; and, though I had good +credit, I resolved not to buy anything on credit. And that was one of +the best resolutions I ever made. It stimulated my industry and +economy, and soon secured to me peace and a comfortable sense of +independence. In adhering to my privative, but conservative resolve, I +often cut and carried on my shoulders wood from a neighboring forest. + + +LITERARY FAME + + [From the same] + +The classical reader remembers that, when almost all the Greeks, +captured with Nicias at Syracuse, had died in dungeons, a remnant of the +survivors saved themselves by the recitation of beautiful extracts from +Euripides. How potent was the shadowed genius of the immortal Athenian, +when it alone melted the icy hearts that nothing else could touch, and +broke the captive's chains, which justice, and prayers, and tears, had +in vain tried to unloose! And hence "the glory of Euripides had all +Greece for a monument." He too was elevated by the light of other minds. +It is said that he acquired a sublime inspiration whenever he read +Homer--whose Iliad and whose Odyssey--the one exhibiting the fatality of +strife among leading men, the other portraying the efficacy of +perseverance--have stamped his name on the roll of fame in letters of +sunshine, that will never fade away. No memorial tells where Troy once +stood--Delphi is now mute--the thunder of Olympus is hushed, and +Apollo's lyre no longer echoes along the banks of the Peneus--but the +fame of Homer still travels with the stars. + + + + +SHADRACH PENN + + +Shadrach Penn, one of the ablest of Kentucky journalists, was born at +Frederick, Maryland, in 1790. His family settled near Georgetown, +Kentucky, when he was a mere boy. Penn began his newspaper career at +Georgetown when he was but nineteen years of age; and he subsequently +served in the War of 1812. In 1818 Penn removed to Louisville and +established _The Public Advertiser_, which was a weekly for the first +few years of its history, then a semi-weekly, and, on April 4, 1826, a +final change was made "and the first daily newspaper west of the +Alleghanies was flung to the public." After the establishment of the +_Kentucky Gazette_, this marked the second most epoch-making event in +Kentucky journalism. Penn was an able editor, the very ablest in +Kentucky, and he was having things his own way in the West, advocating +Jacksonian Democracy. In 1828 President Jackson showed his appreciation +of Penn's services by offering him a place in his cabinet, which he +declined, but he did spend a winter at Washington as the President's +warm friend and adviser. Then, _mirabile dictu!_ the Whigs brought +George D. Prentice to Kentucky and, in 1830, he established the +_Louisville Journal_, and began a most bitter fight upon Penn's paper. +Penn fought back as best he could, but he was quite unequal for the +contest. For nearly twelve years the warfare was waged without either +editor asking quarter, and to the infinite amusement of the whole +country. In 1841 Penn ran up the white flag and went to St. Louis to +become editor of the _St. Louis Reporter_. Prentice bade him farewell in +the best of temper, and when he died at St. Louis, on June 15, 1846, the +old Whig's tribute to his memory was the finest one written. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. H. Perrin + (Louisville, 1888); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by + J. Stoddard Johnston (Chicago, 1896). + + +THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE + + [From _The Public Advertiser_ (Louisville, September 10, 1830)] + +This gentleman and Mr. Buxton, of Cincinnati, have issued proposals for +publishing a daily paper in Louisville, which is to be edited by Mr. +Prentice. Willing that the gentleman shall be known by the people whose +patronage he is seeking, we copy today from a Cincinnati paper his +account of the late elections in Kentucky. The production may be viewed +as a fair specimen of his "fine literature, his drollery, strong powers +of sarcasm," and, above all, his "poetical capacity." The respect and +attachment he displays toward Kentucky (to say nothing of the Jackson +party), must be exquisitely gratifying to the respectable portion of Mr. +Clay's friends in this city. To them we commend the letter of Mr. +Prentice as an erudite, chaste, and veritable production, worthy of the +"great editor" who is hereafter to figure as Mr. Clay's champion in the +West. We may, moreover, congratulate them in consequence of the fair +prospect before them; for with the aid of such an editor they cannot +fail to effect miraculous revolutions or revulsions in the political +world. The occupants of all our fish markets will be confirmed in their +devotion to the opposition beyond redemption. + + + + +WILLIAM O. BUTLER + + +William Orlando Butler, one of General Lew Wallace's favorite poets, +was born near Nicholasville, Kentucky, in 1791. He was the son of +Percival Butler, a noted Revolutionary soldier. He was graduated from +Transylvania University, Lexington, in 1812. Butler studied law for a +short time, but the War of 1812 called him and he enlisted. At the +River Raisin he was wounded and captured and carried through Canada to +Fort Niagara, but he was later exchanged. Butler was with General +Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and his gallantry attracted the +attention of the general, who placed him upon his staff. In 1817 +Butler returned to the law, married, and settled in the little river +town of Carrollton, Kentucky, on the Ohio, his home henceforth. In +July, 1821, the first draft of his famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_ +(then called _The Boat Horn_), was published in _The Western Review_, +a monthly magazine of Lexington, Kentucky. In describing his boyhood +days at Covington, Indiana, General Lew Wallace very charmingly writes +of his early love for the Wabash river, and for old Nebeker, the +lonesome ferryman, who "welcomed me for my company. On the farther +side, chained to a tree, he kept a long tin horn. A traveller, coming +to the bank and finding us on the townward side, blew to get our +attention ... when the voice of the big horn on the thither side +called to us--How it startled me! What music there was in it! What +haste I made to unship my oar!... And if since then I have been an +ardent fisherman, believing with my friend Maurice Thompson that + + "Halcyon prophecies come to pass + In the haunts of the bream and bass;" + +and if the song of Butler, the soldier-poet of Kentucky-- + + "Oh, boatman, wind that horn again! + For never did the joyous air + Upon its lambent bosom bear + So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain"-- + +is still a favorite of mine, with power to stir my pulses and return +me to a freak of childhood full of joyousness alloyed only with +thought of my mother's fears, the shrewd reader will know at once how +such tastes inured to me. And as swimming seems to have been one of my +natural accomplishments, I must have acquired it during my days at the +ferry." This is far and away the best background for Butler's poem +that has been done, and with it before the reader the famous poem must +mean more to him. The poem was subsequently published as the +title-poem in a small collection of his verse, entitled _The Boatman's +Horn and Other Poems_. From 1839 to 1843 Butler was a Kentucky +Congressman; and in 1844 the unsuccessful candidate for governor of +Kentucky. Upon his Mexican War record, General Butler was nominated by +the Democratic party for vice-president of the United States with +General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the head of the ticket, but they +were defeated by Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams. In 1855 +General Butler declined the governorship of the territory of Nebraska; +and in 1861 he went to Washington as a member of the famous "Peace +Congress." General Butler died at his home, Carrollton, Kentucky, +August 6, 1880, in the ninetieth year of his age. Though famous as a +soldier and politician, _The Boatman's Horn_ is the work that will +keep his name green for many years; and several of his other poems are +not to be utterly despised. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Sketch of Gen. William O. Butler_, by + F. P. Blair, Senior (Washington, 1848), was reprinted in full in + _The Kentucky Yeoman_ (Frankfort, June 15, 1848); _The Poets and + Poetry of the West_, by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); + Lew Wallace's _Autobiography_ (New York, 1906). + + +THE BOATMAN'S HORN + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + O, boatman! wind that horn again, + For never did the list'ning air + Upon its lambent bosom bear + So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain! + What though thy notes are sad and few, + By every simple boatman blown, + Yet is each pulse to nature true, + And melody in every tone. + + How oft, in boyhood's joyous day, + Unmindful of the lapsing hours, + I've loitered on my homeward way + By wild Ohio's bank of flowers; + While some lone boatman from the deck + Poured his soft numbers to the tide, + As if to charm from storm and wreck + The boat where all his fortunes ride! + + Delighted, Nature drank the sound, + Enchanted, Echo bore it round + In whispers soft and softer still, + From hill to plain and plain to hill, + Till e'en the thoughtless frolic boy, + Elate with hope and wild with joy, + Who gambolled by the river's side + And sported with the fretting tide, + Feels something new pervade his breast, + Change his light steps, repress his jest, + Bends o'er the flood his eager ear, + To catch the sounds far off, yet dear-- + Drinks the sweet draught, but knows not why + The tear of rapture fills his eye. + And can he now, to manhood grown, + Tell why those notes, simple and lone, + As on the ravished ear they fell, + Bind every sense in magic spell? + + There is a tide of feeling given + To all on earth, its fountains, heaven, + Beginning with the dewy flower, + Just ope'd in Flora's vernal bower, + Rising creation's orders through, + With louder murmur, brighter hue-- + That tide is sympathy! its ebb and flow + Give life its hue, its joy, and woe. + + Music, the master-spirit that can move + Its waves to war, or lull them into love-- + Can cheer the sinking sailor 'mid the wave, + And bid the warrior on! nor fear the grave, + Inspire the fainting pilgrim on the road, + And elevate his soul to claim his God. + + Then, boatman, wind that horn again! + Though much of sorrow mark its strain, + Yet are its notes to sorrow dear; + What though they wake fond memory's tear? + Tears are sad memory's sacred feast, + And rapture oft her chosen guest. + + + + +HEW AINSLIE + + +Hew Ainslie, the foremost Scottish-Kentucky poet, was born at Bargery +Mains, Ayrshire, April 5, 1792. Ill-health cut short Ainslie's +education at the Ayr Academy, but some years later he went up to +Glasgow to study law. Law and Hew Ainslie were not congenial fellows, +and he shortly embarked upon the art of landscape gardening. He was +next a clerk in Edinburgh, and also amanuensis for Professor Dugald +Stewart. "Gradually the clouds of [Ainslie's] tobacco smoke began to +curl into seven letters which looked like America." He was thirty +years of age when he arrived at New York. He spent his first years in +New York and Indiana as a farmer, but he soon relinquished this work +and went, in 1829, to Louisville, Kentucky, where, three years later, +an Ohio river flood swept his property away. And two years after this +disastrous flood, fire destroyed his property in Indiana. Undismayed +by misfortune, Ainslie became a contractor and supervised the erection +of many large business structures in Louisville and other cities. +During all these years he was assiduously courting the Muse, and +making a great reputation for himself as a poet. Ainslie's first book, +_A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns_ (Deptford, 1822), is the English +edition of his charming lyrics; and his _Scottish Songs, Ballads, and +Poems_ (New York, 1855), is the only American edition of his work. In +1864, forty-two years after his departure, Ainslie revisited the land +of his birth, where he was hailed as one of Scotland's finest singers +since Robert Burns. Kentucky was in the poet's blood, however, and a +year later he returned to his home at Louisville. His American friends +were not to be outdone by his home people, and they arranged a great +home-coming for him. In 1871, when the Scots of Louisville assembled +to celebrate the birthday of Burns, Ainslie, the toastmaster, arose +and smilingly confessed to having once kissed "Bonnie Jean," Burns's +widow. He died at Louisville, March 11, 1878. A comprehensive Scottish +edition of his _A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems_, was +issued in 1892. _The Ingle Side_, a little song of sixteen lines, is +Ainslie's masterpiece; but it was as a poet of the sea that he won his +great reputation. "As Lloyd Mifflin is America's greatest sonneteer, +so Hew Ainslie, the adopted Kentuckian, may perhaps be ranked as +America's most ardent singer of the sea." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _Hew Ainslie_, by A. S. Mackenzie (Library of + Southern Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. i). + + +THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY + + [From _A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems_ (Paisley, + Scotland, 1892)] + + I left ye, Jeanie, blooming fair, + 'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny; [bowers] + I've found ye on the banks o' Ayr, + But sair ye're altered, Jeanie. + + I left ye 'mang the woods sae green, + In rustic weed befitting; + I've found ye buskit like a queen, [attired] + In painted chaumbers sitting. [chambers] + + I left ye like the wanton lamb + That plays 'mang Hadyed's heather; + I've found ye noo a sober dame, + A wife and eke a mither. + + Ye're fairer, statelier, I can see, + Ye're wiser, nae dou't, Jeanie; + But ah! I'd rather met wi' thee + 'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny. + + +THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK + + [From the same] + + Welcome, Edie, owre the sea, + Welcome to this lan' an' me, + Welcome from the warl' whaur we + Hae whistled owre the lave o't. [rest] + + Come, gie your banes anither hitch, + Up Hudson's stream, thro' Clinton's ditch, + An' see our watlin meadows rich [cane-brake] + Wi' corn an' a' the lave o't. [all the rest of it] + + We've hizzie here baith swank and sweet [maidens agile] + An' birkies here that can stan' a heat [young men] + O' barley bree, or aqua vit [brew; water of life] + Syne whistle owre the lave o't. + + Gude kens, I want nae better luck [Goodness knows] + Than just to see ye, like a buck, + Spanking the haughs o' auld Kentuck, [speeding over the meadows] + An' whistling owre the lave o't. + + +THE INGLE SIDE + + [From the same] + + It's rare to see the morning bleeze, [blaze] + Like a bonfire frae the sea; + It's fair to see the burnie kiss [streamlet] + The lip o' the flowery lea; + An' fine it is on green hillside, + When hums the hinny bee; + But rarer, fairer, finer far, + Is the ingle side to me. + + Glens may be gilt wi' gowans rare [daisies] + The birds may fill the tree, + An' haughs hae a' the scented ware [river meadows] + That simmer's growth can gie; + But the canty hearth where cronies meet, [cheerful] + An' the darling o' our e'e-- + That makes to us a warl' complete, + Oh! the ingle side for me. + + +THE HINT O' HAIRST + + [From the same] + + It's dowie in the hint o' hairst, [dreary; end; harvest] + At the wa'-gang o' the swallow, [away-going] + When the wind blows cauld an' the burns grow bauld, [bold] + An' the wuds are hingin' yellow; + But oh! it's dowier far to see + The deid-set o' a shining e'e + That darkens the weary warld on thee. + + There was muckle love atween us twa-- + Oh! twa could ne'er been fonder; + An' the thing on yird was never made + That could hae gart us sunder. + But the way of Heaven's aboon a' ken, [above all knowing] + And we maun bear what it likes to sen'-- [must] + It's comfort, though, to weary men, + That the warst o' this warld's waes maun en'. + + There's mony things that come and gae, + Just kent and syne forgotten; + The flow'rs that busk a bonnie brae [deck; slope] + Gin anither year lie rotten. + But the last look o' that lovin' e'e, + An' the dying grip she gied to me, + They're settled like eternitie-- + O Mary! that I were with thee. + + + + +JAMES G. BIRNEY + + +James Gillespie Birney, leader of the Conservative Abolitionists, +opposed to the radicalism of William Lloyd Garrison and all his ilk, +yet as earnest and sincere in his hatred of slavery, was born at +Danville, Kentucky, February 4, 1792. He was at Transylvania +University for a short time, then proceeded to Princeton, from which +institution he was graduated in 1810. In 1814 he became a lawyer in +his native town of Danville. In 1816 Birney was in the Kentucky +legislature; but two years later he removed to Alabama, settling upon +a plantation near Huntsville. The slavery question was appealing to +him more and more, and he finally became an agent for the American +Colonization Society. In the fall of 1833 Birney returned to Kentucky, +and went to Danville, where he freed his own slaves, and organized the +Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society. On January 1, 1836, the first issue of +his anti-slavery sheet, _The Philanthropist_, appeared from his +Cincinnati office. This soon became the Bible of the Conservative +Abolitionists, who opposed the drastic methods of Garrison and his +followers. In his speeches Birney denounced all violence and +fanaticism in the handling of the slavery problem, though he himself +received much violence at the hands of mobs and almost insane +partisans. His strong addresses through the North won him the +secretaryship of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. In this +capacity he was soon recognized as the real leader of the +"Constitutional Abolitionists," who said they stood upon the +Constitution, fought against secession, and desired to wipe slavery +from the face of the American continent with decency and in order. In +1840 and again in 1844 Birney was the candidate of the Liberty party +for president of the United States. In the second campaign he +multiplied his very small vote received in the first race by nine. He +was thrown from his horse, in 1845, and the final twelve years of his +life were passed as an invalid. Birney died at Perth Amboy, New +Jersey, November 25, 1857. Besides numerous contributions to the +press, his principal writings are _Letter on Colonization_ (1834); +_Addresses and Speeches_ (1835); _American Churches the Bulwarks of +American Slavery_ (1840); _Speeches in England_(1840); and _An +Examination of the Decision of the_ _United States Supreme Court in +the Case of Strader et al. v. Graham_ (1850). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _James G. Birney and His Times_, by his son, + William Birney (New York, 1890). + + +THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES + + [From _A Letter on the Political Obligations of Abolitionists_ + (Boston, 1839)] + +Within the last twelve or eighteen months, it is believed--after +efforts, some successful, some not, had been begun to affect the +elections--and whilst the most indefatigable exertions were being made +by many of our influential, intelligent and liberal friends to +convince the great body of the abolitionists of the necessity--the +indispensable necessity--of breaking away from their old "_parties_," +and uniting together in the use of the elective franchise for the +advancement of the cause of human freedom in which we were +engaged;--at this very time, and mainly, too, in that part of the +country where _political action_ had been most successful, and whence, +from its promise of soon being wholly triumphant, great encouragement +was derived by abolitionists everywhere, a sect has arisen in our +midst, whose members regard it as of religious obligation, in no case, +_to exercise the elective franchise_. This persuasion is part and +parcel of the tenet which it is believed they have embraced--that as +Christians have the precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the Spirit +of God to guide them, all human governments, as necessarily including +the idea of _force to secure obedience_, are not only superfluous, but +unlawful encroachments on the Divine government, as ascertained from +the sources above mentioned. Therefore, they refuse to do anything +voluntarily, by which they would be considered as acknowledging the +lawful existence of human governments. Denying to civil governments +the right to use force, they easily deduce that family governments +have no such right. Thus they would withhold from parents any power of +personal chastisement or restraint for the correction of their +children. They carry out to the full extent the "non-resistance" +theory. To the first ruffian who would demand our purse, or oust us +from our houses, they are to be unconditionally surrendered, unless +_moral suasion_ be found sufficient to induce him to decline from his +purpose. Our wives, our daughters, our sisters--our mothers we are to +see set upon by the most brutal, without any effort on our part, +except argument, to defend them--and even they themselves are +forbidden to use in defense of their purity such powers as God has +endowed them with for its protection, if resistance should be attended +with any injury or destruction to the assailant. In short, the +"No-Government" doctrines, as they are believed now to be embraced, +seem to strike at the root of the social structure; and tend--so far +as I am able to judge of their tendency--to throw society into entire +confusion, and to renew, under the sanction of religion, scenes of +anarchy and license that have generally heretofore been the offspring +of the rankest infidelity and irreligion. + +It is but justice to say--judging from the moral deportment of the +adherents of the "No-Government" scheme--that so far from admitting, +what I have supposed to be, its legitimate consequences, they would +wholly deny and repudiate them. + +These Sectaries have not as yet separated themselves from the American +[Anti-Slavery] society. Far from it. They insist that their views are +altogether harmonious with what is required for membership by the +constitution.... But is this really so? Is the difference between +those who seek to abolish any and every government of human +institution, and those who prefer _any_ government to a state of +things in which every one may do what seemeth good in his own eyes--is +the difference between them, I say, so small that they can act +harmoniously under the same organization? When, in obedience to the +principles of the society, I go to the polls and there call on my +neighbors to unite with me in electing to Congress men who are in +favor of Human Rights, I am met by a No-Government abolitionist +inculcating on them the doctrine that Congress has _no rightful +authority_ to act at all in the premises--how can we proceed together? +When I am animating my fellow-citizens to aid men in infusing into the +government salutary influences which shall put an end to all +oppression--my No-Government brother cries out at the top of his +lungs, _all_ governments are of the Devil(!) where is our harmony! +Our efficiency? We are in the condition of the two physicians called +in to the same patient--one of whom should be intent on applying the +proper remedies for expelling the disease from the body and thus +restoring and purifying its functions; the other equally intent on +utterly destroying body, members, functions and all. Could they be +agreed, and could they walk together? It seems to me not. And simply +because their aim, their objects are radically and essentially +different. So with the No-Government and the Pro-Government +abolitionists. One party is for sustaining and purifying governments, +and bringing them to a perfect conformity with the principles of the +Divine government--the other for destroying _all_ government. + + + + +THOMAS CORWIN + + +Thomas Corwin, witty, delightful "Tom" Corwin, was born near Paris, +Kentucky, July 29, 1794. Before he was five years old, his father had +taken him into the wilds of Ohio, the Lebanon of today. "Tom" Corwin was +admitted to the bar, in 1818, after a slender education and a brief +reading of the law. His wit and eloquence made his reputation rapidly +and, in 1830, he found himself in the lower House of Congress. The whole +country laughed at his inimitable speeches; and that he had a strong +hold on the Ohio Whigs is certain as they returned him to the House for +ten years. In 1840 Corwin was elected governor of Ohio, after a +brilliant and successful state-wide campaign. He was incomparable on the +stump, and he rode into the gubernatorial chair on an overwhelming Whig +tide. Two years later, however, his former opponent, Wilson Shannon, +defeated him for reëlection. In 1844 Corwin was sent to the United +States Senate, in which body he renewed his House reputation as an +orator. On the eve of the Mexican War, he made his memorable anti-war +speech, which practically ruined his future political career, as the +country desired to fight the hated men on the border. But a more bravely +beautiful speech was never made. President Fillmore chose Corwin his +Secretary of the Treasury, in 1850. At the expiration of Fillmore's +term, Corwin returned to the practice of law at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1858 +he reëntered public life, serving a term in Congress; and, in 1861, +President Lincoln appointed him minister to Mexico. Corwin remained in +Mexico until the coming of Maximilian, when he returned to Washington to +practice law. In the capital of the country he died, December 18, 1865. +"Tom" Corwin was one of the most captivating of American orators, and +most lovable of men. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin_, by Isaac + Strohn (Dayton, Ohio, 1859); _The Library of Oratory_ (New York, + 1902, v. vi). + + +THE MEXICAN WAR + + [From _Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin_, by Isaac Strohn + (Dayton, Ohio, 1859)] + +Mr. President, this uneasy desire to augment our territory has depraved +the moral sense and blunted the otherwise keen sagacity of our people. +What has been the fate of all nations who have acted upon the idea that +they must advance! Our young orators cherish this notion with a fervid +but fatally mistaken zeal. They call it by the mysterious name of +"destiny." "Our destiny," they say, is "onward," and hence they argue, +with ready sophistry, the propriety of seizing upon any territory and +any people that may lie in the way of our "fated" advance. Recently +these progressives have grown classical; some assiduous student of +antiquities has helped them to a patron saint. They have wandered back +into the desolated Pantheon, and there, among the polytheistic relics of +that "pale mother of dead empires," they have found a god whom these +Romans, centuries gone by, baptized "Terminus." + +Sir, I have heard much and read somewhat of this gentleman Terminus. +Alexander, of whom I have spoken, was a devotee of this divinity. We +have seen the end of him and his empire. It was said to be an +attribute of this god that he must always advance and never recede. So +both republican and imperial Rome believed. It was, as they say, their +destiny. And for a while it did seem to be even so. Roman Terminus did +advance. Under the eagles of Rome he was carried from his home on the +Tiber to the farthest East on the one hand, and to the far West, among +the then barbarous tribes of western Europe, on the other. + +But at length the time came when retributive justice had become "a +destiny." The despised Gaul calls out the contemned Goth, and Attila, +with his Huns answers back the battle-shout to both. The "blue-eyed +nations of the North," in succession or united, pour forth their +countless hosts of warriors upon Rome and Rome's always-advancing god +Terminus. And now the battle-axe of the barbarian strikes down the +conquering eagle of Rome. Terminus at last recedes, slowly at first, but +finally he is driven to Rome, and from Rome to Byzantium. Whoever would +know the further fate of this Roman deity, so recently taken under the +patronage of American democracy, may find ample gratification of his +curiosity in the luminous pages of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_. + +Such will find that Rome thought as you now think, that it was her +destiny to conquer provinces and nations, and no doubt she sometimes +said, as you say, "I will conquer a peace," and where now is she, the +mistress of the world? The spider weaves his web in her palaces, the +owl sings his watch-song in her towers. Teutonic power now lords it +over the servile remnant, the miserable memento of old and once +omnipotent Rome. Sad, very sad, are the lessons which time has written +for us. Through and in them all I see nothing but the inflexible +execution of that old law which ordains as eternal that cardinal rule, +"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything which is +his." Since I have lately heard so much about the dismemberment of +Mexico I have looked back to see how, in the course of events, which +some call "Providence," it has fared with other nations who engaged in +this work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half of the +eighteenth century three powerful nations, Russia, Austria, and +Prussia, united in the dismemberment of Poland. They said, too, as +you say, "It is our destiny." They "wanted room." Doubtless each of +these thought, with his share of Poland, his power was too strong ever +to fear invasion, or even insult. One had his California, another his +New Mexico, and the third his Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouched and +incapable of harm? Alas! no--far, very far, from it. Retributive +justice must fulfill its destiny, too. + + + + +HENRY B. BASCOM + + +Henry Bidleman Bascom, the distinguished Methodist preacher and orator, +was born at Hancock, New York, May 27, 1796. He received a scanty +education, and when but eighteen years of age he was licensed to preach +by the Ohio conference of the Methodist church. He was a circuit-rider, +traveling more than four hundred miles upon horseback his first year in +the work, and receiving the princely salary of $12.10 for his year's +services. Bascom was too florid for the Ohio brethren, and they caused +him to be transferred to Tennessee and Kentucky circuits. In this work +he won a wide reputation as a pulpit orator. In 1823 Henry Clay had +Bascom appointed chaplain of the House of Representatives, but his long +sermons did not please the members, and he was not a great success in +Washington. Bascom was elected as the first president of Madison +College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1827, but two years later he became +an agent for the American Colonization Society. From 1831 to 1841 he was +professor of moral science and belles-lettres in Augusta College, +Augusta, Kentucky, the first Methodist college in the world. The +Methodist church having taken over Transylvania University, at +Lexington, Dr. Bascom was elected president of that institution in 1842. +He revived the ancient seat of learning to a wonderful degree, becoming +another Horace Holley, but the rebirth proved ephemeral. In 1844 +President Bascom protested against the action of the General Conference +of the Methodist church concerning slavery, and, in the Louisville +conference of 1845, he took a most prominent part, winning for himself +the title of "father of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." Dr. +Bascom was editor of the _Southern Methodist Review_ for several years; +and in 1848 he resigned the presidency of Transylvania University, only +to be elected a bishop in the branch of the Methodist church he had +helped to establish. He was ordained as bishop in May, 1850, and almost +immediately set out for Missouri, where he held his first and only +conference. On his return to Kentucky he was in very poor health; and he +died at Louisville, September 8, 1850. Bishop Bascom was the greatest +Methodist preacher Kentucky can claim; and he was also an able writer. +His works include _Sermons from the Pulpit_; _Lectures on Infidelity_; +_Lectures and Essays on Moral and Mental Science_; and _Methodism and +Slavery_. In 1910 a portrait in oils of Bishop Bascom was painted by +Paul Sawyier, the Kentucky artist, for Transylvania University. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D.D., LL.D._, by M. + M. Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856); _The Transylvanian_ + (Lexington, Kentucky, June, 1910). + + +A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA + + [From _The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D. D., LL. D._, by Rev. + M. M. Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856)] + +I have seen, surveyed, and communed with the whole!--and awed and +bewildered, as if enchanted before the revealment of a mystery, I +attempt to write. You ask me, in your last, for some detailed, +veritable account of the Falls, and I should be glad to gratify you; +but how shall I essay to paint a scene that so utterly baffles all +conception, and renders worse than fruitless every attempt at +description? In five minutes after my arrival, on the evening of the +fifth, I descended the winding-path from the "Pavillion," on the +Canadian side, and, for the first time in my life, saw this unequaled +cascade from "Table Rock;" the whole indescribable scene, in bold +outline, bursting on my view. I had heard and read much, and imagined +more of what was before me. I was perfectly familiar with the +often-told, the far-traveled story of what I saw; but the overpowering +_reality_ on which I was gazing, motionless as the rock on which I +stood, deprived me of recollection, annihilated all curiosity; and +with emotions of sublimity till now unfelt, and all unearthly, the +involuntary exclamation escaped me, "_God of Grandeur! what a scene!_" + +But the majesty of the sight, and the interest of the moment, how +depict them? The huge amplitude of water, tumbling in foam above, and +dashing on, arched and pillared as it glides, until it reaches the +precipice of the _chute_, and then, in one vast column, bounding with +maddening roar and rush, into the depths beneath, presents a spectacle +so unutterably appalling, that language falters; words are no longer +signs, and I despair giving you any idea of what I saw and felt. Yet +this is not all. The eye and mind necessarily take in other objects, +as parts of the grand panorama, forests, cliffs, and islands; banks, +foam, and spray; wood, rock, and precipice; dimmed with the rising fog +and mist, and obscurely gilded by the softening tints of the rainbow. +These all belong to the picture; and the effect of the whole is +immeasurably heightened by the noise of the cataract, now reminding +you of the reverberations of the heavens in a tempest, and then of the +eternal roar of ocean, when angered by the winds! + +The concave bed of rock, from which the water falls some two hundred +feet into the almost boundless reservoir beneath, is the section of a +circle, which, at first sight, from "Table Rock," presents something +like the geometrical curve of the rainbow; and the wonders of the +grand "crescent," thus advantageously thrown upon the eye in +combination, and the appropriate sensations and conceptions heightened +by the crash and boom of the waters, render the sight more +surpassingly sublime, than anything I have ever looked upon, or +conceived of. As it regards my thoughts and feelings at the time, I +can help you to no conception of their character. Overwhelming +astonishment was the only bond between thought and thought; and wild, +vague, and boundless were the associations of the hour! Before me, the +strength and fullness of the congregated "lakes of the north," were +enthroned and concentrated within a circumference embraced by a single +glance of the eye! Here I saw, rolling and dashing, at the rate of +_twenty-five hundred millions of tons per day_, nearly one half of all +the fresh water upon the surface of the globe! On the American side, I +beheld a vast deluge, nine hundred feet in breadth, with a fall of one +hundred and eighty or ninety, met, fifty feet above the level of the +gulf, by a huge projection of rock, which seems to break the descent +and continuity of the flood, only to increase its fierce and +overwhelming bound. And turning to the "crescent," I saw the mingled +rush of foam and tide, dashing with fearful strife and desperate +emulation--four hundred yards of the sheet rough and sparry, and the +remaining three hundred a deep sealike mass of living green--rolling +and heaving like a sheet of emerald. Even imagination failed me, and I +could think of nothing but ocean let loose from his bed, and seeking a +deeper gulf below! The fury of the water, at the termination of its +fall, combined with the columned strength of the cataract, and the +deafening thunder of the flood, are at once inconceivable and +indescribable. No imagination, however creative, can correspond with +the grandeur of the reality. + +I have already mentioned, and it is important that you keep it in +view, the ledge of rock, the verge of the cataract, rising like a wall +of equal height, and extending in semicircular form across the whole +bed of the river, a distance of more than two thousand feet; and the +impetuous flood, conforming to this arrangement, in making its plunge, +with mountain weight, into the great horseshoe basin beneath, exhibits +a spectacle of the sublime, in geographical scenery, without, perhaps, +a parallel in nature. As I leaned from "Table Rock," and cast my eye +downward upon the billowy turbulence of the angry depth, where the +waters were tossing and whirling, coiling and springing, with the +energy of an earthquake, and a rapidity that almost mocked my vision, +I found the scene sufficient to appal a sterner spirit than mine; and +I was glad to turn away and relieve my mind by a sight of the +surrounding scenery; bays, islands, shores, and forests, everywhere +receding in due perspective. The rainbows of the "crescent" and +American side, which are only visible from the western bank of the +Niagara, and in the afternoon, seem to diminish somewhat from the +awfulness of the scene, and to give it an aspect of rich and mellow +grandeur, not unlike the bow of promise, throwing its assuring +radiance over the retiring waters of the deluge. + + + + +JAMES T. MOREHEAD + + +James Turner Morehead, Kentucky's most scholarly governor, was born +near Shepherdsville, Kentucky, May 24, 1797. He was prepared for +Transylvania University, Lexington, and there he studied from 1813 to +1815. He studied law under John J. Crittenden and, in 1818, entered +upon the practice at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ten years later Morehead +was in the Kentucky legislature, and he was returned for several +sessions. In 1832 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention which +nominated Henry Clay for the presidency; and while in Baltimore he +himself was nominated for lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, with John +Breathitt for governor. They were elected in August, 1832, but the +Governor died on February 21, 1834, and Morehead succeeded to his +office on the following day. He served until September, 1836. Upon the +expiration of his term, Governor Morehead resumed the practice of law +at Frankfort. He was elected United States Senator from Kentucky, in +1841, and he served until 1847. Senator Morehead was an attractive +public speaker, and when it was known in Washington that he was to +make a speech the galleries were usually well filled. After the +expiration of his term, he practiced law at Covington, Kentucky. +Senator Morehead had the most extensive collection of books and +manuscripts upon the history of Kentucky and the West of any man of +his day and generation. After his death, which occurred at Covington, +Kentucky, December 28, 1854, his library was purchased by the Young +Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati. Morehead's +_Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of Kentucky, at +Boonesborough_ (Frankfort, 1840, 181 pp.), rescued and preserved +numerous documents of great historical importance. In the preparation +of his great _History of the United States_, George Bancroft is said +to have relied upon this famous address of Morehead for much of his +information concerning the early history of the West. Morehead also +published _Practice and Proceedings at Law in Kentucky_ (1846). The +fine face of this scholar and statesman is one of Matthew Harris +Jouett's most luminous canvasses.[7] + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv); _National Cyclopaedia of American + Biography_ (New York, 1906, v. xiii). + + +JOHN FINLEY + + [From _An Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of + Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1840)] + +The first successful attempt to explore the Kentucky country was made by +John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, in 1767. He was attended +by a few companions, as adventurous as himself, whose names have escaped +the notice of history. They were evidently a party of hunters, and were +prompted to the bold and hazardous undertaking, for the purpose of +indulging in their favorite pursuits. Of Finley and his comrades, and of +the course and extent of their journey, little is now known. That they +were of the pure blood, and endowed with the genuine qualities, of the +pioneers, is manifestly undeniable. That they passed over the +Cumberland, and through the intermediate country to the Kentucky river, +and penetrated the beautiful valley of the Elkhorn, there are no +sufficient reasons to doubt. It is enough, however, to embalm their +memory in our hearts, and to connect their names with the imperishable +memorials of our early history, that they were the first adventurers +that plunged into the dark and enchanted wilderness of Kentucky--that of +all their contemporaries they saw her first--and saw her in the pride of +her virgin beauty--at the dawn of summer--in the fullness of her +vegetation--her soil, instinct with fertility, covered with the most +luxuriant verdure--the air perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, and +her tall forests looming in all their primeval magnificence. + +How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence of history does not +enable us to know. That his remains are now mingled with the soil that +he discovered, there is some reason to hope, for he conducted Boone to +Kentucky in 1769--and there the curtain drops upon him forever. It is +fit it should be raised. It is fit that justice, late and tardy that it +be, should be done to the memory of the first of the pioneers. And what +can be more appropriate, than that the first movement should be made for +the performance of such a duty, on the day of the commemoration of the +discovery and settlement of the Commonwealth? + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] Governor Morehead's widow, Mrs. L. M. Morehead, who died several +years ago, published a slender volume of verse, _Christmas Is Coming +and Other Poems for the "House Mother" and her Darlings_ +(Philadelphia, 1871). + + + + +LEWIS COLLINS + + +Lewis Collins, the Kentucky historian, was born near Lexington, +Kentucky, on Christmas Day, 1797. When a boy he entered the printing +office of Joel R. Lyle, editor of _The Paris Citizen_, where he worked +for more than a year as a printer. He removed to Mason county, +Kentucky, to become associate editor of the _Washington Union_. On +November 1, 1820, Lewis Collins purchased the _Maysville Eagle_, which +had been established six years prior to his purchase, and he made it +one of the best country newspapers ever published in Kentucky. In 1823 +he was married to a sister of Benjamin O. Peers, afterwards president +of Transylvania University. Collins was editor of the _Eagle_ for +twenty-seven years, when he retired in order to give his entire +attention to his _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_ (Maysville, 1847). +This was the first illustrated history of Kentucky, and easily the +most comprehensive that had appeared. The histories of Marshall and +Butler began at the beginning, but both concluded with the year of +1812, while Collins brought his work down to 1844. His was a mine of +historic lore, arranged in departments, and not altogether readable as +a continuous narrative. It was the foundation upon which his son, +Richard H. Collins, was later to build the most magnificent state +history ever published. Lewis Collins was presiding judge of the Mason +county court from 1851 to 1854. He was a just judge, a painstaking +chronicler of his people's past, and a fine type of Christian citizen. +Judge Collins died at Lexington, Kentucky, January 29, 1870. The +Kentucky legislature passed an appropriate resolution in which his +life was commended and his death deplored. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892); _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. + McElroy (New York, 1909). + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION + + [From _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_ (Maysville and Cincinnati, + 1847)] + +The late H. P. Peers, of the city of Maysville, laid the foundation +for the work which is now presented to the reading community. Mr. +Peers designed it to be simply a small _Gazetteer_ of the State; and +had collected, and partially arranged for publication, the major part +of the materials, comprising a description of the towns and counties. +Upon his decease, the materials passed into the hands of the Author, +who determined to remodel them, and make such additions as would give +permanency and increased value to the work. He has devoted much labor +to this object; but circumstances having rendered its publication +necessary at an earlier day than was contemplated, some errors may +have escaped, which more time, and a fuller investigation, would have +enabled him to detect. + +Serious obstacles have been encountered in the preparation of the +Biographical Sketches. Many of those which appear in the work, were +prepared from the personal recollections of the Author; while others +have been omitted because he did not know to whom he could apply for +them, or having applied, and in some instances repeatedly, failed in +procuring them. This is his apology for the non-appearance of many +names in that department which are entitled to a distinguished place +in the annals of Kentucky. + +In the preparation of the work, one design of the Author has been to +preserve, in a durable form, those rich fragments of local and +personal history, many of which exist, at present, only in the +ephemeral form of oral tradition, or are treasured up among the +recollections of the aged actors in the stirring scenes, the memory of +which is thus perpetuated. These venerable witnesses from a former +age, are rapidly passing away from our midst, and with them will be +buried the knowledge of much that is most interesting in the primitive +history of the commonwealth. It is from sources such as we have +mentioned, that the materials for the future historian are to be +drawn; and, like the scattered leaves of the Sybil, these frail +mementos of the past should be gathered up and preserved with +religious veneration. If the Author shall have succeeded, in thus +redeeming from oblivion any considerable or important portion of the +early history of the State, his design will be fully accomplished, and +his labor amply rewarded. + +Of all the members of this great republican confederacy, there is none +whose history is more rich in the variety, quality, and interest of +its materials. The poet, the warrior, and the statesman, can each find +subjects, the contemplation of which will instruct him in his art; and +to the general reader, it would, perhaps, be impossible to present a +field of more varied and attractive interest. + + + + +JULIA A. TEVIS + + +Mrs. Julia Ann (Hieronymous) Tevis, author of a delightful +autobiography, was born near Winchester, Kentucky, December 5, 1799. +When but seven years old her parents removed to Virginia, settling at +Winchester, and at the female academy of the town her education was +begun. In 1813 Miss Hieronymous's family removed to Georgetown, D. C., +where her education was continued under private teachers--"a +considerable portion of my time was devoted to music, drawing, and +French, with various kinds of embroidery." Two years later she was +placed in the finishing school of an English woman in Washington where +French and music continued to be her major subjects. Miss Hieronymous +completed her training at the school of Mrs. Stone in Washington when +nineteen years of age, and returned to her home to read and study. She +spent many hours at the Capital meeting and hearing most of the famous +men of her time. At the age of twenty years she became a school-ma'am at +Wytheville, Virginia, and the following sixty years of her life were +devoted to teaching. She later taught at Abingdon, Virginia, where she +united with the Methodist church, and where she was married on March 9, +1824, to Rev. John Tevis (1792-1861), a Kentucky Methodist preacher. +Mrs. Tevis desired to continue teaching, and upon her removal to her +husband's home at Shelbyville, Kentucky, she opened Science Hill +Academy. This famous old institution for the instruction of young +women--founded March 25, 1825, and the second Protestant female academy +established in the Mississippi Valley--has continued without +interruption until the present time. The remaining years of the +founder's life were filled with the school, her girls, her children, her +cares and perplexities. In 1875 the semi-centennial of the founding of +Science Hill was celebrated in a fitting manner. Some time later Mrs. +Tevis closed the manuscripts of her autobiography, entitled _Sixty Years +in a School-Room_ (Cincinnati, 1878), a large work of nearly five +hundred pages, in which the details of her splendid service are ably set +forth. Mrs. Tevis died at Shelbyville, Kentucky, April 21, 1880. Her +pupils erected a fitting monument to her memory. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Mrs. Tevis's life + is, of course, her autobiography; Annual Catalogues of Science Hill. + + +THE MAY QUEEN + + [From _Sixty Years in a School-Room_ (Cincinnati, 1878)] + +For many years we kept up the custom of crowning a "Rose Queen" in +May, and enjoying a holiday in the woods. Happily for the girls, I +greeted the return of the festival day with a gladness almost equal to +theirs, for I retained enough of the freshness of youth in my heart to +enable me to participate with zest in the joys of childhood. + +"Once upon a time," after a long severe Winter, followed by a Spring +of unusual beauty, it was determined to celebrate the day with great +rejoicings. The girls were wild with delight at the prospect of a +whole day's release from slates, books, and blackboards--a charming +episode in the drudgery of their everyday life. Ah, happy children! to +whom every glimpse of nature is beautiful, and every blade of grass a +marvel! Give them ever so small a bit of green meadow checkered with +sunshine and shade upon which to revel among buttercups and daisies, +and "little they'll reck" how the world goes on. + +There was but little opportunity for canvassing or intrigue in the +election of Queen. Fanny Henning was chosen by acclamation as best +fitted to grace the regal authority. Fanny possessed a mind and a +character as transparent as a clear brook. Her ingenuous face, her +self-forgetting and amiable bearing towards her companions made her the +loved and cherished of them all. She also held a distinguished place in +the estimation of her teachers for superior excellence, dutiful +affection, and modest deportment. Thus it was universally conceded that +"Fair-handed Spring" might well resign to Fanny her sovereignty for one +day over the brilliant treasures of garden, glade, and forest, awakened +into life and brightened into beauty by her magic wand. + +The rosy hours followed each other in quick succession until within a +few days of the anticipated time, when lo! the "queen elect" broke out +with measles. The whole school was filled with dismay, bitter tears of +disappointment were shed by some; others predicted that she would be +well enough to go through the ceremony. Fanny, uniting in their +hopeful aspirations, prepared her coronation speech and rehearsed it +to perfection, for, though confined to her room, she was not really +ill. On the eve of the appointed day, however, the doctor pronounced +her too feeble to endure the fatigue. What was to be done? The +trophies of many loyal hearts were ready to be laid at the feet of the +queen. Spirit hands seemed dispensing blessings, and guardian angels +extending their wings over these healthful, happy girls as they +diligently wrought sparkling wreaths and arranged beautiful bouquets. + +The banners were prepared, the white dresses were trimmed with +evergreen. The Seasons, the maids of honor, and all the officials were +in waiting, but "_Hamlet_" could not be left out of the play. One +modest little girl, after listening in silence to the suggestions of +the others, raised her eyes to my face and said hesitatingly: + +"Can't Emma Maxwell be queen in Fanny's place?" + +"Oh, no!" said another; "she could not possibly learn the speech in +time." + +"No, indeed!" exclaimed several voices at once, "that would be +impossible; but she might read it." + +"Yes, yes! let her read it; the queen's speeches are read in +Parliament!" + +"Will you accept the proposition?" said I, turning to Emma. + +"I think I can learn it," she replied, "and will try if you wish it." + +The coronation was to take place the next morning at ten o'clock. A +previous rehearsal would be impossible; but what Emma proudly +determined to do was generously accomplished. + +The evening star looked out bright and clear in the blue deep, +thrilling the hearts of these young girls with the prospect of a +pleasant morrow. + +Most of them were stirring before sunrise. "Is it clear?" "Are we +going?" And from every room issued the sound of cheerful voices; and +then such shouts, such hurrying and bathing and dressing as was seldom +known before. + +Ten o'clock came, and the yard, where the temporary throne was +erected, was soon filled with spectators and invited guests, mingling +with the children and participating in their pleasure. The proxy queen +bore her blushing honors meekly, going through all the coronation +ceremonies with a charming dignity. She stood Calypso-like among her +train of attendants in full view of the audience who listened in +breathless silence to her address. I watched her closely; she seemed +to plant her feet firmly, as if to still the beatings of her heart; no +gesture except a gentle motion of the right arm as she swayed her +scepter majestically around, her eyes steadily fixed upon some object +beyond, with which she seemed completely absorbed. Not a word was +misplaced, not a sentence omitted, of a speech long enough for a +Parliamentary harangue. No one prompted, nor did she once turn her +eyes toward the scroll she held in her left hand. Enthusiastic and +excessive were the rejoicings of her juvenile auditors. + +Fanny witnessed the whole ceremony through a convenient window which +framed for her a living picture of ineffable beauty, and on this clear +day, with only a few white Spring clouds floating over the bluest of +skies, it was a sight of earth that makes one understand heaven. + +The Seasons followed in quick succession, proffering homage to the +queen; then came the "rosy Hours" with their sweet-toned voices, and +the ceremony was completed by a few words from "Fashion and Modesty," +the latter gently pushing the former aside, and casting a veil over +the burning blushes of the queen. The address being finished, queen +and attendants walked in procession to a grove that skirted the town, +where beauty filled the eye, and singing birds warbled sweet music. +When tired of play, a more substantial entertainment was provided. +Group after group spread the white cloth on the soft green turf, and +surrounded the plentiful repast, gratefully acknowledging the Hand +that supplies our wants from day to day. He who called our attention +to the "lilies of the field," stamps a warrant of sacredness upon our +rejoicings, in all that he has made. + +There was something very remarkable in the quickness and facility with +which Emma Maxwell memorized the queen's speech. She was a girl of +more than ordinary vivacity, of a highly imaginative, impressionable +nature, and seemed to have the gift of bewitching all who knew her. +She occupied a commanding position in her class as a good reciter, but +I had not hitherto noticed any great facility in memorizing. I called +her the next day, and asked her to recite the piece to me alone. She +stared rather vacantly at me, and said: + +"I can not remember a sentence of it." + +"What! when you repeated it with so much facility yesterday! explain +yourself." + +"I do not know how it is," she replied, "that though I can learn with +the utmost precision, mechanically, whatever I choose, in a short +time, yet under such circumstances my memory has not the power of +retention. If my train of repetition had been interrupted for one +moment yesterday, I should have failed utterly." + +"What were you looking at so intently the whole time?" + +"I was looking at certain objects about the yard and house in +connection with which I had studied the speech the evening before." + +"Yes; but you certainly can repeat some portion of it to me?" + +"Not one sentence connectedly; it has all passed from my mind like a +shadow on the wall." + +Yet she was a girl of good judgment, read much, talked well, and +possessed in an eminent degree the indispensable requisite of a good +memory--power of attention. + + + + +ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE + + +Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, LL.D., one of Kentucky's most prolific +writers for the public prints, was born at Cabell's Dale, near +Lexington, Kentucky, March 8, 1800. He was the son of John +Breckinridge, President Jefferson's Attorney-General. He studied at +Princeton and Yale, and was graduated from Union College in 1819. +Breckinridge then read law and was admitted to the Lexington, +Kentucky, bar in 1823. He practiced law for eight years, during part +of which time he was a member of the Kentucky legislature. Realizing +that Kentucky would oppose the emancipation of the slaves, in which he +heartily believed, Breckinridge decided to quit the law and politics +for the church. He studied theology and became pastor of the Second +Presbyterian church in Baltimore, which pastorate he held for thirteen +years. In 1845 Dr. Breckinridge was elected president of Jefferson +College (now Washington and Jefferson College), at Washington, +Pennsylvania, but two years later he resigned the presidency of the +college in order to accept the pastorate of the First Presbyterian +church of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1848 Dr. Breckinridge was elected +superintendent of public instruction of Kentucky; and in 1853 he +became professor of theology in the Danville Theological Seminary, +which position he held until his death. He was chairman of the +Baltimore national convention of 1864 which nominated Abraham Lincoln +for the presidency. Dr. Breckinridge's writings include _Travels in +France, Germany_, etc. (Philadelphia, 1839); _Popery in the XIX. +Century in the United States_ (1841); _Memoranda of Foreign Travel_ +(Baltimore, 1845); _The Internal Evidence of Christianity_ (1852); +_The Knowledge of God Objectively Considered_ (New York, 1858); and +_The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered_ (New York, 1859). These +two last named works, of enormous proportions, are Dr. Breckinridge's +greatest theological and literary productions. He also published +_Kentucky School Reports_ (1848-1853). While a resident of Baltimore +he was one of the editors of _The Literary and Religious Magazine_, +and of its successor, _The Spirit of the Nineteenth Century_, in both +of which publications he carried on many bitter and never-ending +discussions with the Roman Catholics concerning theological and +historical questions. He was also editor of _The Danville Quarterly +Review_ for several years. A complete collection of Dr. Breckinridge's +books, debates, articles, and pamphlets, upon slavery, temperance, +Popery, Universalism, Presbyterianism, education, agriculture, and +politics, would form a five-foot shelf of books. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1887, v. i). + + +SANCTIFICATION + + [From _The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered_ (New York, + 1859)] + +The completeness of the Plan of Salvation seems to be absolute. The +adaptedness of all its parts to each other, and to their own special +end--and the adaptedness of the whole and of every part, to the great +end of all, the eradication of sin and misery; exhibits a subject, the +greatest, the most intricate, and the most remote of all in a manner so +precise and clear; that the sacred Scriptures, even if they had no grace +and no mercy to offer to us personally, might justly challenge the very +highest place as the most stupendous monument of sublime and successful +thought. What then ought we to think of them, when all this glorious +intelligence is merely tributary to our salvation? The end of this +infinite completeness, only to pour into our polluted and thoughtless +hearts, inexhaustible supplies of grace--that we may be extricated from +a condition utterly hopeless without that grace ... and be brought to a +condition unspeakably blessed to us and glorious to God? Yet this is the +overwhelming conclusion to which every just consideration of them +forces us to come; the conclusion to which the imperfect disclosure +which has now been attempted, of a single point in this divine system, +wholly compels us. In this deep conviction, therefore, and as the +conclusion of all that has now been advanced, I venture to define, that +Sanctification is a benefit of the Covenant of Redemption--being a work +of grace, on the part of the triune God, wherein the elect who have been +Effectually Called, Regenerated, Justified, and Adopted, are, through +the virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, by the indwelling of +the Word and Spirit, through the use of the divine ordinances, and by +the power of God with them, enabled more and more to die unto sin, to be +renewed in the spirit of their mind, and to live unto righteousness, in +an increasing conformity to the image of God, to his great Glory, and +their growth in holiness. + + + + +CAROLINE L. HENTZ + + +Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, novelist, was born at Lancaster, +Massachusetts, June 1, 1800. When twenty-four years of age she was +married to N. M. Hentz, a Frenchman, then associated with George +Bancroft in conducting the Round Hill School at Northampton, +Massachusetts. Two years after her marriage her husband was elected to +the chair of modern languages in the University of North Carolina, and +this position he held until 1830, when he removed to Covington, +Kentucky, where he and his wife conducted a private school. Covington +was the birthplace of Mrs. Hentz's first literary work. The directors +of the Arch Street theatre, Philadelphia, had offered a prize of five +hundred dollars for the best original tragedy founded on the conquest +of the Moors in Spain, and Mrs. Hentz submitted _De Lara, or, the +Moorish Bride_, which was awarded first place, but the prize was never +paid the author. _De Lara_ was later published and successfully +produced on the stage. This encouraged Mrs. Hentz to write another +tragedy, entitled _Lamorah, or, the Western Wild_, a tragedy of Indian +life, which was staged in Cincinnati and published at Columbus, +Georgia. Her _Constance of Werdenberg_ was written at Covington. After +two years at Covington, Mrs. Hentz crossed the Ohio river and opened a +school at Cincinnati. Her novel, _Lovell's Folly_, was written there. +In 1834 she removed to Alabama, and this State was her home for the +subsequent fourteen years. Her first widely successful novel, _Aunt +Patty's Scrap-Bag_ (Philadelphia, 1846) was followed by her generally +accepted masterpiece, _Linda, or, the Young Pilot of the Belle Creole_ +(1850). Now came in rapid succession her other works: _Rena, or, the +Snow Bird_ (1851); _Marcus Warland_ (1852); _Eoline_; _Wild Jack_; +_Helen and Arthur_; _Ugly Effie_; _The Planter's Northern Bride_ +(1854); _Love after Marriage_ (1854); _The Banished Son; Robert +Graham_ (1856); and _Ernest Lynwood_ (1856), her last book and by some +critics regarded as her best. Mrs. Hentz began her literary work in +Kentucky, as indicated above, and, though the claim of Kentucky is +rather slender upon her it is, nevertheless, legitimate. She died at +Marianna, Florida, February 11, 1856. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iii); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + Georgia, 1909, v. vi). + + +BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING + + [From _Marcus Warland_ (1852)] + +Marcus sat beside the Long Moss Spring, the morning sun-beams glancing +through the broad leaves of the magnolia and the brilliant foliage of +the holly, and playing on his golden hair. He held in his hand a +fishing-rod, whose long line floated on the water; and though his eye +was fixed on the buoyant cork, there was no hope or excitement in its +gaze. His face was pale and wore a severe expression, very different +from the usual joyousness and thoughtlessness of childhood. Even when +the silvery trout and shining perch, lured by the bait, hung +quivering on the hook, and were thrown, fluttering like wounded birds +through the air, to fall panting, then pulseless, at his side, he +showed no consciousness of success, no elation at the number of his +scaly victims. Tears, even, large and slowly gathering tears, rolled +gradually and reluctantly down his fair oval cheeks; they were not +like the sudden, drenching shower, that leaves the air purer and the +sky bluer, but the drops that issue from the wounded bark formed of +the life-blood of the tree. + +Beautiful was the spot where the boy sat, and beautiful the vernal +morning that awakened Nature to the joy and the beauty of youth. The +fountain, over whose basin he was leaning, was one of those clear, +deep, pellucid springs, that gush up in the green wilds of southern +Georgia, forming a feature of such exquisite loveliness in the +landscape, that the traveler pauses on the margin, feeling as if he +had found one of those enchanted springs of which we read in fairy +land, whose waters are too bright, too pure, too serene for earth. + +The stone which formed the basin of the fountain was smooth and +calcareous, hollowed out by the friction of the waters, and gleaming +white and cold through their diaphanous drapery. In the centre of this +basin, where the spring gushed in all its depth and strength, it was +so dark it looked like an opaque body, impervious to the eye, whence +it flowed over the edge of its rocky receptacle in a full, rejoicing +current, sweeping over its mossy bed, and bearing its sounding tribute +to the Chattahoochee, "rolling rapidly." The mossy bed to which we +have alluded was not the verdant velvet that covers with a short, +curling nap the ancient rock and the gray old tree, but long, slender, +emerald-green plumes, waving under the water, and assuming through its +mirror a tinge of deep and irradiant blue. Nothing can be imagined +more rich and graceful than this carpet for the fountain's silvery +tread, and which seems to bend beneath it, as the light spray rustling +in the breeze. The golden water-lily gleamed up through the crystal, +and floated along the margin on its long and undulating stems. + + + + +JOHN P. DURBIN + + +John Price Durbin, Seventh President of Dickinson College, was born +near Paris, Kentucky, October 10, 1800. He was apprenticed to a +cabinet-maker in Paris, and the meager wages he received were invested +in books. In 1819 Durbin became a Methodist circuit-rider. He +afterwards studied at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and was +graduated from Cincinnati College in 1825. In the fall of that year he +became professor of languages in Augusta College, Augusta, Kentucky, +and he occupied the chair until 1831, when he was elected chaplain of +the United States Senate. In the next year Dr. Durbin was elected +professor of natural sciences in Wesleyan University, Middletown, +Connecticut, He remained at Wesleyan but one year, when he was chosen +editor of the New York _Christian Advocate and Journal_. In 1834 +Editor Durbin became President Durbin of Dickinson College, Carlisle, +Pennsylvania. He is regarded as the greatest head the college has ever +known. During vacations Dr. Durbin traveled extensively in Europe and +the Orient, and these journeys are best preserved in his books. In the +1844 General Conference of the Methodist church he was in the thickest +of the great fight over the slavery question; and in the following +year he resigned as president of Dickinson, after more than ten years +of distinguished success in the management of the ancient college. He +now returned to the active pastorate, taking charge of the Union +Methodist church in Philadelphia. From 1850 to 1872 Dr. Durbin was +secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, in the interest of +which he visited Europe in 1867. He raised many millions of dollars +for foreign missions while he was in charge of the society. He was the +founder of foreign missions in Bulgaria. Dr. Durbin was an eloquent +and persuasive preacher, an able administrator, and during the latter +years of his life he wielded a wonderful influence in the Methodist +church. He died at New York City, October 17, 1876. His works include +_Observations in Europe_ (New York, 1844, 2 vols.); _Observations in +Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor_ (New York, 1845, 2 vols.); +and he edited the American edition of Wood's _Mosaic History of the +Creation_ (New York, 1831). Dr. Durbin was a rather prolific +contributor to religious and secular periodicals. His _Observations in +Europe_ is the best literary work he did. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. ii). + + +IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON + + [From _Observations in Europe_ (New York, 1844, v. ii)] + +The first impression of London is usually wonder at its _immensity_. I +received this impression in its full force, as the reader will have +already perceived, in coming up the Thames. Nor did it diminish in the +course of my rambles through the great metropolis, subsequently. When +the stranger first leaves the river, and plunges into the thronged +streets, he absolutely becomes dizzy in the whirl of busy life around +him. Men sweep by him in _masses_; at times the way seems wedged with +them: wagons, carts, omnibuses, hacks, and coaches block up the avenues, +and make it quite an enterprise to cross them. Every day my amazement +increased at the extent, the activity, the wealth of London. The +impression was totally different from that of Paris. The French capital +strikes you as the seat of human enjoyment. You find the art of life, so +far as mere physical good is concerned, in perfection there. No wish +need be ungratified. Your taste may be gratified with the finest music, +the most fascinating spectacles, the most splendid works of art in the +world. You may eat and drink when and where you please; in half an hour, +almost any delicacy that earth has produced or art invented is set +before you. You may spend days and weeks in visiting her museums, her +hospitals, her gardens, her cemeteries, her libraries, her palaces, and +yet remain unsatisfied. In London everything is different. Men are +active, but it is in pursuit of wealth. In general they do not seem to +enjoy life. The arts are cultivated to a small extent by a small class +of society; the mass seem hardly to know that arts exist. No splendid +collections are open, without fee or reward, to the public, or to you. +You can purchase gratification, but of a lower order than in Paris, and +at a higher price. Except a few _lions_--the Docks, the Tunnel, +Westminster Abbey, _&c._--nearly everything that the city has to show to +a stranger can be seen as you ride along the streets. When you leave +Paris you have just begun to enjoy it, and desire to return again; you +leave London convinced, indeed, of its vastness and wealth, but tired of +gazing at dingy buildings and thronged streets, and are satisfied +without another visit. Such, at least, were my own impressions. Apart +from private friendships and professional interests, I have no care to +see London again. + + + + +FORTUNATUS COSBY, Jr. + + +Fortunatus Cosby, Junior, poet and editor, the son of a distinguished +lawyer, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, May 2, 1801. He was +educated at Yale and Transylvania, then studied law, but, like so many +literary men have done, never practiced. Cosby was a passionate lover +of books, and most of his life was spent among his collection. He was +wealthy and well able to indulge his taste to any extreme. His +kinsman, President Thomas Jefferson, offered to make him secretary of +the legation at London, but he declined. Cosby was some years later +superintendent of the Philadelphia public schools, and a contributor +to _Graham's Magazine_, as well as to other high-class periodicals. In +1846 he was editor of the Louisville _Examiner_, the first Kentucky +paper devoted to emancipation of the slaves. In 1860 Cosby was +appointed consul to Geneva, and the next eight years of his life were +devoted to his diplomatic duties and to traveling. He returned to the +United States in 1868, and to his old home near Louisville. There +death found him in June, 1871. Several of his friends, which included +William Cullen Bryant, Rufus W. Griswold, and George D. Prentice, +often urged Cosby to collect his verse and bring it together in a +volume, but he was "too careless of his fame to do it;" and "many +waifs he from time to time contributed to the periodicals," are now +lost to the general public. He is, of course, well represented in all +of the anthologies of American poetry, but a collection of his +writings should be made. Cosby's best work is to be seen in his +_Fireside Fancies_, _Ode to the Mocking Bird_, _The Traveler in the +Desert_, and _A Dream of Long Ago_. He has often been pronounced the +best song writer this country has produced; and that he was a man of +fine culture, an ardent lover of books and Nature, and a maker of +charming and exquisite verse can be readily proved. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by + Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892). + + +FIRESIDE FANCIES + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + By the dim and fitful firelight + Musing all alone, + Memories of old companions + Dead, or strangers grown;-- + Books that we have read together, + Rambles in sweet summer weather, + Thoughts released from earthly tether-- + Fancy made my own. + + In my cushioned arm-chair sitting + Far into the night, + Sleep, with leaden wings extinguished + All the flickering light; + But, the thoughts that soothed me waking, + Care, and grief, and pain forsaking, + Still the self-same path were taking-- + Pilgrims, still in sight. + + Indistinct and shadowy phantoms + Of the sacred dead, + Absent faces bending fondly + O'er my drooping head, + In my dreams were woven quaintly, + Dim at first, but calm and saintly, + As the stars that glimmer faintly + From their misty bed. + + Presently a lustrous brightness + Eye could scarce behold, + Gave to my enchanted vision + Looks no longer cold, + Features that no clouds encumber, + Forms refreshed by sweetest slumber, + And, of all that blessed number, + Only one was old. + + Graceful were they as the willow + By the zephyr stirred! + Bright as childhood when expecting + An approving word! + Fair as when from earth they faded, + Ere the burnished brow was shaded, + Or, the hair with silver braided, + Or lament was heard. + + Roundabout in silence moving + Slowly to and fro-- + Life-like as I knew and loved them + In their spring-time glow;-- + Beaming with a loving luster, + Close, and closer still they cluster + Round my chair that radiant muster, + Just as long ago. + + Once, the aged, breathing comfort + O'er my fainting cheek, + Whispered words of precious meaning + Only she could speak; + Scarce could I my rapture smother, + For I knew it was my mother, + And to me there was no other + Saint-like and so meek! + + Then the pent-up fount of feeling + Stirred its inmost deep-- + Brimming o'er its frozen surface + From its guarded keep, + On my heart its drops descending, + And for one glad moment lending + Dreams of Joy's ecstatic blending, + Blessed my charmèd sleep. + + Bright and brighter grew the vision + With each gathering tear, + Till the past was all before me + In its radiance clear; + And again we read at even-- + Hoped, beneath the summer heaven, + Hopes that had no bitter leaven, + No disturbing fear. + + All so real seemed each presence, + That one word I spoke-- + Only one of old endearment + That dead silence broke. + But the angels who were keeping + Stillest watch while I was sleeping, + Left me o'er the embers weeping-- + Fled when I awoke. + + But, as ivy clings the greenest + On abandoned walls; + And as echo lingers sweetest + In deserted halls:-- + Thus, the sunlight that we borrow + From the past to gild our sorrow, + On the dark and dreaded morrow + Like a blessing falls. + + + + +THOMAS F. MARSHALL + + +Thomas Francis Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator and advocate, was +born at Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, 1801. He was the son of Dr. Louis +Marshall, a brother of the great chief justice, and sometime president +of Washington College (Washington and Lee University). "Tom" Marshall, +to give him the name by which he was known throughout the South and +West, was educated by private tutors, studied law under John J. +Crittenden, and began the practice at Versailles, Kentucky. From 1832 to +1836 he was a member of the Kentucky legislature, and his speeches in +that body, as well as in other places, brought him a great reputation as +a brilliant and witty orator. The habit of drink was fastening itself +upon him, however, and this retarded his progress in the world. Marshall +was elected to Congress from the old Ashland district in 1840, and in +that body he always bitterly opposed most measures proposed by Henry +Clay, whom he afterwards eloquently eulogized. In 1841 his distinguished +friend, Richard H. Menefee, the Kentucky orator, died, and Marshall +delivered his celebrated eulogy upon him. This address, given before the +Law Society of Transylvania University, was the greatest effort of his +life. It has been pronounced the finest speech of its character yet +made in America. Marshall served in the Mexican War with no great degree +of gallantry; and in 1850 he opposed the third Kentucky Constitution, +then in the making, through a paper which he edited and called the _Old +Guard_. "Tom" Marshall joined many temperance societies, and delivered +many temperance speeches, but he always violated his pledge and returned +to the old paths of drink. He was the great wit of his day and +generation in Kentucky, if not, indeed, in the whole country. His +stories are related to-day by persons who think them of recent origin. +Marshall was counsel in many noted trials in the South and West, and his +arguments to the jury were logical and eloquent. His speech in the +famous Matt. Ward trial is, perhaps, his master effort before a jury. In +1856 Marshall removed to Chicago, but he shortly afterwards returned to +Kentucky. In 1858-1859 he delivered lectures upon historical subjects in +various cities of the United States. The Civil War failed to interest +him at all, but he was broken in health at the time, and preparing +himself for the long journey which was fast pressing upon him. "Tom" +Marshall died near Versailles, Kentucky, September 22, 1864. To-day he +sleeps amid a clump of trees in a Blue Grass meadow near the little town +of his triumphs and of his failures--Versailles. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_, + edited by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); _Thomas F. Marshall_, by + Charles Fennell (_The Green Bag_, Boston, July, 1907). + + +TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS + + [From _Speeches and Writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall_, edited + by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858)] + +Mr. President, we of the "Total Abstinence and Vigilance Society," in +our meetings at the other end of the city [Washington] are so much in +the habit of "telling experiences," that I myself have somewhat fallen +into it, and am guilty occasionally of the egotism of making some small +confessions (as small as I can possibly make them). Mine, then, sir, was +a different case. I had earned a most unenviable notoriety by excesses +which, though bad enough, did not half reach the reputation they won for +me. I never was an habitual drunkard. I was one of your spreeing gentry. +My sprees, however, began to crowd each other and my best friends feared +that they would soon run together. Perhaps my long intervals of entire +abstinence--perhaps something peculiar in my form, constitution, or +complexion--may have prevented the physical indications, so usual, of +that terrible disease, which, till temperance societies arose, was +deemed incurable and resistless. Perhaps I had nourished the vanity to +believe that nature had endowed me with a versatility which enabled me +to throw down and take up at pleasure any pursuit, and I chose to sport +with the gift. If so, I was brought to the very verge of a fearful +punishment. Physicians tell us that intemperance at last becomes, of +itself, not a habit voluntarily indulged, but a disease which its victim +cannot resist. I had not become fully the subject of that fiendish +thirst, that horrible yearning after the distillation "from the alembick +of hell," which is said to scorch in the throat, and consume the vitals +of the confirmed drunkard, with fires kindled for eternity. I did become +alarmed, and for the first time, no matter from what cause, lest the +demon's fangs were fastening upon me, and I was approaching that line +which separates the man who frolics, and can quit, from the lost +inebriate, whose appetite is disease, and whose will is dead. I joined +the society on my own account, and felt that I must encounter the title +of "reformed drunkard," annoying enough to me, I assure you. I judged, +from the cruel publicity given through the press to my frolics, what I +had to bear and brave. But I did brave it all; and I would have dared +anything to break the chain which I at last discovered was riveting my +soul, to unclasp the folds of that serpent-habit whose full embrace is +death. Letters from people I never had heard of, newspaper paragraphs +from Boston to New Orleans were mailed, and are still mailing to me, by +which I am very distinctly, and in the most friendly and agreeable +manner, apprised that I enjoyed all over the delectable reputation of a +sot, with one foot in the grave, and understanding almost totally +overthrown. I doubt not, sir, that the societies who have invited me to +address them at different places in the Union, will expect to find me +with an unhealed carbuncle on my nose, and my body of the graceful and +manly shape and proportion of a demijohn. I have dared all these +annoyances, all this celebrity. I have not shrunk from being a text for +temperance preachers, and a case for the outpouring of the sympathies of +people who have more philanthropy than politeness, more temperance than +taste. I signed the pledge on my own account, sir, and my heart leaped +to find that I was free. The chain has fallen from my freeborn limbs; +not a link or fragment remains to tell I ever wore the badge of +servitude. + + + + +JEFFERSON J. POLK + + +Jefferson J. Polk, an eccentric clergyman, physician, and writer, was +born near Georgetown, Kentucky, March 10, 1802. He spent his young +manhood as a printer on the _Georgetown Patriot_, and the _Kentucky +Gazette_. In 1822 Polk joined the Lexington Temperance Society, and he +continued steadfast in the cause until his death. He subsequently +united with the Methodist church of Lexington, and married; but he +continued to work as a journeyman-printer until 1826, when he removed +to Danville, Kentucky, where he purchased and became editor of _The +Olive Branch_, a weekly newspaper. This he conducted for several +years, when he disposed of it in order to become an agent for the +American Colonization Society. Polk held that emancipation with +colonization in Liberia or elsewhere was the only proper and just +solution of the slavery question. The awful Asiatic cholera reached +Danville in 1833--as it did nearly a dozen other Kentucky towns--and +Polk played his part in the battle which was waged against it. A short +time later he became a Methodist circuit-rider, but, in 1839, he went +to Lexington to study medicine at Transylvania Medical School. In the +following year Dr. Polk removed to Perryville, Kentucky, some miles +from Danville, and this was his future home. Here he practiced +medicine and preached the Gospel for the next twenty years. In 1860 he +supported John Bell of Tennessee for president, but, when Lincoln was +elected, he became a strong Union man. The battle of Perryville +(October 8, 1862), the greatest battle ever fought upon Kentucky soil, +was waged before the good doctor's very door. He converted his house +into a hospital, and himself acted as surgeon of a field hospital. +After the war he was postmaster of Perryville and claim agent for +Union soldiers. At the age of sixty-five years, this eccentric old man +published one of the literary curiosities of Kentucky literature, yet +withal a work of real interest and much first-hand information. The +little volume was entitled _Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk, to which +is added his occasional writings and biographies of worthy men and +women of Boyle County, Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1867). From the +frontispiece portrait the author looks fiercely out at the reader, a +real son of thunder. Besides the autobiography of Dr. Polk the volume +contains sketches of men, women, and places, fables, proverbs, +sermons, woman's rights, a ghost story, "love powders," reflections of +an old man, biographies of a group of the doctor's parishioners--all +crowded into the 254 pages of this book. Dr. Polk died at Perryville, +Kentucky, May 23, 1881. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Dr. Polk's life + is, of course, his _Autobiography_; _History of Kentucky_, by R. + H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882). + + +THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS + + [From _Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1867)] + +In the early settlement of Kentucky, when the Indians still roved +through our dense forests, plundering and murdering the white +inhabitants, three men left Harrod's Station to search for their +horses that had strayed off. They pursued their trail through the rich +pea-vine and cane, that everywhere abounded, for many miles. +Frequently on their route they saw signs that a party of Indians were +in their vicinity, hence they took every step cautiously. Thus they +traveled all day. Toward night they were many miles from home, but +they continued their search until darkness and a cold rain that began +to fall drove them to take shelter in an old deserted log cabin, +thickly surrounded by cane and matted over with grape-vines. After +they had gained this pleasant retreat they held a consultation, and +agreed not to strike a fire, as the Indians, if any in the +neighborhood, knew the location of the cabin, and, like themselves, +might take shelter in it, and murder or expel the white intruders. +Finally, the three now in possession, concluded to ascend into the +loft of the cabin, the floor of which was clap-boards, resting upon +round poles. In their novel position they lay down quietly side by +side, each man holding his trusty rifle in his arms. Thus arranged, +they awaited the results of the night. + +They had not been in their perilous position long when six well-armed +Indians entered the cabin, placed their guns and other implements of +warfare in one corner of the house, struck a light, and began to make +the usual demonstrations of joy on such occasions. One of our heroes +wished to know the number of the Indians--he was the middle man of the +three, and was lying on his back--and, as hilarity and mirth "grew +thick and fast" among the Indians, he attempted to turn over and get a +peep at things below. His comrades caught him on each side to keep him +from turning over, and, in the struggle, one of the poles broke, and +with a tremendous crash the clap-boards and the three men fell in the +midst of the Indians, who with a loud yell of terror fled from the +house, leaving their guns, and never returned. + +The three men who had thus made a miraculous escape from the savage +foe, remained all night in quiet possession of the cabin, and in the +morning returned to the station with their trophies. Whenever the +three heroes met in after life they laughed over their strange +deliverance, and what they called "The Battle of the Boards." + + + + +GEORGE D. PRENTICE + + +George Dennison Prentice, poet, editor, wit, and founder of the +_Journal School of Female Poets_, was born at Preston, Connecticut, +December 18, 1802. In the fall of 1820 Prentice entered the Sophomore +class of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where one of his +instructors was Horace Mann, and among his classmates was Samuel G. +Howe. At college he was famous for his prodigious memory. Prentice was +graduated from Brown in 1823, after which he taught school for some +time. He next turned to the law, but this he also abandoned to enter +upon his life work--journalism. In 1827 he became editor of a paper in +New London, Connecticut, but in the following year he went to Hartford +to take charge of the _New England Review_, which "was the Louisville +_Journal_, born in Connecticut." In 1830 the Connecticut Whigs +requested Prentice to journey to Kentucky and prepare a campaign life +of Henry Clay. He finally decided to do this, naming John Greenleaf +Whittier, the good Quaker poet, as his successor in the editorial +chair of _The Review_, and setting out at once upon his long +pilgrimage to Lexington. He dashed off his biography of the statesman +in a few months, and it greatly pleased the Whigs of his State, but +Prentice had decided to remain in Kentucky. He went to Louisville, and +on November 24, 1830, the first issue of the _Louisville Journal_ +appeared, and George D. Prentice had at last come into his very own. +His pungent paragraphs made the "Yankee schoolmaster" feared by +editors in the remotest corners of the country, but more especially by +Shadrach Penn, editor of the _Louisville Advertiser_, the Democratic +organ, as the _Journal_ was the Whig organ. After a constant warfare +of more than ten years, poor Penn capitulated, and removed to +Missouri. Prentice found another foe worthy of his steel in John H. +Harney, editor of the Louisville _Daily Democrat_, but the battle of +the wits between them was not as keen as it was between him and Penn. +Prentice survived both editors and wrote exquisite eulogies upon them! +He also had many personal encounters, which his biographer, Mr. John +James Piatt, the Ohio poet, declines to dignify with the term of +"duel." His pistol "brush" with Col Reuben T. Durrett, the Kentucky +historical writer and collector, was, perhaps, his most serious +affair. And the colonel lived to write a fine tribute to him, which +was turning the tables upon him just a bit! Prentice's home in +Louisville was the center of the city's literary life for many years. +His wife was a charming and cultured woman, in every way fitted to +assist him. A volume of his witty paragraphs, called by the +publishers, _Prenticeana_ (New York, 1859), attracted attention in +London and Paris, and in all parts of the United States. Next to Whig +politics, the _Journal_ was the literary newspaper of the country. All +Western and Southern poets were welcomed to its columns, particularly +were female poets "featured," and upon them all Prentice poured out +indiscriminate praise, which may or may not have been good for them or +for the public. At any rate, he never failed to send a kindly letter +to each new "discovery," in which their work already submitted was +extravagantly valued, and in which they were urged to flood the office +with more of the same kind. His praise of Amelia B. Welby, the +sentimental singer of the long ago, seems indefensible to-day. As a +poet himself Prentice was a master of blank verse forms. Mr. Piatt put +him next to Bryant among American poets in the handling of this +difficult measure. _The Closing Year_, written in 1835, is undoubtedly +his finest poem; and _At My Mother's Grave_ is usually set beside it. +Although his sons, wife, and most of his friends sympathized with the +South in the war of Sections, Prentice was always an ardent advocate +of the Union cause. He died near Louisville, on the banks of the Ohio +river, January 22, 1870. Henry Watterson delivered an eulogy upon him, +and snugly adjusted his mantle about his own shoulders. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poems of George D. Prentice_, edited by John J. + Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878); _The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. + H. Perrin (Louisville, 1888). + + +THE CLOSING YEAR + + [From _The Poems of George D. Prentice, edited with a Biographical + Sketch_, by John J. Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878, 4th Edition)] + + 'Tis midnight's holy hour--and silence now + Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er + The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds + The bell's deep notes are swelling. 'Tis the knell + Of the departed Year. + + No funeral train + Is sweeping past; yet on the stream and wood, + With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest, + Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred, + As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud, + That floats so still and placidly through heaven, + The spirits of the seasons seem to stand-- + Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, + And Winter with his aged locks--and breathe + In mournful cadences, that come abroad + Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail, + A melancholy dirge o'er the dead Year, + Gone from the earth forever. + + 'Tis a time + For memory and for tears. Within the deep, + Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, + Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, + Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold + And solemn finger to the beautiful + And holy visions that have passed away + And left no shadow of their loveliness + On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts + The coffin-lid of hope, and joy, and love, + And, bending mournfully above the pale + Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers + O'er what has passed to nothingness. + + The Year + Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng + Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow, + Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course, + It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful, + And they are not. It laid its pallid hand + Upon the strong man, and the haughty form + Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. + It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged + The bright and joyous, and the tearful wail + Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song + And reckless shout resounded. It passed o'er + The battle-plain, where sword and spear and shield + Flashed in the light of midday--and the strength + Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass, + Green from the soil of carnage, waves above + The crushed and mouldering skeleton. It came + And faded like a wreath of mist at eve; + Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air, + It heralded its millions to their home + In the dim land of dreams. + + Remorseless Time!-- + Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe!--what power + Can stay him in his silent course, or melt + His iron heart to pity? On, still on + He presses, and forever. The proud bird, + The condor of the Andes, that can soar + Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave + The fury of the northern hurricane + And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, + Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down + To rest upon his mountain-crag--but Time + Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness, + And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind + His rushing pinion. Revolutions sweep + O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast + Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink, + Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles + Spring, blazing, from the ocean, and go back + To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear + To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow + Their tall heads to the plain; new empires rise, + Gathering the strength of hoary centuries, + And rush down like the Alpine avalanche, + Startling the nations; and the very stars, + Yon bright and burning blazonry of God, + Glitter awhile in their eternal depths, + And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train, + Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away, + To darkle in the trackless void: yet Time, + Time the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career, + Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not + Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path, + To sit and muse, like other conquerors, + Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought. + + +ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY + + [From the same] + + It is the noon of night. On this calm spot, + Where passed my boyhood's years, I sit me down + To wander through the dim world of the Past. + + The Past! the silent Past! pale Memory kneels + Beside her shadowy urn, and with a deep + And voiceless sorrow weeps above the grave + Of beautiful affections. Her lone harp + Lies broken at her feet, and as the wind + Goes o'er its moldering chords, a dirge-like sound + Rises upon the air, and all again + Is an unbreathing silence. + + Oh, the Past! + Its spirit as a mournful presence lives + In every ray that gilds those ancient spires, + And like a low and melancholy wind + Comes o'er yon distant wood, and faintly breathes + Upon my fevered spirit. Here I roved + Ere I had fancied aught of life beyond + The poet's twilight imaging. Those years + Come o'er me like the breath of fading flowers, + And tones I loved fall on my heart as dew + Upon the withered rose-leaf. They were years + When the rich sunlight blossomed in the air, + And fancy, like a blessed rainbow, spanned + The waves of Time, and joyous thoughts went off + Upon its beautiful unpillared arch + To revel there in cloud, and sun, and sky. + + Within yon silent domes, how many hearts + Are beating high with glorious dreams. 'Tis well; + The rosy sunlight of the morn should not + Be darkened by the portents of the storm + That may not burst till eve. Those youthful ones + Whose thoughts are woven of the hues of heaven, + May see their visions fading tint by tint, + Till naught is left upon the darkened air + Save the gray winter cloud; the brilliant star + That glitters now upon their happy lives + May redden to a scorching flame and burn + Their every hope to dust; yet why should thoughts + Of coming sorrows cloud their hearts' bright depths + With an untimely shade? Dream on--dream on, + Ye thoughtless ones--dream on while yet ye may! + When life is but a shadow, tear, and sigh, + Ye will turn back to linger round these hours + Like stricken pilgrims, and their music sweet + Will be a dear though melancholy tone + In Memory's ear, sounding forever more. + + +PRENTICE PARAGRAPHS + + [From _Prenticeana_ (New York, 1859)] + +James Ray and John Parr have started a locofoco paper in Maine, called +the _Democrat_. Parr, in all that pertains to decency, is below zero; +and Ray is below Parr. + +The editor of the ---- speaks of his "lying curled up in bed these +cold mornings." This verifies what we said of him some time ago--"he +lies like a dog." + +A young widow has established a pistol gallery in New Orleans. Her +qualifications as a teacher of the art of duelling are of course +undoubted; she has killed her man. + +Wild rye and wild wheat grow in some regions spontaneously. We believe +that wild oats are always sown. + +"What would you do, madam, if you were a gentleman?" "Sir, what would +you do if you were one?" + +Whatever Midas touched was turned into gold; in these days, touch a +man with gold and he'll turn into anything. + + + + +ROBERT M. BIRD + + +Robert Montgomery Bird, creator of _Nick of the Woods_, was born at +Newcastle, Delaware, in 1803. He early abandoned the practice of +medicine in Philadelphia in order to devote his entire attention to +literature. His first works were three tragedies, entitled _The +Gladiator_, _Oraloosa_, and _The Broker of Bogota_, the first of which +was very popular on the stage. In 1834 Dr. Bird published his first +novel, _Calavar_, a romance of Mexico that was highly praised by William +H. Prescott. In the following year _The Infidel_, sequel to _Calavar_, +appeared. _The Hawks_ _of Hawk Hollow_, and _Sheppard Lee_ followed +fast upon the heels of _The Infidel_. Then came _Nick of the Woods, or +the Jibbenainosay_ (Philadelphia, 1837, 2 vols.), the author's +masterpiece. The background of this fine old romance was set against the +Kentucky of 1782. Dr. Bird's Kentucky pioneers and Indians are drawn to +the life, the silly sentimentalism of Cooper and Chateaubriand +concerning the Indian character was avoided and indirectly proved +untrue. _Nick of the Woods_ was dramatized and produced upon the stage +with great success. A collection of Dr. Bird's periodical papers was +made, in 1838, and published under the title of _Peter Pilgrim, or a +Rambler's Recollections_. This work included the first adequate +description of Mammoth Cave, in Edmonson county, Kentucky. The author +was one of the cave's earliest explorers, and his account of it heralded +its wonders to the world in a manner that had never been done before. +Just how long Dr. Bird remained in Kentucky is not known, as no +comprehensive biography of him has been issued, but he must have been in +this State for several years prior to the publication of _Nick of the +Woods_, and _Peter Pilgrim_. His last novel was _Robin Day_ (1839). +After the publication of this tale, Dr. Bird became a Delaware farmer. +In 1847 he returned to Philadelphia and became joint editor of the +_North American Gazette_. He died at Philadelphia, January 22, 1854, of +brain fever. Morton McMichael, with whom he was associated in conducting +the _Gazette_, wrote an eloquent tribute to his memory. Dr. Bird's poem, +_The Beech Tree_, is remembered today by many readers. But it is as the +creator of _Nick of the Woods_, a new edition of which appeared in 1905, +that his fame is firmly fixed. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Prose Writers of America_, by R. W. Griswold + (Philadelphia, 1847); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American + Biography_ (New York, 1888, v. i). + + +NICK OF THE WOODS + + [From _Nick of the Woods_ (New York, 1853, revised edition)] + +"What's the matter, Tom Bruce?" said the father, eyeing him with +surprise. + +"Matter enough," responded the young giant, with a grin of mingled awe +and delight; "the Jibbenainosay is up again!" + +"Whar?" cried the senior, eagerly,--"not in our limits?" + +"No, by Jehosaphat!" replied Tom; "but nigh enough to be +neighborly,--on the north bank of Kentuck, whar he has left his mark +right in the middle of the road, as fresh as though it war but the +work of the morning!" + +"And a clear mark, Tom?--no mistake in it?" + +"Right to an iota!" said the young man;--"a reggelar cross on the +breast, and a good tomahawk dig right through the skull; and a +long-legg'd fellow, too, that looked as though he might have fou't old +Sattan himself!" + +"It's the Jibbenainosay, sure enough; and so good luck to him!" cried +the commander: "thar's a harricane coming!" + +"Who is the Jibbenainosay?" demanded Forrester. + +"Who?" cried Tom Bruce: "Why, Nick,--Nick of the Woods." + +"And who, if you please, is Nick of the Woods?" + +"Thar," replied the junior, with another grin, "thar, stranger, you're +too hard for me. Some think one thing, and some another; but thar's +many reckon he's the devil." + +"And his mark, that you were talking of in such mysterious +terms,--what is that?" + +"Why, a dead Injun, to be sure, with Nick's mark on him,--a knife-cut, +or a brace of 'em, over the ribs in the shape of a cross. That's the +way the Jibbenainosay marks all the meat of his killing. It has been a +whole year now since we h'ard of him." + +"Captain," said the elder Bruce, "you don't seem to understand the +affa'r altogether; but if you were to ask Tom about the Jibbenainosay +till doomsday, he could tell you no more than he has told already. You +must know, thar's a creatur' of some sort or other that ranges the +woods round about our station h'yar, keeping a sort of guard over us +like, and killing all the brute Injuns that ar' onlucky enough to come +in his way, besides scalping them and marking them with his mark. The +Injuns call him _Jibbenainosay_, or a word of that natur', which them +that know more about the Injun gabble that I do, say means the +_Spirit-that-walks_; and if we can believe any such lying devils as +Injuns (which I am loath to do, for the truth ar'nt in 'em), he is +neither man nor beast, but a great ghost or devil that knife cannot +harm nor bullet touch; and they have always had an idea that our fort +h'yar in partickelar, and the country round about, war under his +protection--many thanks to him, whether he be a devil or not; for that +war the reason the savages so soon left off a worrying of us." + +"Is it possible," said Roland, "that any one can believe such an +absurd story?" + +"Why not?" said Bruce, stoutly. "Thar's the Injuns themselves, Shawnees, +Hurons, Delawares, and all,--but partickelarly the Shawnees, for he +beats all creation a-killing of Shawnees,--that believe in him, and hold +him in such eternal dread, that thar's scarce a brute of 'em has come +within ten miles of the station h'yar this three y'ar: because as how, +he haunts about our woods h'yar in partickelar, and kills 'em +wheresomever he catches 'em,--especially the Shawnees, as I said afore, +against which the creatur' has a most butchering spite; and there's them +among the other tribes that call him _Shawneewannaween_, or the Howl of +the Shawnees, because of his keeping them ever a howling. And thar's his +marks, captain,--what do you make of _that_? When you find an Injun +lying scalped and tomahawked, it stands to reason thar war something to +kill him." + +"Ay, truly," said Forrester; "but I think you have human beings enough +to give the credit to, without referring it to a supernatural one." + +"Strannger," said Big Tom Bruce the younger, with a sagacious nod, "when +you kill an Injun yourself, I reckon,--meaning no offense--you will be +willing to take all the honor that can come of it, without leaving it to +be scrambled after by others. Thar's no man 'arns a scalp in Kentucky, +without taking great pains to show it to his neighbors." + +"And besides, captain," said the father, very gravely, "thar are men +among us who have seen the creatur'!" + +"_That_," said Roland, who perceived his new friends were not well +pleased with his incredulity, "is an argument I can resist no longer." + + + + +JOHN A. McCLUNG + + +John Alexander McClung, Kentucky's romantic historian and novelist, was +born near the ancient town of Washington, Kentucky, September 25, 1804. +He was educated at the Buck Pond Academy of his uncle, Dr. Louis +Marshall, near Versailles, Kentucky. Having united with the Presbyterian +church when he was sixteen years old, McClung entered Princeton +Theological Seminary, in 1822, to fit himself for the ministry. He +accepted his first pastorate in 1828, but, as his religious views were +undergoing a profound change, he withdrew from the church and devoted +himself to literature. His first work was a novel, called _Camden_ +(Philadelphia, 1830). This was a story of the South during the +Revolutionary War. His _Sketches of Western Adventure_ (Maysville, +Kentucky, 1832), though almost as fictitious as _Camden_, came to be +regarded as history, and it is upon this work that McClung's reputation +rests. In a general way the _Sketches_ are "of the most interesting +incidents connected with the settlement of the West from 1755 to 1794." +Many of them are most certainly figments of the author's imagination, +yet they have come to be regarded as literal truth and history. His +story of the women at Bryant's Station, who carried water for the +defense of the fort while it was besieged by ambushed Indians under +Simon Girty, in 1782, is his _piece de resistance_. John Filson, +Alexander Fitzroy, Gilbert Imlay, Harry Toulmin, William Littell, +Rafinesque, Marshall, and Butler, the Kentucky historians that published +their works prior to McClung's, are silent concerning the tripping of +the women to the spring for water while the Indians lay upon the banks +of Elkhorn with rifles cocked and ready. All Indians have been +scalp-hunters, regardless of whatever else they have been, and a woman's +scalp dangling from their sticks afforded them as much pleasure as a +man's. When the Collinses, both father and son, reached this romance +they merely reproduced it "as interesting," allowing it to pass without +further comment of any kind. McClung blended romance and history as +charmingly as did Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati, whom Mann Butler took +to task. The climax of this tale came in the erection of a memorial wall +encircling a spring which sprang out of the ground some years prior to +the Civil War! McClung began the practice of law in 1835, but in 1849 he +returned to the ministry. He subsequently held pastorates at Cincinnati +and Indianapolis, but finally settled at Maysville, Kentucky. He +declined the presidency of Hanover College, Indiana, in 1856. On August +16, 1859, McClung was drowned in the Niagara river, his body being +carried over the falls, but it was later recovered and returned to +Kentucky for interment. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892); _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. + McElroy (New York, 1909). + + +THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION + + [From _Sketches of Western Adventure_ (Cincinnati, 1838)] + +All ran hastily to the picketing, and beheld a small party of Indians, +exposed to open view, firing, yelling, and making the most furious +gestures. The appearance was so singular, and so different from their +usual manner of fighting, that some of the more wary and experienced of +the garrison instantly pronounced it a decoy party, and restrained the +young men from sallying out and attacking them, as some of them were +strongly disposed to do. The opposite side of the fort was instantly +manned, and several breaches in the picketing rapidly repaired. Their +greatest distress arose from the prospect of suffering for water. The +more experienced of the garrison felt satisfied that a powerful party +was in ambuscade near the spring, but at the same time they supposed +that the Indians would not unmask themselves, until the firing upon the +opposite side of the fort was returned with such warmth, as to induce +the belief that the feint had succeeded. + +Acting upon this impression, and yielding to the urgent necessity of +the case, they summoned all the women, without exception, and +explaining to them the circumstances in which they were placed, and +the improbability that any injury would be offered them, until the +firing had been returned from the opposite side of the fort, they +urged them to go in a body to the spring, and each bring up a bucket +full of water. Some of the ladies, as was natural, had no relish for +the undertaking, and asked why the men could not bring water as well +as themselves, observing that _they_ were not bullet-proof, and that +the Indians made no distinction between male and female scalps! + +To this it was answered, that women were in the habit of bringing +water every morning to the fort, and that if the Indians saw them +engaged as usual, it would induce them to believe that their ambuscade +was undiscovered, and that they would not unmask themselves for the +sake of firing at a few women, when they hoped, by remaining concealed +a few moments longer, to obtain complete possession of the fort. That +if men should go down to the spring, the Indians would immediately +suspect that something was wrong, would despair of succeeding by +ambuscade, and would instantly rush upon them, follow them into the +fort, or shoot them down at the spring. The decision was soon over. + +A few of the boldest declared their readiness to brave the danger, and +the younger and more timid rallying in the rear of these veterans, +they all marched down in a body to the spring, within point blank shot +of more than five hundred Indian warriors! Some of the girls could not +help betraying symptoms of terror, but the married women, in general, +moved with a steadiness and composure, which completely deceived the +Indians. Not a shot was fired. The party were permitted to fill their +buckets, one after another, without interruption, and although their +steps became quicker and quicker, on their return, and when near the +gate of the fort, degenerated into a rather unmilitary celerity, +attended with some little crowding in passing the gate, yet not more +than one-fifth of the water was spilled, and the eyes of the youngest +had not dilated to more than double their ordinary size. + + + + +JAMES O. PATTIE + + +James Ohio Pattie, an early Western traveler, was born near +Brooksville, Kentucky, in 1804. His father, Sylvester Pattie +(1782-1828), emigrated to Missouri in 1812, and settled at St. +Charles. He served in the War of 1812, at the conclusion of which he +built a saw-mill on the Gasconade river, sending down pine lumber in +rafts to St. Louis. Several years later his wife died, leaving nine +young children, of whom James O. Pattie was the eldest. In 1824 +Sylvester Pattie became dissatisfied with his lumber business and +decided to dispose of it and undertake an expedition into New Mexico, +which was one of the first from this country into that territory. The +route pursued by his party was quite new. James O. Pattie was at +school, but he prevailed upon his father to permit him to accompany +the expedition. It remained for him to write a most interesting +account of their remarkable journey, in which Indians who had never +seen white men before were encountered, his own capture described, +together with the sufferings and death of his father in New Mexico. On +his return to the United States Pattie passed through Cincinnati, +where he met Timothy Flint, one of the pioneers of Western letters, +who edited his journal under the title of _The Personal Narrative of +James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, during an Expedition from St. Louis, +through the Vast Regions between that Place and the Pacific Ocean, and +thence Back through the City of Mexico to Vera Cruz, during +Journeyings of Six Years; in which_ _he and his Father, who +accompanied him, suffered Unheard of Hardships and Dangers, and +Various Conflicts with the Indians, and were made Captives, in which +Captivity his Father Died; together with a description of the Country +and the Various Nations through which they Passed_ (Cincinnati, 1831). +"One sees in [Pattie's] pages the beginnings of the drama to be fought +out in the Mexican War." The date and place of his death are unknown. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iv); Pattie's _Narrative_ has been carefully + re-edited with notes and introduction by Reuben Gold Thwaites, and + published in his famous _Early Western Travels Series_ (Cleveland, + 1905, v. xviii). + + +THE SANTA FE COUNTRY + + [From _The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky_ + (Cincinnati, 1831)] + +We set off for Santa Fe on the 1st of November [1824]. Our course for +the first day led us over broken ground. We passed the night in a +small town, called Callacia, built on a small stream, that empties +into the del Norte. The country around this place presents but a small +portion of level surface. + +The next day our path lay over a point of the mountain. We were the +whole day crossing. We killed a grey bear, that was exceedingly fat. +It had fattened on a nut of the shape and size of a bean, which grows +on a tree resembling the pine, called by the Spanish, _pinion_. We +took a great part of the meat with us. We passed the night again in a +town called Albukerque. + +The following day we passed St. Thomas, a town situated on the bank of +the del Norte, which is here a deep and muddy stream, with bottoms +from five to six miles wide on both sides. These bottoms sustain +numerous herds of cattle. The small huts of the shepherds, who attend +to them, were visible here and there. We reached another town called +Elgidonis, and stopped for the night. We kept guard around our horses +all night, but in the morning four of our mules were gone. We hunted +for them until ten o'clock, when two Spaniards came, and asked us +what we would give them if they would find our mules? We told them to +bring the mules, and we would pay them a dollar. They set off, two of +our men following them without their knowledge and went into a +thicket, where they had tied the mules, and returned with them to us. +As may be supposed, we gave them both a good whipping. It seemed at +first that the whole town would rise against us in consequence. But +when we related the circumstances fairly to the people, the officer +corresponding to our justice of the peace, said, we had done perfectly +right, and had the men put in the stocks. + +We recommenced our journey, and passed a mission of Indians under the +control of an old priest. After crossing a point of the mountain, we +reached Santa Fe, on the 5th. This town contains between four and five +thousand inhabitants. It is situated on a large plain. A handsome +stream runs through it, adding life and beauty to a scene striking and +agreeable from the union of amenity and cultivation around, with the +distant view of the snow clad mountains. It is pleasant to walk on the +flat roofs of the houses in the evening, and look on the town and +plain spread below. The houses are low, with flat roofs as I have +mentioned. The churches are differently constructed from the other +buildings and make a beautiful show. They have a great number of large +bells, which, when disturbed, make a noise, that would almost seem +sufficient to awaken the dead. + +We asked the governor for permission to trap beaver in the river Helay. +His reply was that, he did not know if he was allowed by the law to do +so; but if upon examination it lay in his power, he would inform us on +the morrow, if we would come to his office at 9 o'clock in the morning. +According to this request, we went to the place appointed, the +succeeding day, which was the 9th of November. We were told by the +governor, that he had found nothing that would justify him in giving us +the legal permission we desired. We then proposed to him to give us +liberty to trap upon the conditions that we paid him five per cent on +the beaver we might catch. He said he would consider this proposition, +and give us an answer the next day at the same hour. The thoughts of our +hearts were not at all favorable to this person, as we left him. + + + + +WILLIAM F. MARVIN + + +William F. Marvin, "the latter-day drunken poet of Danville," was born +at Leicestershire, England, in 1804. He emigrated to America when a +young man, and made his home in the little town of Danville, Kentucky. +Marvin was a shoemaker by trade, but verse-making and bacchanalian +nights were his heart's delight and perfect pleasures. He was a +well-known character in Danville and the surrounding country, and many +are the old wives' tales they tell on the old poet to this day. On one +occasion, while in his cups, of course, he attempted suicide, using +his shoe knife on his throat, but he was finally persuaded that a shoe +knife could be put to far better purposes. Marvin served in the +Mexican War, and on his return home, he published his first and only +book of verse, _The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems_ (Danville, +Kentucky, 1851). The title-poem, _The Battle of Monterey_, is a rather +lengthy metrical romance of some forty or more pages; but the "other +poems," called also "miscellaneous poems," extend the book to its 219 +pages. A few of these are worthy of preservation, especially the +shorter lyrics. Marvin's book is now extremely rare. The writer has +located not more than six copies, though a large edition was printed +by the poet's publisher, Captain A. S. McGrorty, who is still in the +land of the living. During the closing years of his life Marvin +contributed occasional poems to the old _Kentucky Advocate_, the +Danville newspaper, his last poem having appeared in that paper, +called _The Beauty, Breadth, and Depth of Love_. William F. Marvin +died at Danville, Kentucky, July 12, 1879, and was buried in the +cemetery of the town. To-day his grave may be identified, but it is +unmarked by a monument. His verse certainly shows decided improvement +over the rhymes of Thomas Johnson, but both of them were imperfect +forerunners of that celebrated poet and distinguished soldier, who was +born at Danville about the time Marvin reached there and set up his +shop on Main street--Theodore O'Hara, the highest poetic note in the +literature of old Kentucky. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Kentucky Advocate_ (Danville, July 14, 1879); + letters from G. W. Doneghy, the Danville poet of to-day, author of + _The Old Hanging Fork, and Other Poems_ (Franklin, Ohio, 1897), to + the writer. + + +EPIGRAM + + [From _The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems_ (Danville, + Kentucky, 1851)] + + A bee, while hovering round a lip, + Where wit and beauty hung, + Mistook its bloom, and flew to sip, + But ah, the bee got stung. + + +THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING + + [From the same] + + Ye are come my sad heart to beguile, + In the blush of your beautiful hue; + The fairest and welcomest flowers that smile, + Within the wide arch of the blue. + + From Araby odors ye bring, + And ye steal the warm tints from the sky, + And scatter your pearly bright beauties in spring, + As if nature ne'er meant you to die. + + The soft crimson blush of each lip, + 'Mong the green leaves and buds that abound + Seems pouting in richness, and parted to sip + The dew that is falling around. + + Ye bow to the breath of the Morn, + And cover his wings with perfume; + And woo the gay bee in the earliest dawn, + To rest on your bosoms of bloom. + + Ye have brought back the passion of love, + For a moment to warm my lone breast, + And pointed to undying roses above, + That smile through eternity's rest. + + +SONG + + [From the same] + + +AIR--_Here's a health to One I love dear_. + + Here's a bumper brimful for our friends, + And a frown and a fig for our foes; + And may he who stoops meanly to gain his own ends, + Never know the sweets of repose. + + Though folly and ignorance join, + To blight the young buds of our fame, + Their slander a moment may injure the vine, + But its fruits will be blushing the same. + + Then here is a bumper to truth, + May its banners wave wide as the world, + And a fig for the mortal in age or in youth + Who has not its banner unfurl'd. + + + + +ELISHA BARTLETT + + +Dr. Elisha Bartlett, physician, poet, and politician, was born at +Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1805. He was graduated in medicine from +Brown University in 1826, and later practiced at Lowell, +Massachusetts, of which city he was the first mayor. Dr. Bartlett +lectured at Dartmouth College in 1839; and two years later he became +professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the medical school +of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He left Transylvania +in 1844, for the University of Maryland, but he returned to Lexington +two years later, occupying his former chair in the medical school. In +1849 Dr. Bartlett left Transylvania and went to Louisville, where he +delivered medical lectures for a year. From 1851 until his death he +was professor of materia medica and medical jurisprudence in the +College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City. Dr. Bartlett died +at his birthplace, Smithfield, Rhode Island, July 18, 1855, one of the +most widely known of American physicians, and also well known and +highly regarded by medical men in Europe. His medical works are: +_Essay on the Philosophy of Medical Science_ (Philadelphia, 1844); +_Inquiry into the Degree of Certainty in Medicine_ (1848); _A +Discourse on the Life and Labours of Dr. Wells, the Discoverer of the +Philosophy of Dew_ (1849); _The Fevers of the United States_ (1850); +_Discourse on the Times, Character, and Works of Hippocrates_ (1852). +These are his medical works, but it is upon his small volume of poems, +_Simple Settings, in Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, from Mr. +Dickens's Gallery_ (Boston, 1855), that he is entitled to his place in +this work. Of this little book of but eighty pages, his friend, Dr. +Oliver Wendell Holmes, wrote: "Yet few suspected him of giving +utterance in rhythmical shape to his thoughts or feelings. It was only +when his failing limbs could bear him no longer, as conscious +existence slowly retreated from his palsied nerves, that he revealed +himself freely in truest and tenderest form of expression. We knew he +was dying by slow degrees, and we heard from him from time to time, or +saw him always serene and always hopeful while hope could have a place +in his earthly future.... When to the friends he loved there came, as +a farewell gift, ... a little book with a few songs in it--songs with +his whole warm heart in them--they knew that his hour was come, and +their tears fell fast as they read the loving thoughts that he had +clothed in words of beauty and melody. Among the memorials of +departed friendships, we treasure the little book of 'songs' ... his +last present, as it was his last production." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _History of the Medical Department of + Transylvania University_, by Dr. Robert Peter (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1905). + + +JOHN BROWDIE OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY + + [From _Simple Settings, in Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, + from Mr. Dickens's Gallery_ (Boston, 1854)] + + 'Twas worth a crown, John Browdie, to hear you ringing out, + O'er hedge and hill and roadside, that loud, hilarious shout; + And how the echoes caught it up and flung it all about. + + 'Twas worth another, John, to see that broad and glorious grin, + That stretched your wide mouth wider still, and wrinkled round your + chin. + And showed how true the heart was that glowed and beat within. + + Yes! Nick has beaten the _measther_,--'twas a sight beneath the + sun! + And I only wish, John Browdie, when that good deed was done, + That you and I had both been there to help along the fun. + + Be sure he let him have it well;--his trusty arm was nerved + With hoarded wrongs and righteous hate,--so it slackened not nor + swerved, + Until the old curmudgeon got the thrashing he deserved. + + The guinea, John, you gave the lad, is charmed forevermore; + It shall fill your home with blessings; it shall add unto your + store; + Be light upon your pathway, and sunshine on your floor. + + These are the treasures, too, laid up forever in the sky, + Kind words to solace aching hearts, and make wet eyelids dry, + And kindly deeds in silence done with no one standing by. + + And when you tell the story, John, to her, your joy and pride-- + The miller's bonny daughter, so soon to be your bride-- + She shall love you more than ever, and cling closer to your side. + + Content and health be in your house! and may you live to see + Full many a little Browdie, John, climb up your sturdy knee; + The mother's hope, the father's stay and comfort long to be. + + These are thy crown, O England; thy glory, grace, and might!-- + Who work the work of honest hands, from early morn till night, + And worship God by serving man, and doing what is right. + + All honor, then, to them! let dukes and duchesses give room! + The men who by the anvil strike, and ply the busy loom; + And scatter plenty through the land, and make the desert bloom. + + + + +SAMUEL D. GROSS + +Dr. Samuel David Gross, the distinguished American surgeon and author, +was born near Easton, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1805. He was graduated +from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in the class of +1828, and he at once entered upon the active practice of his +profession in Philadelphia. In 1833 Dr. Gross accepted a professorship +in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, which position he held +until 1840, when he became professor of surgery in the University of +Louisville. The subsequent sixteen years of Dr. Gross's life were +spent upon Kentucky soil. His _Report on Kentucky Surgery_ +(Louisville, 1851) contained the first biography of Dr. Ephraim +McDowell, the Kentucky surgeon, who performed the first operation for +the removal of the ovaries done in the world. That Dr. McDowell had +actually accomplished this wonderful feat at Danville, in 1809, was +Dr. Gross's contention, and that he was able to prove it beyond all +doubt, and place the Danville doctor before the world as the father +of ovariotomy, proves the power of his paper. Dr. Gross was the +founder of the Louisville _Medical Review_, but he had conducted it +but a short time when he accepted the chair of surgery in the +Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. This position he occupied +until about two years prior to his death. Dr. Gross enjoyed an +international reputation as a surgeon. Oxford and Cambridge conferred +degrees upon him in recognition of his distinguished contributions to +medical science. As an original demonstrator he was well known. He was +among the first to urge the claims of preventive medicine; and his +demonstrations upon rabbits, with a view to throwing additional light +on manual strangulation, are familiar to students of medicine and +medical history. His works include: _Elements of Pathological Anatomy_ +(1839); _Foreign Bodies in the Air-Passages_ (1854); _Report on the +Causes which Retard the Progress of American Medical Literature_ +(1856); _System of Surgery_ (1859); _Manual of Military Surgery_ +(1861), Japanese translation (Tokio, 1874); and his best known work of +a literary value, _John Hunter and His Pupils_ (1881). In 1875 he +published two lectures, entitled _The History of American Medical +Literature_; and, in the following year, with several other writers, +he issued _A Century of American Medicine_. Dr. Gross was always +greatly interested in the history of medicine and surgery. He died at +Philadelphia, May 6, 1884. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His _Autobiography_ (Philadelphia, 1887, two vols.), + was edited by his sons, one of whom, A. Haller Gross, was born in + Kentucky; Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. iii). + + +KENTUCKY + + [From _Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M. D._ (Philadelphia, + 1887, v. i.)] + +It was pleasant to dwell in the land of Boone, of Clay, and of +Crittenden; to behold its fertile fields, its majestic forests, and +its beautiful streams; and to associate with its refined, cultivated, +generous-hearted, and chivalric people. It was there that I had hoped +to spend the remainder of my days upon objects calculated to promote +the honor and welfare of its noble profession, and finally to mingle +my dust with the dust and ashes of the sons and daughters of Kentucky. +But destiny has decreed otherwise. A change has come over my life. I +stand this evening in the presence of a new people, a stranger in a +strange place, and a candidate for new favors. + + +THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY + + [From the same] + +The admirers of Mr. Clay cannot but regret the motives which induced +him to spend his last days at Washington. It was a pitiful ambition +which prompted him to forsake his family and his old friends to die at +the capital of the country in order that he might have the _éclat_ of +a public funeral. Broken down in health and spirits when he left his +old home, unable to travel except by slow stages, he knew perfectly +well that his days were numbered, and that he could never again see +Kentucky. How much more dignified would it have been if he had +breathed out his once precious life in the bosom of his family and in +the arms of the woman who for upwards of half a century had watched +over his interests, reared his children with a fond mother's care, +loved him with a true woman's love, and followed him, wherever he was, +with her prayers and her blessings! + + + + +THOMAS H. CHIVERS + + +Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers, the eccentric Southern poet, and maker of +most unusual verse forms, was born near Washington, Georgia, December +12, 1807. He was instructed in the classics by his mother, and, choosing +medicine as his vocation, he went to Lexington, Kentucky--most probably +making the long journey on horse-back--and entered the medical school of +Transylvania University. Chivers matriculated in November, 1828, and +took up his abode at the old Phoenix Hotel, as his father was wealthy +and liberal with him. He took one ticket and made it during his first +year. The college records show that he returned for the fall session of +1829, and that, during his second year, he took two tickets, graduating +on March 17, 1830. The thesis he submitted for his degree of Doctor of +Medicine was _Remittent and Intermittent Bilious Fever_. Kentucky was +the birthplace of the first poems Chivers wrote, and, very probably, the +birthplace of his first book, _Conrad and Eudora, or The Death of +Alonzo_ (Philadelphia, 1834). This little drama, intended for the study, +was set in Kentucky, and founded upon the Beauchamp-Sharp murder of +1825, which was still the chief topic of conversation in the State when +the poet reached Lexington in 1828. Chivers's second book of poems, +called _Nacoochee_ (New York, 1837), contained two poems written while a +student of Transylvania, entitled _To a China Tree_, and _Georgia +Waters_. A short time after the publication of this book Chivers and +Edgar Allan Poe became acquainted; and the remainder of their lives they +were denouncing and fighting each other. It all came about by Chivers +claiming his _Allegra Florence in Heaven_, published in _The Lost +Pleiad_ (New York, 1845), as the original of _The Raven_. Of course, the +world and the critics have smiled at this claim and let it pass. After +Poe's death Chivers claimed practically everything the Virginian did to +be a plagiarism of some of his own poems. His most famous work was +_Eonchs of Ruby_ (New York, 1851). This was followed by _Virginalia_ +(Philadelphia, 1853); _Memoralia_ (Philadelphia, 1853); _Atlanta_ +(Macon, Ga., 1853); _Birth-Day Song of Liberty_ (Atlanta, Ga., 1856); +and _The Sons of Usna_ (Philadelphia, 1858). Bayard Taylor, in his +famous _Echo Club_, mentioned _Facets of Diamond_ as one of the poet's +publications, but a copy of it has not yet been unearthed. Dr. Chivers +died at Decatur, Georgia, December 19, 1858. No more pathetic figure has +appeared in American letters than Chivers. Had he been content to write +his poetry independently of Poe or any one else, he would have left his +name clearer. He was a wonderful manipulator of verse-forms, but he was +not what Poe was--a world-genius. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _In the Poe Circle_, by Joel Benton (New York, + 1899); _The Poe-Chivers Papers_, by G. E. Woodberry (_Century + Magazine_, Jan., Feb., 1903); _Representative Southern Poets_, by + C. W. Hubner (New York, 1906); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. ii). + + +THE DEATH OF ALONZO + + [From _Conrad and Eudora_ (Philadelphia, 1834)] + +_Act III. Scene IV. Frankfort. Time, midnight._ Conrad _enters from +the tavern, walks the street, dressed in dark clothes, with a masque +on his face, and, with difficulty, finds_ Alonzo's _house_. + + _Conrad._ This is the place,--and I must change my name. + + (_Goes to the door and knocks. Puts his hand in his bosom. + A female voice is heard within--the wife of_ Alonzo.) + + _Angeline._ I would not venture out this time o' night. + + (_Conrad knocks_.) + + _Alonzo._ Who's there? + + _Conrad._ A friend. + + _Angeline_ (_within_). I would not venture out, my love! + + _Alonzo._ Why, Angeline!--thy fears are woman's, love. + + (_Knocks again._) + + _Alonzo._ Who is that?--speak out! + + _Conrad._ Darby--'tis thy friend! + He has some business with thee--'tis of weight! + Has sign'd a bond, and thou must seal the deed! + + _Alonzo._ What does he say? + + _Angeline._ Indeed I do not know--you'd better see. + + (_Knocks again and looks round._) + + _Alonzo._ Who can this be--so late at night? + + (_Opens the door and steps back._) + + _Conrad._ Behold! (_Throws off his masque and takes him by the + throat._) + Look in my face, and call my name! + + _Alonzo._ Conrad!--Conrad! do not kill me, have mercy! + + _Conrad._ Where is my wife? Now, villain! die!--die!--die! + + (_Stabs him._) + + Now, pray! if thou canst pray, now pray--now die! + Now, drink the wormwood which Eudora drank. + + (_Stamps him._ Alonzo _dies_.) + + (Conrad _rushes out and is seen no more_. Angeline, Alonzo's + _wife, runs in the room, screams, and falls upon his breast_.) + + _Angeline._ 'Tis he--'tis he--Conrad has kill'd Alonzo! + Oh! my husband! my husband! thou art dead! + 'Tis he--'tis he--the wretch has kill'd Alonzo! + + (_The doctor_, Alonzo's _brother, rushes in, crying "Murder!--murder!" + Watchmen and citizens rush in, crying + "Murder! murder!_ Alonzo's _dead_! Alonzo's _dead_!") + + _Citizens._ Who, under God's heaven, could have done this deed? + + _Angeline._ 'Tis he--'tis he! Conrad has kill'd Alonzo! + + _Watchmen._ Who did it? Speak! speak! Conrad kill'd Alonzo? + + _Angeline._ Conrad--'twas Conrad, kill'd my husband! Dead! + Oh! death--death--death! What will become of me? + + _Doctor._ Did you see his face? My God! I know 'twas he! + + _Angeline._ I saw his face--I heard his voice--he's gone! + + (Angeline _feels his pulse, while the rest look round_.) + + Oh! my husband!--my husband!--death, death! + Speak, Alonzo! speak to Angeline--death! + Oh! speak one word, and tell me who it was! + + (_Kisses him._) + + No pulse--my husband's dead! He's gone!--he's gone! + + (_Faints away on his breast. The watchmen and citizens take her + into an adjoining room, bearing her husband with her--asking, + "Who could have kill'd him? Speak_, Angeline--_speak_!") + + _Curtain falls. End of Act III._ + + +GEORGIA WATERS + + [From _Nacoochee_ (New York, 1837)] + + On thy waters, thy sweet valley waters, + Oh! Georgia! how happy were we! + When thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters, + Once gathered sweet-william for me. + Oh! thy wildwood, thy dark shady wildwood + Had many bright visions for me; + For my childhood, my bright rosy childhood + Was cradled, dear Georgia! in thee! + + On thy mountains, thy green purple mountains, + The seasons are waiting on thee; + And thy fountains, thy clear crystal fountains + Are making sweet music for me. + Oh! thy waters, thy sweet valley waters + Are dearer than any to me; + For thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters, + Oh! Georgia! give beauty to thee. + +Transylvania University, 1830. + + + + +JEFFERSON DAVIS + + +Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy, was +born in Christian, now Todd, county, Kentucky, June 3, 1808. During his +infancy his family removed first to Louisiana and afterwards to +Mississippi, locating near the village of Woodville. When but seven +years old he was mounted on a pony and, with a company of travelers, +rode back to Kentucky. He entered St. Thomas College, a Roman Catholic +institution, near Springfield, Kentucky. This tiny, obscure "college" +was presided over by Dominicans, and Davis was the only Protestant boy +in it. He spent two years at St. Thomas, when he returned home to be +fitted for college. In October, 1821, when in his fourteenth year, +Jefferson Davis arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, and matriculated in the +academic department of Transylvania University. Horace Holley, +surrounded with his famous faculty, was in charge of the University +during Davis's student days. His favorite professor was Robert H. +Bishop, afterwards president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; and his +fellow students included David Rice Atchison, George Wallace Jones, +Gustavus A. Henry, and Belvard J. Peters, all subsequently in Congress +or on the bench. When Davis was in the United States Senate he found +five other Transylvania men in the same body. He made his home with old +Joseph Ficklin, the Lexington postmaster, and three of the happiest +years of his life were spent in the "Athens of the West." He left +Transylvania at the end of his junior year in order to enter West Point, +from which he was graduated in 1828. As Lieutenant Davis he was in +Kentucky during the cholera-year of 1833, and he did all in his power to +bury the dead and watch the dying. Near Louisville, on June 17, 1835, +Davis was married to Miss Sarah Knox Taylor, second daughter of +President Taylor, but within the year the fair young girl died. Davis +was in the lower House of Congress, in 1845, as a Democrat; but in the +following year he enlisted for service in the Mexican War, through which +he served with great credit to himself and to his country. From 1847 to +1851 he was United States Senator from Mississippi; and from 1853 to +1857 he was Secretary of War in President Pierce's cabinet. Davis was +immediately returned to the Senate, where he continued until January 21, +1861, when he bade the Senators farewell in a speech that has made him +famous as an orator. Four weeks later he was inaugurated as provisional +president of the Confederate States. On February 22, 1862, he was +elected permanent president, and settled himself in the capitol at +Richmond, Virginia. President Davis was arrested near Irwinville, +Georgia, May 10, 1865, and for the next two years he was a prisoner in +Fortress Monroe. He died at New Orleans, December 6, 1889, but in 1893 +his body was removed to Richmond. As an author Davis's fame must rest on +his _The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_ (New York, 1881, +two vols.). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Jefferson Davis: A Memoir by his wife_, Mrs. V. + Jefferson Davis (New York 1890, two vols.); _Belford's Magazine_ + (Jan., 1890); _Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime_, by W. P. + Trent (New York, 1897); _Jefferson Davis_, by W. E. Dodd + (Philadelphia, 1907); _Statesmen of the Old South_, by W. E. Dodd + (New York, 1911). Prof. W. L. Fleming, of Louisiana State + University is now preparing what will be the most comprehensive + and, perhaps, the definitive biography of Davis. + + +FROM FAREWELL SPEECH IN UNITED STATES SENATE ON JANUARY 21, 1861 + + [From _The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_ (New York, + 1881, v. i.)] + +It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief +that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our +fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi to her present +decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created +free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social +institutions; and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been +invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races. That +Declaration of Independence is to be construed by the circumstances +and purposes for which it was made. The communities were declaring +their independence; the people of those communities were asserting +that no man was born--to use the language of Mr. Jefferson--booted and +spurred, to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created +equal--meaning the men of the political community; that there was no +divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that +there were no classes by which power and place descended to families; +but that all stations were equally within the grasp of each member of +the body politic. These were the great principles they announced; +these were the purposes for which they made their declaration; these +were the ends to which their enunciation was directed. They have no +reference to the slave; else, how happened it that among the items of +arraignment against George III was that he endeavored to do just what +the North has been endeavoring of late to do--to stir up insurrection +among our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes were +free and equal, how was the Prince to be arraigned for raising up +insurrection among them? And how was this to be enumerated among the +high crimes which caused the colonies to sever their connection with +the mother country? When our Constitution was formed, the same idea +was rendered more palpable; for there we find provision made for that +very class of persons as property; they were not put upon the footing +of equality with white men--not even upon that of paupers and +convicts; but, so far as representation was concerned, were +discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the +numerical proportion of three fifths. + +Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we +recur to the principles upon which our Government was founded; and +when you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from +a Government which, thus perverted, threatens to be destructive of our +rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our +independence and take the hazard. This is done, not in hostility to +others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own +pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending +and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred +duty to transmit unshorn to our children. + +I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my +constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility towards you, +Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever +sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now +say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure, +is the feeling of the people whom I represent towards those whom you +represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when I +say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though +we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as +they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring +disaster on every portion of the country; and, if you will have it +thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from +the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and +thus, putting our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and strong +arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may. + +In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a +great variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have +served long; there have been points of collision; but, whatever of +offense there has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostile +remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, +or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in +this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in +heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence unencumbered of the +remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of +making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered. + +Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the +occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a +final adieu. + + + + +WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER + + +William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic, was born at Philadelphia, +August 21, 1808. When he was but eight years old he removed to +Cincinnati with his mother, a widow. In 1821 he was apprenticed to a +Cincinnati printer. At the age of twenty years Gallagher journeyed +through Kentucky and Mississippi, and his letters concerning the +country and the people won him his first fame as a writer. In 1831 he +became editor of the Cincinnati _Mirrow_, the fifth or sixth literary +journal published in the West. Three years later Thomas H. Shreve +joined Gallagher in editing the paper. Like all Western magazines, +the _Mirrow's_ high hopes were utterly dashed upon the old rocks of +failure from one cause or another. In 1835 Gallagher published _Erato +No. I._, and _Erato No. II._, which were two small pamphlets of poems. +_Erato No. III._ was published at Louisville, two years later. The +chief poem in this was upon a Kentucky subject. Gallagher's anthology +of Western verse, without biographical or critical notes, entitled +_The Poetical Literature of the West_ (Cincinnati, 1841), the first +work in that field, was well done, and it strengthened his claim as a +critic. In 1854 he became one of the editors of the _Louisville +Courier_; but he shortly afterwards purchased a farm near Pewee +Valley, Kentucky, some twelve miles from Louisville, and as a Kentucky +farmer he spent the final forty years of his life. He took keen +interest in agricultural pursuits, but he made nothing more than a +meager living out of his farm. His essay on _Fruit Culture in the Ohio +Valley_ attracted the attention of persons interested in that subject. +As a poet Gallagher submits his claim upon a rather long pastoral +poem, entitled _Miami Woods_. This work was begun in 1839, and +finished seventeen years later. This gives the title of his book of +poems, _Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1881). _A Golden Wedding_ is not an overly skillful production, and +the poet is best seen in his shorter lyrics. Perhaps _The Mothers of +the West_, which appeared in the _Erato No. III._, is the best thing +he did, and the one poem that will keep his fame green. Gallagher +began his literary career with great promise, and he pursued it +diligently for some years, but when he should have been doing his +finest work, he was winning some prize from an agricultural journal +for the best essay on _Fruit Culture in the Ohio Valley_! He failed to +follow the gleam. William D. Gallagher died at "Fern Rock Cottage," +Pewee Valley, Kentucky, June 27, 1894. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. Coggeshall + (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by Fannie P. Dickey + (Louisville, 1892). + + +THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST + + [From _Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems_ + (Cincinnati, 1881)] + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + Stout-hearted dames were they; + With nerve to wield the battle-brand, + And join the border fray. + Our rough land had no braver + In its days of blood and strife-- + Aye ready for severest toil, + Aye free to peril life. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + On old Kentucky's soil, + How shared they, with each dauntless band, + War's tempest, and life's toil! + They shrank not from the foeman, + They quail'd not in the fight, + But cheer'd their husbands through the day, + And soothed them through the night. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + _Their_ bosoms pillow'd Men; + And proud were they by such to stand + In hammock, fort, or glen; + To load the sure old rifle-- + To run the leaden ball-- + To watch a battling husband's place, + And fill it should he fall. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + Such were their daily deeds: + Their monument--where does it stand? + Their epitaph--who reads? + No braver dames had Sparta-- + No nobler matrons Rome-- + Yet who or lauds or honors them, + Ev'n in their own green home? + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + They sleep in unknown graves; + And had they borne and nursed a band + Of ingrates, or of slaves, + They had not been more neglected! + But their graves shall yet be found, + And their monuments dot here and there + "The Dark and Bloody Ground!" + + + + +THOMAS H. SHREVE + + +Thomas H. Shreve, poet and journalist, was born at Alexandria, +Virginia, in 1808. In early life he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, +and entered mercantile pursuits. In 1834 Shreve became a Cincinnati +editor; but four years later he returned to Louisville to again engage +in business. Throughout his business career, Shreve was a constant +contributor of poems and prose sketches to the best magazines. He +finally abandoned business for literature, and he at once became +associate editor of the _Louisville Journal_. He was not a rugged +journalist of the Prentice type, but a cultured and chaste essayist +who should have written from his study window, rather than from such a +seething hothouse of sarcasm and invective as Prentice maintained. He +was a mild-mannered man, a Quaker, who spent his last months on earth +in crossing swords with Thomas Babington Macaulay concerning the +character of William Penn. In 1851 Shreve's _Drayton, an American +Tale_, was issued by the Harpers at New York. This work won the author +much praise in the East as well as in the West, and it started him +upon an honorable career, which was soon cut short by disease. Thomas +H. Shreve died at Louisville, December 23, 1853. Prentice penned a +splendid tribute to the memory of his dead friend and associate; and +some years later a collection of his verse was made as a fitting +memorial of his blameless life and literary labors. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _The Shreve Family_, by L. P. + Allen (Greenfield, Illinois). + + +I HAVE NO WIFE + + [From _The Knickerbocker Magazine_ (August, 1838)] + + I have no wife--and I can go + Just where I please, and feel as free + As crazy winds which choose to blow + Round mountain-tops their melody. + On those who have Love's race to run, + Hope, like a seraph, smiles most sweet-- + But they who Hymen's goal have won, + Sometimes, 'tis said, find Hope a cheat. + + I have no wife--young girls are fair-- + But how it is, I cannot tell, + No sooner are they wed, than their + Enchantments give them the farewell. + The girls, oh, bless them! make us yearn + To risk all odds and take a wife-- + To cling to one, and not to turn + Ten thousand in the dance of life. + + I have no wife:--Who'd have his nose + Forever tied to one lone flower, + E'en if that flower should be a rose, + Plucked with light hand from fairy bower? + Oh! better far the bright bouquet + Of flowers of every hue and clime; + By turns to charm the sense away, + And fill the heart with dreams sublime. + + I have no wife:--I now can change + From grave to joy, from light to sad + Unfettered, in my freedom range + And fret awhile, and, then, be glad. + I now can heed a Siren's tongue, + And feel that eyes glance not in vain-- + Make love apace, and, being flung, + Get up and try my luck again. + + I have no wife to pull my hair + If it should chance entangled be-- + I'm like the lion in his lair, + Who flings his mane about him free. + If 'tis my fancy, I can wear + My boots unblessed by blacking paste, + Cling to my coat till it's threadbare, + Without a lecture on bad taste. + + I have no wife, and I can dream + Of girls who're worth their weight in gold; + Can bask my heart in Love's broad beam, + And dance to think it's yet unsold. + Or I can look upon a brow + Which mind and beauty both enhance, + Go to the shrine, and make my bow, + And thank the Fates I have a chance. + + I have no wife, and, like a wave, + Can float away to any land, + Curl up and kiss, or gently lave + The sweetest flowers that are at hand. + A Pilgrim, I can bend before + The shrine which heart and mind approve;-- + Or, Persian like, I can adore + Each star that gems the heaven of love. + + I have no wife--in heaven, they say, + Such things as weddings are not known-- + Unyoked the blissful spirits stray + O'er fields where care no shade has thrown. + Then why not have a heaven below, + And let fair Hymen hence be sent? + It would be fine--but as things go, + _Unwedded, folks won't be content_! + + + + +ORMSBY M. MITCHEL + + +Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the celebrated American astronomer and author, +was born near Morganfield, Kentucky, August 28, 1809. He graduated from +West Point in the famous class of 1829 which included Robert E. Lee and +Joseph E. Johnston, Mitchel was professor of mathematics at West Point +for two years; but he later studied law and practiced at Cincinnati for +a year. In 1834 he was elected professor of mathematics and astronomy in +Cincinnati College. By his own efforts he raised sufficient funds with +which to establish an astronomical observatory in Cincinnati, in +1845--now the Mitchel Observatory--the first of the larger observatories +in this country. In 1860 Professor Mitchel was chosen as director of the +Dudley observatory at Albany, New York, and there he remained for two +years. The Civil War coming on, he entered the Union army, and rose to +the rank of general. General Mitchel was placed in command of the +"Department of the South," but before the war was well under way, +almost, he contracted yellow fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina, +October 30, 1862. General Mitchel was the most distinguished astronomer +ever born on Kentucky soil; and in the army the men knew him as "Old +Stars." He was a popular lecturer, but it is as an author that his great +reputation rests. His books are: _The Planetary and Stellar Worlds_ (New +York, 1848); _The Orbs of Heaven_ (1851); _A Concise Elementary Treatise +of the Sun, Planets, Satellites, and Comets_ (1860); and _The Astronomy +of the Bible_ (New York, 1863). From 1846 to 1848 General Mitchel +published an astronomical journal, called _The Sidereal Messenger_. +Harvard and Hamilton Colleges conferred honorary degrees upon him; and +he was a member of many scientific societies in the United States and +Europe. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, Astronomer and General_, + by his son, F. A. Mitchel; biographical sketch in _The Astronomy + of the Bible_ (New York, 1863); _Old Stars_, by P. C. Headley + (Boston, 1864). + + +ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD + + [From _The Astronomy of the Bible_ (New York, 1863)] + +If we extend our researches beyond the limits of the solar system, and, +passing across the mighty gulf which separates us from the starry +heavens, inspect minutely the organizations which are there displayed, +we find the dominion of these same laws extending to these remote +regions, and holding an imperious sway over revolving suns. Thus we +perceive, that in one most important particular, the objects which +compose the mighty universe are obviously alike, and seem to have sprung +from a common origin. We are, moreover, compelled to admit a sun in +every visible star; and if a sun, then attendant planets; and if +revolving planets, then, likewise, some scheme of sentient existence, +possibly remotely analogous to that which is displayed with such +wonderful minuteness in our globe. Thus if the being of a God can be +argued from the admirable adaptations which surround man in this nether +world, every star that glitters in the vast concave of heaven +proclaims, with equal power, this mighty truth. If we rise still higher, +and from the contemplation of individual stars, examine their +distribution, their clusterings, their aggregations into immense +systems, the fact of their mutual influences, their restless and eternal +activity, their amazing periods of revolution, their countless millions, +and their ever-during organizations, the mind, whelmed with the display +of grandeur, exclaims involuntarily, "This is the empire of a God!" + +And now, how is the knowledge of this vast surrounding universe revealed +to the mind of man? Here is, perhaps, the crowning wonder. Through the +agency of light, a subtle, intangible, imponderable something, +originating, apparently, in the stars and suns, darting with incredible +velocity from one quarter of the universe to the other, whether in +absolute particles of matter shot off from luminous bodies, or by traces +of an ethereal fluid, who shall tell? This incomprehensible fluid falls +upon an instrument of most insignificant dimensions, yet of most +wonderful construction, the human eye, and, lo! to the mind what wonders +start into being. Pictures of the most extravagant beauty cover the +earth; clouds dipped in the hues of heaven fill the atmosphere; the sun, +the moon, the planets, come up from out of the depths of space, and far +more amazing still, the distant orbs of heaven, in their relative +magnitudes, distances and motions, are revealed to the bewildered mind. +We have only to proceed one step further, and bringing to the aid of the +human eye, the auxiliary power of the optic glass, the mind is brought +into physical association with objects which inhabit the confines of +penetrable space. We take cognizance of objects so remote, that even the +flashing element of light itself, by which they are revealed, flies on +its errand ten times ten thousand years to accomplish its stupendous +journey. + +Strike the human eye from existence, and at a single blow, the sun is +blotted out, the planets fade, the heavens are covered with the +blackness of darkness, the vast universe shrinks to a narrow compass +bounded by the sense of touch alone. + +Such, then, is the organization of the universe, and such the means by +which we are permitted to take cognizance of its existence and +phenomena. If the feeble mind of man has achieved victories in the +natural world--if his puny structures, which have survived the +attacks of a few thousand years, proclaim the superiority of the +intelligence of his mind to insensate matter--if the contemplation of +the works of art and the triumphs of human genius, swells us into +admiration at the power of this invisible spirit that dwells in mortal +form,--what shall be the emotions excited, the ideas inspired, by the +contemplation of the boundless universe of God? + + + + +ALBERT T. BLEDSOE + + +Albert Taylor Bledsoe, controversialist, was born at Frankfort, +Kentucky, November 9, 1809, the son of a journalist. He was appointed +from Kentucky to West Point and was graduated in 1830, after which he +served in the army in Indian territory until the last day of August, +1832, when he resigned to enter upon the study of law. A year later +Bledsoe abandoned law to become a tutor in Kenyon College, Ohio, where +he later studied theology and was ordained a clergyman in the +Protestant Episcopal church. He was connected with various Ohio +churches from 1835 to 1838, but in the latter year he quit the +ministry to resume his legal studies and he removed to Springfield, +Illinois, where he formed a partnership with the afterwards celebrated +statesman and soldier, Colonel Edward D. Baker. Abraham Lincoln and +Stephen A. Douglas were practicing law in Springfield at this time, +and Bledsoe knew both of them intimately; but because of his +subsequent connection with the Southern Confederacy none of the +biographies of these men mention him. For the following ten years +Bledsoe practiced his profession at Springfield and Washington, D. C. +His first book, _An Examination of Edwards's Inquiry into the Freedom +of the Will_ (Philadelphia, 1845), showed that his interest in +theological subjects had not waned. In 1848 Bledsoe was elected +professor of mathematics in the University of Mississippi, which +position he held for the ensuing six years. His next volume, _A +Theodicy, or Vindication of the Divine Glory_ (New York, 1853), gave +him a place among theologians. In 1854 Dr. Bledsoe was elected to the +chair of mathematics in the University of Virginia, and this he +occupied until 1861. While at the University he published _An Essay on +Liberty and Slavery_ (Philadelphia, 1856), which anticipated his +subsequent action of entering the Confederate army, which he did in +1861, and he was commissioned as a colonel. Dr. Bledsoe was speedily +made assistant secretary of war, but this work proved most +uncongenial, and he gladly accepted the joint invitation of Davis and +Lee to run the blockade, in 1863, and go to England to gather +materials for a constitutional argument on the right of secession. He +spent three years in London and upon his return to the United States, +in February, 1866, he brought his vast researches together in his best +known work, _Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession a Constitutional +Right Previous to the War of 1861?_ (Baltimore, 1866). Dr. Bledsoe now +took up his residence at Baltimore, and some months later he became +editor of a quarterly periodical, _The Southern Review_, which he +conducted for the final years of his life. In 1868 he added the +principalship of a Baltimore school to his burdens; and in the same +year his last volume appeared, _The Philosophy of Mathematics_ +(Philadelphia, 1868). In 1871 Dr. Bledsoe was ordained a minister in +the Methodist church, and his _Review_ became the recognized organ of +his church. He died at Alexandria, Virginia, December 8, 1877. Dr. +Bledsoe was always a student and scholar, but he was essentially a +controversialist, often bitter in his statements, but time has +mellowed much of this, and he now stands forth as a very remarkable +man. Consider him from a dozen angles, and one will not find his like +in the whole range of American history. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _Library of Southern Literature_, sketch by his + daughter, Mrs. Sophie Herrick (Atlanta, 1909, v. i). + + +SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR + + [From _The Southern Review_ (Baltimore, April, 1867)] + +This history consists of seven great crises. The first of these +convulsed the Union, and threatened its dissolution before the new +Constitution was formed, or conceived. For how little soever its +history may be known, the North and the South, like Jacob and Esau, +struggled together, and that, too, with almost fatal desperation, in +the womb of the old Union. Slavery had nothing at all to do with that +struggle between the North and the South, the _dramatis personæ_ in +the tragedy of 1861. It was solely and simply a contest for power. + +The second crisis was the formation and adoption of the new +Constitution. Much has been said about that event, as the most +wonderful revolution in the history of the world; because the +government of a great people was then radically changed by purely +peaceable means, and without shedding a drop of blood. But if that was +a bloodless revolution in itself, no one, who has maturely considered +it in all its bearings, can deny that it was, in the end, the occasion +of the most sanguinary strife in the annals of a fallen world. + +The revolution of 1801, by which the radical notions and doctrines of +the infidel philosophers of the eighteenth century gained the +ascendency in this country, never more to abate in their onward march, +constituted the third great crisis in the political history of the +United States. In passing through this crisis, the Republic of 1787 +became in practice the Democracy of the following generation; and, +finally, the rabid radicalism of 1861. It was then that the +democratic, or predominant, element in the Republic, began to swallow +up the others, and so became the most odious of all the forms of +absolute power or despotism. It was then that the reign of "King +Demos," the unchecked and the unlimited power of mere numbers, was +inaugurated, and his throne established on the ruins of American +freedom. But, while history will show this, it will also administer +the consoling reflection, that American freedom was doomed, from the +first, by the operation of other causes, and that the revolution of +1801 only precipitated its fall. If so, then the sooner its fall the +better for the world; as in that case its destruction would involve a +smaller portion of the human family in its ruins. + +The desperate struggle of 1820-21, between the North and the South, +relative to the admission of Missouri into the Union; the equally +fierce contest respecting the Tariff in 1832-33; the Mexican War, and +the acquisition of vast territory, by the dismemberment of a foreign +empire, which led to the most violent and angry of all the quarrels +between the two sections; constitute the fourth, fifth and sixth +crises in the stormy history of the United Sections. The seventh and +last great crisis, grew out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise +of 1820, the rise of the Republican party, as it is called; and +consisted in the secession of the Southern States, and the war of +coercion. Each of these seven crises had, of course, its prelude and +its sequel, without which it cannot be comprehended, or seen how it +followed the preceding, and how it led to the succeeding crises in the +chain of events. Now some of these crises are most imperfectly +understood by the public, and, in some respects, most perfectly +misunderstood, such as the first two for example; others, and +especially the fourth, or the great Compromise of 1820, are overlaid +with a mass of lying traditions such as the world has seldom seen; +traditions invented by politicians, and industriously propagated by +the press and the pulpit. If these traditions were cleared away, and +the facts which lie beneath them in the silent records of the country +brought to view, the revelation would be sufficient to teach both +sections of the Union the profoundest lessons of humiliation and +sorrow. If patiently and properly studied, the history of the United +States is, perhaps, fraught with as many valuable lessons for the +warning and instruction of mankind, as that of any other age or nation +since the fall of Rome, since the Flood, or since the fall of man. + + + + +RICHARD H. MENEFEE + + +Richard Hickman Menefee, who with Henry Clay and Thomas F. Marshall +form the great triumvirate of early Kentucky orators, was born at +Owingsville, Kentucky, December 4, 1809. He was educated at +Transylvania University, and graduated from the law school of that +institution in 1832. He practiced his profession at Mt. Sterling, +Kentucky, for several years, when, in 1836, he was elected to the +Kentucky legislature. In the legislature he won a wide reputation as +an orator, and rapidly became known as the most gifted man of his age +in Kentucky. In the summer of 1837 Menefee made the race for Congress +and, after an exciting campaign, it was found that he had defeated his +opponent, Judge Richard French. In the lower House of Congress Menefee +and Sargeant S. Prentiss of Mississippi were the two young men that +compelled the country's attention and admiration as orators. In 1838 +William J. Graves, a Kentucky member of the House, killed Jonathan +Cilley, representative from a Maine district, and the friend of +Nathaniel Hawthorne, in a duel near Washington City. Menefee was one +of Graves's seconds. This affair of honor was so bitterly condemned on +all sides that Congress was compelled to enact the anti-duelling law. +In July, 1838, the people of Boston tendered Daniel Webster a great +home-coming banquet, in Faneuil Hall, and Menefee responded very +eloquently to a toast to Kentucky. One more session of Congress and he +returned to Kentucky, entering upon the practice of law at Lexington, +where cases pressed fast upon him. He met Henry Clay in the great +Rogers will case of 1840, and Clay got the jury's verdict. Cassius M. +Clay placed Menefee in nomination for the United States Senate in the +Kentucky legislature of 1841, but his ill-health made his election a +hazardous action. A short time before his death he drew up the mature +reflections of his life, in the form of a diary, and this, only +recently published, has added to his fame. Menefee died at Lexington, +Kentucky, February 20, 1841. Thomas P. Marshall pronounced an eulogy +upon him which has taken its rightful place among the masterpieces of +American oratory; and in 1869 a Kentucky county was carved out of +several other counties and named in his honor. While he was not a +constructive statesman, Menefee's fame as an orator seems to grow +greater with the passing of the years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_, by W. + L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); _Richard Hickman Menefee_, by John + Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +KENTUCKY: A TOAST + + [From _Richard Hickman Menefee_, by John Wilson Townsend (New + York, 1907)] + +MR. CHAIRMAN: + +I cannot remain silent under the sentiment which has just been announced +and so enthusiastically received. That sentiment relates not to myself +but to Kentucky--dearer to me than self. Of Kentucky I have nothing to +say. There she is. In her history, from the period when first penetrated +by the white man as the _dark and bloody ground_, down to the present, +she speaks. The character to which that history entitles her is before +the world. She is proud of it. She is proud of the past; she is proud of +the present. And her pride is patriotic and just. As one of her sons, I +ask to express in her name, the acknowledgments due to the complimentary +notice you have taken of her, a notice not the less complimentary from +its association with the name of Massachusetts. + +There is much in the character and history of Massachusetts which should +bind her in the strongest bonds to Kentucky. Your sentiment places them +together: just where they ought to be. Kentucky is willing to occupy the +place you have assigned her. Without respect now to subordinate +differences in past events, both States stand knit together by the +highest and strongest motives by which States can be impelled. I mean +the motive and purpose common to each of maintaining and upholding, in +every extremity and to the very last, the Union of these States and the +Constitution. Massachusetts has proclaimed over and over again her +resolution not to survive them. Nor will Kentucky survive them. She has +embarked her whole destiny--all she has and all she hopes for--in the +Union and the Constitution. Let come what may of public calamity, of +faction, of sectional seduction or intimidation, or evil in any form the +most dreadful to man, Kentucky, like Massachusetts, regards the +overthrow of the Union as more frightful than all. Kentucky acknowledges +no justification for a disruption of the Union that is not a +justification for revolution itself. In that Union, and under that +Constitution, Kentucky means to stand or fall. Kentucky stands by the +Union in her living efforts; she means to hold fast to it in her +expiring groans. With Massachusetts she means to perish, if perish she +must, with hands clenched, in death, upon the Union. + + * * * * * + +If the occasion allowed it, I should like to say something of old +Massachusetts. I should like to rekindle my own patriotism at her +altars. Here--on this very spot--in this very hall--the sacred flame +of revolutionary liberty first ascended. Here it has ever ascended. It +has never been smothered--never dimmed. Perpetual--clear--holy! Behold +its inspirations here in your midst! Where are the doctrines of the +Union and the Constitution so incessantly inculcated as here? Where +are those doctrines so enthusiastically adopted as here? The +principles of the Union and the Constitution--for us another name for +the principles of liberty which cannot survive their overthrow--will, +in after ages, trace with delight their lineage through you. The blood +of freedom is here pure. To be allied to it is to be ennobled. +_Massachusetts!_ Which of her multitude of virtues shall I commend? +How can I discriminate? I will not attempt it. I take her as she is +and all together--I give--_Old Massachusetts!_ God bless her! + + + + +GEORGE W. CUTTER + + +George Washington Cutter, one of Kentucky's finest poets, was born in +Massachusetts about 1809, but he early came to Covington, Kentucky, and +entered upon the practice of his profession, the law. He commanded a +company of Kentuckians in the Mexican War with great honor to himself +and to them. He had been a constant contributor of verse to the +periodicals of his time, but he did not publish his first book until +after the war with Mexico. _Buena Vista and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1848) was his first collection, and it contained a preface signed from +Covington, Kentucky, December, 1847. From this it will be seen that +Cutter returned to Kentucky after the war, and that he was living in +this State at the time of his book's appearance. Tradition has said that +he wrote the title-poem, _Buena Vista_, a spirited war ballad, on the +field of action immediately after the battle. His little volume +contained thirty-seven poems, including _The Song of Steam_, which has +been singled out by critics as his masterpiece, an ode to Henry Clay, +his political idol, and his fine descriptive poem, _The Creation of +Woman_. This, to the present writer, is the most exquisite thing Cutter +did in verse. It is highly and consistently poetical, and it should be +better appreciated than it has been. Cutter was married to Mrs. Frances +Ann Drake, a famous Kentucky actress, but they were not happy and a +separation by mutual agreement subsequently followed. Mrs. Cutter was +the widow of Alexander Drake, of the well-known family of that name, and +after parting with the poet she resumed her first husband's name, +returned to the stage, and managed theatres in Kentucky and Ohio until +her death in Oldham county, Kentucky, September 1, 1875. Cutter later +removed to Indiana and was a member of the State legislature, after +which service he removed to Washington City to accept a government +position. In Washington Cutter continued his poetical output, life in +the capital turning his attention to patriotic subjects. _Poems, +National and Patriotic_ (Philadelphia, 1857) proved the author to be, +for the critics of his time, "the most intensely patriotic poet we +have." This volume contained sixty-nine of what he regarded as his best +poems. _The Song of Steam and Other Poems_ also appeared in this same +year of 1857, and it contained one of the poet's finest efforts, _The +Song of the Lightning_. Cutter died at Washington, D. C., December 24, +1865. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +THE SONG OF STEAM + + [From _Buena Vista and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1848)] + + Harness me down with your iron bands, + Be sure of your curb and rein; + For I scorn the power of your puny hands + As the tempest scorns a chain. + How I laughed as I lay concealed from sight, + For many a countless hour, + At the childish boast of human might, + And the pride of human power. + + When I saw an army upon the land, + A navy upon the seas, + Creeping along, a snail-like band, + Or waiting the wayward breeze; + When I marked the peasant faintly reel + With the toil which he daily bore, + As he feebly turned the tardy wheel, + Or tugged at the weary oar;-- + + When I measured the panting courser's speed, + The flight of the courier dove-- + As they bore the law a king decreed, + Or the lines of impatient love-- + I could not but think how the world would feel, + As these were outstripp'd afar, + When I should be bound to the rushing keel, + Or chained to the flying car. + + Ha! ha! ha! they found me at last, + They invited me forth at length, + And I rushed to my throne with a thunder-blast, + And I laughed in my iron strength. + Oh! then ye saw a wondrous change + On the earth and the ocean wide, + Where now my fiery armies range, + Nor wait for wind or tide. + + Hurrah! hurrah! the waters o'er, + The mountain's steep decline, + Time--space--have yielded to my power-- + The world! the world is mine! + The rivers, the sun hath earliest blest, + Or those where his beams decline; + The giant streams of the queenly west, + Or the orient floods divine: + + The ocean pales where'er I sweep, + To hear my strength rejoice, + And the monsters of the briny deep + Cower, trembling, at my voice. + I carry the wealth and the lord of earth, + The thoughts of his god-like mind, + The wind lags after my flying forth, + The lightning is left behind. + + In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine, + My tireless arm doth play, + Where the rocks never saw the sun decline, + Or the dawn of the glorious day. + I bring earth's glittering jewels up + From the hidden cave below, + And I make the fountain's granite cup + With a crystal gush o'erflow. + + I blow the bellows, I forge the steel, + In all the shops of trade; + I hammer the ore and turn the wheel, + Where my arms of strength are made; + I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint; + I carry, I spin, I weave; + And all my doings I put into print, + On every Saturday eve. + + I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay, + No bones to be "laid on the shelf," + And soon I intend you may "go and play," + While I manage this world myself. + But harness me down with your iron bands, + Be sure of your curb and rein; + For I scorn the strength of your puny hands, + As the tempest scorns a chain. + + + + +MARY P. SHINDLER + + +Mrs. Mary Palmer Shindler, poet and novelist, was born at Beaufort, +South Carolina, February 15, 1810. She was the daughter of Dr. +Benjamin M. Palmer, the celebrated Presbyterian preacher of New +Orleans. She was educated in Charleston by the daughter of Dr. David +Ramsey, the early historian of South Carolina. Her education was +completed in the schools of Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1835 Miss +Palmer was married to Charles E. Dana of New York; and in 1848 to Rev. +Robert D. Shindler, an Episcopal clergyman. Two years after this +marriage they removed to Maryland, and then to Shelbyville, Kentucky, +where Dr. Shindler held a professorship in Shelby College. Shelbyville +was Mrs. Shindler's home henceforth, save for short sojourns in other +states, and in that town she died about 1880. She was the author of +_The Southern Harp_ (1840); _The Northern Harp_ (1841); _The Parted +Family and Other Poems_ (1842); _The Temperance Lyre_ (1842); _Charles +Morton, or the Young Patriot_ (1843); _The Young Sailor_ (1844); +_Forecastle Tour_ (1844); and, _Letters to Relatives and Friends on +the Trinity_ (1845). Several of Mrs. Shindler's lyrics are well known. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. v); _The Writers of South Carolina_, by George A. + Wauchope (Columbia, South Carolina, 1910). + + +THE FADED FLOWER + + [From _The Parted Family and Other Poems_ (1842)] + + I have seen a fragrant flower + All impearled with morning dew; + I have plucked it from the bower, + Where in loveliness it grew. + Oh, 'twas sweet, when gayly vying + With the garden's richest bloom; + But when faded, withered, dying, + Sweeter far its choice perfume. + + So the heart, when crushed by sorrow, + Sends its richest streams abroad, + While it learns sweet balm to borrow + From the uplifted hand of God. + Not in its sunny days of gladness + Will the heart be fixed on Heaven; + When 'tis wounded, clothed in sadness, + Oft its richest love is given. + + + + +MARTIN J. SPALDING + + +Martin John Spalding, seventh archbishop of Baltimore, was born near +Lebanon, Kentucky, May 23, 1810. His forebears were Maryland Catholics +who had emigrated to Kentucky. He was graduated from St. Mary's +College when but sixteen years of age. Spalding then spent four years +at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky, and the same number of +years in Rome, at the conclusion of which he is said to have made a +seven hours' defense in Latin of 256 theological propositions. This +exhibition won him a doctor's diploma, and his ordination as a priest. +From 1834 to 1843 Dr. Spalding was president of St. Joseph's College +in Bardstown. And from 1843 to 1848 he was in charge of the cathedral +at Louisville. In 1848 he was consecrated Bishop of Lengone; and two +years later Bishop of Louisville. Bishop Spalding served in this +capacity until 1864 when, in the presence of four thousand people, he +was installed as the seventh archbishop of Baltimore. This high office +he held until his death, which occurred at Baltimore, February 7, +1872. Bishop Spalding was the greatest Roman Catholic reviewer and +historian Kentucky has produced. He was one of the editors of the +_Catholic Magazine_, and the author of the excellent _Sketches of the +Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1846); _The Life, +Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev. B. J. Flaget_ (Louisville, 1852). +He also published _Lectures on the General Evidences of Christianity_ +(1844); _Review of D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation_ (Baltimore, +1847); _History of the Protestant Reformation_ (1860); and a +posthumous volume, _Miscellanea_ (1885). There is also a uniform five +volume edition of his works, which is fortunate, as his books, +especially the _Sketches_, and _Flaget_, are exceedingly scarce. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of Archbishop Spalding_, by his nephew, John + L. Spalding (New York, 1872); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL + + [From _Sketches of the Life, Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev. + Benedict Joseph Flaget_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1852)] + +Bishop Dubourg had sailed from Bordeaux on the 1st of July, 1817; and +he had landed at Annapolis on the 4th of September. His _suite_ +consisted of five priests--of whom the present Archbishop of New +Orleans was one--and twenty-six young men, some of whom were +candidates for the ministry, and others were destined to become lay +brothers to assist the missionaries in temporal affairs. Several of +these youths were from Belgium; and among them was the V. Rev. D. A. +Deparcq, of our Diocese. A portion of the company started directly for +Baltimore with Bishop Dubourg; the rest, with the Rev. M. Blanc at +their head, remained at Annapolis, where they were entertained with +princely hospitality in the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, +until the end of October. + +Preparations were in the meantime made for crossing the mountains. The +stage then ran westward only once a week; and no less than three weeks +were consumed in transporting the missionary band to Pittsburgh. The +Bishop and M. Blanc were in the last division; but after remaining in +the stage for two days, during which time it had repeatedly upset, +endangering their lives, they finally abandoned it altogether, and +performed the remainder of the journey for five days on foot. About +the middle of November, the missionary company embarked on a flatboat; +and they reached Louisville on the last day of the month. Here they +found the Rev. MM. Chabrat and Shaeffer, who had been sent on by +Bishop Flaget to welcome them to Kentucky. Accompanied by them and by +the Rev. M. Blanc, Bishop Dubourg started immediately for St. +Thomas's, where he arrived in the evening of December 2d. + +Bishop Flaget was rejoiced to meet his old friend. "I recognized him +instantly," says he; "see! on meeting me, he has the humility to +dismount, in order to present me the most affectionate salute that ever +was given." Many and long were the "happy conversations" which he held +with his former associate, and now distinguished guest. Bishop Dubourg +officiated pontifically, and preached an admirable sermon in the church +of St. Thomas,--the only cathedral which the Bishop as yet possessed. + +On the 12th of December, the two prelates, accompanied by Father +Badin, set out for St. Louis, by the way of Louisville. Here Bishop +Dubourg preached in the chapel erected by M. Badin. On the 18th they +embarked on the steamboat Piqua, and on the 20th reached the mouth of +the Ohio, where they were detained five days by the ice. Their time +was passed chiefly in religious exercises and pious conversations. + +The following description of the Piqua and its passengers, from the +pen of Bishop Flaget, may not be uninteresting to us at the present +day, when steamboat building and navigation have so greatly changed +for the better: + +"Nothing could be more original than the medley of persons on board this +boat. We have a band of seven or eight comedians, a family of seven or +eight Jews, and a company of clergymen composed of a tonsured cleric, a +priest, and two Bishops; besides others, both white and black. Thus more +than thirty persons are lodged in an apartment (cabin), twenty feet by +twelve, which is again divided into two parts. This boat comprises the +old and the new testament. It might serve successively for a synagogue, +a cathedral, a theatre, an hospital, a parlor, a dining room, and a +sleeping apartment. It is, in fact, a veritable _Noah's ark_, in which +there are both clean and unclean animals;--and what is more +astonishing,--peace and harmony reign here." + +They were still at the mouth of the Ohio on the morning of Christmas +day. Not being able to say three Masses, they determined to make three +meditations. At the conclusion of the second, the redoubtable Piqua +resumed her course towards St. Louis. The Bishops and clergy made a +kind of retreat on their Noah's ark. On the evening of Christmas day, +the boat stopped near the farm of the widow Fenwick, a good Catholic, +whom they were happy to visit. M. Badin continued his journey by land +from this point, in order to be able to visit on the way many of his +old friends, Catholic emigrants from Kentucky. + +The Bishops returned to the boat, where they found the comedians +performing a play,--that is, engaged in a general fight among +themselves,--until they were separated by the captain. At midnight, on +the 30th, they arrived at St. Genevieve; and early next morning they +sent a messenger to announce their coming to M. De Andreis. + +Two hours afterwards, "about thirty of the principal inhabitants came, +with several young men on horseback and a carriage, to escort the +Bishops into the town. We went to the presbytery to put on our +pontifical robes: twenty-four choir-children with the cross at their +head, and four citizens bearing a canopy, conducted us to the church, +where after the installation of Bishop Dubourg, on a throne specially +prepared for the purpose, we sang the _Te Deum_. The whole day was +spent in receiving visits." + +On the first day of the year 1818, Bishop Dubourg celebrated +Pontifical Mass at St. Genevieve. The journey was then continued to +Prairie du Rocher and Cahokias to St. Louis, where the prelates +arrived on the 5th. They were received with great pomp, in the best +French style; and Bishop Dubourg was no sooner known than he was +universally esteemed and beloved. He professed himself much pleased +with the dispositions and sentiments of his new flock,--so different +from what he had been led to expect. + +Bishop Flaget having now completed his mission, preached his farewell +sermon to the Catholics of St. Louis on the feast of the Epiphany; and +on the next day he turned his face homeward. He and M. Badin performed +the journey on horseback, by the way of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. They +were detained three days at the former place, not being able to cross +the river in consequence of the running ice; and in traversing Illinois +they passed three successive nights in the open air of the prairies. +They reached Vincennes on the 27th of January; and after remaining here +two weeks, attending to missionary duties, they continued their journey. + +On the 21st of February, the Bishop found himself once more at his +retired and pleasant home in the seminary of St. Thomas. + + + + +JOHN W. AUDUBON + + +John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the great Audubon, was born at +Henderson, Kentucky, November 30, 1812. At the time of his birth his +father was ekeing out an existence in Henderson, with saw-mills and +lumber ventures of various kinds, all of which finally failed. The +nomadic life of the ornithologist was early forced upon his son. Their +wanderings were chiefly confined to the country south of the Ohio +river, and Louisiana. John Woodhouse Audubon was instructed by his +mother in the useful field of learning; but from his father he learned +to delineate birds and mammals, though it was the family's desire that +he should become a portrait painter. He and his brother, Victor, who +was three years his elder, were sent to school together, but, in 1826, +they were separated, Victor becoming a clerk at Louisville, Kentucky, +and John remaining in Louisiana with his mother, who was then +conducting a school, while the father went to Europe to solicit +subscriptions for his forthcoming _Birds of America_. John W. Audubon +was at this time engaged in drawing from Nature, and in playing the +violin, to which he was devoted throughout life. He was a clerk for a +short time on a Mississippi river steamboat, but any kind of routine +was distasteful to him, his whole life being absorbed in the study of +birds and mammals. He accompanied his father on one of his European +trips, and in England and Scotland he copied many of the masterpieces +of the great painters. In 1863 the collection of new species demanded +that father and son should go as far South as the Gulf of Mexico; and +while passing through Charleston, South Carolina, the son met Maria +Bachman, whom he married the following year. In 1840 the Audubon house +near New York City was built, and there John W. Audubon spent the +remaining years of his life. In 1849 he joined a California company to +go to the gold fields, but he went not for gold but for new birds and +mammals. He returned in the following year, and in 1851, his famous +father died. The brothers were then occupied with the publication of +_The Quadrupeds_, and the octavo edition of _The Birds of America_. In +the summer of 1860 Victor Audubon died; and on February 21, 1862, his +brother followed him into the silent country. John Woodhouse Audubon's +forty-nine years were spent in collaborating with his father and +brother, but his independent fame is founded upon the manuscript +record of his 1849 journey from New York to California. This most +interesting manuscript was edited by his daughter, Miss Maria R. +Audubon, of Salem, New York, and published as _Audubon's Western +Journal: 1849-1850_ (Cleveland, Ohio, 1906). A more charming book of +travels, of Nature in many forms, would be difficult to name. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The several lives of the great Audubon contain much + material for a study of his son. His daughter made an excellent + sketch of him for her edition of his _Western Journal: 1849-1850_ + (Cleveland, 1906). + + +LOS ANGELES[8] + + [From Audubon's _Western Journal, 1849-1850_ (Cleveland, 1906)] + +This "city of the angels" is anything else, unless the angels are +fallen ones. An antiquated, dilapidated air pervades all, but +Americans are pouring in, and in a few years will make a beautiful +place of it. It is well watered by a pretty little river, led off in +irrigating ditches like those at San Antonio de Bexar. The whole town +is surrounded to the south with very luxuriant vines, and the grapes +are quite delightful; we parted from them with great regret, as fruit +is such a luxury with us. Many of the men took bushels, and only paid +small sums for them. + + +TULARE VALLEY + + [From the same] + +One more day brought us to this great valley, and the view from the +last hill looking to northwest was quite grand, stretching on one hand +until lost in distance, and on the other the snowy mountains on the +east of the Tulare valley. Here, for the first time, I saw the Lewis +woodpecker, and Steller's jay in this country. I have seen many +California vultures and a new hawk, with a white tail and red +shoulders. During the dry season this great plain may be travelled on, +but now numerous ponds and lakes exist, and the ground is in places, +for miles, too boggy to ride over, so we were forced to skirt the +hills. This compelled us sometimes to take three days when two should +have been ample. Our journeys now are not more than twenty miles a +day, and our nights are so penetrating and cold, that four blankets +are not too many. + + +CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO IN 1849 + + [From the same] + +Christmas Day! Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas! Not that here, to me +at any rate, in this pandemonium of a city. Not a _lady_ to be seen, +and the women, poor things, sad and silent, except when drunk or +excited. The place full of gamblers, hundreds of them, and men of the +lowest types, more blasphemous, and with less regard for God and his +commands than all I have ever seen on the Mississippi, [in] New +Orleans or Texas, which give us the same class to some extent, it is +true; but instead of a few dozen, or a hundred, gaming at a time, here +there are thousands, and one house alone pays one hundred and fifty +thousand dollars per annum for the rent of the "Monte" tables. + +Sunday makes no difference, certainly not Christmas, except for a +little more drunkenness, and a little extra effort on the part of the +hotel keepers to take in more money. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] Copyright, 1905, by the Arthur H. Clark Company. + + + + +ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE + + +Adrien Emmanuel Rouquette, Louisiana's most distinguished poet, was +born at New Orleans, February 13, 1813, the scion of an old and +honorable Creole family, and the brother of Francois Dominique +Rouquette (1810-1890), who was also a poet of much merit. From his +boyhood he had a great fancy for the American Indian, and among them +he spent many of his early years. His academic training was begun at +Transylvania University of Lexington, Kentucky, but as the old +matriculation books have disappeared, it now seems quite impossible to +definitely fix his period of residence. From Lexington Rouquette +journeyed to Paris, France, where he studied at the Royal College and +at Nantes and Remnes. He was graduated from Remnes, March 26, 1833, +and at once returned to New Orleans. He had, however, developed into +such an unconventional fellow his family decided that a law course in +Paris was what he needed, so back to the capital of the French he +went. He soon abandoned the law and again returned to New Orleans, +where he took up his abode among the Indians. In 1841 Rouquette +published his first and best book of poems, written wholly in French, +entitled _Les Savanes_ (Paris and New Orleans). Nearly all of the +poems were upon Louisiana subjects, save the finest one, _Souvenir de +Kentucky_, an exquisite memorial of his Kentucky days, written in +1838. As he was partly educated in Kentucky and in praise of Kentucky +wrote his masterpiece, this State has a double claim upon him which, +though secondary to that of Louisiana, is none the less legitimate. In +1842 the poet began his studies for the priesthood, and three years +later he was ordained and attached to the Catholic cathedral at New +Orleans. His subsequent works include _Discours prononce a la +Cathedral de Saint Louis_ (New Orleans, 1846); _Wild Flowers_ (New +Orleans, 1848); _La Thebaide en Amerique_ (New Orleans, 1852); +_L'Antoniade_ (New Orleans, 1860), a long poem in which a solitary +life is extolled; _Poemes patriotiques_ (New Orleans, 1860); _St. +Catherine Tegehkwitha_ (New Orleans, 1873); and, _La Nouvelle Atala_ +(New Orleans, 1879). In 1859 the Abbé Rouquette established a mission +for the Choctaw Indians on the Bayou Lacombe, to which work he gave +the larger part of his life. Rouquette also turned into French the +poems of Estelle Anna Lewis (1824-1880), the Baltimore woman whom Poe +admired; and he edited _Selections from the Poets of all Countries_. +The three great Louisiana writers, Rouquette, the poet, Fortier, the +critic, and Gayarré, the historian, published pamphlets condemnatory +of Mr. George W. Cable's conceptions of Creole life and history as set +forth in his many books. The Abbé sent his out anonymously, entitled +_Critical Dialogue between Aboo and Caboo on a New Book, or a +Grandissime Ascension_, edited by E. Junius (Great Publishing House of +Sam Slick Allspice, 12 Veracity street, Mingo City, 1880). From the +Creole standpoint _The Grandissimes_ most probably deserved to be +satirized, but not in the cheap and easy manner of this little +pamphlet. It was a very unhappy swan-song of senility for the Abbé +Rouquette. He died at New Orleans, July 15, 1887, lamented by his city +and state. Sainte-Beuve, though recognizing the influence of +Chateaubriand in Rouquette's work, praised him highly, as did many of +the other famous French critics of his day and generation. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Cyclopaedia of American Literature_, by E. A. and + G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); _Louisiana Studies_, by Alcée + Fortier (New Orleans, 1894); _Literature of the Louisiana + Territory_, by A. N. DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904). + + +SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY + + [From _Les Savanes, Poésies Americaines_ (Paris, 1841)] + +Kentucky, the bloody land! + + * * * * * + +Le Seigneur dit à Osée: "Après cela, néanmoins, je l'attirerai +doucement à moi, je l'amènerai dans la solitude, et je lui parlerai au +coeur."--(_La Bible_ Osee). + + Enfant, je dis un soir: Adieu, ma bonne mère! + Et je quittai gaîment sa maison et sa terre, + Enfant, dans mon exil, une lettre, un matin, + (O Louise!) m'apprit que j'étais orphelin! + Enfant, je vis les bois du Kentucky sauvage, + Et l'homme se souvient des bois de son jeune âge! + Ah! dans le Kentucky les arbres sont bien beaux: + C'est la _terre de sang_, aux indiens tombeaux, + Terre aux belles forêts, aux séculaires chênes, + Aux bois suivis de bois, aux magnifiques scènes; + Imposant cimetière, où dorment en repos + Tant de _rouges-tribus_ et tant de _blanches-peaux_; + Où l'ombre du vieux Boon, immobile génie, + Semble écouter, la nuit, l'éternelle harmonie, + Le murmure êternel des immenses déserts, + Ces mille bruits confus, ces mille bruits divers, + Cet orgue des forêts, cet orchestre sublime, + O Dieu! que seul tu fis, que seul ton souffle anime! + Quand au vaste clavier pèse un seul de tes doigts, + Soudain, roulent dans l'air mille flots à la fois: + Soudain, au fond des bois, sonores basiliques, + Bourdonne un océan de sauvages musiques; + Et l'homme, à tous ces sons de l'orgue universel, + L'homme tombe à genoux, en regardant le ciel! + Il tombe, il croit, il prie; et, chrétien sans étude, + Il retrouve, étonné, Dieu dans la solitude! + +A portion of this famous poem was translated by a writer in _The +Southern Quarterly Review_ (July, 1854). + + Here, with its Indian tombs, the Bloody Land + Spreads out:--majestic forests, secular oaks, + Woods stretching into woods; a witching realm, + Yet haunted with dread shadows;--a vast grave, + Where, laid together in the sleep of death, + Rest myriads of the red men and the pale. + Here, the stern forest genius, veteran Boon, + Still harbors: still he hearkens, as of yore, + To never ceasing harmonies, that blend, + At night, the murmurs of a thousand sounds, + That rise and swell capricious, change yet rise, + Borne from far wastes immense, whose mingling strains-- + The forest organ's tones, the sylvan choir-- + Thy breath alone, O God! can'st animate, + Making it fruitful in the matchless space! + Thy mighty fingers pressing on its keys, + How suddenly the billowy tones roll up + From the great temples of the solemn depths, + Resounding through the immensity of wood + To the grand gushing harmonies, that speak + For thee, alone, O Father. As we hear + The unanimous concert of this mighty chaunt, + We bow before thee; eyes uplift to Heaven, + We pray thee, and believe. A Christian sense + Informs us, though untaught in Christian books + Awed into worship, as we learn to know + That thou, O God, art in the solitude! + + + + +EMILY V. MASON + + +Miss Emily Virginia Mason, biographer and anthologist, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, October 15, 1815, the sister of Stevens Thompson +Mason, first governor of Michigan. She was educated in Kentucky schools +and in a female seminary at Troy, New York. From 1845 until 1861 Miss +Mason lived in Fairfax county, Virginia, but when the Civil War began +she left her home and volunteered in the Confederate States hospital +service; and she was matron successively of hospitals in the Virginia +towns of Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, +and Richmond. Miss Mason won a wide reputation in this work, becoming +one of the best loved of Southern women. Almost immediately after the +war her first literary work was published, an anthology of _The Southern +Poems of the War_ (Baltimore, 1867) which was one of the first +collection issued of verse which owed its origin to the war. Her second +book was what she always said was the first life of Lee, though John +Esten Cooke's account of the great soldier appeared about the same +time, entitled _A Popular Life of General Robert Edward Lee_ (Baltimore, +1871). This was followed by her edition of _The Journal of a Young Lady +of Virginia in 1798_ (1871), which enjoyed wide popularity among +Virginians of her generation. Miss Mason went to Paris, France, about +1870, and for the following fifteen years she was associate principal of +an American school for young women. Upon her return to this country she +established herself in an attractive old Southern home at Georgetown, D. +C., in which she spent the remainder of her life. Miss Mason's last +literary work was _Memories of a Hospital Matron_, which appeared in +_The Atlantic Monthly_ for September and October of 1902. She was an +able writer and a most remarkable woman in many respects. Miss Mason +died at Georgetown, D. C., February 16, 1909, at the great age of +ninety-four years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Southern Writers_, by W. P. Trent (New York, 1905); + _The Washington Post_ (February 17, 1909). + + +THE DEATH OF LEE + + [From _A Popular Life of General Robert E. Lee_ (Baltimore, 1871)] + +On the evening of this day, 28th of September [1870] after a morning +of great fatigue, he attended the vestry meeting referred to, returned +home, and seated at the tea-table, opened his lips to give thanks to +God. + +The family looked up to see the parted lips, but heard no sound. With +that last thanksgiving his great heart broke. + +For many days his weeping friends hung over him, hoping for a return +of health and reason, but in vain. He murmured of battles and sieges; +of guarded tents and fields just won. Among his last words were: +"Strike my tent! Send for Hill!" Remarkably coincident with those of +his great lieutenant, Jackson, whose words were: "Let A. P. Hill +prepare for action! March the infantry rapidly to the front! Let us +cross the river and rest under the shade of the trees." + +At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 12th of October, the great soldier +breathed his last. + +The following day his body was borne to the college-chapel, escorted +by a guard of honor composed of Confederate soldiers. Next the hearse +was led General Lee's favorite horse "Traveller," who had borne him in +so many battles. The Trustees and Faculty of the college, the cadets +of the Military Institute, and the citizens, followed in procession. + +Above the chapel floated the flag of Virginia, draped in mourning. + +Through this and the succeeding day, the body, covered with flowers, +lay in state, visited by thousands who came to look for the last time +upon his noble features. + +On the 15th, the last said rites were rendered, amid the tolling of the +bells, the sound of martial music, and the thundering of artillery. + +The students, officers and soldiers of the Confederate army, and about +a thousand persons, assembled at the chapel. A military escort, with +the officers of General Lee's staff, were in the front. The hearse +followed, with the faithful "Traveller" close behind it. Next came a +committee of the Virginia Legislature, with citizens from all parts of +the State. Passing the Military Institute, the cadets made the +military salute as the body appeared, then joined the procession, and +escorted it back to the chapel. + +It had been the request of General Lee that no funeral oration should +be pronounced over his remains. His old and long-tried friend, the +Rev. Wm. N. Pendleton, simply read the burial services of the +Episcopal Church, after which was lowered into a tomb beneath the +chapel all that was mortal of Robert E. Lee. + + + + +EDMUND FLAGG + + +Edmund Flagg, traveler, journalist, and poet, was born at Wiscasset, +Maine, November 24, 1815. Immediately upon his graduation from Bowdoin +College, in 1835, he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and became a +teacher. His letters written to the _Louisville Journal_ while +traveling in the states of the Middle West, were afterwards collected, +revised, and published anonymously, entitled _The Far West, or a Tour +beyond the Mountains_ (New York, 1838, two vols.). This work has been +edited by Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites and published as volumes 26 and 27 +of _Early Western Travels_ (Cleveland, 1906). In 1839 Flagg became +associate editor of the Louisville _Literary News-Letter_, of which +George D. Prentice was editor. All of his poems of merit were +published in the _Journal_, and _News-Letter_. Flagg contributed both +prose and verse to the Louisville papers for nearly thirty-five years. +Ill-health compelled him to abandon journalism for law, and at +Vicksburg, Mississippi, he formed a partnership with the celebrated +Sargent Smith Prentiss. Two years later he became editor of the +_Gazette_ at Marietta, Ohio. Flagg's first two novels were issued +about this time, entitled _Carrero_ (New York, 1842), and _Francois of +Valois_ (New York, 1842). He was next editor of a publication at St. +Louis; and in 1849 he was secretary of the American legation at +Berlin. In 1850-1851 he was United States consul at Venice. He +afterwards returned to St. Louis and to journalism. Two of his plays, +_Blanche of Artois_, and _The Howard Queen_, were well received at +Louisville, Cincinnati, and several other cities. In 1853 Flagg's +_Venice, the City of the Sea_, appeared, and it won him a wide +reputation. _North Italy since 1849_, issued some years later, resumed +the story of Venice where his first work had left off, and brought it +down to date. Flagg was afterwards connected with the State department +in Washington, and under an order from Congress he prepared his +famous _Report on the Commercial Relations of the United States with +all Foreign Nations_ (Washington, 1856-1857, four vols.). His final +work was a novel, _De Molai, the Last of the Military Templars_ +(1888). Edmund Flagg died at Salem, Virginia, in 1890. He is most +certainly a Kentucky poet, journalist, and traveler, but his fame as a +dramatist, historian, and novelist belongs wholly to other states. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Literature of the Louisiana Territory_, by A. N. + DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST + + [From _The Louisville Literary News-Letter_] + +Ages since--long ere the first son of the Old World had pressed the +fresh soil of the New--long before the bright region beyond the blue +waves had become the object of the philosopher's reverie by day, and +the enthusiast's vision by night--in the deep stillness and solitude +of an unpeopled land, these vast mausoleums rose as they now rise, in +lonely grandeur from the plain and looked down even as now they look, +upon the giant floods rolling their dark waters at their base, +hurrying past them to the deep. So has it been with the massive tombs +of Egypt, amid the sands and barrenness of the desert. For ages untold +have the gloomy pyramids been reflected by the inundations of the +Nile; an hundred generations, they tell us, have arisen from the +cradle, and reposed beneath their shadows, and like autumn leaves have +dropped into the grave; but, from the midnight of bygone centuries, +comes forth no darting spirit to claim these kingly sepulchres as his +own! And shall the dusky piles, on the plains of distant Egypt affect +so deeply our reverence for the departed, and these mighty monuments, +reposing in dark sublimity upon our own magnificent prairies, vailed +in mystery more inscrutable than they, call forth no solitary throb? +Is there no hallowing interest associated with these aged +relics--these tombs, and temples, and towers' of another race, to +elicit emotion? Are they indeed to us no more than the dull clods we +tread upon? Why then does the wanderer from the far land gaze upon +them with wonder and veneration? Why linger fondly around them, and +meditate upon the power which reared them, and is departed? Why does +the poet, the man of genius and fancy, or the philosopher of mind and +nature, seat himself at their base, and with strange and undefined +emotions, pause and ponder, amid the loneliness that slumbers around? +And surely, if the far traveler, as he wanders through this Western +Valley, may linger around these aged piles, and meditate upon a power +departed--a race obliterated--an influence swept from the earth +forever--and dwell with melancholy emotions upon the destiny of man, +is it not meet, that those into whose keeping they seem by Providence +consigned, should regard them with interest and emotion?--that they +should gather up and preserve every incident relevant to their origin, +design, or history, which may be attained, and avail themselves of +every measure, which may give to them perpetuity, and hand them down, +undisturbed in form or character, to other generations? + +That these venerable piles are of the workmanship of man's hand, no +one, who with unprejudiced opinion has examined them, can doubt. But +with such an admission, what is the cloud of reflections, which throng +and startle the mind? What a series of unanswerable inquiries succeed! +When were these enormous earth heaps reared up from the plain? By what +race of beings was the vast undertaking accomplished? What was their +purpose?--what changes in their form and magnitude have taken +place?--what vicissitudes and revolutions have, in the lapse of +centuries, rolled like successive waves over the plains at their base? +As we reflect, we anxiously look around us for some tradition--some +time-stained chronicle--some age-worn record--even the faintest and +most unsatisfactory legend, upon which to repose our credulity, and +relieve the inquiring solicitude of the mind. But our research is +hopeless. The present race of Aborigines can tell nothing of these +tumuli. To them as to us they are vailed in mystery. Ages since--long +ere the white-face came--while this fair land was yet the home of his +fathers--the simple Indian stood before the venerable earth-heap, and +gazed, and wondered, and turned away. + + + + +CATHERINE A. WARFIELD + + +Mrs. Catherine Ann Warfield, poet and novelist, was born at Natchez, +Mississippi, June 6, 1816, the daughter of Nathaniel H. Ware. She was +educated at Philadelphia with her sister, Eleanor P. Ware Lee +(1820-1849), with whom she afterwards collaborated in her first two +volumes. Catherine Ware was married at Cincinnati, in 1833, to Robert +Elisha Warfield, of Lexington, Kentucky, and Kentucky was her home +henceforth. _The Wife of Leon, and Other Poems, by Two Sisters of the +West_ (New York, 1844), and _The Indian Chamber, and Other Poems_ (New +York, 1846) were the works of the sisters. In 1857 Mrs. Warfield +removed from Lexington to Pewee Valley, Kentucky, near Louisville, and +some three years later her masterpiece appeared, entitled _The +Household of Bouverie_ (New York, 1860, two vols.). This work brought +her into wide notice. During the Civil War Mrs. Warfield wrote some of +the most spirited lyrics which that mighty conflict called forth. +After the war she turned again to prose fiction, producing the +following books: _The Romance of the Green Seal_ (1867); _Miriam +Monfort_ (1873); _A Double Wedding_ (1875); _Hester Howard's +Temptation_ (1875); _Lady Ernestine_ (1876); _Miriam's Memoirs_ +(1876); _Sea and Shore_ (1876); _Ferne Fleming_ (1877); and her last +novel, _The Cardinal's Daughter_ (1877). Mrs. Warfield died at Pewee +Valley, Kentucky, May 21, 1877, at the time of her greatest +popularity. Of her books _The Household of Bouverie_ is the only one +that is generally known to-day, and is, perhaps, the only one that is +at all readable and interesting. Mrs. Warfield was an early edition of +"The Duchess" and Mary Jane Holmes, though she did write fine war +lyrics and one good story, which is just a bit better than either of +the other two women did. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Women of the South Distinguished in Literature_, by + Mary Forrest (New York, 1861); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii). + + +CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY + + [From _The Household of Bouverie_ (New York, 1860, v. ii)] + +Another queer scene with little Paul, whose quaint ways divert and +mystify me all the time. During Mr. Bouverie's absence of a week, I +have nothing else to amuse me nor to write about. He has called me +familiarly "Camilla" until now; but fearing that Mr. Bouverie might +not like the appellation, or rather that it might make me appear too +childish in his sight, I said to him recently: + +"Paul, you are a little fellow, and I am your guardian's wife. Don't +you think it would sound better if you were to add a handle to my +name, as common folks say? Call me 'Cousin Camilla' or 'Aunt Camilla,' +whichever you prefer; which shall it be, Quintil?" + +"Neither," he replied, manfully, "for you are neither of those things +to me, and I do not like to tell stories; but I will call you 'madam,' +if you choose, as you are a 'madam;'" and something like a sneer +wreathed his childish lips. + +"A foolish little madam, you think, Paul!" I rejoined, half in pique, +half in playfulness. + +"Why that is the very name for you," he said, brightening with the +thought. "'Little Madam!' I will call you so; but I will not put in +the foolish," he added, gravely, "for, perhaps, you will change after +a while and grow wiser." + +He spoke very seriously, sorrowfully almost, and I was quite provoked +for a moment to be set down in this fashion, by such a mere babe and +suckling. I was glad of the opportunity presented to me of snubbing +him by noticing a streak of molasses on his cheek. + +"Go wash your face, Paul," I said, "it is dirty!" + +He walked gravely to the glass and surveyed the stain. "Looking +glasses are useful things, after all," he said; "they tell the +truth--see 'Little Madam,' how you are mistaken! my face is not dirty, +only soiled; food is not dirt--if it were, we should all starve." + +He turned and smiled at me in his peculiar way, half mocking, half +affectionate. + +"Yet, as you bid me," he added, "I will wash it off; but isn't it a +pity to waste what would keep a bee alive a whole day!" + +Is this brat a humorist? + +He has brought out of his funny little trunk the oddest present for +me! It is a Medusa's head admirably carved in alabaster, and was +broken from the side of a vase by accident, and given to him by a +lady, at whose house he made a visit with Mr. Bouverie. + +He considers it a priceless treasure. There is a vague horror to me in +the face that is almost insupportable. The snaky hair, the sightless, +glaring eyes, are so mysteriously dreadful. He says it will answer for +a paper weight. No, Paul, I will lay it away out of sight forever. + + +A PLEDGE TO LEE + +(Written for a Kentucky Company) + + [From _Southern Poems of the War_, edited by Emily V. Mason + (Baltimore, 1867)] + + We pledge thee, Lee! + In water or wine, + In blood or in brine, + What matter the sign? + Whether brilliantly glowing, + Or darkly overflowing, + So the cup is divine + That we fill to thee! + Vanquished--victorious, + Gloomy or glorious, + Fainting and bleeding, + Advancing, receding, + Lingering or leading, + Captive or free; + With swords raised on high, + With hearts nerved to die, + Or to grasp victory; + Hand to hand--knee to knee, + With a wild three times three + We pledge thee, Lee! + + We pledge thee, chief: + In the name of our nation, + Her wide devastation, + Her sore desolation, + Her grandeur and grief! + Where'er thou warrest + When our need is the sorest, + Or in Fortress or forest, + Bidest thy time; + Thou--Heaven elected, + Thou--Angel-protected, + Thou--Brother selected, + What e'er thy fate be, + Our trust is in thee, + And our faith is sublime. + With swords raised on high, + With hearts nerved to die, + Or to grasp victory; + Hand to hand--knee to knee, + With a wild three times three, + We pledge thee, Lee! + + + + +J. ROSS BROWNE + + +John Ross Browne, humorist and traveler, was born in Ireland, in 1817, +but when an infant his father came to America and settled at +Louisville, Kentucky. Browne was educated in the Louisville schools, +and studied medicine for a time under several well-known physicians. +When eighteen years old he went to New Orleans; and this journey +kindled his passion for travel that ended only with his death. Browne +took the whole world for his home. He first went almost around the +globe on a whaling vessel, and on his return to this country, he +published his first book, called _Etchings of a Whaling Cruise_ (New +York, 1846). Browne was private secretary for Robert J. Walker, +Secretary of the Treasury, for a time, but, in 1849, he went to +California as a government commissioner; and in 1851 he went to Europe +as a newspaper correspondent. A tour of Palestine is described in +Browne's most famous book, _Yusef, or the Journey of the Frangi_ (New +York, 1853). He shortly afterwards returned to the United States and +became an inspector of customs on the Pacific coast; but the year of +1861 found him again in Europe, residing at Frankfort-on-the-Main. +Browne's next work was _Crusoe's Island_ (New York, 1864). His +family's residence in Germany resulted in the author publishing _An +American Family in Germany_ (New York, 1866), one of his most +delightful volumes. Browne's travels in northern Europe are described +in _The Land of Thor_ (New York, 1867). He now returned to America and +made his home in California. He investigated the mineral resources of +the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and his report was issued as +_Resources of the Pacific Slope_ (1869). _Adventures in the Apache +Country_ (1869), was his last book. Browne was appointed United States +Minister to China on March 11, 1868, but he was recalled sixteen +months later. He died at Oakland, California, December 9, 1875. Most +of his volumes are very cleverly illustrated with his own comical +sketches of characters and scenes. That J. Ross Browne was a man of +very considerable ability in several directions admits of no argument. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1900, v. viii). + + +LAPDOGS IN GERMANY + + [From _An American Family in Germany_ (New York, 1866)] + +One of the most remarkable sights is the dog-fancier--a strapping +six-foot dandy, leading after him, with silken strings, a whole brood +of nasty little poodles. This fellow is a type of the class; you meet +them everywhere at every Continental city. There are thousands of them +in Frankfort, men strangely infatuated on the subject of little dogs. +Now pardon me if I devote some serious reflections to this extraordinary +and unreasonable propensity, which, I fear, is rapidly taking root in +the hearts of the American people, especially the female portion of our +population. In men it is often excusable; they may be driven to it by +unrequited affection. I never see a fine-looking fellow leading a gang +of little poodle-dogs after him, that I don't imagine he has had some +dreadful experience in the line of true love; but with the opposite sex +the case is quite different. "If women have one weakness more marked +than another," says Mrs. Beecher Stowe, in a very eloquent passage of +the "Minister's Wooing," "it is toward veneration. They are born +worshippers--makers of silver shrines for some divinity or other, which, +of course, they always think fell straight down from heaven." And, in +illustration of this very just remark, she refers to instances where +celebrated preachers and divines have stood like the image that +Nebuchadnezzar the king set up, "and all womankind, coquettes and flirts +not excepted, have been ready to fall down and worship, even before the +sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and so forth," where the most +gifted and accomplished of the sex "have turned away from the flattery +of admirers, to prostrate themselves at the feet of a genuine hero, who +never moved them except by heroic deeds and the rhetoric of a noble +life"--a most striking and beautiful trait in woman's character to which +all homage should be rendered. She clingeth unto man, even as the ivy +clingeth unto the oak. But does anybody pretend to tell me that man is +always the lucky recipient of this devotion? Alas, no! Not always for +him is it that women are burdened with this load of "fealty, faith, and +reverence more than they know what to do with;" not always for him is it +that "They stand like a hedge of sweet peas, throwing out fluttering +tendrils everywhere for something high and strong to climb by." Alas! +man is but a cipher among the objects of woman's heroic devotion. I have +a lady in my eye who from early youth has bestowed the tenderest +affections of her heart upon poll-parrots; another, who for years has +wept over the woes of a little chicken; who would abandon her midnight +slumber to minister to the afflictions of a lame turkey, and insensible +to the appeals of her lover, only relax in her severity when moved by +the plaintive mewing of a cat; another, who, in the bosom of her family, +and tenderly adored by her husband, has long since yielded to the +fascinating allurement of a sewing-machine, and wrapped around its +cogwheels, cotton spools, and hammering needles the poetry of a romantic +attachment; and, lastly, the particular case in point, at which I marvel +most of all, three most bewitching young ladies, of acknowledged beauty, +who are hopelessly and irrevocably gone in love with--what do you think? +Not a man, erect and noble, with the brow of Jove and eye of Mars; not +even a horse, the paragon of beautiful and intelligent animals, or a +lion, the king of the forest; but a miserable, dirty, nasty, little +lapdog; a snappish, foul-eyed inodorous, sneaking little brute, which +even the very cats hold in contempt! And yet they love it; at least they +say so, and I have no reason to dispute their word. Have I not heard +them, morning, noon, and night, protest their devotion to the dear +little Fidel--the precious, beautiful little Fidel--the adorable love of +a little Fidel! Oh, it is enough to make the angels weep to see the +grace and fondness with which this horrid little wretch is caught up in +those tender white arms, and hugged to those virgin bosoms and kissed by +those pouting and honeyed lips! Faugh! It drives me mad. What is the use +of wasting so much sweetness when there are thousands of good, honest +fellows actually pining away from unrequited affection? brave sons of +toil, ready at a moment's notice to be caressed by these sweet-pea +vines, who are throwing out their fluttering tendrils for something high +and strong to cling to. I leave it to any honest miner, if it is not +provoking to the last degree to see the noblest capacity of woman's +nature thus cruelly and wastefully perverted--the choicest affections +devoted to a miserable, disgusting, and unsympathizing little +monster--the very honey of their lips lavished on that foul and mucous +nose, which, if it knows anything, must know some thing not fit to be +mentioned to polite ears. Heaven! how often have I longed to have a good +fair kick at one of these pampered little brutes. Only think of the care +taken of them, while widows and orphans are shivering in the cold and +perishing of hunger. The choicest pieces of meat cut up for them, +potatoes and gravy mixed, delicate morsels of bread; the savory mess put +before them by delicate hands, and swallowed into their delicate +stomachs, and too often rejected by those delicate organs, to the +detriment of the carpet. And then, when this delectable subject of +woman's adoration is rubbed, and scrubbed, and pitied, and physicked, +and thoroughly combed out from head to foot, with every love-lock of his +glossy hair filtered of its fleas, how tenderly he is laid upon the bed +or clasped in the embraces of beauty! Shade of Cupid! what a happy thing +it is to be a lapdog! Well might the immortal Bard of Avon prefer to be +a dog that bayed the moon rather than an indifferent poet. For my part, +I'd sooner be wrapped in the arms of beauty than be King of the Cannibal +Islands. That strange infatuation of feminine instinct which lends to +the head-dress, at an approaching bridal, a degree of importance to +which the expected groom can never aspire; which sees the destinies of +the whole matrimonial career centred in the fringe of a nightgown; which +seeks advice and consolation in the pattern of a reception-dress; which +would shrink from the fearful sacrifice of liberty but for the magic +power of new bonnets, new gloves, and embroidered handkerchiefs--that we +can all understand; these are woman's coy devices to tantalize mankind; +these are the probationary tortures inflicted upon him through mere +wantonness and love of mischief. But when the richest treasures of her +affection, the most divine essence of her being, the Promethean spark +warm from her virgin heart, for which worlds are lost and won--when +these are cast away upon a nauseous little lapdog, ye gods! what can +poor mortals do but abandon their humanity! It is shocking to think of +such competition, but how can we help it if young ladies give themselves +up to dog worship? I sincerely trust this Continental fashion may never +take root in California. Should it do so, farewell all hope for the +honest sons of toil; it will then be the greatest of good fortunes to be +born a lapdog! + + + + +ROB MORRIS + + +Robert Morris, who is generally bracketed with Albert Pike as the most +distinguished writer and craftsman American Masonry has produced, was +born near Boston, Massachusetts, August 31, 1818. He was made a Mason +in Mississippi, in 1846, and this was the beginning of a Masonic +career almost without parallel in the history of the fraternity. +Morris, of course, received all of the higher degrees in Masonry, but +the most momentous thing he did as a craftsman was to establish the +Order of the Eastern Star in 1850--the year he became a Kentuckian. In +September, 1854, while living in southern Kentucky, Morris wrote his +most celebrated poem, entitled _The Level and the Square_, which was +first published in his magazine, _The American Freemason_, of +Louisville, Kentucky. Rudyard Kipling lifted a line from it for his +equally famous poem, _The Mother Lodge_. Although Morris revised his +lines many times, the original version is far and away the finest. In +1858 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky; and +two years later he removed his residence to La Grange, Kentucky, the +little town with which his fame is intertwined. Morris wrote several +well-known religious songs, _Sweet Galilee_, being the best of them. +He was the author of many books upon Masonry, his _Lights and Shadows +of Freemasonry_ (Louisville, 1852), being the first work in Masonic +belles-lettres. This was followed by his _History of the Morgan +Affair_ (New York, 1852); _Life in the Triangle_ (1853); _The Two +Saints John_ (1854); _Code of Masonic Law_ (Louisville, 1855), the +pioneer work on Masonic jurisprudence; _Masonic Book of American +Adoptive Rights_ (1855); _History of Freemasonry in Kentucky_ +(Frankfort, 1859), his most important historical work; _Synopsis of +Masonic Laws_ (1859); _Tales of Masonic Life_ (1860); _Masonic Odes +and Poems_ (New York, 1864); _Biography of Eli Bruce_ (1867); +_Dictionary of Freemasonry_ (1872); _Manual of the Queen of the South_ +(1876); _Knights Templar's Trumpet_ (1880); _Freemasonry in the Holy +Land_ (New York, 1882), an excellent work; _The Poetry of Freemasonry_ +(New York, 1884), upon the publication of which, the author was +invited to New York City and crowned "The Poet Laureate of +Freemasonry," December 17, 1884; and, _Magnum Opus_ (1886). Morris was +one of the foremost numismatics of his day and generation in America, +his works on this science being _The Twelve Caesars_, and _Numismatic +Pilot_. He was also the author of several works designed especially +for the officers of a Masonic lodge; and he edited in thirty volumes +_The Universal Masonic Library_, besides editing from time to time +four Masonic magazines. Rob Morris, to give him the name by which he +is best known, died at La Grange, Kentucky, July 31, 1888. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv). + + +THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE + + [From _The American Freemason_ (Louisville, Kentucky, September + 15, 1854)] + + We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square: + What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are! + Come let us contemplate them, they are worthy of our thought-- + With the highest and the lowest, and the rarest they are fraught. + + We meet upon the Level, though from every station come-- + The King from out his palace and the poor man from his home; + For the one must leave his diadem without the Mason's door, + And the other finds his true respect upon the checkered floor. + + We part upon the Square for the world must have its due; + We mingle with its multitude, a cold, unfriendly crew; + But the influence of our gatherings in memory is green, + And we long, upon the Level, to renew the happy scene. + + There's a world where all are equal--we are hurrying towards it + fast-- + We shall meet upon the Level there when the gates of death are + passed; + We shall stand before the Orient, and our Master will be there + To try the blocks we offer His unerring square. + + We shall meet upon the Level there, but never thence depart: + There's a mansion--'tis all ready for each zealous, faithful + heart:-- + There's a Mansion and a welcome, and a multitude is there, + Who have met upon the Level and been tried upon the Square. + + Let us meet upon the Level, then, while laboring patient here-- + Let us meet and let us labor tho' the labor seem severe; + Already in the western sky the signs bid us prepare, + To gather up our working tools and part upon the square. + + Hands around, ye faithful Ghiblimites, the bright, fraternal + chain, + We part upon the Square below to meet in heaven again;-- + Oh, what words of precious meaning those words Masonic are-- + We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square. + + + + +AMELIA B. WELBY + + +Mrs. Amelia B. Welby, Kentucky's most famous female poet of the +mid-century, was born at St. Michael's, Maryland, February 3, 1819. +When she was fifteen years old her family removed to Louisville, +Kentucky, the city of her fame. In 1837, George D. Prentice, with his +wonderful nose for finding female verse-makers, added Amelia to his +already long and ever-increasing list. He printed her first poem in +his _Journal_, and crowned her as the finest branch of his poetical +tree. His declaration that she possessed the divine afflatus meant +nothing, as he had said the same thing about many another sentimental +single lady, pining upon the peaks of poesy. But Edgar Allan Poe and +Rufus W. Griswold soon separated her from the versifiers and placed +her among the poets, and thus her fame has come down to us with +fragrance. In June, 1838, Amelia was married to George Welby, a +Louisville merchant, who also held her to be a poet born in the +purple. Mrs. Welby's verse became well-known and greatly admired in +many parts of the country, and, in response to numerous requests for a +volume of her work, she collected her _Journal_ verse and published it +under the title of _Poems by Amelia_ (Boston, 1845). A second edition +was published the following year, and by 1860 the volume was said to +be in its seventeenth edition! Robert W. Weir's illustrated edition of +her poems was issued in 1850, and this is the most desirable form in +which her work has been preserved. These various editions will at once +convey some idea of her great popularity. With Poe, Prentice, and +Griswold singing her praises, and the public purchasing her poems as +rapidly as they could be made into books, Amelia's fame seemed secure. +To-day, however, no one has read any of her verse save _The Rainbow_, +which has been set down as her best poem, and she has become +essentially an historical personage, the keepsake of Kentucky letters. +While the greater number of her poems are quite unreadable, her elegy +for Miss Laura M. Thurston, a sister versifier, is well done and her +finest piece of work. Mrs. Welby died at Louisville, May 3, 1852, when +but thirty-three years of age. Had she lived longer, and the poetic +appreciation of the American people suffered no change, the heights to +which she would have attained can be but vaguely guessed at. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Female Poets of America_, by R. W. Griswold + (Philadelphia, 1856); _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860). + + +THE RAINBOW + + [From _Poems by Amelia_ (Boston, 1845)] + + I sometimes have thoughts, in my loneliest hours, + That lie on my heart like the dew on the flowers, + Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon + When my heart was as light as a blossom in June; + The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers, + The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers, + While a single white cloud, to its haven of rest + On the white-wing of peace, floated off in the west. + + As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze, + That scattered the rain-drops and dimpled the seas, + Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled + Its soft-tinted pinions of purple and gold. + 'Twas born in a moment, yet, quick as its birth + It had stretched to the uttermost ends of the earth, + And, fair, as an angel, it floated as free, + With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea. + + How calm was the ocean! how gentle its swell! + Like a woman's soft bosom it rose and it fell; + While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er, + When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore. + No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer, + Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there, + And bent my young head, in devotion and love, + 'Neath the form of the angel, that floated above. + + How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings! + How boundless its circle! how radiant its rings! + If I looked on the sky, 'twas suspended in air; + If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there; + Thus forming a girdle, as brilliant and whole + As the thoughts of the rainbow, that circled my soul. + Like the wing of the Deity, calmly unfurled, + It bent from the cloud and encircled the world. + + There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives + Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves, + When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose + Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose. + And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky, + The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by; + It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove, + All fluttering with pleasure, and fluttering with love. + + I know that each moment of rapture or pain + But shortens the links in life's mystical chain; + I know that my form, like that bow from the wave, + Must pass from the earth, and lie cold in the grave; + Yet O! when death's shadows my bosom encloud, + When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud, + May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold + In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold. + + +ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + She has passed, like a bird, from the minstrel throng, + She has gone to the land where the lovely belong! + Her place is hush'd by her lover's side, + Yet his heart is full of his fair young bride; + The hopes of his spirit are crushed and bowed + As he thinks of his love in her long white shroud; + For the fragrant sighs of her perfumed breath + Were kissed from her lips by his rival--Death. + + Cold is her bosom, her thin white arms + All mutely crossed o'er its icy charms, + As she lies, like a statue of Grecian art, + With a marbled brow and a cold hushed heart; + Her locks are bright, but their gloss is hid; + Her eye is sunken 'neath its waxen lid: + And thus she lies in her narrow hall-- + Our fair young minstrel--the loved of all. + + Light as a bird's were her springing feet, + Her heart as joyous, her song as sweet; + Yet never again shall that heart be stirred + With its glad wild songs like a singing bird: + Ne'er again shall the strains be sung, + That in sweetness dropped from her silver tongue; + The music is o'er, and Death's cold dart + Hath broken the spell of that free, glad heart. + + Often at eve, when the breeze is still, + And the moon floats up by the distant hill, + As I wander alone 'mid the summer bowers, + And wreathe my locks with the sweet wild flowers, + I will think of the time when she lingered there, + With her mild blue eyes and her long fair hair; + I will treasure her name in my bosom-core; + But my heart is sad--I can sing no more. + + + + +CHARLES W. WEBBER + + +Charles Wilkins Webber, the foremost Kentucky writer of prose fiction +and adventure of the old school, was born at Russellville, Kentucky, +May 29, 1819, the son of Dr. Augustine Webber, a noted Kentucky +physician. In 1838 young Webber went to Texas where he was with the +Rangers for several years. He later returned to Kentucky and studied +medicine at Transylvania University, Lexington, which he soon +abandoned for a brief course at Princeton Theological Seminary, with +the idea of entering the Presbyterian ministry. A short time +afterwards, however, he settled at New York as a literary man. Webber +was connected with several newspapers and periodicals, being associate +editor of _The Whig Review_ for about two years. His first book, +called _Old Hicks, the Guide_ (New York, 1848) was followed by _The +Gold Mines of the_ _Gila_ (New York, 1849, two vols.). In 1849 Webber +organized an expedition to the Colorado country, but it utterly +failed. Several of his other books were now published: _The +Hunter-Naturalist_ (Philadelphia, 1851); _Tales of the Southern +Border_ (1852; 1853); _Texas Virago_ (1852); _Wild Girl of Nebraska_ +(1852); _Spiritual Vampirism_ (Philadelphia, 1853); _Jack Long, or the +Shot in the Eye_ (London, 1853), his masterpiece; _Adventures with +Texas Rifle Rangers_ (London, 1853); _Wild Scenes in the Forest and +Prairie_ (London, 1854); and his last book, _History of Mystery_ +(Philadelphia, 1855). In 1855 Webber joined William Walker's +expedition to Central America, and in the battle of Rivas, he was +mortally wounded. He died at Nicaragua, April 11, 1856, in the +thirty-seventh year of his age. Webber's career is almost as +interesting as his stories. In fact, he put so much of his life into +his works that all of them may be said to be largely autobiographical. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Cyclopaedia of American Literature_, by E. A. and + G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of + American Biography_ (New York, 1888, v. vi). + + +TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER + + [From _Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie, or the Romance of + Natural History_ (London, 1854)] + +"The Bridge" at Jessup's River is well known to sportsmen; and to this +point we made our first flyfishing expedition. The eyes of Piscator +glistened at the thought, and early was he busied with hasty fingers +through an hour of ardent preparation amongst his varied and +complicated tackle. Now was his time for triumph. In all the ruder +sports in which we had heretofore been engaged, I, assisted by mere +chance, had been most successful; but now the infallible certainty of +skill and science were to be demonstrated in himself, and the +orthodoxy of flies vindicated to my unsophisticated sense. + +The simple preparations were early completed; the cooking apparatus, +which was primitive enough to suit the taste of an ascetic, consisted +in a single frying-pan. The blankets, with the guns, ammunition, rods, +etc., were all disposed in the wagon of our host, which stood ready at +the door. It was a rough affair, with stiff wooden springs, like all +those of the country, and suited to the mountainous roads they are +intended to traverse, rather than for civilized ideas of comfort. We, +however, bounded into the low-backed seat; and if it had been +cushioned to suit royalty, we could not have been more secure than we +were of such comfort as a backwood sportsman looks for. We soon found +ourselves rumbling, pitching, and jolting, over a road even worse than +that which brought us first to the lake. It seemed to me that nothing +but the surprising docility of the ponies which drew us, could have +saved us, strong wagon and all, from being jolted to atoms. I soon got +tired of this, and sprang out with my gun, determined to foot it +ahead, in the hope of seeing a partridge or red squirrel. + +We arrived at the "bridge" about the middle of the afternoon. There we +found an old field called Wilcox's clearing, and, like all places I +had seen in this fine grazing region, it was still well sodded down in +blue grass and clover. Our luggage having been deposited in the +shantee, consisting almost entirely of boards torn from the old house, +which were leaned against the sides of two forks placed a few feet +apart, we set off at once for the falls, a short distance above. This +was merely an initial trial, to obtain enough for dinner, and find the +prognostics of the next day's sport in feeling the manner of the fish. + +At the falls the river is only about fifteen feet wide, though its +average width is from twenty-five to thirty. The water tumbles over a +ledge of about ten feet, at the bottom of which is a fine hole, while +on the surface sheets of foam are whirled round and round upon the +tormented eddies, for the stream has considerable volume and power. + +We stepped cautiously along the ledge, Piscator ahead, and holding his +flies ready for a cast, which was most artistically made, not without +a glance of triumph at me, then preparing to do the same with the +humble angle-worm. The "flies" fall--I see the glance of half a dozen +golden sides darting at them; but by this time my own cast is made, +and I am fully occupied with the struggles of a fine trout. + +My companion's success was again far short of mine, and seeing him +looking at my trout lying beside me, I said: "Try the worms, good +Piscator--here they are. This is not the right time of day for them to +take the flies in this river, I judge." + +Improving the door of escape thus opened to him, he took off the flies +and used worms with immediate and brilliant success, which brought +back the smile to his face; and he would now and then as calmly brush +away the distracting swarm of flies from his face, as if they had been +mere innocent motes. But later that evening came a temporary triumph +for Piscator. The hole at the falls was soon exhausted, and we moved +down to glean the ripples. It was nearly sunset, and here the +pertinacious Piscator determined to try the flies again. He cast with +three, and instantly struck two half-pound trout, which, after a +spirited play, he safely landed. Rarely have I seen a prouder look of +triumph than that which glowed on his face as he bade me "look there!" +when he landed them. + +"Very fine, Piscator--a capital feat! but I fear it was an accident. +You will not get any more that way." + +"We shall see, sir," said he, and commenced whipping the water again, +but to no avail, while I continued throwing them out with great +rapidity. + +I abstained from watching him, for I had no desire to spoil his evening +sport by taunting him to continue his experiment. I soon observed him +throwing out the fish with great spirit again. I merely shouted to him +across the stream--"the angle-worm once more, Piscator?" + +"Yes!" with a laugh. + +As the sun went down the black gnats began to make themselves felt in +their smarting myriads, and we forthwith beat a hasty retreat to the +shantee. + +We had taken about ten pounds of trout; and the first procedure, after +reaching the camp, was to build a "smudge," or smoke-fire, to drive away +these abominable gnats, which fortunately take flight with the first +whiff of smoke, and the next was to prepare the fish for dinner, though +not till all had been carefully dressed by the guide, and placed in the +cold current of the little spring near, that they might keep sound. Now +came the rousing fire, and soon some splendid trout were piled upon +dishes of fresh pealed elm bark before us. They were very skillfully +cooked, and no epicure ever enjoyed a feast more thoroughly than we did +our well-flavored and delicious trout, in that rude shantee. + +The feast being over, then to recline back upon the fresh couch of +soft spruce boughs, and, with a cigar in mouth, watch the gathering +night-shades brooding lower and more low upon the thick wild forest in +front, far into the depths of which the leaping flames of our +crackling fire go, darting now and then with a revealing tongue of +quick light, and listening to the owl make hoarse answer to the wolf +afar off--to think of wild passages in a life of adventure years ago +amidst surroundings such as this; with the additional spice of peril +from savages and treacherous foes, and then, as the hushed life +subsides into a stiller mood, see the faces of loved ones come to you +through the darkness, with a smile from out your distant home, and +while it sinks sweetly on your heart, subside into happy and +dream-peopled slumber! "This is bliss!" the bliss of the shantee to +the wearied sportsman! a bliss unattainable by the toiler, and still +more by the lounger of the city. + +We were on foot with the sun next morning, and after another feast, +which we appreciated with unpalled appetites, we set off for some deep +spring holes nearly a mile above the falls. The morning set cloudy, +and rain fell piteously for several hours. But if this change +detracted from our sport, it at least served to give zest to the +evening's shelter and repose. + +I never felt more delightfully than I did when I sat down to a fine +dinner that evening in the old tavern, and very much of this pleasurable +feeling of entire comfort I attributed to the prompt use of the cold +bath, on reaching our temporary home, wet, weary, and shivering with +cold. This, with a change of clothes, restored me to a healthy glow of +warmth, ready to enjoy whatever our host might provide. + + + + +DR. L. J. FRAZEE + + +Dr. Lewis Jacob Frazee, author of a little volume of travels of +considerable charm, was born at Germantown, Kentucky, August 23, 1819. +He was prepared for college at the Maysville Academy, celebrated as +the school at which young U. S. Grant spent one year. He was graduated +from Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in the class of 1837; +and four years later he graduated in the medical department of the +University of Louisville. On April 9, 1844, Dr. Frazee left Maysville, +Kentucky, for a long sojourn in Europe, spending most of his time in +Paris studying subjects then untaught in this country. He also visited +England and the continent before returning home. These travels Dr. +Frazee related in a book of nearly three hundred pages, entitled _The +Medical Student in Europe_ (Maysville, Kentucky, 1849), which is now +an exceedingly rare work. The style is natural and clear and exhibits +genuine literary flavor. He settled at Louisville in 1851. His only +other publication was _The Mineral Waters of Kentucky_ (Louisville, +1872), a brochure. Dr. Frazee took a keen interest in the Filson Club +of Louisville, and one of his finest papers was read before that +organization: _An Analysis of the Personal Narrative of James O. +Pattie_. He was sometime professor in the medical school of the +University of Louisville, and in the Kentucky School of Medicine; and +he edited _The Transylvania Medical Journal_ for several years. Old +age found the good doctor surrendering his practice and professorships +to establish the Louisville Dental Depot, designed to furnish the +local dentists with supplies. He died at Louisville, Kentucky, August +12, 1905, eleven days before his eighty-sixth birthday. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (Louisville, Kentucky, August + 13, 1905); letters from Dr. Thos. E. Pickett, the Maysville + historian, to the present writer. + + +HAVRE + + [From _The Medical Student in Europe_ (Maysville, Kentucky, 1849)] + +Havre is a place of about 25,000 inhabitants, has fine docks, which +are accessible in high tide, and a considerable amount of shipping. +Many of the streets are narrow and crooked, with narrow sidewalks and +in many cases none at all. The houses are stuccoed, and generally +present rather a sombre aspect. Three-fourths of the women we saw in +Havre wore no bonnets, but simply a cap. Some of them were mounted +upon donkeys, with a large market basket swung down each side of the +animal; these of course were the peasants. My attention was attracted +by the large sumpter horses here, which draw singly from eight to ten +bales of cotton, apparently with considerable ease. + +On the day after we arrived at Havre we ascended the hill which rises +at one extremity of the city. The various little winding pathways up +the hill, have on each side massive stone walls, with now and then a +gateway leading to a private residence almost buried in a thicket of +shrubbery and flowers. Upon the hill are situated some most delightful +and elegant mansions, with grounds beautifully ornamented with shade +trees, shrubbery, flowers and handsome walks. These salubrious +retreats have a double charm when compared with the thronged, narrow, +and noisy streets of the city below. Beyond these _Villas_ were fields +of grass and grain undivided by fences, with here and there a farm +house surrounded by a clump of trees. + +In Havre we found delightful cherries and strawberries, as well as a +variety of vegetables; the oysters and fish here though in abundance +are of rather an inferior quality, the oysters are very small and of a +decided copperish taste. At breakfast, which we took at any hour in +the morning that we thought proper, we ordered such articles as suited +our fancy, generally however a cup of coffee, a beef steak, eggs, an +omelet or something of this sort. We dined about five in the evening +upon soups, a variety of meats and vegetables, well prepared, and a +dessert of strawberries and other fruits, nuts, etc. The meats and +vegetables were not placed upon the table, but each dish was passed +around separately--the table being cleared and clean plates placed +for each course. We were compelled to eat slowly or wait for some +time upon others. + +This would not suit one of our western men who is for doing everything +in a minute, but the plan certainly has its advantages--one, of +promoting digestion by giving time for the mastication of the food, and +another, of no small moment for an epicure, that of having things fresh +from the oven. My own objection to the plan was, that I never knew how +much of an article to eat, as I did not know what would next be +introduced. Such an objection fails, of course, in many of the hotels +where the bill of fare is stereotyped, and where with more precision +than an almanac-maker you can foretell every change that will take place +during the ensuing year. Our table was well supplied with wine, which is +used as regularly at dinner as milk by our Kentucky farmers. When our +bill was made out, each item was charged separately, so much for +breakfast, mentioning what it consisted of--so much for dinner--so much +per day for a room, so much for each candle we used, and so on. A French +landlord in making out your bill goes decidedly into minutiae. + + + + +THEODORE O'HARA + + +Theodore O'Hara, author of the greatest martial elegy in American +literature, was born at Danville, Kentucky, February 11, 1820. He was +the son of Kane O'Hara, an Irish political exile, and a noted educator +in his day and generation. O'Hara's boyhood days were spent at +Danville, but his family settled at Frankfort when he was a young man. +He was fitted for college by his father, and his preparation was so +far advanced that he was enabled to join the senior class of St. +Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic institution at Bardstown, Kentucky. +Upon his graduation O'Hara was offered the chair of Greek, but he +declined it in order to study law. In 1845 he held a position in the +United States Treasury department at Washington; and a few years +later he proved himself a gallant soldier upon battlefields in Mexico, +being brevetted major for meritorious service. After the war O'Hara +practiced law at Washington for some time; and he went to Cuba with +the Lopez expedition of 1850. After his return to the United States he +edited the Mobile, Alabama, _Register_ for a time; and he was later +editor of the Frankfort, Kentucky, _Yeoman_. O'Hara was a public +speaker of great ability, and his address upon William Taylor Barry, +the Kentucky statesman and diplomat, is one of the climaxes of +Southern oratory. During the Civil War he was colonel of the twelfth +Alabama regiment. After the war Colonel O'Hara went to Columbus, +Georgia, and became a cotton broker. He died near Guerrytown, Alabama, +June 6, 1867. Seven years later his dust was returned to Kentucky, and +re-interred in the State cemetery at Frankfort. If collected Colonel +O'Hara's poems, addresses, political and literary essays, and +editorials would make an imposing volume. His real fame rests upon his +famous martial elegy, _The Bivouac of the Dead_, which he wrote at +Frankfort in the summer of 1847, to remember young Henry Clay, Colonel +McKee, Captain Willis, and the other brave fellows who fell in the war +with Mexico. When their remains were returned to Frankfort and buried +in the cemetery on the hill, Colonel O'Hara, their old companion in +arms, wrote his stately in memoriam for them. He did not read it over +them, as Ranck and the others have written, but he did publish it in +_The Kentucky Yeoman_, a Democratic paper of Frankfort. _The Bivouac +of the Dead_ is the greatest single poem ever written by a Kentucky +hand, is matchless, superb, and is read in the remotest corners of the +world. Its opening lines have been cut deep within memorial shafts in +many military cemeteries. Colonel O'Hara sleeps to-day on the outer +circle of his comrades, one with them in death as in life, with the +lofty military monument, which Kentucky has erected to commemorate her +sons slain in the battles of the republic, casting its long shadows +across his grave. His elegy in honor of Daniel Boone was written at +the "old pioneer's" grave in the Frankfort cemetery before his now +much-mutilated monument was erected. It was originally printed in _The +Kentucky Yeoman_ for December 19, 1850. Two other poems purporting to +be his have been discovered, but there must be others sealed over and +forgotten in the scattered and broken files of Southern newspapers and +periodicals. So the poet has come down to us, like he who wrote _The +Burial of Sir John Moore_, with one slender sheaf under his arm. But +it is enough, enough for both of them. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. George W. Ranck's little books: _O'Hara and His + Elegies_ (Baltimore, 1875); _The Bivouac of the Dead and Its + Author_ (1898; 1909); Daniel E. O'Sullivan's paper in _The + Southern Bivouac_ (Louisville, January, 1887); Robert Burns + Wilson's fine tribute in _The Century Magazine_ (May, 1890). The + late Mrs. Susan B. Dixon, the Henderson historian, left a MS. life + of O'Hara that is to be issued shortly. + + +THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD + + [From _O'Hara and His Elegies_, by George W. Ranck (Baltimore, + 1875)] + + The muffled drum's sad roll has beat + The soldier's last tattoo; + No more on life's parade shall meet + The brave and daring few. + On Fame's eternal camping-ground + Their silent tents are spread, + And Glory guards with solemn round + The bivouac of the dead. + + No answer of the foe's advance + Now swells upon the wind; + No troubled thought at midnight haunts + Of loved ones left behind; + No vision of the morrow's strife + The warrior's dream alarms; + No braying horn nor screaming fife + At dawn shall call to arms. + + Their shivered swords are red with rust; + Their plumed heads are bowed; + Their haughty banner, trailed in dust, + Is now their martial shroud; + And plenteous funeral-tears have washed + The red stains from each brow, + And their proud forms, in battle gashed, + Are free from anguish now. + + The neighing steed, the flashing blade, + The trumpet's stirring blast; + The charge, the dreadful cannonade, + The din and shout, are past; + No war's wild note, nor glory's peal, + Shall thrill with fierce delight + Those breasts that nevermore shall feel + The rapture of the fight. + + Like the dread northern hurricane + That sweeps his broad plateau, + Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, + Came down the serried foe.[9] + Our heroes felt the shock, and leapt + To meet them on the plain; + And long the pitying sky hath wept + Above our gallant slain. + + Sons of our consecrated ground + Ye must not slumber there, + Where stranger steps and tongues resound + Along the headless air. + Your own proud land's heroic soil + Shall be your fitter grave: + She claims from war his richest spoil-- + The ashes of her brave. + + So 'neath their parent turf they rest; + Far from the gory field; + Borne to a Spartan mother's breast + On many a bloody shield. + The sunshine of their native sky + Smiles sadly on them here, + And kindred hearts and eyes watch by + The heroes' sepulchre. + + Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! + Dear as the blood you gave, + No impious footsteps here shall tread + The herbage of your grave; + Nor shall your glory be forgot + While fame her record keeps, + Or honor points the hallowed spot + Where valor proudly sleeps. + + Yon marble minstrel's voiceless tone + In deathless songs shall tell, + When many a vanquished age hath flown, + The story how ye fell. + Nor wreck, nor change, or winter's blight, + Nor time's remorseless doom, + Shall dim one ray of holy light + That gilds your glorious tomb. + + +THE OLD PIONEER + + [From the same] + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Knight-errant of the wood! + Calmly beneath the green sod here + He rests from field and flood; + The war-whoop and the panther's screams + No more his soul shall rouse, + For well the aged hunter dreams + Beside his good old spouse. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Hushed now his rifle's peal; + The dews of many a vanish'd year + Are on his rusted steel; + His horn and pouch lie mouldering + Upon the cabin-door; + The elk rests by the salted spring, + Nor flees the fierce wild boar. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Old Druid of the West! + His offering was the fleet wild deer, + His shrine the mountain's crest. + Within his wildwood temple's space + An empire's towers nod, + Where erst, alone of all his race, + He knelt to Nature's God. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Columbus of the land! + Who guided freedom's proud career + Beyond the conquer'd strand; + And gave her pilgrim sons a home + No monarch's step profanes, + Free as the chainless winds that roam + Upon its boundless plains. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + The muffled drum resound! + A warrior is slumb'ring here + Beneath his battle-ground. + For not alone with beast of prey + The bloody strife he waged, + Foremost where'er the deadly fray + Of savage combat raged. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + A dirge for his old spouse! + For her who blest his forest cheer, + And kept his birchen house. + Now soundly by her chieftain may + The brave old dame sleep on, + The red man's step is far away, + The wolf's dread howl is gone. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + His pilgrimage is done; + He hunts no more the grizzly bear + About the setting sun. + Weary at last of chase and life, + He laid him here to rest, + Nor recks he now what sport or strife + Would tempt him further west. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + The patriarch of his tribe! + He sleeps--no pompous pile marks where, + No lines his deeds describe. + They raised no stone above him here, + Nor carved his deathless name-- + An empire is his sepulchre, + His epitaph is Fame. + + +SECOND LOVE + + [From _The Southern Bivouac_ (Louisville, Kentucky, January, + 1887)] + + Thou art not my first love, + I loved before we met, + And the memory of that early dream + Will linger round me yet; + But thou, thou art my last love, + The truest and the best. + My heart but shed its early leaves + To give thee all the rest. + + +A ROLLICKING RHYME + + [From the same] + + I'd lie for her, + I'd sigh for her, + I'd drink the river dry for her-- + But d----d if I would die for her. + + +THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY + + [From _Obituary Addresses_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1855)] + +On his accession to the Presidency, General Jackson--with that +discerning appreciation of the most available ability and worth in his +party which characterized him--called Mr. Barry into his cabinet to +the position of Postmaster General. Here, as one of the most +distinguished of the council of Jackson, during the greater part of +his incumbency, he is entitled to his full share of the fame of that +glorious administration. His health, however, failing him under the +wasting labors of the toilsome department over which he presided, he +was forced to relinquish it before the administration terminated; and +General Jackson, unwilling entirely to lose the benefit of his able +services, appointed him, in 1835, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy +Extraordinary to Spain, a post in which, while its dignity did not +disparage his civil rank, it was hoped that the lightness of the +duties, and the influence of a genial climate, might serve to renovate +his impaired health. But it was otherwise ordained above. He had +reached Liverpool on the way to his mission, when the great conqueror, +at whose summons the strongest manhood, the noblest virtue, the +proudest genius, and the brightest wisdom must surrender, arrested his +earthly career on the 30th of August, 1835; and here is all that is +left to us of the patriot, the orator, the hero, the statesman, the +sage--the rest belongs to Heaven and to fame. + +Such, fellow-citizens, is a most cursory and feeble memento of the +life and public services of the illustrious man in whose memory +Kentucky has decreed the solemn honors of this day. It is well for her +that she has felt "the late remorse of love," and reclaimed these +precious ashes to her heart, after they have slumbered so many years +unsepultured in a foreign land; that no guilty consciousness of +unworthy neglect may weigh upon her spirit, and depress her proud +front with shame; that no reproaching echo of that eloquent voice that +once so sweetly thrilled her, pealing back upon her soul amidst her +prideful recollections of the past, may appal her in her feast of +memory, and blast her revel of glory; that no avenging muse, standing +among the shrines of her departed greatness, and searching in vain for +that which should mark her remembrance of one she should so devoutly +hallow, shall have reason to sing of her as she has sung: + + "Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar; + And Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore." + +Here, beneath the sunshine of the land he loved, and amid the scenes +which he consecrated with his genius, he will sleep well. Sadly, yet +proudly will his fond foster-mother receive within her bosom to-day +this cherished remnant of the child she nursed for fame; doubly +endeared to her, as he expired far away in a stranger land, beyond the +reach of her maternal embrace, and with no kindred eyes to light the +gathering darkness of death, no friendly hand to soften his descent to +the grave, no pious orisons to speed his spirit on its long journey +through eternity. Gently, reverently let us lay him in this proud +tabernacle, where he will dwell embalmed in glory till the last trump +shall reveal him to us all radiant with the halo of his life. Let the +Autumn's wind harp on the dropping leaves her softest requiem over +him; let the Winter's purest snows rest spotless on his grave; let +Spring entwine her brightest garland for his tomb, and Summer gild it +with her mildest sunshine. Here let the marble minstrel rise to sing +to the future generations of the Commonwealth the inspiring lay of his +high genius and his lofty deeds. Here let the patriot repair when +doubts and dangers may encompass him, and he would learn the path of +duty and of safety--an oracle will inhabit these sacred graves, whose +responses will replenish him with wisdom, and point him the way to +virtuous renown. Let the ingenuous youth who pants for the glories of +the forum, and "the applause of listening Senates," come hither to +tune his soul by those immortal echoes that will forever breathe about +this spot and make its silence vocal with eloquence. And here, too, +let the soldier of liberty come, when the insolent invader may profane +the sanctuary of freedom--here by this holy altar may he fitly devote +to the infernal gods the enemies of this country and of liberty. + +We will now leave our departed patriot to his sleep of glory. And let +no tear moisten the turf that shall wrap his ashes. Let no sound of +mourning disturb the majestic solitude of his grand repose. He claims +no tribute of sorrow. His body returns to its mother earth, his +spirit dwells in the Elysian domain of God, and his deeds are written +on the roll of Fame. + + "Let none dare mourn for him." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] Some versions show the following stanzas at this point: + + Who heard the thunder of the fray + Break o'er the field beneath, + Knew well the watchword of that day + Was "Victory or Death." + + Long had the doubtful conflict raged + O'er all that stricken plain, + For never fiercer fight had waged + The vengeful blood of Spain; + And still the storm of battle blew, + Still swelled the gory tide; + Not long, our stout old chieftain[10] knew, + Such odds his strength could bide. + + 'Twas in that hour his stern command + Called to a martyr's grave + The flower of his beloved land, + The nation's flag to save. + By rivers of their fathers' gore + His first-born laurels grew, + And well he deemed the sons would pour + Their lives for glory too. + + Full many a norther's breath has swept + O'er Angostura's plain,[11] + And long the pitying sky has wept + Above its mouldered slain. + The raven's scream, or eagle's flight, + Or shepherd's pensive lay, + Alone awakes each sullen height + That frowned o'er that dread fray. + + Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground, + Ye must not slumber there, et cetera. + +[10] Gen. Zachary Taylor. + +[11] Near Buena Vista. + + + + +SARAH T. BOLTON + + +Mrs. Sarah Tittle Bolton, author of _Paddle Your Own Canoe_, was born +at Newport, Kentucky, in 1820. When she was about three years old, her +father removed to Indiana, settling first in Jennings county, but +later moving on to Madison. When a young woman, she contributed poems +to the Madison newspaper which attracted the editor, Nathaniel Bolton, +so strongly that he married the author. They moved to Indianapolis, +and Mrs. Bolton soon gained a wide reputation as a poet. Her ode sung +at the laying of the corner-stone of the Masonic Temple, in 1850, won +her a loving cup from the Masons of Hoosierdom. Two years later her +poem in honor of the hero of Hungary, Louis Kossuth, increased her +fame. In 1855 Mr. Bolton was appointed consul to Geneva, Switzerland, +and his wife accompanied him to his post. They remained in Switzerland +for three years, during which time Mrs. Bolton acted as correspondent +for the Cincinnati _Commercial_. In 1858 she and her husband returned +to Indianapolis, in which city he died some months later. Her _Poems_ +(New York, 1856) brought her newspaper and periodical verse together; +and a complete collection, with a notice of her life, was published at +Indianapolis in 1886. Mrs. Bolton was Indiana's foremost female singer +for many years. She died at Indianapolis in 1893. Of her many poems +_Paddle Your Own Canoe_ is the best known, although _Left on the +Battlefield_ is admired by many of her readers. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); _The Hoosiers_, by Meredith Nicholson + (New York, 1900). + + +PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + Voyager upon life's sea, + To yourself be true, + And where'er your lot may be, + Paddle your own canoe. + Never, though the winds may rave, + Falter nor look back; + But upon the darkest wave + Leave a shining track. + + Nobly dare the wildest storm, + Stem the hardest gale, + Brave of heart and strong of arm, + You will never fail. + When the world is cold and dark, + Keep an aim in view; + And toward the beacon-mark + Paddle your own canoe. + + Every wave that bears you on + To the silent shore, + From its sunny source has gone + To return no more. + Then let not an hour's delay + Cheat you of your due; + But, while it is called to-day, + Paddle your own canoe. + + If your birth denies you wealth, + Lofty state and power, + Honest fame and hardy health + Are a better dower. + But if these will not suffice, + Golden gain pursue; + And to gain the glittering prize, + Paddle your own canoe. + + Would you wrest the wreath of fame + From the hand of fate? + Would you write a deathless name + With the good and great? + Would you bless your fellow-men? + Heart and soul imbue + With the holy task, and then + Paddle your own canoe. + + Would you crush the tyrant wrong, + In the world's free fight? + With a spirit brave and strong, + Battle for the right. + And to break the chains that bind + The many to the few-- + To enfranchise slavish mind-- + Paddle your own canoe. + + Nothing great is lightly won, + Nothing won is lost; + Every good deed, nobly done, + Will repay the cost. + Leave to Heaven, in humble trust, + All you will to do; + But if you succeed, you must + Paddle your own canoe. + + + + +JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE + + +John Cabell Breckinridge, the youngest of the American +vice-presidents, distinguished as a public speaker, was born near +Lexington, Kentucky, January 21, 1821. He was educated at Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, and then studied law at Transylvania +University. Breckinridge lived at Burlington, Iowa, for a year, when +he returned to Lexington, Kentucky, to practice law. He served in the +Mexican War, and was afterwards a member of Congress. In 1856, when he +was about thirty-five years of age, he was elected vice-president of +the United States, with James Buchanan as president. In 1860 +Breckinridge was the candidate of the Southern slaveholders for the +presidency, but Abraham Lincoln received 180 electoral votes to his +72, Kentucky failing to support him. He took his seat in the United +States Senate in March, 1861, as the successor of John J. Crittenden, +and he at once became the champion of the Southern Confederacy in that +body. He was expelled from the Senate on December 4, 1861, on which +occasion he delivered his farewell address. Breckinridge then went +South. He was appointed a major-general, and he saw service at Shiloh, +Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Nashville, and in several other great +battles. From January to April, 1865, General Breckinridge was +Jefferson Davis's secretary of war. When the Confederacy surrendered, +he made his escape to Europe, where he remained for three years, when +he returned to Lexington and to his law practice. General Breckinridge +died at Lexington, Kentucky, May 17, 1875. Ten years later an imposing +statue was erected to his memory on Cheapside, Lexington. He was a man +of most attractive personality, an eloquent orator, a capable +advocate, a brave soldier, an honest public servant, the greatest +member of the house of Breckinridge. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Library of Oratory_ (New York, 1902, v. x); J. + C. S. Blackburn's oration upon Breckinridge; _McClure's Magazine_ + (January, 1901). For many years Col. J. Stoddard Johnston has been + engaged upon a life of Breckinridge. + + +HENRY CLAY + + [From _Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. + Henry Clay_ (Washington, 1852)] + +Imperishably associated as his name has been for fifty years with +every great event affecting the fortunes of our country, it is +difficult to realize that he is indeed gone forever. It is difficult +to feel that we shall see no more his noble form within these +walls--that we shall hear no more his patriot tones, now rousing his +countrymen to vindicate their rights against a foreign foe, now +imploring them to preserve concord among themselves. We shall see him +no more. The memory and fruits of his services alone remain to us. +Amidst the general gloom, the Capitol itself looks desolate, as if the +genius of the place had departed. Already the intelligence has reached +almost every quarter of the Republic, and a great people mourn with us +to-day, the death of their most illustrious citizen. Sympathizing as +we do deeply with his family and friends, yet private affliction is +absorbed in the general sorrow. The spectacle of a whole community +lamenting the loss of a great man, is far more touching than any +manifestation of private grief. In speaking of a loss which is +national, I will not attempt to describe the universal burst of grief +with which Kentucky will receive these tidings. The attempt would be +vain to depict the gloom that will cover her people, when they know +that the pillar of fire is removed, which has guided their footsteps +for the life of a generation. + + * * * * * + +The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the abiding fame +which surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. The entire +absence of equivocation or disguise, in all his acts, was his +master-key to the popular heart; for while the people will forgive the +errors of a bold and open nature, he sins past forgiveness who +deliberately deceives them. Hence Mr. Clay, though often defeated in +his measures of policy, always secured the respect of his opponents +without losing the confidence of his friends. He never paltered in a +double cause. The country was never in doubt as to his opinions or his +purposes. In all the contests of his time, his position on great +public questions was as clear as the sun in a cloudless sky. Sir, +standing by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, +how contemptible does appear the mere legerdemain of politics! What a +reproach is his life on that false policy which would trifle with a +great and upright people! If I were to write his epitaph, I would +inscribe, as the highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his +resting-place, "Here lies a man who was in the public service for +fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his countrymen." + +While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, they +may take courage from his career, and note the high proof it affords +that, under our equal institutions, the avenues of honour are open to +all. Mr. Clay rose by the force of his own genius, unaided by power, +patronage, or wealth. At an age when our young men are usually +advanced to the higher schools of learning, provided only with the +rudiments of an English education, he turned his steps to the West, +and amid the rude collisions of a border-life, matured a character +whose highest exhibitions were destined to mark eras in his country's +history. Beginning on the frontiers of American civilization, the +orphan boy, supported only by the consciousness of his own powers, and +by the confidence of the people, surmounted all the barriers of +adverse fortune, and won a glorious name in the annals of his country. +Let the generous youth, fired with honorable ambition, remember that +the American system of government offers on every hand bounties to +merit. If, like Clay, orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress +him; yet if, like Clay, he feels the Promethean spark within, let him +remember that his country, like a generous mother, extends her arms to +welcome and to cherish every one of her children whose genius and +worth may promote her prosperity or increase her renown. + +Mr. Speaker, the signs of woe around us, and the general voice announce +that another great man has fallen. Our consolation is that he was not +taken in the vigour of his manhood, but sank into the grave at the close +of a long and illustrious career. The great statesmen who have filled +the largest space in the public eye, one by one are passing away. Of the +three great leaders of the Senate, one alone remains, and he must +follow soon. We shall witness no more their intellectual struggles in +the American Forum; but the monuments of their genius will be cherished +as the common property of the people, and their names will continue to +confer dignity and renown upon their country. + +Not less illustrious than the greatest of these will be the name of +Clay--a name pronounced with pride by Americans in every quarter of +the globe; a name to be remembered while history shall record the +struggles of modern Greece for freedom, or the spirit of liberty burn +in the South American bosom; a living and immortal name--a name that +would descend to posterity without the aid of letters, borne by +tradition from generation to generation. Every memorial of such a man +will possess a meaning and a value to his countrymen. His tomb will be +a hallowed spot. Great memories will cluster there, and his +countrymen, as they visit it, may well exclaim-- + + "Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, + Shrines to no creed or code confined; + The Delphian vales, the Palestines, + The Meccas of the mind." + + + + +JAMES WEIR, Sr. + + +James Weir, Senior, an early Kentucky romancer, was born at +Greenville, Kentucky, June 16, 1821. He was the son of James Weir, a +Scotch-Irish merchant and quasi-author. He was graduated from Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1840, and later studied law at +Transylvania University. He engaged in the practice of law at +Owensboro, Kentucky--first known as the Yellow Banks--and on March 1, +1842, he was married to Susan C. Green, daughter of Judge John C. +Green of Danville. Weir wrote a trilogy of novels which do not deserve +the obscurity into which they have fallen. They were called _Lonz +Powers, or the Regulators_ (Philadelphia, 1850, two vols.); _Simon +Kenton, or the Scout's Revenge_ (Philadelphia, 1852); and _The Winter +Lodge, or Vow Fulfilled_ (Philadelphia, 1854). All of these romances +were thrown upon historical backgrounds, and they created much +favorable criticism at the time of their publication. Weir wrote +numerous sketches and verses, but these were his only published books. +Business, bar sufficient to all literary labors, pressed hard upon +him, and he practically abandoned literature. In 1869 he was elected +president of the Owensboro and Russellville railroad; and for nearly +forty years he was president of the Deposit bank at Owensboro. Weir +died at Owensboro, Kentucky, January 31, 1906. His son, Dr. James +Weir, Junior, was an author of considerable reputation. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); letters of Mr. Paul Weir to the Author. + + +SIMON KENTON + + [From _Simon Kenton; or, The Scout's Revenge_ (Philadelphia, + 1852)] + +By the side of the Sergeant [Duffe, in whose North Carolina home the +tale opens] sat a stout, powerfully framed, and wild-looking being, +whose visage, though none of the whitest (for it was very +unfashionably sunburnt), betokened an Anglo-Saxon; whilst his dress +and equipments went far to proclaim him a savage; and, had it not been +for his language (though none of the purest), it would have been +somewhat difficult to settle upon his race! In a court of justice, +especially in the South, where color is considered _prima facie_ +evidence of slavery, we wouldn't have given much for his chance of +freedom. Simon Kenton, or Sharp-Eye, for such were the titles given +him by his parents, and by his border companions, and he answered +readily to them both, in his dress and appearance, presented a +striking picture of the daring half savage characters everywhere to be +found at that day (and, indeed, at the present time) upon our extreme +western frontier. A contemporary of Boone, and one of the most +skillful and determined scouts of Kentucky, or the "Cane-Land," as it +was then sometimes called, Kenton's dress, composed of a flowing +hunting-shirt of tanned buckskin, with pants, or rather leggins, of +the same material--a broad belt, buckled tight around his waist, +supporting a tomahawk and hunting-knife--a gay pair of worked +moccasins, with a capacious shot-pouch swung around his neck and +ornamented with long tufts of black hair, resembling very much, as in +truth they were, the scalp-locks of the western Indian, gave him a +decidedly savage appearance, and declared at once his very recent +return from a dangerous life upon the frontier. He had been a +fellow-soldier of Duffe during the Revolution; but, after the war, +being of an adventurous and daring disposition, had wandered out West, +where he had already become famous in the many bloody border frays +between the savage and early settler, and was considered second, in +skill and cool bravery, to no scout of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." +On a visit to the Old States, as they were called at that period to +distinguish them from the more recent settlements in the West, Kenton +was sojourning, for the time, with his old friend and companion in +arms, not without a hope that, by his glowing descriptions of the +flowing savannas beyond the Blue Ridge, and of the wild freedom of a +frontier life, he might induce the latter to bear him company upon his +return to Kentucky. Six feet two inches in his moccasins, with a +well-knit sinewy frame to match his great height, and with a broad, +full, and open face, tanned and swarthy, it is true, yet pleasant and +bright, with a quiet, good-humored smile and lighted up by a deep-blue +eye, and with heavy masses of auburn hair, and whiskers sweeping +carelessly around and about his countenance, Kenton exhibited in his +person, as he sat before the fire of the Sergeant, a splendid specimen +of the genuine borderer, and no wonder the Indian brave trembled at +the redoubted name of Sharp-Eye, and instinctively shrank from a +contest with so formidable a foe. Although, now surrounded by friends, +and in the house of an old comrade, the scout, as was natural with him +from long custom, still held grasped in his ready hand the barrel of +his trusty rifle, from which he never parted, not even when he slept, +and, at the same time, kept his ears wide awake to all suspicious +sounds, as if yet in the land of the enemy, and momentarily expecting +the wild yell of his accustomed foe. Notwithstanding he was well +skilled in every species of woodcraft, an adept at following the trail +of the wild beasts of the forest, and familiar with all the cunning +tricks of the wily savage; yet, strange as it may appear, he was the +most credulous of men, and as simple as a child in what is generally +termed the "ways of the world," or, in other words, the tortuous +windings of policy and hypocrisy, so often met with under the garb of +civilization. Indeed, it has been said of him "that his confidence in +man, and his credulity were such that the same man might cheat him +twenty times; and, if he professed friendship, he might cheat him +still!" At the feet of the scout lay the inseparable companion of all +his journeyings, his dog; and Bang, for such was the name of this +prime favorite, was as rough a specimen of the canine species as his +master's countenance was of the face divine! But Bang was, +nevertheless, a very knowing dog, and, ever and anon, now as his +master became excited in his descriptions of western scenes and +adventures, he would raise his head and look intelligently at the +narrator, and so wisely did he wag his shaggy tail, that more than +once the warm-hearted hunter, breaking off suddenly in his narrative, +would pat his trusty comrade upon the head, and swear, with a hearty +emphasis, "that Bang knew all about it!" + + + + +MARY E. W. BETTS + + +Mrs. Mary E. Wilson Betts, the author of a single lyric which has +preserved her name, was born at Maysville, Kentucky, in January, 1824. +Miss Wilson was educated in the schools of her native town, and, on +July 10, 1854, she was married to Morgan L. Betts, editor of the +_Detroit Times_. She died at Maysville two months later, or on +September 19, 1854, of congestion of the brain, believed to have been +caused by the great gunpowder explosion near Maysville on August 13, +1854. Mrs. Betts's husband died in the following October. While she +wrote many poems, her brief tribute to Col. William Logan Crittenden, +kinsman of John J. Crittenden, who was a member of Lopez's +filibustering expedition to Cuba, in 1850, has preserved her name for +the present generation. Colonel Crittenden was captured by the Cubans, +shot, and his brains beaten out. Before the shots were fired he was +requested to kneel, but he made his now famous reply: "A Kentuckian +kneels to none except his God, and always dies facing his enemy!" +When, in her far-away Kentucky home, Mrs. Betts learned of +Crittenden's fate, she wrote her tribute to the memory of the gallant +son of Kentucky, which was first printed in the _Maysville Flag_. The +editor introduced the little poem thus: "The lines which follow are +from one of Kentucky's most gifted daughters of song. Upon gentler +themes the tones of her lyre have oft been heard to breathe their +music. To sing to the warrior, its cords have ne'er been strung till +now; the tragic death, and last eloquent words of the gallant +Crittenden, have caused this tribute to his memory." This poem has +been republished many times and in various forms. During the +Spanish-American war in 1898 it was often seen in print as being +typical of the courage of the soldiers of this country. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lopez's Expeditions to Cuba_, by A. C. Quisenberry + (Louisville, 1906); _Kentuckians in History and Literature_, by J. + W. Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD! + + [From _The Maysville Flag_] + + Ah! tyrants, forge your chains at will-- + Nay! gall this flesh of mine: + Yet, thought is free, unfettered still, + And will not yield to thine! + Take, take the life that Heaven gave, + And let my heart's blood stain thy sod; + But know ye not Kentucky's brave + Will kneel to none but God! + + You've quenched fair freedom's sunny light, + Her music tones have stilled, + And with a deep and darkened blight, + The trusting heart has filled! + Then do you think that I will kneel + Where such as you have trod? + Nay! point your cold and threatening steel-- + I'll kneel to none but God! + + As summer breezes lightly rest + Upon a quiet river, + And gently on its sleeping breast + The moonbeams softly quiver-- + Sweet thoughts of home light up my brow + When goaded with the rod; + Yet, these cannot unman me now-- + I'll kneel to none but God! + + And tho' a sad and mournful tone + Is coldly sweeping by; + And dreams of bliss forever flown + Have dimmed with tears mine eye-- + Yet, mine's a heart unyielding still-- + Heap on my breast the clod; + I'll kneel to none but God! + My soaring spirit scorns thy will-- + + + + +REUBEN T. DURRETT + + +Reuben Thomas Durrett, founder of the Filson Club and editor of its +publications, was born near Eminence, Kentucky, January 22, 1824. He was +graduated from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1849. The +following year he began the practice of law at Louisville, and for the +next thirty years he was one of the leaders of the Louisville bar. He +was editor of the _Louisville Courier_ from 1857 to 1859, and +throughout his long life he has been a contributor of historical essays +to the Louisville press. Colonel Durrett was imprisoned for his Southern +sympathies during the Civil War, and for this reason he saw little +service. In 1871 he founded the Public Library of Louisville; and in +1884 he organized the now well-known Filson Club, which meets monthly in +his magnificent library--the greatest collection of Kentuckiana in the +world. While his library has never been catalogued, he must possess at +least thirty thousand books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and newspaper +files. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Dr. Robert M. McElroy, and many other +historical investigators have made important "finds" in Colonel +Durrett's library. He has one of the six extant copies of the first +edition of John Filson's _History of Kentucke_; and he has the copy of +Dean Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, which Neely, the pioneer, read to +Daniel Boone on Lulbegrub Creek, near Winchester, Kentucky, in 1770, as +they sat around the evening camp fire. The Filson club was founded to +increase the interest then taken in historical subjects in Kentucky, and +to issue an annual publication. That this purpose has been well carried +out may be seen by the twenty-six handsome and valuable monographs which +have appeared.[12] The Club's first book was Colonel Durrett's _The +Life and Writings of John Filson, the first historian of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1884). This work brought Filson into world-wide notice and +revived an interest in his precious little history. _An Historical +Sketch of St. Paul's Church, Louisville_ (Louisville, 1889); _The +Centenary of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1892); _The Centenary of Louisville_ +(Louisville, 1893); _Bryant's Station_ (Louisville, 1897); and +_Traditions of the Earliest Visits of Foreigners to North America_ +(Louisville, 1908), all of which are Filson Club publications, comprise +Colonel Durrett's work in book form. This distinguished gentleman and +writer resides at Louisville, where he keeps the open door for any who +would come and partake of the wisdom of himself and of his books. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Memorial History of Louisville_, by J. S. Johnston + (Chicago, 1896); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, + v. iv). + + +LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE[13] + + [From _The Centenary of Louisville_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1893)] + +In the year 1808, while digging the foundation of the great flouring +mill of the Tarascons in that part of Louisville known as +Shippingport, it became necessary to remove a large sycamore tree, the +trunk of which was six feet in diameter, and the roots of which +penetrated the earth for forty feet around. Under the center of the +trunk of this tree was found an iron hatchet, which was so guarded by +the base and roots that no human hand could have placed it there +after the tree grew. It must have occupied the spot where it was found +when the tree began to grow. The hatchet was made by bending a flat +bar of iron around a cylinder until the two ends met, and then welding +them together and hammering them to a cutting edge, leaving a round +hole at the bend for a handle. The annulations of this tree were two +hundred in number, thus showing it to be two hundred years old +according to the then mode of computation. Here was a find which +proved to be a never-ending puzzle to the early scientists of the +Falls of the Ohio. The annulations of this tree made it two hundred +years old, and so fixed the date earlier than any white man or user of +iron was known to have been at the falls. One thought that Moscoso, +the successor of De Soto, in his wanderings up the Mississippi and +Missouri rivers, might have entered the Ohio and left the hatchet +there in 1542; another, that it might have come from the Spaniards who +settled St. Augustine in 1565; another, that the Spaniards who went up +the Ohio in 1669 in search of silver might have left it where it was +found; and another, that Marquette, when he discovered the Upper +Mississippi in 1673, or La Salle, when he sailed down to its mouth in +1682, might have given the hatchet to an Indian, who left it at the +Falls. But from these reasonable conjectures their learning and +imagination soon led these savants into the wildest theories and +conjectures. One thought that the Northmen, whom the Sagas of +Sturleson made discoverers of America in the eleventh century, had +brought the hatchet to this country; another, that Prince Madoc, who +left a principality in Wales in the twelfth century for a home in the +western wilderness, might have brought it here; and another, that it +might have been brought here by those ancient Europeans whom Diodorus +and Pausanius and other classical writers assure us were in +communication with this country in ancient times. One of these learned +ethnologists finally went so far as to advance the theory of the +Egyptian priests, as related by Plato, that the autochthons of our +race brought it here before the Island of Atlantis, lying between +Europe and America, went down in the ocean and cut off all further +communication between the continents. + +This hatchet, however, really furnished no occasion for such strained +conjectures and wild speculations. If the sycamore under which it was +found was two hundred years old, as indicated by its annulations, it +must have begun to grow about the time that Jamestown in Virginia and +Quebec in Canada were founded. It would have been no unreasonable act +for an Indian or white man to have brought this hatchet from the English +on the James, or from the French on the St. Lawrence, to the Falls of +the Ohio in 1608, just two hundred years before it was discovered by +removing the tree that grew over it. The known habit of the sycamore, +however, to make more than one annulation in years particularly +favorable to growth suggests that two hundred annulations do not +necessarily mean that many years. If we allow about fifty per cent of +the life of the tree to have been during years exceptionally favorable +to its growth, and assign double annulations to these favorable years, +we shall have this tree to have made its two hundred annulations in +about one hundred and thirty-nine years, and to have sprung from its +seed and to have begun its growth about the year 1669 or 1670, when La +Salle, the great French explorer, is believed to have been at the Falls +of the Ohio. We have no account of any one at the Falls in 1608, or +about this time, to support the conjecture that it might have come from +Jamestown or Quebec; but we have La Salle at this place in 1669 or 1670, +and it is not unreasonable that he should have left it here at that +time. In this sense the old rusty hatchet, which is fortunately +preserved, becomes interesting to us all for its connection with the +discovery of Louisville. It is a souvenir of the first white man who +ever saw the Falls of the Ohio. It is a memento of Robert Cavalier de La +Salle, the discoverer of the site of the city of Louisville. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] A complete list of the club's publications is: _John Filson_, by +R. T. Durrett (1884); _The Wilderness Road_, by Thomas Speed (1886); +_The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. H. Perrin (1888); _Life and +Times of Judge Caleb Wallace_, by W. H. Whitsitt (1888); _An +Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church_, by R. T. Durrett (1889); _The +Political Beginnings of Kentucky_, by J. M. Brown (1889); _The +Centenary of Kentucky_, by R. T. Durrett (1892); _The Centenary of +Louisville_, by R. T. Durrett (1893); _The Political Club of Danville, +Kentucky_, by Thomas Speed (1894); _The Life and Writings of +Rafinesque_, by R. E. Call (1895); _Transylvania University_, by Dr. +Robert Peter (1896); _Bryant's Station_, by R. T. Durrett (1897); _The +First Explorations of Kentucky_, by J. S. Johnston (1898); _The Clay +Family_, by Z. F. Smith and Mrs. Mary R. Clay (1899); _The Battle of +Tippecanoe_, by Alfred Pirtle (1900); _Boonesborough_, by G. W. Ranck +(1901); _The Old Masters of the Bluegrass_, by S. W. Price (1902); +_The Battle of the Thames_, by B. H. Young (1903); _The Battle of New +Orleans_, by Z. F. Smith (1904); _History of the Medical Department of +Transylvania University_, by Dr. Robert Peter (1905); _Lopez's +Expeditions to Cuba_, by A. C. Quisenberry (1906); _The Quest for a +Lost Race_, by Dr. T. E. Pickett (1907); _Traditions of the Earliest +Visits of Foreigners to North America_, by R. T. Durrett (1908); +_Sketches of Two Distinguished Kentuckians_, by J. W. Townsend and S. +W. Price (1909); _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_, by B. H. Young +(1910); _The Kentucky Mountains_, by Miss Mary Verhoeff (1911). No +publication was issued in 1912. + +[13] Copyright, 1893, by the Filson Club. + + + + +RICHARD H. COLLINS + + +Richard Henry Collins, whom Mr. James Lane Allen has happily +christened "the Kentucky Froissart," was born at Maysville, Kentucky, +May 4, 1824, over the office of _The Eagle_. He was the son of Lewis +Collins (1797-1870), who published a history of Kentucky in 1847. +Richard H. Collins was a Cincinnati lawyer for eleven years, but he +lived many years at Maysville, where he edited the old _Eagle_, which +his father had made famous. In 1861 he founded the _Danville Review_; +and in 1874 he published a "revised, enlarged four-fold, and brought +down to the year 1874" edition, in two enormous volumes, of his +father's history of Kentucky. Unquestionably this is a work of +tremendous importance, the most magnificent and elaborate history of +this or any other State yet compiled. Traveling the whole State over, +obtaining contributions from each town's ablest writer, and then +building them upon his father's fine foundation, Collins was able to +publish an almost invaluable work. To-day his history of Kentucky, +though it certainly contains many errors of various kinds and degrees, +is the greatest mine of our State's history which all must explore if +they would be informed of our people's past. Dean Shaler and all later +Kentucky historical writers have taken pleasure in paying tribute to +his work. The one mistake that Collins made, which might have been +easily avoided, was to put his manuscripts together in such a manner +that the authorship of the various papers cannot be determined; but in +this he followed his father's methods; and for this reason the writer +has been compelled to reproduce the prefaces of both books, rather +than portions of the actual text, for fear he may use matter prepared +by a contributor. Collins practiced law in different Kentucky towns, +wrote for newspapers and magazines, and spent a very busy and rather +active life. He died at the home of his daughter at Maryville, +Missouri, on New Year's Day of 1888. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + 1892); _The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky_, by James Lane Allen + (New York, 1892). + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + [From _History of Kentucky_ (Covington, Kentucky, 1882, v. ii)] + +Twenty-seven years, 1847 to 1874, have elapsed since _Collins's +History of Kentucky_ quietly and modestly claimed recognition among +the standard local histories in the great American republic. That has +been an eventful period. Death, too, has been busy with the names in +the Preface above--has claimed alike the author and compiler, Judge +Lewis Collins, and about one hundred and fifty more of the honored and +substantial names who contributed information or other aid towards +preserving what was then unwritten of the history of the State. The +author of the present edition (now nearly fifty years of age) is the +youngest of the forty-two contributors who are still living; while +several of them are over eighty and one is over ninety-two years of +age. Time has dealt gently with them; fame has followed some, and +fortune others; a few have achieved both fame and fortune, while a +smaller few lay claim to neither. + +It is not often, as in this case, that the mantle of duty as a +state-historian falls from the father to the son's shoulders. It has +been faithfully and conscientiously worn; how well and ably, let the +disinterested and unprejudiced judge. + +The present edition had its origin in this: When Judge Collins died, the +Legislature of Kentucky was in session. As its testimonial and +appreciation of his services and character, this resolution was +unanimously adopted, and on March 21, 1870, approved by Gov. Stevenson: + +"_Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_: + +"That we have heard with deep regret of the death of Judge Lewis +Collins, of Maysville, Kentucky, which has occurred since the meeting +of this General Assembly. He was a native Kentuckian of great purity +of character and enlarged public spirit; associated for half a century +with the press of the State, which he adorned with his patriotism, his +elevated morals, and his enlightened judgment. He was the author of a +_History of Kentucky_, evidencing extended research, and which +embodies in a permanent form the history of each county in the State, +and the lives of its distinguished citizens, and is an invaluable +contribution to the literature and historical knowledge of the State. +His name being thus perpetually identified with that of his native +State, this General Assembly, from a sense of duty and regard for his +memory, expresses this testimonial of its appreciation of his +irreproachable character and valued services." + +This touching, and tender, and noble tribute to the departed author +and editor, was but the culmination of a sympathy broader than the +State, for it was echoed and sent back by many citizens from a +distance. He had lived to some purpose. It was no small comfort to his +family, to know that their bereavement was regarded as a public +bereavement; and that his name and works would live on, and be green +in the memory of the good people of Kentucky--the place of his birth, +the home of his manhood, the scene of his life's labors, his grave. In +a spontaneous tribute of praise and sympathy, the entire newspaper +press of the State, and many in other States, announced his decease. + + * * * * * + +That action of the State, and those generous outpourings of sympathy and +regard, started fresh inquiries for the work that had made him best +known--_Collins's History of Kentucky_. It had been _out of print_ for +more than twenty years! It was known that I had been associated with my +father as an editor, and then his successor, and had assisted him with +his _History_. Hence, many applications and inquiries for the book were +made to me; always with the suggestion that I ought to prepare a new +edition, enlarged, and bring down to the present the history of the +State. It was an important undertaking--as delicate as important. I +shrank from the great responsibility, and declined. But the urgency +continued, for the necessity of a State history was felt. The great +State of Kentucky, the mother of statesmen and heroes, the advance guard +of civilization west of the great Appalachian chain, had no published +_History_ of the last twenty-six years; and no _History_ at all in book +form, _now accessible_ to more than a few thousand of the intelligent +minds among her million-and-a-third of inhabitants. The duty of +preparing this _History_ sought _me_, and not I _it_. It has been a task +of tremendous labor, extending through the long weary months of nearly +four years. But it has been a sweet and a proud task, and the _destiny_ +that seemed driving me on is almost fulfilled. I wish I could know the +verdict of the future upon my labors, but that is impossible. The +carping and noisy fault-finding of the dissatisfied and ungenerous few +are far from being pleasant; but the consciousness of duty done, with an +honest heart, and the praise of the liberal ones who will appreciate the +work, will be a noble and a proud satisfaction, and a joy ceasing only +with my life. + +[Then follow three pages of names of persons whom he thanks for +assistance.] + + + + +ANNIE C. KETCHUM + + +Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, poet, naturalist, and novelist, was born +near Georgetown, Kentucky, November 8, 1824, the daughter of Benjamin +Stuart Chambers, founder of Cardome Academy; her mother was a member +of the famous Bradford family of journalists. Miss Chambers was +graduated from Georgetown Female College with the M. A. degree. Her +first husband was William Bradford, whom she married in 1844, and from +whom she was subsequently divorced. After her separation from her +husband, she went to Memphis, Tennessee, and opened a school for +girls, which she conducted for several years. In 1858 she was married +to Leonidas Ketchum, a Tennessean, who was mortally wounded at the +battle of Shiloh in 1863. After her husband's death, Mrs. Ketchum +returned to Kentucky and conducted a school at Georgetown for three +years, but, in 1866, she returned to Memphis, where she again taught +for a number of years. Mrs. Ketchum spent the winter of 1875 at +Paris, France, pursuing her literary work, and on May 24, 1876, she +entered upon the novitiate in a convent there. She afterwards returned +to America and her last years were spent in Kentucky. Mrs. Ketchum +died in 1904. Her first literary work to attract attention was a +novel, entitled _Nellie Bracken_ (Philadelphia, 1855). From 1859 to +1861 Mrs. Ketchum was editor of _The Lotus_, a monthly magazine +published at Memphis. _Benny: A Christmas Ballad_ (New York, 1869) was +the first of her poems to attract any considerable attention; and her +best known poem, _Semper Fidelis_, originally published in _Harper's +Magazine_ for October, 1873, is a long, leisurely thing that makes one +wonder at its once wide popularity. All of her poems Mrs. Ketchum +brought together in _Lotus Flowers_ (New York, 1878). _Lotus_ was her +shibboleth, and she never missed an opportunity to make use of it. She +made many translations from Latin, German, and French writers, her +finest work in this field being _Marcella, a Russian Idyl_ (New York, +1878). _The Teacher's Empire_ (1886) was a collection of educational +essays contributed to various journals. Mrs. Ketchum's _Botany for +Academies and Colleges_ (Philadelphia, 1887), was a text-book in many +institutions for several years subsequent to its publication. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1887, v. iii); B. O. Gaines's _History of Scott County, + Kentucky_ (1905, v. ii). + + +APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH + + [From _The Southern Poems of the War_, edited by Emily V. Mason + (Baltimore, 1867)] + + Dreams of a stately land, + Where roses and lotus open to the sun, + Where green ravine and misty mountains stand, + By lordly valor won. + + Dreams of the earnest-browed + And eagle-eyed, who late with banners bright, + Rode forth in knightly errantry, to do + Devoir for God and right. + + Shoulder to shoulder, see + The crowning columns file through pass and glen! + Hear the shrill bugle! List the rolling drum, + Mustering the gallant men! + + Resolute, year by year, + They keep at bay the cohorts of the world; + Hemmed in, yet trusting in the Lord of Hosts, + The cross is still unfurled. + + Patient, heroic, true, + And counting tens where hundreds stood at first; + Dauntless for truth, they dare the sabre's edge, + The bombshell's deadly burst. + + While we, with hearts made brave + By their proud manhood, work, and watch, and pray, + Till, conquering fate, we greet with smiles and tears + The conquering ranks of grey! + + Oh, God of dreams and sleep, + Dreamless they sleep--'tis we, the sleepless, dream, + Defend us while our vigil dark we keep, + Which knows no morning beam! + + Bloom, gentle spring-tide flowers-- + Sing, gentle winds, above each holy grave, + While we, the women of a desolate land, + Weep for the true and brave. + +Memphis, Tennessee. + + + + +FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD + + +Francis Henry Underwood, "the editor who was never the editor" of _The +Atlantic Monthly_, though he was indeed the projector and first +associate editor of that famous magazine, was born at Enfield, +Massachusetts, January 12, 1825, the son of Roswell Underwood. He +spent the year of 1843-1844 at Amherst College, and in the summer of +1844 he came out to Kentucky and settled at Bowling Green as a school +teacher. Underwood read law at Bowling Green and was admitted to the +bar of that town in 1847. On May 18, 1848, he was married to Louisa +Maria Wood, of Taylorsville, Kentucky, to whom he afterwards dedicated +his Kentucky novel. While in Kentucky Underwood wrote verses which he +submitted to N. P. Willis, who was then at Washington. The celebrated +critic wrote him: "Your poetry is as good as Byron's was at the same +stage of progress--correct, and evidently inspired, and capable of +expansion into stuff for fame." None of it, however, has come down to +us. Underwood's intense hatred of slavery caused him to quit Kentucky, +in 1850, after having lived for six years in this State, and to return +to Massachusetts, where he was admitted to the bar of Northampton. He +enlisted in the Free-soil movement with heart and soul. In 1852 he was +clerk of the Massachusetts Senate, which position he left to become +literary adviser for the then leading publishers of New England, +Phillips, Sampson and Company. In 1853 Underwood conceived the idea of +a Free-soil literary magazine, but a publisher's failure delayed its +appearance. In November, 1857, however, the first issue of _The +Atlantic Monthly_ appeared, Dr. Holmes having christened the "baby," +with James Russell Lowell as editor-in-chief, and Underwood as +assistant editor. Lowell and Underwood were great friends and they +worked together with pleasure and harmony. For two years they were the +editors, when the breaking up of the firm of Phillips, Sampson and +Company, and the passing of the periodical into the hands of Ticknor +and Fields, caused Underwood to resign. From 1859 to 1870 he was clerk +of the Superior Criminal Court of Boston; and from 1861 to 1875 he was +a member of the Boston School Committee. Underwood's first three works +were a _Handbook of English Literature_ (Boston, 1871); _Handbook of +American Literature_ (Boston, 1872); and _Cloud Pictures_ (Boston, +1872), a group of musical stories. Then came his Kentucky novel, +entitled _Lord of Himself_ (Boston, 1874), which was really a series +of pictures of life at Bowling Green in 1844. This tale was well +received by the Kentucky press and public, the background and +characters were declared realistic, and the author's effort to make +something pathetic out of the old system of slavery was smiled at and +dismissed in the general pleasure his story gave. In his imaginary +Kentucky county of Barry, Underwood had a merry time rehabilitating +the past. The character of Arthur Howard is the author himself. _Lord +of Himself_ is a work of high merit, and it does not deserve the +oblivion into which it has fallen. In 1880 Underwood's second novel, +_Man Proposes_, was published, together with his _The True Story of +Exodus_. Two years later his biographies of Longfellow and Lowell were +issued; and in 1883 his study of Whittier was published. In 1885 +President Cleveland named Underwood United States Consul at Glasgow; +and three years later the University of Glasgow granted him LL.D. +During Cleveland's second administration Underwood was consul at +Edinburgh. While in Scotland he wrote his last two novels, called +_Quabbin_ (Boston, 1892), and _Dr. Gray's Quest_. In _Quabbin_ he +described his native town of Enfield in much the same manner that he +had years before written of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Underwood died at +Edinburgh, August 8, 1894. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Catalogue of Amherst College_; _The + Author of "Quabbin,"_ by J. T. Trowbridge (_Atlantic Monthly_, + January, 1895); _The Editor who was Never the Editor_, by Bliss + Perry (_Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1907). Mr. Perry's paper is + especially notable for the great number of letters reproduced + which Underwood received from the celebrities of his time. + + +ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON + + [From _Lord of Himself_ (Boston, 1874)] + +It was at this juncture that the youth of many locks and ample Byronic +shirt collar appeared on the scene. Aloysius Pittsinger was his name. +He was a consolation. His very name, Aloysius, had a sweet gurgle in +the sound, resembling the anticipatory and involuntary noises from +children's mouths at the sight of sugar lollipops. He was a clerk in +Mr. Goldstein's store. There he dispensed tobacco, both fine-cut and +plug, assorted nails, New Orleans sugar, Rio coffee, Porto Rico +molasses, Gloucester mackerel, together with foreign cloths and +homespun jeans, and all the gimcracks which little negroes coveted and +the swarms of summer flies had spared. + +The appearance of Aloysius happened in this wise. Mr. Fenton was an +early riser, but was loath to go to his shop without his breakfast. On +the fateful morning he had come down rather earlier than usual. After +due search and discussion, it was announced to him that there was +nothing at once appetizing and substantial in the house that could, +within the desired period, be got ready for the table; and his wife +made bold to ask if in this emergency he wouldn't go out and get +something. To a hungry man, in the faint interval after a "nipper" and +before a solid bit, such a proposition is an unpleasant surprise. But, +after devoting the cook and the household generally to immediate pains +and inconveniences, and to something more hereafter, Mr. Fenton put on +his slouched hat and started out. He mused also. + +If I were ambitious of the fame of the great American novelist, or were +contending for the fifty thousand dollar prize offered by the publishers +of the Metropolitan Album, and hoped to have my thrilling descriptions +read by its subscribing army of three hundred and fifty-one thousand +chambermaids, I might paint the current of his swift thought thus: + +"The air bites shrewdly. Ha, by the mass! Shall I to the _abattoir_ +and ask the slayer of oxen for a steak? or a chop from the loin of +sheep, a bell-wether of Kentucky's finest flock--Kentucky, state +renowned for dainty mutton? Or does the slayer of oxen yet sleep, +supinely stertorous, heavy with the lingering fumes of the mighty +Bourbon? Perchance he has no steak, no chop!--all gone to feed an +insatiable people! Bethink me. Ay--and the _abattoir_ is far, though +its perfume is nigh; it is thrice a hundred yards from hence. I will +go to the house of the Israelite, Goldstein, and get a fish--a fish +dear to losel Yankees, and not scorned by the sons of the sun-land +either. 'Tis well. I will make the trial. Haply I shall find that the +young man, Pittsinger, whose prænomen is Aloysius, has arisen, and is +even now combing his ambrosial locks." + +What he _did_ think was something like this: + +"It's doggon cold this mornin'. I wonder whether that derned old +drunken Bill Stone's got ary bit of fresh meat--and if he's up yet. I +don't b'lieve it, for he was drunk's an owl last night at old Red Eye. +Besides, it's fer to the slaughter-house. Le's see. I might get a +mackerel at Goldstein's. I'll do it. B'iled a little, to take the salt +out, and then het with cream, it ain't bad, by a derned sight." + +He walked out to the square, occasionally blowing his cold fingers. The +shutters were not taken down from Goldstein's front windows, but Mr. +Fenton knew that the clerk slept in a little room in a ruinous lean-to +back of the store, and he rattled the door to call him. There was no +answer, nor sound of any one stirring, and he rattled again. His +powerful shake made the square resound. He called, endeavoring to throw +his voice through the key-hole, "Aloysius, ain't you up yit? I want a +mackerel." + +The silence was aggravating, and there were internal qualms that made +Fenton doubly impatient. + +"Aloysius, you lazy bones! Do you hear? I want a mackerel for +breakfast. You're thest the no-countest boy I ever see! If 'twan't for +your father, you'd thest starve." + +Fenton sadly meditated, and was about to give it up, when he heard a +voice within, saying, "Never too late, Mr. Fenton. You shall have your +mackerel. You needn't wait. As soon as I get my clothes on I'll tote +you over one." + + +AN AMAZING PROPHECY + + [From the same] + +"The hardest strain upon the republic is yet to come," said Mr. +Pierrepont. "God only knows how the slavery question is to be settled; +but no change in policy will be adopted without a severe struggle. If +the South is worsted, it will have the terrible problem of the status +of the negroes to solve, and it will be a tumultuous time for a +generation. The danger to the North in the event of success, or of +defeat either, will arise from its wealth. The accumulations at the +commercial centres are to make them enormously rich. Money is a power, +and never a quiescent one. Your rich men will put themselves into +office, or they will send their paid attorneys to legislate for them. +They will so touch the subtle springs of finance as to make every +affair of state serve their personal advantage. They will make +corruption honorable, and bribery a fine art. It is now a mark of +decency and a badge of distinction for a public man to be poor. +Everyone knows that a public man can't be rich honestly; but you will +live to see congressmen going to the capital carrying travelling-bags, +and returning home with wagon loads of trunks, and with stocks and +bonds that will enable them to snap their fingers at constituents." + +"It is the old story of republics," said Mr. Howard. "They are founded +by valor, reared by industry, with frugality and equal laws. Wealth +follows, then corruption, then the public conscience is debauched, +faith is lost, and justice thrust out. Then the general rottenness is +shaken by the coming of a new Cæsar, and an empire is welcomed because +liberty had already been lost, and anything is better than anarchy. +However, let us hope this is far away." + + + + +STEPHEN C. FOSTER + + +Stephen Collins Foster, the celebrated song writer, was born at +Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1826. At the age of fifteen years he +entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, but music had +set its seal upon him and he soon returned to Pittsburgh to pursue it. +The next few years were almost entirely devoted to his musical studies, +though he had a living to make. The year of 1842 found Foster clerking +in a Cincinnati store; and during this time his first song, _Open Thy +Lattice, Love_, was published at Baltimore. _Uncle Ned_, and _O +Susannah!_ followed fast upon his first effort, and the three launched +him upon his career. He relinquished his business cares, and surrendered +his life to song. In 1850 Foster married Jane McDowell of Pittsburgh, +and they lived at New York City for a short time before settling at +Pittsburgh. His _Camptown Races_, and _My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight_, +appeared in 1850. It is surely a regrettable fact that the most famous +Kentucky song was not written by a Kentucky hand. Foster's only child, +Mrs. Marion Foster Welsh, of Pittsburgh, has recently repudiated the +ancient tale that is told of the origin of _My Old Kentucky Home_, but +as she declined to furnish the real history of the song, saying she +would make it known at the proper time, nothing better than the often +repeated story can be told here. Foster was visiting his kinsman, Judge +John Rowan, at his home, "Federal Hill," near Bardstown, Kentucky, and +on this typical Southern plantation, with its negroes and their cabins, +_My Old Kentucky Home_ was written. The story is usually elaborated, but +as it has been set aside by the author's daughter, further comment is +not worth while. It is enough to know that it was written in Kentucky. +Foster went to New York City in 1860, and the same year _Old Black Joe_ +appeared. _Old Folks at Home_, _Nelly was a Lady_, _Nelly Bly_, _Massa's +in the Cold, Cold Ground_, _Old Dog Tray_, _Don't Bet Your Money on the +Shanghai_, _We Are Coming, Father Abraham_, and dozens of other songs +have kept Foster's fame green. His beautiful serenade, _Come Where My +Love Lies Dreaming_, is his highest note in genuine scientific music. +Foster died at New York, January 13, 1864, and he was buried in +Allegheny cemetery, Pittsburgh. In 1906 the Kentucky home-comers never +seemed to tire of _My Old Kentucky Home_, and a fitting memorial was +unveiled at Louisville by Foster's daughter in honor of the song's +maker. It is known and sung in the remotest corners of the world. Mr. +James Lane Allen's fine tribute to the poet's memory may be found in +_The Bride of the Mistletoe_: + +"More than half a century ago the one starved genius of the Shield +[Kentucky], a writer of songs, looked out upon the summer picture of +this land, its meadows and ripening corn tops; and as one presses out +the spirit of an entire vineyard when he bursts a solitary grape upon +his tongue, he, the song writer, drained drop by drop the wine of that +scene into the notes of a single melody. The nation now knows his +song, the world knows it--the only music that has ever captured the +joy and peace of American home life--embodying the very soul of it in +the clear amber of sound." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Atlantic Monthly_ (November, 1867); _Current + Literature_ (September, 1901). Strangely enough no formal + biography of Foster has been written. + + +MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT + + [From _Stephen Collins Foster Statue_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1906, + a pamphlet)] + + The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, + 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay; + The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom, + While the birds make music all the day; + The young folks roll on the little cabin floor, + All merry, all happy, and bright, + By'n-by hard times comes a-knocking at the door, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon, + On the meadow, the hill, and the shore; + They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon, + On the bench by the old cabin door; + The day goes by, like a shadow o'er the heart, + With sorrow, where all was delight; + The time has come when the darkies have to part, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + The head must bow and the back will have to bend, + Wherever the darkey may go; + A few more days and the trouble all will end + In the field where the sugar-cane grows; + A few more days for to tote the weary load-- + No matter, 'twill never be light; + A few more days till we totter on the road, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + + + +ZACHARIAH F. SMITH + + +Zachariah Frederick Smith, the Kentucky historian, was born near +Eminence, Kentucky, January 7, 1827. He was educated at Bacon College, +Harrodsburg, Kentucky. During the Civil War he was president of Henry +College at New Castle, Kentucky. From 1867 to 1871 he was +superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky. Professor Smith was +subsequently interested in various enterprises, and for four years he +was connected with the publishing firm of D. Appleton and Company. For +more than fifty years he was a curator of Transylvania University. His +_History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1885; 1892), is the only exhaustive +and readable history of the Commonwealth from the beginnings down to +the date of its publication. In a sense it is the chronicles of the +Collinses transformed from the encyclopedic to the continuous +narrative form. Professor Smith's other works are: _A School History +of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1889); _Youth's History of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1898); _The Mother of Henry Clay_ (Louisville, 1899); and +_The Battle of New Orleans_ (Louisville, 1904). He spent the final +years of his life upon _The History of the Reformation of the 19th +Century, Inaugurated, Advocated, and Directed by Barton W. Stone, of +Kentucky: 1800-1832_, which was almost ready for publication when he +died. In this work Professor Smith set forth that Barton W. Stone, and +not Alexander Campbell, was the founder of the Christian +("Campbellite") so-called "reformation" in this State, and that its +adherents are "Stoneites," not "Campbellites," as they are called by +the profane. Professor Smith died at Louisville, Kentucky, July 4, +1911, but he was buried at Eminence. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. McElroy + (New York, 1909); _The Register_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, September, + 1911). + + +EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS + + [From _The History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1892)] + +It is probable Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, was the first physician +who ever visited Kentucky. In 1745 he came and negotiated treaties +with the Indian tribes for the establishment of a colony, which was +announced in Washington's journal (1754) as Walker's settlement on the +Cumberland, accompanied by a map, dated 1750. Some time just before +1770, Dr. John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, visited the Falls of the Ohio, +and three years later, in company with Captain Thomas Bullitt, +patented the land on which Louisville now stands. But little is known +of the professional performances of either Walker or Connolly, except +the fact that they were both men of superior intelligence, and of far +more than average cultivation. They were both known as enterprising +business men rather than great practitioners of medicine. In a +_History of the Medical Literature of Kentucky_, Dr. Lunsford P. +Yandell (the elder) says: "The first surgical operation ever performed +in Kentucky by a white man occurred in 1767." Colonel James Smith, in +that year, accompanied by his black servant, Jamie, traveled from the +mouth of the Tennessee river across the country to Carolina, now +Tennessee. On their way, Colonel Smith stepped upon a projecting +fragment of cane, which pierced his foot, and was broken off level +with the skin. Swelling quickly came on, causing the flesh to rise +above the end of the cane. Having no other instruments than a knife, a +moccasin awl, and a pair of bullet-molds, the colonel directed his +servant to seize the piece of cane with the bullet-molds, while he +raised the skin with the awl and cut the flesh away from around the +piece of cane, and, with the assistance of Jamie, the foreign body was +drawn out. Colonel Smith then treated the wound with the bruised bark +from the root of a lind tree, and subsequently by poultices made of +the same material, using the mosses of the old logs in the forest, +which he secured with strips of elm bark, as a dressing. + +Dr. Frederick Ridgely, a favorite pupil of Dr. Rush, was sent from +Philadelphia early in 1779, as a surgeon to a vessel sailing with +letters of marque and reprisal off the coast of Virginia. This vessel +was chased into the Chesapeake Bay by a British man-of-war. As the +ship's colors were struck to the enemy, Dr. Ridgely leaped overboard, +and narrowly escaped capture by swimming two miles to the shore. He +was at once thereafter appointed an officer in the medical department +of the Colonial army. A few months later, he resigned his commission, +and settled, in 1790, at Lexington, where he speedily attained a +leading position as a master of the healing art. From Lexington he was +frequently called, in the capacity of surgeon, to accompany militia in +their expeditions against the Indians. He was appointed +surgeon-general to the army of "Mad Anthony Wayne," returning finally +to Lexington, where he took part in the organization of the first +medical college established in the West. Dr. Ridgely was a frequent +contributor to the _American Medical Repertory_, published at +Philadelphia. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Samuel Brown, also of +Lexington. At the organization of the medical department of +Transylvania University, in 1799, Brown and Ridgely were the first +professors. Ridgely, in that year, delivered a course of lectures to a +small class, and, as the organization of the faculty had not been +completed, no further attempts at teaching were made. Dr. Samuel +Brown, like his colleague, Ridgely, was a surgeon of great ability and +large experience. These two gentlemen added greatly to the growth and +popularity of Lexington by their renown as surgeons. They attracted +patients from the remote settlements on the frontier, and were both +frequent contributors to the medical literature of that time. The +cases reported by these gentlemen were numerous, interesting, +carefully observed, and ably reported. Dr. Brown was a student at the +University of Edinburgh with Hosack, Davidge, Ephraim McDowell, and +Brockenborough, of Virginia. Hosack became famous as a professor in +the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at New York; Davidge laid the +foundation of the University of Maryland; Brown was one of the first +professors in Transylvania University, at Lexington, while McDowell +achieved immortal fame in surgery as the father of ovariotomy. Strong +rivalry in the practice of medicine at Lexington, between Brown and +Ridgely, and Fishback and Pindell, had much to do with the +difficulties attending the efforts of the two former to establish the +medical school. In 1798, Jenner made public his great discovery of the +protective power of vaccination. Dr. Brown, of Lexington, was his +first imitator on this continent. Within three years from the date of +Jenner's first publication, and before the experiment had been tried +elsewhere in this country, Brown had already vaccinated successfully +more than five hundred people at Lexington. + + + + +JOHN A. BROADUS + + +John Albert Broadus, the most distinguished clergyman and writer +Kentucky Baptists have produced, was born near Culpepper, Virginia, +January 24, 1827. At the age of sixteen years Broadus united with the +Baptist church; and he shortly afterwards decided to study for the +ministry of his church. He taught school for a time before going to +the University of Virginia, in 1846, and he was graduated four years +later with the M.A. degree. While at the University Broadus was +greatly impressed by Professors Gessner Harrison, Wm. H. McGuffey, and +E. H. Courtenay. In 1851 Broadus declined a professorship in +Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in order to become assistant +instructor of ancient languages in his _alma mater_ and pastor of the +Charlottesville Baptist church. In 1857 it was decided to establish +the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, South +Carolina, and Broadus, James P. Boyce, Basil Manly, Jr., William +Williams, and E. T. Winkler, were the committee on establishment. +Boyce and Manly urged the curriculum system, but Broadus advocated the +elective system so earnestly that he completely won them over. "So, as +Mr. Jefferson had drawn a new American university, Mr. Broadus drew a +new American seminary." The Seminary opened in 1859 with the members +of the committee, with the exception of Williams, as the professors. +Boyce was elected president, and Broadus occupied the chair of New +Testament Interpretation and Homiletics. Twenty-six students greeted +the faculty; and all were soon hard at work. After a few years, +however, the Civil War came and the Seminary shortly suspended. During +the war Dr. Broadus was a chaplain in the Confederate armies. At the +close of the war work in the Seminary was resumed with seven students +enrolled, Dr. Broadus having but one student in homiletics, and he was +blind! The lectures he prepared for this blind brother were the basis +of the work that made him famous, _The Preparation and Delivery of +Sermons_ (Philadelphia, 1870), which is at the present time the finest +thing on the subject, a text-book in nearly every theological school +in Christendom. Dr. Broadus declined chairs in Chicago and Brown +universities, and the presidency of Vassar College, in order to remain +with the Seminary, the darling of his dreams. In 1873 he read his +notable paper in memory of Gessner Harrison at the University of +Virginia; and the next year he joined Dr. Boyce in Kentucky in the +effort that was then being made to remove the Seminary to Louisville. +His lectures before the Newton Theological Seminary were published as +_The History of Preaching_ (New York, 1876). In 1877 the Seminary was +removed to Louisville, Dr. Boyce remaining as president and Dr. +Broadus as professor of homiletics. From the first the Seminary was a +success, it now being the largest in the United States. In 1879 Dr. +Broadus delivered his noted address upon Demosthenes before Richmond +College, Virginia, which is regarded as one of the very finest efforts +of his life. In Louisville he became the city's first citizen, honored +and beloved by all classes. In 1886 Harvard conferred the degree of +Doctor of Divinity upon him; and later in the same year one of the +most important of his books appeared, _Sermons and Addresses_ +(Baltimore, 1886). This was followed by his famous _Commentary on +Matthew_ (Philadelphia, 1887), which was begun during the darkest days +of the Civil War, and is now considered the best commentary in English +on that Gospel. Dr. Boyce died at Pau, France, in 1888, and Dr. +Broadus succeeded him as president of the Seminary. In January, 1889, +he delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures on _Preaching_ at Yale; and +some months later his _Translation of and Notes to Chrysostom's +Homilies_ (New York, 1889) appeared. In the spring of 1890 Dr. Broadus +delivered three lectures before Johns Hopkins University, which were +published as _Jesus of Nazareth_ (New York, 1890). He spent the summer +of 1892 in Louisville preparing his _Memoir of James P. Boyce_ (New +York, 1893); and _A Harmony of the Gospels_ (New York, 1893), his +final works. Dr. Broadus died at Louisville, Kentucky, March 16, 1895. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life and Letters of John Albert Broadus_, by A. T. + Robertson (Philadelphia, 1900); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, 1909, v. ii). + + +OXFORD UNIVERSITY[14] + + [From _Life and Letters of John A. Broadus_, by A. T. Robertson + (Philadelphia, 1901)] + +We had four and a half hours at Oxford, and spent it with exceeding +great pleasure, and most respectably heavy expense. + +At University College we saw a memorial of Sir Wm. Jones, by Flaxman, +which I am sure I shall never forget--worthy of Sir Wm. and worthy of +Flaxman. At Magdalen College we saw the varied and beautiful grounds, +with the Poet's Walk, where Addison loved to stroll. At New College we +visited the famous and beautiful chapel. (New College is now five +hundred years old.) These are the most remarkable of the nineteen +colleges. You know they are entirely distinct establishments, as much +as if a hundred miles apart, and that the University of Oxford is +simply a general organization which gives degrees to the men prepared +by the different colleges. Then we spent one and a half hours at the +famous Bodleian Library, the most valuable (British Museum has the +largest number of books) in the world. Oh, the books, the books--the +early and rare editions, the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle +Ages, the autographs of famous persons, and the portraits, the +portraits of hundreds of the earth's greatest ones. Happy students, +fellows, professors, who have constant access to the Bodleian Library. + + +SPURGEON + + [From the same] + +I was greatly delighted with Spurgeon, especially with his conduct of +public worship. The congregational singing has often been described, and +is as good as can well be conceived. Spurgeon is an excellent reader of +Scripture, and remarkably impressive in reading hymns, and the prayers +were quite what they ought to have been. The sermon was hardly up to his +average in freshness, but was exceedingly well delivered, without +affectation or apparent effort, but with singular earnestness, and +directness. The whole thing--house, congregation, order, worship, +preaching, was as nearly up to my ideal as I ever expect to see in this +life. Of course Spurgeon has his faults and deficiencies, but he is a +wonderful man. Then he preaches the real gospel, and God blesses him. +After the services concluded, I went to a room in the rear to present my +letter, and was cordially received. Somebody must tell Mrs. V---- that I +"thought of her" repeatedly during the sermon, and "gave her love" to +Spurgeon, and he said such a message encouraged him. (I made quite a +little story of it, and the gentlemen in the room were apparently much +interested, not to say amused.) + +We went straight towards St. Paul's, where Liddon has been preaching +every Sunday afternoon in September, and there would be difficulty in +getting a good seat. We lunched at the Cathedral Hotel, hard by, and +then stood three-quarters of an hour at the door of St. Paul's, +waiting for it to open. Meantime a good crowd had collected behind us, +and there was a tremendous rush when the door opened, to get chairs +near the preaching stand. The crowd looked immense in the vast +cathedral, and yet there were not half as many as were quietly seated +in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. There everybody could hear, and here, in the +grand and beautiful show-place, Mr. Liddon was tearing his throat in +the vain attempt to be heard by all. The grand choral service was all +Chinese to me. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] Copyright, 1901, by the American Baptist Publication Society. + + + + +MARY J. HOLMES + + +Mrs. Mary Jane Holmes, a family favorite for fifty years, was born at +Brookfield, Massachusetts, April 5, 1828. She became a teacher at an +early age, and at Allen's Hill, New York, on August 9, 1849, she was +married to Daniel Holmes, a Yale man of the class of 1848, who had +been teaching the year between his graduation and marriage at +Versailles, Kentucky. Immediately after the ceremony he and his bride +started to Kentucky, where Mrs. Holmes joined her husband in teaching. +In 1850 they gave up the school at Versailles, taking charge of the +district school at Glen's Creek, near Versailles. Here they taught for +two years, when Mr. Holmes decided to relinquish teaching for the +practice of law, and they removed to Brockport, New York, their home +henceforth. Mrs. Holmes returned to Kentucky in 1857, for a visit, and +this, with the three years indicated above, included her Kentucky +life. Having settled at Brockport, she began her career as a novelist. +Her first and best known book, _Tempest and Sunshine, or Life in +Kentucky_, was published in 1854. Mr. Middleton, one of the chief +characters in this novel, was a rather close characterization of a +Kentucky planter, Mr. Singleton, who resided some miles from +Versailles; and his daughter, Sue Singleton, subsequently Mrs. Porter, +always claimed, though facetiously, that she was the original of +_Tempest_. It is now known, however, that Mrs. Holmes had not thought +of her in delineating the character, and that the Singleton home is +the only thing in the book that is drawn from actual life with any +detail whatever. In her Kentucky books that followed _Tempest and +Sunshine_, she usually built an accurate background for characters +that lived only in her imagination. Besides _Tempest and Sunshine_, +Mrs. Holmes was the author of thirty-four books, published in the +order given: _The English Orphans_; _Homestead on the Hillside_, a +book of Kentucky stories; _Lena Rivers_, a Kentucky novel, superior to +_Tempest and Sunshine_; _Meadow Brook_; _Dora Deane_; _Cousin Maude_; +_Marian Grey_, a Kentucky story; _Darkness and Daylight_; _Hugh +Worthington_, another Kentucky novel; _The Cameron Pride_; _Rose +Mather_; _Ethelyn's Mistake_; _Millbank_; _Edna Browning_; _West +Lawn_; _Edith Lyle_; _Mildred_; _Daisy Thornton_; _Forrest House_; +_Chateau D'Or_; _Madeline_; _Queenie Hetherton_; _Christmas Stories_; +_Bessie's Fortune_; _Gretchen_; _Marguerite_; _Dr. Hathern's +Daughters_; _Mrs. Hallam's Companion_; _Paul Ralston_; _The Tracy +Diamonds_; _The Cromptons_; _The Merivale Banks_; _Rena's Experiment_; +and _The Abandoned Farm_. About two million copies of Mrs. Holmes's +books have been sold by her authorized publishers; how many have been +sold in pirated editions cannot, of course, be ascertained. Mrs. +Holmes died at Brockport, New York, October 6, 1907. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Allibone's _Dictionary of Authors_ (Philadelphia, + 1897, v. ii); _The Nation_ (October 10, 1907). + + +THE SCHOOLMASTER + + [From _Lena Rivers_ (New York, 1856)] + +And now Mr. Everett was daily expected. Anna, who had no fondness for +books, greatly dreaded his arrival, thinking within herself how many +pranks she'd play off upon him, provided 'Lena would lend a helping +hand, which she much doubted. John Jr., too, who for a time, at least, +was to be placed under Mr. Everett's instruction, felt in no wise +eager for his arrival, fearing, as he told 'Lena that "between the +'old man' and the tutor, he would be kept a little too straight for a +gentleman of his habits;" and it was with no particular emotions of +pleasure that he and Anna saw the stage stop before the gate one +pleasant morning toward the middle of November. Running to one of the +front windows, Carrie, 'Lena, and Anna watched their new teacher, each +after her own fashion commenting upon his appearance. + +"Ugh," exclaimed Anna, "what a green, boyish looking thing! I reckon +nobody's going to be afraid of him." + +"I say he's real handsome," said Carrie, who being thirteen years of +age, had already, in her own mind, practiced many a little coquetry +upon the stranger. + +"I like him," was 'Lena's brief remark. + +Mr. Everett was a pale, intellectual looking man, scarcely twenty +years of age, and appearing still younger so that Anna was not wholly +wrong when she called him boyish. Still there was in his large black +eye a firmness and decision which bespoke the man strong within him, +and which put to flight all of Anna's preconceived notions of +rebellion. With the utmost composure he returned Mrs. Livingstone's +greeting, and the proud lady half bit her lip with vexation as she saw +how little he seemed awed by her presence. + +Malcolm Everett was not one to acknowledge superiority where there was +none, and though ever polite toward Mrs. Livingstone, there was +something in his manner which forbade her treating him as aught save +an equal. He was not to be trampled down, and for once in her life +Mrs. Livingstone had found a person who would neither cringe to her +nor flatter. The children were not presented to him until dinner time, +when, with the air of a young desperado, John Jr. marched into the +dining-room, eyeing his teacher askance, calculating his strength, and +returning his greeting with a simple nod. Mr. Everett scanned him from +head to foot, and then turned to Carrie half smiling at the great +dignity which she assumed. With Lena and Anna he seemed better +pleased, holding their hands and smiling down upon them through rows +of teeth which Anna pronounced the whitest she had ever seen. + +Mr. Livingstone was not at home, and when his mother appeared, Mrs. +Livingstone did not think proper to introduce her. But if by this +omission she thought to keep the old lady silent, she was mistaken, +for the moment Mrs. Nichols was seated, she commenced with, "Your name +is Everett, I b'lieve?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said he, bowing very gracefully toward her. + +"Any kin to the governor what was?" + +"No, ma'am, none whatever," and the white teeth became slightly +visible for a moment, but soon disappeared. + +"You are from Rockford, 'Lena tells me?" + +"Yes, ma'am. Have you friends there?" + +"Yes--or that is, Nancy Scovandyke's sister, Betsy Scovandyke that +used to be, lives there. Maybe you know her. Her name is Bacon--Betsy +Bacon. She's a widder and keeps boarders." + +"Ah," said he, the teeth this time becoming wholly visible, "I've +heard of Mrs. Bacon, but have not the honor of her acquaintance. You +are from the east, I perceive." + +"Law, now! how did you know that?" asked Mrs. Nichols, while Mr. +Everett answered, "I _guessed_ at it," with a peculiar emphasis on the +word guessed, which led 'Lena to think he had used it purposely and +not from habit. + +Mr. Everett possessed in a remarkable degree the faculty of making +those around him both respect and like him, and ere six weeks had +passed, he had won the love of all his pupils. Even John Jr. was +greatly improved, and Carrie seemed suddenly reawakened into a thirst +for knowledge, deeming no task too long, and no amount of study too +hard, if it won the commendation of the teacher. 'Lena, who committed +to memory with great ease, and who consequently did not deserve so +much credit for her always perfect lessons, seldom received a word of +praise, while poor Anna, notoriously lazy when books were concerned, +cried almost every day, because as she said, "Mr. Everett didn't like +her as he did the rest, else why did he look at her so much, watching +her all the while, and keeping her after school to get her lessons +over, when he knew how she hated them." + +Once Mrs. Livingstone ventured to remonstrate, telling him that Anna +was very sensitive, and required altogether different treatment from +Carrie. "She thinks you dislike her," said she, "and while she retains +this impression, she will do nothing as far as learning is concerned; +so if you do not like her, try and make her think you do!" + +There was a peculiar look in Mr. Everett's dark eyes as he answered, +"You may think it strange, Mrs. Livingstone, but of all my pupils I +love Anna the best! I know I find more fault with her, and am, +perhaps, more severe with her than with the rest, but it's because I +would make her what I wish her to be. Pardon me, madam, but Anna does +not possess the same amount of intellect with her cousin or sister, +but by proper culture she will make a fine, intelligent woman." + +Mrs. Livingstone hardly relished being told that one child was inferior +to the other, but she could not well help herself--Mr. Everett would say +what he pleased--and thus the conference ended. From that time Mr. +Everett was exceedingly kind to Anna, wiping away the tears which +invariably came when told that she must stay with him in the schoolroom +after the rest were gone; then, instead of seating himself in rigid +silence at a distance until her task was learned, he would sit by her +side, occasionally smoothing her long curls and speaking encouragingly +to her as she poured over some hard rule of grammar, or puzzled her +brains with some difficult problem in Colburn. Ere long the result of +all this became manifest. Anna grew fonder of her books, more ready to +learn, and--more willing to be kept after school! + +Ah, little did Mrs. Livingstone think what she was doing when she bade +young Malcolm Everett make her warm-hearted, impulsive daughter +_think_ he liked her! + + + + +ROSA V. JEFFREY + + +Mrs. Rosa Vertner Jeffrey, one of the most beautiful of Kentucky +women, whose personal loveliness has caused some critics to forget she +was a gifted poet, was born at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1828, the +daughter of John Y. Griffith, a writer of considerable reputation in +his day. Her mother died when she was but nine months old, and she was +reared by her aunt. When Rosa was ten years of age her adopted parents +removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where she was educated at the +Episcopal Seminary. In 1845 Miss Vertner--she had taken the name of +her foster parents--was married to Claude M. Johnson, a wealthy +citizen of Lexington, and she at once took her place as a great social +and literary leader. One of her sons, Mr. Claude M. Johnson, was mayor +of Lexington for several years, and he was afterwards in the service +of the United States government. In 1861 Mrs. Johnson's husband died, +and she removed to Rochester, New York, where she resided for two +years, when she was married to Alexander Jeffrey, of Edinburgh, +Scotland, and they returned to Lexington, her home for the remainder +of her life. Mrs. Jeffrey died at Lexington, Kentucky, October 6, +1894, and no woman has yet arisen in Kentucky to take her position as +society's favorite beauty and poet. She began her literary career as a +contributor of verse to Prentice's _Louisville Journal_. Her pen-name +was "Rosa," and under this name her first volume of poems was +published, entitled _Poems, by Rosa_ (Boston, 1857). This was followed +by _Florence Vale_; _Woodburn_, a novel; _Daisy Dare and Baby Power_ +(Philadelphia, 1871), a book of poems; _The Crimson Hand and Other +Poems_ (Philadelphia, 1881), her best known work; and _Marah_ +(Philadelphia, 1884), a novel. Mrs. Jeffrey was also the author of a +five-act comedy, called _Love and Literature_. As a novelist or +playwright she did nothing especially strong, but as a writer of +pleasing poems her place in the literature of Kentucky seems secure. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _The Register_ (Frankfort, January, 1911). + + +A GLOVE + + [From _The Crimson Hand and Other Poems_ (Philadelphia, 1881)] + + In a box of airy trifles--fans, flowers, and ribbons gay-- + I chanced to find a tasselled glove, worn once on the first of + May. + How long ago? Ah me, ah me! twelve years, twelve years today! + Alas! for that beautiful, fragrant time, so far in the past away, + And crowned with sweeter memories than any other May, + Standing alone, in a checkered life--it was my wedding day! + + The passing hours were shod with light, and their glowing sandals + made + Such sunny tracks that they guide me yet through a retrospect of + shade. + Through changes and shadows of twelve long years, down that + love-lit path I stray; + The winters come and the winters go, yet it leads to an endless + May. + No leaves of the autumn have fallen there, and never a flake of + snow + Has chilled the path of those May-day hours that gleam through the + long ago! + + The flowering cherry's wild perfume came stealing, bitter sweet, + From fragrant breezes drifting heaps of blossoms to my feet; + The flowers are dust, but the bees that bore their subtle sweets + away + Dropped golden honey on the path of that beautiful first of May. + And the sweetness clings, for I gather it in wandering back today. + + Twelve years! twelve years!--a long, long life for a little + tasselled glove! + Yet, I treasure it still for his dear sake who clasped with so + much love + The hand that wore, on that festal night, this delicate, dainty + thing-- + His forever! bound to him by the link of a wedding ring! + The glove is soiled and faded now, but the ring is as bright today + As the love that flooded my life with light on that beautiful + first of May. + + +A MEMORY + + [From the same] + + A memory filled my heart last night + With all its youthful glow; + Under the ashes, out of my sight, + I buried it long ago; + I buried it deep, I bade it rest, + And whispered a long "good-by;" + But lo! it has risen--too sweet, too blest + Too cherished a thing to die. + + In the dim, dim past, where the shadows fall, + I left it, but, crowned with light, + A spirit of joy in the banquet-hall, + It haunted my soul last night. + One earnest, tender, passionate glance-- + I cherished it--that was all, + As we drifted on through the mazy dance + To a musical rise and fall. + + It rose with a weird and witching swell, + 'Mid the twinkling of merry feet, + And clasped me close in a wild, strange spell + Of memories bitter-sweet; + Bitter--because they left a sting + And vanished: a lifelong pain; + Sweet--because nothing can ever bring + Such joy to my heart again. + + To me it was nothing, only a waltz; + To the other it meant no wrong; + Men may be cruel--who are not false-- + And women remember too long. + + + + +SALLIE R. FORD + + +Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford, the mother of good _Grace Truman_, was +born at Rochester Springs, near Danville, Kentucky, in 1828. Miss +Rochester was graduated from the female seminary at Georgetown, +Kentucky, in 1849, and six years later she was married to Rev. Samuel +H. Ford (1823-1905), a Baptist preacher and editor of Louisville and +St. Louis. She was her husband's associate in his literary +enterprises, rendering him excellent service at all times. Her last +years were spent at St. Louis, in which city she died in February, +1910, having rounded out more than four score years. Mrs. Ford's +religious novel, _Grace Truman, or Love and Principle_ (New York, +1857) attracted wide attention in its day, and it was reprinted many +times. It was read by thousands of young girls; and ministers +descanted upon it in their sermons. While the work sets forth that the +Baptist road is the only right of way to heaven, and is sentimental to +the core, it is fairly well-written, and it undoubtedly did much good. +A copy of it may be found in almost any collection of Kentucky books. +_Grace Truman_ was followed by _Mary Bunyan_ (New York, 1859); _Morgan +and His Men_ (Mobile, Ala., 1864); _Ernest Quest_ (New York, 1877); +_Evangel Wiseman_ (1907); and Mrs. Ford's final work, published at St. +Louis, _The Life of Rochester Ford, the Successful Christian Lawyer_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _How I Came to Write "Grace Truman: An Appendix_ to + the 1886 edition; Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_ + (Boston, 1905). + + +OUR MINISTER MARRIES + + [From _Grace Truman_ (St. Louis, 1886)] + +May roses fling abroad their rich fragrance on the evening air! May +dews glide noiselessly to the newly awakened earth, and lose +themselves in her fresh, green bosom. A soft May moon steals above the +eastern horizon, and gilds with radiant luster the brow of night. +Gentle May zephyrs from their airy home glide over the earth, kissing +the lips of the rose, and the tender cheek of the hedge-row violet. +Young and tender May leaves whisper to each other tales of love, away, +away, in the dark old forests. + +And other lips than those of the dancing leaves have whispered tales +of love; and mortal ears have heard its sweet low murmurings; and +mortal hearts have felt its thrilling inspiration, until the soul, +fired beneath its ecstatic power, has tasted of bliss which mortal +tongue can never say. + +In the hospitable mansion of Mr. Gray, all is excitement and +expectancy. She to whom their hearts were so closely wedded, the +living, joyous Annie, is tonight to take upon her the marriage vow. +She is to wed the man of her heart's free choice, the object of her +pure unsullied love. She is to stand in the presence of God and many +witnesses, and promise to love and cherish, yea as long as life shall +last, him upon whom she has bestowed her girlhood's fresh full +confidence and affection. + +The house is brilliantly lighted throughout, and everything bears the +testimony of free Kentucky hospitality. 'Tis but the twilight +hour--early, yet the guests are fast assembling. + + * * * * * + +It was a simple yet beautiful and impressive scene--that little group +as it stood, while the aged man of God, in a solemn and touching +manner, united in indissoluble ties the two warm loving hearts before +him. The vailed form of the bride, leaning on the arm of him who was +henceforth to be her earthly stay; the calm dignified form, and +earnest, we might say, almost holy expression of him who was receiving +the precious trust--the bent form, and hoary locks, and tremulous +voice of the minister--all conspired to make the scene one of solemn +beauty and intense interest. + +Congratulations followed, and many were the kisses that pressed the +blushing cheek of the happy bride, who, with her vail thrown back from +her brow and the color playing over her bright face "like moonlight +over streams," looked the very embodiment of grace and loveliness. + +Fannie calmly waited till the excitement was measurably over; and then +approaching her new cousin, leaning on the arm of Mr. Ray, gave them +each a fervent kiss and her warmest wishes for their future happiness. + + * * * * * + +The time passed most delightfully to all present. Mr. and Mrs. Gray +moved about among the guests dispensing pleasure and enjoyment +wherever they went. But the bride and bridegroom were the chief +attraction; she, with her naturally exuberant spirits, heightened by +the excitement of the occasion, and yet tempered by her husband's +dignified cheerfulness; and he, with his fine conversational powers +and affable manner, drew around them an admiring crowd wherever they +were. The young ladies and gentlemen promenaded and chatted gayly, +while the more elderly ones grouped themselves together in different +parts of the room for the purpose of social conversation. + + * * * * * + +Supper was served in liberal, handsome style; and Mr. and Mrs. Gray, +assisted by Mr. and Mrs. Truman, attended to the wants of their guests +in the most obliging and attentive manner. And when the hour arrived +for the company to disperse to their respective homes, each one went +away happy in the thoughts of having passed a most agreeable hour. + +Mr. and Mrs. Gray accompanied their daughter to Weston the day after +the wedding, when they met with a most welcome reception from Mr. and +Mrs. Holmes, who had provided an evening entertainment for the bridal +party, and had called together many of their friends. + +They remained several days, during which time they saw their daughter +nicely and comfortably ensconced in a neat little brick cottage, +situated in a very pleasant part of the village, and which was +henceforth called "The Parsonage." + +Annie, or, we should rather say, Mrs. Lewis, united with the little +church of which her husband was now the almost idolized pastor, on the +Saturday after her marriage. It had been so arranged by Mr. Lewis that +they should be married on Tuesday previous to their church meeting, +that she might thus soon cast her lot among his people. She was +welcomed with warm hearts and affectionate greeting; and when, on the +following morning, her husband led her down into the stream, where but +a few months before he had followed Christ in baptism, they received +her from the liquid grave, a member of the household of faith, a +laborer with them in the vineyard of the Lord. + + + + +JOHN E. HATCHER + + +Col. John E. Hatcher ("G. Washington Bricks"), a newspaper humorist +who won wide fame in his day and generation, but who is now quite +sealed over and forgotten, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in +1828. When a boy his parents emigrated to Tennessee. At the age of +twenty years Hatcher became editor of _The American Democrat_ at +Florence, Alabama; and in 1852 he purchased _The Mirror_, a paper +which General Zollicoffer had established at Columbia, Tennessee. Some +time later Hatcher disposed of that property, and accepted a position +on the _Nashville Patriot_. He was fast gaining a reputation for his +humorous sketches, paragraphs, and rhymes, which were floating through +many Southern newspapers under his pen-name of "G. Washington Bricks." +Hatcher relinquished the pen for the sword when the Civil War began, +becoming an officer on the staff of General Cheatham. After the war, +or in 1867, Colonel Hatcher settled at Louisville, Kentucky, joining +the staff of Prentice's then fast-expiring _Journal_. When, in the +following year, the _Journal_ was united with the _Courier_, he became +editor of the _Daily Democrat_; and when that paper was consolidated +with the other two to make _The Courier-Journal_, he became one of the +editors of the new paper, and continued to write for it so long as he +lived. For a short time he did some special work for a Louisville +publication known as _The Evening Express_, conducted by Mr. Overton. +A few years before his death Colonel Hatcher returned to his old home +at Columbia, Tennessee, and founded _The Mail_; but he became "outside +editor" of _The Courier-Journal_, laying down his pen for that paper +only with his death, which occurred at Columbia, Tennessee, March 26, +1879. Consumption caused his demise and robbed Southern journalism of +one of its finest minds. Colonel Hatcher married Miss Lizzie +McKnight, daughter of a prosperous merchant at Iuka, Mississippi, and +the early death of their only child, a daughter, coupled with +consumption, hastened his own death. As an editorial paragraphist +Colonel Hatcher has never had a peer in Kentucky or the South. +Prentice, the father of the paragraph, was a wit; Hatcher was a +humorist; and his writings were often credited to Prentice by those +who were not acquainted with the inner workings of the office. Henry +Watterson has written this fine tribute to Colonel Hatcher's memory: + +He was one of the silent singers of the press, but he lacked nothing +of eminence except good fortune; for he was a humorist of the very +first water, and had he lived under different conditions could not +have failed of the celebrity to which his talents entitled him. Born +not merely poor, but far inland, with no early advantages, and later +in life with none except those furnished by a rural newspaper; ill +health overtook him before he had divined his own powers.... His wit +was not so aggressive as that of Mr. Prentice. But he had more humor. +He died in the prime of life and left behind him a professional +tradition, which is cherished by the little circle of friends to whom +a charming personality and many brilliant gifts made him very dear. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (March 27, 1879); _Oddities of + Southern Life_, by Henry Watterson (Boston, 1882). + + +NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS + + [From _The Courier-Journal_] + +Garters with monogram clasps are now worn by the pretty girls. They +are rather a novelty yet, but we hope to see more of them. + +"The New York _Telegraph_ advises people to marry for love and not for +money." Good advice, certainly; but inasmuch as you will always be in +want of money if you marry for love, and always in want of love if you +marry for money, your safest way is to marry for a little of both. + +Some of our contemporaries will persist in speaking of us as a +"rebel." That we fought for the stars and bars with a heroism of which +Marathon, Leuctra, and Thermopylae never even dreamed, the bones of +half-a-dozen substitutes which lie bleeding upon as many "stormy +heights and carnage covered fields" bear testimony abundant and +indisputable, and that we suffer ourselves still to be called a +"rebel" without unsheathing the avenging dagger and wading up to our +knees in gore, is simply because there is already as much blood upon +the hands of our substitutes as we can furnish soap to wash off +without becoming a bankrupt. Nevertheless, if this thing is much +longer persisted in, there may come a time when virtue will cease to +be a forebearance. One more taste of blood, this sanguinary arm once +more uplifted to smite, and the world will shudder. + +General Grant says he won't call an extra session of Congress unless +the war in Europe is likely to give us trouble. So he is determined +that if the gods bring us one calamity, he will immediately step +forward with another. + +For list of candidates see first page.--_Banner_. For the candidates +themselves--but you needn't trouble yourself to see them; they'll see +you. + +The French General Failly, who was killed by a Prussian shell, and was +afterward murdered by his own soldiers, and subsequently blew out his +own brains, is now a prisoner at Mayence--whether dead or alive, the +telegraph does not inform us. + +The Glasgow _Times_ tells of a man in Georgia, fifty years of age, who +never in his life drank a glass of whiskey, smoked a pipe, or courted +a woman. The poor wretch has lived utterly in vain. The man who has +never sat by a beautiful woman, with a pipe in his mouth, a glass of +whiskey in one hand, and the whalebones of her palpitating stays in +the other, and "with a lip unused to the cool breath of reason, told +his love," has no more idea of Paradise than a deaf and dumb +orang-outang has of metaphysics. Even without the pipe and whiskey +there is, strictly speaking, nothing disagreeable about it. + +The United States navy has but one Admiral Poor. We wish we could say +it has but one poor admiral. + + + + +WILLIAM C. WATTS + + +William Courtney Watts, author of a single historical novel which is +regarded by many as the finest work of its kind yet done by a Kentucky +hand, was born at Salem, Kentucky, February 7, 1830. His family has no +record of his school days, but he was married to Miss Nannie Ferguson +when a young man, and six children were born to them. Watts's early +years were spent at Salem and Smithland, Kentucky, but he later went +to New Orleans as a clerk in the firm of Givens, Watts and Company, +cotton brokers. He shortly afterwards joined the New York branch of +this New Orleans house, known as Watts, Crowe and Company, as a +partner in the business; and from New York Watts went to Liverpool, +England, to represent the firm of W. C. Watts and Company, which was +the foreign title for the New Orleans and New York houses. For some +years the business was very prosperous, and Watts, of course, shared +largely in the firm's success. After the usual congratulatory messages +between England and the United States had been exchanged, Watts is +said to have sent the first cablegram across the Atlantic. After many +years of prosperity, failure overtook the house of Watts, and he +returned to New York, setting up in business with a Mr. Slaughter. +Some time subsequently he came back to Kentucky, making his home in +Smithland, but rheumatism ruined his health, causing lameness, and +making him an invalid for the remainder of his life. In Smithland, +during days of illness, Watts wrote his splendid story, _The +Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement_ (New York, 1897). This novel of +early Kentucky life is one of the most charming and delightful tales +ever told by an American author, although founded upon fact and, in a +sense, twice-told. _The Chronicles_ is the only book Watts wrote, and +he has come down to posterity with this single story in his feeble +hand. The preface, signed on the sixty-seventh anniversary of his +birth, was done but ten months before his death, which occurred at +Smithland, Kentucky December 27, 1897. He is buried in the cemetery of +the little Kentucky town over which he cast the glamour of romance, +almost unknown to its citizen of this day, and still unappreciated and +unheralded by Kentuckians. His _Chronicles_ is known only to the +student and collector, as it was never properly put before the public, +though published by a powerful New York firm. His family knows little +of his life and is quite careless of his fame. In years to come the +_Chronicles_ may take high rank among the finest series of historical +pictures ever penned of a single Southern settlement, and then William +Courtney Watts will come into his very own. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (December 28, 1897); letter + from Watts's daughter to the author. + + +A WEDDING AND A DANCE[15] + + [From _Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement_ (New York, 1897)] + +A few weeks after the race there was a grand wedding, and, this time, +Squire Howard united in holy matrimony Jefferson Brantley and Emily +Wilmot, the ceremony taking place at the residence of the bride's +father. Joseph Adair and Horace Benton were the groomsmen, and Laura +Howard and Ada Howard the bridesmaids. A young lady from Princeton was +to have been one of the bridesmaids, but illness prevented her +attendance, and Ada Howard took her place. The residence of Mr. Wilmot +was too small to admit of dancing, but the company present had a merry +time--the fun and frolic being kept up until a late hour. It was then +the custom to "give" (hold) the infare at the residence of the groom's +parents or some other near relative, but, as Mr. Brantley had no +relatives in the county, his infare was held at the Brick Hotel in +Salem, and great were the preparations made on the occasion--never had +such an elegant and sumptuous table been spread in those "parts"; there +were meats of many sorts, including barbacued pigs, and cakes, +pastries, fruits, nuts, and wines and liquors in abundance. Silas Holman +and Billy Wilmot were never in better trim, and their fiddles seemed the +fountain of such ecstatic sounds as to set the nerves of old as well as +young tingling with a pleasurable excitement which could only find its +true expression in the quick and graceful movements of the dance. And +dancing there was, and such dancing! There was Bird McCoy, who could +"cut the double shuffle,"--spring into the air, strike his feet together +thrice before lighting, and not lose step to the music. And among the +young ladies--many of them country girls whose lives in the open air +made them as active as squirrels and as graceful as fawns--were many +good dancers, but it was conceded that among them all the slight, +sylph-like Ada Howard was the best--"the pick of the flock." And the +mirth and fun grew "fast and furious," and the "dancers quick and +quicker flew." Nor did the fun and frolic cease until faint streaks of +light in the East heralded the coming morn. They almost literally + + "Danced all night 'til broad daylight, + And went home with the girls in the morning." + +And yet, be it said that, while there was a good deal of drinking that +night, there was no drunkenness, rowdyism, unseemly behavior, or +ungentlemanly conversation; for woe to the young man who at such a +time and place, when ladies were present, had violated the recognized +rules of decorum! + +It is certain, however, that several young persons came very near that +night being "fiddled out of the church." There was one gay, +good-humored, hearty country girl who, when "churched" for dancing +that night, admitted that she was "on the floor with the so-called +dancers"; that she had a "partner," and took part in the movements; +but, she contended, that inasmuch as she had not _crossed her feet_, +she had violated no rule of the church. "What," she asked, "if I walk +forward and backward and turn and bow _without_ music, is that +dancing? And if I do the same when there _is_ music, does that make it +dancing?" And the good old brethren, who were sitting in judgment, +after mature deliberation, came to the conclusion that they were not +"cl'ar on the p'int 'bout crossin' the feet." "And," said one, "if we +err, let it be on the side o' marcy." "Yes," replied another, "but let +the young sister understand that she must n't do it ag'in." And so the +matter was settled. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] Copyright, 1897, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. + + + + +J. PROCTOR KNOTT + + +James Proctor Knott, he who made Duluth famous, was born at Lebanon, +Kentucky, August 29, 1830. In 1851 he became a Missouri lawyer, and +later a member of the Missouri legislature. For a time he was +attorney-general of the state but, refusing to take certain test oaths +prescribed for officials, his office was declared vacant and he +returned to Lebanon, his birthplace. In 1866 Knott was sent to the +lower house of Congress, and he was re-elected two years later. On +January 27, 1871, he delivered his celebrated Duluth speech upon the +St. Croix and Superior land grant, which effort brought him a national +reputation as an orator and humorist, but which injured him as a +constructive statesman--if he ever was or could be such a statesman! +Knott was in Congress again from 1875 until 1883, when he was elected +governor of Kentucky. Governor Knott was not an overly forceful +executive, but the people enjoyed his witty stories and speeches, and +thus his term wore on and out. It was an era of good feeling, +Kentuckians smiling and taking their governor good naturedly at all +times. His brief eulogy to remember James Francis Leonard, the +Kentucky telegrapher, was the finest literary thing he did while +governor of Kentucky. The governor was dean of the law faculty of +Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, from 1894 to 1901, when, old age +coming on, he returned to his home at Lebanon, where the final years +of his life were passed, and where he died on June 18, 1911. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY: _Oddities in Southern Life and Character_, by Henry + Watterson (Boston, 1883); _The Life of James Francis Leonard_, by + J. W. Townsend (Louisville, 1909). + + +FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH + + [From _Oddities in Southern Life and Character_, edited by Henry + Watterson (Boston, 1883)] + +Hence, as I have said, sir, I was utterly at a loss to determine where +the terminus of this great and indispensable road should be, until I +accidentally overheard some gentleman the other day mention the name of +"Duluth." [Great laughter.] Duluth! The word fell upon my ear with +peculiar and indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of a low +fountain stealing forth in the midst of roses, or the soft, sweet +accents of an angel's whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping +innocence. Duluth! 'Twas the name for which my soul had panted for +years, as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. [Renewed laughter.] But +where was Duluth? Never, in all my limited reading, had my vision been +gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. [Laughter.] And I felt +a profounder humiliation in my ignorance that its dulcet syllables had +never before ravished my delighted ear. [Roars of laughter.] I was +certain the draughtsman of this bill had never heard of it, or it would +have been designated as one of the termini of this road. I asked my +friends about it, but they knew nothing of it. I rushed to the library +and examined all the maps I could find. [Laughter.] I discovered in one +of them a delicate, hair-like line, diverging from the Mississippi near +a place marked Prescott, which I supposed was intended to represent the +river St. Croix, but I could nowhere find Duluth. + +Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that its +discovery would constitute the crowning glory of the present century, +if not of all modern times. [Laughter.] I knew it was bound to exist +in the very nature of things; that the symmetry and perfection of our +planetary system would be incomplete without it [renewed laughter]; +that the elements of material nature would long since have resolved +themselves back into original chaos if there had been such a hiatus in +creation as would have resulted from leaving out Duluth. [Roars of +laughter.] In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that +Duluth not only existed somewhere, but that wherever it was it was a +great and glorious place. I was convinced that the greatest calamity +that ever befell the benighted nations of the ancient world was in +their having passed away without a knowledge of the actual existence +of Duluth; that their fabled Atlantis, never seen save by the hallowed +vision of inspired poesy, was, in fact, but another name for Duluth; +that the golden orchard of the Hesperides was but a poetical synonym +for the beer gardens in the vicinity of Duluth. [Great laughter.] I +was certain that Herodotus had died a miserable death because in all +his travels and with all his geographical research he had never heard +of Duluth. [Laughter.] I knew that if the immortal spirit of Homer +could look down from another heaven than that created by his own +celestial genius upon the long lines of pilgrims from every nation of +the earth to the gushing fountain of poesy opened by the touch of his +magic wand; if he could be permitted to behold the vast assemblage of +grand and glorious productions of the lyric art called into being by +his own inspired strains, he would weep tears of bitter anguish that, +instead of lavishing all the stores of his mighty genius upon the fall +of Ilion, it had not been his more blessed lot to crystalize in +deathless song the rising glories of Duluth. [Great and continued +laughter.] Yet, sir, had it not been for this map, kindly furnished me +by the legislature of Minnesota, I might have gone down to my obscure +and humble grave in an agony of despair, because I could nowhere find +Duluth. [Renewed laughter.] Had such been my melancholy fate, I have +no doubt that, with the last feeble pulsation of my breaking heart, +with the last faint exhalation of my fleeting breath, I should have +whispered, "Where is Duluth?" [Roars of laughter.] + + + + + +GEORGE G. VEST + + +George Graham Vest, exquisite eulogist of man's good friend, the dog, +was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, December 6, 1830. At the age of +eighteen years Vest was graduated from Centre College, Danville, +Kentucky; and five years later Transylvania University granted him his +degree in law. The year of his graduation from Transylvania, 1853, Vest +went to Missouri, settling at Georgetown. He rapidly attained a +State-wide reputation as a lawyer and orator. In 1860 he was a +presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, and a member of the +Missouri House of Representatives. Vest's sympathy lay with the South +and he resigned his seat in the legislature in order to become a member +of the Confederate Congress. He served two years in the Confederate +House and one year in the Senate. After the war he resumed the practice +of his profession at Sedalia, but he later removed to Kansas City. In +1878 Vest was elected United States Senator from Missouri and this +position he held until 1903. In the Senate his powers as an orator and +debater were generally recognized, and he became a national figure. Of +the many speeches that Senator Vest made, his tribute to the dog, made +in a jury trial, is the one thing that will keep his memory green for +many years. It appears that Senator Vest was called into a case in which +one party was endeavoring to recover damages for the death of a favorite +dog, and when it came time for him to speak he arose and delivered his +tribute to the dog, and then resumed his seat without having mentioned +the case before the jury in any way whatsoever. The jury understood +however, and the Senator won his case. Senator Vest died at Sweet +Springs, Missouri, August 9, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. vi); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + 1910, v. xii). + + +JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY[16] + + [From _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_ (Washington, 1905, v. + xii)] + +Upon the canvas of the past, Washington and Jefferson stand forth the +central figures in our struggle for independence. The character of the +former was so rounded and justly proportioned, that, so long as our +country lives, or a single community of Americans can be found, +Washington will be "First in war, first in peace, and first in the +hearts of his countrymen." + +To Washington we are more indebted than to any one man for national +existence; but what availed the heroism of Bunker Hill, the sufferings +of Valley Forge, or the triumph of Yorktown, if the government they +established had been but an imitation of the monarchy from which we +had separated? + +To Jefferson we owe eternal gratitude for his sublime confidence in +popular government, and his unfaltering courage in defending at all +times and in all places, the great truth, that "All governments derive +their just powers from the consent of the governed." + +The love of liberty is found not in palaces, but with the poor and +oppressed. It flutters in the heart of the caged bird, and sighs with +the worn and wasted prisoner in his dungeon. It has gone with martyrs +to the stake, and kissed their burning lips as the tortured spirit +winged its flight to God! + +In the temple of this deity Jefferson was high priest! + +For myself, I worship no mortal man living or dead; but if I could +kneel at such a shrine, it would be with uncovered head and loving +heart at the grave of Thomas Jefferson. + + +EULOGY OF THE DOG + + [From _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii)] + +Gentlemen of the Jury: + +The best human friend a man has in the world may turn against him and +become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving +care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, +those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become +traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies +away from him, perhaps, when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be +sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are +prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may +be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud +upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have +in this selfish world, the one that never deceives him, the one that +never proves ungrateful and treacherous is his dog. + +A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and +in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry wind +blows and the snow drifts fiercely, if only he may be near his +master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He +will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the +roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if +he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains. When +riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in +his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune +drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and +homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of +accompanying, to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, +and when, the last scene of all comes and when death takes the master +in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter +if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside may the +noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open +in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Copyright, 1905, by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association. + + + + +WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON + + +William Preston Johnston, biographer and poet, was born at Louisville, +Kentucky, January 5, 1831, the son of the famous Confederate general, +Albert Sidney Johnston. He was graduated from Yale in 1852. During the +Civil War young Johnston was on the staff of Jefferson Davis. After +the war he was professor of history and literature in Washington and +Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, for ten years. In 1880 he +accepted the presidency of Louisiana State University, at Baton Rouge. +Paul Tulane's magnificent gift in 1883 made Tulane University +possible, and Johnston became its first president. This position he +held until his death, which occurred at New Orleans, July 16, 1899. +President Johnston's _Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston_ (New +York, 1878), is one of the most admirable biographies ever written by +a Kentuckian. His graphic description of the battle of Shiloh, in +which his famous father met death and the South defeat, is now +accepted, even in the North, as the best account of that desperate +conflict. Had General Johnston lived a day longer no one can even +guess what it would have meant to the South and to the North. +President Johnston was also the author of _The Prototype of Hamlet_ +(1890), in which his power as a Shakesperian scholar is well proved; +and he published _The Johnstons of Salisbury_. He was a maker of +charming verse, which may be read in his three collections, _My Garden +Walk_ (1894), _Pictures of the Patriarchs_ (1896), and _Seekers After +God_ (Louisville, 1898), a book of sonnets. As a man, Johnston was a +true type of the courtly Southern soldier and scholar. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iii); _William Preston Johnston's Work for a New + South_, by A. D. Mayo (Washington, 1900); _Library of Southern + Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, v. vii). + + +BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING + + [From _The Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston_ (New York, 1879)] + +Saturday afternoon, April 5th, the sun, breaking through the mists +which drifted away, set in a cloudless sky. The night was clear, calm, +and beautiful. General Johnston, tired out with the vigils of the +night before, slept quietly in an ambulance-wagon, his staff +bivouacking by the camp-fires around him. Some of Hardee's troops +having wasted their rations, he and Bragg spent a large part of the +night getting up provisions for them. Before the faintest glimmer of +dawn, the wide forest was alive with preparations for the mighty +contest of the coming day. No bugle-note sounded, and no drum beat the +reveillé; but men took their hasty morning meal, and looked with sharp +attention to the arms that were to decide the fortunes of the fight. +The cool, gray dawn found them in motion. Morning opened with all the +delicate fragrance and beauty of the season, enhanced by the contrast +of the day before. The sky was serene, the air was bracing, the dew +lay heavy on the tender green of leaf and herb, and the freshness of +early spring was on all around. When the sun rose it was with +unclouded brilliancy; and, as it shed its glories over the coverts of +the oak-woods, the advancing host, stirred by the splendor of the +scene and the enthusiasm of the hour, passed the omen from lip to lip, +and welcomed its rising as another "sun of Austerlitz." + +The native buoyance of General Johnston's self-repressed temper broke +its barriers at the prospect of that struggle which should settle for +all time by the arbitrament of arms the dispute as to his own military +ability and skill and the fate of the Confederate cause in the West. +He knew the hazard; but he knew, too, that he had done all that +foresight, fortitude, energy, and strategy, could accomplish to secure +a victory, and he welcomed with exultant joy the day that was about to +decide not only these great questions, but for him all questions, +solving the mysteries of life and death. Men who came within his +influence on the battle-field felt and confessed the inspiration of +his presence, his manner, and his words. As he gave his orders in +terse sentences, every word seemed to ring with a presage of victory. + +Turning to his staff, as he mounted, he exclaimed, "Tonight we will +water our horses in the Tennessee River." It was thus that he formulated +his plan of battle. It must not stop short of entire victory. + +As he rode forward he encountered Colonel Randal L. Gibson, who was +the intimate friend of his son. When Gibson ordered his brigade to +salute, General Johnston took him warmly by the hand and said: +"Randal, I never see you but I think of William. I hope you may get +through safely to-day, but we must win a victory." Gibson says he felt +greatly stirred by his words. + +Sharp skirmishing had begun before he reached the front. Here he met +Colonel John S. Marmaduke, commanding the Third Arkansas Regiment. +This officer, in reply to General Johnston's questions, explained, +with some pride, that he held the _centre_ of the front line, the +other regiments forming on him. Marmaduke had been with General +Johnston in Utah, at Bowling Green, and in the retreat to Corinth, and +regarded him with the entire affection and veneration of a young +soldier for his master in the art of war. General Johnston put his +hand on Marmaduke's shoulder, and said to him with an earnestness that +went to his heart, "_My son_, we must this day conquer or perish!" +Marmaduke felt himself moved to a tenfold resolution. + +General Johnston said to the ambitious Hindman, who had been in the +vanguard from the beginning: "You have _earned_ your spurs as +major-general. Let this day's work win them." + +"Men of Arkansas!" he exclaimed to a regiment from that State, "they +say you boast of your prowess with the bowie-knife. To-day you wield a +nobler weapon--the bayonet. Employ it well." It was with such words, +as he rode from point to point, that he raised a spirit in that host +which swept away the serried lines of the conquerors of Donelson. + + + + +WILL WALLACE HARNEY + + +Will Wallace Harney, poet, was born at Bloomington, Indiana, June 20, +1832, the son of John H. Harney, professor of mathematics in the +University of Indiana, and author of the first _Algebra_ edited by an +American. When the future poet was seven years of age his father removed +to Louisville, Kentucky, to accept the presidency of Louisville College. +In 1844 President Harney became editor of the Louisville _Daily +Democrat_, which he conducted for nearly twenty-five years. Will Wallace +Harney was educated by the old grammarian, Noble Butler, and at +Louisville College. He became a teacher in the public schools of the +city, in which he taught for five years; and he was the first principal +of the high school there, holding the position for two years. +Know-Nothingism then swept the city and elected a new board of trustees, +which requested Harney's resignation. He was appointed to a +professorship in the State Normal School at Lexington, which he held for +two years. He then returned to Louisville to practice law, but he was +shortly afterwards asked to become assistant editor of the _Daily +Democrat_; and after his father's death, in 1867, he became editor of +that paper. Harney's masterpiece, _The Stab_, that John J. Piatt called +"a tragic little night-piece which Heine could not have surpassed in its +simple, graphic narration and vivid suggestiveness," was written in +Kentucky before 1860. In 1869 Harney removed to Florida, where he +planted an orange grove and wrote for the high-class magazines and +newspapers of the East and South. From 1883 to 1885 he was editor of +_The Bitter Sweet_, a newspaper of Kissimmee. Harney spent the final +years of his life with his only son, William R. Harney, a business man +of Jacksonville, to whom he inscribed his one book, _The Spirit of the +South_ (Boston, 1909). This volume brought together his poems and short +stories which he cared to preserve from newspapers and periodicals. The +poet died at Jacksonville, Florida, March 28, 1912. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Blades o' Blue Grass_, by Fannie P. Dickey + (Louisville, 1892); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by + J. S. Johnston (Chicago, 1896). + + +THE STAB[17] + + [From _The Spirit of the South_ (Boston, 1909)] + + On the road, the lonely road, + Under the cold white moon, + Under the ragged trees, he strode; + He whistled, and shifted his heavy load; + Whistled a foolish tune. + + There was a step timed with his own; + A figure that stooped and bowed; + A cold white blade that flashed and shone, + Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown-- + And the moon went behind a cloud. + + But the moon came out, so broad and good, + The barn cock woke and crowed; + Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood, + And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood, + That a dead man lay on the road. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[17] Copyright, 1909, by the Author. + + + + +J. STODDARD JOHNSTON + + +Josiah Stoddard Johnston, journalist and historian, was born at New +Orleans, February 10, 1833. He is the nephew of the celebrated +Confederate cavalry leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston. Left an +orphan when but five years old, he was reared by relatives in Kentucky. +He was graduated from Yale in 1853; and the following year he was +married to Miss Elizabeth W. Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson, +Confederate governor of Kentucky. Johnston was a cotton planter in +Arkansas from 1855 to 1859, and a Kentucky farmer until the Civil War +began. He served throughout the war upon the staffs of Generals Bragg, +Buckner, and Breckinridge. Colonel Johnston was editor of the old +Frankfort _Yeoman_ for more than twenty years; and from 1903 to 1908 he +was associate editor of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_. In 1871 +Colonel Johnston was Adjutant-General of Kentucky; and Secretary of +State from 1875 to 1879. He has been vice-president of the Filson Club +of Louisville since 1893; and he is now consulting geologist of the +Kentucky Geological Survey. Colonel Johnston's knowledge of plants and +mammals is very extensive and most surprising in a man of literary +tastes. His tube-roses and flower gardens is one of the traditions of +the old town of Frankfort. Colonel Johnston has published _The Memorial +History of Louisville, Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1896, two vols.); _The First +Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); and _The Confederate +History of Kentucky_. Colonel Johnston is one of the finest men in +Kentucky to-day, dignified, cultured, and deeply learned in the history +of Kentucky and the West. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Memorial History of Louisville_ (Chicago, 1896); + _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, v. vi). + + +"CAPTAIN MOLL"[18] + + [From _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1898)] + +The Revolutionary War was drawing to a close, involving Virginia in +its last throes in the devastation of an invading army. The whole +eastern portion was overrun by the British forces under Arnold and +Tarleton, the capital taken, and much public and private property +destroyed everywhere. Charlottesville, to which the legislature had +adjourned, Monticello, and Castle Hill were raided by Tarleton's +dragoons, and the legislature, Mr. Jefferson, and Doctor Walker barely +escaped capture. An interesting incident of the raid is recorded well +illustrating the spirit which actuated the American women of that +period. Not far distant from Charlottesville, on an estate known as +"The Farm," resided Nicholas Lewis, the uncle and guardian of +Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. +His wife was Mary Walker, the eldest daughter of Doctor Walker. Her +husband was absent in the army when Tarleton with his raiders swooped +down on her home and proceeded to appropriate forage and every thing +eatable and portable. She received the British cavalryman with spirit +and dignity, and upbraided him sharply for his war on defenseless +women, telling him to go to the armies of Virginia and meet her men. +Tarleton parried her thrusts with politeness as well as he could, and +after his men were rested, resumed his march. + +After his departure Mrs. Lewis discovered that his men had carried off +all her ducks except a single old drake. This she caused to be caught +and sent it to Tarleton by a messenger, who overtook him, with her +compliments, saying that the drake was lonesome without his companions, +and as he had evidently overlooked it, she wished to reunite them. From +that time she was known as "Captain Moll," and bears that sobriquet in +the family records. She was a woman of strong character, was still +living at "The Farm" in 1817, and left many descendants in Virginia and +in and near Louisville, Kentucky. On the 19th of October, 1781, +Tarleton's career closed, and Virginia was relieved from similar +devastation for a period of eighty years by the surrender at Yorktown. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[18] Copyright, 1898, by John P. Morton and Company. + + + + +JULIA S. DINSMORE + + +Miss Julia Stockton Dinsmore ("F.V."), poet, was born in Louisiana +about 1833, but most of her long life of nearly eighty years has been +spent in Kentucky. For many years Miss Dinsmore published an +occasional poem in the newspapers of her home town, Petersburg, +Kentucky, but, in 1910, when she was seventy-seven years of age, the +New York firm of Doubleday, Page and Company discovered Miss Dinsmore +to be a poet of much grace and charm, and they at once issued the +first collection of her work, entitled "Verses and Sonnets." This +little volume contains more than eighty exquisite lyrics, which have +been favorably reviewed by the literary journals of the country. _Love +Among the Roses_, _Noon in a Blue Grass Pasture_, _Far 'Mid the +Snows_, _That's for Remembrance_, and several of the sonnets are very +fine. Miss Dinsmore is a great lover of Nature, as her poems reveal, +and she is often in the saddle. A most remarkable woman she surely is, +having won the plaudits of her people when most women of her years +have their eyes turned toward the far country. Another volume of her +verse may be published shortly. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Current Literature_ (June, 1910); _The Nation_ + (July 14, 1910). + + +LOVE AMONG THE ROSES[19] + + [From _Verses and Sonnets_ (New York, 1910)] + + "What, dear--what dear?" + How sweet and clear + The redbird's eager voice I hear; + Perched on the honeysuckle trellis near + He sits elate, + Red as the cardinal whose name he bears, + And tossing high the gay cockade he wears + Calls to his mate, + "What, dear--what, dear?" + + She stirs upon her nest, + And through her ruddy breast + The tremor of her happy thoughts repressed + Seems rising like a sigh of bliss untold, + There where the searching sunbeams' stealthy gold + Slips past the thorns and her retreat discloses, + Hid in the shadow of June's sweetest roses. + Her russet, rustic home, + Round as inverted dome + Built by themselves and planned, + Within whose tiny scope, + As though to them the hollow of God's hand, + They gladly trust their all with faith and hope. + + "What, dear--what, dear?" + Are all the words I hear, + The rest is said, or sung + In some sweet, unknown tongue. + Whose music, only, charms my alien ear; + But bird, my heart can guess + All that its tones express + Of love and cheer, and fear and tenderness. + + It says, "Does the day seem long-- + The scented and sunny day + Because you must sit apart? + Are you lonesome, my own sweetheart? + You know you can hear my song + And you know I'm alert and strong + And a match for the wickedest jay + That ever could do us wrong. + As I sit on the snowball spray + Or this trellis not far away, + And look at you on the nest, + And think of those beautiful speckled shells + In whose orbs the birds of the future rest, + My heart with such pride and pleasure swells + As never could be expressed. + + "But, dear--but, dear!"-- + Now I seem to hear + A change in the notes so proud and clear-- + "But, dear--but, dear! + Do you feel no fear + When day is gone and the night is here? + When the cold, white moon looks down on you, + And your feathers are damp with the chilly dew, + And I am silent, and all is still, + Save the sleepless insects, sad and shrill, + And the screeching owl, and the prowling cat, + And the howling dog--when the gruesome bat + Flits past the nest in his circling flight + Do you feel afraid in the lonely night?" + + "Courage! my own, when daylight dawns + You shall hear again in the cheerful morns + My madrigal among the thorns, + Whose rugged guardianship incloses + Our link of love among the roses." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[19] Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page and Company. + + + + +HENRY T. STANTON + + +Henry Thompson Stanton, one of the most popular poets Kentucky has +produced, was born at Alexandria, Virginia, June 30, 1834. He was +brought by his father, Judge Richard Henry Stanton, to Maysville, +Kentucky, when he was only two years old. Stanton was educated at the +Maysville Academy and at West Point, but he was not graduated. He +entered the Confederate army as captain of a company in the Fifth +Kentucky regiment, and through various promotions he surrendered as a +major. Major Stanton saw much service on the battlefields of Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Virginia. After the war he practised law for a time and +was editor of the Maysville _Bulletin_ until 1870, when he removed to +Frankfort, Kentucky, to become chief assistant to the State +Commissioner of Insurance. Major Stanton's first volume of verse was +_The Moneyless Man and Other Poems_ (Baltimore, 1871). This title +poem, written for a wandering elocutionist who "struck" the town of +Maysville one day, and asked the major to write him "a poem that would +draw tears from any audience," made him famous and miserable for the +rest of his life. For the nomad he "dashed off this special lyric and +it brought all Kentucky to the mourners' bench. It was more deadly as +a tear-provoker than 'Stay, Jailer, Stay,' and though the author wrote +other things which were far better, the public would never admit it, +and many people innocently courted death by rushing up to Stanton and +exclaiming: 'Oh, and is this Major Stanton who wrote 'The Moneyless +Man?' So glad to meet you.'" One Kentucky poet took the philosophy of +_The Moneyless Man_ too seriously, and _A Reply to the Moneyless Man_ +was the pathetic result. The rhythm of the poem is very pleasing, but +it is, in a word, melodramatic. Major Stanton's second and final +collection of his verse was _Jacob Brown and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1875). It contains several poems that are superior to _The Moneyless +Man_, but the general reader refuses to read them. From 1875 till 1886 +he edited the Frankfort _Yeoman_; and during President Cleveland's +first administration he served as Land Commissioner. Besides his +poems, Major Stanton wrote a group of paper-backed novels, entitled +_The Kents; Social Fetters_ (Washington, 1889); and _A Graduate of +Paris_ (Washington, 1890). Major Stanton died at Frankfort, Kentucky, +May 8, 1898. Two years later _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville, +1900), containing the war lyrics of the major, was artistically +printed as a memorial to his memory. The introduction to the little +book was written by Major Stanton's friend and fellow man of letters, +Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, and it is an altogether fitting +remembrance for the author of _The Moneyless Man_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville, 1900); + _Confessions of a Tatler_, by Elvira Miller Slaughter (Louisville, + 1905). + + +THE MONEYLESS MAN + + [From _The Moneyless Man and Other Poems_ (Baltimore, 1871)] + + Is there no secret place on the face of the earth, + Where charity dwelleth, where virtue has birth? + Where bosoms in mercy and kindness will heave, + When the poor and the wretched shall ask and receive? + Is there no place at all, where a knock from the poor, + Will bring a kind angel to open the door? + Ah, search the wide world wherever you can + There is no open door for a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look in yon hall where the chandelier's light + Drives off with its splendor the darkness of night, + Where the rich-hanging velvet in shadowy fold + Sweeps gracefully down with its trimmings of gold, + And the mirrors of silver take up, and renew, + In long lighted vistas the 'wildering view: + Go there! at the banquet, and find, if you can, + A welcoming smile for a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look in yon church of the cloud-reaching spire, + Which gives to the sun his same look of red fire, + Where the arches and columns are gorgeous within, + And the walls seem as pure as a soul without sin; + Walk down the long aisles, see the rich and the great + In the pomp and the pride of their worldly estate; + Walk down in your patches, and find, if you can, + Who opens a pew to a Moneyless Man. + + Go, look in the Banks, where Mammon has told + His hundreds and thousands of silver and gold; + Where, safe from the hands of the starving and poor, + Lies pile upon pile of the glittering ore! + Walk up to their counters--ah, there you may stay + 'Til your limbs grow old, 'til your hairs grow gray, + And you'll find at the Banks not one of the clan + With money to lend to a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look to yon Judge, in his dark-flowing gown, + With the scales wherein law weighteth equity down; + Where he frowns on the weak and smiles on the strong, + And punishes right whilst he justifies wrong; + Where juries their lips to the Bible have laid, + To render a verdict--they've already made: + Go there, in the court-room, and find, if you can, + Any law for the cause of a Moneyless Man! + + Then go to your hovel--no raven has fed + The wife who has suffered too long for her bread; + Kneel down by her pallet, and kiss the death-frost + From the lips of the angel your poverty lost: + Then turn in your agony upward to God, + And bless, while it smites you, the chastening rod, + And you'll find, at the end of your life's little span, + There's a welcome above for a Moneyless Man! + + +"A MENSÁ ET THORO" + + [From _Jacob Brown and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1875)] + + Both of us guilty and both of us sad-- + And this is the end of passion! + And people are silly--people are mad, + Who follow the lights of Fashion; + For she was a belle, and I was a beau, + And both of us giddy-headed-- + A priest and a rite--a glitter and show, + And this is the way we wedded. + + There were wants we never had known before, + And matters we could not smother; + And poverty came in an open door, + And love went out at another: + For she had been humored--I had been spoiled, + And neither was sturdy-hearted-- + Both in the ditches and both of us soiled, + And this is the way we parted. + + +A SPECIAL PLEA + + [From the same] + + Prue and I together sat + Beside a running brook; + The little maid put on my hat, + And I the forfeit took. + + "Desist," she cried; "It is not right, + I'm neither wife nor sister;" + But in her eye there shone such light, + That twenty times I kiss'd her. + + +SWEETHEART[20] + + [From _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by Mrs. F. P. Dickey (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892)] + + Sweetheart--I call you sweetheart still, + As in your window's laced recess, + When both our eyes were wont to fill, + One year ago, with tenderness. + I call you sweetheart by the law + Which gives me higher right to feel, + Though I be here in Malaga, + And you in far Mobile. + + I mind me when, along the bay + The moonbeams slanted all the night; + When on my breast your dark locks lay, + And in my hand, your hand so white; + This scene the summer night-time saw, + And my soul took its warm anneal + And bore it here to Malaga + From beautiful Mobile. + + The still and white magnolia grove + Brought winged odors to your cheek, + Where my lips seared the burning love + They could not frame the words to speak; + Sweetheart, you were not ice to thaw, + Your bosom neither stone nor steel; + I count to-night, at Malaga, + Its throbbings at Mobile. + + What matter if you bid me now + To go my way for others' sake? + Was not my love-seal on your brow + For death, and not for days to break? + Sweetheart, our trothing holds no flaw; + There was no crime and no conceal, + I clasp you here in Malaga, + As erst in sweet Mobile. + + I see the bay-road, white with shells, + I hear the beach make low refrain, + The stars lie flecked like asphodels + Upon the green, wide water-plain-- + These silent things as magnets draw, + They bear me hence with rushing keel, + A thousand miles from Malaga, + To matchless, fair Mobile. + + Sweetheart, there is no sea so wide, + No time in life, nor tide to flow, + Can rob my breast of that one bride + It held so close a year ago. + I see again the bay we saw; + I hear again your sigh's reveal, + I keep the faith at Malaga + I plighted at Mobile. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[20] Copyright, 1892, by the Author. + + + + +SARAH M. B. PIATT + + +Mrs. Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, one of Kentucky's most distinguished +poets, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, August 11, 1836. Her +grandfather was Morgan Bryan, brother-in-law of Daniel Boone, and one of +the proprietors of Bryan's Station, near Lexington, famous in the old +Indian wars. When only three years old she left Lexington to make her +home near Versailles, Kentucky, where her beautiful mother died in 1844. +After her mother's death she was sent to her aunt's home at New Castle, +Kentucky. Miss Bryan was graduated from Henry Female College, New +Castle; and on June 18, 1861, she was married to John James Piatt, the +Ohio poet. George D. Prentice, of course, was the first to praise and +print Mrs. Piatt's poems and start her upon a literary career. Her +husband, too, has been her chief critic, and responsible for the +publication of her work in book form. From the first Mrs. Piatt's poems +have been deeply introspective, voicing the heart of a woman in every +line. Her work has been cordially commended by Bayard Taylor, William +Dean Howells, John Burroughs, Hamilton Wright Mabie, and many other +well-known and capable critics in America and Europe. Several of Mrs. +Piatt's poems were published in _The Nests at Washington and Other +Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1861), but her first independent volume, issued +anonymously, was _A Woman's Poems_ (Boston, 1871). This is her best +known work, made famous by Bayard Taylor in his delightful little book, +_The Echo Club_. This was followed by _A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles +and Other Poems_ (1874); _That New World and Other Poems_ (1876); _Poems +in Company with Children_ (1877); _Dramatic Persons and Moods_ (1880); +_The Children Out of Doors and Other Poems_ (with her husband, 1885); +_An Irish Garland_ (1885); _Selected Poems_ (1885); _In Primrose Time_ +(1886); _Child's-World Ballads_ (1887); _The Witch in the Glass_ (1889); +_An Irish Wild-Flower_ (1891); _An Enchanted Castle_ (1893); _Complete +Poems_ (1894, two vols.); _Child's-World Ballads_ (1896, second series); +and _The Gift of Tears_ (Cincinnati, 1906). These volumes prove Mrs. +Piatt to be one of the most prolific and finest female poets America has +produced. English reviewers have often linked her name with Mrs. +Browning's and Miss Rossetti's, and if she has not actually reached +their rank, she has surely shown work worthy of a high place in the +literature of her native country. Mrs. Piatt is at the present time +residing at North Bend, Ohio, near Cincinnati. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Echo Club_, by Bayard Taylor (Boston, 1876); + _The Poets of Ohio_, by Emerson Venable (Cincinnati, 1909). + + +IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD + +AT THE GRAVE OF CHARLES WOLFE + + [From _An Irish Garland_ (North Bend, Ohio, 1885)] + + Where the graves were many, we looked for one. + Oh, the Irish rose was red, + And the dark stones saddened the setting sun + With the names of the early dead. + Then, a child who, somehow, had heard of him + In the land we love so well, + Kept lifting the grass till the dew was dim + In the churchyard of Clonmel. + + But the sexton came. "Can you tell us where + Charles Wolfe is buried?" "I can-- + See, that is his grave in the corner there. + (Ay, he was a clever man, + If God had spared him!) It's many that come + To be asking for him," said he. + But the boy kept whispering, "Not a drum + Was heard,"--in the dusk to me. + + (Then the gray man tore a vine from the wall + Of the roofless church where he lay, + And the leaves that the withering year let fall + He swept, with the ivy away; + And, as we read on the rock the words + That, writ in the moss, we found, + Right over his bosom a shower of birds + In music fell to the ground). + + ... Young poet, I wonder did you care, + Did it move you in your rest + To hear that child in his golden hair, + From the mighty woods of the West, + Repeating your verse of his own sweet will, + To the sound of the twilight bell, + Years after your beating heart was still + In the churchyard of Clonmel? + + +A WORD WITH A SKYLARK (A CAPRICE OF HOMESICKNESS)[21] + + [From _Songs of Nature_, edited by John Burroughs (New York, + 1901)] + + If this be all, for which I've listened long, + Oh, spirit of the dew! + You did not sing to Shelley such a song + As Shelley sung to you. + + Yet, with this ruined Old World for a nest, + Worm-eaten through and through,-- + This waste of grave-dust stamped with crown and crest,-- + What better could you do? + + Ah me! but when the world and I were young, + There was an apple-tree, + There was a voice came in the dawn and sung + The buds awake--ah me! + + Oh, Lark of Europe, downward fluttering near, + Like some spent leaf at best, + You'd never sing again if you could hear + My Blue-Bird of the West! + + +THE GIFT OF TEARS[22] + + [From _The Gift of Tears_ (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1906)] + + The legend says: In Paradise + God gave the world to man. Ah me! + The woman lifted up her eyes: + "Woman, I have but tears for thee." + But tears? And she began to shed, + Thereat, the tears that comforted. + + (No other beautiful woman breathed, + No rival among men had he, + The seraph's sword of fire was sheathed, + The golden fruit hung on the tree. + Her lord was lord of all the earth, + Wherein no child had wailed its birth), + + Tears to a bride? Yea, therefore tears. + In Eden? Yea, and tears therefore. + Ah, bride in Eden, there were fears + In the first blush your young cheek wore, + Lest that first kiss had been too sweet, + Lest Eden withered from your feet! + + Mother of women! Did you see + How brief your beauty, and how brief, + Therefore, the love of it must be, + In that first garden, that first grief? + Did those first drops of sorrow fall + To move God's pity for us all? + Oh, sobbing mourner by the dead-- + One watcher at the grave grass-grown! + Oh, sleepless for some darling head + Cold-pillowed on the prison-stone, + Or wet with drowning seas! He knew, + Who gave the gift of tears to you! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Copyright, 1901, by McClure, Phillips and Company. + +[22] Copyright, 1906, by John James Piatt. + + + + +BOYD WINCHESTER + + +Boyd Winchester, author of a charming book on Switzerland, was born in +Ascension Parish, Louisiana, September 23, 1836. He came to Kentucky +when a youth and entered Centre College, Danville, where he studied +for three years. He subsequently spent two years at the University of +Virginia. Mr. Winchester was graduated from the Law School of +Louisville, Kentucky, in 1858, and that city has been his home ever +since. He rose rapidly in his profession; and he later served a single +term in the Kentucky legislature, and two terms in the lower House of +Congress. President Cleveland appointed Mr. Winchester United States +Minister to Switzerland, in 1885, and the next four years he resided +at Berne. While in Switzerland Mr. Winchester was an ardent student of +the country's history and a keen observer of its aspects and +institutions. On his return to the United States he wrote his +well-known book, _The Swiss Republic_ (Philadelphia, 1891). A fire his +publishers, the Lippincotts, suffered shortly after his volume was +issued, destroyed the unsold copies, and the small first edition was +soon exhausted. The work has thus become exceedingly scarce. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1906, v. xiii); _General Catalogue of Centre College_. + + +LAKE GENEVA[23] + + [From _The Swiss Republic_ (Philadelphia, 1891)] + +The Lake of Geneva is the largest of Western Europe, being fifty-seven +miles long, and its greatest width nine miles; it has its storms, its +waves, and its surge; now placid as a mirror, now furious as the +Atlantic; at times a deep-blue sea curling before the gentle waves, +then a turbid ocean dark with the mud and sand from its lowest depths; +the peasants on its banks still laugh at the idea of there being +sufficient cordage in the world to reach the bottom of the +_Genfer-See_. It is eleven hundred and fifty-four feet above the sea, +and having the same depth, its bottom coincides with the sea-level; +the water is of such exceeding purity that when analyzed only 0.157 in +1000 contain foreign elements. The lake lies nearly in the form of a +crescent stretching from the southwest towards the northeast. +Mountains rise on every side, groups of the Alps of Savoy, Valais, and +Jura. The northern or the Swiss shore is chiefly what is known as a +_cote_, or a declivity that admits of cultivation, with spots of +verdant pasture scattered at its feet and sometimes on its breast, +with a cheery range of garden, chalet, wood, and spire; villas, +hamlets, and villages seem to touch each other down by the banks, and +to form but one town, whilst higher up, they peep out from among the +vineyards or nestle under the shade of walnut-trees. At the foot of +the lake is the white city of Geneva, of which Bancroft wrote, "Had +their cause been lost, Alexander Hamilton would have retired with his +bride to Geneva, where nature and society were in their greatest +perfection." The city is divided into two parts by the Rhone as it +glides out of the basin of the lake on its course towards the +Mediterranean. The Arve pours its turbid stream into the Rhone soon +after that river issues from the lake. The contrast between the two +rivers is very striking, the one being as pure and limpid as the other +is foul and muddy. The Rhone seems to scorn the alliance and keeps as +long as possible unmingled with his dirty spouse; two miles below the +place of their junction a difference and opposition between this +ill-assorted couple is still observable; these, however, gradually +abate by long habit, till at last, yielding to necessity, and to the +unrelenting law which joined them together, they mix imperfect union +and flow in a common stream to the end of their course. At the head of +the lake begins the valley of the Rhone, where George Eliot said, +"that the very sunshine seemed dreary mid the desolation of ruin and +of waste in this long, marshy, squalid valley; and yet, on either side +of the weary valley are noble ranges of granite mountains, and hill +resorts of charm and health...." Standing at almost any point on the +Lake of Geneva, to the one side towers Dent-du-Midi, calm, proud, and +dazzling, like a queen of brightness; on the other side is seen the +Jura through her misty shroud extending in mellow lines, and a +cloudless sky vying in depths of color with the azure waters. So +graceful the outlines, so varied the details, so imposing the +framework in which this lake is set, well might Voltaire exclaim, "Mon +lac est le premier," (my lake is the first). For richness combined +with grandeur, for softness around and impressiveness above, for a +correspondence of contours on which the eye reposes with unwearied +admiration, from the smiling aspect of fertility and cultivation at +its lower extremity to the sublimity of a savage nature at its upper, +no lake is superior to that of Geneva. Numberless almost are the +distinguished men and women who have lived, labored, and died upon the +shores of this fair lake; every spot has a tale to tell of genius, or +records some history. In the calm retirement of Lausanne, Gibbon +contemplated the decay of empires; Rousseau and Byron found +inspiration on these shores; there is + + "Clarens, sweet Clarens, birthplace of deep love! + Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought; + Thy trees take root in love." + +Here is Chillon, with its great white wall sinking into the deep calm +of the water, while its very stones echo memorable events, from the +era of barbarism in 830, when Count Wala, who had held command of +Charlemagne's forces, was incarcerated within the tower of this +desolate rock during the reign of Louis le Debonnaire, to the +imprisonment of the Salvation Army captain. + + "Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls; + A thousand feet in depth below, + Its massy waters meet and flow; + Below the surface of the lake + The dark vault lies" + +where Bonnivard, the prior of St. Victor and the great asserter of the +independence of Geneva, was found when the castle was wrested from the +Duke of Savoy by the Bernese. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[23] Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. + + + + +THOMAS M. GREEN + + +Thomas Marshall Green, journalist and historian, was born near +Danville, Kentucky, November 23, 1836, the son of Judge John Green, an +early Kentucky jurist of repute, who died when his son was but two +years old. Green was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in what +is now known as the famous class of '55, which included several men +afterwards distinguished. In 1856 Green joined the staff of the +_Frankfort Commonwealth_, then a political journal of wide influence; +and in the following year he became editor of that paper. He left the +_Commonwealth_ in 1860, to become editor of the _Maysville Eagle_, of +which he made a pronounced success, its screams smacking not at all of +the dignified days of its first editors, the Collinses, father and +son. His _Historic Families of Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1889), gave him +a place among Kentucky historians, but the late Colonel John Mason +Brown, of Louisville, gave to Green his greatest opportunity when he +published his _The Political Beginnings of Kentucky_ (Louisville, +1889). This work of Colonel Brown's was, in effect, an avowed +vindication of the reputation of his grandfather, John Brown, first +United States Senator from Kentucky, who, in the stormy days in which +his lot had been cast, had been violently attacked for his alleged +connection with the Spanish Conspiracy of Aaron Burr, which was +charged in a controversy running through many years of violent +disputation, to have been an attempt in connection with General James +Wilkinson, Judges Sebastian, Wallace, and Innes of the Kentucky Court +of Appeals and others to detach Kentucky from her allegiance to the +United States, and annex her territory to the Spanish dominions of the +South and South-west, through which the much-desired free navigation +of the Mississippi would be assured. Colonel Brown was a brilliant man +of unusual scholarly attainments and deeply read in American history. +These qualities with his large legal training enabled him to present a +strong case in the vindication of his grandfather's reputation. His +arguments, theories, and proofs were illuminating, able, and to many +minds most convincing, while they fell with small effect upon Green +and many others who held the opposite view. For this reason Green +wrote and published _The Spanish Conspiracy_ (Cincinnati 1891), a +wonderfully well informed and clever work, and the one upon which he +takes his place among Western historians. Students who would be fully +informed as to the many phases--the charges and matter relied upon for +defense, pro and con, in this bitter controversy which marshalled +Kentucky into two hostile camps, whose alignments were more or less +maintained through many strenuous years--must study these two books. +They present the last word on either side. Colonel Brown's untimely +death, which occurred in 1890, some months before the appearance of +Green's book, probably lost Kentucky a reply to the Maysville +historian that would have added to the flood of light thrown on this +early and vital crisis. _The Spanish Conspiracy_ was supplemented and +supported in its conclusions by Mr. Anderson C. Quisenberry's _The +Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_ (Winchester, Kentucky, +1892). Thomas M. Green died at Danville, Kentucky, April 7, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky_ + (Cincinnati, 1878); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + 1910, v, xv). + + +THE CONSPIRATORS[24] + + [From _The Spanish Conspiracy_ (Cincinnati, 1891)] + +The grief of the reader in learning from the _Political Beginnings_, +that Humphrey Marshall was "violent, irreligious and profane," will be +mollified by the assurance given in the same work that Harry Innes +"was a sincerely religious man." It might with equal truth have been +stated that Caleb Wallace, who had abandoned the Presbyterian pulpit +to go into politics, kept up his church relations, and practiced his +devotions with the utmost regularity. Sebastian also, who had cast off +the gown of the Episcopal ministry in his pursuit of the "flesh pots +of Egypt," continued, it is believed, the exercise of all religious +observations, and, in the depth of his piety, deemed a treasonable +overture entirely too good to be communicated to an infidel. While +John Brown, who had absorbed faith as he sat under the very droppings +of the sanctuary, it will be cheerfully conceded was the most devout +of the four. On the other hand, John Wood, one of the editors of the +_Western World_, whom they afterwards bought, was a reprobate; and +young Joseph M. Street, whom they could neither bribe nor intimidate, +and the attempt to assassinate whom proved a failure, was a sinner. It +is distressing to think that, like Gavin Hamilton, the latter "drank, +and swore, and played at cards." It may be that the wickedness of the +editors of the _Western World_, and the contemplation of their own +saintliness, justified in the eyes of the four Christian jurists and +statesmen the several little stratagems they devised, and paid Littell +for introducing into his "Narrative," in order to obtain the advantage +of the wicked editors in the argument. The contrast of their +characters made innocent those little mutilations by Innes of his own +letter to Randolph! The same process of reasoning made laudable John +Brown's suppression of his Muter letter, his assertion that it was +identical with the "sliding letter," and his claim that the acceptance +of Gardoqui's proposition would have been consistent with the alleged +purpose to make some future application for the admission of Kentucky +into the new Union! While the suppression of the resolution of Wallace +and Wilkinson in the July convention, and the declaration that such a +_motion never was made_, in order to prove the unhappy editors to be +liars, became as praiseworthy as the spoiling of the Egyptians by the +Israelites! The scene of those four distinguished gentlemen seated +around a table, with a prayer-book in the center, planning the screen +for themselves and the discomfiture of the editors, would be a subject +worthy of the brush of a Hogarth. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[24] Copyright, 1891, by Robert Clarke Company. + + + + +FORCEYTHE WILLSON + + +Forceythe Willson, "the William Blake of Western letters," was born at +Little Genesee, New York, April 10, 1837, the elder brother of the +latest Republican governor of Kentucky, Augustus E. Willson. When +Forceythe was nine years old, his family packed their household goods +upon an "ark," or Kentucky flatboat, at Pittsburgh, and drifted down +the Ohio river, landing at Maysville, Kentucky, where they resided for +a year, and in which town the future governor of Kentucky was born. In +1847 the Willsons removed to Covington, Kentucky, and there +Forceythe's education was begun. The family lived at Covington for six +years, at the end of which time Forceythe entered Harvard University, +but an attack of tuberculosis compelled him to leave without his +degree. He returned to the West, making his home at New Albany, +Indiana, a little town just across the Ohio river from Louisville. A +year later Willson joined the editorial staff of the _Louisville +Journal_, and together he and Prentice courted the muse and defended +the cause of the Union. Willson's masterpiece, _The Old Sergeant_, +was the "carrier's address" for January 1, 1863, printed anonymously +on the front page of the _Journal_. The author's name was withheld +until Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes pronounced it the best ballad the war +had produced, when Willson was heralded as its author. _The Old +Sergeant_ recites an almost literally true story, and it is +wonderfully well done. In the fall of 1863 Willson was married to the +New Albany poet, Elizabeth C. Smith, and they removed to Cambridge, +Massachusetts, where the future executive of the Commonwealth of +Kentucky was a student in Harvard University. The Willsons purchased a +home near Lowell's, and they were soon on friendly terms with all of +the famous New England writers. In 1866 _The Old Sergeant and Other +Poems_ appeared at Boston, but it did not make an appeal to the +general public. Forceythe Willson died at Alfred Centre, New York, +February 2, 1867, but his body was brought back to Indiana, and buried +on the banks of the Whitwater river. Willson believed it quite +possible for the living to hold converse with the dead, and this, with +other strange beliefs, entered largely into his poetry. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His authoritative biographer, Mr. John James Piatt, + the Ohio poet, has written illuminatingly of this rare fellow, + with his "almond-shaped eyes," as Dr. Holmes called them, and his + Oriental look and manner, in _The Atlantic Monthly_ (March, 1875); + _Lexington Leader_ (September 13, 1908). His brother, Hon. + Augustus E. Willson, will shortly utter the final word concerning + him and his work. + + +THE OLD SERGEANT + + [From _The Old Sergeant and Other Poems_ (Boston, 1867)] + + The Carrier cannot sing to-day the ballads + With which he used to go, + Rhyming the glad rounds of the happy New Years + That are now beneath the snow: + + For the same awful and portentous Shadow + That overcast the earth, + And smote the land last year with desolation, + Still darkens every hearth. + + And the carrier hears Beethoven's mighty death-march + Come up from every mart; + And he hears and feels it breathing in his bosom, + And beating in his heart. + + And to-day, a scarred and weather-beaten veteran, + Again he comes along, + To tell the story of the Old Year's struggles + In another New Year's song. + + And the song is his, but not so with the story; + For the story, you must know, + Was told in prose to Assistant-Surgeon Austin, + By a soldier of Shiloh; + + By Robert Burton, who was brought up on the Adams, + With his death-wound in his side; + And who told the story to the Assistant-Surgeon, + On the same night that he died. + + But the singer feels it will better suit the ballad, + If all should deem it right, + To tell the story as if what it speaks of + Had happened but last night. + + "Come a little nearer, Doctor--thank you--let me take the cup: + Draw your chair up--draw it closer--just another little sup! + Maybe you may think I'm better; but I'm pretty well used up-- + Doctor, you've done all you could do, but I'm just a-going up! + + "Feel my pulse, sir, if you want to, but it ain't much use to + try--" + "Never say that," said the Surgeon, as he smothered down a sigh; + "It will never do, old comrade, for a soldier to say die!" + "What you _say_ will make no difference, Doctor, when you + come to die." + + "Doctor, what has been the matter?" "You were very faint, they + say; + You must try to get to sleep now." "Doctor, have I been away?" + "Not that anybody knows of!" "Doctor--Doctor, please to stay! + There is something I must tell you, and you won't have long to + stay! + + "I have got my marching orders, and I'm ready now to go; + Doctor, did you say I fainted?--but it couldn't ha' been so-- + For as sure as I'm a Sergeant, and was wounded at Shiloh, + I've this very night been back there, on the old field of Shiloh! + + "This is all that I remember: The last time the Lighter came, + And the lights had all been lowered, and the noises much the same, + He had not been gone five minutes before something called my name. + 'Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton!'--just that way it called my + name. + + "And I wondered who could call me so distinctly and so slow, + Knew it couldn't be the Lighter--he could not have spoken so-- + And I tried to answer, 'Here, sir!' but I couldn't make it go; + For I couldn't move a muscle, and I couldn't make it go! + + "Then I thought: It's all a nightmare, all a humbug and a bore; + Just another foolish _grape-vine_[25]--and it won't come any more; + "But it came, sir, notwithstanding, just the same way as before: + 'Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton!'--even plainer than before. + + "That is all that I remember, till a sudden burst of light, + And I stood beside the River, where we stood that Sunday night, + Waiting to be ferried over to the dark bluffs opposite, + When the river was perdition and all hell was opposite!-- + + "And the same old palpitation came again in all its power, + And I heard a Bugle sounding, as from some celestial Tower; + And the same mysterious voice said: 'It is the eleventh hour! + Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton--it is the eleventh hour!' + + "Doctor Austin!--what _day_ is this?" "It is Wednesday night, + you know." + "Yes--to-morrow will be New Year's, and a right good time below! + What _time_ is it, Doctor Austin?" "Nearly Twelve." "Then + don't you go! + Can it be that all this happened--all this--not an hour ago! + + "There was where the gunboats opened on the dark rebellious host; + And where Webster semicircled his last guns upon the coast; + There were still the two log-houses, just the same, or else their + ghosts-- + And the same old transport came and took me over--or its ghost! + + "And the old field lay before me all deserted far and wide; + There was where they fell on Prentiss--there McClernand met the + tide; + There was where stem Sherman rallied, and where Hurlbut's heroes + died-- + Lower down, where Wallace charged them, and kept charging till he + died. + + "There was where Lew Wallace showed them he was of the canny kin, + There was where old Nelson thundered, and where Rousseau waded in; + There McCook sent 'em to breakfast, and we all began to win-- + There was where the grape-shot took me, just as we began to win. + + "Now, a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread; + And but for this old blue mantle and the old hat on my head, + I should not have even doubted, to this moment, I was dead-- + For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead! + + "Death and silence! Death and silence! all around me as I sped! + And behold, a mighty Tower, as if builded to the dead-- + To the Heaven of the heavens, lifted up its mighty head, + Till the Stars and Stripes of Heaven all seemed waving from its + head! + + "Round and mighty-based it towered--up into the infinite-- + And I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright; + For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding stair of light, + Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight! + + "And, behold, as I approached it--with a rapt and dazzled stare-- + Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great Stair-- + Suddenly the solemn challenge broke of--'Halt, and who goes + there!' + 'I'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.' 'Then advance, sir, to the + Stair!' + + "I advanced! That sentry, Doctor, was Elijah Ballantyne! + First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line! + 'Welcome, my old Sergeant, welcome! Welcome by that countersign!' + And he pointed to the scar there, under this old cloak of mine! + + "As he grasped my hand, I shuddered, thinking only of the grave; + But he smiled and pointed upward with a bright and bloodless + glaive: + 'That's the way, sir, to Head-quarters.' 'What Head-quarters!' + 'Of the Brave.' + 'But the great Tower?' 'That,' he answered, 'Is the way, sir, of + the Brave!' + + "Then a sudden shame came o'er me at his uniform of light; + At my own so old and tattered, and at his so new and bright; + 'Ah!' said he, 'you have forgotten the New Uniform to-night-- + Hurry back, for you must be here at just twelve o'clock to-night!' + + "And the next thing I remember, you were sitting _there_, and I-- + Doctor--did you hear a footstep? Hark! God bless you all! Good by! + Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die, + To my Son--my Son that's coming--he won't get here till I die! + + "Tell him his old father blessed him as he never did before-- + And to carry that old musket"--Hark! a knock is at the door! + "Till the Union--" See! it opens! "Father! Father! speak once + more!" + "_Bless you!_"--gasped the old, gray Sergeant, and he lay and + said no more! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[25] Canard. + + + + +W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE + + +William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, orator and journalist, was born +at Baltimore, Maryland, August 28, 1837, the son of Rev. Robert J. +Breckinridge (1800-1871), and an own cousin of John C. Breckinridge +(1821-1875). He was graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, +in the famous class of '55, after which he studied medicine for a +year, when he abandoned it to enter the Louisville Law School. Before +he was of age he was admitted to the Fayette County Bar, and he was a +member of it when he died. In July, 1862, he entered the Confederate +Army as a captain in John Hunt Morgan's command; and during the last +two years of the war was colonel of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. The +war over, Colonel Breckinridge returned to Lexington and became editor +of _The Observer and Reporter_, which he relinquished a few years +later in order to devote his entire attention to the law. In 1884 +Colonel Breckinridge was elected to the lower House of Congress from +the Ashland district, and he took his seat in December, 1885, which +was the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress. One of his +colleagues from Kentucky was the present Governor of the Commonwealth, +James B. McCreary; another was John G. Carlise, who was chosen speaker +over Thomas B. Reed of Maine. Colonel Breckinridge served ten years in +the House, closing his career there in the Fifty-third Congress. In +Washington he won a wide reputation as a public speaker, being +commonly characterized as "the silver tongue orator from Kentucky." In +1894, after the most bitter congressional campaign of recent Kentucky +history, he was defeated for re-election; and two years later as the +"sound money" candidate he again met defeat, Evan E. Settle, who was +also known in Congress as a very eloquent orator, and who hailed from +the Kentucky county of "Sweet Owen," triumphing over him. Colonel +Breckinridge was never again a candidate for public office. In 1897 he +resumed his newspaper work, becoming chief editorial writer on _The +Lexington Herald_, which paper was under the management of his son, +Mr. Desha Breckinridge, the present editor. During the last eight +years of his life Colonel Breckinridge achieved a new and fresh fame +as a writer of large information upon State and national affairs. +Simplicity was the goal toward which he seemed to strive in his +discussions of great and small questions. His articles upon the Goebel +tragedy were really State papers of importance. Upon more than one +occasion his editorial utterances were wired to a New York paper, +appearing simultaneously in that paper and in his own. He declined +several offers to become editor of metropolitan newspapers. While at +the present time Colonel Breckinridge is remembered by the great +common people as an orator of unsurpassed gifts, and while a great +memorial mass of legends have grown about his name, it is as a writer +of real ability, who had all the requisites and inclinations of a man +of letters save one of the chief essentials: leisure. When his +speeches and writings are collected and his biography written his true +position in the literature of Kentucky will be more clearly and +generally appreciated than it now is. Colonel Breckinridge died at +Lexington, Kentucky, November 19, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The eulogy of John Rowan Allen is the finest summing + up of Colonel Breckinridge's life and labors (_Lexington Leader_, + November 23, 1904); _Kentucky Eloquence_, edited by Bennett H. + Young (Louisville, Kentucky, 1907). His papers, together with + those of his grandfather and father, are now in possession of the + Library of Congress. + + +"IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON?" + + [From _The Lexington Herald_ (Christmas Day, 1899)] + +"And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." And this has +been the universal truth since those days--the one unchangeable, +pregnant, vital truth of development, of progress, of civilization, of +happiness, of freedom, of charity. The perpetual presence, the +ceaseless personal influence, the potent force of His continual +association alone renders human history intelligible or makes possible +the solution of any grave problem which man meets in his upward march +to better life and more wholesome conditions. And to-day the accepted +anniversary of the birth of the "carpenter's son" is the one day whose +celebration is in all civilized nations, among all independent people +and in all learned tongues. The world has not yet accepted Him; there +are nations very large in numbers, very old in histories, very devout +in their accepted religions, which have not accepted His claim to be +divine, nor bowed to the reign of His supreme authority. And the +contrast between such nations and those who have accepted His claim +and modeled their laws upon His teachings form the profoundest reason +for the verity of that claim and the beneficence of those teachings. + +Millions to-day will assemble themselves in their accustomed houses of +worship, and with songs and instruments of music, with garlands and +wreaths, with glad countenances and uplifted hearts, render adoration +to the carpenter's son of Nazareth; adoration to the lowly Jew who was +born in a manger and died upon a cross. Many millions will not attend +worship, but still render unconscious testimony to the wondrous power +which He has exercised through the centuries in the glad happiness +which springs from conditions which are only possible under His +teachings and by the might of His perpetual presence. They will not +know that "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," but the day is full of joy, +the homes are radiant with happiness, the cheer is jovial and the +laughter jocund, the eye brightens under the glances of loved +ones--because He has passed by and scattered love and charity with +profuse prodigality along the pathway He trod. + +He has walked through the gay hearts of little children, and joy has +sprung up as wild flowers where His footsteps fell; He has lingered at +the mother's bedside and ineffable love has filled the heart of her +who felt His gentle presence. In carpenter shops like unto that in +which He toiled for thirty years, in humble homes, in the counting +rooms of bankers, in the offices of lawyers and doctors, in the +charitable institutions which are memorials of His teachings, He has +passed by; those within may not have been conscious thereof; they were +possibly too absorbed to feel the sweet and pervading fragrance of the +omnipotent force which He always exerts; yet over them and their +thoughts He did exert that irresistible power; and to-day the world is +better, sweeter, more joyful, more loving, because of Him. + +It is in its secular aspect that we venture to submit these thoughts; +it is His transforming power secularly to which we call attention this +sweet Christmas morning. "Christ the Lord Has Risen," but it is Jesus +the man--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter, the new teacher +of universal brotherhood, the man who went about doing good; the +obscure Jew who brought the new and nobler era of charity and +forgiveness and love into actual existence that _The Herald_, a mere +secular paper, desires to hold up. + +And peculiarly to that aspect of His life that was social; the friend +of Lazarus; the diner at the table of Zaccheus; the pleased and kindly +guest at the wedding of Cana; the man who leaned His head on the breast +of His friend, the simple gentleman who took little children in His arms +and loved them; the obedient son, the loyal friend, the forbearing +associate, the forgiving master, the tender healer of disease, the +loving man who was touched with a sense of all our infirmities. + +To-day with jollity let us turn the water of our common lives into the +wine of sweet domestic happiness; let us take the children of +misfortune to our breast; let us be loyal to our weaker friends; let +us share our fullness with our brethren who are lean in this world's +goods, and, shedding smiles and kind words, and pleasant phrases +through the day, it may be that some stricken heart made glad may say: +"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." + + + + +BASIL W. DUKE + + +General Basil Wilson Duke, historian of Morgan's men, was born near +Georgetown, Kentucky, May 28, 1838. He was educated at Georgetown and +Centre Colleges, after which he studied law at Transylvania University. +He was admitted to the bar, in 1858, and entered upon the practice at +St. Louis. In 1861 he was a member of the Kentucky legislature; and in +June of that year he married the sister of John Hunt Morgan and enlisted +in Morgan's command. Upon Morgan's death, in 1864, General Duke +succeeded him as leader of the band. After the war he settled at +Louisville, Kentucky, as a lawyer, and that city is his home today. From +1875 to 1880 General Duke was commonwealth's attorney for the Fifth +Judicial District; and since 1895 he has been a commissioner of Shiloh +Military Park. His _Morgan's Cavalry_ (Cincinnati, 1867; New York, +1906), is the authoritative biography of the noted partisan leader and +history of his intrepid band. General Duke was one of the editors of +_The Southern Bivouac_, a Louisville magazine, from 1885 to 1887. His +_History of the Bank of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1895), filled a gap in +Kentucky history; and his _Reminiscences_ (New York, 1911), was a +delightful volume of enormous proportions. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1897); + _The Bookman_ (December, 1907). + + +MORGAN, THE MAN + + [From _Morgan's Cavalry_ (Cincinnati, 1867)] + +General Morgan had more of those personal qualities which make a man's +friends devoted to him than any one I have ever known. He was himself +very warm and constant in the friendships which he formed. It seemed +impossible for him to do enough for those to whom he was attached, or +to ever give them up. His manner, when he wished, prepossessed every +one in his favor. He was generally more courteous and attentive to his +inferiors than to his equals and superiors. This may have proceeded in +a great measure from his jealousy of dictation and impatience of +restraint, but was the result also of warm and generous feeling. His +greatest faults arose out of his kindness and easiness of disposition, +which rendered it impossible for him to say or do unpleasant things, +unless when under the influence of strong prejudice or resentment. +This temperament made him a too lax disciplinarian, and caused him to +be frequently imposed upon. He was exceedingly and unfeignedly modest. +For a long time he sought, in every way, to avoid the applause and +ovations which met him everywhere in the South, and he never learned +to keep a bold countenance when receiving them. + +His personal appearance and carriage were striking and graceful. His +features were eminently handsome and adapted to the most pleasing +expressions. His eyes were small, of a grayish blue color, and their +glances keen and thoughtful. His figure on foot or on horseback was +superb. He was exactly six feet in height, and although not at all +corpulent, weighed one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His form was +perfect and the rarest combination of strength, activity, and grace. +His constitution seemed impervious to the effects of privation and +exposure, and it was scarcely possible to perceive that he suffered +from fatigue or lack of sleep. + +Men are not often born who can wield such an influence as he exerted, +apparently without an effort; who can so win men's hearts and stir +their blood. He will, at least, be remembered until the Western +cavalrymen and their children have all died. The bold riders who lived +in the border-land, whose every acre he made historic, will leave many +a story of his audacity and wily skill. + + + + +HENRY WATTERSON + + +Henry Watterson, the foremost Kentucky journalist, and one of the most +widely known newspaper men in the United States, was born at Washington, +D. C., February 16, 1840. This accident of birth was due to the fact +that his father, Harvey McGee Watterson, with his wife, was in +Washington as a member of the lower house of Congress from his native +state, Tennessee. In consequence of defective vision, Henry Watterson +was educated by private tutors; but he did attend the Episcopal School +at Philadelphia for a short time. At the age of eighteen years he became +a reporter on the Washington _States_; but, in 1861, he returned to +Nashville, Tennessee, to edit the _Republican Banner_. Watterson was a +staff officer in the Confederate Army, and in 1864 chief of scouts for +General Joseph E. Johnston, but throughout the war he was also editing a +newspaper. After the war he married and revived the _Banner_, which he +edited for about two years, when he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and +succeeded George D. Prentice as editor of the _Journal_. In the +following year Watterson, with Walter N. Haldeman, consolidated the +_Journal_, _Courier_, and _Daily Democrat_ to form _The +Courier-Journal_. The first issue of this paper appeared November 8, +1868, and Colonel Watterson has been its editor ever since. He has made +it the greatest newspaper in Kentucky, if not in the South or West, and +one of the best known papers printed in the English language. His +editorials are unequalled by any other writer in America, either from +the point of thought or construction; and his style is always more +interesting than his substance. Colonel Watterson has held but one +public office, having been a member of the Forty-fourth Congress, in +1876, and the personal friend and most ardent supporter of Samuel J. +Tilden in the infamous Hayes-Tilden controversy of that year. Colonel +Watterson has been a delegate-at-large from Kentucky in many Democratic +presidential conventions, in all of which bodies he has been a +conspicuous figure. He is famous as a journalist, orator, and author. +His eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln has been listened to in almost every +state in the Union, and it is his best known effort in oratory. Though +now past his three score years and ten, Colonel Watterson is as vigorous +and vindictive as ever in the handling of public questions and of his +legion of enemies, as the country witnessed in the presidential campaign +of 1912. He edited _Oddities of Southern Life and Character_ (Boston, +1882); and he has written _The History of the Spanish-American War_ +(Louisville, 1898); _The Compromises of Life: Lectures and Addresses_ +(New York, 1902), containing his ablest speeches delivered upon many +occasions; and _Old London Town_ (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1911), a group of +his European letters to _The Courier-Journal_, edited by Joseph Fort +Newton. Colonel Watterson has an attractive country home near +Louisville, "Mansfield," but in recent years his winters have been spent +at Naples-on-the-Gulf, in Florida, and his summers in "grooming +presidential candidates!" + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Bookman_ (February, 1904); _Harper's Weekly_ + (November 12, 1904); _The Booklovers Magazine_ (March, 1905). + + +OLD LONDON TOWN[26] + + [From _Old London Town, and Other Travel Sketches_ (Cedar Rapids, + Iowa, 1910)] + +London, less than any of the great capitals of the world--even less than +Berlin--has changed its aspects in the last four decades of alteration +and development. During the Second Empire, and under the wizard hand of +Baron Hauseman, a new Paris sprang into existence. We know what has +happened in New York and Chicago. But London, except the Thames +Embankment and the opening of a street here and there betwixt the City +and the West End--the mid-London of Soho and the Strand--is very much +the London I became acquainted with nearly forty years ago. To be sure +many of the ancient landmarks, such as Temple Bar, the Cock and the +Cheshire Cheese, have gone to the ash heap of the forgotten, whilst some +imposing hostelries have risen in the region about Trafalgar Square; +but, in the main, the biggest village of Christendom has lost none of +its familiar earmarks, so that the exile set down anywhere from Charing +Cross and Picadilly Circus to the bustling region of the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street, blindfold, would, the instant the bandage were +removed from his eyes, exclaim, "It is London!" + +Yes, it is London; the same old London; the same old cries in the +street; the same old whitey-brown atmosphere; even the same old Italian +organ-grinders, the tunes merely a trifle varied. Nor yet without its +charm, albeit to me of a rather ghostly, reminiscental sort. I came here +in 1866, with a young wife and a roll of ambitious manuscript, found +work to do and a publisher, lived for a time in the clouds of two +worlds, that of Bohemia, of which the Savage Club was headquarters, and +that of the New Apocalypse of Science which eddied about the School of +Mines in Jermyn Street and the _Fortnightly Review_, then presided over +by George Henry Lewes, my nearest friend and sponsor the late Professor +Huxley. I alternated my days and nights between a somewhat familiar +intimacy with Spencer and Tyndall and a wholly familiar intimacy with +Tom Robertson and Andrew Halliday. Artemus Ward was in London and it was +to him that I owed these later associations. Sir Henry Irving had not +made his mark. Sir Charles Wyndham was still in America. There were +Keenes and Kembles yet upon the stage. Charles Matthews ruled the roost +of Comedy. George Eliot was in the glory of her powers and her +popularity. Thackeray was gone, but Charles Dickens lived and wrote. +Bulwer-Lytton lived and wrote. Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade vied +with one another for current favor. Modern Frenchification had invaded +neither the restaurants nor the music halls. Evans's Coffee House +(Pendennis core of Harmony) prevailed after midnight in Covent Garden +Market. In short, the solidarities of Old England, along with its roast, +succulent, abundant and intact. + + * * * * * + +To me London was Mecca. The look of it, the very smell of it, was +inspiration. Incidentally--I don't mind saying--there were some cakes +and ale. The nights were jolly enough down in the Adelphi, where the +barbarians of the Savage Club held high revel, and George Augustus +Sala was Primate, and Edmund Yates and Tom Robertson were High +Priests. Temple Bar blocked the passage from Belgravia to the Bank of +England, and there was no Holborn Viaduct nor Victorian Embankment. + +Aye, long ago! How far away it seems, and how queer! To me it was the +London of story-books; of Whittington and his cat and Goody Two-Shoes +and the Canterbury Shades; of Otway and Marlowe and Chatterton; of +Nell Gwynne and Dick Steele and poor Goldsmith; of all that was +bizarre and fanciful in history, that was strange and romantic in +legend; and not the London of the Tower, the Museum and Westminster +Abbey; not the London of Cremorne Gardens, newly opened, nor the +Argyle Rooms, which should have been burned to the ground before they +were opened at all. + +Since then I have been in and out of London many times. I have been +amused here and bored here; but give me back my old fool's paradise +and I shall care for naught else. + +One may doubt which holds him closest, the London of History or the +London of Fiction, or that London which is a mingling of both, and may +be called simply the London of Literature, in which Oliver Goldsmith +carouses with Tom Jones, and Harry Fielding discusses philosophy with +the Vicar of Wakefield, where Nicholas Nickleby makes so bold as to +present himself to Mr. William Makepeace Thackeray and to ask his +intercession in favor of a poor artist, the son of a hairdresser of +the name of Turner in Maiden Lane, and even where "Boz," as he passes +through Longacre, is tripped up by the Artful Dodger, and would +perchance fall upon the siding if not caught in the friendly arms of +Sir Richard Steele on his way to pay a call upon the once famous +beauty, the Lady Beatrix Esmond. + +But yesterday I strolled into Mitre Court, and threading my way +through the labyrinth of those dingy old law chambers known as the +Middle and Inner Temple, found myself in the little graveyard of the +Temple Church and by the side of the grave of Oliver Goldsmith. Though +less than a stone's throw from Fleet Street and the Strand, the place +is quiet enough, only a faint hum of wheels penetrating the cool +precincts and gloomy walls. There, beneath three oblong slabs, put +together like an outer stone coffin, lies the most richly endowed of +all the vagabonds, with the simple but sufficient legend: + + "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith, + "Born Nov. 10th, 1728. Died April 4th, 1774." + +to tell a story which for all its vagrancy and folly, is somewhat dear +to loving hearts. He died leaving many debts and a few friends. He +lived a lucky-go-devil, who could squander in a night of debauch more +than he could earn in a month of labor. Yet he gave us the good +Primrose and _The Deserted Village_ and _The Traveler_, and many a +care-dispelling screed beside. + +The Frenchman would say "his destiny." The less fanciful Briton, "his +temperament." Poor Noll! He seemed to know himself fairly well in +spite of his dissipations and his vanity, and he sleeps sound enough +now, perhaps as soundly as the rest of those who in life held him in a +rather equivocal admiration and affectionate contempt. There are a few +other tombs--an effigy or two--round about, the weird old Chapel of +the Templars, shut in by great walls from the streets beyond, to keep +them solemn company. For Goldsmith, at least, there seems a fitness; +for his life, and such labor as he did, eddied round these sad +precincts. Nigh at hand was the Mitre tavern, across the way the +Cock, and down the street the Cheshire Cheese. Without the Vandal has +been busy enough, within all remains as it was the day they buried +him. Perhaps he was not a desirable visiting acquaintance. I dare say +he was rather a trying familiar friend. Pen-craft and purse-making are +often wide apart. The charm of authorship ends in most cases upon the +printed page. The man carries his sentiment in a globule of ink and it +evaporates by exposure to the atmosphere of the world of action. The +song of Dickens died by its own fireside. Kipling, for all his +word-painting, is hardly a miracle of grace. Why should one wish to +have known Goldsmith, or grudge him his place by the side of the great +old Doctor, and Burke, and Reynolds, and Garrick? He lived his own +life, and, though it was not very clean and wholly unprosperous, +perhaps he enjoyed it. He left us some rich fruitage dangling over a +wall, which may well conceal all else. Of the dead, no ill! Their +faults to the past. The rest to Eternity! + +Gradually, but surely, a new London is showing itself above the debris +of the old. Miles of roundabout are reduced by short cuts. Thoroughfares +are ruthlessly cut through sacred precincts and landmarks obliterated to +make room for imposing edifices and widened streets. In the end, London +will be rebuilt to rival Paris in the splendor, without the uniformity +of its architecture. The grime will, of course, attach itself in time to +the modern city as it did in the ancient, so that the London that is to +be will grow old to the coming generations as the London that was grew +old to the generations that went before. + + "To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow + Creeps on this petty pace from day to day, + And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death." + +Ever and ever the old times, the dear old times! Were they really any +better than these? I don't think so--we only fancy them so. They had +their displacements. It was then, as now, "eat, drink, and be merry, +for to-morrow ye die," life the same old walking shadow, the same old +play, or, lagging superfluous, or laughing his hour upon the stage +and seen no more, the same old + + "... tale told by an idiot, + Full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing." + +Somehow, London has a tendency to call up such reflections; sombre, +serious itself, to provoke moralizing, albeit a turmoil, with incessant +flashes of light and shade, the contrasts the vividest and most +precipitate on earth, deep and penetrating, even from Hyde Park corner +to St. Martins-in-the-Field, and on eastward beyond the Tower and into +the purlieus of Whitechapel and the solitudes of Bethnal Green. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[26] Copyright, 1910, by The Torch Press. + + + + +GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN + + +Gilderoy Wells Griffin, essayist, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, +March 6, 1840, the son of a merchant. He was educated in the University +of Louisville, and admitted to the bar just as he attained his majority. +He soon became private secretary for George D. Prentice, and this +pointed his path from law to letters. Griffin was dramatic critic of the +Louisville _Journal_ until after Prentice's death; and his first book +was a biographical study of the great editor. His _Studies in +Literature_ (Baltimore, 1870), a small group of essays, was followed by +the final edition of _Prenticeana_ (Philadelphia, 1871), which he +revised and to which he also contributed a new sketch of Prentice. +Griffin was appointed United States Consul to Copenhagen, in 1871. His +_Memoir of Col. Charles S. Todd_ (Philadelphia, 1872), was an excellent +piece of writing. The most tangible result of his sojourn in Copenhagen +was _My Danish Days_ (1875), one of the most delightful of his works. In +Denmark his most intimate friend, perhaps, was Hans Christian Anderson. +His _A Visit to Stratford_ (1875), was worth while. The year following +its publication, Griffin was transferred to a similar position in the +Samoan Islands, and he left in manuscript a work on the Islands which +has never been published. In 1879 Griffin was again transferred, this +time being sent to Aukland, New Zealand, where he remained until 1884; +and the time of his departure witnessed the appearance of his last work, +_New Zealand: Her Commerce and Resources_ (Wellington, N. Z., 1884). +President Arthur sent him as consul to Sydney, which post he held for +seven years. Griffin's death occurred while he was visiting his old +home, Louisville, Kentucky, October 21, 1891. His brother was the +step-father of the famous Mary Anderson, the former actress, and she has +a goodly word for the memory of Griffin in her autobiography. He was a +patron of the drama, a faithful and far-seeing diplomat, and a very able +writer. His wife, Alice M. Griffin, published a volume of _Poems_ +(Cincinnati, 1864). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (October 22, 1891); _A Few + Memories_, by Mary Anderson de Navarro (London, 1896). + + +THE GYPSIES + + [From _Studies in Literature_ (Baltimore, 1870)] + +The Gypsies are wholly ignorant of their origin, and have kept but an +imperfect record of their migrations; but it is evident that they are +a distinct race of people. Like the Jews, they have no country of +their own, and are scattered over all parts of the globe. Time has +made little or no change in their peculiarities. They have the same +language, personal appearance, habits, and customs, that they had +centuries ago. The name of Gypsies (meaning Egyptians) is doubtless an +incorrect one. At least we know of nothing to justify them in the +assumption of the title. In Italy they are called "Zingari," in +Germany "Zigeuner," in Spain "Gitanos," in Turkey "Tchengenler," in +Persia "Sisech Hindu," in Sweden "Tartars," and in France "Bohemiens." + +Borrow expresses the opinion that the name of Gypsies originated +among the priests and learned men of Europe, who expected to find in +Scripture some account of their origin and some clew to their skill in +the occult sciences. + +Simson, the author of a recent work entitled the _History of the +Gypsies_, believes that they are a mixture of the shepherd-kings and the +native Egyptians, who formed part of the "mixed multitude" mentioned in +the Biblical account of the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt. Grellman, +however, traces their origin to India. He says that they belong to the +Soodra caste. Vulcanius describes them simply as robbers and outlaws, +and Hervas regards their language as "a mere jargon of banditti." + +Their keen black eyes, swarthy complexion, long raven locks, high +cheek-bones, and projecting lower jaws evidently indicate Asiatic +origin. It is certain that neither their language nor physiognomy are +African. It is argued that if really Egyptians, they would in all +probability have preserved a religion, or some of the forms of worship +so characteristic of the descendants of that people; whereas, the +Gypsies have no religion at all. + +Indeed, it is a proverb with them that "the Gypsy church was built of +lard, and the dogs ate it." + +Whether Egyptians or not, they are doubtless what they claim to be, +"Rommany Chals," and not "Gorgios." Very few who have seen them will +refuse to believe that they do not understand the art of making +horse-shoes, and of snake-charming, fortunetelling, poisoning with the +drows, and of singing such songs as the following: + + "The Rommany chi + And the Rommany chal + Shall jaw tasaulor + To drab the bawlor, + And dook the gry + Of the farming rye. + + "The Rommany churl + And the Rommany girl + To-morrow shall hie + To poison the sty, + And bewitch on the mead + The farmer's stead." + + + + +JOHN L. SPALDING + + +John Lancaster Spalding, the poet-priest, was born at Lebanon, Kentucky, +June 2, 1840. He is a nephew of Archbishop Martin John Spalding. John L. +Spalding was graduated from St. Mary's College, Maryland, in 1859; and a +short time later he was ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic +church. In 1865 he was secretary to the bishop of Louisville; and four +years later he built St. Augustine's church for the Catholic negroes of +Louisville. In 1871 Spalding was chancellor of the diocese of +Louisville. From 1872 to 1877 he was stationed in New York City. He was +consecrated bishop of Peoria, Illinois, May 1, 1877, which position he +held until 1908, when ill-health compelled his retirement. Bishop +Spalding was appointed by President Roosevelt as one of the arbitrators +to settle the anthracite coal strike of 1902, and this appointment +brought him before the whole country for a time. In 1909 he was created +titular archbishop of Scyphopolis. Bishop Spalding continues his +residence at Peoria, but recently his health has broken so badly that +his life has been despaired of more than once. For many years it has +been his custom to spend his summers in Kentucky with his boyhood +friends and neighbors. He is the author of _The Life of the Most Rev. +Martin John Spalding, Archbishop_ (New York, 1872); _Essays and Reviews_ +(1876); _Religious Mission of the Irish People_ (1880); _Lectures and +Discourses_ (1882); _America and Other Poems_ (1885); _Education and the +Higher Life_ (Chicago, 1891); _The Poet's Praise_ (1891); _Things of the +Mind_ (Chicago, 1894); _Means and End of Education; Thoughts and +Theories of Life and Education_ (Chicago, 1897); _Songs: Chiefly from +the German_ (1896); _God and the Soul; Opportunity and Other Essays_ +(Chicago, 1901); _Religion, Agnosticism, and Education_ (Chicago, +1902); _Aphorisms and Reflections_ (Chicago, 1901); _Socialism and +Labor_ (Chicago, 1902); _Glimpses of Truth_ (Chicago, 1903); _The +Spalding Year Book_ (1905); _Religion and Art, and other Essays_ +(Chicago, 1905). Bishop Spalding's biography of his famous kinsman, +Archbishop Spalding, is his finest prose work, and as a poet he has done +some pleasing verse, most of which, of course, is marred by being woven +into his religion. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Harper's Weekly_ (October 25, 1902); _The Dial_ + (January 1, 1904). + + +AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE.[27] + + [From _The Hesperian Tree_, edited by J. J. Piatt (Columbus, Ohio, + 1903)] + + O snow-white blade, thou openest for me + So many a page filled with delightful lore + Where deathless minds have left the precious store + Of words that breathe and truth that makes us free. + To hold thee in my hand, or but to see + Thee lying on my desk, O ivory oar, + Waiting to drive my bark to any shore, + Is fortaste of fresh joy and liberty. + Thou bringest dreams of the Dark Continent + Where herded elephants in freedom roam, + Or blow their trumpets when they danger scent, + Or in wide rivers shoot the pearly foam, + Yet art of vital books all redolent, + Where highest thoughts have made themselves a home. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[27] Copyright, 1902, by John James Piatt. + + + + +NATHANIEL S. SHALER + + +Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, the distinguished Harvard geologist, poet, +historian, and sociologist, was born at Newport, Kentucky, February +20, 1841. He was graduated from Harvard in 1862, where he had the +benefit of almost private instruction from the great Agassiz. Shaler +returned to Kentucky, and for the next two years he served in the +Union army. In 1864 he was appointed assistant in palentology at +Harvard; and four years later he became assistant in zoology and +geology in the Lawrence Scientific School and head of the department +of palentology. In 1873 the Governor of Kentucky appointed Professor +Shaler director of the Kentucky Geological Survey, and he devoted +parts of the next seven years to this work. He was the most efficient +State geologist Kentucky has ever known, and his work for the Survey +pointed out the path trodden by his successors. His assistant, +Professor John R. Proctor, followed him as Director, and he stands +next to his chief in the work he accomplished. _The Kentucky +Geological Survey_ (1874-1880, 6 vols.), volume three of which, +entitled _A General Account of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_ +(Cambridge, Mass., 1876), was written entirely by Shaler, are +excellent memorials of the work he did for his native state. In 1884 +Shaler was placed in charge of the Atlantic division of the United +States Geological Survey; and in 1891 he was chosen dean of the +Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. This position he held until a +year or two before his death. Dean Shaler published _Thoughts on the +Nature of Intellectual Property_ (Boston, 1878); _Glaciers_ (Boston, +1881); _The First Book of Geology_ (Boston, 1884); _Kentucky: A +Pioneer Commonwealth_ (Boston, 1885), the philosophy of Kentucky +history summarized; _Aspects of the Earth_ (New York, 1889); _Nature +and Man in America_ (New York, 1891); _The Story of Our Continent_ +(Boston, 1892); _Sea and Land_ (New York, 1892); _The United States_ +(New York, 1893); _The Interpretation of Nature_ (Boston, 1893); +_Domesticated Animals_ (New York, 1895); _American Highways_ (New +York, 1896); _Outlines of the Earth's History_ (New York, 1898); _The +Individual_ (New York, 1900); _Elizabeth of England_ (Boston, 1903, +five vols.), a "dramatic romance," celebrating "the spacious times of +great Elizabeth"; _The Neighbor_ (Boston, 1904); _The Citizen_ (New +York, 1904); _Man and the Earth_ (New York, 1905); and _From Old +Fields_ (Boston, 1906), a book of short poems. Besides these books, +Dean Shaler wrote hundreds of magazine articles, reports, scientific +memoirs, miscellaneous essays. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, +April 10, 1906, just as he was about to make ready for a final journey +to Kentucky. Dean Shaler was loved and honored more at Harvard, +perhaps, than any other teacher the University has ever known. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The World's Work_ (June, 1906); _Science_ (June 8, + 1906); _The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, with a + Supplementary Memoir by his Wife_, published posthumously (Boston, + 1909), is a charming record of his days at Harvard and in Kentucky. + + +THE ORPHAN BRIGADE[28] + + [From _From Old Fields_ (Boston, 1906)] + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-one: + There in the echo of Sumter's gun + Marches the host of the Orphan Brigade, + Lit by their banners, in hope's best arrayed. + Five thousand strong, never legion hath borne + Might as this bears it forth in that morn: + Hastings and Cressy, Naseby, Dunbar, + Cowpens and Yorktown, Thousand Years' War, + Is writ on their hearts as onward afar + They shout to the roar of their drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-two: + Well have they paid to the earth its due. + Close up, steady! the half are yet here + And all of the might, for the living bear + The dead in their hearts over Shiloh's field-- + Rich, O God, is thy harvest's yield! + Where faith swings the sickle, trust binds the sheaves, + To the roll of the surging drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-three: + Barring Sherman's march to the sea-- + Shorn to a thousand; face to the foe + Back, ever back, but stubborn and slow. + Nineteen hundred wounds they take + In that service of Hell, yet the hills they shake + With the roar of their charge as onward they go + To the roll of their throbbing drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-four: + Their banners are tattered, and scarce twelve score, + Battered and wearied and seared and old, + Stay by the staves where the Orphans hold + Firm as a rock when the surges break-- + Shield of a land where men die for His sake, + For the sake of the brothers whom they have laid low, + To the roll of their muffled drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-five: + The Devil is dead and the Lord is alive, + In the earth that springs where the heroes sleep, + And in love new born where the stricken weep. + That legion hath marched past the setting of sun: + Beaten? nay, victors: the realms they have won + Are the hearts of men who forever shall hear + The throb of their far-off drums. + + +"TOM" MARSHALL[29] + + [From _The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler_ (Boston, + 1909)] + +I have referred above to Thomas F. Marshall, a man of singular +attractiveness and talents with whom I had a curious relation. I first +met him when I was about fourteen years of age, when he, for some time a +congressman, had through drunkenness fallen into a curious +half-abandoned mode of life. He was then an oldish fellow, but retained +much of his youthful splendor. He was about six feet three inches high, +but so well built that he did not seem large, until you stood beside +him. His face, even when marred by drink, had something of majesty in +it. Marshall, when I knew him, picked up a scanty living as a lecturer. +When sober, which he often was for months at a time, his favorite +subject was temperance. On this theme he was as eloquent as Gough; in +his season of spree, he turned to history. The gradations were not +sharp, for he would, as I have seen him, preach most admirably of the +evil of drink while he supported himself in his fervent oratory with +whiskey from a silver mug. In matters of history, he had read widely. +One of his favorite themes was the mediæval history of Italy. I recall +with a distinctness which shows the impressiveness of his discourses his +story of Florence, so well told that ten years after, when I saw the +town for the first time, the shape of it and of the neighboring places +was curiously familiar. Along with some other youths, I noted down the +dates of events as he gave them and looked them up. We never caught him +in an error, though at times he was so drunk that he could hardly stand +up. I have known many historians who doubtless much exceeded him in +learning, but never another who seemed to have such a capacity for +living in the events he narrated. + +I had no sooner met "Tom" Marshall than we became friends. He at once +took a curious fancy to me, talked to me as though we were of an age, +and gave me my first chance of such contact with a man of learning and +imagination. The relation, while on one side largely profitable to me, +became embarrassing, for the unhappy man got the notion that I could +stop his drinking if I would stay with him. A number of times when he +had his dipsomaniac fury upon him I found that by sitting by his bed +and talking with him on some historical subject, or rather listening +to his talk, he would apparently forget about his drink and in a few +hours drop asleep and awake to be sober for some months. + +Sometimes these quiet interviews were most interesting to me. I recall +one of them when I found him in an attack of half delirium. His +memory, always active, took him back to the days when he was in +Congress and to the scene when he, a very young member of the House, +had been chosen by some careful elders to lead an attack on John +Quincy Adams. They, the elders, were to come to his support when he +had drawn the enemy's fire. It all became so real to him, that he +sprang out of bed and in his tattered nightgown gave, first his own +speech with all the actions of a young orator, and then the +deliberate, crushing rejoinder of his mighty antagonist. At the end of +it he fell back upon his bed, cursing the villains who led him into +the fight and left him to take the consequences. + +My relations with Marshall continued until I went to Cambridge but my +influence over his drinking gradually lessened as he sank lower, and +his able mind began to be permanently clouded. When I had been some +months at college, I espied the poor fellow in the street, carpet-bag +in hand, evidently making for my quarters. I sent word by a messenger +to my chum, Hyatt, to receive and care for him, but to say that I had +left town, which was true, for I went at once to Greenfield, where I +had friends. Hyatt was also to provide the wanderer with a suit of +clothes and a railway ticket back to Kentucky. I stayed away until I +learned that Marshall was on his way home. I have always been ashamed +of my conduct in this matter, but the unhappy man was at that time of +his degradation an impossible burthen for me to carry; once ensconced +in my quarters it would have been impossible to provide him with a +dignified exit, and there was no longer hope that I might reform him. +Yet the cowardice of the action has grieved me to this day. + +Two years afterwards, in 1862, I saw Marshall for the last time. I was +with a column of troops going through the town of Versailles, +Kentucky. He was seated in front of a bar-room, with his chin upon +the top of his cane. He was so far gone that the sight merely troubled +his wits without affording him any explanation of what it meant. His +bleared though still noble face stays in my memories as one of the +saddest of those weary years. + + +LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY + + [From the same] + +Among the interesting and in a way shaping incidents of my boyhood, +was a brief contact with Abraham Lincoln about 1856. He was coming on +foot from the town of Covington; I was on horseback, and met him near +the bridge over the Licking River. He asked the way to my +grandfather's house, which was about a mile off. Attracted by his +appearance, I dismounted and asked him to get on my horse, which he +declined to do; so I walked beside him. Probably because he knew how +to talk to a lad--few know the art, and those the large natures +alone--we became at once friendly. When I had shown him into the +house, I hung about to find his name. As I had never heard of Mr. +Lincoln of Illinois, it was explained to me that he was the man who +was "running against" the Little Giant. We lads all knew Stephen A. +Douglas, who was so popular that farm tools were named for him: the +Little Giant this and that of cornshellers or ploughs. While Mr. +Lincoln was with my grandfather, my mother dined or supped with him. +When she came home she said: "I have had a long talk with Mr. Lincoln, +who is called an Abolitionist; if he is an Abolitionist, I am an +Abolitionist." I well remember the horror with which this remark +inspired the household: if my mother had said she was Satan, it could +not have been worse. The droll part of the matter is that all the +reasonable people about me were in heart haters of slavery. They saw +and deplored its evils, and were full of fanciful schemes for making +an end of it. But the name Abolitionist was abominated. + +I never knew what brought Mr. Lincoln to my grandfather's house. It is +likely that he came because a certain doctor of central Kentucky, an +uncle of Mr. Lincoln, a widower, had recently married an aunt of mine, +a widow. This union of two middle-aged people, each with large +families, brought trouble; since family traditions were against +divorce, a separation was effected which had an amusing though tragic +finish. When all other matters of property had been arranged and P. +had betaken himself to his plantation in Mississippi, as an +afterthought he set up a supplementary claim to a saddle mule +belonging to my aunt which he had forgotten to demand in the +settlement. This reopened the question, and it was determined in +family council that the grasping doctor should not be satisfied. We +boys had the notion that Mr. Lincoln's visit related to this episode +of the mule, for shortly after the "critter" was sent with a servant +by steamboat, to be delivered to the claimant at the landing of his +plantation on the Mississippi River. In due time the negro returned +and made report: It was that the unworthy suitor came with a group of +his friends to witness his success, mounted, and started to ride away, +but the beast, frisky from its long confinement, "stooped up behind," +as the darkeys phrase it, and threw his master and killed him. Whether +Lincoln had a hand in the negotiations which led to this finish or +not, I am sure that the humor of it must have tickled him. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] Copyright, 1906, by Houghton, Mifflin Company. + +[29] Copyright, 1909, by Houghton, Mifflin Company. + + + + +WILLIAM L. VISSCHER + + +William Lightfoot Visscher, poet, was born at Owingsville, Kentucky, +November 25, 1842. He was educated at the Bath Seminary, Owingsville, +and graduated in law from the University of Louisville, but he never +practiced. He was a soldier in the Civil War for four years. Colonel +Visscher--which title he did not win upon the battlefield!--has been +connected with more newspapers than he now cares to count; and he has +written hundreds of verses which have appeared in periodicals and in +book form. He is the author of five novels: _Carlisle of Colorado_; +_Way Out Yonder_; _Thou Art Peter_; _Fetch Over the Canoe_ (Chicago, +1908); and _Amos Hudson's Motto_. The first of these is the best known +work he has done in prose fiction. His _Thrilling and Truthful History +of the Pony Express_ (Chicago, 1908), filled a small gap in American +history. A little group of biographical sketches and newspaper +reminiscences, called _Ten Wise Men and Some More_ (Chicago, 1909), is +interesting. Colonel Visscher has also published five books of verse: +_Black Mammy; Harp of the South; Blue Grass Ballads and Other Verse_ +(Chicago, 1900); _Chicago: an Epic_, and his most recent volume, +_Poems of the South and Other Verses_ (Chicago, 1911). The colonel is +also a popular lecturer; and he has actually put paint on his face and +essayed acting. He is a poet of the Old South, one reading his verse +would at once conclude that not to have been born in Kentucky before +the war, one might as well never have lived at all. He is a versified, +pocket-edition of Mr. Thomas Nelson Page; and while he has not reached +the sublime heights of true poesy, he has written some delicious +dialect and much pleasing verse. _Proem_, printed in two of his books, +is certainly the best thing he has done hitherto. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Century Magazine_ (July, 1902); _Who's Who in + America_ (1912-1913). + + +PROEM[30] + + [From _Poems of the South and Other Verse_ (Chicago, 1911)] + + In the evening of a lifetime + While the shadows, growing long, + Fall eastward, and the gloaming + Brings the spell of vesper song, + Fond memory turns backward + To the bright light of the day, + Where joys, like troops of fairies, + Gaily dance along the way, + Full-armed with mirth and music, + Driving skirmishers of care + Howling, back into the forest, + And their dark, uncanny lair. + So the pastures of Kentucky, + And the fields of Tennessee, + The bloom of all the Southland + And the old-time melody; + The vales, and streams, and mountains; + The bay of trailing hounds; + The neigh of blooded horses + And the farm-yard's cheery sounds; + The smiles of wholesome women + And the hail of hearty men, + Come sweeping back, in fancy, + And, behold, I'm young again. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[30] Copyright, 1911, by the Author. + + + + +BENNETT H. YOUNG + + +Bennett Henderson Young, historian and antiquarian, was born at +Nicholasville, Kentucky, May 25, 1843, the son of blue-stocking +Presbyterians. His academic training was received at Centre College, +Danville, Kentucky, and Queen's College, Toronto, Canada. He was +graduated in law from Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland. Colonel Young +was with General John Hunt Morgan and his men during the Civil War, +being in charge of the raid through St. Alban's, Vermont. He was a +member of the fourth Constitutional convention which formulated +Kentucky's present constitution. Colonel Young is now one of the +leading lawyers of Louisville, and commander-in-chief of the United +Confederate Veterans. He has published _The History of the Kentucky +Constitutions_ (1890); _The History of Evangelistic Work in Kentucky_ +(1891); _History of the Battle of the Blue Licks_ (Louisville, 1897); +_The History of Jessamine County, Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); _The +History of the Division of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_ +(1898); _The Battle of the Thames_ (Louisville, 1901); _Kentucky +Eloquence_ (Louisville, 1907); and _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1910). Colonel Young has taken a keen interest in "the +prehistoric men of Kentucky," the mound-builders; and his collection +is one of the finest in the country. His work upon these ancient +people is far and away the ablest volume he has written. It +represented the researches of a life-time, and the results of his +labors are quite obvious. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1897); + _Who's Who in America_ (1912-1913). + + +PREHISTORIC WEAPONS[31] + + [From _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1910)] + +The life of prehistoric man, judging from the large number of +fortifications existing in Kentucky to this day, must have been one of +constant and general warfare. His weapons were all constructed for +conflict at short range. + +First was his ax of two kinds, grooved and grooveless. The indications +are that these were used contemporaneously, and though this is not +certain, their proximity to each other in so many places would tend to +show that they were made during the same period. The grooved ax would +be more reliable either in domestic use or in war than the grooveless +ax, because of the grip of the handle, aided materially by the groove, +permitting it to be held much more closely and to admit of heavier +strokes and more constant action. The battle-axes vary in weight from +one to thirty-two pounds. They were doubtless so variant in weight by +reason of the conditions that surrounded the makers, and also by +reason of the ability of the user to carry either light or heavy +weight. With handles from three to six feet and firmly bound with +rawhide, which could be obtained from several animals, these men were +enabled to fasten the handle tightly around the ax, either grooved or +ungrooved. These axes would require close contact in battle. They had +flint saws or knives which enabled them to cut the hickory withe or +sapling from which these handles were made. After soaking the handle +in hot water, or for that matter in cold water, it could easily have +been bent around the ax and tied with rawhide, which, by its +contraction when drying, would press the handle closely in the groove. + +They also used what is known as a battle-ax blade, that is, a thin +piece of flint, oval in shape, about five by three and a half inches. +By splitting the handle and placing the flint blade between it, and +then binding with rawhide, they were enabled to fasten it very +securely. These handles were about two or two and a half feet in +length, and with the blade projecting on either side, became a +dangerous weapon at close range. + +The most damage, however, done by these prehistoric people was doubtless +accomplished by the bow and arrow. The bows were about six feet in +length, judging by the strings which we have seen and one of which the +writer has been able to secure from Salts Cave. They would be made of +many woods, preferably of hickory, cedar, or ash, but hickory usually +possesses greater strength than other timbers of similar size. It is not +probable that they had any tools with which they could split the hickory +trees. They would, therefore, be compelled to use the hickory saplings +in the manufacture of bow staves. + +The penetrative force of the stone-tipped arrow, driven by the strong +and skillful arms of these prehistoric men, must have been very great. +Quite a number of instances are known and specimens preserved in which +they were driven practically through the larger bones of the body. The +author has a human pelvis found in a cave in Meade County. Imbedded in +this is a portion of a flint arrow-point, the position of which shows +that it had been driven through the body, penetrating the bone on the +opposite side from which it entered. The point reached into the socket +of the hip joint. There it remained, causing necrosis of the bone, +until by processes of Nature the wastage was stopped, and the point +remained in the bone until the death of the individual, which the +indications show occurred long after receiving the wound. In one +instance an arrowhead was driven three inches into the bone of the leg +just below its union with the hip, and evidently caused the death of +the party into whom it had been shot. A number of instances are known +in which these arrowheads penetrated several inches into bone, and it +was no unusual thing that they attained sufficient penetrative force +to drive them through both coverings of the skull. + +Three of these arrowheads that have come under the immediate +observation of the author are not sharp at all, but rather blunt. The +smaller triangular arrowheads, if sufficiently strong--and probably +they were--could have been driven readily into bone without the use of +any great force, but an arrow-point about three inches in length, and +with a blunt point, thus driven into the bones of the body, +demonstrates beyond all question that the power which was used in +their propulsion must have been comparatively very great. + +The wooden or cane shafts probably were tipped with many kinds of +points, some beveled, some serrated, some triangular, some blunt, +being fastened thereto with the sinew of the deer or other animal. +There are some evidences, although not entirely conclusive, that these +arrow-points were often tipped with poison. It is said that at one +time the Shawnees in Western Kentucky were so well versed in the use +of poisons that they could place them in springs and thus destroy +their enemies, and also that quite large streams of water were +impregnated with these dangerous elements. We sometimes comment upon +the savageness of the methods of these people, but the poisoned arrow +is no worse than the soft-nose or explosive bullet, which has been +used by civilized nations in the memory of living people. + +The next weapon was the spear. These carried points so large that they +could not have been used with the ordinary bow. They must have been +attached to a larger piece of wood or cane than the arrow-shaft. They +were probably mounted upon cane or pieces of wood from four and +one-half to seven feet in length. They were doubtless used also in the +destruction of the larger animals, either bears or buffaloes, during +the buffalo period in Kentucky. The spear would be much more +formidable in close quarters with an animal even as large as the +wildcat than the bow and arrow. It would be comparatively as efficient +as the bayonet of modern times. + +Many of the flint knives were mounted on wooden handles. These +sometimes measure from one to ten inches in length, and at very close +range would become formidable weapons--not as formidable, however, as +the battle-ax blade which has been described above. + +In Kentucky there are no evidences of the cross-bow having been used. +The five weapons which we have described completed the military +accoutrement of these men, who must have spent a large portion of +their lives in warlike scenes and exploits. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[31] Copyright, 1910, by the Filson Club. + + + + +JAMES H. MULLIGAN + + +James Hilary Mulligan, the author of _In Kentucky_, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, November 21, 1844. He was graduated at St. Mary's +College, Montreal, Canada, in 1864; and five years later Kentucky +(Transylvania) University granted him his degree in law. For forty years +Judge Mulligan has been known in Kentucky as a lawyer, orator, and maker +of clever, humorous verse. He was editor of the old Lexington _Morning +Transcript_ for a year; and for six years he was judge of the Recorder's +Court of Lexington, from which work he won his title of "judge." From +1881 to 1888 Judge Mulligan was a member of the Kentucky House of +Representatives; and from 1890 to 1894 he was in the State Senate. In +1894 President Cleveland appointed Judge Mulligan Consul-General at +Samoa, and this post he held for two years. While in Samoa he saw much +of Robert Louis Stevenson, who was working upon _Weir of Hermiston_, and +well upon his way to the undiscovered country when the Kentucky diplomat +met him. When Stevenson died, December 4, 1894, the first authoritative +news of his passing came in a now rare and precious little booklet of +thirty-seven pages which Lloyd Osbourne, Judge Mulligan, Bazett Haggard, +brother of the English novelist, and another writer, sent out to the +world, entitled _A Letter to Mr. Stevenson's Friends_ (Apia, Samoa, +1894). It contained a detailed account of the writer's last days, his +death, and funeral. Mr. Osbourne "ventured also to reprint Mr. Gosse's +beautiful lines, _To Tusitala in Vailima_, which reached Mr. Stevenson +but three days before his death." President Cleveland offered to send +Judge Mulligan to Cape Town, Africa, but he declined the appointment, +and came home. For the past fifteen years he has devoted his attention +to the law and to the writing of verse and prose. His _Samoa, the +Government, Commerce, and People_ (Washington, 1896), is said to be the +most exhaustive account of that island ever published. Judge Mulligan's +little humorous poem, _In Kentucky_, has made him famous. First read at +a banquet in the old Phoenix Hotel, Lexington, in 1902, it has been +declaimed in the halls of Congress and gotten into the _Congressional +Record_. It has been parodied a thousand times, reproduced in almost +every newspaper in English, illustrated, and at least one Kentuckian has +heard it chanted by an Englishman in the shadow of the Pyramids in +Egypt! More than a million souvenir postal cards have been sold with the +verses printed upon them; and had the author had _In Kentucky_ +copyrighted, he would have reaped a harvest of golden coins. As poetry +Judge Mulligan's _Over the Hills to Hustonville_, or _The Bells of Old +St. Joseph's_, are superior to _In Kentucky_, but they are both +comparatively unknown to the general public. Judge Mulligan's home, +"Maxwell Place," on the outskirts of Lexington, was the birthplace of +_In Kentucky_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lexington Leader_ (April 4, 1909); _Library of + Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1910, v. xiv). + + +IN KENTUCKY + + [From _The Lexington Herald_ (February 12, 1902)] + + The moonlight falls the softest + In Kentucky; + The summer days come oftest + In Kentucky; + Friendship is the strongest, + Love's light glows the longest, + Yet, wrong is always wrongest + In Kentucky. + + Life's burdens bear the lightest + In Kentucky; + The home fires burn the brightest + In Kentucky; + While players are the keenest, + Cards come out the meanest, + The pocket empties cleanest + In Kentucky. + + The sun shines ever brightest + In Kentucky; + The breezes whisper lightest + In Kentucky; + Plain girls are the fewest, + Their little hearts the truest, + Maiden's eyes the bluest + In Kentucky. + + Orators are the grandest + In Kentucky; + Officials are the blandest + In Kentucky; + Boys are all the fliest, + Danger ever nighest, + Taxes are the highest + In Kentucky. + + The bluegrass waves the bluest + In Kentucky; + Yet, bluebloods are the fewest(?) + In Kentucky; + Moonshine is the clearest, + By no means the dearest, + And, yet, it acts the queerest + In Kentucky. + + The dovenotes are the saddest + In Kentucky; + The streams dance on the gladdest + In Kentucky; + Hip pockets are the thickest, + Pistol hands the slickest, + The cylinder turns quickest + In Kentucky. + + The song birds are the sweetest + In Kentucky; + The thoroughbreds are fleetest + In Kentucky; + Mountains tower proudest, + Thunder peals the loudest, + The landscape is the grandest-- + And politics--the damnedest + In Kentucky. + + +OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE + + [From _The Lexington Leader_ (April 4, 1909)] + + Over the hill to Hustonville, + Past mead and vale and waving grain + With fleecy clouds and glad sunshine + And the balm of the coming rain; + On where hidden beneath the hill, + In the widening vale below-- + Chime and smith and distant herd + Sing a song of the long ago. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + Where silent fields are sad and brown, + And the crow's lone call is blended + With the anvil beat of the town; + Where sweet the hamlet life flows on, + And the doors ever open wide, + Welcome the worn and wandering + To the ingle and cheer inside. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + I knew and loved as a child, + A scene that yet lights up to me + With a radiant glow and mild; + With drowsy lane and quiet street, + Gables quaint and the houses gray, + Ancient inn with battered sign, + And an air of the far-away. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + Where men are yet sturdy and strong + As were their sires in days long past-- + As true as their flint-locks long. + And maids are shy and soft of speech-- + As the wild-rose, lithsome and true, + Eyes alight as the coming dawn, + Softly blue, as their skies are blue. + + Some--sometime--in the bye and bye, + With all my life-won riches rare-- + Dead hopes and faded memories-- + A silken floss of baby hair; + Fast locked close within my heart-- + Worn of strife and the empty quest-- + I'll over the hill to Hustonville, + To dream ever--and rest--and rest. + + + + +NELLY M. McAFEE + + +Mrs. Nelly (Nichol) Marshall McAfee, novelist and verse writer, was +born at Louisville, Kentucky, May 8, 1845, the daughter of Humphrey +Marshall, the younger. When but eighteen years of age she embarked +upon a literary career. Her verse and short-stories appeared in many +of the best American newspapers and magazines, and they brought her a +wide reputation. On February 13, 1871, after a romantic courtship of +some years, Miss Marshall was married to Captain John J. McAfee, a +former Confederate soldier, then a member of the Kentucky legislature. +Mrs. McAfee published two volumes of verse, entitled _A Bunch of +Violets_, and _Leaves From the Book of My Heart_. Her novels include +_Eleanor Morton, or Life in Dixie_ (New York, 1865); _Sodom Apples_ +(1866); _Fireside Gleamings_ (Chicago, 1866); _Dead Under the Roses_ +(1867); _Wearing the Cross_ (Cincinnati, 1868); _As by Fire_ (New +York, 1869); _Passion, or Bartered and Sold_ (Louisville, 1876); and +_A Criminal Through Love_ (Louisville, 1882). Mrs. McAfee died at +Washington, D. C., about 1895. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Woods-McAfee Memorial History_, by N. M. Woods + (Louisville, 1905); _Dictionary of American Authors_, by O. F. + Adams (Boston, 1905). + + +FINALE + + [From _A Criminal Through Love_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1882)] + +Many years have been gathered to the illimitable past, and we find +ourselves, with undiminished interest, seeking to learn all we can in +regard to the positions and attainments of the characters who have +been with us for so long. + +This is the gist of what we have learned about them. + +Walter Floor's firm has grown and flourished; the dark cloud of sorrow +that so long overshadowed his sky, has rolled away, and he is +nevermore melancholy or oppressed. His home is the resting-place and +haven for everybody who chooses to enjoy shelter and repose. Constant +and Valentine are standing guests at the Floor mansion; the talented +painter has no longer any need to work for money. The mention of his +name opens every door to him, and Fortune and Fame await him with +their arms laden with golden sheaves and shining laurel wreaths. His +greatest work of art--his masterpiece--was taken from Mozart's Opera +of _Don Juan_. At a glance any one could tell that the artist painted +the portrait _con amore_, for Donna Anna was nothing more than a +portrait of Margarethe Heinold--whom we must ever after this moment +remember only as Margarethe Hendrik. More happiness than came with +this name to her could scarcely be enjoyed by mortal. Great sums were +offered again and again to Constant for this picture, but he refused +to sell it; it now graces the elegant _Salon_ of Julian Hendrik in his +magnificent villa, which stands on the banks of the Rhine. + +Margarethe, after the night of her brilliant _debut_, never stepped +upon the boards. She was often urged to let the world hear her +splendid voice, which returned to her in all its volume and beauty +after she regained her health, but she refused to entertain the +proposition for an instant, declaring that public life, however +glorious, had no charms for her; that she lived only for her husband, +to whom she becomes ever more tenderly attached the better she became +acquainted with his noble heart, elevated mind, and peerless character +as a man and a gentleman. + +Didier Mametin is still in Paris; at the death of old Vincent he +became his heir, and was at last able to open such a photographer's +_Atelier_ as other artists pronounced perfect in every detail. The +lighthearted Frenchman, never accustomed to an extravagant mode of +living, is just as merry in humor and abstemious in diet as of yore. +Henriette often declares that he acts as if he were afraid of +starving--he is such a hoarder for "rainy days." But Didier had a +varied experience, and the lessons he learned were not easily +forgotten. One happy fact remains: He and Henriette love each other +dearly, and would not exchange their places or give up their home to +be a king and queen and live in a palace. + +Roderick Martens attends to the ship-building interests of Jyphoven, +in Amsterdam, and occupies the old Jyphoven mansion. Herr and Madame +Jyphoven continue to reside in Paris. Bella is enchanted with life in +the French city, and declares that to be mistress of the whole +world--if she would go but for a day--could be no inducement to her to +set her foot in the old Holland fishery, as she now describes it to +be. She is entirely reconciled to Francisca. The beauty and happiness +of the young wife would captivate the most callous heart. + +And Von Kluyden? This man who devoted himself to intrigue and +rascality for so long, knew not, while he lived, how otherwise to +occupy his time. He was never satisfied. Nemesis held him fast in her +cruel clutches. When the time came for Hendrik to assert and prove his +rights, he did so most successfully; and that for which Isabella +bartered her honor, and beauty, and youth, passed like sand through +the fingers, and was hers no more. Von Kluyden was successful in +nothing that he undertook to accomplish; the ghost of the murdered +Horst followed him day and night;--he finally died in a madhouse! +Isabella had, a little while before his dementia, entrusted herself +and her million of money into the hands of a young man of the titled +nobility--who in his turn did not love the young widow even for her +marvelous beauty--but for the _thalers_ and _gulden_ that brought +plenty to his empty coffers and luxury to his impoverished home. In +this marriage Isabella did not find the happiness she expected to +find, and for which she had so long waited. The Prince squandered her +enormous fortune, as Princes are usually supposed to squander +fortunes, in about the half of a year's duration, and by that time, +having found out and enjoyed all that life held for him of pleasure or +excitement, he closed his career by putting a pistol-ball through his +head, early one morning, while the sun was shining, and the birds were +singing, and flowers were blooming on every side. + +So it has come to pass that Isabella--although not yet twenty-five +years of age, has been twice a widow--(and a very charming one she +is!) not likely now ever to be aught else! The sale of her beauty, her +honor, her peace of mind, has brought to her, as a recompense for what +she has lost, a varied and rich experience, which will save her +forever hereafter from the chance of being deceived and betrayed +through the tenderest and noblest impulses of the human heart. + +And so the curtain goes down forever between us and those with whom we +have whiled away some pleasant hours, and gathered, it may be, profit +or amusement from their acting on the stage of life. + +_Voila tout._ + + + + +MARY F. CHILDS + + +Mrs. Mary Fairfax Childs, maker of dialect verse, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, May 25, 1846. She is the daughter of the Rev. +Edward Fairfax Berkley (1813-1897), who was rector of Christ Church, +Lexington, for nineteen years. Dr. Berkley baptized Henry Clay, in +1847, and buried him five years later. Miss Berkley was a pupil at the +Misses Jackson's Seminary for young ladies until her thirteenth year, +or, in 1858, when her father accepted a call to St. Louis, in which +city he labored for the following forty years. In St. Louis, she +continued her studies at a private school for girls, when she left +prior to her graduation in order to devote herself more especially to +music, Latin, and French. Miss Berkley was married, in 1870, to +William Ward Childs, a returned Confederate soldier; and in 1884 they +removed to Clinton, Missouri, where they resided for seven years, when +business called them to New York, their home until Mr. Child's death +in 1911. Mrs. Childs's life in New York was a very busy one. She was +prominent in several social and literary groups; and for many years +she was corresponding secretary of the New York Chapter of the United +Daughters of the Confederacy. Her first poem that attracted wide +attention was entitled _De Namin' ob de Twins_, which originally +appeared in _The Century Magazine_ for December, 1903. It was the +second in a group of _Eleven Negro Songs_, written by Joel Chandler +Harris, Grace MacGowan Cooke, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and one or two +other poets. That Mrs. Childs's masterpiece was the flower of the +flock admits of little question: it is one of the best negro dialect +poems yet written by a Southern woman. Exactly a year later the same +periodical published her _A Christmas Warning_, with the well-known +refrain, _Roos' high, chicken--roos' high_. These, with many others, +were brought together in an attractive volume, entitled _De Namin' ob +de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton Land_ (New York, 1908). +This collection is highly esteemed by that rather small company of +lovers of dialect verse. Mrs. Childs's poem, _The Boys Who Wore the +Gray_, has been printed, and is well-known throughout the South. She +has recently completed another collection of sketches, called +_Absolute Monarchy_, which will appear in 1913. At the present time +Mrs. Childs is historian of the Society of Kentucky Women of New York, +although she is residing at Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Louis. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Mrs. Childs to the present writer; _The + Century Magazine_ (January, 1906). + + +DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS[32] + + [From _De Namin' ob de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton + Land_ (New York, 1908)] + + What I gwine name mah Ceely's twins? + I dunno, honey, yit, + But I is jes er-waitin' fer de fines' I kin git, + De names is purty nigh run out, + So many niggahs heah, + I 'clar' dey's t'ick as cotton-bolls in pickin'-time o' yeah. + + But 't ain' no use to 'pose to me + Ole secondary names, + Lak 'Liza_beth_ an' Jose_phine_, or Caesah, Torm, an' James, + 'Ca'se dese heah twinses ob mah gal's + Is sech a diff'ent kind, + Dey's 'titled to do grandes' names dat ary one kin find. + + Fer sho dese little shiny brats + Is got de fus'-cut look, + So mammy wants fine city names, lak you gits out a book; + I ax Marse Rob, an' he done say + Some 'rageous stuff lak dis: + He'd call de bruddah Be'lze_bub_, de sistah Gene_sis_; + + Or Alphy an' Omegy--de + Beginnin' an' de en'-- + But den, ob co'se no man kin tell, what mo' de Lawd 'll sen'; + Fer de pappy ob dese orphans-- + You heah me?--I'll be boun', + While dey's er-crawlin' on de flo', he'll be er-lookin' roun'; + + 'Ca'se I done seen dem Judas teahs + He drap at Ceely's grabe, + A-peepin' 'hind his han'kercher, at ole Tim's yaller Gabe; + A-mekin' out to moan an' groan, + Lak he was gwine 'o bus'-- + Lawd! honey, dem dat howls de mos,' gits ober it de fus'. + + Annynias an' Saphiry, + Sis Tab done say to me, + But he'p me, Lawd! what _do_ she 'spec' dese chillum gwine o' + be? + 'Sides, dem names 's got er cur'us soun'-- + You says I's hard to please? + Well, so 'ould any granny be, wid sech a pa'r as dese. + + Ole Pahson Bob he 'low dat I + Will suttinly be sinnin', + Onless I gibs 'em names dat starts 'em right in de beginnin'; + "Iwilla" fer de gal, he say, + F'om de tex' "I will a-rise," + An' dat 'ould show she's startin' up, todes glory in de skies; + + An' fer dis man chile, Aberham-- + De fardah ob' em all-- + Or else Belshazzah, who done writ dat writin' on de wall; + But Pahson Bob--axcuse me, Lawd!-- + Hed bettah sabe his bref + To preach de gospel, an' jes keep his "visin" to hiss'f; + + Per nary pusson, white nor black, + Ain' gib no p'int to me + 'Bout namin' dese heah Chris'mus gifs, asleep on granny's knee; + (Now heshaby--don' squirm an' twis', + Be still you varmints, do! + You anin' gwine hab no niggah names to tote aroun' wide you!) + + 'Ca'se on de question ob dese names + I sho is hed mah mine + _Per_zactly an' _per_cidedly done med up all de time; + Fer mah po' Ceely Ann--yas, Lawd, + Jes nigh afo' she died, + She name' dis gal, "Neu-ral-gy," her boy twin, "Hom-i-cide." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[32] Copyright, 1908, by B. W. Dodge and Company. + + + + +WILLIAM T. PRICE + + +William Thompson Price, dramatic critic, creator of playwrights, was +born near Louisville, Kentucky, December 17, 1846. He was educated in +the private schools of Louisville, but the Civil War proved more +interesting than text-books, so he ran away with Colonel E. P. Clay, +whom he left, in turn, for John H. Morgan, and Generals Forrest and +Wheeler. He was finally captured and imprisoned but he, of course, +escaped. After the war Mr. Price went to Germany and studied for three +years at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin. From 1875 to 1880 he +was dramatic critic for the Louisville _Courier-Journal_; and the +following five years he devoted to editorial work for various +newspapers, and to collecting material for his enormous biography of +the Rev. George O. Barnes, a noted and eccentric Kentucky evangelist, +which appeared under the title of _Without Scrip or Purse_ +(Louisville, 1883). Mr. Price went to New York in the early eighties, +and that city has remained his home to this day. In 1885 he was +dramatic critic for the now defunct New York _Star_, which he left +after a year to become a reader of new plays for A. M. Palmer, the +leading manager of his time, whom he was associated with for more than +twenty years. Mr. Price's _The Technique of the Drama_ (New York, +1892), gave him a high position among the dramatic writers of the +country. A new edition of it was called for in 1911, and it seems +destined to remain the chief authority in its field for many years. In +1901 Mr. Price became playreader for Harrison Grey Fiske; and in the +same year he founded the American School of Playwriting, in which men +and women, whom the gods forgot, are transformed into great +dramatists--perhaps! His second volume upon the stage, _The Analysis +of Play Construction and Dramatic Principle_ (New York, 1908), is the +text-book of his school. At the present time Mr. Price is editor of +_The American Playwright_, a monthly magazine of dramatic discussion. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Mr. Price to the present writer; _Who's + Who in America_ (1912-1913). + + +THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS[33] + + [From _The Technique of the Drama_ (New York, 1892)] + +The light-hearted genius of Paris composed a new style of opera for +the general merriment of the world. Who can describe the surprises, +the quaintness of song, the drolleries of action of the Offenbach +school? It was the intoxicating wine of music. Gladstone, when premier +of England, found time to say that the world owed as much in its +civilization to the discovery of the fiddle as it did to steam. + +This cannot be applied in its whole sense to Offenbach, but this +master of satire and the sensuous certainly expressed his times. He +set laughter to song. It was democratic. It spared not king, courtier, +or the rabble. It was wisdom and sentiment in disguise. It was born +among despotisms, and jested when kingdoms fell. It was the stalking +horse behind which Offenbach hunted the follies of the day and bagged +the absurdities of the hour. If it had _double entendre_, its +existence had a double meaning. Its music and purpose defied national +prejudices. Under its laughter-compelling notes the sober bass-viol +put on a merry disposition, and your cornet-a-piston became a wag. It +was flippant, the glorification of youthful mirth and feelings, and it +made many a melancholy Jacques sing again the song of Beranger, + + "_Comme je regrette ma jambe si dodu._" + +It is not the purpose here to commend its delirious dances, but to +admit that there was genius in it. In a technical sense the dramatic +part of them are models compared with the inane and vague compositions +of a later school. + +The opera bouffe is in a stage beyond decadence, and no longer regards +consistency, even of nonsense, in its dramatic elements. Some of the +conventionalisms of its technique remain. + +We hear again and again the old choruses, the drinking songs, the +letter songs, the wine songs, the conspirators' songs, the departure +for the war, the lovers' duets, and what-not, with the old goblets, +the old helmets and all in use; but order is lost, and the topical +song often saves the public patience, apart from the _disjecta +membra_, upon which are fed the eye and the ear. + +The Gilbert opera. The delicate foolery of Gilbert and the interpreting +melody of Sullivan created an inimitable form of opera that delighted +its generations. In its way perfection marks it. There is much in it +that ministers to inward quiet and enjoyment. "Pinafore," "The Mikado," +and all the list, are products of genius. "Ruddygore" is structurally +weak, proving that even nonsense must have a logical treatment. +Successful in a manner as "Ruddygore" was, it was filled with +characteristic quaintness. We accept Rose Maybud as a piece of good +luck, from the moment her modest slippers demurely patter to the front; +and it is a sober statement to say that our generation has seen nothing +more charming than her artful artlessness and innocence. She is worthy +of Gilbert. His taste is refined beyond the point of vulgarity in +essence or by way of expediency. His fancy is not tainted with the +corruption of flesh-tight limbs, and he holds fast only to such physical +allurements as the "three little maids just from school" in the "Mikado" +or the impossibly good and dainty Rose Maybud may tempt us with. In the +dance there is no lasciviousness, only joy. Gilbert and Sullivan have +called a halt to the can-can and bid the world be decent. The whole +history of comic opera is filled with proof that music first consented +to lend itself to foolery on condition that there should be some heart +in it; and even Offenbach, the patriarch of libidinous absurdities, +could not get along without stopping by the wayside to make his sinners +sing love-songs filled with pure emotion. + +Rose Maybud is a piece of delicate coquetry with the mysterious +simplicity of maidenhood, giving offense in no way. These authors are +satirists, not burlesquers and fakirs. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[33] Copyright, 1892, by Brentano's. + + + + +GEORGE M. DAVIE + + +George Montgomery Davie, a verse-maker of cleverness and charm, was +born near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, March 16, 1848. He began his +collegiate career at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, but he later +went to Princeton, from which institution he was graduated in 1868. +Two years later he established himself as a lawyer at Louisville. +Davie rose rapidly in his profession, and he was soon recognized as +one of the ablest lawyers in Kentucky. Though busy with his practice, +he found time to write verse and short prose papers for periodicals +that were appreciated by many persons. Davie was a Latinist of decided +ability, and he often employed himself in turning the odes of Horace +into English. His original work, however, is very charming and clever, +a smile being concealed in almost every line he wrote, though it is a +very quiet and dignified smile, never boisterous. He was one of the +founders of the now celebrated Filson Club, of Louisville. He died at +New York, February 22, 1900, but he sleeps to-day in Louisville's +beautiful Cave Hill cemetery. _Verses_ (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.), +a broadside, contains Davie's best original poems and translations and +it is a very scarce item at this time. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (February 23, 1900); _Kentucky + Eloquence_ (Louisville, 1907). + + +"FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE!" + +(Catullus, Car. CI.) + + [From _Verses_ (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.)] + + Through many nations, over many seas, + Brother, I come to thy sad obsequies: + To bring the last gifts for the dead to thee, + And speak to thy mute ashes--left to me + By the hard fate, that on a cruel day, + From me, dear brother, called Thyself away. + Receive these gifts, wet with fraternal tears; + And the last rites, that custom old endears; + These fond memorials would my sorrow tell-- + Brother! forever, hail thee--and farewell! + + +HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL + + [From the same] + + Animula vagula blandula, + Hospes comesque corporis, + Quae nunc abibis in loca, + Pallidula rigida nudula; + Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos? + + Thou sprite! so charming, uncontrolled, + Guest and companion of my clay, + Into what places wilt thou stray, + When thou art naked, pale, and cold? + Wilt then make merry--as of old? + + + + +JOHN URI LLOYD + + +John Uri Lloyd, novelist and scientist, was born at West Bloomfield, +New York, April 19, 1849. He is the son of a civil engineer who came +West, in 1853, for the purpose of surveying a railroad between +Covington and Louisville, known as the "River Route." Mr. Lloyd was +thus four years old when his father settled at Burlington, Boone +county, Kentucky, near the line of the road. The panic of 1854 came +and the railroad company failed, but his parents preferred their new +Kentucky home to the old home in the East, and they decided to remain, +taking up their first vocations, that of teaching. For several years +they taught in the village schools of the three little Kentucky towns +of Burlington, Petersburg, and Florence. Mr. Lloyd lived at Florence +until he was fourteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to a +Cincinnati druggist, but he continued to be a resident of Kentucky +until 1876, since which time he has lived at Cincinnati. In 1878 he +became connected with the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, and this +connection has continued to the present day. In 1880 he was married to +a Kentucky woman. Mr. Lloyd is one of the most distinguished +pharmaceutical chemists in the United States. He has a magnificent +library and museum upon his subjects; and he is generally conceded to +be the world's highest authority on puff-balls. Mr. Lloyd's scientific +works include _The Chemistry of Medicines_ (1881); _Drugs and +Medicines of North America_ (1884); _King's American Dispensatory_ +(1885); _Elixirs, their History and Preparation_ (1892); and he, as +president, has edited the publications of the Lloyd Library, as +follows: _Dr. B. S. Barton's Collections_ (1900); _Dr. Peter Smith's +Indian Doctor's Dispensatory_ (1901); _A Study in Pharmacy_ (1902); +_Dr. David Schopf's Materia Medica Americana_ (1903); _Dr. Manasseh +Cutler's Vegetable Productions_ (1903); _Reproductions from the Works +of William Downey, John Carver, and Anthony St. Storck_ (1907); +_Hydrastis Canadensis_ (1908); _Samuel Thomson and Thomsonian Materia +Medica_ (1909). Dr. Lloyd has won his general reputation as a writer +of novels descriptive of life in northern Kentucky. His first work to +attract wide attention was entitled _Etidorpha, or the End of Earth_ +(New York, 1895), a work which involved speculative philosophy. This +was followed by a little story, _The Right Side of the Car_ (Boston, +1897). Then came the Stringtown stories, which made his reputation. +"Stringtown" is the fictional name for the Kentucky Florence of his +boyhood. There are four of them: _Stringtown on the Pike_ (New York, +1900); _Warwick of the Knobs_ (New York, 1901); _Red Head_ (New York, +1903); and _Scroggins_ (New York, 1904). In these stories the +author's aim was not to be engaged solely as a novelist, "but to +portray to outsiders a phase of life unknown to the world at large, +and to establish a folk-lore picture in which the scenes that occurred +in times gone by, would be paralleled in the events therein narrated." +_Stringtown on the Pike_ is Mr. Lloyd's best known book, but _Warwick +of the Knobs_ is far and way the finest of the four. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Bookman_ (May, 1900); _The Outlook_ (November + 16, 1901); _The Bookman_ (December, 1910). + + +"LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT"[34] + + [From _Warwick of the Knobs_ (New York, 1901)] + +Warwick made no movement; no word of greeting came from his lips, no +softening touch to his furrowed brow, no sparkle to his cold, gray +eye. As though gazing upon a stranger, he sat and pierced the girl +through and through with a formal stare, that drove despair deeper +into her heart and caused her to cling closer to her brother. + +"Pap, sister's home ag'in," the youth repeated. + +"I know nothing of a sister who claims a home here." + +Mary would have fallen but for the strong arm of her brother, who +gently, tenderly guided her to a great rocking-chair. Then he turned +on his father. + +"I said thet sister's home agin, and I means it, pap." + +Turning the leaves of the Book to a familiar passage, Warwick read +aloud: + +"'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life +is not of the Father, but of the world.' This girl has no home here. +She is of the world." + +"Father, ef sister hes no home here, I hav'n't none, either. Ef she +must go out into the world, I'll go with her." + +The man of God gazed sternly at the rebellious youth. Then he turned +to the girl. + +"The good Book says, 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the +earth.'" + +Joshua stepped between the two and hid the child from her father. + +"Pap, thet book says tough things to-night. The text you preached from +to-day was a better one. I remember et, and I'll leave et to you ef I +am not right. 'I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep my +anger forever.' Thet's a better text, and I takes et, God was in a +better humor when He wrote et." + +"Joshua!" spoke the father, shocked at his son's irreverence. + +"Listen, pap. I hate to say et, but I must. You preached one thing +this morning, and you acts another thing now. Didn't you say thet God +'retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy?' I +may not hev the words right, but I've got the sense." + +"My son!" + +"Pap, I axes the question on the square. Ain't thet what you preached?" + +"That was the text." + +"It ain't fair to preach one text in the meetin'-house and act another +text at home." + +"Joshua!" + +"Let's hev the mercy text to-night. Pap, sister's home ag'in. Let's +act the fergivin' text out." + +Joshua stepped aside and the minister, touched in spite of himself, +glanced at his daughter, a softened glance, that spoke of affection, +but he made no movement. Then the girl slowly rose and turned toward +the door, still keeping her eyes on her father's face. She edged +backward step by step toward the door by which she had entered. Her +hand grasped the latch; the door moved on its hinges. + +"Stop, sister," said Joshua. "Pap, ef sister opens thet door I go with +her, and then you will sit alone in this room ferever. You will be the +last Warwick of the Knob." + +Warwick, with all his coldness and strength, could not stand the ordeal. + +"Come back, my children," he said. "It is also written, 'I will be +merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities +will I remember no more.'" And then, as in former times, Mary's head +rested on her father's knee. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[34] Copyright, 1901, by Dodd, Mead and Company. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. + +The oe ligature in this etext has been replaced with oe. + +Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original. + +Page xxi: The title of the Emerson poem "Goodby Proud World" is as in +the original. + +Page 251: 1833 has been changed to 1883 as this follows chronologically +from the surrounding sentences. (... and in 1883 his study ...) + +Page 273: A missing quote in (... to Write "Grace Truman: ...) is as in +the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2, by +John Wilson Townsend + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + +***** This file should be named 39406-8.txt or 39406-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/4/0/39406/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2 + 1784-1912 + +Author: John Wilson Townsend + +Release Date: July 6, 2012 [EBook #39406] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. Alley, III and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" > + <a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg"></a> + <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Book Cover" title="Book Cover" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h1>KENTUCKY IN<br /> +AMERICAN LETTERS</h1> + + +<hr /> + + +<h3><a name="OTHER_WORKS_BY_MR_TOWNSEND" id="OTHER_WORKS_BY_MR_TOWNSEND">OTHER WORKS BY MR. TOWNSEND</a></h3> + + +<p class="center"><i>Richard Hickman Menefee</i>. 1907<br /> +<i>Kentuckians in History and Literature</i>. 1907<br /> +<i>The Life of James Francis Leonard</i>. 1909<br /> +<i>Kentucky: Mother of Governors</i>. 1910<br /> +<i>Lore of the Meadowland</i>. 1911 +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h1>KENTUCKY IN<br /> +AMERICAN LETTERS</h1> + +<h2>1784-1912</h2> + +<p class="center">BY</p> +<h3>JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND</h3> + +<p class="center">WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY</p> +<h3>JAMES LANE ALLEN</h3> + +<p class="center">IN TWO VOLUMES<br /> +VOL. I</p> + +<p class="center">THE TORCH PRESS<br /> +CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA<br /> +NINETEEN THIRTEEN +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<p class="center"><i>Of this edition one thousand sets have been printed, of which +this is number</i></p> + +<h2>241</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright 1913<br /> +By The Torch Press<br /> +Published September 1913</span></p> + +<div class="figright" > + <a name="illus_001.png" id="illus_001.png"></a> + <img src="images/illus_001.png" alt="Printer's Mark" title="Printer's Mark" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + + + + + +<h2 class="oldenglish">To My Mother +</h2> + +<hr /> + + +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></h2> + + +<p>Mr. Townsend's fellow countrymen must feel themselves +to be put under a beautiful obligation to him by his work +entitled <i>Kentucky in American Letters</i>. He has thus +fenced off for the lovers of New World literature a well +watered bluegrass pasture of prose and verse, which +they may enter and range through according to their appetites +for its peculiar green provender and their thirst +for the limestone spring. This strip of pasture is a hundred +years long; its breadth may not be politely questioned!</p> + +<p>For the backward-looking and for the forward-looking +students of American literature, not its merely browsing +readers, he has wrought a service of larger and more +lasting account. Whether his patiently done and richly +crowned work be the first of its class and kind, there is +slight need to consider here: fitly enough it might be a +pioneer, a path-blazer, as coming from the land of pioneers, +path-blazers.</p> + +<p>But whether or not other works of like character be already +in the field of national observation, it is inevitable +that many others soon will be. There must in time and in +the natural course of events come about a complete marshalling +of the American commonwealths, especially of +the older American commonwealths, attended each by its +women and men of letters; with the final result that the +entire pageant of our literary creativeness as a people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +will thus be exhibited and reviewed within those barriers +and divisions, which from the beginning have constituted +the peculiar genius of our civilization.</p> + +<p>When this has been done, when the States have severally +made their profoundly significant showing, when the +evidence up to some century mark or half-century mark +is all presented, then for the first time we, as a reading +and thoughtful self-studying people, may for the first +time be advanced to the position of beginning to understand +what as a whole our cis-Atlantic branch of English +literature really is.</p> + +<p>Thus Mr. Townsend's work and the work of his fellow-craftsmen +are all stations on the long road but the right +road. They are aids to the marshalling of the American +commonwealths at a great meeting-point of the higher influences +of our nation.</p> + +<p>Now, already American literature has long been a subject +in regard to which a library of books has been written. +The authors of by far the most of these books are +themselves Americans, and they have thus looked at our +literature and at our civilization from within; the authors +of the rest are foreigners who have investigated +and philosophized from the outside. Altogether, native +and foreign, they have approached their theme from divergent +directions, with diverse aims, and under the influence +of deep differences in their critical methods and +in their own natures. But so far as the writer of these +words is aware, no one of them either native or foreign +has ever set about the study of American literature, enlightened +with the only solvent principle that can ever +furnish its solution.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> + +<p>That solvent principle is contained within a single +proposition. That single proposition is the one upon +which our forefathers deliberately chose to found the civilization +of the Anglo-Saxon race in the New World: that +it should not be a civilization of States which were not a +Nation; that it should not be the civilization of a nation +without states; but that it should be a Nation of States.</p> + +<p>Now, if any man aspires to draw from American literature +the philosophy of its traits, if he sets it as the goal +of his wisdom to explain its breadth and its narrowness, +its plenty here and its lack there, its color in one place +and its pallor in another, let him go back to the will of +the fathers in the foundation of the Republic and find the +explanation of our literature at the basis of our whole +civilization. He will never find it anywhere else. He +will find it there as he there finds the origin of our system +of government, of our system of industry, of our system +of political barriers, of our system of education: in the +entire nature of our institutions as derived and unfolded +from the idea that we should be a nation of states. Our +literature—our novels and our poetry—have been as +rigorously included in this development as all the other +elements of our life.</p> + +<p>For the first time in this way he may come to see a +great light; and with that light shining about him he may +be prepared to write the first history of American literature.</p> + +<p>None has yet been written.</p> + +<div class="figright" > + <a name="illus_002.png" id="illus_002.png"></a> + <img src="images/illus_002.png" alt="James Lane Allan Signature" title="James Lane Allan Signature" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a><br /><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</a></h2> + + +<p class="center">I</p> + +<p>What is a Kentucky book, is the one great question +this work has elicited. Surely a Kentucky book is +one written by a Kentuckian about Kentucky or Kentuckians +and printed in Kentucky; surely it is a book written +by a Kentuckian upon any subject under the sun, and +published in any clime; surely it is one written in Kentucky +by a citizen of any other state or country, regardless +of the subject or place of publication, for, "in general, +I have regarded the birthplace of a piece of literature +more important than that of the author." But is a book, +though treating of Kentucky or Kentuckians, regardless +of its place of publication, whose author was not born in, +nor for any appreciable period resided in, this state, entitled +to be properly classified as a Kentucky work? The +writer has responded in the negative to this question in +the present work.</p> + +<p>There have been several noted American authors who +have written volumes about Kentucky or Kentuckians, +and they themselves were not natives of this state, nor resided +within its confines. Those early Western travelers +rarely omitted Kentucky from their journeys. The first +of them, F. A. Michaux, published his famous <i>Travels +to the West of the Alleghany Mountains, in the States of +Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee</i>, at London, in 1805; two +years later F. Cuming's <i>Tour to the Western Country, +through Ohio and Kentucky</i>, was printed at Pittsburg; +and in 1817 John Bradbury got out the first edition of his +now noted <i>Travels in the Interior of America</i>, at London.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +Bradbury died in 1823 and to-day lies buried in +the cemetery at Middletown, Kentucky, near Louisville. +George W. Ogden's <i>Letters from the West</i> (New Bedford, +1823); W. Bullock's <i>Sketch of a Journey through +the Western States</i> (London, 1827); and Tilly Buttrick's +<i>Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries</i> (Boston, 1831), round +out fairly well that group of Scotchmen, Englishmen, +New Englanders, and what not, who found many interesting +things in Kentucky a hundred years and more +ago. Ogden spent two summers in Kentucky; Bullock +owned a river-side tract near Ludlow, Kentucky, and +old Bradbury sleeps in a quiet Kentucky hamlet, but +neither of them may be properly classified as a real +Kentuckian.</p> + +<p>The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy of 1825 was the one +Kentucky event that kindled the imaginations of more +alien writers than any other happening in our history. +Edgar Allan Poe, William Gilmore Simms, Charles Fenno +Hoffman, G. P. R. James, James Hall, and several +others, wrote plays, novels, and poems based upon this +tragedy. In 1832 James Kirke Paulding, the friend of +Washington Irving, published one of the earliest Kentucky +romances, entitled <i>Westward Ho!</i> which name he +got from the old Elizabethan drama of John Webster and +Thomas Dekker. Two years after the appearance of +Paulding's tale, William A. Caruthers, the Virginia +novelist, printed <i>The Kentuckian in New York</i>; and in +the same year Thomas Chandler Haliburton ("Sam +Slick"), put forth one of his earliest works, <i>Kentucky, a +Tale</i> (London, 1834). In 1845 Charles Winterfield's <i>My +First Days With the Rangers</i>, appeared, to be followed +the next year by William T. Porter's <i>A Quarter Race in +Kentucky</i>.</p> + +<p>These writers hardly did more than point the way to +Kentucky for Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose world-famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> +novel, <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> (Boston, 1852), was set +against a background of slave-holding Kentucky. This is +the most famous example our literature affords of a +writer of another state or country coming to Kentucky +for the materials out of which to build a book.</p> + +<p>In 1860 David Ross Locke, the Ohio journalist and +satirist, discovered the <i>Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby</i>, postmaster +at "Confedrit X Roads, Kentucky," and his political +satires on Kentucky, the <i>Nasby Letters</i>, tickled +the readers of his paper, <i>The Toledo Blade</i>, through +many years. These alleged communications from poor +Petroleum may be read to-day in Locke's <i>Swingin' Round +the Cirkel</i>, and <i>Ekkoes from Kentucky</i>. J. G. Marshall's +<i>The Outlaw Brothers</i> (New York, 1864); Miss +Martha Remick's <i>Millicent Halford: a Tale of the Dark +Days of Kentucky in the year 1861</i> (Boston, 1865); two +novels by Edward Willett, entitled <i>Kentucky Border +Foes</i>, and <i>Old Honesty: a Tale of the Early Days of Kentucky</i>, +both of which were issued in the late sixties; Constance +F. Woolson's <i>Two Women</i> (New York, 1877), and +Mrs. Anna Bowman Dodd's story, <i>Glorinda</i> (Boston, +1888), concludes the group of writers of the comparatively +modern school who did not linger long in the "meadowland," +but who found it good literary soil, and helped +themselves accordingly.</p> + +<p>In recent years Mr. Winston Churchill's <i>The Crossing</i>, +Dr. James Ball Naylor's <i>The Kentuckian</i>, Mr. Augustus +Thomas's <i>The Witching Hour</i>, and the Kentucky lyrics +of Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, the Ohio poet, have +drawn fresh attention to Kentucky as a background for +literary productions, although they are written by those +who cannot qualify as Kentuckians. But to claim any +of these writers for the Commonwealth, would be to make +one's self absurd. Dr. Naylor's lines upon this point +are <i>apropos</i>:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I must admit—although it hurts!—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That I was born unlucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've never, literally, had<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A home in Old Kentucky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet I feel should wayward Chance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Direct my steps to roam there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd meet you all and greet you all—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And find myself <i>at home</i> there!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As has already been indicated, the good physician-poet +is not by any manner of means the only alien bard who +has remembered Kentucky in his work. No less a poet +than the great Sir Walter Scott celebrated Kentucky in +<i>Marmion</i>—the State's first appearance in English poetry. +The passage may be found near the close of the ninth +stanza in the third canto. Lord Marmion and his followers +have ridden "the livelong day," and are now quartered +at a well-known Scottish hostelry. They have all +eaten and drunk until they are on the borderland of +dreams when their leader, seeing their condition,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">... called upon a squire:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Fitz-Eustace, know'st thou not some lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speed the lingering night away?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We slumber by the fire."—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">VIII<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So please you," thus the youth rejoined<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Our choicest minstrel's left behind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And while Fitz realizes that he cannot, in any degree, +equal the famous singer to whom he has referred, he now +further praises him, calls down curses on the cause that +kept him from following Marmion, and ventures</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To sing his favourite roundelay."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">IX<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The air he chose was wild and sad;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such have I heard, in Scottish land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise from the busy harvest band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When falls before the mountaineer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On lowland plains, the ripened ear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now a wild chorus swells the song:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft have I listened, and stood still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it came soften'd up the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And deem'd it the lament of men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who languish'd for their native glen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thought how sad would be such sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Susquehannah's swampy ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Kentucky's wood-encumber'd brake</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wild Ontario's boundless lake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Recall'd fair Scotland's hills again!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After Sir Walter, the next English poet to tell the +world of Kentucky and one of her sons, was George Gordon +(Lord) Byron. His references are found in the eighth +canto and the sixty-first to the sixty-seventh stanzas inclusive, +of <i>Don Juan</i>. This poem was begun in 1819 and +published, several cantos at a time, until the final sixteenth +appeared in 1824. The sixty-first stanza will serve +our purpose.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">LXI<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who passes for in life and death most lucky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the greatest names which in our faces stare,<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>The General Boone, back-woodsman of Kentucky</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In 1827 Alfred Tennyson, with his brother Charles, +published a slender sheaf of juvenile verses, entitled +<i>Poems By Two Brothers</i>. <i>On Sublimity</i> contains eleven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> +stanzas of ten lines each. The poet disdains "vales in tenderest +green," and asks for "the wild cascade, the rugged +scene," the sea, the mountains, dark cathedrals, storms, +"Niagara's flood of matchless might," and Mammoth +Cave.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The hurricane fair earth to darkness changing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Kentucky's chambers of eternal gloom</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The swift-pac'd columns of the desert ranging<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Th' uneven waste, the violent Simoom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The snow-clad peaks, stupendous Gungo-tree!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whence springs the hallow'd Jumna's echoing tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear Cotopaxi's cloud-capt majesty,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Enormous Chimborazo's naked pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dizzy Cape of winds that cleaves the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whence we look down into eternity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pillar'd cave of Morven's giant king<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Yanar, and the Geyser's boiling fountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The deep volcano's inward murmuring,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The shadowy Colossus of the mountain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antiparos, where sun-beams never enter;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Loud Stromboli, amid the quaking isles;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The terrible Maelstroom, around his centre<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wheeling his circuit of unnumber'd miles:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These, these are sights and sounds that freeze the blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet charm the awe-struck soul which doats on solitude.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Tennyson was the third and last English poet of the +nineteenth century to make mention of Kentucky in his +works.</p> + +<p>Much writing has been done by Kentuckians from the +beginning until the present time, but most of what is +usually termed literature is the work of the school of today. +That much, however, of the early productions, especially +the anonymous and fugitive poems, have been +forever lost, may be gathered from a letter written to Edwin +Bryant, editor of <i>The Lexington Intelligencer</i>, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> +an Ohio correspondent, which appeared in that paper in +January, 1834, a part of which is as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>There were a vast number of rural and sentimental songs, sung +by the hunters and pioneers, that, in this our day, to the present +generation would be truly interesting. Would it not be wise for +you, Messrs. Editors, to publish a note in your valuable paper, +offering the "Poets' Corner," and save what you can of the fragments +of "Olden Times?"... I know that there were many +sentimental pieces—some written by a Mr. Bullock—many war +songs; one on St. Clair's defeat; and there was a wonderful flow +of poetical effusions on the first discovery of a settlement of Kentucky. +There was a wooing song of the hunter—one stanza I +can only repeat:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I will plough and live, and you may knit and sowe,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And through the wild woods, I'll hunt the buffaloe!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To many these things may appear as ... light as empty +air, but look to the future, and you will at once discover the inquisitive +mind will earnestly desire to look into such matters and +things.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The pity is, this admonition passed unheeded by Bryant +and his contemporaries, and much that "the inquisitive +mind" would revel in to-day, was thus lost. The most +famous, however, of the pioneer songs that the above +quoted writer probably had in mind, <i>The Hunters of Kentucky</i>, +the celebrated ballad of the Battle of New Orleans, +has come down to us, but it was written by the alien hand +of Samuel Woodworth, who achieved a double triumph +over oblivion by also writing <i>The Old Oaken Bucket</i>. And +were other "wooing songs of the hunter" extant, we +would certainly discover that many of them were done +by non-Kentuckians. Even <i>Kentucky Belle</i>, ballad of +Morgan and his men, was the work of Constance Fenimore +Woolson, the famous author of <i>Anne</i>.</p> + +<p>In recent years the ballads of the Kentucky mountains +have been investigated by a group of scholars, and Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> +Hubert Gibson Shearin will shortly publish a collection +of them. It is impossible to discuss them at this time; +and as nearly all of them are offshoots of the old English +ballads and Scottish songs, done over by their Kentucky +descendants, the ever-recurring question: "Are they +Kentucky productions?" will not down.</p> + + +<p class="center">II</p> + +<p class="center">THE KENTUCKY MAGAZINES</p> + +<p>Kentucky has failed to produce and maintain a respectable +literary magazine for any considerable length of +time. Many magazines have been born in Kentucky with +high hopes, and a few of them have braved the storms +for a number of years, but all of them have gone the way +of all the earth after a pathetic struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>The reasons for this lie not far afield: the leading +magazines and periodicals of the east through the immensity +of their circulation secure that large patronage +necessary to maintain a publication conducted on a +generous basis, ensuring variety and excellence. Experience +has long since demonstrated even to the bravest +of the inland publishers that the point of distribution is +the controlling factor in success. The means of transportation +which have so miraculously improved, have annihilated +distance and along with it to no small extent +the Western and Southern periodical of literary flavor. +The opulent publications are enabled through their very +prosperity to command contributors not to be approached +by a periodical circumscribed in means and constituency. +Again, the Kentucky magazines have all along made the +fatal mistake of truckling to dead prejudices and sectionalism. +The material and the moulders have long been +with us, but the wide popular support, which after all is +the first essential, has failed to materialise, and it may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span> +be regretfully apprehended that it now lies as far away +as ever.</p> + +<p>The first magazine issued in Kentucky or the West was +<i>The Medley, or Monthly Miscellany, for the year 1803</i>, +which was edited and published by Daniel Bradford, son +of old John Bradford, the editor of <i>The Kentucky +Gazette</i>. <i>The Medley</i> lived through the year of 1803, +but in January, 1804, Editor Bradford announced that +he was compelled, from lack of appreciation, to abandon +its publication. The twelve parts were bound for those +of the subscribers who cared to have them made into a +single volume, and probably not more than two copies are +extant to-day. <i>The Medley's</i> literary merit was not impressive, +and its death can only be deplored because it +happened to be the first Western magazine.</p> + +<p><i>The Almoner</i>, a religious periodical, the first issue of +which was dated from Lexington, April, 1814, and which +died a twelvemonth later, was published by Thomas T. +Skillman, the pioneer printer. Its account of the +preacher, John Poage Campbell, and his many theological +works, is about all one finds of interest in it.</p> + +<p>William Gibbes Hunt, a Harvard man, who later took +a degree from Transylvania University, established <i>The +Western Review</i> at Lexington, in August, 1819, and this +was the first literary magazine in the West worthy the +name. Hunt was a man of fine tastes, and he had a +proper conception of what a magazine should be. He +worked hard for two years, but in July, 1821,—the number +for which month is notable as having contained the +first draft of General William O. Butler's famous poem, +<i>The Boatman's Horn</i>, which is there entitled <i>The Boat +Horn</i>,—Hunt rehearsed the pathetic tale of the lack of +support and appreciation for a Western magazine, and, +without any expressed regret, entitled it his valedictory. +He had survived twice as long as any of his predecessors,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> +and he probably felt that he had done fairly well, as he +undoubtedly had. The four bound volumes of <i>The +Western Review</i> may be read to-day with more than an +historical interest. Hunt returned to his home in New +England; and the only other thing of his that is preserved +is <i>An Address on the Principles of Masonry</i> +(Lexington, 1821), and a very excellent oration it is, too.</p> + +<p>There were brave men after Hunt, however. <i>The +Literary Pamphleteer</i> was born and died at Paris, Kentucky, +in 1823; and in the following year Thomas T. Skillman +established <i>The Western Luminary</i> at Lexington. +This was a semi-religious journal, but its publication was +shortly suspended. <i>The Microscope</i> seems to have been +the first magazine published at Louisville, it being +founded in 1824, but its life was ephemeral. Under a +half a dozen different names, with many lapses between +the miles, <i>The Transylvanian</i>, which Professor Thomas +Johnson Matthews, of Transylvania University, established +at Lexington in 1829, has survived until the present +time. It is now the literary magazine of Transylvania +University. Mr. James Lane Allen, Mr. Frank +Waller Allen, and one or two other well-known Kentucky +writers saw their earliest essays and stories first published +in <i>The Transylvanian</i>. John Clark's <i>Lexington +Literary Journal</i>, a twice-a-week affair, was founded in +1833; and the <i>Louisville Literary News-Letter</i>, edited by +Edmund Flagg and issued by George D. Prentice, lived in +the Kentucky metropolis from December, 1838, to November, +1840.</p> + +<p>Far and away the most famous literary periodical ever +published in Kentucky, was <i>The Western Messenger</i>, +founded at Cincinnati in 1835, and removed to Louisville +in April, 1836. James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888), the +noted Boston Unitarian preacher and author, was editor, +publisher, and agent of <i>The Messenger</i> while it was at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span> +Louisville; and he solicited subscriptions throughout +Kentucky. Ralph Waldo Emerson first appeared as a +poet in his friend Clarke's magazine. His <i>Goodby +Proud World</i>, <i>The Rhodora</i>, <i>The Humble Bee</i>, and several +of his other now noted poems, were printed for the +first time in <i>The Messenger</i>. Clarke also published +papers from the hands of Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and +nearly all of the writers now grouped as the New England +school. He printed a poem of John Keats, which +had never been previously published, the manuscript of +which was furnished by George Keats, brother of the +poet, who lived at Louisville for many years. Clarke +later wrote an interesting sketch of George Keats for his +magazine. During parts of the four years he published +<i>The Messenger</i> at Louisville he had as assistant editors +Christopher P. Cranch and Samuel Osgood, now +well-known names in American letters. Clarke returned +to Boston in 1840, and <i>The Messenger</i> returned to Cincinnati, +where it was suspended in April, 1841. "The +periodical was an exotic," wrote William Henry Venable, +"a Boston flower blooming in the Ohio Valley;" and this +is the one-line history of it. Its like was never seen before, +never since, and will never be seen again in the West.</p> + +<p>Thirteen years after <i>The Western Messenger</i> left +Louisville, <i>The Western Literary Magazine</i>, a monthly +publication, was begun; and three years later, or in 1856, +<i>The Louisville Review</i>, another monthly, was established. +But the war clouds of civil strife were gradually gathering, +and the endless pen scratching of the Kentucky +magazinist was lost in the cannon's roar. Newspapers +were the only things Kentuckians had time to peruse.</p> + +<p>Since the war Kentucky periodicals have been, almost +without exception, rather tame affairs. They have all +been most mushroomish. A few of them may be singled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> +out, such as <i>The Southern Bivouac</i>, which was conducted +at Louisville for several years by General Basil W. Duke +and Richard W. Knott; <i>The Illustrated Kentuckian</i>, +founded at Lexington, in 1892; <i>The Southern Magazine</i>, +of Louisville, published papers by Mr. Allen, stories by +Mr. John Fox, Jr., and several other now well-known +writers; and Charles J. O'Malley's <i>Midland Review</i> ran +for some time. These are the comparatively recent Kentucky +periodicals which have bloomed in a day and wilted +with the earliest winter. <i>The Register</i>, official organ of +the State Historical Society, is still being issued three +times a year. It is unique among Kentucky magazines in +that it is the only one that has had adequate financial support, +which, however, comes to it in the form of a State +appropriation. For the last twenty-five years <i>The Courier-Journal</i>, +of Louisville, has devoted space in its Saturday +edition to reviews of new books; and in recent years +<i>The Evening Post</i>, also of Louisville, has maintained a +similar department.</p> + +<div class="signature"> +<span>J. W. T.</span> +</div> + +<p> +Lexington, Kentucky<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">June 13, 1913</span><br /> +</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="ACKNOWLEDGMENTS" id="ACKNOWLEDGMENTS">ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</a></h2> + + +<p>The last several years have been devoted to the collecting +and classifying of Kentucky books and authors from +Filson, in 1784, to Mr. Allen, in 1912. While the author +has done other things, this has been his most serious +business.</p> + +<p>Of the more than a thousand Kentucky writers, one +hundred and ninety-six, or those who achieved considerable +reputation in their day and generation, or others +to whom fame came late, are now discussed. The author +hopes to publish within the next two or three years a +<i>Dictionary of Kentucky Writers</i>, which will attempt to +bring together in brief biographical and critical notes all +of Kentucky's literary workers from the beginning until +the present time. The crossroads poet is a most elusive, +most diffident figure, but I shall do my best to bring him +into the <i>Dictionary</i> that is to be.</p> + +<p>I have received assistance from many quarters. Colonel +Reuben T. Durrett, Dr. Henry A. Cottell, General +Bennett H. Young, Colonel Robert M. Kelly, Mrs. Evelyn +Snead Barnett, Mrs. Elvira Miller Slaughter, and Mr. +George T. Settle, of Louisville, Kentucky, have aided me +in many directions. Mr. George McCalla Spears, of +Dallas, Texas, author of <i>Dear Old Kentucky</i>, and the +owner of one of the best collections of Kentucky books ever +gotten together, I have to thank for a catalogue of his +library and a dozen informing letters. Judge James H. +Mulligan, Miss Anna Totten, Mrs. Annie Gratz Clay, Miss +Jo Peter, and Mr. James M. Roach, of Lexington, Kentucky, +have loaned and given me many rare Kentucky +items; to Mr. William Kavanaugh Doty, of Richmond,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span> +Kentucky, Mrs. Daniel Henry Holmes, of Covington, Kentucky, +Mrs. Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Kentucky, +Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, of Maysville, Kentucky, State +Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of Frankfort, Kentucky, +Mr. Alexander Hill, and Miss Marian Prentice Piatt, of +Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Henry Cleveland Wood, of Harrodsburg, +Kentucky, Mr. Paul Weir, of Owensboro, Kentucky, +Mr. Ingram Crockett, of Henderson, Kentucky, +Mrs. Mary Addams Bayne, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, Miss +Leigh Gordon Giltner, of Eminence, Kentucky, and Mrs. +Caroline S. Valentine, of New Castle, Kentucky, the +majority of whom are writers, I am doubly indebted for +facts regarding their own work, as well as for what I now +more especially thank them—information concerning +other Kentucky writers.</p> + +<p>Death found the two best friends, perhaps, this work +had during the course of its preparation, when it took +Charles J. O'Malley, the Kentucky poet and critic, and +Jahu Dewitt Miller, the Philadelphia lecturer and bookman. +Both of these men had just gotten into the spirit +of the work when they died within a year of each other. +O'Malley wrote the most illuminating letters concerning +Kentucky authors it has been my good fortune to receive; +Miller made the most gratifying and surprising +additions to my collection of Kentuckiana, exceedingly +scarce volumes and pamphlets which he alone seemed +able to unearth from the old bookshops of the country. +The memories of them both must be ever green with me +and in this work.</p> + +<p>I have to thank Mr. Allen for his very fine introduction. +To have one's name associated with his is reward sufficient +for the years of toil and sacrifice this work has demanded +of its author.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[Pg xxv]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></h2> + +<table class="toc" summary="Contents"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John Filson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Air and Climate of Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_2">2</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Quadrupeds</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Boone's First View of Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John Bradford</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Notes on Kentucky. Section I</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Matthew Lyon</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Reply to John Randolph of Roanoke</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Gilbert Imlay</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Flight of a Florid Lover</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Adam Rankin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">On the Extent of the Gospel Offer</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Upon Marriage by License</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas Johnson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Extempore Grace</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Danville</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Hudson, wife-murderer</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Parson Rice</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Poet's Epitaph</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George Beck</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Fifteenth Ode of Horace</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Anacreon's Fifty-fifth Ode</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Anacreon's First Ode</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Humphrey Marshall</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Primeval Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Stephen T. Badin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Epicedium</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Charles Caldwell</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">General Greene's Early Life</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Allan B. Magruder</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Citizen Genet and Jefferson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Henry Clay</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_39">39</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[Pg xxvi]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Reply to John Randolph</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Address to La Fayette</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John J. Audubon</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Indian Summer on the Ohio</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Horace Holley</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Mr. Clay and Col. Meade</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Constantine S. Rafinesque</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Geological Annals</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mann Butler</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Pioneer Visitors</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Zachary Taylor</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Letter to Henry Clay</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Daniel Drake</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Mayslick, Kentucky, in 1800</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mary A. Holley</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Texas Women</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John J. Crittenden</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Eulogy upon Justice McKinley</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John M. Harney</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Echo and the Lover</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Wippowil</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Sylphs Bathing</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George Robertson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Anniversary Address</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Early Struggles</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Literary Fame</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Shadrach Penn</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Coming of George D. Prentice</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William O. Butler</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Boatman's Horn</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Hew Ainslie</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Bourocks o' Bargeny</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Haughs o' Auld Kentuck</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Ingle Side</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Hint o' Hairst</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">James G. Birney</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The No-Government Doctrines</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas Corwin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_95">95</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[Pg xxvii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Mexican War</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Henry B. Bascom</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Clergyman's View of Niagara</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">James T. Morehead</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">John Finley</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Lewis Collins</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Preface to the First Edition</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Julia A. Tevis</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The May Queen</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Robert J. Breckinridge</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Sanctification</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Caroline L. Hentz</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Beside the Long Moss Spring</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John P. Durbin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Impressions of London</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Fortunatus Cosby, Jr.</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Fireside Fancies</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas F. Marshall</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Temperance: an Address</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Jefferson J. Polk</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Battle of the Boards</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George D. Prentice</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Closing Year</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">On Revisiting Brown University</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Paragraphs</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Robert M. Bird</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Nick of the Woods</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John A. McClung</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Women of Bryant's Station</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">James O. Pattie</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Santa Fe Country</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William F. Marvin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Epigram</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The First Roses of Spring</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Song</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Elisha Bartlett</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">John Browdie of "Nicholas Nickleby"</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Samuel D. Gross</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_150">150</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[Pg xxviii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Death of Henry Clay</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas H. Chivers</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Death of Alonzo</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Georgia Waters</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Jefferson Davis</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">From the Farewell Speech</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William D. Gallagher</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Mothers of the West</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas H. Shreve</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">I Have No Wife</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Ormsby M. Mitchel</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Astronomical Evidences of God</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Albert T. Bledsoe</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Seven Crises Caused the Civil War</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Richard H. Menefee</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Kentucky: a Toast</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George W. Cutter</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Song of Steam</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mary P. Shindler</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Faded Flower</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Martin J. Spalding</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Bishop's Arrival</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John W. Audubon</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Los Angeles</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Tulare Valley</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Christmas in 'Frisco</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Adrien E. Rouquette</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Souvenir de Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Emily V. Mason</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Death of Lee</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Edmund Flagg</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Ancient Mounds of the West</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Catherine A. Warfield</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Camilla Bouverie's Diary</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Pledge to Lee</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">J. Ross Browne</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Lapdogs in Germany</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Robert Morris</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_205">205</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[Pg xxix]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Level and the Square</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Amelia B. Welby</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Rainbow</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">On the Death of a Sister Poet</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Charles W. Webber</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Trouting on Jessup's River</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Lewis J. Frazee</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Havre</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Theodore O'Hara</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Bivouac of the Dead</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Old Pioneer</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Second Love</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Rollicking Rhyme</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Fame of William T. Barry</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Sarah T. Bolton</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Paddle Your Own Canoe</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John C. Breckinridge</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Henry Clay</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">James Weir, Sr.</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Simon Kenton</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mary E. W. Betts</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Kentuckian Kneels to None but God</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Reuben T. Durrett</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">La Salle: Discoverer of Louisville</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Richard H. Collins</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Preface to the Second Edition</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Annie C. Ketchum</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">April Twenty-Sixth</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Francis H. Underwood</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Aloysius and Mr. Fenton</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">An Amazing Prophecy</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Stephen C. Foster</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Zachariah F. Smith</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Early Kentucky Doctors</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_259">259</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John A. Broadus</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Oxford University</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mary J. Holmes</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_265">265</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">[Pg xxx]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Schoolmaster</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Rosa V. Jeffrey</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Glove</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Memory</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Sallie R. Ford</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Our Minister Marries</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John E. Hatcher</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Newspaper Paragraphs</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William C. Watts</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Wedding and a Dance</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">J. Proctor Knott</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">From the Duluth Speech</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George G. Vest</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Jefferson's Passports to Immortality</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Eulogy of the Dog</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William P. Johnston</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Battle of Shiloh—Sunday Morning</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Will Wallace Harney</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Stab</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">J. Stoddard Johnston</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">"Captain Moll"</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Julia S. Dinsmore</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Love Among the Roses</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Henry T. Stanton</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Moneyless Man</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">"A Mensá Et Thoro"</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Special Plea</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Sweetheart</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Sarah M. Piatt</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">In Clonmel Parish Churchyard</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">A Word with a Skylark</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Gift of Tears</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Boyd Winchester</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Lake Geneva</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Thomas Green</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Conspirators</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Forceythe Willson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_313">313</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">[Pg xxxi]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Old Sergeant</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">W. C. P. Breckinridge</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Is Not This the Carpenter's Son</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Basil W. Duke</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Morgan, the Man</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Henry Watterson</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Old London Town</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Gilderoy W. Griffin</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_331">331</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Gypsies</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John L. Spalding</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">An Ivory Paper-Knife</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_335">335</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Nathaniel S. Shaler</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Orphan Brigade</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Tom Marshall</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Lincoln in Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William L. Visscher</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Proem</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Bennett H. Young</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_344">344</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Prehistoric Weapons</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">James H. Mulligan</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_348">348</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">In Kentucky</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Over the Hill to Hustonville</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_351">351</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Nelly M. McAffee</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Finale</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">Mary F. Childs</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">De Namin' ob de Twins</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">William T. Price</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_359">359</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">The Offenbach and Gilbert Operas</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">George M. Davie</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">"Frater, Ave Atque Vale"</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">Hadrian, Dying, to His Soul</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="c2"><span class="smcap">John Uri Lloyd</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="c4"><span class="smcap">"Let's Have The Mercy Text"</span></td> + <td class="c3"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="KENTUCKY_IN_AMERICAN_LETTERS" id="KENTUCKY_IN_AMERICAN_LETTERS">KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS</a></h2> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_FILSON" id="JOHN_FILSON">JOHN FILSON</a></h2> + + +<p>John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at +East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated +at the academy of the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, +Maryland. Finley was afterwards president of +Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the +Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about +1783. In Lexington he conducted a school for a year, and +spent his leisure hours in collecting data for a history of +Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, +James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and +the information they gave him was united with his own +observations, forming the material for his book. Filson +did not remain in Kentucky much over a year for, in 1784, +he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and persuaded James +Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his manuscript +as <i>The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke</i>; +and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, +where his map of the three original counties of Kentucky—Jefferson, +Fayette, and Lincoln—was printed and dedicated +to General Washington and the United States Congress. +This Wilmington edition of Filson's history is far +and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever published. +Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six +extant copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250—the +highest price ever paid for a Kentucky book. The +little work was divided into two parts, the first part being +devoted to the history of the country, and the second part +was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever published.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the Pennsylvania +pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, +yet several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." +Boone is the author's central hero straight +through the work, and he is happier when discussing him +than in relating the country's meager history. Filson's +<i>Kentucky</i> was translated into French by M. Parraud, and +issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German +version was published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it +into the several editions of his <i>Topographical Description +of the Western Territory of North America</i> (London, +1793). And several subsequent Western writers also reproduced +it in their works, seldom giving Filson the +proper credit for it. The last three or four years of his +life John Filson spent in Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. +He was one of the founders of Cincinnati, which he named +"Losantiville;" and a short time later, in 1788, he wandered +into the Miami woods one day and was never seen +again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, +wrote his biography, and established an historical organization, +in 1884, which he named the "Filson Club." Filson's +fame is secure in Kentucky, and Colonel Durrett +and his work have made it so.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Life and Writings of John Filson</i>, by R. T. +Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); <i>Kentuckians in History +and Literature</i>, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, +1907); <i>The First Map of Kentucky</i>, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, +1908).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky</i> (Wilmington, +Delaware, 1784)]</p> + +<p>This country is more temperate and healthy than the other +settled parts of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats +which Virginia and Carolina experience, and receives a fine air +from its rivers. In winter, which at most lasts three months,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +commonly two, and is but seldom severe, the people are safe in bad +houses; and the beasts have a goodly supply without fodder. The +winter begins about Christmas, and ends about the first of March, +at farthest does not exceed the middle of that month. Snow +seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring storms +and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of +weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west +winds are sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that +direction, and there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly +winds, by sweeping along their tops, in the cold regions of the +air, and over a long tract of frozen water, collect cold in their +course, and convey it over the Kentucky country; but the weather +is not so intensely severe as these winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. +The air and seasons depend very much on the winds +as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture.</p> + + +<p class="center">QUADRUPEDS</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>Among the native animals are the urus, bison, or zorax, described +by Cesar, which we call a buffalo, much resembling a large +bull, of a great size, with a large head, thick, short, crooked horns, +and broader in his forepart than behind. Upon his shoulder is a +large lump of flesh, covered with a thick boss of long wool and +curly hair, of a dark brown color. They do not rise from the +ground as our cattle, but spring up at once upon their feet; are +of a broad make, and clumsy appearance, with short legs, but run +fast, and turn not aside for any thing when chased, except a +standing tree. They weigh from 500 to 1000 weight, are excellent +meat, supplying the inhabitants in many parts with beef, and +their hides make good leather. I have heard a hunter assert, he +saw above 1000 buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so numerous +were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away +their lives. There still remains a great number in the exterior +parts of the settlement. They feed upon cane and grass, as +other cattle, and are innocent, harmless creatures.</p> + +<p>There are still to be found many deer, elks, and bears, within +the settlement, and many more on the borders of it. There are +also panthers, wild cats, and wolves.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>The waters have plenty of beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats: +nor are the animals common to other parts wanting, such +as foxes, rabbits, squirrels, racoons, ground-hogs, pole-cats, and +opossums. Most of the species of the domestic quadrupeds have +been introduced since the settlement, such as horses, cows, sheep, +and hogs, which are prodigiously multiplied, suffered to run in +the woods without a keeper, and only brought home when wanted.</p> + + +<p class="center">BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>It was on the 1st of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my +domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable +habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander +through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of +Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph +Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; +and after a long and fatiguing journey, through a mountainous +wilderness, in a westward direction, on the seventh day +of June following we found ourselves on Red river, where John +Finley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and, from +the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beautiful level +of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time we had +experienced the most uncomfortable weather as a prelibation of +our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a +shelter to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt +and reconnoiter the country. We found everywhere abundance +of wild beasts of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloe +were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, +browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on +those extensive plains, fearless, because ignorant, of the violence +of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers +about the salt springs were amazing. In this forest, the +habitation of beasts of every kind natural to America, we practiced +hunting with great success, until the 22d day of December +following.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="JOHN_BRADFORD" id="JOHN_BRADFORD">JOHN BRADFORD</a></h2> + + +<p>John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born +near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in +the Revolutionary War, and came to Kentucky when +thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at +Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia +to Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. +Two years later he and his brother, Fielding Bradford, +founded <i>The Kentucke Gazette</i>, the first issue of which +appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787—the second newspaper +west of the Alleghanies. The following year John +Bradford published <i>The Kentucke Almanac</i>, the first +pamphlet from a Western press; and this almanac was issued +every twelvemonth for many years. Fielding Bradford +withdrew from the <i>Gazette</i> in May, 1788, and "Old +Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until +1802, when his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. +In March, 1789, under instructions from the Virginia +legislature, Bradford discarded "Kentucke" for "Kentucky," +one of the many interesting facts connected with +the <i>Gazette</i>. John Bradford was the first state printer; +and the first book he published was the laws passed by the +first Kentucky legislature, which assembled at Lexington +in 1792. The Bradfords published many of the most important +early Western books, and a "Bradford" brings +joy to the heart of any present-day collector of Kentuckiana. +The column in the <i>Gazette</i> devoted to verse, headed +"Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western +poems; but the little anecdotes which seldom failed to be +tucked beneath the verse, were nearly always coarse and +vulgar, giving one a rather excellent index to the editor's +morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford appears +to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau +(1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he +"picked up" more than twenty of them from the <i>Freeman's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +Journal</i>. The most complete files of the <i>Kentucky +Gazette</i> are preserved in the Lexington Public Library, +though the vandals that have consulted them from time to +time have cut and inked out many valuable things. John +Bradford was a public-spirited citizen, being, at different +times, chairman of the town trustees, and of the board of +trustees of Transylvania University. He was a profound +mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, his contemporaries +tell us, and in proof thereof they have handed +down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though +his fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author +his reputation rests upon <i>The General Instructor; or, the +Office, Duty, and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, +Coroners, and Constables, in the State of Kentucky</i> +(Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal compilation; and upon his +more famous work, <i>Notes on Kentucky</i> (Xenia, Ohio, +1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed +in the <i>Gazette</i> between August 25, 1826, and January 9, +1829. Upon this work John Bradford is ranked among +the Kentucky historians. At the time of his death, which +occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March 31, 1830, he was +sheriff of Fayette county.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. No biography of Bradford has been written, but +any of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of +his life and work.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I</p> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Kentucky Gazette</i> (August 25, 1826)]</p> + +<p>This country was well known to the Indian traders many years +before its settlement. They gave a description of it to Lewis +Evans, who published his first map of it as early as 1752.</p> + +<p>In the year 1750,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Dr. Thomas Walker, Colby Chew, Ambrose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +Powell and several others from the counties of Orange and Culpepper, +in the state of Virginia, set out on an excursion to the +Western Waters; they traveled down the Holstein river, and +crossed over the Mountains into Powell's valley, thence across +the Cumberland mountain at the gap where the road now crosses, +proceeded on across what was formerly known by the name of +the Wilderness until they arrived at the Hazlepath; here the +company divided, Dr. Walker with a part continued north until +they came to the Kentucky river which they named Louisa or +Levisa river. After traveling down the excessive broken or hilly +margin some distance they became dissatisfied and returned and +continued up one of its branches to its head, and crossed over +the mountains to New River at the place called Walker's Meadows.</p> + +<p>In the year 1754 James McBride with some others, passed down +the Ohio river in canoes, and landed at the mouth of the Kentucky +river, where they marked on a tree the initials of their +names, and the date of the year. These men passed through the +country and were the first who gave a particular account of its +beauty and richness of soil to the inhabitants of the British settlements +in America.</p> + +<p>No further notice seems to have been taken of Kentucky until +the year 1767, when John Finlay with others (whilst trading +with the Indians) passed through a part of the rich lands of Kentucky. +It was then called by the Indians in their language, the +Dark and Bloody Grounds. Some difference took place between +these traders and the Indians, and Finlay deemed it prudent to +return to his residence in North Carolina, where he communicated +his knowledge of the country to Col. Daniel Boone and others. +This seems to have been one of the most important events in the +history of Kentucky, as it was the exciting cause which prompted +Col. Boone shortly afterwards to make his first visit to the Dark +and Bloody Grounds.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="MATTHEW_LYON" id="MATTHEW_LYON">MATTHEW LYON</a></h2> + + +<p>Matthew Lyon, "the Hampden of Congress," was born in +County Wicklow, Ireland, July 14, 1750. He emigrated +to America when he was fifteen years old, and settled in +Woodbury, Connecticut, as an apprentice of Jabez Bacon, +the wealthiest merchant in all New England. Lyon left +Connecticut, in 1774, and removed to Vermont, where he +became one of the famous Green Mountain Boys of the +Revolution. He was a member of the Vermont legislature +for four years; and in 1783 he founded the town of Fair +Haven, Vermont. Lyon became one of the great men of +Vermont, a disciple of Thomas Jefferson, "the pioneer +Democrat of New England." In 1796 he was elected to +Congress and he went to Philadelphia in May, 1797, to enter +upon his duties. He at once became one of the powerful +men in that body. Lyon had published a newspaper at +Fair Haven for several years, besides issuing a number of +books from his press, but during the years of 1798 and +1799 he edited the now famous <i>Scourge of Aristocracy</i>, a +semi-monthly magazine. At the present day this is a rare +volume, and much to be desired. In 1801 Lyon cast Vermont's +vote for Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr +for the presidency, and this vote is said to have made certain +Jefferson's election. Late in this year of 1801 Lyon +left Vermont for Kentucky, and he later became the +founder of Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. The county, +however, was named in honor of his son, Chittenden +Lyon. In 1802 Matthew Lyon was a member of the Kentucky +legislature; and from 1803 to 1811 he was in the +lower House of Congress from his Kentucky district. +His opposition to the War of 1812 retired him to private +life. At Eddyville he was engaged in shipbuilding, in +which he had great success, but after his defeat for reëlection +to Congress, in 1812, disasters came fast upon +him, and he was reduced from affluence to comparative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +poverty. At the age of sixty-eight years, however, +he recovered himself, paid all his debts, and died in easy +circumstances. In 1820 Lyon was appointed United +States Factor to the Cherokee Indians of Arkansas territory, +and he set out for his future home at Spadra Bluff, +Arkansas. He was later elected as Arkansas's second +delegate to Congress, but he did not live to take his seat, +dying at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 1822. Eleven years +later his remains were returned to Kentucky, and re-interred +at Eddyville, where a proper monument marks +the spot to-day. Matthew Lyon's reply to John Randolph +of Roanoke, in 1804, in regard to the old question of the +Yazoo frauds, is his only extant speech that is at all remembered +at the present time.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); <i>Matthew Lyon</i>, by J. F. McLaughlin +(New York, 1900).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Matthew Lyon</i>, by J. F. McLaughlin (New York, 1900)]</p> + +<p>The Postmaster General [Gideon Granger] has not lost my +esteem, nor do I think his character can be injured by the braying +of a jackal, or the fulminations of a madman. But, sir, permit +me to inquire from whom these charges of bribery, of corruption, +and of robbery, come? Is it from one who has for forty years, in +one shape or other, been intrusted with the property and concerns +of other people, and has never wanted for confidence, one whose +long and steady practice of industry, integrity, and well doing, +has obtained for him his standing on this floor? Is it from one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +who sneered with contempt on the importunity with which he has +solicited to set a price on the important vote he held in the last +Presidential election? No, sir, these charges have been fabricated +in the disordered imagination of a young man whose pride has +been provoked by my refusing to sing encores to all his political +dogmas. I have had the impudence to differ from him in some +few points, and some few times to neglect his fiat. It is long +since I have observed that the very sight of my plebeian face has +had an unpleasant effect on the gentleman's nose, for out of respect +to this House and to the State he represents, I will yet +occasionally call him gentleman. I say, sir, these charges have +been brought against me by a person nursed in the bosom of +opulence, inheriting the life services of a numerous train of the +human species, and extensive fields, the original proprietors of +which property, in all probability, came no honester by it than +the purchasers of the Georgia lands did by what they claim. Let +that gentleman apply the fable of the thief and the receiver, in +Dilworth's Spelling Book, so ingeniously quoted by himself, in +his own case, and give up the stolen men in his possession. I +say, sir, these charges have come from a person whose fortune, +leisure and genius have enabled him to obtain a great share of the +wisdom of the schools, but who in years, experience, and the +knowledge of the world and the ways of man, is many, many years +behind those he implicates—a person who, from his rant in this +House, seems to have got his head as full of British contracts and +British modes of corruption as ever Don Quixote's was supposed +to have been of chivalry, enchantments and knight errantry—a +person who seems to think no man can be honest and independent +unless he has inherited land and negroes, nor is he willing to +allow a man to vote in the people's elections unless he is a landholder.</p> + +<p>I can tell that gentleman I am as far from offering or receiving +a bribe as he or any other member on this floor; it is a charge +which no man ever made against me before him, who from his +insulated situation, unconversant with the world, is perhaps as +little acquainted with my character as any member of this House, +or almost any man in the nation, and I do most cordially believe +that, had my back and my mind been supple enough to rise and +fall with his motions, I should have escaped his censure.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>I, sir, have none of that pride which sets men above being merchants +and dealers; the calling of a merchant is, in my opinion, +equally dignified, and no more than equally dignified with that +of a farmer, or a manufacturer. I have a great part of my life +been engaged in all the stations of merchant, farmer and manufacturer, +in which I have honestly earned and lost a great deal +of property, in the character of a merchant. I act like other +merchants, look out for customers with whom I can make bargains +advantageous to both parties; it is all the same to me +whether I contract with an individual or the public; I see no constitutional +impediment to a member of this House serving the +public for the same reward the public gives another. Whenever +my constituents or myself think I have contracts inconsistent +with my duties as a member of this House, I will retire from it.</p> + +<p>I came to this House as a representative of a free, a brave, and +a generous people. I thank my Creator that He gave me the face +of a man, not that of an ape or a monkey, and that He gave me the +heart of a man also, a heart which will spare to its last drop in +defence of the dignity of the station my generous constituents +have placed me in. I shall trouble the House no farther at this +time, than by observing that I shall not be deterred by the threats +of the member from Virginia from giving the vote I think the +interest and honor of the nation require; and by saying if that +member means to be understood that I have offered contracts from +the Postmaster-General, the assertion or insinuation has no foundation +in truth, and I challenge him to bring forward his boasted +proof.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GILBERT_IMLAY" id="GILBERT_IMLAY">GILBERT IMLAY</a></h2> + + +<p>Gilbert Imlay, the first Kentucky novelist, was born in +New Jersey, about 1755. He was captain of a company +in the Revolution. The war over, Imlay turned his face +toward the West; and he reached the Falls of the Ohio—Louisville—in +1784. In the little river town he worked +under George May as a "commissioner for laying out +lands in the back settlements." Imlay had not been a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +Kentuckian many months before he had obtained patents +for many thousand acres of land—all of which he subsequently +lost. It is not certainly known how long he remained +in Kentucky, but it was about eight years. He +went to London in 1792 and, in that year, the first edition +of his <i>Topographical Description of the Western Territory +of North America</i> was published. This work is made +up of a series of descriptive letters which the author wrote +from Kentucky to an English friend. The second edition +of 1793, and the third edition of 1797, reproduced John +Filson's <i>Kentucke</i> and Thomas Hutchins's <i>History</i>, together +with much new material. While a resident of Kentucky +Gilbert Imlay wrote the first Kentucky novel, entitled +<i>The Emigrants, or the History of an Expatriated +Family, being a Delineation of English Manners drawn +from Real Characters. Written in America, by G. Imlay, +Esq.</i> (London, 1793, 3 vols.; Dublin, 1794, 1 vol.). The +epistolary form is adopted throughout, and the narrative +relates the fortunes of "an eminent merchant in the city +of London," Mr. T——n, who loses his great fortune and +emigrates with his family to America. His daughter, the +beautiful Caroline, is the heroine of the story. Landing +in Philadelphia, they travel to Pittsburgh, and from there +drift down the Ohio river in a Kentucky flatboat, or +"ark," to Louisville. Caroline's lover, Capt Arl——ton, +had preceded the family and gone on to Lexington, but he +soon returned to Louisville when he learned that his +sweetheart awaited his coming. "The emigrants" remained +in Kentucky some three months, or from June +until August. Caroline's capture by the Indians in August +decided the family to forsake the "dark and bloody +ground," though she was safely rescued. They finally +find their way to London, and all ends well. <i>The Emigrants</i>, +in the three-volume edition, is exceedingly scarce, +but the Dublin one-volume edition may be occasionally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +procured in the rare book shops of London. In 1793 Gilbert +Imlay went to Paris, where he met the famous Mary +Wollstonecraft, with whom he was soon living, as they +both held mutual affection equivalent to marriage. In +1794 a daughter was born to them, Fanny Imlay, who committed +suicide at Swansea, October 10, 1816. In April, +1796, Imlay and Mary agreed to go separate paths after +much stormy weather together; and a short time later she +became the wife of William Godwin, the English philosopher +and novelist. In giving birth to the future wife of +the poet Shelley, she surrendered her own life. Mary +Wollstonecraft's <i>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i> +is the chief memorial of her pathetic and eventful career. +After having parted on that April morning of 1796 with +the woman he had so outrageously treated, Gilbert Imlay, +"the handsome scoundrel," is lost to history. When, +where, or how he died is unknown.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>London Monthly Review</i> (August, 1793); <i>Kentuckians +in History and Literature</i>, by John Wilson Townsend +(New York, 1907); <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>; biographies +of Shelley, Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Emigrants</i> (Dublin, 1794)]</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">LETTER XLVI. CAPT. ARL—TON TO MR. IL—RAY.</span></p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Louisville, June.</span> +</div> + +<p>It is impossible for me to see Caroline in the present state of my +mind, and therefore I hope you will not look upon it in the least +disrespectful, my friend, if I should happen to be absent when +you arrive; for to be candid with you, I shall make a journey +purposely to Lexington.</p> + +<p>Your obliging favour from Pittsburg, which you meant should +give me spirits, has had quite a contrary effect.</p> + +<p>By attempting to soothe my mind, I discover that secret poison, +flattery, ever contains, and which I consider the principal cause +of my present wretchedness.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>The image you have given of Caroline makes her appear to me +more lovely than ever; and when you say that enchantment seems +to spring up where e'er she treads, I feel the full force of all her +charms, and conceive that I behold her in this season of fragrance +and beauty, decorating those gardens which you passed through +on your return from the fatal view upon the Allegany,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While the blushing rose, drooping hides its head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As Caroline's sweets more odorous prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And op'ning lilies look faint, sick, and dead,—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For things inanimate, feel the force of love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>She is irresistible—and it is only by absence that I shall ever +be enabled to forget my misfortunes, and therefore, my dear +friend, I must request that in your future letters, when you mention +that divine woman, you will not appreciate that beauty +which has ten thousand charms to fascinate and fetter the soul.</p> + +<p>She has not only all the symmetry of form, the softness of love, +and the enchantment of a goddess; but she can assume an animation +and that surprising activity of motion, that while you are +suspended in the transports of astonishment, you are lost in admiration +at the gracefulness with which she moves—I have seen +her bound over a rock, and pluck a wild honey-suckle, that grew +upon the side of a precipice, and while I stood gazing at her in +amazement, she has brought it as a trophy of her exertions.</p> + +<p>Believe, my friend, that if ever nature formed one woman to +excel another in personal charms, it must be Caroline.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>I leave this enclosed in a packet for General W——. I am +this moment informed there are boats making round Diamond +Island. Who knows but one of them contains the lovely Caroline? +Ah! my friend, I feel every emotion of love and shame so powerfully, +that I must instantly fly to avoid exposing myself—curse +that mandate which banished me from the lovely tyrant of my +heart—curse the vanity which exposed my weakness;—for +damnable is that fate which compels a man to avoid the object +of all others, which to him is the most interesting—I must this +instant be off. O Caroline!—Caroline! while my soul deadens +at the thought, I abandon the spot which will be converted into +elysium the moment you arrive. Forgive me, my friend, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +effusion of nature—this weakness, for it prepares us for those +delicious raptures, that flow from the source of sympathy, and +while it softens us to that tender texture, which is congenial to +feminine charms, it invigorates our actions, and fosters every +generous and noble sentiment.</p> + +<p>The streamers of your vessels, for it must be you, are playing +in the wind, as if enraptured with the treasure over which they +impend, seem eradiated with the charms of Caroline; while the +gentle Ohio, as if conscious of its charge, proudly swells, and +appears to vie with the more elevated earth, in order to secure to +its divinity, upon which to tread at her disembarkation, the flowery +carpet of its banks.</p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Adieu. I am off. J. A.</span> +</div> + + +<p class="center">AN EXASPERATED MATCHMAKER</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">LETTER XLVII. MR. IL—RAY TO CAPT. ARL—TON.</span></p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Louisville, June.</span> +</div> + +<p>My dear James,</p> + +<p>From the time we left Pittsburg until our arrival here, which +was ten days after our embarkation, we were all appreciating the +pleasure we should derive from finding you at this place.</p> + +<p>I had expatiated largely upon the satisfaction we should experience +from the information you would give us of the country; +and no sooner were we in sight of the town that we hung out a +flag of invitation; not doubting that you would observe it, and +immediately come off to us in a barge; but what was the surprise +of the whole part, and my mortification, when we learned upon +landing, you had left the place not more than half an hour.</p> + +<p>The letter you left enclosed for me in General W——'s packet, +to be sure, informed me of the cause of your absence; but it by +no means justified the action. And I demand as a proof of your +respect for your old friends, that you instantly return.</p> + +<p>Remember, James, this is the command of a friend, who is +anxious to restore you to a state of reason, which it appears you +have not possessed for some time past.</p> + +<p>Caroline was in tolerable spirits until within two days of our +arrival, when she suddenly appeared to be pensive and in a state +of extreme trepidation; and since we arrived she has been confined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +by indisposition.</p> + +<p>If you have a delicate and tender regard for this charming +girl, you will fly immediately to enquire after her health. But +to put it out of your power to frame a shadow for an excuse, I +inform you that it is my intention first to visit the Illinois, and +to view this country on my return.</p> + +<p>I waited during yesterday for an opportunity to send this, +and as I could not meet with one, I send a person I have hired +for that purpose, as my men are unacquainted with the country.</p> + +<p>Believe me to be your sincere, but unhappy friend,</p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>G. Il—ray.</span> +</div> + +<p class="center">THE BASHFUL LOVER'S RETURN</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">letter xlviii. capt. arl—ton to mr. il—ray.</span></p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Lexington, June.</span> +</div> + +<p>Your express has this moment reached me: and to convince you, +my dear Il—ray, that no man can be more alive to every sentiment +of love and friendship, I shall not defer my return to Louisville +a single hour; and I merely dispatch this by the return of +your messenger, to let you know I shall be with you tomorrow in +the evening; and that in my present distracted state of mind, I +think it most advisable to make my <i>entre</i> under the cover of the +dark, to prevent my being perceived, as I wish to devote the +whole evening in sequestered converse with you, my friend.</p> + +<p>Caroline is ill! Ah! Il—ray I am wretched in the extreme. +I am burnt up with a scorching fever—I am wrecked in the elements +of every painful passion, and my every effort to reason +is baffled by my reflections upon past occurrences.</p> + +<p>But I am your indissoluble friend,</p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>J. Arl—ton.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ADAM_RANKIN" id="ADAM_RANKIN">ADAM RANKIN</a></h2> + + +<p>Rev. Adam Rankin, author of the first book ever printed +in Kentucky, was born in Pennsylvania, March 24, 1755. +He was graduated from Liberty Hall, now Washington +and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, when about +twenty-five years of age; and two years later he was licensed +to preach by the Virginia Presbytery. Rev. Rankin +came to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1784, to accept the +pastorate of the Presbyterian church. He also conducted +a school for some time, but his one thought was Psalmody, +which became "his monomania." He created a schism +in his church by insisting that Dr. Watts's imitation of +the Psalms of David be expelled from the church worship, +and that the Psalms in their most literal dress be chanted. +His brethren disapproved of his views, but they could not +discourage him or cause him to discard his contention. +Everywhere he went he preached and wrote upon his favorite +subject. Rev. Rankin's Kentucky brethren made +life unbearable for him, and he went to London, where he +remained for two years. When he did return to Kentucky +it was to face accusation after accusation, and +church trial after church trial, until he was finally suspended. +Rev. Rankin was a strange, eccentric man, a +dreamer of dreams, a Kentucky Luther, and, perhaps, a +bit crazed with the bitter opposition his views received. +His latest, boldest dream was that Jerusalem was about +to be rebuilt and that he must hurry there in order to assist +in the rebuilding. He bade his Lexington flock farewell, +and started to the Holy City, but, on November 25, +1827, death overtook him at Philadelphia. Rev. Rankin +was the author of several theological works, but his <i>A +Process in the Transylvania Presbytery, &c.</i> (Maxwell +and Gooch, At the Sign of the Buffalo, Main Street, Lexington, +1793), is the first book ever printed in Kentucky, +if the <i>Kentucky Acts</i> which John Bradford published in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +the same year be excepted. Many days were required to +print this little book of Rankin upon the hand-press of +the publishers, though it contained but ninety-six pages, +divided into five parts. Although it is not great literature, +it is the first book that can, in any wise, come under +that term published in this State. It is surely of more +literary importance than Bradford's <i>Acts</i>. Rev. Rankin +was, as were nearly all of the early Kentucky theologians, +a prolific pamphleteer. His <i>Dialogues</i> (Lexington, 1810), +is really his most important publication, but it has been +greatly overlooked in the recent rush among Kentucky +historical writers to list <i>A Process</i> as the first book published in Kentucky. His eccentric career as a man and +preacher is, after all, of more interest than his work as an +author.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky</i>, +by R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); <i>The Centenary +of Kentucky</i>, by R. T. Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery</i> (Lexington, Ky., 1793)]</p> + +<p>We believe, that as it respects the outward means, the ambassadors +are authorised to publish, proclaim, and declare the counsel +of God, as it stands connected with our salvation; and that all, +who hear the sound, have an equal and indefinite warrant, not +only to embrace the means as offered to them indiscriminately, +by which comes faith, but have a right to believe, that Christ, +with all his benefits, is freely offered to them, as sinners, without +ever enquiring, into the secret purposes of God, whether they +are elect, or non-elect.</p> + + +<p class="center">UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>Seeing, under our government, it is not purchasing a liberty +by pecuniary rewards, further, than compensating a prothonotary, +for taking bond and security, that guardians are agreed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +and keeping a just register, for the credit and safety of the rising +family. And as the contract is partly civil in its nature, and +civil government is bound to defend the civil rights—we believe +it perfectly consonant to the analogy of faith, which might be +evinced from the fourth chapter of Ruth. But as it is partly +social, and the parties contracting come under the mutual obligations +to fulfil their relative duties, it ought to be consummated +before witnesses. And as it is partly religious, every family appertaining +to the Church of Christ, commences a nursery, or infant +society, to train up their family in the nurture and admonition +of the Lord. We believe it right, that whenever a church +in full order exists, that the pastor, or church officer should consecrate +them, to the business assigned them as a Church of Christ, +taking their obligations for the due performance of their duty.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_JOHNSON_Jr" id="THOMAS_JOHNSON_Jr">THOMAS JOHNSON, Jr.</a></h2> + + +<p>Thomas Johnson, Junior, the first Kentucky poet, who, +for many years, enjoyed the sobriquet of the "Drunken +Poet of Danville," was born in Virginia about 1760, +and he came to Kentucky when twenty-five years of age. +He settled at Danville, then a village, and immediately +entered into the role of poet, punster, and ne'er-do-weel. +Documentary evidence is extant to prove that Danville +was a gay little town when the young Virginian arrived +there about 1785; and he was early drawn into excesses, +or led others into them. Johnson was a rather prolific +maker of coarse satirical rhymes, which he finally assembled +into a small pamphlet, and published them as +<i>The Kentucky Miscellany</i> (Lexington, 1796). This was +the first book of poems, if they may be so termed, printed +in Kentucky. The original price of this pamphlet was +nine pence the copy, but it is impossible to procure it today +for any price, and there is not an extant copy of this +first edition. <i>The Kentucky Miscellany</i> went into a second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +edition in 1815, and a third edition was published a few +years later, but no copies of either edition are extant. +The fourth and final edition appeared from the <i>Advertiser</i> +office at Lexington, in 1821, and a dog-eared, much-mutilated +copy of this is in the collection of the Filson +Club in Louisville—perhaps the only copy in the world. +<i>The Miscellany</i> contained but thirty-six small pages, +about the size of the medical almanacs of to-day. Many +of the little verses are very vulgar and actually obscene, +perhaps due to the fact that Johnson could never quite +bury John Barleycorn alive. The most famous of them +is the <i>Extempore Grace</i>, which the bard delivered one day +in the tavern of old Erasmus Gill in Danville. In his cups +he stumbled into the tavern dining-room, where he found +the meal over, and the guests gone, nothing being left but +the crumbs. He glanced at the tables, then at Gill, and +offered <i>Extempore Grace</i>. His lines on Danville, on Kentucky, +and on several other subjects reveal the satirist; +and the verses to Polly, his sweetheart, and to his favorite +physician the better elements in his nature. That these +rather vulgar verses of Johnson did not escape the censorship +of Western advocates of the pure food law in literature, +is made certain by a letter from an Ohio critic +which appeared in the <i>Lexington Intelligencer</i> for January +28, 1834. After having made a strong plea for the +preservation of early Western verse, the writer added: +"I do not mean to embrace the low doggerel of <i>Tom Johnson</i>; +this was published some years ago, and I never felt +<i>decency</i> more outraged than when it was handed me to +read by <i>mine landlady</i>! My stars! Save us from the +<i>blackguardism</i>, for the world is sufficiently demoralized." +Had this early critic of Tom's verses presented a bundle +of them to some library, how many Western writers +would rise up and call him blessed! Johnson died and +was buried at Danville, but the date of his death or the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +exact place of his burial is unknown. He had passed and +was almost forgotten by 1830.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky</i>, +by R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); <i>History of Kentucky</i>, +by R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); <i>Centre College +Cento</i> (Danville, Kentucky, January, 1907); <i>Kentuckians in +History and Literature</i>, by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">EXTEMPORE GRACE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Kentucky Miscellany</i> (Lexington, Kentucky, 1821)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! Thou who blest the loaves and fishes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look down upon these empty dishes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that same power that did them fill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bless each of us, but d—— old Gill!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">DANVILLE</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Accursed Danville, vile, detested spot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where knaves inhabit, and where fools resort—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy roguish cunning, and thy deep design,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would shame a Bluebeard or an Algerine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, may thy fatal day be ever curst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When by blind error led, I entered first.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hate Kentucky, curse the place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her vile and miscreant race!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who make religion's sacred tie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mask thro' which they cheat and lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proteus could not change his shape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Jupiter commit a rape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With half the ease those villains can<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Send prayers to God and cheat their man!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hate all Judges here of late,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every Lawyer in the State.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Each quack that is called Physician,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all blockheads in Commission—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worse than the Baptist roaring rant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hate the Presbyterian cant—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their Parsons, Elders, nay, the whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wish them gone with all my soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">HUDSON, WIFE MURDERER</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strange things of Orpheus poets tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How for a wife he went to Hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hudson, a wiser man no doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would go to Hell to be without!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">PARSON RICE</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye fools! I told you once or twice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You'd hear no more from canting R——e;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cannot settle his affairs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor pay attention unto prayers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless you pay up your arrears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, how in pulpit he would storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fill all Hell with dire alarm!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vengeance pronounced against each vice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, more than all, curs'd avarice;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Preach'd money was the root of ill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Consigned each rich man unto Hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But since he finds you will not pay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both rich and poor may go that way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis no more than I expected—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The meeting-house is now neglected:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All trades are subject to this chance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No longer pipe, no longer dance.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE POET'S EPITAPH</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Underneath this marble tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In endless shades lies drunken Tom;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Here safely moored, dead as a log,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who got his death by drinking grog.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By whiskey grog he lost his breath—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who would not die so sweet a death?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_BECK" id="GEORGE_BECK">GEORGE BECK</a></h2> + + +<p>George Beck, classicist, born in England in 1749, became +instructor of mathematics at Woolwich Academy, near +London, at the age of twenty-seven years; but he was later +dismissed. Beck married an English woman of culture +and emigrated to the United States in 1795, reaching +these shores in time to serve "Mad Anthony" Wayne as +a scout in his Indian campaign. The wanderlust was +upon George Beck, and he became one of the first of that +little band of nomadic painters that came early to the +Blue Grass country, and having once come remained. He +arrived at Lexington in 1800; and it was not long before +he began to send short original poems and spirited translations +of Anacreon, Homer, Horace, and Virgil to old +John Bradford's <i>Gazette</i>. At about this time, too, Beck +was doing many portraits and a group of landscapes in +oils of the Kentucky river country, a few of which have +come down to posterity. Eighteen hundred and six seems +to have been Beck's best year in Kentucky from the literary +viewpoint, as the <i>Gazette</i> is full of his verses and +translations. He was widely known as the "Lexington +Horace." Besides painting and poetry, George Beck was +a rather learned astronomer, as his <i>Observations on the +Comet</i> of 1811 prove. With his wife he conducted an +"Academy for Young Ladies" for several years. His last +years were much embittered by the lack of appreciation +upon the part of the Western public. The Kentucky of +1800 was not a whirlpool of art or literature by any means, +and this cultured man languished and finally died among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +a people who cared very little for his fine learning or his +manners. George Beck, poet, translator, mathematician, +astronomer, artist, died in Lexington, Kentucky, December +14, 1812. His wife survived him until the cholera +year of 1833, which swept away nearly two thousand citizens +of Lexington and the Blue Grass.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Kentucky Gazette</i> (Lexington, December 22, +1812); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> (New +York, 1887, v. i).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE</p> + +<blockquote class="center"><p>A New Translation of the Fifteenth Ode of Horace, or Prophecy +of Nerceus, from which (according to Count Algorotti and +Dr. Johnson) Gray took his beautiful Ode, <i>The Bard</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Kentucky Gazette</i> (October 27, 1806)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What time the fair perfidious shepherd bore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beauteous Helen back to Ilion's shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To sleep the howling waves were won<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By Nerceus, Ocean's hoary son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While round the liquid realms he sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From guilty love, what dire disasters sprung.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thee, tainted Youth, what omens dire attend!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy neck and Ilion's soon to Greece shall bend.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To man and horse what sweat and blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What carnage float down Xanthus' flood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wrath on Troy shall Greece infuriate turn!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What glittering domes, and spires, and temples burn!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In vain you boast the Queen of beauty's smiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her charms, her floating curls, her amourous wiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These, these alas! will nought avail<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While Cretan arrows round you sail!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, tho' the fates awhile such guilt may spare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vile dust at length shall smear that golden hair!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Trace back, vain Youth! sad Ilion's fate of old!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Ulysses' sons and Nestor's yet behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Teucer's and Diomede's more dread<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Horrific war shall round you shed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then shall ye trembling fly like timid deer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When hungry wolves are howling in their rear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By promise Vain of Universal Sway<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lur'd you from Greece the beauteous Queen away?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In less than ten revolving years<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Achilles' dreadful fleet appears!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bloody trains of Myrmidonians dire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall wrap proud Ilion's domes in Grecian fire!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Kentucky Gazette</i> (November 3, 1806)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What deathless Artist's mimic hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall paint me here the Ocean bland,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall give the waves such kindling glows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As when immortal Venus rose?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, in phrenzy's flight of mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such touch and tinctures bright may find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To match her form and golden hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And naked paint the heavenly fair?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While every amorous rival billow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strives her buoyant breast to pillow?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis done! behold the wavelets green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Softly press the Paphian Queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around her heavenly bosom play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kiss its warm blush and melt away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her graceful neck of pearl behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her wavy curls of floating gold:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But none but lips divine may tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What Graces on that bosom dwell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such bloom a bed of lilies shows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Illumin'd by the crimson'd rose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rounding off with grace divine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like hills of snow her shoulders shine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While streaming thro' the waves she swims<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The silvery maze half veils her limbs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Else where's the eye that durst behold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such beauty stream'd on heavenly mold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Th' enamour'd Triton's glittering train<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sporting round the liquid main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waving their gold and silver pinions,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear her o'er their deep dominions,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While infant Loves and young desires<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dancing 'mid the choral choirs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clasp the beauteous Queen around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sail in triumph o'er the bright profound.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">ANACREON'S FIRST ODE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Western Review</i> (Lexington, March, 1821)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I would Atrides' glory tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would to Cadmus strike my shell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I try the vocal cords—in vain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, only love, breathes through the strain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I strip away the truant wire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And string with deeper chords the lyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then great Alcides' toils would sing:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft love still sighs through every string.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence, themes of Glory, hence! adieu!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For what have I to do with you?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart and lyre in union make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resounding Love and only Love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HUMPHREY_MARSHALL" id="HUMPHREY_MARSHALL">HUMPHREY MARSHALL</a></h2> + + +<p>Humphrey Marshall, author of the first <i>History of Kentucky</i> +that was in any wise comprehensive, was born +near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1760. What little school +instruction he received was from the young woman whom +he afterwards married. Marshall removed to Kentucky +in 1782, after having served as an officer in the Revolutionary +War. He was a member of the Virginia convention +of 1788, as a representative of the district of Kentucky,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +which adopted the Federal constitution. Marshall +was in the Kentucky legislature for several terms and, +from 1795 to 1801, he was United States Senator from +Kentucky. Some years later he was again in the State +legislature; and at about that time his famous duel with +Henry Clay took place. The first edition of his <i>History +of Kentucky</i> (Frankfort, 1812), appeared in a single volume +of 407 pages; but the second and final edition was +greatly revised and augmented and published in two octavo +volumes (Frankfort, 1824). Humphrey Marshall's +pen was pointed with poison for his enemies (and he had +more of them than any other Kentuckian of his time, perhaps), +and in his book he lashed them ruthlessly. He was +the first as well as the last of Kentucky's "personal" historians. +He first endeavored to silence his foes with +newspapers and pamphlets, but, not being satisfied with +the results, he poured out his wrath in book form to the +extent of a thousand pages and more. While prejudice is +the most descriptive word possible to use in characterizing +Marshall's work, it is not all prejudice. He wrote +with wonderful keenness concerning the Spanish conspiracy +in Kentucky, his views upon the men that were +guilty of bartering Kentucky to Spain in order to obtain +free navigation of the Mississippi river having been +abundantly affirmed by the latest historical work upon +that subject. He also wrote of the Burr conspiracy with +great clearness of vision, all of which is very remarkable +when one stops to consider that nearly every one of the +men connected with these two conspiracies were his bitterest +enemies. That Marshall was an able writer all of the +Kentucky historians have freely admitted, notwithstanding +the fact they have quarreled with his "copy" many +times. He is, as his biographer writes, "the stormy petrel +of Kentucky's earlier years," a most remarkable man +from several points of view. His <i>History of Kentucky</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +in either edition, is rather scarce at this time, and it is not +to be found in many of the rare book shops of the country. +Humphrey Marshall died at Lexington, Kentucky, July 3, +1841. He lies buried upon the banks of the Kentucky +river, near the capitol of the Commonwealth, Frankfort.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); <i>Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall</i>, +by A. C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The History of Kentucky</i> (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i)]</p> + +<p>The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be +re-visited, and better known. Among the circumstances best +adapted to engage the attention, and impress the feelings of the +adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be selected the uncommon +fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild +game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are assured that the +effect lost nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters had seen—mountains +they had ascended—valleys they had traversed—deer +they had killed—and bears they had successfully hunted. +They had heard the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; +and the heart-rending yell of the savage man; with correspondent +sensations of delight, or horror. But these were all lost to memory, +in the contemplation of Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting +variety, and adorned with all the majestic grace and +boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's children, she +herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the feelings +of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the +sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn +was in the dawn of summer; when the forests, composed of +oaks of various kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, +sugar trees, locust, sycamore, coffee tree, and an indefinite +number of other trees, towering aloft to the clouds, overspread +the luxuriant undergrowth, with their daily shade; while beneath, +the class of trees—the shrubs, the cane, the herbage, and the different +kinds of grass, and clover, interspersed with flowers, filled +the eye, and overlaid the soil, with the forest's richest carpet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile than Egypt's boasted +Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious nutriment; and in +rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless verdure.</p> + +<p>Here it was, if Pan ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, +he held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmolested by +Ceres, or Lucina, for centuries.</p> + +<p>The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the +disguise of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no +human habitation raised: even the red man of the forest had not +put up his wigwam of poles and bark for habitation. But that +mysterious Being, whose productive power we call Nature, ever +bountiful, and ever great—had not spread out this replete and +luxurious pasture without stocking it with numerous flocks and +herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, who prey upon them, +wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. Here was seen +the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surly bear; +the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; the +insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable +other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, +at some time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the +leviathan of the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, +like that of the famous Trojan horse, would have held an host of +men; and whose teeth, nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, +on both animals and vegetable substances—until exhausting +all within its range, itself became extinct. Nor is it +known, although the race must have abounded in the country, +from the great number of bones belonging to the species, found in +different places, that there is one of the kind living on the American +continent, if in the universe.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="STEPHEN_T_BADIN" id="STEPHEN_T_BADIN">STEPHEN T. BADIN</a></h2> + + +<p>Stephen Theodore Badin, Kentucky's earliest Catholic +bard, was born at Orleans, France, in 1768. Though +very poor he received a classical and theological training +in Paris and Tours; and in 1792 he emigrated to +America. In the following year Badin was ordained +by Bishop John Carroll at Baltimore, he being the first +Roman Catholic priest ordained in the United States. +He was subsequently appointed to do missionary work +in Kentucky, which was then in the old Baltimore diocese, +and he made his home at Georgetown, Kentucky. +During the next few years Badin rode more than one hundred +thousand miles on horseback in order to meet all of +his appointments. He was then the only Catholic priest +in Kentucky, though he did have assistants from time to +time. In 1797 Badin was made vicar-general, and the +large Catholic emigrations from Maryland to Kentucky +about this time greatly increased his labors. His <i>Principles +of Catholics</i> (1805) was the first Catholic book published +in the West, and it gave him a larger audience than +his voice could well reach. Badin later organized missions +and built churches in Louisville and Lexington, St. +Peter's in Lexington being made possible by the generosity +of his Protestant friends, of whom he had many. +Badin and Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, of the Bardstown +diocese, had a misunderstanding as to the settlement +of titles to certain church properties which Badin had acquired +before Flaget came to Kentucky, and, rather than +to have an acrimonious argument with the Bishop, he quit +Kentucky, in 1819, and spent the next nine years in European +travel. From 1830 to 1836 he worked among the +Pottawatomie Indians in Indiana with marked success. +Father Badin died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. He was +the author of several Latin poems in hexameters, among +them being <i>Carmen Sacrum</i>, a translation of which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +published at Frankfort; <i>Epicedium</i>, an elegy upon +the death of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess at the battle of +Tippecanoe; and <i>Sanctissimae Trinitatis Laudes et Invocatis</i> (Louisville, 1843). His brief in memoriam for Colonel +Daviess is his best known work and, perhaps, his +masterpiece.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky</i>, +by M. J. Spalding (Louisville, 1846); <i>The Centenary of +Catholicity in Kentucky</i>, by B. J. Webb (Louisville, 1884).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">EPICEDIUM</p> + +<p class="center"> +In Gloriosam Mortem<br /> +Magnanimi Equitum Ducis<br /> +Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Patrii Amoris Victimæ<br /> +In Tippecanoe Pugna ad Amnem<br /> +Wabaschum, 7. Die Nov. 1811.<br /> +Epicedium;<br /> +Honorabili Viro Joanni Rowan<br /> +Meo Ipsiusque Amico Dicatum.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Kentucky Gazette</i> (February 18, 1812)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Autumnus felix aderat granaria complens<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frugibus; umbrosas patulis jam frondibus ulmos<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exuerat brumœ proprior, cum Fama per orbem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Non rumore vago fatalia nuncia defert:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Sub specie pacis Slyvæcola perfidus atra<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Nocte viros inopino plumbo occidit et hasta;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Dux equitum triplici confossus vulnere, fortis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Occubuit; turmœ hostiles periere fugatœ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Hostilesque casas merito ultrix flamma voravit."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mensibus Æstivis portenderat ista Cometes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; ægre<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Volvit sanguineas Wabaschus tardior undas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ingeminant Dryades suspiria longa; Hymenœus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deficit audita clade, et solatia spernit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Omnia; triste silet Musarum turba; fidelis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Luget Amicities, lugubri tegmine vestit<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Et caput et lævam, desiderioque dalentis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ergo piæ Themidis meliora oracula poscunt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unanimes; diram causam Themis aure benigna<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Excipit, et mox decretum pronunciat œquum:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Davidis effigies nostra appendatur in aula;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Tempora sacra viri quercus civilis adornet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ac non immeritam jungat Victoria laurum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Signa sui Legislator det publica luctus;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Historiœ chartis referat memorabile Clio.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Prælium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Condat Amicities; præsens venturaque laudet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ætas magnanimum David, virtute potentem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Eloquii, belli et pacis decus immortale."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vita habet angustos fines, et gloria nullos:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qui patriœ reddunt vitam, illi morte nec ipsa<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vincuntur; virtutum exempla nepotibus extant.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pro Patria vitam profundere maxima laus est.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Stephanus Theodorus Badin,</span><br /> + <span>Cathol. Mission. </span> +</div> +<p> +Moerens canebat 15. Dec. 1811.<br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center">A TRANSLATION BY "WOODFORDENSIS"</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p class="center"> +On the glorious death of Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Commander<br /> +of the Horse, who fell a victim to his love of country, in<br /> +the late battle on the Wabash, the 7th. Nov., 1811.<br /> +Dedicated to John Rowan, Esq.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas late in autumn, and the thrifty swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In spacious barns secur'd the golden grain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">November's chilly mornings breath'd full keen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No leafy honors crown'd the sylvan scene.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Fame with those sad tidings quickly flew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Throughout our land; (her tale, alas! too true):<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +<span class="i0">"The savage Indian, our perfidious foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pretending peace with hypocritic show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surpris'd our legions in the dead of night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And urg'd with lead and steel the mortal fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our valiant warriors strew th' ensanguin'd plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ev'n our great Captain of the Horse is slain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With triple wound!!! At length the foe retires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With loss; and leaves his town to our avenging fires."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When summer gilded our nocturnal sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With astral gems; a comet blazed on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Portentous of these fates!—the earth, in throes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Repeated labors; rueful Wabash flows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With slower current, stain'd with mingling blood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The <i>Dryads</i> fill with plaints the echoing wood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hymen, the slaughter heard, dissolves in grief!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Naught can console him, naught can yield relief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In woeful silence sits the muses' train<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Friendship mourns her fav'rite hero slain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The funeral crape, vain badge of grief! she wears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon her head, her arms the emblem bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her sorrowing mind no moderation knows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Admits no measure to her boundless woes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Ah, what avails the vain expense of tears?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fate still unmov'd this fruitless anguish bears!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore to Themis' shrine, with one accord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They come to crave a more benign award.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The direful cause the attentive Goddess hears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soon this just decree her record bears:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Let Daviess still in semblance grace my halls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let his bright portraiture adorn my walls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The civic oak his sacred brows entwine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vict'ry to the wreath his laurel join.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let Legislative acts of mourning show<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voted ensigns of the public woe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the historic page be ever read<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fierce encounter, when great Daviess bled,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And be the fatal spot with cypress shade o'erspread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His noble heart let Hymen's care enclose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the rich urn, and friendship's hand compose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His other relics in the marble tomb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let the ages present and to come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just praises render to his glorious name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let honor'd Daviess gild the page of fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A hero, fit a nation's pow'r to wield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In council wise, and mighty in the field."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">His mortal life a narrow space confines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But glory with unbounded lustre shines.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those virtuous souls, who shed their noble blood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A willing off'ring to the public good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who to their country's welfare freely give<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sacrifice of life, forever live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As bright examples to the unborn brave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To shew how virtue rescues from the grave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The noblest act the patriot's fame can tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is, that he bravely for his country fell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus sung the missionary bard, and paid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This mournful tribute to the mighty dead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="DR_CHARLES_CALDWELL" id="DR_CHARLES_CALDWELL">DR. CHARLES CALDWELL</a></h2> + + +<p>Dr. Charles Caldwell, versatile and voluminous writer +of prose, was born at Caswell, North Carolina, May 14, +1772. He entered the medical school of the University +of Pennsylvania, in 1792; and he won the city's gratitude +in the following year by his medical services during +the yellow fever epidemic. In 1810 Dr. Caldwell +became professor of natural history in the University of +Pennsylvania; and four years later he succeeded Nicholas +Biddle (1786-1844) as editor of <i>The Port-Folio</i>, a Philadelphia +magazine of high character. In 1819 Dr. Caldwell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +came to Lexington, Kentucky, to accept the chair of +materia medica in Transylvania University. Some +months later he was sent to Europe to purchase books and +apparatus for his department. He returned to Transylvania +and continued there until 1837, when he removed +to Louisville and established a medical institute. Some +years later he and the trustees disagreed and he left. +After leaving the institute, Dr. Caldwell continued to +reside at Louisville, in which city he died, July 9, 1853. +Dr. Caldwell was the first distinguished American practitioner +of phrenology, if he did not actually discover this +alleged science. From 1794 until his death, Dr. Caldwell +was an indefatigable literary worker. He was the author +of more than two hundred pamphlets, essays, and books. +He translated Blumenbach's <i>Elements of Physiology</i> +(1795); <i>Bachtiar Nameh</i> (1813), a Persian tale which he +translated from the Arabic; edited Cullen's <i>Practice of +Physic</i> (1816); <i>Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of +the Hon.</i> [General] <i>Greene</i> (Philadelphia, 1819); <i>Elements +of Phrenology</i> (1824); <i>A Discourse on the Genius +and Character of the Rev. Horace Holley, LL.D., late +President of Transylvania University</i> (Boston, 1828); +and <i>Thoughts and Experiments on Mesmerism</i> (1842).</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. His <i>Autobiography</i> (Philadelphia, 1855), published +posthumously, has been regarded by many as an unfortunate +work, as in it he made some rather severe pictures of his +contemporaries. That the work contains much excellent writing, +and is often very happy in the descriptions of the country +through which the author passed, no one has arisen to gainsay; +<i>Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M. D.</i> (Philadelphia, 1887, +v. ii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene</i> +(Philadelphia, 1819)]</p> + +<p>Nathaniel Greene, although descended from ancestors of elevated +standing, was not indebted to the condition of his family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +for any part of the real lustre and reputation he possessed. As +truly as is the case with any individual, he was the founder of his +own fortune, and the author of his own fame. He was the second +son of Nathaniel Greene, an anchor-smith, of considerable note, +who is believed to have had the earliest establishment of the kind +erected in America, and, by persevering industry in the line of +his profession, an extensive and lucrative concern in iron-works, +and some success in commercial transactions, had acquired a +sufficiency to render him comfortable, if not wealthy.</p> + +<p>He was born in the year 1741, in the town of Warwick, and +county of Kent, in the province of Rhode Island. As far as is +known, his childhood passed without any peculiar or unequivocal +indications of future greatness. But this is a point of little +moment. The size of the oak it is destined to produce, can rarely +be foretold from an examination of the acorn. Nor is it often +that any well defined marks of genius in the child afford a premonition +of the eminence of the man.</p> + +<p>Several of his contemporaries, however, who are still living, +have a perfect recollection that young Greene had neither the +appearance nor manners of a common boy; nor was he so considered +by his elder, and more discerning acquaintance.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Being intended by his father for the business which he had +himself pursued, young Greene received at school nothing but +the elements of a common English education. But, to himself, +an acquisition so humble and limited, was unsatisfactory and +mortifying. Even now, his aim was lofty; and he had a noble +ambition, not only to embark in high pursuits, but to qualify +himself for a manly and honourable acquittance in them. Seeming, +at this early period of life, to realize the important truth +that, knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it became, in a short +time, his ruling passion.</p> + +<p>He accordingly procured, in part by his own economy, the +necessary books, and, at intervals of leisure, acquired, chiefly +without the aid of an instructor, a competent acquaintance with +the Latin tongue.</p> + +<p>This attainment, respectable in itself, was only preliminary to +higher efforts. With such funds as he was able to raise, he purchased +a small, but well selected library, and spent his evenings, +and all the time he could redeem from business, in regular study. +He read with a view to general improvement; but geography, +travels, and military history—the latter, more especially—constituted +his delight. Having, also, a predilection for mathematics +and mechanical philosophy, and pursuing, in most cases, the bent +of his inclination, as far as prudence and opportunity would admit, +his knowledge, in the more practical departments of these +sciences, became highly respectable.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ALLAN_B_MAGRUDER" id="ALLAN_B_MAGRUDER">ALLAN B. MAGRUDER</a></h2> + + +<p>Allan Bowie Magruder, poet and historian, was born in +Kentucky, about 1775. He received an academic education, +studied law, and was admitted to the Lexington bar +in 1797. He contributed very fair verse to the <i>Kentucky +Gazette</i> in 1802 and 1803, which attracted considerable +comment in the West. That his fame as a poet was +wide-spread, is indicated by a letter from an Ohio writer +published in the <i>Lexington Intelligencer</i>, January 28, 1834, +in which Magruder's verse is highly praised and further +information concerning his career is sought. After stabbing +poor Tom Johnson's little pamphlet of rhymes to the +heart, Magruder is placed upon his pedestal as the first +real Kentucky poet; and that his work was superior to +either Johnson's or George Beck's is obvious, continues +the caustic correspondent. The truth is, of course, that +the verses of neither of the three men merit mention for +anything save their priority; and the young Lexington +lawyer's muse was not as productive as Tom's or Beck's, +no more than three or four of his poems having come +down to us. His first prose work was entitled <i>Reflections +on the late Cession of Louisiana to the United +States</i> (Lexington, 1803). This little volume of 150 pages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +was issued by Daniel Bradford, for whose periodical, +<i>The Medley</i>, Magruder wrote <i>The Character of Thomas +Jefferson</i> (June; July, 1803). This essay attracted the +attention of the President, and he appointed Magruder +commissioner of lands in Louisiana, to which territory +he shortly afterwards removed. He was later a member +of the State legislature; and from November 18, +1812, to March 3, 1813, Magruder was United States +Senator from his adopted State. The next few years +he devoted to collecting materials for a history of +the North American Indians; and he also made notes for +many years for a history of Kentucky, which he finally +abandoned, and which he turned over to his old friend, +John Bradford, who made use of them in his <i>Notes on +Kentucky</i>. Allan B. Magruder died at Opelousas, Louisiana, +April 16, 1822, when but forty-seven years of age. +He was a man of culture and of high promise, but once in +the politics of the country his early literary triumphs +were not repeated, and he appears to have never done any +writing worth while after his removal from Kentucky.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Lexington Intelligencer</i> (Lexington, Kentucky, +January 28, 1834); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. iv).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Medley</i> (Lexington, Ky., July, 1803)]</p> + +<p>When Citizen Genet, the ex-minister of the Robesperian +fanaticism, appeared in America, he attempted to impose his new +philosophy of light and liberty upon the government. He had +nothing to boast of, on the score of superior diplomatic skill. +His communications to the secretary of state, were evidently of +the tampering kind. They were impressed with all the marks of +that enthusiastic insanity, which regulated the councils of the +faction; and which, were calculated to mistake their object, by +disgusting their intended victims. The mind of Mr. Jefferson, +discovered itself, in an early period of his correspondence with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +the French minister. The communications of Genet were decorated +with all the flowers of eloquence, without the force and +conviction of rhetorical energy. Accustomed to diplomatic calculation, +and intimately combining cause with effect, Mr. Jefferson +apprehended the subject, with strength and precision; considered +it—developed it—viewed it on all sides—listened to +every appeal, and attended to every charge—and in every communication, +burst forth with a strength of refutation, that at +once detected and embarrassed, the disappointed minister of a +wily and fanatic faction.</p> + +<p>It is, in most instances, useless to oppose enthusiasm with the +deliberate coolness of reason and argument. They are the antipodes +of each other; and of that imperious nature, which mutually +solicit triumph and disdain reconciliation. The tyranny of +the Robesperian principles, were calculated to inveigle within the +vortex of European politics, the American government and people. +The coolness and sagacity of the secretary of state, composed +their defence and protection. The appeal was mutually +made to the government; and it is a fortunate circumstance, that +there existed this tribunal to approbate the measures of the secretary, +and to silence forever, the declamatory oracle of an insidious +faction. Checked and defeated on all sides, his doctrines stripped +of their visionary principles, and himself betrayed into the labyrinth +of diplomatic mystery, their ex-divinity, shrank into the +silence of contempt; declaring with his last breath, that Mr. Jefferson +was the only man in America, whose talents he highly +respected.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HENRY_CLAY" id="HENRY_CLAY">HENRY CLAY</a></h2> + + +<p>Henry Clay, the most famous Kentuckian ever born, +first saw the light in the "Slashes," Hanover county, +Virginia, April 12, 1777. When twenty years of age, +he settled in Lexington, Kentucky, as a lawyer; and +Lexington was his home henceforth. In 1803 Henry Clay +was elected to the State legislature; and before he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +thirty years old he was filling an unexpired term in the +United States Senate. In 1811 he was sent to the National +House of Representatives from the old Lexington district. +He was immediately chosen Speaker of that body, a position +to which he was subsequently elected five times. This +was the period of his greatest speeches. His utterances +upon American rights did much to bring about the War of +1812. In 1814 Henry Clay went to Europe as a peace +commissioner, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December +24, 1814. He had resigned the Speakership in +order to go to Ghent, but on his return in 1815, he found +himself reëlected; and he presided as Speaker until 1820, +declining two diplomatic posts and two cabinet offices in +order to continue in the chair. In 1820 Henry Clay advocated +the Missouri Compromise, and a short time afterwards +he retired from public life to devote his attention +to his private affairs. He was, however, in 1823, again +elected to the lower House of Congress, and was again +chosen Speaker, serving as such until 1825. In 1824 he +announced himself as a candidate for president, but he +was defeated by John Quincy Adams, who made him his +Secretary of State. Andrew Jackson was elected president, +in 1828, and Mr. Clay—to give him the name he +was always known by, regardless of the many positions he +held—once more retired from American politics. In 1831 +the people elected him United States Senator from Kentucky, +and in that body he fought Jackson's policies so +strenuously that the Whig party was born, with Mr. Clay +as its legitimate parent. The Whigs nominated him as +their first candidate for president, but he was overwhelmingly +defeated by his old-time enemy, Andrew Jackson. +He was the author of the Compromise tariff of 1832-1833, +which did much toward winning him the sobriquet of the +"Great Compromiser." Mr. Clay was reëlected to the +Senate, in 1837; and two years later his great debates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +with John C. Calhoun took place. Late in this year of +1839, the Whig political bosses set him aside and nominated +William Henry Harrison for president and he was +elected. In 1842 Henry Clay was retired to private life for +the third time, but two years later he was again the candidate +of the Whigs for president, and he was defeated by a +comparatively unknown man, James K. Polk of Tennessee—the +only Speaker of the House who has ever been elected +president of the United States. The year of 1849 found +Henry Clay once more in the Senate, but he was now old +and very feeble. The great Compromise of 1850 sapped +his rapidly waning strength, though it greatly added to +his fame as a statesman. On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay +died at Washington City, in the seventy-sixth year of his +age. His body was brought back to the land he loved so +well, and to which he had brought world-wide fame, and +was buried at Lexington, where a grateful people have +erected a cloud-tipped monument to his memory. He is +one of the American immortals, though it is not at all +difficult to quarrel with many of his public acts. He +carried the name and fame of Kentucky into the remotest +corners of the universe, and it would be indeed surprising +if it were not possible to find flaws in a record that +was as long as his. His connection with the Graves-Cilley +duel in 1838 appears unpardonable at this time, but +perhaps the whole truth regarding this infamous affair +has not yet been brought out. Considering the patent +fact that few orators can stand the printed page, and that +the methods by which Clay's addresses were preserved +were crude and unsatisfactory, many of the speeches are +very readable even unto this day. They undoubtedly +prove, however, that the man behind them, and not the +manner or matter of them, was the thing that made Henry +Clay the most lovable character in American history.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. There are many biographies of Clay, and numerous +collections of his speeches. Carl Schurz's <i>Henry Clay</i> +(Boston, 1887, two vols.), is the best account of the statesman; +<i>Henry Clay</i>, by Thomas H. Clay (Philadelphia, 1910), is adequate +for Clay the man; and Daniel Mallory's <i>Life and Speeches +of the Hon. Henry Clay</i> (New York, 1844), is the finest collection +of his speeches made hitherto.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay</i>, edited by Daniel +Mallory (New York, 1844, v. i., 4th edition)]</p> + +<p>Sir, I am growing old. I have had some little measure of experience +in public life, and the result of that experience has +brought me to this conclusion, that when business, of whatever +nature, is to be transacted in a deliberative assembly, or in private +life, courtesy, forebearance, and moderation, are best calculated +to bring it to a successful conclusion. Sir, my age admonishes +me to abstain from involving myself in personal difficulties; +would to God that I could say, I am also restrained by higher motives. +I certainly never sought any collision with the gentleman +from Virginia. My situation at this time is peculiar, if it be nothing +else, and might, I should think, dissuade, at least, a generous +heart from any wish to draw me into circumstances of personal +altercation. I have experienced this magnanimity from some +quarters of the house. But I regret, that from others it appears +to have no such consideration. The gentleman from Virginia +was pleased to say, that in one point at least he coincided +with me—in an humble estimate of my grammatical and philological +acquirements, I know my deficiencies. I was born to +no proud patrimonial estate; from my father I inherited only +infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects; but, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +far as my situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, +say they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, +however I regret my want of ability to furnish to the gentleman +a better specimen of powers of verbal criticism, I will venture to +say, it is not greater than the disappointment of this committee +as to the strength of his argument.</p> + + +<p class="center">ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>General,</p> + +<p>The house of representatives of the United States, impelled +alike by its own feelings, and by those of the whole American +people, could not have assigned to me a more gratifying duty +than that of presenting to you cordial congratulations upon the +occasion of your recent arrival in the United States, in compliance +with the wishes of Congress, and to assure you of the very +high satisfaction which your presence affords on this early theatre +of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members +who compose this body shared with you in the war of our revolution, +all have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, +a knowledge of the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which +you voluntarily encountered, and the signal services, in America +and in Europe, which you performed for an infant, a distant, +and an alien people; and all feel and own the very great extent +of the obligations under which you have placed our country. +But the relations in which you have ever stood to the United +States, interesting and important as they have been, do not constitute +the only motive of the respect and admiration which the +house of representatives entertain for you. Your consistency of +character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the +vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also commands its admiration. +During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amidst, as +after the dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the +United States have beheld you, true to your old principles, firm +and erect, cheering and animating with your well-known voice, +the votaries of liberty, its faithful and fearless champion, ready +to shed the last drop of that blood which here you so freely and +nobly spilt, in the same holy cause.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence +would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and +to contemplate the intermediate changes which had taken place; +to view the forest felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, +the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, +advancement of learning, and the increase of population. General, +your present visit to the United States is a realization of the +consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst of posterity. +Every where, you must have been struck with the great changes, +physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even +this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you +and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then covered +its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and this is in +the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent +affection and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the +father of his country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates +in the field and in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings +which surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing you +which I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by +more than ten millions of people, will be transmitted, with unabated +vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless millions +who are destined to inhabit this continent, to the latest +posterity.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_J_AUDUBON" id="JOHN_J_AUDUBON">JOHN J. AUDUBON</a></h2> + + +<p>John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, was +born at Mandeville, Louisiana, May 5, 1780. He was educated +in France under private tutors, but his consuming +love of Nature and especially of bird-life, was too strong +to keep him in a beaten path of study, so most of his time +was spent in the woods and fields. When seventeen years +old Audubon returned to the United States to settle upon +his father's estate, "Mill Grove," near Philadelphia. +There he devoted his entire time to hunting, fishing, drawing, +and music. Some months later he met and fell in +love with his nearest neighbor, Lucy Bakewell, a young +English girl. "Too young and too useless to be married," +as he himself afterwards wrote, his about-to-be father-in-law, +William Bakewell, advised Audubon to become a New +York business man. With his friend, Ferdinand Rozier, +whom he had met in France, and who was then connected +with a French firm in Philadelphia, he visited Kentucky, +late in 1806, "thought well of it, and liked it exceedingly." +But his great love of Nature was not to be denied, +and his business suffered accordingly. On April 8, 1808, +Audubon was married to Miss Bakewell, and the next +morning left for Pittsburgh, where he and his bride, accompanied +by Rozier, floated down the Ohio river in a flatboat, +which was their bridal tour, with Louisville, Kentucky, +as their destination. Upon reaching Louisville +Audubon and Rozier opened a large store which prospered +when Audubon attended to it; "but birds were birds then +as now, and my thoughts were ever and anon turning toward +them as the objects of my greatest delight." His +first child, Victor, was born at Louisville, in 1809. +Rozier conducted the store, and Audubon spent his days +in "the darling forests." In 1810 Alexander Wilson, the +Scotch ornithologist and poet, called upon Audubon at his +store in Louisville hoping to obtain his subscription to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +work upon American birds, but Audubon showed him +birds he had never seen before, which seemingly angered +the Scot as he afterwards wrote slightingly of the Kentucky +naturalist. Late in 1810 Audubon and Rozier removed +their stock of goods to Henderson, Kentucky, +where their trade was so poor that Rozier was left behind +the counter, while Audubon was compelled to fish and hunt +for food. A short time after their arrival in Henderson, +the two partners decided to move to St. Genevieve on the +Mississippi river, but Audubon disliked the community, +sold out to Rozier, and returned to his home in Henderson. +His second son, John Woodhouse, was born at Henderson, +in 1812. Two daughters were also born at Henderson, +the first of whom, Lucy, died in infancy and +was buried in her father's garden. His pecuniary affairs +were now greatly reduced, but he continued to +draw birds and quadrupeds. He disposed of Mill Grove +and opened a small store in Henderson, which prospered +and put him on his feet again. Audubon was doing so +finely in business now that he purchased a small farm +and was adding to it from time to time. His brother-in-law, +Thomas Bakewell, arrived at Henderson about 1816, +and finally persuaded Audubon to erect a steam-mill on his +property at a great expense. For a time this mill did all +the sawing for the country, but in the end it ruined Audubon +and his partners. He left Henderson in 1819, after +having resided in the town for nearly ten years, and set up +as a portrait painter in Louisville, where he was very successful. +From Louisville Audubon went to Cincinnati +and from there to New Orleans. In October, 1823, he +again settled at Louisville as a painter of "birds, landscapes, +portraits, and even signs." His wife was the only +person in the world who had any faith in his ultimate +"arrival" as a famous naturalist, and the outlook was indeed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +dark. Audubon quitted Louisville in March, 1824, +and two years later he went to England, where the first +public exhibition of his drawings was held. His first and +most famous work, <i>Birds of America</i>, was published at +London from 1827 to 1838, issued in numbers, each containing +five plates, without text, the complete work consisting +of four folio volumes. Audubon returned to America +in 1829, and he was with his sons at Louisville for a +short time, both of whom were engaged in business there. +He went to New Orleans to see his wife, and together they +came to Louisville, in 1830, to bid the "Kentucky lads," +as he called them, goodbye, before sailing for England. +At "the fair Edinburgh," in the fall of 1830, Audubon +began the <i>Ornithological Biographies</i> (Edinburgh, 1831-39, +5 vols.), the text to the plates of the <i>Birds</i>. In 1840-44 +the work was republished in seven volumes, text and +plates together, as <i>Birds of America</i>. In 1831 Audubon +and his wife returned to America, and they were again in +Louisville with the boys for some time. In 1833 his +famous trip to Labrador was taken, and the following +year found the family in England. The next ten years +were passed in wandering from country to country in +search of birds, but, in 1842, Audubon purchased "Minniesland," +now Audubon Park, New York. With his sons +and the Rev. John Bachman he planned the <i>Quadrupeds +of America</i>, the last volume of which was issued after his +death, which occurred at "Minniesland" on January 27, +1851. His wife, who wrote his life, survived him many +years, dying at Shelbyville, Kentucky, June 19, 1874, but +she is buried by his side on the banks of the Hudson.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life of John James Audubon</i>, edited by his +Widow (New York, 1869); <i>Audubon and His Journals</i>, edited +by Maria R. Audubon (New York, 1900); <i>John James Audubon</i>, +by John Burroughs (Boston, 1902).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO IN 1810<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Audubon and His Journals</i>, edited by Maria R. Audubon (New York, +1900, v. ii)]</p> + +<p>When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself +were returning from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found it expedient, +the waters being unusually low, to provide ourselves +with a <i>skiff</i>, to enable us to proceed to our abode at Henderson. +I purchased a large, commodious, and light boat of that denomination. +We procured a mattress, and our friends furnished +us with ready prepared viands. We had two stout negro rowers, +and in this trim we left the village of Shippingport [now within +the corporate limits of Louisville], in expectation of reaching +the place of our destination in a very few days.</p> + +<p>It was in the month of October. The autumnal tints already +decorated the shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every +tree was hung with long and flowing festoons of different species +of vines, many loaded with clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, +their rich bronzed carmine mingling beautifully with the yellow +foliage which now predominated over the yet green leaves, reflecting +more lively tints from the clear stream than ever landscape +painter portrayed, or poet imagined. The days were yet +warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at +that season produces the singular phenomenon called there the +"Indian Summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian +of her grandeur. We glided down the river, meeting no other +ripple of the water than that formed by the propulsion of our +boat. Leisurely we moved along, gazing all day on the grandeur +and beauty of the wild scenery around us.</p> + +<p>Now and then a large catfish rose to the surface of the water, +in pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from +the liquid element like so many silver arrows, produced a shower +of light, while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, +and, with a splash of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other +fishes we heard, uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the +strange sound of which we discovered to proceed from the white +perch, for on casting our net from the bow, we caught several of +that species, when the noise ceased for a time.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<p>Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality +towards this portion of our country. As the traveler +ascends or descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking that alternately, +nearly the whole length of the river, the margin, on +one side, is bounded by lofty hills and a rolling surface, while +on the other, extensive plains of the richest alluvial land are seen +as far as the eye can command the view. Islands of varied size +and form rise here and there from the bosom of the water, and +the winding course of the stream frequently brings you to places +where the idea of being on a river of great length changes to that +of floating on a lake of moderate extent. Some of these islands +are of considerable size and value; while others, small and insignificant, +seem as if intended for contrast, and as serving to enhance +the general interest of the scenery. These little islands +are frequently overflowed during great freshets or floods, and +receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber. We +foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would +soon produce along those delightful banks.</p> + +<p>As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the +river, our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered +far beyond the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that +the cattle which bore them were gently roving from valley to +valley in search of food, or returning to their distant homes. The +hooting of the Great Owl, or the muffled noise of its wings, as it +sailed smoothly over the stream, were matters of interest to us; +so was the sound of the boatman's horn, as it came winding more +and more softly from afar. When daylight returned, many songsters +burst forth with echoing notes, more and more mellow to +the listening ear. Here and there the lonely cabin of a squatter +struck the eye, giving note of commencing civilization. The +crossing of the stream by a Deer foretold how soon the hills would +be covered with snow.</p> + +<p>Many sluggish flatboats we overtook and passed; some laden +with produce from the different head-waters of the small rivers +that pour their tributary streams into the Ohio; others, of +less dimensions, crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in +search of a new home. Purer pleasures I never felt; nor have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +you, reader, I ween, unless indeed you have felt the like, and in +such company.</p> + +<p>The margins of the shores and of the river were, at this season +amply supplied with game. A Wild Turkey, a Grouse, or a Blue-winged +Teal, could be procured in a few moments; and we fared +well, for, whenever we pleased we landed, struck up a fire, and +provided as we were with the necessary utensils, procured a good +repast.</p> + +<p>Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, +when, one evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream +which runs into the Ohio from the State of Indiana), a loud and +strange noise was heard, so like the yells of Indian warfare, that +we pulled at our oars, and made for the opposite side as fast and +as quietly as possible. The sounds increased, we imagined we +heard cries of "murder;" and as we knew that some depredations +had lately been committed in the country by dissatisfied parties +of aborigines, we felt for a while extremely uncomfortable. Ere +long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we plainly +discovered that the singular uproar was produced by an enthusiastic +set of Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the +common way for the purpose of holding one of their annual camp-meetings, +under the shade of a beech forest. Without meeting +with any other interruption, we reached Henderson, distant from +Shippingport, by water, about two hundred miles.</p> + +<p>When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the +grandeur and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I +picture to myself the dense and lofty summits of the forests, that +everywhere spread along the hills and overhung the margins of +the stream, unmolested by the axe of the settler; when I know +how dearly purchased the safe navigation of that river has been, +by the blood of many worthy Virginians; when I see that no +longer any aborigines are to be found there, and that the vast +herds of Elk, Deer, and Buffaloes which once pastured on these +hills, and in these valleys, making for themselves great roads to +the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I reflect that +all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of +nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms, and +towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by +day, and the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding +to and fro, over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing +commerce to take root and to prosper at every spot; when I see +the surplus population of Europe coming to assist in the destruction +of the forest, and transplanting civilization into its darkest +recesses; when I remember that these extraordinary changes have +all taken place in the short period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, +and although I know all to be a fact, can scarcely believe its +reality.</p> + +<p>Whether these changes are for the better or for the worse, I +shall not pretend to say; but in whatever way my conclusions +may incline, I feel with regret that there are on record no satisfactory +accounts of the state of that portion of the country, from +the time when our people first settled in it. This has not been +because no one in America is able to accomplish such an undertaking. +Our Irvings and our Coopers have proved themselves +fully competent for the task. It has more probably been because +the changes have succeeded each other with such rapidity as +almost to rival the movements of their pens. However, it is not +too late yet; and I sincerely hope that either or both of them +will ere long furnish the generations to come with those delightful +descriptions which they are so well qualified to give, of the +original state of a country that has been rapidly forced to change +her form and attire under the influence of increasing population. +Yes, I hope to read, ere I close my earthly career, accounts from +those delightful writers of the progress of civilization in our +Western Country. They will speak of the Clarks, the Croghans, +the Boones, and many other men of great and daring enterprise. +They will analyze, as it were, into each component part the country +as it once existed, and will render the picture, as it ought to be, +immortal.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="HORACE_HOLLEY" id="HORACE_HOLLEY">HORACE HOLLEY</a></h2> + + +<p>Horace Holley, old Transylvania University's celebrated +president, was born at Salisbury, Connecticut, February +13, 1781, the son of Luther Holley, a wealthy merchant. +He was fitted at Williams College for Yale, from which +institution he was graduated in 1803. Holley studied law +in New York for awhile, but soon relinquished it for theology, +which he returned to Yale to pursue. In 1805 he +was appointed to his first pastorate. Going to Boston in +1809, as pastor of the Hollis Street Unitarian church, he +at once made a great reputation for himself as an eloquent +pulpit orator. Holley was at Hollis Street for nine years, +during which time he was a member of the Board of Overseers +of Harvard University, as well as a member of several +civic boards. He was elected president of Transylvania +University, of Lexington, in 1817, and he journeyed +to Kentucky in the following spring, where he went carefully +over the ground and finally decided to accept the position. +He entered almost at once upon the most difficult +task of converting a grammar school into a great university. +Success soon crowned his efforts, however, and Transylvania +took her place by the side of Harvard, Yale, and +Princeton, as one of the higher seats of learning in the +United States. In at least one year under the Holley +régime, Transylvania had the largest student body in this +country. The institution was as well known in New York +or London, among scholars, as it was in the West. Several +of the professors were men of national reputation, +and the students came from all parts of the United States. +Never before in the South or West has a seat of learning +had higher hopes for the future, or greater success or reputation +than had Transylvania under Horace Holley. +Then the Kentucky Presbyterians and others launched +Dame Rumor, freighted with falsehoods and misrepresentations +galore. The president was charged with every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +crime in the calendar: he was an atheist, an agnostic, a +blasphemer, a wine-bibber, and all that was evil. The +whole truth was this: he was a Unitarian, holding the +Christ to be the greatest personality in history, but denying +him as the very Son of God. This his prejudiced, ill-advised +enemies were unable to understand. Driven to +desperation by the bitter crusade that was being waged +against him, Holley resigned, in March, 1827, after nine +years of great success as head of the University, which +after his departure, fell away to almost nothing. He +went from Kentucky to Louisiana, where he endeavored +to re-organize the College of New Orleans, and in which +work he wore himself out. Late in the summer he and +his wife took passage for New York, but he contracted +yellow-fever, and, on July 31, 1827, he died. His body +was consigned to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but his +fame is secure as an American educator of distinguished +ability. The finest bit of prose he ever wrote, perhaps, is +contained in one of his Kentucky letters to his wife in +Boston, written while he was in Lexington looking over +the lay of the land, which, as subsequent events proved, he +utterly failed to anticipate in its most dangerous and +damning aspect.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the +Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D.</i>, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, +1828); <i>More Colonial Homesteads</i>, by Marion Harland +(New York, 1899); <i>Lore of the Meadowland</i>, by J. W. Townsend +(Lexington, Kentucky, 1911).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">MR. CLAY AND COLONEL MEADE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace Holley, +LL. D.</i>, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828)]</p> + +<div class="signature"> + <span>Lexington, May 27th, 1818.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>I wrote a hasty letter to you on the night of my arrival. I +shall now he able to speak a little more in detail.</p> + +<p>The town and the vicinity are very handsome. The streets are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +broad, straight, paved, clean, and have rows of trees on each side. +The houses are of brick almost universally, many of them in the +midst of fields, and have a very rural and charming appearance. +The taste is for low houses, generally two, sometimes even but one +story high, like English cottages. This taste gives an effect that +eyes accustomed to the high buildings of an Atlantic city, where +there is but little room, are not at first pleased with. But it is a +taste adapted to the circumstances, and to me is not unpleasant.</p> + +<p>I have taken lodgings at the principal hotel of the place, where +I have a drawing-room to receive calls, which were yesterday until +dinner almost innumerable.... In the afternoon I walked +about town with Mr. Clay, and called at a few charming houses. +I visited also the Athenaeum, an institution not yet furnished +with many books, but well supplied with newspapers, and the +best periodicals. I find everything of this sort, which is valuable, +from Boston and the other Atlantic cities.</p> + +<p>This morning I breakfasted at Mr. Clay's, who lives a mile and +a half from town. He arrived here only three days before me. +Ashland is a very pleasant place, handsomer than I anticipated. +The grounds are beautiful, the lawns and walks extensive, the +shrubbery luxuriant, and the garden well supplied. The native +forest of ash in the rear adds a charming effect to the whole. +After breakfast Mr. Clay rode in with me, and we went with the +trustees, by appointment, to the college, to visit the professors +and students. They were all collected in the largest hall to receive +us. I made a short address, which was received in a kind +manner. I was then conducted to the library, the apparatus, +and the recitation rooms. The library is small, and the apparatus +smaller. There is no regular division of students into classes +as in other colleges, and but few laws. Everything is to be done, +and so much the better, as nothing is to be reformed. Almost +the whole is proposed to be left to me to arrange. I am now +making all necessary inquiries, and a meeting of the trustees is +to be called next week.</p> + +<p>After this visit, I went with a party of ladies and gentlemen, +nine miles into the country to the seat of Colonel [David] Meade +[1744-1838] where we dined and passed the day. This gentleman, +who is near seventy, is a Virginian of the old school. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +has been a good deal in England, in his youth, and brought home +with him English notions of a country seat, though he is a great +republican in politics. He and his wife dress in the costume of +the olden time. He has the square coat and great cuffs, the vest +of the court, short breeches, and white stockings, at all times. +Mrs. Meade has the long waist, the white apron, the stays, the +ruffles about the elbows, and the cap of half a century ago. She +is very mild and ladylike, and though between sixty and seventy, +plays upon the piano-forte with the facility and cheerfulness of a +young lady. Her husband resembles Colonel Pickering in the +face, and the shape of the head. He is entirely a man of leisure, +never having followed any business, and never using his fortune +but in adorning his place and entertaining his friends and strangers. +No word is ever sent to him that company is coming. To +do so offends him. But a dinner—he dines at the hour of four—is +always ready for visitors; and servants are always in waiting. +Twenty of us went out today, without warning, and were +entertained luxuriously on the viands of the country. Our drink +consisted of beer, toddy, and water. Wine, being imported and +expensive, he never gives; nor does he allow cigars to be smoked +in his presence. His house consists of a cluster of rustic cottages, +in front of which spreads a beautiful, sloping lawn, as smooth as +velvet. From this diverge, in various direction, and forming vistas +terminated by picturesque objects, groves and walks extending +over some acres. Seats, Chinese temples, verdant banks, and +alcoves are interspersed at convenient distances. The lake, over +which presides a Grecian temple, that you may imagine to be the +residence of the water nymphs, has in it a small island, which +communicates with the shore by a white bridge of one arch. The +whole is surrounded by a low rustic fence of stone, surmounted +and almost hidden by honey-suckle and roses, now in full flower, +and which we gathered in abundance to adorn the ladies. Everything +is laid out for walking and pleasure. His farm he rents, +and does nothing for profit. The whole is in rustic taste. You +enter from the road, through a gate between rude and massive +columns, a field without pretension, wind a considerable distance +through a noble park to an inner gate, the capitals to whose pillars +are unique, being formed of the roots of trees, carved by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +nature. Then the rich scene of cultivation, of verdure and flower-capped +hedges, bursts upon you. There is no establishment +like this in our country. Instead of a description, I might have +given you its name, "<i>Chaumiere du Prairies</i>."</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="CONSTANTINE_S_RAFINESQUE" id="CONSTANTINE_S_RAFINESQUE">CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE</a></h2> + + +<p>Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, the learned, eccentric +scientist of Kentucky and the West, was born near Constantinople, +Turkey, October 22, 1783. He was of French-German +descent. His boyhood years were spent in Italy +and in traveling on the Continent. Rafinesque came to +America in 1802, and he remained in this country but three +years, when he returned to Italy; and there the subsequent +ten years of his life were passed. In 1809 he married, +after a fashion, a Sicilian woman, Josephine Vaccaro, +who bore him two children. Rafinesque returned to America +in 1815, and a short time after his arrival, he met +his former friend, John D. Clifford, of Philadelphia and +Lexington—twin-towns in those days—"the only man +he ever loved," who persuaded him to come out to Kentucky. +At Henderson, Kentucky, Rafinesque met the +great Audubon, who took him under his roof, and who +told him many amusing tales of the fishes of the Ohio—which +the little scientist believed, as coming from a famous +man—and which caused him no end of trouble and +work in after years. Audubon ridiculed him to his face, +which the simple-minded man could not understand; +and in his <i>Journals</i> the ornithologist has much fun at +his guest's expense. That he treated him very badly, no +one can deny. Through Clifford's influence, probably, +Rafinesque was appointed, in 1819, to the chair of natural +science and modern languages in Transylvania University. +This was during the presidency of Horace Holley,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +when the old University was at the high-tide of its history, +but the diminutive scientist, though heralded as "the most +learned man in America," was not received as such in the +Blue Grass region of Kentucky an hundred years ago. +From the president down to the children of the little city +he was looked upon as an impossible creature. Seven of +the best years of his life were spent in the service of the +University and of the town. His boldest dream for the +town was a Botanical Garden, modeled upon the gardens +of France, and though he did actually make a splendid +start toward this ideal, in the end all his plans came to +nothing. In June, 1825, Rafinesque left Lexington, never +to return. He went to Philadelphia, where the remaining +fifteen years of his life were spent. Death discovered the +little fellow among his books, plants, and poverty, September +18, 1840, in a miserable, rat-ridden garret on Race +street, Philadelphia. Rafinesque's publications reach the +surprising number of 447, consisting of books, pamphlets, +magazine articles, translations, and reprints. His most +important works are <i>Ichthyologia Ohiensis, or Natural +History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio and its +Tributary Streams</i> (Lexington, 1820), a reprint of which +his biographer, Dr. Call, has published (Cleveland, +1899); and his <i>Ancient Annals of Kentucky</i>, which +Humphrey Marshall printed as an introduction to his +<i>History of Kentucky</i> (Frankfort, 1824). The oversheets +of this were made into a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages. +The little work considers the antiquities of the State, and +is the starting point for all latter-day writers upon "the +prehistoric men of Kentucky." Imagination and fact +run riotously together, yet the work has been correctly +characterized as "the most remarkable history of Kentucky +that was ever written, or ever will be."</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>A Kentucky Cardinal</i>, by James Lane Allen +(New York, 1894); <i>Life and Writings of Rafinesque</i>, by Richard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +E. Call (Louisville, Kentucky, 1895); <i>Rafinesque: A Sketch +of his Life</i>, by T. J. Fitzpatrick (Des Moines, Iowa, 1911).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">GEOLOGICAL ANNALS OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF +NATURE IN KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Ancient Annals of Kentucky</i> (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824)]</p> + +<p>1. Every complete history of a country ought to include an +account of the physical changes and revolutions, which it may +have undergone.</p> + +<p>2. The documents for such geological survey, are to be found +everywhere in the bowels of the earth, its rocks and strata, with +the remains of organized bodies imbedded therein, which are now +considered as the medals of nature.</p> + +<p>3. The soil of Kentucky shows, like many other countries, that +it has once been the bed of the sea. In James's Map, the primitive +ocean is supposed to have covered North America, by having a +former level of 6000 feet above the actual level. Since the highest +lands in Kentucky do not exceed 1800 feet above the level of +the actual ocean, they were once covered with at least 4200 feet +of water.</p> + +<p>4. The study of the soil of Kentucky, proves evidently the +successive and gradual retreat of the salt waters, without evincing +any proofs of any very violent or sudden disruptions or emersions +of land, nor eruptions of the ocean, except some casual accidents, +easily ascribed to earthquakes, salses and submarine volcanoes.</p> + +<p>5. There are no remains of land or burning volcanoes in Kentucky, +nor of any considerable fresh water lake. All the strata +are nearly horizontal, with valleys excavated by the tides and +streams during the soft state of the strata.</p> + +<p>6. After these preliminary observations, I shall detail the +successive evolution of this soil and its productions, under six +distinct periods of time, which may be compared to the six epochs +or days of creation, and supposed to have lasted an indefinite +number of ages.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="MANN_BUTLER" id="MANN_BUTLER">MANN BUTLER</a></h2> + + +<p>Mann Butler, the first Kentucky historian who worked +with comparatively modern methods, eliminating personal +prejudices and imagination, was born at Baltimore, +July, 1784. At the age of three years he was taken to the +home of his grandfather in Chelsea, England. Mann +Butler returned to the United States, in 1798, and entered +St. Mary's College, Georgetown, D. C., from which institution +he was afterwards graduated in the arts, medicine, +and law. His tastes were decidedly literary, and he preferred +law to medicine as being, perhaps, more in line with +literature. He emigrated to Kentucky, locating at Lexington, +in 1806, for the practice of law. He later abandoned +law for pedagogy, opening an academy at Versailles, +Kentucky. Some years later he taught in Maysville +and Frankfort, and was then called to a professorship +in Transylvania University, Lexington, where he remained +for several years. In 1831 Butler removed to +Louisville, where he was engaged in teaching for fifteen +years. His <i>History of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1834; Cincinnati, +1836) was, after Filson's florid sentences, Rafinesque's +imagination, and Marshall's prejudices and castigations, +most welcome and timely. He was microscopic in +finding facts, fair, having no enemies to punish, an excellent +chronicler, in short, and doing a work that was much +needed. The Kentucky legislature took a keen interest +in his history, rendering him great assistance. Butler's +<i>Appeal from the Misrepresentations of James Hall, Respecting +the History of Kentucky and the West</i> (Frankfort, +1837), was a just criticism of the Cincinnati writer's +<i>Sketches of History in the West</i> (Philadelphia, 1835), +a work in which fact and fiction are well-nigh inseparable. +Mann Butler spent the last seven years of his life in St. +Louis, teaching and in preparing a history of the Ohio +valley, which he left in manuscript, but which, together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +with his library, was afterwards destroyed by Federal soldiers +during the Civil War. He was killed in Missouri, +in 1852, while a passenger on a Pacific train which was +wrecked by the falling of a bridge spanning the Gasconade +river. Mann Butler had many of the qualities required +in a great historian, and the work he did has lived +well and will live longer.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +1882); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. i).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PIONEER VISITORS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, +1834)]</p> + +<p>During this same year [1769], a party of about forty stout +hunters, "from New River, Holstein and Clinch" united in a +hunting expedition west of the Cumberland Mountains.</p> + +<p>Nine of this party, led on by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky; +and, from the time they were absent from home, they +"obtained the name of the <i>Long Hunters</i>." This expedition +reached "the country south of the Kentucky river," and became +acquainted with Green river, and the lower part of the Cumberland.</p> + +<p>In addition to these parties, so naturally stimulated by the +ardent curiosity incident to early and comparatively, idle society, +the claimants of military bounty lands which had been obtained +from the British crown, for services against the French, furnished +a new and keen band of western explorers. Their land warrants +were surveyed on the Kenhawa and the Ohio; though most +positively against the very letter of the royal proclamation of +'63. But at this distance from the royal court, it was nothing +new in the history of government that edicts emanating, even +from the king in council, should be but imperfectly regarded. +However, this may be, land warrants were actually surveyed on +the Kenhawa as early as 1772, and in 1773, several surveyors were +deputied to lay out bounty lands on the Ohio river.</p> + +<p>Amongst others Thomas Bullitt, uncle to the late Alexander<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +Scott Bullitt, first lieutenant governor of Kentucky; and Hancock +Taylor, engaged in this adventurous work. These gentlemen +with their company were overtaken on the 28th of May, +1773, by the McAfees, whose exertions will hereafter occupy a +conspicuous station in this narrative.</p> + +<p>On the 29th, the party in one boat and four canoes, reached +the Ohio river, and elected Bullitt their captain.</p> + +<p>There is a romantic incident connected with this gentleman's +descent of the Ohio, evincing singular intrepidity and presence +of mind; it is taken from his journal, as Mr. [Humphrey] Marshall +says, and the author has found it substantially confirmed +by the McAfee papers. While on his voyage, he left his boat and +went alone through the woods to the Indian town of Old Chillicothe, +on the Scioto. He arrived in the midst of the town undiscovered +by the Indians, until he was waving his white flag as a +token of peace. He was immediately asked what news? Was +he from the Long Knife? And why, if he was a peace-messenger, +he had not sent a runner? Bullitt, undauntedly replied, that +he had no bad news; was from the Long Knife, and as the red +men and the whites were at peace, he had come among his brothers +to have friendly talk with them, about living on the other side of +the Ohio; that he had no runner swifter than himself; and, that +he was in haste and could not wait the return of a runner. +"Would you," said he, "if you were very hungry, and had killed +a deer, send your squaw to town to tell the news, and wait her +return before you eat?" This simple address to their own feelings, +soon put the Indians in good humor, and at his desire a +council was assembled to hear his talk the next day. Captain +Bullitt then made strong assurances of friendship on the part of +the whites and acknowledged that these "Shawanees and Delawares, +our nearest neighbors," "did not get any of the money +or blankets given for the land, which I and my people are going +to settle. But it is agreed by the great men, who own the land, +that they will make a present to both the Delawares and the Shawanees, +the next year; and the year following, that shall be as +good." On the ensuing day, agreeably to the very deliberate +manner of the Indians in council, Captain Bullitt was informed, +that "he seemed kind and friendly, and that it pleased them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +well." That as "to settling the country on the other side of the +Ohio with your people, we are particularly pleased that they are +not to <i>disturb</i> us in our hunting. For we must hunt, to kill meat +for our women and children, and to get something to buy our +powder and lead with, and to get us blankets and clothing." In +these talks, there seems a strange want of the usual sagacity of +the Indians as to the consequences of white men settling on their +hunting grounds; so contrary to their melancholy experience for +a century and a half previous; yet, the narrative is unimpeachable. +On the part of Bullitt, too, the admission of <i>no compensation</i> +to the Delawares and Shawanees, appears to be irreconcilable +with the treaty at Fort Stanwix with the master tribes of the +confederacy, the Six Nations. However, this may be, the parties +separated in perfect harmony, and Captain Bullitt proceeded to +the Falls. Here he pitched his camp above the mouth of Bear-grass +creek, retiring of a night to the upper point of the shoal +above <i>Corn Island</i>, opposite to the present city of Louisville. It +was this gentleman, who, according to the testimony of Jacob +Sodowsky, a respectable farmer, late of Jessamine county, in this +State, first laid off the town of Louisville, in August, 1773. He +likewise surveyed Bullitt's Lick in the adjoining county, of the +same name.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ZACHARY_TAYLOR" id="ZACHARY_TAYLOR">ZACHARY TAYLOR</a></h2> + + +<p>Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, +was a Kentuckian save for his accidental birth near +Orange, Virginia, September 24, 1784. His father, Richard +Taylor, had been planning for many years to remove +to Kentucky, but his vacillation gave Virginia another +president. When but nine months old Zachary Taylor +was brought to Kentucky, the family settling near Louisville. +He "grew up to manhood with the yell of the savage +and the crack of the rifle almost constantly ringing in +his ears." The first twenty-four years of his life were +passed wholly in Kentucky amid all the dangers of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +Western wilderness. He was fighting Indians almost +before he could hold a rifle at arm's length, and in such an +environment his education was, of course, very limited. +Taylor entered the army, in 1808, serving in the War of +1812, in Black Hawk's war of 1832, and against the Seminole +Indians (1836-1837). In 1837 he was brevetted brigadier-general. +In 1838 General Taylor was placed in command +of the military stations in Florida; and in 1845 he +took command of the army on the Texas border. The next +five years of General Taylor's life is the history of the +Mexican War. At Palo Alto, Monterey, and at Buena Vista, +on February 22-23, 1847, where he crushed Santa Anna, +he was the absolute man of the hour, the hero of the country. +On the strength of his military renown, General Taylor +was elected as the Whig candidate for president of the +United States, in 1848, defeating General Lewis Cass of +Michigan, and former president, Martin Van Buren, of +New York. He was inaugurated in March, 1849, but he +died at the White House, Washington, July 9, 1850. The +country was torn asunder with many important questions +during Taylor's administration, which, though brief, was +a stormy one. His remains were interred at his old home +near Louisville—the only president ever buried in this +State—and a ruined monument marks the grave at this +time. In 1908 a volume of his <i>Letters from the Battlefields +of the Mexican War</i> appeared.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Some Notable Families of America</i>, by Annah +Robinson Watson; <i>The War with Mexico</i>, by H. O. Ladd (New +York, 1835); <i>General Taylor</i>, by O. O. Howard (New York, +1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay</i>, edited by Calvin Colton +(New York, 1855)]</p> + +<div class="signature"> +<span>Baton Rouge, La., December 28, 1847.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>My dear Sir,—Your kind and acceptable letter of the 13th +instant, congratulating me on my safe return to the United<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +States, and for the complimentary and flattering terms you have +been pleased to notice my services, I beg leave to tender you my +sincere thanks.</p> + +<p>The warm and hearty reception I have met with from so many +of my fellow-citizens, where I have mingled among them since +my return, in addition to their manifestations of their high appreciation +and approval of my conduct while in Mexico, has been +truly gratifying, and has ten-fold more than compensated me +for the dangers and toils encountered in the public service, as +well as for the privations in being so long separated from my +family and friends; yet there are circumstances connected with +my operations in that country which I can never forget, and +which I must always think of with feelings of the deepest sorrow +and regret.</p> + +<p>I left Mexico after it was determined the column under my +orders was to act on the defensive, and after the capital of the +enemy had fallen into our hands, and their army dispersed, on a +short leave of absence, to visit my family, and to attend to some +important private affairs, which could not well be arranged without +my being present, and which had been too long neglected. +After reaching New Orleans, I informed the Secretary of War +that should my presence in Mexico be deemed necessary at any +time, I was ready to return, and that a communication on that +or any other subject connected with my public duties would +reach me if addressed to this place. I therefore feel bound to +remain here, or in the vicinity, until the proper authorities at +Washington determine what disposition is to be made of or with +me. Under this state of things I do not expect to have it in my +power to visit Kentucky, although it would afford me much real +pleasure to mix once more with my numerous relatives and +friends in that patriotic State, to whom I am devotedly attached; +as well as again to visit, if not the place of my nativity, where +I was reared from infancy to early manhood. And let me assure +you I duly appreciate your kind invitation to visit you at your +own hospitable home, and should anything occur which will +enable me to avail myself of it, I will embrace the opportunity +with much real pleasure.</p> + +<p>I regret to say, I found my family, or rather Mrs. Taylor, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +my return, in feeble health, as well as my affairs in any other +than a prosperous condition; the latter was, however, to be expected, +and I must devote what time I can spare, or can be spared +from my public duties, in putting them in order as far as I can +do so.</p> + +<p>Should circumstances so turn out as will induce you to visit +Washington the present winter, I trust you will take every precaution +to protect yourself while traveling from the effects of the +severe cold weather you must necessarily encounter in crossing +the mountains, particularly so after having passed several of the +last winters in the South.</p> + +<p>The letter which you did me the honor to address to me, referred +to, reached me on the eve of my leaving Monterey to return +to the United States, and was at once replied to, which reply +I flatter myself reached you shortly after writing your last communication; +in which I stated, although I had received some letters +from individuals in Kentucky, calculated, or perhaps intended, +to produce unkind feelings on my part toward you, even admitting +such was the case, their object has not been accomplished +in the slightest degree, and I hope it will never be the case.</p> + +<p>Please present me mostly kindly to your excellent lady, and +wishing you and yours continued health and prosperity, I remain, +with respect and esteem, etc.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="DANIEL_DRAKE" id="DANIEL_DRAKE">DANIEL DRAKE</a></h2> + + +<p>Daniel Drake, "the Franklin of the West," was born at +Plainfield, New Jersey, October 20, 1785. When he was +but three years old, his family removed to Mayslick, Mason +county, Kentucky, where they dwelt in a log cabin for +some time. When he was sixteen years of age, Drake +went to Cincinnati to study medicine, the city's first medical +student. He later attended lectures at the medical +school of the University of Pennsylvania. On his return +to Kentucky, Dr. Drake practiced his profession near his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +home at Mayslick, Kentucky, but he shortly afterwards +went to Cincinnati, where he became a distinguished physician +and author. In 1816 he was appointed professor of +materia medica and botany in the medical school of Transylvania +University, and he held this chair for one year. +He returned to Transylvania, in 1823, and this time he +remained for four years. In 1835 Dr. Drake organized +the medical department of Cincinnati College. Four +years later he went to Louisville to accept the chair of +clinical medicine and pathological anatomy in the University +of Louisville, which he occupied for ten years. He +returned to Cincinnati two years before his death, which +occurred there, November 6, 1852. Dr. Drake's publications +include <i>Topography, Climate, and Diseases of Cincinnati</i> +(1810); <i>Picture of Cincinnati</i> (Cincinnati, 1815); +<i>Practical Essays on Medical Education</i> (1832); <i>Systematic +Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the Interior +Valley of North America</i> (Philadelphia, 1850; 1852), a +work which was characterized by Judge James Hall of +Cincinnati as "the most important and valuable work +ever written in the United States. The subject is large. +The work could not be compiled. The subject was new, +and the materials were to be collected from original +sources, from observation, personal inspection, oral evidence, +etc. It occupied many years; and was, probably, +in contemplation during the whole or most part of Dr. +Drake's long professional life." To-day Dr. Drake's +most popular work is <i>Pioneer Life in Kentucky</i>, a series +of reminiscential letters addressed to his children, concerning +early times in Kentucky. It was issued by Robert +Clarke, the Cincinnati publisher in his well-known +Ohio Valley Historical Series. This is a charming volume +and it has been much quoted and praised by Western +writers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. ii); <i>Beginnings of Literary Culture in the +Ohio Valley</i>, by W. H. Venable (Cincinnati, 1891); Allibone's +<i>Dictionary of Authors</i> (Philadelphia, 1897).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Pioneer Life in Kentucky</i> (Cincinnati, 1870)]</p> + +<p>Mayslick, although scarcely a village, was at once an emporium +and capital for a tract of country six or eight miles in diameter, +and embracing several hundred families, of which those +in father's neighborhood were tolerably fair specimens. Uncle +Abraham Drake kept a store, and Shotwell and Morris kept +taverns; besides them there were a few poor mechanics. Uncle +Cornelius Drake was a farmer merely, and lived a little out of +the center of the station; the great men of which were the three +I have just named. With this limited population, it seems, even +down to this time, wonderful to me that such gatherings and such +scenes should have been transacted there. They commenced +within five years after its settlement, and increasing with the +progress of surrounding population, continued in full vigor long +after I left home for Cincinnati. It was the place for holding +regimental militia musters, when all the boys and old men of +the surrounding country, not less than those who stood enrolled, +would assemble; and before dispersing at night, the training was +quite eclipsed by a heterogeneous drama of foot racing, pony +racing, wrestling, fighting, drunkenness and general uproar. It +was also a place for political meetings and stump conflict by opposing +candidates, and after intellectual performances there +generally followed an epilogue of oaths, yells, loud blows, and +gnashing of teeth. Singing-schools were likewise held at the +same place in a room of Deacon Morris's tavern. I was never a +scholar, which I regret, for it has always been a grief with me +that I did not learn music in early life. I occasionally attended. +As in all country singing-schools, sacred music only was taught, +but in general there was not much display of sanctity. I have a +distinct remembrance of one teacher only. He was a Yankee, +without a family, between forty and fifty years of age, and wore +a matted mass of thick hair over the place where men's ears are +usually found. Thus protected, his were never seen, and after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +the opinion spread abroad that by some misfortune they had been +cut off, he "cut and run."</p> + +<p>The infant capital was, still further, the local seat of justice; +and Saturday was for many years, at all times I might say, the +regular term time. Instead of trying cases at home, two or three +justices of the peace would come to the Lick on that day, and +hold their separate courts. This, of course, brought thither all +the litigants of the neighborhood with their friends and witnesses; +all who wished to purchase at the store would postpone their +visit to the same day; all who had to replenish their jugs of +whiskey did the same thing; all who had business with others +expected to meet them there, as our city merchants, at noon, expect +to meet each other on 'change; finally, all who thirsted +after drink, fun, frolic, or fighting, of course, were present. Thus +Saturday was a day of largely suspended field labor, but devoted +to public business, social pleasure, dissipation, and beastly drunkenness. +You might suppose that the presence of civil magistrates +would have repressed some of these vices, but it was not so. Each +day provided a bill of fare for the next. A new trade in horses, +another horse race, a cock-fight, or a dog-fight, a wrestling +match, or a pitched battle between two bullies, who in fierce encounter +would lie on the ground scratching, pulling hair, choking, +gouging out each other's eyes, and biting off each other's noses, +in the manner of bull-dogs, while a Roman circle of interested +lookers-on would encourage the respective gladiators with shouts +which a passing demon might have mistaken for those of hell. +In the afternoon, the men and boys of business and sobriety would +depart, and at nightfall the dissipated would follow them, often +two on a horse, reeling and yelling as I saw drunken Indians do +in the neighborhood of Fort Leavenworth, in the summer of +1844. But many would be too much intoxicated to mount their +horses, and must therefore remain till Sunday morning.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="MARY_A_HOLLEY" id="MARY_A_HOLLEY">MARY A. HOLLEY</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Mary Austin Holley, the historian of Texas, was +born at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1786. On January +1, 1805, she was married to the Rev. Horace Holley, who, +in the fall of that year, became pastor of a church at +Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. Mrs. Holley, of course, was +in Boston with her husband from 1809 to 1818; and she +accompanied him to Lexington, Kentucky, when he accepted +the presidency of Transylvania University. Mrs. +Holley was one of the few persons whom the eccentric +scientist, Rafinesque, set down as having been very kind +to him while he was connected with the University. She +lived in Lexington until the spring of 1827, when she went +with her husband to New Orleans. She wrote a poem, +<i>On Leaving Kentucky</i>, the first stanza of which is as follows:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell to the land in which broad rivers flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And vast prairies bloom as in Eden's young day!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Farewell to the land in which lofty trees grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the vine and the mistletoe's empire display.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>She later embarked with her husband for New York, +and it was her pen that so vividly described his death on +shipboard. After Dr. Holley's death his widow returned +to Lexington, Kentucky, and wrote the memoir for Dr. +Charles Caldwell's <i>Discourse on the Genius and Character +of the Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D.</i> (Boston, 1828). Mrs. +Holley left Kentucky in 1831 and emigrated to Texas under +the protection of her celebrated kinsman, General +Stephen Fuller Austin, a Transylvania University man, +and the founder of Texas. Her <i>Texas</i> (Lexington, Kentucky, +1836), was one of the first histories of that country +ever published. Mrs. Holley was a widely read woman, +theology being her favorite study, and, like her husband, +she was a Unitarian. In person she was said to be a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +charming woman. Mrs. Holley spent the last several +years of her life at New Orleans, in which city she died +on August 2, 1846.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Transylvanian</i> (Lexington, January, 1829); +Adams's <i>Dictionary of American Authors</i> (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">TEXAS WOMEN</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Texas</i> (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836)]</p> + +<p>Living in a wild country under circumstances requiring constant +exertion, forms the character to great and daring enterprise. +Women thus situated are known to perform exploits, +which the effeminate men of populous cities might tremble at. +Hence there are more Dianas and <i>Esther Stanhopes</i> than one in +Texas. It is not uncommon for ladies to mount their mustangs +and hunt with their husbands, and with them to camp out for +days on their excursions to the sea shore for fish and oysters. +All visiting is done on horseback, and they will go fifty miles to +a ball with their silk dresses, made perhaps in Philadelphia or +New Orleans, in their saddle-bags. Hardy, vigorous constitutions, +free spirits, and spontaneous gaiety are thus induced, and +continued a rich legacy to their children, who, it is to be hoped, +will sufficiently value the blessing not to squander it away, in their +eager search for the luxuries and refinements of polite life. +Women have capacity for greatness, but they require occasions +to bring it out. They require, perhaps, stronger motives than +men—they have stronger barriers to break through of indolence +and habit—but, when roused, they are quick to discern and unshrinking +to act. <i>Lot was unfortunate in his wife.</i> Many a wife +in Texas has proved herself the better half, and many a widow's +heart has prompted her to noble daring.</p> + +<p>Mrs. —— left her home in Kentucky with her six sons, and +<i>no other jewels</i>. There was good land and room in Texas. Hither +she came with the first settlers, at a time when the Indians were +often troublesome by coming in large companies and encamping +near an isolated farm, demanding of its helpless proprietors, not +then too well provided for, whatever of provisions or other things +struck their fancies. One of these <i>foraging</i> parties, not over nice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +in their demands, stationed themselves in rather too near proximity +to the dwelling of this veteran lady. They were so well satisfied +with their position, and scoured the place so completely, that +she ventured to remonstrate, gently at first, then more vehemently. +All would not do: the <i>pic-nics</i> would not budge an inch; +and moreover threatened life if she did not forbear from further +expressions of impatience. The good woman was <i>armed</i>. She +buckled on her <i>breastplate</i> of <i>courage</i>, if not of <i>righteousness</i>, and +with her children and women servants, all her household around +her, sent for the chief, and very boldly expostulating with him, +<i>commanded</i> him to depart on the instant at the peril of his tribe; +or by a signal she would call in her whole <i>people</i>, numerous and +formidable, and exterminate his race. She was no more troubled +with the Indians. She lives comfortably with her thriving family +and thriving fortune, and with great credit to herself, on the +road between Brazoria and San Felipe, in the same house now +famed for its hospitality and comfort. It is the usual stopping +place for travellers on that route, who are not a little entertained +with the border stories and characteristic jests there related, by +casual companies meeting for the night and sharing the same +apartment. It was thus that the above incident, much more exemplified, +was drawn from the hostess herself. A volume of +<i>reminiscences</i> thus collected, racy with the marvellous, would not +be <i>unapt</i> to modern taste, and the modern science of book-making.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_J_CRITTENDEN" id="JOHN_J_CRITTENDEN">JOHN J. CRITTENDEN</a></h2> + + +<p>John Jordan Crittenden, a Kentucky statesman and orator +of national reputation, was born near Versailles, Kentucky, +September 10, 1787. He was graduated from the +College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, +studied law, and was admitted to the Frankfort bar. Crittenden +served in the War of 1812; and in 1816 he was a +member of the Kentucky legislature. In the following +year he was elected United States Senator from Kentucky, +his party, the Whig, then being in power in this State.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +From 1827 to 1829 Crittenden was United States Attorney +for the district of Kentucky; and in 1835 he was again +sent to the Senate, with Henry Clay as his colleague. +President William Henry Harrison made him his Attorney-General, +in 1841, and he resigned his seat in the Senate. +When John Tyler succeeded to the presidency six +months later, on the death of Harrison, Crittenden withdrew +from the cabinet portfolio, and he was almost immediately +returned to the Senate by the legislature of +Kentucky. He served until 1848, when he was elected +Governor of Kentucky. Governor Crittenden was the +most distinguished, if not indeed the ablest, chief executive +this Commonwealth has ever known. He resigned +the governorship, in 1850, in order to become President +Fillmore's Attorney-General, which position he held for +three years. In 1855 Crittenden was for the fourth time +elected United States Senator from Kentucky. As the +war between the States approached, Senator Crittenden, +though a Southerner, chose the cause of the Union, lining +up with the administration heart and soul. In the beginning +he did his utmost to prevent the war, and, failing, +he exerted his entire energies to aid Abraham Lincoln +and the North to prosecute it. In 1860 the Senator urged +his famous Compromise, providing for the reëstablishment +of the old slave-line of 36' 30 N., and for the enforcement +of the fugitive-slave laws, but it was never moulded +into law. The last two years of his life were spent as a +member of the lower House of Congress, where he continued +his fight for the supremacy of the Constitution. +Senator Crittenden died near Frankfort, Kentucky, July +26, 1863, thus surviving his greatest friend and fellow +patriot, Henry Clay, more than eleven years.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life of John J. Crittenden</i>, by Mrs. Chapman +Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871); <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. +Collins (Covington, 1882).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">EULOGY UPON ASSOCIATE JUSTICE McKINLEY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Life of John J. Crittenden</i>, edited by his daughter, Mrs. Chapman +Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871)]</p> + +<p>At the opening of the court this morning, Mr. Crittenden, the +Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the court as +follows:</p> + +<p>"Since its adjournment yesterday, the members of the bar and +officers of the court held a meeting and adopted resolutions expressive +of their high sense of the public and private worth of the +Hon. John McKinley, one of the justices of this court, and their +deep regret at his death. By the same meeting I was requested +to present those resolutions to the court, and to ask that they +might be entered on its records, and I now rise to perform that +honored task.</p> + +<p>"Besides the private grief which naturally attends it, the +death of a member of this court, which is the head of the great, +essential, and vital department of the government, must always +be an event of public interest and importance.</p> + +<p>"I had the good fortune to be acquainted with Judge McKinley +from my earliest manhood. In the relations of private life he +was frank, hospitable, affectionate. In his manners he was simple +and unaffected, and his character was uniformly marked with +manliness, integrity, and honor. Elevation to the bench of the +Supreme Court made no change in him. His honors were borne +meekly, without ostentation or presumption.</p> + +<p>"He was a candid, impartial, and righteous judge. Shrinking +from no responsibility, he was fearless in the performance of his +duty, seeking only to do right, and fearing nothing but to do +wrong. Death has now set her seal to his character, making it +unchangeable forever; and I think it may be truly inscribed on +his monument that as a private gentleman and as a public magistrate +he was without fear and without reproach.</p> + +<p>"This occasion cannot but remind us of other afflicting losses +which have recently befallen us. The present, indeed, has been +a sad year for the profession of the law. In a few short months +it has been bereaved of its brightest and greatest ornaments. +Clay, Webster, and Sergeant have gone to their immortal rest in +quick succession. We had scarcely returned from the grave of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +one of them till we were summoned to the funeral of another. +Like bright stars they have sunk below the horizon, and have left +the land in widespread gloom. This hall that knew them so +well shall know them no more. Their wisdom has no utterance +now, and the voice of their eloquence shall be heard here no more +forever.</p> + +<p>"This hall itself seems as though it was sensible of its loss, and +even these marble pillars seem to sympathize as they stand around +us like so many majestic mourners.</p> + +<p>"But we will have consolation in the remembrance of these illustrious +men. Their <i>names</i> will remain to us and be like a light +kindled in the sky to shine upon us and to guide our course. We +may hope, too, that the memory of them and their great examples +will create a virtuous emulation which may raise up men worthy +to be their successors in the service of their country, its constitution, +and its laws.</p> + +<p>"For this digression, and these allusions to Clay, Webster, and +Sergeant, I hope the occasion may be considered as a sufficient excuse, +and I will not trespass by another word, except only to move +that these resolutions in relation to Judge McKinley, when they +shall have been read by the clerk, may be entered on the records +of this court."</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_M_HARNEY" id="JOHN_M_HARNEY">JOHN M. HARNEY</a></h2> + + +<p>John Milton Harney, the first of the Kentucky poets to +win and retain a wide reputation, a man with the divine +afflatus, whose whole body of song is slender but of real +worth, was born near Georgetown, Delaware, March 9, +1789. He was the second son of Major Thomas Harney, +of Revolutionary War fame, and the elder brother of +General William S. Harney, a hero of Cerro Gordo. When +John Milton Harney was but two years old, his family +emigrated to Tennessee, and later removed to Louisiana. +He studied medicine and settled at Bardstown, Kentucky. +In 1814 Dr. Harney married a daughter of Judge John +Rowan, the early Kentucky statesman; and her death four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +years later was such a shock to her husband that he was +compelled to abandon his practice, and seek solace in +travel and new scenes. Dr. Harney spent some time in +England, and on his return to America he settled at Savannah, +Georgia. He over-exerted himself at a disastrous +fire in Savannah, which resulted in a violent fever and +ended in breaking his health. He returned to Bardstown, +Kentucky, became a convert to Roman Catholicism, and +in that place he died, January 15, 1825, when but thirty-five +years of age. At the age of twenty-three years, Dr. +Harney wrote <i>Crystalina, a Fairy Tale</i>, in six cantos, but +his extreme sensitiveness caused him to hold it in manuscript +for four years, or until 1816, when it was issued +anonymously at New York. This work was highly praised +by Rufus W. Griswold, John Neal, and other well-known +critics, but the unfavorable criticism far outweighed the +favorable criticism, so the author held, and he published +nothing more in book form; and he did all in his power to +suppress the edition of <i>Crystalina</i>. William Davis Gallagher, +poet and critic of a later time in the West, went +over Dr. Harney's manuscripts and from them rescued +his masterpiece, the exquisite <i>Echo and the Lover</i>. This +Gallagher published in his <i>Western Literary Journal</i> for +1837—the first form in which the public saw it. No +Western poem has had a wider audience than the <i>Echo</i>. +It has been parodied in Europe and America many times, +and is the finest expression of Dr. Harney's genius. It +is to be regretted that no comprehensive account of the +poet's life and literary labors has come down to posterity. +As a poet and as a man his merits were of the truest sort, +but a handful of facts, a suppressed book, a lyric or so, are +all that have been brought to the attention of the literary +world.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. +Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); <i>Blades o' Bluegrass</i>, by +Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">ECHO AND THE LOVER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, edited by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Echo! mysterious nymph, declare<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Of what you're made and what you are—<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Air!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> 'Mid airy cliffs, and places high,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Sweet Echo! listening, love, you lie—<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "You lie!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> You but resuscitate dead sounds—<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Hark! how my voice revives, resounds!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Zounds!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> I'll question you before I go—<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Come, answer me more apropos!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Poh! poh!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Tell me, fair nymph, if e'er you saw<br /></span> +<span class="i3">So sweet a girl as Phoebe Shaw!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Pshaw!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Say, what will win that frisking coney<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Into the toils of matrimony!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Money!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Has Phoebe not a heavenly brow?<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Is it not white as pearl—as snow?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Ass, no!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Her eyes! Was ever such a pair?<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Are the stars brighter than they are?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "They are!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> Echo, you lie, but can't deceive me;<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Her eyes eclipse the stars, believe me—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Leave me!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lover.</i> But come, you saucy, pert romancer,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Who is as fair as Phoebe? Answer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Echo.</i>       "Ann, sir!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE WHIPPOWIL</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is a strange, mysterious bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which few have seen, but all have heard:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sits upon a fallen tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the night, and thus sings he:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Despising show, and empty noise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gaudy fluttering thing he flies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the echoing vale by night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus sings the pensive anchorite:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, had I but his voice and wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd envy not a bird that sings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But gladly would I flit away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And join the wild nocturnal lay:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The school-boy, tripping home in haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Impatient of the night's repast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would stop to hear my whistle shrill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And answer me with mimic skill:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The rich man's scorn, the poor man's care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Folly in silk, and Wisdom bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virtue on foot, and Vice astride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more should vex me while I cried:<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How blest!—Nor loneliness nor state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fame, nor wealth, nor love, nor hate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor av'rice, nor ambition vain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should e'er disturb my tranquil strain:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Whippowil!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">SYLPHS BATHING</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Crystalina</i> (New York, 1816)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shores with acclamations rung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As in the flood the playful damsels sprung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon their beauteous bodies, with delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The billows leapt. Oh, 'twas a pleasant sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see the waters dimple round, for joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Climb their white necks, and on their bosoms toy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like snowy swans they vex'd the sparkling tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till little rainbows danced on every side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some swam, some floated, some on pearly feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stood sidelong, smiling, exquisitely sweet.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_ROBERTSON" id="GEORGE_ROBERTSON">GEORGE ROBERTSON</a></h2> + + +<p>George Robertson, the most widely quoted Kentucky +jurist, and an able writer, was born near Harrodsburg, +Kentucky, November 18, 1790. He was educated in the +arts and in law at Transylvania University, and entered +upon the practice of his profession at Lancaster, Kentucky, +in 1809. In 1816 Robertson was elected to Congress, +where he remained for two terms. He drew up the +bill for the establishment of Arkansaw territory; and he +projected the system of cutting public lands into small +lots, selling them to actual settlers for one dollar and +twenty-five cents per acre. He declined another term in +the House, as well as the attorney-generalship of Kentucky,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +in order to devote his whole attention to the law. +Robertson was elected against his desire to the Kentucky +legislature, in 1822, and he was a member of that body for +the next five years. This was the time of the struggle +between the Old-Court and New-Court parties, which was +one of the most bitter political fights ever seen in Kentucky. +Robertson consistently and vigorously championed +the cause of the Old-Court party, which finally won. +That this disgusted him with political life in any dress, is +shown by his subsequent declination of the governorship +of Arkansaw, and the Columbian and Peruvian missions. +In 1828 he was elected an associate justice of the Kentucky +Court of Appeals, and, in the following year, chief +justice. This position was George Robertson's heart's +desire—he hated politics with a never-dying hatred, the +law and the bench being his earthly paradise. He was +chief justice of Kentucky for fourteen years, when he resigned +to return to the active practice of law. From 1834 +to 1857 Judge Robertson was professor of law in Transylvania +University at Lexington. He died at Lexington, +May 16, 1874, generally regarded as the ablest jurist Kentucky +has produced. He was also the author of four +books: <i>Introductory Lecture to the Transylvania Law +Class</i> (Lexington); <i>Biographical Sketch of John Boyle</i> +(Frankfort, 1838); <i>Scrap-Book on Law and Politics, Men +and Times</i> (Lexington, 1855), his best known book; and +his very interesting and well-written autobiography, entitled +<i>An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written +by Himself</i> (Lexington, 1876), to which his son contributed +an introduction and appendix.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. The chief authority for the facts of Judge Robertson's +life is, of course, his autobiography; Samuel M. Wilson's +study in <i>Great American Lawyers</i> (Philadelphia, 1908).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF +KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Scrap Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times</i> (Lexington, Kentucky, +1855)]</p> + +<p>Yet we have hopes that are immortal—interests that are imperishable—principles +that are indestructible. Encouraged by +those hopes, stimulated by those interests, and sustained by and +sustaining those principles, let us, come what may, be true to God, +true to ourselves, and faithful to our children, our country, and +mankind. And then, whenever or wherever it may be our doom to +look, for the last time, on earth, we may die justly proud of the +title of "Kentuckian," and, with our expiring breath, may cordially +exclaim—Kentucky, as she was;—Kentucky, as she is;—Kentucky, +as she will be;—Kentucky forever.</p> + + +<p class="center">EARLY STRUGGLES</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by Himself</i> +(Lexington, Kentucky, 1876)]</p> + +<p>Yet, thus juvenile, poor, and proud, I ventured not only on the +rather hopeless prospects of professional life, but, on the 28th of +November, 1809, when I was only ten days over nineteen years of +age, I ventured on the far more momentous contingencies of marriage, +and, linking my destinies with a wife only fifteen years and +seven months old, we embarked without freight or pilotage, on the +untried sea of early marriage. I had never made a cent, and had +nothing but ordinary clothes, a horse, an old servant, a few books, +and the humble talents with which God had blessed me. I borrowed +thirteen dollars as an outfit, and out of that fund I paid +for my license and handed to my groomsman, R. P. Letcher, five +dollars for paying the parson, Randolph Hall, father of Rev. +Nathan H. Hall. Some days afterwards Letcher rather slyly +put into my hand a dollar, suggesting that he had saved that +much for me by paying the preacher only four dollars. This +looked to me as such minute parsimony as to excite my indignation, +important as was only one dollar then to me. And I manifested +that feeling in a manner both emphatic and censurious; to +which Letcher replied that four dollars was more than was then +customary, and that Mr. Hall, when he received it, expressed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +warmest gratitude, and said that, old as he was, he had never received +so large a fee for solemnizing the matrimonial rite! This +reconciled me to the return of the dollar.</p> + +<p>My wife and myself lived with her mother until the 9th of +September, 1810, when we set up for ourselves in a small buckeye +house with only two rooms, built and first occupied by Judge +[John] Boyle, and respecting which I may here suggest this remarkable +coincidence of successive events:—That Boyle commenced +housekeeping in that house, and, while he occupied it, +was elected to Congress; that Samuel McKee commenced housekeeping +in the same house, and succeeded Boyle in Congress; that +I commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded +McKee in Congress; and that R. P. Letcher commenced housekeeping +in the same house, and, after an interval of two years, +succeeded me in Congress. I was unable to furnish it with a carpet, +and our only furniture consisted of two beds, one table, one +bureau, six split-bottomed chairs, and a small supply of table and +kitchen furniture, which I bought with a small gold watch. I +had bought a bag of flour, a bag of corn meal, a half barrel of salt, +and two hams and two middlings of bacon; and these, together +with the milk of a small cow given to my wife by her mother, and +a few chickens and some butter, constituted our entire outfit of +provisions. But all our supplies were stolen the night we commenced +housekeeping. This was, at that time, a heavy blow. I +had no money; and, though I had good credit, I resolved not to +buy anything on credit. And that was one of the best resolutions +I ever made. It stimulated my industry and economy, and +soon secured to me peace and a comfortable sense of independence. +In adhering to my privative, but conservative resolve, I often cut +and carried on my shoulders wood from a neighboring forest.</p> + + +<p class="center">LITERARY FAME</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>The classical reader remembers that, when almost all the +Greeks, captured with Nicias at Syracuse, had died in dungeons, +a remnant of the survivors saved themselves by the recitation of +beautiful extracts from Euripides. How potent was the shadowed +genius of the immortal Athenian, when it alone melted the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +icy hearts that nothing else could touch, and broke the captive's +chains, which justice, and prayers, and tears, had in vain tried to +unloose! And hence "the glory of Euripides had all Greece for +a monument." He too was elevated by the light of other minds. +It is said that he acquired a sublime inspiration whenever he read +Homer—whose Iliad and whose Odyssey—the one exhibiting +the fatality of strife among leading men, the other portraying the +efficacy of perseverance—have stamped his name on the roll of +fame in letters of sunshine, that will never fade away. No +memorial tells where Troy once stood—Delphi is now mute—the +thunder of Olympus is hushed, and Apollo's lyre no longer +echoes along the banks of the Peneus—but the fame of Homer +still travels with the stars.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="SHADRACH_PENN" id="SHADRACH_PENN">SHADRACH PENN</a></h2> + + +<p>Shadrach Penn, one of the ablest of Kentucky journalists, +was born at Frederick, Maryland, in 1790. His +family settled near Georgetown, Kentucky, when he was a +mere boy. Penn began his newspaper career at Georgetown +when he was but nineteen years of age; and he subsequently +served in the War of 1812. In 1818 Penn removed +to Louisville and established <i>The Public Advertiser</i>, +which was a weekly for the first few years of its +history, then a semi-weekly, and, on April 4, 1826, a final +change was made "and the first daily newspaper west of +the Alleghanies was flung to the public." After the establishment +of the <i>Kentucky Gazette</i>, this marked the second +most epoch-making event in Kentucky journalism. +Penn was an able editor, the very ablest in Kentucky, and +he was having things his own way in the West, advocating +Jacksonian Democracy. In 1828 President Jackson +showed his appreciation of Penn's services by offering +him a place in his cabinet, which he declined, but he did +spend a winter at Washington as the President's warm +friend and adviser. Then, <i>mirabile dictu!</i> the Whigs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +brought George D. Prentice to Kentucky and, in 1830, he +established the <i>Louisville Journal</i>, and began a most bitter +fight upon Penn's paper. Penn fought back as best he +could, but he was quite unequal for the contest. For +nearly twelve years the warfare was waged without either +editor asking quarter, and to the infinite amusement of +the whole country. In 1841 Penn ran up the white flag +and went to St. Louis to become editor of the <i>St. Louis +Reporter</i>. Prentice bade him farewell in the best of temper, +and when he died at St. Louis, on June 15, 1846, the +old Whig's tribute to his memory was the finest one written.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Pioneer Press of Kentucky</i>, by W. H. Perrin +(Louisville, 1888); <i>Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky</i>, +by J. Stoddard Johnston (Chicago, 1896).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Public Advertiser</i> (Louisville, September 10, 1830)]</p> + +<p>This gentleman and Mr. Buxton, of Cincinnati, have issued +proposals for publishing a daily paper in Louisville, which is to +be edited by Mr. Prentice. Willing that the gentleman shall be +known by the people whose patronage he is seeking, we copy today +from a Cincinnati paper his account of the late elections in +Kentucky. The production may be viewed as a fair specimen +of his "fine literature, his drollery, strong powers of sarcasm," +and, above all, his "poetical capacity." The respect and +attachment he displays toward Kentucky (to say nothing of the +Jackson party), must be exquisitely gratifying to the respectable +portion of Mr. Clay's friends in this city. To them we commend +the letter of Mr. Prentice as an erudite, chaste, and veritable production, +worthy of the "great editor" who is hereafter to figure +as Mr. Clay's champion in the West. We may, moreover, congratulate +them in consequence of the fair prospect before them; +for with the aid of such an editor they cannot fail to effect miraculous +revolutions or revulsions in the political world. The occupants +of all our fish markets will be confirmed in their devotion to +the opposition beyond redemption.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_O_BUTLER" id="WILLIAM_O_BUTLER">WILLIAM O. BUTLER</a></h2> + + +<p>William Orlando Butler, one of General Lew Wallace's +favorite poets, was born near Nicholasville, Kentucky, in +1791. He was the son of Percival Butler, a noted Revolutionary +soldier. He was graduated from Transylvania +University, Lexington, in 1812. Butler studied law for a +short time, but the War of 1812 called him and he enlisted. +At the River Raisin he was wounded and captured and +carried through Canada to Fort Niagara, but he was later +exchanged. Butler was with General Jackson at the battle +of New Orleans, and his gallantry attracted the attention +of the general, who placed him upon his staff. In +1817 Butler returned to the law, married, and settled in +the little river town of Carrollton, Kentucky, on the Ohio, +his home henceforth. In July, 1821, the first draft of his +famous poem, <i>The Boatman's Horn</i> (then called <i>The Boat +Horn</i>), was published in <i>The Western Review</i>, a monthly +magazine of Lexington, Kentucky. In describing his boyhood +days at Covington, Indiana, General Lew Wallace +very charmingly writes of his early love for the Wabash +river, and for old Nebeker, the lonesome ferryman, who +"welcomed me for my company. On the farther side, +chained to a tree, he kept a long tin horn. A traveller, +coming to the bank and finding us on the townward side, +blew to get our attention ... when the voice of the +big horn on the thither side called to us—How it startled +me! What music there was in it! What haste I made to +unship my oar!... And if since then I have been an +ardent fisherman, believing with my friend Maurice +Thompson that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Halcyon prophecies come to pass<br /></span> +<span class="i05">In the haunts of the bream and bass;"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and if the song of Butler, the soldier-poet of Kentucky<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh, boatman, wind that horn again!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For never did the joyous air<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Upon its lambent bosom bear<br /></span> +<span class="i05">So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is still a favorite of mine, with power to stir my pulses +and return me to a freak of childhood full of joyousness +alloyed only with thought of my mother's fears, the +shrewd reader will know at once how such tastes inured +to me. And as swimming seems to have been one of my +natural accomplishments, I must have acquired it during +my days at the ferry." This is far and away the best +background for Butler's poem that has been done, and +with it before the reader the famous poem must mean +more to him. The poem was subsequently published as +the title-poem in a small collection of his verse, entitled +<i>The Boatman's Horn and Other Poems</i>. From 1839 to +1843 Butler was a Kentucky Congressman; and in 1844 +the unsuccessful candidate for governor of Kentucky. +Upon his Mexican War record, General Butler was nominated +by the Democratic party for vice-president of the +United States with General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as +the head of the ticket, but they were defeated by Martin +Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams. In 1855 General +Butler declined the governorship of the territory of Nebraska; +and in 1861 he went to Washington as a member +of the famous "Peace Congress." General Butler died +at his home, Carrollton, Kentucky, August 6, 1880, in the +ninetieth year of his age. Though famous as a soldier +and politician, <i>The Boatman's Horn</i> is the work that will +keep his name green for many years; and several of his +other poems are not to be utterly despised.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Biographical Sketch of Gen. William O. Butler</i>, +by F. P. Blair, Senior (Washington, 1848), was reprinted in +full in <i>The Kentucky Yeoman</i> (Frankfort, June 15, 1848);<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +<i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860); Lew Wallace's <i>Autobiography</i> (New +York, 1906).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE BOATMAN'S HORN</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, edited by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O, boatman! wind that horn again,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For never did the list'ning air<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Upon its lambent bosom bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What though thy notes are sad and few,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By every simple boatman blown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet is each pulse to nature true,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And melody in every tone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How oft, in boyhood's joyous day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Unmindful of the lapsing hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've loitered on my homeward way<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By wild Ohio's bank of flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While some lone boatman from the deck<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Poured his soft numbers to the tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if to charm from storm and wreck<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The boat where all his fortunes ride!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Delighted, Nature drank the sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enchanted, Echo bore it round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whispers soft and softer still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From hill to plain and plain to hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till e'en the thoughtless frolic boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Elate with hope and wild with joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gambolled by the river's side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sported with the fretting tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feels something new pervade his breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Change his light steps, repress his jest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bends o'er the flood his eager ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To catch the sounds far off, yet dear—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drinks the sweet draught, but knows not why<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The tear of rapture fills his eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And can he now, to manhood grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell why those notes, simple and lone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As on the ravished ear they fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bind every sense in magic spell?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There is a tide of feeling given<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all on earth, its fountains, heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beginning with the dewy flower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just ope'd in Flora's vernal bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rising creation's orders through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With louder murmur, brighter hue—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That tide is sympathy! its ebb and flow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Give life its hue, its joy, and woe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Music, the master-spirit that can move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its waves to war, or lull them into love—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can cheer the sinking sailor 'mid the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bid the warrior on! nor fear the grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inspire the fainting pilgrim on the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And elevate his soul to claim his God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then, boatman, wind that horn again!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though much of sorrow mark its strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet are its notes to sorrow dear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What though they wake fond memory's tear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tears are sad memory's sacred feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rapture oft her chosen guest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HEW_AINSLIE" id="HEW_AINSLIE">HEW AINSLIE</a></h2> + + +<p>Hew Ainslie, the foremost Scottish-Kentucky poet, was +born at Bargery Mains, Ayrshire, April 5, 1792. Ill-health +cut short Ainslie's education at the Ayr Academy, +but some years later he went up to Glasgow to study law. +Law and Hew Ainslie were not congenial fellows, and he +shortly embarked upon the art of landscape gardening.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +He was next a clerk in Edinburgh, and also amanuensis +for Professor Dugald Stewart. "Gradually the clouds +of [Ainslie's] tobacco smoke began to curl into seven letters +which looked like America." He was thirty years +of age when he arrived at New York. He spent his first +years in New York and Indiana as a farmer, but he soon +relinquished this work and went, in 1829, to Louisville, +Kentucky, where, three years later, an Ohio river flood +swept his property away. And two years after this disastrous +flood, fire destroyed his property in Indiana. Undismayed +by misfortune, Ainslie became a contractor and +supervised the erection of many large business structures +in Louisville and other cities. During all these years he +was assiduously courting the Muse, and making a great +reputation for himself as a poet. Ainslie's first book, <i>A +Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns</i> (Deptford, 1822), is the +English edition of his charming lyrics; and his <i>Scottish +Songs, Ballads, and Poems</i> (New York, 1855), is the only +American edition of his work. In 1864, forty-two years +after his departure, Ainslie revisited the land of his birth, +where he was hailed as one of Scotland's finest singers +since Robert Burns. Kentucky was in the poet's blood, +however, and a year later he returned to his home at Louisville. +His American friends were not to be outdone by +his home people, and they arranged a great home-coming +for him. In 1871, when the Scots of Louisville assembled +to celebrate the birthday of Burns, Ainslie, the toastmaster, +arose and smilingly confessed to having once kissed +"Bonnie Jean," Burns's widow. He died at Louisville, +March 11, 1878. A comprehensive Scottish edition of his +<i>A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems</i>, was +issued in 1892. <i>The Ingle Side</i>, a little song of sixteen +lines, is Ainslie's masterpiece; but it was as a poet of the +sea that he won his great reputation. "As Lloyd Mifflin +is America's greatest sonneteer, so Hew Ainslie, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +adopted Kentuckian, may perhaps be ranked as America's +most ardent singer of the sea."</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. i); <i>Hew Ainslie</i>, by A. S. Mackenzie (Library +of Southern Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. i).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems</i> (Paisley, Scotland, +1892)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I left ye, Jeanie, blooming fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny;           [bowers]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've found ye on the banks o' Ayr,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But sair ye're altered, Jeanie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I left ye 'mang the woods sae green,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In rustic weed befitting;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've found ye buskit like a queen,             [attired]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In painted chaumbers sitting.           [chambers]<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I left ye like the wanton lamb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That plays 'mang Hadyed's heather;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I've found ye noo a sober dame,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A wife and eke a mither.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye're fairer, statelier, I can see,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ye're wiser, nae dou't, Jeanie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ah! I'd rather met wi' thee<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Welcome, Edie, owre the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome to this lan' an' me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome from the warl' whaur we<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Hae whistled owre the lave o't.              [rest]<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, gie your banes anither hitch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up Hudson's stream, thro' Clinton's ditch,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' see our watlin meadows rich            [cane-brake]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Wi' corn an' a' the lave o't.           [all the rest of it]<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We've hizzie here baith swank and sweet      [maidens agile]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' birkies here that can stan' a heat          [young men]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O' barley bree, or aqua vit            [brew; water of life]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Syne whistle owre the lave o't.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gude kens, I want nae better luck        [Goodness knows]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than just to see ye, like a buck,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spanking the haughs o' auld Kentuck, [speeding over the meadows]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An' whistling owre the lave o't.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE INGLE SIDE</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It's rare to see the morning bleeze,            [blaze]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Like a bonfire frae the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It's fair to see the burnie kiss             [streamlet]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The lip o' the flowery lea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' fine it is on green hillside,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">When hums the hinny bee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But rarer, fairer, finer far,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Is the ingle side to me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Glens may be gilt wi' gowans rare            [daisies]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The birds may fill the tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' haughs hae a' the scented ware        [river meadows]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That simmer's growth can gie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the canty hearth where cronies meet,        [cheerful]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An' the darling o' our e'e—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That makes to us a warl' complete,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh! the ingle side for me.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE HINT O' HAIRST</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It's dowie in the hint o' hairst,        [dreary; end; harvest]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">At the wa'-gang o' the swallow,          [away-going]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the wind blows cauld an' the burns grow bauld,     [bold]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An' the wuds are hingin' yellow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But oh! it's dowier far to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The deid-set o' a shining e'e<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That darkens the weary warld on thee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was muckle love atween us twa—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh! twa could ne'er been fonder;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' the thing on yird was never made<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That could hae gart us sunder.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the way of Heaven's aboon a' ken,     [above all knowing]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we maun bear what it likes to sen'—          [must]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It's comfort, though, to weary men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the warst o' this warld's waes maun en'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There's mony things that come and gae,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Just kent and syne forgotten;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flow'rs that busk a bonnie brae          [deck; slope]<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Gin anither year lie rotten.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the last look o' that lovin' e'e,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' the dying grip she gied to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They're settled like eternitie—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Mary! that I were with thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JAMES_G_BIRNEY" id="JAMES_G_BIRNEY">JAMES G. BIRNEY</a></h2> + + +<p>James Gillespie Birney, leader of the Conservative Abolitionists, +opposed to the radicalism of William Lloyd Garrison +and all his ilk, yet as earnest and sincere in his +hatred of slavery, was born at Danville, Kentucky, February +4, 1792. He was at Transylvania University for a +short time, then proceeded to Princeton, from which institution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +he was graduated in 1810. In 1814 he became a +lawyer in his native town of Danville. In 1816 Birney +was in the Kentucky legislature; but two years later he +removed to Alabama, settling upon a plantation near +Huntsville. The slavery question was appealing to him +more and more, and he finally became an agent for the +American Colonization Society. In the fall of 1833 Birney +returned to Kentucky, and went to Danville, where +he freed his own slaves, and organized the Kentucky Anti-Slavery +Society. On January 1, 1836, the first issue of +his anti-slavery sheet, <i>The Philanthropist</i>, appeared from +his Cincinnati office. This soon became the Bible of the +Conservative Abolitionists, who opposed the drastic methods +of Garrison and his followers. In his speeches Birney +denounced all violence and fanaticism in the handling of +the slavery problem, though he himself received much +violence at the hands of mobs and almost insane partisans. +His strong addresses through the North won him the +secretaryship of the American Anti-Slavery Society in +1837. In this capacity he was soon recognized as the real +leader of the "Constitutional Abolitionists," who said +they stood upon the Constitution, fought against secession, +and desired to wipe slavery from the face of the American +continent with decency and in order. In 1840 and again +in 1844 Birney was the candidate of the Liberty party for +president of the United States. In the second campaign +he multiplied his very small vote received in the first race +by nine. He was thrown from his horse, in 1845, and the +final twelve years of his life were passed as an invalid. +Birney died at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, November 25, +1857. Besides numerous contributions to the press, his +principal writings are <i>Letter on Colonization</i> (1834); <i>Addresses +and Speeches</i> (1835); <i>American Churches the +Bulwarks of American Slavery</i> (1840); <i>Speeches in England</i>(1840); +and <i>An Examination of the Decision of the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +<i>United States Supreme Court in the Case of Strader et al. +v. Graham</i> (1850).</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); <i>James G. Birney and His Times</i>, by his +son, William Birney (New York, 1890).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Letter on the Political Obligations of Abolitionists</i> (Boston, 1839)]</p> + +<p>Within the last twelve or eighteen months, it is believed—after +efforts, some successful, some not, had been begun to affect +the elections—and whilst the most indefatigable exertions were +being made by many of our influential, intelligent and liberal +friends to convince the great body of the abolitionists of the necessity—the +indispensable necessity—of breaking away from +their old "<i>parties</i>," and uniting together in the use of the elective +franchise for the advancement of the cause of human freedom in +which we were engaged;—at this very time, and mainly, too, in +that part of the country where <i>political action</i> had been most successful, +and whence, from its promise of soon being wholly triumphant, +great encouragement was derived by abolitionists everywhere, +a sect has arisen in our midst, whose members regard it as +of religious obligation, in no case, <i>to exercise the elective franchise</i>. +This persuasion is part and parcel of the tenet which it +is believed they have embraced—that as Christians have the +precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the Spirit of God to guide +them, all human governments, as necessarily including the idea +of <i>force to secure obedience</i>, are not only superfluous, but unlawful +encroachments on the Divine government, as ascertained +from the sources above mentioned. Therefore, they refuse to do +anything voluntarily, by which they would be considered as +acknowledging the lawful existence of human governments. Denying +to civil governments the right to use force, they easily deduce +that family governments have no such right. Thus they +would withhold from parents any power of personal chastisement +or restraint for the correction of their children. They carry out +to the full extent the "non-resistance" theory. To the first ruffian +who would demand our purse, or oust us from our houses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +they are to be unconditionally surrendered, unless <i>moral suasion</i> +be found sufficient to induce him to decline from his purpose. +Our wives, our daughters, our sisters—our mothers we are to +see set upon by the most brutal, without any effort on our part, +except argument, to defend them—and even they themselves are +forbidden to use in defense of their purity such powers as God +has endowed them with for its protection, if resistance should be +attended with any injury or destruction to the assailant. In +short, the "No-Government" doctrines, as they are believed now +to be embraced, seem to strike at the root of the social structure; +and tend—so far as I am able to judge of their tendency—to +throw society into entire confusion, and to renew, under the sanction +of religion, scenes of anarchy and license that have generally +heretofore been the offspring of the rankest infidelity and irreligion.</p> + +<p>It is but justice to say—judging from the moral deportment +of the adherents of the "No-Government" scheme—that so far +from admitting, what I have supposed to be, its legitimate consequences, +they would wholly deny and repudiate them.</p> + +<p>These Sectaries have not as yet separated themselves from +the American [Anti-Slavery] society. Far from it. They insist +that their views are altogether harmonious with what is required +for membership by the constitution.... But is this +really so? Is the difference between those who seek to abolish +any and every government of human institution, and those who +prefer <i>any</i> government to a state of things in which every one +may do what seemeth good in his own eyes—is the difference +between them, I say, so small that they can act harmoniously +under the same organization? When, in obedience to the principles +of the society, I go to the polls and there call on my neighbors +to unite with me in electing to Congress men who are in favor +of Human Rights, I am met by a No-Government abolitionist inculcating +on them the doctrine that Congress has <i>no rightful +authority</i> to act at all in the premises—how can we proceed together? +When I am animating my fellow-citizens to aid men in +infusing into the government salutary influences which shall put +an end to all oppression—my No-Government brother cries out +at the top of his lungs, <i>all</i> governments are of the Devil(!) where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +is our harmony! Our efficiency? We are in the condition of the +two physicians called in to the same patient—one of whom +should be intent on applying the proper remedies for expelling +the disease from the body and thus restoring and purifying its +functions; the other equally intent on utterly destroying body, +members, functions and all. Could they be agreed, and could +they walk together? It seems to me not. And simply because +their aim, their objects are radically and essentially different. +So with the No-Government and the Pro-Government abolitionists. +One party is for sustaining and purifying governments, +and bringing them to a perfect conformity with the principles of +the Divine government—the other for destroying <i>all</i> government.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_CORWIN" id="THOMAS_CORWIN">THOMAS CORWIN</a></h2> + + +<p>Thomas Corwin, witty, delightful "Tom" Corwin, was +born near Paris, Kentucky, July 29, 1794. Before he was +five years old, his father had taken him into the wilds of +Ohio, the Lebanon of today. "Tom" Corwin was admitted +to the bar, in 1818, after a slender education and a +brief reading of the law. His wit and eloquence made his +reputation rapidly and, in 1830, he found himself in the +lower House of Congress. The whole country laughed +at his inimitable speeches; and that he had a strong hold +on the Ohio Whigs is certain as they returned him to the +House for ten years. In 1840 Corwin was elected governor +of Ohio, after a brilliant and successful state-wide +campaign. He was incomparable on the stump, and he +rode into the gubernatorial chair on an overwhelming +Whig tide. Two years later, however, his former opponent, +Wilson Shannon, defeated him for reëlection. In +1844 Corwin was sent to the United States Senate, in +which body he renewed his House reputation as an orator. +On the eve of the Mexican War, he made his memorable +anti-war speech, which practically ruined his future political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +career, as the country desired to fight the hated men +on the border. But a more bravely beautiful speech was +never made. President Fillmore chose Corwin his Secretary +of the Treasury, in 1850. At the expiration of +Fillmore's term, Corwin returned to the practice of law +at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1858 he reëntered public life, serving +a term in Congress; and, in 1861, President Lincoln +appointed him minister to Mexico. Corwin remained in +Mexico until the coming of Maximilian, when he returned +to Washington to practice law. In the capital of the country +he died, December 18, 1865. "Tom" Corwin was one +of the most captivating of American orators, and most +lovable of men.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin</i>, by Isaac +Strohn (Dayton, Ohio, 1859); <i>The Library of Oratory</i> (New +York, 1902, v. vi).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE MEXICAN WAR</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin</i>, by Isaac Strohn (Dayton, +Ohio, 1859)]</p> + +<p>Mr. President, this uneasy desire to augment our territory +has depraved the moral sense and blunted the otherwise keen +sagacity of our people. What has been the fate of all nations +who have acted upon the idea that they must advance! Our +young orators cherish this notion with a fervid but fatally mistaken +zeal. They call it by the mysterious name of "destiny." +"Our destiny," they say, is "onward," and hence they argue, +with ready sophistry, the propriety of seizing upon any territory +and any people that may lie in the way of our "fated" advance. +Recently these progressives have grown classical; some assiduous +student of antiquities has helped them to a patron saint. They +have wandered back into the desolated Pantheon, and there, +among the polytheistic relics of that "pale mother of dead empires," +they have found a god whom these Romans, centuries +gone by, baptized "Terminus."</p> + +<p>Sir, I have heard much and read somewhat of this gentleman +Terminus. Alexander, of whom I have spoken, was a devotee of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +this divinity. We have seen the end of him and his empire. It +was said to be an attribute of this god that he must always advance +and never recede. So both republican and imperial Rome +believed. It was, as they say, their destiny. And for a while +it did seem to be even so. Roman Terminus did advance. Under +the eagles of Rome he was carried from his home on the Tiber to +the farthest East on the one hand, and to the far West, among the +then barbarous tribes of western Europe, on the other.</p> + +<p>But at length the time came when retributive justice had become +"a destiny." The despised Gaul calls out the contemned +Goth, and Attila, with his Huns answers back the battle-shout to +both. The "blue-eyed nations of the North," in succession or +united, pour forth their countless hosts of warriors upon Rome +and Rome's always-advancing god Terminus. And now the +battle-axe of the barbarian strikes down the conquering eagle of +Rome. Terminus at last recedes, slowly at first, but finally he +is driven to Rome, and from Rome to Byzantium. Whoever +would know the further fate of this Roman deity, so recently +taken under the patronage of American democracy, may find +ample gratification of his curiosity in the luminous pages of Gibbon's +<i>Decline and Fall</i>.</p> + +<p>Such will find that Rome thought as you now think, that it +was her destiny to conquer provinces and nations, and no doubt +she sometimes said, as you say, "I will conquer a peace," and +where now is she, the mistress of the world? The spider weaves +his web in her palaces, the owl sings his watch-song in her towers. +Teutonic power now lords it over the servile remnant, the miserable +memento of old and once omnipotent Rome. Sad, very sad, +are the lessons which time has written for us. Through and in +them all I see nothing but the inflexible execution of that old law +which ordains as eternal that cardinal rule, "Thou shalt not +covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything which is his." Since I +have lately heard so much about the dismemberment of Mexico +I have looked back to see how, in the course of events, which some +call "Providence," it has fared with other nations who engaged +in this work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half of +the eighteenth century three powerful nations, Russia, Austria, +and Prussia, united in the dismemberment of Poland. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +said, too, as you say, "It is our destiny." They "wanted room." +Doubtless each of these thought, with his share of Poland, his +power was too strong ever to fear invasion, or even insult. One +had his California, another his New Mexico, and the third his +Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouched and incapable of harm? +Alas! no—far, very far, from it. Retributive justice must fulfill +its destiny, too.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HENRY_B_BASCOM" id="HENRY_B_BASCOM">HENRY B. BASCOM</a></h2> + + +<p>Henry Bidleman Bascom, the distinguished Methodist +preacher and orator, was born at Hancock, New York, +May 27, 1796. He received a scanty education, and when +but eighteen years of age he was licensed to preach by the +Ohio conference of the Methodist church. He was a circuit-rider, +traveling more than four hundred miles upon +horseback his first year in the work, and receiving the +princely salary of $12.10 for his year's services. Bascom +was too florid for the Ohio brethren, and they caused him +to be transferred to Tennessee and Kentucky circuits. +In this work he won a wide reputation as a pulpit orator. +In 1823 Henry Clay had Bascom appointed chaplain of +the House of Representatives, but his long sermons did +not please the members, and he was not a great success +in Washington. Bascom was elected as the first +president of Madison College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, +in 1827, but two years later he became an agent for the +American Colonization Society. From 1831 to 1841 he +was professor of moral science and belles-lettres in Augusta +College, Augusta, Kentucky, the first Methodist +college in the world. The Methodist church having taken +over Transylvania University, at Lexington, Dr. Bascom +was elected president of that institution in 1842. He revived +the ancient seat of learning to a wonderful degree,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +becoming another Horace Holley, but the rebirth proved +ephemeral. In 1844 President Bascom protested against +the action of the General Conference of the Methodist +church concerning slavery, and, in the Louisville conference +of 1845, he took a most prominent part, winning for +himself the title of "father of the Methodist Episcopal +Church, South." Dr. Bascom was editor of the <i>Southern +Methodist Review</i> for several years; and in 1848 he resigned +the presidency of Transylvania University, only +to be elected a bishop in the branch of the Methodist +church he had helped to establish. He was ordained as +bishop in May, 1850, and almost immediately set out for +Missouri, where he held his first and only conference. On +his return to Kentucky he was in very poor health; and he +died at Louisville, September 8, 1850. Bishop Bascom +was the greatest Methodist preacher Kentucky can claim; +and he was also an able writer. His works include <i>Sermons +from the Pulpit</i>; <i>Lectures on Infidelity</i>; <i>Lectures +and Essays on Moral and Mental Science</i>; and <i>Methodism +and Slavery</i>. In 1910 a portrait in oils of Bishop Bascom +was painted by Paul Sawyier, the Kentucky artist, for +Transylvania University.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D.D., LL.D.</i>, by +M. M. Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856); <i>The Transylvanian</i> +(Lexington, Kentucky, June, 1910).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D. D., LL. D.</i>, by Rev. M. M. +Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856)]</p> + +<p>I have seen, surveyed, and communed with the whole!—and +awed and bewildered, as if enchanted before the revealment of a +mystery, I attempt to write. You ask me, in your last, for some +detailed, veritable account of the Falls, and I should be glad to +gratify you; but how shall I essay to paint a scene that so utterly +baffles all conception, and renders worse than fruitless every attempt +at description? In five minutes after my arrival, on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +evening of the fifth, I descended the winding-path from the +"Pavillion," on the Canadian side, and, for the first time in my +life, saw this unequaled cascade from "Table Rock;" the whole +indescribable scene, in bold outline, bursting on my view. I had +heard and read much, and imagined more of what was before me. +I was perfectly familiar with the often-told, the far-traveled story +of what I saw; but the overpowering <i>reality</i> on which I was gazing, +motionless as the rock on which I stood, deprived me of +recollection, annihilated all curiosity; and with emotions of sublimity +till now unfelt, and all unearthly, the involuntary exclamation +escaped me, "<i>God of Grandeur! what a scene!</i>"</p> + +<p>But the majesty of the sight, and the interest of the moment, +how depict them? The huge amplitude of water, tumbling in +foam above, and dashing on, arched and pillared as it glides, +until it reaches the precipice of the <i>chute</i>, and then, in one vast +column, bounding with maddening roar and rush, into the depths +beneath, presents a spectacle so unutterably appalling, that language +falters; words are no longer signs, and I despair giving +you any idea of what I saw and felt. Yet this is not all. The +eye and mind necessarily take in other objects, as parts of the +grand panorama, forests, cliffs, and islands; banks, foam, and +spray; wood, rock, and precipice; dimmed with the rising fog and +mist, and obscurely gilded by the softening tints of the rainbow. +These all belong to the picture; and the effect of +the whole is immeasurably heightened by the noise of the cataract, +now reminding you of the reverberations of the heavens in +a tempest, and then of the eternal roar of ocean, when angered +by the winds!</p> + +<p>The concave bed of rock, from which the water falls some two +hundred feet into the almost boundless reservoir beneath, is the +section of a circle, which, at first sight, from "Table Rock," presents +something like the geometrical curve of the rainbow; and +the wonders of the grand "crescent," thus advantageously +thrown upon the eye in combination, and the appropriate sensations +and conceptions heightened by the crash and boom of the +waters, render the sight more surpassingly sublime, than anything +I have ever looked upon, or conceived of. As it regards +my thoughts and feelings at the time, I can help you to no conception<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +of their character. Overwhelming astonishment was the +only bond between thought and thought; and wild, vague, and +boundless were the associations of the hour! Before me, the +strength and fullness of the congregated "lakes of the north," +were enthroned and concentrated within a circumference embraced +by a single glance of the eye! Here I saw, rolling and +dashing, at the rate of <i>twenty-five hundred millions of tons per +day</i>, nearly one half of all the fresh water upon the surface of the +globe! On the American side, I beheld a vast deluge, nine hundred +feet in breadth, with a fall of one hundred and eighty or +ninety, met, fifty feet above the level of the gulf, by a huge projection +of rock, which seems to break the descent and continuity +of the flood, only to increase its fierce and overwhelming bound. +And turning to the "crescent," I saw the mingled rush of foam +and tide, dashing with fearful strife and desperate emulation—four +hundred yards of the sheet rough and sparry, and the remaining +three hundred a deep sealike mass of living green—rolling +and heaving like a sheet of emerald. Even imagination +failed me, and I could think of nothing but ocean let loose from +his bed, and seeking a deeper gulf below! The fury of the water, +at the termination of its fall, combined with the columned +strength of the cataract, and the deafening thunder of the flood, +are at once inconceivable and indescribable. No imagination, +however creative, can correspond with the grandeur of the reality.</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned, and it is important that you keep it +in view, the ledge of rock, the verge of the cataract, rising like a +wall of equal height, and extending in semicircular form across +the whole bed of the river, a distance of more than two thousand +feet; and the impetuous flood, conforming to this arrangement, +in making its plunge, with mountain weight, into the great horseshoe +basin beneath, exhibits a spectacle of the sublime, in geographical +scenery, without, perhaps, a parallel in nature. As I +leaned from "Table Rock," and cast my eye downward upon the +billowy turbulence of the angry depth, where the waters were +tossing and whirling, coiling and springing, with the energy of +an earthquake, and a rapidity that almost mocked my vision, I +found the scene sufficient to appal a sterner spirit than mine; and +I was glad to turn away and relieve my mind by a sight of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +surrounding scenery; bays, islands, shores, and forests, everywhere +receding in due perspective. The rainbows of the "crescent" +and American side, which are only visible from the western +bank of the Niagara, and in the afternoon, seem to diminish +somewhat from the awfulness of the scene, and to give it an +aspect of rich and mellow grandeur, not unlike the bow of promise, +throwing its assuring radiance over the retiring waters of +the deluge.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JAMES_T_MOREHEAD" id="JAMES_T_MOREHEAD">JAMES T. MOREHEAD</a></h2> + + +<p>James Turner Morehead, Kentucky's most scholarly +governor, was born near Shepherdsville, Kentucky, May +24, 1797. He was prepared for Transylvania University, +Lexington, and there he studied from 1813 to 1815. He +studied law under John J. Crittenden and, in 1818, entered +upon the practice at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ten years +later Morehead was in the Kentucky legislature, and he +was returned for several sessions. In 1832 he was a delegate +to the Baltimore convention which nominated Henry +Clay for the presidency; and while in Baltimore he himself +was nominated for lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, +with John Breathitt for governor. They were elected in +August, 1832, but the Governor died on February 21, 1834, +and Morehead succeeded to his office on the following day. +He served until September, 1836. Upon the expiration +of his term, Governor Morehead resumed the practice of +law at Frankfort. He was elected United States Senator +from Kentucky, in 1841, and he served until 1847. Senator +Morehead was an attractive public speaker, and when +it was known in Washington that he was to make a speech +the galleries were usually well filled. After the expiration +of his term, he practiced law at Covington, Kentucky. +Senator Morehead had the most extensive collection of +books and manuscripts upon the history of Kentucky and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +the West of any man of his day and generation. After +his death, which occurred at Covington, Kentucky, December +28, 1854, his library was purchased by the Young +Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati. +Morehead's <i>Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement +of Kentucky, at Boonesborough</i> (Frankfort, 1840, +181 pp.), rescued and preserved numerous documents of +great historical importance. In the preparation of his +great <i>History of the United States</i>, George Bancroft is +said to have relied upon this famous address of Morehead +for much of his information concerning the early history +of the West. Morehead also published <i>Practice and Proceedings +at Law in Kentucky</i> (1846). The fine face of this +scholar and statesman is one of Matthew Harris Jouett's +most luminous canvasses.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. iv); <i>National Cyclopaedia of +American Biography</i> (New York, 1906, v. xiii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">JOHN FINLEY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>An Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of Kentucky</i> +(Frankfort, Kentucky, 1840)]</p> + +<p>The first successful attempt to explore the Kentucky country +was made by John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, +in 1767. He was attended by a few companions, as adventurous +as himself, whose names have escaped the notice of history. They +were evidently a party of hunters, and were prompted to the bold +and hazardous undertaking, for the purpose of indulging in their +favorite pursuits. Of Finley and his comrades, and of the course +and extent of their journey, little is now known. That they +were of the pure blood, and endowed with the genuine qualities, +of the pioneers, is manifestly undeniable. That they passed over +the Cumberland, and through the intermediate country to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +Kentucky river, and penetrated the beautiful valley of the Elkhorn, +there are no sufficient reasons to doubt. It is enough, however, +to embalm their memory in our hearts, and to connect their +names with the imperishable memorials of our early history, that +they were the first adventurers that plunged into the dark and +enchanted wilderness of Kentucky—that of all their contemporaries +they saw her first—and saw her in the pride of her virgin +beauty—at the dawn of summer—in the fullness of her +vegetation—her soil, instinct with fertility, covered with the +most luxuriant verdure—the air perfumed with the fragrance +of flowers, and her tall forests looming in all their primeval magnificence.</p> + +<p>How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence of history +does not enable us to know. That his remains are now mingled +with the soil that he discovered, there is some reason to hope, for +he conducted Boone to Kentucky in 1769—and there the curtain +drops upon him forever. It is fit it should be raised. It is fit +that justice, late and tardy that it be, should be done to the memory +of the first of the pioneers. And what can be more appropriate, +than that the first movement should be made for the performance +of such a duty, on the day of the commemoration of the +discovery and settlement of the Commonwealth?</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="LEWIS_COLLINS" id="LEWIS_COLLINS">LEWIS COLLINS</a></h2> + + +<p>Lewis Collins, the Kentucky historian, was born near +Lexington, Kentucky, on Christmas Day, 1797. When a +boy he entered the printing office of Joel R. Lyle, editor of +<i>The Paris Citizen</i>, where he worked for more than a year +as a printer. He removed to Mason county, Kentucky, to +become associate editor of the <i>Washington Union</i>. On November +1, 1820, Lewis Collins purchased the <i>Maysville +Eagle</i>, which had been established six years prior to his +purchase, and he made it one of the best country newspapers +ever published in Kentucky. In 1823 he was married<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +to a sister of Benjamin O. Peers, afterwards president of +Transylvania University. Collins was editor of the <i>Eagle</i> +for twenty-seven years, when he retired in order to give +his entire attention to his <i>Historical Sketches of Kentucky</i> +(Maysville, 1847). This was the first illustrated history of +Kentucky, and easily the most comprehensive that had appeared. +The histories of Marshall and Butler began at +the beginning, but both concluded with the year of 1812, +while Collins brought his work down to 1844. His was a +mine of historic lore, arranged in departments, and not +altogether readable as a continuous narrative. It was +the foundation upon which his son, Richard H. Collins, +was later to build the most magnificent state history ever +published. Lewis Collins was presiding judge of the +Mason county court from 1851 to 1854. He was a just +judge, a painstaking chronicler of his people's past, and a +fine type of Christian citizen. Judge Collins died at Lexington, +Kentucky, January 29, 1870. The Kentucky legislature +passed an appropriate resolution in which his life +was commended and his death deplored.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, +Kentucky, 1892); <i>Kentucky in the Nation's History</i>, by +R. M. McElroy (New York, 1909).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Historical Sketches of Kentucky</i> (Maysville and Cincinnati, 1847)]</p> + +<p>The late H. P. Peers, of the city of Maysville, laid the foundation +for the work which is now presented to the reading community. +Mr. Peers designed it to be simply a small <i>Gazetteer</i> of +the State; and had collected, and partially arranged for publication, +the major part of the materials, comprising a description of +the towns and counties. Upon his decease, the materials passed +into the hands of the Author, who determined to remodel them, +and make such additions as would give permanency and increased +value to the work. He has devoted much labor to this +object; but circumstances having rendered its publication necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +at an earlier day than was contemplated, some errors may +have escaped, which more time, and a fuller investigation, would +have enabled him to detect.</p> + +<p>Serious obstacles have been encountered in the preparation of +the Biographical Sketches. Many of those which appear in the +work, were prepared from the personal recollections of the Author; +while others have been omitted because he did not know to +whom he could apply for them, or having applied, and in some +instances repeatedly, failed in procuring them. This is his apology +for the non-appearance of many names in that department +which are entitled to a distinguished place in the annals of Kentucky.</p> + +<p>In the preparation of the work, one design of the Author has +been to preserve, in a durable form, those rich fragments of local +and personal history, many of which exist, at present, only in the +ephemeral form of oral tradition, or are treasured up among the +recollections of the aged actors in the stirring scenes, the memory +of which is thus perpetuated. These venerable witnesses from +a former age, are rapidly passing away from our midst, and with +them will be buried the knowledge of much that is most interesting +in the primitive history of the commonwealth. It is from +sources such as we have mentioned, that the materials for the future +historian are to be drawn; and, like the scattered leaves of +the Sybil, these frail mementos of the past should be gathered up +and preserved with religious veneration. If the Author shall +have succeeded, in thus redeeming from oblivion any considerable +or important portion of the early history of the State, his design +will be fully accomplished, and his labor amply rewarded.</p> + +<p>Of all the members of this great republican confederacy, there +is none whose history is more rich in the variety, quality, and interest +of its materials. The poet, the warrior, and the statesman, +can each find subjects, the contemplation of which will instruct +him in his art; and to the general reader, it would, perhaps, be +impossible to present a field of more varied and attractive interest.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="JULIA_A_TEVIS" id="JULIA_A_TEVIS">JULIA A. TEVIS</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Julia Ann (Hieronymous) Tevis, author of a delightful +autobiography, was born near Winchester, Kentucky, +December 5, 1799. When but seven years old her +parents removed to Virginia, settling at Winchester, and +at the female academy of the town her education was +begun. In 1813 Miss Hieronymous's family removed to +Georgetown, D. C., where her education was continued +under private teachers—"a considerable portion of my +time was devoted to music, drawing, and French, with +various kinds of embroidery." Two years later she was +placed in the finishing school of an English woman in +Washington where French and music continued to be her +major subjects. Miss Hieronymous completed her training +at the school of Mrs. Stone in Washington when nineteen +years of age, and returned to her home to read and +study. She spent many hours at the Capital meeting and +hearing most of the famous men of her time. At the age +of twenty years she became a school-ma'am at Wytheville, +Virginia, and the following sixty years of her life were +devoted to teaching. She later taught at Abingdon, Virginia, +where she united with the Methodist church, and +where she was married on March 9, 1824, to Rev. +John Tevis (1792-1861), a Kentucky Methodist preacher. +Mrs. Tevis desired to continue teaching, and upon her removal +to her husband's home at Shelbyville, Kentucky, +she opened Science Hill Academy. This famous old institution +for the instruction of young women—founded +March 25, 1825, and the second Protestant female academy +established in the Mississippi Valley—has continued +without interruption until the present time. The remaining +years of the founder's life were filled with the school, +her girls, her children, her cares and perplexities. In +1875 the semi-centennial of the founding of Science Hill +was celebrated in a fitting manner. Some time later Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +Tevis closed the manuscripts of her autobiography, entitled +<i>Sixty Years in a School-Room</i> (Cincinnati, 1878), a +large work of nearly five hundred pages, in which the details +of her splendid service are ably set forth. Mrs. +Tevis died at Shelbyville, Kentucky, April 21, 1880. Her +pupils erected a fitting monument to her memory.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. The chief authority for the facts of Mrs. Tevis's +life is, of course, her autobiography; Annual Catalogues of +Science Hill.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE MAY QUEEN</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Sixty Years in a School-Room</i> (Cincinnati, 1878)]</p> + +<p>For many years we kept up the custom of crowning a "Rose +Queen" in May, and enjoying a holiday in the woods. Happily +for the girls, I greeted the return of the festival day with a gladness +almost equal to theirs, for I retained enough of the freshness +of youth in my heart to enable me to participate with zest in the +joys of childhood.</p> + +<p>"Once upon a time," after a long severe Winter, followed by +a Spring of unusual beauty, it was determined to celebrate the +day with great rejoicings. The girls were wild with delight at +the prospect of a whole day's release from slates, books, and +blackboards—a charming episode in the drudgery of their everyday +life. Ah, happy children! to whom every glimpse of nature +is beautiful, and every blade of grass a marvel! Give them ever +so small a bit of green meadow checkered with sunshine and shade +upon which to revel among buttercups and daisies, and "little +they'll reck" how the world goes on.</p> + +<p>There was but little opportunity for canvassing or intrigue in +the election of Queen. Fanny Henning was chosen by acclamation +as best fitted to grace the regal authority. Fanny possessed +a mind and a character as transparent as a clear brook. Her +ingenuous face, her self-forgetting and amiable bearing towards +her companions made her the loved and cherished of them all. +She also held a distinguished place in the estimation of her teachers +for superior excellence, dutiful affection, and modest deportment. +Thus it was universally conceded that "Fair-handed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +Spring" might well resign to Fanny her sovereignty for one day +over the brilliant treasures of garden, glade, and forest, awakened +into life and brightened into beauty by her magic wand.</p> + +<p>The rosy hours followed each other in quick succession until +within a few days of the anticipated time, when lo! the "queen +elect" broke out with measles. The whole school was filled with +dismay, bitter tears of disappointment were shed by some; others +predicted that she would be well enough to go through the ceremony. +Fanny, uniting in their hopeful aspirations, prepared her +coronation speech and rehearsed it to perfection, for, though confined +to her room, she was not really ill. On the eve of the +appointed day, however, the doctor pronounced her too feeble to +endure the fatigue. What was to be done? The trophies of +many loyal hearts were ready to be laid at the feet of the queen. +Spirit hands seemed dispensing blessings, and guardian angels +extending their wings over these healthful, happy girls as they +diligently wrought sparkling wreaths and arranged beautiful +bouquets.</p> + +<p>The banners were prepared, the white dresses were trimmed +with evergreen. The Seasons, the maids of honor, and all the +officials were in waiting, but "<i>Hamlet</i>" could not be left out of +the play. One modest little girl, after listening in silence to the +suggestions of the others, raised her eyes to my face and said hesitatingly:</p> + +<p>"Can't Emma Maxwell be queen in Fanny's place?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" said another; "she could not possibly learn the +speech in time."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" exclaimed several voices at once, "that would +be impossible; but she might read it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! let her read it; the queen's speeches are read in +Parliament!"</p> + +<p>"Will you accept the proposition?" said I, turning to Emma.</p> + +<p>"I think I can learn it," she replied, "and will try if you +wish it."</p> + +<p>The coronation was to take place the next morning at ten +o'clock. A previous rehearsal would be impossible; but what +Emma proudly determined to do was generously accomplished.</p> + +<p>The evening star looked out bright and clear in the blue deep,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +thrilling the hearts of these young girls with the prospect of a +pleasant morrow.</p> + +<p>Most of them were stirring before sunrise. "Is it clear?" +"Are we going?" And from every room issued the sound of +cheerful voices; and then such shouts, such hurrying and bathing +and dressing as was seldom known before.</p> + +<p>Ten o'clock came, and the yard, where the temporary throne +was erected, was soon filled with spectators and invited guests, +mingling with the children and participating in their pleasure. +The proxy queen bore her blushing honors meekly, going through +all the coronation ceremonies with a charming dignity. She stood +Calypso-like among her train of attendants in full view of the +audience who listened in breathless silence to her address. I +watched her closely; she seemed to plant her feet firmly, as if to +still the beatings of her heart; no gesture except a gentle motion +of the right arm as she swayed her scepter majestically around, +her eyes steadily fixed upon some object beyond, with which she +seemed completely absorbed. Not a word was misplaced, not a +sentence omitted, of a speech long enough for a Parliamentary +harangue. No one prompted, nor did she once turn her eyes +toward the scroll she held in her left hand. Enthusiastic and excessive +were the rejoicings of her juvenile auditors.</p> + +<p>Fanny witnessed the whole ceremony through a convenient +window which framed for her a living picture of ineffable beauty, +and on this clear day, with only a few white Spring clouds floating +over the bluest of skies, it was a sight of earth that makes one +understand heaven.</p> + +<p>The Seasons followed in quick succession, proffering homage to +the queen; then came the "rosy Hours" with their sweet-toned +voices, and the ceremony was completed by a few words from +"Fashion and Modesty," the latter gently pushing the former +aside, and casting a veil over the burning blushes of the queen. +The address being finished, queen and attendants walked in procession +to a grove that skirted the town, where beauty filled the +eye, and singing birds warbled sweet music. When tired of play, +a more substantial entertainment was provided. Group after +group spread the white cloth on the soft green turf, and surrounded +the plentiful repast, gratefully acknowledging the Hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +that supplies our wants from day to day. He who called our +attention to the "lilies of the field," stamps a warrant of sacredness +upon our rejoicings, in all that he has made.</p> + +<p>There was something very remarkable in the quickness and +facility with which Emma Maxwell memorized the queen's speech. +She was a girl of more than ordinary vivacity, of a highly imaginative, +impressionable nature, and seemed to have the gift of bewitching +all who knew her. She occupied a commanding position +in her class as a good reciter, but I had not hitherto noticed any +great facility in memorizing. I called her the next day, and asked +her to recite the piece to me alone. She stared rather vacantly +at me, and said:</p> + +<p>"I can not remember a sentence of it."</p> + +<p>"What! when you repeated it with so much facility yesterday! +explain yourself."</p> + +<p>"I do not know how it is," she replied, "that though I can +learn with the utmost precision, mechanically, whatever I choose, +in a short time, yet under such circumstances my memory has not +the power of retention. If my train of repetition had been interrupted +for one moment yesterday, I should have failed utterly."</p> + +<p>"What were you looking at so intently the whole time?"</p> + +<p>"I was looking at certain objects about the yard and house in +connection with which I had studied the speech the evening before."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but you certainly can repeat some portion of it to me?"</p> + +<p>"Not one sentence connectedly; it has all passed from my +mind like a shadow on the wall."</p> + +<p>Yet she was a girl of good judgment, read much, talked well, +and possessed in an eminent degree the indispensable requisite +of a good memory—power of attention.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="ROBERT_J_BRECKINRIDGE" id="ROBERT_J_BRECKINRIDGE">ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE</a></h2> + + +<p>Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, LL.D., one of Kentucky's +most prolific writers for the public prints, was +born at Cabell's Dale, near Lexington, Kentucky, March +8, 1800. He was the son of John Breckinridge, President +Jefferson's Attorney-General. He studied at Princeton +and Yale, and was graduated from Union College in 1819. +Breckinridge then read law and was admitted to the Lexington, +Kentucky, bar in 1823. He practiced law for +eight years, during part of which time he was a member +of the Kentucky legislature. Realizing that Kentucky +would oppose the emancipation of the slaves, in which he +heartily believed, Breckinridge decided to quit the law +and politics for the church. He studied theology and became +pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Baltimore, +which pastorate he held for thirteen years. In +1845 Dr. Breckinridge was elected president of Jefferson +College (now Washington and Jefferson College), at +Washington, Pennsylvania, but two years later he resigned +the presidency of the college in order to accept the +pastorate of the First Presbyterian church of Lexington, +Kentucky. In 1848 Dr. Breckinridge was elected superintendent +of public instruction of Kentucky; and in 1853 +he became professor of theology in the Danville Theological +Seminary, which position he held until his death. +He was chairman of the Baltimore national convention of +1864 which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. +Dr. Breckinridge's writings include <i>Travels in +France, Germany</i>, etc. (Philadelphia, 1839); <i>Popery in +the XIX. Century in the United States</i> (1841); <i>Memoranda +of Foreign Travel</i> (Baltimore, 1845); <i>The Internal +Evidence of Christianity</i> (1852); <i>The Knowledge of God +Objectively Considered</i> (New York, 1858); and <i>The Knowledge +of God Subjectively Considered</i> (New York, 1859). +These two last named works, of enormous proportions, are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +Dr. Breckinridge's greatest theological and literary productions. +He also published <i>Kentucky School Reports</i> +(1848-1853). While a resident of Baltimore he was one of +the editors of <i>The Literary and Religious Magazine</i>, and +of its successor, <i>The Spirit of the Nineteenth Century</i>, in +both of which publications he carried on many bitter and +never-ending discussions with the Roman Catholics concerning +theological and historical questions. He was also +editor of <i>The Danville Quarterly Review</i> for several +years. A complete collection of Dr. Breckinridge's +books, debates, articles, and pamphlets, upon slavery, +temperance, Popery, Universalism, Presbyterianism, education, +agriculture, and politics, would form a five-foot +shelf of books.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1887, v. i).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">SANCTIFICATION</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered</i> (New York, 1859)]</p> + +<p>The completeness of the Plan of Salvation seems to be absolute. +The adaptedness of all its parts to each other, and to their own +special end—and the adaptedness of the whole and of every +part, to the great end of all, the eradication of sin and misery; +exhibits a subject, the greatest, the most intricate, and the most +remote of all in a manner so precise and clear; that the sacred +Scriptures, even if they had no grace and no mercy to offer to us +personally, might justly challenge the very highest place as the +most stupendous monument of sublime and successful thought. +What then ought we to think of them, when all this glorious intelligence +is merely tributary to our salvation? The end of this +infinite completeness, only to pour into our polluted and thoughtless +hearts, inexhaustible supplies of grace—that we may be extricated +from a condition utterly hopeless without that grace ... and +be brought to a condition unspeakably blessed to us and glorious +to God? Yet this is the overwhelming conclusion to which every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +just consideration of them forces us to come; the conclusion to +which the imperfect disclosure which has now been attempted, of +a single point in this divine system, wholly compels us. In this +deep conviction, therefore, and as the conclusion of all that has +now been advanced, I venture to define, that Sanctification is a +benefit of the Covenant of Redemption—being a work of grace, +on the part of the triune God, wherein the elect who have been +Effectually Called, Regenerated, Justified, and Adopted, are, +through the virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, by the +indwelling of the Word and Spirit, through the use of the divine +ordinances, and by the power of God with them, enabled more +and more to die unto sin, to be renewed in the spirit of their +mind, and to live unto righteousness, in an increasing conformity +to the image of God, to his great Glory, and their growth in holiness.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="CAROLINE_L_HENTZ" id="CAROLINE_L_HENTZ">CAROLINE L. HENTZ</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, novelist, was born at Lancaster, +Massachusetts, June 1, 1800. When twenty-four years +of age she was married to N. M. Hentz, a Frenchman, +then associated with George Bancroft in conducting the +Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts. Two +years after her marriage her husband was elected to the +chair of modern languages in the University of North +Carolina, and this position he held until 1830, when he removed +to Covington, Kentucky, where he and his wife +conducted a private school. Covington was the birthplace +of Mrs. Hentz's first literary work. The directors +of the Arch Street theatre, Philadelphia, had offered a +prize of five hundred dollars for the best original tragedy +founded on the conquest of the Moors in Spain, and Mrs. +Hentz submitted <i>De Lara, or, the Moorish Bride</i>, which +was awarded first place, but the prize was never paid the +author. <i>De Lara</i> was later published and successfully +produced on the stage. This encouraged Mrs. Hentz to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +write another tragedy, entitled <i>Lamorah, or, the Western +Wild</i>, a tragedy of Indian life, which was staged in Cincinnati +and published at Columbus, Georgia. Her <i>Constance +of Werdenberg</i> was written at Covington. After +two years at Covington, Mrs. Hentz crossed the Ohio +river and opened a school at Cincinnati. Her novel, +<i>Lovell's Folly</i>, was written there. In 1834 she removed +to Alabama, and this State was her home for the +subsequent fourteen years. Her first widely successful +novel, <i>Aunt Patty's Scrap-Bag</i> (Philadelphia, 1846) was +followed by her generally accepted masterpiece, <i>Linda, or, +the Young Pilot of the Belle Creole</i> (1850). Now came in +rapid succession her other works: <i>Rena, or, the Snow +Bird</i> (1851); <i>Marcus Warland</i> (1852); <i>Eoline</i>; <i>Wild Jack</i>; +<i>Helen and Arthur</i>; <i>Ugly Effie</i>; <i>The Planter's Northern +Bride</i> (1854); <i>Love after Marriage</i> (1854); <i>The Banished +Son; Robert Graham</i> (1856); and <i>Ernest Lynwood</i> (1856), +her last book and by some critics regarded as her best. +Mrs. Hentz began her literary work in Kentucky, as indicated +above, and, though the claim of Kentucky is rather +slender upon her it is, nevertheless, legitimate. She died +at Marianna, Florida, February 11, 1856.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1888, v. iii); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, +Georgia, 1909, v. vi).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Marcus Warland</i> (1852)]</p> + +<p>Marcus sat beside the Long Moss Spring, the morning sun-beams +glancing through the broad leaves of the magnolia and the +brilliant foliage of the holly, and playing on his golden hair. He +held in his hand a fishing-rod, whose long line floated on the +water; and though his eye was fixed on the buoyant cork, there +was no hope or excitement in its gaze. His face was pale and +wore a severe expression, very different from the usual joyousness +and thoughtlessness of childhood. Even when the silvery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +trout and shining perch, lured by the bait, hung quivering on +the hook, and were thrown, fluttering like wounded birds through +the air, to fall panting, then pulseless, at his side, he showed no +consciousness of success, no elation at the number of his scaly +victims. Tears, even, large and slowly gathering tears, rolled +gradually and reluctantly down his fair oval cheeks; they were +not like the sudden, drenching shower, that leaves the air purer +and the sky bluer, but the drops that issue from the wounded +bark formed of the life-blood of the tree.</p> + +<p>Beautiful was the spot where the boy sat, and beautiful the +vernal morning that awakened Nature to the joy and the beauty +of youth. The fountain, over whose basin he was leaning, was +one of those clear, deep, pellucid springs, that gush up in the +green wilds of southern Georgia, forming a feature of such exquisite +loveliness in the landscape, that the traveler pauses on +the margin, feeling as if he had found one of those enchanted +springs of which we read in fairy land, whose waters are too +bright, too pure, too serene for earth.</p> + +<p>The stone which formed the basin of the fountain was smooth +and calcareous, hollowed out by the friction of the waters, and +gleaming white and cold through their diaphanous drapery. In +the centre of this basin, where the spring gushed in all its depth +and strength, it was so dark it looked like an opaque body, impervious +to the eye, whence it flowed over the edge of its rocky +receptacle in a full, rejoicing current, sweeping over its mossy +bed, and bearing its sounding tribute to the Chattahoochee, +"rolling rapidly." The mossy bed to which we have alluded was +not the verdant velvet that covers with a short, curling nap the +ancient rock and the gray old tree, but long, slender, emerald-green +plumes, waving under the water, and assuming through its +mirror a tinge of deep and irradiant blue. Nothing can be imagined +more rich and graceful than this carpet for the fountain's +silvery tread, and which seems to bend beneath it, as the light +spray rustling in the breeze. The golden water-lily gleamed up +through the crystal, and floated along the margin on its long and +undulating stems.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="JOHN_P_DURBIN" id="JOHN_P_DURBIN">JOHN P. DURBIN</a></h2> + + +<p>John Price Durbin, Seventh President of Dickinson College, +was born near Paris, Kentucky, October 10, 1800. +He was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker in Paris, and the +meager wages he received were invested in books. In +1819 Durbin became a Methodist circuit-rider. He afterwards +studied at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and was +graduated from Cincinnati College in 1825. In the fall +of that year he became professor of languages in Augusta +College, Augusta, Kentucky, and he occupied the chair +until 1831, when he was elected chaplain of the United +States Senate. In the next year Dr. Durbin was elected +professor of natural sciences in Wesleyan University, Middletown, +Connecticut, He remained at Wesleyan but +one year, when he was chosen editor of the New York +<i>Christian Advocate and Journal</i>. In 1834 Editor Durbin +became President Durbin of Dickinson College, Carlisle, +Pennsylvania. He is regarded as the greatest head the +college has ever known. During vacations Dr. Durbin +traveled extensively in Europe and the Orient, and these +journeys are best preserved in his books. In the 1844 +General Conference of the Methodist church he was in +the thickest of the great fight over the slavery question; +and in the following year he resigned as president of +Dickinson, after more than ten years of distinguished +success in the management of the ancient college. He +now returned to the active pastorate, taking charge of the +Union Methodist church in Philadelphia. From 1850 to +1872 Dr. Durbin was secretary of the Methodist Missionary +Society, in the interest of which he visited Europe in +1867. He raised many millions of dollars for foreign +missions while he was in charge of the society. He was +the founder of foreign missions in Bulgaria. Dr. Durbin +was an eloquent and persuasive preacher, an able administrator, +and during the latter years of his life he wielded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +a wonderful influence in the Methodist church. He died +at New York City, October 17, 1876. His works include +<i>Observations in Europe</i> (New York, 1844, 2 vols.); <i>Observations +in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor</i> +(New York, 1845, 2 vols.); and he edited the American +edition of Wood's <i>Mosaic History of the Creation</i> (New +York, 1831). Dr. Durbin was a rather prolific contributor +to religious and secular periodicals. His <i>Observations +in Europe</i> is the best literary work he did.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. ii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Observations in Europe</i> (New York, 1844, v. ii)]</p> + +<p>The first impression of London is usually wonder at its <i>immensity</i>. +I received this impression in its full force, as the reader +will have already perceived, in coming up the Thames. Nor did +it diminish in the course of my rambles through the great metropolis, +subsequently. When the stranger first leaves the river, +and plunges into the thronged streets, he absolutely becomes +dizzy in the whirl of busy life around him. Men sweep by him +in <i>masses</i>; at times the way seems wedged with them: wagons, +carts, omnibuses, hacks, and coaches block up the avenues, and +make it quite an enterprise to cross them. Every day my amazement +increased at the extent, the activity, the wealth of London. +The impression was totally different from that of Paris. The +French capital strikes you as the seat of human enjoyment. You +find the art of life, so far as mere physical good is concerned, in +perfection there. No wish need be ungratified. Your taste may +be gratified with the finest music, the most fascinating spectacles, +the most splendid works of art in the world. You may eat and +drink when and where you please; in half an hour, almost any +delicacy that earth has produced or art invented is set before you. +You may spend days and weeks in visiting her museums, her +hospitals, her gardens, her cemeteries, her libraries, her palaces, +and yet remain unsatisfied. In London everything is different.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +Men are active, but it is in pursuit of wealth. In general they +do not seem to enjoy life. The arts are cultivated to a small extent +by a small class of society; the mass seem hardly to know +that arts exist. No splendid collections are open, without fee or +reward, to the public, or to you. You can purchase gratification, +but of a lower order than in Paris, and at a higher price. Except +a few <i>lions</i>—the Docks, the Tunnel, Westminster Abbey, <i>&c.</i>—nearly +everything that the city has to show to a stranger can be +seen as you ride along the streets. When you leave Paris you +have just begun to enjoy it, and desire to return again; you leave +London convinced, indeed, of its vastness and wealth, but tired of +gazing at dingy buildings and thronged streets, and are satisfied +without another visit. Such, at least, were my own impressions. +Apart from private friendships and professional interests, I have +no care to see London again.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="FORTUNATUS_COSBY_Jr" id="FORTUNATUS_COSBY_Jr">FORTUNATUS COSBY, Jr.</a></h2> + + +<p>Fortunatus Cosby, Junior, poet and editor, the son of a +distinguished lawyer, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, +May 2, 1801. He was educated at Yale and Transylvania, +then studied law, but, like so many literary men have +done, never practiced. Cosby was a passionate lover of +books, and most of his life was spent among his collection. +He was wealthy and well able to indulge his taste to any +extreme. His kinsman, President Thomas Jefferson, offered +to make him secretary of the legation at London, +but he declined. Cosby was some years later superintendent +of the Philadelphia public schools, and a contributor +to <i>Graham's Magazine</i>, as well as to other high-class +periodicals. In 1846 he was editor of the Louisville <i>Examiner</i>, +the first Kentucky paper devoted to emancipation +of the slaves. In 1860 Cosby was appointed consul to +Geneva, and the next eight years of his life were devoted +to his diplomatic duties and to traveling. He returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +to the United States in 1868, and to his old home near +Louisville. There death found him in June, 1871. Several +of his friends, which included William Cullen Bryant, +Rufus W. Griswold, and George D. Prentice, often urged +Cosby to collect his verse and bring it together in a volume, +but he was "too careless of his fame to do it;" and +"many waifs he from time to time contributed to the periodicals," +are now lost to the general public. He is, of +course, well represented in all of the anthologies of American +poetry, but a collection of his writings should be +made. Cosby's best work is to be seen in his <i>Fireside +Fancies</i>, <i>Ode to the Mocking Bird</i>, <i>The Traveler in the +Desert</i>, and <i>A Dream of Long Ago</i>. He has often been +pronounced the best song writer this country has produced; +and that he was a man of fine culture, an ardent +lover of books and Nature, and a maker of charming and +exquisite verse can be readily proved.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. +Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); <i>Blades o' Bluegrass</i>, by +Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">FIRESIDE FANCIES</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, edited by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the dim and fitful firelight<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Musing all alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Memories of old companions<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Dead, or strangers grown;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Books that we have read together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rambles in sweet summer weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thoughts released from earthly tether—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Fancy made my own.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In my cushioned arm-chair sitting<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Far into the night,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Sleep, with leaden wings extinguished<br /></span> +<span class="i15">All the flickering light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, the thoughts that soothed me waking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Care, and grief, and pain forsaking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still the self-same path were taking—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Pilgrims, still in sight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Indistinct and shadowy phantoms<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of the sacred dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Absent faces bending fondly<br /></span> +<span class="i15">O'er my drooping head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In my dreams were woven quaintly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dim at first, but calm and saintly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the stars that glimmer faintly<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From their misty bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Presently a lustrous brightness<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Eye could scarce behold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave to my enchanted vision<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Looks no longer cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Features that no clouds encumber,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forms refreshed by sweetest slumber,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, of all that blessed number,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Only one was old.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Graceful were they as the willow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">By the zephyr stirred!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bright as childhood when expecting<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An approving word!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair as when from earth they faded,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere the burnished brow was shaded,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, the hair with silver braided,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or lament was heard.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Roundabout in silence moving<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Slowly to and fro—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life-like as I knew and loved them<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In their spring-time glow;—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Beaming with a loving luster,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close, and closer still they cluster<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round my chair that radiant muster,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Just as long ago.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once, the aged, breathing comfort<br /></span> +<span class="i15">O'er my fainting cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whispered words of precious meaning<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Only she could speak;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scarce could I my rapture smother,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I knew it was my mother,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to me there was no other<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Saint-like and so meek!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the pent-up fount of feeling<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Stirred its inmost deep—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brimming o'er its frozen surface<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From its guarded keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On my heart its drops descending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for one glad moment lending<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dreams of Joy's ecstatic blending,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Blessed my charmèd sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bright and brighter grew the vision<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With each gathering tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the past was all before me<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In its radiance clear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And again we read at even—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hoped, beneath the summer heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hopes that had no bitter leaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No disturbing fear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All so real seemed each presence,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That one word I spoke—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Only one of old endearment<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That dead silence broke.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the angels who were keeping<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stillest watch while I was sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left me o'er the embers weeping—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Fled when I awoke.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, as ivy clings the greenest<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On abandoned walls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as echo lingers sweetest<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In deserted halls:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus, the sunlight that we borrow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the past to gild our sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the dark and dreaded morrow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Like a blessing falls.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_F_MARSHALL" id="THOMAS_F_MARSHALL">THOMAS F. MARSHALL</a></h2> + + +<p>Thomas Francis Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator +and advocate, was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, +1801. He was the son of Dr. Louis Marshall, a brother of +the great chief justice, and sometime president of Washington +College (Washington and Lee University). "Tom" +Marshall, to give him the name by which he was known +throughout the South and West, was educated by private +tutors, studied law under John J. Crittenden, and began +the practice at Versailles, Kentucky. From 1832 to 1836 +he was a member of the Kentucky legislature, and his +speeches in that body, as well as in other places, +brought him a great reputation as a brilliant and witty +orator. The habit of drink was fastening itself upon him, +however, and this retarded his progress in the world. +Marshall was elected to Congress from the old Ashland +district in 1840, and in that body he always bitterly opposed +most measures proposed by Henry Clay, whom he +afterwards eloquently eulogized. In 1841 his distinguished +friend, Richard H. Menefee, the Kentucky orator, +died, and Marshall delivered his celebrated eulogy +upon him. This address, given before the Law Society +of Transylvania University, was the greatest effort of his +life. It has been pronounced the finest speech of its character<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +yet made in America. Marshall served in the Mexican +War with no great degree of gallantry; and in 1850 +he opposed the third Kentucky Constitution, then in the +making, through a paper which he edited and called the +<i>Old Guard</i>. "Tom" Marshall joined many temperance societies, +and delivered many temperance speeches, but he +always violated his pledge and returned to the old paths +of drink. He was the great wit of his day and generation +in Kentucky, if not, indeed, in the whole country. His +stories are related to-day by persons who think them of +recent origin. Marshall was counsel in many noted trials +in the South and West, and his arguments to the jury +were logical and eloquent. His speech in the famous +Matt. Ward trial is, perhaps, his master effort before a +jury. In 1856 Marshall removed to Chicago, but he +shortly afterwards returned to Kentucky. In 1858-1859 +he delivered lectures upon historical subjects in various +cities of the United States. The Civil War failed to interest +him at all, but he was broken in health at the time, +and preparing himself for the long journey which was +fast pressing upon him. "Tom" Marshall died near Versailles, +Kentucky, September 22, 1864. To-day he sleeps +amid a clump of trees in a Blue Grass meadow near the +little town of his triumphs and of his failures—Versailles.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall</i>, +edited by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); <i>Thomas F. Marshall</i>, +by Charles Fennell (<i>The Green Bag</i>, Boston, July, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Speeches and Writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall</i>, edited by W. L. +Barre (Cincinnati, 1858)]</p> + +<p>Mr. President, we of the "Total Abstinence and Vigilance Society," +in our meetings at the other end of the city [Washington] +are so much in the habit of "telling experiences," that I myself +have somewhat fallen into it, and am guilty occasionally of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +egotism of making some small confessions (as small as I can possibly +make them). Mine, then, sir, was a different case. I had +earned a most unenviable notoriety by excesses which, though +bad enough, did not half reach the reputation they won for me. +I never was an habitual drunkard. I was one of your spreeing +gentry. My sprees, however, began to crowd each other and my +best friends feared that they would soon run together. Perhaps +my long intervals of entire abstinence—perhaps something peculiar +in my form, constitution, or complexion—may have prevented +the physical indications, so usual, of that terrible disease, +which, till temperance societies arose, was deemed incurable and +resistless. Perhaps I had nourished the vanity to believe that +nature had endowed me with a versatility which enabled me to +throw down and take up at pleasure any pursuit, and I chose to +sport with the gift. If so, I was brought to the very verge of a +fearful punishment. Physicians tell us that intemperance at last +becomes, of itself, not a habit voluntarily indulged, but a disease +which its victim cannot resist. I had not become fully the subject +of that fiendish thirst, that horrible yearning after the distillation +"from the alembick of hell," which is said to scorch in +the throat, and consume the vitals of the confirmed drunkard, +with fires kindled for eternity. I did become alarmed, and for +the first time, no matter from what cause, lest the demon's fangs +were fastening upon me, and I was approaching that line which +separates the man who frolics, and can quit, from the lost inebriate, +whose appetite is disease, and whose will is dead. I joined +the society on my own account, and felt that I must encounter +the title of "reformed drunkard," annoying enough to me, I assure +you. I judged, from the cruel publicity given through the +press to my frolics, what I had to bear and brave. But I did +brave it all; and I would have dared anything to break the chain +which I at last discovered was riveting my soul, to unclasp the +folds of that serpent-habit whose full embrace is death. Letters +from people I never had heard of, newspaper paragraphs from +Boston to New Orleans were mailed, and are still mailing to me, +by which I am very distinctly, and in the most friendly and +agreeable manner, apprised that I enjoyed all over the delectable +reputation of a sot, with one foot in the grave, and understanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +almost totally overthrown. I doubt not, sir, that the societies +who have invited me to address them at different places in the +Union, will expect to find me with an unhealed carbuncle on my +nose, and my body of the graceful and manly shape and proportion +of a demijohn. I have dared all these annoyances, all this +celebrity. I have not shrunk from being a text for temperance +preachers, and a case for the outpouring of the sympathies of +people who have more philanthropy than politeness, more temperance +than taste. I signed the pledge on my own account, sir, +and my heart leaped to find that I was free. The chain has fallen +from my freeborn limbs; not a link or fragment remains to tell +I ever wore the badge of servitude.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JEFFERSON_J_POLK" id="JEFFERSON_J_POLK">JEFFERSON J. POLK</a></h2> + + +<p>Jefferson J. Polk, an eccentric clergyman, physician, and +writer, was born near Georgetown, Kentucky, March 10, +1802. He spent his young manhood as a printer on the +<i>Georgetown Patriot</i>, and the <i>Kentucky Gazette</i>. In 1822 +Polk joined the Lexington Temperance Society, and he +continued steadfast in the cause until his death. He subsequently +united with the Methodist church of Lexington, +and married; but he continued to work as a journeyman-printer +until 1826, when he removed to Danville, Kentucky, +where he purchased and became editor of <i>The +Olive Branch</i>, a weekly newspaper. This he conducted +for several years, when he disposed of it in order to become +an agent for the American Colonization Society. +Polk held that emancipation with colonization in Liberia +or elsewhere was the only proper and just solution of the +slavery question. The awful Asiatic cholera reached Danville +in 1833—as it did nearly a dozen other Kentucky +towns—and Polk played his part in the battle which was +waged against it. A short time later he became a Methodist +circuit-rider, but, in 1839, he went to Lexington to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +study medicine at Transylvania Medical School. In the +following year Dr. Polk removed to Perryville, Kentucky, +some miles from Danville, and this was his future +home. Here he practiced medicine and preached the Gospel +for the next twenty years. In 1860 he supported John +Bell of Tennessee for president, but, when Lincoln was +elected, he became a strong Union man. The battle of +Perryville (October 8, 1862), the greatest battle ever +fought upon Kentucky soil, was waged before the good +doctor's very door. He converted his house into a hospital, +and himself acted as surgeon of a field hospital. +After the war he was postmaster of Perryville and claim +agent for Union soldiers. At the age of sixty-five years, +this eccentric old man published one of the literary curiosities +of Kentucky literature, yet withal a work of real +interest and much first-hand information. The little volume +was entitled <i>Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk, to +which is added his occasional writings and biographies of +worthy men and women of Boyle County, Kentucky</i> +(Louisville, 1867). From the frontispiece portrait the +author looks fiercely out at the reader, a real son of thunder. +Besides the autobiography of Dr. Polk the volume +contains sketches of men, women, and places, fables, +proverbs, sermons, woman's rights, a ghost story, "love +powders," reflections of an old man, biographies of a +group of the doctor's parishioners—all crowded into +the 254 pages of this book. Dr. Polk died at Perryville, +Kentucky, May 23, 1881.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. The chief authority for the facts of Dr. Polk's +life is, of course, his <i>Autobiography</i>; <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by +R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1867)]</p> + +<p>In the early settlement of Kentucky, when the Indians still +roved through our dense forests, plundering and murdering the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +white inhabitants, three men left Harrod's Station to search for +their horses that had strayed off. They pursued their trail +through the rich pea-vine and cane, that everywhere abounded, +for many miles. Frequently on their route they saw signs that +a party of Indians were in their vicinity, hence they took every +step cautiously. Thus they traveled all day. Toward night +they were many miles from home, but they continued their search +until darkness and a cold rain that began to fall drove them to +take shelter in an old deserted log cabin, thickly surrounded by +cane and matted over with grape-vines. After they had gained +this pleasant retreat they held a consultation, and agreed not to +strike a fire, as the Indians, if any in the neighborhood, knew the +location of the cabin, and, like themselves, might take shelter in +it, and murder or expel the white intruders. Finally, the three +now in possession, concluded to ascend into the loft of the cabin, +the floor of which was clap-boards, resting upon round poles. In +their novel position they lay down quietly side by side, each man +holding his trusty rifle in his arms. Thus arranged, they awaited +the results of the night.</p> + +<p>They had not been in their perilous position long when six +well-armed Indians entered the cabin, placed their guns and +other implements of warfare in one corner of the house, struck +a light, and began to make the usual demonstrations of joy on +such occasions. One of our heroes wished to know the number +of the Indians—he was the middle man of the three, and was +lying on his back—and, as hilarity and mirth "grew thick and +fast" among the Indians, he attempted to turn over and get a +peep at things below. His comrades caught him on each side to +keep him from turning over, and, in the struggle, one of the poles +broke, and with a tremendous crash the clap-boards and the three +men fell in the midst of the Indians, who with a loud yell of terror +fled from the house, leaving their guns, and never returned.</p> + +<p>The three men who had thus made a miraculous escape from +the savage foe, remained all night in quiet possession of the cabin, +and in the morning returned to the station with their trophies. +Whenever the three heroes met in after life they laughed over +their strange deliverance, and what they called "The Battle of +the Boards."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_D_PRENTICE" id="GEORGE_D_PRENTICE">GEORGE D. PRENTICE</a></h2> + + +<p>George Dennison Prentice, poet, editor, wit, and founder +of the <i>Journal School of Female Poets</i>, was born at Preston, +Connecticut, December 18, 1802. In the fall of 1820 +Prentice entered the Sophomore class of Brown University, +Providence, Rhode Island, where one of his instructors +was Horace Mann, and among his classmates was +Samuel G. Howe. At college he was famous for his prodigious +memory. Prentice was graduated from Brown +in 1823, after which he taught school for some time. He +next turned to the law, but this he also abandoned to +enter upon his life work—journalism. In 1827 he became +editor of a paper in New London, Connecticut, +but in the following year he went to Hartford to take +charge of the <i>New England Review</i>, which "was the +Louisville <i>Journal</i>, born in Connecticut." In 1830 the +Connecticut Whigs requested Prentice to journey to Kentucky +and prepare a campaign life of Henry Clay. He +finally decided to do this, naming John Greenleaf Whittier, +the good Quaker poet, as his successor in the editorial +chair of <i>The Review</i>, and setting out at once upon his +long pilgrimage to Lexington. He dashed off his biography +of the statesman in a few months, and it greatly +pleased the Whigs of his State, but Prentice had decided +to remain in Kentucky. He went to Louisville, and on +November 24, 1830, the first issue of the <i>Louisville Journal</i> +appeared, and George D. Prentice had at last come +into his very own. His pungent paragraphs made the +"Yankee schoolmaster" feared by editors in the remotest +corners of the country, but more especially by Shadrach +Penn, editor of the <i>Louisville Advertiser</i>, the Democratic +organ, as the <i>Journal</i> was the Whig organ. After a constant +warfare of more than ten years, poor Penn capitulated, +and removed to Missouri. Prentice found another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +foe worthy of his steel in John H. Harney, editor of the +Louisville <i>Daily Democrat</i>, but the battle of the wits between +them was not as keen as it was between him and +Penn. Prentice survived both editors and wrote exquisite +eulogies upon them! He also had many personal encounters, +which his biographer, Mr. John James Piatt, the +Ohio poet, declines to dignify with the term of "duel." +His pistol "brush" with Col Reuben T. Durrett, the Kentucky +historical writer and collector, was, perhaps, his +most serious affair. And the colonel lived to write a fine +tribute to him, which was turning the tables upon him just +a bit! Prentice's home in Louisville was the center of +the city's literary life for many years. His wife was a +charming and cultured woman, in every way fitted to assist +him. A volume of his witty paragraphs, called by +the publishers, <i>Prenticeana</i> (New York, 1859), attracted +attention in London and Paris, and in all parts of the +United States. Next to Whig politics, the <i>Journal</i> was +the literary newspaper of the country. All Western and +Southern poets were welcomed to its columns, particularly +were female poets "featured," and upon them all Prentice +poured out indiscriminate praise, which may or may +not have been good for them or for the public. At any +rate, he never failed to send a kindly letter to each new +"discovery," in which their work already submitted was +extravagantly valued, and in which they were urged to +flood the office with more of the same kind. His praise of +Amelia B. Welby, the sentimental singer of the long ago, +seems indefensible to-day. As a poet himself Prentice +was a master of blank verse forms. Mr. Piatt put him +next to Bryant among American poets in the handling of +this difficult measure. <i>The Closing Year</i>, written in 1835, +is undoubtedly his finest poem; and <i>At My Mother's +Grave</i> is usually set beside it. Although his sons, wife, +and most of his friends sympathized with the South in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +war of Sections, Prentice was always an ardent advocate +of the Union cause. He died near Louisville, on the banks +of the Ohio river, January 22, 1870. Henry Watterson +delivered an eulogy upon him, and snugly adjusted his +mantle about his own shoulders.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poems of George D. Prentice</i>, edited by John +J. Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878); <i>The Pioneer Press of Kentucky</i>, +by W. H. Perrin (Louisville, 1888).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE CLOSING YEAR</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poems of George D. Prentice, edited with a Biographical Sketch</i>, +by John J. Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878, 4th Edition)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tis midnight's holy hour—and silence now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bell's deep notes are swelling. 'Tis the knell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the departed Year.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">No funeral train<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is sweeping past; yet on the stream and wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That floats so still and placidly through heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirits of the seasons seem to stand—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Winter with his aged locks—and breathe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mournful cadences, that come abroad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A melancholy dirge o'er the dead Year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gone from the earth forever.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">'Tis a time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For memory and for tears. Within the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And solemn finger to the beautiful<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holy visions that have passed away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left no shadow of their loveliness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The coffin-lid of hope, and joy, and love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, bending mournfully above the pale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er what has passed to nothingness.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">The Year<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they are not. It laid its pallid hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the strong man, and the haughty form<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bright and joyous, and the tearful wail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reckless shout resounded. It passed o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle-plain, where sword and spear and shield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flashed in the light of midday—and the strength<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green from the soil of carnage, waves above<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crushed and mouldering skeleton. It came<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And faded like a wreath of mist at eve;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It heralded its millions to their home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the dim land of dreams.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">Remorseless Time!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe!—what power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can stay him in his silent course, or melt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His iron heart to pity? On, still on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He presses, and forever. The proud bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The condor of the Andes, that can soar<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fury of the northern hurricane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rest upon his mountain-crag—but Time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His rushing pinion. Revolutions sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spring, blazing, from the ocean, and go back<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their tall heads to the plain; new empires rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gathering the strength of hoary centuries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rush down like the Alpine avalanche,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Startling the nations; and the very stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yon bright and burning blazonry of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glitter awhile in their eternal depths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To darkle in the trackless void: yet Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sit and muse, like other conquerors,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is the noon of night. On this calm spot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where passed my boyhood's years, I sit me down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wander through the dim world of the Past.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Past! the silent Past! pale Memory kneels<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside her shadowy urn, and with a deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And voiceless sorrow weeps above the grave<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Of beautiful affections. Her lone harp<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies broken at her feet, and as the wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Goes o'er its moldering chords, a dirge-like sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rises upon the air, and all again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is an unbreathing silence.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">Oh, the Past!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its spirit as a mournful presence lives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every ray that gilds those ancient spires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like a low and melancholy wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes o'er yon distant wood, and faintly breathes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon my fevered spirit. Here I roved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere I had fancied aught of life beyond<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The poet's twilight imaging. Those years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come o'er me like the breath of fading flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tones I loved fall on my heart as dew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the withered rose-leaf. They were years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the rich sunlight blossomed in the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fancy, like a blessed rainbow, spanned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waves of Time, and joyous thoughts went off<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon its beautiful unpillared arch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To revel there in cloud, and sun, and sky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Within yon silent domes, how many hearts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are beating high with glorious dreams. 'Tis well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rosy sunlight of the morn should not<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be darkened by the portents of the storm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That may not burst till eve. Those youthful ones<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose thoughts are woven of the hues of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May see their visions fading tint by tint,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till naught is left upon the darkened air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save the gray winter cloud; the brilliant star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That glitters now upon their happy lives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May redden to a scorching flame and burn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their every hope to dust; yet why should thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of coming sorrows cloud their hearts' bright depths<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With an untimely shade? Dream on—dream on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye thoughtless ones—dream on while yet ye may!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +<span class="i0">When life is but a shadow, tear, and sigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye will turn back to linger round these hours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like stricken pilgrims, and their music sweet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will be a dear though melancholy tone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Memory's ear, sounding forever more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">PRENTICE PARAGRAPHS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Prenticeana</i> (New York, 1859)]</p> + +<p>James Ray and John Parr have started a locofoco paper in +Maine, called the <i>Democrat</i>. Parr, in all that pertains to decency, +is below zero; and Ray is below Parr.</p> + +<p>The editor of the —— speaks of his "lying curled up in bed +these cold mornings." This verifies what we said of him some +time ago—"he lies like a dog."</p> + +<p>A young widow has established a pistol gallery in New Orleans. +Her qualifications as a teacher of the art of duelling are of course +undoubted; she has killed her man.</p> + +<p>Wild rye and wild wheat grow in some regions spontaneously. +We believe that wild oats are always sown.</p> + +<p>"What would you do, madam, if you were a gentleman?" +"Sir, what would you do if you were one?"</p> + +<p>Whatever Midas touched was turned into gold; in these days, +touch a man with gold and he'll turn into anything.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ROBERT_M_BIRD" id="ROBERT_M_BIRD">ROBERT M. BIRD</a></h2> + + +<p>Robert Montgomery Bird, creator of <i>Nick of the Woods</i>, +was born at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1803. He early +abandoned the practice of medicine in Philadelphia in +order to devote his entire attention to literature. His first +works were three tragedies, entitled <i>The Gladiator</i>, <i>Oraloosa</i>, +and <i>The Broker of Bogota</i>, the first of which was +very popular on the stage. In 1834 Dr. Bird published +his first novel, <i>Calavar</i>, a romance of Mexico that was +highly praised by William H. Prescott. In the following +year <i>The Infidel</i>, sequel to <i>Calavar</i>, appeared. <i>The Hawks</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +<i>of Hawk Hollow</i>, and <i>Sheppard Lee</i> followed fast upon +the heels of <i>The Infidel</i>. Then came <i>Nick of the Woods, or +the Jibbenainosay</i> (Philadelphia, 1837, 2 vols.), the author's +masterpiece. The background of this fine old romance +was set against the Kentucky of 1782. Dr. Bird's Kentucky +pioneers and Indians are drawn to the life, the silly sentimentalism +of Cooper and Chateaubriand concerning the +Indian character was avoided and indirectly proved untrue. +<i>Nick of the Woods</i> was dramatized and produced upon +the stage with great success. A collection of Dr. Bird's +periodical papers was made, in 1838, and published under +the title of <i>Peter Pilgrim, or a Rambler's Recollections</i>. +This work included the first adequate description of Mammoth +Cave, in Edmonson county, Kentucky. The author +was one of the cave's earliest explorers, and his account of +it heralded its wonders to the world in a manner that had +never been done before. Just how long Dr. Bird remained +in Kentucky is not known, as no comprehensive biography +of him has been issued, but he must have been in this State +for several years prior to the publication of <i>Nick of the +Woods</i>, and <i>Peter Pilgrim</i>. His last novel was <i>Robin Day</i> +(1839). After the publication of this tale, Dr. Bird became +a Delaware farmer. In 1847 he returned to Philadelphia +and became joint editor of the <i>North American Gazette</i>. +He died at Philadelphia, January 22, 1854, of brain fever. +Morton McMichael, with whom he was associated in conducting +the <i>Gazette</i>, wrote an eloquent tribute to his memory. +Dr. Bird's poem, <i>The Beech Tree</i>, is remembered +today by many readers. But it is as the creator of <i>Nick +of the Woods</i>, a new edition of which appeared in 1905, +that his fame is firmly fixed.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Prose Writers of America</i>, by R. W. Griswold +(Philadelphia, 1847); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. i).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">NICK OF THE WOODS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Nick of the Woods</i> (New York, 1853, revised edition)]</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Tom Bruce?" said the father, eyeing him +with surprise.</p> + +<p>"Matter enough," responded the young giant, with a grin of +mingled awe and delight; "the Jibbenainosay is up again!"</p> + +<p>"Whar?" cried the senior, eagerly,—"not in our limits?"</p> + +<p>"No, by Jehosaphat!" replied Tom; "but nigh enough to be +neighborly,—on the north bank of Kentuck, whar he has left his +mark right in the middle of the road, as fresh as though it war but +the work of the morning!"</p> + +<p>"And a clear mark, Tom?—no mistake in it?"</p> + +<p>"Right to an iota!" said the young man;—"a reggelar cross +on the breast, and a good tomahawk dig right through the skull; +and a long-legg'd fellow, too, that looked as though he might +have fou't old Sattan himself!"</p> + +<p>"It's the Jibbenainosay, sure enough; and so good luck to +him!" cried the commander: "thar's a harricane coming!"</p> + +<p>"Who is the Jibbenainosay?" demanded Forrester.</p> + +<p>"Who?" cried Tom Bruce: "Why, Nick,—Nick of the +Woods."</p> + +<p>"And who, if you please, is Nick of the Woods?"</p> + +<p>"Thar," replied the junior, with another grin, "thar, stranger, +you're too hard for me. Some think one thing, and some another; +but thar's many reckon he's the devil."</p> + +<p>"And his mark, that you were talking of in such mysterious +terms,—what is that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, a dead Injun, to be sure, with Nick's mark on him,—a +knife-cut, or a brace of 'em, over the ribs in the shape of a cross. +That's the way the Jibbenainosay marks all the meat of his killing. +It has been a whole year now since we h'ard of him."</p> + +<p>"Captain," said the elder Bruce, "you don't seem to understand +the affa'r altogether; but if you were to ask Tom about the +Jibbenainosay till doomsday, he could tell you no more than he +has told already. You must know, thar's a creatur' of some sort +or other that ranges the woods round about our station h'yar, +keeping a sort of guard over us like, and killing all the brute Injuns +that ar' onlucky enough to come in his way, besides scalping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +them and marking them with his mark. The Injuns call him +<i>Jibbenainosay</i>, or a word of that natur', which them that know +more about the Injun gabble that I do, say means the <i>Spirit-that-walks</i>; +and if we can believe any such lying devils as Injuns +(which I am loath to do, for the truth ar'nt in 'em), he is neither +man nor beast, but a great ghost or devil that knife cannot harm +nor bullet touch; and they have always had an idea that our fort +h'yar in partickelar, and the country round about, war under his +protection—many thanks to him, whether he be a devil or not; +for that war the reason the savages so soon left off a worrying of +us."</p> + +<p>"Is it possible," said Roland, "that any one can believe such +an absurd story?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Bruce, stoutly. "Thar's the Injuns themselves, +Shawnees, Hurons, Delawares, and all,—but partickelarly +the Shawnees, for he beats all creation a-killing of Shawnees,—that +believe in him, and hold him in such eternal dread, that +thar's scarce a brute of 'em has come within ten miles of the station +h'yar this three y'ar: because as how, he haunts about our +woods h'yar in partickelar, and kills 'em wheresomever he catches +'em,—especially the Shawnees, as I said afore, against which the +creatur' has a most butchering spite; and there's them among +the other tribes that call him <i>Shawneewannaween</i>, or the Howl of +the Shawnees, because of his keeping them ever a howling. And +thar's his marks, captain,—what do you make of <i>that</i>? When +you find an Injun lying scalped and tomahawked, it stands to +reason thar war something to kill him."</p> + +<p>"Ay, truly," said Forrester; "but I think you have human +beings enough to give the credit to, without referring it to a supernatural +one."</p> + +<p>"Strannger," said Big Tom Bruce the younger, with a sagacious +nod, "when you kill an Injun yourself, I reckon,—meaning +no offense—you will be willing to take all the honor that can +come of it, without leaving it to be scrambled after by others. +Thar's no man 'arns a scalp in Kentucky, without taking great +pains to show it to his neighbors."</p> + +<p>"And besides, captain," said the father, very gravely, "thar +are men among us who have seen the creatur'!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>That</i>," said Roland, who perceived his new friends were not +well pleased with his incredulity, "is an argument I can resist +no longer."</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_A_McCLUNG" id="JOHN_A_McCLUNG">JOHN A. McCLUNG</a></h2> + + +<p>John Alexander McClung, Kentucky's romantic historian +and novelist, was born near the ancient town of +Washington, Kentucky, September 25, 1804. He was educated +at the Buck Pond Academy of his uncle, Dr. Louis +Marshall, near Versailles, Kentucky. Having united +with the Presbyterian church when he was sixteen years +old, McClung entered Princeton Theological Seminary, +in 1822, to fit himself for the ministry. He accepted his +first pastorate in 1828, but, as his religious views were +undergoing a profound change, he withdrew from the +church and devoted himself to literature. His first work +was a novel, called <i>Camden</i> (Philadelphia, 1830). This +was a story of the South during the Revolutionary War. +His <i>Sketches of Western Adventure</i> (Maysville, Kentucky, +1832), though almost as fictitious as <i>Camden</i>, came to be +regarded as history, and it is upon this work that McClung's +reputation rests. In a general way the <i>Sketches</i> +are "of the most interesting incidents connected with the +settlement of the West from 1755 to 1794." Many of +them are most certainly figments of the author's imagination, +yet they have come to be regarded as literal truth +and history. His story of the women at Bryant's Station, +who carried water for the defense of the fort while +it was besieged by ambushed Indians under Simon Girty, +in 1782, is his <i>piece de resistance</i>. John Filson, Alexander +Fitzroy, Gilbert Imlay, Harry Toulmin, William +Littell, Rafinesque, Marshall, and Butler, the Kentucky +historians that published their works prior to McClung's, +are silent concerning the tripping of the women to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +spring for water while the Indians lay upon the banks +of Elkhorn with rifles cocked and ready. All Indians +have been scalp-hunters, regardless of whatever else +they have been, and a woman's scalp dangling from +their sticks afforded them as much pleasure as a man's. +When the Collinses, both father and son, reached this +romance they merely reproduced it "as interesting," +allowing it to pass without further comment of any kind. +McClung blended romance and history as charmingly as +did Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati, whom Mann Butler +took to task. The climax of this tale came in the erection +of a memorial wall encircling a spring which sprang out +of the ground some years prior to the Civil War! McClung +began the practice of law in 1835, but in 1849 he returned +to the ministry. He subsequently held pastorates +at Cincinnati and Indianapolis, but finally settled at Maysville, +Kentucky. He declined the presidency of Hanover +College, Indiana, in 1856. On August 16, 1859, McClung +was drowned in the Niagara river, his body being carried +over the falls, but it was later recovered and returned to +Kentucky for interment.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, +Kentucky, 1892); <i>Kentucky in the Nation's History</i>, by R. M. +McElroy (New York, 1909).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Sketches of Western Adventure</i> (Cincinnati, 1838)]</p> + +<p>All ran hastily to the picketing, and beheld a small party of +Indians, exposed to open view, firing, yelling, and making the +most furious gestures. The appearance was so singular, and so +different from their usual manner of fighting, that some of the +more wary and experienced of the garrison instantly pronounced +it a decoy party, and restrained the young men from sallying out +and attacking them, as some of them were strongly disposed to +do. The opposite side of the fort was instantly manned, and +several breaches in the picketing rapidly repaired. Their greatest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +distress arose from the prospect of suffering for water. The +more experienced of the garrison felt satisfied that a powerful +party was in ambuscade near the spring, but at the same time +they supposed that the Indians would not unmask themselves, +until the firing upon the opposite side of the fort was returned +with such warmth, as to induce the belief that the feint had succeeded.</p> + +<p>Acting upon this impression, and yielding to the urgent necessity +of the case, they summoned all the women, without exception, +and explaining to them the circumstances in which they were +placed, and the improbability that any injury would be offered +them, until the firing had been returned from the opposite side +of the fort, they urged them to go in a body to the spring, and +each bring up a bucket full of water. Some of the ladies, as was +natural, had no relish for the undertaking, and asked why the +men could not bring water as well as themselves, observing that +<i>they</i> were not bullet-proof, and that the Indians made no distinction +between male and female scalps!</p> + +<p>To this it was answered, that women were in the habit of +bringing water every morning to the fort, and that if the Indians +saw them engaged as usual, it would induce them to believe that +their ambuscade was undiscovered, and that they would not unmask +themselves for the sake of firing at a few women, when they +hoped, by remaining concealed a few moments longer, to obtain +complete possession of the fort. That if men should go down to +the spring, the Indians would immediately suspect that something +was wrong, would despair of succeeding by ambuscade, and +would instantly rush upon them, follow them into the fort, or +shoot them down at the spring. The decision was soon over.</p> + +<p>A few of the boldest declared their readiness to brave the danger, +and the younger and more timid rallying in the rear of these +veterans, they all marched down in a body to the spring, within +point blank shot of more than five hundred Indian warriors! +Some of the girls could not help betraying symptoms of terror, +but the married women, in general, moved with a steadiness and +composure, which completely deceived the Indians. Not a shot +was fired. The party were permitted to fill their buckets, one +after another, without interruption, and although their steps became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +quicker and quicker, on their return, and when near the +gate of the fort, degenerated into a rather unmilitary celerity, +attended with some little crowding in passing the gate, yet not +more than one-fifth of the water was spilled, and the eyes of the +youngest had not dilated to more than double their ordinary size.</p> + + +<hr class="cent" /> + +<h2><a name="JAMES_O_PATTIE" id="JAMES_O_PATTIE">JAMES O. PATTIE</a></h2> + + +<p>James Ohio Pattie, an early Western traveler, was born +near Brooksville, Kentucky, in 1804. His father, Sylvester +Pattie (1782-1828), emigrated to Missouri in 1812, +and settled at St. Charles. He served in the War of 1812, +at the conclusion of which he built a saw-mill on the Gasconade +river, sending down pine lumber in rafts to St. +Louis. Several years later his wife died, leaving nine +young children, of whom James O. Pattie was the eldest. +In 1824 Sylvester Pattie became dissatisfied with his lumber +business and decided to dispose of it and undertake an +expedition into New Mexico, which was one of the first +from this country into that territory. The route pursued +by his party was quite new. James O. Pattie was at +school, but he prevailed upon his father to permit him to +accompany the expedition. It remained for him to write +a most interesting account of their remarkable journey, in +which Indians who had never seen white men before were +encountered, his own capture described, together with the +sufferings and death of his father in New Mexico. On +his return to the United States Pattie passed through +Cincinnati, where he met Timothy Flint, one of the pioneers +of Western letters, who edited his journal under +the title of <i>The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, +of Kentucky, during an Expedition from St. Louis, +through the Vast Regions between that Place and the Pacific +Ocean, and thence Back through the City of Mexico +to Vera Cruz, during Journeyings of Six Years; in which</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +<i>he and his Father, who accompanied him, suffered Unheard +of Hardships and Dangers, and Various Conflicts +with the Indians, and were made Captives, in which Captivity +his Father Died; together with a description of the +Country and the Various Nations through which they +Passed</i> (Cincinnati, 1831). "One sees in [Pattie's] pages +the beginnings of the drama to be fought out in the Mexican +War." The date and place of his death are unknown.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1888, v. iv); Pattie's <i>Narrative</i> has been carefully +re-edited with notes and introduction by Reuben Gold Thwaites, +and published in his famous <i>Early Western Travels Series</i> +(Cleveland, 1905, v. xviii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE SANTA FE COUNTRY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky</i> (Cincinnati, +1831)]</p> + +<p>We set off for Santa Fe on the 1st of November [1824]. Our +course for the first day led us over broken ground. We passed +the night in a small town, called Callacia, built on a small stream, +that empties into the del Norte. The country around this place +presents but a small portion of level surface.</p> + +<p>The next day our path lay over a point of the mountain. We +were the whole day crossing. We killed a grey bear, that was exceedingly +fat. It had fattened on a nut of the shape and size of +a bean, which grows on a tree resembling the pine, called by the +Spanish, <i>pinion</i>. We took a great part of the meat with us. We +passed the night again in a town called Albukerque.</p> + +<p>The following day we passed St. Thomas, a town situated on +the bank of the del Norte, which is here a deep and muddy +stream, with bottoms from five to six miles wide on both sides. +These bottoms sustain numerous herds of cattle. The small huts +of the shepherds, who attend to them, were visible here and there. +We reached another town called Elgidonis, and stopped for the +night. We kept guard around our horses all night, but in the +morning four of our mules were gone. We hunted for them +until ten o'clock, when two Spaniards came, and asked us what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +we would give them if they would find our mules? We told +them to bring the mules, and we would pay them a dollar. They +set off, two of our men following them without their knowledge +and went into a thicket, where they had tied the mules, and returned +with them to us. As may be supposed, we gave them +both a good whipping. It seemed at first that the whole town +would rise against us in consequence. But when we related the +circumstances fairly to the people, the officer corresponding to +our justice of the peace, said, we had done perfectly right, and +had the men put in the stocks.</p> + +<p>We recommenced our journey, and passed a mission of Indians +under the control of an old priest. After crossing a point of the +mountain, we reached Santa Fe, on the 5th. This town contains +between four and five thousand inhabitants. It is situated on a +large plain. A handsome stream runs through it, adding life +and beauty to a scene striking and agreeable from the union of +amenity and cultivation around, with the distant view of the +snow clad mountains. It is pleasant to walk on the flat roofs of +the houses in the evening, and look on the town and plain spread +below. The houses are low, with flat roofs as I have mentioned. +The churches are differently constructed from the other buildings +and make a beautiful show. They have a great number of large +bells, which, when disturbed, make a noise, that would almost +seem sufficient to awaken the dead.</p> + +<p>We asked the governor for permission to trap beaver in the +river Helay. His reply was that, he did not know if he was allowed +by the law to do so; but if upon examination it lay in his +power, he would inform us on the morrow, if we would come to +his office at 9 o'clock in the morning. According to this request, +we went to the place appointed, the succeeding day, which was +the 9th of November. We were told by the governor, that he had +found nothing that would justify him in giving us the legal permission +we desired. We then proposed to him to give us liberty +to trap upon the conditions that we paid him five per cent on the +beaver we might catch. He said he would consider this proposition, +and give us an answer the next day at the same hour. The +thoughts of our hearts were not at all favorable to this person, +as we left him.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_F_MARVIN" id="WILLIAM_F_MARVIN">WILLIAM F. MARVIN</a></h2> + + +<p>William F. Marvin, "the latter-day drunken poet of Danville," +was born at Leicestershire, England, in 1804. He +emigrated to America when a young man, and made his +home in the little town of Danville, Kentucky. Marvin +was a shoemaker by trade, but verse-making and bacchanalian +nights were his heart's delight and perfect +pleasures. He was a well-known character in Danville +and the surrounding country, and many are the old wives' +tales they tell on the old poet to this day. On one occasion, +while in his cups, of course, he attempted suicide, +using his shoe knife on his throat, but he was finally persuaded +that a shoe knife could be put to far better purposes. +Marvin served in the Mexican War, and on his +return home, he published his first and only book of verse, +<i>The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems</i> (Danville, Kentucky, +1851). The title-poem, <i>The Battle of Monterey</i>, is a +rather lengthy metrical romance of some forty or more +pages; but the "other poems," called also "miscellaneous +poems," extend the book to its 219 pages. A few of these +are worthy of preservation, especially the shorter lyrics. +Marvin's book is now extremely rare. The writer has +located not more than six copies, though a large edition +was printed by the poet's publisher, Captain A. S. McGrorty, +who is still in the land of the living. During the +closing years of his life Marvin contributed occasional +poems to the old <i>Kentucky Advocate</i>, the Danville newspaper, +his last poem having appeared in that paper, called +<i>The Beauty, Breadth, and Depth of Love</i>. William F. +Marvin died at Danville, Kentucky, July 12, 1879, and was +buried in the cemetery of the town. To-day his grave +may be identified, but it is unmarked by a monument. +His verse certainly shows decided improvement over the +rhymes of Thomas Johnson, but both of them were imperfect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +forerunners of that celebrated poet and distinguished +soldier, who was born at Danville about the +time Marvin reached there and set up his shop on Main +street—Theodore O'Hara, the highest poetic note in +the literature of old Kentucky.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Kentucky Advocate</i> (Danville, July 14, +1879); letters from G. W. Doneghy, the Danville poet of to-day, +author of <i>The Old Hanging Fork, and Other Poems</i> +(Franklin, Ohio, 1897), to the writer.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">EPIGRAM</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems</i> (Danville, Kentucky, 1851)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A bee, while hovering round a lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where wit and beauty hung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mistook its bloom, and flew to sip,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But ah, the bee got stung.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye are come my sad heart to beguile,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the blush of your beautiful hue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fairest and welcomest flowers that smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Within the wide arch of the blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From Araby odors ye bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And ye steal the warm tints from the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scatter your pearly bright beauties in spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As if nature ne'er meant you to die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The soft crimson blush of each lip,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Mong the green leaves and buds that abound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems pouting in richness, and parted to sip<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The dew that is falling around.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye bow to the breath of the Morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And cover his wings with perfume;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And woo the gay bee in the earliest dawn,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +<span class="i15">To rest on your bosoms of bloom.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye have brought back the passion of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For a moment to warm my lone breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pointed to undying roses above,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That smile through eternity's rest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">SONG</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Air</span>—<i>Here's a health to One I love dear</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here's a bumper brimful for our friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And a frown and a fig for our foes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And may he who stoops meanly to gain his own ends,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Never know the sweets of repose.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though folly and ignorance join,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To blight the young buds of our fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their slander a moment may injure the vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But its fruits will be blushing the same.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then here is a bumper to truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">May its banners wave wide as the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a fig for the mortal in age or in youth<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Who has not its banner unfurl'd.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ELISHA_BARTLETT" id="ELISHA_BARTLETT">ELISHA BARTLETT</a></h2> + + +<p>Dr. Elisha Bartlett, physician, poet, and politician, was +born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1805. He was graduated +in medicine from Brown University in 1826, and later +practiced at Lowell, Massachusetts, of which city he was +the first mayor. Dr. Bartlett lectured at Dartmouth College +in 1839; and two years later he became professor of +the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the medical school +of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He +left Transylvania in 1844, for the University of Maryland, +but he returned to Lexington two years later, occupying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +his former chair in the medical school. In 1849 Dr. Bartlett +left Transylvania and went to Louisville, where he +delivered medical lectures for a year. From 1851 until +his death he was professor of materia medica and medical +jurisprudence in the College of Physicians and Surgeons +of New York City. Dr. Bartlett died at his birthplace, +Smithfield, Rhode Island, July 18, 1855, one of the most +widely known of American physicians, and also well +known and highly regarded by medical men in Europe. +His medical works are: <i>Essay on the Philosophy of Medical +Science</i> (Philadelphia, 1844); <i>Inquiry into the Degree +of Certainty in Medicine</i> (1848); <i>A Discourse on the +Life and Labours of Dr. Wells, the Discoverer of the Philosophy +of Dew</i> (1849); <i>The Fevers of the United States</i> +(1850); <i>Discourse on the Times, Character, and Works of +Hippocrates</i> (1852). These are his medical works, but it +is upon his small volume of poems, <i>Simple Settings, in +Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, from Mr. Dickens's +Gallery</i> (Boston, 1855), that he is entitled to his place in +this work. Of this little book of but eighty pages, his +friend, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, wrote: "Yet few +suspected him of giving utterance in rhythmical shape to +his thoughts or feelings. It was only when his failing +limbs could bear him no longer, as conscious existence +slowly retreated from his palsied nerves, that he revealed +himself freely in truest and tenderest form of expression. +We knew he was dying by slow degrees, and we heard +from him from time to time, or saw him always serene and +always hopeful while hope could have a place in his +earthly future.... When to the friends he loved there +came, as a farewell gift, ... a little book with a few songs +in it—songs with his whole warm heart in them—they +knew that his hour was come, and their tears fell fast +as they read the loving thoughts that he had clothed in +words of beauty and melody. Among the memorials of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +departed friendships, we treasure the little book of 'songs' ... his +last present, as it was his last production."</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. i); <i>History of the Medical Department of +Transylvania University</i>, by Dr. Robert Peter (Louisville, Kentucky, +1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">JOHN BROWDIE OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Simple Settings, in Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, from Mr. +Dickens's Gallery</i> (Boston, 1854)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas worth a crown, John Browdie, to hear you ringing out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er hedge and hill and roadside, that loud, hilarious shout;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how the echoes caught it up and flung it all about.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas worth another, John, to see that broad and glorious grin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That stretched your wide mouth wider still, and wrinkled round your chin.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And showed how true the heart was that glowed and beat within.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes! Nick has beaten the <i>measther</i>,—'twas a sight beneath the sun!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I only wish, John Browdie, when that good deed was done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That you and I had both been there to help along the fun.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Be sure he let him have it well;—his trusty arm was nerved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With hoarded wrongs and righteous hate,—so it slackened not nor swerved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the old curmudgeon got the thrashing he deserved.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The guinea, John, you gave the lad, is charmed forevermore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall fill your home with blessings; it shall add unto your store;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be light upon your pathway, and sunshine on your floor.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These are the treasures, too, laid up forever in the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kind words to solace aching hearts, and make wet eyelids dry,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And kindly deeds in silence done with no one standing by.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when you tell the story, John, to her, your joy and pride—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The miller's bonny daughter, so soon to be your bride—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She shall love you more than ever, and cling closer to your side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Content and health be in your house! and may you live to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full many a little Browdie, John, climb up your sturdy knee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mother's hope, the father's stay and comfort long to be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These are thy crown, O England; thy glory, grace, and might!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who work the work of honest hands, from early morn till night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And worship God by serving man, and doing what is right.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All honor, then, to them! let dukes and duchesses give room!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The men who by the anvil strike, and ply the busy loom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And scatter plenty through the land, and make the desert bloom.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="SAMUEL_D_GROSS" id="SAMUEL_D_GROSS">SAMUEL D. GROSS</a></h2> + +<p>Dr. Samuel David Gross, the distinguished American surgeon +and author, was born near Easton, Pennsylvania, +July 8, 1805. He was graduated from the Jefferson Medical +College, Philadelphia, in the class of 1828, and he at once +entered upon the active practice of his profession in Philadelphia. +In 1833 Dr. Gross accepted a professorship in +the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, which position he +held until 1840, when he became professor of surgery in +the University of Louisville. The subsequent sixteen +years of Dr. Gross's life were spent upon Kentucky soil. +His <i>Report on Kentucky Surgery</i> (Louisville, 1851) contained +the first biography of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, the +Kentucky surgeon, who performed the first operation for +the removal of the ovaries done in the world. That Dr. +McDowell had actually accomplished this wonderful feat +at Danville, in 1809, was Dr. Gross's contention, and that +he was able to prove it beyond all doubt, and place the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +Danville doctor before the world as the father of ovariotomy, +proves the power of his paper. Dr. Gross was the +founder of the Louisville <i>Medical Review</i>, but he had conducted +it but a short time when he accepted the chair of +surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. +This position he occupied until about two years prior to +his death. Dr. Gross enjoyed an international reputation +as a surgeon. Oxford and Cambridge conferred degrees +upon him in recognition of his distinguished contributions +to medical science. As an original demonstrator +he was well known. He was among the first to urge +the claims of preventive medicine; and his demonstrations +upon rabbits, with a view to throwing additional light on +manual strangulation, are familiar to students of medicine +and medical history. His works include: <i>Elements +of Pathological Anatomy</i> (1839); <i>Foreign Bodies in the +Air-Passages</i> (1854); <i>Report on the Causes which Retard +the Progress of American Medical Literature</i> +(1856); <i>System of Surgery</i> (1859); <i>Manual of Military +Surgery</i> (1861), Japanese translation (Tokio, 1874); and +his best known work of a literary value, <i>John Hunter and +His Pupils</i> (1881). In 1875 he published two lectures, +entitled <i>The History of American Medical Literature</i>; +and, in the following year, with several other writers, he +issued <i>A Century of American Medicine</i>. Dr. Gross was +always greatly interested in the history of medicine and +surgery. He died at Philadelphia, May 6, 1884.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. His <i>Autobiography</i> (Philadelphia, 1887, two +vols.), was edited by his sons, one of whom, A. Haller Gross, +was born in Kentucky; Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1887, v. iii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M. D.</i> (Philadelphia, 1887, v. i.)]</p> + +<p>It was pleasant to dwell in the land of Boone, of Clay, and of +Crittenden; to behold its fertile fields, its majestic forests, and its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +beautiful streams; and to associate with its refined, cultivated, +generous-hearted, and chivalric people. It was there that I had +hoped to spend the remainder of my days upon objects calculated +to promote the honor and welfare of its noble profession, and +finally to mingle my dust with the dust and ashes of the sons and +daughters of Kentucky. But destiny has decreed otherwise. A +change has come over my life. I stand this evening in the presence +of a new people, a stranger in a strange place, and a candidate +for new favors.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>The admirers of Mr. Clay cannot but regret the motives which +induced him to spend his last days at Washington. It was a pitiful +ambition which prompted him to forsake his family and his +old friends to die at the capital of the country in order that he +might have the <i>éclat</i> of a public funeral. Broken down in health +and spirits when he left his old home, unable to travel except by +slow stages, he knew perfectly well that his days were numbered, +and that he could never again see Kentucky. How much more +dignified would it have been if he had breathed out his once +precious life in the bosom of his family and in the arms of the +woman who for upwards of half a century had watched over his +interests, reared his children with a fond mother's care, loved +him with a true woman's love, and followed him, wherever he +was, with her prayers and her blessings!</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_H_CHIVERS" id="THOMAS_H_CHIVERS">THOMAS H. CHIVERS</a></h2> + + +<p>Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers, the eccentric Southern poet, +and maker of most unusual verse forms, was born near +Washington, Georgia, December 12, 1807. He was instructed +in the classics by his mother, and, choosing medicine as +his vocation, he went to Lexington, Kentucky—most +probably making the long journey on horse-back—and +entered the medical school of Transylvania University.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +Chivers matriculated in November, 1828, and took up his +abode at the old Phœnix Hotel, as his father was wealthy +and liberal with him. He took one ticket and made it +during his first year. The college records show that he +returned for the fall session of 1829, and that, during his +second year, he took two tickets, graduating on March 17, +1830. The thesis he submitted for his degree of Doctor +of Medicine was <i>Remittent and Intermittent Bilious Fever</i>. +Kentucky was the birthplace of the first poems +Chivers wrote, and, very probably, the birthplace of his +first book, <i>Conrad and Eudora, or The Death of Alonzo</i> +(Philadelphia, 1834). This little drama, intended for the +study, was set in Kentucky, and founded upon the Beauchamp-Sharp +murder of 1825, which was still the chief +topic of conversation in the State when the poet reached +Lexington in 1828. Chivers's second book of poems, +called <i>Nacoochee</i> (New York, 1837), contained two poems +written while a student of Transylvania, entitled <i>To a +China Tree</i>, and <i>Georgia Waters</i>. A short time after the +publication of this book Chivers and Edgar Allan Poe became +acquainted; and the remainder of their lives they +were denouncing and fighting each other. It all came +about by Chivers claiming his <i>Allegra Florence in +Heaven</i>, published in <i>The Lost Pleiad</i> (New York, 1845), +as the original of <i>The Raven</i>. Of course, the world and +the critics have smiled at this claim and let it pass. After +Poe's death Chivers claimed practically everything the +Virginian did to be a plagiarism of some of his own +poems. His most famous work was <i>Eonchs of Ruby</i> +(New York, 1851). This was followed by <i>Virginalia</i> +(Philadelphia, 1853); <i>Memoralia</i> (Philadelphia, 1853); +<i>Atlanta</i> (Macon, Ga., 1853); <i>Birth-Day Song of Liberty</i> +(Atlanta, Ga., 1856); and <i>The Sons of Usna</i> (Philadelphia, +1858). Bayard Taylor, in his famous <i>Echo Club</i>, +mentioned <i>Facets of Diamond</i> as one of the poet's publications,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +but a copy of it has not yet been unearthed. +Dr. Chivers died at Decatur, Georgia, December 19, 1858. +No more pathetic figure has appeared in American letters +than Chivers. Had he been content to write his poetry +independently of Poe or any one else, he would have left +his name clearer. He was a wonderful manipulator of +verse-forms, but he was not what Poe was—a world-genius.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>In the Poe Circle</i>, by Joel Benton (New York, +1899); <i>The Poe-Chivers Papers</i>, by G. E. Woodberry (<i>Century +Magazine</i>, Jan., Feb., 1903); <i>Representative Southern Poets</i>, +by C. W. Hubner (New York, 1906); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> +(Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. ii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE DEATH OF ALONZO</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Conrad and Eudora</i> (Philadelphia, 1834)]</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><i>Act III. Scene IV. Frankfort. Time, midnight.</i> Conrad <i>enters +from the tavern, walks the street, dressed in dark clothes, +with a masque on his face, and, with difficulty, finds</i> Alonzo's +<i>house</i>.</p> + +<p> +<i>Conrad.</i>   This is the place,—and I must change my name.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(<i>Goes to the door and knocks. Puts his hand in his bosom.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>A female voice is heard within—the wife of</i> Alonzo.)</span><br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   I would not venture out this time o' night.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Conrad knocks</i>.)</p><p> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   Who's there?<br /> +<i>Conrad.</i>   A friend.<br /> +<i>Angeline</i>   (<i>within</i>). I would not venture out, my love!<br /> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   Why, Angeline!—thy fears are woman's, love.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Knocks again.</i>)</p><p> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   Who is that?—speak out!<br /> +<i>Conrad.</i>   Darby—'tis thy friend!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">He has some business with thee—'tis of weight!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Has sign'd a bond, and thou must seal the deed!</span><br /> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   What does he say?<br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   Indeed I do not know—you'd better see.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">(<i>Knocks again and looks round.</i>)</span><br /> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   Who can this be—so late at night?</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Opens the door and steps back.</i>)</p><p> +<i>Conrad.</i>   Behold!</p><p style="text-align: right"> (<i>Throws off his masque and takes him by the throat.</i>)</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Look in my face, and call my name!</span><br /> +<i>Alonzo.</i>   Conrad!—Conrad! do not kill me, have mercy!<br /> +<i>Conrad.</i>   Where is my wife? Now, villain! die!—die!—die!</p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Stabs him.</i>)</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Now, pray! if thou canst pray, now pray—now die!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Now, drink the wormwood which Eudora drank.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Stamps him.</i> Alonzo <i>dies</i>.)</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">(Conrad <i>rushes out and is seen no more</i>. Angeline, Alonzo's</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>wife, runs in the room, screams, and falls upon his breast</i>.)</span><br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   'Tis he—'tis he—Conrad has kill'd Alonzo!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh! my husband! my husband! thou art dead!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">'Tis he—'tis he—the wretch has kill'd Alonzo!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">(<i>The doctor</i>, Alonzo's <i>brother, rushes in, crying "Murder!—murder!"</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Watchmen and citizens rush in, crying</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>"Murder! murder!</i> Alonzo's <i>dead</i>! Alonzo's <i>dead</i>!")</span><br /> +<i>Citizens.</i>   Who, under God's heaven, could have done this deed?<br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   'Tis he—'tis he! Conrad has kill'd Alonzo!<br /> +<i>Watchmen.</i>  Who did it? Speak! speak! Conrad kill'd Alonzo?<br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   Conrad—'twas Conrad, kill'd my husband! Dead!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh! death—death—death! What will become of me?</span><br /> +<i>Doctor.</i>   Did you see his face? My God! I know 'twas he!<br /> +<i>Angeline.</i>   I saw his face—I heard his voice—he's gone!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">(Angeline   <i>feels his pulse, while the rest look round</i>.)</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh! my husband!—my husband!—death, death!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Speak, Alonzo! speak to Angeline—death!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh! speak one word, and tell me who it was!</span></p> +<p style="text-align: right">(<i>Kisses him.</i>)</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">No pulse—my husband's dead! He's gone!—he's gone!</span><br /> +(<i>Faints away on his breast. The watchmen and citizens take her</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>into an adjoining room, bearing her husband with her—asking,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>"Who could have kill'd him? Speak</i>, Angeline—<i>speak</i>!")</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Curtain falls. End of Act III.</i></span><br /> +</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">GEORGIA WATERS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Nacoochee</i> (New York, 1837)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On thy waters, thy sweet valley waters,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh! Georgia! how happy were we!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Once gathered sweet-william for me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! thy wildwood, thy dark shady wildwood<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Had many bright visions for me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For my childhood, my bright rosy childhood<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Was cradled, dear Georgia! in thee!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On thy mountains, thy green purple mountains,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The seasons are waiting on thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thy fountains, thy clear crystal fountains<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Are making sweet music for me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! thy waters, thy sweet valley waters<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Are dearer than any to me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh! Georgia! give beauty to thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Transylvania University, 1830.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JEFFERSON_DAVIS" id="JEFFERSON_DAVIS">JEFFERSON DAVIS</a></h2> + + +<p>Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy, +was born in Christian, now Todd, county, Kentucky, +June 3, 1808. During his infancy his family removed +first to Louisiana and afterwards to Mississippi, +locating near the village of Woodville. When but seven +years old he was mounted on a pony and, with a +company of travelers, rode back to Kentucky. He entered +St. Thomas College, a Roman Catholic institution, +near Springfield, Kentucky. This tiny, obscure "college" +was presided over by Dominicans, and Davis was +the only Protestant boy in it. He spent two years at St. +Thomas, when he returned home to be fitted for college.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +In October, 1821, when in his fourteenth year, Jefferson +Davis arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, and matriculated +in the academic department of Transylvania University. +Horace Holley, surrounded with his famous faculty, was +in charge of the University during Davis's student days. +His favorite professor was Robert H. Bishop, afterwards +president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; and his +fellow students included David Rice Atchison, George +Wallace Jones, Gustavus A. Henry, and Belvard J. Peters, +all subsequently in Congress or on the bench. When +Davis was in the United States Senate he found five other +Transylvania men in the same body. He made his home +with old Joseph Ficklin, the Lexington postmaster, and +three of the happiest years of his life were spent in the +"Athens of the West." He left Transylvania at the end +of his junior year in order to enter West Point, from +which he was graduated in 1828. As Lieutenant Davis +he was in Kentucky during the cholera-year of 1833, and +he did all in his power to bury the dead and watch the +dying. Near Louisville, on June 17, 1835, Davis was married +to Miss Sarah Knox Taylor, second daughter of President +Taylor, but within the year the fair young girl died. +Davis was in the lower House of Congress, in 1845, as a +Democrat; but in the following year he enlisted for service +in the Mexican War, through which he served with +great credit to himself and to his country. From 1847 to +1851 he was United States Senator from Mississippi; and +from 1853 to 1857 he was Secretary of War in President +Pierce's cabinet. Davis was immediately returned to the +Senate, where he continued until January 21, 1861, when +he bade the Senators farewell in a speech that has made +him famous as an orator. Four weeks later he was inaugurated +as provisional president of the Confederate +States. On February 22, 1862, he was elected permanent +president, and settled himself in the capitol at Richmond,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +Virginia. President Davis was arrested near Irwinville, +Georgia, May 10, 1865, and for the next two years he was a +prisoner in Fortress Monroe. He died at New Orleans, +December 6, 1889, but in 1893 his body was removed to +Richmond. As an author Davis's fame must rest on his +<i>The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government</i> (New +York, 1881, two vols.).</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Jefferson Davis: A Memoir by his wife</i>, Mrs. V. +Jefferson Davis (New York 1890, two vols.); <i>Belford's Magazine</i> +(Jan., 1890); <i>Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime</i>, by +W. P. Trent (New York, 1897); <i>Jefferson Davis</i>, by W. E. +Dodd (Philadelphia, 1907); <i>Statesmen of the Old South</i>, by +W. E. Dodd (New York, 1911). Prof. W. L. Fleming, of +Louisiana State University is now preparing what will be the +most comprehensive and, perhaps, the definitive biography of +Davis.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">FROM FAREWELL SPEECH IN UNITED STATES SENATE +ON JANUARY 21, 1861</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government</i> (New York, 1881, +v. i.)]</p> + +<p>It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief +that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which +our fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi to +her present decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that +all men are created free and equal, and this made the basis of an +attack upon her social institutions; and the sacred Declaration of +Independence has been invoked to maintain the position of the +equality of the races. That Declaration of Independence is to be +construed by the circumstances and purposes for which it was +made. The communities were declaring their independence; the +people of those communities were asserting that no man was +born—to use the language of Mr. Jefferson—booted and +spurred, to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created +equal—meaning the men of the political community; that there +was no divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to +govern; that there were no classes by which power and place descended +to families; but that all stations were equally within the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +grasp of each member of the body politic. These were the great +principles they announced; these were the purposes for which +they made their declaration; these were the ends to which their +enunciation was directed. They have no reference to the slave; +else, how happened it that among the items of arraignment against +George III was that he endeavored to do just what the North has +been endeavoring of late to do—to stir up insurrection among +our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes +were free and equal, how was the Prince to be arraigned for raising +up insurrection among them? And how was this to be enumerated +among the high crimes which caused the colonies to +sever their connection with the mother country? When our +Constitution was formed, the same idea was rendered more palpable; +for there we find provision made for that very class of persons +as property; they were not put upon the footing of equality +with white men—not even upon that of paupers and convicts; +but, so far as representation was concerned, were discriminated +against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical +proportion of three fifths.</p> + +<p>Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; +we recur to the principles upon which our Government +was founded; and when you deny them, and when you deny to us +the right to withdraw from a Government which, thus perverted, +threatens to be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path +of our fathers when we proclaim our independence and take the +hazard. This is done, not in hostility to others, not to injure any +section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; +but from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting +the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit +unshorn to our children.</p> + +<p>I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my +constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility towards +you, Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, +whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to +whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you +well; and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I +represent towards those whom you represent. I, therefore, feel +that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +for peaceable relations with you, though we must part. They +may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been +in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on +every portion of the country; and, if you will have it thus, we +will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the +power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and +thus, putting our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and +strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.</p> + +<p>In the course of my service here, associated at different times +with a great variety of Senators, I see now around me some with +whom I have served long; there have been points of collision; +but, whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here. I +carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever offense I have +given which has not been redressed, or for which satisfaction has +not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, +to offer you my apology for any pain which, in heat of discussion, +I have inflicted. I go hence unencumbered of the remembrance +of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making +the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.</p> + +<p>Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement +which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for +me to bid you a final adieu.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_D_GALLAGHER" id="WILLIAM_D_GALLAGHER">WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER</a></h2> + + +<p>William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic, was born at +Philadelphia, August 21, 1808. When he was but eight +years old he removed to Cincinnati with his mother, a +widow. In 1821 he was apprenticed to a Cincinnati +printer. At the age of twenty years Gallagher journeyed +through Kentucky and Mississippi, and his letters concerning +the country and the people won him his first fame +as a writer. In 1831 he became editor of the Cincinnati +<i>Mirrow</i>, the fifth or sixth literary journal published in the +West. Three years later Thomas H. Shreve joined Gallagher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +in editing the paper. Like all Western magazines, +the <i>Mirrow's</i> high hopes were utterly dashed upon the old +rocks of failure from one cause or another. In 1835 Gallagher +published <i>Erato No. I.</i>, and <i>Erato No. II.</i>, which +were two small pamphlets of poems. <i>Erato No. III.</i> was +published at Louisville, two years later. The chief poem +in this was upon a Kentucky subject. Gallagher's anthology +of Western verse, without biographical or critical +notes, entitled <i>The Poetical Literature of the West</i> (Cincinnati, +1841), the first work in that field, was well +done, and it strengthened his claim as a critic. In +1854 he became one of the editors of the <i>Louisville Courier</i>; +but he shortly afterwards purchased a farm near +Pewee Valley, Kentucky, some twelve miles from Louisville, +and as a Kentucky farmer he spent the final forty +years of his life. He took keen interest in agricultural +pursuits, but he made nothing more than a meager living +out of his farm. His essay on <i>Fruit Culture in the Ohio +Valley</i> attracted the attention of persons interested in that +subject. As a poet Gallagher submits his claim upon a +rather long pastoral poem, entitled <i>Miami Woods</i>. This +work was begun in 1839, and finished seventeen years +later. This gives the title of his book of poems, <i>Miami +Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, +1881). <i>A Golden Wedding</i> is not an overly skillful +production, and the poet is best seen in his shorter lyrics. +Perhaps <i>The Mothers of the West</i>, which appeared in the +<i>Erato No. III.</i>, is the best thing he did, and the one poem +that will keep his fame green. Gallagher began his literary +career with great promise, and he pursued it diligently +for some years, but when he should have been doing +his finest work, he was winning some prize from an agricultural +journal for the best essay on <i>Fruit Culture in the +Ohio Valley</i>! He failed to follow the gleam. William D.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +Gallagher died at "Fern Rock Cottage," Pewee Valley, +Kentucky, June 27, 1894.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. Coggeshall +(Columbus, Ohio, 1860); <i>Blades o' Bluegrass</i>, by Fannie +P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, +1881)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mothers of our Forest-Land!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Stout-hearted dames were they;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With nerve to wield the battle-brand,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And join the border fray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our rough land had no braver<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In its days of blood and strife—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aye ready for severest toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Aye free to peril life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mothers of our Forest-Land!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On old Kentucky's soil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How shared they, with each dauntless band,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">War's tempest, and life's toil!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shrank not from the foeman,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They quail'd not in the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But cheer'd their husbands through the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And soothed them through the night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mothers of our Forest-Land!<br /></span> +<span class="i15"><i>Their</i> bosoms pillow'd Men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And proud were they by such to stand<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In hammock, fort, or glen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To load the sure old rifle—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To run the leaden ball—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To watch a battling husband's place,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And fill it should he fall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mothers of our Forest-Land!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Such were their daily deeds:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their monument—where does it stand?<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Their epitaph—who reads?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No braver dames had Sparta—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No nobler matrons Rome—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet who or lauds or honors them,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ev'n in their own green home?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mothers of our Forest-Land!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They sleep in unknown graves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And had they borne and nursed a band<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of ingrates, or of slaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They had not been more neglected!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But their graves shall yet be found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their monuments dot here and there<br /></span> +<span class="i15">"The Dark and Bloody Ground!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_H_SHREVE" id="THOMAS_H_SHREVE">THOMAS H. SHREVE</a></h2> + + +<p>Thomas H. Shreve, poet and journalist, was born at Alexandria, +Virginia, in 1808. In early life he removed to +Louisville, Kentucky, and entered mercantile pursuits. +In 1834 Shreve became a Cincinnati editor; but four +years later he returned to Louisville to again engage +in business. Throughout his business career, Shreve +was a constant contributor of poems and prose sketches +to the best magazines. He finally abandoned business for +literature, and he at once became associate editor of the +<i>Louisville Journal</i>. He was not a rugged journalist of +the Prentice type, but a cultured and chaste essayist who +should have written from his study window, rather than +from such a seething hothouse of sarcasm and invective +as Prentice maintained. He was a mild-mannered man, +a Quaker, who spent his last months on earth in crossing +swords with Thomas Babington Macaulay concerning the +character of William Penn. In 1851 Shreve's <i>Drayton,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +an American Tale</i>, was issued by the Harpers at New +York. This work won the author much praise in the East +as well as in the West, and it started him upon an honorable +career, which was soon cut short by disease. Thomas +H. Shreve died at Louisville, December 23, 1853. Prentice +penned a splendid tribute to the memory of his dead +friend and associate; and some years later a collection of +his verse was made as a fitting memorial of his blameless +life and literary labors.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. +Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by +R. H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); <i>The Shreve Family</i>, +by L. P. Allen (Greenfield, Illinois).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">I HAVE NO WIFE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Knickerbocker Magazine</i> (August, 1838)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife—and I can go<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Just where I please, and feel as free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As crazy winds which choose to blow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Round mountain-tops their melody.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On those who have Love's race to run,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Hope, like a seraph, smiles most sweet—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they who Hymen's goal have won,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Sometimes, 'tis said, find Hope a cheat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife—young girls are fair—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But how it is, I cannot tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No sooner are they wed, than their<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Enchantments give them the farewell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The girls, oh, bless them! make us yearn<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To risk all odds and take a wife—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cling to one, and not to turn<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ten thousand in the dance of life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife:—Who'd have his nose<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Forever tied to one lone flower,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +<span class="i0">E'en if that flower should be a rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Plucked with light hand from fairy bower?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! better far the bright bouquet<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of flowers of every hue and clime;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By turns to charm the sense away,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And fill the heart with dreams sublime.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife:—I now can change<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From grave to joy, from light to sad<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unfettered, in my freedom range<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And fret awhile, and, then, be glad.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I now can heed a Siren's tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And feel that eyes glance not in vain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make love apace, and, being flung,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Get up and try my luck again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife to pull my hair<br /></span> +<span class="i15">If it should chance entangled be—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'm like the lion in his lair,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Who flings his mane about him free.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If 'tis my fancy, I can wear<br /></span> +<span class="i15">My boots unblessed by blacking paste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cling to my coat till it's threadbare,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Without a lecture on bad taste.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife, and I can dream<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of girls who're worth their weight in gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can bask my heart in Love's broad beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And dance to think it's yet unsold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or I can look upon a brow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Which mind and beauty both enhance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go to the shrine, and make my bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And thank the Fates I have a chance.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife, and, like a wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Can float away to any land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curl up and kiss, or gently lave<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The sweetest flowers that are at hand.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A Pilgrim, I can bend before<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The shrine which heart and mind approve;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, Persian like, I can adore<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Each star that gems the heaven of love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have no wife—in heaven, they say,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Such things as weddings are not known—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unyoked the blissful spirits stray<br /></span> +<span class="i15">O'er fields where care no shade has thrown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then why not have a heaven below,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And let fair Hymen hence be sent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It would be fine—but as things go,<br /></span> +<span class="i15"><i>Unwedded, folks won't be content</i>!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ORMSBY_M_MITCHEL" id="ORMSBY_M_MITCHEL">ORMSBY M. MITCHEL</a></h2> + + +<p>Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the celebrated American +astronomer and author, was born near Morganfield, +Kentucky, August 28, 1809. He graduated from West +Point in the famous class of 1829 which included +Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, Mitchel was professor +of mathematics at West Point for two years; but +he later studied law and practiced at Cincinnati for a +year. In 1834 he was elected professor of mathematics +and astronomy in Cincinnati College. By his own efforts +he raised sufficient funds with which to establish an astronomical +observatory in Cincinnati, in 1845—now the +Mitchel Observatory—the first of the larger observatories +in this country. In 1860 Professor Mitchel was +chosen as director of the Dudley observatory at Albany, +New York, and there he remained for two years. The +Civil War coming on, he entered the Union army, and rose +to the rank of general. General Mitchel was placed in +command of the "Department of the South," but before +the war was well under way, almost, he contracted yellow +fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina, October 30,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +1862. General Mitchel was the most distinguished astronomer +ever born on Kentucky soil; and in the army the +men knew him as "Old Stars." He was a popular lecturer, +but it is as an author that his great reputation +rests. His books are: <i>The Planetary and Stellar +Worlds</i> (New York, 1848); <i>The Orbs of Heaven</i> (1851); +<i>A Concise Elementary Treatise of the Sun, Planets, Satellites, +and Comets</i> (1860); and <i>The Astronomy of the +Bible</i> (New York, 1863). From 1846 to 1848 General +Mitchel published an astronomical journal, called <i>The +Sidereal Messenger</i>. Harvard and Hamilton Colleges +conferred honorary degrees upon him; and he was a member +of many scientific societies in the United States and +Europe.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, Astronomer and +General</i>, by his son, F. A. Mitchel; biographical sketch in <i>The +Astronomy of the Bible</i> (New York, 1863); <i>Old Stars</i>, by P. C. +Headley (Boston, 1864).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Astronomy of the Bible</i> (New York, 1863)]</p> + +<p>If we extend our researches beyond the limits of the solar system, +and, passing across the mighty gulf which separates us from +the starry heavens, inspect minutely the organizations which are +there displayed, we find the dominion of these same laws extending +to these remote regions, and holding an imperious sway over +revolving suns. Thus we perceive, that in one most important +particular, the objects which compose the mighty universe are +obviously alike, and seem to have sprung from a common origin. +We are, moreover, compelled to admit a sun in every visible star; +and if a sun, then attendant planets; and if revolving planets, +then, likewise, some scheme of sentient existence, possibly remotely +analogous to that which is displayed with such wonderful +minuteness in our globe. Thus if the being of a God can be +argued from the admirable adaptations which surround man in +this nether world, every star that glitters in the vast concave of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +heaven proclaims, with equal power, this mighty truth. If we +rise still higher, and from the contemplation of individual stars, +examine their distribution, their clusterings, their aggregations +into immense systems, the fact of their mutual influences, their +restless and eternal activity, their amazing periods of revolution, +their countless millions, and their ever-during organizations, the +mind, whelmed with the display of grandeur, exclaims involuntarily, +"This is the empire of a God!"</p> + +<p>And now, how is the knowledge of this vast surrounding universe +revealed to the mind of man? Here is, perhaps, the crowning +wonder. Through the agency of light, a subtle, intangible, +imponderable something, originating, apparently, in the stars and +suns, darting with incredible velocity from one quarter of the +universe to the other, whether in absolute particles of matter shot +off from luminous bodies, or by traces of an ethereal fluid, who +shall tell? This incomprehensible fluid falls upon an instrument +of most insignificant dimensions, yet of most wonderful construction, +the human eye, and, lo! to the mind what wonders start into +being. Pictures of the most extravagant beauty cover the earth; +clouds dipped in the hues of heaven fill the atmosphere; the sun, +the moon, the planets, come up from out of the depths of space, +and far more amazing still, the distant orbs of heaven, in their +relative magnitudes, distances and motions, are revealed to the +bewildered mind. We have only to proceed one step further, and +bringing to the aid of the human eye, the auxiliary power of the +optic glass, the mind is brought into physical association with objects +which inhabit the confines of penetrable space. We take +cognizance of objects so remote, that even the flashing element of +light itself, by which they are revealed, flies on its errand ten +times ten thousand years to accomplish its stupendous journey.</p> + +<p>Strike the human eye from existence, and at a single blow, the +sun is blotted out, the planets fade, the heavens are covered with +the blackness of darkness, the vast universe shrinks to a narrow +compass bounded by the sense of touch alone.</p> + +<p>Such, then, is the organization of the universe, and such the +means by which we are permitted to take cognizance of its existence +and phenomena. If the feeble mind of man has achieved +victories in the natural world—if his puny structures, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +have survived the attacks of a few thousand years, proclaim the +superiority of the intelligence of his mind to insensate matter—if +the contemplation of the works of art and the triumphs of human +genius, swells us into admiration at the power of this invisible +spirit that dwells in mortal form,—what shall be the +emotions excited, the ideas inspired, by the contemplation of the +boundless universe of God?</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ALBERT_T_BLEDSOE" id="ALBERT_T_BLEDSOE">ALBERT T. BLEDSOE</a></h2> + + +<p>Albert Taylor Bledsoe, controversialist, was born at +Frankfort, Kentucky, November 9, 1809, the son of a journalist. +He was appointed from Kentucky to West Point +and was graduated in 1830, after which he served in the +army in Indian territory until the last day of August, +1832, when he resigned to enter upon the study of law. +A year later Bledsoe abandoned law to become a tutor in +Kenyon College, Ohio, where he later studied theology +and was ordained a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal +church. He was connected with various Ohio churches +from 1835 to 1838, but in the latter year he quit the ministry +to resume his legal studies and he removed to +Springfield, Illinois, where he formed a partnership with +the afterwards celebrated statesman and soldier, Colonel +Edward D. Baker. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. +Douglas were practicing law in Springfield at this time, +and Bledsoe knew both of them intimately; but because +of his subsequent connection with the Southern Confederacy +none of the biographies of these men mention him. +For the following ten years Bledsoe practiced his profession +at Springfield and Washington, D. C. His first book, +<i>An Examination of Edwards's Inquiry into the Freedom +of the Will</i> (Philadelphia, 1845), showed that his interest +in theological subjects had not waned. In 1848 Bledsoe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +was elected professor of mathematics in the University of +Mississippi, which position he held for the ensuing six +years. His next volume, <i>A Theodicy, or Vindication of +the Divine Glory</i> (New York, 1853), gave him a place +among theologians. In 1854 Dr. Bledsoe was elected to +the chair of mathematics in the University of Virginia, +and this he occupied until 1861. While at the University +he published <i>An Essay on Liberty and Slavery</i> (Philadelphia, +1856), which anticipated his subsequent action of +entering the Confederate army, which he did in 1861, and +he was commissioned as a colonel. Dr. Bledsoe was +speedily made assistant secretary of war, but this work +proved most uncongenial, and he gladly accepted the joint +invitation of Davis and Lee to run the blockade, in 1863, +and go to England to gather materials for a constitutional +argument on the right of secession. He spent three +years in London and upon his return to the United States, +in February, 1866, he brought his vast researches together +in his best known work, <i>Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession +a Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861?</i> +(Baltimore, 1866). Dr. Bledsoe now took up his residence +at Baltimore, and some months later he became editor +of a quarterly periodical, <i>The Southern Review</i>, +which he conducted for the final years of his life. In +1868 he added the principalship of a Baltimore school to +his burdens; and in the same year his last volume appeared, +<i>The Philosophy of Mathematics</i> (Philadelphia, +1868). In 1871 Dr. Bledsoe was ordained a minister in +the Methodist church, and his <i>Review</i> became the recognized +organ of his church. He died at Alexandria, Virginia, +December 8, 1877. Dr. Bledsoe was always a student +and scholar, but he was essentially a controversialist, +often bitter in his statements, but time has mellowed much +of this, and he now stands forth as a very remarkable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +man. Consider him from a dozen angles, and one will not +find his like in the whole range of American history.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. i); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i>, sketch +by his daughter, Mrs. Sophie Herrick (Atlanta, 1909, v. i).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Southern Review</i> (Baltimore, April, 1867)]</p> + +<p>This history consists of seven great crises. The first of these +convulsed the Union, and threatened its dissolution before the +new Constitution was formed, or conceived. For how little soever +its history may be known, the North and the South, like +Jacob and Esau, struggled together, and that, too, with almost +fatal desperation, in the womb of the old Union. Slavery had +nothing at all to do with that struggle between the North and the +South, the <i>dramatis personæ</i> in the tragedy of 1861. It was +solely and simply a contest for power.</p> + +<p>The second crisis was the formation and adoption of the new +Constitution. Much has been said about that event, as the most +wonderful revolution in the history of the world; because the +government of a great people was then radically changed by +purely peaceable means, and without shedding a drop of blood. +But if that was a bloodless revolution in itself, no one, who has +maturely considered it in all its bearings, can deny that it was, +in the end, the occasion of the most sanguinary strife in the annals +of a fallen world.</p> + +<p>The revolution of 1801, by which the radical notions and doctrines +of the infidel philosophers of the eighteenth century gained +the ascendency in this country, never more to abate in their onward +march, constituted the third great crisis in the political history +of the United States. In passing through this crisis, the +Republic of 1787 became in practice the Democracy of the following +generation; and, finally, the rabid radicalism of 1861. It +was then that the democratic, or predominant, element in the Republic, +began to swallow up the others, and so became the most +odious of all the forms of absolute power or despotism. It was +then that the reign of "King Demos," the unchecked and the unlimited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +power of mere numbers, was inaugurated, and his throne +established on the ruins of American freedom. But, while history +will show this, it will also administer the consoling reflection, +that American freedom was doomed, from the first, by the operation +of other causes, and that the revolution of 1801 only precipitated +its fall. If so, then the sooner its fall the better for the +world; as in that case its destruction would involve a smaller portion +of the human family in its ruins.</p> + +<p>The desperate struggle of 1820-21, between the North and the +South, relative to the admission of Missouri into the Union; the +equally fierce contest respecting the Tariff in 1832-33; the Mexican +War, and the acquisition of vast territory, by the dismemberment +of a foreign empire, which led to the most violent and +angry of all the quarrels between the two sections; constitute the +fourth, fifth and sixth crises in the stormy history of the United +Sections. The seventh and last great crisis, grew out of the repeal +of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the rise of the Republican +party, as it is called; and consisted in the secession of the +Southern States, and the war of coercion. Each of these seven +crises had, of course, its prelude and its sequel, without which it +cannot be comprehended, or seen how it followed the preceding, +and how it led to the succeeding crises in the chain of events. +Now some of these crises are most imperfectly understood +by the public, and, in some respects, most perfectly misunderstood, +such as the first two for example; others, and especially +the fourth, or the great Compromise of 1820, are overlaid +with a mass of lying traditions such as the world has seldom seen; +traditions invented by politicians, and industriously propagated +by the press and the pulpit. If these traditions were cleared +away, and the facts which lie beneath them in the silent records +of the country brought to view, the revelation would be sufficient +to teach both sections of the Union the profoundest lessons of +humiliation and sorrow. If patiently and properly studied, the +history of the United States is, perhaps, fraught with as many +valuable lessons for the warning and instruction of mankind, as +that of any other age or nation since the fall of Rome, since the +Flood, or since the fall of man.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="RICHARD_H_MENEFEE" id="RICHARD_H_MENEFEE">RICHARD H. MENEFEE</a></h2> + + +<p>Richard Hickman Menefee, who with Henry Clay and +Thomas F. Marshall form the great triumvirate of early +Kentucky orators, was born at Owingsville, Kentucky, +December 4, 1809. He was educated at Transylvania +University, and graduated from the law school of that institution +in 1832. He practiced his profession at Mt. +Sterling, Kentucky, for several years, when, in 1836, he +was elected to the Kentucky legislature. In the legislature +he won a wide reputation as an orator, and rapidly +became known as the most gifted man of his age in Kentucky. +In the summer of 1837 Menefee made the race for +Congress and, after an exciting campaign, it was found +that he had defeated his opponent, Judge Richard French. +In the lower House of Congress Menefee and Sargeant S. +Prentiss of Mississippi were the two young men that compelled +the country's attention and admiration as orators. +In 1838 William J. Graves, a Kentucky member of the +House, killed Jonathan Cilley, representative from a +Maine district, and the friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne, +in a duel near Washington City. Menefee was one of +Graves's seconds. This affair of honor was so bitterly +condemned on all sides that Congress was compelled to +enact the anti-duelling law. In July, 1838, the people of +Boston tendered Daniel Webster a great home-coming +banquet, in Faneuil Hall, and Menefee responded very eloquently +to a toast to Kentucky. One more session of Congress +and he returned to Kentucky, entering upon the +practice of law at Lexington, where cases pressed fast +upon him. He met Henry Clay in the great Rogers will +case of 1840, and Clay got the jury's verdict. Cassius M. +Clay placed Menefee in nomination for the United States +Senate in the Kentucky legislature of 1841, but his ill-health +made his election a hazardous action. A short time +before his death he drew up the mature reflections of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +life, in the form of a diary, and this, only recently published, +has added to his fame. Menefee died at Lexington, +Kentucky, February 20, 1841. Thomas P. Marshall pronounced +an eulogy upon him which has taken its rightful +place among the masterpieces of American oratory; and +in 1869 a Kentucky county was carved out of several other +counties and named in his honor. While he was not a constructive +statesman, Menefee's fame as an orator seems +to grow greater with the passing of the years.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall</i>, +by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); <i>Richard Hickman Menefee</i>, +by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">KENTUCKY: A TOAST</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Richard Hickman Menefee</i>, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, +1907)]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Chairman</span>:</p> + +<p>I cannot remain silent under the sentiment which has just been +announced and so enthusiastically received. That sentiment relates +not to myself but to Kentucky—dearer to me than self. +Of Kentucky I have nothing to say. There she is. In her history, +from the period when first penetrated by the white man as +the <i>dark and bloody ground</i>, down to the present, she speaks. +The character to which that history entitles her is before the +world. She is proud of it. She is proud of the past; she is +proud of the present. And her pride is patriotic and just. As +one of her sons, I ask to express in her name, the acknowledgments +due to the complimentary notice you have taken of her, a +notice not the less complimentary from its association with the +name of Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>There is much in the character and history of Massachusetts +which should bind her in the strongest bonds to Kentucky. Your +sentiment places them together: just where they ought to be. +Kentucky is willing to occupy the place you have assigned her. +Without respect now to subordinate differences in past events, +both States stand knit together by the highest and strongest motives +by which States can be impelled. I mean the motive and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +purpose common to each of maintaining and upholding, in every +extremity and to the very last, the Union of these States and the +Constitution. Massachusetts has proclaimed over and over again +her resolution not to survive them. Nor will Kentucky survive +them. She has embarked her whole destiny—all she has and all +she hopes for—in the Union and the Constitution. Let come +what may of public calamity, of faction, of sectional seduction +or intimidation, or evil in any form the most dreadful to man, +Kentucky, like Massachusetts, regards the overthrow of the Union +as more frightful than all. Kentucky acknowledges no justification +for a disruption of the Union that is not a justification for +revolution itself. In that Union, and under that Constitution, +Kentucky means to stand or fall. Kentucky stands by the Union +in her living efforts; she means to hold fast to it in her expiring +groans. With Massachusetts she means to perish, if perish she +must, with hands clenched, in death, upon the Union.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>If the occasion allowed it, I should like to say something of old +Massachusetts. I should like to rekindle my own patriotism at +her altars. Here—on this very spot—in this very hall—the +sacred flame of revolutionary liberty first ascended. Here it has +ever ascended. It has never been smothered—never dimmed. +Perpetual—clear—holy! Behold its inspirations here in your +midst! Where are the doctrines of the Union and the Constitution +so incessantly inculcated as here? Where are those doctrines +so enthusiastically adopted as here? The principles of the +Union and the Constitution—for us another name for the principles +of liberty which cannot survive their overthrow—will, in +after ages, trace with delight their lineage through you. The +blood of freedom is here pure. To be allied to it is to be ennobled. +<i>Massachusetts!</i> Which of her multitude of virtues +shall I commend? How can I discriminate? I will not attempt +it. I take her as she is and all together—I give—<i>Old Massachusetts!</i> +God bless her!</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_W_CUTTER" id="GEORGE_W_CUTTER">GEORGE W. CUTTER</a></h2> + + +<p>George Washington Cutter, one of Kentucky's finest +poets, was born in Massachusetts about 1809, but he early +came to Covington, Kentucky, and entered upon the practice +of his profession, the law. He commanded a company +of Kentuckians in the Mexican War with great honor +to himself and to them. He had been a constant contributor +of verse to the periodicals of his time, but he did not +publish his first book until after the war with Mexico. +<i>Buena Vista and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, 1848) was his +first collection, and it contained a preface signed from +Covington, Kentucky, December, 1847. From this it will +be seen that Cutter returned to Kentucky after the war, +and that he was living in this State at the time of his +book's appearance. Tradition has said that he wrote the +title-poem, <i>Buena Vista</i>, a spirited war ballad, on the field +of action immediately after the battle. His little volume +contained thirty-seven poems, including <i>The Song of +Steam</i>, which has been singled out by critics as his masterpiece, +an ode to Henry Clay, his political idol, and his fine +descriptive poem, <i>The Creation of Woman</i>. This, to the +present writer, is the most exquisite thing Cutter did in +verse. It is highly and consistently poetical, and it should +be better appreciated than it has been. Cutter was married +to Mrs. Frances Ann Drake, a famous Kentucky actress, +but they were not happy and a separation by mutual +agreement subsequently followed. Mrs. Cutter was the +widow of Alexander Drake, of the well-known family of +that name, and after parting with the poet she resumed +her first husband's name, returned to the stage, and managed +theatres in Kentucky and Ohio until her death in +Oldham county, Kentucky, September 1, 1875. Cutter +later removed to Indiana and was a member of the State +legislature, after which service he removed to Washington +City to accept a government position. In Washington<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +Cutter continued his poetical output, life in the capital +turning his attention to patriotic subjects. <i>Poems, National +and Patriotic</i> (Philadelphia, 1857) proved the author +to be, for the critics of his time, "the most intensely +patriotic poet we have." This volume contained sixty-nine +of what he regarded as his best poems. <i>The Song +of Steam and Other Poems</i> also appeared in this same +year of 1857, and it contained one of the poet's finest +efforts, <i>The Song of the Lightning</i>. Cutter died at Washington, +D. C., December 24, 1865.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. +Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); Adams's <i>Dictionary of American +Authors</i> (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE SONG OF STEAM</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Buena Vista and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, 1848)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Harness me down with your iron bands,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Be sure of your curb and rein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I scorn the power of your puny hands<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As the tempest scorns a chain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I laughed as I lay concealed from sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For many a countless hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the childish boast of human might,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the pride of human power.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I saw an army upon the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A navy upon the seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Creeping along, a snail-like band,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or waiting the wayward breeze;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I marked the peasant faintly reel<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With the toil which he daily bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he feebly turned the tardy wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or tugged at the weary oar;—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When I measured the panting courser's speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The flight of the courier dove—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +<span class="i0">As they bore the law a king decreed,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or the lines of impatient love—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could not but think how the world would feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As these were outstripp'd afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I should be bound to the rushing keel,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or chained to the flying car.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ha! ha! ha! they found me at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They invited me forth at length,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I rushed to my throne with a thunder-blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And I laughed in my iron strength.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! then ye saw a wondrous change<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On the earth and the ocean wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where now my fiery armies range,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nor wait for wind or tide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hurrah! hurrah! the waters o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The mountain's steep decline,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time—space—have yielded to my power—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The world! the world is mine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rivers, the sun hath earliest blest,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or those where his beams decline;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The giant streams of the queenly west,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or the orient floods divine:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ocean pales where'er I sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To hear my strength rejoice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the monsters of the briny deep<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Cower, trembling, at my voice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I carry the wealth and the lord of earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The thoughts of his god-like mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wind lags after my flying forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The lightning is left behind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">My tireless arm doth play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the rocks never saw the sun decline,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or the dawn of the glorious day.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +<span class="i0">I bring earth's glittering jewels up<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From the hidden cave below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I make the fountain's granite cup<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With a crystal gush o'erflow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I blow the bellows, I forge the steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In all the shops of trade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hammer the ore and turn the wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where my arms of strength are made;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I carry, I spin, I weave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all my doings I put into print,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On every Saturday eve.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No bones to be "laid on the shelf,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soon I intend you may "go and play,"<br /></span> +<span class="i15">While I manage this world myself.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But harness me down with your iron bands,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Be sure of your curb and rein;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I scorn the strength of your puny hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As the tempest scorns a chain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="MARY_P_SHINDLER" id="MARY_P_SHINDLER">MARY P. SHINDLER</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Mary Palmer Shindler, poet and novelist, was born +at Beaufort, South Carolina, February 15, 1810. She +was the daughter of Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, the celebrated +Presbyterian preacher of New Orleans. She was +educated in Charleston by the daughter of Dr. David Ramsey, +the early historian of South Carolina. Her education +was completed in the schools of Connecticut and New Jersey. +In 1835 Miss Palmer was married to Charles E. +Dana of New York; and in 1848 to Rev. Robert D. Shindler, +an Episcopal clergyman. Two years after this marriage +they removed to Maryland, and then to Shelbyville,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +Kentucky, where Dr. Shindler held a professorship in +Shelby College. Shelbyville was Mrs. Shindler's home +henceforth, save for short sojourns in other states, and +in that town she died about 1880. She was the author of +<i>The Southern Harp</i> (1840); <i>The Northern Harp</i> (1841); +<i>The Parted Family and Other Poems</i> (1842); <i>The Temperance +Lyre</i> (1842); <i>Charles Morton, or the Young Patriot</i> +(1843); <i>The Young Sailor</i> (1844); <i>Forecastle Tour</i> +(1844); and, <i>Letters to Relatives and Friends on the Trinity</i> +(1845). Several of Mrs. Shindler's lyrics are well +known.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1888, v. v); <i>The Writers of South Carolina</i>, by +George A. Wauchope (Columbia, South Carolina, 1910).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE FADED FLOWER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Parted Family and Other Poems</i> (1842)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have seen a fragrant flower<br /></span> +<span class="i15">All impearled with morning dew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have plucked it from the bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where in loveliness it grew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, 'twas sweet, when gayly vying<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With the garden's richest bloom;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when faded, withered, dying,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Sweeter far its choice perfume.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the heart, when crushed by sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Sends its richest streams abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While it learns sweet balm to borrow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From the uplifted hand of God.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not in its sunny days of gladness<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Will the heart be fixed on Heaven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When 'tis wounded, clothed in sadness,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oft its richest love is given.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="MARTIN_J_SPALDING" id="MARTIN_J_SPALDING">MARTIN J. SPALDING</a></h2> + + +<p>Martin John Spalding, seventh archbishop of Baltimore, +was born near Lebanon, Kentucky, May 23, 1810. His +forebears were Maryland Catholics who had emigrated to +Kentucky. He was graduated from St. Mary's College +when but sixteen years of age. Spalding then spent four +years at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky, and +the same number of years in Rome, at the conclusion of +which he is said to have made a seven hours' defense in +Latin of 256 theological propositions. This exhibition won +him a doctor's diploma, and his ordination as a priest. +From 1834 to 1843 Dr. Spalding was president of St. +Joseph's College in Bardstown. And from 1843 to 1848 +he was in charge of the cathedral at Louisville. In 1848 he +was consecrated Bishop of Lengone; and two years later +Bishop of Louisville. Bishop Spalding served in this capacity +until 1864 when, in the presence of four thousand +people, he was installed as the seventh archbishop of Baltimore. +This high office he held until his death, which occurred +at Baltimore, February 7, 1872. Bishop Spalding +was the greatest Roman Catholic reviewer and historian +Kentucky has produced. He was one of the editors of the +<i>Catholic Magazine</i>, and the author of the excellent +<i>Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky</i> +(Louisville, 1846); <i>The Life, Times, and Character of +the Rt. Rev. B. J. Flaget</i> (Louisville, 1852). He also published +<i>Lectures on the General Evidences of Christianity</i> +(1844); <i>Review of D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation</i> +(Baltimore, 1847); <i>History of the Protestant Reformation</i> +(1860); and a posthumous volume, <i>Miscellanea</i> +(1885). There is also a uniform five volume edition of his +works, which is fortunate, as his books, especially the +<i>Sketches</i>, and <i>Flaget</i>, are exceedingly scarce.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life of Archbishop Spalding</i>, by his nephew, +John L. Spalding (New York, 1872); Adams's <i>Dictionary of +American Authors</i> (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Sketches of the Life, Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev. Benedict +Joseph Flaget</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1852)]</p> + +<p>Bishop Dubourg had sailed from Bordeaux on the 1st of July, +1817; and he had landed at Annapolis on the 4th of September. +His <i>suite</i> consisted of five priests—of whom the present Archbishop +of New Orleans was one—and twenty-six young men, +some of whom were candidates for the ministry, and others were +destined to become lay brothers to assist the missionaries in temporal +affairs. Several of these youths were from Belgium; and +among them was the V. Rev. D. A. Deparcq, of our Diocese. A +portion of the company started directly for Baltimore with +Bishop Dubourg; the rest, with the Rev. M. Blanc at their head, +remained at Annapolis, where they were entertained with +princely hospitality in the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, +until the end of October.</p> + +<p>Preparations were in the meantime made for crossing the +mountains. The stage then ran westward only once a week; and +no less than three weeks were consumed in transporting the missionary +band to Pittsburgh. The Bishop and M. Blanc were +in the last division; but after remaining in the stage for two +days, during which time it had repeatedly upset, endangering +their lives, they finally abandoned it altogether, and performed +the remainder of the journey for five days on foot. About the +middle of November, the missionary company embarked on a flatboat; +and they reached Louisville on the last day of the month. +Here they found the Rev. MM. Chabrat and Shaeffer, who had +been sent on by Bishop Flaget to welcome them to Kentucky. +Accompanied by them and by the Rev. M. Blanc, Bishop Dubourg +started immediately for St. Thomas's, where he arrived in +the evening of December 2d.</p> + +<p>Bishop Flaget was rejoiced to meet his old friend. "I recognized +him instantly," says he; "see! on meeting me, he has the +humility to dismount, in order to present me the most affectionate +salute that ever was given." Many and long were the "happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +conversations" which he held with his former associate, and now +distinguished guest. Bishop Dubourg officiated pontifically, and +preached an admirable sermon in the church of St. Thomas,—the +only cathedral which the Bishop as yet possessed.</p> + +<p>On the 12th of December, the two prelates, accompanied by +Father Badin, set out for St. Louis, by the way of Louisville. +Here Bishop Dubourg preached in the chapel erected by M. +Badin. On the 18th they embarked on the steamboat Piqua, and +on the 20th reached the mouth of the Ohio, where they were detained +five days by the ice. Their time was passed chiefly in religious +exercises and pious conversations.</p> + +<p>The following description of the Piqua and its passengers, +from the pen of Bishop Flaget, may not be uninteresting to us +at the present day, when steamboat building and navigation have +so greatly changed for the better:</p> + +<p>"Nothing could be more original than the medley of persons +on board this boat. We have a band of seven or eight comedians, +a family of seven or eight Jews, and a company of clergymen +composed of a tonsured cleric, a priest, and two Bishops; besides +others, both white and black. Thus more than thirty persons +are lodged in an apartment (cabin), twenty feet by twelve, which +is again divided into two parts. This boat comprises the old and +the new testament. It might serve successively for a synagogue, +a cathedral, a theatre, an hospital, a parlor, a dining room, and a +sleeping apartment. It is, in fact, a veritable <i>Noah's ark</i>, in +which there are both clean and unclean animals;—and what is +more astonishing,—peace and harmony reign here."</p> + +<p>They were still at the mouth of the Ohio on the morning of +Christmas day. Not being able to say three Masses, they determined +to make three meditations. At the conclusion of the second, +the redoubtable Piqua resumed her course towards St. Louis. +The Bishops and clergy made a kind of retreat on their Noah's +ark. On the evening of Christmas day, the boat stopped near the +farm of the widow Fenwick, a good Catholic, whom they were +happy to visit. M. Badin continued his journey by land from +this point, in order to be able to visit on the way many of his old +friends, Catholic emigrants from Kentucky.</p> + +<p>The Bishops returned to the boat, where they found the comedians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +performing a play,—that is, engaged in a general fight +among themselves,—until they were separated by the captain. +At midnight, on the 30th, they arrived at St. Genevieve; and +early next morning they sent a messenger to announce their coming +to M. De Andreis.</p> + +<p>Two hours afterwards, "about thirty of the principal inhabitants +came, with several young men on horseback and a carriage, +to escort the Bishops into the town. We went to the presbytery +to put on our pontifical robes: twenty-four choir-children with +the cross at their head, and four citizens bearing a canopy, conducted +us to the church, where after the installation of Bishop +Dubourg, on a throne specially prepared for the purpose, we +sang the <i>Te Deum</i>. The whole day was spent in receiving visits."</p> + +<p>On the first day of the year 1818, Bishop Dubourg celebrated +Pontifical Mass at St. Genevieve. The journey was then continued +to Prairie du Rocher and Cahokias to St. Louis, where the +prelates arrived on the 5th. They were received with great +pomp, in the best French style; and Bishop Dubourg was no +sooner known than he was universally esteemed and beloved. He +professed himself much pleased with the dispositions and sentiments +of his new flock,—so different from what he had been led +to expect.</p> + +<p>Bishop Flaget having now completed his mission, preached his +farewell sermon to the Catholics of St. Louis on the feast of the +Epiphany; and on the next day he turned his face homeward. +He and M. Badin performed the journey on horseback, by the +way of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. They were detained three days +at the former place, not being able to cross the river in consequence +of the running ice; and in traversing Illinois they passed +three successive nights in the open air of the prairies. They +reached Vincennes on the 27th of January; and after remaining +here two weeks, attending to missionary duties, they continued +their journey.</p> + +<p>On the 21st of February, the Bishop found himself once more +at his retired and pleasant home in the seminary of St. Thomas.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="JOHN_W_AUDUBON" id="JOHN_W_AUDUBON">JOHN W. AUDUBON</a></h2> + + +<p>John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the great Audubon, +was born at Henderson, Kentucky, November 30, 1812. +At the time of his birth his father was ekeing out an existence +in Henderson, with saw-mills and lumber ventures +of various kinds, all of which finally failed. The nomadic +life of the ornithologist was early forced upon his son. +Their wanderings were chiefly confined to the country +south of the Ohio river, and Louisiana. John Woodhouse +Audubon was instructed by his mother in the useful field +of learning; but from his father he learned to delineate +birds and mammals, though it was the family's desire that +he should become a portrait painter. He and his brother, +Victor, who was three years his elder, were sent to school +together, but, in 1826, they were separated, Victor becoming +a clerk at Louisville, Kentucky, and John remaining +in Louisiana with his mother, who was then conducting +a school, while the father went to Europe to solicit subscriptions +for his forthcoming <i>Birds of America</i>. John +W. Audubon was at this time engaged in drawing from +Nature, and in playing the violin, to which he was devoted +throughout life. He was a clerk for a short time on a +Mississippi river steamboat, but any kind of routine was +distasteful to him, his whole life being absorbed in the +study of birds and mammals. He accompanied his father +on one of his European trips, and in England and Scotland +he copied many of the masterpieces of the great +painters. In 1863 the collection of new species demanded +that father and son should go as far South as the Gulf of +Mexico; and while passing through Charleston, South +Carolina, the son met Maria Bachman, whom he married +the following year. In 1840 the Audubon house near New +York City was built, and there John W. Audubon spent +the remaining years of his life. In 1849 he joined a California +company to go to the gold fields, but he went not for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +gold but for new birds and mammals. He returned in the +following year, and in 1851, his famous father died. The +brothers were then occupied with the publication of <i>The +Quadrupeds</i>, and the octavo edition of <i>The Birds of America</i>. +In the summer of 1860 Victor Audubon died; and on +February 21, 1862, his brother followed him into the silent +country. John Woodhouse Audubon's forty-nine years +were spent in collaborating with his father and brother, +but his independent fame is founded upon the manuscript +record of his 1849 journey from New York to California. +This most interesting manuscript was edited by his daughter, +Miss Maria R. Audubon, of Salem, New York, and +published as <i>Audubon's Western Journal: 1849-1850</i> +(Cleveland, Ohio, 1906). A more charming book of travels, +of Nature in many forms, would be difficult to name.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. The several lives of the great Audubon contain +much material for a study of his son. His daughter made an +excellent sketch of him for her edition of his <i>Western Journal: +1849-1850</i> (Cleveland, 1906).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">LOS ANGELES<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From Audubon's <i>Western Journal, 1849-1850</i> (Cleveland, 1906)]</p> + +<p>This "city of the angels" is anything else, unless the angels +are fallen ones. An antiquated, dilapidated air pervades all, but +Americans are pouring in, and in a few years will make a beautiful +place of it. It is well watered by a pretty little river, led off +in irrigating ditches like those at San Antonio de Bexar. The +whole town is surrounded to the south with very luxuriant vines, +and the grapes are quite delightful; we parted from them with +great regret, as fruit is such a luxury with us. Many of the men +took bushels, and only paid small sums for them.</p> + + +<p class="center">TULARE VALLEY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>One more day brought us to this great valley, and the view +from the last hill looking to northwest was quite grand, stretching +on one hand until lost in distance, and on the other the snowy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +mountains on the east of the Tulare valley. Here, for the first +time, I saw the Lewis woodpecker, and Steller's jay in this country. +I have seen many California vultures and a new hawk, +with a white tail and red shoulders. During the dry season this +great plain may be travelled on, but now numerous ponds and +lakes exist, and the ground is in places, for miles, too boggy to +ride over, so we were forced to skirt the hills. This compelled +us sometimes to take three days when two should have been +ample. Our journeys now are not more than twenty miles a day, +and our nights are so penetrating and cold, that four blankets +are not too many.</p> + + +<p class="center">CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO IN 1849</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>Christmas Day! Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas! Not +that here, to me at any rate, in this pandemonium of a city. Not +a <i>lady</i> to be seen, and the women, poor things, sad and silent, except +when drunk or excited. The place full of gamblers, hundreds +of them, and men of the lowest types, more blasphemous, +and with less regard for God and his commands than all I have +ever seen on the Mississippi, [in] New Orleans or Texas, which +give us the same class to some extent, it is true; but instead of a +few dozen, or a hundred, gaming at a time, here there are thousands, +and one house alone pays one hundred and fifty thousand +dollars per annum for the rent of the "Monte" tables.</p> + +<p>Sunday makes no difference, certainly not Christmas, except +for a little more drunkenness, and a little extra effort on the part +of the hotel keepers to take in more money.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ADRIEN_E_ROUQUETTE" id="ADRIEN_E_ROUQUETTE">ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE</a></h2> + + +<p>Adrien Emmanuel Rouquette, Louisiana's most distinguished +poet, was born at New Orleans, February 13, 1813, +the scion of an old and honorable Creole family, and the +brother of Francois Dominique Rouquette (1810-1890), +who was also a poet of much merit. From his boyhood +he had a great fancy for the American Indian, and among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +them he spent many of his early years. His academic +training was begun at Transylvania University of Lexington, +Kentucky, but as the old matriculation books have +disappeared, it now seems quite impossible to definitely +fix his period of residence. From Lexington Rouquette +journeyed to Paris, France, where he studied at the Royal +College and at Nantes and Remnes. He was graduated +from Remnes, March 26, 1833, and at once returned to New +Orleans. He had, however, developed into such an unconventional +fellow his family decided that a law course +in Paris was what he needed, so back to the capital of the +French he went. He soon abandoned the law and again +returned to New Orleans, where he took up his abode +among the Indians. In 1841 Rouquette published his +first and best book of poems, written wholly in French, entitled +<i>Les Savanes</i> (Paris and New Orleans). Nearly all +of the poems were upon Louisiana subjects, save the finest +one, <i>Souvenir de Kentucky</i>, an exquisite memorial of his +Kentucky days, written in 1838. As he was partly educated +in Kentucky and in praise of Kentucky wrote his +masterpiece, this State has a double claim upon him which, +though secondary to that of Louisiana, is none the less legitimate. +In 1842 the poet began his studies for the priesthood, +and three years later he was ordained and attached to the +Catholic cathedral at New Orleans. His subsequent works +include <i>Discours prononce a la Cathedral de Saint Louis</i> +(New Orleans, 1846); <i>Wild Flowers</i> (New Orleans, 1848); +<i>La Thebaide en Amerique</i> (New Orleans, 1852); <i>L'Antoniade</i> +(New Orleans, 1860), a long poem in which a solitary +life is extolled; <i>Poemes patriotiques</i> (New Orleans, 1860); +<i>St. Catherine Tegehkwitha</i> (New Orleans, 1873); and, <i>La +Nouvelle Atala</i> (New Orleans, 1879). In 1859 the Abbé +Rouquette established a mission for the Choctaw Indians +on the Bayou Lacombe, to which work he gave the larger +part of his life. Rouquette also turned into French the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +poems of Estelle Anna Lewis (1824-1880), the Baltimore +woman whom Poe admired; and he edited <i>Selections from +the Poets of all Countries</i>. The three great Louisiana +writers, Rouquette, the poet, Fortier, the critic, and Gayarré, +the historian, published pamphlets condemnatory of +Mr. George W. Cable's conceptions of Creole life and history +as set forth in his many books. The Abbé sent his out +anonymously, entitled <i>Critical Dialogue between Aboo +and Caboo on a New Book, or a Grandissime Ascension</i>, +edited by E. Junius (Great Publishing House of Sam Slick +Allspice, 12 Veracity street, Mingo City, 1880). From +the Creole standpoint <i>The Grandissimes</i> most probably +deserved to be satirized, but not in the cheap and easy +manner of this little pamphlet. It was a very unhappy +swan-song of senility for the Abbé Rouquette. He died +at New Orleans, July 15, 1887, lamented by his city and +state. Sainte-Beuve, though recognizing the influence of +Chateaubriand in Rouquette's work, praised him highly, +as did many of the other famous French critics of his day +and generation.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Cyclopaedia of American Literature</i>, by E. A. +and G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); <i>Louisiana Studies</i>, by +Alcée Fortier (New Orleans, 1894); <i>Literature of the Louisiana +Territory</i>, by A. N. DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Les Savanes, Poésies Americaines</i> (Paris, 1841)]</p> + +<p class="center">Kentucky, the bloody land!</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Le Seigneur dit à Osée: "Après cela, néanmoins, je l'attirerai +doucement à moi, je l'amènerai dans la solitude, et je lui +parlerai au coeur."—(<i>La Bible</i> Osee).</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Enfant, je dis un soir: Adieu, ma bonne mère!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et je quittai gaîment sa maison et sa terre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enfant, dans mon exil, une lettre, un matin,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +<span class="i0">(O Louise!) m'apprit que j'étais orphelin!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enfant, je vis les bois du Kentucky sauvage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et l'homme se souvient des bois de son jeune âge!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! dans le Kentucky les arbres sont bien beaux:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">C'est la <i>terre de sang</i>, aux indiens tombeaux,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Terre aux belles forêts, aux séculaires chênes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aux bois suivis de bois, aux magnifiques scènes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imposant cimetière, où dorment en repos<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tant de <i>rouges-tribus</i> et tant de <i>blanches-peaux</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Où l'ombre du vieux Boon, immobile génie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Semble écouter, la nuit, l'éternelle harmonie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Le murmure êternel des immenses déserts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ces mille bruits confus, ces mille bruits divers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cet orgue des forêts, cet orchestre sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Dieu! que seul tu fis, que seul ton souffle anime!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quand au vaste clavier pèse un seul de tes doigts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soudain, roulent dans l'air mille flots à la fois:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soudain, au fond des bois, sonores basiliques,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bourdonne un océan de sauvages musiques;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et l'homme, à tous ces sons de l'orgue universel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">L'homme tombe à genoux, en regardant le ciel!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Il tombe, il croit, il prie; et, chrétien sans étude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Il retrouve, étonné, Dieu dans la solitude!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A portion of this famous poem was translated by a writer in +<i>The Southern Quarterly Review</i> (July, 1854).</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here, with its Indian tombs, the Bloody Land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spreads out:—majestic forests, secular oaks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woods stretching into woods; a witching realm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet haunted with dread shadows;—a vast grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, laid together in the sleep of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rest myriads of the red men and the pale.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, the stern forest genius, veteran Boon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still harbors: still he hearkens, as of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To never ceasing harmonies, that blend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At night, the murmurs of a thousand sounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That rise and swell capricious, change yet rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne from far wastes immense, whose mingling strains—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The forest organ's tones, the sylvan choir—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy breath alone, O God! can'st animate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making it fruitful in the matchless space!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy mighty fingers pressing on its keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How suddenly the billowy tones roll up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the great temples of the solemn depths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resounding through the immensity of wood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the grand gushing harmonies, that speak<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thee, alone, O Father. As we hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unanimous concert of this mighty chaunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We bow before thee; eyes uplift to Heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We pray thee, and believe. A Christian sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Informs us, though untaught in Christian books<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Awed into worship, as we learn to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou, O God, art in the solitude!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="EMILY_V_MASON" id="EMILY_V_MASON">EMILY V. MASON</a></h2> + + +<p>Miss Emily Virginia Mason, biographer and anthologist, +was born at Lexington, Kentucky, October 15, 1815, the +sister of Stevens Thompson Mason, first governor of +Michigan. She was educated in Kentucky schools and in +a female seminary at Troy, New York. From 1845 until +1861 Miss Mason lived in Fairfax county, Virginia, but +when the Civil War began she left her home and volunteered +in the Confederate States hospital service; and she +was matron successively of hospitals in the Virginia towns +of Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Charlottesville, +Lynchburg, and Richmond. Miss Mason won a wide reputation +in this work, becoming one of the best loved of +Southern women. Almost immediately after the war her +first literary work was published, an anthology of <i>The +Southern Poems of the War</i> (Baltimore, 1867) which was +one of the first collection issued of verse which owed its +origin to the war. Her second book was what she always +said was the first life of Lee, though John Esten Cooke's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +account of the great soldier appeared about the same time, +entitled <i>A Popular Life of General Robert Edward Lee</i> +(Baltimore, 1871). This was followed by her edition of +<i>The Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia in 1798</i> (1871), +which enjoyed wide popularity among Virginians of her +generation. Miss Mason went to Paris, France, about +1870, and for the following fifteen years she was associate +principal of an American school for young women. Upon +her return to this country she established herself in an +attractive old Southern home at Georgetown, D. C., in +which she spent the remainder of her life. Miss Mason's +last literary work was <i>Memories of a Hospital Matron</i>, +which appeared in <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i> for September +and October of 1902. She was an able writer and a most +remarkable woman in many respects. Miss Mason died +at Georgetown, D. C., February 16, 1909, at the great age +of ninety-four years.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Southern Writers</i>, by W. P. Trent (New York, +1905); <i>The Washington Post</i> (February 17, 1909).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE DEATH OF LEE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Popular Life of General Robert E. Lee</i> (Baltimore, 1871)]</p> + +<p>On the evening of this day, 28th of September [1870] after a +morning of great fatigue, he attended the vestry meeting referred +to, returned home, and seated at the tea-table, opened his lips +to give thanks to God.</p> + +<p>The family looked up to see the parted lips, but heard no sound. +With that last thanksgiving his great heart broke.</p> + +<p>For many days his weeping friends hung over him, hoping +for a return of health and reason, but in vain. He murmured +of battles and sieges; of guarded tents and fields just won. +Among his last words were: "Strike my tent! Send for Hill!" +Remarkably coincident with those of his great lieutenant, Jackson, +whose words were: "Let A. P. Hill prepare for action! +March the infantry rapidly to the front! Let us cross the river +and rest under the shade of the trees."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 12th of October, the great +soldier breathed his last.</p> + +<p>The following day his body was borne to the college-chapel, +escorted by a guard of honor composed of Confederate soldiers. +Next the hearse was led General Lee's favorite horse "Traveller," +who had borne him in so many battles. The Trustees and Faculty +of the college, the cadets of the Military Institute, and the +citizens, followed in procession.</p> + +<p>Above the chapel floated the flag of Virginia, draped in mourning.</p> + +<p>Through this and the succeeding day, the body, covered with +flowers, lay in state, visited by thousands who came to look for +the last time upon his noble features.</p> + +<p>On the 15th, the last said rites were rendered, amid the tolling +of the bells, the sound of martial music, and the thundering of +artillery.</p> + +<p>The students, officers and soldiers of the Confederate army, +and about a thousand persons, assembled at the chapel. A military +escort, with the officers of General Lee's staff, were in the +front. The hearse followed, with the faithful "Traveller" close +behind it. Next came a committee of the Virginia Legislature, +with citizens from all parts of the State. Passing the Military +Institute, the cadets made the military salute as the body appeared, +then joined the procession, and escorted it back to the +chapel.</p> + +<p>It had been the request of General Lee that no funeral oration +should be pronounced over his remains. His old and long-tried +friend, the Rev. Wm. N. Pendleton, simply read the burial services +of the Episcopal Church, after which was lowered into a +tomb beneath the chapel all that was mortal of Robert E. Lee.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="EDMUND_FLAGG" id="EDMUND_FLAGG">EDMUND FLAGG</a></h2> + + +<p>Edmund Flagg, traveler, journalist, and poet, was born +at Wiscasset, Maine, November 24, 1815. Immediately +upon his graduation from Bowdoin College, in 1835, he +removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and became a teacher. +His letters written to the <i>Louisville Journal</i> while traveling +in the states of the Middle West, were afterwards collected, +revised, and published anonymously, entitled <i>The +Far West, or a Tour beyond the Mountains</i> (New York, +1838, two vols.). This work has been edited by Dr. Reuben +Gold Thwaites and published as volumes 26 and 27 of +<i>Early Western Travels</i> (Cleveland, 1906). In 1839 Flagg +became associate editor of the Louisville <i>Literary News-Letter</i>, +of which George D. Prentice was editor. All of +his poems of merit were published in the <i>Journal</i>, and +<i>News-Letter</i>. Flagg contributed both prose and verse to +the Louisville papers for nearly thirty-five years. Ill-health +compelled him to abandon journalism for law, and +at Vicksburg, Mississippi, he formed a partnership with +the celebrated Sargent Smith Prentiss. Two years later +he became editor of the <i>Gazette</i> at Marietta, Ohio. Flagg's +first two novels were issued about this time, entitled <i>Carrero</i> +(New York, 1842), and <i>Francois of Valois</i> (New +York, 1842). He was next editor of a publication at St. +Louis; and in 1849 he was secretary of the American +legation at Berlin. In 1850-1851 he was United States +consul at Venice. He afterwards returned to St. Louis +and to journalism. Two of his plays, <i>Blanche of Artois</i>, +and <i>The Howard Queen</i>, were well received at Louisville, +Cincinnati, and several other cities. In 1853 Flagg's +<i>Venice, the City of the Sea</i>, appeared, and it won him a +wide reputation. <i>North Italy since 1849</i>, issued some +years later, resumed the story of Venice where his first +work had left off, and brought it down to date. Flagg +was afterwards connected with the State department in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +Washington, and under an order from Congress he prepared +his famous <i>Report on the Commercial Relations of +the United States with all Foreign Nations</i> (Washington, +1856-1857, four vols.). His final work was a novel, <i>De +Molai, the Last of the Military Templars</i> (1888). Edmund +Flagg died at Salem, Virginia, in 1890. He is most certainly +a Kentucky poet, journalist, and traveler, but his +fame as a dramatist, historian, and novelist belongs +wholly to other states.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Literature of the Louisiana Territory</i>, by A. N. +DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904); Adams's <i>Dictionary of American +Authors</i> (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Louisville Literary News-Letter</i>]</p> + +<p>Ages since—long ere the first son of the Old World had +pressed the fresh soil of the New—long before the bright region +beyond the blue waves had become the object of the philosopher's +reverie by day, and the enthusiast's vision by night—in +the deep stillness and solitude of an unpeopled land, these vast +mausoleums rose as they now rise, in lonely grandeur from the +plain and looked down even as now they look, upon the giant +floods rolling their dark waters at their base, hurrying past them +to the deep. So has it been with the massive tombs of Egypt, +amid the sands and barrenness of the desert. For ages untold +have the gloomy pyramids been reflected by the inundations of +the Nile; an hundred generations, they tell us, have arisen from +the cradle, and reposed beneath their shadows, and like autumn +leaves have dropped into the grave; but, from the midnight of +bygone centuries, comes forth no darting spirit to claim these +kingly sepulchres as his own! And shall the dusky piles, on the +plains of distant Egypt affect so deeply our reverence for the +departed, and these mighty monuments, reposing in dark sublimity +upon our own magnificent prairies, vailed in mystery more +inscrutable than they, call forth no solitary throb? Is there no +hallowing interest associated with these aged relics—these tombs, +and temples, and towers' of another race, to elicit emotion? Are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +they indeed to us no more than the dull clods we tread upon? +Why then does the wanderer from the far land gaze upon them +with wonder and veneration? Why linger fondly around them, +and meditate upon the power which reared them, and is departed? +Why does the poet, the man of genius and fancy, or +the philosopher of mind and nature, seat himself at their base, +and with strange and undefined emotions, pause and ponder, +amid the loneliness that slumbers around? And surely, if the far +traveler, as he wanders through this Western Valley, may linger +around these aged piles, and meditate upon a power departed—a +race obliterated—an influence swept from the earth forever—and +dwell with melancholy emotions upon the destiny of man, +is it not meet, that those into whose keeping they seem by Providence +consigned, should regard them with interest and emotion?—that +they should gather up and preserve every incident relevant +to their origin, design, or history, which may be attained, +and avail themselves of every measure, which may give to them +perpetuity, and hand them down, undisturbed in form or character, +to other generations?</p> + +<p>That these venerable piles are of the workmanship of man's +hand, no one, who with unprejudiced opinion has examined them, +can doubt. But with such an admission, what is the cloud of +reflections, which throng and startle the mind? What a series +of unanswerable inquiries succeed! When were these enormous +earth heaps reared up from the plain? By what race of beings +was the vast undertaking accomplished? What was their purpose?—what +changes in their form and magnitude have taken +place?—what vicissitudes and revolutions have, in the lapse of +centuries, rolled like successive waves over the plains at their +base? As we reflect, we anxiously look around us for some tradition—some +time-stained chronicle—some age-worn record—even +the faintest and most unsatisfactory legend, upon which to +repose our credulity, and relieve the inquiring solicitude of the +mind. But our research is hopeless. The present race of Aborigines +can tell nothing of these tumuli. To them as to us they +are vailed in mystery. Ages since—long ere the white-face +came—while this fair land was yet the home of his fathers—the +simple Indian stood before the venerable earth-heap, and +gazed, and wondered, and turned away.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CATHERINE_A_WARFIELD" id="CATHERINE_A_WARFIELD">CATHERINE A. WARFIELD</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Catherine Ann Warfield, poet and novelist, was +born at Natchez, Mississippi, June 6, 1816, the daughter +of Nathaniel H. Ware. She was educated at Philadelphia +with her sister, Eleanor P. Ware Lee (1820-1849), with +whom she afterwards collaborated in her first two volumes. +Catherine Ware was married at Cincinnati, in +1833, to Robert Elisha Warfield, of Lexington, Kentucky, +and Kentucky was her home henceforth. <i>The Wife of +Leon, and Other Poems, by Two Sisters of the West</i> (New +York, 1844), and <i>The Indian Chamber, and Other Poems</i> +(New York, 1846) were the works of the sisters. In 1857 +Mrs. Warfield removed from Lexington to Pewee Valley, +Kentucky, near Louisville, and some three years later her +masterpiece appeared, entitled <i>The Household of Bouverie</i> +(New York, 1860, two vols.). This work brought her into +wide notice. During the Civil War Mrs. Warfield wrote +some of the most spirited lyrics which that mighty conflict +called forth. After the war she turned again to +prose fiction, producing the following books: <i>The Romance +of the Green Seal</i> (1867); <i>Miriam Monfort</i> (1873); +<i>A Double Wedding</i> (1875); <i>Hester Howard's Temptation</i> +(1875); <i>Lady Ernestine</i> (1876); <i>Miriam's Memoirs</i> +(1876); <i>Sea and Shore</i> (1876); <i>Ferne Fleming</i> (1877); +and her last novel, <i>The Cardinal's Daughter</i> (1877). Mrs. +Warfield died at Pewee Valley, Kentucky, May 21, 1877, +at the time of her greatest popularity. Of her books <i>The +Household of Bouverie</i> is the only one that is generally +known to-day, and is, perhaps, the only one that is at all +readable and interesting. Mrs. Warfield was an early +edition of "The Duchess" and Mary Jane Holmes, though +she did write fine war lyrics and one good story, which is +just a bit better than either of the other two women did.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Women of the South Distinguished in Literature</i>, +by Mary Forrest (New York, 1861); <i>Library of Southern +Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Household of Bouverie</i> (New York, 1860, v. ii)]</p> + +<p>Another queer scene with little Paul, whose quaint ways divert +and mystify me all the time. During Mr. Bouverie's absence of +a week, I have nothing else to amuse me nor to write about. He +has called me familiarly "Camilla" until now; but fearing that +Mr. Bouverie might not like the appellation, or rather that it +might make me appear too childish in his sight, I said to him +recently:</p> + +<p>"Paul, you are a little fellow, and I am your guardian's wife. +Don't you think it would sound better if you were to add a +handle to my name, as common folks say? Call me 'Cousin Camilla' +or 'Aunt Camilla,' whichever you prefer; which shall it +be, Quintil?"</p> + +<p>"Neither," he replied, manfully, "for you are neither of those +things to me, and I do not like to tell stories; but I will call you 'madam,' if you choose, as you are a 'madam;'" and something +like a sneer wreathed his childish lips.</p> + +<p>"A foolish little madam, you think, Paul!" I rejoined, half +in pique, half in playfulness.</p> + +<p>"Why that is the very name for you," he said, brightening +with the thought. "'Little Madam!' I will call you so; but I +will not put in the foolish," he added, gravely, "for, perhaps, +you will change after a while and grow wiser."</p> + +<p>He spoke very seriously, sorrowfully almost, and I was quite +provoked for a moment to be set down in this fashion, by such a +mere babe and suckling. I was glad of the opportunity presented +to me of snubbing him by noticing a streak of molasses on his +cheek.</p> + +<p>"Go wash your face, Paul," I said, "it is dirty!"</p> + +<p>He walked gravely to the glass and surveyed the stain. "Looking +glasses are useful things, after all," he said; "they tell the +truth—see 'Little Madam,' how you are mistaken! my face is +not dirty, only soiled; food is not dirt—if it were, we should all +starve."</p> + +<p>He turned and smiled at me in his peculiar way, half mocking, +half affectionate.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yet, as you bid me," he added, "I will wash it off; but isn't +it a pity to waste what would keep a bee alive a whole day!"</p> + +<p>Is this brat a humorist?</p> + +<p>He has brought out of his funny little trunk the oddest present +for me! It is a Medusa's head admirably carved in alabaster, and +was broken from the side of a vase by accident, and given to him +by a lady, at whose house he made a visit with Mr. Bouverie.</p> + +<p>He considers it a priceless treasure. There is a vague horror +to me in the face that is almost insupportable. The snaky hair, +the sightless, glaring eyes, are so mysteriously dreadful. He +says it will answer for a paper weight. No, Paul, I will lay it +away out of sight forever.</p> + + +<p class="center">A PLEDGE TO LEE</p> + +<p class="center">(Written for a Kentucky Company)</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Southern Poems of the War</i>, edited by Emily V. Mason (Baltimore, 1867)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We pledge thee, Lee!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In water or wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In blood or in brine,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">What matter the sign?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether brilliantly glowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or darkly overflowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">So the cup is divine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we fill to thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Vanquished—victorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Gloomy or glorious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fainting and bleeding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Advancing, receding,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lingering or leading,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Captive or free;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With swords raised on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With hearts nerved to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or to grasp victory;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hand to hand—knee to knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a wild three times three<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +<span class="i0">We pledge thee, Lee!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We pledge thee, chief:<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the name of our nation,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Her wide devastation,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Her sore desolation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her grandeur and grief!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where'er thou warrest<br /></span> +<span class="i15">When our need is the sorest,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or in Fortress or forest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bidest thy time;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Thou—Heaven elected,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Thou—Angel-protected,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Thou—Brother selected,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What e'er thy fate be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our trust is in thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And our faith is sublime.<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With swords raised on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With hearts nerved to die,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or to grasp victory;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Hand to hand—knee to knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With a wild three times three,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We pledge thee, Lee!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="J_ROSS_BROWNE" id="J_ROSS_BROWNE">J. ROSS BROWNE</a></h2> + + +<p>John Ross Browne, humorist and traveler, was born in +Ireland, in 1817, but when an infant his father came to +America and settled at Louisville, Kentucky. Browne +was educated in the Louisville schools, and studied medicine +for a time under several well-known physicians. +When eighteen years old he went to New Orleans; and +this journey kindled his passion for travel that ended only +with his death. Browne took the whole world for his +home. He first went almost around the globe on a whaling +vessel, and on his return to this country, he published +his first book, called <i>Etchings of a Whaling Cruise</i> (New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +York, 1846). Browne was private secretary for Robert +J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, for a time, but, in +1849, he went to California as a government commissioner; +and in 1851 he went to Europe as a newspaper correspondent. +A tour of Palestine is described in Browne's +most famous book, <i>Yusef, or the Journey of the Frangi</i> +(New York, 1853). He shortly afterwards returned to +the United States and became an inspector of customs +on the Pacific coast; but the year of 1861 found him again +in Europe, residing at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Browne's +next work was <i>Crusoe's Island</i> (New York, 1864). His +family's residence in Germany resulted in the author publishing +<i>An American Family in Germany</i> (New York, +1866), one of his most delightful volumes. Browne's +travels in northern Europe are described in <i>The Land of +Thor</i> (New York, 1867). He now returned to America +and made his home in California. He investigated the +mineral resources of the country west of the Rocky Mountains, +and his report was issued as <i>Resources of the Pacific +Slope</i> (1869). <i>Adventures in the Apache Country</i> +(1869), was his last book. Browne was appointed United +States Minister to China on March 11, 1868, but he was +recalled sixteen months later. He died at Oakland, California, +December 9, 1875. Most of his volumes are very +cleverly illustrated with his own comical sketches of characters +and scenes. That J. Ross Browne was a man of +very considerable ability in several directions admits of +no argument.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1887, v. i); <i>National Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1900, v. viii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">LAPDOGS IN GERMANY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>An American Family in Germany</i> (New York, 1866)]</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable sights is the dog-fancier—a strapping +six-foot dandy, leading after him, with silken strings, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +whole brood of nasty little poodles. This fellow is a type of the +class; you meet them everywhere at every Continental city. +There are thousands of them in Frankfort, men strangely infatuated +on the subject of little dogs. Now pardon me if I devote +some serious reflections to this extraordinary and unreasonable +propensity, which, I fear, is rapidly taking root in the hearts of +the American people, especially the female portion of our population. +In men it is often excusable; they may be driven to it +by unrequited affection. I never see a fine-looking fellow leading +a gang of little poodle-dogs after him, that I don't imagine +he has had some dreadful experience in the line of true love; but +with the opposite sex the case is quite different. "If women +have one weakness more marked than another," says Mrs. Beecher +Stowe, in a very eloquent passage of the "Minister's Wooing," +"it is toward veneration. They are born worshippers—makers +of silver shrines for some divinity or other, which, of +course, they always think fell straight down from heaven." And, +in illustration of this very just remark, she refers to instances +where celebrated preachers and divines have stood like the image +that Nebuchadnezzar the king set up, "and all womankind, coquettes +and flirts not excepted, have been ready to fall down and +worship, even before the sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and +so forth," where the most gifted and accomplished of the sex +"have turned away from the flattery of admirers, to prostrate +themselves at the feet of a genuine hero, who never moved them +except by heroic deeds and the rhetoric of a noble life"—a most +striking and beautiful trait in woman's character to which all +homage should be rendered. She clingeth unto man, even as the +ivy clingeth unto the oak. But does anybody pretend to tell me +that man is always the lucky recipient of this devotion? Alas, +no! Not always for him is it that women are burdened with this +load of "fealty, faith, and reverence more than they know what +to do with;" not always for him is it that "They stand like a +hedge of sweet peas, throwing out fluttering tendrils everywhere +for something high and strong to climb by." Alas! man is but +a cipher among the objects of woman's heroic devotion. I have +a lady in my eye who from early youth has bestowed the tenderest +affections of her heart upon poll-parrots; another, who for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +years has wept over the woes of a little chicken; who would abandon +her midnight slumber to minister to the afflictions of a lame +turkey, and insensible to the appeals of her lover, only relax in +her severity when moved by the plaintive mewing of a cat; another, +who, in the bosom of her family, and tenderly adored by her +husband, has long since yielded to the fascinating allurement +of a sewing-machine, and wrapped around its cogwheels, cotton +spools, and hammering needles the poetry of a romantic attachment; +and, lastly, the particular case in point, at which I marvel +most of all, three most bewitching young ladies, of acknowledged +beauty, who are hopelessly and irrevocably gone in love with—what +do you think? Not a man, erect and noble, with the brow +of Jove and eye of Mars; not even a horse, the paragon of beautiful +and intelligent animals, or a lion, the king of the forest; but +a miserable, dirty, nasty, little lapdog; a snappish, foul-eyed +inodorous, sneaking little brute, which even the very cats hold in +contempt! And yet they love it; at least they say so, and I have +no reason to dispute their word. Have I not heard them, morning, +noon, and night, protest their devotion to the dear little Fidel—the +precious, beautiful little Fidel—the adorable love of a +little Fidel! Oh, it is enough to make the angels weep to see the +grace and fondness with which this horrid little wretch is caught +up in those tender white arms, and hugged to those virgin bosoms +and kissed by those pouting and honeyed lips! Faugh! It +drives me mad. What is the use of wasting so much sweetness +when there are thousands of good, honest fellows actually pining +away from unrequited affection? brave sons of toil, ready at a +moment's notice to be caressed by these sweet-pea vines, who are +throwing out their fluttering tendrils for something high and +strong to cling to. I leave it to any honest miner, if it is not provoking +to the last degree to see the noblest capacity of woman's +nature thus cruelly and wastefully perverted—the choicest affections +devoted to a miserable, disgusting, and unsympathizing +little monster—the very honey of their lips lavished on that foul +and mucous nose, which, if it knows anything, must know some +thing not fit to be mentioned to polite ears. Heaven! how often +have I longed to have a good fair kick at one of these pampered +little brutes. Only think of the care taken of them, while widows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +and orphans are shivering in the cold and perishing of hunger. +The choicest pieces of meat cut up for them, potatoes and gravy +mixed, delicate morsels of bread; the savory mess put before them +by delicate hands, and swallowed into their delicate stomachs, +and too often rejected by those delicate organs, to the detriment +of the carpet. And then, when this delectable subject of woman's +adoration is rubbed, and scrubbed, and pitied, and physicked, +and thoroughly combed out from head to foot, with every +love-lock of his glossy hair filtered of its fleas, how tenderly he is +laid upon the bed or clasped in the embraces of beauty! Shade +of Cupid! what a happy thing it is to be a lapdog! Well might +the immortal Bard of Avon prefer to be a dog that bayed the +moon rather than an indifferent poet. For my part, I'd sooner +be wrapped in the arms of beauty than be King of the Cannibal +Islands. That strange infatuation of feminine instinct which +lends to the head-dress, at an approaching bridal, a degree of +importance to which the expected groom can never aspire; which +sees the destinies of the whole matrimonial career centred in the +fringe of a nightgown; which seeks advice and consolation in the +pattern of a reception-dress; which would shrink from the fearful +sacrifice of liberty but for the magic power of new bonnets, new +gloves, and embroidered handkerchiefs—that we can all understand; +these are woman's coy devices to tantalize mankind; these +are the probationary tortures inflicted upon him through mere +wantonness and love of mischief. But when the richest treasures +of her affection, the most divine essence of her being, the Promethean +spark warm from her virgin heart, for which worlds are +lost and won—when these are cast away upon a nauseous little +lapdog, ye gods! what can poor mortals do but abandon their +humanity! It is shocking to think of such competition, but how +can we help it if young ladies give themselves up to dog worship? +I sincerely trust this Continental fashion may never take root in +California. Should it do so, farewell all hope for the honest sons +of toil; it will then be the greatest of good fortunes to be born a +lapdog!</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="ROB_MORRIS" id="ROB_MORRIS">ROB MORRIS</a></h2> + + +<p>Robert Morris, who is generally bracketed with Albert +Pike as the most distinguished writer and craftsman +American Masonry has produced, was born near Boston, +Massachusetts, August 31, 1818. He was made a Mason +in Mississippi, in 1846, and this was the beginning of a +Masonic career almost without parallel in the history of +the fraternity. Morris, of course, received all of the +higher degrees in Masonry, but the most momentous thing +he did as a craftsman was to establish the Order of the +Eastern Star in 1850—the year he became a Kentuckian. +In September, 1854, while living in southern Kentucky, +Morris wrote his most celebrated poem, entitled <i>The Level +and the Square</i>, which was first published in his magazine, +<i>The American Freemason</i>, of Louisville, Kentucky. Rudyard +Kipling lifted a line from it for his equally famous +poem, <i>The Mother Lodge</i>. Although Morris revised +his lines many times, the original version is far and away +the finest. In 1858 he was elected Grand Master of the +Grand Lodge of Kentucky; and two years later he removed +his residence to La Grange, Kentucky, the little +town with which his fame is intertwined. Morris wrote +several well-known religious songs, <i>Sweet Galilee</i>, being +the best of them. He was the author of many books upon +Masonry, his <i>Lights and Shadows of Freemasonry</i> (Louisville, +1852), being the first work in Masonic belles-lettres. +This was followed by his <i>History of the Morgan Affair</i> +(New York, 1852); <i>Life in the Triangle</i> (1853); <i>The Two +Saints John</i> (1854); <i>Code of Masonic Law</i> (Louisville, +1855), the pioneer work on Masonic jurisprudence; <i>Masonic +Book of American Adoptive Rights</i> (1855); <i>History +of Freemasonry in Kentucky</i> (Frankfort, 1859), his most +important historical work; <i>Synopsis of Masonic Laws</i> +(1859); <i>Tales of Masonic Life</i> (1860); <i>Masonic Odes and +Poems</i> (New York, 1864); <i>Biography of Eli Bruce</i> (1867);<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +<i>Dictionary of Freemasonry</i> (1872); <i>Manual of the Queen +of the South</i> (1876); <i>Knights Templar's Trumpet</i> (1880); +<i>Freemasonry in the Holy Land</i> (New York, 1882), an excellent +work; <i>The Poetry of Freemasonry</i> (New York, +1884), upon the publication of which, the author was invited +to New York City and crowned "The Poet Laureate +of Freemasonry," December 17, 1884; and, <i>Magnum Opus</i> +(1886). Morris was one of the foremost numismatics of +his day and generation in America, his works on this science +being <i>The Twelve Caesars</i>, and <i>Numismatic Pilot</i>. +He was also the author of several works designed especially +for the officers of a Masonic lodge; and he edited in +thirty volumes <i>The Universal Masonic Library</i>, besides +editing from time to time four Masonic magazines. Rob +Morris, to give him the name by which he is best known, +died at La Grange, Kentucky, July 31, 1888.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); <i>Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. iv).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The American Freemason</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, September 15, 1854)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come let us contemplate them, they are worthy of our thought—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the highest and the lowest, and the rarest they are fraught.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We meet upon the Level, though from every station come—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The King from out his palace and the poor man from his home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the one must leave his diadem without the Mason's door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the other finds his true respect upon the checkered floor.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We part upon the Square for the world must have its due;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We mingle with its multitude, a cold, unfriendly crew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the influence of our gatherings in memory is green,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And we long, upon the Level, to renew the happy scene.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There's a world where all are equal—we are hurrying towards it fast—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall meet upon the Level there when the gates of death are passed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall stand before the Orient, and our Master will be there<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To try the blocks we offer His unerring square.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We shall meet upon the Level there, but never thence depart:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's a mansion—'tis all ready for each zealous, faithful heart:—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's a Mansion and a welcome, and a multitude is there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who have met upon the Level and been tried upon the Square.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let us meet upon the Level, then, while laboring patient here—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us meet and let us labor tho' the labor seem severe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Already in the western sky the signs bid us prepare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gather up our working tools and part upon the square.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hands around, ye faithful Ghiblimites, the bright, fraternal chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We part upon the Square below to meet in heaven again;—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, what words of precious meaning those words Masonic are—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="AMELIA_B_WELBY" id="AMELIA_B_WELBY">AMELIA B. WELBY</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Amelia B. Welby, Kentucky's most famous female +poet of the mid-century, was born at St. Michael's, Maryland, +February 3, 1819. When she was fifteen years old +her family removed to Louisville, Kentucky, the city of +her fame. In 1837, George D. Prentice, with his wonderful +nose for finding female verse-makers, added Amelia +to his already long and ever-increasing list. He printed +her first poem in his <i>Journal</i>, and crowned her as the finest +branch of his poetical tree. His declaration that she +possessed the divine afflatus meant nothing, as he had said +the same thing about many another sentimental single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +lady, pining upon the peaks of poesy. But Edgar +Allan Poe and Rufus W. Griswold soon separated her +from the versifiers and placed her among the poets, and +thus her fame has come down to us with fragrance. In +June, 1838, Amelia was married to George Welby, a Louisville +merchant, who also held her to be a poet born in the +purple. Mrs. Welby's verse became well-known and +greatly admired in many parts of the country, and, in +response to numerous requests for a volume of her work, +she collected her <i>Journal</i> verse and published it under the +title of <i>Poems by Amelia</i> (Boston, 1845). A second edition +was published the following year, and by 1860 the volume +was said to be in its seventeenth edition! Robert W. Weir's +illustrated edition of her poems was issued in 1850, and +this is the most desirable form in which her work has been +preserved. These various editions will at once convey +some idea of her great popularity. With Poe, Prentice, +and Griswold singing her praises, and the public purchasing +her poems as rapidly as they could be made into books, +Amelia's fame seemed secure. To-day, however, no one +has read any of her verse save <i>The Rainbow</i>, which has +been set down as her best poem, and she has become essentially +an historical personage, the keepsake of Kentucky +letters. While the greater number of her poems are quite +unreadable, her elegy for Miss Laura M. Thurston, a sister +versifier, is well done and her finest piece of work. +Mrs. Welby died at Louisville, May 3, 1852, when but +thirty-three years of age. Had she lived longer, and the +poetic appreciation of the American people suffered no +change, the heights to which she would have attained can +be but vaguely guessed at.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Female Poets of America</i>, by R. W. Griswold +(Philadelphia, 1856); <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by +W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">THE RAINBOW</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Poems by Amelia</i> (Boston, 1845)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I sometimes have thoughts, in my loneliest hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That lie on my heart like the dew on the flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When my heart was as light as a blossom in June;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While a single white cloud, to its haven of rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the white-wing of peace, floated off in the west.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That scattered the rain-drops and dimpled the seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its soft-tinted pinions of purple and gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas born in a moment, yet, quick as its birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It had stretched to the uttermost ends of the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, fair, as an angel, it floated as free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How calm was the ocean! how gentle its swell!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a woman's soft bosom it rose and it fell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bent my young head, in devotion and love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Neath the form of the angel, that floated above.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How boundless its circle! how radiant its rings!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I looked on the sky, 'twas suspended in air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus forming a girdle, as brilliant and whole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the thoughts of the rainbow, that circled my soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the wing of the Deity, calmly unfurled,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +<span class="i0">It bent from the cloud and encircled the world.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All fluttering with pleasure, and fluttering with love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I know that each moment of rapture or pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But shortens the links in life's mystical chain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know that my form, like that bow from the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must pass from the earth, and lie cold in the grave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet O! when death's shadows my bosom encloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, edited by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She has passed, like a bird, from the minstrel throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She has gone to the land where the lovely belong!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her place is hush'd by her lover's side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet his heart is full of his fair young bride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hopes of his spirit are crushed and bowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he thinks of his love in her long white shroud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the fragrant sighs of her perfumed breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were kissed from her lips by his rival—Death.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cold is her bosom, her thin white arms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All mutely crossed o'er its icy charms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As she lies, like a statue of Grecian art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a marbled brow and a cold hushed heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her locks are bright, but their gloss is hid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her eye is sunken 'neath its waxen lid:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus she lies in her narrow hall—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Our fair young minstrel—the loved of all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Light as a bird's were her springing feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her heart as joyous, her song as sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet never again shall that heart be stirred<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With its glad wild songs like a singing bird:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er again shall the strains be sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in sweetness dropped from her silver tongue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The music is o'er, and Death's cold dart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath broken the spell of that free, glad heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Often at eve, when the breeze is still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the moon floats up by the distant hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I wander alone 'mid the summer bowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wreathe my locks with the sweet wild flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will think of the time when she lingered there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her mild blue eyes and her long fair hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will treasure her name in my bosom-core;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But my heart is sad—I can sing no more.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="Chap" /> + +<h2><a name="CHARLES_W_WEBBER" id="CHARLES_W_WEBBER">CHARLES W. WEBBER</a></h2> + + +<p>Charles Wilkins Webber, the foremost Kentucky writer +of prose fiction and adventure of the old school, was born +at Russellville, Kentucky, May 29, 1819, the son of Dr. +Augustine Webber, a noted Kentucky physician. In 1838 +young Webber went to Texas where he was with the Rangers +for several years. He later returned to Kentucky +and studied medicine at Transylvania University, Lexington, +which he soon abandoned for a brief course at +Princeton Theological Seminary, with the idea of entering +the Presbyterian ministry. A short time afterwards, +however, he settled at New York as a literary man. Webber +was connected with several newspapers and periodicals, +being associate editor of <i>The Whig Review</i> for about +two years. His first book, called <i>Old Hicks, the Guide</i> +(New York, 1848) was followed by <i>The Gold Mines of the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +<i>Gila</i> (New York, 1849, two vols.). In 1849 Webber organized +an expedition to the Colorado country, but it utterly +failed. Several of his other books were now published: +<i>The Hunter-Naturalist</i> (Philadelphia, 1851); <i>Tales of the +Southern Border</i> (1852; 1853); <i>Texas Virago</i> (1852); +<i>Wild Girl of Nebraska</i> (1852); <i>Spiritual Vampirism</i> +(Philadelphia, 1853); <i>Jack Long, or the Shot in the Eye</i> +(London, 1853), his masterpiece; <i>Adventures with Texas +Rifle Rangers</i> (London, 1853); <i>Wild Scenes in the Forest +and Prairie</i> (London, 1854); and his last book, <i>History of +Mystery</i> (Philadelphia, 1855). In 1855 Webber joined +William Walker's expedition to Central America, and in +the battle of Rivas, he was mortally wounded. He died +at Nicaragua, April 11, 1856, in the thirty-seventh year of +his age. Webber's career is almost as interesting as his +stories. In fact, he put so much of his life into his works +that all of them may be said to be largely autobiographical.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Cyclopaedia of American Literature</i>, by E. A. +and G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia +of American Biography</i> (New York, 1888, v. vi).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie, or the Romance of Natural +History</i> (London, 1854)]</p> + +<p>"The Bridge" at Jessup's River is well known to sportsmen; +and to this point we made our first flyfishing expedition. The +eyes of Piscator glistened at the thought, and early was he busied +with hasty fingers through an hour of ardent preparation amongst +his varied and complicated tackle. Now was his time for triumph. +In all the ruder sports in which we had heretofore been engaged, I, +assisted by mere chance, had been most successful; but now the +infallible certainty of skill and science were to be demonstrated in +himself, and the orthodoxy of flies vindicated to my unsophisticated +sense.</p> + +<p>The simple preparations were early completed; the cooking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +apparatus, which was primitive enough to suit the taste of an +ascetic, consisted in a single frying-pan. The blankets, with the +guns, ammunition, rods, etc., were all disposed in the wagon of +our host, which stood ready at the door. It was a rough affair, +with stiff wooden springs, like all those of the country, and suited +to the mountainous roads they are intended to traverse, rather +than for civilized ideas of comfort. We, however, bounded into +the low-backed seat; and if it had been cushioned to suit royalty, +we could not have been more secure than we were of such comfort +as a backwood sportsman looks for. We soon found ourselves +rumbling, pitching, and jolting, over a road even worse than that +which brought us first to the lake. It seemed to me that nothing +but the surprising docility of the ponies which drew us, could +have saved us, strong wagon and all, from being jolted to atoms. +I soon got tired of this, and sprang out with my gun, determined +to foot it ahead, in the hope of seeing a partridge or red squirrel.</p> + +<p>We arrived at the "bridge" about the middle of the afternoon. +There we found an old field called Wilcox's clearing, and, like all +places I had seen in this fine grazing region, it was still well +sodded down in blue grass and clover. Our luggage having been +deposited in the shantee, consisting almost entirely of boards torn +from the old house, which were leaned against the sides of two +forks placed a few feet apart, we set off at once for the falls, a +short distance above. This was merely an initial trial, to obtain +enough for dinner, and find the prognostics of the next day's +sport in feeling the manner of the fish.</p> + +<p>At the falls the river is only about fifteen feet wide, though +its average width is from twenty-five to thirty. The water +tumbles over a ledge of about ten feet, at the bottom of which is a +fine hole, while on the surface sheets of foam are whirled round +and round upon the tormented eddies, for the stream has considerable +volume and power.</p> + +<p>We stepped cautiously along the ledge, Piscator ahead, and +holding his flies ready for a cast, which was most artistically +made, not without a glance of triumph at me, then preparing to +do the same with the humble angle-worm. The "flies" fall—I +see the glance of half a dozen golden sides darting at them; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +by this time my own cast is made, and I am fully occupied with +the struggles of a fine trout.</p> + +<p>My companion's success was again far short of mine, and seeing +him looking at my trout lying beside me, I said: "Try the +worms, good Piscator—here they are. This is not the right time +of day for them to take the flies in this river, I judge."</p> + +<p>Improving the door of escape thus opened to him, he took off +the flies and used worms with immediate and brilliant success, +which brought back the smile to his face; and he would now and +then as calmly brush away the distracting swarm of flies from +his face, as if they had been mere innocent motes. But later that +evening came a temporary triumph for Piscator. The hole at the +falls was soon exhausted, and we moved down to glean the ripples. +It was nearly sunset, and here the pertinacious Piscator determined +to try the flies again. He cast with three, and instantly +struck two half-pound trout, which, after a spirited play, he +safely landed. Rarely have I seen a prouder look of triumph +than that which glowed on his face as he bade me "look there!" +when he landed them.</p> + +<p>"Very fine, Piscator—a capital feat! but I fear it was an +accident. You will not get any more that way."</p> + +<p>"We shall see, sir," said he, and commenced whipping the +water again, but to no avail, while I continued throwing them out +with great rapidity.</p> + +<p>I abstained from watching him, for I had no desire to spoil his +evening sport by taunting him to continue his experiment. I +soon observed him throwing out the fish with great spirit again. +I merely shouted to him across the stream—"the angle-worm +once more, Piscator?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!" with a laugh.</p> + +<p>As the sun went down the black gnats began to make themselves +felt in their smarting myriads, and we forthwith beat a +hasty retreat to the shantee.</p> + +<p>We had taken about ten pounds of trout; and the first procedure, +after reaching the camp, was to build a "smudge," or +smoke-fire, to drive away these abominable gnats, which fortunately +take flight with the first whiff of smoke, and the next was to +prepare the fish for dinner, though not till all had been carefully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +dressed by the guide, and placed in the cold current of the little +spring near, that they might keep sound. Now came the rousing +fire, and soon some splendid trout were piled upon dishes of fresh +pealed elm bark before us. They were very skillfully cooked, and +no epicure ever enjoyed a feast more thoroughly than we did our +well-flavored and delicious trout, in that rude shantee.</p> + +<p>The feast being over, then to recline back upon the fresh couch +of soft spruce boughs, and, with a cigar in mouth, watch the gathering +night-shades brooding lower and more low upon the thick +wild forest in front, far into the depths of which the leaping flames +of our crackling fire go, darting now and then with a revealing +tongue of quick light, and listening to the owl make hoarse answer +to the wolf afar off—to think of wild passages in a life of adventure +years ago amidst surroundings such as this; with the additional +spice of peril from savages and treacherous foes, and then, +as the hushed life subsides into a stiller mood, see the faces of loved +ones come to you through the darkness, with a smile from out +your distant home, and while it sinks sweetly on your heart, subside +into happy and dream-peopled slumber! "This is bliss!" +the bliss of the shantee to the wearied sportsman! a bliss unattainable +by the toiler, and still more by the lounger of the city.</p> + +<p>We were on foot with the sun next morning, and after another +feast, which we appreciated with unpalled appetites, we set off +for some deep spring holes nearly a mile above the falls. The +morning set cloudy, and rain fell piteously for several hours. +But if this change detracted from our sport, it at least served to +give zest to the evening's shelter and repose.</p> + +<p>I never felt more delightfully than I did when I sat down to a +fine dinner that evening in the old tavern, and very much of this +pleasurable feeling of entire comfort I attributed to the prompt +use of the cold bath, on reaching our temporary home, wet, weary, +and shivering with cold. This, with a change of clothes, restored +me to a healthy glow of warmth, ready to enjoy whatever our +host might provide.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="DR_L_J_FRAZEE" id="DR_L_J_FRAZEE">DR. L. J. FRAZEE</a></h2> + + +<p>Dr. Lewis Jacob Frazee, author of a little volume of travels +of considerable charm, was born at Germantown, Kentucky, +August 23, 1819. He was prepared for college at the +Maysville Academy, celebrated as the school at which +young U. S. Grant spent one year. He was graduated +from Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in the +class of 1837; and four years later he graduated in the +medical department of the University of Louisville. On +April 9, 1844, Dr. Frazee left Maysville, Kentucky, for a +long sojourn in Europe, spending most of his time in Paris +studying subjects then untaught in this country. He also +visited England and the continent before returning home. +These travels Dr. Frazee related in a book of nearly three +hundred pages, entitled <i>The Medical Student in Europe</i> +(Maysville, Kentucky, 1849), which is now an exceedingly +rare work. The style is natural and clear and exhibits +genuine literary flavor. He settled at Louisville in 1851. +His only other publication was <i>The Mineral Waters of +Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1872), a brochure. Dr. Frazee +took a keen interest in the Filson Club of Louisville, and +one of his finest papers was read before that organization: +<i>An Analysis of the Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie</i>. +He was sometime professor in the medical school +of the University of Louisville, and in the Kentucky +School of Medicine; and he edited <i>The Transylvania Medical +Journal</i> for several years. Old age found the good +doctor surrendering his practice and professorships to +establish the Louisville Dental Depot, designed to furnish +the local dentists with supplies. He died at Louisville, +Kentucky, August 12, 1905, eleven days before his eighty-sixth +birthday.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Courier-Journal</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, August +13, 1905); letters from Dr. Thos. E. Pickett, the Maysville +historian, to the present writer.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">HAVRE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Medical Student in Europe</i> (Maysville, Kentucky, 1849)]</p> + +<p>Havre is a place of about 25,000 inhabitants, has fine docks, +which are accessible in high tide, and a considerable amount of +shipping. Many of the streets are narrow and crooked, with +narrow sidewalks and in many cases none at all. The houses are +stuccoed, and generally present rather a sombre aspect. Three-fourths +of the women we saw in Havre wore no bonnets, but simply +a cap. Some of them were mounted upon donkeys, with a +large market basket swung down each side of the animal; these +of course were the peasants. My attention was attracted by the +large sumpter horses here, which draw singly from eight to ten +bales of cotton, apparently with considerable ease.</p> + +<p>On the day after we arrived at Havre we ascended the hill +which rises at one extremity of the city. The various little winding +pathways up the hill, have on each side massive stone walls, +with now and then a gateway leading to a private residence almost +buried in a thicket of shrubbery and flowers. Upon the hill +are situated some most delightful and elegant mansions, with +grounds beautifully ornamented with shade trees, shrubbery, +flowers and handsome walks. These salubrious retreats have a +double charm when compared with the thronged, narrow, and +noisy streets of the city below. Beyond these <i>Villas</i> were fields +of grass and grain undivided by fences, with here and there a +farm house surrounded by a clump of trees.</p> + +<p>In Havre we found delightful cherries and strawberries, as +well as a variety of vegetables; the oysters and fish here though +in abundance are of rather an inferior quality, the oysters are +very small and of a decided copperish taste. At breakfast, which +we took at any hour in the morning that we thought proper, we +ordered such articles as suited our fancy, generally however a +cup of coffee, a beef steak, eggs, an omelet or something of this +sort. We dined about five in the evening upon soups, a variety +of meats and vegetables, well prepared, and a dessert of strawberries +and other fruits, nuts, etc. The meats and vegetables +were not placed upon the table, but each dish was passed around +separately—the table being cleared and clean plates placed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +each course. We were compelled to eat slowly or wait for some +time upon others.</p> + +<p>This would not suit one of our western men who is for doing +everything in a minute, but the plan certainly has its advantages—one, +of promoting digestion by giving time for the mastication +of the food, and another, of no small moment for an epicure, that +of having things fresh from the oven. My own objection to the +plan was, that I never knew how much of an article to eat, as I +did not know what would next be introduced. Such an objection +fails, of course, in many of the hotels where the bill of fare +is stereotyped, and where with more precision than an almanac-maker +you can foretell every change that will take place during +the ensuing year. Our table was well supplied with wine, which +is used as regularly at dinner as milk by our Kentucky farmers. +When our bill was made out, each item was charged separately, +so much for breakfast, mentioning what it consisted of—so much +for dinner—so much per day for a room, so much for each +candle we used, and so on. A French landlord in making out +your bill goes decidedly into minutiae.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THEODORE_OHARA" id="THEODORE_OHARA">THEODORE O'HARA</a></h2> + + +<p>Theodore O'Hara, author of the greatest martial elegy +in American literature, was born at Danville, Kentucky, +February 11, 1820. He was the son of Kane O'Hara, an +Irish political exile, and a noted educator in his day and +generation. O'Hara's boyhood days were spent at Danville, +but his family settled at Frankfort when he was a +young man. He was fitted for college by his father, +and his preparation was so far advanced that he was enabled +to join the senior class of St. Joseph's College, a +Roman Catholic institution at Bardstown, Kentucky. +Upon his graduation O'Hara was offered the chair of +Greek, but he declined it in order to study law. In 1845 +he held a position in the United States Treasury department<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +at Washington; and a few years later he proved +himself a gallant soldier upon battlefields in Mexico, being +brevetted major for meritorious service. After the +war O'Hara practiced law at Washington for some time; +and he went to Cuba with the Lopez expedition of 1850. +After his return to the United States he edited the Mobile, +Alabama, <i>Register</i> for a time; and he was later editor of +the Frankfort, Kentucky, <i>Yeoman</i>. O'Hara was a public +speaker of great ability, and his address upon William +Taylor Barry, the Kentucky statesman and diplomat, is +one of the climaxes of Southern oratory. During the +Civil War he was colonel of the twelfth Alabama regiment. +After the war Colonel O'Hara went to Columbus, +Georgia, and became a cotton broker. He died near Guerrytown, +Alabama, June 6, 1867. Seven years later his +dust was returned to Kentucky, and re-interred in the +State cemetery at Frankfort. If collected Colonel +O'Hara's poems, addresses, political and literary essays, +and editorials would make an imposing volume. His real +fame rests upon his famous martial elegy, <i>The Bivouac +of the Dead</i>, which he wrote at Frankfort in the summer +of 1847, to remember young Henry Clay, Colonel McKee, +Captain Willis, and the other brave fellows who fell in the +war with Mexico. When their remains were returned to +Frankfort and buried in the cemetery on the hill, Colonel +O'Hara, their old companion in arms, wrote his stately +in memoriam for them. He did not read it over them, as +Ranck and the others have written, but he did publish it in +<i>The Kentucky Yeoman</i>, a Democratic paper of Frankfort. +<i>The Bivouac of the Dead</i> is the greatest single poem ever +written by a Kentucky hand, is matchless, superb, and is +read in the remotest corners of the world. Its opening +lines have been cut deep within memorial shafts in many +military cemeteries. Colonel O'Hara sleeps to-day on the +outer circle of his comrades, one with them in death as in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +life, with the lofty military monument, which Kentucky +has erected to commemorate her sons slain in the battles +of the republic, casting its long shadows across his grave. +His elegy in honor of Daniel Boone was written at the +"old pioneer's" grave in the Frankfort cemetery before +his now much-mutilated monument was erected. It was +originally printed in <i>The Kentucky Yeoman</i> for December +19, 1850. Two other poems purporting to be his have +been discovered, but there must be others sealed over and +forgotten in the scattered and broken files of Southern +newspapers and periodicals. So the poet has come down +to us, like he who wrote <i>The Burial of Sir John Moore</i>, +with one slender sheaf under his arm. But it is enough, +enough for both of them.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. George W. Ranck's little books: <i>O'Hara and His +Elegies</i> (Baltimore, 1875); <i>The Bivouac of the Dead and Its +Author</i> (1898; 1909); Daniel E. O'Sullivan's paper in <i>The +Southern Bivouac</i> (Louisville, January, 1887); Robert Burns +Wilson's fine tribute in <i>The Century Magazine</i> (May, 1890). +The late Mrs. Susan B. Dixon, the Henderson historian, left a +MS. life of O'Hara that is to be issued shortly.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>O'Hara and His Elegies</i>, by George W. Ranck (Baltimore, 1875)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The muffled drum's sad roll has beat<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The soldier's last tattoo;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more on life's parade shall meet<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The brave and daring few.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Fame's eternal camping-ground<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Their silent tents are spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Glory guards with solemn round<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The bivouac of the dead.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No answer of the foe's advance<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Now swells upon the wind;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +<span class="i0">No troubled thought at midnight haunts<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of loved ones left behind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No vision of the morrow's strife<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The warrior's dream alarms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No braying horn nor screaming fife<br /></span> +<span class="i15">At dawn shall call to arms.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their shivered swords are red with rust;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Their plumed heads are bowed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their haughty banner, trailed in dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Is now their martial shroud;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plenteous funeral-tears have washed<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The red stains from each brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And their proud forms, in battle gashed,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Are free from anguish now.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The neighing steed, the flashing blade,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The trumpet's stirring blast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The charge, the dreadful cannonade,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The din and shout, are past;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No war's wild note, nor glory's peal,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Shall thrill with fierce delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those breasts that nevermore shall feel<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The rapture of the fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like the dread northern hurricane<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That sweeps his broad plateau,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flushed with the triumph yet to gain,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Came down the serried foe.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our heroes felt the shock, and leapt<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To meet them on the plain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long the pitying sky hath wept<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Above our gallant slain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sons of our consecrated ground<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ye must not slumber there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where stranger steps and tongues resound<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Along the headless air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your own proud land's heroic soil<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Shall be your fitter grave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She claims from war his richest spoil—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The ashes of her brave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So 'neath their parent turf they rest;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Far from the gory field;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Borne to a Spartan mother's breast<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On many a bloody shield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sunshine of their native sky<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Smiles sadly on them here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kindred hearts and eyes watch by<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The heroes' sepulchre.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Dear as the blood you gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No impious footsteps here shall tread<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The herbage of your grave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor shall your glory be forgot<br /></span> +<span class="i15">While fame her record keeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or honor points the hallowed spot<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where valor proudly sleeps.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yon marble minstrel's voiceless tone<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In deathless songs shall tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When many a vanquished age hath flown,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The story how ye fell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wreck, nor change, or winter's blight,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nor time's remorseless doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall dim one ray of holy light<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That gilds your glorious tomb.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE OLD PIONEER</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Knight-errant of the wood!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calmly beneath the green sod here<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He rests from field and flood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The war-whoop and the panther's screams<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No more his soul shall rouse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For well the aged hunter dreams<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Beside his good old spouse.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Hushed now his rifle's peal;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dews of many a vanish'd year<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Are on his rusted steel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His horn and pouch lie mouldering<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Upon the cabin-door;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The elk rests by the salted spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nor flees the fierce wild boar.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Old Druid of the West!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His offering was the fleet wild deer,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">His shrine the mountain's crest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within his wildwood temple's space<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An empire's towers nod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where erst, alone of all his race,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He knelt to Nature's God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Columbus of the land!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who guided freedom's proud career<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Beyond the conquer'd strand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave her pilgrim sons a home<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No monarch's step profanes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Free as the chainless winds that roam<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Upon its boundless plains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The muffled drum resound!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A warrior is slumb'ring here<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Beneath his battle-ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For not alone with beast of prey<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The bloody strife he waged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foremost where'er the deadly fray<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of savage combat raged.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A dirge for his old spouse!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For her who blest his forest cheer,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +<span class="i15">And kept his birchen house.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now soundly by her chieftain may<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The brave old dame sleep on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The red man's step is far away,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The wolf's dread howl is gone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">His pilgrimage is done;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hunts no more the grizzly bear<br /></span> +<span class="i15">About the setting sun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weary at last of chase and life,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He laid him here to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor recks he now what sport or strife<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Would tempt him further west.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A dirge for the brave old pioneer!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The patriarch of his tribe!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sleeps—no pompous pile marks where,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No lines his deeds describe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They raised no stone above him here,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nor carved his deathless name—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An empire is his sepulchre,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">His epitaph is Fame.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">SECOND LOVE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Southern Bivouac</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, January, 1887)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou art not my first love,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I loved before we met,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the memory of that early dream<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Will linger round me yet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thou, thou art my last love,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The truest and the best.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart but shed its early leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To give thee all the rest.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">A ROLLICKING RHYME</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I'd lie for her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd sigh for her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'd drink the river dry for her—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But d——d if I would die for her.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Obituary Addresses</i> (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1855)]</p> + +<p>On his accession to the Presidency, General Jackson—with +that discerning appreciation of the most available ability and +worth in his party which characterized him—called Mr. Barry +into his cabinet to the position of Postmaster General. Here, as +one of the most distinguished of the council of Jackson, during the +greater part of his incumbency, he is entitled to his full share of +the fame of that glorious administration. His health, however, +failing him under the wasting labors of the toilsome department +over which he presided, he was forced to relinquish it before the +administration terminated; and General Jackson, unwilling entirely +to lose the benefit of his able services, appointed him, in +1835, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to +Spain, a post in which, while its dignity did not disparage his +civil rank, it was hoped that the lightness of the duties, and the +influence of a genial climate, might serve to renovate his impaired +health. But it was otherwise ordained above. He had reached +Liverpool on the way to his mission, when the great conqueror, at +whose summons the strongest manhood, the noblest virtue, the +proudest genius, and the brightest wisdom must surrender, arrested +his earthly career on the 30th of August, 1835; and here is +all that is left to us of the patriot, the orator, the hero, the statesman, +the sage—the rest belongs to Heaven and to fame.</p> + +<p>Such, fellow-citizens, is a most cursory and feeble memento of +the life and public services of the illustrious man in whose memory +Kentucky has decreed the solemn honors of this day. It is +well for her that she has felt "the late remorse of love," and reclaimed +these precious ashes to her heart, after they have slumbered +so many years unsepultured in a foreign land; that no +guilty consciousness of unworthy neglect may weigh upon her +spirit, and depress her proud front with shame; that no reproaching +echo of that eloquent voice that once so sweetly thrilled her, +pealing back upon her soul amidst her prideful recollections of the +past, may appal her in her feast of memory, and blast her revel of +glory; that no avenging muse, standing among the shrines of her +departed greatness, and searching in vain for that which should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +mark her remembrance of one she should so devoutly hallow, +shall have reason to sing of her as she has sung:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar;<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here, beneath the sunshine of the land he loved, and amid the +scenes which he consecrated with his genius, he will sleep well. +Sadly, yet proudly will his fond foster-mother receive within her +bosom to-day this cherished remnant of the child she nursed for +fame; doubly endeared to her, as he expired far away in a stranger +land, beyond the reach of her maternal embrace, and with no +kindred eyes to light the gathering darkness of death, no friendly +hand to soften his descent to the grave, no pious orisons to speed +his spirit on its long journey through eternity. Gently, reverently +let us lay him in this proud tabernacle, where he will dwell +embalmed in glory till the last trump shall reveal him to us all +radiant with the halo of his life. Let the Autumn's wind harp on +the dropping leaves her softest requiem over him; let the Winter's +purest snows rest spotless on his grave; let Spring entwine +her brightest garland for his tomb, and Summer gild it with her +mildest sunshine. Here let the marble minstrel rise to sing to the +future generations of the Commonwealth the inspiring lay of his +high genius and his lofty deeds. Here let the patriot repair when +doubts and dangers may encompass him, and he would learn the +path of duty and of safety—an oracle will inhabit these sacred +graves, whose responses will replenish him with wisdom, and point +him the way to virtuous renown. Let the ingenuous youth who +pants for the glories of the forum, and "the applause of listening +Senates," come hither to tune his soul by those immortal echoes +that will forever breathe about this spot and make its silence +vocal with eloquence. And here, too, let the soldier of liberty +come, when the insolent invader may profane the sanctuary of +freedom—here by this holy altar may he fitly devote to the infernal +gods the enemies of this country and of liberty.</p> + +<p>We will now leave our departed patriot to his sleep of glory. +And let no tear moisten the turf that shall wrap his ashes. Let +no sound of mourning disturb the majestic solitude of his grand +repose. He claims no tribute of sorrow. His body returns to its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +mother earth, his spirit dwells in the Elysian domain of God, and +his deeds are written on the roll of Fame.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let none dare mourn for him."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="SARAH_T_BOLTON" id="SARAH_T_BOLTON">SARAH T. BOLTON</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Sarah Tittle Bolton, author of <i>Paddle Your Own +Canoe</i>, was born at Newport, Kentucky, in 1820. When +she was about three years old, her father removed to Indiana, +settling first in Jennings county, but later moving +on to Madison. When a young woman, she contributed +poems to the Madison newspaper which attracted the editor, +Nathaniel Bolton, so strongly that he married the +author. They moved to Indianapolis, and Mrs. Bolton +soon gained a wide reputation as a poet. Her ode sung +at the laying of the corner-stone of the Masonic Temple, +in 1850, won her a loving cup from the Masons of Hoosierdom. +Two years later her poem in honor of the hero of +Hungary, Louis Kossuth, increased her fame. In 1855 +Mr. Bolton was appointed consul to Geneva, Switzerland, +and his wife accompanied him to his post. They +remained in Switzerland for three years, during which +time Mrs. Bolton acted as correspondent for the Cincinnati +<i>Commercial</i>. In 1858 she and her husband returned +to Indianapolis, in which city he died some months +later. Her <i>Poems</i> (New York, 1856) brought her newspaper +and periodical verse together; and a complete collection, +with a notice of her life, was published at Indianapolis +in 1886. Mrs. Bolton was Indiana's foremost female +singer for many years. She died at Indianapolis +in 1893. Of her many poems <i>Paddle Your Own Canoe</i> is +the best known, although <i>Left on the Battlefield</i> is admired +by many of her readers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, by W. T. +Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); <i>The Hoosiers</i>, by Meredith Nicholson +(New York, 1900).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Poets and Poetry of the West</i>, edited by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, +Ohio, 1860)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Voyager upon life's sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To yourself be true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where'er your lot may be,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never, though the winds may rave,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Falter nor look back;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But upon the darkest wave<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Leave a shining track.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nobly dare the wildest storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Stem the hardest gale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brave of heart and strong of arm,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">You will never fail.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the world is cold and dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Keep an aim in view;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And toward the beacon-mark<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Every wave that bears you on<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To the silent shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From its sunny source has gone<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To return no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let not an hour's delay<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Cheat you of your due;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, while it is called to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If your birth denies you wealth,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Lofty state and power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Honest fame and hardy health<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Are a better dower.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +<span class="i0">But if these will not suffice,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Golden gain pursue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to gain the glittering prize,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Would you wrest the wreath of fame<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From the hand of fate?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would you write a deathless name<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With the good and great?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would you bless your fellow-men?<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Heart and soul imbue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the holy task, and then<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Would you crush the tyrant wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the world's free fight?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a spirit brave and strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Battle for the right.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to break the chains that bind<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The many to the few—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To enfranchise slavish mind—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nothing great is lightly won,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nothing won is lost;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Every good deed, nobly done,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Will repay the cost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave to Heaven, in humble trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">All you will to do;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if you succeed, you must<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Paddle your own canoe.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_C_BRECKINRIDGE" id="JOHN_C_BRECKINRIDGE">JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE</a></h2> + + +<p>John Cabell Breckinridge, the youngest of the American +vice-presidents, distinguished as a public speaker, +was born near Lexington, Kentucky, January 21, 1821. +He was educated at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, +and then studied law at Transylvania University. Breckinridge +lived at Burlington, Iowa, for a year, when he returned +to Lexington, Kentucky, to practice law. He +served in the Mexican War, and was afterwards a member +of Congress. In 1856, when he was about thirty-five +years of age, he was elected vice-president of the United +States, with James Buchanan as president. In 1860 +Breckinridge was the candidate of the Southern slaveholders +for the presidency, but Abraham Lincoln received +180 electoral votes to his 72, Kentucky failing to support +him. He took his seat in the United States Senate in +March, 1861, as the successor of John J. Crittenden, and +he at once became the champion of the Southern Confederacy +in that body. He was expelled from the Senate on +December 4, 1861, on which occasion he delivered his farewell +address. Breckinridge then went South. He was appointed +a major-general, and he saw service at Shiloh, +Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Nashville, and in several +other great battles. From January to April, 1865, General +Breckinridge was Jefferson Davis's secretary of war. +When the Confederacy surrendered, he made his escape +to Europe, where he remained for three years, when he +returned to Lexington and to his law practice. General +Breckinridge died at Lexington, Kentucky, May 17, 1875. +Ten years later an imposing statue was erected to his +memory on Cheapside, Lexington. He was a man of +most attractive personality, an eloquent orator, a capable +advocate, a brave soldier, an honest public servant, the +greatest member of the house of Breckinridge.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Library of Oratory</i> (New York, 1902, v. x); +J. C. S. Blackburn's oration upon Breckinridge; <i>McClure's +Magazine</i> (January, 1901). For many years Col. J. Stoddard +Johnston has been engaged upon a life of Breckinridge.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">HENRY CLAY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. Henry +Clay</i> (Washington, 1852)]</p> + +<p>Imperishably associated as his name has been for fifty years +with every great event affecting the fortunes of our country, it is +difficult to realize that he is indeed gone forever. It is difficult to +feel that we shall see no more his noble form within these walls—that +we shall hear no more his patriot tones, now rousing his countrymen +to vindicate their rights against a foreign foe, now imploring +them to preserve concord among themselves. We shall +see him no more. The memory and fruits of his services alone remain +to us. Amidst the general gloom, the Capitol itself looks +desolate, as if the genius of the place had departed. Already the +intelligence has reached almost every quarter of the Republic, and +a great people mourn with us to-day, the death of their most illustrious +citizen. Sympathizing as we do deeply with his family +and friends, yet private affliction is absorbed in the general sorrow. +The spectacle of a whole community lamenting the loss of +a great man, is far more touching than any manifestation of private +grief. In speaking of a loss which is national, I will not +attempt to describe the universal burst of grief with which Kentucky +will receive these tidings. The attempt would be vain to +depict the gloom that will cover her people, when they know that +the pillar of fire is removed, which has guided their footsteps for +the life of a generation.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the abiding +fame which surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. The +entire absence of equivocation or disguise, in all his acts, was his +master-key to the popular heart; for while the people will forgive +the errors of a bold and open nature, he sins past forgiveness who +deliberately deceives them. Hence Mr. Clay, though often defeated +in his measures of policy, always secured the respect of his +opponents without losing the confidence of his friends. He never +paltered in a double cause. The country was never in doubt as to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +his opinions or his purposes. In all the contests of his time, his +position on great public questions was as clear as the sun in a +cloudless sky. Sir, standing by the grave of this great man, and +considering these things, how contemptible does appear the mere +legerdemain of politics! What a reproach is his life on that false +policy which would trifle with a great and upright people! If I +were to write his epitaph, I would inscribe, as the highest eulogy, +on the stone which shall mark his resting-place, "Here lies a man +who was in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted +to deceive his countrymen."</p> + +<p>While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, +they may take courage from his career, and note the high proof it +affords that, under our equal institutions, the avenues of honour +are open to all. Mr. Clay rose by the force of his own genius, unaided +by power, patronage, or wealth. At an age when our young +men are usually advanced to the higher schools of learning, provided +only with the rudiments of an English education, he turned +his steps to the West, and amid the rude collisions of a border-life, +matured a character whose highest exhibitions were destined to +mark eras in his country's history. Beginning on the frontiers +of American civilization, the orphan boy, supported only by the +consciousness of his own powers, and by the confidence of the +people, surmounted all the barriers of adverse fortune, and won +a glorious name in the annals of his country. Let the generous +youth, fired with honorable ambition, remember that the American +system of government offers on every hand bounties to merit. If, +like Clay, orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress him; yet if, +like Clay, he feels the Promethean spark within, let him remember +that his country, like a generous mother, extends her arms to welcome +and to cherish every one of her children whose genius and +worth may promote her prosperity or increase her renown.</p> + +<p>Mr. Speaker, the signs of woe around us, and the general voice +announce that another great man has fallen. Our consolation is +that he was not taken in the vigour of his manhood, but sank into +the grave at the close of a long and illustrious career. The great +statesmen who have filled the largest space in the public eye, one +by one are passing away. Of the three great leaders of the Senate, +one alone remains, and he must follow soon. We shall witness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +no more their intellectual struggles in the American Forum; but +the monuments of their genius will be cherished as the common +property of the people, and their names will continue to confer +dignity and renown upon their country.</p> + +<p>Not less illustrious than the greatest of these will be the name +of Clay—a name pronounced with pride by Americans in every +quarter of the globe; a name to be remembered while history shall +record the struggles of modern Greece for freedom, or the spirit +of liberty burn in the South American bosom; a living and immortal +name—a name that would descend to posterity without +the aid of letters, borne by tradition from generation to generation. +Every memorial of such a man will possess a meaning and +a value to his countrymen. His tomb will be a hallowed spot. +Great memories will cluster there, and his countrymen, as they +visit it, may well exclaim—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shrines to no creed or code confined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Delphian vales, the Palestines,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The Meccas of the mind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JAMES_WEIR_Sr" id="JAMES_WEIR_Sr">JAMES WEIR, Sr.</a></h2> + + +<p>James Weir, Senior, an early Kentucky romancer, was +born at Greenville, Kentucky, June 16, 1821. He was the +son of James Weir, a Scotch-Irish merchant and quasi-author. +He was graduated from Centre College, Danville, +Kentucky, in 1840, and later studied law at Transylvania +University. He engaged in the practice of law at Owensboro, +Kentucky—first known as the Yellow Banks—and +on March 1, 1842, he was married to Susan C. Green, +daughter of Judge John C. Green of Danville. Weir +wrote a trilogy of novels which do not deserve the obscurity +into which they have fallen. They were called +<i>Lonz Powers, or the Regulators</i> (Philadelphia, 1850, two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +vols.); <i>Simon Kenton, or the Scout's Revenge</i> (Philadelphia, +1852); and <i>The Winter Lodge, or Vow Fulfilled</i> +(Philadelphia, 1854). All of these romances were thrown +upon historical backgrounds, and they created much favorable +criticism at the time of their publication. Weir +wrote numerous sketches and verses, but these were his +only published books. Business, bar sufficient to all literary +labors, pressed hard upon him, and he practically +abandoned literature. In 1869 he was elected president +of the Owensboro and Russellville railroad; and for nearly +forty years he was president of the Deposit bank at +Owensboro. Weir died at Owensboro, Kentucky, January +31, 1906. His son, Dr. James Weir, Junior, was an author +of considerable reputation.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); letters of Mr. Paul Weir to the Author.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">SIMON KENTON</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Simon Kenton; or, The Scout's Revenge</i> (Philadelphia, 1852)]</p> + +<p>By the side of the Sergeant [Duffe, in whose North Carolina +home the tale opens] sat a stout, powerfully framed, and wild-looking +being, whose visage, though none of the whitest (for it +was very unfashionably sunburnt), betokened an Anglo-Saxon; +whilst his dress and equipments went far to proclaim him a savage; +and, had it not been for his language (though none of the +purest), it would have been somewhat difficult to settle upon his +race! In a court of justice, especially in the South, where color +is considered <i>prima facie</i> evidence of slavery, we wouldn't have +given much for his chance of freedom. Simon Kenton, or Sharp-Eye, +for such were the titles given him by his parents, and by his +border companions, and he answered readily to them both, in his +dress and appearance, presented a striking picture of the daring +half savage characters everywhere to be found at that day (and, +indeed, at the present time) upon our extreme western frontier. +A contemporary of Boone, and one of the most skillful and determined +scouts of Kentucky, or the "Cane-Land," as it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +then sometimes called, Kenton's dress, composed of a flowing +hunting-shirt of tanned buckskin, with pants, or rather leggins, +of the same material—a broad belt, buckled tight around his +waist, supporting a tomahawk and hunting-knife—a gay pair of +worked moccasins, with a capacious shot-pouch swung around his +neck and ornamented with long tufts of black hair, resembling +very much, as in truth they were, the scalp-locks of the western +Indian, gave him a decidedly savage appearance, and declared at +once his very recent return from a dangerous life upon the frontier. +He had been a fellow-soldier of Duffe during the Revolution; +but, after the war, being of an adventurous and daring disposition, +had wandered out West, where he had already become +famous in the many bloody border frays between the savage and +early settler, and was considered second, in skill and cool bravery, +to no scout of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." On a visit to the +Old States, as they were called at that period to distinguish them +from the more recent settlements in the West, Kenton was sojourning, +for the time, with his old friend and companion in +arms, not without a hope that, by his glowing descriptions of the +flowing savannas beyond the Blue Ridge, and of the wild freedom +of a frontier life, he might induce the latter to bear him company +upon his return to Kentucky. Six feet two inches in his moccasins, +with a well-knit sinewy frame to match his great height, +and with a broad, full, and open face, tanned and swarthy, it is +true, yet pleasant and bright, with a quiet, good-humored smile +and lighted up by a deep-blue eye, and with heavy masses of auburn +hair, and whiskers sweeping carelessly around and about his +countenance, Kenton exhibited in his person, as he sat before the +fire of the Sergeant, a splendid specimen of the genuine borderer, +and no wonder the Indian brave trembled at the redoubted name +of Sharp-Eye, and instinctively shrank from a contest with so +formidable a foe. Although, now surrounded by friends, and in +the house of an old comrade, the scout, as was natural with him +from long custom, still held grasped in his ready hand the barrel +of his trusty rifle, from which he never parted, not even when he +slept, and, at the same time, kept his ears wide awake to all suspicious +sounds, as if yet in the land of the enemy, and momentarily +expecting the wild yell of his accustomed foe. Notwithstanding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +he was well skilled in every species of woodcraft, an adept at following +the trail of the wild beasts of the forest, and familiar with +all the cunning tricks of the wily savage; yet, strange as it may +appear, he was the most credulous of men, and as simple as a +child in what is generally termed the "ways of the world," or, in +other words, the tortuous windings of policy and hypocrisy, so +often met with under the garb of civilization. Indeed, it has been +said of him "that his confidence in man, and his credulity were +such that the same man might cheat him twenty times; and, if he +professed friendship, he might cheat him still!" At the feet of +the scout lay the inseparable companion of all his journeyings, +his dog; and Bang, for such was the name of this prime favorite, +was as rough a specimen of the canine species as his master's +countenance was of the face divine! But Bang was, nevertheless, +a very knowing dog, and, ever and anon, now as his master became +excited in his descriptions of western scenes and adventures, +he would raise his head and look intelligently at the narrator, and +so wisely did he wag his shaggy tail, that more than once the +warm-hearted hunter, breaking off suddenly in his narrative, +would pat his trusty comrade upon the head, and swear, with a +hearty emphasis, "that Bang knew all about it!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="MARY_E_W_BETTS" id="MARY_E_W_BETTS">MARY E. W. BETTS</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Mary E. Wilson Betts, the author of a single lyric +which has preserved her name, was born at Maysville, +Kentucky, in January, 1824. Miss Wilson was educated +in the schools of her native town, and, on July 10, 1854, +she was married to Morgan L. Betts, editor of the <i>Detroit +Times</i>. She died at Maysville two months later, or on +September 19, 1854, of congestion of the brain, believed +to have been caused by the great gunpowder explosion +near Maysville on August 13, 1854. Mrs. Betts's husband +died in the following October. While she wrote +many poems, her brief tribute to Col. William Logan Crittenden,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +kinsman of John J. Crittenden, who was a member +of Lopez's filibustering expedition to Cuba, in 1850, +has preserved her name for the present generation. Colonel +Crittenden was captured by the Cubans, shot, and his +brains beaten out. Before the shots were fired he was requested +to kneel, but he made his now famous reply: "A +Kentuckian kneels to none except his God, and always dies +facing his enemy!" When, in her far-away Kentucky +home, Mrs. Betts learned of Crittenden's fate, she wrote +her tribute to the memory of the gallant son of Kentucky, +which was first printed in the <i>Maysville Flag</i>. The editor +introduced the little poem thus: "The lines which follow +are from one of Kentucky's most gifted daughters of +song. Upon gentler themes the tones of her lyre have oft +been heard to breathe their music. To sing to the warrior, +its cords have ne'er been strung till now; the tragic death, +and last eloquent words of the gallant Crittenden, have +caused this tribute to his memory." This poem has been +republished many times and in various forms. During +the Spanish-American war in 1898 it was often seen in +print as being typical of the courage of the soldiers of this +country.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Lopez's Expeditions to Cuba</i>, by A. C. Quisenberry +(Louisville, 1906); <i>Kentuckians in History and Literature</i>, +by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD!</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Maysville Flag</i>]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! tyrants, forge your chains at will—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Nay! gall this flesh of mine:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, thought is free, unfettered still,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And will not yield to thine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take, take the life that Heaven gave,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And let my heart's blood stain thy sod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But know ye not Kentucky's brave<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Will kneel to none but God!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">You've quenched fair freedom's sunny light,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Her music tones have stilled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with a deep and darkened blight,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The trusting heart has filled!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then do you think that I will kneel<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where such as you have trod?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay! point your cold and threatening steel—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I'll kneel to none but God!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As summer breezes lightly rest<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Upon a quiet river,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gently on its sleeping breast<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The moonbeams softly quiver—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet thoughts of home light up my brow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">When goaded with the rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, these cannot unman me now—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I'll kneel to none but God!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And tho' a sad and mournful tone<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Is coldly sweeping by;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dreams of bliss forever flown<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Have dimmed with tears mine eye—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, mine's a heart unyielding still—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Heap on my breast the clod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll kneel to none but God!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">My soaring spirit scorns thy will—<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="REUBEN_T_DURRETT" id="REUBEN_T_DURRETT">REUBEN T. DURRETT</a></h2> + + +<p>Reuben Thomas Durrett, founder of the Filson Club and +editor of its publications, was born near Eminence, Kentucky, +January 22, 1824. He was graduated from Brown +University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1849. The following +year he began the practice of law at Louisville, +and for the next thirty years he was one of the leaders of +the Louisville bar. He was editor of the <i>Louisville Courier</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +from 1857 to 1859, and throughout his long life he has +been a contributor of historical essays to the Louisville +press. Colonel Durrett was imprisoned for his Southern +sympathies during the Civil War, and for this reason he +saw little service. In 1871 he founded the Public Library +of Louisville; and in 1884 he organized the now well-known +Filson Club, which meets monthly in his magnificent +library—the greatest collection of Kentuckiana in +the world. While his library has never been catalogued, +he must possess at least thirty thousand books, pamphlets, +manuscripts, and newspaper files. Col. Theodore +Roosevelt, Dr. Robert M. McElroy, and many other +historical investigators have made important "finds" in +Colonel Durrett's library. He has one of the six extant +copies of the first edition of John Filson's <i>History of Kentucke</i>; +and he has the copy of Dean Swift's <i>Gulliver's +Travels</i>, which Neely, the pioneer, read to Daniel Boone on +Lulbegrub Creek, near Winchester, Kentucky, in 1770, as +they sat around the evening camp fire. The Filson club was +founded to increase the interest then taken in historical +subjects in Kentucky, and to issue an annual publication. +That this purpose has been well carried out may be seen +by the twenty-six handsome and valuable monographs +which have appeared.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The Club's first book was Colonel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +Durrett's <i>The Life and Writings of John Filson, the first +historian of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1884). This work +brought Filson into world-wide notice and revived an interest +in his precious little history. <i>An Historical Sketch +of St. Paul's Church, Louisville</i> (Louisville, 1889); <i>The +Centenary of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1892); <i>The Centenary +of Louisville</i> (Louisville, 1893); <i>Bryant's Station</i> (Louisville, +1897); and <i>Traditions of the Earliest Visits of Foreigners +to North America</i> (Louisville, 1908), all of which +are Filson Club publications, comprise Colonel Durrett's +work in book form. This distinguished gentleman and +writer resides at Louisville, where he keeps the open door +for any who would come and partake of the wisdom of +himself and of his books.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Memorial History of Louisville</i>, by J. S. Johnston +(Chicago, 1896); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, +1909, v. iv).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Centenary of Louisville</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1893)]</p> + +<p>In the year 1808, while digging the foundation of the great +flouring mill of the Tarascons in that part of Louisville known as +Shippingport, it became necessary to remove a large sycamore +tree, the trunk of which was six feet in diameter, and the roots of which penetrated the earth for forty feet around. Under the +center of the trunk of this tree was found an iron hatchet, which +was so guarded by the base and roots that no human hand could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +have placed it there after the tree grew. It must have occupied +the spot where it was found when the tree began to grow. The +hatchet was made by bending a flat bar of iron around a cylinder +until the two ends met, and then welding them together and hammering +them to a cutting edge, leaving a round hole at the bend +for a handle. The annulations of this tree were two hundred in +number, thus showing it to be two hundred years old according +to the then mode of computation. Here was a find which proved +to be a never-ending puzzle to the early scientists of the Falls of +the Ohio. The annulations of this tree made it two hundred +years old, and so fixed the date earlier than any white man or +user of iron was known to have been at the falls. One thought +that Moscoso, the successor of De Soto, in his wanderings up the +Mississippi and Missouri rivers, might have entered the Ohio and +left the hatchet there in 1542; another, that it might have come +from the Spaniards who settled St. Augustine in 1565; another, +that the Spaniards who went up the Ohio in 1669 in search of +silver might have left it where it was found; and another, that +Marquette, when he discovered the Upper Mississippi in 1673, or +La Salle, when he sailed down to its mouth in 1682, might have +given the hatchet to an Indian, who left it at the Falls. But +from these reasonable conjectures their learning and imagination +soon led these savants into the wildest theories and conjectures. +One thought that the Northmen, whom the Sagas of Sturleson +made discoverers of America in the eleventh century, had brought +the hatchet to this country; another, that Prince Madoc, who left +a principality in Wales in the twelfth century for a home in the +western wilderness, might have brought it here; and another, that +it might have been brought here by those ancient Europeans +whom Diodorus and Pausanius and other classical writers assure +us were in communication with this country in ancient times. +One of these learned ethnologists finally went so far as to advance +the theory of the Egyptian priests, as related by Plato, that the +autochthons of our race brought it here before the Island of Atlantis, +lying between Europe and America, went down in the +ocean and cut off all further communication between the continents.</p> + +<p>This hatchet, however, really furnished no occasion for such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +strained conjectures and wild speculations. If the sycamore +under which it was found was two hundred years old, as indicated +by its annulations, it must have begun to grow about the time +that Jamestown in Virginia and Quebec in Canada were founded. +It would have been no unreasonable act for an Indian or white +man to have brought this hatchet from the English on the James, +or from the French on the St. Lawrence, to the Falls of the Ohio +in 1608, just two hundred years before it was discovered by removing +the tree that grew over it. The known habit of the sycamore, +however, to make more than one annulation in years particularly +favorable to growth suggests that two hundred annulations +do not necessarily mean that many years. If we allow +about fifty per cent of the life of the tree to have been during +years exceptionally favorable to its growth, and assign double +annulations to these favorable years, we shall have this tree to +have made its two hundred annulations in about one hundred and +thirty-nine years, and to have sprung from its seed and to have +begun its growth about the year 1669 or 1670, when La Salle, the +great French explorer, is believed to have been at the Falls of the +Ohio. We have no account of any one at the Falls in 1608, or +about this time, to support the conjecture that it might have come +from Jamestown or Quebec; but we have La Salle at this place in +1669 or 1670, and it is not unreasonable that he should have left it +here at that time. In this sense the old rusty hatchet, which is +fortunately preserved, becomes interesting to us all for its connection +with the discovery of Louisville. It is a souvenir of the +first white man who ever saw the Falls of the Ohio. It is a memento +of Robert Cavalier de La Salle, the discoverer of the site +of the city of Louisville.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="RICHARD_H_COLLINS" id="RICHARD_H_COLLINS">RICHARD H. COLLINS</a></h2> + + +<p>Richard Henry Collins, whom Mr. James Lane Allen has +happily christened "the Kentucky Froissart," was born +at Maysville, Kentucky, May 4, 1824, over the office of +<i>The Eagle</i>. He was the son of Lewis Collins (1797-1870), +who published a history of Kentucky in 1847. Richard +H. Collins was a Cincinnati lawyer for eleven years, but +he lived many years at Maysville, where he edited the old +<i>Eagle</i>, which his father had made famous. In 1861 he +founded the <i>Danville Review</i>; and in 1874 he published a +"revised, enlarged four-fold, and brought down to the +year 1874" edition, in two enormous volumes, of his +father's history of Kentucky. Unquestionably this is a +work of tremendous importance, the most magnificent and +elaborate history of this or any other State yet compiled. +Traveling the whole State over, obtaining contributions +from each town's ablest writer, and then building them +upon his father's fine foundation, Collins was able to publish +an almost invaluable work. To-day his history of +Kentucky, though it certainly contains many errors of +various kinds and degrees, is the greatest mine of our +State's history which all must explore if they would be informed +of our people's past. Dean Shaler and all later +Kentucky historical writers have taken pleasure in paying +tribute to his work. The one mistake that Collins +made, which might have been easily avoided, was to put +his manuscripts together in such a manner that the authorship +of the various papers cannot be determined; but +in this he followed his father's methods; and for this reason +the writer has been compelled to reproduce the prefaces +of both books, rather than portions of the actual +text, for fear he may use matter prepared by a contributor. +Collins practiced law in different Kentucky towns, +wrote for newspapers and magazines, and spent a very +busy and rather active life. He died at the home of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +daughter at Maryville, Missouri, on New Year's Day of +1888.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, +1892); <i>The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky</i>, by James +Lane Allen (New York, 1892).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>History of Kentucky</i> (Covington, Kentucky, 1882, v. ii)]</p> + +<p>Twenty-seven years, 1847 to 1874, have elapsed since <i>Collins's +History of Kentucky</i> quietly and modestly claimed recognition +among the standard local histories in the great American republic. +That has been an eventful period. Death, too, has been +busy with the names in the Preface above—has claimed alike the +author and compiler, Judge Lewis Collins, and about one hundred +and fifty more of the honored and substantial names who +contributed information or other aid towards preserving what +was then unwritten of the history of the State. The author of +the present edition (now nearly fifty years of age) is the youngest +of the forty-two contributors who are still living; while several +of them are over eighty and one is over ninety-two years of age. +Time has dealt gently with them; fame has followed some, and +fortune others; a few have achieved both fame and fortune, while +a smaller few lay claim to neither.</p> + +<p>It is not often, as in this case, that the mantle of duty as a +state-historian falls from the father to the son's shoulders. It has +been faithfully and conscientiously worn; how well and ably, let +the disinterested and unprejudiced judge.</p> + +<p>The present edition had its origin in this: When Judge Collins +died, the Legislature of Kentucky was in session. As its +testimonial and appreciation of his services and character, this +resolution was unanimously adopted, and on March 21, 1870, approved +by Gov. Stevenson:</p> + +<p>"<i>Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of +Kentucky</i>:</p> + +<p>"That we have heard with deep regret of the death of Judge +Lewis Collins, of Maysville, Kentucky, which has occurred since +the meeting of this General Assembly. He was a native Kentuckian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +of great purity of character and enlarged public spirit; +associated for half a century with the press of the State, which he +adorned with his patriotism, his elevated morals, and his enlightened +judgment. He was the author of a <i>History of Kentucky</i>, +evidencing extended research, and which embodies in a permanent +form the history of each county in the State, and the lives of its +distinguished citizens, and is an invaluable contribution to the +literature and historical knowledge of the State. His name being +thus perpetually identified with that of his native State, this +General Assembly, from a sense of duty and regard for his memory, +expresses this testimonial of its appreciation of his irreproachable +character and valued services."</p> + +<p>This touching, and tender, and noble tribute to the departed +author and editor, was but the culmination of a sympathy broader +than the State, for it was echoed and sent back by many citizens +from a distance. He had lived to some purpose. It was no +small comfort to his family, to know that their bereavement was +regarded as a public bereavement; and that his name and works +would live on, and be green in the memory of the good people of +Kentucky—the place of his birth, the home of his manhood, the +scene of his life's labors, his grave. In a spontaneous tribute of +praise and sympathy, the entire newspaper press of the State, and +many in other States, announced his decease.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>That action of the State, and those generous outpourings of +sympathy and regard, started fresh inquiries for the work that +had made him best known—<i>Collins's History of Kentucky</i>. It +had been <i>out of print</i> for more than twenty years! It was known +that I had been associated with my father as an editor, and then +his successor, and had assisted him with his <i>History</i>. Hence, +many applications and inquiries for the book were made to me; +always with the suggestion that I ought to prepare a new edition, +enlarged, and bring down to the present the history of the State. +It was an important undertaking—as delicate as important. I +shrank from the great responsibility, and declined. But the +urgency continued, for the necessity of a State history was felt. +The great State of Kentucky, the mother of statesmen and heroes, +the advance guard of civilization west of the great Appalachian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +chain, had no published <i>History</i> of the last twenty-six years; and +no <i>History</i> at all in book form, <i>now accessible</i> to more than a few +thousand of the intelligent minds among her million-and-a-third +of inhabitants. The duty of preparing this <i>History</i> sought <i>me</i>, +and not I <i>it</i>. It has been a task of tremendous labor, extending +through the long weary months of nearly four years. But it has +been a sweet and a proud task, and the <i>destiny</i> that seemed driving +me on is almost fulfilled. I wish I could know the verdict +of the future upon my labors, but that is impossible. The carping +and noisy fault-finding of the dissatisfied and ungenerous few +are far from being pleasant; but the consciousness of duty done, +with an honest heart, and the praise of the liberal ones who will +appreciate the work, will be a noble and a proud satisfaction, and +a joy ceasing only with my life.</p> + +<p>[Then follow three pages of names of persons whom he thanks +for assistance.]</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ANNIE_C_KETCHUM" id="ANNIE_C_KETCHUM">ANNIE C. KETCHUM</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, poet, naturalist, and +novelist, was born near Georgetown, Kentucky, November +8, 1824, the daughter of Benjamin Stuart Chambers, +founder of Cardome Academy; her mother was a member +of the famous Bradford family of journalists. Miss +Chambers was graduated from Georgetown Female College +with the M. A. degree. Her first husband was William +Bradford, whom she married in 1844, and from +whom she was subsequently divorced. After her separation +from her husband, she went to Memphis, Tennessee, +and opened a school for girls, which she conducted for +several years. In 1858 she was married to Leonidas +Ketchum, a Tennessean, who was mortally wounded at the +battle of Shiloh in 1863. After her husband's death, +Mrs. Ketchum returned to Kentucky and conducted a +school at Georgetown for three years, but, in 1866, she returned +to Memphis, where she again taught for a number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +of years. Mrs. Ketchum spent the winter of 1875 at +Paris, France, pursuing her literary work, and on May 24, +1876, she entered upon the novitiate in a convent there. +She afterwards returned to America and her last years +were spent in Kentucky. Mrs. Ketchum died in 1904. +Her first literary work to attract attention was a novel, +entitled <i>Nellie Bracken</i> (Philadelphia, 1855). From +1859 to 1861 Mrs. Ketchum was editor of <i>The Lotus</i>, a +monthly magazine published at Memphis. <i>Benny: A +Christmas Ballad</i> (New York, 1869) was the first of her +poems to attract any considerable attention; and her best +known poem, <i>Semper Fidelis</i>, originally published in +<i>Harper's Magazine</i> for October, 1873, is a long, leisurely +thing that makes one wonder at its once wide popularity. +All of her poems Mrs. Ketchum brought together in <i>Lotus +Flowers</i> (New York, 1878). <i>Lotus</i> was her shibboleth, +and she never missed an opportunity to make use of +it. She made many translations from Latin, German, +and French writers, her finest work in this field being +<i>Marcella, a Russian Idyl</i> (New York, 1878). <i>The Teacher's +Empire</i> (1886) was a collection of educational essays +contributed to various journals. Mrs. Ketchum's <i>Botany +for Academies and Colleges</i> (Philadelphia, 1887), +was a text-book in many institutions for several years +subsequent to its publication.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American +Biography</i> (New York, 1887, v. iii); B. O. Gaines's <i>History of +Scott County, Kentucky</i> (1905, v. ii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Southern Poems of the War</i>, edited by Emily V. Mason (Baltimore, +1867)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dreams of a stately land,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where roses and lotus open to the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where green ravine and misty mountains stand,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +<span class="i15">By lordly valor won.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dreams of the earnest-browed<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And eagle-eyed, who late with banners bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rode forth in knightly errantry, to do<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Devoir for God and right.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Shoulder to shoulder, see<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The crowning columns file through pass and glen!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear the shrill bugle! List the rolling drum,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Mustering the gallant men!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Resolute, year by year,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They keep at bay the cohorts of the world;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hemmed in, yet trusting in the Lord of Hosts,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The cross is still unfurled.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Patient, heroic, true,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And counting tens where hundreds stood at first;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dauntless for truth, they dare the sabre's edge,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The bombshell's deadly burst.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While we, with hearts made brave<br /></span> +<span class="i15">By their proud manhood, work, and watch, and pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, conquering fate, we greet with smiles and tears<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The conquering ranks of grey!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, God of dreams and sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Dreamless they sleep—'tis we, the sleepless, dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Defend us while our vigil dark we keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Which knows no morning beam!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bloom, gentle spring-tide flowers—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Sing, gentle winds, above each holy grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While we, the women of a desolate land,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Weep for the true and brave.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Memphis, Tennessee.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="FRANCIS_H_UNDERWOOD" id="FRANCIS_H_UNDERWOOD">FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD</a></h2> + + +<p>Francis Henry Underwood, "the editor who was never +the editor" of <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, though he was indeed +the projector and first associate editor of that famous +magazine, was born at Enfield, Massachusetts, January +12, 1825, the son of Roswell Underwood. He spent +the year of 1843-1844 at Amherst College, and in the summer +of 1844 he came out to Kentucky and settled at Bowling +Green as a school teacher. Underwood read law at +Bowling Green and was admitted to the bar of that town +in 1847. On May 18, 1848, he was married to Louisa +Maria Wood, of Taylorsville, Kentucky, to whom he afterwards +dedicated his Kentucky novel. While in Kentucky +Underwood wrote verses which he submitted to N. P. +Willis, who was then at Washington. The celebrated +critic wrote him: "Your poetry is as good as Byron's +was at the same stage of progress—correct, and evidently +inspired, and capable of expansion into stuff for +fame." None of it, however, has come down to us. Underwood's +intense hatred of slavery caused him to quit +Kentucky, in 1850, after having lived for six years in this +State, and to return to Massachusetts, where he was admitted +to the bar of Northampton. He enlisted in the +Free-soil movement with heart and soul. In 1852 he was +clerk of the Massachusetts Senate, which position he left +to become literary adviser for the then leading publishers +of New England, Phillips, Sampson and Company. In +1853 Underwood conceived the idea of a Free-soil literary +magazine, but a publisher's failure delayed its appearance. +In November, 1857, however, the first issue of <i>The +Atlantic Monthly</i> appeared, Dr. Holmes having christened +the "baby," with James Russell Lowell as editor-in-chief, +and Underwood as assistant editor. Lowell and +Underwood were great friends and they worked together +with pleasure and harmony. For two years they were +the editors, when the breaking up of the firm of Phillips,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +Sampson and Company, and the passing of the periodical +into the hands of Ticknor and Fields, caused Underwood +to resign. From 1859 to 1870 he was clerk of the Superior +Criminal Court of Boston; and from 1861 to 1875 he was +a member of the Boston School Committee. Underwood's +first three works were a <i>Handbook of English Literature</i> +(Boston, 1871); <i>Handbook of American Literature</i> (Boston, +1872); and <i>Cloud Pictures</i> (Boston, 1872), a group of +musical stories. Then came his Kentucky novel, entitled +<i>Lord of Himself</i> (Boston, 1874), which was really a series +of pictures of life at Bowling Green in 1844. This tale +was well received by the Kentucky press and public, the +background and characters were declared realistic, and +the author's effort to make something pathetic out of the +old system of slavery was smiled at and dismissed in the +general pleasure his story gave. In his imaginary Kentucky +county of Barry, Underwood had a merry time rehabilitating +the past. The character of Arthur Howard +is the author himself. <i>Lord of Himself</i> is a work of high +merit, and it does not deserve the oblivion into which it +has fallen. In 1880 Underwood's second novel, <i>Man Proposes</i>, +was published, together with his <i>The True Story of +Exodus</i>. Two years later his biographies of Longfellow +and Lowell were issued; and in 1883 his study of Whittier +was published. In 1885 President Cleveland named +Underwood United States Consul at Glasgow; and three +years later the University of Glasgow granted him LL.D. +During Cleveland's second administration Underwood +was consul at Edinburgh. While in Scotland he wrote his +last two novels, called <i>Quabbin</i> (Boston, 1892), and <i>Dr. +Gray's Quest</i>. In <i>Quabbin</i> he described his native town +of Enfield in much the same manner that he had years before +written of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Underwood +died at Edinburgh, August 8, 1894.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Biographical Catalogue of Amherst College</i>; <i>The +Author of "Quabbin,"</i> by J. T. Trowbridge (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +January, 1895); <i>The Editor who was Never the Editor</i>, by +Bliss Perry (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, November, 1907). Mr. Perry's +paper is especially notable for the great number of letters reproduced +which Underwood received from the celebrities of his +time.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Lord of Himself</i> (Boston, 1874)]</p> + +<p>It was at this juncture that the youth of many locks and ample +Byronic shirt collar appeared on the scene. Aloysius Pittsinger +was his name. He was a consolation. His very name, Aloysius, +had a sweet gurgle in the sound, resembling the anticipatory and +involuntary noises from children's mouths at the sight of sugar +lollipops. He was a clerk in Mr. Goldstein's store. There he +dispensed tobacco, both fine-cut and plug, assorted nails, New +Orleans sugar, Rio coffee, Porto Rico molasses, Gloucester mackerel, +together with foreign cloths and homespun jeans, and all +the gimcracks which little negroes coveted and the swarms of +summer flies had spared.</p> + +<p>The appearance of Aloysius happened in this wise. Mr. Fenton +was an early riser, but was loath to go to his shop without his +breakfast. On the fateful morning he had come down rather +earlier than usual. After due search and discussion, it was announced +to him that there was nothing at once appetizing and +substantial in the house that could, within the desired period, be +got ready for the table; and his wife made bold to ask if in this +emergency he wouldn't go out and get something. To a hungry +man, in the faint interval after a "nipper" and before a solid +bit, such a proposition is an unpleasant surprise. But, after devoting +the cook and the household generally to immediate pains +and inconveniences, and to something more hereafter, Mr. Fenton +put on his slouched hat and started out. He mused also.</p> + +<p>If I were ambitious of the fame of the great American novelist, +or were contending for the fifty thousand dollar prize offered by +the publishers of the Metropolitan Album, and hoped to have my +thrilling descriptions read by its subscribing army of three hundred +and fifty-one thousand chambermaids, I might paint the +current of his swift thought thus:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The air bites shrewdly. Ha, by the mass! Shall I to the +<i>abattoir</i> and ask the slayer of oxen for a steak? or a chop from +the loin of sheep, a bell-wether of Kentucky's finest flock—Kentucky, +state renowned for dainty mutton? Or does the slayer of +oxen yet sleep, supinely stertorous, heavy with the lingering +fumes of the mighty Bourbon? Perchance he has no steak, no +chop!—all gone to feed an insatiable people! Bethink me. Ay—and +the <i>abattoir</i> is far, though its perfume is nigh; it is thrice +a hundred yards from hence. I will go to the house of the Israelite, +Goldstein, and get a fish—a fish dear to losel Yankees, and +not scorned by the sons of the sun-land either. 'Tis well. I will +make the trial. Haply I shall find that the young man, Pittsinger, +whose prænomen is Aloysius, has arisen, and is even now +combing his ambrosial locks."</p> + +<p>What he <i>did</i> think was something like this:</p> + +<p>"It's doggon cold this mornin'. I wonder whether that derned +old drunken Bill Stone's got ary bit of fresh meat—and if he's +up yet. I don't b'lieve it, for he was drunk's an owl last night at +old Red Eye. Besides, it's fer to the slaughter-house. Le's see. +I might get a mackerel at Goldstein's. I'll do it. B'iled a little, +to take the salt out, and then het with cream, it ain't bad, by a +derned sight."</p> + +<p>He walked out to the square, occasionally blowing his cold fingers. +The shutters were not taken down from Goldstein's front +windows, but Mr. Fenton knew that the clerk slept in a little room +in a ruinous lean-to back of the store, and he rattled the door to +call him. There was no answer, nor sound of any one stirring, +and he rattled again. His powerful shake made the square resound. +He called, endeavoring to throw his voice through the +key-hole, "Aloysius, ain't you up yit? I want a mackerel."</p> + +<p>The silence was aggravating, and there were internal qualms +that made Fenton doubly impatient.</p> + +<p>"Aloysius, you lazy bones! Do you hear? I want a mackerel +for breakfast. You're thest the no-countest boy I ever see! If +'twan't for your father, you'd thest starve."</p> + +<p>Fenton sadly meditated, and was about to give it up, when he +heard a voice within, saying, "Never too late, Mr. Fenton. You +shall have your mackerel. You needn't wait. As soon as I get +my clothes on I'll tote you over one."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">AN AMAZING PROPHECY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>"The hardest strain upon the republic is yet to come," said +Mr. Pierrepont. "God only knows how the slavery question is to +be settled; but no change in policy will be adopted without a +severe struggle. If the South is worsted, it will have the terrible +problem of the status of the negroes to solve, and it will be a tumultuous +time for a generation. The danger to the North in the +event of success, or of defeat either, will arise from its wealth. +The accumulations at the commercial centres are to make them +enormously rich. Money is a power, and never a quiescent one. +Your rich men will put themselves into office, or they will send +their paid attorneys to legislate for them. They will so touch +the subtle springs of finance as to make every affair of state serve +their personal advantage. They will make corruption honorable, +and bribery a fine art. It is now a mark of decency and a badge +of distinction for a public man to be poor. Everyone knows that +a public man can't be rich honestly; but you will live to see congressmen +going to the capital carrying travelling-bags, and returning +home with wagon loads of trunks, and with stocks and +bonds that will enable them to snap their fingers at constituents."</p> + +<p>"It is the old story of republics," said Mr. Howard. "They +are founded by valor, reared by industry, with frugality and +equal laws. Wealth follows, then corruption, then the public +conscience is debauched, faith is lost, and justice thrust out. Then +the general rottenness is shaken by the coming of a new Cæsar, +and an empire is welcomed because liberty had already been lost, +and anything is better than anarchy. However, let us hope this +is far away."</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="STEPHEN_C_FOSTER" id="STEPHEN_C_FOSTER">STEPHEN C. FOSTER</a></h2> + + +<p>Stephen Collins Foster, the celebrated song writer, was +born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1826. At the +age of fifteen years he entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, +Pennsylvania, but music had set its seal upon +him and he soon returned to Pittsburgh to pursue it. The +next few years were almost entirely devoted to his musical +studies, though he had a living to make. The year of 1842 +found Foster clerking in a Cincinnati store; and during +this time his first song, <i>Open Thy Lattice, Love</i>, was published +at Baltimore. <i>Uncle Ned</i>, and <i>O Susannah!</i> followed +fast upon his first effort, and the three launched +him upon his career. He relinquished his business cares, +and surrendered his life to song. In 1850 Foster married +Jane McDowell of Pittsburgh, and they lived at New York +City for a short time before settling at Pittsburgh. His +<i>Camptown Races</i>, and <i>My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight</i>, +appeared in 1850. It is surely a regrettable fact +that the most famous Kentucky song was not written by a +Kentucky hand. Foster's only child, Mrs. Marion Foster +Welsh, of Pittsburgh, has recently repudiated the ancient +tale that is told of the origin of <i>My Old Kentucky Home</i>, +but as she declined to furnish the real history of the song, +saying she would make it known at the proper time, +nothing better than the often repeated story can be told +here. Foster was visiting his kinsman, Judge John +Rowan, at his home, "Federal Hill," near Bardstown, +Kentucky, and on this typical Southern plantation, with +its negroes and their cabins, <i>My Old Kentucky Home</i> was +written. The story is usually elaborated, but as it has +been set aside by the author's daughter, further comment +is not worth while. It is enough to know that it was written +in Kentucky. Foster went to New York City in 1860, +and the same year <i>Old Black Joe</i> appeared. <i>Old Folks at +Home</i>, <i>Nelly was a Lady</i>, <i>Nelly Bly</i>, <i>Massa's in the Cold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +Cold Ground</i>, <i>Old Dog Tray</i>, <i>Don't Bet Your Money on +the Shanghai</i>, <i>We Are Coming, Father Abraham</i>, and +dozens of other songs have kept Foster's fame green. His +beautiful serenade, <i>Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming</i>, +is his highest note in genuine scientific music. Foster +died at New York, January 13, 1864, and he was buried in +Allegheny cemetery, Pittsburgh. In 1906 the Kentucky +home-comers never seemed to tire of <i>My Old Kentucky +Home</i>, and a fitting memorial was unveiled at Louisville +by Foster's daughter in honor of the song's maker. It is +known and sung in the remotest corners of the world. Mr. +James Lane Allen's fine tribute to the poet's memory may +be found in <i>The Bride of the Mistletoe</i>:</p> + +<p>"More than half a century ago the one starved genius of the +Shield [Kentucky], a writer of songs, looked out upon the summer +picture of this land, its meadows and ripening corn tops; and as +one presses out the spirit of an entire vineyard when he bursts a +solitary grape upon his tongue, he, the song writer, drained drop +by drop the wine of that scene into the notes of a single melody. +The nation now knows his song, the world knows it—the only +music that has ever captured the joy and peace of American home +life—embodying the very soul of it in the clear amber of sound."</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> (November, 1867); <i>Current +Literature</i> (September, 1901). Strangely enough no formal +biography of Foster has been written.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Stephen Collins Foster Statue</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1906, a pamphlet)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Tis summer, the darkies are gay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">While the birds make music all the day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">All merry, all happy, and bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By'n-by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the old Kentucky home far away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On the meadow, the hill, and the shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On the bench by the old cabin door;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day goes by, like a shadow o'er the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With sorrow, where all was delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The time has come when the darkies have to part,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the old Kentucky home far away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The head must bow and the back will have to bend,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Wherever the darkey may go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A few more days and the trouble all will end<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the field where the sugar-cane grows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A few more days for to tote the weary load—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No matter, 'twill never be light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A few more days till we totter on the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the old Kentucky home far away.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ZACHARIAH_F_SMITH" id="ZACHARIAH_F_SMITH">ZACHARIAH F. SMITH</a></h2> + + +<p>Zachariah Frederick Smith, the Kentucky historian, was +born near Eminence, Kentucky, January 7, 1827. He +was educated at Bacon College, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. +During the Civil War he was president of Henry College +at New Castle, Kentucky. From 1867 to 1871 he +was superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky. +Professor Smith was subsequently interested in various +enterprises, and for four years he was connected with +the publishing firm of D. Appleton and Company. For +more than fifty years he was a curator of Transylvania +University. His <i>History of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1885; +1892), is the only exhaustive and readable history of the +Commonwealth from the beginnings down to the date of +its publication. In a sense it is the chronicles of the Collinses +transformed from the encyclopedic to the continuous +narrative form. Professor Smith's other works are: +<i>A School History of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1889); <i>Youth's +History of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1898); <i>The Mother of +Henry Clay</i> (Louisville, 1899); and <i>The Battle of New +Orleans</i> (Louisville, 1904). He spent the final years of +his life upon <i>The History of the Reformation of the 19th +Century, Inaugurated, Advocated, and Directed by Barton +W. Stone, of Kentucky: 1800-1832</i>, which was almost +ready for publication when he died. In this work Professor +Smith set forth that Barton W. Stone, and not +Alexander Campbell, was the founder of the Christian +("Campbellite") so-called "reformation" in this State, +and that its adherents are "Stoneites," not "Campbellites," +as they are called by the profane. Professor +Smith died at Louisville, Kentucky, July 4, 1911, but he +was buried at Eminence.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Kentucky in the Nation's History</i>, by R. M. McElroy +(New York, 1909); <i>The Register</i> (Frankfort, Kentucky, +September, 1911).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The History of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1892)]</p> + +<p>It is probable Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, was the first +physician who ever visited Kentucky. In 1745 he came and +negotiated treaties with the Indian tribes for the establishment of +a colony, which was announced in Washington's journal (1754) +as Walker's settlement on the Cumberland, accompanied by a +map, dated 1750. Some time just before 1770, Dr. John Connolly, +of Pittsburgh, visited the Falls of the Ohio, and three years +later, in company with Captain Thomas Bullitt, patented the land +on which Louisville now stands. But little is known of the professional +performances of either Walker or Connolly, except the +fact that they were both men of superior intelligence, and of far +more than average cultivation. They were both known as enterprising +business men rather than great practitioners of medicine. +In a <i>History of the Medical Literature of Kentucky</i>, Dr. Lunsford +P. Yandell (the elder) says: "The first surgical operation +ever performed in Kentucky by a white man occurred in 1767." +Colonel James Smith, in that year, accompanied by his black +servant, Jamie, traveled from the mouth of the Tennessee river +across the country to Carolina, now Tennessee. On their way, +Colonel Smith stepped upon a projecting fragment of cane, which +pierced his foot, and was broken off level with the skin. Swelling +quickly came on, causing the flesh to rise above the end of the +cane. Having no other instruments than a knife, a moccasin +awl, and a pair of bullet-molds, the colonel directed his servant +to seize the piece of cane with the bullet-molds, while he raised +the skin with the awl and cut the flesh away from around the piece +of cane, and, with the assistance of Jamie, the foreign body was +drawn out. Colonel Smith then treated the wound with the +bruised bark from the root of a lind tree, and subsequently by +poultices made of the same material, using the mosses of the +old logs in the forest, which he secured with strips of elm bark, +as a dressing.</p> + +<p>Dr. Frederick Ridgely, a favorite pupil of Dr. Rush, was sent +from Philadelphia early in 1779, as a surgeon to a vessel sailing +with letters of marque and reprisal off the coast of Virginia. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +vessel was chased into the Chesapeake Bay by a British man-of-war. +As the ship's colors were struck to the enemy, Dr. Ridgely +leaped overboard, and narrowly escaped capture by swimming +two miles to the shore. He was at once thereafter appointed an +officer in the medical department of the Colonial army. A few +months later, he resigned his commission, and settled, in 1790, at +Lexington, where he speedily attained a leading position as a +master of the healing art. From Lexington he was frequently +called, in the capacity of surgeon, to accompany militia in their +expeditions against the Indians. He was appointed surgeon-general +to the army of "Mad Anthony Wayne," returning finally +to Lexington, where he took part in the organization of the first +medical college established in the West. Dr. Ridgely was a frequent +contributor to the <i>American Medical Repertory</i>, published +at Philadelphia. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Samuel +Brown, also of Lexington. At the organization of the medical +department of Transylvania University, in 1799, Brown and +Ridgely were the first professors. Ridgely, in that year, delivered +a course of lectures to a small class, and, as the organization of +the faculty had not been completed, no further attempts at teaching +were made. Dr. Samuel Brown, like his colleague, Ridgely, +was a surgeon of great ability and large experience. These two +gentlemen added greatly to the growth and popularity of Lexington +by their renown as surgeons. They attracted patients +from the remote settlements on the frontier, and were both frequent +contributors to the medical literature of that time. The +cases reported by these gentlemen were numerous, interesting, +carefully observed, and ably reported. Dr. Brown was a student +at the University of Edinburgh with Hosack, Davidge, Ephraim +McDowell, and Brockenborough, of Virginia. Hosack became +famous as a professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, +at New York; Davidge laid the foundation of the University of +Maryland; Brown was one of the first professors in Transylvania +University, at Lexington, while McDowell achieved immortal +fame in surgery as the father of ovariotomy. Strong rivalry in +the practice of medicine at Lexington, between Brown and +Ridgely, and Fishback and Pindell, had much to do with the difficulties +attending the efforts of the two former to establish the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +medical school. In 1798, Jenner made public his great discovery +of the protective power of vaccination. Dr. Brown, of Lexington, +was his first imitator on this continent. Within three years +from the date of Jenner's first publication, and before the experiment +had been tried elsewhere in this country, Brown had already +vaccinated successfully more than five hundred people at Lexington.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_A_BROADUS" id="JOHN_A_BROADUS">JOHN A. BROADUS</a></h2> + + +<p>John Albert Broadus, the most distinguished clergyman +and writer Kentucky Baptists have produced, was born +near Culpepper, Virginia, January 24, 1827. At the +age of sixteen years Broadus united with the Baptist +church; and he shortly afterwards decided to study for +the ministry of his church. He taught school for a time +before going to the University of Virginia, in 1846, and he +was graduated four years later with the M.A. degree. +While at the University Broadus was greatly impressed +by Professors Gessner Harrison, Wm. H. McGuffey, and +E. H. Courtenay. In 1851 Broadus declined a professorship +in Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in +order to become assistant instructor of ancient languages +in his <i>alma mater</i> and pastor of the Charlottesville Baptist +church. In 1857 it was decided to establish the Southern +Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, South +Carolina, and Broadus, James P. Boyce, Basil Manly, Jr., +William Williams, and E. T. Winkler, were the committee +on establishment. Boyce and Manly urged the curriculum +system, but Broadus advocated the elective system so +earnestly that he completely won them over. "So, as Mr. +Jefferson had drawn a new American university, Mr. +Broadus drew a new American seminary." The Seminary +opened in 1859 with the members of the committee, +with the exception of Williams, as the professors. Boyce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +was elected president, and Broadus occupied the chair of +New Testament Interpretation and Homiletics. Twenty-six +students greeted the faculty; and all were soon hard +at work. After a few years, however, the Civil War came +and the Seminary shortly suspended. During the war +Dr. Broadus was a chaplain in the Confederate armies. +At the close of the war work in the Seminary was resumed +with seven students enrolled, Dr. Broadus having +but one student in homiletics, and he was blind! The lectures +he prepared for this blind brother were the basis of +the work that made him famous, <i>The Preparation and Delivery +of Sermons</i> (Philadelphia, 1870), which is at the +present time the finest thing on the subject, a text-book in +nearly every theological school in Christendom. Dr. +Broadus declined chairs in Chicago and Brown universities, +and the presidency of Vassar College, in order to +remain with the Seminary, the darling of his dreams. In +1873 he read his notable paper in memory of Gessner Harrison +at the University of Virginia; and the next year he +joined Dr. Boyce in Kentucky in the effort that was then +being made to remove the Seminary to Louisville. His +lectures before the Newton Theological Seminary were +published as <i>The History of Preaching</i> (New York, 1876). +In 1877 the Seminary was removed to Louisville, Dr. +Boyce remaining as president and Dr. Broadus as professor +of homiletics. From the first the Seminary was a +success, it now being the largest in the United States. +In 1879 Dr. Broadus delivered his noted address upon +Demosthenes before Richmond College, Virginia, which +is regarded as one of the very finest efforts of his +life. In Louisville he became the city's first citizen, honored +and beloved by all classes. In 1886 Harvard conferred +the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon him; and +later in the same year one of the most important of his +books appeared, <i>Sermons and Addresses</i> (Baltimore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +1886). This was followed by his famous <i>Commentary on +Matthew</i> (Philadelphia, 1887), which was begun during +the darkest days of the Civil War, and is now considered +the best commentary in English on that Gospel. Dr. Boyce +died at Pau, France, in 1888, and Dr. Broadus succeeded +him as president of the Seminary. In January, 1889, he +delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures on <i>Preaching</i> at +Yale; and some months later his <i>Translation of and Notes +to Chrysostom's Homilies</i> (New York, 1889) appeared. +In the spring of 1890 Dr. Broadus delivered three lectures +before Johns Hopkins University, which were published +as <i>Jesus of Nazareth</i> (New York, 1890). He spent the +summer of 1892 in Louisville preparing his <i>Memoir of +James P. Boyce</i> (New York, 1893); and <i>A Harmony of +the Gospels</i> (New York, 1893), his final works. Dr. +Broadus died at Louisville, Kentucky, March 16, 1895.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Life and Letters of John Albert Broadus</i>, by A. +T. Robertson (Philadelphia, 1900); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> +(Atlanta, 1909, v. ii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">OXFORD UNIVERSITY<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Life and Letters of John A. Broadus</i>, by A. T. Robertson (Philadelphia, +1901)]</p> + +<p>We had four and a half hours at Oxford, and spent it with exceeding +great pleasure, and most respectably heavy expense.</p> + +<p>At University College we saw a memorial of Sir Wm. Jones, +by Flaxman, which I am sure I shall never forget—worthy of +Sir Wm. and worthy of Flaxman. At Magdalen College we +saw the varied and beautiful grounds, with the Poet's Walk, +where Addison loved to stroll. At New College we visited the +famous and beautiful chapel. (New College is now five hundred +years old.) These are the most remarkable of the nineteen colleges. +You know they are entirely distinct establishments, as +much as if a hundred miles apart, and that the University of Oxford +is simply a general organization which gives degrees to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +men prepared by the different colleges. Then we spent one and +a half hours at the famous Bodleian Library, the most valuable +(British Museum has the largest number of books) in the world. +Oh, the books, the books—the early and rare editions, the illuminated +manuscripts of the Middle Ages, the autographs of +famous persons, and the portraits, the portraits of hundreds of +the earth's greatest ones. Happy students, fellows, professors, +who have constant access to the Bodleian Library.</p> + + +<p class="center">SPURGEON</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>I was greatly delighted with Spurgeon, especially with his conduct +of public worship. The congregational singing has often +been described, and is as good as can well be conceived. Spurgeon +is an excellent reader of Scripture, and remarkably impressive +in reading hymns, and the prayers were quite what they +ought to have been. The sermon was hardly up to his average in +freshness, but was exceedingly well delivered, without affectation +or apparent effort, but with singular earnestness, and directness. +The whole thing—house, congregation, order, worship, preaching, +was as nearly up to my ideal as I ever expect to see in this +life. Of course Spurgeon has his faults and deficiencies, but he +is a wonderful man. Then he preaches the real gospel, and God +blesses him. After the services concluded, I went to a room in the +rear to present my letter, and was cordially received. Somebody +must tell Mrs. V—— that I "thought of her" repeatedly during +the sermon, and "gave her love" to Spurgeon, and he said such +a message encouraged him. (I made quite a little story of it, and +the gentlemen in the room were apparently much interested, not +to say amused.)</p> + +<p>We went straight towards St. Paul's, where Liddon has been +preaching every Sunday afternoon in September, and there would +be difficulty in getting a good seat. We lunched at the Cathedral +Hotel, hard by, and then stood three-quarters of an hour at the +door of St. Paul's, waiting for it to open. Meantime a good +crowd had collected behind us, and there was a tremendous rush +when the door opened, to get chairs near the preaching stand. +The crowd looked immense in the vast cathedral, and yet there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +were not half as many as were quietly seated in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. There everybody could hear, and here, in the grand and +beautiful show-place, Mr. Liddon was tearing his throat in the +vain attempt to be heard by all. The grand choral service was +all Chinese to me.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="MARY_J_HOLMES" id="MARY_J_HOLMES">MARY J. HOLMES</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Mary Jane Holmes, a family favorite for fifty years, +was born at Brookfield, Massachusetts, April 5, 1828. She +became a teacher at an early age, and at Allen's Hill, New +York, on August 9, 1849, she was married to Daniel +Holmes, a Yale man of the class of 1848, who had been +teaching the year between his graduation and marriage at +Versailles, Kentucky. Immediately after the ceremony +he and his bride started to Kentucky, where Mrs. Holmes +joined her husband in teaching. In 1850 they gave up the +school at Versailles, taking charge of the district school +at Glen's Creek, near Versailles. Here they taught for +two years, when Mr. Holmes decided to relinquish teaching +for the practice of law, and they removed to Brockport, +New York, their home henceforth. Mrs. Holmes +returned to Kentucky in 1857, for a visit, and this, with +the three years indicated above, included her Kentucky +life. Having settled at Brockport, she began her career as +a novelist. Her first and best known book, <i>Tempest and +Sunshine, or Life in Kentucky</i>, was published in 1854. Mr. +Middleton, one of the chief characters in this novel, was a +rather close characterization of a Kentucky planter, Mr. +Singleton, who resided some miles from Versailles; and +his daughter, Sue Singleton, subsequently Mrs. Porter, always +claimed, though facetiously, that she was the original +of <i>Tempest</i>. It is now known, however, that Mrs. +Holmes had not thought of her in delineating the character, +and that the Singleton home is the only thing in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +book that is drawn from actual life with any detail whatever. +In her Kentucky books that followed <i>Tempest and +Sunshine</i>, she usually built an accurate background for +characters that lived only in her imagination. Besides <i>Tempest +and Sunshine</i>, Mrs. Holmes was the author of thirty-four +books, published in the order given: <i>The English +Orphans</i>; <i>Homestead on the Hillside</i>, a book of Kentucky +stories; <i>Lena Rivers</i>, a Kentucky novel, superior to <i>Tempest +and Sunshine</i>; <i>Meadow Brook</i>; <i>Dora Deane</i>; <i>Cousin +Maude</i>; <i>Marian Grey</i>, a Kentucky story; <i>Darkness and +Daylight</i>; <i>Hugh Worthington</i>, another Kentucky novel; +<i>The Cameron Pride</i>; <i>Rose Mather</i>; <i>Ethelyn's Mistake</i>; +<i>Millbank</i>; <i>Edna Browning</i>; <i>West Lawn</i>; <i>Edith Lyle</i>; <i>Mildred</i>; +<i>Daisy Thornton</i>; <i>Forrest House</i>; <i>Chateau D'Or</i>; +<i>Madeline</i>; <i>Queenie Hetherton</i>; <i>Christmas Stories</i>; <i>Bessie's +Fortune</i>; <i>Gretchen</i>; <i>Marguerite</i>; <i>Dr. Hathern's Daughters</i>; +<i>Mrs. Hallam's Companion</i>; <i>Paul Ralston</i>; <i>The Tracy +Diamonds</i>; <i>The Cromptons</i>; <i>The Merivale Banks</i>; <i>Rena's +Experiment</i>; and <i>The Abandoned Farm</i>. About two million +copies of Mrs. Holmes's books have been sold by her +authorized publishers; how many have been sold in pirated +editions cannot, of course, be ascertained. Mrs. +Holmes died at Brockport, New York, October 6, 1907.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Allibone's <i>Dictionary of Authors</i> (Philadelphia, +1897, v. ii); <i>The Nation</i> (October 10, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE SCHOOLMASTER</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Lena Rivers</i> (New York, 1856)]</p> + +<p>And now Mr. Everett was daily expected. Anna, who had no +fondness for books, greatly dreaded his arrival, thinking within +herself how many pranks she'd play off upon him, provided 'Lena +would lend a helping hand, which she much doubted. John Jr., +too, who for a time, at least, was to be placed under Mr. Everett's +instruction, felt in no wise eager for his arrival, fearing, as he +told 'Lena that "between the 'old man' and the tutor, he would +be kept a little too straight for a gentleman of his habits;" and it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +was with no particular emotions of pleasure that he and Anna saw +the stage stop before the gate one pleasant morning toward the +middle of November. Running to one of the front windows, +Carrie, 'Lena, and Anna watched their new teacher, each after her +own fashion commenting upon his appearance.</p> + +<p>"Ugh," exclaimed Anna, "what a green, boyish looking thing! +I reckon nobody's going to be afraid of him."</p> + +<p>"I say he's real handsome," said Carrie, who being thirteen +years of age, had already, in her own mind, practiced many a little +coquetry upon the stranger.</p> + +<p>"I like him," was 'Lena's brief remark.</p> + +<p>Mr. Everett was a pale, intellectual looking man, scarcely +twenty years of age, and appearing still younger so that Anna +was not wholly wrong when she called him boyish. Still there +was in his large black eye a firmness and decision which bespoke +the man strong within him, and which put to flight all of Anna's +preconceived notions of rebellion. With the utmost composure he +returned Mrs. Livingstone's greeting, and the proud lady half bit +her lip with vexation as she saw how little he seemed awed by her +presence.</p> + +<p>Malcolm Everett was not one to acknowledge superiority where +there was none, and though ever polite toward Mrs. Livingstone, +there was something in his manner which forbade her treating +him as aught save an equal. He was not to be trampled down, +and for once in her life Mrs. Livingstone had found a person who +would neither cringe to her nor flatter. The children were not +presented to him until dinner time, when, with the air of a young +desperado, John Jr. marched into the dining-room, eyeing his +teacher askance, calculating his strength, and returning his greeting +with a simple nod. Mr. Everett scanned him from head to +foot, and then turned to Carrie half smiling at the great dignity +which she assumed. With Lena and Anna he seemed better +pleased, holding their hands and smiling down upon them through +rows of teeth which Anna pronounced the whitest she had ever +seen.</p> + +<p>Mr. Livingstone was not at home, and when his mother appeared, +Mrs. Livingstone did not think proper to introduce her. +But if by this omission she thought to keep the old lady silent, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +was mistaken, for the moment Mrs. Nichols was seated, she commenced +with, "Your name is Everett, I b'lieve?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am," said he, bowing very gracefully toward her.</p> + +<p>"Any kin to the governor what was?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, none whatever," and the white teeth became +slightly visible for a moment, but soon disappeared.</p> + +<p>"You are from Rockford, 'Lena tells me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am. Have you friends there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—or that is, Nancy Scovandyke's sister, Betsy Scovandyke +that used to be, lives there. Maybe you know her. Her +name is Bacon—Betsy Bacon. She's a widder and keeps boarders."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said he, the teeth this time becoming wholly visible, +"I've heard of Mrs. Bacon, but have not the honor of her acquaintance. +You are from the east, I perceive."</p> + +<p>"Law, now! how did you know that?" asked Mrs. Nichols, +while Mr. Everett answered, "I <i>guessed</i> at it," with a peculiar +emphasis on the word guessed, which led 'Lena to think he had +used it purposely and not from habit.</p> + +<p>Mr. Everett possessed in a remarkable degree the faculty of +making those around him both respect and like him, and ere six +weeks had passed, he had won the love of all his pupils. Even +John Jr. was greatly improved, and Carrie seemed suddenly reawakened +into a thirst for knowledge, deeming no task too long, +and no amount of study too hard, if it won the commendation of +the teacher. 'Lena, who committed to memory with great ease, +and who consequently did not deserve so much credit for her always +perfect lessons, seldom received a word of praise, while poor +Anna, notoriously lazy when books were concerned, cried almost +every day, because as she said, "Mr. Everett didn't like her as he +did the rest, else why did he look at her so much, watching her +all the while, and keeping her after school to get her lessons over, +when he knew how she hated them."</p> + +<p>Once Mrs. Livingstone ventured to remonstrate, telling him +that Anna was very sensitive, and required altogether different +treatment from Carrie. "She thinks you dislike her," said she, +"and while she retains this impression, she will do nothing as far +as learning is concerned; so if you do not like her, try and make +her think you do!"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a peculiar look in Mr. Everett's dark eyes as he answered, +"You may think it strange, Mrs. Livingstone, but of all +my pupils I love Anna the best! I know I find more fault with +her, and am, perhaps, more severe with her than with the rest, +but it's because I would make her what I wish her to be. Pardon +me, madam, but Anna does not possess the same amount of intellect +with her cousin or sister, but by proper culture she will +make a fine, intelligent woman."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Livingstone hardly relished being told that one child was +inferior to the other, but she could not well help herself—Mr. +Everett would say what he pleased—and thus the conference +ended. From that time Mr. Everett was exceedingly kind to +Anna, wiping away the tears which invariably came when told +that she must stay with him in the schoolroom after the rest were +gone; then, instead of seating himself in rigid silence at a distance +until her task was learned, he would sit by her side, occasionally +smoothing her long curls and speaking encouragingly to +her as she poured over some hard rule of grammar, or puzzled her +brains with some difficult problem in Colburn. Ere long the result +of all this became manifest. Anna grew fonder of her books, +more ready to learn, and—more willing to be kept after school!</p> + +<p>Ah, little did Mrs. Livingstone think what she was doing when +she bade young Malcolm Everett make her warm-hearted, impulsive +daughter <i>think</i> he liked her!</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="ROSA_V_JEFFREY" id="ROSA_V_JEFFREY">ROSA V. JEFFREY</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Rosa Vertner Jeffrey, one of the most beautiful of +Kentucky women, whose personal loveliness has caused +some critics to forget she was a gifted poet, was born at +Natchez, Mississippi, in 1828, the daughter of John Y. +Griffith, a writer of considerable reputation in his day. +Her mother died when she was but nine months old, and +she was reared by her aunt. When Rosa was ten years of +age her adopted parents removed to Lexington, Kentucky, +where she was educated at the Episcopal Seminary. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +1845 Miss Vertner—she had taken the name of her foster +parents—was married to Claude M. Johnson, a wealthy +citizen of Lexington, and she at once took her place as a +great social and literary leader. One of her sons, Mr. +Claude M. Johnson, was mayor of Lexington for several +years, and he was afterwards in the service of the United +States government. In 1861 Mrs. Johnson's husband +died, and she removed to Rochester, New York, where she +resided for two years, when she was married to Alexander +Jeffrey, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they returned to +Lexington, her home for the remainder of her life. Mrs. +Jeffrey died at Lexington, Kentucky, October 6, 1894, and +no woman has yet arisen in Kentucky to take her position +as society's favorite beauty and poet. She began her literary +career as a contributor of verse to Prentice's <i>Louisville +Journal</i>. Her pen-name was "Rosa," and under this +name her first volume of poems was published, entitled +<i>Poems, by Rosa</i> (Boston, 1857). This was followed by +<i>Florence Vale</i>; <i>Woodburn</i>, a novel; <i>Daisy Dare and Baby +Power</i> (Philadelphia, 1871), a book of poems; <i>The Crimson +Hand and Other Poems</i> (Philadelphia, 1881), her best +known work; and <i>Marah</i> (Philadelphia, 1884), a novel. +Mrs. Jeffrey was also the author of a five-act comedy, +called <i>Love and Literature</i>. As a novelist or playwright +she did nothing especially strong, but as a writer of pleasing +poems her place in the literature of Kentucky seems +secure.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>History of Kentucky</i>, by R. H. Collins (Covington, +Kentucky, 1882); <i>The Register</i> (Frankfort, January, +1911).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A GLOVE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Crimson Hand and Other Poems</i> (Philadelphia, 1881)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In a box of airy trifles—fans, flowers, and ribbons gay—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I chanced to find a tasselled glove, worn once on the first of May.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +<span class="i0">How long ago? Ah me, ah me! twelve years, twelve years today!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas! for that beautiful, fragrant time, so far in the past away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crowned with sweeter memories than any other May,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Standing alone, in a checkered life—it was my wedding day!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The passing hours were shod with light, and their glowing sandals made<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such sunny tracks that they guide me yet through a retrospect of shade.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through changes and shadows of twelve long years, down that love-lit path I stray;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The winters come and the winters go, yet it leads to an endless May.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No leaves of the autumn have fallen there, and never a flake of snow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has chilled the path of those May-day hours that gleam through the long ago!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The flowering cherry's wild perfume came stealing, bitter sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From fragrant breezes drifting heaps of blossoms to my feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flowers are dust, but the bees that bore their subtle sweets away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropped golden honey on the path of that beautiful first of May.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sweetness clings, for I gather it in wandering back today.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Twelve years! twelve years!—a long, long life for a little tasselled glove!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, I treasure it still for his dear sake who clasped with so much love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hand that wore, on that festal night, this delicate, dainty thing—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His forever! bound to him by the link of a wedding ring!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The glove is soiled and faded now, but the ring is as bright today<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the love that flooded my life with light on that beautiful first of May.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">A MEMORY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A memory filled my heart last night<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With all its youthful glow;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Under the ashes, out of my sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I buried it long ago;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I buried it deep, I bade it rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And whispered a long "good-by;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo! it has risen—too sweet, too blest<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Too cherished a thing to die.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the dim, dim past, where the shadows fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I left it, but, crowned with light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A spirit of joy in the banquet-hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">It haunted my soul last night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One earnest, tender, passionate glance—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I cherished it—that was all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As we drifted on through the mazy dance<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To a musical rise and fall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It rose with a weird and witching swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Mid the twinkling of merry feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clasped me close in a wild, strange spell<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of memories bitter-sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bitter—because they left a sting<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And vanished: a lifelong pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet—because nothing can ever bring<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Such joy to my heart again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To me it was nothing, only a waltz;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To the other it meant no wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Men may be cruel—who are not false—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And women remember too long.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="SALLIE_R_FORD" id="SALLIE_R_FORD">SALLIE R. FORD</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford, the mother of good <i>Grace +Truman</i>, was born at Rochester Springs, near Danville, +Kentucky, in 1828. Miss Rochester was graduated from +the female seminary at Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1849, +and six years later she was married to Rev. Samuel H. +Ford (1823-1905), a Baptist preacher and editor of Louisville<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +and St. Louis. She was her husband's associate in +his literary enterprises, rendering him excellent service +at all times. Her last years were spent at St. Louis, +in which city she died in February, 1910, having rounded +out more than four score years. Mrs. Ford's religious +novel, <i>Grace Truman, or Love and Principle</i> (New +York, 1857) attracted wide attention in its day, and it +was reprinted many times. It was read by thousands +of young girls; and ministers descanted upon it in their +sermons. While the work sets forth that the Baptist road +is the only right of way to heaven, and is sentimental to +the core, it is fairly well-written, and it undoubtedly did +much good. A copy of it may be found in almost any collection +of Kentucky books. <i>Grace Truman</i> was followed +by <i>Mary Bunyan</i> (New York, 1859); <i>Morgan and His +Men</i> (Mobile, Ala., 1864); <i>Ernest Quest</i> (New York, +1877); <i>Evangel Wiseman</i> (1907); and Mrs. Ford's final +work, published at St. Louis, <i>The Life of Rochester Ford, +the Successful Christian Lawyer</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>How I Came to Write "Grace Truman: An Appendix</i> +to the 1886 edition; Adams's <i>Dictionary of American +Authors</i> (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">OUR MINISTER MARRIES</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Grace Truman</i> (St. Louis, 1886)]</p> + +<p>May roses fling abroad their rich fragrance on the evening air! +May dews glide noiselessly to the newly awakened earth, and lose +themselves in her fresh, green bosom. A soft May moon steals +above the eastern horizon, and gilds with radiant luster the brow +of night. Gentle May zephyrs from their airy home glide over +the earth, kissing the lips of the rose, and the tender cheek of the +hedge-row violet. Young and tender May leaves whisper to each +other tales of love, away, away, in the dark old forests.</p> + +<p>And other lips than those of the dancing leaves have whispered +tales of love; and mortal ears have heard its sweet low +murmurings; and mortal hearts have felt its thrilling inspiration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +until the soul, fired beneath its ecstatic power, has tasted of bliss +which mortal tongue can never say.</p> + +<p>In the hospitable mansion of Mr. Gray, all is excitement and +expectancy. She to whom their hearts were so closely wedded, +the living, joyous Annie, is tonight to take upon her the marriage +vow. She is to wed the man of her heart's free choice, the object +of her pure unsullied love. She is to stand in the presence of +God and many witnesses, and promise to love and cherish, yea as +long as life shall last, him upon whom she has bestowed her girlhood's +fresh full confidence and affection.</p> + +<p>The house is brilliantly lighted throughout, and everything +bears the testimony of free Kentucky hospitality. 'Tis but the +twilight hour—early, yet the guests are fast assembling.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was a simple yet beautiful and impressive scene—that little +group as it stood, while the aged man of God, in a solemn and +touching manner, united in indissoluble ties the two warm loving +hearts before him. The vailed form of the bride, leaning on the +arm of him who was henceforth to be her earthly stay; the calm +dignified form, and earnest, we might say, almost holy expression +of him who was receiving the precious trust—the bent form, and +hoary locks, and tremulous voice of the minister—all conspired +to make the scene one of solemn beauty and intense interest.</p> + +<p>Congratulations followed, and many were the kisses that +pressed the blushing cheek of the happy bride, who, with her vail +thrown back from her brow and the color playing over her bright +face "like moonlight over streams," looked the very embodiment +of grace and loveliness.</p> + +<p>Fannie calmly waited till the excitement was measurably over; +and then approaching her new cousin, leaning on the arm of Mr. +Ray, gave them each a fervent kiss and her warmest wishes for +their future happiness.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The time passed most delightfully to all present. Mr. and +Mrs. Gray moved about among the guests dispensing pleasure +and enjoyment wherever they went. But the bride and bridegroom +were the chief attraction; she, with her naturally exuberant +spirits, heightened by the excitement of the occasion, and yet +tempered by her husband's dignified cheerfulness; and he, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +his fine conversational powers and affable manner, drew around +them an admiring crowd wherever they were. The young ladies +and gentlemen promenaded and chatted gayly, while the more +elderly ones grouped themselves together in different parts of the +room for the purpose of social conversation.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Supper was served in liberal, handsome style; and Mr. and +Mrs. Gray, assisted by Mr. and Mrs. Truman, attended to the +wants of their guests in the most obliging and attentive manner. +And when the hour arrived for the company to disperse to their +respective homes, each one went away happy in the thoughts of +having passed a most agreeable hour.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Gray accompanied their daughter to Weston the +day after the wedding, when they met with a most welcome reception +from Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, who had provided an evening +entertainment for the bridal party, and had called together many +of their friends.</p> + +<p>They remained several days, during which time they saw their +daughter nicely and comfortably ensconced in a neat little brick +cottage, situated in a very pleasant part of the village, and which +was henceforth called "The Parsonage."</p> + +<p>Annie, or, we should rather say, Mrs. Lewis, united with the +little church of which her husband was now the almost idolized +pastor, on the Saturday after her marriage. It had been so arranged +by Mr. Lewis that they should be married on Tuesday +previous to their church meeting, that she might thus soon cast +her lot among his people. She was welcomed with warm hearts +and affectionate greeting; and when, on the following morning, +her husband led her down into the stream, where but a few +months before he had followed Christ in baptism, they received +her from the liquid grave, a member of the household of faith, +a laborer with them in the vineyard of the Lord.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_E_HATCHER" id="JOHN_E_HATCHER">JOHN E. HATCHER</a></h2> + + +<p>Col. John E. Hatcher ("G. Washington Bricks"), a +newspaper humorist who won wide fame in his day and +generation, but who is now quite sealed over and forgotten, +was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1828. +When a boy his parents emigrated to Tennessee. At the +age of twenty years Hatcher became editor of <i>The American +Democrat</i> at Florence, Alabama; and in 1852 he purchased +<i>The Mirror</i>, a paper which General Zollicoffer had +established at Columbia, Tennessee. Some time later +Hatcher disposed of that property, and accepted a position +on the <i>Nashville Patriot</i>. He was fast gaining a +reputation for his humorous sketches, paragraphs, and +rhymes, which were floating through many Southern +newspapers under his pen-name of "G. Washington +Bricks." Hatcher relinquished the pen for the sword +when the Civil War began, becoming an officer on the staff +of General Cheatham. After the war, or in 1867, Colonel +Hatcher settled at Louisville, Kentucky, joining the staff +of Prentice's then fast-expiring <i>Journal</i>. When, in the +following year, the <i>Journal</i> was united with the <i>Courier</i>, +he became editor of the <i>Daily Democrat</i>; and when that +paper was consolidated with the other two to make <i>The +Courier-Journal</i>, he became one of the editors of the new +paper, and continued to write for it so long as he lived. +For a short time he did some special work for a Louisville +publication known as <i>The Evening Express</i>, conducted +by Mr. Overton. A few years before his death +Colonel Hatcher returned to his old home at Columbia, +Tennessee, and founded <i>The Mail</i>; but he became "outside +editor" of <i>The Courier-Journal</i>, laying down his pen +for that paper only with his death, which occurred at +Columbia, Tennessee, March 26, 1879. Consumption +caused his demise and robbed Southern journalism of one +of its finest minds. Colonel Hatcher married Miss Lizzie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +McKnight, daughter of a prosperous merchant at Iuka, +Mississippi, and the early death of their only child, a +daughter, coupled with consumption, hastened his own +death. As an editorial paragraphist Colonel Hatcher has +never had a peer in Kentucky or the South. Prentice, the +father of the paragraph, was a wit; Hatcher was a humorist; +and his writings were often credited to Prentice by +those who were not acquainted with the inner workings of +the office. Henry Watterson has written this fine tribute +to Colonel Hatcher's memory:</p> + +<p>He was one of the silent singers of the press, but he lacked nothing +of eminence except good fortune; for he was a humorist of the +very first water, and had he lived under different conditions could +not have failed of the celebrity to which his talents entitled him. +Born not merely poor, but far inland, with no early advantages, +and later in life with none except those furnished by a rural newspaper; +ill health overtook him before he had divined his own +powers.... His wit was not so aggressive as that of Mr. Prentice. +But he had more humor. He died in the prime of life and +left behind him a professional tradition, which is cherished by +the little circle of friends to whom a charming personality and +many brilliant gifts made him very dear.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Courier-Journal</i> (March 27, 1879); <i>Oddities +of Southern Life</i>, by Henry Watterson (Boston, 1882).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Courier-Journal</i>]</p> + +<p>Garters with monogram clasps are now worn by the pretty +girls. They are rather a novelty yet, but we hope to see more +of them.</p> + +<p>"The New York <i>Telegraph</i> advises people to marry for love and +not for money." Good advice, certainly; but inasmuch as you +will always be in want of money if you marry for love, and always +in want of love if you marry for money, your safest way +is to marry for a little of both.</p> + +<p>Some of our contemporaries will persist in speaking of us as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +"rebel." That we fought for the stars and bars with a heroism +of which Marathon, Leuctra, and Thermopylae never even +dreamed, the bones of half-a-dozen substitutes which lie bleeding +upon as many "stormy heights and carnage covered fields" bear +testimony abundant and indisputable, and that we suffer ourselves +still to be called a "rebel" without unsheathing the avenging +dagger and wading up to our knees in gore, is simply because +there is already as much blood upon the hands of our substitutes +as we can furnish soap to wash off without becoming a bankrupt. +Nevertheless, if this thing is much longer persisted in, there may +come a time when virtue will cease to be a forebearance. One +more taste of blood, this sanguinary arm once more uplifted to +smite, and the world will shudder.</p> + +<p>General Grant says he won't call an extra session of Congress +unless the war in Europe is likely to give us trouble. So he is +determined that if the gods bring us one calamity, he will immediately +step forward with another.</p> + +<p>For list of candidates see first page.—<i>Banner</i>. For the candidates +themselves—but you needn't trouble yourself to see +them; they'll see you.</p> + +<p>The French General Failly, who was killed by a Prussian shell, +and was afterward murdered by his own soldiers, and subsequently +blew out his own brains, is now a prisoner at Mayence—whether +dead or alive, the telegraph does not inform us.</p> + +<p>The Glasgow <i>Times</i> tells of a man in Georgia, fifty years of age, +who never in his life drank a glass of whiskey, smoked a pipe, or +courted a woman. The poor wretch has lived utterly in vain. +The man who has never sat by a beautiful woman, with a pipe in +his mouth, a glass of whiskey in one hand, and the whalebones +of her palpitating stays in the other, and "with a lip unused to +the cool breath of reason, told his love," has no more idea of Paradise +than a deaf and dumb orang-outang has of metaphysics. +Even without the pipe and whiskey there is, strictly speaking, +nothing disagreeable about it.</p> + +<p>The United States navy has but one Admiral Poor. We wish +we could say it has but one poor admiral.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_C_WATTS" id="WILLIAM_C_WATTS">WILLIAM C. WATTS</a></h2> + + +<p>William Courtney Watts, author of a single historical +novel which is regarded by many as the finest work of its +kind yet done by a Kentucky hand, was born at Salem, Kentucky, +February 7, 1830. His family has no record of his +school days, but he was married to Miss Nannie Ferguson +when a young man, and six children were born to them. +Watts's early years were spent at Salem and Smithland, +Kentucky, but he later went to New Orleans as a clerk in +the firm of Givens, Watts and Company, cotton brokers. +He shortly afterwards joined the New York branch of this +New Orleans house, known as Watts, Crowe and Company, +as a partner in the business; and from New York +Watts went to Liverpool, England, to represent the firm of +W. C. Watts and Company, which was the foreign title for +the New Orleans and New York houses. For some years +the business was very prosperous, and Watts, of course, +shared largely in the firm's success. After the usual congratulatory +messages between England and the United +States had been exchanged, Watts is said to have sent the +first cablegram across the Atlantic. After many years of +prosperity, failure overtook the house of Watts, and he +returned to New York, setting up in business with a Mr. +Slaughter. Some time subsequently he came back to +Kentucky, making his home in Smithland, but rheumatism +ruined his health, causing lameness, and making +him an invalid for the remainder of his life. In Smithland, +during days of illness, Watts wrote his splendid +story, <i>The Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement</i> (New +York, 1897). This novel of early Kentucky life is one of +the most charming and delightful tales ever told by an +American author, although founded upon fact and, in a +sense, twice-told. <i>The Chronicles</i> is the only book Watts +wrote, and he has come down to posterity with this single +story in his feeble hand. The preface, signed on the sixty-seventh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +anniversary of his birth, was done but ten +months before his death, which occurred at Smithland, +Kentucky December 27, 1897. He is buried in the cemetery +of the little Kentucky town over which he cast the +glamour of romance, almost unknown to its citizen of this +day, and still unappreciated and unheralded by Kentuckians. +His <i>Chronicles</i> is known only to the student and +collector, as it was never properly put before the public, +though published by a powerful New York firm. His +family knows little of his life and is quite careless of his +fame. In years to come the <i>Chronicles</i> may take high +rank among the finest series of historical pictures ever +penned of a single Southern settlement, and then William +Courtney Watts will come into his very own.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Courier-Journal</i> (December 28, 1897); letter +from Watts's daughter to the author.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">A WEDDING AND A DANCE<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement</i> (New York, 1897)]</p> + +<p>A few weeks after the race there was a grand wedding, and, +this time, Squire Howard united in holy matrimony Jefferson +Brantley and Emily Wilmot, the ceremony taking place at the +residence of the bride's father. Joseph Adair and Horace Benton +were the groomsmen, and Laura Howard and Ada Howard +the bridesmaids. A young lady from Princeton was to have been +one of the bridesmaids, but illness prevented her attendance, and +Ada Howard took her place. The residence of Mr. Wilmot was +too small to admit of dancing, but the company present had a +merry time—the fun and frolic being kept up until a late hour. +It was then the custom to "give" (hold) the infare at the residence +of the groom's parents or some other near relative, but, as +Mr. Brantley had no relatives in the county, his infare was held +at the Brick Hotel in Salem, and great were the preparations made +on the occasion—never had such an elegant and sumptuous +table been spread in those "parts"; there were meats of many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +sorts, including barbacued pigs, and cakes, pastries, fruits, nuts, +and wines and liquors in abundance. Silas Holman and Billy +Wilmot were never in better trim, and their fiddles seemed the +fountain of such ecstatic sounds as to set the nerves of old as well +as young tingling with a pleasurable excitement which could only +find its true expression in the quick and graceful movements of +the dance. And dancing there was, and such dancing! There +was Bird McCoy, who could "cut the double shuffle,"—spring +into the air, strike his feet together thrice before lighting, and +not lose step to the music. And among the young ladies—many +of them country girls whose lives in the open air made them +as active as squirrels and as graceful as fawns—were many good +dancers, but it was conceded that among them all the slight, +sylph-like Ada Howard was the best—"the pick of the flock." +And the mirth and fun grew "fast and furious," and the "dancers +quick and quicker flew." Nor did the fun and frolic cease +until faint streaks of light in the East heralded the coming morn. +They almost literally</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Danced all night 'til broad daylight,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And went home with the girls in the morning."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And yet, be it said that, while there was a good deal of drinking +that night, there was no drunkenness, rowdyism, unseemly behavior, +or ungentlemanly conversation; for woe to the young +man who at such a time and place, when ladies were present, had +violated the recognized rules of decorum!</p> + +<p>It is certain, however, that several young persons came very +near that night being "fiddled out of the church." There +was one gay, good-humored, hearty country girl who, when +"churched" for dancing that night, admitted that she was "on +the floor with the so-called dancers"; that she had a "partner," +and took part in the movements; but, she contended, that inasmuch +as she had not <i>crossed her feet</i>, she had violated no rule of +the church. "What," she asked, "if I walk forward and backward +and turn and bow <i>without</i> music, is that dancing? And +if I do the same when there <i>is</i> music, does that make it dancing?" +And the good old brethren, who were sitting in judgment, after +mature deliberation, came to the conclusion that they were not +"cl'ar on the p'int 'bout crossin' the feet." "And," said one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +"if we err, let it be on the side o' marcy." "Yes," replied another, +"but let the young sister understand that she must n't do +it ag'in." And so the matter was settled.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="J_PROCTOR_KNOTT" id="J_PROCTOR_KNOTT">J. PROCTOR KNOTT</a></h2> + + +<p>James Proctor Knott, he who made Duluth famous, was +born at Lebanon, Kentucky, August 29, 1830. In 1851 +he became a Missouri lawyer, and later a member of the +Missouri legislature. For a time he was attorney-general +of the state but, refusing to take certain test oaths prescribed +for officials, his office was declared vacant and he +returned to Lebanon, his birthplace. In 1866 Knott was +sent to the lower house of Congress, and he was re-elected +two years later. On January 27, 1871, he delivered his +celebrated Duluth speech upon the St. Croix and Superior +land grant, which effort brought him a national +reputation as an orator and humorist, but which injured +him as a constructive statesman—if he ever was or could +be such a statesman! Knott was in Congress again from +1875 until 1883, when he was elected governor of Kentucky. +Governor Knott was not an overly forceful executive, +but the people enjoyed his witty stories and speeches, +and thus his term wore on and out. It was an era of good +feeling, Kentuckians smiling and taking their governor +good naturedly at all times. His brief eulogy to remember +James Francis Leonard, the Kentucky telegrapher, +was the finest literary thing he did while governor of Kentucky. +The governor was dean of the law faculty of Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, from 1894 to 1901, when, +old age coming on, he returned to his home at Lebanon, +where the final years of his life were passed, and where +he died on June 18, 1911.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>: <i>Oddities in Southern Life and Character</i>, by +Henry Watterson (Boston, 1883); <i>The Life of James Francis +Leonard</i>, by J. W. Townsend (Louisville, 1909).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Oddities in Southern Life and Character</i>, edited by Henry Watterson +(Boston, 1883)]</p> + +<p>Hence, as I have said, sir, I was utterly at a loss to determine +where the terminus of this great and indispensable road should +be, until I accidentally overheard some gentleman the other day +mention the name of "Duluth." [Great laughter.] Duluth! +The word fell upon my ear with peculiar and indescribable +charm, like the gentle murmur of a low fountain stealing forth +in the midst of roses, or the soft, sweet accents of an angel's +whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping innocence. Duluth! +'Twas the name for which my soul had panted for years, +as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. [Renewed laughter.] +But where was Duluth? Never, in all my limited reading, had +my vision been gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. +[Laughter.] And I felt a profounder humiliation in my ignorance +that its dulcet syllables had never before ravished my +delighted ear. [Roars of laughter.] I was certain the draughtsman +of this bill had never heard of it, or it would have been designated +as one of the termini of this road. I asked my friends +about it, but they knew nothing of it. I rushed to the library +and examined all the maps I could find. [Laughter.] I discovered +in one of them a delicate, hair-like line, diverging from +the Mississippi near a place marked Prescott, which I supposed +was intended to represent the river St. Croix, but I could nowhere +find Duluth.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that +its discovery would constitute the crowning glory of the present +century, if not of all modern times. [Laughter.] I knew it +was bound to exist in the very nature of things; that the symmetry +and perfection of our planetary system would be incomplete +without it [renewed laughter]; that the elements of material +nature would long since have resolved themselves back into +original chaos if there had been such a hiatus in creation as would +have resulted from leaving out Duluth. [Roars of laughter.]<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that Duluth +not only existed somewhere, but that wherever it was it was a +great and glorious place. I was convinced that the greatest +calamity that ever befell the benighted nations of the ancient +world was in their having passed away without a knowledge of +the actual existence of Duluth; that their fabled Atlantis, never +seen save by the hallowed vision of inspired poesy, was, in fact, +but another name for Duluth; that the golden orchard of the +Hesperides was but a poetical synonym for the beer gardens in +the vicinity of Duluth. [Great laughter.] I was certain that +Herodotus had died a miserable death because in all his travels +and with all his geographical research he had never heard of +Duluth. [Laughter.] I knew that if the immortal spirit of +Homer could look down from another heaven than that created +by his own celestial genius upon the long lines of pilgrims from +every nation of the earth to the gushing fountain of poesy opened +by the touch of his magic wand; if he could be permitted to +behold the vast assemblage of grand and glorious productions of +the lyric art called into being by his own inspired strains, he +would weep tears of bitter anguish that, instead of lavishing all +the stores of his mighty genius upon the fall of Ilion, it had not +been his more blessed lot to crystalize in deathless song the rising +glories of Duluth. [Great and continued laughter.] Yet, sir, +had it not been for this map, kindly furnished me by the legislature +of Minnesota, I might have gone down to my obscure and +humble grave in an agony of despair, because I could nowhere +find Duluth. [Renewed laughter.] Had such been my melancholy +fate, I have no doubt that, with the last feeble pulsation of +my breaking heart, with the last faint exhalation of my fleeting +breath, I should have whispered, "Where is Duluth?" [Roars of +laughter.]</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_G_VEST" id="GEORGE_G_VEST">GEORGE G. VEST</a></h2> + + +<p>George Graham Vest, exquisite eulogist of man's good +friend, the dog, was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, December +6, 1830. At the age of eighteen years Vest was +graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky; and +five years later Transylvania University granted him +his degree in law. The year of his graduation from +Transylvania, 1853, Vest went to Missouri, settling at +Georgetown. He rapidly attained a State-wide reputation +as a lawyer and orator. In 1860 he was a presidential +elector on the Democratic ticket, and a member of +the Missouri House of Representatives. Vest's sympathy +lay with the South and he resigned his seat in the +legislature in order to become a member of the Confederate +Congress. He served two years in the Confederate +House and one year in the Senate. After the war +he resumed the practice of his profession at Sedalia, but +he later removed to Kansas City. In 1878 Vest was +elected United States Senator from Missouri and this +position he held until 1903. In the Senate his powers as +an orator and debater were generally recognized, and he +became a national figure. Of the many speeches that +Senator Vest made, his tribute to the dog, made in a jury +trial, is the one thing that will keep his memory green +for many years. It appears that Senator Vest was called +into a case in which one party was endeavoring to recover +damages for the death of a favorite dog, and when it +came time for him to speak he arose and delivered his +tribute to the dog, and then resumed his seat without +having mentioned the case before the jury in any way +whatsoever. The jury understood however, and the Senator +won his case. Senator Vest died at Sweet Springs, +Missouri, August 9, 1904.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p><blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1888, v. vi); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, +1910, v. xii).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Writings of Thomas Jefferson</i> (Washington, 1905, v. xii)]</p> + +<p>Upon the canvas of the past, Washington and Jefferson stand +forth the central figures in our struggle for independence. The +character of the former was so rounded and justly proportioned, +that, so long as our country lives, or a single community of Americans +can be found, Washington will be "First in war, first in +peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."</p> + +<p>To Washington we are more indebted than to any one man for +national existence; but what availed the heroism of Bunker Hill, +the sufferings of Valley Forge, or the triumph of Yorktown, if the +government they established had been but an imitation of the +monarchy from which we had separated?</p> + +<p>To Jefferson we owe eternal gratitude for his sublime confidence +in popular government, and his unfaltering courage in +defending at all times and in all places, the great truth, that "All +governments derive their just powers from the consent of the +governed."</p> + +<p>The love of liberty is found not in palaces, but with the poor +and oppressed. It flutters in the heart of the caged bird, and +sighs with the worn and wasted prisoner in his dungeon. It has +gone with martyrs to the stake, and kissed their burning lips as +the tortured spirit winged its flight to God!</p> + +<p>In the temple of this deity Jefferson was high priest!</p> + +<p>For myself, I worship no mortal man living or dead; but if I +could kneel at such a shrine, it would be with uncovered head +and loving heart at the grave of Thomas Jefferson.</p> + + +<p class="center">EULOGY OF THE DOG</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii)]</p> + +<p>Gentlemen of the Jury:</p> + +<p>The best human friend a man has in the world may turn +against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that +he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our +happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. +The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, +perhaps, when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be +sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who +are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is +with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure +settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish +friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that +never deceives him, the one that never proves ungrateful and +treacherous is his dog.</p> + +<p>A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in +health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where +the wintry wind blows and the snow drifts fiercely, if only he may +be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food +to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter +with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of +his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends +desert he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls +to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journeys +through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast +in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks +no higher privilege than that of accompanying, to guard against +danger, to fight against his enemies, and when, the last scene of +all comes and when death takes the master in its embrace and his +body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other +friends pursue their way, there by the graveside may the noble +dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open +in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_P_JOHNSTON" id="WILLIAM_P_JOHNSTON">WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON</a></h2> + + +<p>William Preston Johnston, biographer and poet, was +born at Louisville, Kentucky, January 5, 1831, the son of +the famous Confederate general, Albert Sidney Johnston. +He was graduated from Yale in 1852. During the Civil +War young Johnston was on the staff of Jefferson Davis. +After the war he was professor of history and literature +in Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, +for ten years. In 1880 he accepted the presidency of +Louisiana State University, at Baton Rouge. Paul Tulane's +magnificent gift in 1883 made Tulane University +possible, and Johnston became its first president. This +position he held until his death, which occurred at New +Orleans, July 16, 1899. President Johnston's <i>Life of +General Albert Sidney Johnston</i> (New York, 1878), is one +of the most admirable biographies ever written by a Kentuckian. +His graphic description of the battle of Shiloh, +in which his famous father met death and the South defeat, +is now accepted, even in the North, as the best account +of that desperate conflict. Had General Johnston +lived a day longer no one can even guess what it would +have meant to the South and to the North. President +Johnston was also the author of <i>The Prototype of Hamlet</i> +(1890), in which his power as a Shakesperian scholar is +well proved; and he published <i>The Johnstons of Salisbury</i>. +He was a maker of charming verse, which may be +read in his three collections, <i>My Garden Walk</i> (1894), +<i>Pictures of the Patriarchs</i> (1896), and <i>Seekers After God</i> +(Louisville, 1898), a book of sonnets. As a man, Johnston +was a true type of the courtly Southern soldier and +scholar.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Appletons' <i>Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1888, v. iii); <i>William Preston Johnston's Work +for a New South</i>, by A. D. Mayo (Washington, 1900); <i>Library +of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1909, v. vii).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">BATTLE OF SHILOH—SUNDAY MORNING</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston</i> (New York, 1879)]</p> + +<p>Saturday afternoon, April 5th, the sun, breaking through the +mists which drifted away, set in a cloudless sky. The night was +clear, calm, and beautiful. General Johnston, tired out with the +vigils of the night before, slept quietly in an ambulance-wagon, +his staff bivouacking by the camp-fires around him. Some of +Hardee's troops having wasted their rations, he and Bragg spent +a large part of the night getting up provisions for them. Before +the faintest glimmer of dawn, the wide forest was alive with +preparations for the mighty contest of the coming day. No +bugle-note sounded, and no drum beat the reveillé; but men took +their hasty morning meal, and looked with sharp attention to the +arms that were to decide the fortunes of the fight. The cool, +gray dawn found them in motion. Morning opened with all the +delicate fragrance and beauty of the season, enhanced by the +contrast of the day before. The sky was serene, the air was +bracing, the dew lay heavy on the tender green of leaf and herb, +and the freshness of early spring was on all around. When the +sun rose it was with unclouded brilliancy; and, as it shed its +glories over the coverts of the oak-woods, the advancing host, +stirred by the splendor of the scene and the enthusiasm of the +hour, passed the omen from lip to lip, and welcomed its rising as +another "sun of Austerlitz."</p> + +<p>The native buoyance of General Johnston's self-repressed temper +broke its barriers at the prospect of that struggle which +should settle for all time by the arbitrament of arms the dispute +as to his own military ability and skill and the fate of the Confederate +cause in the West. He knew the hazard; but he knew, +too, that he had done all that foresight, fortitude, energy, and +strategy, could accomplish to secure a victory, and he welcomed +with exultant joy the day that was about to decide not only these +great questions, but for him all questions, solving the mysteries +of life and death. Men who came within his influence on the +battle-field felt and confessed the inspiration of his presence, his +manner, and his words. As he gave his orders in terse sentences, +every word seemed to ring with a presage of victory.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turning to his staff, as he mounted, he exclaimed, "Tonight we +will water our horses in the Tennessee River." It was thus that +he formulated his plan of battle. It must not stop short of +entire victory.</p> + +<p>As he rode forward he encountered Colonel Randal L. Gibson, +who was the intimate friend of his son. When Gibson ordered +his brigade to salute, General Johnston took him warmly by the +hand and said: "Randal, I never see you but I think of William. +I hope you may get through safely to-day, but we must +win a victory." Gibson says he felt greatly stirred by his words.</p> + +<p>Sharp skirmishing had begun before he reached the front. +Here he met Colonel John S. Marmaduke, commanding the Third +Arkansas Regiment. This officer, in reply to General Johnston's +questions, explained, with some pride, that he held the <i>centre</i> of +the front line, the other regiments forming on him. Marmaduke +had been with General Johnston in Utah, at Bowling Green, +and in the retreat to Corinth, and regarded him with the entire +affection and veneration of a young soldier for his master in the +art of war. General Johnston put his hand on Marmaduke's +shoulder, and said to him with an earnestness that went to his +heart, "<i>My son</i>, we must this day conquer or perish!" Marmaduke +felt himself moved to a tenfold resolution.</p> + +<p>General Johnston said to the ambitious Hindman, who had +been in the vanguard from the beginning: "You have <i>earned</i> +your spurs as major-general. Let this day's work win them."</p> + +<p>"Men of Arkansas!" he exclaimed to a regiment from that +State, "they say you boast of your prowess with the bowie-knife. +To-day you wield a nobler weapon—the bayonet. Employ it +well." It was with such words, as he rode from point to point, +that he raised a spirit in that host which swept away the serried +lines of the conquerors of Donelson.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="WILL_WALLACE_HARNEY" id="WILL_WALLACE_HARNEY">WILL WALLACE HARNEY</a></h2> + + +<p>Will Wallace Harney, poet, was born at Bloomington, +Indiana, June 20, 1832, the son of John H. Harney, professor +of mathematics in the University of Indiana, and +author of the first <i>Algebra</i> edited by an American. +When the future poet was seven years of age his father +removed to Louisville, Kentucky, to accept the presidency +of Louisville College. In 1844 President Harney became +editor of the Louisville <i>Daily Democrat</i>, which he conducted +for nearly twenty-five years. Will Wallace Harney +was educated by the old grammarian, Noble Butler, +and at Louisville College. He became a teacher in the +public schools of the city, in which he taught for five years; +and he was the first principal of the high school there, +holding the position for two years. Know-Nothingism +then swept the city and elected a new board of trustees, +which requested Harney's resignation. He was appointed +to a professorship in the State Normal School at Lexington, +which he held for two years. He then returned +to Louisville to practice law, but he was shortly afterwards +asked to become assistant editor of the <i>Daily Democrat</i>; +and after his father's death, in 1867, he became +editor of that paper. Harney's masterpiece, <i>The Stab</i>, +that John J. Piatt called "a tragic little night-piece which +Heine could not have surpassed in its simple, graphic +narration and vivid suggestiveness," was written in Kentucky +before 1860. In 1869 Harney removed to Florida, +where he planted an orange grove and wrote for the high-class +magazines and newspapers of the East and South. +From 1883 to 1885 he was editor of <i>The Bitter Sweet</i>, a +newspaper of Kissimmee. Harney spent the final years +of his life with his only son, William R. Harney, a business +man of Jacksonville, to whom he inscribed his one +book, <i>The Spirit of the South</i> (Boston, 1909). This volume<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +brought together his poems and short stories which +he cared to preserve from newspapers and periodicals. +The poet died at Jacksonville, Florida, March 28, 1912.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Blades o' Blue Grass</i>, by Fannie P. Dickey +(Louisville, 1892); <i>Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky</i>, +by J. S. Johnston (Chicago, 1896).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE STAB<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Spirit of the South</i> (Boston, 1909)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On the road, the lonely road,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Under the cold white moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the ragged trees, he strode;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He whistled, and shifted his heavy load;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Whistled a foolish tune.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There was a step timed with his own;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A figure that stooped and bowed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cold white blade that flashed and shone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the moon went behind a cloud.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the moon came out, so broad and good,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The barn cock woke and crowed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That a dead man lay on the road.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="J_STODDARD_JOHNSTON" id="J_STODDARD_JOHNSTON">J. STODDARD JOHNSTON</a></h2> + + +<p>Josiah Stoddard Johnston, journalist and historian, was +born at New Orleans, February 10, 1833. He is the nephew +of the celebrated Confederate cavalry leader, General +Albert Sidney Johnston. Left an orphan when but five +years old, he was reared by relatives in Kentucky. He +was graduated from Yale in 1853; and the following year<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +he was married to Miss Elizabeth W. Johnson, daughter +of George W. Johnson, Confederate governor of Kentucky. +Johnston was a cotton planter in Arkansas from +1855 to 1859, and a Kentucky farmer until the Civil War +began. He served throughout the war upon the staffs of +Generals Bragg, Buckner, and Breckinridge. Colonel +Johnston was editor of the old Frankfort <i>Yeoman</i> for +more than twenty years; and from 1903 to 1908 he was +associate editor of the Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i>. In +1871 Colonel Johnston was Adjutant-General of Kentucky; +and Secretary of State from 1875 to 1879. He +has been vice-president of the Filson Club of Louisville +since 1893; and he is now consulting geologist of the Kentucky +Geological Survey. Colonel Johnston's knowledge +of plants and mammals is very extensive and most surprising +in a man of literary tastes. His tube-roses and +flower gardens is one of the traditions of the old town of +Frankfort. Colonel Johnston has published <i>The Memorial +History of Louisville, Kentucky</i> (Chicago, 1896, +two vols.); <i>The First Explorations of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, +1898); and <i>The Confederate History of Kentucky</i>. +Colonel Johnston is one of the finest men in Kentucky to-day, +dignified, cultured, and deeply learned in the history +of Kentucky and the West.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Memorial History of Louisville</i> (Chicago, 1896); +<i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1909, v. vi).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">"CAPTAIN MOLL"<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>First Explorations of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1898)]</p> + +<p>The Revolutionary War was drawing to a close, involving Virginia +in its last throes in the devastation of an invading army. +The whole eastern portion was overrun by the British forces under +Arnold and Tarleton, the capital taken, and much public +and private property destroyed everywhere. Charlottesville, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +which the legislature had adjourned, Monticello, and Castle Hill +were raided by Tarleton's dragoons, and the legislature, Mr. Jefferson, +and Doctor Walker barely escaped capture. An interesting +incident of the raid is recorded well illustrating the spirit +which actuated the American women of that period. Not far distant +from Charlottesville, on an estate known as "The Farm," +resided Nicholas Lewis, the uncle and guardian of Meriwether +Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. His wife +was Mary Walker, the eldest daughter of Doctor Walker. Her +husband was absent in the army when Tarleton with his raiders +swooped down on her home and proceeded to appropriate forage +and every thing eatable and portable. She received the British +cavalryman with spirit and dignity, and upbraided him sharply +for his war on defenseless women, telling him to go to the armies +of Virginia and meet her men. Tarleton parried her thrusts with +politeness as well as he could, and after his men were rested, +resumed his march.</p> + +<p>After his departure Mrs. Lewis discovered that his men had +carried off all her ducks except a single old drake. This she +caused to be caught and sent it to Tarleton by a messenger, who +overtook him, with her compliments, saying that the drake was +lonesome without his companions, and as he had evidently overlooked +it, she wished to reunite them. From that time she was +known as "Captain Moll," and bears that sobriquet in the family +records. She was a woman of strong character, was still +living at "The Farm" in 1817, and left many descendants in +Virginia and in and near Louisville, Kentucky. On the 19th +of October, 1781, Tarleton's career closed, and Virginia was relieved +from similar devastation for a period of eighty years by the +surrender at Yorktown.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="JULIA_S_DINSMORE" id="JULIA_S_DINSMORE">JULIA S. DINSMORE</a></h2> + + +<p>Miss Julia Stockton Dinsmore ("F.V."), poet, was born +in Louisiana about 1833, but most of her long life of nearly +eighty years has been spent in Kentucky. For many years +Miss Dinsmore published an occasional poem in the +newspapers of her home town, Petersburg, Kentucky, +but, in 1910, when she was seventy-seven years of age, +the New York firm of Doubleday, Page and Company discovered +Miss Dinsmore to be a poet of much grace and +charm, and they at once issued the first collection of her +work, entitled "Verses and Sonnets." This little volume +contains more than eighty exquisite lyrics, which +have been favorably reviewed by the literary journals of +the country. <i>Love Among the Roses</i>, <i>Noon in a Blue +Grass Pasture</i>, <i>Far 'Mid the Snows</i>, <i>That's for Remembrance</i>, +and several of the sonnets are very fine. Miss +Dinsmore is a great lover of Nature, as her poems reveal, +and she is often in the saddle. A most remarkable woman +she surely is, having won the plaudits of her people when +most women of her years have their eyes turned toward +the far country. Another volume of her verse may be +published shortly.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Current Literature</i> (June, 1910); <i>The Nation</i> +(July 14, 1910).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">LOVE AMONG THE ROSES<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Verses and Sonnets</i> (New York, 1910)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What, dear—what dear?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweet and clear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The redbird's eager voice I hear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perched on the honeysuckle trellis near<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He sits elate,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Red as the cardinal whose name he bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tossing high the gay cockade he wears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calls to his mate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"What, dear—what, dear?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She stirs upon her nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through her ruddy breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tremor of her happy thoughts repressed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems rising like a sigh of bliss untold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There where the searching sunbeams' stealthy gold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slips past the thorns and her retreat discloses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hid in the shadow of June's sweetest roses.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her russet, rustic home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round as inverted dome<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built by themselves and planned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within whose tiny scope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As though to them the hollow of God's hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They gladly trust their all with faith and hope.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What, dear—what, dear?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are all the words I hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rest is said, or sung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In some sweet, unknown tongue.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose music, only, charms my alien ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But bird, my heart can guess<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that its tones express<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of love and cheer, and fear and tenderness.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It says, "Does the day seem long—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The scented and sunny day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because you must sit apart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are you lonesome, my own sweetheart?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You know you can hear my song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you know I'm alert and strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a match for the wickedest jay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ever could do us wrong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I sit on the snowball spray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or this trellis not far away,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And look at you on the nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And think of those beautiful speckled shells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whose orbs the birds of the future rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My heart with such pride and pleasure swells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As never could be expressed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But, dear—but, dear!"—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now I seem to hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A change in the notes so proud and clear—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"But, dear—but, dear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do you feel no fear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When day is gone and the night is here?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the cold, white moon looks down on you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And your feathers are damp with the chilly dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I am silent, and all is still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save the sleepless insects, sad and shrill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the screeching owl, and the prowling cat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the howling dog—when the gruesome bat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flits past the nest in his circling flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do you feel afraid in the lonely night?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Courage! my own, when daylight dawns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You shall hear again in the cheerful morns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My madrigal among the thorns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose rugged guardianship incloses<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our link of love among the roses."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HENRY_T_STANTON" id="HENRY_T_STANTON">HENRY T. STANTON</a></h2> + + +<p>Henry Thompson Stanton, one of the most popular poets +Kentucky has produced, was born at Alexandria, Virginia, +June 30, 1834. He was brought by his father, +Judge Richard Henry Stanton, to Maysville, Kentucky, +when he was only two years old. Stanton was educated +at the Maysville Academy and at West Point, but he was +not graduated. He entered the Confederate army as captain +of a company in the Fifth Kentucky regiment, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +through various promotions he surrendered as a major. +Major Stanton saw much service on the battlefields of +Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. After the war he +practised law for a time and was editor of the Maysville +<i>Bulletin</i> until 1870, when he removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, +to become chief assistant to the State Commissioner +of Insurance. Major Stanton's first volume of verse +was <i>The Moneyless Man and Other Poems</i> (Baltimore, +1871). This title poem, written for a wandering elocutionist +who "struck" the town of Maysville one day, and +asked the major to write him "a poem that would draw +tears from any audience," made him famous and miserable +for the rest of his life. For the nomad he "dashed +off this special lyric and it brought all Kentucky to the +mourners' bench. It was more deadly as a tear-provoker +than 'Stay, Jailer, Stay,' and though the author wrote +other things which were far better, the public would never +admit it, and many people innocently courted death by +rushing up to Stanton and exclaiming: 'Oh, and is this +Major Stanton who wrote 'The Moneyless Man?' So +glad to meet you.'" One Kentucky poet took the philosophy +of <i>The Moneyless Man</i> too seriously, and <i>A Reply +to the Moneyless Man</i> was the pathetic result. The rhythm +of the poem is very pleasing, but it is, in a word, melodramatic. +Major Stanton's second and final collection of +his verse was <i>Jacob Brown and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, +1875). It contains several poems that are superior to +<i>The Moneyless Man</i>, but the general reader refuses to +read them. From 1875 till 1886 he edited the Frankfort +<i>Yeoman</i>; and during President Cleveland's first administration +he served as Land Commissioner. Besides his +poems, Major Stanton wrote a group of paper-backed +novels, entitled <i>The Kents; Social Fetters</i> (Washington, +1889); and <i>A Graduate of Paris</i> (Washington, 1890). +Major Stanton died at Frankfort, Kentucky, May 8,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +1898. Two years later <i>Poems of the Confederacy</i> +(Louisville, 1900), containing the war lyrics of the major, +was artistically printed as a memorial to his memory. +The introduction to the little book was written by Major +Stanton's friend and fellow man of letters, Colonel J. +Stoddard Johnston, and it is an altogether fitting remembrance +for the author of <i>The Moneyless Man</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Poems of the Confederacy</i> (Louisville, 1900); +<i>Confessions of a Tatler</i>, by Elvira Miller Slaughter (Louisville, +1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE MONEYLESS MAN</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Moneyless Man and Other Poems</i> (Baltimore, 1871)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is there no secret place on the face of the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where charity dwelleth, where virtue has birth?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where bosoms in mercy and kindness will heave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the poor and the wretched shall ask and receive?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is there no place at all, where a knock from the poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will bring a kind angel to open the door?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, search the wide world wherever you can<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no open door for a Moneyless Man!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Go, look in yon hall where the chandelier's light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drives off with its splendor the darkness of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the rich-hanging velvet in shadowy fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweeps gracefully down with its trimmings of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the mirrors of silver take up, and renew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In long lighted vistas the 'wildering view:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go there! at the banquet, and find, if you can,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A welcoming smile for a Moneyless Man!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Go, look in yon church of the cloud-reaching spire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which gives to the sun his same look of red fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the arches and columns are gorgeous within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the walls seem as pure as a soul without sin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Walk down the long aisles, see the rich and the great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the pomp and the pride of their worldly estate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Walk down in your patches, and find, if you can,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Who opens a pew to a Moneyless Man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Go, look in the Banks, where Mammon has told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His hundreds and thousands of silver and gold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, safe from the hands of the starving and poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies pile upon pile of the glittering ore!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Walk up to their counters—ah, there you may stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Til your limbs grow old, 'til your hairs grow gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you'll find at the Banks not one of the clan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With money to lend to a Moneyless Man!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Go, look to yon Judge, in his dark-flowing gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the scales wherein law weighteth equity down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where he frowns on the weak and smiles on the strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And punishes right whilst he justifies wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where juries their lips to the Bible have laid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To render a verdict—they've already made:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Go there, in the court-room, and find, if you can,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Any law for the cause of a Moneyless Man!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then go to your hovel—no raven has fed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wife who has suffered too long for her bread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kneel down by her pallet, and kiss the death-frost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the lips of the angel your poverty lost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then turn in your agony upward to God,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bless, while it smites you, the chastening rod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you'll find, at the end of your life's little span,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's a welcome above for a Moneyless Man!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">"A MENSÁ ET THORO"</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Jacob Brown and Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, 1875)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Both of us guilty and both of us sad—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And this is the end of passion!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And people are silly—people are mad,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Who follow the lights of Fashion;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she was a belle, and I was a beau,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And both of us giddy-headed—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A priest and a rite—a glitter and show,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +<span class="i15">And this is the way we wedded.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There were wants we never had known before,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And matters we could not smother;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And poverty came in an open door,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And love went out at another:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she had been humored—I had been spoiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And neither was sturdy-hearted—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both in the ditches and both of us soiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And this is the way we parted.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">A SPECIAL PLEA</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Prue and I together sat<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Beside a running brook;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little maid put on my hat,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And I the forfeit took.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Desist," she cried; "It is not right,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I'm neither wife nor sister;"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in her eye there shone such light,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That twenty times I kiss'd her.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">SWEETHEART<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Blades o' Bluegrass</i>, by Mrs. F. P. Dickey (Louisville, Kentucky, +1892)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweetheart—I call you sweetheart still,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As in your window's laced recess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When both our eyes were wont to fill,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">One year ago, with tenderness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I call you sweetheart by the law<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Which gives me higher right to feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though I be here in Malaga,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And you in far Mobile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I mind me when, along the bay<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The moonbeams slanted all the night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When on my breast your dark locks lay,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +<span class="i15">And in my hand, your hand so white;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This scene the summer night-time saw,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And my soul took its warm anneal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bore it here to Malaga<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From beautiful Mobile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The still and white magnolia grove<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Brought winged odors to your cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where my lips seared the burning love<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They could not frame the words to speak;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweetheart, you were not ice to thaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Your bosom neither stone nor steel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I count to-night, at Malaga,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Its throbbings at Mobile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What matter if you bid me now<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To go my way for others' sake?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was not my love-seal on your brow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For death, and not for days to break?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweetheart, our trothing holds no flaw;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There was no crime and no conceal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I clasp you here in Malaga,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As erst in sweet Mobile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I see the bay-road, white with shells,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I hear the beach make low refrain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stars lie flecked like asphodels<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Upon the green, wide water-plain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These silent things as magnets draw,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">They bear me hence with rushing keel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand miles from Malaga,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To matchless, fair Mobile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweetheart, there is no sea so wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No time in life, nor tide to flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can rob my breast of that one bride<br /></span> +<span class="i15">It held so close a year ago.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see again the bay we saw;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I hear again your sigh's reveal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I keep the faith at Malaga<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I plighted at Mobile.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="SARAH_M_B_PIATT" id="SARAH_M_B_PIATT">SARAH M. B. PIATT</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, one of Kentucky's +most distinguished poets, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, +August 11, 1836. Her grandfather was Morgan +Bryan, brother-in-law of Daniel Boone, and one of the +proprietors of Bryan's Station, near Lexington, famous +in the old Indian wars. When only three years old she +left Lexington to make her home near Versailles, Kentucky, +where her beautiful mother died in 1844. After +her mother's death she was sent to her aunt's home at +New Castle, Kentucky. Miss Bryan was graduated from +Henry Female College, New Castle; and on June 18, 1861, +she was married to John James Piatt, the Ohio poet. +George D. Prentice, of course, was the first to praise and +print Mrs. Piatt's poems and start her upon a literary +career. Her husband, too, has been her chief critic, and +responsible for the publication of her work in book form. +From the first Mrs. Piatt's poems have been deeply introspective, +voicing the heart of a woman in every line. Her +work has been cordially commended by Bayard Taylor, +William Dean Howells, John Burroughs, Hamilton +Wright Mabie, and many other well-known and capable +critics in America and Europe. Several of Mrs. Piatt's +poems were published in <i>The Nests at Washington and +Other Poems</i> (Cincinnati, 1861), but her first independent +volume, issued anonymously, was <i>A Woman's Poems</i> +(Boston, 1871). This is her best known work, made +famous by Bayard Taylor in his delightful little book, +<i>The Echo Club</i>. This was followed by <i>A Voyage to the +Fortunate Isles and Other Poems</i> (1874); <i>That New +World and Other Poems</i> (1876); <i>Poems in Company with +Children</i> (1877); <i>Dramatic Persons and Moods</i> (1880); +<i>The Children Out of Doors and Other Poems</i> (with her +husband, 1885); <i>An Irish Garland</i> (1885); <i>Selected Poems</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +(1885); <i>In Primrose Time</i> (1886); <i>Child's-World Ballads</i> +(1887); <i>The Witch in the Glass</i> (1889); <i>An Irish Wild-Flower</i> +(1891); <i>An Enchanted Castle</i> (1893); <i>Complete +Poems</i> (1894, two vols.); <i>Child's-World Ballads</i> (1896, +second series); and <i>The Gift of Tears</i> (Cincinnati, 1906). +These volumes prove Mrs. Piatt to be one of the most prolific +and finest female poets America has produced. English +reviewers have often linked her name with Mrs. +Browning's and Miss Rossetti's, and if she has not actually +reached their rank, she has surely shown work worthy +of a high place in the literature of her native country. Mrs. +Piatt is at the present time residing at North Bend, Ohio, +near Cincinnati.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Echo Club</i>, by Bayard Taylor (Boston, +1876); <i>The Poets of Ohio</i>, by Emerson Venable (Cincinnati, +1909).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">AT THE GRAVE OF CHARLES WOLFE</span></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>An Irish Garland</i> (North Bend, Ohio, 1885)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the graves were many, we looked for one.<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh, the Irish rose was red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the dark stones saddened the setting sun<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With the names of the early dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, a child who, somehow, had heard of him<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the land we love so well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kept lifting the grass till the dew was dim<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the churchyard of Clonmel.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the sexton came. "Can you tell us where<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Charles Wolfe is buried?" "I can—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See, that is his grave in the corner there.<br /></span> +<span class="i15">(Ay, he was a clever man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If God had spared him!) It's many that come<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To be asking for him," said he.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the boy kept whispering, "Not a drum<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Was heard,"—in the dusk to me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(Then the gray man tore a vine from the wall<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Of the roofless church where he lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the leaves that the withering year let fall<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He swept, with the ivy away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, as we read on the rock the words<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That, writ in the moss, we found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right over his bosom a shower of birds<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In music fell to the ground).<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">... Young poet, I wonder did you care,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Did it move you in your rest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear that child in his golden hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">From the mighty woods of the West,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Repeating your verse of his own sweet will,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To the sound of the twilight bell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Years after your beating heart was still<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the churchyard of Clonmel?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">A WORD WITH A SKYLARK (A CAPRICE OF +HOMESICKNESS)<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Songs of Nature</i>, edited by John Burroughs (New York, 1901)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If this be all, for which I've listened long,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Oh, spirit of the dew!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You did not sing to Shelley such a song<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As Shelley sung to you.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, with this ruined Old World for a nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Worm-eaten through and through,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This waste of grave-dust stamped with crown and crest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">What better could you do?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah me! but when the world and I were young,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There was an apple-tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was a voice came in the dawn and sung<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +<span class="i15">The buds awake—ah me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, Lark of Europe, downward fluttering near,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Like some spent leaf at best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You'd never sing again if you could hear<br /></span> +<span class="i15">My Blue-Bird of the West!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">THE GIFT OF TEARS<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Gift of Tears</i> (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1906)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The legend says: In Paradise<br /></span> +<span class="i15">God gave the world to man. Ah me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woman lifted up her eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i15">"Woman, I have but tears for thee."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But tears? And she began to shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereat, the tears that comforted.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(No other beautiful woman breathed,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">No rival among men had he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The seraph's sword of fire was sheathed,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The golden fruit hung on the tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her lord was lord of all the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein no child had wailed its birth),<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tears to a bride? Yea, therefore tears.<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In Eden? Yea, and tears therefore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, bride in Eden, there were fears<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In the first blush your young cheek wore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest that first kiss had been too sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest Eden withered from your feet!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mother of women! Did you see<br /></span> +<span class="i15">How brief your beauty, and how brief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, the love of it must be,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In that first garden, that first grief?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did those first drops of sorrow fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To move God's pity for us all?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, sobbing mourner by the dead—<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +<span class="i15">One watcher at the grave grass-grown!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, sleepless for some darling head<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Cold-pillowed on the prison-stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wet with drowning seas! He knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gave the gift of tears to you!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="BOYD_WINCHESTER" id="BOYD_WINCHESTER">BOYD WINCHESTER</a></h2> + + +<p>Boyd Winchester, author of a charming book on Switzerland, +was born in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, September +23, 1836. He came to Kentucky when a youth and +entered Centre College, Danville, where he studied for +three years. He subsequently spent two years at the +University of Virginia. Mr. Winchester was graduated +from the Law School of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1858, and +that city has been his home ever since. He rose rapidly +in his profession; and he later served a single term in the +Kentucky legislature, and two terms in the lower House +of Congress. President Cleveland appointed Mr. Winchester +United States Minister to Switzerland, in 1885, +and the next four years he resided at Berne. While in +Switzerland Mr. Winchester was an ardent student of the +country's history and a keen observer of its aspects and +institutions. On his return to the United States he wrote +his well-known book, <i>The Swiss Republic</i> (Philadelphia, +1891). A fire his publishers, the Lippincotts, suffered +shortly after his volume was issued, destroyed the unsold +copies, and the small first edition was soon exhausted. +The work has thus become exceedingly scarce.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>National Cyclopaedia of American Biography</i> +(New York, 1906, v. xiii); <i>General Catalogue of Centre College</i>.</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">LAKE GENEVA<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Swiss Republic</i> (Philadelphia, 1891)]</p> + +<p>The Lake of Geneva is the largest of Western Europe, being +fifty-seven miles long, and its greatest width nine miles; it has its +storms, its waves, and its surge; now placid as a mirror, now +furious as the Atlantic; at times a deep-blue sea curling before +the gentle waves, then a turbid ocean dark with the mud and +sand from its lowest depths; the peasants on its banks still laugh +at the idea of there being sufficient cordage in the world to reach +the bottom of the <i>Genfer-See</i>. It is eleven hundred and fifty-four +feet above the sea, and having the same depth, its bottom +coincides with the sea-level; the water is of such exceeding purity +that when analyzed only 0.157 in 1000 contain foreign elements. +The lake lies nearly in the form of a crescent stretching from the +southwest towards the northeast. Mountains rise on every side, +groups of the Alps of Savoy, Valais, and Jura. The northern +or the Swiss shore is chiefly what is known as a <i>cote</i>, or a declivity +that admits of cultivation, with spots of verdant pasture scattered +at its feet and sometimes on its breast, with a cheery range of +garden, chalet, wood, and spire; villas, hamlets, and villages seem +to touch each other down by the banks, and to form but one +town, whilst higher up, they peep out from among the vineyards +or nestle under the shade of walnut-trees. At the foot of the +lake is the white city of Geneva, of which Bancroft wrote, "Had +their cause been lost, Alexander Hamilton would have retired +with his bride to Geneva, where nature and society were in their +greatest perfection." The city is divided into two parts by the +Rhone as it glides out of the basin of the lake on its course +towards the Mediterranean. The Arve pours its turbid stream +into the Rhone soon after that river issues from the lake. The +contrast between the two rivers is very striking, the one being as +pure and limpid as the other is foul and muddy. The Rhone +seems to scorn the alliance and keeps as long as possible unmingled +with his dirty spouse; two miles below the place of +their junction a difference and opposition between this ill-assorted +couple is still observable; these, however, gradually abate by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +long habit, till at last, yielding to necessity, and to the unrelenting +law which joined them together, they mix imperfect union +and flow in a common stream to the end of their course. At the +head of the lake begins the valley of the Rhone, where George +Eliot said, "that the very sunshine seemed dreary mid the desolation +of ruin and of waste in this long, marshy, squalid valley; +and yet, on either side of the weary valley are noble ranges of +granite mountains, and hill resorts of charm and health...." +Standing at almost any point on the Lake of Geneva, to the one +side towers Dent-du-Midi, calm, proud, and dazzling, like a queen +of brightness; on the other side is seen the Jura through her +misty shroud extending in mellow lines, and a cloudless sky vying +in depths of color with the azure waters. So graceful the outlines, +so varied the details, so imposing the framework in which +this lake is set, well might Voltaire exclaim, "Mon lac est le +premier," (my lake is the first). For richness combined with +grandeur, for softness around and impressiveness above, for a +correspondence of contours on which the eye reposes with unwearied +admiration, from the smiling aspect of fertility and cultivation +at its lower extremity to the sublimity of a savage nature +at its upper, no lake is superior to that of Geneva. Numberless +almost are the distinguished men and women who have lived, +labored, and died upon the shores of this fair lake; every spot has +a tale to tell of genius, or records some history. In the calm retirement +of Lausanne, Gibbon contemplated the decay of empires; +Rousseau and Byron found inspiration on these shores; +there is</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Clarens, sweet Clarens, birthplace of deep love!<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought;<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Thy trees take root in love."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is Chillon, with its great white wall sinking into the deep +calm of the water, while its very stones echo memorable events, +from the era of barbarism in 830, when Count Wala, who had +held command of Charlemagne's forces, was incarcerated within +the tower of this desolate rock during the reign of Louis le Debonnaire, +to the imprisonment of the Salvation Army captain.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls;<br /></span> +<span class="i05">A thousand feet in depth below,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Its massy waters meet and flow;<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Below the surface of the lake<br /></span> +<span class="i05">The dark vault lies"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>where Bonnivard, the prior of St. Victor and the great asserter +of the independence of Geneva, was found when the castle was +wrested from the Duke of Savoy by the Bernese.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="THOMAS_M_GREEN" id="THOMAS_M_GREEN">THOMAS M. GREEN</a></h2> + + +<p>Thomas Marshall Green, journalist and historian, was +born near Danville, Kentucky, November 23, 1836, the +son of Judge John Green, an early Kentucky jurist of +repute, who died when his son was but two years old. +Green was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in +what is now known as the famous class of '55, which +included several men afterwards distinguished. In 1856 +Green joined the staff of the <i>Frankfort Commonwealth</i>, +then a political journal of wide influence; and in the following +year he became editor of that paper. He left the +<i>Commonwealth</i> in 1860, to become editor of the <i>Maysville +Eagle</i>, of which he made a pronounced success, its +screams smacking not at all of the dignified days of its +first editors, the Collinses, father and son. His <i>Historic +Families of Kentucky</i> (Cincinnati, 1889), gave him a place +among Kentucky historians, but the late Colonel John +Mason Brown, of Louisville, gave to Green his greatest +opportunity when he published his <i>The Political Beginnings +of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1889). This work of Colonel +Brown's was, in effect, an avowed vindication of the +reputation of his grandfather, John Brown, first United +States Senator from Kentucky, who, in the stormy days +in which his lot had been cast, had been violently attacked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +for his alleged connection with the Spanish Conspiracy +of Aaron Burr, which was charged in a controversy running +through many years of violent disputation, to have +been an attempt in connection with General James Wilkinson, +Judges Sebastian, Wallace, and Innes of the Kentucky +Court of Appeals and others to detach Kentucky +from her allegiance to the United States, and annex her +territory to the Spanish dominions of the South and +South-west, through which the much-desired free navigation +of the Mississippi would be assured. Colonel Brown +was a brilliant man of unusual scholarly attainments and +deeply read in American history. These qualities with +his large legal training enabled him to present a strong +case in the vindication of his grandfather's reputation. +His arguments, theories, and proofs were illuminating, +able, and to many minds most convincing, while they fell +with small effect upon Green and many others who held +the opposite view. For this reason Green wrote and +published <i>The Spanish Conspiracy</i> (Cincinnati 1891), a +wonderfully well informed and clever work, and the one +upon which he takes his place among Western historians. +Students who would be fully informed as to the many +phases—the charges and matter relied upon for defense, +pro and con, in this bitter controversy which marshalled +Kentucky into two hostile camps, whose alignments were +more or less maintained through many strenuous years—must +study these two books. They present the last word +on either side. Colonel Brown's untimely death, which +occurred in 1890, some months before the appearance of +Green's book, probably lost Kentucky a reply to the Maysville +historian that would have added to the flood of light +thrown on this early and vital crisis. <i>The Spanish Conspiracy</i> +was supplemented and supported in its conclusions +by Mr. Anderson C. Quisenberry's <i>The Life and +Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall</i> (Winchester, Kentucky,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +1892). Thomas M. Green died at Danville, Kentucky, +April 7, 1904.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky</i> (Cincinnati, +1878); <i>Library of Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1910, +v, xv).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE CONSPIRATORS<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Spanish Conspiracy</i> (Cincinnati, 1891)]</p> + +<p>The grief of the reader in learning from the <i>Political Beginnings</i>, +that Humphrey Marshall was "violent, irreligious and profane," +will be mollified by the assurance given in the same work +that Harry Innes "was a sincerely religious man." It might +with equal truth have been stated that Caleb Wallace, who had +abandoned the Presbyterian pulpit to go into politics, kept up his +church relations, and practiced his devotions with the utmost +regularity. Sebastian also, who had cast off the gown of the +Episcopal ministry in his pursuit of the "flesh pots of Egypt," +continued, it is believed, the exercise of all religious observations, +and, in the depth of his piety, deemed a treasonable overture entirely +too good to be communicated to an infidel. While John +Brown, who had absorbed faith as he sat under the very droppings +of the sanctuary, it will be cheerfully conceded was the +most devout of the four. On the other hand, John Wood, one +of the editors of the <i>Western World</i>, whom they afterwards +bought, was a reprobate; and young Joseph M. Street, whom +they could neither bribe nor intimidate, and the attempt to assassinate +whom proved a failure, was a sinner. It is distressing +to think that, like Gavin Hamilton, the latter "drank, and swore, +and played at cards." It may be that the wickedness of the +editors of the <i>Western World</i>, and the contemplation of their +own saintliness, justified in the eyes of the four Christian jurists +and statesmen the several little stratagems they devised, and +paid Littell for introducing into his "Narrative," in order to +obtain the advantage of the wicked editors in the argument. The +contrast of their characters made innocent those little mutilations +by Innes of his own letter to Randolph! The same process +of reasoning made laudable John Brown's suppression of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +Muter letter, his assertion that it was identical with the "sliding +letter," and his claim that the acceptance of Gardoqui's proposition +would have been consistent with the alleged purpose to make +some future application for the admission of Kentucky into the +new Union! While the suppression of the resolution of Wallace +and Wilkinson in the July convention, and the declaration that +such a <i>motion never was made</i>, in order to prove the unhappy +editors to be liars, became as praiseworthy as the spoiling of the +Egyptians by the Israelites! The scene of those four distinguished +gentlemen seated around a table, with a prayer-book in +the center, planning the screen for themselves and the discomfiture +of the editors, would be a subject worthy of the brush of +a Hogarth.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="FORCEYTHE_WILLSON" id="FORCEYTHE_WILLSON">FORCEYTHE WILLSON</a></h2> + + +<p>Forceythe Willson, "the William Blake of Western +letters," was born at Little Genesee, New York, April +10, 1837, the elder brother of the latest Republican governor +of Kentucky, Augustus E. Willson. When Forceythe +was nine years old, his family packed their household +goods upon an "ark," or Kentucky flatboat, at Pittsburgh, +and drifted down the Ohio river, landing at Maysville, +Kentucky, where they resided for a year, and in +which town the future governor of Kentucky was born. In +1847 the Willsons removed to Covington, Kentucky, and +there Forceythe's education was begun. The family +lived at Covington for six years, at the end of which time +Forceythe entered Harvard University, but an attack of +tuberculosis compelled him to leave without his degree. +He returned to the West, making his home at New Albany, +Indiana, a little town just across the Ohio river +from Louisville. A year later Willson joined the editorial +staff of the <i>Louisville Journal</i>, and together he and +Prentice courted the muse and defended the cause of the +Union. Willson's masterpiece, <i>The Old Sergeant</i>, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +the "carrier's address" for January 1, 1863, printed +anonymously on the front page of the <i>Journal</i>. The +author's name was withheld until Dr. Oliver Wendell +Holmes pronounced it the best ballad the war had produced, +when Willson was heralded as its author. <i>The +Old Sergeant</i> recites an almost literally true story, and +it is wonderfully well done. In the fall of 1863 Willson +was married to the New Albany poet, Elizabeth C. Smith, +and they removed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where +the future executive of the Commonwealth of Kentucky +was a student in Harvard University. The Willsons purchased +a home near Lowell's, and they were soon on +friendly terms with all of the famous New England writers. +In 1866 <i>The Old Sergeant and Other Poems</i> appeared +at Boston, but it did not make an appeal to the general +public. Forceythe Willson died at Alfred Centre, New +York, February 2, 1867, but his body was brought back +to Indiana, and buried on the banks of the Whitwater +river. Willson believed it quite possible for the living +to hold converse with the dead, and this, with other +strange beliefs, entered largely into his poetry.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. His authoritative biographer, Mr. John James +Piatt, the Ohio poet, has written illuminatingly of this rare fellow, +with his "almond-shaped eyes," as Dr. Holmes called +them, and his Oriental look and manner, in <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i> +(March, 1875); <i>Lexington Leader</i> (September 13, 1908). +His brother, Hon. Augustus E. Willson, will shortly utter the +final word concerning him and his work.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE OLD SERGEANT</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Old Sergeant and Other Poems</i> (Boston, 1867)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Carrier cannot sing to-day the ballads<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With which he used to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rhyming the glad rounds of the happy New Years<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +<span class="i15">That are now beneath the snow:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the same awful and portentous Shadow<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That overcast the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And smote the land last year with desolation,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Still darkens every hearth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the carrier hears Beethoven's mighty death-march<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Come up from every mart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he hears and feels it breathing in his bosom,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And beating in his heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And to-day, a scarred and weather-beaten veteran,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Again he comes along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell the story of the Old Year's struggles<br /></span> +<span class="i15">In another New Year's song.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the song is his, but not so with the story;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For the story, you must know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was told in prose to Assistant-Surgeon Austin,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">By a soldier of Shiloh;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By Robert Burton, who was brought up on the Adams,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With his death-wound in his side;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who told the story to the Assistant-Surgeon,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">On the same night that he died.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the singer feels it will better suit the ballad,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">If all should deem it right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tell the story as if what it speaks of<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Had happened but last night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come a little nearer, Doctor—thank you—let me take the cup:<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Draw your chair up—draw it closer—just another little sup!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maybe you may think I'm better; but I'm pretty well used up—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Doctor, you've done all you could do, but I'm just a-going up!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Feel my pulse, sir, if you want to, but it ain't much use to try—"<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +<span class="i15">"Never say that," said the Surgeon, as he smothered down a sigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"It will never do, old comrade, for a soldier to say die!"<br /></span> +<span class="i15">"What you <i>say</i> will make no difference, Doctor, when you come to die."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Doctor, what has been the matter?" "You were very faint, they say;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">You must try to get to sleep now." "Doctor, have I been away?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Not that anybody knows of!" "Doctor—Doctor, please to stay!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There is something I must tell you, and you won't have long to stay!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have got my marching orders, and I'm ready now to go;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Doctor, did you say I fainted?—but it couldn't ha' been so—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For as sure as I'm a Sergeant, and was wounded at Shiloh,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I've this very night been back there, on the old field of Shiloh!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This is all that I remember: The last time the Lighter came,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the lights had all been lowered, and the noises much the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He had not been gone five minutes before something called my name.<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Orderly Sergeant—Robert Burton!'—just that way it called my name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And I wondered who could call me so distinctly and so slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Knew it couldn't be the Lighter—he could not have spoken so—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I tried to answer, 'Here, sir!' but I couldn't make it go;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For I couldn't move a muscle, and I couldn't make it go!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then I thought: It's all a nightmare, all a humbug and a bore;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Just another foolish <i>grape-vine</i><a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>—and it won't come any more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"But it came, sir, notwithstanding, just the same way as before:<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Orderly Sergeant—Robert Burton!'—even plainer than before.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That is all that I remember, till a sudden burst of light,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And I stood beside the River, where we stood that Sunday night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waiting to be ferried over to the dark bluffs opposite,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">When the river was perdition and all hell was opposite!—<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And the same old palpitation came again in all its power,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And I heard a Bugle sounding, as from some celestial Tower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the same mysterious voice said: 'It is the eleventh hour!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Orderly Sergeant—Robert Burton—it is the eleventh hour!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Doctor Austin!—what <i>day</i> is this?" "It is Wednesday night, you know."<br /></span> +<span class="i15">"Yes—to-morrow will be New Year's, and a right good time below!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What <i>time</i> is it, Doctor Austin?" "Nearly Twelve." "Then don't you go!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Can it be that all this happened—all this—not an hour ago!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There was where the gunboats opened on the dark rebellious host;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And where Webster semicircled his last guns upon the coast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There were still the two log-houses, just the same, or else their ghosts—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the same old transport came and took me over—or its ghost!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And the old field lay before me all deserted far and wide;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There was where they fell on Prentiss—there McClernand met the tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was where stem Sherman rallied, and where Hurlbut's heroes died—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Lower down, where Wallace charged them, and kept charging till he died.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There was where Lew Wallace showed them he was of the canny kin,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There was where old Nelson thundered, and where Rousseau waded in;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There McCook sent 'em to breakfast, and we all began to win—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">There was where the grape-shot took me, just as we began to win.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Now, a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +<span class="i15">And but for this old blue mantle and the old hat on my head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I should not have even doubted, to this moment, I was dead—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Death and silence! Death and silence! all around me as I sped!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And behold, a mighty Tower, as if builded to the dead—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the Heaven of the heavens, lifted up its mighty head,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Till the Stars and Stripes of Heaven all seemed waving from its head!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Round and mighty-based it towered—up into the infinite—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding stair of light,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And, behold, as I approached it—with a rapt and dazzled stare—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great Stair—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Suddenly the solemn challenge broke of—'Halt, and who goes there!'<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'I'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.' 'Then advance, sir, to the Stair!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I advanced! That sentry, Doctor, was Elijah Ballantyne!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Welcome, my old Sergeant, welcome! Welcome by that countersign!'<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And he pointed to the scar there, under this old cloak of mine!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"As he grasped my hand, I shuddered, thinking only of the grave;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But he smiled and pointed upward with a bright and bloodless glaive:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'That's the way, sir, to Head-quarters.' 'What Head-quarters!' 'Of the Brave.'<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'But the great Tower?' 'That,' he answered, 'Is the way, sir, of the Brave!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then a sudden shame came o'er me at his uniform of light;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +<span class="i15">At my own so old and tattered, and at his so new and bright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Ah!' said he, 'you have forgotten the New Uniform to-night—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Hurry back, for you must be here at just twelve o'clock to-night!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And the next thing I remember, you were sitting <i>there</i>, and I—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Doctor—did you hear a footstep? Hark! God bless you all! Good by!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To my Son—my Son that's coming—he won't get here till I die!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tell him his old father blessed him as he never did before—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And to carry that old musket"—Hark! a knock is at the door!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Till the Union—" See! it opens! "Father! Father! speak once more!"<br /></span> +<span class="i15">"<i>Bless you!</i>"—gasped the old, gray Sergeant, and he lay and said no more!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="W_C_P_BRECKINRIDGE" id="W_C_P_BRECKINRIDGE">W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE</a></h2> + + +<p>William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, orator and +journalist, was born at Baltimore, Maryland, August 28, +1837, the son of Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge (1800-1871), +and an own cousin of John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875). +He was graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, +in the famous class of '55, after which he studied +medicine for a year, when he abandoned it to enter the +Louisville Law School. Before he was of age he was +admitted to the Fayette County Bar, and he was a member +of it when he died. In July, 1862, he entered the Confederate +Army as a captain in John Hunt Morgan's command; +and during the last two years of the war was +colonel of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. The war over, +Colonel Breckinridge returned to Lexington and became +editor of <i>The Observer and Reporter</i>, which he relinquished +a few years later in order to devote his entire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +attention to the law. In 1884 Colonel Breckinridge was +elected to the lower House of Congress from the Ashland +district, and he took his seat in December, 1885, which +was the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress. One +of his colleagues from Kentucky was the present Governor +of the Commonwealth, James B. McCreary; another +was John G. Carlise, who was chosen speaker over Thomas +B. Reed of Maine. Colonel Breckinridge served ten +years in the House, closing his career there in the Fifty-third +Congress. In Washington he won a wide reputation +as a public speaker, being commonly characterized +as "the silver tongue orator from Kentucky." In 1894, +after the most bitter congressional campaign of recent +Kentucky history, he was defeated for re-election; and +two years later as the "sound money" candidate he again +met defeat, Evan E. Settle, who was also known in Congress +as a very eloquent orator, and who hailed from the +Kentucky county of "Sweet Owen," triumphing over +him. Colonel Breckinridge was never again a candidate +for public office. In 1897 he resumed his newspaper +work, becoming chief editorial writer on <i>The Lexington +Herald</i>, which paper was under the management of his +son, Mr. Desha Breckinridge, the present editor. During +the last eight years of his life Colonel Breckinridge +achieved a new and fresh fame as a writer of large information +upon State and national affairs. Simplicity +was the goal toward which he seemed to strive in his discussions +of great and small questions. His articles upon +the Goebel tragedy were really State papers of importance. +Upon more than one occasion his editorial utterances +were wired to a New York paper, appearing simultaneously +in that paper and in his own. He declined several +offers to become editor of metropolitan newspapers. +While at the present time Colonel Breckinridge is remembered +by the great common people as an orator of unsurpassed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +gifts, and while a great memorial mass of legends +have grown about his name, it is as a writer of real ability, +who had all the requisites and inclinations of a man of +letters save one of the chief essentials: leisure. When +his speeches and writings are collected and his biography +written his true position in the literature of Kentucky +will be more clearly and generally appreciated than it now +is. Colonel Breckinridge died at Lexington, Kentucky, +November 19, 1904.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. The eulogy of John Rowan Allen is the finest +summing up of Colonel Breckinridge's life and labors (<i>Lexington +Leader</i>, November 23, 1904); <i>Kentucky Eloquence</i>, edited +by Bennett H. Young (Louisville, Kentucky, 1907). His papers, +together with those of his grandfather and father, are now +in possession of the Library of Congress.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">"IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON?"</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Lexington Herald</i> (Christmas Day, 1899)]</p> + +<p>"And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." And +this has been the universal truth since those days—the one +unchangeable, pregnant, vital truth of development, of progress, +of civilization, of happiness, of freedom, of charity. The perpetual +presence, the ceaseless personal influence, the potent force +of His continual association alone renders human history intelligible +or makes possible the solution of any grave problem which +man meets in his upward march to better life and more wholesome +conditions. And to-day the accepted anniversary of the +birth of the "carpenter's son" is the one day whose celebration +is in all civilized nations, among all independent people and in all +learned tongues. The world has not yet accepted Him; there +are nations very large in numbers, very old in histories, very +devout in their accepted religions, which have not accepted His +claim to be divine, nor bowed to the reign of His supreme authority. +And the contrast between such nations and those who +have accepted His claim and modeled their laws upon His teachings +form the profoundest reason for the verity of that claim +and the beneficence of those teachings.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p> + +<p>Millions to-day will assemble themselves in their accustomed +houses of worship, and with songs and instruments of music, +with garlands and wreaths, with glad countenances and uplifted +hearts, render adoration to the carpenter's son of Nazareth; +adoration to the lowly Jew who was born in a manger and died +upon a cross. Many millions will not attend worship, but still +render unconscious testimony to the wondrous power which He +has exercised through the centuries in the glad happiness which +springs from conditions which are only possible under His teachings +and by the might of His perpetual presence. They will not +know that "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," but the day is full +of joy, the homes are radiant with happiness, the cheer is jovial +and the laughter jocund, the eye brightens under the glances of +loved ones—because He has passed by and scattered love and +charity with profuse prodigality along the pathway He trod.</p> + +<p>He has walked through the gay hearts of little children, and +joy has sprung up as wild flowers where His footsteps fell; He +has lingered at the mother's bedside and ineffable love has filled +the heart of her who felt His gentle presence. In carpenter +shops like unto that in which He toiled for thirty years, in humble +homes, in the counting rooms of bankers, in the offices of lawyers +and doctors, in the charitable institutions which are memorials of +His teachings, He has passed by; those within may not have been +conscious thereof; they were possibly too absorbed to feel the +sweet and pervading fragrance of the omnipotent force which He +always exerts; yet over them and their thoughts He did exert that +irresistible power; and to-day the world is better, sweeter, more +joyful, more loving, because of Him.</p> + +<p>It is in its secular aspect that we venture to submit these +thoughts; it is His transforming power secularly to which we call +attention this sweet Christmas morning. "Christ the Lord Has +Risen," but it is Jesus the man—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of +the carpenter, the new teacher of universal brotherhood, the man +who went about doing good; the obscure Jew who brought the +new and nobler era of charity and forgiveness and love into +actual existence that <i>The Herald</i>, a mere secular paper, desires +to hold up.</p> + +<p>And peculiarly to that aspect of His life that was social; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +friend of Lazarus; the diner at the table of Zaccheus; the pleased +and kindly guest at the wedding of Cana; the man who leaned +His head on the breast of His friend, the simple gentleman who +took little children in His arms and loved them; the obedient son, +the loyal friend, the forbearing associate, the forgiving master, +the tender healer of disease, the loving man who was touched +with a sense of all our infirmities.</p> + +<p>To-day with jollity let us turn the water of our common lives +into the wine of sweet domestic happiness; let us take the children +of misfortune to our breast; let us be loyal to our weaker +friends; let us share our fullness with our brethren who are lean +in this world's goods, and, shedding smiles and kind words, and +pleasant phrases through the day, it may be that some stricken +heart made glad may say: "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="BASIL_W_DUKE" id="BASIL_W_DUKE">BASIL W. DUKE</a></h2> + + +<p>General Basil Wilson Duke, historian of Morgan's men, +was born near Georgetown, Kentucky, May 28, 1838. He +was educated at Georgetown and Centre Colleges, after +which he studied law at Transylvania University. He +was admitted to the bar, in 1858, and entered upon the +practice at St. Louis. In 1861 he was a member of the +Kentucky legislature; and in June of that year he married +the sister of John Hunt Morgan and enlisted in +Morgan's command. Upon Morgan's death, in 1864, +General Duke succeeded him as leader of the band. After +the war he settled at Louisville, Kentucky, as a lawyer, +and that city is his home today. From 1875 to 1880 General +Duke was commonwealth's attorney for the Fifth +Judicial District; and since 1895 he has been a commissioner +of Shiloh Military Park. His <i>Morgan's Cavalry</i> +(Cincinnati, 1867; New York, 1906), is the authoritative +biography of the noted partisan leader and history of his +intrepid band. General Duke was one of the editors of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +<i>The Southern Bivouac</i>, a Louisville magazine, from 1885 +to 1887. His <i>History of the Bank of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, +1895), filled a gap in Kentucky history; and his +<i>Reminiscences</i> (New York, 1911), was a delightful volume +of enormous proportions.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky</i> (Chicago, +1897); <i>The Bookman</i> (December, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">MORGAN, THE MAN</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Morgan's Cavalry</i> (Cincinnati, 1867)]</p> + +<p>General Morgan had more of those personal qualities which +make a man's friends devoted to him than any one I have ever +known. He was himself very warm and constant in the friendships +which he formed. It seemed impossible for him to do +enough for those to whom he was attached, or to ever give them +up. His manner, when he wished, prepossessed every one in his +favor. He was generally more courteous and attentive to his +inferiors than to his equals and superiors. This may have proceeded +in a great measure from his jealousy of dictation and impatience +of restraint, but was the result also of warm and generous +feeling. His greatest faults arose out of his kindness and +easiness of disposition, which rendered it impossible for him to +say or do unpleasant things, unless when under the influence of +strong prejudice or resentment. This temperament made him a +too lax disciplinarian, and caused him to be frequently imposed +upon. He was exceedingly and unfeignedly modest. For a long +time he sought, in every way, to avoid the applause and ovations +which met him everywhere in the South, and he never learned to +keep a bold countenance when receiving them.</p> + +<p>His personal appearance and carriage were striking and graceful. +His features were eminently handsome and adapted to the +most pleasing expressions. His eyes were small, of a grayish +blue color, and their glances keen and thoughtful. His figure +on foot or on horseback was superb. He was exactly six feet in +height, and although not at all corpulent, weighed one hundred +and eighty-five pounds. His form was perfect and the rarest +combination of strength, activity, and grace. His constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +seemed impervious to the effects of privation and exposure, and +it was scarcely possible to perceive that he suffered from fatigue +or lack of sleep.</p> + +<p>Men are not often born who can wield such an influence as he +exerted, apparently without an effort; who can so win men's +hearts and stir their blood. He will, at least, be remembered +until the Western cavalrymen and their children have all died. +The bold riders who lived in the border-land, whose every acre he +made historic, will leave many a story of his audacity and wily +skill.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="HENRY_WATTERSON" id="HENRY_WATTERSON">HENRY WATTERSON</a></h2> + + +<p>Henry Watterson, the foremost Kentucky journalist, and +one of the most widely known newspaper men in the United +States, was born at Washington, D. C., February 16, +1840. This accident of birth was due to the fact that his +father, Harvey McGee Watterson, with his wife, was in +Washington as a member of the lower house of Congress +from his native state, Tennessee. In consequence of defective +vision, Henry Watterson was educated by private +tutors; but he did attend the Episcopal School at Philadelphia +for a short time. At the age of eighteen years he became +a reporter on the Washington <i>States</i>; but, in 1861, he +returned to Nashville, Tennessee, to edit the <i>Republican +Banner</i>. Watterson was a staff officer in the Confederate +Army, and in 1864 chief of scouts for General Joseph E. +Johnston, but throughout the war he was also editing a +newspaper. After the war he married and revived the +<i>Banner</i>, which he edited for about two years, when he +removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and succeeded George +D. Prentice as editor of the <i>Journal</i>. In the following +year Watterson, with Walter N. Haldeman, consolidated +the <i>Journal</i>, <i>Courier</i>, and <i>Daily Democrat</i> to form <i>The +Courier-Journal</i>. The first issue of this paper appeared +November 8, 1868, and Colonel Watterson has been its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +editor ever since. He has made it the greatest newspaper +in Kentucky, if not in the South or West, and one of the +best known papers printed in the English language. His +editorials are unequalled by any other writer in America, +either from the point of thought or construction; and his +style is always more interesting than his substance. Colonel +Watterson has held but one public office, having been +a member of the Forty-fourth Congress, in 1876, and the +personal friend and most ardent supporter of Samuel J. +Tilden in the infamous Hayes-Tilden controversy of that +year. Colonel Watterson has been a delegate-at-large +from Kentucky in many Democratic presidential conventions, +in all of which bodies he has been a conspicuous +figure. He is famous as a journalist, orator, and author. +His eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln has been listened to in +almost every state in the Union, and it is his best known +effort in oratory. Though now past his three score years +and ten, Colonel Watterson is as vigorous and vindictive +as ever in the handling of public questions and of his legion +of enemies, as the country witnessed in the presidential +campaign of 1912. He edited <i>Oddities of Southern +Life and Character</i> (Boston, 1882); and he has written +<i>The History of the Spanish-American War</i> (Louisville, +1898); <i>The Compromises of Life: Lectures and Addresses</i> +(New York, 1902), containing his ablest speeches delivered +upon many occasions; and <i>Old London Town</i> (Cedar Rapids, +Iowa, 1911), a group of his European letters to <i>The +Courier-Journal</i>, edited by Joseph Fort Newton. Colonel +Watterson has an attractive country home near Louisville, +"Mansfield," but in recent years his winters have been +spent at Naples-on-the-Gulf, in Florida, and his summers +in "grooming presidential candidates!"</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Bookman</i> (February, 1904); <i>Harper's +Weekly</i> (November 12, 1904); <i>The Booklovers Magazine</i> +(March, 1905).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">OLD LONDON TOWN<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Old London Town, and Other Travel Sketches</i> (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, +1910)]</p> + +<p>London, less than any of the great capitals of the world—even +less than Berlin—has changed its aspects in the last four +decades of alteration and development. During the Second +Empire, and under the wizard hand of Baron Hauseman, a new +Paris sprang into existence. We know what has happened in +New York and Chicago. But London, except the Thames Embankment +and the opening of a street here and there betwixt the +City and the West End—the mid-London of Soho and the +Strand—is very much the London I became acquainted with +nearly forty years ago. To be sure many of the ancient landmarks, +such as Temple Bar, the Cock and the Cheshire Cheese, +have gone to the ash heap of the forgotten, whilst some imposing +hostelries have risen in the region about Trafalgar Square; but, +in the main, the biggest village of Christendom has lost none of +its familiar earmarks, so that the exile set down anywhere from +Charing Cross and Picadilly Circus to the bustling region of the +Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, blindfold, would, the instant +the bandage were removed from his eyes, exclaim, "It is London!"</p> + +<p>Yes, it is London; the same old London; the same old cries in +the street; the same old whitey-brown atmosphere; even the same +old Italian organ-grinders, the tunes merely a trifle varied. Nor +yet without its charm, albeit to me of a rather ghostly, reminiscental sort. I came here in 1866, with a young wife and a roll of ambitious manuscript, found work to do and a publisher, lived for a time in the clouds of two worlds, that of Bohemia, of which the Savage Club was headquarters, and that of the New Apocalypse of Science which eddied about the School of Mines in +Jermyn Street and the <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, then presided over by George Henry Lewes, my nearest friend and sponsor the late Professor Huxley. I alternated my days and nights between +a somewhat familiar intimacy with Spencer and Tyndall and a +wholly familiar intimacy with Tom Robertson and Andrew +Halliday. Artemus Ward was in London and it was to him that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +I owed these later associations. Sir Henry Irving had not made +his mark. Sir Charles Wyndham was still in America. There +were Keenes and Kembles yet upon the stage. Charles Matthews +ruled the roost of Comedy. George Eliot was in the glory of her +powers and her popularity. Thackeray was gone, but Charles +Dickens lived and wrote. Bulwer-Lytton lived and wrote. +Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade vied with one another for current +favor. Modern Frenchification had invaded neither the +restaurants nor the music halls. Evans's Coffee House (Pendennis +core of Harmony) prevailed after midnight in Covent Garden +Market. In short, the solidarities of Old England, along with +its roast, succulent, abundant and intact.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>To me London was Mecca. The look of it, the very smell of it, +was inspiration. Incidentally—I don't mind saying—there +were some cakes and ale. The nights were jolly enough down in +the Adelphi, where the barbarians of the Savage Club held high +revel, and George Augustus Sala was Primate, and Edmund +Yates and Tom Robertson were High Priests. Temple Bar +blocked the passage from Belgravia to the Bank of England, and +there was no Holborn Viaduct nor Victorian Embankment.</p> + +<p>Aye, long ago! How far away it seems, and how queer! To +me it was the London of story-books; of Whittington and his cat +and Goody Two-Shoes and the Canterbury Shades; of Otway and +Marlowe and Chatterton; of Nell Gwynne and Dick Steele and +poor Goldsmith; of all that was bizarre and fanciful in history, +that was strange and romantic in legend; and not the London of +the Tower, the Museum and Westminster Abbey; not the London +of Cremorne Gardens, newly opened, nor the Argyle Rooms, +which should have been burned to the ground before they were +opened at all.</p> + +<p>Since then I have been in and out of London many times. I +have been amused here and bored here; but give me back my old +fool's paradise and I shall care for naught else.</p> + +<p>One may doubt which holds him closest, the London of History +or the London of Fiction, or that London which is a mingling of +both, and may be called simply the London of Literature, in +which Oliver Goldsmith carouses with Tom Jones, and Harry +Fielding discusses philosophy with the Vicar of Wakefield, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +Nicholas Nickleby makes so bold as to present himself to Mr. +William Makepeace Thackeray and to ask his intercession in favor +of a poor artist, the son of a hairdresser of the name of Turner +in Maiden Lane, and even where "Boz," as he passes through +Longacre, is tripped up by the Artful Dodger, and would perchance +fall upon the siding if not caught in the friendly arms of +Sir Richard Steele on his way to pay a call upon the once famous +beauty, the Lady Beatrix Esmond.</p> + +<p>But yesterday I strolled into Mitre Court, and threading my +way through the labyrinth of those dingy old law chambers +known as the Middle and Inner Temple, found myself in the little +graveyard of the Temple Church and by the side of the grave of +Oliver Goldsmith. Though less than a stone's throw from Fleet +Street and the Strand, the place is quiet enough, only a faint +hum of wheels penetrating the cool precincts and gloomy walls. +There, beneath three oblong slabs, put together like an outer +stone coffin, lies the most richly endowed of all the vagabonds, +with the simple but sufficient legend:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Here lies Oliver Goldsmith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Born Nov. 10th, 1728. Died April 4th, 1774."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>to tell a story which for all its vagrancy and folly, is somewhat +dear to loving hearts. He died leaving many debts and a few +friends. He lived a lucky-go-devil, who could squander in a +night of debauch more than he could earn in a month of labor. +Yet he gave us the good Primrose and <i>The Deserted Village</i> and +<i>The Traveler</i>, and many a care-dispelling screed beside.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman would say "his destiny." The less fanciful +Briton, "his temperament." Poor Noll! He seemed to know +himself fairly well in spite of his dissipations and his vanity, and +he sleeps sound enough now, perhaps as soundly as the rest of +those who in life held him in a rather equivocal admiration and +affectionate contempt. There are a few other tombs—an effigy +or two—round about, the weird old Chapel of the Templars, +shut in by great walls from the streets beyond, to keep them solemn +company. For Goldsmith, at least, there seems a fitness; +for his life, and such labor as he did, eddied round these sad precincts. +Nigh at hand was the Mitre tavern, across the way the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +Cock, and down the street the Cheshire Cheese. Without the +Vandal has been busy enough, within all remains as it was the +day they buried him. Perhaps he was not a desirable visiting +acquaintance. I dare say he was rather a trying familiar friend. +Pen-craft and purse-making are often wide apart. The charm of +authorship ends in most cases upon the printed page. The man +carries his sentiment in a globule of ink and it evaporates by exposure +to the atmosphere of the world of action. The song of +Dickens died by its own fireside. Kipling, for all his word-painting, +is hardly a miracle of grace. Why should one wish to have +known Goldsmith, or grudge him his place by the side of the +great old Doctor, and Burke, and Reynolds, and Garrick? He +lived his own life, and, though it was not very clean and wholly +unprosperous, perhaps he enjoyed it. He left us some rich fruitage +dangling over a wall, which may well conceal all else. Of +the dead, no ill! Their faults to the past. The rest to Eternity!</p> + +<p>Gradually, but surely, a new London is showing itself above the +debris of the old. Miles of roundabout are reduced by short cuts. +Thoroughfares are ruthlessly cut through sacred precincts and +landmarks obliterated to make room for imposing edifices and +widened streets. In the end, London will be rebuilt to rival Paris +in the splendor, without the uniformity of its architecture. The +grime will, of course, attach itself in time to the modern city as +it did in the ancient, so that the London that is to be will grow +old to the coming generations as the London that was grew old to +the generations that went before.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Creeps on this petty pace from day to day,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ever and ever the old times, the dear old times! Were they +really any better than these? I don't think so—we only fancy +them so. They had their displacements. It was then, as now, +"eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow ye die," life the same +old walking shadow, the same old play, or, lagging superfluous, +or laughing his hour upon the stage and seen no more, the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +old</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"... tale told by an idiot,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Full of sound and fury,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Signifying nothing."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Somehow, London has a tendency to call up such reflections; +sombre, serious itself, to provoke moralizing, albeit a turmoil, +with incessant flashes of light and shade, the contrasts the vividest +and most precipitate on earth, deep and penetrating, even from +Hyde Park corner to St. Martins-in-the-Field, and on eastward +beyond the Tower and into the purlieus of Whitechapel and the +solitudes of Bethnal Green.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="GILDEROY_W_GRIFFIN" id="GILDEROY_W_GRIFFIN">GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN</a></h2> + + +<p>Gilderoy Wells Griffin, essayist, was born at Louisville, +Kentucky, March 6, 1840, the son of a merchant. He was +educated in the University of Louisville, and admitted to +the bar just as he attained his majority. He soon became +private secretary for George D. Prentice, and this pointed +his path from law to letters. Griffin was dramatic critic +of the Louisville <i>Journal</i> until after Prentice's death; and +his first book was a biographical study of the great editor. +His <i>Studies in Literature</i> (Baltimore, 1870), a small group +of essays, was followed by the final edition of <i>Prenticeana</i> +(Philadelphia, 1871), which he revised and to which he +also contributed a new sketch of Prentice. Griffin was +appointed United States Consul to Copenhagen, in 1871. +His <i>Memoir of Col. Charles S. Todd</i> (Philadelphia, 1872), +was an excellent piece of writing. The most tangible +result of his sojourn in Copenhagen was <i>My Danish +Days</i> (1875), one of the most delightful of his +works. In Denmark his most intimate friend, perhaps, +was Hans Christian Anderson. His <i>A Visit to Stratford</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> +(1875), was worth while. The year following its publication, +Griffin was transferred to a similar position in the Samoan +Islands, and he left in manuscript a work on the Islands +which has never been published. In 1879 Griffin was +again transferred, this time being sent to Aukland, New +Zealand, where he remained until 1884; and the time of his +departure witnessed the appearance of his last work, <i>New +Zealand: Her Commerce and Resources</i> (Wellington, N. +Z., 1884). President Arthur sent him as consul to Sydney, +which post he held for seven years. Griffin's death +occurred while he was visiting his old home, Louisville, +Kentucky, October 21, 1891. His brother was the step-father +of the famous Mary Anderson, the former actress, +and she has a goodly word for the memory of Griffin in +her autobiography. He was a patron of the drama, a +faithful and far-seeing diplomat, and a very able writer. +His wife, Alice M. Griffin, published a volume of <i>Poems</i> +(Cincinnati, 1864).</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Courier-Journal</i> (October 22, 1891); <i>A Few +Memories</i>, by Mary Anderson de Navarro (London, 1896).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE GYPSIES</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Studies in Literature</i> (Baltimore, 1870)]</p> + +<p>The Gypsies are wholly ignorant of their origin, and have kept +but an imperfect record of their migrations; but it is evident that +they are a distinct race of people. Like the Jews, they have no +country of their own, and are scattered over all parts of the +globe. Time has made little or no change in their peculiarities. +They have the same language, personal appearance, habits, and +customs, that they had centuries ago. The name of Gypsies +(meaning Egyptians) is doubtless an incorrect one. At least we +know of nothing to justify them in the assumption of the title. +In Italy they are called "Zingari," in Germany "Zigeuner," in +Spain "Gitanos," in Turkey "Tchengenler," in Persia "Sisech +Hindu," in Sweden "Tartars," and in France "Bohemiens."</p> + +<p>Borrow expresses the opinion that the name of Gypsies originated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +among the priests and learned men of Europe, who expected +to find in Scripture some account of their origin and some +clew to their skill in the occult sciences.</p> + +<p>Simson, the author of a recent work entitled the <i>History of the +Gypsies</i>, believes that they are a mixture of the shepherd-kings +and the native Egyptians, who formed part of the "mixed multitude" +mentioned in the Biblical account of the expulsion of the +Jews from Egypt. Grellman, however, traces their origin to +India. He says that they belong to the Soodra caste. Vulcanius +describes them simply as robbers and outlaws, and Hervas regards +their language as "a mere jargon of banditti."</p> + +<p>Their keen black eyes, swarthy complexion, long raven locks, +high cheek-bones, and projecting lower jaws evidently indicate +Asiatic origin. It is certain that neither their language nor +physiognomy are African. It is argued that if really Egyptians, +they would in all probability have preserved a religion, or some +of the forms of worship so characteristic of the descendants of +that people; whereas, the Gypsies have no religion at all.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is a proverb with them that "the Gypsy church was +built of lard, and the dogs ate it."</p> + +<p>Whether Egyptians or not, they are doubtless what they claim +to be, "Rommany Chals," and not "Gorgios." Very few who +have seen them will refuse to believe that they do not understand +the art of making horse-shoes, and of snake-charming, fortunetelling, +poisoning with the drows, and of singing such songs as +the following:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Rommany chi<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And the Rommany chal<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Shall jaw tasaulor<br /></span> +<span class="i05">To drab the bawlor,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And dook the gry<br /></span> +<span class="i05">Of the farming rye.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Rommany churl<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And the Rommany girl<br /></span> +<span class="i05">To-morrow shall hie<br /></span> +<span class="i05">To poison the sty,<br /></span> +<span class="i05">And bewitch on the mead<br /></span> +<span class="i05">The farmer's stead."<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_L_SPALDING" id="JOHN_L_SPALDING">JOHN L. SPALDING</a></h2> + + +<p>John Lancaster Spalding, the poet-priest, was born at +Lebanon, Kentucky, June 2, 1840. He is a nephew of +Archbishop Martin John Spalding. John L. Spalding +was graduated from St. Mary's College, Maryland, in +1859; and a short time later he was ordained as a priest +in the Roman Catholic church. In 1865 he was secretary +to the bishop of Louisville; and four years later he built +St. Augustine's church for the Catholic negroes of Louisville. +In 1871 Spalding was chancellor of the diocese of +Louisville. From 1872 to 1877 he was stationed in New +York City. He was consecrated bishop of Peoria, Illinois, +May 1, 1877, which position he held until 1908, when +ill-health compelled his retirement. Bishop Spalding +was appointed by President Roosevelt as one of the arbitrators +to settle the anthracite coal strike of 1902, and this +appointment brought him before the whole country for a +time. In 1909 he was created titular archbishop of +Scyphopolis. Bishop Spalding continues his residence at +Peoria, but recently his health has broken so badly that +his life has been despaired of more than once. For many +years it has been his custom to spend his summers in Kentucky +with his boyhood friends and neighbors. He is the +author of <i>The Life of the Most Rev. Martin John Spalding, +Archbishop</i> (New York, 1872); <i>Essays and Reviews</i> +(1876); <i>Religious Mission of the Irish People</i> (1880); +<i>Lectures and Discourses</i> (1882); <i>America and Other +Poems</i> (1885); <i>Education and the Higher Life</i> (Chicago, +1891); <i>The Poet's Praise</i> (1891); <i>Things of the Mind</i> +(Chicago, 1894); <i>Means and End of Education; Thoughts +and Theories of Life and Education</i> (Chicago, 1897); +<i>Songs: Chiefly from the German</i> (1896); <i>God and +the Soul; Opportunity and Other Essays</i> (Chicago, 1901); +<i>Religion, Agnosticism, and Education</i> (Chicago, 1902);<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +<i>Aphorisms and Reflections</i> (Chicago, 1901); <i>Socialism +and Labor</i> (Chicago, 1902); <i>Glimpses of Truth</i> (Chicago, +1903); <i>The Spalding Year Book</i> (1905); <i>Religion and Art, +and other Essays</i> (Chicago, 1905). Bishop Spalding's +biography of his famous kinsman, Archbishop Spalding, +is his finest prose work, and as a poet he has done some +pleasing verse, most of which, of course, is marred by being +woven into his religion.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Harper's Weekly</i> (October 25, 1902); <i>The Dial</i> +(January 1, 1904).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Hesperian Tree</i>, edited by J. J. Piatt (Columbus, Ohio, 1903)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O snow-white blade, thou openest for me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So many a page filled with delightful lore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where deathless minds have left the precious store<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of words that breathe and truth that makes us free.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hold thee in my hand, or but to see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thee lying on my desk, O ivory oar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waiting to drive my bark to any shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is fortaste of fresh joy and liberty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou bringest dreams of the Dark Continent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where herded elephants in freedom roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or blow their trumpets when they danger scent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or in wide rivers shoot the pearly foam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet art of vital books all redolent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where highest thoughts have made themselves a home.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="NATHANIEL_S_SHALER" id="NATHANIEL_S_SHALER">NATHANIEL S. SHALER</a></h2> + + +<p>Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, the distinguished Harvard +geologist, poet, historian, and sociologist, was born at +Newport, Kentucky, February 20, 1841. He was graduated +from Harvard in 1862, where he had the benefit +of almost private instruction from the great Agassiz. +Shaler returned to Kentucky, and for the next two years +he served in the Union army. In 1864 he was appointed +assistant in palentology at Harvard; and four years later +he became assistant in zoology and geology in the Lawrence +Scientific School and head of the department of +palentology. In 1873 the Governor of Kentucky appointed +Professor Shaler director of the Kentucky Geological +Survey, and he devoted parts of the next seven years to +this work. He was the most efficient State geologist Kentucky +has ever known, and his work for the Survey pointed +out the path trodden by his successors. His assistant, +Professor John R. Proctor, followed him as Director, and +he stands next to his chief in the work he accomplished. +<i>The Kentucky Geological Survey</i> (1874-1880, 6 vols.), volume +three of which, entitled <i>A General Account of the +Commonwealth of Kentucky</i> (Cambridge, Mass., 1876), +was written entirely by Shaler, are excellent memorials +of the work he did for his native state. In 1884 Shaler +was placed in charge of the Atlantic division of the United +States Geological Survey; and in 1891 he was chosen dean +of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. This position +he held until a year or two before his death. Dean +Shaler published <i>Thoughts on the Nature of Intellectual +Property</i> (Boston, 1878); <i>Glaciers</i> (Boston, 1881); <i>The +First Book of Geology</i> (Boston, 1884); <i>Kentucky: A +Pioneer Commonwealth</i> (Boston, 1885), the philosophy +of Kentucky history summarized; <i>Aspects of the Earth</i> +(New York, 1889); <i>Nature and Man in America</i> (New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> +York, 1891); <i>The Story of Our Continent</i> (Boston, 1892); +<i>Sea and Land</i> (New York, 1892); <i>The United States</i> (New +York, 1893); <i>The Interpretation of Nature</i> (Boston, +1893); <i>Domesticated Animals</i> (New York, 1895); <i>American +Highways</i> (New York, 1896); <i>Outlines of the Earth's +History</i> (New York, 1898); <i>The Individual</i> (New York, +1900); <i>Elizabeth of England</i> (Boston, 1903, five vols.), a +"dramatic romance," celebrating "the spacious times of +great Elizabeth"; <i>The Neighbor</i> (Boston, 1904); <i>The Citizen</i> +(New York, 1904); <i>Man and the Earth</i> (New York, +1905); and <i>From Old Fields</i> (Boston, 1906), a book of +short poems. Besides these books, Dean Shaler wrote +hundreds of magazine articles, reports, scientific memoirs, +miscellaneous essays. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, +April 10, 1906, just as he was about to make ready +for a final journey to Kentucky. Dean Shaler was loved +and honored more at Harvard, perhaps, than any other +teacher the University has ever known.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The World's Work</i> (June, 1906); <i>Science</i> (June +8, 1906); <i>The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, +with a Supplementary Memoir by his Wife</i>, published posthumously +(Boston, 1909), is a charming record of his days at Harvard +and in Kentucky.</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">THE ORPHAN BRIGADE<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>From Old Fields</i> (Boston, 1906)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eighteen hundred and sixty-one:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There in the echo of Sumter's gun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marches the host of the Orphan Brigade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lit by their banners, in hope's best arrayed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Five thousand strong, never legion hath borne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might as this bears it forth in that morn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hastings and Cressy, Naseby, Dunbar,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Cowpens and Yorktown, Thousand Years' War,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is writ on their hearts as onward afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They shout to the roar of their drums.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eighteen hundred and sixty-two:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well have they paid to the earth its due.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close up, steady! the half are yet here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all of the might, for the living bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dead in their hearts over Shiloh's field—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rich, O God, is thy harvest's yield!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where faith swings the sickle, trust binds the sheaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the roll of the surging drums.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eighteen hundred and sixty-three:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Barring Sherman's march to the sea—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shorn to a thousand; face to the foe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Back, ever back, but stubborn and slow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nineteen hundred wounds they take<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that service of Hell, yet the hills they shake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the roar of their charge as onward they go<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the roll of their throbbing drums.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eighteen hundred and sixty-four:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their banners are tattered, and scarce twelve score,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Battered and wearied and seared and old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stay by the staves where the Orphans hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Firm as a rock when the surges break—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shield of a land where men die for His sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sake of the brothers whom they have laid low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the roll of their muffled drums.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eighteen hundred and sixty-five:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Devil is dead and the Lord is alive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the earth that springs where the heroes sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in love new born where the stricken weep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That legion hath marched past the setting of sun:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beaten? nay, victors: the realms they have won<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are the hearts of men who forever shall hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The throb of their far-off drums.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="center">"TOM" MARSHALL<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler</i> (Boston, 1909)]</p> + +<p>I have referred above to Thomas F. Marshall, a man of singular +attractiveness and talents with whom I had a curious relation. +I first met him when I was about fourteen years of age, when he, +for some time a congressman, had through drunkenness fallen +into a curious half-abandoned mode of life. He was then an +oldish fellow, but retained much of his youthful splendor. He +was about six feet three inches high, but so well built that he did +not seem large, until you stood beside him. His face, even when +marred by drink, had something of majesty in it. Marshall, +when I knew him, picked up a scanty living as a lecturer. When +sober, which he often was for months at a time, his favorite subject +was temperance. On this theme he was as eloquent as +Gough; in his season of spree, he turned to history. The gradations +were not sharp, for he would, as I have seen him, preach +most admirably of the evil of drink while he supported himself +in his fervent oratory with whiskey from a silver mug. In matters +of history, he had read widely. One of his favorite themes +was the mediæval history of Italy. I recall with a distinctness +which shows the impressiveness of his discourses his story of +Florence, so well told that ten years after, when I saw the town +for the first time, the shape of it and of the neighboring places +was curiously familiar. Along with some other youths, I noted +down the dates of events as he gave them and looked them up. +We never caught him in an error, though at times he was so +drunk that he could hardly stand up. I have known many historians +who doubtless much exceeded him in learning, but never +another who seemed to have such a capacity for living in the +events he narrated.</p> + +<p>I had no sooner met "Tom" Marshall than we became friends. +He at once took a curious fancy to me, talked to me as though we +were of an age, and gave me my first chance of such contact with +a man of learning and imagination. The relation, while on one +side largely profitable to me, became embarrassing, for the unhappy +man got the notion that I could stop his drinking if I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +would stay with him. A number of times when he had his dipsomaniac +fury upon him I found that by sitting by his bed and +talking with him on some historical subject, or rather listening to +his talk, he would apparently forget about his drink and in a few +hours drop asleep and awake to be sober for some months.</p> + +<p>Sometimes these quiet interviews were most interesting to me. +I recall one of them when I found him in an attack of half delirium. +His memory, always active, took him back to the days +when he was in Congress and to the scene when he, a very young +member of the House, had been chosen by some careful elders to +lead an attack on John Quincy Adams. They, the elders, were +to come to his support when he had drawn the enemy's fire. It +all became so real to him, that he sprang out of bed and in his +tattered nightgown gave, first his own speech with all the actions +of a young orator, and then the deliberate, crushing rejoinder of +his mighty antagonist. At the end of it he fell back upon his +bed, cursing the villains who led him into the fight and left him +to take the consequences.</p> + +<p>My relations with Marshall continued until I went to Cambridge +but my influence over his drinking gradually lessened as +he sank lower, and his able mind began to be permanently clouded. +When I had been some months at college, I espied the poor +fellow in the street, carpet-bag in hand, evidently making for my +quarters. I sent word by a messenger to my chum, Hyatt, to +receive and care for him, but to say that I had left town, which +was true, for I went at once to Greenfield, where I had friends. +Hyatt was also to provide the wanderer with a suit of clothes and +a railway ticket back to Kentucky. I stayed away until I learned +that Marshall was on his way home. I have always been ashamed +of my conduct in this matter, but the unhappy man was at that +time of his degradation an impossible burthen for me to carry; +once ensconced in my quarters it would have been impossible to +provide him with a dignified exit, and there was no longer hope +that I might reform him. Yet the cowardice of the action has +grieved me to this day.</p> + +<p>Two years afterwards, in 1862, I saw Marshall for the last +time. I was with a column of troops going through the town of +Versailles, Kentucky. He was seated in front of a bar-room,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> +with his chin upon the top of his cane. He was so far gone that +the sight merely troubled his wits without affording him any explanation +of what it meant. His bleared though still noble face +stays in my memories as one of the saddest of those weary years.</p> + + +<p class="center">LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<p>Among the interesting and in a way shaping incidents of my +boyhood, was a brief contact with Abraham Lincoln about 1856. +He was coming on foot from the town of Covington; I was on +horseback, and met him near the bridge over the Licking River. +He asked the way to my grandfather's house, which was about a +mile off. Attracted by his appearance, I dismounted and asked +him to get on my horse, which he declined to do; so I walked +beside him. Probably because he knew how to talk to a lad—few +know the art, and those the large natures alone—we became +at once friendly. When I had shown him into the house, I hung +about to find his name. As I had never heard of Mr. Lincoln of +Illinois, it was explained to me that he was the man who was +"running against" the Little Giant. We lads all knew Stephen +A. Douglas, who was so popular that farm tools were named for +him: the Little Giant this and that of cornshellers or ploughs. +While Mr. Lincoln was with my grandfather, my mother dined or +supped with him. When she came home she said: "I have had +a long talk with Mr. Lincoln, who is called an Abolitionist; if he +is an Abolitionist, I am an Abolitionist." I well remember the +horror with which this remark inspired the household: if my +mother had said she was Satan, it could not have been worse. +The droll part of the matter is that all the reasonable people +about me were in heart haters of slavery. They saw and deplored +its evils, and were full of fanciful schemes for making an +end of it. But the name Abolitionist was abominated.</p> + +<p>I never knew what brought Mr. Lincoln to my grandfather's +house. It is likely that he came because a certain doctor of central +Kentucky, an uncle of Mr. Lincoln, a widower, had recently +married an aunt of mine, a widow. This union of two middle-aged +people, each with large families, brought trouble; since +family traditions were against divorce, a separation was effected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +which had an amusing though tragic finish. When all other +matters of property had been arranged and P. had betaken himself +to his plantation in Mississippi, as an afterthought he set up +a supplementary claim to a saddle mule belonging to my aunt +which he had forgotten to demand in the settlement. This reopened +the question, and it was determined in family council that +the grasping doctor should not be satisfied. We boys had the +notion that Mr. Lincoln's visit related to this episode of the mule, +for shortly after the "critter" was sent with a servant by steamboat, +to be delivered to the claimant at the landing of his plantation +on the Mississippi River. In due time the negro returned +and made report: It was that the unworthy suitor came with a +group of his friends to witness his success, mounted, and started +to ride away, but the beast, frisky from its long confinement, +"stooped up behind," as the darkeys phrase it, and threw his +master and killed him. Whether Lincoln had a hand in the negotiations +which led to this finish or not, I am sure that the humor +of it must have tickled him.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_L_VISSCHER" id="WILLIAM_L_VISSCHER">WILLIAM L. VISSCHER</a></h2> + + +<p>William Lightfoot Visscher, poet, was born at Owingsville, +Kentucky, November 25, 1842. He was educated +at the Bath Seminary, Owingsville, and graduated in +law from the University of Louisville, but he never practiced. +He was a soldier in the Civil War for four years. +Colonel Visscher—which title he did not win upon the +battlefield!—has been connected with more newspapers +than he now cares to count; and he has written hundreds +of verses which have appeared in periodicals and in book +form. He is the author of five novels: <i>Carlisle of Colorado</i>; +<i>Way Out Yonder</i>; <i>Thou Art Peter</i>; <i>Fetch Over the +Canoe</i> (Chicago, 1908); and <i>Amos Hudson's Motto</i>. The +first of these is the best known work he has done in prose +fiction. His <i>Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +Express</i> (Chicago, 1908), filled a small gap in American +history. A little group of biographical sketches and newspaper +reminiscences, called <i>Ten Wise Men and Some More</i> +(Chicago, 1909), is interesting. Colonel Visscher has also +published five books of verse: <i>Black Mammy; Harp of the +South; Blue Grass Ballads and Other Verse</i> (Chicago, +1900); <i>Chicago: an Epic</i>, and his most recent volume, +<i>Poems of the South and Other Verses</i> (Chicago, 1911). +The colonel is also a popular lecturer; and he has actually +put paint on his face and essayed acting. He is a poet of +the Old South, one reading his verse would at once conclude +that not to have been born in Kentucky before the +war, one might as well never have lived at all. He is a +versified, pocket-edition of Mr. Thomas Nelson Page; +and while he has not reached the sublime heights of true +poesy, he has written some delicious dialect and much +pleasing verse. <i>Proem</i>, printed in two of his books, is +certainly the best thing he has done hitherto.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Century Magazine</i> (July, 1902); <i>Who's +Who in America</i> (1912-1913).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PROEM<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Poems of the South and Other Verse</i> (Chicago, 1911)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the evening of a lifetime<br /></span> +<span class="i15">While the shadows, growing long,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fall eastward, and the gloaming<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Brings the spell of vesper song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fond memory turns backward<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To the bright light of the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where joys, like troops of fairies,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Gaily dance along the way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full-armed with mirth and music,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Driving skirmishers of care<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Howling, back into the forest,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +<span class="i15">And their dark, uncanny lair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So the pastures of Kentucky,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the fields of Tennessee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bloom of all the Southland<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the old-time melody;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The vales, and streams, and mountains;<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The bay of trailing hounds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The neigh of blooded horses<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the farm-yard's cheery sounds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smiles of wholesome women<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the hail of hearty men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come sweeping back, in fancy,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And, behold, I'm young again.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="BENNETT_H_YOUNG" id="BENNETT_H_YOUNG">BENNETT H. YOUNG</a></h2> + + +<p>Bennett Henderson Young, historian and antiquarian, +was born at Nicholasville, Kentucky, May 25, 1843, the son +of blue-stocking Presbyterians. His academic training +was received at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, and +Queen's College, Toronto, Canada. He was graduated +in law from Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland. Colonel +Young was with General John Hunt Morgan and his +men during the Civil War, being in charge of the raid +through St. Alban's, Vermont. He was a member of the +fourth Constitutional convention which formulated Kentucky's +present constitution. Colonel Young is now one of +the leading lawyers of Louisville, and commander-in-chief +of the United Confederate Veterans. He has published <i>The +History of the Kentucky Constitutions</i> (1890); <i>The History +of Evangelistic Work in Kentucky</i> (1891); <i>History +of the Battle of the Blue Licks</i> (Louisville, 1897); <i>The History +of Jessamine County, Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1898); +<i>The History of the Division of the Presbyterian Church in +Kentucky</i> (1898); <i>The Battle of the Thames</i> (Louisville, +1901); <i>Kentucky Eloquence</i> (Louisville, 1907); and <i>The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +Prehistoric Men of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, 1910). Colonel +Young has taken a keen interest in "the prehistoric men of +Kentucky," the mound-builders; and his collection is one +of the finest in the country. His work upon these ancient +people is far and away the ablest volume he has written. +It represented the researches of a life-time, and the results +of his labors are quite obvious.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky</i> (Chicago, +1897); <i>Who's Who in America</i> (1912-1913).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">PREHISTORIC WEAPONS<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1910)]</p> + +<p>The life of prehistoric man, judging from the large number +of fortifications existing in Kentucky to this day, must have been +one of constant and general warfare. His weapons were all constructed +for conflict at short range.</p> + +<p>First was his ax of two kinds, grooved and grooveless. The +indications are that these were used contemporaneously, and +though this is not certain, their proximity to each other in so +many places would tend to show that they were made during the +same period. The grooved ax would be more reliable either in +domestic use or in war than the grooveless ax, because of the grip +of the handle, aided materially by the groove, permitting it to be +held much more closely and to admit of heavier strokes and more +constant action. The battle-axes vary in weight from one to +thirty-two pounds. They were doubtless so variant in weight +by reason of the conditions that surrounded the makers, and also +by reason of the ability of the user to carry either light or heavy +weight. With handles from three to six feet and firmly bound with +rawhide, which could be obtained from several animals, these men +were enabled to fasten the handle tightly around the ax, either +grooved or ungrooved. These axes would require close contact +in battle. They had flint saws or knives which enabled them to +cut the hickory withe or sapling from which these handles were +made. After soaking the handle in hot water, or for that matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +in cold water, it could easily have been bent around the ax and +tied with rawhide, which, by its contraction when drying, would +press the handle closely in the groove.</p> + +<p>They also used what is known as a battle-ax blade, that is, a +thin piece of flint, oval in shape, about five by three and a half +inches. By splitting the handle and placing the flint blade between +it, and then binding with rawhide, they were enabled to +fasten it very securely. These handles were about two or two +and a half feet in length, and with the blade projecting on either +side, became a dangerous weapon at close range.</p> + +<p>The most damage, however, done by these prehistoric people +was doubtless accomplished by the bow and arrow. The bows +were about six feet in length, judging by the strings which we +have seen and one of which the writer has been able to secure +from Salts Cave. They would be made of many woods, preferably +of hickory, cedar, or ash, but hickory usually possesses +greater strength than other timbers of similar size. It is not +probable that they had any tools with which they could split the +hickory trees. They would, therefore, be compelled to use the +hickory saplings in the manufacture of bow staves.</p> + +<p>The penetrative force of the stone-tipped arrow, driven by the +strong and skillful arms of these prehistoric men, must have been +very great. Quite a number of instances are known and specimens +preserved in which they were driven practically through +the larger bones of the body. The author has a human pelvis +found in a cave in Meade County. Imbedded in this is a portion +of a flint arrow-point, the position of which shows that it had +been driven through the body, penetrating the bone on the opposite +side from which it entered. The point reached into the +socket of the hip joint. There it remained, causing necrosis of +the bone, until by processes of Nature the wastage was stopped, +and the point remained in the bone until the death of the individual, +which the indications show occurred long after receiving +the wound. In one instance an arrowhead was driven three +inches into the bone of the leg just below its union with the hip, +and evidently caused the death of the party into whom it had +been shot. A number of instances are known in which these arrowheads +penetrated several inches into bone, and it was no unusual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> +thing that they attained sufficient penetrative force to +drive them through both coverings of the skull.</p> + +<p>Three of these arrowheads that have come under the immediate +observation of the author are not sharp at all, but rather blunt. +The smaller triangular arrowheads, if sufficiently strong—and +probably they were—could have been driven readily into bone +without the use of any great force, but an arrow-point about +three inches in length, and with a blunt point, thus driven into +the bones of the body, demonstrates beyond all question that the +power which was used in their propulsion must have been comparatively very great.</p> + +<p>The wooden or cane shafts probably were tipped with many +kinds of points, some beveled, some serrated, some triangular, +some blunt, being fastened thereto with the sinew of the deer or +other animal. There are some evidences, although not entirely +conclusive, that these arrow-points were often tipped with poison. It is said that at one time the Shawnees in Western Kentucky were so well versed in the use of poisons that they could place them in springs and thus destroy their enemies, and also that quite large streams of water were impregnated with these dangerous elements. We sometimes comment upon the savageness of the methods of these people, but the poisoned arrow is no worse than the soft-nose or explosive bullet, which has been used by civilized nations in the memory of living people.</p> + +<p>The next weapon was the spear. These carried points so large +that they could not have been used with the ordinary bow. They +must have been attached to a larger piece of wood or cane than +the arrow-shaft. They were probably mounted upon cane or pieces of wood from four and one-half to seven feet in length. +They were doubtless used also in the destruction of the larger animals, either bears or buffaloes, during the buffalo period in Kentucky. The spear would be much more formidable in close quarters with an animal even as large as the wildcat than the bow +and arrow. It would be comparatively as efficient as the bayonet +of modern times.</p> + +<p>Many of the flint knives were mounted on wooden handles. +These sometimes measure from one to ten inches in length, and +at very close range would become formidable weapons—not as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> +formidable, however, as the battle-ax blade which has been described +above.</p> + +<p>In Kentucky there are no evidences of the cross-bow having +been used. The five weapons which we have described completed +the military accoutrement of these men, who must have +spent a large portion of their lives in warlike scenes and exploits.</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JAMES_H_MULLIGAN" id="JAMES_H_MULLIGAN">JAMES H. MULLIGAN</a></h2> + + +<p>James Hilary Mulligan, the author of <i>In Kentucky</i>, was +born at Lexington, Kentucky, November 21, 1844. He +was graduated at St. Mary's College, Montreal, Canada, +in 1864; and five years later Kentucky (Transylvania) +University granted him his degree in law. For forty +years Judge Mulligan has been known in Kentucky as a +lawyer, orator, and maker of clever, humorous verse. +He was editor of the old Lexington <i>Morning Transcript</i> +for a year; and for six years he was judge of the Recorder's +Court of Lexington, from which work he won +his title of "judge." From 1881 to 1888 Judge Mulligan +was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives; +and from 1890 to 1894 he was in the State Senate. +In 1894 President Cleveland appointed Judge Mulligan +Consul-General at Samoa, and this post he held for two +years. While in Samoa he saw much of Robert Louis +Stevenson, who was working upon <i>Weir of Hermiston</i>, +and well upon his way to the undiscovered country when +the Kentucky diplomat met him. When Stevenson died, +December 4, 1894, the first authoritative news of his passing +came in a now rare and precious little booklet of thirty-seven +pages which Lloyd Osbourne, Judge Mulligan, +Bazett Haggard, brother of the English novelist, and another +writer, sent out to the world, entitled <i>A Letter to +Mr. Stevenson's Friends</i> (Apia, Samoa, 1894). It contained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> +a detailed account of the writer's last days, his +death, and funeral. Mr. Osbourne "ventured also to reprint +Mr. Gosse's beautiful lines, <i>To Tusitala in Vailima</i>, +which reached Mr. Stevenson but three days before his +death." President Cleveland offered to send Judge Mulligan +to Cape Town, Africa, but he declined the appointment, +and came home. For the past fifteen years he has devoted +his attention to the law and to the writing of verse +and prose. His <i>Samoa, the Government, Commerce, and +People</i> (Washington, 1896), is said to be the most exhaustive +account of that island ever published. Judge Mulligan's +little humorous poem, <i>In Kentucky</i>, has made him +famous. First read at a banquet in the old Phoenix Hotel, +Lexington, in 1902, it has been declaimed in the halls of +Congress and gotten into the <i>Congressional Record</i>. It +has been parodied a thousand times, reproduced in almost +every newspaper in English, illustrated, and at least one +Kentuckian has heard it chanted by an Englishman in the +shadow of the Pyramids in Egypt! More than a million +souvenir postal cards have been sold with the verses +printed upon them; and had the author had <i>In Kentucky</i> +copyrighted, he would have reaped a harvest of golden +coins. As poetry Judge Mulligan's <i>Over the Hills to +Hustonville</i>, or <i>The Bells of Old St. Joseph's</i>, are superior +to <i>In Kentucky</i>, but they are both comparatively unknown +to the general public. Judge Mulligan's home, +"Maxwell Place," on the outskirts of Lexington, was the +birthplace of <i>In Kentucky</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Lexington Leader</i> (April 4, 1909); <i>Library of +Southern Literature</i> (Atlanta, 1910, v. xiv).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">IN KENTUCKY</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Lexington Herald</i> (February 12, 1902)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The moonlight falls the softest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The summer days come oftest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Friendship is the strongest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's light glows the longest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, wrong is always wrongest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life's burdens bear the lightest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The home fires burn the brightest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While players are the keenest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cards come out the meanest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pocket empties cleanest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sun shines ever brightest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The breezes whisper lightest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plain girls are the fewest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their little hearts the truest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maiden's eyes the bluest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Orators are the grandest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Officials are the blandest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boys are all the fliest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Danger ever nighest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taxes are the highest<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bluegrass waves the bluest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, bluebloods are the fewest(?)<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moonshine is the clearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By no means the dearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, yet, it acts the queerest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The dovenotes are the saddest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The streams dance on the gladdest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hip pockets are the thickest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pistol hands the slickest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cylinder turns quickest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The song birds are the sweetest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thoroughbreds are fleetest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mountains tower proudest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thunder peals the loudest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The landscape is the grandest—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And politics—the damnedest<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In Kentucky.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Lexington Leader</i> (April 4, 1909)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the hill to Hustonville,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Past mead and vale and waving grain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fleecy clouds and glad sunshine<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And the balm of the coming rain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On where hidden beneath the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the widening vale below—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chime and smith and distant herd<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Sing a song of the long ago.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the hill to Hustonville<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where silent fields are sad and brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the crow's lone call is blended<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With the anvil beat of the town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sweet the hamlet life flows on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the doors ever open wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Welcome the worn and wandering<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To the ingle and cheer inside.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the hill to Hustonville<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I knew and loved as a child,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A scene that yet lights up to me<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With a radiant glow and mild;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With drowsy lane and quiet street,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gables quaint and the houses gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ancient inn with battered sign,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">And an air of the far-away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the hill to Hustonville<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Where men are yet sturdy and strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As were their sires in days long past—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">As true as their flint-locks long.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And maids are shy and soft of speech—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the wild-rose, lithsome and true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyes alight as the coming dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Softly blue, as their skies are blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some—sometime—in the bye and bye,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">With all my life-won riches rare—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dead hopes and faded memories—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A silken floss of baby hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fast locked close within my heart—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worn of strife and the empty quest—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll over the hill to Hustonville,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To dream ever—and rest—and rest.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="NELLY_M_McAFEE" id="NELLY_M_McAFEE">NELLY M. McAFEE</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Nelly (Nichol) Marshall McAfee, novelist and +verse writer, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, May 8, +1845, the daughter of Humphrey Marshall, the younger. +When but eighteen years of age she embarked upon a literary +career. Her verse and short-stories appeared +in many of the best American newspapers and magazines, +and they brought her a wide reputation. On +February 13, 1871, after a romantic courtship of some +years, Miss Marshall was married to Captain John J. +McAfee, a former Confederate soldier, then a member +of the Kentucky legislature. Mrs. McAfee published two +volumes of verse, entitled <i>A Bunch of Violets</i>, and <i>Leaves +From the Book of My Heart</i>. Her novels include <i>Eleanor +Morton, or Life in Dixie</i> (New York, 1865); <i>Sodom +Apples</i> (1866); <i>Fireside Gleamings</i> (Chicago, 1866); <i>Dead +Under the Roses</i> (1867); <i>Wearing the Cross</i> (Cincinnati, +1868); <i>As by Fire</i> (New York, 1869); <i>Passion, or Bartered +and Sold</i> (Louisville, 1876); and <i>A Criminal +Through Love</i> (Louisville, 1882). Mrs. McAfee died at +Washington, D. C., about 1895.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>Woods-McAfee Memorial History</i>, by N. M. +Woods (Louisville, 1905); <i>Dictionary of American Authors</i>, +by O. F. Adams (Boston, 1905).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">FINALE</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>A Criminal Through Love</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, 1882)]</p> + +<p>Many years have been gathered to the illimitable past, and we +find ourselves, with undiminished interest, seeking to learn all +we can in regard to the positions and attainments of the characters +who have been with us for so long.</p> + +<p>This is the gist of what we have learned about them.</p> + +<p>Walter Floor's firm has grown and flourished; the dark cloud +of sorrow that so long overshadowed his sky, has rolled away, +and he is nevermore melancholy or oppressed. His home is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> +resting-place and haven for everybody who chooses to enjoy +shelter and repose. Constant and Valentine are standing guests +at the Floor mansion; the talented painter has no longer any +need to work for money. The mention of his name opens every +door to him, and Fortune and Fame await him with their arms +laden with golden sheaves and shining laurel wreaths. His +greatest work of art—his masterpiece—was taken from Mozart's +Opera of <i>Don Juan</i>. At a glance any one could tell that +the artist painted the portrait <i>con amore</i>, for Donna Anna was +nothing more than a portrait of Margarethe Heinold—whom +we must ever after this moment remember only as Margarethe +Hendrik. More happiness than came with this name to her could +scarcely be enjoyed by mortal. Great sums were offered again +and again to Constant for this picture, but he refused to sell it; +it now graces the elegant <i>Salon</i> of Julian Hendrik in his magnificent +villa, which stands on the banks of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>Margarethe, after the night of her brilliant <i>debut</i>, never +stepped upon the boards. She was often urged to let the world +hear her splendid voice, which returned to her in all its volume +and beauty after she regained her health, but she refused to entertain +the proposition for an instant, declaring that public life, +however glorious, had no charms for her; that she lived only for +her husband, to whom she becomes ever more tenderly attached +the better she became acquainted with his noble heart, elevated +mind, and peerless character as a man and a gentleman.</p> + +<p>Didier Mametin is still in Paris; at the death of old Vincent he +became his heir, and was at last able to open such a photographer's +<i>Atelier</i> as other artists pronounced perfect in every detail. +The lighthearted Frenchman, never accustomed to an extravagant +mode of living, is just as merry in humor and abstemious +in diet as of yore. Henriette often declares that he acts as if +he were afraid of starving—he is such a hoarder for "rainy +days." But Didier had a varied experience, and the lessons he +learned were not easily forgotten. One happy fact remains: +He and Henriette love each other dearly, and would not exchange +their places or give up their home to be a king and queen +and live in a palace.</p> + +<p>Roderick Martens attends to the ship-building interests of Jyphoven,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +in Amsterdam, and occupies the old Jyphoven mansion. +Herr and Madame Jyphoven continue to reside in Paris. Bella +is enchanted with life in the French city, and declares that to be +mistress of the whole world—if she would go but for a day—could +be no inducement to her to set her foot in the old Holland +fishery, as she now describes it to be. She is entirely reconciled +to Francisca. The beauty and happiness of the young wife +would captivate the most callous heart.</p> + +<p>And Von Kluyden? This man who devoted himself to intrigue +and rascality for so long, knew not, while he lived, how +otherwise to occupy his time. He was never satisfied. Nemesis +held him fast in her cruel clutches. When the time came for +Hendrik to assert and prove his rights, he did so most successfully; +and that for which Isabella bartered her honor, and beauty, +and youth, passed like sand through the fingers, and was hers no +more. Von Kluyden was successful in nothing that he undertook +to accomplish; the ghost of the murdered Horst followed +him day and night;—he finally died in a madhouse! Isabella +had, a little while before his dementia, entrusted herself and her +million of money into the hands of a young man of the titled +nobility—who +in his turn did not love the young widow even for +her marvelous beauty—but for the <i>thalers</i> and <i>gulden</i> that +brought plenty to his empty coffers and luxury to his impoverished +home. In this marriage Isabella did not find the happiness +she expected to find, and for which she had so long waited. +The Prince squandered her enormous fortune, as Princes are +usually supposed to squander fortunes, in about the half of a +year's duration, and by that time, having found out and enjoyed +all that life held for him of pleasure or excitement, he closed his +career by putting a pistol-ball through his head, early one morning, +while the sun was shining, and the birds were singing, and +flowers were blooming on every side.</p> + +<p>So it has come to pass that Isabella—although not yet twenty-five +years of age, has been twice a widow—(and a very charming +one she is!) not likely now ever to be aught else! The sale +of her beauty, her honor, her peace of mind, has brought to her, +as a recompense for what she has lost, a varied and rich experience, +which will save her forever hereafter from the chance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> +being deceived and betrayed through the tenderest and noblest +impulses of the human heart.</p> + +<p>And so the curtain goes down forever between us and those +with whom we have whiled away some pleasant hours, and gathered, +it may be, profit or amusement from their acting on the +stage of life.</p> + +<p><i>Voila tout.</i></p> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="MARY_F_CHILDS" id="MARY_F_CHILDS">MARY F. CHILDS</a></h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Mary Fairfax Childs, maker of dialect verse, was +born at Lexington, Kentucky, May 25, 1846. She is the +daughter of the Rev. Edward Fairfax Berkley (1813-1897), +who was rector of Christ Church, Lexington, for +nineteen years. Dr. Berkley baptized Henry Clay, in +1847, and buried him five years later. Miss Berkley was +a pupil at the Misses Jackson's Seminary for young +ladies until her thirteenth year, or, in 1858, when her +father accepted a call to St. Louis, in which city he labored +for the following forty years. In St. Louis, she continued +her studies at a private school for girls, when +she left prior to her graduation in order to devote herself +more especially to music, Latin, and French. Miss Berkley +was married, in 1870, to William Ward Childs, a returned +Confederate soldier; and in 1884 they removed +to Clinton, Missouri, where they resided for seven years, +when business called them to New York, their home until +Mr. Child's death in 1911. Mrs. Childs's life in New +York was a very busy one. She was prominent in several +social and literary groups; and for many years she was +corresponding secretary of the New York Chapter of the +United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her first poem +that attracted wide attention was entitled <i>De Namin' ob +de Twins</i>, which originally appeared in <i>The Century Magazine</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +for December, 1903. It was the second in a group +of <i>Eleven Negro Songs</i>, written by Joel Chandler Harris, +Grace MacGowan Cooke, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and +one or two other poets. That Mrs. Childs's masterpiece +was the flower of the flock admits of little question: it is +one of the best negro dialect poems yet written by a Southern +woman. Exactly a year later the same periodical published +her <i>A Christmas Warning</i>, with the well-known +refrain, <i>Roos' high, chicken—roos' high</i>. These, with +many others, were brought together in an attractive volume, +entitled <i>De Namin' ob de Twins, and Other Sketches +from the Cotton Land</i> (New York, 1908). This collection +is highly esteemed by that rather small company of lovers +of dialect verse. Mrs. Childs's poem, <i>The Boys Who +Wore the Gray</i>, has been printed, and is well-known +throughout the South. She has recently completed another +collection of sketches, called <i>Absolute Monarchy</i>, +which will appear in 1913. At the present time Mrs. +Childs is historian of the Society of Kentucky Women of +New York, although she is residing at Kirkwood, Missouri, +near St. Louis.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Letters from Mrs. Childs to the present writer; +<i>The Century Magazine</i> (January, 1906).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>De Namin' ob de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton Land</i> +(New York, 1908)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What I gwine name mah Ceely's twins?<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I dunno, honey, yit,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But I is jes er-waitin' fer de fines' I kin git,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">De names is purty nigh run out,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">So many niggahs heah,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I 'clar' dey's t'ick as cotton-bolls in pickin'-time o' yeah.<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But 't ain' no use to 'pose to me<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ole secondary names,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Lak 'Liza<i>beth</i> an' Jose<i>phine</i>, or Caesah, Torm, an' James,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Ca'se dese heah twinses ob mah gal's<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Is sech a diff'ent kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Dey's 'titled to do grandes' names dat ary one kin find.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fer sho dese little shiny brats<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Is got de fus'-cut look,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">So mammy wants fine city names, lak you gits out a book;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I ax Marse Rob, an' he done say<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Some 'rageous stuff lak dis:<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He'd call de bruddah Be'lze<i>bub</i>, de sistah Gene<i>sis</i>;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or Alphy an' Omegy—de<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Beginnin' an' de en'—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But den, ob co'se no man kin tell, what mo' de Lawd 'll sen';<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fer de pappy ob dese orphans—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">You heah me?—I'll be boun',<br /></span> +<span class="i15">While dey's er-crawlin' on de flo', he'll be er-lookin' roun';<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ca'se I done seen dem Judas teahs<br /></span> +<span class="i15">He drap at Ceely's grabe,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">A-peepin' 'hind his han'kercher, at ole Tim's yaller Gabe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A-mekin' out to moan an' groan,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Lak he was gwine 'o bus'—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Lawd! honey, dem dat howls de mos,' gits ober it de fus'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Annynias an' Saphiry,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Sis Tab done say to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">But he'p me, Lawd! what <i>do</i> she 'spec' dese chillum gwine o' be?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Sides, dem names 's got er cur'us soun'—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">You says I's hard to please?<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Well, so 'ould any granny be, wid sech a pa'r as dese.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ole Pahson Bob he 'low dat I<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +<span class="i15">Will suttinly be sinnin',<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Onless I gibs 'em names dat starts 'em right in de beginnin';<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Iwilla" fer de gal, he say,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">F'om de tex' "I will a-rise,"<br /></span> +<span class="i15">An' dat 'ould show she's startin' up, todes glory in de skies;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">An' fer dis man chile, Aberham—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">De fardah ob' em all—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or else Belshazzah, who done writ dat writin' on de wall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Pahson Bob—axcuse me, Lawd!—<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Hed bettah sabe his bref<br /></span> +<span class="i15">To preach de gospel, an' jes keep his "visin" to hiss'f;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Per nary pusson, white nor black,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ain' gib no p'int to me<br /></span> +<span class="i15">'Bout namin' dese heah Chris'mus gifs, asleep on granny's knee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Now heshaby—don' squirm an' twis',<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Be still you varmints, do!<br /></span> +<span class="i15">You anin' gwine hab no niggah names to tote aroun' wide you!)<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ca'se on de question ob dese names<br /></span> +<span class="i15">I sho is hed mah mine<br /></span> +<span class="i15"><i>Per</i>zactly an' <i>per</i>cidedly done med up all de time;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fer mah po' Ceely Ann—yas, Lawd,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Jes nigh afo' she died,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">She name' dis gal, "Neu-ral-gy," her boy twin, "Hom-i-cide."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_T_PRICE" id="WILLIAM_T_PRICE">WILLIAM T. PRICE</a></h2> + + +<p>William Thompson Price, dramatic critic, creator of +playwrights, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, December +17, 1846. He was educated in the private schools +of Louisville, but the Civil War proved more interesting +than text-books, so he ran away with Colonel E. P. Clay, +whom he left, in turn, for John H. Morgan, and Generals +Forrest and Wheeler. He was finally captured and imprisoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +but he, of course, escaped. After the war Mr. +Price went to Germany and studied for three years at the +Universities of Leipzig and Berlin. From 1875 to 1880 +he was dramatic critic for the Louisville <i>Courier-Journal</i>; +and the following five years he devoted to editorial work +for various newspapers, and to collecting material for his +enormous biography of the Rev. George O. Barnes, a +noted and eccentric Kentucky evangelist, which appeared +under the title of <i>Without Scrip or Purse</i> (Louisville, +1883). Mr. Price went to New York in the early eighties, +and that city has remained his home to this day. In 1885 +he was dramatic critic for the now defunct New York +<i>Star</i>, which he left after a year to become a reader of new +plays for A. M. Palmer, the leading manager of his time, +whom he was associated with for more than twenty years. +Mr. Price's <i>The Technique of the Drama</i> (New York, +1892), gave him a high position among the dramatic writers +of the country. A new edition of it was called for in +1911, and it seems destined to remain the chief authority +in its field for many years. In 1901 Mr. Price became +playreader for Harrison Grey Fiske; and in the same year +he founded the American School of Playwriting, in which +men and women, whom the gods forgot, are transformed +into great dramatists—perhaps! His second volume +upon the stage, <i>The Analysis of Play Construction and +Dramatic Principle</i> (New York, 1908), is the text-book of +his school. At the present time Mr. Price is editor of +<i>The American Playwright</i>, a monthly magazine of dramatic +discussion.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. Letters from Mr. Price to the present writer; +<i>Who's Who in America</i> (1912-1913).</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>The Technique of the Drama</i> (New York, 1892)]</p> + +<p>The light-hearted genius of Paris composed a new style of +opera for the general merriment of the world. Who can describe +the surprises, the quaintness of song, the drolleries of action +of the Offenbach school? It was the intoxicating wine of music. +Gladstone, when premier of England, found time to say that the +world owed as much in its civilization to the discovery of the +fiddle as it did to steam.</p> + +<p>This cannot be applied in its whole sense to Offenbach, but +this master of satire and the sensuous certainly expressed his +times. He set laughter to song. It was democratic. It spared +not king, courtier, or the rabble. It was wisdom and sentiment +in disguise. It was born among despotisms, and jested when +kingdoms fell. It was the stalking horse behind which Offenbach +hunted the follies of the day and bagged the absurdities of +the hour. If it had <i>double entendre</i>, its existence had a double +meaning. Its music and purpose defied national prejudices. +Under its laughter-compelling notes the sober bass-viol put on a +merry disposition, and your cornet-a-piston became a wag. It +was flippant, the glorification of youthful mirth and feelings, and +it made many a melancholy Jacques sing again the song of +Beranger,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Comme je regrette ma jambe si dodu.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is not the purpose here to commend its delirious dances, +but to admit that there was genius in it. In a technical sense +the dramatic part of them are models compared with the inane +and vague compositions of a later school.</p> + +<p>The opera bouffe is in a stage beyond decadence, and no longer +regards consistency, even of nonsense, in its dramatic elements. +Some of the conventionalisms of its technique remain.</p> + +<p>We hear again and again the old choruses, the drinking songs, +the letter songs, the wine songs, the conspirators' songs, the +departure for the war, the lovers' duets, and what-not, with the +old goblets, the old helmets and all in use; but order is lost, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +the topical song often saves the public patience, apart from the +<i>disjecta membra</i>, upon which are fed the eye and the ear.</p> + +<p>The Gilbert opera. The delicate foolery of Gilbert and the +interpreting melody of Sullivan created an inimitable form of +opera that delighted its generations. In its way perfection marks +it. There is much in it that ministers to inward quiet and enjoyment. +"Pinafore," "The Mikado," and all the list, are products +of genius. "Ruddygore" is structurally weak, proving +that even nonsense must have a logical treatment. Successful +in a manner as "Ruddygore" was, it was filled with characteristic +quaintness. We accept Rose Maybud as a piece of good luck, +from the moment her modest slippers demurely patter to the +front; and it is a sober statement to say that our generation has +seen nothing more charming than her artful artlessness and innocence. +She is worthy of Gilbert. His taste is refined beyond +the point of vulgarity in essence or by way of expediency. His +fancy is not tainted with the corruption of flesh-tight limbs, and +he holds fast only to such physical allurements as the "three +little maids just from school" in the "Mikado" or the impossibly +good and dainty Rose Maybud may tempt us with. In the +dance there is no lasciviousness, only joy. Gilbert and Sullivan +have called a halt to the can-can and bid the world be decent. +The whole history of comic opera is filled with proof that music +first consented to lend itself to foolery on condition that there +should be some heart in it; and even Offenbach, the patriarch +of libidinous absurdities, could not get along without stopping +by the wayside to make his sinners sing love-songs filled with +pure emotion.</p> + +<p>Rose Maybud is a piece of delicate coquetry with the mysterious +simplicity of maidenhood, giving offense in no way. These authors +are satirists, not burlesquers and fakirs.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="GEORGE_M_DAVIE" id="GEORGE_M_DAVIE">GEORGE M. DAVIE</a></h2> + + +<p>George Montgomery Davie, a verse-maker of cleverness +and charm, was born near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, +March 16, 1848. He began his collegiate career at Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, but he later went to Princeton, +from which institution he was graduated in 1868. +Two years later he established himself as a lawyer at +Louisville. Davie rose rapidly in his profession, and he +was soon recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in Kentucky. +Though busy with his practice, he found time to +write verse and short prose papers for periodicals that +were appreciated by many persons. Davie was a Latinist +of decided ability, and he often employed himself in turning +the odes of Horace into English. His original work, +however, is very charming and clever, a smile being concealed +in almost every line he wrote, though it is a very +quiet and dignified smile, never boisterous. He was one +of the founders of the now celebrated Filson Club, of +Louisville. He died at New York, February 22, 1900, but +he sleeps to-day in Louisville's beautiful Cave Hill cemetery. +<i>Verses</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.), a broadside, +contains Davie's best original poems and translations and +it is a very scarce item at this time.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Courier-Journal</i> (February 23, 1900); <i>Kentucky +Eloquence</i> (Louisville, 1907).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">"FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE!"</p> + +<p class="center">(Catullus, Car. CI.)</p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Verses</i> (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.)]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Through many nations, over many seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brother, I come to thy sad obsequies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bring the last gifts for the dead to thee,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And speak to thy mute ashes—left to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the hard fate, that on a cruel day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From me, dear brother, called Thyself away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Receive these gifts, wet with fraternal tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the last rites, that custom old endears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These fond memorials would my sorrow tell—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brother! forever, hail thee—and farewell!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center">HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL</p> + +<p class="center">[From the same]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Animula vagula blandula,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hospes comesque corporis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quae nunc abibis in loca,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pallidula rigida nudula;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou sprite! so charming, uncontrolled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guest and companion of my clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into what places wilt thou stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When thou art naked, pale, and cold?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt then make merry—as of old?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2><a name="JOHN_URI_LLOYD" id="JOHN_URI_LLOYD">JOHN URI LLOYD</a></h2> + + +<p>John Uri Lloyd, novelist and scientist, was born at West +Bloomfield, New York, April 19, 1849. He is the son of +a civil engineer who came West, in 1853, for the purpose +of surveying a railroad between Covington and Louisville, +known as the "River Route." Mr. Lloyd was thus four +years old when his father settled at Burlington, Boone +county, Kentucky, near the line of the road. The panic +of 1854 came and the railroad company failed, but his +parents preferred their new Kentucky home to the old +home in the East, and they decided to remain, taking up +their first vocations, that of teaching. For several years +they taught in the village schools of the three little Kentucky +towns of Burlington, Petersburg, and Florence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +Mr. Lloyd lived at Florence until he was fourteen +years of age, when he was apprenticed to a Cincinnati +druggist, but he continued to be a resident of Kentucky +until 1876, since which time he has lived at Cincinnati. +In 1878 he became connected with the Cincinnati +College of Pharmacy, and this connection has continued to +the present day. In 1880 he was married to a Kentucky +woman. Mr. Lloyd is one of the most distinguished pharmaceutical +chemists in the United States. He has a magnificent +library and museum upon his subjects; and he is +generally conceded to be the world's highest authority on +puff-balls. Mr. Lloyd's scientific works include <i>The +Chemistry of Medicines</i> (1881); <i>Drugs and Medicines of +North America</i> (1884); <i>King's American Dispensatory</i> +(1885); <i>Elixirs, their History and Preparation</i> (1892); +and he, as president, has edited the publications of the +Lloyd Library, as follows: <i>Dr. B. S. Barton's Collections</i> +(1900); <i>Dr. Peter Smith's Indian Doctor's Dispensatory</i> +(1901); <i>A Study in Pharmacy</i> (1902); <i>Dr. David +Schopf's Materia Medica Americana</i> (1903); <i>Dr. Manasseh +Cutler's Vegetable Productions</i> (1903); <i>Reproductions +from the Works of William Downey, John Carver, +and Anthony St. Storck</i> (1907); <i>Hydrastis Canadensis</i> +(1908); <i>Samuel Thomson and Thomsonian Materia Medica</i> +(1909). Dr. Lloyd has won his general reputation as a +writer of novels descriptive of life in northern Kentucky. +His first work to attract wide attention was entitled <i>Etidorpha, +or the End of Earth</i> (New York, 1895), a work +which involved speculative philosophy. This was followed +by a little story, <i>The Right Side of the Car</i> (Boston, +1897). Then came the Stringtown stories, which made +his reputation. "Stringtown" is the fictional name for +the Kentucky Florence of his boyhood. There are four +of them: <i>Stringtown on the Pike</i> (New York, 1900); <i>Warwick +of the Knobs</i> (New York, 1901); <i>Red Head</i> (New +York, 1903); and <i>Scroggins</i> (New York, 1904). In these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> +stories the author's aim was not to be engaged solely as a +novelist, "but to portray to outsiders a phase of life unknown +to the world at large, and to establish a folk-lore +picture in which the scenes that occurred in times gone by, +would be paralleled in the events therein narrated." +<i>Stringtown on the Pike</i> is Mr. Lloyd's best known book, +but <i>Warwick of the Knobs</i> is far and way the finest of the +four.</p> + +<blockquote class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span>. <i>The Bookman</i> (May, 1900); <i>The Outlook</i> (November +16, 1901); <i>The Bookman</i> (December, 1910).</p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center">"LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT"<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[From <i>Warwick of the Knobs</i> (New York, 1901)]</p> + +<p>Warwick made no movement; no word of greeting came from +his lips, no softening touch to his furrowed brow, no sparkle to +his cold, gray eye. As though gazing upon a stranger, he sat and +pierced the girl through and through with a formal stare, that +drove despair deeper into her heart and caused her to cling closer +to her brother.</p> + +<p>"Pap, sister's home ag'in," the youth repeated.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of a sister who claims a home here."</p> + +<p>Mary would have fallen but for the strong arm of her brother, +who gently, tenderly guided her to a great rocking-chair. Then +he turned on his father.</p> + +<p>"I said thet sister's home agin, and I means it, pap."</p> + +<p>Turning the leaves of the Book to a familiar passage, Warwick +read aloud:</p> + +<p>"'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of +life is not of the Father, but of the world.' This girl has no +home here. She is of the world."</p> + +<p>"Father, ef sister hes no home here, I hav'n't none, either. +Ef she must go out into the world, I'll go with her."</p> + +<p>The man of God gazed sternly at the rebellious youth. Then +he turned to the girl.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p> +<p>"The good Book says, 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou +be in the earth.'"</p> + +<p>Joshua stepped between the two and hid the child from her +father.</p> + +<p>"Pap, thet book says tough things to-night. The text you +preached from to-day was a better one. I remember et, and I'll +leave et to you ef I am not right. 'I am merciful, saith the +Lord, and I will not keep my anger forever.' Thet's a better +text, and I takes et, God was in a better humor when He wrote +et."</p> + +<p>"Joshua!" spoke the father, shocked at his son's irreverence.</p> + +<p>"Listen, pap. I hate to say et, but I must. You preached one +thing this morning, and you acts another thing now. Didn't +you say thet God 'retaineth not His anger forever, because He +delighteth in mercy?' I may not hev the words right, but I've +got the sense."</p> + +<p>"My son!"</p> + +<p>"Pap, I axes the question on the square. Ain't thet what +you preached?"</p> + +<p>"That was the text."</p> + +<p>"It ain't fair to preach one text in the meetin'-house and act +another text at home."</p> + +<p>"Joshua!"</p> + +<p>"Let's hev the mercy text to-night. Pap, sister's home ag'in. +Let's act the fergivin' text out."</p> + +<p>Joshua stepped aside and the minister, touched in spite of +himself, glanced at his daughter, a softened glance, that spoke of +affection, but he made no movement. Then the girl slowly rose +and turned toward the door, still keeping her eyes on her father's +face. She edged backward step by step toward the door by +which she had entered. Her hand grasped the latch; the door +moved on its hinges.</p> + +<p>"Stop, sister," said Joshua. "Pap, ef sister opens thet door +I go with her, and then you will sit alone in this room ferever. +You will be the last Warwick of the Knob."</p> + +<p>Warwick, with all his coldness and strength, could not stand +the ordeal.</p> + +<p>"Come back, my children," he said. "It is also written, 'I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> +will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their +iniquities will I remember no more.'" And then, as in former +times, Mary's head rested on her father's knee.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="fn"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The italics in which the three Kentucky lines are set, are my own.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Marshall in his <i>History</i>, v. i, p. 7, says it was 1758. Mr. H. Taylor +thinks Dr. Walker informed him it was in 1752, but Col. Shelby states implicitly +that, in 1779 in company with Dr. Walker on Yellow creek a mile or +two from Cumberland mountain, the Doctor observed "upon that tree," +pointing to a beech across the road to the left hand, "Ambrose Powell marked his name and the date of the year." I examined the tree and +found <i>A. Powell 1750</i> cut in legible characters.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This reply was made in answer to one of Randolph's ranting Yazoo +philippics, several of which are among the bitterest speeches ever heard +in Congress. Lyon at this time (1804) was a member of Congress from +Kentucky. The Yazoo land grant frauds had aroused the public mind, and a +commission had endeavored to settle by compromise the claims of Georgia, +and those holding under the Georgia act of 1795, to the vast territory in +dispute. Randolph denounced the frauds committed, and opposed any +settlement of the controversy, while Lyon desired to see the country settled, +and the compromise of the commissioners carried out.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This reply to Randolph was made in the House of Representatives, in +1824, in the course of the debate between Clay and Randolph. "During the +session of 1823-4, attempts wore made to run at Mr. Clay, on account of his +peculiar situation in being named for the presidency while Speaker of the +House of Representatives, and for his zealous support of the American system. +In a debate on an improvement bill he encountered Mr. Randolph of +Virginia, who had endeavored to provoke him to reply," and the bit of the +debate reproduced here is the answer the gentleman from Virginia received +for his pains.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> After the above address, La Fayette rose, and in a tone influenced by +powerful feeling, made an eloquent reply. In 1824 La Fayette visited the +United States, as "the guest of the Nation," and he was gladly welcomed +in many parts of the country. And "on the tenth of December, 1824, he +was introduced in the House of Representatives by a committee appointed +for that purpose. The general, being conducted to the sofa placed for his +reception, the Speaker (Mr. Clay), addressed him" in the very happy words +given above.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Copyright, 1897, by Charles Scribner's Sons.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Governor Morehead's widow, Mrs. L. M. Morehead, who died several +years ago, published a slender volume of verse, <i>Christmas Is Coming and +Other Poems for the "House Mother" and her Darlings</i> (Philadelphia, 1871).</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Copyright, 1905, by the Arthur H. Clark Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Some versions show the following stanzas at this point: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who heard the thunder of the fray<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Break o'er the field beneath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knew well the watchword of that day<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Was "Victory or Death."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Long had the doubtful conflict raged<br /></span> +<span class="i15">O'er all that stricken plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For never fiercer fight had waged<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The vengeful blood of Spain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still the storm of battle blew,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Still swelled the gory tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not long, our stout old chieftain<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> knew,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Such odds his strength could bide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas in that hour his stern command<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Called to a martyr's grave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flower of his beloved land,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">The nation's flag to save.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By rivers of their fathers' gore<br /></span> +<span class="i15">His first-born laurels grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well he deemed the sons would pour<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Their lives for glory too.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Full many a norther's breath has swept<br /></span> +<span class="i15">O'er Angostura's plain,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long the pitying sky has wept<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Above its mouldered slain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The raven's scream, or eagle's flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Or shepherd's pensive lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone awakes each sullen height<br /></span> +<span class="i15">That frowned o'er that dread fray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i15">Ye must not slumber there, et cetera.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Gen. Zachary Taylor.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Near Buena Vista.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> A complete list of the club's publications is: <i>John Filson</i>, by R. T. +Durrett (1884); <i>The Wilderness Road</i>, by Thomas Speed (1886); <i>The +Pioneer Press of Kentucky</i>, by W. H. Perrin (1888); <i>Life and Times of +Judge Caleb Wallace</i>, by W. H. Whitsitt (1888); <i>An Historical Sketch of St. +Paul's Church</i>, by R. T. Durrett (1889); <i>The Political Beginnings of Kentucky</i>, +by J. M. Brown (1889); <i>The Centenary of Kentucky</i>, by R. T. Durrett +(1892); <i>The Centenary of Louisville</i>, by R. T. Durrett (1893); <i>The +Political Club of Danville, Kentucky</i>, by Thomas Speed (1894); <i>The Life and +Writings of Rafinesque</i>, by R. E. Call (1895); <i>Transylvania University</i>, by +Dr. Robert Peter (1896); <i>Bryant's Station</i>, by R. T. Durrett (1897); <i>The +First Explorations of Kentucky</i>, by J. S. Johnston (1898); <i>The Clay +Family</i>, by Z. F. Smith and Mrs. Mary R. Clay (1899); <i>The Battle of +Tippecanoe</i>, by Alfred Pirtle (1900); <i>Boonesborough</i>, by G. W. Ranck +(1901); <i>The Old Masters of the Bluegrass</i>, by S. W. Price (1902); <i>The Battle of the Thames</i>, by B. H. Young (1903); <i>The Battle of New Orleans</i>, by +Z. F. Smith (1904); <i>History of the Medical Department of Transylvania +University</i>, by Dr. Robert Peter (1905); <i>Lopez's Expeditions to Cuba</i>, by A. +C. Quisenberry (1906); <i>The Quest for a Lost Race</i>, by Dr. T. E. Pickett +(1907); <i>Traditions of the Earliest Visits of Foreigners to North America</i>, +by R. T. Durrett (1908); <i>Sketches of Two Distinguished Kentuckians</i>, by +J. W. Townsend and S. W. Price (1909); <i>The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky</i>, +by B. H. Young (1910); <i>The Kentucky Mountains</i>, by Miss Mary Verhoeff +(1911). No publication was issued in 1912.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Copyright, 1893, by the Filson Club.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Copyright, 1901, by the American Baptist Publication Society.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Copyright, 1897, by G. P. Putnam's Sons.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Copyright, 1905, by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Copyright, 1909, by the Author.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Copyright, 1898, by John P. Morton and Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page and Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Copyright, 1892, by the Author.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Copyright, 1901, by McClure, Phillips and Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Copyright, 1906, by John James Piatt.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Copyright, 1891, by Robert Clarke Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Canard.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Copyright, 1910, by The Torch Press.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Copyright, 1902, by John James Piatt.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Copyright, 1906, by Houghton, Mifflin Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Copyright, 1909, by Houghton, Mifflin Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Copyright, 1911, by the Author.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Copyright, 1910, by the Filson Club.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Copyright, 1908, by B. W. Dodge and Company.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Copyright, 1892, by Brentano's.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Copyright, 1901, by Dodd, Mead and Company.</p></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="tn"> + +<h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<ul class="corrections"> + +<li>Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.</li> + +<li>The oe ligature in this etext has been replaced with œ</li> + +<li>Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original.</li> + +<li>Page xxi: The title of the Emerson poem "Goodby Proud World" is as in +the original.</li> + +<li>Page 251: 1833 has been changed to 1883 as this follows chronologically +from the surrounding sentences. (... and in 1883 his study ...)</li> + +<li>Page 273: A missing quote in (... to Write "Grace Truman: ...) is as in +the original.</li> +</ul></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2, by +John Wilson Townsend + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + +***** This file should be named 39406-h.htm or 39406-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/4/0/39406/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2 + 1784-1912 + +Author: John Wilson Townsend + +Release Date: July 6, 2012 [EBook #39406] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. Alley, III and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + + +KENTUCKY IN +AMERICAN LETTERS + + + + +OTHER WORKS BY MR. TOWNSEND + + +_Richard Hickman Menefee_. 1907 +_Kentuckians in History and Literature_. 1907 +_The Life of James Francis Leonard_. 1909 +_Kentucky: Mother of Governors_. 1910 +_Lore of the Meadowland_. 1911 + + + + +KENTUCKY IN +AMERICAN LETTERS + +1784-1912 + +BY +JOHN WILSON TOWNSEND + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY +JAMES LANE ALLEN + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOL. I + +THE TORCH PRESS +CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA +NINETEEN THIRTEEN + + + + +_Of this edition one thousand sets have been printed, of which +this is number_ + +241 + +COPYRIGHT 1913 +BY THE TORCH PRESS +PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1913 + +[Illustration: (Printers' Union Logo)] + + + + + +To My Mother + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Mr. Townsend's fellow countrymen must feel themselves to be put under +a beautiful obligation to him by his work entitled _Kentucky in +American Letters_. He has thus fenced off for the lovers of New World +literature a well watered bluegrass pasture of prose and verse, which +they may enter and range through according to their appetites for its +peculiar green provender and their thirst for the limestone spring. +This strip of pasture is a hundred years long; its breadth may not be +politely questioned! + +For the backward-looking and for the forward-looking students of +American literature, not its merely browsing readers, he has wrought a +service of larger and more lasting account. Whether his patiently done +and richly crowned work be the first of its class and kind, there is +slight need to consider here: fitly enough it might be a pioneer, a +path-blazer, as coming from the land of pioneers, path-blazers. + +But whether or not other works of like character be already in the +field of national observation, it is inevitable that many others soon +will be. There must in time and in the natural course of events come +about a complete marshalling of the American commonwealths, especially +of the older American commonwealths, attended each by its women and +men of letters; with the final result that the entire pageant of our +literary creativeness as a people will thus be exhibited and reviewed +within those barriers and divisions, which from the beginning have +constituted the peculiar genius of our civilization. + +When this has been done, when the States have severally made their +profoundly significant showing, when the evidence up to some century +mark or half-century mark is all presented, then for the first time +we, as a reading and thoughtful self-studying people, may for the +first time be advanced to the position of beginning to understand what +as a whole our cis-Atlantic branch of English literature really is. + +Thus Mr. Townsend's work and the work of his fellow-craftsmen are all +stations on the long road but the right road. They are aids to the +marshalling of the American commonwealths at a great meeting-point of +the higher influences of our nation. + +Now, already American literature has long been a subject in regard to +which a library of books has been written. The authors of by far the +most of these books are themselves Americans, and they have thus +looked at our literature and at our civilization from within; the +authors of the rest are foreigners who have investigated and +philosophized from the outside. Altogether, native and foreign, they +have approached their theme from divergent directions, with diverse +aims, and under the influence of deep differences in their critical +methods and in their own natures. But so far as the writer of these +words is aware, no one of them either native or foreign has ever set +about the study of American literature, enlightened with the only +solvent principle that can ever furnish its solution. + +That solvent principle is contained within a single proposition. That +single proposition is the one upon which our forefathers deliberately +chose to found the civilization of the Anglo-Saxon race in the New +World: that it should not be a civilization of States which were not a +Nation; that it should not be the civilization of a nation without +states; but that it should be a Nation of States. + +Now, if any man aspires to draw from American literature the +philosophy of its traits, if he sets it as the goal of his wisdom to +explain its breadth and its narrowness, its plenty here and its lack +there, its color in one place and its pallor in another, let him go +back to the will of the fathers in the foundation of the Republic and +find the explanation of our literature at the basis of our whole +civilization. He will never find it anywhere else. He will find it +there as he there finds the origin of our system of government, of our +system of industry, of our system of political barriers, of our system +of education: in the entire nature of our institutions as derived and +unfolded from the idea that we should be a nation of states. Our +literature--our novels and our poetry--have been as rigorously +included in this development as all the other elements of our life. + +For the first time in this way he may come to see a great light; and +with that light shining about him he may be prepared to write the +first history of American literature. + +None has yet been written. + +[Illustration] + + + + +PREFACE + + +I + +What is a Kentucky book, is the one great question this work has +elicited. Surely a Kentucky book is one written by a Kentuckian about +Kentucky or Kentuckians and printed in Kentucky; surely it is a book +written by a Kentuckian upon any subject under the sun, and published +in any clime; surely it is one written in Kentucky by a citizen of any +other state or country, regardless of the subject or place of +publication, for, "in general, I have regarded the birthplace of a +piece of literature more important than that of the author." But is a +book, though treating of Kentucky or Kentuckians, regardless of its +place of publication, whose author was not born in, nor for any +appreciable period resided in, this state, entitled to be properly +classified as a Kentucky work? The writer has responded in the +negative to this question in the present work. + +There have been several noted American authors who have written volumes +about Kentucky or Kentuckians, and they themselves were not natives of +this state, nor resided within its confines. Those early Western +travelers rarely omitted Kentucky from their journeys. The first of +them, F. A. Michaux, published his famous _Travels to the West of the +Alleghany Mountains, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee_, at +London, in 1805; two years later F. Cuming's _Tour to the Western +Country, through Ohio and Kentucky_, was printed at Pittsburg; and in +1817 John Bradbury got out the first edition of his now noted _Travels +in the Interior of America_, at London. Bradbury died in 1823 and +to-day lies buried in the cemetery at Middletown, Kentucky, near +Louisville. George W. Ogden's _Letters from the West_ (New Bedford, +1823); W. Bullock's _Sketch of a Journey through the Western States_ +(London, 1827); and Tilly Buttrick's _Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries_ +(Boston, 1831), round out fairly well that group of Scotchmen, +Englishmen, New Englanders, and what not, who found many interesting +things in Kentucky a hundred years and more ago. Ogden spent two summers +in Kentucky; Bullock owned a river-side tract near Ludlow, Kentucky, and +old Bradbury sleeps in a quiet Kentucky hamlet, but neither of them may +be properly classified as a real Kentuckian. + +The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy of 1825 was the one Kentucky event that +kindled the imaginations of more alien writers than any other happening +in our history. Edgar Allan Poe, William Gilmore Simms, Charles Fenno +Hoffman, G. P. R. James, James Hall, and several others, wrote plays, +novels, and poems based upon this tragedy. In 1832 James Kirke Paulding, +the friend of Washington Irving, published one of the earliest Kentucky +romances, entitled _Westward Ho!_ which name he got from the old +Elizabethan drama of John Webster and Thomas Dekker. Two years after the +appearance of Paulding's tale, William A. Caruthers, the Virginia +novelist, printed _The Kentuckian in New York_; and in the same year +Thomas Chandler Haliburton ("Sam Slick"), put forth one of his earliest +works, _Kentucky, a Tale_ (London, 1834). In 1845 Charles Winterfield's +_My First Days With the Rangers_, appeared, to be followed the next year +by William T. Porter's _A Quarter Race in Kentucky_. + +These writers hardly did more than point the way to Kentucky for Mrs. +Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose world-famous novel, _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ +(Boston, 1852), was set against a background of slave-holding +Kentucky. This is the most famous example our literature affords of a +writer of another state or country coming to Kentucky for the +materials out of which to build a book. + +In 1860 David Ross Locke, the Ohio journalist and satirist, discovered +the _Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby_, postmaster at "Confedrit X Roads, +Kentucky," and his political satires on Kentucky, the _Nasby Letters_, +tickled the readers of his paper, _The Toledo Blade_, through many +years. These alleged communications from poor Petroleum may be read +to-day in Locke's _Swingin' Round the Cirkel_, and _Ekkoes from +Kentucky_. J. G. Marshall's _The Outlaw Brothers_ (New York, 1864); Miss +Martha Remick's _Millicent Halford: a Tale of the Dark Days of Kentucky +in the year 1861_ (Boston, 1865); two novels by Edward Willett, entitled +_Kentucky Border Foes_, and _Old Honesty: a Tale of the Early Days of +Kentucky_, both of which were issued in the late sixties; Constance F. +Woolson's _Two Women_ (New York, 1877), and Mrs. Anna Bowman Dodd's +story, _Glorinda_ (Boston, 1888), concludes the group of writers of the +comparatively modern school who did not linger long in the "meadowland," +but who found it good literary soil, and helped themselves accordingly. + +In recent years Mr. Winston Churchill's _The Crossing_, Dr. James Ball +Naylor's _The Kentuckian_, Mr. Augustus Thomas's _The Witching Hour_, +and the Kentucky lyrics of Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, the Ohio +poet, have drawn fresh attention to Kentucky as a background for +literary productions, although they are written by those who cannot +qualify as Kentuckians. But to claim any of these writers for the +Commonwealth, would be to make one's self absurd. Dr. Naylor's lines +upon this point are _apropos_: + + I must admit--although it hurts!-- + That I was born unlucky; + I've never, literally, had + A home in Old Kentucky. + And yet I feel should wayward Chance + Direct my steps to roam there, + I'd meet you all and greet you all-- + And find myself _at home_ there! + +As has already been indicated, the good physician-poet is not by any +manner of means the only alien bard who has remembered Kentucky in his +work. No less a poet than the great Sir Walter Scott celebrated +Kentucky in _Marmion_--the State's first appearance in English poetry. +The passage may be found near the close of the ninth stanza in the +third canto. Lord Marmion and his followers have ridden "the livelong +day," and are now quartered at a well-known Scottish hostelry. They +have all eaten and drunk until they are on the borderland of dreams +when their leader, seeing their condition, + + ... called upon a squire:-- + "Fitz-Eustace, know'st thou not some lay, + To speed the lingering night away? + We slumber by the fire."-- + + VIII + + "So please you," thus the youth rejoined + "Our choicest minstrel's left behind." + +And while Fitz realizes that he cannot, in any degree, equal the famous +singer to whom he has referred, he now further praises him, calls down +curses on the cause that kept him from following Marmion, and ventures + + "To sing his favourite roundelay." + + IX + + A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had, + The air he chose was wild and sad; + Such have I heard, in Scottish land, + Rise from the busy harvest band, + When falls before the mountaineer, + On lowland plains, the ripened ear. + Now one shrill voice the notes prolong, + Now a wild chorus swells the song: + Oft have I listened, and stood still, + As it came soften'd up the hill, + And deem'd it the lament of men + Who languish'd for their native glen; + And thought how sad would be such sound, + On Susquehannah's swampy ground, + _Kentucky's wood-encumber'd brake_, + Or wild Ontario's boundless lake, + Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain, + Recall'd fair Scotland's hills again! + +After Sir Walter, the next English poet to tell the world of Kentucky +and one of her sons, was George Gordon (Lord) Byron. His references +are found in the eighth canto and the sixty-first to the sixty-seventh +stanzas inclusive, of _Don Juan_. This poem was begun in 1819 and +published, several cantos at a time, until the final sixteenth +appeared in 1824. The sixty-first stanza will serve our purpose. + + LXI + + Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer, + Who passes for in life and death most lucky, + Of the greatest names which in our faces stare, + _The General Boone, back-woodsman of Kentucky_, + Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere; + For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he + Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days + Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze. + +In 1827 Alfred Tennyson, with his brother Charles, published a slender +sheaf of juvenile verses, entitled _Poems By Two Brothers_. _On +Sublimity_ contains eleven stanzas of ten lines each. The poet +disdains "vales in tenderest green," and asks for "the wild cascade, +the rugged scene," the sea, the mountains, dark cathedrals, storms, +"Niagara's flood of matchless might," and Mammoth Cave. + + The hurricane fair earth to darkness changing, + _Kentucky's chambers of eternal gloom_,[1] + The swift-pac'd columns of the desert ranging + Th' uneven waste, the violent Simoom + The snow-clad peaks, stupendous Gungo-tree! + Whence springs the hallow'd Jumna's echoing tide, + Hear Cotopaxi's cloud-capt majesty, + Enormous Chimborazo's naked pride, + The dizzy Cape of winds that cleaves the sky, + Whence we look down into eternity, + The pillar'd cave of Morven's giant king + The Yanar, and the Geyser's boiling fountain, + The deep volcano's inward murmuring, + The shadowy Colossus of the mountain; + Antiparos, where sun-beams never enter; + Loud Stromboli, amid the quaking isles; + The terrible Maelstroom, around his centre + Wheeling his circuit of unnumber'd miles: + These, these are sights and sounds that freeze the blood, + Yet charm the awe-struck soul which doats on solitude. + +Tennyson was the third and last English poet of the nineteenth century +to make mention of Kentucky in his works. + +Much writing has been done by Kentuckians from the beginning until the +present time, but most of what is usually termed literature is the work +of the school of today. That much, however, of the early productions, +especially the anonymous and fugitive poems, have been forever lost, may +be gathered from a letter written to Edwin Bryant, editor of _The +Lexington Intelligencer_, by an Ohio correspondent, which appeared in +that paper in January, 1834, a part of which is as follows: + + There were a vast number of rural and sentimental songs, sung by + the hunters and pioneers, that, in this our day, to the present + generation would be truly interesting. Would it not be wise for + you, Messrs. Editors, to publish a note in your valuable paper, + offering the "Poets' Corner," and save what you can of the + fragments of "Olden Times?"... I know that there were many + sentimental pieces--some written by a Mr. Bullock--many war songs; + one on St. Clair's defeat; and there was a wonderful flow of + poetical effusions on the first discovery of a settlement of + Kentucky. There was a wooing song of the hunter--one stanza I can + only repeat: + + "I will plough and live, and you may knit and sowe, + And through the wild woods, I'll hunt the buffaloe!" + + To many these things may appear as ... light as empty air, but + look to the future, and you will at once discover the inquisitive + mind will earnestly desire to look into such matters and things. + +The pity is, this admonition passed unheeded by Bryant and his +contemporaries, and much that "the inquisitive mind" would revel in +to-day, was thus lost. The most famous, however, of the pioneer songs +that the above quoted writer probably had in mind, _The Hunters of +Kentucky_, the celebrated ballad of the Battle of New Orleans, has come +down to us, but it was written by the alien hand of Samuel Woodworth, +who achieved a double triumph over oblivion by also writing _The Old +Oaken Bucket_. And were other "wooing songs of the hunter" extant, we +would certainly discover that many of them were done by non-Kentuckians. +Even _Kentucky Belle_, ballad of Morgan and his men, was the work of +Constance Fenimore Woolson, the famous author of _Anne_. + +In recent years the ballads of the Kentucky mountains have been +investigated by a group of scholars, and Dr. Hubert Gibson Shearin +will shortly publish a collection of them. It is impossible to discuss +them at this time; and as nearly all of them are offshoots of the old +English ballads and Scottish songs, done over by their Kentucky +descendants, the ever-recurring question: "Are they Kentucky +productions?" will not down. + + +II + +THE KENTUCKY MAGAZINES + +Kentucky has failed to produce and maintain a respectable literary +magazine for any considerable length of time. Many magazines have been +born in Kentucky with high hopes, and a few of them have braved the +storms for a number of years, but all of them have gone the way of all +the earth after a pathetic struggle for existence. + +The reasons for this lie not far afield: the leading magazines and +periodicals of the east through the immensity of their circulation +secure that large patronage necessary to maintain a publication +conducted on a generous basis, ensuring variety and excellence. +Experience has long since demonstrated even to the bravest of the +inland publishers that the point of distribution is the controlling +factor in success. The means of transportation which have so +miraculously improved, have annihilated distance and along with it to +no small extent the Western and Southern periodical of literary +flavor. The opulent publications are enabled through their very +prosperity to command contributors not to be approached by a +periodical circumscribed in means and constituency. Again, the +Kentucky magazines have all along made the fatal mistake of truckling +to dead prejudices and sectionalism. The material and the moulders +have long been with us, but the wide popular support, which after all +is the first essential, has failed to materialise, and it may be +regretfully apprehended that it now lies as far away as ever. + +The first magazine issued in Kentucky or the West was _The Medley, or +Monthly Miscellany, for the year 1803_, which was edited and published +by Daniel Bradford, son of old John Bradford, the editor of _The +Kentucky Gazette_. _The Medley_ lived through the year of 1803, but in +January, 1804, Editor Bradford announced that he was compelled, from +lack of appreciation, to abandon its publication. The twelve parts were +bound for those of the subscribers who cared to have them made into a +single volume, and probably not more than two copies are extant to-day. +_The Medley's_ literary merit was not impressive, and its death can only +be deplored because it happened to be the first Western magazine. + +_The Almoner_, a religious periodical, the first issue of which was +dated from Lexington, April, 1814, and which died a twelvemonth later, +was published by Thomas T. Skillman, the pioneer printer. Its account +of the preacher, John Poage Campbell, and his many theological works, +is about all one finds of interest in it. + +William Gibbes Hunt, a Harvard man, who later took a degree from +Transylvania University, established _The Western Review_ at +Lexington, in August, 1819, and this was the first literary magazine +in the West worthy the name. Hunt was a man of fine tastes, and he had +a proper conception of what a magazine should be. He worked hard for +two years, but in July, 1821,--the number for which month is notable +as having contained the first draft of General William O. Butler's +famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_, which is there entitled _The Boat +Horn_,--Hunt rehearsed the pathetic tale of the lack of support and +appreciation for a Western magazine, and, without any expressed +regret, entitled it his valedictory. He had survived twice as long as +any of his predecessors, and he probably felt that he had done fairly +well, as he undoubtedly had. The four bound volumes of _The Western +Review_ may be read to-day with more than an historical interest. Hunt +returned to his home in New England; and the only other thing of his +that is preserved is _An Address on the Principles of Masonry_ +(Lexington, 1821), and a very excellent oration it is, too. + +There were brave men after Hunt, however. _The Literary Pamphleteer_ was +born and died at Paris, Kentucky, in 1823; and in the following year +Thomas T. Skillman established _The Western Luminary_ at Lexington. This +was a semi-religious journal, but its publication was shortly suspended. +_The Microscope_ seems to have been the first magazine published at +Louisville, it being founded in 1824, but its life was ephemeral. Under +a half a dozen different names, with many lapses between the miles, _The +Transylvanian_, which Professor Thomas Johnson Matthews, of Transylvania +University, established at Lexington in 1829, has survived until the +present time. It is now the literary magazine of Transylvania +University. Mr. James Lane Allen, Mr. Frank Waller Allen, and one or two +other well-known Kentucky writers saw their earliest essays and stories +first published in _The Transylvanian_. John Clark's _Lexington Literary +Journal_, a twice-a-week affair, was founded in 1833; and the +_Louisville Literary News-Letter_, edited by Edmund Flagg and issued by +George D. Prentice, lived in the Kentucky metropolis from December, +1838, to November, 1840. + +Far and away the most famous literary periodical ever published in +Kentucky, was _The Western Messenger_, founded at Cincinnati in 1835, +and removed to Louisville in April, 1836. James Freeman Clarke +(1810-1888), the noted Boston Unitarian preacher and author, was editor, +publisher, and agent of _The Messenger_ while it was at Louisville; and +he solicited subscriptions throughout Kentucky. Ralph Waldo Emerson +first appeared as a poet in his friend Clarke's magazine. His _Goodby +Proud World_, _The Rhodora_, _The Humble Bee_, and several of his other +now noted poems, were printed for the first time in _The Messenger_. +Clarke also published papers from the hands of Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and nearly all of the +writers now grouped as the New England school. He printed a poem of John +Keats, which had never been previously published, the manuscript of +which was furnished by George Keats, brother of the poet, who lived at +Louisville for many years. Clarke later wrote an interesting sketch of +George Keats for his magazine. During parts of the four years he +published _The Messenger_ at Louisville he had as assistant editors +Christopher P. Cranch and Samuel Osgood, now well-known names in +American letters. Clarke returned to Boston in 1840, and _The Messenger_ +returned to Cincinnati, where it was suspended in April, 1841. "The +periodical was an exotic," wrote William Henry Venable, "a Boston flower +blooming in the Ohio Valley;" and this is the one-line history of it. +Its like was never seen before, never since, and will never be seen +again in the West. + +Thirteen years after _The Western Messenger_ left Louisville, _The +Western Literary Magazine_, a monthly publication, was begun; and +three years later, or in 1856, _The Louisville Review_, another +monthly, was established. But the war clouds of civil strife were +gradually gathering, and the endless pen scratching of the Kentucky +magazinist was lost in the cannon's roar. Newspapers were the only +things Kentuckians had time to peruse. + +Since the war Kentucky periodicals have been, almost without exception, +rather tame affairs. They have all been most mushroomish. A few of them +may be singled out, such as _The Southern Bivouac_, which was conducted +at Louisville for several years by General Basil W. Duke and Richard W. +Knott; _The Illustrated Kentuckian_, founded at Lexington, in 1892; _The +Southern Magazine_, of Louisville, published papers by Mr. Allen, +stories by Mr. John Fox, Jr., and several other now well-known writers; +and Charles J. O'Malley's _Midland Review_ ran for some time. These are +the comparatively recent Kentucky periodicals which have bloomed in a +day and wilted with the earliest winter. _The Register_, official organ +of the State Historical Society, is still being issued three times a +year. It is unique among Kentucky magazines in that it is the only one +that has had adequate financial support, which, however, comes to it in +the form of a State appropriation. For the last twenty-five years _The +Courier-Journal_, of Louisville, has devoted space in its Saturday +edition to reviews of new books; and in recent years _The Evening Post_, +also of Louisville, has maintained a similar department. + + J. W. T. + + Lexington, Kentucky + June 13, 1913 + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] The italics in which the three Kentucky lines are set, are my own. + + + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + + +The last several years have been devoted to the collecting and +classifying of Kentucky books and authors from Filson, in 1784, to Mr. +Allen, in 1912. While the author has done other things, this has been +his most serious business. + +Of the more than a thousand Kentucky writers, one hundred and +ninety-six, or those who achieved considerable reputation in their day +and generation, or others to whom fame came late, are now discussed. +The author hopes to publish within the next two or three years a +_Dictionary of Kentucky Writers_, which will attempt to bring together +in brief biographical and critical notes all of Kentucky's literary +workers from the beginning until the present time. The crossroads poet +is a most elusive, most diffident figure, but I shall do my best to +bring him into the _Dictionary_ that is to be. + +I have received assistance from many quarters. Colonel Reuben T. +Durrett, Dr. Henry A. Cottell, General Bennett H. Young, Colonel +Robert M. Kelly, Mrs. Evelyn Snead Barnett, Mrs. Elvira Miller +Slaughter, and Mr. George T. Settle, of Louisville, Kentucky, have +aided me in many directions. Mr. George McCalla Spears, of Dallas, +Texas, author of _Dear Old Kentucky_, and the owner of one of the best +collections of Kentucky books ever gotten together, I have to thank +for a catalogue of his library and a dozen informing letters. Judge +James H. Mulligan, Miss Anna Totten, Mrs. Annie Gratz Clay, Miss Jo +Peter, and Mr. James M. Roach, of Lexington, Kentucky, have loaned and +given me many rare Kentucky items; to Mr. William Kavanaugh Doty, of +Richmond, Kentucky, Mrs. Daniel Henry Holmes, of Covington, Kentucky, +Mrs. Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Kentucky, Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, +of Maysville, Kentucky, State Librarian Frank K. Kavanaugh, of +Frankfort, Kentucky, Mr. Alexander Hill, and Miss Marian Prentice +Piatt, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Henry Cleveland Wood, of Harrodsburg, +Kentucky, Mr. Paul Weir, of Owensboro, Kentucky, Mr. Ingram Crockett, +of Henderson, Kentucky, Mrs. Mary Addams Bayne, of Shelbyville, +Kentucky, Miss Leigh Gordon Giltner, of Eminence, Kentucky, and Mrs. +Caroline S. Valentine, of New Castle, Kentucky, the majority of whom +are writers, I am doubly indebted for facts regarding their own work, +as well as for what I now more especially thank them--information +concerning other Kentucky writers. + +Death found the two best friends, perhaps, this work had during the +course of its preparation, when it took Charles J. O'Malley, the +Kentucky poet and critic, and Jahu Dewitt Miller, the Philadelphia +lecturer and bookman. Both of these men had just gotten into the +spirit of the work when they died within a year of each other. +O'Malley wrote the most illuminating letters concerning Kentucky +authors it has been my good fortune to receive; Miller made the most +gratifying and surprising additions to my collection of Kentuckiana, +exceedingly scarce volumes and pamphlets which he alone seemed able to +unearth from the old bookshops of the country. The memories of them +both must be ever green with me and in this work. + +I have to thank Mr. Allen for his very fine introduction. To have +one's name associated with his is reward sufficient for the years of +toil and sacrifice this work has demanded of its author. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +JOHN FILSON 1 + THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY 2 + QUADRUPEDS 3 + BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY 4 + +JOHN BRADFORD 5 + NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I 6 + +MATTHEW LYON 8 + REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 9 + +GILBERT IMLAY 11 + THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER 13 + +ADAM RANKIN 17 + ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER 18 + UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE 18 + +THOMAS JOHNSON 19 + EXTEMPORE GRACE 21 + DANVILLE 21 + KENTUCKY 21 + HUDSON, WIFE-MURDERER 22 + PARSON RICE 22 + THE POET'S EPITAPH 22 + +GEORGE BECK 23 + FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE 24 + ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE 25 + ANACREON'S FIRST ODE 26 + +HUMPHREY MARSHALL 26 + PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY 28 + +STEPHEN T. BADIN 30 + EPICEDIUM 31 + +CHARLES CALDWELL 34 + GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE 35 + +ALLAN B. MAGRUDER 37 + CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON 38 + +HENRY CLAY 39 + REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH 42 + ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE 43 + +JOHN J. AUDUBON 45 + INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO 48 + +HORACE HOLLEY 52 + MR. CLAY AND COL. MEADE 53 + +CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE 56 + GEOLOGICAL ANNALS 58 + +MANN BUTLER 59 + PIONEER VISITORS 60 + +ZACHARY TAYLOR 62 + A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY 63 + +DANIEL DRAKE 65 + MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 67 + +MARY A. HOLLEY 69 + TEXAS WOMEN 70 + +JOHN J. CRITTENDEN 71 + EULOGY UPON JUSTICE MCKINLEY 73 + +JOHN M. HARNEY 74 + ECHO AND THE LOVER 76 + THE WIPPOWIL 77 + SYLPHS BATHING 78 + +GEORGE ROBERTSON 78 + ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 80 + EARLY STRUGGLES 80 + LITERARY FAME 81 + +SHADRACH PENN 82 + THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE 83 + +WILLIAM O. BUTLER 84 + THE BOATMAN'S HORN 86 + +HEW AINSLIE 87 + THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY 89 + THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK 89 + THE INGLE SIDE 90 + THE HINT O' HAIRST 91 + +JAMES G. BIRNEY 91 + THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES 93 + +THOMAS CORWIN 95 + THE MEXICAN WAR 96 + +HENRY B. BASCOM 98 + A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA 99 + +JAMES T. MOREHEAD 102 + JOHN FINLEY 103 + +LEWIS COLLINS 104 + PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 105 + +JULIA A. TEVIS 107 + THE MAY QUEEN 108 + +ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE 112 + SANCTIFICATION 113 + +CAROLINE L. HENTZ 114 + BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING 115 + +JOHN P. DURBIN 117 + IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON 118 + +FORTUNATUS COSBY, JR. 119 + FIRESIDE FANCIES 120 + +THOMAS F. MARSHALL 123 + TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS 124 + +JEFFERSON J. POLK 126 + THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS 127 + +GEORGE D. PRENTICE 129 + THE CLOSING YEAR 131 + ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY 133 + PARAGRAPHS 135 + +ROBERT M. BIRD 135 + NICK OF THE WOODS 137 + +JOHN A. MCCLUNG 139 + THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION 140 + +JAMES O. PATTIE 142 + THE SANTA FE COUNTRY 143 + +WILLIAM F. MARVIN 145 + EPIGRAM 146 + THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING 146 + SONG 147 + +ELISHA BARTLETT 147 + JOHN BROWDIE OF "NICHOLAS NICKLEBY" 148 + +SAMUEL D. GROSS 150 + KENTUCKY 151 + THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY 152 + +THOMAS H. CHIVERS 152 + THE DEATH OF ALONZO 154 + GEORGIA WATERS 156 + +JEFFERSON DAVIS 156 + FROM THE FAREWELL SPEECH 158 + +WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER 160 + THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST 162 + +THOMAS H. SHREVE 163 + I HAVE NO WIFE 164 + +ORMSBY M. MITCHEL 166 + ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD 167 + +ALBERT T. BLEDSOE 169 + SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR 171 + +RICHARD H. MENEFEE 173 + KENTUCKY: A TOAST 174 + +GEORGE W. CUTTER 176 + THE SONG OF STEAM 177 + +MARY P. SHINDLER 179 + THE FADED FLOWER 180 + +MARTIN J. SPALDING 181 + A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL 182 + +JOHN W. AUDUBON 185 + LOS ANGELES 186 + TULARE VALLEY 186 + CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO 187 + +ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE 187 + SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY 189 + +EMILY V. MASON 191 + THE DEATH OF LEE 192 + +EDMUND FLAGG 194 + THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST 195 + +CATHERINE A. WARFIELD 197 + CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY 198 + A PLEDGE TO LEE 199 + +J. ROSS BROWNE 200 + LAPDOGS IN GERMANY 201 + +ROBERT MORRIS 205 + THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE 206 + +AMELIA B. WELBY 207 + THE RAINBOW 209 + ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET 210 + +CHARLES W. WEBBER 211 + TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER 212 + +LEWIS J. FRAZEE 216 + HAVRE 217 + +THEODORE O'HARA 218 + THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD 220 + THE OLD PIONEER 223 + SECOND LOVE 225 + A ROLLICKING RHYME 225 + THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY 226 + +SARAH T. BOLTON 228 + PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE 229 + +JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE 231 + HENRY CLAY 232 + +JAMES WEIR, SR. 234 + SIMON KENTON 235 + +MARY E. W. BETTS 237 + A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD 238 + +REUBEN T. DURRETT 239 + LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE 241 + +RICHARD H. COLLINS 244 + PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 245 + +ANNIE C. KETCHUM 247 + APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH 248 + +FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD 250 + ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON 252 + AN AMAZING PROPHECY 254 + +STEPHEN C. FOSTER 255 + MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT 256 + +ZACHARIAH F. SMITH 258 + EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS 259 + +JOHN A. BROADUS 261 + OXFORD UNIVERSITY 263 + +MARY J. HOLMES 265 + THE SCHOOLMASTER 266 + +ROSA V. JEFFREY 269 + A GLOVE 270 + A MEMORY 271 + +SALLIE R. FORD 272 + OUR MINISTER MARRIES 273 + +JOHN E. HATCHER 276 + NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS 277 + +WILLIAM C. WATTS 279 + A WEDDING AND A DANCE 280 + +J. PROCTOR KNOTT 282 + FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH 283 + +GEORGE G. VEST 285 + JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY 286 + EULOGY OF THE DOG 286 + +WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON 288 + BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING 289 + +WILL WALLACE HARNEY 291 + THE STAB 292 + +J. STODDARD JOHNSTON 292 + "CAPTAIN MOLL" 293 + +JULIA S. DINSMORE 295 + LOVE AMONG THE ROSES 295 + +HENRY T. STANTON 297 + THE MONEYLESS MAN 299 + "A MENSA ET THORO" 300 + A SPECIAL PLEA 301 + SWEETHEART 301 + +SARAH M. PIATT 303 + IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD 304 + A WORD WITH A SKYLARK 305 + THE GIFT OF TEARS 306 + +BOYD WINCHESTER 307 + LAKE GENEVA 308 + +THOMAS GREEN 310 + THE CONSPIRATORS 312 + +FORCEYTHE WILLSON 313 + THE OLD SERGEANT 314 + +W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE 319 + IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON 321 + +BASIL W. DUKE 323 + MORGAN, THE MAN 324 + +HENRY WATTERSON 325 + OLD LONDON TOWN 327 + +GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN 331 + THE GYPSIES 332 + +JOHN L. SPALDING 334 + AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE 335 + +NATHANIEL S. SHALER 336 + THE ORPHAN BRIGADE 337 + TOM MARSHALL 339 + LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY 341 + +WILLIAM L. VISSCHER 342 + PROEM 343 + +BENNETT H. YOUNG 344 + PREHISTORIC WEAPONS 345 + +JAMES H. MULLIGAN 348 + IN KENTUCKY 350 + OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE 351 + +NELLY M. MCAFFEE 353 + FINALE 353 + +MARY F. CHILDS 356 + DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS 357 + +WILLIAM T. PRICE 359 + THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS 361 + +GEORGE M. DAVIE 363 + "FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE" 363 + HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL 364 + +JOHN URI LLOYD 364 + "LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT" 366 + + + + +KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN LETTERS + + + + +JOHN FILSON + +John Filson, the first Kentucky historian, was born at East +Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, in 1747. He was educated at the academy of +the Rev. Samuel Finley, at Nottingham, Maryland. Finley was afterwards +president of Princeton University. John Filson looked askance at the +Revolutionary War, and came out to Kentucky about 1783. In Lexington +he conducted a school for a year, and spent his leisure hours in +collecting data for a history of Kentucky. He interviewed Daniel +Boone, Levi Todd, James Harrod, and many other Kentucky pioneers; and +the information they gave him was united with his own observations, +forming the material for his book. Filson did not remain in Kentucky +much over a year for, in 1784, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and +persuaded James Adams, the town's chief printer, to issue his +manuscript as _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of +Kentucke_; and then he continued his journey to Philadelphia, where +his map of the three original counties of Kentucky--Jefferson, +Fayette, and Lincoln--was printed and dedicated to General Washington +and the United States Congress. This Wilmington edition of Filson's +history is far and away the most famous history of Kentucky ever +published. Though it contained but 118 pages, one of the six extant +copies recently fetched the fabulous sum of $1,250--the highest price +ever paid for a Kentucky book. The little work was divided into two +parts, the first part being devoted to the history of the country, and +the second part was the first biography of Daniel Boone ever +published. Boone dictated this famous story of his life to the +Pennsylvania pedagogue, who put it into shape for publication, yet +several Western writers refer to it as "Boone's autobiography." Boone +is the author's central hero straight through the work, and he is +happier when discussing him than in relating the country's meager +history. Filson's _Kentucky_ was translated into French by M. Parraud, +and issued at Paris in 1785; and in the same year a German version was +published. Gilbert Imlay incorporated it into the several editions of +his _Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North +America_ (London, 1793). And several subsequent Western writers also +reproduced it in their works, seldom giving Filson the proper credit +for it. The last three or four years of his life John Filson spent in +Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. He was one of the founders of +Cincinnati, which he named "Losantiville;" and a short time later, in +1788, he wandered into the Miami woods one day and was never seen +again. Col. Reuben T. Durrett, the Louisville historian, wrote his +biography, and established an historical organization, in 1884, which +he named the "Filson Club." Filson's fame is secure in Kentucky, and +Colonel Durrett and his work have made it so. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Life and Writings of John Filson_, by R. T. + Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1884); _Kentuckians in History and + Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907); _The First + Map of Kentucky_, by P. Lee Phillips (Washington, 1908). + + +THE AIR AND CLIMATE OF KENTUCKY + +[From _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky_ +(Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)] + +This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts +of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and +Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter, +which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom +severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly +supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about +the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that +month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring +storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of +weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are +sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and +there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping +along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract +of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the +Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these +winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very +much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture. + + +QUADRUPEDS + +[From the same] + +Among the native animals are the urus, bison, or zorax, described by +Cesar, which we call a buffalo, much resembling a large bull, of a +great size, with a large head, thick, short, crooked horns, and +broader in his forepart than behind. Upon his shoulder is a large lump +of flesh, covered with a thick boss of long wool and curly hair, of a +dark brown color. They do not rise from the ground as our cattle, but +spring up at once upon their feet; are of a broad make, and clumsy +appearance, with short legs, but run fast, and turn not aside for any +thing when chased, except a standing tree. They weigh from 500 to 1000 +weight, are excellent meat, supplying the inhabitants in many parts +with beef, and their hides make good leather. I have heard a hunter +assert, he saw above 1000 buffaloes at the Blue Licks at once; so +numerous were they before the first settlers had wantonly sported away +their lives. There still remains a great number in the exterior parts +of the settlement. They feed upon cane and grass, as other cattle, and +are innocent, harmless creatures. + +There are still to be found many deer, elks, and bears, within the +settlement, and many more on the borders of it. There are also +panthers, wild cats, and wolves. + +The waters have plenty of beavers, otters, minks, and muskrats: nor +are the animals common to other parts wanting, such as foxes, rabbits, +squirrels, racoons, ground-hogs, pole-cats, and opossums. Most of the +species of the domestic quadrupeds have been introduced since the +settlement, such as horses, cows, sheep, and hogs, which are +prodigiously multiplied, suffered to run in the woods without a +keeper, and only brought home when wanted. + + +BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY + +[From the same] + +It was on the 1st of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my +domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable +habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through +the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in +company with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, +and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; and after a long and +fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward +direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on +Red river, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the +Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the +beautiful level of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time +we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather as a prelibation of +our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a shelter +to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt and +reconnoiter the country. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts +of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffaloe were more +frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the +leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, +fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw +hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were +amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every kind +natural to America, we practiced hunting with great success, until the +22d day of December following. + + + + +JOHN BRADFORD + + +John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born near Warrenton, +Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in the Revolutionary War, and came +to Kentucky when thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at +Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia to +Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. Two years later he and +his brother, Fielding Bradford, founded _The Kentucke Gazette_, the +first issue of which appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787--the second +newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The following year John Bradford +published _The Kentucke Almanac_, the first pamphlet from a Western +press; and this almanac was issued every twelvemonth for many years. +Fielding Bradford withdrew from the _Gazette_ in May, 1788, and "Old +Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until 1802, when +his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. In March, 1789, under +instructions from the Virginia legislature, Bradford discarded +"Kentucke" for "Kentucky," one of the many interesting facts connected +with the _Gazette_. John Bradford was the first state printer; and the +first book he published was the laws passed by the first Kentucky +legislature, which assembled at Lexington in 1792. The Bradfords +published many of the most important early Western books, and a +"Bradford" brings joy to the heart of any present-day collector of +Kentuckiana. The column in the _Gazette_ devoted to verse, headed +"Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western poems; but the +little anecdotes which seldom failed to be tucked beneath the verse, +were nearly always coarse and vulgar, giving one a rather excellent +index to the editor's morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford +appears to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau +(1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he "picked up" more +than twenty of them from the _Freeman's Journal_. The most complete +files of the _Kentucky Gazette_ are preserved in the Lexington Public +Library, though the vandals that have consulted them from time to time +have cut and inked out many valuable things. John Bradford was a +public-spirited citizen, being, at different times, chairman of the +town trustees, and of the board of trustees of Transylvania +University. He was a profound mathematician, astronomer, and +philosopher, his contemporaries tell us, and in proof thereof they +have handed down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though his +fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author his +reputation rests upon _The General Instructor; or, the Office, Duty, +and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, and +Constables, in the State of Kentucky_ (Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal +compilation; and upon his more famous work, _Notes on Kentucky_ +(Xenia, Ohio, 1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed +in the _Gazette_ between August 25, 1826, and January 9, 1829. Upon +this work John Bradford is ranked among the Kentucky historians. At +the time of his death, which occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March +31, 1830, he was sheriff of Fayette county. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. No biography of Bradford has been written, but any + of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of his life + and work. + + +NOTES ON KENTUCKY. SECTION I + +[From the _Kentucky Gazette_ (August 25, 1826)] + +This country was well known to the Indian traders many years before +its settlement. They gave a description of it to Lewis Evans, who +published his first map of it as early as 1752. + +In the year 1750,[2] Dr. Thomas Walker, Colby Chew, Ambrose Powell +and several others from the counties of Orange and Culpepper, in the +state of Virginia, set out on an excursion to the Western Waters; they +traveled down the Holstein river, and crossed over the Mountains into +Powell's valley, thence across the Cumberland mountain at the gap +where the road now crosses, proceeded on across what was formerly +known by the name of the Wilderness until they arrived at the +Hazlepath; here the company divided, Dr. Walker with a part continued +north until they came to the Kentucky river which they named Louisa or +Levisa river. After traveling down the excessive broken or hilly +margin some distance they became dissatisfied and returned and +continued up one of its branches to its head, and crossed over the +mountains to New River at the place called Walker's Meadows. + +In the year 1754 James McBride with some others, passed down the Ohio +river in canoes, and landed at the mouth of the Kentucky river, where +they marked on a tree the initials of their names, and the date of the +year. These men passed through the country and were the first who gave +a particular account of its beauty and richness of soil to the +inhabitants of the British settlements in America. + +No further notice seems to have been taken of Kentucky until the year +1767, when John Finlay with others (whilst trading with the Indians) +passed through a part of the rich lands of Kentucky. It was then +called by the Indians in their language, the Dark and Bloody Grounds. +Some difference took place between these traders and the Indians, and +Finlay deemed it prudent to return to his residence in North Carolina, +where he communicated his knowledge of the country to Col. Daniel +Boone and others. This seems to have been one of the most important +events in the history of Kentucky, as it was the exciting cause which +prompted Col. Boone shortly afterwards to make his first visit to the +Dark and Bloody Grounds. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Marshall in his _History_, v. i, p. 7, says it was 1758. Mr. H. +Taylor thinks Dr. Walker informed him it was in 1752, but Col. Shelby +states implicitly that, in 1779 in company with Dr. Walker on Yellow +creek a mile or two from Cumberland mountain, the Doctor observed "upon +that tree," pointing to a beech across the road to the left hand, +"Ambrose Powell marked his name and the date of the year." I examined +the tree and found _A. Powell 1750_ cut in legible characters. + + + + +MATTHEW LYON + + +Matthew Lyon, "the Hampden of Congress," was born in County Wicklow, +Ireland, July 14, 1750. He emigrated to America when he was fifteen +years old, and settled in Woodbury, Connecticut, as an apprentice of +Jabez Bacon, the wealthiest merchant in all New England. Lyon left +Connecticut, in 1774, and removed to Vermont, where he became one of the +famous Green Mountain Boys of the Revolution. He was a member of the +Vermont legislature for four years; and in 1783 he founded the town of +Fair Haven, Vermont. Lyon became one of the great men of Vermont, a +disciple of Thomas Jefferson, "the pioneer Democrat of New England." In +1796 he was elected to Congress and he went to Philadelphia in May, +1797, to enter upon his duties. He at once became one of the powerful +men in that body. Lyon had published a newspaper at Fair Haven for +several years, besides issuing a number of books from his press, but +during the years of 1798 and 1799 he edited the now famous _Scourge of +Aristocracy_, a semi-monthly magazine. At the present day this is a rare +volume, and much to be desired. In 1801 Lyon cast Vermont's vote for +Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr for the presidency, and this vote is +said to have made certain Jefferson's election. Late in this year of +1801 Lyon left Vermont for Kentucky, and he later became the founder of +Eddyville, Lyon county, Kentucky. The county, however, was named in +honor of his son, Chittenden Lyon. In 1802 Matthew Lyon was a member of +the Kentucky legislature; and from 1803 to 1811 he was in the lower +House of Congress from his Kentucky district. His opposition to the War +of 1812 retired him to private life. At Eddyville he was engaged in +shipbuilding, in which he had great success, but after his defeat for +reelection to Congress, in 1812, disasters came fast upon him, and he +was reduced from affluence to comparative poverty. At the age of +sixty-eight years, however, he recovered himself, paid all his debts, +and died in easy circumstances. In 1820 Lyon was appointed United States +Factor to the Cherokee Indians of Arkansas territory, and he set out for +his future home at Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. He was later elected as +Arkansas's second delegate to Congress, but he did not live to take his +seat, dying at Spadra Bluff, August 1, 1822. Eleven years later his +remains were returned to Kentucky, and re-interred at Eddyville, where a +proper monument marks the spot to-day. Matthew Lyon's reply to John +Randolph of Roanoke, in 1804, in regard to the old question of the Yazoo +frauds, is his only extant speech that is at all remembered at the +present time. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins + (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin + (New York, 1900). + + +REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE[3] + +[From _Matthew Lyon_, by J. F. McLaughlin (New York, 1900)] + +The Postmaster General [Gideon Granger] has not lost my esteem, nor do +I think his character can be injured by the braying of a jackal, or +the fulminations of a madman. But, sir, permit me to inquire from whom +these charges of bribery, of corruption, and of robbery, come? Is it +from one who has for forty years, in one shape or other, been +intrusted with the property and concerns of other people, and has +never wanted for confidence, one whose long and steady practice of +industry, integrity, and well doing, has obtained for him his standing +on this floor? Is it from one who sneered with contempt on the +importunity with which he has solicited to set a price on the +important vote he held in the last Presidential election? No, sir, +these charges have been fabricated in the disordered imagination of a +young man whose pride has been provoked by my refusing to sing encores +to all his political dogmas. I have had the impudence to differ from +him in some few points, and some few times to neglect his fiat. It is +long since I have observed that the very sight of my plebeian face has +had an unpleasant effect on the gentleman's nose, for out of respect +to this House and to the State he represents, I will yet occasionally +call him gentleman. I say, sir, these charges have been brought +against me by a person nursed in the bosom of opulence, inheriting the +life services of a numerous train of the human species, and extensive +fields, the original proprietors of which property, in all +probability, came no honester by it than the purchasers of the Georgia +lands did by what they claim. Let that gentleman apply the fable of +the thief and the receiver, in Dilworth's Spelling Book, so +ingeniously quoted by himself, in his own case, and give up the stolen +men in his possession. I say, sir, these charges have come from a +person whose fortune, leisure and genius have enabled him to obtain a +great share of the wisdom of the schools, but who in years, +experience, and the knowledge of the world and the ways of man, is +many, many years behind those he implicates--a person who, from his +rant in this House, seems to have got his head as full of British +contracts and British modes of corruption as ever Don Quixote's was +supposed to have been of chivalry, enchantments and knight errantry--a +person who seems to think no man can be honest and independent unless +he has inherited land and negroes, nor is he willing to allow a man to +vote in the people's elections unless he is a landholder. + +I can tell that gentleman I am as far from offering or receiving a +bribe as he or any other member on this floor; it is a charge which no +man ever made against me before him, who from his insulated situation, +unconversant with the world, is perhaps as little acquainted with my +character as any member of this House, or almost any man in the +nation, and I do most cordially believe that, had my back and my mind +been supple enough to rise and fall with his motions, I should have +escaped his censure. + +I, sir, have none of that pride which sets men above being merchants +and dealers; the calling of a merchant is, in my opinion, equally +dignified, and no more than equally dignified with that of a farmer, +or a manufacturer. I have a great part of my life been engaged in all +the stations of merchant, farmer and manufacturer, in which I have +honestly earned and lost a great deal of property, in the character of +a merchant. I act like other merchants, look out for customers with +whom I can make bargains advantageous to both parties; it is all the +same to me whether I contract with an individual or the public; I see +no constitutional impediment to a member of this House serving the +public for the same reward the public gives another. Whenever my +constituents or myself think I have contracts inconsistent with my +duties as a member of this House, I will retire from it. + +I came to this House as a representative of a free, a brave, and a +generous people. I thank my Creator that He gave me the face of a man, +not that of an ape or a monkey, and that He gave me the heart of a man +also, a heart which will spare to its last drop in defence of the +dignity of the station my generous constituents have placed me in. I +shall trouble the House no farther at this time, than by observing +that I shall not be deterred by the threats of the member from +Virginia from giving the vote I think the interest and honor of the +nation require; and by saying if that member means to be understood +that I have offered contracts from the Postmaster-General, the +assertion or insinuation has no foundation in truth, and I challenge +him to bring forward his boasted proof. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] This reply was made in answer to one of Randolph's ranting Yazoo +philippics, several of which are among the bitterest speeches ever heard +in Congress. Lyon at this time (1804) was a member of Congress from +Kentucky. The Yazoo land grant frauds had aroused the public mind, and a +commission had endeavored to settle by compromise the claims of Georgia, +and those holding under the Georgia act of 1795, to the vast territory +in dispute. Randolph denounced the frauds committed, and opposed any +settlement of the controversy, while Lyon desired to see the country +settled, and the compromise of the commissioners carried out. + + + + +GILBERT IMLAY + + +Gilbert Imlay, the first Kentucky novelist, was born in New Jersey, +about 1755. He was captain of a company in the Revolution. The war over, +Imlay turned his face toward the West; and he reached the Falls of the +Ohio--Louisville--in 1784. In the little river town he worked under +George May as a "commissioner for laying out lands in the back +settlements." Imlay had not been a Kentuckian many months before he had +obtained patents for many thousand acres of land--all of which he +subsequently lost. It is not certainly known how long he remained in +Kentucky, but it was about eight years. He went to London in 1792 and, +in that year, the first edition of his _Topographical Description of the +Western Territory of North America_ was published. This work is made up +of a series of descriptive letters which the author wrote from Kentucky +to an English friend. The second edition of 1793, and the third edition +of 1797, reproduced John Filson's _Kentucke_ and Thomas Hutchins's +_History_, together with much new material. While a resident of Kentucky +Gilbert Imlay wrote the first Kentucky novel, entitled _The Emigrants, +or the History of an Expatriated Family, being a Delineation of English +Manners drawn from Real Characters. Written in America, by G. Imlay, +Esq._ (London, 1793, 3 vols.; Dublin, 1794, 1 vol.). The epistolary form +is adopted throughout, and the narrative relates the fortunes of "an +eminent merchant in the city of London," Mr. T----n, who loses his great +fortune and emigrates with his family to America. His daughter, the +beautiful Caroline, is the heroine of the story. Landing in +Philadelphia, they travel to Pittsburgh, and from there drift down the +Ohio river in a Kentucky flatboat, or "ark," to Louisville. Caroline's +lover, Capt Arl----ton, had preceded the family and gone on to +Lexington, but he soon returned to Louisville when he learned that his +sweetheart awaited his coming. "The emigrants" remained in Kentucky some +three months, or from June until August. Caroline's capture by the +Indians in August decided the family to forsake the "dark and bloody +ground," though she was safely rescued. They finally find their way to +London, and all ends well. _The Emigrants_, in the three-volume edition, +is exceedingly scarce, but the Dublin one-volume edition may be +occasionally procured in the rare book shops of London. In 1793 Gilbert +Imlay went to Paris, where he met the famous Mary Wollstonecraft, with +whom he was soon living, as they both held mutual affection equivalent +to marriage. In 1794 a daughter was born to them, Fanny Imlay, who +committed suicide at Swansea, October 10, 1816. In April, 1796, Imlay +and Mary agreed to go separate paths after much stormy weather together; +and a short time later she became the wife of William Godwin, the +English philosopher and novelist. In giving birth to the future wife of +the poet Shelley, she surrendered her own life. Mary Wollstonecraft's _A +Vindication of the Rights of Woman_ is the chief memorial of her +pathetic and eventful career. After having parted on that April morning +of 1796 with the woman he had so outrageously treated, Gilbert Imlay, +"the handsome scoundrel," is lost to history. When, where, or how he +died is unknown. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _London Monthly Review_ (August, 1793); _Kentuckians + in History and Literature_, by John Wilson Townsend (New York, + 1907); _Dictionary of National Biography_; biographies of Shelley, + Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. + + +THE FLIGHT OF A FLORID LOVER + +[From _The Emigrants_ (Dublin, 1794)] + +LETTER XLVI. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY. + + Louisville, June. + +It is impossible for me to see Caroline in the present state of my +mind, and therefore I hope you will not look upon it in the least +disrespectful, my friend, if I should happen to be absent when you +arrive; for to be candid with you, I shall make a journey purposely to +Lexington. + +Your obliging favour from Pittsburg, which you meant should give me +spirits, has had quite a contrary effect. + +By attempting to soothe my mind, I discover that secret poison, +flattery, ever contains, and which I consider the principal cause of +my present wretchedness. + +The image you have given of Caroline makes her appear to me more +lovely than ever; and when you say that enchantment seems to spring up +where e'er she treads, I feel the full force of all her charms, and +conceive that I behold her in this season of fragrance and beauty, +decorating those gardens which you passed through on your return from +the fatal view upon the Allegany, + + While the blushing rose, drooping hides its head, + As Caroline's sweets more odorous prove, + And op'ning lilies look faint, sick, and dead,-- + For things inanimate, feel the force of love. + +She is irresistible--and it is only by absence that I shall ever be +enabled to forget my misfortunes, and therefore, my dear friend, I +must request that in your future letters, when you mention that divine +woman, you will not appreciate that beauty which has ten thousand +charms to fascinate and fetter the soul. + +She has not only all the symmetry of form, the softness of love, and +the enchantment of a goddess; but she can assume an animation and that +surprising activity of motion, that while you are suspended in the +transports of astonishment, you are lost in admiration at the +gracefulness with which she moves--I have seen her bound over a rock, +and pluck a wild honey-suckle, that grew upon the side of a precipice, +and while I stood gazing at her in amazement, she has brought it as a +trophy of her exertions. + +Believe, my friend, that if ever nature formed one woman to excel +another in personal charms, it must be Caroline. + + * * * * * + +I leave this enclosed in a packet for General W----. I am this moment +informed there are boats making round Diamond Island. Who knows but one +of them contains the lovely Caroline? Ah! my friend, I feel every +emotion of love and shame so powerfully, that I must instantly fly to +avoid exposing myself--curse that mandate which banished me from the +lovely tyrant of my heart--curse the vanity which exposed my +weakness;--for damnable is that fate which compels a man to avoid the +object of all others, which to him is the most interesting--I must this +instant be off. O Caroline!--Caroline! while my soul deadens at the +thought, I abandon the spot which will be converted into elysium the +moment you arrive. Forgive me, my friend, this effusion of nature--this +weakness, for it prepares us for those delicious raptures, that flow +from the source of sympathy, and while it softens us to that tender +texture, which is congenial to feminine charms, it invigorates our +actions, and fosters every generous and noble sentiment. + +The streamers of your vessels, for it must be you, are playing in the +wind, as if enraptured with the treasure over which they impend, seem +eradiated with the charms of Caroline; while the gentle Ohio, as if +conscious of its charge, proudly swells, and appears to vie with the +more elevated earth, in order to secure to its divinity, upon which to +tread at her disembarkation, the flowery carpet of its banks. + + Adieu. I am off. J. A. + + +AN EXASPERATED MATCHMAKER + +LETTER XLVII. MR. IL--RAY TO CAPT. ARL--TON. + + Louisville, June. + +My dear James, + +From the time we left Pittsburg until our arrival here, which was ten +days after our embarkation, we were all appreciating the pleasure we +should derive from finding you at this place. + +I had expatiated largely upon the satisfaction we should experience +from the information you would give us of the country; and no sooner +were we in sight of the town that we hung out a flag of invitation; +not doubting that you would observe it, and immediately come off to us +in a barge; but what was the surprise of the whole part, and my +mortification, when we learned upon landing, you had left the place +not more than half an hour. + +The letter you left enclosed for me in General W----'s packet, to be +sure, informed me of the cause of your absence; but it by no means +justified the action. And I demand as a proof of your respect for your +old friends, that you instantly return. + +Remember, James, this is the command of a friend, who is anxious to +restore you to a state of reason, which it appears you have not +possessed for some time past. + +Caroline was in tolerable spirits until within two days of our +arrival, when she suddenly appeared to be pensive and in a state of +extreme trepidation; and since we arrived she has been confined by +indisposition. + +If you have a delicate and tender regard for this charming girl, you +will fly immediately to enquire after her health. But to put it out of +your power to frame a shadow for an excuse, I inform you that it is my +intention first to visit the Illinois, and to view this country on my +return. + +I waited during yesterday for an opportunity to send this, and as I +could not meet with one, I send a person I have hired for that +purpose, as my men are unacquainted with the country. + +Believe me to be your sincere, but unhappy friend, + + G. Il--ray. + + +THE BASHFUL LOVER'S RETURN + +LETTER XLVIII. CAPT. ARL--TON TO MR. IL--RAY. + + Lexington, June. + +Your express has this moment reached me: and to convince you, my dear +Il--ray, that no man can be more alive to every sentiment of love and +friendship, I shall not defer my return to Louisville a single hour; and +I merely dispatch this by the return of your messenger, to let you know +I shall be with you tomorrow in the evening; and that in my present +distracted state of mind, I think it most advisable to make my _entre_ +under the cover of the dark, to prevent my being perceived, as I wish to +devote the whole evening in sequestered converse with you, my friend. + +Caroline is ill! Ah! Il--ray I am wretched in the extreme. I am burnt +up with a scorching fever--I am wrecked in the elements of every +painful passion, and my every effort to reason is baffled by my +reflections upon past occurrences. + +But I am your indissoluble friend, + + J. Arl--ton. + + + + +ADAM RANKIN + + +Rev. Adam Rankin, author of the first book ever printed in Kentucky, +was born in Pennsylvania, March 24, 1755. He was graduated from +Liberty Hall, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, +when about twenty-five years of age; and two years later he was +licensed to preach by the Virginia Presbytery. Rev. Rankin came to +Lexington, Kentucky, in 1784, to accept the pastorate of the +Presbyterian church. He also conducted a school for some time, but his +one thought was Psalmody, which became "his monomania." He created a +schism in his church by insisting that Dr. Watts's imitation of the +Psalms of David be expelled from the church worship, and that the +Psalms in their most literal dress be chanted. His brethren +disapproved of his views, but they could not discourage him or cause +him to discard his contention. Everywhere he went he preached and +wrote upon his favorite subject. Rev. Rankin's Kentucky brethren made +life unbearable for him, and he went to London, where he remained for +two years. When he did return to Kentucky it was to face accusation +after accusation, and church trial after church trial, until he was +finally suspended. Rev. Rankin was a strange, eccentric man, a dreamer +of dreams, a Kentucky Luther, and, perhaps, a bit crazed with the +bitter opposition his views received. His latest, boldest dream was +that Jerusalem was about to be rebuilt and that he must hurry there in +order to assist in the rebuilding. He bade his Lexington flock +farewell, and started to the Holy City, but, on November 25, 1827, +death overtook him at Philadelphia. Rev. Rankin was the author of +several theological works, but his _A Process in the Transylvania +Presbytery, &c._ (Maxwell and Gooch, At the Sign of the Buffalo, Main +Street, Lexington, 1793), is the first book ever printed in Kentucky, +if the _Kentucky Acts_ which John Bradford published in the same year +be excepted. Many days were required to print this little book of +Rankin upon the hand-press of the publishers, though it contained but +ninety-six pages, divided into five parts. Although it is not great +literature, it is the first book that can, in any wise, come under +that term published in this State. It is surely of more literary +importance than Bradford's _Acts_. Rev. Rankin was, as were nearly all +of the early Kentucky theologians, a prolific pamphleteer. His +_Dialogues_ (Lexington, 1810), is really his most important +publication, but it has been greatly overlooked in the recent rush +among Kentucky historical writers to list _A Process_ as the first +book published in Kentucky. His eccentric career as a man and preacher +is, after all, of more interest than his work as an author. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by + R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _The Centenary of Kentucky_, by + R. T. Durrett (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892). + + +ON THE EXTENT OF THE GOSPEL OFFER + +[From _A Process in the Transylvania Presbytery_ (Lexington, Ky., +1793)] + +We believe, that as it respects the outward means, the ambassadors are +authorised to publish, proclaim, and declare the counsel of God, as it +stands connected with our salvation; and that all, who hear the sound, +have an equal and indefinite warrant, not only to embrace the means as +offered to them indiscriminately, by which comes faith, but have a +right to believe, that Christ, with all his benefits, is freely +offered to them, as sinners, without ever enquiring, into the secret +purposes of God, whether they are elect, or non-elect. + + +UPON MARRIAGE BY LICENSE + +[From the same] + +Seeing, under our government, it is not purchasing a liberty by +pecuniary rewards, further, than compensating a prothonotary, for +taking bond and security, that guardians are agreed, and keeping a +just register, for the credit and safety of the rising family. And as +the contract is partly civil in its nature, and civil government is +bound to defend the civil rights--we believe it perfectly consonant to +the analogy of faith, which might be evinced from the fourth chapter +of Ruth. But as it is partly social, and the parties contracting come +under the mutual obligations to fulfil their relative duties, it ought +to be consummated before witnesses. And as it is partly religious, +every family appertaining to the Church of Christ, commences a +nursery, or infant society, to train up their family in the nurture +and admonition of the Lord. We believe it right, that whenever a +church in full order exists, that the pastor, or church officer should +consecrate them, to the business assigned them as a Church of Christ, +taking their obligations for the due performance of their duty. + + + + +THOMAS JOHNSON, Jr. + + +Thomas Johnson, Junior, the first Kentucky poet, who, for many years, +enjoyed the sobriquet of the "Drunken Poet of Danville," was born in +Virginia about 1760, and he came to Kentucky when twenty-five years of +age. He settled at Danville, then a village, and immediately entered +into the role of poet, punster, and ne'er-do-weel. Documentary +evidence is extant to prove that Danville was a gay little town when +the young Virginian arrived there about 1785; and he was early drawn +into excesses, or led others into them. Johnson was a rather prolific +maker of coarse satirical rhymes, which he finally assembled into a +small pamphlet, and published them as _The Kentucky Miscellany_ +(Lexington, 1796). This was the first book of poems, if they may be so +termed, printed in Kentucky. The original price of this pamphlet was +nine pence the copy, but it is impossible to procure it today for any +price, and there is not an extant copy of this first edition. _The +Kentucky Miscellany_ went into a second edition in 1815, and a third +edition was published a few years later, but no copies of either +edition are extant. The fourth and final edition appeared from the +_Advertiser_ office at Lexington, in 1821, and a dog-eared, +much-mutilated copy of this is in the collection of the Filson Club in +Louisville--perhaps the only copy in the world. _The Miscellany_ +contained but thirty-six small pages, about the size of the medical +almanacs of to-day. Many of the little verses are very vulgar and +actually obscene, perhaps due to the fact that Johnson could never +quite bury John Barleycorn alive. The most famous of them is the +_Extempore Grace_, which the bard delivered one day in the tavern of +old Erasmus Gill in Danville. In his cups he stumbled into the tavern +dining-room, where he found the meal over, and the guests gone, +nothing being left but the crumbs. He glanced at the tables, then at +Gill, and offered _Extempore Grace_. His lines on Danville, on +Kentucky, and on several other subjects reveal the satirist; and the +verses to Polly, his sweetheart, and to his favorite physician the +better elements in his nature. That these rather vulgar verses of +Johnson did not escape the censorship of Western advocates of the pure +food law in literature, is made certain by a letter from an Ohio +critic which appeared in the _Lexington Intelligencer_ for January 28, +1834. After having made a strong plea for the preservation of early +Western verse, the writer added: "I do not mean to embrace the low +doggerel of _Tom Johnson_; this was published some years ago, and I +never felt _decency_ more outraged than when it was handed me to read +by _mine landlady_! My stars! Save us from the _blackguardism_, for +the world is sufficiently demoralized." Had this early critic of Tom's +verses presented a bundle of them to some library, how many Western +writers would rise up and call him blessed! Johnson died and was +buried at Danville, but the date of his death or the exact place of +his burial is unknown. He had passed and was almost forgotten by 1830. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_, by + R. H. Davidson (New York, 1847); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _Centre College Cento_ + (Danville, Kentucky, January, 1907); _Kentuckians in History and + Literature_, by J. W. Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +EXTEMPORE GRACE + +[From _The Kentucky Miscellany_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1821)] + + O! Thou who blest the loaves and fishes + Look down upon these empty dishes; + And that same power that did them fill, + Bless each of us, but d---- old Gill! + + +DANVILLE + +[From the same] + + Accursed Danville, vile, detested spot, + Where knaves inhabit, and where fools resort-- + Thy roguish cunning, and thy deep design, + Would shame a Bluebeard or an Algerine. + O, may thy fatal day be ever curst, + When by blind error led, I entered first. + + +KENTUCKY + +[From the same] + + I hate Kentucky, curse the place, + And all her vile and miscreant race! + Who make religion's sacred tie + A mask thro' which they cheat and lie. + Proteus could not change his shape, + Nor Jupiter commit a rape + With half the ease those villains can + Send prayers to God and cheat their man! + I hate all Judges here of late, + And every Lawyer in the State. + Each quack that is called Physician, + And all blockheads in Commission-- + Worse than the Baptist roaring rant, + I hate the Presbyterian cant-- + Their Parsons, Elders, nay, the whole, + And wish them gone with all my soul. + + +HUDSON, WIFE MURDERER + +[From the same] + + Strange things of Orpheus poets tell, + How for a wife he went to Hell; + Hudson, a wiser man no doubt, + Would go to Hell to be without! + + +PARSON RICE + +[From the same] + + Ye fools! I told you once or twice, + You'd hear no more from canting R----e; + He cannot settle his affairs, + Nor pay attention unto prayers, + Unless you pay up your arrears. + Oh, how in pulpit he would storm, + And fill all Hell with dire alarm! + Vengeance pronounced against each vice, + And, more than all, curs'd avarice; + Preach'd money was the root of ill; + Consigned each rich man unto Hell; + But since he finds you will not pay, + Both rich and poor may go that way. + 'Tis no more than I expected-- + The meeting-house is now neglected: + All trades are subject to this chance, + No longer pipe, no longer dance. + + +THE POET'S EPITAPH + +[From the same] + + Underneath this marble tomb, + In endless shades lies drunken Tom; + Here safely moored, dead as a log, + Who got his death by drinking grog. + By whiskey grog he lost his breath-- + Who would not die so sweet a death? + + + + +GEORGE BECK + + +George Beck, classicist, born in England in 1749, became instructor of +mathematics at Woolwich Academy, near London, at the age of +twenty-seven years; but he was later dismissed. Beck married an +English woman of culture and emigrated to the United States in 1795, +reaching these shores in time to serve "Mad Anthony" Wayne as a scout +in his Indian campaign. The wanderlust was upon George Beck, and he +became one of the first of that little band of nomadic painters that +came early to the Blue Grass country, and having once come remained. +He arrived at Lexington in 1800; and it was not long before he began +to send short original poems and spirited translations of Anacreon, +Homer, Horace, and Virgil to old John Bradford's _Gazette_. At about +this time, too, Beck was doing many portraits and a group of +landscapes in oils of the Kentucky river country, a few of which have +come down to posterity. Eighteen hundred and six seems to have been +Beck's best year in Kentucky from the literary viewpoint, as the +_Gazette_ is full of his verses and translations. He was widely known +as the "Lexington Horace." Besides painting and poetry, George Beck +was a rather learned astronomer, as his _Observations on the Comet_ of +1811 prove. With his wife he conducted an "Academy for Young Ladies" +for several years. His last years were much embittered by the lack of +appreciation upon the part of the Western public. The Kentucky of 1800 +was not a whirlpool of art or literature by any means, and this +cultured man languished and finally died among a people who cared +very little for his fine learning or his manners. George Beck, poet, +translator, mathematician, astronomer, artist, died in Lexington, +Kentucky, December 14, 1812. His wife survived him until the cholera +year of 1833, which swept away nearly two thousand citizens of +Lexington and the Blue Grass. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky Gazette_ (Lexington, December 22, 1812); + Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, 1887, v. + i). + + +FIFTEENTH ODE OF HORACE + + A New Translation of the Fifteenth Ode of Horace, or Prophecy of + Nerceus, from which (according to Count Algorotti and Dr. Johnson) + Gray took his beautiful Ode, _The Bard_. + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (October 27, 1806)] + + What time the fair perfidious shepherd bore + The beauteous Helen back to Ilion's shore, + To sleep the howling waves were won + By Nerceus, Ocean's hoary son, + While round the liquid realms he sung, + From guilty love, what dire disasters sprung. + + Thee, tainted Youth, what omens dire attend! + Thy neck and Ilion's soon to Greece shall bend. + To man and horse what sweat and blood, + What carnage float down Xanthus' flood! + What wrath on Troy shall Greece infuriate turn! + What glittering domes, and spires, and temples burn! + + In vain you boast the Queen of beauty's smiles, + Her charms, her floating curls, her amourous wiles, + These, these alas! will nought avail + While Cretan arrows round you sail! + And, tho' the fates awhile such guilt may spare, + Vile dust at length shall smear that golden hair! + + Trace back, vain Youth! sad Ilion's fate of old! + Ulysses' sons and Nestor's yet behold, + Teucer's and Diomede's more dread + Horrific war shall round you shed; + Then shall ye trembling fly like timid deer + When hungry wolves are howling in their rear. + + By promise Vain of Universal Sway + Lur'd you from Greece the beauteous Queen away? + In less than ten revolving years + Achilles' dreadful fleet appears! + His bloody trains of Myrmidonians dire + Shall wrap proud Ilion's domes in Grecian fire! + + +ANACREON'S FIFTY-FIFTH ODE + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (November 3, 1806)] + + What deathless Artist's mimic hand + Shall paint me here the Ocean bland, + Shall give the waves such kindling glows + As when immortal Venus rose? + Who, in phrenzy's flight of mind + Such touch and tinctures bright may find + To match her form and golden hair + And naked paint the heavenly fair? + While every amorous rival billow + Strives her buoyant breast to pillow? + 'Tis done! behold the wavelets green + Softly press the Paphian Queen, + Around her heavenly bosom play, + Kiss its warm blush and melt away. + Her graceful neck of pearl behold, + Her wavy curls of floating gold: + But none but lips divine may tell + What Graces on that bosom dwell! + Such bloom a bed of lilies shows + Illumin'd by the crimson'd rose. + Rounding off with grace divine + Like hills of snow her shoulders shine. + While streaming thro' the waves she swims + The silvery maze half veils her limbs, + Else where's the eye that durst behold + Such beauty stream'd on heavenly mold? + Th' enamour'd Triton's glittering train + Sporting round the liquid main + Waving their gold and silver pinions, + Bear her o'er their deep dominions, + While infant Loves and young desires + Dancing 'mid the choral choirs + Clasp the beauteous Queen around + And sail in triumph o'er the bright profound. + + +ANACREON'S FIRST ODE + +[From _The Western Review_ (Lexington, March, 1821)] + + I would Atrides' glory tell, + I would to Cadmus strike my shell; + I try the vocal cords--in vain! + Love, only love, breathes through the strain. + I strip away the truant wire, + And string with deeper chords the lyre, + Then great Alcides' toils would sing: + Soft love still sighs through every string. + Hence, themes of Glory, hence! adieu! + For what have I to do with you? + My heart and lyre in union make + Resounding Love and only Love. + + + + +HUMPHREY MARSHALL + + +Humphrey Marshall, author of the first _History of Kentucky_ that was +in any wise comprehensive, was born near Warrenton, Virginia, in 1760. +What little school instruction he received was from the young woman +whom he afterwards married. Marshall removed to Kentucky in 1782, +after having served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. He was a +member of the Virginia convention of 1788, as a representative of the +district of Kentucky, which adopted the Federal constitution. +Marshall was in the Kentucky legislature for several terms and, from +1795 to 1801, he was United States Senator from Kentucky. Some years +later he was again in the State legislature; and at about that time +his famous duel with Henry Clay took place. The first edition of his +_History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1812), appeared in a single volume +of 407 pages; but the second and final edition was greatly revised and +augmented and published in two octavo volumes (Frankfort, 1824). +Humphrey Marshall's pen was pointed with poison for his enemies (and +he had more of them than any other Kentuckian of his time, perhaps), +and in his book he lashed them ruthlessly. He was the first as well as +the last of Kentucky's "personal" historians. He first endeavored to +silence his foes with newspapers and pamphlets, but, not being +satisfied with the results, he poured out his wrath in book form to +the extent of a thousand pages and more. While prejudice is the most +descriptive word possible to use in characterizing Marshall's work, it +is not all prejudice. He wrote with wonderful keenness concerning the +Spanish conspiracy in Kentucky, his views upon the men that were +guilty of bartering Kentucky to Spain in order to obtain free +navigation of the Mississippi river having been abundantly affirmed by +the latest historical work upon that subject. He also wrote of the +Burr conspiracy with great clearness of vision, all of which is very +remarkable when one stops to consider that nearly every one of the men +connected with these two conspiracies were his bitterest enemies. That +Marshall was an able writer all of the Kentucky historians have freely +admitted, notwithstanding the fact they have quarreled with his "copy" +many times. He is, as his biographer writes, "the stormy petrel of +Kentucky's earlier years," a most remarkable man from several points +of view. His _History of Kentucky_, in either edition, is rather +scarce at this time, and it is not to be found in many of the rare +book shops of the country. Humphrey Marshall died at Lexington, +Kentucky, July 3, 1841. He lies buried upon the banks of the Kentucky +river, near the capitol of the Commonwealth, Frankfort. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_, by A. + C. Quisenberry (Winchester, Kentucky, 1892). + + +PRIMEVAL KENTUCKY + +[From _The History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824, v. i)] + +The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, +and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the +attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North +Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the +great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are +assured that the effect lost nothing of the cause. Forests those hunters +had seen--mountains they had ascended--valleys they had traversed--deer +they had killed--and bears they had successfully hunted. They had heard +the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; and the heart-rending +yell of the savage man; with correspondent sensations of delight, or +horror. But these were all lost to memory, in the contemplation of +Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and adorned with all +the majestic grace and boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's +children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the +feelings of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the +sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn was +in the dawn of summer; when the forests, composed of oaks of various +kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, sugar trees, +locust, sycamore, coffee tree, and an indefinite number of other trees, +towering aloft to the clouds, overspread the luxuriant undergrowth, with +their daily shade; while beneath, the class of trees--the shrubs, the +cane, the herbage, and the different kinds of grass, and clover, +interspersed with flowers, filled the eye, and overlaid the soil, with +the forest's richest carpet. The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile +than Egypt's boasted Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious +nutriment; and in rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless +verdure. + +Here it was, if Pan ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, he +held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmolested by Ceres, or +Lucina, for centuries. + +The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise +of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation +raised: even the red man of the forest had not put up his wigwam of +poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose +productive power we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great--had +not spread out this replete and luxurious pasture without stocking it +with numerous flocks and herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, +who prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. +Here was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the +surly bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; +the insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable +other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, at some +time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the leviathan of +the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, like that of the +famous Trojan horse, would have held an host of men; and whose teeth, +nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, on both animals +and vegetable substances--until exhausting all within its range, +itself became extinct. Nor is it known, although the race must have +abounded in the country, from the great number of bones belonging to +the species, found in different places, that there is one of the kind +living on the American continent, if in the universe. + + + + +STEPHEN T. BADIN + + +Stephen Theodore Badin, Kentucky's earliest Catholic bard, was born at +Orleans, France, in 1768. Though very poor he received a classical and +theological training in Paris and Tours; and in 1792 he emigrated to +America. In the following year Badin was ordained by Bishop John Carroll +at Baltimore, he being the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in the +United States. He was subsequently appointed to do missionary work in +Kentucky, which was then in the old Baltimore diocese, and he made his +home at Georgetown, Kentucky. During the next few years Badin rode more +than one hundred thousand miles on horseback in order to meet all of his +appointments. He was then the only Catholic priest in Kentucky, though +he did have assistants from time to time. In 1797 Badin was made +vicar-general, and the large Catholic emigrations from Maryland to +Kentucky about this time greatly increased his labors. His _Principles +of Catholics_ (1805) was the first Catholic book published in the West, +and it gave him a larger audience than his voice could well reach. Badin +later organized missions and built churches in Louisville and Lexington, +St. Peter's in Lexington being made possible by the generosity of his +Protestant friends, of whom he had many. Badin and Bishop Benedict +Joseph Flaget, of the Bardstown diocese, had a misunderstanding as to +the settlement of titles to certain church properties which Badin had +acquired before Flaget came to Kentucky, and, rather than to have an +acrimonious argument with the Bishop, he quit Kentucky, in 1819, and +spent the next nine years in European travel. From 1830 to 1836 he +worked among the Pottawatomie Indians in Indiana with marked success. +Father Badin died at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. He was the author of +several Latin poems in hexameters, among them being _Carmen Sacrum_, a +translation of which was published at Frankfort; _Epicedium_, an elegy +upon the death of Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess at the battle of +Tippecanoe; and _Sanctissimae Trinitatis Laudes et Invocatis_ +(Louisville, 1843). His brief in memoriam for Colonel Daviess is his +best known work and, perhaps, his masterpiece. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Sketches of Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_, + by M. J. Spalding (Louisville, 1846); _The Centenary of + Catholicity in Kentucky_, by B. J. Webb (Louisville, 1884). + + +EPICEDIUM + + In Gloriosam Mortem + Magnanimi Equitum Ducis + Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Patrii Amoris Victimae + In Tippecanoe Pugna ad Amnem + Wabaschum, 7. Die Nov. 1811. + Epicedium; + Honorabili Viro Joanni Rowan + Meo Ipsiusque Amico Dicatum. + +[From _The Kentucky Gazette_ (February 18, 1812)] + + Autumnus felix aderat granaria complens + Frugibus; umbrosas patulis jam frondibus ulmos + Exuerat brumoe proprior, cum Fama per orbem + Non rumore vago fatalia nuncia defert: + "Sub specie pacis Slyvaecola perfidus atra + "Nocte viros inopino plumbo occidit et hasta; + "Dux equitum triplici confossus vulnere, fortis + "Occubuit; turmoe hostiles periere fugatoe, + "Hostilesque casas merito ultrix flamma voravit." + Mensibus AEstivis portenderat ista Cometes + Funera; Terra quatit repetitis motibus; aegre + Volvit sanguineas Wabaschus tardior undas + Ingeminant Dryades suspiria longa; Hymenoeus + Deficit audita clade, et solatia spernit + Omnia; triste silet Musarum turba; fidelis + Luget Amicities, lugubri tegmine vestit + Et caput et laevam, desiderioque dalentis + Non pudor aut modus est. Lacrymas at fundere inanes + Quid juvat? Heu lacrymis nil Fata moventur acerba! + Ergo piae Themidis meliora oracula poscunt + Unanimes; diram causam Themis aure benigna + Excipit, et mox decretum pronunciat oequum: + "Davidis effigies nostra appendatur in aula; + "Tempora sacra viri quercus civilis adornet, + "Ac non immeritam jungat Victoria laurum. + "Signa sui Legislator det publica luctus; + Historioe chartis referat memorabile Clio. + "Praelium, et alta locum cyparissus contegat umbra. + "Tristis Hymen pretiosa urna cor nobile servet; + "Marmoreo reliquos cineres sincera sepulcro + "Condat Amicities; praesens venturaque laudet + "AEtas magnanimum David, virtute potentem + "Eloquii, belli et pacis decus immortale." + Vita habet angustos fines, et gloria nullos: + Qui patrioe reddunt vitam, illi morte nec ipsa + Vincuntur; virtutum exempla nepotibus extant. + Pro Patria vitam profundere maxima laus est. + + Stephanus Theodorus Badin, + Cathol. Mission. + + Moerens canebat 15. Dec. 1811. + + +A TRANSLATION BY "WOODFORDENSIS" + +[From the same] + + On the glorious death of Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Commander + of the Horse, who fell a victim to his love of country, in + the late battle on the Wabash, the 7th. Nov., 1811. + Dedicated to John Rowan, Esq. + + 'Twas late in autumn, and the thrifty swain + In spacious barns secur'd the golden grain; + November's chilly mornings breath'd full keen; + No leafy honors crown'd the sylvan scene. + When Fame with those sad tidings quickly flew + Throughout our land; (her tale, alas! too true): + "The savage Indian, our perfidious foe, + Pretending peace with hypocritic show, + Surpris'd our legions in the dead of night + And urg'd with lead and steel the mortal fight; + Our valiant warriors strew th' ensanguin'd plain, + Ev'n our great Captain of the Horse is slain + With triple wound!!! At length the foe retires, + With loss; and leaves his town to our avenging fires." + + When summer gilded our nocturnal sky + With astral gems; a comet blazed on high, + Portentous of these fates!--the earth, in throes + Repeated labors; rueful Wabash flows + With slower current, stain'd with mingling blood! + The _Dryads_ fill with plaints the echoing wood! + Hymen, the slaughter heard, dissolves in grief! + Naught can console him, naught can yield relief. + In woeful silence sits the muses' train + And Friendship mourns her fav'rite hero slain. + The funeral crape, vain badge of grief! she wears + Upon her head, her arms the emblem bears, + Her sorrowing mind no moderation knows, + Admits no measure to her boundless woes. + + Ah, what avails the vain expense of tears? + Fate still unmov'd this fruitless anguish bears! + Therefore to Themis' shrine, with one accord, + They come to crave a more benign award. + The direful cause the attentive Goddess hears, + And soon this just decree her record bears: + "Let Daviess still in semblance grace my halls, + Let his bright portraiture adorn my walls; + The civic oak his sacred brows entwine, + And vict'ry to the wreath his laurel join. + Let Legislative acts of mourning show + The voted ensigns of the public woe; + In the historic page be ever read + The fierce encounter, when great Daviess bled, + And be the fatal spot with cypress shade o'erspread; + His noble heart let Hymen's care enclose + In the rich urn, and friendship's hand compose + His other relics in the marble tomb. + Then let the ages present and to come + Just praises render to his glorious name; + Let honor'd Daviess gild the page of fame, + A hero, fit a nation's pow'r to wield, + In council wise, and mighty in the field." + + His mortal life a narrow space confines, + But glory with unbounded lustre shines. + Those virtuous souls, who shed their noble blood + A willing off'ring to the public good, + Who to their country's welfare freely give + The sacrifice of life, forever live + As bright examples to the unborn brave, + To shew how virtue rescues from the grave. + The noblest act the patriot's fame can tell, + Is, that he bravely for his country fell. + + Thus sung the missionary bard, and paid + This mournful tribute to the mighty dead. + + + + +DR. CHARLES CALDWELL + + +Dr. Charles Caldwell, versatile and voluminous writer of prose, was +born at Caswell, North Carolina, May 14, 1772. He entered the medical +school of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1792; and he won the +city's gratitude in the following year by his medical services during +the yellow fever epidemic. In 1810 Dr. Caldwell became professor of +natural history in the University of Pennsylvania; and four years +later he succeeded Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) as editor of _The +Port-Folio_, a Philadelphia magazine of high character. In 1819 Dr. +Caldwell came to Lexington, Kentucky, to accept the chair of materia +medica in Transylvania University. Some months later he was sent to +Europe to purchase books and apparatus for his department. He returned +to Transylvania and continued there until 1837, when he removed to +Louisville and established a medical institute. Some years later he +and the trustees disagreed and he left. After leaving the institute, +Dr. Caldwell continued to reside at Louisville, in which city he died, +July 9, 1853. Dr. Caldwell was the first distinguished American +practitioner of phrenology, if he did not actually discover this +alleged science. From 1794 until his death, Dr. Caldwell was an +indefatigable literary worker. He was the author of more than two +hundred pamphlets, essays, and books. He translated Blumenbach's +_Elements of Physiology_ (1795); _Bachtiar Nameh_ (1813), a Persian +tale which he translated from the Arabic; edited Cullen's _Practice of +Physic_ (1816); _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon._ +[General] _Greene_ (Philadelphia, 1819); _Elements of Phrenology_ +(1824); _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace +Holley, LL.D., late President of Transylvania University_ (Boston, +1828); and _Thoughts and Experiments on Mesmerism_ (1842). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His _Autobiography_ (Philadelphia, 1855), published + posthumously, has been regarded by many as an unfortunate work, as + in it he made some rather severe pictures of his contemporaries. + That the work contains much excellent writing, and is often very + happy in the descriptions of the country through which the author + passed, no one has arisen to gainsay; _Autobiography of Samuel D. + Gross, M. D._ (Philadelphia, 1887, v. ii). + + +GENERAL GREENE'S EARLY LIFE + +[From _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene_ +(Philadelphia, 1819)] + +Nathaniel Greene, although descended from ancestors of elevated +standing, was not indebted to the condition of his family for any +part of the real lustre and reputation he possessed. As truly as is +the case with any individual, he was the founder of his own fortune, +and the author of his own fame. He was the second son of Nathaniel +Greene, an anchor-smith, of considerable note, who is believed to have +had the earliest establishment of the kind erected in America, and, by +persevering industry in the line of his profession, an extensive and +lucrative concern in iron-works, and some success in commercial +transactions, had acquired a sufficiency to render him comfortable, if +not wealthy. + +He was born in the year 1741, in the town of Warwick, and county of +Kent, in the province of Rhode Island. As far as is known, his childhood +passed without any peculiar or unequivocal indications of future +greatness. But this is a point of little moment. The size of the oak it +is destined to produce, can rarely be foretold from an examination of +the acorn. Nor is it often that any well defined marks of genius in the +child afford a premonition of the eminence of the man. + +Several of his contemporaries, however, who are still living, have a +perfect recollection that young Greene had neither the appearance nor +manners of a common boy; nor was he so considered by his elder, and +more discerning acquaintance. + + * * * * * + +Being intended by his father for the business which he had himself +pursued, young Greene received at school nothing but the elements of a +common English education. But, to himself, an acquisition so humble +and limited, was unsatisfactory and mortifying. Even now, his aim was +lofty; and he had a noble ambition, not only to embark in high +pursuits, but to qualify himself for a manly and honourable +acquittance in them. Seeming, at this early period of life, to realize +the important truth that, knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it +became, in a short time, his ruling passion. + +He accordingly procured, in part by his own economy, the necessary +books, and, at intervals of leisure, acquired, chiefly without the aid +of an instructor, a competent acquaintance with the Latin tongue. + +This attainment, respectable in itself, was only preliminary to higher +efforts. With such funds as he was able to raise, he purchased a +small, but well selected library, and spent his evenings, and all the +time he could redeem from business, in regular study. He read with a +view to general improvement; but geography, travels, and military +history--the latter, more especially--constituted his delight. Having, +also, a predilection for mathematics and mechanical philosophy, and +pursuing, in most cases, the bent of his inclination, as far as +prudence and opportunity would admit, his knowledge, in the more +practical departments of these sciences, became highly respectable. + + + + +ALLAN B. MAGRUDER + + +Allan Bowie Magruder, poet and historian, was born in Kentucky, about +1775. He received an academic education, studied law, and was admitted +to the Lexington bar in 1797. He contributed very fair verse to the +_Kentucky Gazette_ in 1802 and 1803, which attracted considerable +comment in the West. That his fame as a poet was wide-spread, is +indicated by a letter from an Ohio writer published in the _Lexington +Intelligencer_, January 28, 1834, in which Magruder's verse is highly +praised and further information concerning his career is sought. After +stabbing poor Tom Johnson's little pamphlet of rhymes to the heart, +Magruder is placed upon his pedestal as the first real Kentucky poet; +and that his work was superior to either Johnson's or George Beck's is +obvious, continues the caustic correspondent. The truth is, of course, +that the verses of neither of the three men merit mention for anything +save their priority; and the young Lexington lawyer's muse was not as +productive as Tom's or Beck's, no more than three or four of his poems +having come down to us. His first prose work was entitled _Reflections +on the late Cession of Louisiana to the United States_ (Lexington, +1803). This little volume of 150 pages was issued by Daniel Bradford, +for whose periodical, _The Medley_, Magruder wrote _The Character of +Thomas Jefferson_ (June; July, 1803). This essay attracted the attention +of the President, and he appointed Magruder commissioner of lands in +Louisiana, to which territory he shortly afterwards removed. He was +later a member of the State legislature; and from November 18, 1812, to +March 3, 1813, Magruder was United States Senator from his adopted +State. The next few years he devoted to collecting materials for a +history of the North American Indians; and he also made notes for many +years for a history of Kentucky, which he finally abandoned, and which +he turned over to his old friend, John Bradford, who made use of them in +his _Notes on Kentucky_. Allan B. Magruder died at Opelousas, Louisiana, +April 16, 1822, when but forty-seven years of age. He was a man of +culture and of high promise, but once in the politics of the country his +early literary triumphs were not repeated, and he appears to have never +done any writing worth while after his removal from Kentucky. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Lexington Intelligencer_ (Lexington, Kentucky, + January 28, 1834); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv). + + +CITIZEN GENET AND JEFFERSON + +[From _The Medley_ (Lexington, Ky., July, 1803)] + +When Citizen Genet, the ex-minister of the Robesperian fanaticism, +appeared in America, he attempted to impose his new philosophy of +light and liberty upon the government. He had nothing to boast of, on +the score of superior diplomatic skill. His communications to the +secretary of state, were evidently of the tampering kind. They were +impressed with all the marks of that enthusiastic insanity, which +regulated the councils of the faction; and which, were calculated to +mistake their object, by disgusting their intended victims. The mind +of Mr. Jefferson, discovered itself, in an early period of his +correspondence with the French minister. The communications of Genet +were decorated with all the flowers of eloquence, without the force +and conviction of rhetorical energy. Accustomed to diplomatic +calculation, and intimately combining cause with effect, Mr. Jefferson +apprehended the subject, with strength and precision; considered +it--developed it--viewed it on all sides--listened to every appeal, +and attended to every charge--and in every communication, burst forth +with a strength of refutation, that at once detected and embarrassed, +the disappointed minister of a wily and fanatic faction. + +It is, in most instances, useless to oppose enthusiasm with the +deliberate coolness of reason and argument. They are the antipodes of +each other; and of that imperious nature, which mutually solicit +triumph and disdain reconciliation. The tyranny of the Robesperian +principles, were calculated to inveigle within the vortex of European +politics, the American government and people. The coolness and +sagacity of the secretary of state, composed their defence and +protection. The appeal was mutually made to the government; and it is +a fortunate circumstance, that there existed this tribunal to +approbate the measures of the secretary, and to silence forever, the +declamatory oracle of an insidious faction. Checked and defeated on +all sides, his doctrines stripped of their visionary principles, and +himself betrayed into the labyrinth of diplomatic mystery, their +ex-divinity, shrank into the silence of contempt; declaring with his +last breath, that Mr. Jefferson was the only man in America, whose +talents he highly respected. + + + + +HENRY CLAY + + +Henry Clay, the most famous Kentuckian ever born, first saw the light +in the "Slashes," Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. When +twenty years of age, he settled in Lexington, Kentucky, as a lawyer; +and Lexington was his home henceforth. In 1803 Henry Clay was elected +to the State legislature; and before he was thirty years old he was +filling an unexpired term in the United States Senate. In 1811 he was +sent to the National House of Representatives from the old Lexington +district. He was immediately chosen Speaker of that body, a position +to which he was subsequently elected five times. This was the period +of his greatest speeches. His utterances upon American rights did much +to bring about the War of 1812. In 1814 Henry Clay went to Europe as a +peace commissioner, and the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, +1814. He had resigned the Speakership in order to go to Ghent, but on +his return in 1815, he found himself reelected; and he presided as +Speaker until 1820, declining two diplomatic posts and two cabinet +offices in order to continue in the chair. In 1820 Henry Clay +advocated the Missouri Compromise, and a short time afterwards he +retired from public life to devote his attention to his private +affairs. He was, however, in 1823, again elected to the lower House of +Congress, and was again chosen Speaker, serving as such until 1825. In +1824 he announced himself as a candidate for president, but he was +defeated by John Quincy Adams, who made him his Secretary of State. +Andrew Jackson was elected president, in 1828, and Mr. Clay--to give +him the name he was always known by, regardless of the many positions +he held--once more retired from American politics. In 1831 the people +elected him United States Senator from Kentucky, and in that body he +fought Jackson's policies so strenuously that the Whig party was born, +with Mr. Clay as its legitimate parent. The Whigs nominated him as +their first candidate for president, but he was overwhelmingly +defeated by his old-time enemy, Andrew Jackson. He was the author of +the Compromise tariff of 1832-1833, which did much toward winning him +the sobriquet of the "Great Compromiser." Mr. Clay was reelected to +the Senate, in 1837; and two years later his great debates with John +C. Calhoun took place. Late in this year of 1839, the Whig political +bosses set him aside and nominated William Henry Harrison for +president and he was elected. In 1842 Henry Clay was retired to +private life for the third time, but two years later he was again the +candidate of the Whigs for president, and he was defeated by a +comparatively unknown man, James K. Polk of Tennessee--the only +Speaker of the House who has ever been elected president of the United +States. The year of 1849 found Henry Clay once more in the Senate, but +he was now old and very feeble. The great Compromise of 1850 sapped +his rapidly waning strength, though it greatly added to his fame as a +statesman. On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay died at Washington City, in +the seventy-sixth year of his age. His body was brought back to the +land he loved so well, and to which he had brought world-wide fame, +and was buried at Lexington, where a grateful people have erected a +cloud-tipped monument to his memory. He is one of the American +immortals, though it is not at all difficult to quarrel with many of +his public acts. He carried the name and fame of Kentucky into the +remotest corners of the universe, and it would be indeed surprising if +it were not possible to find flaws in a record that was as long as +his. His connection with the Graves-Cilley duel in 1838 appears +unpardonable at this time, but perhaps the whole truth regarding this +infamous affair has not yet been brought out. Considering the patent +fact that few orators can stand the printed page, and that the methods +by which Clay's addresses were preserved were crude and +unsatisfactory, many of the speeches are very readable even unto this +day. They undoubtedly prove, however, that the man behind them, and +not the manner or matter of them, was the thing that made Henry Clay +the most lovable character in American history. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. There are many biographies of Clay, and numerous + collections of his speeches. Carl Schurz's _Henry Clay_ (Boston, + 1887, two vols.), is the best account of the statesman; _Henry + Clay_, by Thomas H. Clay (Philadelphia, 1910), is adequate for + Clay the man; and Daniel Mallory's _Life and Speeches of the Hon. + Henry Clay_ (New York, 1844), is the finest collection of his + speeches made hitherto. + + +REPLY TO JOHN RANDOLPH[4] + +[From _The Life and Speeches of the Hon. Henry Clay_, edited by Daniel +Mallory (New York, 1844, v. i., 4th edition)] + +Sir, I am growing old. I have had some little measure of experience in +public life, and the result of that experience has brought me to this +conclusion, that when business, of whatever nature, is to be transacted +in a deliberative assembly, or in private life, courtesy, forebearance, +and moderation, are best calculated to bring it to a successful +conclusion. Sir, my age admonishes me to abstain from involving myself +in personal difficulties; would to God that I could say, I am also +restrained by higher motives. I certainly never sought any collision +with the gentleman from Virginia. My situation at this time is peculiar, +if it be nothing else, and might, I should think, dissuade, at least, a +generous heart from any wish to draw me into circumstances of personal +altercation. I have experienced this magnanimity from some quarters of +the house. But I regret, that from others it appears to have no such +consideration. The gentleman from Virginia was pleased to say, that in +one point at least he coincided with me--in an humble estimate of my +grammatical and philological acquirements, I know my deficiencies. I was +born to no proud patrimonial estate; from my father I inherited only +infancy, ignorance, and indigence. I feel my defects; but, so far as my +situation in early life is concerned, I may, without presumption, say +they are more my misfortune than my fault. But, however I regret my want +of ability to furnish to the gentleman a better specimen of powers of +verbal criticism, I will venture to say, it is not greater than the +disappointment of this committee as to the strength of his argument. + + +ADDRESS TO LA FAYETTE + +[From the same] + +General, + +The house of representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its +own feelings, and by those of the whole American people, could not have +assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of presenting to you +cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the +United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure +you of the very high satisfaction which your presence affords on this +early theatre of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members +who compose this body shared with you in the war of our revolution, all +have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, a knowledge of +the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily +encountered, and the signal services, in America and in Europe, which +you performed for an infant, a distant, and an alien people; and all +feel and own the very great extent of the obligations under which you +have placed our country. But the relations in which you have ever stood +to the United States, interesting and important as they have been, do +not constitute the only motive of the respect and admiration which the +house of representatives entertain for you. Your consistency of +character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the +vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also commands its admiration. +During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amidst, as after the +dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the United States +have beheld you, true to your old principles, firm and erect, cheering +and animating with your well-known voice, the votaries of liberty, its +faithful and fearless champion, ready to shed the last drop of that +blood which here you so freely and nobly spilt, in the same holy cause. + +The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow +the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate +the intermediate changes which had taken place; to view the forest +felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the +highways constructed, the progress of the arts, advancement of learning, +and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the +United States is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You +are in the midst of posterity. Every where, you must have been struck +with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since +you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike +endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then +covered its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and this is in +the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection +and profound gratitude to your departed friend, the father of his +country, and to you, and to your illustrious associates in the field and +in the cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which surround us, and for +the very privilege of addressing you which I now exercise. This +sentiment, now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, +will be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through +the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to +the latest posterity.[5] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] This reply to Randolph was made in the House of Representatives, +in 1824, in the course of the debate between Clay and Randolph. +"During the session of 1823-4, attempts wore made to run at Mr. Clay, +on account of his peculiar situation in being named for the presidency +while Speaker of the House of Representatives, and for his zealous +support of the American system. In a debate on an improvement bill he +encountered Mr. Randolph of Virginia, who had endeavored to provoke +him to reply," and the bit of the debate reproduced here is the answer +the gentleman from Virginia received for his pains. + +[5] After the above address, La Fayette rose, and in a tone influenced +by powerful feeling, made an eloquent reply. In 1824 La Fayette +visited the United States, as "the guest of the Nation," and he was +gladly welcomed in many parts of the country. And "on the tenth of +December, 1824, he was introduced in the House of Representatives by a +committee appointed for that purpose. The general, being conducted to +the sofa placed for his reception, the Speaker (Mr. Clay), addressed +him" in the very happy words given above. + + + + +JOHN J. AUDUBON + + +John James Audubon, the celebrated ornithologist, was born at +Mandeville, Louisiana, May 5, 1780. He was educated in France under +private tutors, but his consuming love of Nature and especially of +bird-life, was too strong to keep him in a beaten path of study, so +most of his time was spent in the woods and fields. When seventeen +years old Audubon returned to the United States to settle upon his +father's estate, "Mill Grove," near Philadelphia. There he devoted his +entire time to hunting, fishing, drawing, and music. Some months later +he met and fell in love with his nearest neighbor, Lucy Bakewell, a +young English girl. "Too young and too useless to be married," as he +himself afterwards wrote, his about-to-be father-in-law, William +Bakewell, advised Audubon to become a New York business man. With his +friend, Ferdinand Rozier, whom he had met in France, and who was then +connected with a French firm in Philadelphia, he visited Kentucky, +late in 1806, "thought well of it, and liked it exceedingly." But his +great love of Nature was not to be denied, and his business suffered +accordingly. On April 8, 1808, Audubon was married to Miss Bakewell, +and the next morning left for Pittsburgh, where he and his bride, +accompanied by Rozier, floated down the Ohio river in a flatboat, +which was their bridal tour, with Louisville, Kentucky, as their +destination. Upon reaching Louisville Audubon and Rozier opened a +large store which prospered when Audubon attended to it; "but birds +were birds then as now, and my thoughts were ever and anon turning +toward them as the objects of my greatest delight." His first child, +Victor, was born at Louisville, in 1809. Rozier conducted the store, +and Audubon spent his days in "the darling forests." In 1810 Alexander +Wilson, the Scotch ornithologist and poet, called upon Audubon at his +store in Louisville hoping to obtain his subscription to his work +upon American birds, but Audubon showed him birds he had never seen +before, which seemingly angered the Scot as he afterwards wrote +slightingly of the Kentucky naturalist. Late in 1810 Audubon and +Rozier removed their stock of goods to Henderson, Kentucky, where +their trade was so poor that Rozier was left behind the counter, while +Audubon was compelled to fish and hunt for food. A short time after +their arrival in Henderson, the two partners decided to move to St. +Genevieve on the Mississippi river, but Audubon disliked the +community, sold out to Rozier, and returned to his home in Henderson. +His second son, John Woodhouse, was born at Henderson, in 1812. Two +daughters were also born at Henderson, the first of whom, Lucy, died +in infancy and was buried in her father's garden. His pecuniary +affairs were now greatly reduced, but he continued to draw birds and +quadrupeds. He disposed of Mill Grove and opened a small store in +Henderson, which prospered and put him on his feet again. Audubon was +doing so finely in business now that he purchased a small farm and was +adding to it from time to time. His brother-in-law, Thomas Bakewell, +arrived at Henderson about 1816, and finally persuaded Audubon to +erect a steam-mill on his property at a great expense. For a time this +mill did all the sawing for the country, but in the end it ruined +Audubon and his partners. He left Henderson in 1819, after having +resided in the town for nearly ten years, and set up as a portrait +painter in Louisville, where he was very successful. From Louisville +Audubon went to Cincinnati and from there to New Orleans. In October, +1823, he again settled at Louisville as a painter of "birds, +landscapes, portraits, and even signs." His wife was the only person +in the world who had any faith in his ultimate "arrival" as a famous +naturalist, and the outlook was indeed dark. Audubon quitted +Louisville in March, 1824, and two years later he went to England, +where the first public exhibition of his drawings was held. His first +and most famous work, _Birds of America_, was published at London from +1827 to 1838, issued in numbers, each containing five plates, without +text, the complete work consisting of four folio volumes. Audubon +returned to America in 1829, and he was with his sons at Louisville +for a short time, both of whom were engaged in business there. He went +to New Orleans to see his wife, and together they came to Louisville, +in 1830, to bid the "Kentucky lads," as he called them, goodbye, +before sailing for England. At "the fair Edinburgh," in the fall of +1830, Audubon began the _Ornithological Biographies_ (Edinburgh, +1831-39, 5 vols.), the text to the plates of the _Birds_. In 1840-44 +the work was republished in seven volumes, text and plates together, +as _Birds of America_. In 1831 Audubon and his wife returned to +America, and they were again in Louisville with the boys for some +time. In 1833 his famous trip to Labrador was taken, and the following +year found the family in England. The next ten years were passed in +wandering from country to country in search of birds, but, in 1842, +Audubon purchased "Minniesland," now Audubon Park, New York. With his +sons and the Rev. John Bachman he planned the _Quadrupeds of America_, +the last volume of which was issued after his death, which occurred at +"Minniesland" on January 27, 1851. His wife, who wrote his life, +survived him many years, dying at Shelbyville, Kentucky, June 19, +1874, but she is buried by his side on the banks of the Hudson. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John James Audubon_, edited by his Widow + (New York, 1869); _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R. + Audubon (New York, 1900); _John James Audubon_, by John Burroughs + (Boston, 1902). + + +INDIAN SUMMER ON THE OHIO IN 1810[6] + + [From _Audubon and His Journals_, edited by Maria R. Audubon (New + York, 1900, v. ii)] + +When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself were returning +from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found it expedient, the waters being +unusually low, to provide ourselves with a _skiff_, to enable us to +proceed to our abode at Henderson. I purchased a large, commodious, and +light boat of that denomination. We procured a mattress, and our friends +furnished us with ready prepared viands. We had two stout negro rowers, +and in this trim we left the village of Shippingport [now within the +corporate limits of Louisville], in expectation of reaching the place of +our destination in a very few days. + +It was in the month of October. The autumnal tints already decorated the +shores of that queen of rivers, the Ohio. Every tree was hung with long +and flowing festoons of different species of vines, many loaded with +clustered fruits of varied brilliancy, their rich bronzed carmine +mingling beautifully with the yellow foliage which now predominated over +the yet green leaves, reflecting more lively tints from the clear stream +than ever landscape painter portrayed, or poet imagined. The days were +yet warm. The sun had assumed the rich and glowing hue which at that +season produces the singular phenomenon called there the "Indian +Summer." The moon had rather passed the meridian of her grandeur. We +glided down the river, meeting no other ripple of the water than that +formed by the propulsion of our boat. Leisurely we moved along, gazing +all day on the grandeur and beauty of the wild scenery around us. + +Now and then a large catfish rose to the surface of the water, in +pursuit of a shoal of fry, which, starting simultaneously from the +liquid element like so many silver arrows, produced a shower of light, +while the pursuer with open jaws seized the stragglers, and, with a +splash of his tail, disappeared from our view. Other fishes we heard, +uttering beneath our bark a rumbling noise, the strange sound of which +we discovered to proceed from the white perch, for on casting our net +from the bow, we caught several of that species, when the noise ceased +for a time. + +Nature, in her varied arrangements, seems to have felt a partiality +towards this portion of our country. As the traveler ascends or +descends the Ohio, he cannot help remarking that alternately, nearly +the whole length of the river, the margin, on one side, is bounded by +lofty hills and a rolling surface, while on the other, extensive +plains of the richest alluvial land are seen as far as the eye can +command the view. Islands of varied size and form rise here and there +from the bosom of the water, and the winding course of the stream +frequently brings you to places where the idea of being on a river of +great length changes to that of floating on a lake of moderate extent. +Some of these islands are of considerable size and value; while +others, small and insignificant, seem as if intended for contrast, and +as serving to enhance the general interest of the scenery. These +little islands are frequently overflowed during great freshets or +floods, and receive at their heads prodigious heaps of drifted timber. +We foresaw with great concern the alterations that cultivation would +soon produce along those delightful banks. + +As night came, sinking in darkness the broader portions of the river, +our minds became affected by strong emotions, and wandered far beyond +the present moments. The tinkling of bells told us that the cattle +which bore them were gently roving from valley to valley in search of +food, or returning to their distant homes. The hooting of the Great +Owl, or the muffled noise of its wings, as it sailed smoothly over the +stream, were matters of interest to us; so was the sound of the +boatman's horn, as it came winding more and more softly from afar. +When daylight returned, many songsters burst forth with echoing notes, +more and more mellow to the listening ear. Here and there the lonely +cabin of a squatter struck the eye, giving note of commencing +civilization. The crossing of the stream by a Deer foretold how soon +the hills would be covered with snow. + +Many sluggish flatboats we overtook and passed; some laden with +produce from the different head-waters of the small rivers that pour +their tributary streams into the Ohio; others, of less dimensions, +crowded with emigrants from distant parts, in search of a new home. +Purer pleasures I never felt; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless +indeed you have felt the like, and in such company. + +The margins of the shores and of the river were, at this season amply +supplied with game. A Wild Turkey, a Grouse, or a Blue-winged Teal, +could be procured in a few moments; and we fared well, for, whenever +we pleased we landed, struck up a fire, and provided as we were with +the necessary utensils, procured a good repast. + +Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, when, one +evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream which runs into the +Ohio from the State of Indiana), a loud and strange noise was heard, +so like the yells of Indian warfare, that we pulled at our oars, and +made for the opposite side as fast and as quietly as possible. The +sounds increased, we imagined we heard cries of "murder;" and as we +knew that some depredations had lately been committed in the country +by dissatisfied parties of aborigines, we felt for a while extremely +uncomfortable. Ere long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we +plainly discovered that the singular uproar was produced by an +enthusiastic set of Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the +common way for the purpose of holding one of their annual +camp-meetings, under the shade of a beech forest. Without meeting with +any other interruption, we reached Henderson, distant from +Shippingport, by water, about two hundred miles. + +When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the grandeur and +beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself +the dense and lofty summits of the forests, that everywhere spread +along the hills and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by +the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe +navigation of that river has been, by the blood of many worthy +Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found +there, and that the vast herds of Elk, Deer, and Buffaloes which once +pastured on these hills, and in these valleys, making for themselves +great roads to the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I +reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in +a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms, +and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly +heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day, and +the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro, +over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing commerce to take +root and to prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population +of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest, and +transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses; when I remember +that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short +period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be +a fact, can scarcely believe its reality. + +Whether these changes are for the better or for the worse, I shall not +pretend to say; but in whatever way my conclusions may incline, I feel +with regret that there are on record no satisfactory accounts of the +state of that portion of the country, from the time when our people +first settled in it. This has not been because no one in America is +able to accomplish such an undertaking. Our Irvings and our Coopers +have proved themselves fully competent for the task. It has more +probably been because the changes have succeeded each other with such +rapidity as almost to rival the movements of their pens. However, it +is not too late yet; and I sincerely hope that either or both of them +will ere long furnish the generations to come with those delightful +descriptions which they are so well qualified to give, of the original +state of a country that has been rapidly forced to change her form and +attire under the influence of increasing population. Yes, I hope to +read, ere I close my earthly career, accounts from those delightful +writers of the progress of civilization in our Western Country. They +will speak of the Clarks, the Croghans, the Boones, and many other men +of great and daring enterprise. They will analyze, as it were, into +each component part the country as it once existed, and will render +the picture, as it ought to be, immortal. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] Copyright, 1897, by Charles Scribner's Sons. + + + + +HORACE HOLLEY + + +Horace Holley, old Transylvania University's celebrated president, was +born at Salisbury, Connecticut, February 13, 1781, the son of Luther +Holley, a wealthy merchant. He was fitted at Williams College for Yale, +from which institution he was graduated in 1803. Holley studied law in +New York for awhile, but soon relinquished it for theology, which he +returned to Yale to pursue. In 1805 he was appointed to his first +pastorate. Going to Boston in 1809, as pastor of the Hollis Street +Unitarian church, he at once made a great reputation for himself as an +eloquent pulpit orator. Holley was at Hollis Street for nine years, +during which time he was a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard +University, as well as a member of several civic boards. He was elected +president of Transylvania University, of Lexington, in 1817, and he +journeyed to Kentucky in the following spring, where he went carefully +over the ground and finally decided to accept the position. He entered +almost at once upon the most difficult task of converting a grammar +school into a great university. Success soon crowned his efforts, +however, and Transylvania took her place by the side of Harvard, Yale, +and Princeton, as one of the higher seats of learning in the United +States. In at least one year under the Holley regime, Transylvania had +the largest student body in this country. The institution was as well +known in New York or London, among scholars, as it was in the West. +Several of the professors were men of national reputation, and the +students came from all parts of the United States. Never before in the +South or West has a seat of learning had higher hopes for the future, or +greater success or reputation than had Transylvania under Horace Holley. +Then the Kentucky Presbyterians and others launched Dame Rumor, +freighted with falsehoods and misrepresentations galore. The president +was charged with every crime in the calendar: he was an atheist, an +agnostic, a blasphemer, a wine-bibber, and all that was evil. The whole +truth was this: he was a Unitarian, holding the Christ to be the +greatest personality in history, but denying him as the very Son of God. +This his prejudiced, ill-advised enemies were unable to understand. +Driven to desperation by the bitter crusade that was being waged against +him, Holley resigned, in March, 1827, after nine years of great success +as head of the University, which after his departure, fell away to +almost nothing. He went from Kentucky to Louisiana, where he endeavored +to re-organize the College of New Orleans, and in which work he wore +himself out. Late in the summer he and his wife took passage for New +York, but he contracted yellow-fever, and, on July 31, 1827, he died. +His body was consigned to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but his fame +is secure as an American educator of distinguished ability. The finest +bit of prose he ever wrote, perhaps, is contained in one of his Kentucky +letters to his wife in Boston, written while he was in Lexington looking +over the lay of the land, which, as subsequent events proved, he utterly +failed to anticipate in its most dangerous and damning aspect. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. + Horace Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828); + _More Colonial Homesteads_, by Marion Harland (New York, 1899); + _Lore of the Meadowland_, by J. W. Townsend (Lexington, Kentucky, + 1911). + + +MR. CLAY AND COLONEL MEADE + + [From _A Discourse on the Genius and Character of the Rev. Horace + Holley, LL. D._, by Charles Caldwell, M. D. (Boston, 1828)] + + Lexington, May 27th, 1818. + +I wrote a hasty letter to you on the night of my arrival. I shall now +he able to speak a little more in detail. + +The town and the vicinity are very handsome. The streets are broad, +straight, paved, clean, and have rows of trees on each side. The +houses are of brick almost universally, many of them in the midst of +fields, and have a very rural and charming appearance. The taste is +for low houses, generally two, sometimes even but one story high, like +English cottages. This taste gives an effect that eyes accustomed to +the high buildings of an Atlantic city, where there is but little +room, are not at first pleased with. But it is a taste adapted to the +circumstances, and to me is not unpleasant. + +I have taken lodgings at the principal hotel of the place, where I have +a drawing-room to receive calls, which were yesterday until dinner +almost innumerable.... In the afternoon I walked about town with Mr. +Clay, and called at a few charming houses. I visited also the Athenaeum, +an institution not yet furnished with many books, but well supplied with +newspapers, and the best periodicals. I find everything of this sort, +which is valuable, from Boston and the other Atlantic cities. + +This morning I breakfasted at Mr. Clay's, who lives a mile and a half +from town. He arrived here only three days before me. Ashland is a +very pleasant place, handsomer than I anticipated. The grounds are +beautiful, the lawns and walks extensive, the shrubbery luxuriant, and +the garden well supplied. The native forest of ash in the rear adds a +charming effect to the whole. After breakfast Mr. Clay rode in with +me, and we went with the trustees, by appointment, to the college, to +visit the professors and students. They were all collected in the +largest hall to receive us. I made a short address, which was received +in a kind manner. I was then conducted to the library, the apparatus, +and the recitation rooms. The library is small, and the apparatus +smaller. There is no regular division of students into classes as in +other colleges, and but few laws. Everything is to be done, and so +much the better, as nothing is to be reformed. Almost the whole is +proposed to be left to me to arrange. I am now making all necessary +inquiries, and a meeting of the trustees is to be called next week. + +After this visit, I went with a party of ladies and gentlemen, nine +miles into the country to the seat of Colonel [David] Meade [1744-1838] +where we dined and passed the day. This gentleman, who is near seventy, +is a Virginian of the old school. He has been a good deal in England, +in his youth, and brought home with him English notions of a country +seat, though he is a great republican in politics. He and his wife dress +in the costume of the olden time. He has the square coat and great +cuffs, the vest of the court, short breeches, and white stockings, at +all times. Mrs. Meade has the long waist, the white apron, the stays, +the ruffles about the elbows, and the cap of half a century ago. She is +very mild and ladylike, and though between sixty and seventy, plays upon +the piano-forte with the facility and cheerfulness of a young lady. Her +husband resembles Colonel Pickering in the face, and the shape of the +head. He is entirely a man of leisure, never having followed any +business, and never using his fortune but in adorning his place and +entertaining his friends and strangers. No word is ever sent to him that +company is coming. To do so offends him. But a dinner--he dines at the +hour of four--is always ready for visitors; and servants are always in +waiting. Twenty of us went out today, without warning, and were +entertained luxuriously on the viands of the country. Our drink +consisted of beer, toddy, and water. Wine, being imported and expensive, +he never gives; nor does he allow cigars to be smoked in his presence. +His house consists of a cluster of rustic cottages, in front of which +spreads a beautiful, sloping lawn, as smooth as velvet. From this +diverge, in various direction, and forming vistas terminated by +picturesque objects, groves and walks extending over some acres. Seats, +Chinese temples, verdant banks, and alcoves are interspersed at +convenient distances. The lake, over which presides a Grecian temple, +that you may imagine to be the residence of the water nymphs, has in it +a small island, which communicates with the shore by a white bridge of +one arch. The whole is surrounded by a low rustic fence of stone, +surmounted and almost hidden by honey-suckle and roses, now in full +flower, and which we gathered in abundance to adorn the ladies. +Everything is laid out for walking and pleasure. His farm he rents, and +does nothing for profit. The whole is in rustic taste. You enter from +the road, through a gate between rude and massive columns, a field +without pretension, wind a considerable distance through a noble park to +an inner gate, the capitals to whose pillars are unique, being formed of +the roots of trees, carved by nature. Then the rich scene of +cultivation, of verdure and flower-capped hedges, bursts upon you. There +is no establishment like this in our country. Instead of a description, +I might have given you its name, "_Chaumiere du Prairies_." + + + + +CONSTANTINE S. RAFINESQUE + + +Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, the learned, eccentric scientist of +Kentucky and the West, was born near Constantinople, Turkey, October +22, 1783. He was of French-German descent. His boyhood years were +spent in Italy and in traveling on the Continent. Rafinesque came to +America in 1802, and he remained in this country but three years, when +he returned to Italy; and there the subsequent ten years of his life +were passed. In 1809 he married, after a fashion, a Sicilian woman, +Josephine Vaccaro, who bore him two children. Rafinesque returned to +America in 1815, and a short time after his arrival, he met his former +friend, John D. Clifford, of Philadelphia and Lexington--twin-towns in +those days--"the only man he ever loved," who persuaded him to come +out to Kentucky. At Henderson, Kentucky, Rafinesque met the great +Audubon, who took him under his roof, and who told him many amusing +tales of the fishes of the Ohio--which the little scientist believed, +as coming from a famous man--and which caused him no end of trouble +and work in after years. Audubon ridiculed him to his face, which the +simple-minded man could not understand; and in his _Journals_ the +ornithologist has much fun at his guest's expense. That he treated him +very badly, no one can deny. Through Clifford's influence, probably, +Rafinesque was appointed, in 1819, to the chair of natural science and +modern languages in Transylvania University. This was during the +presidency of Horace Holley, when the old University was at the +high-tide of its history, but the diminutive scientist, though +heralded as "the most learned man in America," was not received as +such in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky an hundred years ago. From +the president down to the children of the little city he was looked +upon as an impossible creature. Seven of the best years of his life +were spent in the service of the University and of the town. His +boldest dream for the town was a Botanical Garden, modeled upon the +gardens of France, and though he did actually make a splendid start +toward this ideal, in the end all his plans came to nothing. In June, +1825, Rafinesque left Lexington, never to return. He went to +Philadelphia, where the remaining fifteen years of his life were +spent. Death discovered the little fellow among his books, plants, and +poverty, September 18, 1840, in a miserable, rat-ridden garret on Race +street, Philadelphia. Rafinesque's publications reach the surprising +number of 447, consisting of books, pamphlets, magazine articles, +translations, and reprints. His most important works are _Ichthyologia +Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio +and its Tributary Streams_ (Lexington, 1820), a reprint of which his +biographer, Dr. Call, has published (Cleveland, 1899); and his +_Ancient Annals of Kentucky_, which Humphrey Marshall printed as an +introduction to his _History of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, 1824). The +oversheets of this were made into a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages. The +little work considers the antiquities of the State, and is the +starting point for all latter-day writers upon "the prehistoric men of +Kentucky." Imagination and fact run riotously together, yet the work +has been correctly characterized as "the most remarkable history of +Kentucky that was ever written, or ever will be." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _A Kentucky Cardinal_, by James Lane Allen (New + York, 1894); _Life and Writings of Rafinesque_, by Richard E. + Call (Louisville, Kentucky, 1895); _Rafinesque: A Sketch of his + Life_, by T. J. Fitzpatrick (Des Moines, Iowa, 1911). + + +GEOLOGICAL ANNALS OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF NATURE IN KENTUCKY + + [From _Ancient Annals of Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1824)] + +1. Every complete history of a country ought to include an account of +the physical changes and revolutions, which it may have undergone. + +2. The documents for such geological survey, are to be found +everywhere in the bowels of the earth, its rocks and strata, with the +remains of organized bodies imbedded therein, which are now considered +as the medals of nature. + +3. The soil of Kentucky shows, like many other countries, that it has +once been the bed of the sea. In James's Map, the primitive ocean is +supposed to have covered North America, by having a former level of +6000 feet above the actual level. Since the highest lands in Kentucky +do not exceed 1800 feet above the level of the actual ocean, they were +once covered with at least 4200 feet of water. + +4. The study of the soil of Kentucky, proves evidently the successive +and gradual retreat of the salt waters, without evincing any proofs of +any very violent or sudden disruptions or emersions of land, nor +eruptions of the ocean, except some casual accidents, easily ascribed +to earthquakes, salses and submarine volcanoes. + +5. There are no remains of land or burning volcanoes in Kentucky, nor +of any considerable fresh water lake. All the strata are nearly +horizontal, with valleys excavated by the tides and streams during the +soft state of the strata. + +6. After these preliminary observations, I shall detail the successive +evolution of this soil and its productions, under six distinct periods +of time, which may be compared to the six epochs or days of creation, +and supposed to have lasted an indefinite number of ages. + + + + +MANN BUTLER + + +Mann Butler, the first Kentucky historian who worked with +comparatively modern methods, eliminating personal prejudices and +imagination, was born at Baltimore, July, 1784. At the age of three +years he was taken to the home of his grandfather in Chelsea, England. +Mann Butler returned to the United States, in 1798, and entered St. +Mary's College, Georgetown, D. C., from which institution he was +afterwards graduated in the arts, medicine, and law. His tastes were +decidedly literary, and he preferred law to medicine as being, +perhaps, more in line with literature. He emigrated to Kentucky, +locating at Lexington, in 1806, for the practice of law. He later +abandoned law for pedagogy, opening an academy at Versailles, +Kentucky. Some years later he taught in Maysville and Frankfort, and +was then called to a professorship in Transylvania University, +Lexington, where he remained for several years. In 1831 Butler removed +to Louisville, where he was engaged in teaching for fifteen years. His +_History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1834; Cincinnati, 1836) was, after +Filson's florid sentences, Rafinesque's imagination, and Marshall's +prejudices and castigations, most welcome and timely. He was +microscopic in finding facts, fair, having no enemies to punish, an +excellent chronicler, in short, and doing a work that was much needed. +The Kentucky legislature took a keen interest in his history, +rendering him great assistance. Butler's _Appeal from the +Misrepresentations of James Hall, Respecting the History of Kentucky +and the West_ (Frankfort, 1837), was a just criticism of the +Cincinnati writer's _Sketches of History in the West_ (Philadelphia, +1835), a work in which fact and fiction are well-nigh inseparable. +Mann Butler spent the last seven years of his life in St. Louis, +teaching and in preparing a history of the Ohio valley, which he left +in manuscript, but which, together with his library, was afterwards +destroyed by Federal soldiers during the Civil War. He was killed in +Missouri, in 1852, while a passenger on a Pacific train which was +wrecked by the falling of a bridge spanning the Gasconade river. Mann +Butler had many of the qualities required in a great historian, and +the work he did has lived well and will live longer. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New York, + 1887, v. i). + + +PIONEER VISITORS + + [From _A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_ (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1834)] + +During this same year [1769], a party of about forty stout hunters, +"from New River, Holstein and Clinch" united in a hunting expedition +west of the Cumberland Mountains. + +Nine of this party, led on by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky; and, +from the time they were absent from home, they "obtained the name of +the _Long Hunters_." This expedition reached "the country south of the +Kentucky river," and became acquainted with Green river, and the lower +part of the Cumberland. + +In addition to these parties, so naturally stimulated by the ardent +curiosity incident to early and comparatively, idle society, the +claimants of military bounty lands which had been obtained from the +British crown, for services against the French, furnished a new and keen +band of western explorers. Their land warrants were surveyed on the +Kenhawa and the Ohio; though most positively against the very letter of +the royal proclamation of '63. But at this distance from the royal +court, it was nothing new in the history of government that edicts +emanating, even from the king in council, should be but imperfectly +regarded. However, this may be, land warrants were actually surveyed on +the Kenhawa as early as 1772, and in 1773, several surveyors were +deputied to lay out bounty lands on the Ohio river. + +Amongst others Thomas Bullitt, uncle to the late Alexander Scott +Bullitt, first lieutenant governor of Kentucky; and Hancock Taylor, +engaged in this adventurous work. These gentlemen with their company +were overtaken on the 28th of May, 1773, by the McAfees, whose exertions +will hereafter occupy a conspicuous station in this narrative. + +On the 29th, the party in one boat and four canoes, reached the Ohio +river, and elected Bullitt their captain. + +There is a romantic incident connected with this gentleman's descent of +the Ohio, evincing singular intrepidity and presence of mind; it is +taken from his journal, as Mr. [Humphrey] Marshall says, and the author +has found it substantially confirmed by the McAfee papers. While on his +voyage, he left his boat and went alone through the woods to the Indian +town of Old Chillicothe, on the Scioto. He arrived in the midst of the +town undiscovered by the Indians, until he was waving his white flag as +a token of peace. He was immediately asked what news? Was he from the +Long Knife? And why, if he was a peace-messenger, he had not sent a +runner? Bullitt, undauntedly replied, that he had no bad news; was from +the Long Knife, and as the red men and the whites were at peace, he had +come among his brothers to have friendly talk with them, about living on +the other side of the Ohio; that he had no runner swifter than himself; +and, that he was in haste and could not wait the return of a runner. +"Would you," said he, "if you were very hungry, and had killed a deer, +send your squaw to town to tell the news, and wait her return before you +eat?" This simple address to their own feelings, soon put the Indians in +good humor, and at his desire a council was assembled to hear his talk +the next day. Captain Bullitt then made strong assurances of friendship +on the part of the whites and acknowledged that these "Shawanees and +Delawares, our nearest neighbors," "did not get any of the money or +blankets given for the land, which I and my people are going to settle. +But it is agreed by the great men, who own the land, that they will make +a present to both the Delawares and the Shawanees, the next year; and +the year following, that shall be as good." On the ensuing day, +agreeably to the very deliberate manner of the Indians in council, +Captain Bullitt was informed, that "he seemed kind and friendly, and +that it pleased them well." That as "to settling the country on the +other side of the Ohio with your people, we are particularly pleased +that they are not to _disturb_ us in our hunting. For we must hunt, to +kill meat for our women and children, and to get something to buy our +powder and lead with, and to get us blankets and clothing." In these +talks, there seems a strange want of the usual sagacity of the Indians +as to the consequences of white men settling on their hunting grounds; +so contrary to their melancholy experience for a century and a half +previous; yet, the narrative is unimpeachable. On the part of Bullitt, +too, the admission of _no compensation_ to the Delawares and Shawanees, +appears to be irreconcilable with the treaty at Fort Stanwix with the +master tribes of the confederacy, the Six Nations. However, this may be, +the parties separated in perfect harmony, and Captain Bullitt proceeded +to the Falls. Here he pitched his camp above the mouth of Bear-grass +creek, retiring of a night to the upper point of the shoal above _Corn +Island_, opposite to the present city of Louisville. It was this +gentleman, who, according to the testimony of Jacob Sodowsky, a +respectable farmer, late of Jessamine county, in this State, first laid +off the town of Louisville, in August, 1773. He likewise surveyed +Bullitt's Lick in the adjoining county, of the same name. + + + + +ZACHARY TAYLOR + + +Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, was a Kentuckian +save for his accidental birth near Orange, Virginia, September 24, 1784. +His father, Richard Taylor, had been planning for many years to remove +to Kentucky, but his vacillation gave Virginia another president. When +but nine months old Zachary Taylor was brought to Kentucky, the family +settling near Louisville. He "grew up to manhood with the yell of the +savage and the crack of the rifle almost constantly ringing in his +ears." The first twenty-four years of his life were passed wholly in +Kentucky amid all the dangers of the Western wilderness. He was +fighting Indians almost before he could hold a rifle at arm's length, +and in such an environment his education was, of course, very limited. +Taylor entered the army, in 1808, serving in the War of 1812, in Black +Hawk's war of 1832, and against the Seminole Indians (1836-1837). In +1837 he was brevetted brigadier-general. In 1838 General Taylor was +placed in command of the military stations in Florida; and in 1845 he +took command of the army on the Texas border. The next five years of +General Taylor's life is the history of the Mexican War. At Palo Alto, +Monterey, and at Buena Vista, on February 22-23, 1847, where he crushed +Santa Anna, he was the absolute man of the hour, the hero of the +country. On the strength of his military renown, General Taylor was +elected as the Whig candidate for president of the United States, in +1848, defeating General Lewis Cass of Michigan, and former president, +Martin Van Buren, of New York. He was inaugurated in March, 1849, but he +died at the White House, Washington, July 9, 1850. The country was torn +asunder with many important questions during Taylor's administration, +which, though brief, was a stormy one. His remains were interred at his +old home near Louisville--the only president ever buried in this +State--and a ruined monument marks the grave at this time. In 1908 a +volume of his _Letters from the Battlefields of the Mexican War_ +appeared. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Some Notable Families of America_, by Annah + Robinson Watson; _The War with Mexico_, by H. O. Ladd (New York, + 1835); _General Taylor_, by O. O. Howard (New York, 1892). + + +A LETTER TO HENRY CLAY + + [From _The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay_, edited by Calvin + Colton (New York, 1855)] + + Baton Rouge, La., December 28, 1847. + +My dear Sir,--Your kind and acceptable letter of the 13th instant, +congratulating me on my safe return to the United States, and for the +complimentary and flattering terms you have been pleased to notice my +services, I beg leave to tender you my sincere thanks. + +The warm and hearty reception I have met with from so many of my +fellow-citizens, where I have mingled among them since my return, in +addition to their manifestations of their high appreciation and +approval of my conduct while in Mexico, has been truly gratifying, and +has ten-fold more than compensated me for the dangers and toils +encountered in the public service, as well as for the privations in +being so long separated from my family and friends; yet there are +circumstances connected with my operations in that country which I can +never forget, and which I must always think of with feelings of the +deepest sorrow and regret. + +I left Mexico after it was determined the column under my orders was +to act on the defensive, and after the capital of the enemy had fallen +into our hands, and their army dispersed, on a short leave of absence, +to visit my family, and to attend to some important private affairs, +which could not well be arranged without my being present, and which +had been too long neglected. After reaching New Orleans, I informed +the Secretary of War that should my presence in Mexico be deemed +necessary at any time, I was ready to return, and that a communication +on that or any other subject connected with my public duties would +reach me if addressed to this place. I therefore feel bound to remain +here, or in the vicinity, until the proper authorities at Washington +determine what disposition is to be made of or with me. Under this +state of things I do not expect to have it in my power to visit +Kentucky, although it would afford me much real pleasure to mix once +more with my numerous relatives and friends in that patriotic State, +to whom I am devotedly attached; as well as again to visit, if not the +place of my nativity, where I was reared from infancy to early +manhood. And let me assure you I duly appreciate your kind invitation +to visit you at your own hospitable home, and should anything occur +which will enable me to avail myself of it, I will embrace the +opportunity with much real pleasure. + +I regret to say, I found my family, or rather Mrs. Taylor, on my +return, in feeble health, as well as my affairs in any other than a +prosperous condition; the latter was, however, to be expected, and I +must devote what time I can spare, or can be spared from my public +duties, in putting them in order as far as I can do so. + +Should circumstances so turn out as will induce you to visit Washington +the present winter, I trust you will take every precaution to protect +yourself while traveling from the effects of the severe cold weather you +must necessarily encounter in crossing the mountains, particularly so +after having passed several of the last winters in the South. + +The letter which you did me the honor to address to me, referred to, +reached me on the eve of my leaving Monterey to return to the United +States, and was at once replied to, which reply I flatter myself +reached you shortly after writing your last communication; in which I +stated, although I had received some letters from individuals in +Kentucky, calculated, or perhaps intended, to produce unkind feelings +on my part toward you, even admitting such was the case, their object +has not been accomplished in the slightest degree, and I hope it will +never be the case. + +Please present me mostly kindly to your excellent lady, and wishing +you and yours continued health and prosperity, I remain, with respect +and esteem, etc. + + + + +DANIEL DRAKE + + +Daniel Drake, "the Franklin of the West," was born at Plainfield, New +Jersey, October 20, 1785. When he was but three years old, his family +removed to Mayslick, Mason county, Kentucky, where they dwelt in a log +cabin for some time. When he was sixteen years of age, Drake went to +Cincinnati to study medicine, the city's first medical student. He +later attended lectures at the medical school of the University of +Pennsylvania. On his return to Kentucky, Dr. Drake practiced his +profession near his home at Mayslick, Kentucky, but he shortly +afterwards went to Cincinnati, where he became a distinguished +physician and author. In 1816 he was appointed professor of materia +medica and botany in the medical school of Transylvania University, +and he held this chair for one year. He returned to Transylvania, in +1823, and this time he remained for four years. In 1835 Dr. Drake +organized the medical department of Cincinnati College. Four years +later he went to Louisville to accept the chair of clinical medicine +and pathological anatomy in the University of Louisville, which he +occupied for ten years. He returned to Cincinnati two years before his +death, which occurred there, November 6, 1852. Dr. Drake's +publications include _Topography, Climate, and Diseases of Cincinnati_ +(1810); _Picture of Cincinnati_ (Cincinnati, 1815); _Practical Essays +on Medical Education_ (1832); _Systematic Treatise on the Principal +Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America_ (Philadelphia, 1850; +1852), a work which was characterized by Judge James Hall of +Cincinnati as "the most important and valuable work ever written in +the United States. The subject is large. The work could not be +compiled. The subject was new, and the materials were to be collected +from original sources, from observation, personal inspection, oral +evidence, etc. It occupied many years; and was, probably, in +contemplation during the whole or most part of Dr. Drake's long +professional life." To-day Dr. Drake's most popular work is _Pioneer +Life in Kentucky_, a series of reminiscential letters addressed to his +children, concerning early times in Kentucky. It was issued by Robert +Clarke, the Cincinnati publisher in his well-known Ohio Valley +Historical Series. This is a charming volume and it has been much +quoted and praised by Western writers. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. ii); _Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio + Valley_, by W. H. Venable (Cincinnati, 1891); Allibone's + _Dictionary of Authors_ (Philadelphia, 1897). + + +MAYSLICK, KENTUCKY, IN 1800 + + [From _Pioneer Life in Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1870)] + +Mayslick, although scarcely a village, was at once an emporium and +capital for a tract of country six or eight miles in diameter, and +embracing several hundred families, of which those in father's +neighborhood were tolerably fair specimens. Uncle Abraham Drake kept a +store, and Shotwell and Morris kept taverns; besides them there were a +few poor mechanics. Uncle Cornelius Drake was a farmer merely, and +lived a little out of the center of the station; the great men of +which were the three I have just named. With this limited population, +it seems, even down to this time, wonderful to me that such gatherings +and such scenes should have been transacted there. They commenced +within five years after its settlement, and increasing with the +progress of surrounding population, continued in full vigor long after +I left home for Cincinnati. It was the place for holding regimental +militia musters, when all the boys and old men of the surrounding +country, not less than those who stood enrolled, would assemble; and +before dispersing at night, the training was quite eclipsed by a +heterogeneous drama of foot racing, pony racing, wrestling, fighting, +drunkenness and general uproar. It was also a place for political +meetings and stump conflict by opposing candidates, and after +intellectual performances there generally followed an epilogue of +oaths, yells, loud blows, and gnashing of teeth. Singing-schools were +likewise held at the same place in a room of Deacon Morris's tavern. I +was never a scholar, which I regret, for it has always been a grief +with me that I did not learn music in early life. I occasionally +attended. As in all country singing-schools, sacred music only was +taught, but in general there was not much display of sanctity. I have +a distinct remembrance of one teacher only. He was a Yankee, without a +family, between forty and fifty years of age, and wore a matted mass +of thick hair over the place where men's ears are usually found. Thus +protected, his were never seen, and after the opinion spread abroad +that by some misfortune they had been cut off, he "cut and run." + +The infant capital was, still further, the local seat of justice; and +Saturday was for many years, at all times I might say, the regular term +time. Instead of trying cases at home, two or three justices of the +peace would come to the Lick on that day, and hold their separate +courts. This, of course, brought thither all the litigants of the +neighborhood with their friends and witnesses; all who wished to +purchase at the store would postpone their visit to the same day; all +who had to replenish their jugs of whiskey did the same thing; all who +had business with others expected to meet them there, as our city +merchants, at noon, expect to meet each other on 'change; finally, all +who thirsted after drink, fun, frolic, or fighting, of course, were +present. Thus Saturday was a day of largely suspended field labor, but +devoted to public business, social pleasure, dissipation, and beastly +drunkenness. You might suppose that the presence of civil magistrates +would have repressed some of these vices, but it was not so. Each day +provided a bill of fare for the next. A new trade in horses, another +horse race, a cock-fight, or a dog-fight, a wrestling match, or a +pitched battle between two bullies, who in fierce encounter would lie on +the ground scratching, pulling hair, choking, gouging out each other's +eyes, and biting off each other's noses, in the manner of bull-dogs, +while a Roman circle of interested lookers-on would encourage the +respective gladiators with shouts which a passing demon might have +mistaken for those of hell. In the afternoon, the men and boys of +business and sobriety would depart, and at nightfall the dissipated +would follow them, often two on a horse, reeling and yelling as I saw +drunken Indians do in the neighborhood of Fort Leavenworth, in the +summer of 1844. But many would be too much intoxicated to mount their +horses, and must therefore remain till Sunday morning. + + + + +MARY A. HOLLEY + + +Mrs. Mary Austin Holley, the historian of Texas, was born at New +Haven, Connecticut, in 1786. On January 1, 1805, she was married to +the Rev. Horace Holley, who, in the fall of that year, became pastor +of a church at Greenfield Hill, Connecticut. Mrs. Holley, of course, +was in Boston with her husband from 1809 to 1818; and she accompanied +him to Lexington, Kentucky, when he accepted the presidency of +Transylvania University. Mrs. Holley was one of the few persons whom +the eccentric scientist, Rafinesque, set down as having been very kind +to him while he was connected with the University. She lived in +Lexington until the spring of 1827, when she went with her husband to +New Orleans. She wrote a poem, _On Leaving Kentucky_, the first stanza +of which is as follows: + + Farewell to the land in which broad rivers flow, + And vast prairies bloom as in Eden's young day! + Farewell to the land in which lofty trees grow, + And the vine and the mistletoe's empire display. + +She later embarked with her husband for New York, and it was her pen +that so vividly described his death on shipboard. After Dr. Holley's +death his widow returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and wrote the memoir +for Dr. Charles Caldwell's _Discourse on the Genius and Character of the +Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D._ (Boston, 1828). Mrs. Holley left Kentucky in +1831 and emigrated to Texas under the protection of her celebrated +kinsman, General Stephen Fuller Austin, a Transylvania University man, +and the founder of Texas. Her _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836), was +one of the first histories of that country ever published. Mrs. Holley +was a widely read woman, theology being her favorite study, and, like +her husband, she was a Unitarian. In person she was said to be a very +charming woman. Mrs. Holley spent the last several years of her life at +New Orleans, in which city she died on August 2, 1846. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Transylvanian_ (Lexington, January, 1829); + Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +TEXAS WOMEN + + [From _Texas_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1836)] + +Living in a wild country under circumstances requiring constant +exertion, forms the character to great and daring enterprise. Women thus +situated are known to perform exploits, which the effeminate men of +populous cities might tremble at. Hence there are more Dianas and +_Esther Stanhopes_ than one in Texas. It is not uncommon for ladies to +mount their mustangs and hunt with their husbands, and with them to camp +out for days on their excursions to the sea shore for fish and oysters. +All visiting is done on horseback, and they will go fifty miles to a +ball with their silk dresses, made perhaps in Philadelphia or New +Orleans, in their saddle-bags. Hardy, vigorous constitutions, free +spirits, and spontaneous gaiety are thus induced, and continued a rich +legacy to their children, who, it is to be hoped, will sufficiently +value the blessing not to squander it away, in their eager search for +the luxuries and refinements of polite life. Women have capacity for +greatness, but they require occasions to bring it out. They require, +perhaps, stronger motives than men--they have stronger barriers to break +through of indolence and habit--but, when roused, they are quick to +discern and unshrinking to act. _Lot was unfortunate in his wife._ Many +a wife in Texas has proved herself the better half, and many a widow's +heart has prompted her to noble daring. + +Mrs. ---- left her home in Kentucky with her six sons, and _no other +jewels_. There was good land and room in Texas. Hither she came with +the first settlers, at a time when the Indians were often troublesome +by coming in large companies and encamping near an isolated farm, +demanding of its helpless proprietors, not then too well provided for, +whatever of provisions or other things struck their fancies. One of +these _foraging_ parties, not over nice in their demands, stationed +themselves in rather too near proximity to the dwelling of this +veteran lady. They were so well satisfied with their position, and +scoured the place so completely, that she ventured to remonstrate, +gently at first, then more vehemently. All would not do: the +_pic-nics_ would not budge an inch; and moreover threatened life if +she did not forbear from further expressions of impatience. The good +woman was _armed_. She buckled on her _breastplate_ of _courage_, if +not of _righteousness_, and with her children and women servants, all +her household around her, sent for the chief, and very boldly +expostulating with him, _commanded_ him to depart on the instant at +the peril of his tribe; or by a signal she would call in her whole +_people_, numerous and formidable, and exterminate his race. She was +no more troubled with the Indians. She lives comfortably with her +thriving family and thriving fortune, and with great credit to +herself, on the road between Brazoria and San Felipe, in the same +house now famed for its hospitality and comfort. It is the usual +stopping place for travellers on that route, who are not a little +entertained with the border stories and characteristic jests there +related, by casual companies meeting for the night and sharing the +same apartment. It was thus that the above incident, much more +exemplified, was drawn from the hostess herself. A volume of +_reminiscences_ thus collected, racy with the marvellous, would not be +_unapt_ to modern taste, and the modern science of book-making. + + + + +JOHN J. CRITTENDEN + + +John Jordan Crittenden, a Kentucky statesman and orator of national +reputation, was born near Versailles, Kentucky, September 10, 1787. He +was graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, +Virginia, studied law, and was admitted to the Frankfort bar. +Crittenden served in the War of 1812; and in 1816 he was a member of +the Kentucky legislature. In the following year he was elected United +States Senator from Kentucky, his party, the Whig, then being in power +in this State. From 1827 to 1829 Crittenden was United States +Attorney for the district of Kentucky; and in 1835 he was again sent +to the Senate, with Henry Clay as his colleague. President William +Henry Harrison made him his Attorney-General, in 1841, and he resigned +his seat in the Senate. When John Tyler succeeded to the presidency +six months later, on the death of Harrison, Crittenden withdrew from +the cabinet portfolio, and he was almost immediately returned to the +Senate by the legislature of Kentucky. He served until 1848, when he +was elected Governor of Kentucky. Governor Crittenden was the most +distinguished, if not indeed the ablest, chief executive this +Commonwealth has ever known. He resigned the governorship, in 1850, in +order to become President Fillmore's Attorney-General, which position +he held for three years. In 1855 Crittenden was for the fourth time +elected United States Senator from Kentucky. As the war between the +States approached, Senator Crittenden, though a Southerner, chose the +cause of the Union, lining up with the administration heart and soul. +In the beginning he did his utmost to prevent the war, and, failing, +he exerted his entire energies to aid Abraham Lincoln and the North to +prosecute it. In 1860 the Senator urged his famous Compromise, +providing for the reestablishment of the old slave-line of 36' 30 N., +and for the enforcement of the fugitive-slave laws, but it was never +moulded into law. The last two years of his life were spent as a +member of the lower House of Congress, where he continued his fight +for the supremacy of the Constitution. Senator Crittenden died near +Frankfort, Kentucky, July 26, 1863, thus surviving his greatest friend +and fellow patriot, Henry Clay, more than eleven years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of John J. Crittenden_, by Mrs. Chapman + Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, 1882). + + +EULOGY UPON ASSOCIATE JUSTICE McKINLEY + + [From _The Life of John J. Crittenden_, edited by his daughter, + Mrs. Chapman Coleman (Philadelphia, 1871)] + +At the opening of the court this morning, Mr. Crittenden, the +Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the court as follows: + +"Since its adjournment yesterday, the members of the bar and officers +of the court held a meeting and adopted resolutions expressive of +their high sense of the public and private worth of the Hon. John +McKinley, one of the justices of this court, and their deep regret at +his death. By the same meeting I was requested to present those +resolutions to the court, and to ask that they might be entered on its +records, and I now rise to perform that honored task. + +"Besides the private grief which naturally attends it, the death of a +member of this court, which is the head of the great, essential, and +vital department of the government, must always be an event of public +interest and importance. + +"I had the good fortune to be acquainted with Judge McKinley from my +earliest manhood. In the relations of private life he was frank, +hospitable, affectionate. In his manners he was simple and unaffected, +and his character was uniformly marked with manliness, integrity, and +honor. Elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court made no change in +him. His honors were borne meekly, without ostentation or presumption. + +"He was a candid, impartial, and righteous judge. Shrinking from no +responsibility, he was fearless in the performance of his duty, seeking +only to do right, and fearing nothing but to do wrong. Death has now set +her seal to his character, making it unchangeable forever; and I think +it may be truly inscribed on his monument that as a private gentleman +and as a public magistrate he was without fear and without reproach. + +"This occasion cannot but remind us of other afflicting losses which +have recently befallen us. The present, indeed, has been a sad year for +the profession of the law. In a few short months it has been bereaved of +its brightest and greatest ornaments. Clay, Webster, and Sergeant have +gone to their immortal rest in quick succession. We had scarcely +returned from the grave of one of them till we were summoned to the +funeral of another. Like bright stars they have sunk below the horizon, +and have left the land in widespread gloom. This hall that knew them so +well shall know them no more. Their wisdom has no utterance now, and the +voice of their eloquence shall be heard here no more forever. + +"This hall itself seems as though it was sensible of its loss, and +even these marble pillars seem to sympathize as they stand around us +like so many majestic mourners. + +"But we will have consolation in the remembrance of these illustrious +men. Their _names_ will remain to us and be like a light kindled in the +sky to shine upon us and to guide our course. We may hope, too, that the +memory of them and their great examples will create a virtuous emulation +which may raise up men worthy to be their successors in the service of +their country, its constitution, and its laws. + +"For this digression, and these allusions to Clay, Webster, and +Sergeant, I hope the occasion may be considered as a sufficient excuse, +and I will not trespass by another word, except only to move that these +resolutions in relation to Judge McKinley, when they shall have been +read by the clerk, may be entered on the records of this court." + + + + +JOHN M. HARNEY + + +John Milton Harney, the first of the Kentucky poets to win and retain +a wide reputation, a man with the divine afflatus, whose whole body of +song is slender but of real worth, was born near Georgetown, Delaware, +March 9, 1789. He was the second son of Major Thomas Harney, of +Revolutionary War fame, and the elder brother of General William S. +Harney, a hero of Cerro Gordo. When John Milton Harney was but two +years old, his family emigrated to Tennessee, and later removed to +Louisiana. He studied medicine and settled at Bardstown, Kentucky. In +1814 Dr. Harney married a daughter of Judge John Rowan, the early +Kentucky statesman; and her death four years later was such a shock +to her husband that he was compelled to abandon his practice, and seek +solace in travel and new scenes. Dr. Harney spent some time in +England, and on his return to America he settled at Savannah, Georgia. +He over-exerted himself at a disastrous fire in Savannah, which +resulted in a violent fever and ended in breaking his health. He +returned to Bardstown, Kentucky, became a convert to Roman +Catholicism, and in that place he died, January 15, 1825, when but +thirty-five years of age. At the age of twenty-three years, Dr. Harney +wrote _Crystalina, a Fairy Tale_, in six cantos, but his extreme +sensitiveness caused him to hold it in manuscript for four years, or +until 1816, when it was issued anonymously at New York. This work was +highly praised by Rufus W. Griswold, John Neal, and other well-known +critics, but the unfavorable criticism far outweighed the favorable +criticism, so the author held, and he published nothing more in book +form; and he did all in his power to suppress the edition of +_Crystalina_. William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic of a later time +in the West, went over Dr. Harney's manuscripts and from them rescued +his masterpiece, the exquisite _Echo and the Lover_. This Gallagher +published in his _Western Literary Journal_ for 1837--the first form +in which the public saw it. No Western poem has had a wider audience +than the _Echo_. It has been parodied in Europe and America many +times, and is the finest expression of Dr. Harney's genius. It is to +be regretted that no comprehensive account of the poet's life and +literary labors has come down to posterity. As a poet and as a man his +merits were of the truest sort, but a handful of facts, a suppressed +book, a lyric or so, are all that have been brought to the attention +of the literary world. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by + Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892). + + +ECHO AND THE LOVER + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + _Lover._ Echo! mysterious nymph, declare + Of what you're made and what you are-- + _Echo._ "Air!" + + _Lover._ 'Mid airy cliffs, and places high, + Sweet Echo! listening, love, you lie-- + _Echo._ "You lie!" + + _Lover._ You but resuscitate dead sounds-- + Hark! how my voice revives, resounds! + _Echo._ "Zounds!" + + _Lover._ I'll question you before I go-- + Come, answer me more apropos! + _Echo._ "Poh! poh!" + + _Lover._ Tell me, fair nymph, if e'er you saw + So sweet a girl as Phoebe Shaw! + _Echo._ "Pshaw!" + + _Lover._ Say, what will win that frisking coney + Into the toils of matrimony! + _Echo._ "Money!" + + _Lover._ Has Phoebe not a heavenly brow? + Is it not white as pearl--as snow? + _Echo._ "Ass, no!" + + _Lover._ Her eyes! Was ever such a pair? + Are the stars brighter than they are? + _Echo._ "They are!" + + _Lover._ Echo, you lie, but can't deceive me; + Her eyes eclipse the stars, believe me-- + _Echo._ "Leave me!" + + _Lover._ But come, you saucy, pert romancer, + Who is as fair as Phoebe? Answer. + _Echo._ "Ann, sir!" + + +THE WHIPPOWIL + + [From the same] + + There is a strange, mysterious bird, + Which few have seen, but all have heard: + He sits upon a fallen tree, + Through all the night, and thus sings he: + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + + Despising show, and empty noise, + The gaudy fluttering thing he flies: + And in the echoing vale by night + Thus sings the pensive anchorite: + Whippowil! + + Oh, had I but his voice and wings, + I'd envy not a bird that sings; + But gladly would I flit away, + And join the wild nocturnal lay: + Whippowil! + + The school-boy, tripping home in haste, + Impatient of the night's repast, + Would stop to hear my whistle shrill, + And answer me with mimic skill: + Whippowil! + + The rich man's scorn, the poor man's care, + Folly in silk, and Wisdom bare, + Virtue on foot, and Vice astride, + No more should vex me while I cried: + Whippowil! + + How blest!--Nor loneliness nor state, + Nor fame, nor wealth, nor love, nor hate, + Nor av'rice, nor ambition vain, + Should e'er disturb my tranquil strain: + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + Whippowil! + + +SYLPHS BATHING + + [From _Crystalina_ (New York, 1816)] + + The shores with acclamations rung, + As in the flood the playful damsels sprung: + Upon their beauteous bodies, with delight, + The billows leapt. Oh, 'twas a pleasant sight + To see the waters dimple round, for joy, + Climb their white necks, and on their bosoms toy: + Like snowy swans they vex'd the sparkling tide, + Till little rainbows danced on every side. + Some swam, some floated, some on pearly feet + Stood sidelong, smiling, exquisitely sweet. + + + + +GEORGE ROBERTSON + + +George Robertson, the most widely quoted Kentucky jurist, and an able +writer, was born near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, November 18, 1790. He was +educated in the arts and in law at Transylvania University, and +entered upon the practice of his profession at Lancaster, Kentucky, in +1809. In 1816 Robertson was elected to Congress, where he remained for +two terms. He drew up the bill for the establishment of Arkansaw +territory; and he projected the system of cutting public lands into +small lots, selling them to actual settlers for one dollar and +twenty-five cents per acre. He declined another term in the House, as +well as the attorney-generalship of Kentucky, in order to devote his +whole attention to the law. Robertson was elected against his desire +to the Kentucky legislature, in 1822, and he was a member of that body +for the next five years. This was the time of the struggle between the +Old-Court and New-Court parties, which was one of the most bitter +political fights ever seen in Kentucky. Robertson consistently and +vigorously championed the cause of the Old-Court party, which finally +won. That this disgusted him with political life in any dress, is +shown by his subsequent declination of the governorship of Arkansaw, +and the Columbian and Peruvian missions. In 1828 he was elected an +associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and, in the +following year, chief justice. This position was George Robertson's +heart's desire--he hated politics with a never-dying hatred, the law +and the bench being his earthly paradise. He was chief justice of +Kentucky for fourteen years, when he resigned to return to the active +practice of law. From 1834 to 1857 Judge Robertson was professor of +law in Transylvania University at Lexington. He died at Lexington, May +16, 1874, generally regarded as the ablest jurist Kentucky has +produced. He was also the author of four books: _Introductory Lecture +to the Transylvania Law Class_ (Lexington); _Biographical Sketch of +John Boyle_ (Frankfort, 1838); _Scrap-Book on Law and Politics, Men +and Times_ (Lexington, 1855), his best known book; and his very +interesting and well-written autobiography, entitled _An Outline of +the Life of George Robertson, written by Himself_ (Lexington, 1876), +to which his son contributed an introduction and appendix. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Judge + Robertson's life is, of course, his autobiography; Samuel M. + Wilson's study in _Great American Lawyers_ (Philadelphia, 1908). + + +ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY + + [From _Scrap Book on Law and Politics, Men and Times_ (Lexington, + Kentucky, 1855)] + +Yet we have hopes that are immortal--interests that are +imperishable--principles that are indestructible. Encouraged by those +hopes, stimulated by those interests, and sustained by and sustaining +those principles, let us, come what may, be true to God, true to +ourselves, and faithful to our children, our country, and mankind. And +then, whenever or wherever it may be our doom to look, for the last +time, on earth, we may die justly proud of the title of "Kentuckian," +and, with our expiring breath, may cordially exclaim--Kentucky, as she +was;--Kentucky, as she is;--Kentucky, as she will be;--Kentucky forever. + + +EARLY STRUGGLES + + [From _An Outline of the Life of George Robertson, written by + Himself_ (Lexington, Kentucky, 1876)] + +Yet, thus juvenile, poor, and proud, I ventured not only on the rather +hopeless prospects of professional life, but, on the 28th of November, +1809, when I was only ten days over nineteen years of age, I ventured +on the far more momentous contingencies of marriage, and, linking my +destinies with a wife only fifteen years and seven months old, we +embarked without freight or pilotage, on the untried sea of early +marriage. I had never made a cent, and had nothing but ordinary +clothes, a horse, an old servant, a few books, and the humble talents +with which God had blessed me. I borrowed thirteen dollars as an +outfit, and out of that fund I paid for my license and handed to my +groomsman, R. P. Letcher, five dollars for paying the parson, Randolph +Hall, father of Rev. Nathan H. Hall. Some days afterwards Letcher +rather slyly put into my hand a dollar, suggesting that he had saved +that much for me by paying the preacher only four dollars. This looked +to me as such minute parsimony as to excite my indignation, important +as was only one dollar then to me. And I manifested that feeling in a +manner both emphatic and censurious; to which Letcher replied that +four dollars was more than was then customary, and that Mr. Hall, when +he received it, expressed the warmest gratitude, and said that, old +as he was, he had never received so large a fee for solemnizing the +matrimonial rite! This reconciled me to the return of the dollar. + +My wife and myself lived with her mother until the 9th of September, +1810, when we set up for ourselves in a small buckeye house with only +two rooms, built and first occupied by Judge [John] Boyle, and +respecting which I may here suggest this remarkable coincidence of +successive events:--That Boyle commenced housekeeping in that house, +and, while he occupied it, was elected to Congress; that Samuel McKee +commenced housekeeping in the same house, and succeeded Boyle in +Congress; that I commenced housekeeping in the same house, and +succeeded McKee in Congress; and that R. P. Letcher commenced +housekeeping in the same house, and, after an interval of two years, +succeeded me in Congress. I was unable to furnish it with a carpet, +and our only furniture consisted of two beds, one table, one bureau, +six split-bottomed chairs, and a small supply of table and kitchen +furniture, which I bought with a small gold watch. I had bought a bag +of flour, a bag of corn meal, a half barrel of salt, and two hams and +two middlings of bacon; and these, together with the milk of a small +cow given to my wife by her mother, and a few chickens and some +butter, constituted our entire outfit of provisions. But all our +supplies were stolen the night we commenced housekeeping. This was, at +that time, a heavy blow. I had no money; and, though I had good +credit, I resolved not to buy anything on credit. And that was one of +the best resolutions I ever made. It stimulated my industry and +economy, and soon secured to me peace and a comfortable sense of +independence. In adhering to my privative, but conservative resolve, I +often cut and carried on my shoulders wood from a neighboring forest. + + +LITERARY FAME + + [From the same] + +The classical reader remembers that, when almost all the Greeks, +captured with Nicias at Syracuse, had died in dungeons, a remnant of the +survivors saved themselves by the recitation of beautiful extracts from +Euripides. How potent was the shadowed genius of the immortal Athenian, +when it alone melted the icy hearts that nothing else could touch, and +broke the captive's chains, which justice, and prayers, and tears, had +in vain tried to unloose! And hence "the glory of Euripides had all +Greece for a monument." He too was elevated by the light of other minds. +It is said that he acquired a sublime inspiration whenever he read +Homer--whose Iliad and whose Odyssey--the one exhibiting the fatality of +strife among leading men, the other portraying the efficacy of +perseverance--have stamped his name on the roll of fame in letters of +sunshine, that will never fade away. No memorial tells where Troy once +stood--Delphi is now mute--the thunder of Olympus is hushed, and +Apollo's lyre no longer echoes along the banks of the Peneus--but the +fame of Homer still travels with the stars. + + + + +SHADRACH PENN + + +Shadrach Penn, one of the ablest of Kentucky journalists, was born at +Frederick, Maryland, in 1790. His family settled near Georgetown, +Kentucky, when he was a mere boy. Penn began his newspaper career at +Georgetown when he was but nineteen years of age; and he subsequently +served in the War of 1812. In 1818 Penn removed to Louisville and +established _The Public Advertiser_, which was a weekly for the first +few years of its history, then a semi-weekly, and, on April 4, 1826, a +final change was made "and the first daily newspaper west of the +Alleghanies was flung to the public." After the establishment of the +_Kentucky Gazette_, this marked the second most epoch-making event in +Kentucky journalism. Penn was an able editor, the very ablest in +Kentucky, and he was having things his own way in the West, advocating +Jacksonian Democracy. In 1828 President Jackson showed his appreciation +of Penn's services by offering him a place in his cabinet, which he +declined, but he did spend a winter at Washington as the President's +warm friend and adviser. Then, _mirabile dictu!_ the Whigs brought +George D. Prentice to Kentucky and, in 1830, he established the +_Louisville Journal_, and began a most bitter fight upon Penn's paper. +Penn fought back as best he could, but he was quite unequal for the +contest. For nearly twelve years the warfare was waged without either +editor asking quarter, and to the infinite amusement of the whole +country. In 1841 Penn ran up the white flag and went to St. Louis to +become editor of the _St. Louis Reporter_. Prentice bade him farewell in +the best of temper, and when he died at St. Louis, on June 15, 1846, the +old Whig's tribute to his memory was the finest one written. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. H. Perrin + (Louisville, 1888); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by + J. Stoddard Johnston (Chicago, 1896). + + +THE COMING OF GEORGE D. PRENTICE + + [From _The Public Advertiser_ (Louisville, September 10, 1830)] + +This gentleman and Mr. Buxton, of Cincinnati, have issued proposals for +publishing a daily paper in Louisville, which is to be edited by Mr. +Prentice. Willing that the gentleman shall be known by the people whose +patronage he is seeking, we copy today from a Cincinnati paper his +account of the late elections in Kentucky. The production may be viewed +as a fair specimen of his "fine literature, his drollery, strong powers +of sarcasm," and, above all, his "poetical capacity." The respect and +attachment he displays toward Kentucky (to say nothing of the Jackson +party), must be exquisitely gratifying to the respectable portion of Mr. +Clay's friends in this city. To them we commend the letter of Mr. +Prentice as an erudite, chaste, and veritable production, worthy of the +"great editor" who is hereafter to figure as Mr. Clay's champion in the +West. We may, moreover, congratulate them in consequence of the fair +prospect before them; for with the aid of such an editor they cannot +fail to effect miraculous revolutions or revulsions in the political +world. The occupants of all our fish markets will be confirmed in their +devotion to the opposition beyond redemption. + + + + +WILLIAM O. BUTLER + + +William Orlando Butler, one of General Lew Wallace's favorite poets, +was born near Nicholasville, Kentucky, in 1791. He was the son of +Percival Butler, a noted Revolutionary soldier. He was graduated from +Transylvania University, Lexington, in 1812. Butler studied law for a +short time, but the War of 1812 called him and he enlisted. At the +River Raisin he was wounded and captured and carried through Canada to +Fort Niagara, but he was later exchanged. Butler was with General +Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and his gallantry attracted the +attention of the general, who placed him upon his staff. In 1817 +Butler returned to the law, married, and settled in the little river +town of Carrollton, Kentucky, on the Ohio, his home henceforth. In +July, 1821, the first draft of his famous poem, _The Boatman's Horn_ +(then called _The Boat Horn_), was published in _The Western Review_, +a monthly magazine of Lexington, Kentucky. In describing his boyhood +days at Covington, Indiana, General Lew Wallace very charmingly writes +of his early love for the Wabash river, and for old Nebeker, the +lonesome ferryman, who "welcomed me for my company. On the farther +side, chained to a tree, he kept a long tin horn. A traveller, coming +to the bank and finding us on the townward side, blew to get our +attention ... when the voice of the big horn on the thither side +called to us--How it startled me! What music there was in it! What +haste I made to unship my oar!... And if since then I have been an +ardent fisherman, believing with my friend Maurice Thompson that + + "Halcyon prophecies come to pass + In the haunts of the bream and bass;" + +and if the song of Butler, the soldier-poet of Kentucky-- + + "Oh, boatman, wind that horn again! + For never did the joyous air + Upon its lambent bosom bear + So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain"-- + +is still a favorite of mine, with power to stir my pulses and return +me to a freak of childhood full of joyousness alloyed only with +thought of my mother's fears, the shrewd reader will know at once how +such tastes inured to me. And as swimming seems to have been one of my +natural accomplishments, I must have acquired it during my days at the +ferry." This is far and away the best background for Butler's poem +that has been done, and with it before the reader the famous poem must +mean more to him. The poem was subsequently published as the +title-poem in a small collection of his verse, entitled _The Boatman's +Horn and Other Poems_. From 1839 to 1843 Butler was a Kentucky +Congressman; and in 1844 the unsuccessful candidate for governor of +Kentucky. Upon his Mexican War record, General Butler was nominated by +the Democratic party for vice-president of the United States with +General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the head of the ticket, but they +were defeated by Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams. In 1855 +General Butler declined the governorship of the territory of Nebraska; +and in 1861 he went to Washington as a member of the famous "Peace +Congress." General Butler died at his home, Carrollton, Kentucky, +August 6, 1880, in the ninetieth year of his age. Though famous as a +soldier and politician, _The Boatman's Horn_ is the work that will +keep his name green for many years; and several of his other poems are +not to be utterly despised. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Sketch of Gen. William O. Butler_, by + F. P. Blair, Senior (Washington, 1848), was reprinted in full in + _The Kentucky Yeoman_ (Frankfort, June 15, 1848); _The Poets and + Poetry of the West_, by W. T. Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); + Lew Wallace's _Autobiography_ (New York, 1906). + + +THE BOATMAN'S HORN + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + O, boatman! wind that horn again, + For never did the list'ning air + Upon its lambent bosom bear + So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain! + What though thy notes are sad and few, + By every simple boatman blown, + Yet is each pulse to nature true, + And melody in every tone. + + How oft, in boyhood's joyous day, + Unmindful of the lapsing hours, + I've loitered on my homeward way + By wild Ohio's bank of flowers; + While some lone boatman from the deck + Poured his soft numbers to the tide, + As if to charm from storm and wreck + The boat where all his fortunes ride! + + Delighted, Nature drank the sound, + Enchanted, Echo bore it round + In whispers soft and softer still, + From hill to plain and plain to hill, + Till e'en the thoughtless frolic boy, + Elate with hope and wild with joy, + Who gambolled by the river's side + And sported with the fretting tide, + Feels something new pervade his breast, + Change his light steps, repress his jest, + Bends o'er the flood his eager ear, + To catch the sounds far off, yet dear-- + Drinks the sweet draught, but knows not why + The tear of rapture fills his eye. + And can he now, to manhood grown, + Tell why those notes, simple and lone, + As on the ravished ear they fell, + Bind every sense in magic spell? + + There is a tide of feeling given + To all on earth, its fountains, heaven, + Beginning with the dewy flower, + Just ope'd in Flora's vernal bower, + Rising creation's orders through, + With louder murmur, brighter hue-- + That tide is sympathy! its ebb and flow + Give life its hue, its joy, and woe. + + Music, the master-spirit that can move + Its waves to war, or lull them into love-- + Can cheer the sinking sailor 'mid the wave, + And bid the warrior on! nor fear the grave, + Inspire the fainting pilgrim on the road, + And elevate his soul to claim his God. + + Then, boatman, wind that horn again! + Though much of sorrow mark its strain, + Yet are its notes to sorrow dear; + What though they wake fond memory's tear? + Tears are sad memory's sacred feast, + And rapture oft her chosen guest. + + + + +HEW AINSLIE + + +Hew Ainslie, the foremost Scottish-Kentucky poet, was born at Bargery +Mains, Ayrshire, April 5, 1792. Ill-health cut short Ainslie's +education at the Ayr Academy, but some years later he went up to +Glasgow to study law. Law and Hew Ainslie were not congenial fellows, +and he shortly embarked upon the art of landscape gardening. He was +next a clerk in Edinburgh, and also amanuensis for Professor Dugald +Stewart. "Gradually the clouds of [Ainslie's] tobacco smoke began to +curl into seven letters which looked like America." He was thirty +years of age when he arrived at New York. He spent his first years in +New York and Indiana as a farmer, but he soon relinquished this work +and went, in 1829, to Louisville, Kentucky, where, three years later, +an Ohio river flood swept his property away. And two years after this +disastrous flood, fire destroyed his property in Indiana. Undismayed +by misfortune, Ainslie became a contractor and supervised the erection +of many large business structures in Louisville and other cities. +During all these years he was assiduously courting the Muse, and +making a great reputation for himself as a poet. Ainslie's first book, +_A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns_ (Deptford, 1822), is the English +edition of his charming lyrics; and his _Scottish Songs, Ballads, and +Poems_ (New York, 1855), is the only American edition of his work. In +1864, forty-two years after his departure, Ainslie revisited the land +of his birth, where he was hailed as one of Scotland's finest singers +since Robert Burns. Kentucky was in the poet's blood, however, and a +year later he returned to his home at Louisville. His American friends +were not to be outdone by his home people, and they arranged a great +home-coming for him. In 1871, when the Scots of Louisville assembled +to celebrate the birthday of Burns, Ainslie, the toastmaster, arose +and smilingly confessed to having once kissed "Bonnie Jean," Burns's +widow. He died at Louisville, March 11, 1878. A comprehensive Scottish +edition of his _A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems_, was +issued in 1892. _The Ingle Side_, a little song of sixteen lines, is +Ainslie's masterpiece; but it was as a poet of the sea that he won his +great reputation. "As Lloyd Mifflin is America's greatest sonneteer, +so Hew Ainslie, the adopted Kentuckian, may perhaps be ranked as +America's most ardent singer of the sea." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _Hew Ainslie_, by A. S. Mackenzie (Library of + Southern Literature, Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. i). + + +THE BOUROCKS O' BARGENY + + [From _A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, and Poems_ (Paisley, + Scotland, 1892)] + + I left ye, Jeanie, blooming fair, + 'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny; [bowers] + I've found ye on the banks o' Ayr, + But sair ye're altered, Jeanie. + + I left ye 'mang the woods sae green, + In rustic weed befitting; + I've found ye buskit like a queen, [attired] + In painted chaumbers sitting. [chambers] + + I left ye like the wanton lamb + That plays 'mang Hadyed's heather; + I've found ye noo a sober dame, + A wife and eke a mither. + + Ye're fairer, statelier, I can see, + Ye're wiser, nae dou't, Jeanie; + But ah! I'd rather met wi' thee + 'Mang the bourocks o' Bargeny. + + +THE HAUGHS O' AULD KENTUCK + + [From the same] + + Welcome, Edie, owre the sea, + Welcome to this lan' an' me, + Welcome from the warl' whaur we + Hae whistled owre the lave o't. [rest] + + Come, gie your banes anither hitch, + Up Hudson's stream, thro' Clinton's ditch, + An' see our watlin meadows rich [cane-brake] + Wi' corn an' a' the lave o't. [all the rest of it] + + We've hizzie here baith swank and sweet [maidens agile] + An' birkies here that can stan' a heat [young men] + O' barley bree, or aqua vit [brew; water of life] + Syne whistle owre the lave o't. + + Gude kens, I want nae better luck [Goodness knows] + Than just to see ye, like a buck, + Spanking the haughs o' auld Kentuck, [speeding over the meadows] + An' whistling owre the lave o't. + + +THE INGLE SIDE + + [From the same] + + It's rare to see the morning bleeze, [blaze] + Like a bonfire frae the sea; + It's fair to see the burnie kiss [streamlet] + The lip o' the flowery lea; + An' fine it is on green hillside, + When hums the hinny bee; + But rarer, fairer, finer far, + Is the ingle side to me. + + Glens may be gilt wi' gowans rare [daisies] + The birds may fill the tree, + An' haughs hae a' the scented ware [river meadows] + That simmer's growth can gie; + But the canty hearth where cronies meet, [cheerful] + An' the darling o' our e'e-- + That makes to us a warl' complete, + Oh! the ingle side for me. + + +THE HINT O' HAIRST + + [From the same] + + It's dowie in the hint o' hairst, [dreary; end; harvest] + At the wa'-gang o' the swallow, [away-going] + When the wind blows cauld an' the burns grow bauld, [bold] + An' the wuds are hingin' yellow; + But oh! it's dowier far to see + The deid-set o' a shining e'e + That darkens the weary warld on thee. + + There was muckle love atween us twa-- + Oh! twa could ne'er been fonder; + An' the thing on yird was never made + That could hae gart us sunder. + But the way of Heaven's aboon a' ken, [above all knowing] + And we maun bear what it likes to sen'-- [must] + It's comfort, though, to weary men, + That the warst o' this warld's waes maun en'. + + There's mony things that come and gae, + Just kent and syne forgotten; + The flow'rs that busk a bonnie brae [deck; slope] + Gin anither year lie rotten. + But the last look o' that lovin' e'e, + An' the dying grip she gied to me, + They're settled like eternitie-- + O Mary! that I were with thee. + + + + +JAMES G. BIRNEY + + +James Gillespie Birney, leader of the Conservative Abolitionists, +opposed to the radicalism of William Lloyd Garrison and all his ilk, +yet as earnest and sincere in his hatred of slavery, was born at +Danville, Kentucky, February 4, 1792. He was at Transylvania +University for a short time, then proceeded to Princeton, from which +institution he was graduated in 1810. In 1814 he became a lawyer in +his native town of Danville. In 1816 Birney was in the Kentucky +legislature; but two years later he removed to Alabama, settling upon +a plantation near Huntsville. The slavery question was appealing to +him more and more, and he finally became an agent for the American +Colonization Society. In the fall of 1833 Birney returned to Kentucky, +and went to Danville, where he freed his own slaves, and organized the +Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society. On January 1, 1836, the first issue of +his anti-slavery sheet, _The Philanthropist_, appeared from his +Cincinnati office. This soon became the Bible of the Conservative +Abolitionists, who opposed the drastic methods of Garrison and his +followers. In his speeches Birney denounced all violence and +fanaticism in the handling of the slavery problem, though he himself +received much violence at the hands of mobs and almost insane +partisans. His strong addresses through the North won him the +secretaryship of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837. In this +capacity he was soon recognized as the real leader of the +"Constitutional Abolitionists," who said they stood upon the +Constitution, fought against secession, and desired to wipe slavery +from the face of the American continent with decency and in order. In +1840 and again in 1844 Birney was the candidate of the Liberty party +for president of the United States. In the second campaign he +multiplied his very small vote received in the first race by nine. He +was thrown from his horse, in 1845, and the final twelve years of his +life were passed as an invalid. Birney died at Perth Amboy, New +Jersey, November 25, 1857. Besides numerous contributions to the +press, his principal writings are _Letter on Colonization_ (1834); +_Addresses and Speeches_ (1835); _American Churches the Bulwarks of +American Slavery_ (1840); _Speeches in England_(1840); and _An +Examination of the Decision of the_ _United States Supreme Court in +the Case of Strader et al. v. Graham_ (1850). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _James G. Birney and His Times_, by his son, + William Birney (New York, 1890). + + +THE NO-GOVERNMENT DOCTRINES + + [From _A Letter on the Political Obligations of Abolitionists_ + (Boston, 1839)] + +Within the last twelve or eighteen months, it is believed--after +efforts, some successful, some not, had been begun to affect the +elections--and whilst the most indefatigable exertions were being made +by many of our influential, intelligent and liberal friends to +convince the great body of the abolitionists of the necessity--the +indispensable necessity--of breaking away from their old "_parties_," +and uniting together in the use of the elective franchise for the +advancement of the cause of human freedom in which we were +engaged;--at this very time, and mainly, too, in that part of the +country where _political action_ had been most successful, and whence, +from its promise of soon being wholly triumphant, great encouragement +was derived by abolitionists everywhere, a sect has arisen in our +midst, whose members regard it as of religious obligation, in no case, +_to exercise the elective franchise_. This persuasion is part and +parcel of the tenet which it is believed they have embraced--that as +Christians have the precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the Spirit +of God to guide them, all human governments, as necessarily including +the idea of _force to secure obedience_, are not only superfluous, but +unlawful encroachments on the Divine government, as ascertained from +the sources above mentioned. Therefore, they refuse to do anything +voluntarily, by which they would be considered as acknowledging the +lawful existence of human governments. Denying to civil governments +the right to use force, they easily deduce that family governments +have no such right. Thus they would withhold from parents any power of +personal chastisement or restraint for the correction of their +children. They carry out to the full extent the "non-resistance" +theory. To the first ruffian who would demand our purse, or oust us +from our houses, they are to be unconditionally surrendered, unless +_moral suasion_ be found sufficient to induce him to decline from his +purpose. Our wives, our daughters, our sisters--our mothers we are to +see set upon by the most brutal, without any effort on our part, +except argument, to defend them--and even they themselves are +forbidden to use in defense of their purity such powers as God has +endowed them with for its protection, if resistance should be attended +with any injury or destruction to the assailant. In short, the +"No-Government" doctrines, as they are believed now to be embraced, +seem to strike at the root of the social structure; and tend--so far +as I am able to judge of their tendency--to throw society into entire +confusion, and to renew, under the sanction of religion, scenes of +anarchy and license that have generally heretofore been the offspring +of the rankest infidelity and irreligion. + +It is but justice to say--judging from the moral deportment of the +adherents of the "No-Government" scheme--that so far from admitting, +what I have supposed to be, its legitimate consequences, they would +wholly deny and repudiate them. + +These Sectaries have not as yet separated themselves from the American +[Anti-Slavery] society. Far from it. They insist that their views are +altogether harmonious with what is required for membership by the +constitution.... But is this really so? Is the difference between +those who seek to abolish any and every government of human +institution, and those who prefer _any_ government to a state of +things in which every one may do what seemeth good in his own eyes--is +the difference between them, I say, so small that they can act +harmoniously under the same organization? When, in obedience to the +principles of the society, I go to the polls and there call on my +neighbors to unite with me in electing to Congress men who are in +favor of Human Rights, I am met by a No-Government abolitionist +inculcating on them the doctrine that Congress has _no rightful +authority_ to act at all in the premises--how can we proceed together? +When I am animating my fellow-citizens to aid men in infusing into the +government salutary influences which shall put an end to all +oppression--my No-Government brother cries out at the top of his +lungs, _all_ governments are of the Devil(!) where is our harmony! +Our efficiency? We are in the condition of the two physicians called +in to the same patient--one of whom should be intent on applying the +proper remedies for expelling the disease from the body and thus +restoring and purifying its functions; the other equally intent on +utterly destroying body, members, functions and all. Could they be +agreed, and could they walk together? It seems to me not. And simply +because their aim, their objects are radically and essentially +different. So with the No-Government and the Pro-Government +abolitionists. One party is for sustaining and purifying governments, +and bringing them to a perfect conformity with the principles of the +Divine government--the other for destroying _all_ government. + + + + +THOMAS CORWIN + + +Thomas Corwin, witty, delightful "Tom" Corwin, was born near Paris, +Kentucky, July 29, 1794. Before he was five years old, his father had +taken him into the wilds of Ohio, the Lebanon of today. "Tom" Corwin was +admitted to the bar, in 1818, after a slender education and a brief +reading of the law. His wit and eloquence made his reputation rapidly +and, in 1830, he found himself in the lower House of Congress. The whole +country laughed at his inimitable speeches; and that he had a strong +hold on the Ohio Whigs is certain as they returned him to the House for +ten years. In 1840 Corwin was elected governor of Ohio, after a +brilliant and successful state-wide campaign. He was incomparable on the +stump, and he rode into the gubernatorial chair on an overwhelming Whig +tide. Two years later, however, his former opponent, Wilson Shannon, +defeated him for reelection. In 1844 Corwin was sent to the United +States Senate, in which body he renewed his House reputation as an +orator. On the eve of the Mexican War, he made his memorable anti-war +speech, which practically ruined his future political career, as the +country desired to fight the hated men on the border. But a more bravely +beautiful speech was never made. President Fillmore chose Corwin his +Secretary of the Treasury, in 1850. At the expiration of Fillmore's +term, Corwin returned to the practice of law at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1858 +he reentered public life, serving a term in Congress; and, in 1861, +President Lincoln appointed him minister to Mexico. Corwin remained in +Mexico until the coming of Maximilian, when he returned to Washington to +practice law. In the capital of the country he died, December 18, 1865. +"Tom" Corwin was one of the most captivating of American orators, and +most lovable of men. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin_, by Isaac + Strohn (Dayton, Ohio, 1859); _The Library of Oratory_ (New York, + 1902, v. vi). + + +THE MEXICAN WAR + + [From _Life and Speeches of Thomas Corwin_, by Isaac Strohn + (Dayton, Ohio, 1859)] + +Mr. President, this uneasy desire to augment our territory has depraved +the moral sense and blunted the otherwise keen sagacity of our people. +What has been the fate of all nations who have acted upon the idea that +they must advance! Our young orators cherish this notion with a fervid +but fatally mistaken zeal. They call it by the mysterious name of +"destiny." "Our destiny," they say, is "onward," and hence they argue, +with ready sophistry, the propriety of seizing upon any territory and +any people that may lie in the way of our "fated" advance. Recently +these progressives have grown classical; some assiduous student of +antiquities has helped them to a patron saint. They have wandered back +into the desolated Pantheon, and there, among the polytheistic relics of +that "pale mother of dead empires," they have found a god whom these +Romans, centuries gone by, baptized "Terminus." + +Sir, I have heard much and read somewhat of this gentleman Terminus. +Alexander, of whom I have spoken, was a devotee of this divinity. We +have seen the end of him and his empire. It was said to be an +attribute of this god that he must always advance and never recede. So +both republican and imperial Rome believed. It was, as they say, their +destiny. And for a while it did seem to be even so. Roman Terminus did +advance. Under the eagles of Rome he was carried from his home on the +Tiber to the farthest East on the one hand, and to the far West, among +the then barbarous tribes of western Europe, on the other. + +But at length the time came when retributive justice had become "a +destiny." The despised Gaul calls out the contemned Goth, and Attila, +with his Huns answers back the battle-shout to both. The "blue-eyed +nations of the North," in succession or united, pour forth their +countless hosts of warriors upon Rome and Rome's always-advancing god +Terminus. And now the battle-axe of the barbarian strikes down the +conquering eagle of Rome. Terminus at last recedes, slowly at first, but +finally he is driven to Rome, and from Rome to Byzantium. Whoever would +know the further fate of this Roman deity, so recently taken under the +patronage of American democracy, may find ample gratification of his +curiosity in the luminous pages of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_. + +Such will find that Rome thought as you now think, that it was her +destiny to conquer provinces and nations, and no doubt she sometimes +said, as you say, "I will conquer a peace," and where now is she, the +mistress of the world? The spider weaves his web in her palaces, the +owl sings his watch-song in her towers. Teutonic power now lords it +over the servile remnant, the miserable memento of old and once +omnipotent Rome. Sad, very sad, are the lessons which time has written +for us. Through and in them all I see nothing but the inflexible +execution of that old law which ordains as eternal that cardinal rule, +"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything which is +his." Since I have lately heard so much about the dismemberment of +Mexico I have looked back to see how, in the course of events, which +some call "Providence," it has fared with other nations who engaged in +this work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half of the +eighteenth century three powerful nations, Russia, Austria, and +Prussia, united in the dismemberment of Poland. They said, too, as +you say, "It is our destiny." They "wanted room." Doubtless each of +these thought, with his share of Poland, his power was too strong ever +to fear invasion, or even insult. One had his California, another his +New Mexico, and the third his Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouched and +incapable of harm? Alas! no--far, very far, from it. Retributive +justice must fulfill its destiny, too. + + + + +HENRY B. BASCOM + + +Henry Bidleman Bascom, the distinguished Methodist preacher and orator, +was born at Hancock, New York, May 27, 1796. He received a scanty +education, and when but eighteen years of age he was licensed to preach +by the Ohio conference of the Methodist church. He was a circuit-rider, +traveling more than four hundred miles upon horseback his first year in +the work, and receiving the princely salary of $12.10 for his year's +services. Bascom was too florid for the Ohio brethren, and they caused +him to be transferred to Tennessee and Kentucky circuits. In this work +he won a wide reputation as a pulpit orator. In 1823 Henry Clay had +Bascom appointed chaplain of the House of Representatives, but his long +sermons did not please the members, and he was not a great success in +Washington. Bascom was elected as the first president of Madison +College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1827, but two years later he became +an agent for the American Colonization Society. From 1831 to 1841 he was +professor of moral science and belles-lettres in Augusta College, +Augusta, Kentucky, the first Methodist college in the world. The +Methodist church having taken over Transylvania University, at +Lexington, Dr. Bascom was elected president of that institution in 1842. +He revived the ancient seat of learning to a wonderful degree, becoming +another Horace Holley, but the rebirth proved ephemeral. In 1844 +President Bascom protested against the action of the General Conference +of the Methodist church concerning slavery, and, in the Louisville +conference of 1845, he took a most prominent part, winning for himself +the title of "father of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." Dr. +Bascom was editor of the _Southern Methodist Review_ for several years; +and in 1848 he resigned the presidency of Transylvania University, only +to be elected a bishop in the branch of the Methodist church he had +helped to establish. He was ordained as bishop in May, 1850, and almost +immediately set out for Missouri, where he held his first and only +conference. On his return to Kentucky he was in very poor health; and he +died at Louisville, September 8, 1850. Bishop Bascom was the greatest +Methodist preacher Kentucky can claim; and he was also an able writer. +His works include _Sermons from the Pulpit_; _Lectures on Infidelity_; +_Lectures and Essays on Moral and Mental Science_; and _Methodism and +Slavery_. In 1910 a portrait in oils of Bishop Bascom was painted by +Paul Sawyier, the Kentucky artist, for Transylvania University. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D.D., LL.D._, by M. + M. Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856); _The Transylvanian_ + (Lexington, Kentucky, June, 1910). + + +A CLERGYMAN'S VIEW OF NIAGARA + + [From _The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom, D. D., LL. D._, by Rev. + M. M. Henkle (Nashville, Tennessee, 1856)] + +I have seen, surveyed, and communed with the whole!--and awed and +bewildered, as if enchanted before the revealment of a mystery, I +attempt to write. You ask me, in your last, for some detailed, +veritable account of the Falls, and I should be glad to gratify you; +but how shall I essay to paint a scene that so utterly baffles all +conception, and renders worse than fruitless every attempt at +description? In five minutes after my arrival, on the evening of the +fifth, I descended the winding-path from the "Pavillion," on the +Canadian side, and, for the first time in my life, saw this unequaled +cascade from "Table Rock;" the whole indescribable scene, in bold +outline, bursting on my view. I had heard and read much, and imagined +more of what was before me. I was perfectly familiar with the +often-told, the far-traveled story of what I saw; but the overpowering +_reality_ on which I was gazing, motionless as the rock on which I +stood, deprived me of recollection, annihilated all curiosity; and +with emotions of sublimity till now unfelt, and all unearthly, the +involuntary exclamation escaped me, "_God of Grandeur! what a scene!_" + +But the majesty of the sight, and the interest of the moment, how +depict them? The huge amplitude of water, tumbling in foam above, and +dashing on, arched and pillared as it glides, until it reaches the +precipice of the _chute_, and then, in one vast column, bounding with +maddening roar and rush, into the depths beneath, presents a spectacle +so unutterably appalling, that language falters; words are no longer +signs, and I despair giving you any idea of what I saw and felt. Yet +this is not all. The eye and mind necessarily take in other objects, +as parts of the grand panorama, forests, cliffs, and islands; banks, +foam, and spray; wood, rock, and precipice; dimmed with the rising fog +and mist, and obscurely gilded by the softening tints of the rainbow. +These all belong to the picture; and the effect of the whole is +immeasurably heightened by the noise of the cataract, now reminding +you of the reverberations of the heavens in a tempest, and then of the +eternal roar of ocean, when angered by the winds! + +The concave bed of rock, from which the water falls some two hundred +feet into the almost boundless reservoir beneath, is the section of a +circle, which, at first sight, from "Table Rock," presents something +like the geometrical curve of the rainbow; and the wonders of the +grand "crescent," thus advantageously thrown upon the eye in +combination, and the appropriate sensations and conceptions heightened +by the crash and boom of the waters, render the sight more +surpassingly sublime, than anything I have ever looked upon, or +conceived of. As it regards my thoughts and feelings at the time, I +can help you to no conception of their character. Overwhelming +astonishment was the only bond between thought and thought; and wild, +vague, and boundless were the associations of the hour! Before me, the +strength and fullness of the congregated "lakes of the north," were +enthroned and concentrated within a circumference embraced by a single +glance of the eye! Here I saw, rolling and dashing, at the rate of +_twenty-five hundred millions of tons per day_, nearly one half of all +the fresh water upon the surface of the globe! On the American side, I +beheld a vast deluge, nine hundred feet in breadth, with a fall of one +hundred and eighty or ninety, met, fifty feet above the level of the +gulf, by a huge projection of rock, which seems to break the descent +and continuity of the flood, only to increase its fierce and +overwhelming bound. And turning to the "crescent," I saw the mingled +rush of foam and tide, dashing with fearful strife and desperate +emulation--four hundred yards of the sheet rough and sparry, and the +remaining three hundred a deep sealike mass of living green--rolling +and heaving like a sheet of emerald. Even imagination failed me, and I +could think of nothing but ocean let loose from his bed, and seeking a +deeper gulf below! The fury of the water, at the termination of its +fall, combined with the columned strength of the cataract, and the +deafening thunder of the flood, are at once inconceivable and +indescribable. No imagination, however creative, can correspond with +the grandeur of the reality. + +I have already mentioned, and it is important that you keep it in +view, the ledge of rock, the verge of the cataract, rising like a wall +of equal height, and extending in semicircular form across the whole +bed of the river, a distance of more than two thousand feet; and the +impetuous flood, conforming to this arrangement, in making its plunge, +with mountain weight, into the great horseshoe basin beneath, exhibits +a spectacle of the sublime, in geographical scenery, without, perhaps, +a parallel in nature. As I leaned from "Table Rock," and cast my eye +downward upon the billowy turbulence of the angry depth, where the +waters were tossing and whirling, coiling and springing, with the +energy of an earthquake, and a rapidity that almost mocked my vision, +I found the scene sufficient to appal a sterner spirit than mine; and +I was glad to turn away and relieve my mind by a sight of the +surrounding scenery; bays, islands, shores, and forests, everywhere +receding in due perspective. The rainbows of the "crescent" and +American side, which are only visible from the western bank of the +Niagara, and in the afternoon, seem to diminish somewhat from the +awfulness of the scene, and to give it an aspect of rich and mellow +grandeur, not unlike the bow of promise, throwing its assuring +radiance over the retiring waters of the deluge. + + + + +JAMES T. MOREHEAD + + +James Turner Morehead, Kentucky's most scholarly governor, was born +near Shepherdsville, Kentucky, May 24, 1797. He was prepared for +Transylvania University, Lexington, and there he studied from 1813 to +1815. He studied law under John J. Crittenden and, in 1818, entered +upon the practice at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ten years later Morehead +was in the Kentucky legislature, and he was returned for several +sessions. In 1832 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention which +nominated Henry Clay for the presidency; and while in Baltimore he +himself was nominated for lieutenant-governor of Kentucky, with John +Breathitt for governor. They were elected in August, 1832, but the +Governor died on February 21, 1834, and Morehead succeeded to his +office on the following day. He served until September, 1836. Upon the +expiration of his term, Governor Morehead resumed the practice of law +at Frankfort. He was elected United States Senator from Kentucky, in +1841, and he served until 1847. Senator Morehead was an attractive +public speaker, and when it was known in Washington that he was to +make a speech the galleries were usually well filled. After the +expiration of his term, he practiced law at Covington, Kentucky. +Senator Morehead had the most extensive collection of books and +manuscripts upon the history of Kentucky and the West of any man of +his day and generation. After his death, which occurred at Covington, +Kentucky, December 28, 1854, his library was purchased by the Young +Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati. Morehead's +_Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of Kentucky, at +Boonesborough_ (Frankfort, 1840, 181 pp.), rescued and preserved +numerous documents of great historical importance. In the preparation +of his great _History of the United States_, George Bancroft is said +to have relied upon this famous address of Morehead for much of his +information concerning the early history of the West. Morehead also +published _Practice and Proceedings at Law in Kentucky_ (1846). The +fine face of this scholar and statesman is one of Matthew Harris +Jouett's most luminous canvasses.[7] + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv); _National Cyclopaedia of American + Biography_ (New York, 1906, v. xiii). + + +JOHN FINLEY + + [From _An Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of + Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1840)] + +The first successful attempt to explore the Kentucky country was made by +John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, in 1767. He was attended +by a few companions, as adventurous as himself, whose names have escaped +the notice of history. They were evidently a party of hunters, and were +prompted to the bold and hazardous undertaking, for the purpose of +indulging in their favorite pursuits. Of Finley and his comrades, and of +the course and extent of their journey, little is now known. That they +were of the pure blood, and endowed with the genuine qualities, of the +pioneers, is manifestly undeniable. That they passed over the +Cumberland, and through the intermediate country to the Kentucky river, +and penetrated the beautiful valley of the Elkhorn, there are no +sufficient reasons to doubt. It is enough, however, to embalm their +memory in our hearts, and to connect their names with the imperishable +memorials of our early history, that they were the first adventurers +that plunged into the dark and enchanted wilderness of Kentucky--that of +all their contemporaries they saw her first--and saw her in the pride of +her virgin beauty--at the dawn of summer--in the fullness of her +vegetation--her soil, instinct with fertility, covered with the most +luxuriant verdure--the air perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, and +her tall forests looming in all their primeval magnificence. + +How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence of history does not +enable us to know. That his remains are now mingled with the soil that +he discovered, there is some reason to hope, for he conducted Boone to +Kentucky in 1769--and there the curtain drops upon him forever. It is +fit it should be raised. It is fit that justice, late and tardy that it +be, should be done to the memory of the first of the pioneers. And what +can be more appropriate, than that the first movement should be made for +the performance of such a duty, on the day of the commemoration of the +discovery and settlement of the Commonwealth? + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] Governor Morehead's widow, Mrs. L. M. Morehead, who died several +years ago, published a slender volume of verse, _Christmas Is Coming +and Other Poems for the "House Mother" and her Darlings_ +(Philadelphia, 1871). + + + + +LEWIS COLLINS + + +Lewis Collins, the Kentucky historian, was born near Lexington, +Kentucky, on Christmas Day, 1797. When a boy he entered the printing +office of Joel R. Lyle, editor of _The Paris Citizen_, where he worked +for more than a year as a printer. He removed to Mason county, +Kentucky, to become associate editor of the _Washington Union_. On +November 1, 1820, Lewis Collins purchased the _Maysville Eagle_, which +had been established six years prior to his purchase, and he made it +one of the best country newspapers ever published in Kentucky. In 1823 +he was married to a sister of Benjamin O. Peers, afterwards president +of Transylvania University. Collins was editor of the _Eagle_ for +twenty-seven years, when he retired in order to give his entire +attention to his _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_ (Maysville, 1847). +This was the first illustrated history of Kentucky, and easily the +most comprehensive that had appeared. The histories of Marshall and +Butler began at the beginning, but both concluded with the year of +1812, while Collins brought his work down to 1844. His was a mine of +historic lore, arranged in departments, and not altogether readable as +a continuous narrative. It was the foundation upon which his son, +Richard H. Collins, was later to build the most magnificent state +history ever published. Lewis Collins was presiding judge of the Mason +county court from 1851 to 1854. He was a just judge, a painstaking +chronicler of his people's past, and a fine type of Christian citizen. +Judge Collins died at Lexington, Kentucky, January 29, 1870. The +Kentucky legislature passed an appropriate resolution in which his +life was commended and his death deplored. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892); _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. + McElroy (New York, 1909). + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION + + [From _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_ (Maysville and Cincinnati, + 1847)] + +The late H. P. Peers, of the city of Maysville, laid the foundation +for the work which is now presented to the reading community. Mr. +Peers designed it to be simply a small _Gazetteer_ of the State; and +had collected, and partially arranged for publication, the major part +of the materials, comprising a description of the towns and counties. +Upon his decease, the materials passed into the hands of the Author, +who determined to remodel them, and make such additions as would give +permanency and increased value to the work. He has devoted much labor +to this object; but circumstances having rendered its publication +necessary at an earlier day than was contemplated, some errors may +have escaped, which more time, and a fuller investigation, would have +enabled him to detect. + +Serious obstacles have been encountered in the preparation of the +Biographical Sketches. Many of those which appear in the work, were +prepared from the personal recollections of the Author; while others +have been omitted because he did not know to whom he could apply for +them, or having applied, and in some instances repeatedly, failed in +procuring them. This is his apology for the non-appearance of many +names in that department which are entitled to a distinguished place +in the annals of Kentucky. + +In the preparation of the work, one design of the Author has been to +preserve, in a durable form, those rich fragments of local and +personal history, many of which exist, at present, only in the +ephemeral form of oral tradition, or are treasured up among the +recollections of the aged actors in the stirring scenes, the memory of +which is thus perpetuated. These venerable witnesses from a former +age, are rapidly passing away from our midst, and with them will be +buried the knowledge of much that is most interesting in the primitive +history of the commonwealth. It is from sources such as we have +mentioned, that the materials for the future historian are to be +drawn; and, like the scattered leaves of the Sybil, these frail +mementos of the past should be gathered up and preserved with +religious veneration. If the Author shall have succeeded, in thus +redeeming from oblivion any considerable or important portion of the +early history of the State, his design will be fully accomplished, and +his labor amply rewarded. + +Of all the members of this great republican confederacy, there is none +whose history is more rich in the variety, quality, and interest of +its materials. The poet, the warrior, and the statesman, can each find +subjects, the contemplation of which will instruct him in his art; and +to the general reader, it would, perhaps, be impossible to present a +field of more varied and attractive interest. + + + + +JULIA A. TEVIS + + +Mrs. Julia Ann (Hieronymous) Tevis, author of a delightful +autobiography, was born near Winchester, Kentucky, December 5, 1799. +When but seven years old her parents removed to Virginia, settling at +Winchester, and at the female academy of the town her education was +begun. In 1813 Miss Hieronymous's family removed to Georgetown, D. C., +where her education was continued under private teachers--"a +considerable portion of my time was devoted to music, drawing, and +French, with various kinds of embroidery." Two years later she was +placed in the finishing school of an English woman in Washington where +French and music continued to be her major subjects. Miss Hieronymous +completed her training at the school of Mrs. Stone in Washington when +nineteen years of age, and returned to her home to read and study. She +spent many hours at the Capital meeting and hearing most of the famous +men of her time. At the age of twenty years she became a school-ma'am at +Wytheville, Virginia, and the following sixty years of her life were +devoted to teaching. She later taught at Abingdon, Virginia, where she +united with the Methodist church, and where she was married on March 9, +1824, to Rev. John Tevis (1792-1861), a Kentucky Methodist preacher. +Mrs. Tevis desired to continue teaching, and upon her removal to her +husband's home at Shelbyville, Kentucky, she opened Science Hill +Academy. This famous old institution for the instruction of young +women--founded March 25, 1825, and the second Protestant female academy +established in the Mississippi Valley--has continued without +interruption until the present time. The remaining years of the +founder's life were filled with the school, her girls, her children, her +cares and perplexities. In 1875 the semi-centennial of the founding of +Science Hill was celebrated in a fitting manner. Some time later Mrs. +Tevis closed the manuscripts of her autobiography, entitled _Sixty Years +in a School-Room_ (Cincinnati, 1878), a large work of nearly five +hundred pages, in which the details of her splendid service are ably set +forth. Mrs. Tevis died at Shelbyville, Kentucky, April 21, 1880. Her +pupils erected a fitting monument to her memory. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Mrs. Tevis's life + is, of course, her autobiography; Annual Catalogues of Science Hill. + + +THE MAY QUEEN + + [From _Sixty Years in a School-Room_ (Cincinnati, 1878)] + +For many years we kept up the custom of crowning a "Rose Queen" in +May, and enjoying a holiday in the woods. Happily for the girls, I +greeted the return of the festival day with a gladness almost equal to +theirs, for I retained enough of the freshness of youth in my heart to +enable me to participate with zest in the joys of childhood. + +"Once upon a time," after a long severe Winter, followed by a Spring +of unusual beauty, it was determined to celebrate the day with great +rejoicings. The girls were wild with delight at the prospect of a +whole day's release from slates, books, and blackboards--a charming +episode in the drudgery of their everyday life. Ah, happy children! to +whom every glimpse of nature is beautiful, and every blade of grass a +marvel! Give them ever so small a bit of green meadow checkered with +sunshine and shade upon which to revel among buttercups and daisies, +and "little they'll reck" how the world goes on. + +There was but little opportunity for canvassing or intrigue in the +election of Queen. Fanny Henning was chosen by acclamation as best +fitted to grace the regal authority. Fanny possessed a mind and a +character as transparent as a clear brook. Her ingenuous face, her +self-forgetting and amiable bearing towards her companions made her the +loved and cherished of them all. She also held a distinguished place in +the estimation of her teachers for superior excellence, dutiful +affection, and modest deportment. Thus it was universally conceded that +"Fair-handed Spring" might well resign to Fanny her sovereignty for one +day over the brilliant treasures of garden, glade, and forest, awakened +into life and brightened into beauty by her magic wand. + +The rosy hours followed each other in quick succession until within a +few days of the anticipated time, when lo! the "queen elect" broke out +with measles. The whole school was filled with dismay, bitter tears of +disappointment were shed by some; others predicted that she would be +well enough to go through the ceremony. Fanny, uniting in their +hopeful aspirations, prepared her coronation speech and rehearsed it +to perfection, for, though confined to her room, she was not really +ill. On the eve of the appointed day, however, the doctor pronounced +her too feeble to endure the fatigue. What was to be done? The +trophies of many loyal hearts were ready to be laid at the feet of the +queen. Spirit hands seemed dispensing blessings, and guardian angels +extending their wings over these healthful, happy girls as they +diligently wrought sparkling wreaths and arranged beautiful bouquets. + +The banners were prepared, the white dresses were trimmed with +evergreen. The Seasons, the maids of honor, and all the officials were +in waiting, but "_Hamlet_" could not be left out of the play. One +modest little girl, after listening in silence to the suggestions of +the others, raised her eyes to my face and said hesitatingly: + +"Can't Emma Maxwell be queen in Fanny's place?" + +"Oh, no!" said another; "she could not possibly learn the speech in +time." + +"No, indeed!" exclaimed several voices at once, "that would be +impossible; but she might read it." + +"Yes, yes! let her read it; the queen's speeches are read in +Parliament!" + +"Will you accept the proposition?" said I, turning to Emma. + +"I think I can learn it," she replied, "and will try if you wish it." + +The coronation was to take place the next morning at ten o'clock. A +previous rehearsal would be impossible; but what Emma proudly +determined to do was generously accomplished. + +The evening star looked out bright and clear in the blue deep, +thrilling the hearts of these young girls with the prospect of a +pleasant morrow. + +Most of them were stirring before sunrise. "Is it clear?" "Are we +going?" And from every room issued the sound of cheerful voices; and +then such shouts, such hurrying and bathing and dressing as was seldom +known before. + +Ten o'clock came, and the yard, where the temporary throne was +erected, was soon filled with spectators and invited guests, mingling +with the children and participating in their pleasure. The proxy queen +bore her blushing honors meekly, going through all the coronation +ceremonies with a charming dignity. She stood Calypso-like among her +train of attendants in full view of the audience who listened in +breathless silence to her address. I watched her closely; she seemed +to plant her feet firmly, as if to still the beatings of her heart; no +gesture except a gentle motion of the right arm as she swayed her +scepter majestically around, her eyes steadily fixed upon some object +beyond, with which she seemed completely absorbed. Not a word was +misplaced, not a sentence omitted, of a speech long enough for a +Parliamentary harangue. No one prompted, nor did she once turn her +eyes toward the scroll she held in her left hand. Enthusiastic and +excessive were the rejoicings of her juvenile auditors. + +Fanny witnessed the whole ceremony through a convenient window which +framed for her a living picture of ineffable beauty, and on this clear +day, with only a few white Spring clouds floating over the bluest of +skies, it was a sight of earth that makes one understand heaven. + +The Seasons followed in quick succession, proffering homage to the +queen; then came the "rosy Hours" with their sweet-toned voices, and +the ceremony was completed by a few words from "Fashion and Modesty," +the latter gently pushing the former aside, and casting a veil over +the burning blushes of the queen. The address being finished, queen +and attendants walked in procession to a grove that skirted the town, +where beauty filled the eye, and singing birds warbled sweet music. +When tired of play, a more substantial entertainment was provided. +Group after group spread the white cloth on the soft green turf, and +surrounded the plentiful repast, gratefully acknowledging the Hand +that supplies our wants from day to day. He who called our attention +to the "lilies of the field," stamps a warrant of sacredness upon our +rejoicings, in all that he has made. + +There was something very remarkable in the quickness and facility with +which Emma Maxwell memorized the queen's speech. She was a girl of +more than ordinary vivacity, of a highly imaginative, impressionable +nature, and seemed to have the gift of bewitching all who knew her. +She occupied a commanding position in her class as a good reciter, but +I had not hitherto noticed any great facility in memorizing. I called +her the next day, and asked her to recite the piece to me alone. She +stared rather vacantly at me, and said: + +"I can not remember a sentence of it." + +"What! when you repeated it with so much facility yesterday! explain +yourself." + +"I do not know how it is," she replied, "that though I can learn with +the utmost precision, mechanically, whatever I choose, in a short +time, yet under such circumstances my memory has not the power of +retention. If my train of repetition had been interrupted for one +moment yesterday, I should have failed utterly." + +"What were you looking at so intently the whole time?" + +"I was looking at certain objects about the yard and house in +connection with which I had studied the speech the evening before." + +"Yes; but you certainly can repeat some portion of it to me?" + +"Not one sentence connectedly; it has all passed from my mind like a +shadow on the wall." + +Yet she was a girl of good judgment, read much, talked well, and +possessed in an eminent degree the indispensable requisite of a good +memory--power of attention. + + + + +ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE + + +Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, LL.D., one of Kentucky's most prolific +writers for the public prints, was born at Cabell's Dale, near +Lexington, Kentucky, March 8, 1800. He was the son of John +Breckinridge, President Jefferson's Attorney-General. He studied at +Princeton and Yale, and was graduated from Union College in 1819. +Breckinridge then read law and was admitted to the Lexington, +Kentucky, bar in 1823. He practiced law for eight years, during part +of which time he was a member of the Kentucky legislature. Realizing +that Kentucky would oppose the emancipation of the slaves, in which he +heartily believed, Breckinridge decided to quit the law and politics +for the church. He studied theology and became pastor of the Second +Presbyterian church in Baltimore, which pastorate he held for thirteen +years. In 1845 Dr. Breckinridge was elected president of Jefferson +College (now Washington and Jefferson College), at Washington, +Pennsylvania, but two years later he resigned the presidency of the +college in order to accept the pastorate of the First Presbyterian +church of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1848 Dr. Breckinridge was elected +superintendent of public instruction of Kentucky; and in 1853 he +became professor of theology in the Danville Theological Seminary, +which position he held until his death. He was chairman of the +Baltimore national convention of 1864 which nominated Abraham Lincoln +for the presidency. Dr. Breckinridge's writings include _Travels in +France, Germany_, etc. (Philadelphia, 1839); _Popery in the XIX. +Century in the United States_ (1841); _Memoranda of Foreign Travel_ +(Baltimore, 1845); _The Internal Evidence of Christianity_ (1852); +_The Knowledge of God Objectively Considered_ (New York, 1858); and +_The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered_ (New York, 1859). These +two last named works, of enormous proportions, are Dr. Breckinridge's +greatest theological and literary productions. He also published +_Kentucky School Reports_ (1848-1853). While a resident of Baltimore +he was one of the editors of _The Literary and Religious Magazine_, +and of its successor, _The Spirit of the Nineteenth Century_, in both +of which publications he carried on many bitter and never-ending +discussions with the Roman Catholics concerning theological and +historical questions. He was also editor of _The Danville Quarterly +Review_ for several years. A complete collection of Dr. Breckinridge's +books, debates, articles, and pamphlets, upon slavery, temperance, +Popery, Universalism, Presbyterianism, education, agriculture, and +politics, would form a five-foot shelf of books. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1887, v. i). + + +SANCTIFICATION + + [From _The Knowledge of God Subjectively Considered_ (New York, + 1859)] + +The completeness of the Plan of Salvation seems to be absolute. The +adaptedness of all its parts to each other, and to their own special +end--and the adaptedness of the whole and of every part, to the great +end of all, the eradication of sin and misery; exhibits a subject, the +greatest, the most intricate, and the most remote of all in a manner so +precise and clear; that the sacred Scriptures, even if they had no grace +and no mercy to offer to us personally, might justly challenge the very +highest place as the most stupendous monument of sublime and successful +thought. What then ought we to think of them, when all this glorious +intelligence is merely tributary to our salvation? The end of this +infinite completeness, only to pour into our polluted and thoughtless +hearts, inexhaustible supplies of grace--that we may be extricated from +a condition utterly hopeless without that grace ... and be brought to a +condition unspeakably blessed to us and glorious to God? Yet this is the +overwhelming conclusion to which every just consideration of them +forces us to come; the conclusion to which the imperfect disclosure +which has now been attempted, of a single point in this divine system, +wholly compels us. In this deep conviction, therefore, and as the +conclusion of all that has now been advanced, I venture to define, that +Sanctification is a benefit of the Covenant of Redemption--being a work +of grace, on the part of the triune God, wherein the elect who have been +Effectually Called, Regenerated, Justified, and Adopted, are, through +the virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, by the indwelling of +the Word and Spirit, through the use of the divine ordinances, and by +the power of God with them, enabled more and more to die unto sin, to be +renewed in the spirit of their mind, and to live unto righteousness, in +an increasing conformity to the image of God, to his great Glory, and +their growth in holiness. + + + + +CAROLINE L. HENTZ + + +Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, novelist, was born at Lancaster, +Massachusetts, June 1, 1800. When twenty-four years of age she was +married to N. M. Hentz, a Frenchman, then associated with George +Bancroft in conducting the Round Hill School at Northampton, +Massachusetts. Two years after her marriage her husband was elected to +the chair of modern languages in the University of North Carolina, and +this position he held until 1830, when he removed to Covington, +Kentucky, where he and his wife conducted a private school. Covington +was the birthplace of Mrs. Hentz's first literary work. The directors +of the Arch Street theatre, Philadelphia, had offered a prize of five +hundred dollars for the best original tragedy founded on the conquest +of the Moors in Spain, and Mrs. Hentz submitted _De Lara, or, the +Moorish Bride_, which was awarded first place, but the prize was never +paid the author. _De Lara_ was later published and successfully +produced on the stage. This encouraged Mrs. Hentz to write another +tragedy, entitled _Lamorah, or, the Western Wild_, a tragedy of Indian +life, which was staged in Cincinnati and published at Columbus, +Georgia. Her _Constance of Werdenberg_ was written at Covington. After +two years at Covington, Mrs. Hentz crossed the Ohio river and opened a +school at Cincinnati. Her novel, _Lovell's Folly_, was written there. +In 1834 she removed to Alabama, and this State was her home for the +subsequent fourteen years. Her first widely successful novel, _Aunt +Patty's Scrap-Bag_ (Philadelphia, 1846) was followed by her generally +accepted masterpiece, _Linda, or, the Young Pilot of the Belle Creole_ +(1850). Now came in rapid succession her other works: _Rena, or, the +Snow Bird_ (1851); _Marcus Warland_ (1852); _Eoline_; _Wild Jack_; +_Helen and Arthur_; _Ugly Effie_; _The Planter's Northern Bride_ +(1854); _Love after Marriage_ (1854); _The Banished Son; Robert +Graham_ (1856); and _Ernest Lynwood_ (1856), her last book and by some +critics regarded as her best. Mrs. Hentz began her literary work in +Kentucky, as indicated above, and, though the claim of Kentucky is +rather slender upon her it is, nevertheless, legitimate. She died at +Marianna, Florida, February 11, 1856. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iii); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + Georgia, 1909, v. vi). + + +BESIDE THE LONG MOSS SPRING + + [From _Marcus Warland_ (1852)] + +Marcus sat beside the Long Moss Spring, the morning sun-beams glancing +through the broad leaves of the magnolia and the brilliant foliage of +the holly, and playing on his golden hair. He held in his hand a +fishing-rod, whose long line floated on the water; and though his eye +was fixed on the buoyant cork, there was no hope or excitement in its +gaze. His face was pale and wore a severe expression, very different +from the usual joyousness and thoughtlessness of childhood. Even when +the silvery trout and shining perch, lured by the bait, hung +quivering on the hook, and were thrown, fluttering like wounded birds +through the air, to fall panting, then pulseless, at his side, he +showed no consciousness of success, no elation at the number of his +scaly victims. Tears, even, large and slowly gathering tears, rolled +gradually and reluctantly down his fair oval cheeks; they were not +like the sudden, drenching shower, that leaves the air purer and the +sky bluer, but the drops that issue from the wounded bark formed of +the life-blood of the tree. + +Beautiful was the spot where the boy sat, and beautiful the vernal +morning that awakened Nature to the joy and the beauty of youth. The +fountain, over whose basin he was leaning, was one of those clear, +deep, pellucid springs, that gush up in the green wilds of southern +Georgia, forming a feature of such exquisite loveliness in the +landscape, that the traveler pauses on the margin, feeling as if he +had found one of those enchanted springs of which we read in fairy +land, whose waters are too bright, too pure, too serene for earth. + +The stone which formed the basin of the fountain was smooth and +calcareous, hollowed out by the friction of the waters, and gleaming +white and cold through their diaphanous drapery. In the centre of this +basin, where the spring gushed in all its depth and strength, it was +so dark it looked like an opaque body, impervious to the eye, whence +it flowed over the edge of its rocky receptacle in a full, rejoicing +current, sweeping over its mossy bed, and bearing its sounding tribute +to the Chattahoochee, "rolling rapidly." The mossy bed to which we +have alluded was not the verdant velvet that covers with a short, +curling nap the ancient rock and the gray old tree, but long, slender, +emerald-green plumes, waving under the water, and assuming through its +mirror a tinge of deep and irradiant blue. Nothing can be imagined +more rich and graceful than this carpet for the fountain's silvery +tread, and which seems to bend beneath it, as the light spray rustling +in the breeze. The golden water-lily gleamed up through the crystal, +and floated along the margin on its long and undulating stems. + + + + +JOHN P. DURBIN + + +John Price Durbin, Seventh President of Dickinson College, was born +near Paris, Kentucky, October 10, 1800. He was apprenticed to a +cabinet-maker in Paris, and the meager wages he received were invested +in books. In 1819 Durbin became a Methodist circuit-rider. He +afterwards studied at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and was +graduated from Cincinnati College in 1825. In the fall of that year he +became professor of languages in Augusta College, Augusta, Kentucky, +and he occupied the chair until 1831, when he was elected chaplain of +the United States Senate. In the next year Dr. Durbin was elected +professor of natural sciences in Wesleyan University, Middletown, +Connecticut, He remained at Wesleyan but one year, when he was chosen +editor of the New York _Christian Advocate and Journal_. In 1834 +Editor Durbin became President Durbin of Dickinson College, Carlisle, +Pennsylvania. He is regarded as the greatest head the college has ever +known. During vacations Dr. Durbin traveled extensively in Europe and +the Orient, and these journeys are best preserved in his books. In the +1844 General Conference of the Methodist church he was in the thickest +of the great fight over the slavery question; and in the following +year he resigned as president of Dickinson, after more than ten years +of distinguished success in the management of the ancient college. He +now returned to the active pastorate, taking charge of the Union +Methodist church in Philadelphia. From 1850 to 1872 Dr. Durbin was +secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, in the interest of +which he visited Europe in 1867. He raised many millions of dollars +for foreign missions while he was in charge of the society. He was the +founder of foreign missions in Bulgaria. Dr. Durbin was an eloquent +and persuasive preacher, an able administrator, and during the latter +years of his life he wielded a wonderful influence in the Methodist +church. He died at New York City, October 17, 1876. His works include +_Observations in Europe_ (New York, 1844, 2 vols.); _Observations in +Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor_ (New York, 1845, 2 vols.); +and he edited the American edition of Wood's _Mosaic History of the +Creation_ (New York, 1831). Dr. Durbin was a rather prolific +contributor to religious and secular periodicals. His _Observations in +Europe_ is the best literary work he did. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. ii). + + +IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON + + [From _Observations in Europe_ (New York, 1844, v. ii)] + +The first impression of London is usually wonder at its _immensity_. I +received this impression in its full force, as the reader will have +already perceived, in coming up the Thames. Nor did it diminish in the +course of my rambles through the great metropolis, subsequently. When +the stranger first leaves the river, and plunges into the thronged +streets, he absolutely becomes dizzy in the whirl of busy life around +him. Men sweep by him in _masses_; at times the way seems wedged with +them: wagons, carts, omnibuses, hacks, and coaches block up the avenues, +and make it quite an enterprise to cross them. Every day my amazement +increased at the extent, the activity, the wealth of London. The +impression was totally different from that of Paris. The French capital +strikes you as the seat of human enjoyment. You find the art of life, so +far as mere physical good is concerned, in perfection there. No wish +need be ungratified. Your taste may be gratified with the finest music, +the most fascinating spectacles, the most splendid works of art in the +world. You may eat and drink when and where you please; in half an hour, +almost any delicacy that earth has produced or art invented is set +before you. You may spend days and weeks in visiting her museums, her +hospitals, her gardens, her cemeteries, her libraries, her palaces, and +yet remain unsatisfied. In London everything is different. Men are +active, but it is in pursuit of wealth. In general they do not seem to +enjoy life. The arts are cultivated to a small extent by a small class +of society; the mass seem hardly to know that arts exist. No splendid +collections are open, without fee or reward, to the public, or to you. +You can purchase gratification, but of a lower order than in Paris, and +at a higher price. Except a few _lions_--the Docks, the Tunnel, +Westminster Abbey, _&c._--nearly everything that the city has to show to +a stranger can be seen as you ride along the streets. When you leave +Paris you have just begun to enjoy it, and desire to return again; you +leave London convinced, indeed, of its vastness and wealth, but tired of +gazing at dingy buildings and thronged streets, and are satisfied +without another visit. Such, at least, were my own impressions. Apart +from private friendships and professional interests, I have no care to +see London again. + + + + +FORTUNATUS COSBY, Jr. + + +Fortunatus Cosby, Junior, poet and editor, the son of a distinguished +lawyer, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, May 2, 1801. He was +educated at Yale and Transylvania, then studied law, but, like so many +literary men have done, never practiced. Cosby was a passionate lover +of books, and most of his life was spent among his collection. He was +wealthy and well able to indulge his taste to any extreme. His +kinsman, President Thomas Jefferson, offered to make him secretary of +the legation at London, but he declined. Cosby was some years later +superintendent of the Philadelphia public schools, and a contributor +to _Graham's Magazine_, as well as to other high-class periodicals. In +1846 he was editor of the Louisville _Examiner_, the first Kentucky +paper devoted to emancipation of the slaves. In 1860 Cosby was +appointed consul to Geneva, and the next eight years of his life were +devoted to his diplomatic duties and to traveling. He returned to the +United States in 1868, and to his old home near Louisville. There +death found him in June, 1871. Several of his friends, which included +William Cullen Bryant, Rufus W. Griswold, and George D. Prentice, +often urged Cosby to collect his verse and bring it together in a +volume, but he was "too careless of his fame to do it;" and "many +waifs he from time to time contributed to the periodicals," are now +lost to the general public. He is, of course, well represented in all +of the anthologies of American poetry, but a collection of his +writings should be made. Cosby's best work is to be seen in his +_Fireside Fancies_, _Ode to the Mocking Bird_, _The Traveler in the +Desert_, and _A Dream of Long Ago_. He has often been pronounced the +best song writer this country has produced; and that he was a man of +fine culture, an ardent lover of books and Nature, and a maker of +charming and exquisite verse can be readily proved. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by + Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892). + + +FIRESIDE FANCIES + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + By the dim and fitful firelight + Musing all alone, + Memories of old companions + Dead, or strangers grown;-- + Books that we have read together, + Rambles in sweet summer weather, + Thoughts released from earthly tether-- + Fancy made my own. + + In my cushioned arm-chair sitting + Far into the night, + Sleep, with leaden wings extinguished + All the flickering light; + But, the thoughts that soothed me waking, + Care, and grief, and pain forsaking, + Still the self-same path were taking-- + Pilgrims, still in sight. + + Indistinct and shadowy phantoms + Of the sacred dead, + Absent faces bending fondly + O'er my drooping head, + In my dreams were woven quaintly, + Dim at first, but calm and saintly, + As the stars that glimmer faintly + From their misty bed. + + Presently a lustrous brightness + Eye could scarce behold, + Gave to my enchanted vision + Looks no longer cold, + Features that no clouds encumber, + Forms refreshed by sweetest slumber, + And, of all that blessed number, + Only one was old. + + Graceful were they as the willow + By the zephyr stirred! + Bright as childhood when expecting + An approving word! + Fair as when from earth they faded, + Ere the burnished brow was shaded, + Or, the hair with silver braided, + Or lament was heard. + + Roundabout in silence moving + Slowly to and fro-- + Life-like as I knew and loved them + In their spring-time glow;-- + Beaming with a loving luster, + Close, and closer still they cluster + Round my chair that radiant muster, + Just as long ago. + + Once, the aged, breathing comfort + O'er my fainting cheek, + Whispered words of precious meaning + Only she could speak; + Scarce could I my rapture smother, + For I knew it was my mother, + And to me there was no other + Saint-like and so meek! + + Then the pent-up fount of feeling + Stirred its inmost deep-- + Brimming o'er its frozen surface + From its guarded keep, + On my heart its drops descending, + And for one glad moment lending + Dreams of Joy's ecstatic blending, + Blessed my charmed sleep. + + Bright and brighter grew the vision + With each gathering tear, + Till the past was all before me + In its radiance clear; + And again we read at even-- + Hoped, beneath the summer heaven, + Hopes that had no bitter leaven, + No disturbing fear. + + All so real seemed each presence, + That one word I spoke-- + Only one of old endearment + That dead silence broke. + But the angels who were keeping + Stillest watch while I was sleeping, + Left me o'er the embers weeping-- + Fled when I awoke. + + But, as ivy clings the greenest + On abandoned walls; + And as echo lingers sweetest + In deserted halls:-- + Thus, the sunlight that we borrow + From the past to gild our sorrow, + On the dark and dreaded morrow + Like a blessing falls. + + + + +THOMAS F. MARSHALL + + +Thomas Francis Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator and advocate, was +born at Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, 1801. He was the son of Dr. Louis +Marshall, a brother of the great chief justice, and sometime president +of Washington College (Washington and Lee University). "Tom" Marshall, +to give him the name by which he was known throughout the South and +West, was educated by private tutors, studied law under John J. +Crittenden, and began the practice at Versailles, Kentucky. From 1832 to +1836 he was a member of the Kentucky legislature, and his speeches in +that body, as well as in other places, brought him a great reputation as +a brilliant and witty orator. The habit of drink was fastening itself +upon him, however, and this retarded his progress in the world. Marshall +was elected to Congress from the old Ashland district in 1840, and in +that body he always bitterly opposed most measures proposed by Henry +Clay, whom he afterwards eloquently eulogized. In 1841 his distinguished +friend, Richard H. Menefee, the Kentucky orator, died, and Marshall +delivered his celebrated eulogy upon him. This address, given before the +Law Society of Transylvania University, was the greatest effort of his +life. It has been pronounced the finest speech of its character yet +made in America. Marshall served in the Mexican War with no great degree +of gallantry; and in 1850 he opposed the third Kentucky Constitution, +then in the making, through a paper which he edited and called the _Old +Guard_. "Tom" Marshall joined many temperance societies, and delivered +many temperance speeches, but he always violated his pledge and returned +to the old paths of drink. He was the great wit of his day and +generation in Kentucky, if not, indeed, in the whole country. His +stories are related to-day by persons who think them of recent origin. +Marshall was counsel in many noted trials in the South and West, and his +arguments to the jury were logical and eloquent. His speech in the +famous Matt. Ward trial is, perhaps, his master effort before a jury. In +1856 Marshall removed to Chicago, but he shortly afterwards returned to +Kentucky. In 1858-1859 he delivered lectures upon historical subjects in +various cities of the United States. The Civil War failed to interest +him at all, but he was broken in health at the time, and preparing +himself for the long journey which was fast pressing upon him. "Tom" +Marshall died near Versailles, Kentucky, September 22, 1864. To-day he +sleeps amid a clump of trees in a Blue Grass meadow near the little town +of his triumphs and of his failures--Versailles. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_, + edited by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); _Thomas F. Marshall_, by + Charles Fennell (_The Green Bag_, Boston, July, 1907). + + +TEMPERANCE: AN ADDRESS + + [From _Speeches and Writings of Hon. Thomas F. Marshall_, edited + by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858)] + +Mr. President, we of the "Total Abstinence and Vigilance Society," in +our meetings at the other end of the city [Washington] are so much in +the habit of "telling experiences," that I myself have somewhat fallen +into it, and am guilty occasionally of the egotism of making some small +confessions (as small as I can possibly make them). Mine, then, sir, was +a different case. I had earned a most unenviable notoriety by excesses +which, though bad enough, did not half reach the reputation they won for +me. I never was an habitual drunkard. I was one of your spreeing gentry. +My sprees, however, began to crowd each other and my best friends feared +that they would soon run together. Perhaps my long intervals of entire +abstinence--perhaps something peculiar in my form, constitution, or +complexion--may have prevented the physical indications, so usual, of +that terrible disease, which, till temperance societies arose, was +deemed incurable and resistless. Perhaps I had nourished the vanity to +believe that nature had endowed me with a versatility which enabled me +to throw down and take up at pleasure any pursuit, and I chose to sport +with the gift. If so, I was brought to the very verge of a fearful +punishment. Physicians tell us that intemperance at last becomes, of +itself, not a habit voluntarily indulged, but a disease which its victim +cannot resist. I had not become fully the subject of that fiendish +thirst, that horrible yearning after the distillation "from the alembick +of hell," which is said to scorch in the throat, and consume the vitals +of the confirmed drunkard, with fires kindled for eternity. I did become +alarmed, and for the first time, no matter from what cause, lest the +demon's fangs were fastening upon me, and I was approaching that line +which separates the man who frolics, and can quit, from the lost +inebriate, whose appetite is disease, and whose will is dead. I joined +the society on my own account, and felt that I must encounter the title +of "reformed drunkard," annoying enough to me, I assure you. I judged, +from the cruel publicity given through the press to my frolics, what I +had to bear and brave. But I did brave it all; and I would have dared +anything to break the chain which I at last discovered was riveting my +soul, to unclasp the folds of that serpent-habit whose full embrace is +death. Letters from people I never had heard of, newspaper paragraphs +from Boston to New Orleans were mailed, and are still mailing to me, by +which I am very distinctly, and in the most friendly and agreeable +manner, apprised that I enjoyed all over the delectable reputation of a +sot, with one foot in the grave, and understanding almost totally +overthrown. I doubt not, sir, that the societies who have invited me to +address them at different places in the Union, will expect to find me +with an unhealed carbuncle on my nose, and my body of the graceful and +manly shape and proportion of a demijohn. I have dared all these +annoyances, all this celebrity. I have not shrunk from being a text for +temperance preachers, and a case for the outpouring of the sympathies of +people who have more philanthropy than politeness, more temperance than +taste. I signed the pledge on my own account, sir, and my heart leaped +to find that I was free. The chain has fallen from my freeborn limbs; +not a link or fragment remains to tell I ever wore the badge of +servitude. + + + + +JEFFERSON J. POLK + + +Jefferson J. Polk, an eccentric clergyman, physician, and writer, was +born near Georgetown, Kentucky, March 10, 1802. He spent his young +manhood as a printer on the _Georgetown Patriot_, and the _Kentucky +Gazette_. In 1822 Polk joined the Lexington Temperance Society, and he +continued steadfast in the cause until his death. He subsequently +united with the Methodist church of Lexington, and married; but he +continued to work as a journeyman-printer until 1826, when he removed +to Danville, Kentucky, where he purchased and became editor of _The +Olive Branch_, a weekly newspaper. This he conducted for several +years, when he disposed of it in order to become an agent for the +American Colonization Society. Polk held that emancipation with +colonization in Liberia or elsewhere was the only proper and just +solution of the slavery question. The awful Asiatic cholera reached +Danville in 1833--as it did nearly a dozen other Kentucky towns--and +Polk played his part in the battle which was waged against it. A short +time later he became a Methodist circuit-rider, but, in 1839, he went +to Lexington to study medicine at Transylvania Medical School. In the +following year Dr. Polk removed to Perryville, Kentucky, some miles +from Danville, and this was his future home. Here he practiced +medicine and preached the Gospel for the next twenty years. In 1860 he +supported John Bell of Tennessee for president, but, when Lincoln was +elected, he became a strong Union man. The battle of Perryville +(October 8, 1862), the greatest battle ever fought upon Kentucky soil, +was waged before the good doctor's very door. He converted his house +into a hospital, and himself acted as surgeon of a field hospital. +After the war he was postmaster of Perryville and claim agent for +Union soldiers. At the age of sixty-five years, this eccentric old man +published one of the literary curiosities of Kentucky literature, yet +withal a work of real interest and much first-hand information. The +little volume was entitled _Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk, to which +is added his occasional writings and biographies of worthy men and +women of Boyle County, Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1867). From the +frontispiece portrait the author looks fiercely out at the reader, a +real son of thunder. Besides the autobiography of Dr. Polk the volume +contains sketches of men, women, and places, fables, proverbs, +sermons, woman's rights, a ghost story, "love powders," reflections of +an old man, biographies of a group of the doctor's parishioners--all +crowded into the 254 pages of this book. Dr. Polk died at Perryville, +Kentucky, May 23, 1881. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The chief authority for the facts of Dr. Polk's life + is, of course, his _Autobiography_; _History of Kentucky_, by R. + H. Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882). + + +THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS + + [From _Autobiography of Dr. J. J. Polk_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1867)] + +In the early settlement of Kentucky, when the Indians still roved +through our dense forests, plundering and murdering the white +inhabitants, three men left Harrod's Station to search for their +horses that had strayed off. They pursued their trail through the rich +pea-vine and cane, that everywhere abounded, for many miles. +Frequently on their route they saw signs that a party of Indians were +in their vicinity, hence they took every step cautiously. Thus they +traveled all day. Toward night they were many miles from home, but +they continued their search until darkness and a cold rain that began +to fall drove them to take shelter in an old deserted log cabin, +thickly surrounded by cane and matted over with grape-vines. After +they had gained this pleasant retreat they held a consultation, and +agreed not to strike a fire, as the Indians, if any in the +neighborhood, knew the location of the cabin, and, like themselves, +might take shelter in it, and murder or expel the white intruders. +Finally, the three now in possession, concluded to ascend into the +loft of the cabin, the floor of which was clap-boards, resting upon +round poles. In their novel position they lay down quietly side by +side, each man holding his trusty rifle in his arms. Thus arranged, +they awaited the results of the night. + +They had not been in their perilous position long when six well-armed +Indians entered the cabin, placed their guns and other implements of +warfare in one corner of the house, struck a light, and began to make +the usual demonstrations of joy on such occasions. One of our heroes +wished to know the number of the Indians--he was the middle man of the +three, and was lying on his back--and, as hilarity and mirth "grew +thick and fast" among the Indians, he attempted to turn over and get a +peep at things below. His comrades caught him on each side to keep him +from turning over, and, in the struggle, one of the poles broke, and +with a tremendous crash the clap-boards and the three men fell in the +midst of the Indians, who with a loud yell of terror fled from the +house, leaving their guns, and never returned. + +The three men who had thus made a miraculous escape from the savage +foe, remained all night in quiet possession of the cabin, and in the +morning returned to the station with their trophies. Whenever the +three heroes met in after life they laughed over their strange +deliverance, and what they called "The Battle of the Boards." + + + + +GEORGE D. PRENTICE + + +George Dennison Prentice, poet, editor, wit, and founder of the +_Journal School of Female Poets_, was born at Preston, Connecticut, +December 18, 1802. In the fall of 1820 Prentice entered the Sophomore +class of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, where one of his +instructors was Horace Mann, and among his classmates was Samuel G. +Howe. At college he was famous for his prodigious memory. Prentice was +graduated from Brown in 1823, after which he taught school for some +time. He next turned to the law, but this he also abandoned to enter +upon his life work--journalism. In 1827 he became editor of a paper in +New London, Connecticut, but in the following year he went to Hartford +to take charge of the _New England Review_, which "was the Louisville +_Journal_, born in Connecticut." In 1830 the Connecticut Whigs +requested Prentice to journey to Kentucky and prepare a campaign life +of Henry Clay. He finally decided to do this, naming John Greenleaf +Whittier, the good Quaker poet, as his successor in the editorial +chair of _The Review_, and setting out at once upon his long +pilgrimage to Lexington. He dashed off his biography of the statesman +in a few months, and it greatly pleased the Whigs of his State, but +Prentice had decided to remain in Kentucky. He went to Louisville, and +on November 24, 1830, the first issue of the _Louisville Journal_ +appeared, and George D. Prentice had at last come into his very own. +His pungent paragraphs made the "Yankee schoolmaster" feared by +editors in the remotest corners of the country, but more especially by +Shadrach Penn, editor of the _Louisville Advertiser_, the Democratic +organ, as the _Journal_ was the Whig organ. After a constant warfare +of more than ten years, poor Penn capitulated, and removed to +Missouri. Prentice found another foe worthy of his steel in John H. +Harney, editor of the Louisville _Daily Democrat_, but the battle of +the wits between them was not as keen as it was between him and Penn. +Prentice survived both editors and wrote exquisite eulogies upon them! +He also had many personal encounters, which his biographer, Mr. John +James Piatt, the Ohio poet, declines to dignify with the term of +"duel." His pistol "brush" with Col Reuben T. Durrett, the Kentucky +historical writer and collector, was, perhaps, his most serious +affair. And the colonel lived to write a fine tribute to him, which +was turning the tables upon him just a bit! Prentice's home in +Louisville was the center of the city's literary life for many years. +His wife was a charming and cultured woman, in every way fitted to +assist him. A volume of his witty paragraphs, called by the +publishers, _Prenticeana_ (New York, 1859), attracted attention in +London and Paris, and in all parts of the United States. Next to Whig +politics, the _Journal_ was the literary newspaper of the country. All +Western and Southern poets were welcomed to its columns, particularly +were female poets "featured," and upon them all Prentice poured out +indiscriminate praise, which may or may not have been good for them or +for the public. At any rate, he never failed to send a kindly letter +to each new "discovery," in which their work already submitted was +extravagantly valued, and in which they were urged to flood the office +with more of the same kind. His praise of Amelia B. Welby, the +sentimental singer of the long ago, seems indefensible to-day. As a +poet himself Prentice was a master of blank verse forms. Mr. Piatt put +him next to Bryant among American poets in the handling of this +difficult measure. _The Closing Year_, written in 1835, is undoubtedly +his finest poem; and _At My Mother's Grave_ is usually set beside it. +Although his sons, wife, and most of his friends sympathized with the +South in the war of Sections, Prentice was always an ardent advocate +of the Union cause. He died near Louisville, on the banks of the Ohio +river, January 22, 1870. Henry Watterson delivered an eulogy upon him, +and snugly adjusted his mantle about his own shoulders. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poems of George D. Prentice_, edited by John J. + Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878); _The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. + H. Perrin (Louisville, 1888). + + +THE CLOSING YEAR + + [From _The Poems of George D. Prentice, edited with a Biographical + Sketch_, by John J. Piatt (Cincinnati, 1878, 4th Edition)] + + 'Tis midnight's holy hour--and silence now + Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er + The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds + The bell's deep notes are swelling. 'Tis the knell + Of the departed Year. + + No funeral train + Is sweeping past; yet on the stream and wood, + With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest, + Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred, + As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud, + That floats so still and placidly through heaven, + The spirits of the seasons seem to stand-- + Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, + And Winter with his aged locks--and breathe + In mournful cadences, that come abroad + Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail, + A melancholy dirge o'er the dead Year, + Gone from the earth forever. + + 'Tis a time + For memory and for tears. Within the deep, + Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, + Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, + Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold + And solemn finger to the beautiful + And holy visions that have passed away + And left no shadow of their loveliness + On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts + The coffin-lid of hope, and joy, and love, + And, bending mournfully above the pale + Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers + O'er what has passed to nothingness. + + The Year + Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng + Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow, + Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course, + It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful, + And they are not. It laid its pallid hand + Upon the strong man, and the haughty form + Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. + It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged + The bright and joyous, and the tearful wail + Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song + And reckless shout resounded. It passed o'er + The battle-plain, where sword and spear and shield + Flashed in the light of midday--and the strength + Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass, + Green from the soil of carnage, waves above + The crushed and mouldering skeleton. It came + And faded like a wreath of mist at eve; + Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air, + It heralded its millions to their home + In the dim land of dreams. + + Remorseless Time!-- + Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe!--what power + Can stay him in his silent course, or melt + His iron heart to pity? On, still on + He presses, and forever. The proud bird, + The condor of the Andes, that can soar + Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave + The fury of the northern hurricane + And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, + Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down + To rest upon his mountain-crag--but Time + Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness, + And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind + His rushing pinion. Revolutions sweep + O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast + Of dreaming sorrow; cities rise and sink, + Like bubbles on the water; fiery isles + Spring, blazing, from the ocean, and go back + To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear + To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow + Their tall heads to the plain; new empires rise, + Gathering the strength of hoary centuries, + And rush down like the Alpine avalanche, + Startling the nations; and the very stars, + Yon bright and burning blazonry of God, + Glitter awhile in their eternal depths, + And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train, + Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away, + To darkle in the trackless void: yet Time, + Time the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career, + Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not + Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path, + To sit and muse, like other conquerors, + Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought. + + +ON REVISITING BROWN UNIVERSITY + + [From the same] + + It is the noon of night. On this calm spot, + Where passed my boyhood's years, I sit me down + To wander through the dim world of the Past. + + The Past! the silent Past! pale Memory kneels + Beside her shadowy urn, and with a deep + And voiceless sorrow weeps above the grave + Of beautiful affections. Her lone harp + Lies broken at her feet, and as the wind + Goes o'er its moldering chords, a dirge-like sound + Rises upon the air, and all again + Is an unbreathing silence. + + Oh, the Past! + Its spirit as a mournful presence lives + In every ray that gilds those ancient spires, + And like a low and melancholy wind + Comes o'er yon distant wood, and faintly breathes + Upon my fevered spirit. Here I roved + Ere I had fancied aught of life beyond + The poet's twilight imaging. Those years + Come o'er me like the breath of fading flowers, + And tones I loved fall on my heart as dew + Upon the withered rose-leaf. They were years + When the rich sunlight blossomed in the air, + And fancy, like a blessed rainbow, spanned + The waves of Time, and joyous thoughts went off + Upon its beautiful unpillared arch + To revel there in cloud, and sun, and sky. + + Within yon silent domes, how many hearts + Are beating high with glorious dreams. 'Tis well; + The rosy sunlight of the morn should not + Be darkened by the portents of the storm + That may not burst till eve. Those youthful ones + Whose thoughts are woven of the hues of heaven, + May see their visions fading tint by tint, + Till naught is left upon the darkened air + Save the gray winter cloud; the brilliant star + That glitters now upon their happy lives + May redden to a scorching flame and burn + Their every hope to dust; yet why should thoughts + Of coming sorrows cloud their hearts' bright depths + With an untimely shade? Dream on--dream on, + Ye thoughtless ones--dream on while yet ye may! + When life is but a shadow, tear, and sigh, + Ye will turn back to linger round these hours + Like stricken pilgrims, and their music sweet + Will be a dear though melancholy tone + In Memory's ear, sounding forever more. + + +PRENTICE PARAGRAPHS + + [From _Prenticeana_ (New York, 1859)] + +James Ray and John Parr have started a locofoco paper in Maine, called +the _Democrat_. Parr, in all that pertains to decency, is below zero; +and Ray is below Parr. + +The editor of the ---- speaks of his "lying curled up in bed these +cold mornings." This verifies what we said of him some time ago--"he +lies like a dog." + +A young widow has established a pistol gallery in New Orleans. Her +qualifications as a teacher of the art of duelling are of course +undoubted; she has killed her man. + +Wild rye and wild wheat grow in some regions spontaneously. We believe +that wild oats are always sown. + +"What would you do, madam, if you were a gentleman?" "Sir, what would +you do if you were one?" + +Whatever Midas touched was turned into gold; in these days, touch a +man with gold and he'll turn into anything. + + + + +ROBERT M. BIRD + + +Robert Montgomery Bird, creator of _Nick of the Woods_, was born at +Newcastle, Delaware, in 1803. He early abandoned the practice of +medicine in Philadelphia in order to devote his entire attention to +literature. His first works were three tragedies, entitled _The +Gladiator_, _Oraloosa_, and _The Broker of Bogota_, the first of which +was very popular on the stage. In 1834 Dr. Bird published his first +novel, _Calavar_, a romance of Mexico that was highly praised by William +H. Prescott. In the following year _The Infidel_, sequel to _Calavar_, +appeared. _The Hawks_ _of Hawk Hollow_, and _Sheppard Lee_ followed +fast upon the heels of _The Infidel_. Then came _Nick of the Woods, or +the Jibbenainosay_ (Philadelphia, 1837, 2 vols.), the author's +masterpiece. The background of this fine old romance was set against the +Kentucky of 1782. Dr. Bird's Kentucky pioneers and Indians are drawn to +the life, the silly sentimentalism of Cooper and Chateaubriand +concerning the Indian character was avoided and indirectly proved +untrue. _Nick of the Woods_ was dramatized and produced upon the stage +with great success. A collection of Dr. Bird's periodical papers was +made, in 1838, and published under the title of _Peter Pilgrim, or a +Rambler's Recollections_. This work included the first adequate +description of Mammoth Cave, in Edmonson county, Kentucky. The author +was one of the cave's earliest explorers, and his account of it heralded +its wonders to the world in a manner that had never been done before. +Just how long Dr. Bird remained in Kentucky is not known, as no +comprehensive biography of him has been issued, but he must have been in +this State for several years prior to the publication of _Nick of the +Woods_, and _Peter Pilgrim_. His last novel was _Robin Day_ (1839). +After the publication of this tale, Dr. Bird became a Delaware farmer. +In 1847 he returned to Philadelphia and became joint editor of the +_North American Gazette_. He died at Philadelphia, January 22, 1854, of +brain fever. Morton McMichael, with whom he was associated in conducting +the _Gazette_, wrote an eloquent tribute to his memory. Dr. Bird's poem, +_The Beech Tree_, is remembered today by many readers. But it is as the +creator of _Nick of the Woods_, a new edition of which appeared in 1905, +that his fame is firmly fixed. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Prose Writers of America_, by R. W. Griswold + (Philadelphia, 1847); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American + Biography_ (New York, 1888, v. i). + + +NICK OF THE WOODS + + [From _Nick of the Woods_ (New York, 1853, revised edition)] + +"What's the matter, Tom Bruce?" said the father, eyeing him with +surprise. + +"Matter enough," responded the young giant, with a grin of mingled awe +and delight; "the Jibbenainosay is up again!" + +"Whar?" cried the senior, eagerly,--"not in our limits?" + +"No, by Jehosaphat!" replied Tom; "but nigh enough to be +neighborly,--on the north bank of Kentuck, whar he has left his mark +right in the middle of the road, as fresh as though it war but the +work of the morning!" + +"And a clear mark, Tom?--no mistake in it?" + +"Right to an iota!" said the young man;--"a reggelar cross on the +breast, and a good tomahawk dig right through the skull; and a +long-legg'd fellow, too, that looked as though he might have fou't old +Sattan himself!" + +"It's the Jibbenainosay, sure enough; and so good luck to him!" cried +the commander: "thar's a harricane coming!" + +"Who is the Jibbenainosay?" demanded Forrester. + +"Who?" cried Tom Bruce: "Why, Nick,--Nick of the Woods." + +"And who, if you please, is Nick of the Woods?" + +"Thar," replied the junior, with another grin, "thar, stranger, you're +too hard for me. Some think one thing, and some another; but thar's +many reckon he's the devil." + +"And his mark, that you were talking of in such mysterious +terms,--what is that?" + +"Why, a dead Injun, to be sure, with Nick's mark on him,--a knife-cut, +or a brace of 'em, over the ribs in the shape of a cross. That's the +way the Jibbenainosay marks all the meat of his killing. It has been a +whole year now since we h'ard of him." + +"Captain," said the elder Bruce, "you don't seem to understand the +affa'r altogether; but if you were to ask Tom about the Jibbenainosay +till doomsday, he could tell you no more than he has told already. You +must know, thar's a creatur' of some sort or other that ranges the +woods round about our station h'yar, keeping a sort of guard over us +like, and killing all the brute Injuns that ar' onlucky enough to come +in his way, besides scalping them and marking them with his mark. The +Injuns call him _Jibbenainosay_, or a word of that natur', which them +that know more about the Injun gabble that I do, say means the +_Spirit-that-walks_; and if we can believe any such lying devils as +Injuns (which I am loath to do, for the truth ar'nt in 'em), he is +neither man nor beast, but a great ghost or devil that knife cannot +harm nor bullet touch; and they have always had an idea that our fort +h'yar in partickelar, and the country round about, war under his +protection--many thanks to him, whether he be a devil or not; for that +war the reason the savages so soon left off a worrying of us." + +"Is it possible," said Roland, "that any one can believe such an +absurd story?" + +"Why not?" said Bruce, stoutly. "Thar's the Injuns themselves, Shawnees, +Hurons, Delawares, and all,--but partickelarly the Shawnees, for he +beats all creation a-killing of Shawnees,--that believe in him, and hold +him in such eternal dread, that thar's scarce a brute of 'em has come +within ten miles of the station h'yar this three y'ar: because as how, +he haunts about our woods h'yar in partickelar, and kills 'em +wheresomever he catches 'em,--especially the Shawnees, as I said afore, +against which the creatur' has a most butchering spite; and there's them +among the other tribes that call him _Shawneewannaween_, or the Howl of +the Shawnees, because of his keeping them ever a howling. And thar's his +marks, captain,--what do you make of _that_? When you find an Injun +lying scalped and tomahawked, it stands to reason thar war something to +kill him." + +"Ay, truly," said Forrester; "but I think you have human beings enough +to give the credit to, without referring it to a supernatural one." + +"Strannger," said Big Tom Bruce the younger, with a sagacious nod, "when +you kill an Injun yourself, I reckon,--meaning no offense--you will be +willing to take all the honor that can come of it, without leaving it to +be scrambled after by others. Thar's no man 'arns a scalp in Kentucky, +without taking great pains to show it to his neighbors." + +"And besides, captain," said the father, very gravely, "thar are men +among us who have seen the creatur'!" + +"_That_," said Roland, who perceived his new friends were not well +pleased with his incredulity, "is an argument I can resist no longer." + + + + +JOHN A. McCLUNG + + +John Alexander McClung, Kentucky's romantic historian and novelist, was +born near the ancient town of Washington, Kentucky, September 25, 1804. +He was educated at the Buck Pond Academy of his uncle, Dr. Louis +Marshall, near Versailles, Kentucky. Having united with the Presbyterian +church when he was sixteen years old, McClung entered Princeton +Theological Seminary, in 1822, to fit himself for the ministry. He +accepted his first pastorate in 1828, but, as his religious views were +undergoing a profound change, he withdrew from the church and devoted +himself to literature. His first work was a novel, called _Camden_ +(Philadelphia, 1830). This was a story of the South during the +Revolutionary War. His _Sketches of Western Adventure_ (Maysville, +Kentucky, 1832), though almost as fictitious as _Camden_, came to be +regarded as history, and it is upon this work that McClung's reputation +rests. In a general way the _Sketches_ are "of the most interesting +incidents connected with the settlement of the West from 1755 to 1794." +Many of them are most certainly figments of the author's imagination, +yet they have come to be regarded as literal truth and history. His +story of the women at Bryant's Station, who carried water for the +defense of the fort while it was besieged by ambushed Indians under +Simon Girty, in 1782, is his _piece de resistance_. John Filson, +Alexander Fitzroy, Gilbert Imlay, Harry Toulmin, William Littell, +Rafinesque, Marshall, and Butler, the Kentucky historians that published +their works prior to McClung's, are silent concerning the tripping of +the women to the spring for water while the Indians lay upon the banks +of Elkhorn with rifles cocked and ready. All Indians have been +scalp-hunters, regardless of whatever else they have been, and a woman's +scalp dangling from their sticks afforded them as much pleasure as a +man's. When the Collinses, both father and son, reached this romance +they merely reproduced it "as interesting," allowing it to pass without +further comment of any kind. McClung blended romance and history as +charmingly as did Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati, whom Mann Butler took +to task. The climax of this tale came in the erection of a memorial wall +encircling a spring which sprang out of the ground some years prior to +the Civil War! McClung began the practice of law in 1835, but in 1849 he +returned to the ministry. He subsequently held pastorates at Cincinnati +and Indianapolis, but finally settled at Maysville, Kentucky. He +declined the presidency of Hanover College, Indiana, in 1856. On August +16, 1859, McClung was drowned in the Niagara river, his body being +carried over the falls, but it was later recovered and returned to +Kentucky for interment. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892); _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. + McElroy (New York, 1909). + + +THE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION + + [From _Sketches of Western Adventure_ (Cincinnati, 1838)] + +All ran hastily to the picketing, and beheld a small party of Indians, +exposed to open view, firing, yelling, and making the most furious +gestures. The appearance was so singular, and so different from their +usual manner of fighting, that some of the more wary and experienced of +the garrison instantly pronounced it a decoy party, and restrained the +young men from sallying out and attacking them, as some of them were +strongly disposed to do. The opposite side of the fort was instantly +manned, and several breaches in the picketing rapidly repaired. Their +greatest distress arose from the prospect of suffering for water. The +more experienced of the garrison felt satisfied that a powerful party +was in ambuscade near the spring, but at the same time they supposed +that the Indians would not unmask themselves, until the firing upon the +opposite side of the fort was returned with such warmth, as to induce +the belief that the feint had succeeded. + +Acting upon this impression, and yielding to the urgent necessity of +the case, they summoned all the women, without exception, and +explaining to them the circumstances in which they were placed, and +the improbability that any injury would be offered them, until the +firing had been returned from the opposite side of the fort, they +urged them to go in a body to the spring, and each bring up a bucket +full of water. Some of the ladies, as was natural, had no relish for +the undertaking, and asked why the men could not bring water as well +as themselves, observing that _they_ were not bullet-proof, and that +the Indians made no distinction between male and female scalps! + +To this it was answered, that women were in the habit of bringing +water every morning to the fort, and that if the Indians saw them +engaged as usual, it would induce them to believe that their ambuscade +was undiscovered, and that they would not unmask themselves for the +sake of firing at a few women, when they hoped, by remaining concealed +a few moments longer, to obtain complete possession of the fort. That +if men should go down to the spring, the Indians would immediately +suspect that something was wrong, would despair of succeeding by +ambuscade, and would instantly rush upon them, follow them into the +fort, or shoot them down at the spring. The decision was soon over. + +A few of the boldest declared their readiness to brave the danger, and +the younger and more timid rallying in the rear of these veterans, +they all marched down in a body to the spring, within point blank shot +of more than five hundred Indian warriors! Some of the girls could not +help betraying symptoms of terror, but the married women, in general, +moved with a steadiness and composure, which completely deceived the +Indians. Not a shot was fired. The party were permitted to fill their +buckets, one after another, without interruption, and although their +steps became quicker and quicker, on their return, and when near the +gate of the fort, degenerated into a rather unmilitary celerity, +attended with some little crowding in passing the gate, yet not more +than one-fifth of the water was spilled, and the eyes of the youngest +had not dilated to more than double their ordinary size. + + + + +JAMES O. PATTIE + + +James Ohio Pattie, an early Western traveler, was born near +Brooksville, Kentucky, in 1804. His father, Sylvester Pattie +(1782-1828), emigrated to Missouri in 1812, and settled at St. +Charles. He served in the War of 1812, at the conclusion of which he +built a saw-mill on the Gasconade river, sending down pine lumber in +rafts to St. Louis. Several years later his wife died, leaving nine +young children, of whom James O. Pattie was the eldest. In 1824 +Sylvester Pattie became dissatisfied with his lumber business and +decided to dispose of it and undertake an expedition into New Mexico, +which was one of the first from this country into that territory. The +route pursued by his party was quite new. James O. Pattie was at +school, but he prevailed upon his father to permit him to accompany +the expedition. It remained for him to write a most interesting +account of their remarkable journey, in which Indians who had never +seen white men before were encountered, his own capture described, +together with the sufferings and death of his father in New Mexico. On +his return to the United States Pattie passed through Cincinnati, +where he met Timothy Flint, one of the pioneers of Western letters, +who edited his journal under the title of _The Personal Narrative of +James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, during an Expedition from St. Louis, +through the Vast Regions between that Place and the Pacific Ocean, and +thence Back through the City of Mexico to Vera Cruz, during +Journeyings of Six Years; in which_ _he and his Father, who +accompanied him, suffered Unheard of Hardships and Dangers, and +Various Conflicts with the Indians, and were made Captives, in which +Captivity his Father Died; together with a description of the Country +and the Various Nations through which they Passed_ (Cincinnati, 1831). +"One sees in [Pattie's] pages the beginnings of the drama to be fought +out in the Mexican War." The date and place of his death are unknown. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iv); Pattie's _Narrative_ has been carefully + re-edited with notes and introduction by Reuben Gold Thwaites, and + published in his famous _Early Western Travels Series_ (Cleveland, + 1905, v. xviii). + + +THE SANTA FE COUNTRY + + [From _The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky_ + (Cincinnati, 1831)] + +We set off for Santa Fe on the 1st of November [1824]. Our course for +the first day led us over broken ground. We passed the night in a +small town, called Callacia, built on a small stream, that empties +into the del Norte. The country around this place presents but a small +portion of level surface. + +The next day our path lay over a point of the mountain. We were the +whole day crossing. We killed a grey bear, that was exceedingly fat. +It had fattened on a nut of the shape and size of a bean, which grows +on a tree resembling the pine, called by the Spanish, _pinion_. We +took a great part of the meat with us. We passed the night again in a +town called Albukerque. + +The following day we passed St. Thomas, a town situated on the bank of +the del Norte, which is here a deep and muddy stream, with bottoms +from five to six miles wide on both sides. These bottoms sustain +numerous herds of cattle. The small huts of the shepherds, who attend +to them, were visible here and there. We reached another town called +Elgidonis, and stopped for the night. We kept guard around our horses +all night, but in the morning four of our mules were gone. We hunted +for them until ten o'clock, when two Spaniards came, and asked us +what we would give them if they would find our mules? We told them to +bring the mules, and we would pay them a dollar. They set off, two of +our men following them without their knowledge and went into a +thicket, where they had tied the mules, and returned with them to us. +As may be supposed, we gave them both a good whipping. It seemed at +first that the whole town would rise against us in consequence. But +when we related the circumstances fairly to the people, the officer +corresponding to our justice of the peace, said, we had done perfectly +right, and had the men put in the stocks. + +We recommenced our journey, and passed a mission of Indians under the +control of an old priest. After crossing a point of the mountain, we +reached Santa Fe, on the 5th. This town contains between four and five +thousand inhabitants. It is situated on a large plain. A handsome +stream runs through it, adding life and beauty to a scene striking and +agreeable from the union of amenity and cultivation around, with the +distant view of the snow clad mountains. It is pleasant to walk on the +flat roofs of the houses in the evening, and look on the town and +plain spread below. The houses are low, with flat roofs as I have +mentioned. The churches are differently constructed from the other +buildings and make a beautiful show. They have a great number of large +bells, which, when disturbed, make a noise, that would almost seem +sufficient to awaken the dead. + +We asked the governor for permission to trap beaver in the river Helay. +His reply was that, he did not know if he was allowed by the law to do +so; but if upon examination it lay in his power, he would inform us on +the morrow, if we would come to his office at 9 o'clock in the morning. +According to this request, we went to the place appointed, the +succeeding day, which was the 9th of November. We were told by the +governor, that he had found nothing that would justify him in giving us +the legal permission we desired. We then proposed to him to give us +liberty to trap upon the conditions that we paid him five per cent on +the beaver we might catch. He said he would consider this proposition, +and give us an answer the next day at the same hour. The thoughts of our +hearts were not at all favorable to this person, as we left him. + + + + +WILLIAM F. MARVIN + + +William F. Marvin, "the latter-day drunken poet of Danville," was born +at Leicestershire, England, in 1804. He emigrated to America when a +young man, and made his home in the little town of Danville, Kentucky. +Marvin was a shoemaker by trade, but verse-making and bacchanalian +nights were his heart's delight and perfect pleasures. He was a +well-known character in Danville and the surrounding country, and many +are the old wives' tales they tell on the old poet to this day. On one +occasion, while in his cups, of course, he attempted suicide, using +his shoe knife on his throat, but he was finally persuaded that a shoe +knife could be put to far better purposes. Marvin served in the +Mexican War, and on his return home, he published his first and only +book of verse, _The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems_ (Danville, +Kentucky, 1851). The title-poem, _The Battle of Monterey_, is a rather +lengthy metrical romance of some forty or more pages; but the "other +poems," called also "miscellaneous poems," extend the book to its 219 +pages. A few of these are worthy of preservation, especially the +shorter lyrics. Marvin's book is now extremely rare. The writer has +located not more than six copies, though a large edition was printed +by the poet's publisher, Captain A. S. McGrorty, who is still in the +land of the living. During the closing years of his life Marvin +contributed occasional poems to the old _Kentucky Advocate_, the +Danville newspaper, his last poem having appeared in that paper, +called _The Beauty, Breadth, and Depth of Love_. William F. Marvin +died at Danville, Kentucky, July 12, 1879, and was buried in the +cemetery of the town. To-day his grave may be identified, but it is +unmarked by a monument. His verse certainly shows decided improvement +over the rhymes of Thomas Johnson, but both of them were imperfect +forerunners of that celebrated poet and distinguished soldier, who was +born at Danville about the time Marvin reached there and set up his +shop on Main street--Theodore O'Hara, the highest poetic note in the +literature of old Kentucky. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Kentucky Advocate_ (Danville, July 14, 1879); + letters from G. W. Doneghy, the Danville poet of to-day, author of + _The Old Hanging Fork, and Other Poems_ (Franklin, Ohio, 1897), to + the writer. + + +EPIGRAM + + [From _The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems_ (Danville, + Kentucky, 1851)] + + A bee, while hovering round a lip, + Where wit and beauty hung, + Mistook its bloom, and flew to sip, + But ah, the bee got stung. + + +THE FIRST ROSES OF SPRING + + [From the same] + + Ye are come my sad heart to beguile, + In the blush of your beautiful hue; + The fairest and welcomest flowers that smile, + Within the wide arch of the blue. + + From Araby odors ye bring, + And ye steal the warm tints from the sky, + And scatter your pearly bright beauties in spring, + As if nature ne'er meant you to die. + + The soft crimson blush of each lip, + 'Mong the green leaves and buds that abound + Seems pouting in richness, and parted to sip + The dew that is falling around. + + Ye bow to the breath of the Morn, + And cover his wings with perfume; + And woo the gay bee in the earliest dawn, + To rest on your bosoms of bloom. + + Ye have brought back the passion of love, + For a moment to warm my lone breast, + And pointed to undying roses above, + That smile through eternity's rest. + + +SONG + + [From the same] + + +AIR--_Here's a health to One I love dear_. + + Here's a bumper brimful for our friends, + And a frown and a fig for our foes; + And may he who stoops meanly to gain his own ends, + Never know the sweets of repose. + + Though folly and ignorance join, + To blight the young buds of our fame, + Their slander a moment may injure the vine, + But its fruits will be blushing the same. + + Then here is a bumper to truth, + May its banners wave wide as the world, + And a fig for the mortal in age or in youth + Who has not its banner unfurl'd. + + + + +ELISHA BARTLETT + + +Dr. Elisha Bartlett, physician, poet, and politician, was born at +Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1805. He was graduated in medicine from +Brown University in 1826, and later practiced at Lowell, +Massachusetts, of which city he was the first mayor. Dr. Bartlett +lectured at Dartmouth College in 1839; and two years later he became +professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the medical school +of Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He left Transylvania +in 1844, for the University of Maryland, but he returned to Lexington +two years later, occupying his former chair in the medical school. In +1849 Dr. Bartlett left Transylvania and went to Louisville, where he +delivered medical lectures for a year. From 1851 until his death he +was professor of materia medica and medical jurisprudence in the +College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City. Dr. Bartlett died +at his birthplace, Smithfield, Rhode Island, July 18, 1855, one of the +most widely known of American physicians, and also well known and +highly regarded by medical men in Europe. His medical works are: +_Essay on the Philosophy of Medical Science_ (Philadelphia, 1844); +_Inquiry into the Degree of Certainty in Medicine_ (1848); _A +Discourse on the Life and Labours of Dr. Wells, the Discoverer of the +Philosophy of Dew_ (1849); _The Fevers of the United States_ (1850); +_Discourse on the Times, Character, and Works of Hippocrates_ (1852). +These are his medical works, but it is upon his small volume of poems, +_Simple Settings, in Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, from Mr. +Dickens's Gallery_ (Boston, 1855), that he is entitled to his place in +this work. Of this little book of but eighty pages, his friend, Dr. +Oliver Wendell Holmes, wrote: "Yet few suspected him of giving +utterance in rhythmical shape to his thoughts or feelings. It was only +when his failing limbs could bear him no longer, as conscious +existence slowly retreated from his palsied nerves, that he revealed +himself freely in truest and tenderest form of expression. We knew he +was dying by slow degrees, and we heard from him from time to time, or +saw him always serene and always hopeful while hope could have a place +in his earthly future.... When to the friends he loved there came, as +a farewell gift, ... a little book with a few songs in it--songs with +his whole warm heart in them--they knew that his hour was come, and +their tears fell fast as they read the loving thoughts that he had +clothed in words of beauty and melody. Among the memorials of +departed friendships, we treasure the little book of 'songs' ... his +last present, as it was his last production." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _History of the Medical Department of + Transylvania University_, by Dr. Robert Peter (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1905). + + +JOHN BROWDIE OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY + + [From _Simple Settings, in Verse, for Six Portraits and Pictures, + from Mr. Dickens's Gallery_ (Boston, 1854)] + + 'Twas worth a crown, John Browdie, to hear you ringing out, + O'er hedge and hill and roadside, that loud, hilarious shout; + And how the echoes caught it up and flung it all about. + + 'Twas worth another, John, to see that broad and glorious grin, + That stretched your wide mouth wider still, and wrinkled round your + chin. + And showed how true the heart was that glowed and beat within. + + Yes! Nick has beaten the _measther_,--'twas a sight beneath the + sun! + And I only wish, John Browdie, when that good deed was done, + That you and I had both been there to help along the fun. + + Be sure he let him have it well;--his trusty arm was nerved + With hoarded wrongs and righteous hate,--so it slackened not nor + swerved, + Until the old curmudgeon got the thrashing he deserved. + + The guinea, John, you gave the lad, is charmed forevermore; + It shall fill your home with blessings; it shall add unto your + store; + Be light upon your pathway, and sunshine on your floor. + + These are the treasures, too, laid up forever in the sky, + Kind words to solace aching hearts, and make wet eyelids dry, + And kindly deeds in silence done with no one standing by. + + And when you tell the story, John, to her, your joy and pride-- + The miller's bonny daughter, so soon to be your bride-- + She shall love you more than ever, and cling closer to your side. + + Content and health be in your house! and may you live to see + Full many a little Browdie, John, climb up your sturdy knee; + The mother's hope, the father's stay and comfort long to be. + + These are thy crown, O England; thy glory, grace, and might!-- + Who work the work of honest hands, from early morn till night, + And worship God by serving man, and doing what is right. + + All honor, then, to them! let dukes and duchesses give room! + The men who by the anvil strike, and ply the busy loom; + And scatter plenty through the land, and make the desert bloom. + + + + +SAMUEL D. GROSS + +Dr. Samuel David Gross, the distinguished American surgeon and author, +was born near Easton, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1805. He was graduated +from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in the class of +1828, and he at once entered upon the active practice of his +profession in Philadelphia. In 1833 Dr. Gross accepted a professorship +in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, which position he held +until 1840, when he became professor of surgery in the University of +Louisville. The subsequent sixteen years of Dr. Gross's life were +spent upon Kentucky soil. His _Report on Kentucky Surgery_ +(Louisville, 1851) contained the first biography of Dr. Ephraim +McDowell, the Kentucky surgeon, who performed the first operation for +the removal of the ovaries done in the world. That Dr. McDowell had +actually accomplished this wonderful feat at Danville, in 1809, was +Dr. Gross's contention, and that he was able to prove it beyond all +doubt, and place the Danville doctor before the world as the father +of ovariotomy, proves the power of his paper. Dr. Gross was the +founder of the Louisville _Medical Review_, but he had conducted it +but a short time when he accepted the chair of surgery in the +Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. This position he occupied +until about two years prior to his death. Dr. Gross enjoyed an +international reputation as a surgeon. Oxford and Cambridge conferred +degrees upon him in recognition of his distinguished contributions to +medical science. As an original demonstrator he was well known. He was +among the first to urge the claims of preventive medicine; and his +demonstrations upon rabbits, with a view to throwing additional light +on manual strangulation, are familiar to students of medicine and +medical history. His works include: _Elements of Pathological Anatomy_ +(1839); _Foreign Bodies in the Air-Passages_ (1854); _Report on the +Causes which Retard the Progress of American Medical Literature_ +(1856); _System of Surgery_ (1859); _Manual of Military Surgery_ +(1861), Japanese translation (Tokio, 1874); and his best known work of +a literary value, _John Hunter and His Pupils_ (1881). In 1875 he +published two lectures, entitled _The History of American Medical +Literature_; and, in the following year, with several other writers, +he issued _A Century of American Medicine_. Dr. Gross was always +greatly interested in the history of medicine and surgery. He died at +Philadelphia, May 6, 1884. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His _Autobiography_ (Philadelphia, 1887, two vols.), + was edited by his sons, one of whom, A. Haller Gross, was born in + Kentucky; Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. iii). + + +KENTUCKY + + [From _Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M. D._ (Philadelphia, + 1887, v. i.)] + +It was pleasant to dwell in the land of Boone, of Clay, and of +Crittenden; to behold its fertile fields, its majestic forests, and +its beautiful streams; and to associate with its refined, cultivated, +generous-hearted, and chivalric people. It was there that I had hoped +to spend the remainder of my days upon objects calculated to promote +the honor and welfare of its noble profession, and finally to mingle +my dust with the dust and ashes of the sons and daughters of Kentucky. +But destiny has decreed otherwise. A change has come over my life. I +stand this evening in the presence of a new people, a stranger in a +strange place, and a candidate for new favors. + + +THE DEATH OF HENRY CLAY + + [From the same] + +The admirers of Mr. Clay cannot but regret the motives which induced +him to spend his last days at Washington. It was a pitiful ambition +which prompted him to forsake his family and his old friends to die at +the capital of the country in order that he might have the _eclat_ of +a public funeral. Broken down in health and spirits when he left his +old home, unable to travel except by slow stages, he knew perfectly +well that his days were numbered, and that he could never again see +Kentucky. How much more dignified would it have been if he had +breathed out his once precious life in the bosom of his family and in +the arms of the woman who for upwards of half a century had watched +over his interests, reared his children with a fond mother's care, +loved him with a true woman's love, and followed him, wherever he was, +with her prayers and her blessings! + + + + +THOMAS H. CHIVERS + + +Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers, the eccentric Southern poet, and maker of +most unusual verse forms, was born near Washington, Georgia, December +12, 1807. He was instructed in the classics by his mother, and, choosing +medicine as his vocation, he went to Lexington, Kentucky--most probably +making the long journey on horse-back--and entered the medical school of +Transylvania University. Chivers matriculated in November, 1828, and +took up his abode at the old Phoenix Hotel, as his father was wealthy +and liberal with him. He took one ticket and made it during his first +year. The college records show that he returned for the fall session of +1829, and that, during his second year, he took two tickets, graduating +on March 17, 1830. The thesis he submitted for his degree of Doctor of +Medicine was _Remittent and Intermittent Bilious Fever_. Kentucky was +the birthplace of the first poems Chivers wrote, and, very probably, the +birthplace of his first book, _Conrad and Eudora, or The Death of +Alonzo_ (Philadelphia, 1834). This little drama, intended for the study, +was set in Kentucky, and founded upon the Beauchamp-Sharp murder of +1825, which was still the chief topic of conversation in the State when +the poet reached Lexington in 1828. Chivers's second book of poems, +called _Nacoochee_ (New York, 1837), contained two poems written while a +student of Transylvania, entitled _To a China Tree_, and _Georgia +Waters_. A short time after the publication of this book Chivers and +Edgar Allan Poe became acquainted; and the remainder of their lives they +were denouncing and fighting each other. It all came about by Chivers +claiming his _Allegra Florence in Heaven_, published in _The Lost +Pleiad_ (New York, 1845), as the original of _The Raven_. Of course, the +world and the critics have smiled at this claim and let it pass. After +Poe's death Chivers claimed practically everything the Virginian did to +be a plagiarism of some of his own poems. His most famous work was +_Eonchs of Ruby_ (New York, 1851). This was followed by _Virginalia_ +(Philadelphia, 1853); _Memoralia_ (Philadelphia, 1853); _Atlanta_ +(Macon, Ga., 1853); _Birth-Day Song of Liberty_ (Atlanta, Ga., 1856); +and _The Sons of Usna_ (Philadelphia, 1858). Bayard Taylor, in his +famous _Echo Club_, mentioned _Facets of Diamond_ as one of the poet's +publications, but a copy of it has not yet been unearthed. Dr. Chivers +died at Decatur, Georgia, December 19, 1858. No more pathetic figure has +appeared in American letters than Chivers. Had he been content to write +his poetry independently of Poe or any one else, he would have left his +name clearer. He was a wonderful manipulator of verse-forms, but he was +not what Poe was--a world-genius. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _In the Poe Circle_, by Joel Benton (New York, + 1899); _The Poe-Chivers Papers_, by G. E. Woodberry (_Century + Magazine_, Jan., Feb., 1903); _Representative Southern Poets_, by + C. W. Hubner (New York, 1906); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, Georgia, 1909, v. ii). + + +THE DEATH OF ALONZO + + [From _Conrad and Eudora_ (Philadelphia, 1834)] + +_Act III. Scene IV. Frankfort. Time, midnight._ Conrad _enters from +the tavern, walks the street, dressed in dark clothes, with a masque +on his face, and, with difficulty, finds_ Alonzo's _house_. + + _Conrad._ This is the place,--and I must change my name. + + (_Goes to the door and knocks. Puts his hand in his bosom. + A female voice is heard within--the wife of_ Alonzo.) + + _Angeline._ I would not venture out this time o' night. + + (_Conrad knocks_.) + + _Alonzo._ Who's there? + + _Conrad._ A friend. + + _Angeline_ (_within_). I would not venture out, my love! + + _Alonzo._ Why, Angeline!--thy fears are woman's, love. + + (_Knocks again._) + + _Alonzo._ Who is that?--speak out! + + _Conrad._ Darby--'tis thy friend! + He has some business with thee--'tis of weight! + Has sign'd a bond, and thou must seal the deed! + + _Alonzo._ What does he say? + + _Angeline._ Indeed I do not know--you'd better see. + + (_Knocks again and looks round._) + + _Alonzo._ Who can this be--so late at night? + + (_Opens the door and steps back._) + + _Conrad._ Behold! (_Throws off his masque and takes him by the + throat._) + Look in my face, and call my name! + + _Alonzo._ Conrad!--Conrad! do not kill me, have mercy! + + _Conrad._ Where is my wife? Now, villain! die!--die!--die! + + (_Stabs him._) + + Now, pray! if thou canst pray, now pray--now die! + Now, drink the wormwood which Eudora drank. + + (_Stamps him._ Alonzo _dies_.) + + (Conrad _rushes out and is seen no more_. Angeline, Alonzo's + _wife, runs in the room, screams, and falls upon his breast_.) + + _Angeline._ 'Tis he--'tis he--Conrad has kill'd Alonzo! + Oh! my husband! my husband! thou art dead! + 'Tis he--'tis he--the wretch has kill'd Alonzo! + + (_The doctor_, Alonzo's _brother, rushes in, crying "Murder!--murder!" + Watchmen and citizens rush in, crying + "Murder! murder!_ Alonzo's _dead_! Alonzo's _dead_!") + + _Citizens._ Who, under God's heaven, could have done this deed? + + _Angeline._ 'Tis he--'tis he! Conrad has kill'd Alonzo! + + _Watchmen._ Who did it? Speak! speak! Conrad kill'd Alonzo? + + _Angeline._ Conrad--'twas Conrad, kill'd my husband! Dead! + Oh! death--death--death! What will become of me? + + _Doctor._ Did you see his face? My God! I know 'twas he! + + _Angeline._ I saw his face--I heard his voice--he's gone! + + (Angeline _feels his pulse, while the rest look round_.) + + Oh! my husband!--my husband!--death, death! + Speak, Alonzo! speak to Angeline--death! + Oh! speak one word, and tell me who it was! + + (_Kisses him._) + + No pulse--my husband's dead! He's gone!--he's gone! + + (_Faints away on his breast. The watchmen and citizens take her + into an adjoining room, bearing her husband with her--asking, + "Who could have kill'd him? Speak_, Angeline--_speak_!") + + _Curtain falls. End of Act III._ + + +GEORGIA WATERS + + [From _Nacoochee_ (New York, 1837)] + + On thy waters, thy sweet valley waters, + Oh! Georgia! how happy were we! + When thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters, + Once gathered sweet-william for me. + Oh! thy wildwood, thy dark shady wildwood + Had many bright visions for me; + For my childhood, my bright rosy childhood + Was cradled, dear Georgia! in thee! + + On thy mountains, thy green purple mountains, + The seasons are waiting on thee; + And thy fountains, thy clear crystal fountains + Are making sweet music for me. + Oh! thy waters, thy sweet valley waters + Are dearer than any to me; + For thy daughters, thy sweet-smiling daughters, + Oh! Georgia! give beauty to thee. + +Transylvania University, 1830. + + + + +JEFFERSON DAVIS + + +Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy, was +born in Christian, now Todd, county, Kentucky, June 3, 1808. During his +infancy his family removed first to Louisiana and afterwards to +Mississippi, locating near the village of Woodville. When but seven +years old he was mounted on a pony and, with a company of travelers, +rode back to Kentucky. He entered St. Thomas College, a Roman Catholic +institution, near Springfield, Kentucky. This tiny, obscure "college" +was presided over by Dominicans, and Davis was the only Protestant boy +in it. He spent two years at St. Thomas, when he returned home to be +fitted for college. In October, 1821, when in his fourteenth year, +Jefferson Davis arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, and matriculated in the +academic department of Transylvania University. Horace Holley, +surrounded with his famous faculty, was in charge of the University +during Davis's student days. His favorite professor was Robert H. +Bishop, afterwards president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; and his +fellow students included David Rice Atchison, George Wallace Jones, +Gustavus A. Henry, and Belvard J. Peters, all subsequently in Congress +or on the bench. When Davis was in the United States Senate he found +five other Transylvania men in the same body. He made his home with old +Joseph Ficklin, the Lexington postmaster, and three of the happiest +years of his life were spent in the "Athens of the West." He left +Transylvania at the end of his junior year in order to enter West Point, +from which he was graduated in 1828. As Lieutenant Davis he was in +Kentucky during the cholera-year of 1833, and he did all in his power to +bury the dead and watch the dying. Near Louisville, on June 17, 1835, +Davis was married to Miss Sarah Knox Taylor, second daughter of +President Taylor, but within the year the fair young girl died. Davis +was in the lower House of Congress, in 1845, as a Democrat; but in the +following year he enlisted for service in the Mexican War, through which +he served with great credit to himself and to his country. From 1847 to +1851 he was United States Senator from Mississippi; and from 1853 to +1857 he was Secretary of War in President Pierce's cabinet. Davis was +immediately returned to the Senate, where he continued until January 21, +1861, when he bade the Senators farewell in a speech that has made him +famous as an orator. Four weeks later he was inaugurated as provisional +president of the Confederate States. On February 22, 1862, he was +elected permanent president, and settled himself in the capitol at +Richmond, Virginia. President Davis was arrested near Irwinville, +Georgia, May 10, 1865, and for the next two years he was a prisoner in +Fortress Monroe. He died at New Orleans, December 6, 1889, but in 1893 +his body was removed to Richmond. As an author Davis's fame must rest on +his _The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_ (New York, 1881, +two vols.). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Jefferson Davis: A Memoir by his wife_, Mrs. V. + Jefferson Davis (New York 1890, two vols.); _Belford's Magazine_ + (Jan., 1890); _Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime_, by W. P. + Trent (New York, 1897); _Jefferson Davis_, by W. E. Dodd + (Philadelphia, 1907); _Statesmen of the Old South_, by W. E. Dodd + (New York, 1911). Prof. W. L. Fleming, of Louisiana State + University is now preparing what will be the most comprehensive + and, perhaps, the definitive biography of Davis. + + +FROM FAREWELL SPEECH IN UNITED STATES SENATE ON JANUARY 21, 1861 + + [From _The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government_ (New York, + 1881, v. i.)] + +It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief +that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our +fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi to her present +decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created +free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social +institutions; and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been +invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races. That +Declaration of Independence is to be construed by the circumstances +and purposes for which it was made. The communities were declaring +their independence; the people of those communities were asserting +that no man was born--to use the language of Mr. Jefferson--booted and +spurred, to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created +equal--meaning the men of the political community; that there was no +divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that +there were no classes by which power and place descended to families; +but that all stations were equally within the grasp of each member of +the body politic. These were the great principles they announced; +these were the purposes for which they made their declaration; these +were the ends to which their enunciation was directed. They have no +reference to the slave; else, how happened it that among the items of +arraignment against George III was that he endeavored to do just what +the North has been endeavoring of late to do--to stir up insurrection +among our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes were +free and equal, how was the Prince to be arraigned for raising up +insurrection among them? And how was this to be enumerated among the +high crimes which caused the colonies to sever their connection with +the mother country? When our Constitution was formed, the same idea +was rendered more palpable; for there we find provision made for that +very class of persons as property; they were not put upon the footing +of equality with white men--not even upon that of paupers and +convicts; but, so far as representation was concerned, were +discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the +numerical proportion of three fifths. + +Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we +recur to the principles upon which our Government was founded; and +when you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from +a Government which, thus perverted, threatens to be destructive of our +rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our +independence and take the hazard. This is done, not in hostility to +others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own +pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending +and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred +duty to transmit unshorn to our children. + +I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my +constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility towards you, +Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever +sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now +say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure, +is the feeling of the people whom I represent towards those whom you +represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when I +say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though +we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as +they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring +disaster on every portion of the country; and, if you will have it +thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from +the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and +thus, putting our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and strong +arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may. + +In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a +great variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have +served long; there have been points of collision; but, whatever of +offense there has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostile +remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, +or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in +this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in +heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence unencumbered of the +remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of +making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered. + +Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the +occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a +final adieu. + + + + +WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER + + +William Davis Gallagher, poet and critic, was born at Philadelphia, +August 21, 1808. When he was but eight years old he removed to +Cincinnati with his mother, a widow. In 1821 he was apprenticed to a +Cincinnati printer. At the age of twenty years Gallagher journeyed +through Kentucky and Mississippi, and his letters concerning the +country and the people won him his first fame as a writer. In 1831 he +became editor of the Cincinnati _Mirrow_, the fifth or sixth literary +journal published in the West. Three years later Thomas H. Shreve +joined Gallagher in editing the paper. Like all Western magazines, +the _Mirrow's_ high hopes were utterly dashed upon the old rocks of +failure from one cause or another. In 1835 Gallagher published _Erato +No. I._, and _Erato No. II._, which were two small pamphlets of poems. +_Erato No. III._ was published at Louisville, two years later. The +chief poem in this was upon a Kentucky subject. Gallagher's anthology +of Western verse, without biographical or critical notes, entitled +_The Poetical Literature of the West_ (Cincinnati, 1841), the first +work in that field, was well done, and it strengthened his claim as a +critic. In 1854 he became one of the editors of the _Louisville +Courier_; but he shortly afterwards purchased a farm near Pewee +Valley, Kentucky, some twelve miles from Louisville, and as a Kentucky +farmer he spent the final forty years of his life. He took keen +interest in agricultural pursuits, but he made nothing more than a +meager living out of his farm. His essay on _Fruit Culture in the Ohio +Valley_ attracted the attention of persons interested in that subject. +As a poet Gallagher submits his claim upon a rather long pastoral +poem, entitled _Miami Woods_. This work was begun in 1839, and +finished seventeen years later. This gives the title of his book of +poems, _Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1881). _A Golden Wedding_ is not an overly skillful production, and +the poet is best seen in his shorter lyrics. Perhaps _The Mothers of +the West_, which appeared in the _Erato No. III._, is the best thing +he did, and the one poem that will keep his fame green. Gallagher +began his literary career with great promise, and he pursued it +diligently for some years, but when he should have been doing his +finest work, he was winning some prize from an agricultural journal +for the best essay on _Fruit Culture in the Ohio Valley_! He failed to +follow the gleam. William D. Gallagher died at "Fern Rock Cottage," +Pewee Valley, Kentucky, June 27, 1894. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. Coggeshall + (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by Fannie P. Dickey + (Louisville, 1892). + + +THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST + + [From _Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and Other Poems_ + (Cincinnati, 1881)] + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + Stout-hearted dames were they; + With nerve to wield the battle-brand, + And join the border fray. + Our rough land had no braver + In its days of blood and strife-- + Aye ready for severest toil, + Aye free to peril life. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + On old Kentucky's soil, + How shared they, with each dauntless band, + War's tempest, and life's toil! + They shrank not from the foeman, + They quail'd not in the fight, + But cheer'd their husbands through the day, + And soothed them through the night. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + _Their_ bosoms pillow'd Men; + And proud were they by such to stand + In hammock, fort, or glen; + To load the sure old rifle-- + To run the leaden ball-- + To watch a battling husband's place, + And fill it should he fall. + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + Such were their daily deeds: + Their monument--where does it stand? + Their epitaph--who reads? + No braver dames had Sparta-- + No nobler matrons Rome-- + Yet who or lauds or honors them, + Ev'n in their own green home? + + The mothers of our Forest-Land! + They sleep in unknown graves; + And had they borne and nursed a band + Of ingrates, or of slaves, + They had not been more neglected! + But their graves shall yet be found, + And their monuments dot here and there + "The Dark and Bloody Ground!" + + + + +THOMAS H. SHREVE + + +Thomas H. Shreve, poet and journalist, was born at Alexandria, +Virginia, in 1808. In early life he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, +and entered mercantile pursuits. In 1834 Shreve became a Cincinnati +editor; but four years later he returned to Louisville to again engage +in business. Throughout his business career, Shreve was a constant +contributor of poems and prose sketches to the best magazines. He +finally abandoned business for literature, and he at once became +associate editor of the _Louisville Journal_. He was not a rugged +journalist of the Prentice type, but a cultured and chaste essayist +who should have written from his study window, rather than from such a +seething hothouse of sarcasm and invective as Prentice maintained. He +was a mild-mannered man, a Quaker, who spent his last months on earth +in crossing swords with Thomas Babington Macaulay concerning the +character of William Penn. In 1851 Shreve's _Drayton, an American +Tale_, was issued by the Harpers at New York. This work won the author +much praise in the East as well as in the West, and it started him +upon an honorable career, which was soon cut short by disease. Thomas +H. Shreve died at Louisville, December 23, 1853. Prentice penned a +splendid tribute to the memory of his dead friend and associate; and +some years later a collection of his verse was made as a fitting +memorial of his blameless life and literary labors. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860); _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. + Collins (Covington, Kentucky, 1882); _The Shreve Family_, by L. P. + Allen (Greenfield, Illinois). + + +I HAVE NO WIFE + + [From _The Knickerbocker Magazine_ (August, 1838)] + + I have no wife--and I can go + Just where I please, and feel as free + As crazy winds which choose to blow + Round mountain-tops their melody. + On those who have Love's race to run, + Hope, like a seraph, smiles most sweet-- + But they who Hymen's goal have won, + Sometimes, 'tis said, find Hope a cheat. + + I have no wife--young girls are fair-- + But how it is, I cannot tell, + No sooner are they wed, than their + Enchantments give them the farewell. + The girls, oh, bless them! make us yearn + To risk all odds and take a wife-- + To cling to one, and not to turn + Ten thousand in the dance of life. + + I have no wife:--Who'd have his nose + Forever tied to one lone flower, + E'en if that flower should be a rose, + Plucked with light hand from fairy bower? + Oh! better far the bright bouquet + Of flowers of every hue and clime; + By turns to charm the sense away, + And fill the heart with dreams sublime. + + I have no wife:--I now can change + From grave to joy, from light to sad + Unfettered, in my freedom range + And fret awhile, and, then, be glad. + I now can heed a Siren's tongue, + And feel that eyes glance not in vain-- + Make love apace, and, being flung, + Get up and try my luck again. + + I have no wife to pull my hair + If it should chance entangled be-- + I'm like the lion in his lair, + Who flings his mane about him free. + If 'tis my fancy, I can wear + My boots unblessed by blacking paste, + Cling to my coat till it's threadbare, + Without a lecture on bad taste. + + I have no wife, and I can dream + Of girls who're worth their weight in gold; + Can bask my heart in Love's broad beam, + And dance to think it's yet unsold. + Or I can look upon a brow + Which mind and beauty both enhance, + Go to the shrine, and make my bow, + And thank the Fates I have a chance. + + I have no wife, and, like a wave, + Can float away to any land, + Curl up and kiss, or gently lave + The sweetest flowers that are at hand. + A Pilgrim, I can bend before + The shrine which heart and mind approve;-- + Or, Persian like, I can adore + Each star that gems the heaven of love. + + I have no wife--in heaven, they say, + Such things as weddings are not known-- + Unyoked the blissful spirits stray + O'er fields where care no shade has thrown. + Then why not have a heaven below, + And let fair Hymen hence be sent? + It would be fine--but as things go, + _Unwedded, folks won't be content_! + + + + +ORMSBY M. MITCHEL + + +Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the celebrated American astronomer and author, +was born near Morganfield, Kentucky, August 28, 1809. He graduated from +West Point in the famous class of 1829 which included Robert E. Lee and +Joseph E. Johnston, Mitchel was professor of mathematics at West Point +for two years; but he later studied law and practiced at Cincinnati for +a year. In 1834 he was elected professor of mathematics and astronomy in +Cincinnati College. By his own efforts he raised sufficient funds with +which to establish an astronomical observatory in Cincinnati, in +1845--now the Mitchel Observatory--the first of the larger observatories +in this country. In 1860 Professor Mitchel was chosen as director of the +Dudley observatory at Albany, New York, and there he remained for two +years. The Civil War coming on, he entered the Union army, and rose to +the rank of general. General Mitchel was placed in command of the +"Department of the South," but before the war was well under way, +almost, he contracted yellow fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina, +October 30, 1862. General Mitchel was the most distinguished astronomer +ever born on Kentucky soil; and in the army the men knew him as "Old +Stars." He was a popular lecturer, but it is as an author that his great +reputation rests. His books are: _The Planetary and Stellar Worlds_ (New +York, 1848); _The Orbs of Heaven_ (1851); _A Concise Elementary Treatise +of the Sun, Planets, Satellites, and Comets_ (1860); and _The Astronomy +of the Bible_ (New York, 1863). From 1846 to 1848 General Mitchel +published an astronomical journal, called _The Sidereal Messenger_. +Harvard and Hamilton Colleges conferred honorary degrees upon him; and +he was a member of many scientific societies in the United States and +Europe. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, Astronomer and General_, + by his son, F. A. Mitchel; biographical sketch in _The Astronomy + of the Bible_ (New York, 1863); _Old Stars_, by P. C. Headley + (Boston, 1864). + + +ASTRONOMICAL EVIDENCES OF GOD + + [From _The Astronomy of the Bible_ (New York, 1863)] + +If we extend our researches beyond the limits of the solar system, and, +passing across the mighty gulf which separates us from the starry +heavens, inspect minutely the organizations which are there displayed, +we find the dominion of these same laws extending to these remote +regions, and holding an imperious sway over revolving suns. Thus we +perceive, that in one most important particular, the objects which +compose the mighty universe are obviously alike, and seem to have sprung +from a common origin. We are, moreover, compelled to admit a sun in +every visible star; and if a sun, then attendant planets; and if +revolving planets, then, likewise, some scheme of sentient existence, +possibly remotely analogous to that which is displayed with such +wonderful minuteness in our globe. Thus if the being of a God can be +argued from the admirable adaptations which surround man in this nether +world, every star that glitters in the vast concave of heaven +proclaims, with equal power, this mighty truth. If we rise still higher, +and from the contemplation of individual stars, examine their +distribution, their clusterings, their aggregations into immense +systems, the fact of their mutual influences, their restless and eternal +activity, their amazing periods of revolution, their countless millions, +and their ever-during organizations, the mind, whelmed with the display +of grandeur, exclaims involuntarily, "This is the empire of a God!" + +And now, how is the knowledge of this vast surrounding universe revealed +to the mind of man? Here is, perhaps, the crowning wonder. Through the +agency of light, a subtle, intangible, imponderable something, +originating, apparently, in the stars and suns, darting with incredible +velocity from one quarter of the universe to the other, whether in +absolute particles of matter shot off from luminous bodies, or by traces +of an ethereal fluid, who shall tell? This incomprehensible fluid falls +upon an instrument of most insignificant dimensions, yet of most +wonderful construction, the human eye, and, lo! to the mind what wonders +start into being. Pictures of the most extravagant beauty cover the +earth; clouds dipped in the hues of heaven fill the atmosphere; the sun, +the moon, the planets, come up from out of the depths of space, and far +more amazing still, the distant orbs of heaven, in their relative +magnitudes, distances and motions, are revealed to the bewildered mind. +We have only to proceed one step further, and bringing to the aid of the +human eye, the auxiliary power of the optic glass, the mind is brought +into physical association with objects which inhabit the confines of +penetrable space. We take cognizance of objects so remote, that even the +flashing element of light itself, by which they are revealed, flies on +its errand ten times ten thousand years to accomplish its stupendous +journey. + +Strike the human eye from existence, and at a single blow, the sun is +blotted out, the planets fade, the heavens are covered with the +blackness of darkness, the vast universe shrinks to a narrow compass +bounded by the sense of touch alone. + +Such, then, is the organization of the universe, and such the means by +which we are permitted to take cognizance of its existence and +phenomena. If the feeble mind of man has achieved victories in the +natural world--if his puny structures, which have survived the +attacks of a few thousand years, proclaim the superiority of the +intelligence of his mind to insensate matter--if the contemplation of +the works of art and the triumphs of human genius, swells us into +admiration at the power of this invisible spirit that dwells in mortal +form,--what shall be the emotions excited, the ideas inspired, by the +contemplation of the boundless universe of God? + + + + +ALBERT T. BLEDSOE + + +Albert Taylor Bledsoe, controversialist, was born at Frankfort, +Kentucky, November 9, 1809, the son of a journalist. He was appointed +from Kentucky to West Point and was graduated in 1830, after which he +served in the army in Indian territory until the last day of August, +1832, when he resigned to enter upon the study of law. A year later +Bledsoe abandoned law to become a tutor in Kenyon College, Ohio, where +he later studied theology and was ordained a clergyman in the +Protestant Episcopal church. He was connected with various Ohio +churches from 1835 to 1838, but in the latter year he quit the +ministry to resume his legal studies and he removed to Springfield, +Illinois, where he formed a partnership with the afterwards celebrated +statesman and soldier, Colonel Edward D. Baker. Abraham Lincoln and +Stephen A. Douglas were practicing law in Springfield at this time, +and Bledsoe knew both of them intimately; but because of his +subsequent connection with the Southern Confederacy none of the +biographies of these men mention him. For the following ten years +Bledsoe practiced his profession at Springfield and Washington, D. C. +His first book, _An Examination of Edwards's Inquiry into the Freedom +of the Will_ (Philadelphia, 1845), showed that his interest in +theological subjects had not waned. In 1848 Bledsoe was elected +professor of mathematics in the University of Mississippi, which +position he held for the ensuing six years. His next volume, _A +Theodicy, or Vindication of the Divine Glory_ (New York, 1853), gave +him a place among theologians. In 1854 Dr. Bledsoe was elected to the +chair of mathematics in the University of Virginia, and this he +occupied until 1861. While at the University he published _An Essay on +Liberty and Slavery_ (Philadelphia, 1856), which anticipated his +subsequent action of entering the Confederate army, which he did in +1861, and he was commissioned as a colonel. Dr. Bledsoe was speedily +made assistant secretary of war, but this work proved most +uncongenial, and he gladly accepted the joint invitation of Davis and +Lee to run the blockade, in 1863, and go to England to gather +materials for a constitutional argument on the right of secession. He +spent three years in London and upon his return to the United States, +in February, 1866, he brought his vast researches together in his best +known work, _Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession a Constitutional +Right Previous to the War of 1861?_ (Baltimore, 1866). Dr. Bledsoe now +took up his residence at Baltimore, and some months later he became +editor of a quarterly periodical, _The Southern Review_, which he +conducted for the final years of his life. In 1868 he added the +principalship of a Baltimore school to his burdens; and in the same +year his last volume appeared, _The Philosophy of Mathematics_ +(Philadelphia, 1868). In 1871 Dr. Bledsoe was ordained a minister in +the Methodist church, and his _Review_ became the recognized organ of +his church. He died at Alexandria, Virginia, December 8, 1877. Dr. +Bledsoe was always a student and scholar, but he was essentially a +controversialist, often bitter in his statements, but time has +mellowed much of this, and he now stands forth as a very remarkable +man. Consider him from a dozen angles, and one will not find his like +in the whole range of American history. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _Library of Southern Literature_, sketch by his + daughter, Mrs. Sophie Herrick (Atlanta, 1909, v. i). + + +SEVEN CRISES CAUSED THE CIVIL WAR + + [From _The Southern Review_ (Baltimore, April, 1867)] + +This history consists of seven great crises. The first of these +convulsed the Union, and threatened its dissolution before the new +Constitution was formed, or conceived. For how little soever its +history may be known, the North and the South, like Jacob and Esau, +struggled together, and that, too, with almost fatal desperation, in +the womb of the old Union. Slavery had nothing at all to do with that +struggle between the North and the South, the _dramatis personae_ in +the tragedy of 1861. It was solely and simply a contest for power. + +The second crisis was the formation and adoption of the new +Constitution. Much has been said about that event, as the most +wonderful revolution in the history of the world; because the +government of a great people was then radically changed by purely +peaceable means, and without shedding a drop of blood. But if that was +a bloodless revolution in itself, no one, who has maturely considered +it in all its bearings, can deny that it was, in the end, the occasion +of the most sanguinary strife in the annals of a fallen world. + +The revolution of 1801, by which the radical notions and doctrines of +the infidel philosophers of the eighteenth century gained the +ascendency in this country, never more to abate in their onward march, +constituted the third great crisis in the political history of the +United States. In passing through this crisis, the Republic of 1787 +became in practice the Democracy of the following generation; and, +finally, the rabid radicalism of 1861. It was then that the +democratic, or predominant, element in the Republic, began to swallow +up the others, and so became the most odious of all the forms of +absolute power or despotism. It was then that the reign of "King +Demos," the unchecked and the unlimited power of mere numbers, was +inaugurated, and his throne established on the ruins of American +freedom. But, while history will show this, it will also administer +the consoling reflection, that American freedom was doomed, from the +first, by the operation of other causes, and that the revolution of +1801 only precipitated its fall. If so, then the sooner its fall the +better for the world; as in that case its destruction would involve a +smaller portion of the human family in its ruins. + +The desperate struggle of 1820-21, between the North and the South, +relative to the admission of Missouri into the Union; the equally +fierce contest respecting the Tariff in 1832-33; the Mexican War, and +the acquisition of vast territory, by the dismemberment of a foreign +empire, which led to the most violent and angry of all the quarrels +between the two sections; constitute the fourth, fifth and sixth +crises in the stormy history of the United Sections. The seventh and +last great crisis, grew out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise +of 1820, the rise of the Republican party, as it is called; and +consisted in the secession of the Southern States, and the war of +coercion. Each of these seven crises had, of course, its prelude and +its sequel, without which it cannot be comprehended, or seen how it +followed the preceding, and how it led to the succeeding crises in the +chain of events. Now some of these crises are most imperfectly +understood by the public, and, in some respects, most perfectly +misunderstood, such as the first two for example; others, and +especially the fourth, or the great Compromise of 1820, are overlaid +with a mass of lying traditions such as the world has seldom seen; +traditions invented by politicians, and industriously propagated by +the press and the pulpit. If these traditions were cleared away, and +the facts which lie beneath them in the silent records of the country +brought to view, the revelation would be sufficient to teach both +sections of the Union the profoundest lessons of humiliation and +sorrow. If patiently and properly studied, the history of the United +States is, perhaps, fraught with as many valuable lessons for the +warning and instruction of mankind, as that of any other age or nation +since the fall of Rome, since the Flood, or since the fall of man. + + + + +RICHARD H. MENEFEE + + +Richard Hickman Menefee, who with Henry Clay and Thomas F. Marshall +form the great triumvirate of early Kentucky orators, was born at +Owingsville, Kentucky, December 4, 1809. He was educated at +Transylvania University, and graduated from the law school of that +institution in 1832. He practiced his profession at Mt. Sterling, +Kentucky, for several years, when, in 1836, he was elected to the +Kentucky legislature. In the legislature he won a wide reputation as +an orator, and rapidly became known as the most gifted man of his age +in Kentucky. In the summer of 1837 Menefee made the race for Congress +and, after an exciting campaign, it was found that he had defeated his +opponent, Judge Richard French. In the lower House of Congress Menefee +and Sargeant S. Prentiss of Mississippi were the two young men that +compelled the country's attention and admiration as orators. In 1838 +William J. Graves, a Kentucky member of the House, killed Jonathan +Cilley, representative from a Maine district, and the friend of +Nathaniel Hawthorne, in a duel near Washington City. Menefee was one +of Graves's seconds. This affair of honor was so bitterly condemned on +all sides that Congress was compelled to enact the anti-duelling law. +In July, 1838, the people of Boston tendered Daniel Webster a great +home-coming banquet, in Faneuil Hall, and Menefee responded very +eloquently to a toast to Kentucky. One more session of Congress and he +returned to Kentucky, entering upon the practice of law at Lexington, +where cases pressed fast upon him. He met Henry Clay in the great +Rogers will case of 1840, and Clay got the jury's verdict. Cassius M. +Clay placed Menefee in nomination for the United States Senate in the +Kentucky legislature of 1841, but his ill-health made his election a +hazardous action. A short time before his death he drew up the mature +reflections of his life, in the form of a diary, and this, only +recently published, has added to his fame. Menefee died at Lexington, +Kentucky, February 20, 1841. Thomas P. Marshall pronounced an eulogy +upon him which has taken its rightful place among the masterpieces of +American oratory; and in 1869 a Kentucky county was carved out of +several other counties and named in his honor. While he was not a +constructive statesman, Menefee's fame as an orator seems to grow +greater with the passing of the years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_, by W. + L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); _Richard Hickman Menefee_, by John + Wilson Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +KENTUCKY: A TOAST + + [From _Richard Hickman Menefee_, by John Wilson Townsend (New + York, 1907)] + +MR. CHAIRMAN: + +I cannot remain silent under the sentiment which has just been announced +and so enthusiastically received. That sentiment relates not to myself +but to Kentucky--dearer to me than self. Of Kentucky I have nothing to +say. There she is. In her history, from the period when first penetrated +by the white man as the _dark and bloody ground_, down to the present, +she speaks. The character to which that history entitles her is before +the world. She is proud of it. She is proud of the past; she is proud of +the present. And her pride is patriotic and just. As one of her sons, I +ask to express in her name, the acknowledgments due to the complimentary +notice you have taken of her, a notice not the less complimentary from +its association with the name of Massachusetts. + +There is much in the character and history of Massachusetts which should +bind her in the strongest bonds to Kentucky. Your sentiment places them +together: just where they ought to be. Kentucky is willing to occupy the +place you have assigned her. Without respect now to subordinate +differences in past events, both States stand knit together by the +highest and strongest motives by which States can be impelled. I mean +the motive and purpose common to each of maintaining and upholding, in +every extremity and to the very last, the Union of these States and the +Constitution. Massachusetts has proclaimed over and over again her +resolution not to survive them. Nor will Kentucky survive them. She has +embarked her whole destiny--all she has and all she hopes for--in the +Union and the Constitution. Let come what may of public calamity, of +faction, of sectional seduction or intimidation, or evil in any form the +most dreadful to man, Kentucky, like Massachusetts, regards the +overthrow of the Union as more frightful than all. Kentucky acknowledges +no justification for a disruption of the Union that is not a +justification for revolution itself. In that Union, and under that +Constitution, Kentucky means to stand or fall. Kentucky stands by the +Union in her living efforts; she means to hold fast to it in her +expiring groans. With Massachusetts she means to perish, if perish she +must, with hands clenched, in death, upon the Union. + + * * * * * + +If the occasion allowed it, I should like to say something of old +Massachusetts. I should like to rekindle my own patriotism at her +altars. Here--on this very spot--in this very hall--the sacred flame +of revolutionary liberty first ascended. Here it has ever ascended. It +has never been smothered--never dimmed. Perpetual--clear--holy! Behold +its inspirations here in your midst! Where are the doctrines of the +Union and the Constitution so incessantly inculcated as here? Where +are those doctrines so enthusiastically adopted as here? The +principles of the Union and the Constitution--for us another name for +the principles of liberty which cannot survive their overthrow--will, +in after ages, trace with delight their lineage through you. The blood +of freedom is here pure. To be allied to it is to be ennobled. +_Massachusetts!_ Which of her multitude of virtues shall I commend? +How can I discriminate? I will not attempt it. I take her as she is +and all together--I give--_Old Massachusetts!_ God bless her! + + + + +GEORGE W. CUTTER + + +George Washington Cutter, one of Kentucky's finest poets, was born in +Massachusetts about 1809, but he early came to Covington, Kentucky, and +entered upon the practice of his profession, the law. He commanded a +company of Kentuckians in the Mexican War with great honor to himself +and to them. He had been a constant contributor of verse to the +periodicals of his time, but he did not publish his first book until +after the war with Mexico. _Buena Vista and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1848) was his first collection, and it contained a preface signed from +Covington, Kentucky, December, 1847. From this it will be seen that +Cutter returned to Kentucky after the war, and that he was living in +this State at the time of his book's appearance. Tradition has said that +he wrote the title-poem, _Buena Vista_, a spirited war ballad, on the +field of action immediately after the battle. His little volume +contained thirty-seven poems, including _The Song of Steam_, which has +been singled out by critics as his masterpiece, an ode to Henry Clay, +his political idol, and his fine descriptive poem, _The Creation of +Woman_. This, to the present writer, is the most exquisite thing Cutter +did in verse. It is highly and consistently poetical, and it should be +better appreciated than it has been. Cutter was married to Mrs. Frances +Ann Drake, a famous Kentucky actress, but they were not happy and a +separation by mutual agreement subsequently followed. Mrs. Cutter was +the widow of Alexander Drake, of the well-known family of that name, and +after parting with the poet she resumed her first husband's name, +returned to the stage, and managed theatres in Kentucky and Ohio until +her death in Oldham county, Kentucky, September 1, 1875. Cutter later +removed to Indiana and was a member of the State legislature, after +which service he removed to Washington City to accept a government +position. In Washington Cutter continued his poetical output, life in +the capital turning his attention to patriotic subjects. _Poems, +National and Patriotic_ (Philadelphia, 1857) proved the author to be, +for the critics of his time, "the most intensely patriotic poet we +have." This volume contained sixty-nine of what he regarded as his best +poems. _The Song of Steam and Other Poems_ also appeared in this same +year of 1857, and it contained one of the poet's finest efforts, _The +Song of the Lightning_. Cutter died at Washington, D. C., December 24, +1865. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +THE SONG OF STEAM + + [From _Buena Vista and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1848)] + + Harness me down with your iron bands, + Be sure of your curb and rein; + For I scorn the power of your puny hands + As the tempest scorns a chain. + How I laughed as I lay concealed from sight, + For many a countless hour, + At the childish boast of human might, + And the pride of human power. + + When I saw an army upon the land, + A navy upon the seas, + Creeping along, a snail-like band, + Or waiting the wayward breeze; + When I marked the peasant faintly reel + With the toil which he daily bore, + As he feebly turned the tardy wheel, + Or tugged at the weary oar;-- + + When I measured the panting courser's speed, + The flight of the courier dove-- + As they bore the law a king decreed, + Or the lines of impatient love-- + I could not but think how the world would feel, + As these were outstripp'd afar, + When I should be bound to the rushing keel, + Or chained to the flying car. + + Ha! ha! ha! they found me at last, + They invited me forth at length, + And I rushed to my throne with a thunder-blast, + And I laughed in my iron strength. + Oh! then ye saw a wondrous change + On the earth and the ocean wide, + Where now my fiery armies range, + Nor wait for wind or tide. + + Hurrah! hurrah! the waters o'er, + The mountain's steep decline, + Time--space--have yielded to my power-- + The world! the world is mine! + The rivers, the sun hath earliest blest, + Or those where his beams decline; + The giant streams of the queenly west, + Or the orient floods divine: + + The ocean pales where'er I sweep, + To hear my strength rejoice, + And the monsters of the briny deep + Cower, trembling, at my voice. + I carry the wealth and the lord of earth, + The thoughts of his god-like mind, + The wind lags after my flying forth, + The lightning is left behind. + + In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine, + My tireless arm doth play, + Where the rocks never saw the sun decline, + Or the dawn of the glorious day. + I bring earth's glittering jewels up + From the hidden cave below, + And I make the fountain's granite cup + With a crystal gush o'erflow. + + I blow the bellows, I forge the steel, + In all the shops of trade; + I hammer the ore and turn the wheel, + Where my arms of strength are made; + I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint; + I carry, I spin, I weave; + And all my doings I put into print, + On every Saturday eve. + + I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay, + No bones to be "laid on the shelf," + And soon I intend you may "go and play," + While I manage this world myself. + But harness me down with your iron bands, + Be sure of your curb and rein; + For I scorn the strength of your puny hands, + As the tempest scorns a chain. + + + + +MARY P. SHINDLER + + +Mrs. Mary Palmer Shindler, poet and novelist, was born at Beaufort, +South Carolina, February 15, 1810. She was the daughter of Dr. +Benjamin M. Palmer, the celebrated Presbyterian preacher of New +Orleans. She was educated in Charleston by the daughter of Dr. David +Ramsey, the early historian of South Carolina. Her education was +completed in the schools of Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1835 Miss +Palmer was married to Charles E. Dana of New York; and in 1848 to Rev. +Robert D. Shindler, an Episcopal clergyman. Two years after this +marriage they removed to Maryland, and then to Shelbyville, Kentucky, +where Dr. Shindler held a professorship in Shelby College. Shelbyville +was Mrs. Shindler's home henceforth, save for short sojourns in other +states, and in that town she died about 1880. She was the author of +_The Southern Harp_ (1840); _The Northern Harp_ (1841); _The Parted +Family and Other Poems_ (1842); _The Temperance Lyre_ (1842); _Charles +Morton, or the Young Patriot_ (1843); _The Young Sailor_ (1844); +_Forecastle Tour_ (1844); and, _Letters to Relatives and Friends on +the Trinity_ (1845). Several of Mrs. Shindler's lyrics are well known. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. v); _The Writers of South Carolina_, by George A. + Wauchope (Columbia, South Carolina, 1910). + + +THE FADED FLOWER + + [From _The Parted Family and Other Poems_ (1842)] + + I have seen a fragrant flower + All impearled with morning dew; + I have plucked it from the bower, + Where in loveliness it grew. + Oh, 'twas sweet, when gayly vying + With the garden's richest bloom; + But when faded, withered, dying, + Sweeter far its choice perfume. + + So the heart, when crushed by sorrow, + Sends its richest streams abroad, + While it learns sweet balm to borrow + From the uplifted hand of God. + Not in its sunny days of gladness + Will the heart be fixed on Heaven; + When 'tis wounded, clothed in sadness, + Oft its richest love is given. + + + + +MARTIN J. SPALDING + + +Martin John Spalding, seventh archbishop of Baltimore, was born near +Lebanon, Kentucky, May 23, 1810. His forebears were Maryland Catholics +who had emigrated to Kentucky. He was graduated from St. Mary's +College when but sixteen years of age. Spalding then spent four years +at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky, and the same number of +years in Rome, at the conclusion of which he is said to have made a +seven hours' defense in Latin of 256 theological propositions. This +exhibition won him a doctor's diploma, and his ordination as a priest. +From 1834 to 1843 Dr. Spalding was president of St. Joseph's College +in Bardstown. And from 1843 to 1848 he was in charge of the cathedral +at Louisville. In 1848 he was consecrated Bishop of Lengone; and two +years later Bishop of Louisville. Bishop Spalding served in this +capacity until 1864 when, in the presence of four thousand people, he +was installed as the seventh archbishop of Baltimore. This high office +he held until his death, which occurred at Baltimore, February 7, +1872. Bishop Spalding was the greatest Roman Catholic reviewer and +historian Kentucky has produced. He was one of the editors of the +_Catholic Magazine_, and the author of the excellent _Sketches of the +Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1846); _The Life, +Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev. B. J. Flaget_ (Louisville, 1852). +He also published _Lectures on the General Evidences of Christianity_ +(1844); _Review of D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation_ (Baltimore, +1847); _History of the Protestant Reformation_ (1860); and a +posthumous volume, _Miscellanea_ (1885). There is also a uniform five +volume edition of his works, which is fortunate, as his books, +especially the _Sketches_, and _Flaget_, are exceedingly scarce. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life of Archbishop Spalding_, by his nephew, John + L. Spalding (New York, 1872); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +A BISHOP'S ARRIVAL + + [From _Sketches of the Life, Times, and Character of the Rt. Rev. + Benedict Joseph Flaget_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1852)] + +Bishop Dubourg had sailed from Bordeaux on the 1st of July, 1817; and +he had landed at Annapolis on the 4th of September. His _suite_ +consisted of five priests--of whom the present Archbishop of New +Orleans was one--and twenty-six young men, some of whom were +candidates for the ministry, and others were destined to become lay +brothers to assist the missionaries in temporal affairs. Several of +these youths were from Belgium; and among them was the V. Rev. D. A. +Deparcq, of our Diocese. A portion of the company started directly for +Baltimore with Bishop Dubourg; the rest, with the Rev. M. Blanc at +their head, remained at Annapolis, where they were entertained with +princely hospitality in the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, +until the end of October. + +Preparations were in the meantime made for crossing the mountains. The +stage then ran westward only once a week; and no less than three weeks +were consumed in transporting the missionary band to Pittsburgh. The +Bishop and M. Blanc were in the last division; but after remaining in +the stage for two days, during which time it had repeatedly upset, +endangering their lives, they finally abandoned it altogether, and +performed the remainder of the journey for five days on foot. About +the middle of November, the missionary company embarked on a flatboat; +and they reached Louisville on the last day of the month. Here they +found the Rev. MM. Chabrat and Shaeffer, who had been sent on by +Bishop Flaget to welcome them to Kentucky. Accompanied by them and by +the Rev. M. Blanc, Bishop Dubourg started immediately for St. +Thomas's, where he arrived in the evening of December 2d. + +Bishop Flaget was rejoiced to meet his old friend. "I recognized him +instantly," says he; "see! on meeting me, he has the humility to +dismount, in order to present me the most affectionate salute that ever +was given." Many and long were the "happy conversations" which he held +with his former associate, and now distinguished guest. Bishop Dubourg +officiated pontifically, and preached an admirable sermon in the church +of St. Thomas,--the only cathedral which the Bishop as yet possessed. + +On the 12th of December, the two prelates, accompanied by Father +Badin, set out for St. Louis, by the way of Louisville. Here Bishop +Dubourg preached in the chapel erected by M. Badin. On the 18th they +embarked on the steamboat Piqua, and on the 20th reached the mouth of +the Ohio, where they were detained five days by the ice. Their time +was passed chiefly in religious exercises and pious conversations. + +The following description of the Piqua and its passengers, from the +pen of Bishop Flaget, may not be uninteresting to us at the present +day, when steamboat building and navigation have so greatly changed +for the better: + +"Nothing could be more original than the medley of persons on board this +boat. We have a band of seven or eight comedians, a family of seven or +eight Jews, and a company of clergymen composed of a tonsured cleric, a +priest, and two Bishops; besides others, both white and black. Thus more +than thirty persons are lodged in an apartment (cabin), twenty feet by +twelve, which is again divided into two parts. This boat comprises the +old and the new testament. It might serve successively for a synagogue, +a cathedral, a theatre, an hospital, a parlor, a dining room, and a +sleeping apartment. It is, in fact, a veritable _Noah's ark_, in which +there are both clean and unclean animals;--and what is more +astonishing,--peace and harmony reign here." + +They were still at the mouth of the Ohio on the morning of Christmas +day. Not being able to say three Masses, they determined to make three +meditations. At the conclusion of the second, the redoubtable Piqua +resumed her course towards St. Louis. The Bishops and clergy made a +kind of retreat on their Noah's ark. On the evening of Christmas day, +the boat stopped near the farm of the widow Fenwick, a good Catholic, +whom they were happy to visit. M. Badin continued his journey by land +from this point, in order to be able to visit on the way many of his +old friends, Catholic emigrants from Kentucky. + +The Bishops returned to the boat, where they found the comedians +performing a play,--that is, engaged in a general fight among +themselves,--until they were separated by the captain. At midnight, on +the 30th, they arrived at St. Genevieve; and early next morning they +sent a messenger to announce their coming to M. De Andreis. + +Two hours afterwards, "about thirty of the principal inhabitants came, +with several young men on horseback and a carriage, to escort the +Bishops into the town. We went to the presbytery to put on our +pontifical robes: twenty-four choir-children with the cross at their +head, and four citizens bearing a canopy, conducted us to the church, +where after the installation of Bishop Dubourg, on a throne specially +prepared for the purpose, we sang the _Te Deum_. The whole day was +spent in receiving visits." + +On the first day of the year 1818, Bishop Dubourg celebrated +Pontifical Mass at St. Genevieve. The journey was then continued to +Prairie du Rocher and Cahokias to St. Louis, where the prelates +arrived on the 5th. They were received with great pomp, in the best +French style; and Bishop Dubourg was no sooner known than he was +universally esteemed and beloved. He professed himself much pleased +with the dispositions and sentiments of his new flock,--so different +from what he had been led to expect. + +Bishop Flaget having now completed his mission, preached his farewell +sermon to the Catholics of St. Louis on the feast of the Epiphany; and +on the next day he turned his face homeward. He and M. Badin performed +the journey on horseback, by the way of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. They +were detained three days at the former place, not being able to cross +the river in consequence of the running ice; and in traversing Illinois +they passed three successive nights in the open air of the prairies. +They reached Vincennes on the 27th of January; and after remaining here +two weeks, attending to missionary duties, they continued their journey. + +On the 21st of February, the Bishop found himself once more at his +retired and pleasant home in the seminary of St. Thomas. + + + + +JOHN W. AUDUBON + + +John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the great Audubon, was born at +Henderson, Kentucky, November 30, 1812. At the time of his birth his +father was ekeing out an existence in Henderson, with saw-mills and +lumber ventures of various kinds, all of which finally failed. The +nomadic life of the ornithologist was early forced upon his son. Their +wanderings were chiefly confined to the country south of the Ohio +river, and Louisiana. John Woodhouse Audubon was instructed by his +mother in the useful field of learning; but from his father he learned +to delineate birds and mammals, though it was the family's desire that +he should become a portrait painter. He and his brother, Victor, who +was three years his elder, were sent to school together, but, in 1826, +they were separated, Victor becoming a clerk at Louisville, Kentucky, +and John remaining in Louisiana with his mother, who was then +conducting a school, while the father went to Europe to solicit +subscriptions for his forthcoming _Birds of America_. John W. Audubon +was at this time engaged in drawing from Nature, and in playing the +violin, to which he was devoted throughout life. He was a clerk for a +short time on a Mississippi river steamboat, but any kind of routine +was distasteful to him, his whole life being absorbed in the study of +birds and mammals. He accompanied his father on one of his European +trips, and in England and Scotland he copied many of the masterpieces +of the great painters. In 1863 the collection of new species demanded +that father and son should go as far South as the Gulf of Mexico; and +while passing through Charleston, South Carolina, the son met Maria +Bachman, whom he married the following year. In 1840 the Audubon house +near New York City was built, and there John W. Audubon spent the +remaining years of his life. In 1849 he joined a California company to +go to the gold fields, but he went not for gold but for new birds and +mammals. He returned in the following year, and in 1851, his famous +father died. The brothers were then occupied with the publication of +_The Quadrupeds_, and the octavo edition of _The Birds of America_. In +the summer of 1860 Victor Audubon died; and on February 21, 1862, his +brother followed him into the silent country. John Woodhouse Audubon's +forty-nine years were spent in collaborating with his father and +brother, but his independent fame is founded upon the manuscript +record of his 1849 journey from New York to California. This most +interesting manuscript was edited by his daughter, Miss Maria R. +Audubon, of Salem, New York, and published as _Audubon's Western +Journal: 1849-1850_ (Cleveland, Ohio, 1906). A more charming book of +travels, of Nature in many forms, would be difficult to name. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The several lives of the great Audubon contain much + material for a study of his son. His daughter made an excellent + sketch of him for her edition of his _Western Journal: 1849-1850_ + (Cleveland, 1906). + + +LOS ANGELES[8] + + [From Audubon's _Western Journal, 1849-1850_ (Cleveland, 1906)] + +This "city of the angels" is anything else, unless the angels are +fallen ones. An antiquated, dilapidated air pervades all, but +Americans are pouring in, and in a few years will make a beautiful +place of it. It is well watered by a pretty little river, led off in +irrigating ditches like those at San Antonio de Bexar. The whole town +is surrounded to the south with very luxuriant vines, and the grapes +are quite delightful; we parted from them with great regret, as fruit +is such a luxury with us. Many of the men took bushels, and only paid +small sums for them. + + +TULARE VALLEY + + [From the same] + +One more day brought us to this great valley, and the view from the +last hill looking to northwest was quite grand, stretching on one hand +until lost in distance, and on the other the snowy mountains on the +east of the Tulare valley. Here, for the first time, I saw the Lewis +woodpecker, and Steller's jay in this country. I have seen many +California vultures and a new hawk, with a white tail and red +shoulders. During the dry season this great plain may be travelled on, +but now numerous ponds and lakes exist, and the ground is in places, +for miles, too boggy to ride over, so we were forced to skirt the +hills. This compelled us sometimes to take three days when two should +have been ample. Our journeys now are not more than twenty miles a +day, and our nights are so penetrating and cold, that four blankets +are not too many. + + +CHRISTMAS IN 'FRISCO IN 1849 + + [From the same] + +Christmas Day! Happy Christmas! Merry Christmas! Not that here, to me +at any rate, in this pandemonium of a city. Not a _lady_ to be seen, +and the women, poor things, sad and silent, except when drunk or +excited. The place full of gamblers, hundreds of them, and men of the +lowest types, more blasphemous, and with less regard for God and his +commands than all I have ever seen on the Mississippi, [in] New +Orleans or Texas, which give us the same class to some extent, it is +true; but instead of a few dozen, or a hundred, gaming at a time, here +there are thousands, and one house alone pays one hundred and fifty +thousand dollars per annum for the rent of the "Monte" tables. + +Sunday makes no difference, certainly not Christmas, except for a +little more drunkenness, and a little extra effort on the part of the +hotel keepers to take in more money. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] Copyright, 1905, by the Arthur H. Clark Company. + + + + +ADRIEN E. ROUQUETTE + + +Adrien Emmanuel Rouquette, Louisiana's most distinguished poet, was +born at New Orleans, February 13, 1813, the scion of an old and +honorable Creole family, and the brother of Francois Dominique +Rouquette (1810-1890), who was also a poet of much merit. From his +boyhood he had a great fancy for the American Indian, and among them +he spent many of his early years. His academic training was begun at +Transylvania University of Lexington, Kentucky, but as the old +matriculation books have disappeared, it now seems quite impossible to +definitely fix his period of residence. From Lexington Rouquette +journeyed to Paris, France, where he studied at the Royal College and +at Nantes and Remnes. He was graduated from Remnes, March 26, 1833, +and at once returned to New Orleans. He had, however, developed into +such an unconventional fellow his family decided that a law course in +Paris was what he needed, so back to the capital of the French he +went. He soon abandoned the law and again returned to New Orleans, +where he took up his abode among the Indians. In 1841 Rouquette +published his first and best book of poems, written wholly in French, +entitled _Les Savanes_ (Paris and New Orleans). Nearly all of the +poems were upon Louisiana subjects, save the finest one, _Souvenir de +Kentucky_, an exquisite memorial of his Kentucky days, written in +1838. As he was partly educated in Kentucky and in praise of Kentucky +wrote his masterpiece, this State has a double claim upon him which, +though secondary to that of Louisiana, is none the less legitimate. In +1842 the poet began his studies for the priesthood, and three years +later he was ordained and attached to the Catholic cathedral at New +Orleans. His subsequent works include _Discours prononce a la +Cathedral de Saint Louis_ (New Orleans, 1846); _Wild Flowers_ (New +Orleans, 1848); _La Thebaide en Amerique_ (New Orleans, 1852); +_L'Antoniade_ (New Orleans, 1860), a long poem in which a solitary +life is extolled; _Poemes patriotiques_ (New Orleans, 1860); _St. +Catherine Tegehkwitha_ (New Orleans, 1873); and, _La Nouvelle Atala_ +(New Orleans, 1879). In 1859 the Abbe Rouquette established a mission +for the Choctaw Indians on the Bayou Lacombe, to which work he gave +the larger part of his life. Rouquette also turned into French the +poems of Estelle Anna Lewis (1824-1880), the Baltimore woman whom Poe +admired; and he edited _Selections from the Poets of all Countries_. +The three great Louisiana writers, Rouquette, the poet, Fortier, the +critic, and Gayarre, the historian, published pamphlets condemnatory +of Mr. George W. Cable's conceptions of Creole life and history as set +forth in his many books. The Abbe sent his out anonymously, entitled +_Critical Dialogue between Aboo and Caboo on a New Book, or a +Grandissime Ascension_, edited by E. Junius (Great Publishing House of +Sam Slick Allspice, 12 Veracity street, Mingo City, 1880). From the +Creole standpoint _The Grandissimes_ most probably deserved to be +satirized, but not in the cheap and easy manner of this little +pamphlet. It was a very unhappy swan-song of senility for the Abbe +Rouquette. He died at New Orleans, July 15, 1887, lamented by his city +and state. Sainte-Beuve, though recognizing the influence of +Chateaubriand in Rouquette's work, praised him highly, as did many of +the other famous French critics of his day and generation. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Cyclopaedia of American Literature_, by E. A. and + G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); _Louisiana Studies_, by Alcee + Fortier (New Orleans, 1894); _Literature of the Louisiana + Territory_, by A. N. DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904). + + +SOUVENIR DE KENTUCKY + + [From _Les Savanes, Poesies Americaines_ (Paris, 1841)] + +Kentucky, the bloody land! + + * * * * * + +Le Seigneur dit a Osee: "Apres cela, neanmoins, je l'attirerai +doucement a moi, je l'amenerai dans la solitude, et je lui parlerai au +coeur."--(_La Bible_ Osee). + + Enfant, je dis un soir: Adieu, ma bonne mere! + Et je quittai gaiment sa maison et sa terre, + Enfant, dans mon exil, une lettre, un matin, + (O Louise!) m'apprit que j'etais orphelin! + Enfant, je vis les bois du Kentucky sauvage, + Et l'homme se souvient des bois de son jeune age! + Ah! dans le Kentucky les arbres sont bien beaux: + C'est la _terre de sang_, aux indiens tombeaux, + Terre aux belles forets, aux seculaires chenes, + Aux bois suivis de bois, aux magnifiques scenes; + Imposant cimetiere, ou dorment en repos + Tant de _rouges-tribus_ et tant de _blanches-peaux_; + Ou l'ombre du vieux Boon, immobile genie, + Semble ecouter, la nuit, l'eternelle harmonie, + Le murmure eternel des immenses deserts, + Ces mille bruits confus, ces mille bruits divers, + Cet orgue des forets, cet orchestre sublime, + O Dieu! que seul tu fis, que seul ton souffle anime! + Quand au vaste clavier pese un seul de tes doigts, + Soudain, roulent dans l'air mille flots a la fois: + Soudain, au fond des bois, sonores basiliques, + Bourdonne un ocean de sauvages musiques; + Et l'homme, a tous ces sons de l'orgue universel, + L'homme tombe a genoux, en regardant le ciel! + Il tombe, il croit, il prie; et, chretien sans etude, + Il retrouve, etonne, Dieu dans la solitude! + +A portion of this famous poem was translated by a writer in _The +Southern Quarterly Review_ (July, 1854). + + Here, with its Indian tombs, the Bloody Land + Spreads out:--majestic forests, secular oaks, + Woods stretching into woods; a witching realm, + Yet haunted with dread shadows;--a vast grave, + Where, laid together in the sleep of death, + Rest myriads of the red men and the pale. + Here, the stern forest genius, veteran Boon, + Still harbors: still he hearkens, as of yore, + To never ceasing harmonies, that blend, + At night, the murmurs of a thousand sounds, + That rise and swell capricious, change yet rise, + Borne from far wastes immense, whose mingling strains-- + The forest organ's tones, the sylvan choir-- + Thy breath alone, O God! can'st animate, + Making it fruitful in the matchless space! + Thy mighty fingers pressing on its keys, + How suddenly the billowy tones roll up + From the great temples of the solemn depths, + Resounding through the immensity of wood + To the grand gushing harmonies, that speak + For thee, alone, O Father. As we hear + The unanimous concert of this mighty chaunt, + We bow before thee; eyes uplift to Heaven, + We pray thee, and believe. A Christian sense + Informs us, though untaught in Christian books + Awed into worship, as we learn to know + That thou, O God, art in the solitude! + + + + +EMILY V. MASON + + +Miss Emily Virginia Mason, biographer and anthologist, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, October 15, 1815, the sister of Stevens Thompson +Mason, first governor of Michigan. She was educated in Kentucky schools +and in a female seminary at Troy, New York. From 1845 until 1861 Miss +Mason lived in Fairfax county, Virginia, but when the Civil War began +she left her home and volunteered in the Confederate States hospital +service; and she was matron successively of hospitals in the Virginia +towns of Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, +and Richmond. Miss Mason won a wide reputation in this work, becoming +one of the best loved of Southern women. Almost immediately after the +war her first literary work was published, an anthology of _The Southern +Poems of the War_ (Baltimore, 1867) which was one of the first +collection issued of verse which owed its origin to the war. Her second +book was what she always said was the first life of Lee, though John +Esten Cooke's account of the great soldier appeared about the same +time, entitled _A Popular Life of General Robert Edward Lee_ (Baltimore, +1871). This was followed by her edition of _The Journal of a Young Lady +of Virginia in 1798_ (1871), which enjoyed wide popularity among +Virginians of her generation. Miss Mason went to Paris, France, about +1870, and for the following fifteen years she was associate principal of +an American school for young women. Upon her return to this country she +established herself in an attractive old Southern home at Georgetown, D. +C., in which she spent the remainder of her life. Miss Mason's last +literary work was _Memories of a Hospital Matron_, which appeared in +_The Atlantic Monthly_ for September and October of 1902. She was an +able writer and a most remarkable woman in many respects. Miss Mason +died at Georgetown, D. C., February 16, 1909, at the great age of +ninety-four years. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Southern Writers_, by W. P. Trent (New York, 1905); + _The Washington Post_ (February 17, 1909). + + +THE DEATH OF LEE + + [From _A Popular Life of General Robert E. Lee_ (Baltimore, 1871)] + +On the evening of this day, 28th of September [1870] after a morning +of great fatigue, he attended the vestry meeting referred to, returned +home, and seated at the tea-table, opened his lips to give thanks to +God. + +The family looked up to see the parted lips, but heard no sound. With +that last thanksgiving his great heart broke. + +For many days his weeping friends hung over him, hoping for a return +of health and reason, but in vain. He murmured of battles and sieges; +of guarded tents and fields just won. Among his last words were: +"Strike my tent! Send for Hill!" Remarkably coincident with those of +his great lieutenant, Jackson, whose words were: "Let A. P. Hill +prepare for action! March the infantry rapidly to the front! Let us +cross the river and rest under the shade of the trees." + +At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 12th of October, the great soldier +breathed his last. + +The following day his body was borne to the college-chapel, escorted +by a guard of honor composed of Confederate soldiers. Next the hearse +was led General Lee's favorite horse "Traveller," who had borne him in +so many battles. The Trustees and Faculty of the college, the cadets +of the Military Institute, and the citizens, followed in procession. + +Above the chapel floated the flag of Virginia, draped in mourning. + +Through this and the succeeding day, the body, covered with flowers, +lay in state, visited by thousands who came to look for the last time +upon his noble features. + +On the 15th, the last said rites were rendered, amid the tolling of the +bells, the sound of martial music, and the thundering of artillery. + +The students, officers and soldiers of the Confederate army, and about +a thousand persons, assembled at the chapel. A military escort, with +the officers of General Lee's staff, were in the front. The hearse +followed, with the faithful "Traveller" close behind it. Next came a +committee of the Virginia Legislature, with citizens from all parts of +the State. Passing the Military Institute, the cadets made the +military salute as the body appeared, then joined the procession, and +escorted it back to the chapel. + +It had been the request of General Lee that no funeral oration should +be pronounced over his remains. His old and long-tried friend, the +Rev. Wm. N. Pendleton, simply read the burial services of the +Episcopal Church, after which was lowered into a tomb beneath the +chapel all that was mortal of Robert E. Lee. + + + + +EDMUND FLAGG + + +Edmund Flagg, traveler, journalist, and poet, was born at Wiscasset, +Maine, November 24, 1815. Immediately upon his graduation from Bowdoin +College, in 1835, he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and became a +teacher. His letters written to the _Louisville Journal_ while +traveling in the states of the Middle West, were afterwards collected, +revised, and published anonymously, entitled _The Far West, or a Tour +beyond the Mountains_ (New York, 1838, two vols.). This work has been +edited by Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites and published as volumes 26 and 27 +of _Early Western Travels_ (Cleveland, 1906). In 1839 Flagg became +associate editor of the Louisville _Literary News-Letter_, of which +George D. Prentice was editor. All of his poems of merit were +published in the _Journal_, and _News-Letter_. Flagg contributed both +prose and verse to the Louisville papers for nearly thirty-five years. +Ill-health compelled him to abandon journalism for law, and at +Vicksburg, Mississippi, he formed a partnership with the celebrated +Sargent Smith Prentiss. Two years later he became editor of the +_Gazette_ at Marietta, Ohio. Flagg's first two novels were issued +about this time, entitled _Carrero_ (New York, 1842), and _Francois of +Valois_ (New York, 1842). He was next editor of a publication at St. +Louis; and in 1849 he was secretary of the American legation at +Berlin. In 1850-1851 he was United States consul at Venice. He +afterwards returned to St. Louis and to journalism. Two of his plays, +_Blanche of Artois_, and _The Howard Queen_, were well received at +Louisville, Cincinnati, and several other cities. In 1853 Flagg's +_Venice, the City of the Sea_, appeared, and it won him a wide +reputation. _North Italy since 1849_, issued some years later, resumed +the story of Venice where his first work had left off, and brought it +down to date. Flagg was afterwards connected with the State department +in Washington, and under an order from Congress he prepared his +famous _Report on the Commercial Relations of the United States with +all Foreign Nations_ (Washington, 1856-1857, four vols.). His final +work was a novel, _De Molai, the Last of the Military Templars_ +(1888). Edmund Flagg died at Salem, Virginia, in 1890. He is most +certainly a Kentucky poet, journalist, and traveler, but his fame as a +dramatist, historian, and novelist belongs wholly to other states. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Literature of the Louisiana Territory_, by A. N. + DeMenil (St. Louis, 1904); Adams's _Dictionary of American + Authors_ (Boston, 1905). + + +THE ANCIENT MOUNDS OF THE WEST + + [From _The Louisville Literary News-Letter_] + +Ages since--long ere the first son of the Old World had pressed the +fresh soil of the New--long before the bright region beyond the blue +waves had become the object of the philosopher's reverie by day, and +the enthusiast's vision by night--in the deep stillness and solitude +of an unpeopled land, these vast mausoleums rose as they now rise, in +lonely grandeur from the plain and looked down even as now they look, +upon the giant floods rolling their dark waters at their base, +hurrying past them to the deep. So has it been with the massive tombs +of Egypt, amid the sands and barrenness of the desert. For ages untold +have the gloomy pyramids been reflected by the inundations of the +Nile; an hundred generations, they tell us, have arisen from the +cradle, and reposed beneath their shadows, and like autumn leaves have +dropped into the grave; but, from the midnight of bygone centuries, +comes forth no darting spirit to claim these kingly sepulchres as his +own! And shall the dusky piles, on the plains of distant Egypt affect +so deeply our reverence for the departed, and these mighty monuments, +reposing in dark sublimity upon our own magnificent prairies, vailed +in mystery more inscrutable than they, call forth no solitary throb? +Is there no hallowing interest associated with these aged +relics--these tombs, and temples, and towers' of another race, to +elicit emotion? Are they indeed to us no more than the dull clods we +tread upon? Why then does the wanderer from the far land gaze upon +them with wonder and veneration? Why linger fondly around them, and +meditate upon the power which reared them, and is departed? Why does +the poet, the man of genius and fancy, or the philosopher of mind and +nature, seat himself at their base, and with strange and undefined +emotions, pause and ponder, amid the loneliness that slumbers around? +And surely, if the far traveler, as he wanders through this Western +Valley, may linger around these aged piles, and meditate upon a power +departed--a race obliterated--an influence swept from the earth +forever--and dwell with melancholy emotions upon the destiny of man, +is it not meet, that those into whose keeping they seem by Providence +consigned, should regard them with interest and emotion?--that they +should gather up and preserve every incident relevant to their origin, +design, or history, which may be attained, and avail themselves of +every measure, which may give to them perpetuity, and hand them down, +undisturbed in form or character, to other generations? + +That these venerable piles are of the workmanship of man's hand, no +one, who with unprejudiced opinion has examined them, can doubt. But +with such an admission, what is the cloud of reflections, which throng +and startle the mind? What a series of unanswerable inquiries succeed! +When were these enormous earth heaps reared up from the plain? By what +race of beings was the vast undertaking accomplished? What was their +purpose?--what changes in their form and magnitude have taken +place?--what vicissitudes and revolutions have, in the lapse of +centuries, rolled like successive waves over the plains at their base? +As we reflect, we anxiously look around us for some tradition--some +time-stained chronicle--some age-worn record--even the faintest and +most unsatisfactory legend, upon which to repose our credulity, and +relieve the inquiring solicitude of the mind. But our research is +hopeless. The present race of Aborigines can tell nothing of these +tumuli. To them as to us they are vailed in mystery. Ages since--long +ere the white-face came--while this fair land was yet the home of his +fathers--the simple Indian stood before the venerable earth-heap, and +gazed, and wondered, and turned away. + + + + +CATHERINE A. WARFIELD + + +Mrs. Catherine Ann Warfield, poet and novelist, was born at Natchez, +Mississippi, June 6, 1816, the daughter of Nathaniel H. Ware. She was +educated at Philadelphia with her sister, Eleanor P. Ware Lee +(1820-1849), with whom she afterwards collaborated in her first two +volumes. Catherine Ware was married at Cincinnati, in 1833, to Robert +Elisha Warfield, of Lexington, Kentucky, and Kentucky was her home +henceforth. _The Wife of Leon, and Other Poems, by Two Sisters of the +West_ (New York, 1844), and _The Indian Chamber, and Other Poems_ (New +York, 1846) were the works of the sisters. In 1857 Mrs. Warfield +removed from Lexington to Pewee Valley, Kentucky, near Louisville, and +some three years later her masterpiece appeared, entitled _The +Household of Bouverie_ (New York, 1860, two vols.). This work brought +her into wide notice. During the Civil War Mrs. Warfield wrote some of +the most spirited lyrics which that mighty conflict called forth. +After the war she turned again to prose fiction, producing the +following books: _The Romance of the Green Seal_ (1867); _Miriam +Monfort_ (1873); _A Double Wedding_ (1875); _Hester Howard's +Temptation_ (1875); _Lady Ernestine_ (1876); _Miriam's Memoirs_ +(1876); _Sea and Shore_ (1876); _Ferne Fleming_ (1877); and her last +novel, _The Cardinal's Daughter_ (1877). Mrs. Warfield died at Pewee +Valley, Kentucky, May 21, 1877, at the time of her greatest +popularity. Of her books _The Household of Bouverie_ is the only one +that is generally known to-day, and is, perhaps, the only one that is +at all readable and interesting. Mrs. Warfield was an early edition of +"The Duchess" and Mary Jane Holmes, though she did write fine war +lyrics and one good story, which is just a bit better than either of +the other two women did. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Women of the South Distinguished in Literature_, by + Mary Forrest (New York, 1861); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii). + + +CAMILLA BOUVERIE'S DIARY + + [From _The Household of Bouverie_ (New York, 1860, v. ii)] + +Another queer scene with little Paul, whose quaint ways divert and +mystify me all the time. During Mr. Bouverie's absence of a week, I +have nothing else to amuse me nor to write about. He has called me +familiarly "Camilla" until now; but fearing that Mr. Bouverie might +not like the appellation, or rather that it might make me appear too +childish in his sight, I said to him recently: + +"Paul, you are a little fellow, and I am your guardian's wife. Don't +you think it would sound better if you were to add a handle to my +name, as common folks say? Call me 'Cousin Camilla' or 'Aunt Camilla,' +whichever you prefer; which shall it be, Quintil?" + +"Neither," he replied, manfully, "for you are neither of those things +to me, and I do not like to tell stories; but I will call you 'madam,' +if you choose, as you are a 'madam;'" and something like a sneer +wreathed his childish lips. + +"A foolish little madam, you think, Paul!" I rejoined, half in pique, +half in playfulness. + +"Why that is the very name for you," he said, brightening with the +thought. "'Little Madam!' I will call you so; but I will not put in +the foolish," he added, gravely, "for, perhaps, you will change after +a while and grow wiser." + +He spoke very seriously, sorrowfully almost, and I was quite provoked +for a moment to be set down in this fashion, by such a mere babe and +suckling. I was glad of the opportunity presented to me of snubbing +him by noticing a streak of molasses on his cheek. + +"Go wash your face, Paul," I said, "it is dirty!" + +He walked gravely to the glass and surveyed the stain. "Looking +glasses are useful things, after all," he said; "they tell the +truth--see 'Little Madam,' how you are mistaken! my face is not dirty, +only soiled; food is not dirt--if it were, we should all starve." + +He turned and smiled at me in his peculiar way, half mocking, half +affectionate. + +"Yet, as you bid me," he added, "I will wash it off; but isn't it a +pity to waste what would keep a bee alive a whole day!" + +Is this brat a humorist? + +He has brought out of his funny little trunk the oddest present for +me! It is a Medusa's head admirably carved in alabaster, and was +broken from the side of a vase by accident, and given to him by a +lady, at whose house he made a visit with Mr. Bouverie. + +He considers it a priceless treasure. There is a vague horror to me in +the face that is almost insupportable. The snaky hair, the sightless, +glaring eyes, are so mysteriously dreadful. He says it will answer for +a paper weight. No, Paul, I will lay it away out of sight forever. + + +A PLEDGE TO LEE + +(Written for a Kentucky Company) + + [From _Southern Poems of the War_, edited by Emily V. Mason + (Baltimore, 1867)] + + We pledge thee, Lee! + In water or wine, + In blood or in brine, + What matter the sign? + Whether brilliantly glowing, + Or darkly overflowing, + So the cup is divine + That we fill to thee! + Vanquished--victorious, + Gloomy or glorious, + Fainting and bleeding, + Advancing, receding, + Lingering or leading, + Captive or free; + With swords raised on high, + With hearts nerved to die, + Or to grasp victory; + Hand to hand--knee to knee, + With a wild three times three + We pledge thee, Lee! + + We pledge thee, chief: + In the name of our nation, + Her wide devastation, + Her sore desolation, + Her grandeur and grief! + Where'er thou warrest + When our need is the sorest, + Or in Fortress or forest, + Bidest thy time; + Thou--Heaven elected, + Thou--Angel-protected, + Thou--Brother selected, + What e'er thy fate be, + Our trust is in thee, + And our faith is sublime. + With swords raised on high, + With hearts nerved to die, + Or to grasp victory; + Hand to hand--knee to knee, + With a wild three times three, + We pledge thee, Lee! + + + + +J. ROSS BROWNE + + +John Ross Browne, humorist and traveler, was born in Ireland, in 1817, +but when an infant his father came to America and settled at +Louisville, Kentucky. Browne was educated in the Louisville schools, +and studied medicine for a time under several well-known physicians. +When eighteen years old he went to New Orleans; and this journey +kindled his passion for travel that ended only with his death. Browne +took the whole world for his home. He first went almost around the +globe on a whaling vessel, and on his return to this country, he +published his first book, called _Etchings of a Whaling Cruise_ (New +York, 1846). Browne was private secretary for Robert J. Walker, +Secretary of the Treasury, for a time, but, in 1849, he went to +California as a government commissioner; and in 1851 he went to Europe +as a newspaper correspondent. A tour of Palestine is described in +Browne's most famous book, _Yusef, or the Journey of the Frangi_ (New +York, 1853). He shortly afterwards returned to the United States and +became an inspector of customs on the Pacific coast; but the year of +1861 found him again in Europe, residing at Frankfort-on-the-Main. +Browne's next work was _Crusoe's Island_ (New York, 1864). His +family's residence in Germany resulted in the author publishing _An +American Family in Germany_ (New York, 1866), one of his most +delightful volumes. Browne's travels in northern Europe are described +in _The Land of Thor_ (New York, 1867). He now returned to America and +made his home in California. He investigated the mineral resources of +the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and his report was issued as +_Resources of the Pacific Slope_ (1869). _Adventures in the Apache +Country_ (1869), was his last book. Browne was appointed United States +Minister to China on March 11, 1868, but he was recalled sixteen +months later. He died at Oakland, California, December 9, 1875. Most +of his volumes are very cleverly illustrated with his own comical +sketches of characters and scenes. That J. Ross Browne was a man of +very considerable ability in several directions admits of no argument. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1887, v. i); _National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1900, v. viii). + + +LAPDOGS IN GERMANY + + [From _An American Family in Germany_ (New York, 1866)] + +One of the most remarkable sights is the dog-fancier--a strapping +six-foot dandy, leading after him, with silken strings, a whole brood +of nasty little poodles. This fellow is a type of the class; you meet +them everywhere at every Continental city. There are thousands of them +in Frankfort, men strangely infatuated on the subject of little dogs. +Now pardon me if I devote some serious reflections to this extraordinary +and unreasonable propensity, which, I fear, is rapidly taking root in +the hearts of the American people, especially the female portion of our +population. In men it is often excusable; they may be driven to it by +unrequited affection. I never see a fine-looking fellow leading a gang +of little poodle-dogs after him, that I don't imagine he has had some +dreadful experience in the line of true love; but with the opposite sex +the case is quite different. "If women have one weakness more marked +than another," says Mrs. Beecher Stowe, in a very eloquent passage of +the "Minister's Wooing," "it is toward veneration. They are born +worshippers--makers of silver shrines for some divinity or other, which, +of course, they always think fell straight down from heaven." And, in +illustration of this very just remark, she refers to instances where +celebrated preachers and divines have stood like the image that +Nebuchadnezzar the king set up, "and all womankind, coquettes and flirts +not excepted, have been ready to fall down and worship, even before the +sound of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, and so forth," where the most +gifted and accomplished of the sex "have turned away from the flattery +of admirers, to prostrate themselves at the feet of a genuine hero, who +never moved them except by heroic deeds and the rhetoric of a noble +life"--a most striking and beautiful trait in woman's character to which +all homage should be rendered. She clingeth unto man, even as the ivy +clingeth unto the oak. But does anybody pretend to tell me that man is +always the lucky recipient of this devotion? Alas, no! Not always for +him is it that women are burdened with this load of "fealty, faith, and +reverence more than they know what to do with;" not always for him is it +that "They stand like a hedge of sweet peas, throwing out fluttering +tendrils everywhere for something high and strong to climb by." Alas! +man is but a cipher among the objects of woman's heroic devotion. I have +a lady in my eye who from early youth has bestowed the tenderest +affections of her heart upon poll-parrots; another, who for years has +wept over the woes of a little chicken; who would abandon her midnight +slumber to minister to the afflictions of a lame turkey, and insensible +to the appeals of her lover, only relax in her severity when moved by +the plaintive mewing of a cat; another, who, in the bosom of her family, +and tenderly adored by her husband, has long since yielded to the +fascinating allurement of a sewing-machine, and wrapped around its +cogwheels, cotton spools, and hammering needles the poetry of a romantic +attachment; and, lastly, the particular case in point, at which I marvel +most of all, three most bewitching young ladies, of acknowledged beauty, +who are hopelessly and irrevocably gone in love with--what do you think? +Not a man, erect and noble, with the brow of Jove and eye of Mars; not +even a horse, the paragon of beautiful and intelligent animals, or a +lion, the king of the forest; but a miserable, dirty, nasty, little +lapdog; a snappish, foul-eyed inodorous, sneaking little brute, which +even the very cats hold in contempt! And yet they love it; at least they +say so, and I have no reason to dispute their word. Have I not heard +them, morning, noon, and night, protest their devotion to the dear +little Fidel--the precious, beautiful little Fidel--the adorable love of +a little Fidel! Oh, it is enough to make the angels weep to see the +grace and fondness with which this horrid little wretch is caught up in +those tender white arms, and hugged to those virgin bosoms and kissed by +those pouting and honeyed lips! Faugh! It drives me mad. What is the use +of wasting so much sweetness when there are thousands of good, honest +fellows actually pining away from unrequited affection? brave sons of +toil, ready at a moment's notice to be caressed by these sweet-pea +vines, who are throwing out their fluttering tendrils for something high +and strong to cling to. I leave it to any honest miner, if it is not +provoking to the last degree to see the noblest capacity of woman's +nature thus cruelly and wastefully perverted--the choicest affections +devoted to a miserable, disgusting, and unsympathizing little +monster--the very honey of their lips lavished on that foul and mucous +nose, which, if it knows anything, must know some thing not fit to be +mentioned to polite ears. Heaven! how often have I longed to have a good +fair kick at one of these pampered little brutes. Only think of the care +taken of them, while widows and orphans are shivering in the cold and +perishing of hunger. The choicest pieces of meat cut up for them, +potatoes and gravy mixed, delicate morsels of bread; the savory mess put +before them by delicate hands, and swallowed into their delicate +stomachs, and too often rejected by those delicate organs, to the +detriment of the carpet. And then, when this delectable subject of +woman's adoration is rubbed, and scrubbed, and pitied, and physicked, +and thoroughly combed out from head to foot, with every love-lock of his +glossy hair filtered of its fleas, how tenderly he is laid upon the bed +or clasped in the embraces of beauty! Shade of Cupid! what a happy thing +it is to be a lapdog! Well might the immortal Bard of Avon prefer to be +a dog that bayed the moon rather than an indifferent poet. For my part, +I'd sooner be wrapped in the arms of beauty than be King of the Cannibal +Islands. That strange infatuation of feminine instinct which lends to +the head-dress, at an approaching bridal, a degree of importance to +which the expected groom can never aspire; which sees the destinies of +the whole matrimonial career centred in the fringe of a nightgown; which +seeks advice and consolation in the pattern of a reception-dress; which +would shrink from the fearful sacrifice of liberty but for the magic +power of new bonnets, new gloves, and embroidered handkerchiefs--that we +can all understand; these are woman's coy devices to tantalize mankind; +these are the probationary tortures inflicted upon him through mere +wantonness and love of mischief. But when the richest treasures of her +affection, the most divine essence of her being, the Promethean spark +warm from her virgin heart, for which worlds are lost and won--when +these are cast away upon a nauseous little lapdog, ye gods! what can +poor mortals do but abandon their humanity! It is shocking to think of +such competition, but how can we help it if young ladies give themselves +up to dog worship? I sincerely trust this Continental fashion may never +take root in California. Should it do so, farewell all hope for the +honest sons of toil; it will then be the greatest of good fortunes to be +born a lapdog! + + + + +ROB MORRIS + + +Robert Morris, who is generally bracketed with Albert Pike as the most +distinguished writer and craftsman American Masonry has produced, was +born near Boston, Massachusetts, August 31, 1818. He was made a Mason +in Mississippi, in 1846, and this was the beginning of a Masonic +career almost without parallel in the history of the fraternity. +Morris, of course, received all of the higher degrees in Masonry, but +the most momentous thing he did as a craftsman was to establish the +Order of the Eastern Star in 1850--the year he became a Kentuckian. In +September, 1854, while living in southern Kentucky, Morris wrote his +most celebrated poem, entitled _The Level and the Square_, which was +first published in his magazine, _The American Freemason_, of +Louisville, Kentucky. Rudyard Kipling lifted a line from it for his +equally famous poem, _The Mother Lodge_. Although Morris revised his +lines many times, the original version is far and away the finest. In +1858 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky; and +two years later he removed his residence to La Grange, Kentucky, the +little town with which his fame is intertwined. Morris wrote several +well-known religious songs, _Sweet Galilee_, being the best of them. +He was the author of many books upon Masonry, his _Lights and Shadows +of Freemasonry_ (Louisville, 1852), being the first work in Masonic +belles-lettres. This was followed by his _History of the Morgan +Affair_ (New York, 1852); _Life in the Triangle_ (1853); _The Two +Saints John_ (1854); _Code of Masonic Law_ (Louisville, 1855), the +pioneer work on Masonic jurisprudence; _Masonic Book of American +Adoptive Rights_ (1855); _History of Freemasonry in Kentucky_ +(Frankfort, 1859), his most important historical work; _Synopsis of +Masonic Laws_ (1859); _Tales of Masonic Life_ (1860); _Masonic Odes +and Poems_ (New York, 1864); _Biography of Eli Bruce_ (1867); +_Dictionary of Freemasonry_ (1872); _Manual of the Queen of the South_ +(1876); _Knights Templar's Trumpet_ (1880); _Freemasonry in the Holy +Land_ (New York, 1882), an excellent work; _The Poetry of Freemasonry_ +(New York, 1884), upon the publication of which, the author was +invited to New York City and crowned "The Poet Laureate of +Freemasonry," December 17, 1884; and, _Magnum Opus_ (1886). Morris was +one of the foremost numismatics of his day and generation in America, +his works on this science being _The Twelve Caesars_, and _Numismatic +Pilot_. He was also the author of several works designed especially +for the officers of a Masonic lodge; and he edited in thirty volumes +_The Universal Masonic Library_, besides editing from time to time +four Masonic magazines. Rob Morris, to give him the name by which he +is best known, died at La Grange, Kentucky, July 31, 1888. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1888, v. iv). + + +THE LEVEL AND THE SQUARE + + [From _The American Freemason_ (Louisville, Kentucky, September + 15, 1854)] + + We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square: + What words of precious meaning those words Masonic are! + Come let us contemplate them, they are worthy of our thought-- + With the highest and the lowest, and the rarest they are fraught. + + We meet upon the Level, though from every station come-- + The King from out his palace and the poor man from his home; + For the one must leave his diadem without the Mason's door, + And the other finds his true respect upon the checkered floor. + + We part upon the Square for the world must have its due; + We mingle with its multitude, a cold, unfriendly crew; + But the influence of our gatherings in memory is green, + And we long, upon the Level, to renew the happy scene. + + There's a world where all are equal--we are hurrying towards it + fast-- + We shall meet upon the Level there when the gates of death are + passed; + We shall stand before the Orient, and our Master will be there + To try the blocks we offer His unerring square. + + We shall meet upon the Level there, but never thence depart: + There's a mansion--'tis all ready for each zealous, faithful + heart:-- + There's a Mansion and a welcome, and a multitude is there, + Who have met upon the Level and been tried upon the Square. + + Let us meet upon the Level, then, while laboring patient here-- + Let us meet and let us labor tho' the labor seem severe; + Already in the western sky the signs bid us prepare, + To gather up our working tools and part upon the square. + + Hands around, ye faithful Ghiblimites, the bright, fraternal + chain, + We part upon the Square below to meet in heaven again;-- + Oh, what words of precious meaning those words Masonic are-- + We meet upon the Level and we part upon the Square. + + + + +AMELIA B. WELBY + + +Mrs. Amelia B. Welby, Kentucky's most famous female poet of the +mid-century, was born at St. Michael's, Maryland, February 3, 1819. +When she was fifteen years old her family removed to Louisville, +Kentucky, the city of her fame. In 1837, George D. Prentice, with his +wonderful nose for finding female verse-makers, added Amelia to his +already long and ever-increasing list. He printed her first poem in +his _Journal_, and crowned her as the finest branch of his poetical +tree. His declaration that she possessed the divine afflatus meant +nothing, as he had said the same thing about many another sentimental +single lady, pining upon the peaks of poesy. But Edgar Allan Poe and +Rufus W. Griswold soon separated her from the versifiers and placed +her among the poets, and thus her fame has come down to us with +fragrance. In June, 1838, Amelia was married to George Welby, a +Louisville merchant, who also held her to be a poet born in the +purple. Mrs. Welby's verse became well-known and greatly admired in +many parts of the country, and, in response to numerous requests for a +volume of her work, she collected her _Journal_ verse and published it +under the title of _Poems by Amelia_ (Boston, 1845). A second edition +was published the following year, and by 1860 the volume was said to +be in its seventeenth edition! Robert W. Weir's illustrated edition of +her poems was issued in 1850, and this is the most desirable form in +which her work has been preserved. These various editions will at once +convey some idea of her great popularity. With Poe, Prentice, and +Griswold singing her praises, and the public purchasing her poems as +rapidly as they could be made into books, Amelia's fame seemed secure. +To-day, however, no one has read any of her verse save _The Rainbow_, +which has been set down as her best poem, and she has become +essentially an historical personage, the keepsake of Kentucky letters. +While the greater number of her poems are quite unreadable, her elegy +for Miss Laura M. Thurston, a sister versifier, is well done and her +finest piece of work. Mrs. Welby died at Louisville, May 3, 1852, when +but thirty-three years of age. Had she lived longer, and the poetic +appreciation of the American people suffered no change, the heights to +which she would have attained can be but vaguely guessed at. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Female Poets of America_, by R. W. Griswold + (Philadelphia, 1856); _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860). + + +THE RAINBOW + + [From _Poems by Amelia_ (Boston, 1845)] + + I sometimes have thoughts, in my loneliest hours, + That lie on my heart like the dew on the flowers, + Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon + When my heart was as light as a blossom in June; + The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers, + The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers, + While a single white cloud, to its haven of rest + On the white-wing of peace, floated off in the west. + + As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze, + That scattered the rain-drops and dimpled the seas, + Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled + Its soft-tinted pinions of purple and gold. + 'Twas born in a moment, yet, quick as its birth + It had stretched to the uttermost ends of the earth, + And, fair, as an angel, it floated as free, + With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea. + + How calm was the ocean! how gentle its swell! + Like a woman's soft bosom it rose and it fell; + While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er, + When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore. + No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer, + Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there, + And bent my young head, in devotion and love, + 'Neath the form of the angel, that floated above. + + How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings! + How boundless its circle! how radiant its rings! + If I looked on the sky, 'twas suspended in air; + If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there; + Thus forming a girdle, as brilliant and whole + As the thoughts of the rainbow, that circled my soul. + Like the wing of the Deity, calmly unfurled, + It bent from the cloud and encircled the world. + + There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives + Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves, + When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose + Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose. + And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky, + The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by; + It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove, + All fluttering with pleasure, and fluttering with love. + + I know that each moment of rapture or pain + But shortens the links in life's mystical chain; + I know that my form, like that bow from the wave, + Must pass from the earth, and lie cold in the grave; + Yet O! when death's shadows my bosom encloud, + When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud, + May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold + In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold. + + +ON THE DEATH OF A SISTER POET + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + She has passed, like a bird, from the minstrel throng, + She has gone to the land where the lovely belong! + Her place is hush'd by her lover's side, + Yet his heart is full of his fair young bride; + The hopes of his spirit are crushed and bowed + As he thinks of his love in her long white shroud; + For the fragrant sighs of her perfumed breath + Were kissed from her lips by his rival--Death. + + Cold is her bosom, her thin white arms + All mutely crossed o'er its icy charms, + As she lies, like a statue of Grecian art, + With a marbled brow and a cold hushed heart; + Her locks are bright, but their gloss is hid; + Her eye is sunken 'neath its waxen lid: + And thus she lies in her narrow hall-- + Our fair young minstrel--the loved of all. + + Light as a bird's were her springing feet, + Her heart as joyous, her song as sweet; + Yet never again shall that heart be stirred + With its glad wild songs like a singing bird: + Ne'er again shall the strains be sung, + That in sweetness dropped from her silver tongue; + The music is o'er, and Death's cold dart + Hath broken the spell of that free, glad heart. + + Often at eve, when the breeze is still, + And the moon floats up by the distant hill, + As I wander alone 'mid the summer bowers, + And wreathe my locks with the sweet wild flowers, + I will think of the time when she lingered there, + With her mild blue eyes and her long fair hair; + I will treasure her name in my bosom-core; + But my heart is sad--I can sing no more. + + + + +CHARLES W. WEBBER + + +Charles Wilkins Webber, the foremost Kentucky writer of prose fiction +and adventure of the old school, was born at Russellville, Kentucky, +May 29, 1819, the son of Dr. Augustine Webber, a noted Kentucky +physician. In 1838 young Webber went to Texas where he was with the +Rangers for several years. He later returned to Kentucky and studied +medicine at Transylvania University, Lexington, which he soon +abandoned for a brief course at Princeton Theological Seminary, with +the idea of entering the Presbyterian ministry. A short time +afterwards, however, he settled at New York as a literary man. Webber +was connected with several newspapers and periodicals, being associate +editor of _The Whig Review_ for about two years. His first book, +called _Old Hicks, the Guide_ (New York, 1848) was followed by _The +Gold Mines of the_ _Gila_ (New York, 1849, two vols.). In 1849 Webber +organized an expedition to the Colorado country, but it utterly +failed. Several of his other books were now published: _The +Hunter-Naturalist_ (Philadelphia, 1851); _Tales of the Southern +Border_ (1852; 1853); _Texas Virago_ (1852); _Wild Girl of Nebraska_ +(1852); _Spiritual Vampirism_ (Philadelphia, 1853); _Jack Long, or the +Shot in the Eye_ (London, 1853), his masterpiece; _Adventures with +Texas Rifle Rangers_ (London, 1853); _Wild Scenes in the Forest and +Prairie_ (London, 1854); and his last book, _History of Mystery_ +(Philadelphia, 1855). In 1855 Webber joined William Walker's +expedition to Central America, and in the battle of Rivas, he was +mortally wounded. He died at Nicaragua, April 11, 1856, in the +thirty-seventh year of his age. Webber's career is almost as +interesting as his stories. In fact, he put so much of his life into +his works that all of them may be said to be largely autobiographical. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Cyclopaedia of American Literature_, by E. A. and + G. L. Duyckinck (New York, 1856); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of + American Biography_ (New York, 1888, v. vi). + + +TROUTING ON JESSUP'S RIVER + + [From _Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie, or the Romance of + Natural History_ (London, 1854)] + +"The Bridge" at Jessup's River is well known to sportsmen; and to this +point we made our first flyfishing expedition. The eyes of Piscator +glistened at the thought, and early was he busied with hasty fingers +through an hour of ardent preparation amongst his varied and +complicated tackle. Now was his time for triumph. In all the ruder +sports in which we had heretofore been engaged, I, assisted by mere +chance, had been most successful; but now the infallible certainty of +skill and science were to be demonstrated in himself, and the +orthodoxy of flies vindicated to my unsophisticated sense. + +The simple preparations were early completed; the cooking apparatus, +which was primitive enough to suit the taste of an ascetic, consisted +in a single frying-pan. The blankets, with the guns, ammunition, rods, +etc., were all disposed in the wagon of our host, which stood ready at +the door. It was a rough affair, with stiff wooden springs, like all +those of the country, and suited to the mountainous roads they are +intended to traverse, rather than for civilized ideas of comfort. We, +however, bounded into the low-backed seat; and if it had been +cushioned to suit royalty, we could not have been more secure than we +were of such comfort as a backwood sportsman looks for. We soon found +ourselves rumbling, pitching, and jolting, over a road even worse than +that which brought us first to the lake. It seemed to me that nothing +but the surprising docility of the ponies which drew us, could have +saved us, strong wagon and all, from being jolted to atoms. I soon got +tired of this, and sprang out with my gun, determined to foot it +ahead, in the hope of seeing a partridge or red squirrel. + +We arrived at the "bridge" about the middle of the afternoon. There we +found an old field called Wilcox's clearing, and, like all places I +had seen in this fine grazing region, it was still well sodded down in +blue grass and clover. Our luggage having been deposited in the +shantee, consisting almost entirely of boards torn from the old house, +which were leaned against the sides of two forks placed a few feet +apart, we set off at once for the falls, a short distance above. This +was merely an initial trial, to obtain enough for dinner, and find the +prognostics of the next day's sport in feeling the manner of the fish. + +At the falls the river is only about fifteen feet wide, though its +average width is from twenty-five to thirty. The water tumbles over a +ledge of about ten feet, at the bottom of which is a fine hole, while +on the surface sheets of foam are whirled round and round upon the +tormented eddies, for the stream has considerable volume and power. + +We stepped cautiously along the ledge, Piscator ahead, and holding his +flies ready for a cast, which was most artistically made, not without +a glance of triumph at me, then preparing to do the same with the +humble angle-worm. The "flies" fall--I see the glance of half a dozen +golden sides darting at them; but by this time my own cast is made, +and I am fully occupied with the struggles of a fine trout. + +My companion's success was again far short of mine, and seeing him +looking at my trout lying beside me, I said: "Try the worms, good +Piscator--here they are. This is not the right time of day for them to +take the flies in this river, I judge." + +Improving the door of escape thus opened to him, he took off the flies +and used worms with immediate and brilliant success, which brought +back the smile to his face; and he would now and then as calmly brush +away the distracting swarm of flies from his face, as if they had been +mere innocent motes. But later that evening came a temporary triumph +for Piscator. The hole at the falls was soon exhausted, and we moved +down to glean the ripples. It was nearly sunset, and here the +pertinacious Piscator determined to try the flies again. He cast with +three, and instantly struck two half-pound trout, which, after a +spirited play, he safely landed. Rarely have I seen a prouder look of +triumph than that which glowed on his face as he bade me "look there!" +when he landed them. + +"Very fine, Piscator--a capital feat! but I fear it was an accident. +You will not get any more that way." + +"We shall see, sir," said he, and commenced whipping the water again, +but to no avail, while I continued throwing them out with great +rapidity. + +I abstained from watching him, for I had no desire to spoil his evening +sport by taunting him to continue his experiment. I soon observed him +throwing out the fish with great spirit again. I merely shouted to him +across the stream--"the angle-worm once more, Piscator?" + +"Yes!" with a laugh. + +As the sun went down the black gnats began to make themselves felt in +their smarting myriads, and we forthwith beat a hasty retreat to the +shantee. + +We had taken about ten pounds of trout; and the first procedure, after +reaching the camp, was to build a "smudge," or smoke-fire, to drive away +these abominable gnats, which fortunately take flight with the first +whiff of smoke, and the next was to prepare the fish for dinner, though +not till all had been carefully dressed by the guide, and placed in the +cold current of the little spring near, that they might keep sound. Now +came the rousing fire, and soon some splendid trout were piled upon +dishes of fresh pealed elm bark before us. They were very skillfully +cooked, and no epicure ever enjoyed a feast more thoroughly than we did +our well-flavored and delicious trout, in that rude shantee. + +The feast being over, then to recline back upon the fresh couch of +soft spruce boughs, and, with a cigar in mouth, watch the gathering +night-shades brooding lower and more low upon the thick wild forest in +front, far into the depths of which the leaping flames of our +crackling fire go, darting now and then with a revealing tongue of +quick light, and listening to the owl make hoarse answer to the wolf +afar off--to think of wild passages in a life of adventure years ago +amidst surroundings such as this; with the additional spice of peril +from savages and treacherous foes, and then, as the hushed life +subsides into a stiller mood, see the faces of loved ones come to you +through the darkness, with a smile from out your distant home, and +while it sinks sweetly on your heart, subside into happy and +dream-peopled slumber! "This is bliss!" the bliss of the shantee to +the wearied sportsman! a bliss unattainable by the toiler, and still +more by the lounger of the city. + +We were on foot with the sun next morning, and after another feast, +which we appreciated with unpalled appetites, we set off for some deep +spring holes nearly a mile above the falls. The morning set cloudy, +and rain fell piteously for several hours. But if this change +detracted from our sport, it at least served to give zest to the +evening's shelter and repose. + +I never felt more delightfully than I did when I sat down to a fine +dinner that evening in the old tavern, and very much of this pleasurable +feeling of entire comfort I attributed to the prompt use of the cold +bath, on reaching our temporary home, wet, weary, and shivering with +cold. This, with a change of clothes, restored me to a healthy glow of +warmth, ready to enjoy whatever our host might provide. + + + + +DR. L. J. FRAZEE + + +Dr. Lewis Jacob Frazee, author of a little volume of travels of +considerable charm, was born at Germantown, Kentucky, August 23, 1819. +He was prepared for college at the Maysville Academy, celebrated as +the school at which young U. S. Grant spent one year. He was graduated +from Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in the class of 1837; +and four years later he graduated in the medical department of the +University of Louisville. On April 9, 1844, Dr. Frazee left Maysville, +Kentucky, for a long sojourn in Europe, spending most of his time in +Paris studying subjects then untaught in this country. He also visited +England and the continent before returning home. These travels Dr. +Frazee related in a book of nearly three hundred pages, entitled _The +Medical Student in Europe_ (Maysville, Kentucky, 1849), which is now +an exceedingly rare work. The style is natural and clear and exhibits +genuine literary flavor. He settled at Louisville in 1851. His only +other publication was _The Mineral Waters of Kentucky_ (Louisville, +1872), a brochure. Dr. Frazee took a keen interest in the Filson Club +of Louisville, and one of his finest papers was read before that +organization: _An Analysis of the Personal Narrative of James O. +Pattie_. He was sometime professor in the medical school of the +University of Louisville, and in the Kentucky School of Medicine; and +he edited _The Transylvania Medical Journal_ for several years. Old +age found the good doctor surrendering his practice and professorships +to establish the Louisville Dental Depot, designed to furnish the +local dentists with supplies. He died at Louisville, Kentucky, August +12, 1905, eleven days before his eighty-sixth birthday. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (Louisville, Kentucky, August + 13, 1905); letters from Dr. Thos. E. Pickett, the Maysville + historian, to the present writer. + + +HAVRE + + [From _The Medical Student in Europe_ (Maysville, Kentucky, 1849)] + +Havre is a place of about 25,000 inhabitants, has fine docks, which +are accessible in high tide, and a considerable amount of shipping. +Many of the streets are narrow and crooked, with narrow sidewalks and +in many cases none at all. The houses are stuccoed, and generally +present rather a sombre aspect. Three-fourths of the women we saw in +Havre wore no bonnets, but simply a cap. Some of them were mounted +upon donkeys, with a large market basket swung down each side of the +animal; these of course were the peasants. My attention was attracted +by the large sumpter horses here, which draw singly from eight to ten +bales of cotton, apparently with considerable ease. + +On the day after we arrived at Havre we ascended the hill which rises +at one extremity of the city. The various little winding pathways up +the hill, have on each side massive stone walls, with now and then a +gateway leading to a private residence almost buried in a thicket of +shrubbery and flowers. Upon the hill are situated some most delightful +and elegant mansions, with grounds beautifully ornamented with shade +trees, shrubbery, flowers and handsome walks. These salubrious +retreats have a double charm when compared with the thronged, narrow, +and noisy streets of the city below. Beyond these _Villas_ were fields +of grass and grain undivided by fences, with here and there a farm +house surrounded by a clump of trees. + +In Havre we found delightful cherries and strawberries, as well as a +variety of vegetables; the oysters and fish here though in abundance +are of rather an inferior quality, the oysters are very small and of a +decided copperish taste. At breakfast, which we took at any hour in +the morning that we thought proper, we ordered such articles as suited +our fancy, generally however a cup of coffee, a beef steak, eggs, an +omelet or something of this sort. We dined about five in the evening +upon soups, a variety of meats and vegetables, well prepared, and a +dessert of strawberries and other fruits, nuts, etc. The meats and +vegetables were not placed upon the table, but each dish was passed +around separately--the table being cleared and clean plates placed +for each course. We were compelled to eat slowly or wait for some +time upon others. + +This would not suit one of our western men who is for doing everything +in a minute, but the plan certainly has its advantages--one, of +promoting digestion by giving time for the mastication of the food, and +another, of no small moment for an epicure, that of having things fresh +from the oven. My own objection to the plan was, that I never knew how +much of an article to eat, as I did not know what would next be +introduced. Such an objection fails, of course, in many of the hotels +where the bill of fare is stereotyped, and where with more precision +than an almanac-maker you can foretell every change that will take place +during the ensuing year. Our table was well supplied with wine, which is +used as regularly at dinner as milk by our Kentucky farmers. When our +bill was made out, each item was charged separately, so much for +breakfast, mentioning what it consisted of--so much for dinner--so much +per day for a room, so much for each candle we used, and so on. A French +landlord in making out your bill goes decidedly into minutiae. + + + + +THEODORE O'HARA + + +Theodore O'Hara, author of the greatest martial elegy in American +literature, was born at Danville, Kentucky, February 11, 1820. He was +the son of Kane O'Hara, an Irish political exile, and a noted educator +in his day and generation. O'Hara's boyhood days were spent at +Danville, but his family settled at Frankfort when he was a young man. +He was fitted for college by his father, and his preparation was so +far advanced that he was enabled to join the senior class of St. +Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic institution at Bardstown, Kentucky. +Upon his graduation O'Hara was offered the chair of Greek, but he +declined it in order to study law. In 1845 he held a position in the +United States Treasury department at Washington; and a few years +later he proved himself a gallant soldier upon battlefields in Mexico, +being brevetted major for meritorious service. After the war O'Hara +practiced law at Washington for some time; and he went to Cuba with +the Lopez expedition of 1850. After his return to the United States he +edited the Mobile, Alabama, _Register_ for a time; and he was later +editor of the Frankfort, Kentucky, _Yeoman_. O'Hara was a public +speaker of great ability, and his address upon William Taylor Barry, +the Kentucky statesman and diplomat, is one of the climaxes of +Southern oratory. During the Civil War he was colonel of the twelfth +Alabama regiment. After the war Colonel O'Hara went to Columbus, +Georgia, and became a cotton broker. He died near Guerrytown, Alabama, +June 6, 1867. Seven years later his dust was returned to Kentucky, and +re-interred in the State cemetery at Frankfort. If collected Colonel +O'Hara's poems, addresses, political and literary essays, and +editorials would make an imposing volume. His real fame rests upon his +famous martial elegy, _The Bivouac of the Dead_, which he wrote at +Frankfort in the summer of 1847, to remember young Henry Clay, Colonel +McKee, Captain Willis, and the other brave fellows who fell in the war +with Mexico. When their remains were returned to Frankfort and buried +in the cemetery on the hill, Colonel O'Hara, their old companion in +arms, wrote his stately in memoriam for them. He did not read it over +them, as Ranck and the others have written, but he did publish it in +_The Kentucky Yeoman_, a Democratic paper of Frankfort. _The Bivouac +of the Dead_ is the greatest single poem ever written by a Kentucky +hand, is matchless, superb, and is read in the remotest corners of the +world. Its opening lines have been cut deep within memorial shafts in +many military cemeteries. Colonel O'Hara sleeps to-day on the outer +circle of his comrades, one with them in death as in life, with the +lofty military monument, which Kentucky has erected to commemorate her +sons slain in the battles of the republic, casting its long shadows +across his grave. His elegy in honor of Daniel Boone was written at +the "old pioneer's" grave in the Frankfort cemetery before his now +much-mutilated monument was erected. It was originally printed in _The +Kentucky Yeoman_ for December 19, 1850. Two other poems purporting to +be his have been discovered, but there must be others sealed over and +forgotten in the scattered and broken files of Southern newspapers and +periodicals. So the poet has come down to us, like he who wrote _The +Burial of Sir John Moore_, with one slender sheaf under his arm. But +it is enough, enough for both of them. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. George W. Ranck's little books: _O'Hara and His + Elegies_ (Baltimore, 1875); _The Bivouac of the Dead and Its + Author_ (1898; 1909); Daniel E. O'Sullivan's paper in _The + Southern Bivouac_ (Louisville, January, 1887); Robert Burns + Wilson's fine tribute in _The Century Magazine_ (May, 1890). The + late Mrs. Susan B. Dixon, the Henderson historian, left a MS. life + of O'Hara that is to be issued shortly. + + +THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD + + [From _O'Hara and His Elegies_, by George W. Ranck (Baltimore, + 1875)] + + The muffled drum's sad roll has beat + The soldier's last tattoo; + No more on life's parade shall meet + The brave and daring few. + On Fame's eternal camping-ground + Their silent tents are spread, + And Glory guards with solemn round + The bivouac of the dead. + + No answer of the foe's advance + Now swells upon the wind; + No troubled thought at midnight haunts + Of loved ones left behind; + No vision of the morrow's strife + The warrior's dream alarms; + No braying horn nor screaming fife + At dawn shall call to arms. + + Their shivered swords are red with rust; + Their plumed heads are bowed; + Their haughty banner, trailed in dust, + Is now their martial shroud; + And plenteous funeral-tears have washed + The red stains from each brow, + And their proud forms, in battle gashed, + Are free from anguish now. + + The neighing steed, the flashing blade, + The trumpet's stirring blast; + The charge, the dreadful cannonade, + The din and shout, are past; + No war's wild note, nor glory's peal, + Shall thrill with fierce delight + Those breasts that nevermore shall feel + The rapture of the fight. + + Like the dread northern hurricane + That sweeps his broad plateau, + Flushed with the triumph yet to gain, + Came down the serried foe.[9] + Our heroes felt the shock, and leapt + To meet them on the plain; + And long the pitying sky hath wept + Above our gallant slain. + + Sons of our consecrated ground + Ye must not slumber there, + Where stranger steps and tongues resound + Along the headless air. + Your own proud land's heroic soil + Shall be your fitter grave: + She claims from war his richest spoil-- + The ashes of her brave. + + So 'neath their parent turf they rest; + Far from the gory field; + Borne to a Spartan mother's breast + On many a bloody shield. + The sunshine of their native sky + Smiles sadly on them here, + And kindred hearts and eyes watch by + The heroes' sepulchre. + + Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! + Dear as the blood you gave, + No impious footsteps here shall tread + The herbage of your grave; + Nor shall your glory be forgot + While fame her record keeps, + Or honor points the hallowed spot + Where valor proudly sleeps. + + Yon marble minstrel's voiceless tone + In deathless songs shall tell, + When many a vanquished age hath flown, + The story how ye fell. + Nor wreck, nor change, or winter's blight, + Nor time's remorseless doom, + Shall dim one ray of holy light + That gilds your glorious tomb. + + +THE OLD PIONEER + + [From the same] + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Knight-errant of the wood! + Calmly beneath the green sod here + He rests from field and flood; + The war-whoop and the panther's screams + No more his soul shall rouse, + For well the aged hunter dreams + Beside his good old spouse. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Hushed now his rifle's peal; + The dews of many a vanish'd year + Are on his rusted steel; + His horn and pouch lie mouldering + Upon the cabin-door; + The elk rests by the salted spring, + Nor flees the fierce wild boar. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Old Druid of the West! + His offering was the fleet wild deer, + His shrine the mountain's crest. + Within his wildwood temple's space + An empire's towers nod, + Where erst, alone of all his race, + He knelt to Nature's God. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + Columbus of the land! + Who guided freedom's proud career + Beyond the conquer'd strand; + And gave her pilgrim sons a home + No monarch's step profanes, + Free as the chainless winds that roam + Upon its boundless plains. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + The muffled drum resound! + A warrior is slumb'ring here + Beneath his battle-ground. + For not alone with beast of prey + The bloody strife he waged, + Foremost where'er the deadly fray + Of savage combat raged. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + A dirge for his old spouse! + For her who blest his forest cheer, + And kept his birchen house. + Now soundly by her chieftain may + The brave old dame sleep on, + The red man's step is far away, + The wolf's dread howl is gone. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + His pilgrimage is done; + He hunts no more the grizzly bear + About the setting sun. + Weary at last of chase and life, + He laid him here to rest, + Nor recks he now what sport or strife + Would tempt him further west. + + A dirge for the brave old pioneer! + The patriarch of his tribe! + He sleeps--no pompous pile marks where, + No lines his deeds describe. + They raised no stone above him here, + Nor carved his deathless name-- + An empire is his sepulchre, + His epitaph is Fame. + + +SECOND LOVE + + [From _The Southern Bivouac_ (Louisville, Kentucky, January, + 1887)] + + Thou art not my first love, + I loved before we met, + And the memory of that early dream + Will linger round me yet; + But thou, thou art my last love, + The truest and the best. + My heart but shed its early leaves + To give thee all the rest. + + +A ROLLICKING RHYME + + [From the same] + + I'd lie for her, + I'd sigh for her, + I'd drink the river dry for her-- + But d----d if I would die for her. + + +THE FAME OF WILLIAM T. BARRY + + [From _Obituary Addresses_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1855)] + +On his accession to the Presidency, General Jackson--with that +discerning appreciation of the most available ability and worth in his +party which characterized him--called Mr. Barry into his cabinet to +the position of Postmaster General. Here, as one of the most +distinguished of the council of Jackson, during the greater part of +his incumbency, he is entitled to his full share of the fame of that +glorious administration. His health, however, failing him under the +wasting labors of the toilsome department over which he presided, he +was forced to relinquish it before the administration terminated; and +General Jackson, unwilling entirely to lose the benefit of his able +services, appointed him, in 1835, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy +Extraordinary to Spain, a post in which, while its dignity did not +disparage his civil rank, it was hoped that the lightness of the +duties, and the influence of a genial climate, might serve to renovate +his impaired health. But it was otherwise ordained above. He had +reached Liverpool on the way to his mission, when the great conqueror, +at whose summons the strongest manhood, the noblest virtue, the +proudest genius, and the brightest wisdom must surrender, arrested his +earthly career on the 30th of August, 1835; and here is all that is +left to us of the patriot, the orator, the hero, the statesman, the +sage--the rest belongs to Heaven and to fame. + +Such, fellow-citizens, is a most cursory and feeble memento of the +life and public services of the illustrious man in whose memory +Kentucky has decreed the solemn honors of this day. It is well for her +that she has felt "the late remorse of love," and reclaimed these +precious ashes to her heart, after they have slumbered so many years +unsepultured in a foreign land; that no guilty consciousness of +unworthy neglect may weigh upon her spirit, and depress her proud +front with shame; that no reproaching echo of that eloquent voice that +once so sweetly thrilled her, pealing back upon her soul amidst her +prideful recollections of the past, may appal her in her feast of +memory, and blast her revel of glory; that no avenging muse, standing +among the shrines of her departed greatness, and searching in vain for +that which should mark her remembrance of one she should so devoutly +hallow, shall have reason to sing of her as she has sung: + + "Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar; + And Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore." + +Here, beneath the sunshine of the land he loved, and amid the scenes +which he consecrated with his genius, he will sleep well. Sadly, yet +proudly will his fond foster-mother receive within her bosom to-day +this cherished remnant of the child she nursed for fame; doubly +endeared to her, as he expired far away in a stranger land, beyond the +reach of her maternal embrace, and with no kindred eyes to light the +gathering darkness of death, no friendly hand to soften his descent to +the grave, no pious orisons to speed his spirit on its long journey +through eternity. Gently, reverently let us lay him in this proud +tabernacle, where he will dwell embalmed in glory till the last trump +shall reveal him to us all radiant with the halo of his life. Let the +Autumn's wind harp on the dropping leaves her softest requiem over +him; let the Winter's purest snows rest spotless on his grave; let +Spring entwine her brightest garland for his tomb, and Summer gild it +with her mildest sunshine. Here let the marble minstrel rise to sing +to the future generations of the Commonwealth the inspiring lay of his +high genius and his lofty deeds. Here let the patriot repair when +doubts and dangers may encompass him, and he would learn the path of +duty and of safety--an oracle will inhabit these sacred graves, whose +responses will replenish him with wisdom, and point him the way to +virtuous renown. Let the ingenuous youth who pants for the glories of +the forum, and "the applause of listening Senates," come hither to +tune his soul by those immortal echoes that will forever breathe about +this spot and make its silence vocal with eloquence. And here, too, +let the soldier of liberty come, when the insolent invader may profane +the sanctuary of freedom--here by this holy altar may he fitly devote +to the infernal gods the enemies of this country and of liberty. + +We will now leave our departed patriot to his sleep of glory. And let +no tear moisten the turf that shall wrap his ashes. Let no sound of +mourning disturb the majestic solitude of his grand repose. He claims +no tribute of sorrow. His body returns to its mother earth, his +spirit dwells in the Elysian domain of God, and his deeds are written +on the roll of Fame. + + "Let none dare mourn for him." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] Some versions show the following stanzas at this point: + + Who heard the thunder of the fray + Break o'er the field beneath, + Knew well the watchword of that day + Was "Victory or Death." + + Long had the doubtful conflict raged + O'er all that stricken plain, + For never fiercer fight had waged + The vengeful blood of Spain; + And still the storm of battle blew, + Still swelled the gory tide; + Not long, our stout old chieftain[10] knew, + Such odds his strength could bide. + + 'Twas in that hour his stern command + Called to a martyr's grave + The flower of his beloved land, + The nation's flag to save. + By rivers of their fathers' gore + His first-born laurels grew, + And well he deemed the sons would pour + Their lives for glory too. + + Full many a norther's breath has swept + O'er Angostura's plain,[11] + And long the pitying sky has wept + Above its mouldered slain. + The raven's scream, or eagle's flight, + Or shepherd's pensive lay, + Alone awakes each sullen height + That frowned o'er that dread fray. + + Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground, + Ye must not slumber there, et cetera. + +[10] Gen. Zachary Taylor. + +[11] Near Buena Vista. + + + + +SARAH T. BOLTON + + +Mrs. Sarah Tittle Bolton, author of _Paddle Your Own Canoe_, was born +at Newport, Kentucky, in 1820. When she was about three years old, her +father removed to Indiana, settling first in Jennings county, but +later moving on to Madison. When a young woman, she contributed poems +to the Madison newspaper which attracted the editor, Nathaniel Bolton, +so strongly that he married the author. They moved to Indianapolis, +and Mrs. Bolton soon gained a wide reputation as a poet. Her ode sung +at the laying of the corner-stone of the Masonic Temple, in 1850, won +her a loving cup from the Masons of Hoosierdom. Two years later her +poem in honor of the hero of Hungary, Louis Kossuth, increased her +fame. In 1855 Mr. Bolton was appointed consul to Geneva, Switzerland, +and his wife accompanied him to his post. They remained in Switzerland +for three years, during which time Mrs. Bolton acted as correspondent +for the Cincinnati _Commercial_. In 1858 she and her husband returned +to Indianapolis, in which city he died some months later. Her _Poems_ +(New York, 1856) brought her newspaper and periodical verse together; +and a complete collection, with a notice of her life, was published at +Indianapolis in 1886. Mrs. Bolton was Indiana's foremost female singer +for many years. She died at Indianapolis in 1893. Of her many poems +_Paddle Your Own Canoe_ is the best known, although _Left on the +Battlefield_ is admired by many of her readers. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, 1860); _The Hoosiers_, by Meredith Nicholson + (New York, 1900). + + +PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE + + [From _The Poets and Poetry of the West_, edited by W. T. + Coggeshall (Columbus, Ohio, 1860)] + + Voyager upon life's sea, + To yourself be true, + And where'er your lot may be, + Paddle your own canoe. + Never, though the winds may rave, + Falter nor look back; + But upon the darkest wave + Leave a shining track. + + Nobly dare the wildest storm, + Stem the hardest gale, + Brave of heart and strong of arm, + You will never fail. + When the world is cold and dark, + Keep an aim in view; + And toward the beacon-mark + Paddle your own canoe. + + Every wave that bears you on + To the silent shore, + From its sunny source has gone + To return no more. + Then let not an hour's delay + Cheat you of your due; + But, while it is called to-day, + Paddle your own canoe. + + If your birth denies you wealth, + Lofty state and power, + Honest fame and hardy health + Are a better dower. + But if these will not suffice, + Golden gain pursue; + And to gain the glittering prize, + Paddle your own canoe. + + Would you wrest the wreath of fame + From the hand of fate? + Would you write a deathless name + With the good and great? + Would you bless your fellow-men? + Heart and soul imbue + With the holy task, and then + Paddle your own canoe. + + Would you crush the tyrant wrong, + In the world's free fight? + With a spirit brave and strong, + Battle for the right. + And to break the chains that bind + The many to the few-- + To enfranchise slavish mind-- + Paddle your own canoe. + + Nothing great is lightly won, + Nothing won is lost; + Every good deed, nobly done, + Will repay the cost. + Leave to Heaven, in humble trust, + All you will to do; + But if you succeed, you must + Paddle your own canoe. + + + + +JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE + + +John Cabell Breckinridge, the youngest of the American +vice-presidents, distinguished as a public speaker, was born near +Lexington, Kentucky, January 21, 1821. He was educated at Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, and then studied law at Transylvania +University. Breckinridge lived at Burlington, Iowa, for a year, when +he returned to Lexington, Kentucky, to practice law. He served in the +Mexican War, and was afterwards a member of Congress. In 1856, when he +was about thirty-five years of age, he was elected vice-president of +the United States, with James Buchanan as president. In 1860 +Breckinridge was the candidate of the Southern slaveholders for the +presidency, but Abraham Lincoln received 180 electoral votes to his +72, Kentucky failing to support him. He took his seat in the United +States Senate in March, 1861, as the successor of John J. Crittenden, +and he at once became the champion of the Southern Confederacy in that +body. He was expelled from the Senate on December 4, 1861, on which +occasion he delivered his farewell address. Breckinridge then went +South. He was appointed a major-general, and he saw service at Shiloh, +Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Nashville, and in several other great +battles. From January to April, 1865, General Breckinridge was +Jefferson Davis's secretary of war. When the Confederacy surrendered, +he made his escape to Europe, where he remained for three years, when +he returned to Lexington and to his law practice. General Breckinridge +died at Lexington, Kentucky, May 17, 1875. Ten years later an imposing +statue was erected to his memory on Cheapside, Lexington. He was a man +of most attractive personality, an eloquent orator, a capable +advocate, a brave soldier, an honest public servant, the greatest +member of the house of Breckinridge. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Library of Oratory_ (New York, 1902, v. x); J. + C. S. Blackburn's oration upon Breckinridge; _McClure's Magazine_ + (January, 1901). For many years Col. J. Stoddard Johnston has been + engaged upon a life of Breckinridge. + + +HENRY CLAY + + [From _Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. + Henry Clay_ (Washington, 1852)] + +Imperishably associated as his name has been for fifty years with +every great event affecting the fortunes of our country, it is +difficult to realize that he is indeed gone forever. It is difficult +to feel that we shall see no more his noble form within these +walls--that we shall hear no more his patriot tones, now rousing his +countrymen to vindicate their rights against a foreign foe, now +imploring them to preserve concord among themselves. We shall see him +no more. The memory and fruits of his services alone remain to us. +Amidst the general gloom, the Capitol itself looks desolate, as if the +genius of the place had departed. Already the intelligence has reached +almost every quarter of the Republic, and a great people mourn with us +to-day, the death of their most illustrious citizen. Sympathizing as +we do deeply with his family and friends, yet private affliction is +absorbed in the general sorrow. The spectacle of a whole community +lamenting the loss of a great man, is far more touching than any +manifestation of private grief. In speaking of a loss which is +national, I will not attempt to describe the universal burst of grief +with which Kentucky will receive these tidings. The attempt would be +vain to depict the gloom that will cover her people, when they know +that the pillar of fire is removed, which has guided their footsteps +for the life of a generation. + + * * * * * + +The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the abiding fame +which surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. The entire +absence of equivocation or disguise, in all his acts, was his +master-key to the popular heart; for while the people will forgive the +errors of a bold and open nature, he sins past forgiveness who +deliberately deceives them. Hence Mr. Clay, though often defeated in +his measures of policy, always secured the respect of his opponents +without losing the confidence of his friends. He never paltered in a +double cause. The country was never in doubt as to his opinions or his +purposes. In all the contests of his time, his position on great +public questions was as clear as the sun in a cloudless sky. Sir, +standing by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, +how contemptible does appear the mere legerdemain of politics! What a +reproach is his life on that false policy which would trifle with a +great and upright people! If I were to write his epitaph, I would +inscribe, as the highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his +resting-place, "Here lies a man who was in the public service for +fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his countrymen." + +While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, they +may take courage from his career, and note the high proof it affords +that, under our equal institutions, the avenues of honour are open to +all. Mr. Clay rose by the force of his own genius, unaided by power, +patronage, or wealth. At an age when our young men are usually +advanced to the higher schools of learning, provided only with the +rudiments of an English education, he turned his steps to the West, +and amid the rude collisions of a border-life, matured a character +whose highest exhibitions were destined to mark eras in his country's +history. Beginning on the frontiers of American civilization, the +orphan boy, supported only by the consciousness of his own powers, and +by the confidence of the people, surmounted all the barriers of +adverse fortune, and won a glorious name in the annals of his country. +Let the generous youth, fired with honorable ambition, remember that +the American system of government offers on every hand bounties to +merit. If, like Clay, orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress +him; yet if, like Clay, he feels the Promethean spark within, let him +remember that his country, like a generous mother, extends her arms to +welcome and to cherish every one of her children whose genius and +worth may promote her prosperity or increase her renown. + +Mr. Speaker, the signs of woe around us, and the general voice announce +that another great man has fallen. Our consolation is that he was not +taken in the vigour of his manhood, but sank into the grave at the close +of a long and illustrious career. The great statesmen who have filled +the largest space in the public eye, one by one are passing away. Of the +three great leaders of the Senate, one alone remains, and he must +follow soon. We shall witness no more their intellectual struggles in +the American Forum; but the monuments of their genius will be cherished +as the common property of the people, and their names will continue to +confer dignity and renown upon their country. + +Not less illustrious than the greatest of these will be the name of +Clay--a name pronounced with pride by Americans in every quarter of +the globe; a name to be remembered while history shall record the +struggles of modern Greece for freedom, or the spirit of liberty burn +in the South American bosom; a living and immortal name--a name that +would descend to posterity without the aid of letters, borne by +tradition from generation to generation. Every memorial of such a man +will possess a meaning and a value to his countrymen. His tomb will be +a hallowed spot. Great memories will cluster there, and his +countrymen, as they visit it, may well exclaim-- + + "Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, + Shrines to no creed or code confined; + The Delphian vales, the Palestines, + The Meccas of the mind." + + + + +JAMES WEIR, Sr. + + +James Weir, Senior, an early Kentucky romancer, was born at +Greenville, Kentucky, June 16, 1821. He was the son of James Weir, a +Scotch-Irish merchant and quasi-author. He was graduated from Centre +College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1840, and later studied law at +Transylvania University. He engaged in the practice of law at +Owensboro, Kentucky--first known as the Yellow Banks--and on March 1, +1842, he was married to Susan C. Green, daughter of Judge John C. +Green of Danville. Weir wrote a trilogy of novels which do not deserve +the obscurity into which they have fallen. They were called _Lonz +Powers, or the Regulators_ (Philadelphia, 1850, two vols.); _Simon +Kenton, or the Scout's Revenge_ (Philadelphia, 1852); and _The Winter +Lodge, or Vow Fulfilled_ (Philadelphia, 1854). All of these romances +were thrown upon historical backgrounds, and they created much +favorable criticism at the time of their publication. Weir wrote +numerous sketches and verses, but these were his only published books. +Business, bar sufficient to all literary labors, pressed hard upon +him, and he practically abandoned literature. In 1869 he was elected +president of the Owensboro and Russellville railroad; and for nearly +forty years he was president of the Deposit bank at Owensboro. Weir +died at Owensboro, Kentucky, January 31, 1906. His son, Dr. James +Weir, Junior, was an author of considerable reputation. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); letters of Mr. Paul Weir to the Author. + + +SIMON KENTON + + [From _Simon Kenton; or, The Scout's Revenge_ (Philadelphia, + 1852)] + +By the side of the Sergeant [Duffe, in whose North Carolina home the +tale opens] sat a stout, powerfully framed, and wild-looking being, +whose visage, though none of the whitest (for it was very +unfashionably sunburnt), betokened an Anglo-Saxon; whilst his dress +and equipments went far to proclaim him a savage; and, had it not been +for his language (though none of the purest), it would have been +somewhat difficult to settle upon his race! In a court of justice, +especially in the South, where color is considered _prima facie_ +evidence of slavery, we wouldn't have given much for his chance of +freedom. Simon Kenton, or Sharp-Eye, for such were the titles given +him by his parents, and by his border companions, and he answered +readily to them both, in his dress and appearance, presented a +striking picture of the daring half savage characters everywhere to be +found at that day (and, indeed, at the present time) upon our extreme +western frontier. A contemporary of Boone, and one of the most +skillful and determined scouts of Kentucky, or the "Cane-Land," as it +was then sometimes called, Kenton's dress, composed of a flowing +hunting-shirt of tanned buckskin, with pants, or rather leggins, of +the same material--a broad belt, buckled tight around his waist, +supporting a tomahawk and hunting-knife--a gay pair of worked +moccasins, with a capacious shot-pouch swung around his neck and +ornamented with long tufts of black hair, resembling very much, as in +truth they were, the scalp-locks of the western Indian, gave him a +decidedly savage appearance, and declared at once his very recent +return from a dangerous life upon the frontier. He had been a +fellow-soldier of Duffe during the Revolution; but, after the war, +being of an adventurous and daring disposition, had wandered out West, +where he had already become famous in the many bloody border frays +between the savage and early settler, and was considered second, in +skill and cool bravery, to no scout of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." +On a visit to the Old States, as they were called at that period to +distinguish them from the more recent settlements in the West, Kenton +was sojourning, for the time, with his old friend and companion in +arms, not without a hope that, by his glowing descriptions of the +flowing savannas beyond the Blue Ridge, and of the wild freedom of a +frontier life, he might induce the latter to bear him company upon his +return to Kentucky. Six feet two inches in his moccasins, with a +well-knit sinewy frame to match his great height, and with a broad, +full, and open face, tanned and swarthy, it is true, yet pleasant and +bright, with a quiet, good-humored smile and lighted up by a deep-blue +eye, and with heavy masses of auburn hair, and whiskers sweeping +carelessly around and about his countenance, Kenton exhibited in his +person, as he sat before the fire of the Sergeant, a splendid specimen +of the genuine borderer, and no wonder the Indian brave trembled at +the redoubted name of Sharp-Eye, and instinctively shrank from a +contest with so formidable a foe. Although, now surrounded by friends, +and in the house of an old comrade, the scout, as was natural with him +from long custom, still held grasped in his ready hand the barrel of +his trusty rifle, from which he never parted, not even when he slept, +and, at the same time, kept his ears wide awake to all suspicious +sounds, as if yet in the land of the enemy, and momentarily expecting +the wild yell of his accustomed foe. Notwithstanding he was well +skilled in every species of woodcraft, an adept at following the trail +of the wild beasts of the forest, and familiar with all the cunning +tricks of the wily savage; yet, strange as it may appear, he was the +most credulous of men, and as simple as a child in what is generally +termed the "ways of the world," or, in other words, the tortuous +windings of policy and hypocrisy, so often met with under the garb of +civilization. Indeed, it has been said of him "that his confidence in +man, and his credulity were such that the same man might cheat him +twenty times; and, if he professed friendship, he might cheat him +still!" At the feet of the scout lay the inseparable companion of all +his journeyings, his dog; and Bang, for such was the name of this +prime favorite, was as rough a specimen of the canine species as his +master's countenance was of the face divine! But Bang was, +nevertheless, a very knowing dog, and, ever and anon, now as his +master became excited in his descriptions of western scenes and +adventures, he would raise his head and look intelligently at the +narrator, and so wisely did he wag his shaggy tail, that more than +once the warm-hearted hunter, breaking off suddenly in his narrative, +would pat his trusty comrade upon the head, and swear, with a hearty +emphasis, "that Bang knew all about it!" + + + + +MARY E. W. BETTS + + +Mrs. Mary E. Wilson Betts, the author of a single lyric which has +preserved her name, was born at Maysville, Kentucky, in January, 1824. +Miss Wilson was educated in the schools of her native town, and, on +July 10, 1854, she was married to Morgan L. Betts, editor of the +_Detroit Times_. She died at Maysville two months later, or on +September 19, 1854, of congestion of the brain, believed to have been +caused by the great gunpowder explosion near Maysville on August 13, +1854. Mrs. Betts's husband died in the following October. While she +wrote many poems, her brief tribute to Col. William Logan Crittenden, +kinsman of John J. Crittenden, who was a member of Lopez's +filibustering expedition to Cuba, in 1850, has preserved her name for +the present generation. Colonel Crittenden was captured by the Cubans, +shot, and his brains beaten out. Before the shots were fired he was +requested to kneel, but he made his now famous reply: "A Kentuckian +kneels to none except his God, and always dies facing his enemy!" +When, in her far-away Kentucky home, Mrs. Betts learned of +Crittenden's fate, she wrote her tribute to the memory of the gallant +son of Kentucky, which was first printed in the _Maysville Flag_. The +editor introduced the little poem thus: "The lines which follow are +from one of Kentucky's most gifted daughters of song. Upon gentler +themes the tones of her lyre have oft been heard to breathe their +music. To sing to the warrior, its cords have ne'er been strung till +now; the tragic death, and last eloquent words of the gallant +Crittenden, have caused this tribute to his memory." This poem has +been republished many times and in various forms. During the +Spanish-American war in 1898 it was often seen in print as being +typical of the courage of the soldiers of this country. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lopez's Expeditions to Cuba_, by A. C. Quisenberry + (Louisville, 1906); _Kentuckians in History and Literature_, by J. + W. Townsend (New York, 1907). + + +A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD! + + [From _The Maysville Flag_] + + Ah! tyrants, forge your chains at will-- + Nay! gall this flesh of mine: + Yet, thought is free, unfettered still, + And will not yield to thine! + Take, take the life that Heaven gave, + And let my heart's blood stain thy sod; + But know ye not Kentucky's brave + Will kneel to none but God! + + You've quenched fair freedom's sunny light, + Her music tones have stilled, + And with a deep and darkened blight, + The trusting heart has filled! + Then do you think that I will kneel + Where such as you have trod? + Nay! point your cold and threatening steel-- + I'll kneel to none but God! + + As summer breezes lightly rest + Upon a quiet river, + And gently on its sleeping breast + The moonbeams softly quiver-- + Sweet thoughts of home light up my brow + When goaded with the rod; + Yet, these cannot unman me now-- + I'll kneel to none but God! + + And tho' a sad and mournful tone + Is coldly sweeping by; + And dreams of bliss forever flown + Have dimmed with tears mine eye-- + Yet, mine's a heart unyielding still-- + Heap on my breast the clod; + I'll kneel to none but God! + My soaring spirit scorns thy will-- + + + + +REUBEN T. DURRETT + + +Reuben Thomas Durrett, founder of the Filson Club and editor of its +publications, was born near Eminence, Kentucky, January 22, 1824. He was +graduated from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in 1849. The +following year he began the practice of law at Louisville, and for the +next thirty years he was one of the leaders of the Louisville bar. He +was editor of the _Louisville Courier_ from 1857 to 1859, and +throughout his long life he has been a contributor of historical essays +to the Louisville press. Colonel Durrett was imprisoned for his Southern +sympathies during the Civil War, and for this reason he saw little +service. In 1871 he founded the Public Library of Louisville; and in +1884 he organized the now well-known Filson Club, which meets monthly in +his magnificent library--the greatest collection of Kentuckiana in the +world. While his library has never been catalogued, he must possess at +least thirty thousand books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and newspaper +files. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Dr. Robert M. McElroy, and many other +historical investigators have made important "finds" in Colonel +Durrett's library. He has one of the six extant copies of the first +edition of John Filson's _History of Kentucke_; and he has the copy of +Dean Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, which Neely, the pioneer, read to +Daniel Boone on Lulbegrub Creek, near Winchester, Kentucky, in 1770, as +they sat around the evening camp fire. The Filson club was founded to +increase the interest then taken in historical subjects in Kentucky, and +to issue an annual publication. That this purpose has been well carried +out may be seen by the twenty-six handsome and valuable monographs which +have appeared.[12] The Club's first book was Colonel Durrett's _The +Life and Writings of John Filson, the first historian of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1884). This work brought Filson into world-wide notice and +revived an interest in his precious little history. _An Historical +Sketch of St. Paul's Church, Louisville_ (Louisville, 1889); _The +Centenary of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1892); _The Centenary of Louisville_ +(Louisville, 1893); _Bryant's Station_ (Louisville, 1897); and +_Traditions of the Earliest Visits of Foreigners to North America_ +(Louisville, 1908), all of which are Filson Club publications, comprise +Colonel Durrett's work in book form. This distinguished gentleman and +writer resides at Louisville, where he keeps the open door for any who +would come and partake of the wisdom of himself and of his books. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Memorial History of Louisville_, by J. S. Johnston + (Chicago, 1896); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, + v. iv). + + +LA SALLE: DISCOVERER OF LOUISVILLE[13] + + [From _The Centenary of Louisville_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1893)] + +In the year 1808, while digging the foundation of the great flouring +mill of the Tarascons in that part of Louisville known as +Shippingport, it became necessary to remove a large sycamore tree, the +trunk of which was six feet in diameter, and the roots of which +penetrated the earth for forty feet around. Under the center of the +trunk of this tree was found an iron hatchet, which was so guarded by +the base and roots that no human hand could have placed it there +after the tree grew. It must have occupied the spot where it was found +when the tree began to grow. The hatchet was made by bending a flat +bar of iron around a cylinder until the two ends met, and then welding +them together and hammering them to a cutting edge, leaving a round +hole at the bend for a handle. The annulations of this tree were two +hundred in number, thus showing it to be two hundred years old +according to the then mode of computation. Here was a find which +proved to be a never-ending puzzle to the early scientists of the +Falls of the Ohio. The annulations of this tree made it two hundred +years old, and so fixed the date earlier than any white man or user of +iron was known to have been at the falls. One thought that Moscoso, +the successor of De Soto, in his wanderings up the Mississippi and +Missouri rivers, might have entered the Ohio and left the hatchet +there in 1542; another, that it might have come from the Spaniards who +settled St. Augustine in 1565; another, that the Spaniards who went up +the Ohio in 1669 in search of silver might have left it where it was +found; and another, that Marquette, when he discovered the Upper +Mississippi in 1673, or La Salle, when he sailed down to its mouth in +1682, might have given the hatchet to an Indian, who left it at the +Falls. But from these reasonable conjectures their learning and +imagination soon led these savants into the wildest theories and +conjectures. One thought that the Northmen, whom the Sagas of +Sturleson made discoverers of America in the eleventh century, had +brought the hatchet to this country; another, that Prince Madoc, who +left a principality in Wales in the twelfth century for a home in the +western wilderness, might have brought it here; and another, that it +might have been brought here by those ancient Europeans whom Diodorus +and Pausanius and other classical writers assure us were in +communication with this country in ancient times. One of these learned +ethnologists finally went so far as to advance the theory of the +Egyptian priests, as related by Plato, that the autochthons of our +race brought it here before the Island of Atlantis, lying between +Europe and America, went down in the ocean and cut off all further +communication between the continents. + +This hatchet, however, really furnished no occasion for such strained +conjectures and wild speculations. If the sycamore under which it was +found was two hundred years old, as indicated by its annulations, it +must have begun to grow about the time that Jamestown in Virginia and +Quebec in Canada were founded. It would have been no unreasonable act +for an Indian or white man to have brought this hatchet from the English +on the James, or from the French on the St. Lawrence, to the Falls of +the Ohio in 1608, just two hundred years before it was discovered by +removing the tree that grew over it. The known habit of the sycamore, +however, to make more than one annulation in years particularly +favorable to growth suggests that two hundred annulations do not +necessarily mean that many years. If we allow about fifty per cent of +the life of the tree to have been during years exceptionally favorable +to its growth, and assign double annulations to these favorable years, +we shall have this tree to have made its two hundred annulations in +about one hundred and thirty-nine years, and to have sprung from its +seed and to have begun its growth about the year 1669 or 1670, when La +Salle, the great French explorer, is believed to have been at the Falls +of the Ohio. We have no account of any one at the Falls in 1608, or +about this time, to support the conjecture that it might have come from +Jamestown or Quebec; but we have La Salle at this place in 1669 or 1670, +and it is not unreasonable that he should have left it here at that +time. In this sense the old rusty hatchet, which is fortunately +preserved, becomes interesting to us all for its connection with the +discovery of Louisville. It is a souvenir of the first white man who +ever saw the Falls of the Ohio. It is a memento of Robert Cavalier de La +Salle, the discoverer of the site of the city of Louisville. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] A complete list of the club's publications is: _John Filson_, by +R. T. Durrett (1884); _The Wilderness Road_, by Thomas Speed (1886); +_The Pioneer Press of Kentucky_, by W. H. Perrin (1888); _Life and +Times of Judge Caleb Wallace_, by W. H. Whitsitt (1888); _An +Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church_, by R. T. Durrett (1889); _The +Political Beginnings of Kentucky_, by J. M. Brown (1889); _The +Centenary of Kentucky_, by R. T. Durrett (1892); _The Centenary of +Louisville_, by R. T. Durrett (1893); _The Political Club of Danville, +Kentucky_, by Thomas Speed (1894); _The Life and Writings of +Rafinesque_, by R. E. Call (1895); _Transylvania University_, by Dr. +Robert Peter (1896); _Bryant's Station_, by R. T. Durrett (1897); _The +First Explorations of Kentucky_, by J. S. Johnston (1898); _The Clay +Family_, by Z. F. Smith and Mrs. Mary R. Clay (1899); _The Battle of +Tippecanoe_, by Alfred Pirtle (1900); _Boonesborough_, by G. W. Ranck +(1901); _The Old Masters of the Bluegrass_, by S. W. Price (1902); +_The Battle of the Thames_, by B. H. Young (1903); _The Battle of New +Orleans_, by Z. F. Smith (1904); _History of the Medical Department of +Transylvania University_, by Dr. Robert Peter (1905); _Lopez's +Expeditions to Cuba_, by A. C. Quisenberry (1906); _The Quest for a +Lost Race_, by Dr. T. E. Pickett (1907); _Traditions of the Earliest +Visits of Foreigners to North America_, by R. T. Durrett (1908); +_Sketches of Two Distinguished Kentuckians_, by J. W. Townsend and S. +W. Price (1909); _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_, by B. H. Young +(1910); _The Kentucky Mountains_, by Miss Mary Verhoeff (1911). No +publication was issued in 1912. + +[13] Copyright, 1893, by the Filson Club. + + + + +RICHARD H. COLLINS + + +Richard Henry Collins, whom Mr. James Lane Allen has happily +christened "the Kentucky Froissart," was born at Maysville, Kentucky, +May 4, 1824, over the office of _The Eagle_. He was the son of Lewis +Collins (1797-1870), who published a history of Kentucky in 1847. +Richard H. Collins was a Cincinnati lawyer for eleven years, but he +lived many years at Maysville, where he edited the old _Eagle_, which +his father had made famous. In 1861 he founded the _Danville Review_; +and in 1874 he published a "revised, enlarged four-fold, and brought +down to the year 1874" edition, in two enormous volumes, of his +father's history of Kentucky. Unquestionably this is a work of +tremendous importance, the most magnificent and elaborate history of +this or any other State yet compiled. Traveling the whole State over, +obtaining contributions from each town's ablest writer, and then +building them upon his father's fine foundation, Collins was able to +publish an almost invaluable work. To-day his history of Kentucky, +though it certainly contains many errors of various kinds and degrees, +is the greatest mine of our State's history which all must explore if +they would be informed of our people's past. Dean Shaler and all later +Kentucky historical writers have taken pleasure in paying tribute to +his work. The one mistake that Collins made, which might have been +easily avoided, was to put his manuscripts together in such a manner +that the authorship of the various papers cannot be determined; but in +this he followed his father's methods; and for this reason the writer +has been compelled to reproduce the prefaces of both books, rather +than portions of the actual text, for fear he may use matter prepared +by a contributor. Collins practiced law in different Kentucky towns, +wrote for newspapers and magazines, and spent a very busy and rather +active life. He died at the home of his daughter at Maryville, +Missouri, on New Year's Day of 1888. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by Z. F. Smith (Louisville, + 1892); _The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky_, by James Lane Allen + (New York, 1892). + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + [From _History of Kentucky_ (Covington, Kentucky, 1882, v. ii)] + +Twenty-seven years, 1847 to 1874, have elapsed since _Collins's +History of Kentucky_ quietly and modestly claimed recognition among +the standard local histories in the great American republic. That has +been an eventful period. Death, too, has been busy with the names in +the Preface above--has claimed alike the author and compiler, Judge +Lewis Collins, and about one hundred and fifty more of the honored and +substantial names who contributed information or other aid towards +preserving what was then unwritten of the history of the State. The +author of the present edition (now nearly fifty years of age) is the +youngest of the forty-two contributors who are still living; while +several of them are over eighty and one is over ninety-two years of +age. Time has dealt gently with them; fame has followed some, and +fortune others; a few have achieved both fame and fortune, while a +smaller few lay claim to neither. + +It is not often, as in this case, that the mantle of duty as a +state-historian falls from the father to the son's shoulders. It has +been faithfully and conscientiously worn; how well and ably, let the +disinterested and unprejudiced judge. + +The present edition had its origin in this: When Judge Collins died, the +Legislature of Kentucky was in session. As its testimonial and +appreciation of his services and character, this resolution was +unanimously adopted, and on March 21, 1870, approved by Gov. Stevenson: + +"_Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_: + +"That we have heard with deep regret of the death of Judge Lewis +Collins, of Maysville, Kentucky, which has occurred since the meeting +of this General Assembly. He was a native Kentuckian of great purity +of character and enlarged public spirit; associated for half a century +with the press of the State, which he adorned with his patriotism, his +elevated morals, and his enlightened judgment. He was the author of a +_History of Kentucky_, evidencing extended research, and which +embodies in a permanent form the history of each county in the State, +and the lives of its distinguished citizens, and is an invaluable +contribution to the literature and historical knowledge of the State. +His name being thus perpetually identified with that of his native +State, this General Assembly, from a sense of duty and regard for his +memory, expresses this testimonial of its appreciation of his +irreproachable character and valued services." + +This touching, and tender, and noble tribute to the departed author +and editor, was but the culmination of a sympathy broader than the +State, for it was echoed and sent back by many citizens from a +distance. He had lived to some purpose. It was no small comfort to his +family, to know that their bereavement was regarded as a public +bereavement; and that his name and works would live on, and be green +in the memory of the good people of Kentucky--the place of his birth, +the home of his manhood, the scene of his life's labors, his grave. In +a spontaneous tribute of praise and sympathy, the entire newspaper +press of the State, and many in other States, announced his decease. + + * * * * * + +That action of the State, and those generous outpourings of sympathy and +regard, started fresh inquiries for the work that had made him best +known--_Collins's History of Kentucky_. It had been _out of print_ for +more than twenty years! It was known that I had been associated with my +father as an editor, and then his successor, and had assisted him with +his _History_. Hence, many applications and inquiries for the book were +made to me; always with the suggestion that I ought to prepare a new +edition, enlarged, and bring down to the present the history of the +State. It was an important undertaking--as delicate as important. I +shrank from the great responsibility, and declined. But the urgency +continued, for the necessity of a State history was felt. The great +State of Kentucky, the mother of statesmen and heroes, the advance guard +of civilization west of the great Appalachian chain, had no published +_History_ of the last twenty-six years; and no _History_ at all in book +form, _now accessible_ to more than a few thousand of the intelligent +minds among her million-and-a-third of inhabitants. The duty of +preparing this _History_ sought _me_, and not I _it_. It has been a task +of tremendous labor, extending through the long weary months of nearly +four years. But it has been a sweet and a proud task, and the _destiny_ +that seemed driving me on is almost fulfilled. I wish I could know the +verdict of the future upon my labors, but that is impossible. The +carping and noisy fault-finding of the dissatisfied and ungenerous few +are far from being pleasant; but the consciousness of duty done, with an +honest heart, and the praise of the liberal ones who will appreciate the +work, will be a noble and a proud satisfaction, and a joy ceasing only +with my life. + +[Then follow three pages of names of persons whom he thanks for +assistance.] + + + + +ANNIE C. KETCHUM + + +Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, poet, naturalist, and novelist, was born +near Georgetown, Kentucky, November 8, 1824, the daughter of Benjamin +Stuart Chambers, founder of Cardome Academy; her mother was a member +of the famous Bradford family of journalists. Miss Chambers was +graduated from Georgetown Female College with the M. A. degree. Her +first husband was William Bradford, whom she married in 1844, and from +whom she was subsequently divorced. After her separation from her +husband, she went to Memphis, Tennessee, and opened a school for +girls, which she conducted for several years. In 1858 she was married +to Leonidas Ketchum, a Tennessean, who was mortally wounded at the +battle of Shiloh in 1863. After her husband's death, Mrs. Ketchum +returned to Kentucky and conducted a school at Georgetown for three +years, but, in 1866, she returned to Memphis, where she again taught +for a number of years. Mrs. Ketchum spent the winter of 1875 at +Paris, France, pursuing her literary work, and on May 24, 1876, she +entered upon the novitiate in a convent there. She afterwards returned +to America and her last years were spent in Kentucky. Mrs. Ketchum +died in 1904. Her first literary work to attract attention was a +novel, entitled _Nellie Bracken_ (Philadelphia, 1855). From 1859 to +1861 Mrs. Ketchum was editor of _The Lotus_, a monthly magazine +published at Memphis. _Benny: A Christmas Ballad_ (New York, 1869) was +the first of her poems to attract any considerable attention; and her +best known poem, _Semper Fidelis_, originally published in _Harper's +Magazine_ for October, 1873, is a long, leisurely thing that makes one +wonder at its once wide popularity. All of her poems Mrs. Ketchum +brought together in _Lotus Flowers_ (New York, 1878). _Lotus_ was her +shibboleth, and she never missed an opportunity to make use of it. She +made many translations from Latin, German, and French writers, her +finest work in this field being _Marcella, a Russian Idyl_ (New York, +1878). _The Teacher's Empire_ (1886) was a collection of educational +essays contributed to various journals. Mrs. Ketchum's _Botany for +Academies and Colleges_ (Philadelphia, 1887), was a text-book in many +institutions for several years subsequent to its publication. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ + (New York, 1887, v. iii); B. O. Gaines's _History of Scott County, + Kentucky_ (1905, v. ii). + + +APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH + + [From _The Southern Poems of the War_, edited by Emily V. Mason + (Baltimore, 1867)] + + Dreams of a stately land, + Where roses and lotus open to the sun, + Where green ravine and misty mountains stand, + By lordly valor won. + + Dreams of the earnest-browed + And eagle-eyed, who late with banners bright, + Rode forth in knightly errantry, to do + Devoir for God and right. + + Shoulder to shoulder, see + The crowning columns file through pass and glen! + Hear the shrill bugle! List the rolling drum, + Mustering the gallant men! + + Resolute, year by year, + They keep at bay the cohorts of the world; + Hemmed in, yet trusting in the Lord of Hosts, + The cross is still unfurled. + + Patient, heroic, true, + And counting tens where hundreds stood at first; + Dauntless for truth, they dare the sabre's edge, + The bombshell's deadly burst. + + While we, with hearts made brave + By their proud manhood, work, and watch, and pray, + Till, conquering fate, we greet with smiles and tears + The conquering ranks of grey! + + Oh, God of dreams and sleep, + Dreamless they sleep--'tis we, the sleepless, dream, + Defend us while our vigil dark we keep, + Which knows no morning beam! + + Bloom, gentle spring-tide flowers-- + Sing, gentle winds, above each holy grave, + While we, the women of a desolate land, + Weep for the true and brave. + +Memphis, Tennessee. + + + + +FRANCIS H. UNDERWOOD + + +Francis Henry Underwood, "the editor who was never the editor" of _The +Atlantic Monthly_, though he was indeed the projector and first +associate editor of that famous magazine, was born at Enfield, +Massachusetts, January 12, 1825, the son of Roswell Underwood. He +spent the year of 1843-1844 at Amherst College, and in the summer of +1844 he came out to Kentucky and settled at Bowling Green as a school +teacher. Underwood read law at Bowling Green and was admitted to the +bar of that town in 1847. On May 18, 1848, he was married to Louisa +Maria Wood, of Taylorsville, Kentucky, to whom he afterwards dedicated +his Kentucky novel. While in Kentucky Underwood wrote verses which he +submitted to N. P. Willis, who was then at Washington. The celebrated +critic wrote him: "Your poetry is as good as Byron's was at the same +stage of progress--correct, and evidently inspired, and capable of +expansion into stuff for fame." None of it, however, has come down to +us. Underwood's intense hatred of slavery caused him to quit Kentucky, +in 1850, after having lived for six years in this State, and to return +to Massachusetts, where he was admitted to the bar of Northampton. He +enlisted in the Free-soil movement with heart and soul. In 1852 he was +clerk of the Massachusetts Senate, which position he left to become +literary adviser for the then leading publishers of New England, +Phillips, Sampson and Company. In 1853 Underwood conceived the idea of +a Free-soil literary magazine, but a publisher's failure delayed its +appearance. In November, 1857, however, the first issue of _The +Atlantic Monthly_ appeared, Dr. Holmes having christened the "baby," +with James Russell Lowell as editor-in-chief, and Underwood as +assistant editor. Lowell and Underwood were great friends and they +worked together with pleasure and harmony. For two years they were the +editors, when the breaking up of the firm of Phillips, Sampson and +Company, and the passing of the periodical into the hands of Ticknor +and Fields, caused Underwood to resign. From 1859 to 1870 he was clerk +of the Superior Criminal Court of Boston; and from 1861 to 1875 he was +a member of the Boston School Committee. Underwood's first three works +were a _Handbook of English Literature_ (Boston, 1871); _Handbook of +American Literature_ (Boston, 1872); and _Cloud Pictures_ (Boston, +1872), a group of musical stories. Then came his Kentucky novel, +entitled _Lord of Himself_ (Boston, 1874), which was really a series +of pictures of life at Bowling Green in 1844. This tale was well +received by the Kentucky press and public, the background and +characters were declared realistic, and the author's effort to make +something pathetic out of the old system of slavery was smiled at and +dismissed in the general pleasure his story gave. In his imaginary +Kentucky county of Barry, Underwood had a merry time rehabilitating +the past. The character of Arthur Howard is the author himself. _Lord +of Himself_ is a work of high merit, and it does not deserve the +oblivion into which it has fallen. In 1880 Underwood's second novel, +_Man Proposes_, was published, together with his _The True Story of +Exodus_. Two years later his biographies of Longfellow and Lowell were +issued; and in 1883 his study of Whittier was published. In 1885 +President Cleveland named Underwood United States Consul at Glasgow; +and three years later the University of Glasgow granted him LL.D. +During Cleveland's second administration Underwood was consul at +Edinburgh. While in Scotland he wrote his last two novels, called +_Quabbin_ (Boston, 1892), and _Dr. Gray's Quest_. In _Quabbin_ he +described his native town of Enfield in much the same manner that he +had years before written of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Underwood died at +Edinburgh, August 8, 1894. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Catalogue of Amherst College_; _The + Author of "Quabbin,"_ by J. T. Trowbridge (_Atlantic Monthly_, + January, 1895); _The Editor who was Never the Editor_, by Bliss + Perry (_Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1907). Mr. Perry's paper is + especially notable for the great number of letters reproduced + which Underwood received from the celebrities of his time. + + +ALOYSIUS AND MR. FENTON + + [From _Lord of Himself_ (Boston, 1874)] + +It was at this juncture that the youth of many locks and ample Byronic +shirt collar appeared on the scene. Aloysius Pittsinger was his name. +He was a consolation. His very name, Aloysius, had a sweet gurgle in +the sound, resembling the anticipatory and involuntary noises from +children's mouths at the sight of sugar lollipops. He was a clerk in +Mr. Goldstein's store. There he dispensed tobacco, both fine-cut and +plug, assorted nails, New Orleans sugar, Rio coffee, Porto Rico +molasses, Gloucester mackerel, together with foreign cloths and +homespun jeans, and all the gimcracks which little negroes coveted and +the swarms of summer flies had spared. + +The appearance of Aloysius happened in this wise. Mr. Fenton was an +early riser, but was loath to go to his shop without his breakfast. On +the fateful morning he had come down rather earlier than usual. After +due search and discussion, it was announced to him that there was +nothing at once appetizing and substantial in the house that could, +within the desired period, be got ready for the table; and his wife +made bold to ask if in this emergency he wouldn't go out and get +something. To a hungry man, in the faint interval after a "nipper" and +before a solid bit, such a proposition is an unpleasant surprise. But, +after devoting the cook and the household generally to immediate pains +and inconveniences, and to something more hereafter, Mr. Fenton put on +his slouched hat and started out. He mused also. + +If I were ambitious of the fame of the great American novelist, or were +contending for the fifty thousand dollar prize offered by the publishers +of the Metropolitan Album, and hoped to have my thrilling descriptions +read by its subscribing army of three hundred and fifty-one thousand +chambermaids, I might paint the current of his swift thought thus: + +"The air bites shrewdly. Ha, by the mass! Shall I to the _abattoir_ +and ask the slayer of oxen for a steak? or a chop from the loin of +sheep, a bell-wether of Kentucky's finest flock--Kentucky, state +renowned for dainty mutton? Or does the slayer of oxen yet sleep, +supinely stertorous, heavy with the lingering fumes of the mighty +Bourbon? Perchance he has no steak, no chop!--all gone to feed an +insatiable people! Bethink me. Ay--and the _abattoir_ is far, though +its perfume is nigh; it is thrice a hundred yards from hence. I will +go to the house of the Israelite, Goldstein, and get a fish--a fish +dear to losel Yankees, and not scorned by the sons of the sun-land +either. 'Tis well. I will make the trial. Haply I shall find that the +young man, Pittsinger, whose praenomen is Aloysius, has arisen, and is +even now combing his ambrosial locks." + +What he _did_ think was something like this: + +"It's doggon cold this mornin'. I wonder whether that derned old +drunken Bill Stone's got ary bit of fresh meat--and if he's up yet. I +don't b'lieve it, for he was drunk's an owl last night at old Red Eye. +Besides, it's fer to the slaughter-house. Le's see. I might get a +mackerel at Goldstein's. I'll do it. B'iled a little, to take the salt +out, and then het with cream, it ain't bad, by a derned sight." + +He walked out to the square, occasionally blowing his cold fingers. The +shutters were not taken down from Goldstein's front windows, but Mr. +Fenton knew that the clerk slept in a little room in a ruinous lean-to +back of the store, and he rattled the door to call him. There was no +answer, nor sound of any one stirring, and he rattled again. His +powerful shake made the square resound. He called, endeavoring to throw +his voice through the key-hole, "Aloysius, ain't you up yit? I want a +mackerel." + +The silence was aggravating, and there were internal qualms that made +Fenton doubly impatient. + +"Aloysius, you lazy bones! Do you hear? I want a mackerel for +breakfast. You're thest the no-countest boy I ever see! If 'twan't for +your father, you'd thest starve." + +Fenton sadly meditated, and was about to give it up, when he heard a +voice within, saying, "Never too late, Mr. Fenton. You shall have your +mackerel. You needn't wait. As soon as I get my clothes on I'll tote +you over one." + + +AN AMAZING PROPHECY + + [From the same] + +"The hardest strain upon the republic is yet to come," said Mr. +Pierrepont. "God only knows how the slavery question is to be settled; +but no change in policy will be adopted without a severe struggle. If +the South is worsted, it will have the terrible problem of the status +of the negroes to solve, and it will be a tumultuous time for a +generation. The danger to the North in the event of success, or of +defeat either, will arise from its wealth. The accumulations at the +commercial centres are to make them enormously rich. Money is a power, +and never a quiescent one. Your rich men will put themselves into +office, or they will send their paid attorneys to legislate for them. +They will so touch the subtle springs of finance as to make every +affair of state serve their personal advantage. They will make +corruption honorable, and bribery a fine art. It is now a mark of +decency and a badge of distinction for a public man to be poor. +Everyone knows that a public man can't be rich honestly; but you will +live to see congressmen going to the capital carrying travelling-bags, +and returning home with wagon loads of trunks, and with stocks and +bonds that will enable them to snap their fingers at constituents." + +"It is the old story of republics," said Mr. Howard. "They are founded +by valor, reared by industry, with frugality and equal laws. Wealth +follows, then corruption, then the public conscience is debauched, +faith is lost, and justice thrust out. Then the general rottenness is +shaken by the coming of a new Caesar, and an empire is welcomed because +liberty had already been lost, and anything is better than anarchy. +However, let us hope this is far away." + + + + +STEPHEN C. FOSTER + + +Stephen Collins Foster, the celebrated song writer, was born at +Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1826. At the age of fifteen years he +entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, but music had +set its seal upon him and he soon returned to Pittsburgh to pursue it. +The next few years were almost entirely devoted to his musical studies, +though he had a living to make. The year of 1842 found Foster clerking +in a Cincinnati store; and during this time his first song, _Open Thy +Lattice, Love_, was published at Baltimore. _Uncle Ned_, and _O +Susannah!_ followed fast upon his first effort, and the three launched +him upon his career. He relinquished his business cares, and surrendered +his life to song. In 1850 Foster married Jane McDowell of Pittsburgh, +and they lived at New York City for a short time before settling at +Pittsburgh. His _Camptown Races_, and _My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight_, +appeared in 1850. It is surely a regrettable fact that the most famous +Kentucky song was not written by a Kentucky hand. Foster's only child, +Mrs. Marion Foster Welsh, of Pittsburgh, has recently repudiated the +ancient tale that is told of the origin of _My Old Kentucky Home_, but +as she declined to furnish the real history of the song, saying she +would make it known at the proper time, nothing better than the often +repeated story can be told here. Foster was visiting his kinsman, Judge +John Rowan, at his home, "Federal Hill," near Bardstown, Kentucky, and +on this typical Southern plantation, with its negroes and their cabins, +_My Old Kentucky Home_ was written. The story is usually elaborated, but +as it has been set aside by the author's daughter, further comment is +not worth while. It is enough to know that it was written in Kentucky. +Foster went to New York City in 1860, and the same year _Old Black Joe_ +appeared. _Old Folks at Home_, _Nelly was a Lady_, _Nelly Bly_, _Massa's +in the Cold, Cold Ground_, _Old Dog Tray_, _Don't Bet Your Money on the +Shanghai_, _We Are Coming, Father Abraham_, and dozens of other songs +have kept Foster's fame green. His beautiful serenade, _Come Where My +Love Lies Dreaming_, is his highest note in genuine scientific music. +Foster died at New York, January 13, 1864, and he was buried in +Allegheny cemetery, Pittsburgh. In 1906 the Kentucky home-comers never +seemed to tire of _My Old Kentucky Home_, and a fitting memorial was +unveiled at Louisville by Foster's daughter in honor of the song's +maker. It is known and sung in the remotest corners of the world. Mr. +James Lane Allen's fine tribute to the poet's memory may be found in +_The Bride of the Mistletoe_: + +"More than half a century ago the one starved genius of the Shield +[Kentucky], a writer of songs, looked out upon the summer picture of +this land, its meadows and ripening corn tops; and as one presses out +the spirit of an entire vineyard when he bursts a solitary grape upon +his tongue, he, the song writer, drained drop by drop the wine of that +scene into the notes of a single melody. The nation now knows his +song, the world knows it--the only music that has ever captured the +joy and peace of American home life--embodying the very soul of it in +the clear amber of sound." + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Atlantic Monthly_ (November, 1867); _Current + Literature_ (September, 1901). Strangely enough no formal + biography of Foster has been written. + + +MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME, GOOD-NIGHT + + [From _Stephen Collins Foster Statue_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1906, + a pamphlet)] + + The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, + 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay; + The corn-top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom, + While the birds make music all the day; + The young folks roll on the little cabin floor, + All merry, all happy, and bright, + By'n-by hard times comes a-knocking at the door, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon, + On the meadow, the hill, and the shore; + They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon, + On the bench by the old cabin door; + The day goes by, like a shadow o'er the heart, + With sorrow, where all was delight; + The time has come when the darkies have to part, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + The head must bow and the back will have to bend, + Wherever the darkey may go; + A few more days and the trouble all will end + In the field where the sugar-cane grows; + A few more days for to tote the weary load-- + No matter, 'twill never be light; + A few more days till we totter on the road, + Then my old Kentucky home, good-night! + + CHORUS: + + Weep no more, my lady, O weep no more to-day! + We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home, + For the old Kentucky home far away. + + + + +ZACHARIAH F. SMITH + + +Zachariah Frederick Smith, the Kentucky historian, was born near +Eminence, Kentucky, January 7, 1827. He was educated at Bacon College, +Harrodsburg, Kentucky. During the Civil War he was president of Henry +College at New Castle, Kentucky. From 1867 to 1871 he was +superintendent of public instruction in Kentucky. Professor Smith was +subsequently interested in various enterprises, and for four years he +was connected with the publishing firm of D. Appleton and Company. For +more than fifty years he was a curator of Transylvania University. His +_History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1885; 1892), is the only exhaustive +and readable history of the Commonwealth from the beginnings down to +the date of its publication. In a sense it is the chronicles of the +Collinses transformed from the encyclopedic to the continuous +narrative form. Professor Smith's other works are: _A School History +of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1889); _Youth's History of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1898); _The Mother of Henry Clay_ (Louisville, 1899); and +_The Battle of New Orleans_ (Louisville, 1904). He spent the final +years of his life upon _The History of the Reformation of the 19th +Century, Inaugurated, Advocated, and Directed by Barton W. Stone, of +Kentucky: 1800-1832_, which was almost ready for publication when he +died. In this work Professor Smith set forth that Barton W. Stone, and +not Alexander Campbell, was the founder of the Christian +("Campbellite") so-called "reformation" in this State, and that its +adherents are "Stoneites," not "Campbellites," as they are called by +the profane. Professor Smith died at Louisville, Kentucky, July 4, +1911, but he was buried at Eminence. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Kentucky in the Nation's History_, by R. M. McElroy + (New York, 1909); _The Register_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, September, + 1911). + + +EARLY KENTUCKY DOCTORS + + [From _The History of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1892)] + +It is probable Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, was the first physician +who ever visited Kentucky. In 1745 he came and negotiated treaties +with the Indian tribes for the establishment of a colony, which was +announced in Washington's journal (1754) as Walker's settlement on the +Cumberland, accompanied by a map, dated 1750. Some time just before +1770, Dr. John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, visited the Falls of the Ohio, +and three years later, in company with Captain Thomas Bullitt, +patented the land on which Louisville now stands. But little is known +of the professional performances of either Walker or Connolly, except +the fact that they were both men of superior intelligence, and of far +more than average cultivation. They were both known as enterprising +business men rather than great practitioners of medicine. In a +_History of the Medical Literature of Kentucky_, Dr. Lunsford P. +Yandell (the elder) says: "The first surgical operation ever performed +in Kentucky by a white man occurred in 1767." Colonel James Smith, in +that year, accompanied by his black servant, Jamie, traveled from the +mouth of the Tennessee river across the country to Carolina, now +Tennessee. On their way, Colonel Smith stepped upon a projecting +fragment of cane, which pierced his foot, and was broken off level +with the skin. Swelling quickly came on, causing the flesh to rise +above the end of the cane. Having no other instruments than a knife, a +moccasin awl, and a pair of bullet-molds, the colonel directed his +servant to seize the piece of cane with the bullet-molds, while he +raised the skin with the awl and cut the flesh away from around the +piece of cane, and, with the assistance of Jamie, the foreign body was +drawn out. Colonel Smith then treated the wound with the bruised bark +from the root of a lind tree, and subsequently by poultices made of +the same material, using the mosses of the old logs in the forest, +which he secured with strips of elm bark, as a dressing. + +Dr. Frederick Ridgely, a favorite pupil of Dr. Rush, was sent from +Philadelphia early in 1779, as a surgeon to a vessel sailing with +letters of marque and reprisal off the coast of Virginia. This vessel +was chased into the Chesapeake Bay by a British man-of-war. As the +ship's colors were struck to the enemy, Dr. Ridgely leaped overboard, +and narrowly escaped capture by swimming two miles to the shore. He +was at once thereafter appointed an officer in the medical department +of the Colonial army. A few months later, he resigned his commission, +and settled, in 1790, at Lexington, where he speedily attained a +leading position as a master of the healing art. From Lexington he was +frequently called, in the capacity of surgeon, to accompany militia in +their expeditions against the Indians. He was appointed +surgeon-general to the army of "Mad Anthony Wayne," returning finally +to Lexington, where he took part in the organization of the first +medical college established in the West. Dr. Ridgely was a frequent +contributor to the _American Medical Repertory_, published at +Philadelphia. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Samuel Brown, also of +Lexington. At the organization of the medical department of +Transylvania University, in 1799, Brown and Ridgely were the first +professors. Ridgely, in that year, delivered a course of lectures to a +small class, and, as the organization of the faculty had not been +completed, no further attempts at teaching were made. Dr. Samuel +Brown, like his colleague, Ridgely, was a surgeon of great ability and +large experience. These two gentlemen added greatly to the growth and +popularity of Lexington by their renown as surgeons. They attracted +patients from the remote settlements on the frontier, and were both +frequent contributors to the medical literature of that time. The +cases reported by these gentlemen were numerous, interesting, +carefully observed, and ably reported. Dr. Brown was a student at the +University of Edinburgh with Hosack, Davidge, Ephraim McDowell, and +Brockenborough, of Virginia. Hosack became famous as a professor in +the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at New York; Davidge laid the +foundation of the University of Maryland; Brown was one of the first +professors in Transylvania University, at Lexington, while McDowell +achieved immortal fame in surgery as the father of ovariotomy. Strong +rivalry in the practice of medicine at Lexington, between Brown and +Ridgely, and Fishback and Pindell, had much to do with the +difficulties attending the efforts of the two former to establish the +medical school. In 1798, Jenner made public his great discovery of the +protective power of vaccination. Dr. Brown, of Lexington, was his +first imitator on this continent. Within three years from the date of +Jenner's first publication, and before the experiment had been tried +elsewhere in this country, Brown had already vaccinated successfully +more than five hundred people at Lexington. + + + + +JOHN A. BROADUS + + +John Albert Broadus, the most distinguished clergyman and writer +Kentucky Baptists have produced, was born near Culpepper, Virginia, +January 24, 1827. At the age of sixteen years Broadus united with the +Baptist church; and he shortly afterwards decided to study for the +ministry of his church. He taught school for a time before going to +the University of Virginia, in 1846, and he was graduated four years +later with the M.A. degree. While at the University Broadus was +greatly impressed by Professors Gessner Harrison, Wm. H. McGuffey, and +E. H. Courtenay. In 1851 Broadus declined a professorship in +Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, in order to become assistant +instructor of ancient languages in his _alma mater_ and pastor of the +Charlottesville Baptist church. In 1857 it was decided to establish +the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, South +Carolina, and Broadus, James P. Boyce, Basil Manly, Jr., William +Williams, and E. T. Winkler, were the committee on establishment. +Boyce and Manly urged the curriculum system, but Broadus advocated the +elective system so earnestly that he completely won them over. "So, as +Mr. Jefferson had drawn a new American university, Mr. Broadus drew a +new American seminary." The Seminary opened in 1859 with the members +of the committee, with the exception of Williams, as the professors. +Boyce was elected president, and Broadus occupied the chair of New +Testament Interpretation and Homiletics. Twenty-six students greeted +the faculty; and all were soon hard at work. After a few years, +however, the Civil War came and the Seminary shortly suspended. During +the war Dr. Broadus was a chaplain in the Confederate armies. At the +close of the war work in the Seminary was resumed with seven students +enrolled, Dr. Broadus having but one student in homiletics, and he was +blind! The lectures he prepared for this blind brother were the basis +of the work that made him famous, _The Preparation and Delivery of +Sermons_ (Philadelphia, 1870), which is at the present time the finest +thing on the subject, a text-book in nearly every theological school +in Christendom. Dr. Broadus declined chairs in Chicago and Brown +universities, and the presidency of Vassar College, in order to remain +with the Seminary, the darling of his dreams. In 1873 he read his +notable paper in memory of Gessner Harrison at the University of +Virginia; and the next year he joined Dr. Boyce in Kentucky in the +effort that was then being made to remove the Seminary to Louisville. +His lectures before the Newton Theological Seminary were published as +_The History of Preaching_ (New York, 1876). In 1877 the Seminary was +removed to Louisville, Dr. Boyce remaining as president and Dr. +Broadus as professor of homiletics. From the first the Seminary was a +success, it now being the largest in the United States. In 1879 Dr. +Broadus delivered his noted address upon Demosthenes before Richmond +College, Virginia, which is regarded as one of the very finest efforts +of his life. In Louisville he became the city's first citizen, honored +and beloved by all classes. In 1886 Harvard conferred the degree of +Doctor of Divinity upon him; and later in the same year one of the +most important of his books appeared, _Sermons and Addresses_ +(Baltimore, 1886). This was followed by his famous _Commentary on +Matthew_ (Philadelphia, 1887), which was begun during the darkest days +of the Civil War, and is now considered the best commentary in English +on that Gospel. Dr. Boyce died at Pau, France, in 1888, and Dr. +Broadus succeeded him as president of the Seminary. In January, 1889, +he delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures on _Preaching_ at Yale; and +some months later his _Translation of and Notes to Chrysostom's +Homilies_ (New York, 1889) appeared. In the spring of 1890 Dr. Broadus +delivered three lectures before Johns Hopkins University, which were +published as _Jesus of Nazareth_ (New York, 1890). He spent the summer +of 1892 in Louisville preparing his _Memoir of James P. Boyce_ (New +York, 1893); and _A Harmony of the Gospels_ (New York, 1893), his +final works. Dr. Broadus died at Louisville, Kentucky, March 16, 1895. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Life and Letters of John Albert Broadus_, by A. T. + Robertson (Philadelphia, 1900); _Library of Southern Literature_ + (Atlanta, 1909, v. ii). + + +OXFORD UNIVERSITY[14] + + [From _Life and Letters of John A. Broadus_, by A. T. Robertson + (Philadelphia, 1901)] + +We had four and a half hours at Oxford, and spent it with exceeding +great pleasure, and most respectably heavy expense. + +At University College we saw a memorial of Sir Wm. Jones, by Flaxman, +which I am sure I shall never forget--worthy of Sir Wm. and worthy of +Flaxman. At Magdalen College we saw the varied and beautiful grounds, +with the Poet's Walk, where Addison loved to stroll. At New College we +visited the famous and beautiful chapel. (New College is now five +hundred years old.) These are the most remarkable of the nineteen +colleges. You know they are entirely distinct establishments, as much +as if a hundred miles apart, and that the University of Oxford is +simply a general organization which gives degrees to the men prepared +by the different colleges. Then we spent one and a half hours at the +famous Bodleian Library, the most valuable (British Museum has the +largest number of books) in the world. Oh, the books, the books--the +early and rare editions, the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle +Ages, the autographs of famous persons, and the portraits, the +portraits of hundreds of the earth's greatest ones. Happy students, +fellows, professors, who have constant access to the Bodleian Library. + + +SPURGEON + + [From the same] + +I was greatly delighted with Spurgeon, especially with his conduct of +public worship. The congregational singing has often been described, and +is as good as can well be conceived. Spurgeon is an excellent reader of +Scripture, and remarkably impressive in reading hymns, and the prayers +were quite what they ought to have been. The sermon was hardly up to his +average in freshness, but was exceedingly well delivered, without +affectation or apparent effort, but with singular earnestness, and +directness. The whole thing--house, congregation, order, worship, +preaching, was as nearly up to my ideal as I ever expect to see in this +life. Of course Spurgeon has his faults and deficiencies, but he is a +wonderful man. Then he preaches the real gospel, and God blesses him. +After the services concluded, I went to a room in the rear to present my +letter, and was cordially received. Somebody must tell Mrs. V---- that I +"thought of her" repeatedly during the sermon, and "gave her love" to +Spurgeon, and he said such a message encouraged him. (I made quite a +little story of it, and the gentlemen in the room were apparently much +interested, not to say amused.) + +We went straight towards St. Paul's, where Liddon has been preaching +every Sunday afternoon in September, and there would be difficulty in +getting a good seat. We lunched at the Cathedral Hotel, hard by, and +then stood three-quarters of an hour at the door of St. Paul's, +waiting for it to open. Meantime a good crowd had collected behind us, +and there was a tremendous rush when the door opened, to get chairs +near the preaching stand. The crowd looked immense in the vast +cathedral, and yet there were not half as many as were quietly seated +in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. There everybody could hear, and here, in the +grand and beautiful show-place, Mr. Liddon was tearing his throat in +the vain attempt to be heard by all. The grand choral service was all +Chinese to me. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] Copyright, 1901, by the American Baptist Publication Society. + + + + +MARY J. HOLMES + + +Mrs. Mary Jane Holmes, a family favorite for fifty years, was born at +Brookfield, Massachusetts, April 5, 1828. She became a teacher at an +early age, and at Allen's Hill, New York, on August 9, 1849, she was +married to Daniel Holmes, a Yale man of the class of 1848, who had +been teaching the year between his graduation and marriage at +Versailles, Kentucky. Immediately after the ceremony he and his bride +started to Kentucky, where Mrs. Holmes joined her husband in teaching. +In 1850 they gave up the school at Versailles, taking charge of the +district school at Glen's Creek, near Versailles. Here they taught for +two years, when Mr. Holmes decided to relinquish teaching for the +practice of law, and they removed to Brockport, New York, their home +henceforth. Mrs. Holmes returned to Kentucky in 1857, for a visit, and +this, with the three years indicated above, included her Kentucky +life. Having settled at Brockport, she began her career as a novelist. +Her first and best known book, _Tempest and Sunshine, or Life in +Kentucky_, was published in 1854. Mr. Middleton, one of the chief +characters in this novel, was a rather close characterization of a +Kentucky planter, Mr. Singleton, who resided some miles from +Versailles; and his daughter, Sue Singleton, subsequently Mrs. Porter, +always claimed, though facetiously, that she was the original of +_Tempest_. It is now known, however, that Mrs. Holmes had not thought +of her in delineating the character, and that the Singleton home is +the only thing in the book that is drawn from actual life with any +detail whatever. In her Kentucky books that followed _Tempest and +Sunshine_, she usually built an accurate background for characters +that lived only in her imagination. Besides _Tempest and Sunshine_, +Mrs. Holmes was the author of thirty-four books, published in the +order given: _The English Orphans_; _Homestead on the Hillside_, a +book of Kentucky stories; _Lena Rivers_, a Kentucky novel, superior to +_Tempest and Sunshine_; _Meadow Brook_; _Dora Deane_; _Cousin Maude_; +_Marian Grey_, a Kentucky story; _Darkness and Daylight_; _Hugh +Worthington_, another Kentucky novel; _The Cameron Pride_; _Rose +Mather_; _Ethelyn's Mistake_; _Millbank_; _Edna Browning_; _West +Lawn_; _Edith Lyle_; _Mildred_; _Daisy Thornton_; _Forrest House_; +_Chateau D'Or_; _Madeline_; _Queenie Hetherton_; _Christmas Stories_; +_Bessie's Fortune_; _Gretchen_; _Marguerite_; _Dr. Hathern's +Daughters_; _Mrs. Hallam's Companion_; _Paul Ralston_; _The Tracy +Diamonds_; _The Cromptons_; _The Merivale Banks_; _Rena's Experiment_; +and _The Abandoned Farm_. About two million copies of Mrs. Holmes's +books have been sold by her authorized publishers; how many have been +sold in pirated editions cannot, of course, be ascertained. Mrs. +Holmes died at Brockport, New York, October 6, 1907. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Allibone's _Dictionary of Authors_ (Philadelphia, + 1897, v. ii); _The Nation_ (October 10, 1907). + + +THE SCHOOLMASTER + + [From _Lena Rivers_ (New York, 1856)] + +And now Mr. Everett was daily expected. Anna, who had no fondness for +books, greatly dreaded his arrival, thinking within herself how many +pranks she'd play off upon him, provided 'Lena would lend a helping +hand, which she much doubted. John Jr., too, who for a time, at least, +was to be placed under Mr. Everett's instruction, felt in no wise +eager for his arrival, fearing, as he told 'Lena that "between the +'old man' and the tutor, he would be kept a little too straight for a +gentleman of his habits;" and it was with no particular emotions of +pleasure that he and Anna saw the stage stop before the gate one +pleasant morning toward the middle of November. Running to one of the +front windows, Carrie, 'Lena, and Anna watched their new teacher, each +after her own fashion commenting upon his appearance. + +"Ugh," exclaimed Anna, "what a green, boyish looking thing! I reckon +nobody's going to be afraid of him." + +"I say he's real handsome," said Carrie, who being thirteen years of +age, had already, in her own mind, practiced many a little coquetry +upon the stranger. + +"I like him," was 'Lena's brief remark. + +Mr. Everett was a pale, intellectual looking man, scarcely twenty +years of age, and appearing still younger so that Anna was not wholly +wrong when she called him boyish. Still there was in his large black +eye a firmness and decision which bespoke the man strong within him, +and which put to flight all of Anna's preconceived notions of +rebellion. With the utmost composure he returned Mrs. Livingstone's +greeting, and the proud lady half bit her lip with vexation as she saw +how little he seemed awed by her presence. + +Malcolm Everett was not one to acknowledge superiority where there was +none, and though ever polite toward Mrs. Livingstone, there was +something in his manner which forbade her treating him as aught save +an equal. He was not to be trampled down, and for once in her life +Mrs. Livingstone had found a person who would neither cringe to her +nor flatter. The children were not presented to him until dinner time, +when, with the air of a young desperado, John Jr. marched into the +dining-room, eyeing his teacher askance, calculating his strength, and +returning his greeting with a simple nod. Mr. Everett scanned him from +head to foot, and then turned to Carrie half smiling at the great +dignity which she assumed. With Lena and Anna he seemed better +pleased, holding their hands and smiling down upon them through rows +of teeth which Anna pronounced the whitest she had ever seen. + +Mr. Livingstone was not at home, and when his mother appeared, Mrs. +Livingstone did not think proper to introduce her. But if by this +omission she thought to keep the old lady silent, she was mistaken, +for the moment Mrs. Nichols was seated, she commenced with, "Your name +is Everett, I b'lieve?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said he, bowing very gracefully toward her. + +"Any kin to the governor what was?" + +"No, ma'am, none whatever," and the white teeth became slightly +visible for a moment, but soon disappeared. + +"You are from Rockford, 'Lena tells me?" + +"Yes, ma'am. Have you friends there?" + +"Yes--or that is, Nancy Scovandyke's sister, Betsy Scovandyke that +used to be, lives there. Maybe you know her. Her name is Bacon--Betsy +Bacon. She's a widder and keeps boarders." + +"Ah," said he, the teeth this time becoming wholly visible, "I've +heard of Mrs. Bacon, but have not the honor of her acquaintance. You +are from the east, I perceive." + +"Law, now! how did you know that?" asked Mrs. Nichols, while Mr. +Everett answered, "I _guessed_ at it," with a peculiar emphasis on the +word guessed, which led 'Lena to think he had used it purposely and +not from habit. + +Mr. Everett possessed in a remarkable degree the faculty of making +those around him both respect and like him, and ere six weeks had +passed, he had won the love of all his pupils. Even John Jr. was +greatly improved, and Carrie seemed suddenly reawakened into a thirst +for knowledge, deeming no task too long, and no amount of study too +hard, if it won the commendation of the teacher. 'Lena, who committed +to memory with great ease, and who consequently did not deserve so +much credit for her always perfect lessons, seldom received a word of +praise, while poor Anna, notoriously lazy when books were concerned, +cried almost every day, because as she said, "Mr. Everett didn't like +her as he did the rest, else why did he look at her so much, watching +her all the while, and keeping her after school to get her lessons +over, when he knew how she hated them." + +Once Mrs. Livingstone ventured to remonstrate, telling him that Anna +was very sensitive, and required altogether different treatment from +Carrie. "She thinks you dislike her," said she, "and while she retains +this impression, she will do nothing as far as learning is concerned; +so if you do not like her, try and make her think you do!" + +There was a peculiar look in Mr. Everett's dark eyes as he answered, +"You may think it strange, Mrs. Livingstone, but of all my pupils I +love Anna the best! I know I find more fault with her, and am, +perhaps, more severe with her than with the rest, but it's because I +would make her what I wish her to be. Pardon me, madam, but Anna does +not possess the same amount of intellect with her cousin or sister, +but by proper culture she will make a fine, intelligent woman." + +Mrs. Livingstone hardly relished being told that one child was inferior +to the other, but she could not well help herself--Mr. Everett would say +what he pleased--and thus the conference ended. From that time Mr. +Everett was exceedingly kind to Anna, wiping away the tears which +invariably came when told that she must stay with him in the schoolroom +after the rest were gone; then, instead of seating himself in rigid +silence at a distance until her task was learned, he would sit by her +side, occasionally smoothing her long curls and speaking encouragingly +to her as she poured over some hard rule of grammar, or puzzled her +brains with some difficult problem in Colburn. Ere long the result of +all this became manifest. Anna grew fonder of her books, more ready to +learn, and--more willing to be kept after school! + +Ah, little did Mrs. Livingstone think what she was doing when she bade +young Malcolm Everett make her warm-hearted, impulsive daughter +_think_ he liked her! + + + + +ROSA V. JEFFREY + + +Mrs. Rosa Vertner Jeffrey, one of the most beautiful of Kentucky +women, whose personal loveliness has caused some critics to forget she +was a gifted poet, was born at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1828, the +daughter of John Y. Griffith, a writer of considerable reputation in +his day. Her mother died when she was but nine months old, and she was +reared by her aunt. When Rosa was ten years of age her adopted parents +removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where she was educated at the +Episcopal Seminary. In 1845 Miss Vertner--she had taken the name of +her foster parents--was married to Claude M. Johnson, a wealthy +citizen of Lexington, and she at once took her place as a great social +and literary leader. One of her sons, Mr. Claude M. Johnson, was mayor +of Lexington for several years, and he was afterwards in the service +of the United States government. In 1861 Mrs. Johnson's husband died, +and she removed to Rochester, New York, where she resided for two +years, when she was married to Alexander Jeffrey, of Edinburgh, +Scotland, and they returned to Lexington, her home for the remainder +of her life. Mrs. Jeffrey died at Lexington, Kentucky, October 6, +1894, and no woman has yet arisen in Kentucky to take her position as +society's favorite beauty and poet. She began her literary career as a +contributor of verse to Prentice's _Louisville Journal_. Her pen-name +was "Rosa," and under this name her first volume of poems was +published, entitled _Poems, by Rosa_ (Boston, 1857). This was followed +by _Florence Vale_; _Woodburn_, a novel; _Daisy Dare and Baby Power_ +(Philadelphia, 1871), a book of poems; _The Crimson Hand and Other +Poems_ (Philadelphia, 1881), her best known work; and _Marah_ +(Philadelphia, 1884), a novel. Mrs. Jeffrey was also the author of a +five-act comedy, called _Love and Literature_. As a novelist or +playwright she did nothing especially strong, but as a writer of +pleasing poems her place in the literature of Kentucky seems secure. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _History of Kentucky_, by R. H. Collins (Covington, + Kentucky, 1882); _The Register_ (Frankfort, January, 1911). + + +A GLOVE + + [From _The Crimson Hand and Other Poems_ (Philadelphia, 1881)] + + In a box of airy trifles--fans, flowers, and ribbons gay-- + I chanced to find a tasselled glove, worn once on the first of + May. + How long ago? Ah me, ah me! twelve years, twelve years today! + Alas! for that beautiful, fragrant time, so far in the past away, + And crowned with sweeter memories than any other May, + Standing alone, in a checkered life--it was my wedding day! + + The passing hours were shod with light, and their glowing sandals + made + Such sunny tracks that they guide me yet through a retrospect of + shade. + Through changes and shadows of twelve long years, down that + love-lit path I stray; + The winters come and the winters go, yet it leads to an endless + May. + No leaves of the autumn have fallen there, and never a flake of + snow + Has chilled the path of those May-day hours that gleam through the + long ago! + + The flowering cherry's wild perfume came stealing, bitter sweet, + From fragrant breezes drifting heaps of blossoms to my feet; + The flowers are dust, but the bees that bore their subtle sweets + away + Dropped golden honey on the path of that beautiful first of May. + And the sweetness clings, for I gather it in wandering back today. + + Twelve years! twelve years!--a long, long life for a little + tasselled glove! + Yet, I treasure it still for his dear sake who clasped with so + much love + The hand that wore, on that festal night, this delicate, dainty + thing-- + His forever! bound to him by the link of a wedding ring! + The glove is soiled and faded now, but the ring is as bright today + As the love that flooded my life with light on that beautiful + first of May. + + +A MEMORY + + [From the same] + + A memory filled my heart last night + With all its youthful glow; + Under the ashes, out of my sight, + I buried it long ago; + I buried it deep, I bade it rest, + And whispered a long "good-by;" + But lo! it has risen--too sweet, too blest + Too cherished a thing to die. + + In the dim, dim past, where the shadows fall, + I left it, but, crowned with light, + A spirit of joy in the banquet-hall, + It haunted my soul last night. + One earnest, tender, passionate glance-- + I cherished it--that was all, + As we drifted on through the mazy dance + To a musical rise and fall. + + It rose with a weird and witching swell, + 'Mid the twinkling of merry feet, + And clasped me close in a wild, strange spell + Of memories bitter-sweet; + Bitter--because they left a sting + And vanished: a lifelong pain; + Sweet--because nothing can ever bring + Such joy to my heart again. + + To me it was nothing, only a waltz; + To the other it meant no wrong; + Men may be cruel--who are not false-- + And women remember too long. + + + + +SALLIE R. FORD + + +Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford, the mother of good _Grace Truman_, was +born at Rochester Springs, near Danville, Kentucky, in 1828. Miss +Rochester was graduated from the female seminary at Georgetown, +Kentucky, in 1849, and six years later she was married to Rev. Samuel +H. Ford (1823-1905), a Baptist preacher and editor of Louisville and +St. Louis. She was her husband's associate in his literary +enterprises, rendering him excellent service at all times. Her last +years were spent at St. Louis, in which city she died in February, +1910, having rounded out more than four score years. Mrs. Ford's +religious novel, _Grace Truman, or Love and Principle_ (New York, +1857) attracted wide attention in its day, and it was reprinted many +times. It was read by thousands of young girls; and ministers +descanted upon it in their sermons. While the work sets forth that the +Baptist road is the only right of way to heaven, and is sentimental to +the core, it is fairly well-written, and it undoubtedly did much good. +A copy of it may be found in almost any collection of Kentucky books. +_Grace Truman_ was followed by _Mary Bunyan_ (New York, 1859); _Morgan +and His Men_ (Mobile, Ala., 1864); _Ernest Quest_ (New York, 1877); +_Evangel Wiseman_ (1907); and Mrs. Ford's final work, published at St. +Louis, _The Life of Rochester Ford, the Successful Christian Lawyer_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _How I Came to Write "Grace Truman: An Appendix_ to + the 1886 edition; Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_ + (Boston, 1905). + + +OUR MINISTER MARRIES + + [From _Grace Truman_ (St. Louis, 1886)] + +May roses fling abroad their rich fragrance on the evening air! May +dews glide noiselessly to the newly awakened earth, and lose +themselves in her fresh, green bosom. A soft May moon steals above the +eastern horizon, and gilds with radiant luster the brow of night. +Gentle May zephyrs from their airy home glide over the earth, kissing +the lips of the rose, and the tender cheek of the hedge-row violet. +Young and tender May leaves whisper to each other tales of love, away, +away, in the dark old forests. + +And other lips than those of the dancing leaves have whispered tales +of love; and mortal ears have heard its sweet low murmurings; and +mortal hearts have felt its thrilling inspiration, until the soul, +fired beneath its ecstatic power, has tasted of bliss which mortal +tongue can never say. + +In the hospitable mansion of Mr. Gray, all is excitement and +expectancy. She to whom their hearts were so closely wedded, the +living, joyous Annie, is tonight to take upon her the marriage vow. +She is to wed the man of her heart's free choice, the object of her +pure unsullied love. She is to stand in the presence of God and many +witnesses, and promise to love and cherish, yea as long as life shall +last, him upon whom she has bestowed her girlhood's fresh full +confidence and affection. + +The house is brilliantly lighted throughout, and everything bears the +testimony of free Kentucky hospitality. 'Tis but the twilight +hour--early, yet the guests are fast assembling. + + * * * * * + +It was a simple yet beautiful and impressive scene--that little group +as it stood, while the aged man of God, in a solemn and touching +manner, united in indissoluble ties the two warm loving hearts before +him. The vailed form of the bride, leaning on the arm of him who was +henceforth to be her earthly stay; the calm dignified form, and +earnest, we might say, almost holy expression of him who was receiving +the precious trust--the bent form, and hoary locks, and tremulous +voice of the minister--all conspired to make the scene one of solemn +beauty and intense interest. + +Congratulations followed, and many were the kisses that pressed the +blushing cheek of the happy bride, who, with her vail thrown back from +her brow and the color playing over her bright face "like moonlight +over streams," looked the very embodiment of grace and loveliness. + +Fannie calmly waited till the excitement was measurably over; and then +approaching her new cousin, leaning on the arm of Mr. Ray, gave them +each a fervent kiss and her warmest wishes for their future happiness. + + * * * * * + +The time passed most delightfully to all present. Mr. and Mrs. Gray +moved about among the guests dispensing pleasure and enjoyment +wherever they went. But the bride and bridegroom were the chief +attraction; she, with her naturally exuberant spirits, heightened by +the excitement of the occasion, and yet tempered by her husband's +dignified cheerfulness; and he, with his fine conversational powers +and affable manner, drew around them an admiring crowd wherever they +were. The young ladies and gentlemen promenaded and chatted gayly, +while the more elderly ones grouped themselves together in different +parts of the room for the purpose of social conversation. + + * * * * * + +Supper was served in liberal, handsome style; and Mr. and Mrs. Gray, +assisted by Mr. and Mrs. Truman, attended to the wants of their guests +in the most obliging and attentive manner. And when the hour arrived +for the company to disperse to their respective homes, each one went +away happy in the thoughts of having passed a most agreeable hour. + +Mr. and Mrs. Gray accompanied their daughter to Weston the day after +the wedding, when they met with a most welcome reception from Mr. and +Mrs. Holmes, who had provided an evening entertainment for the bridal +party, and had called together many of their friends. + +They remained several days, during which time they saw their daughter +nicely and comfortably ensconced in a neat little brick cottage, +situated in a very pleasant part of the village, and which was +henceforth called "The Parsonage." + +Annie, or, we should rather say, Mrs. Lewis, united with the little +church of which her husband was now the almost idolized pastor, on the +Saturday after her marriage. It had been so arranged by Mr. Lewis that +they should be married on Tuesday previous to their church meeting, +that she might thus soon cast her lot among his people. She was +welcomed with warm hearts and affectionate greeting; and when, on the +following morning, her husband led her down into the stream, where but +a few months before he had followed Christ in baptism, they received +her from the liquid grave, a member of the household of faith, a +laborer with them in the vineyard of the Lord. + + + + +JOHN E. HATCHER + + +Col. John E. Hatcher ("G. Washington Bricks"), a newspaper humorist +who won wide fame in his day and generation, but who is now quite +sealed over and forgotten, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in +1828. When a boy his parents emigrated to Tennessee. At the age of +twenty years Hatcher became editor of _The American Democrat_ at +Florence, Alabama; and in 1852 he purchased _The Mirror_, a paper +which General Zollicoffer had established at Columbia, Tennessee. Some +time later Hatcher disposed of that property, and accepted a position +on the _Nashville Patriot_. He was fast gaining a reputation for his +humorous sketches, paragraphs, and rhymes, which were floating through +many Southern newspapers under his pen-name of "G. Washington Bricks." +Hatcher relinquished the pen for the sword when the Civil War began, +becoming an officer on the staff of General Cheatham. After the war, +or in 1867, Colonel Hatcher settled at Louisville, Kentucky, joining +the staff of Prentice's then fast-expiring _Journal_. When, in the +following year, the _Journal_ was united with the _Courier_, he became +editor of the _Daily Democrat_; and when that paper was consolidated +with the other two to make _The Courier-Journal_, he became one of the +editors of the new paper, and continued to write for it so long as he +lived. For a short time he did some special work for a Louisville +publication known as _The Evening Express_, conducted by Mr. Overton. +A few years before his death Colonel Hatcher returned to his old home +at Columbia, Tennessee, and founded _The Mail_; but he became "outside +editor" of _The Courier-Journal_, laying down his pen for that paper +only with his death, which occurred at Columbia, Tennessee, March 26, +1879. Consumption caused his demise and robbed Southern journalism of +one of its finest minds. Colonel Hatcher married Miss Lizzie +McKnight, daughter of a prosperous merchant at Iuka, Mississippi, and +the early death of their only child, a daughter, coupled with +consumption, hastened his own death. As an editorial paragraphist +Colonel Hatcher has never had a peer in Kentucky or the South. +Prentice, the father of the paragraph, was a wit; Hatcher was a +humorist; and his writings were often credited to Prentice by those +who were not acquainted with the inner workings of the office. Henry +Watterson has written this fine tribute to Colonel Hatcher's memory: + +He was one of the silent singers of the press, but he lacked nothing +of eminence except good fortune; for he was a humorist of the very +first water, and had he lived under different conditions could not +have failed of the celebrity to which his talents entitled him. Born +not merely poor, but far inland, with no early advantages, and later +in life with none except those furnished by a rural newspaper; ill +health overtook him before he had divined his own powers.... His wit +was not so aggressive as that of Mr. Prentice. But he had more humor. +He died in the prime of life and left behind him a professional +tradition, which is cherished by the little circle of friends to whom +a charming personality and many brilliant gifts made him very dear. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (March 27, 1879); _Oddities of + Southern Life_, by Henry Watterson (Boston, 1882). + + +NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPHS + + [From _The Courier-Journal_] + +Garters with monogram clasps are now worn by the pretty girls. They +are rather a novelty yet, but we hope to see more of them. + +"The New York _Telegraph_ advises people to marry for love and not for +money." Good advice, certainly; but inasmuch as you will always be in +want of money if you marry for love, and always in want of love if you +marry for money, your safest way is to marry for a little of both. + +Some of our contemporaries will persist in speaking of us as a +"rebel." That we fought for the stars and bars with a heroism of which +Marathon, Leuctra, and Thermopylae never even dreamed, the bones of +half-a-dozen substitutes which lie bleeding upon as many "stormy +heights and carnage covered fields" bear testimony abundant and +indisputable, and that we suffer ourselves still to be called a +"rebel" without unsheathing the avenging dagger and wading up to our +knees in gore, is simply because there is already as much blood upon +the hands of our substitutes as we can furnish soap to wash off +without becoming a bankrupt. Nevertheless, if this thing is much +longer persisted in, there may come a time when virtue will cease to +be a forebearance. One more taste of blood, this sanguinary arm once +more uplifted to smite, and the world will shudder. + +General Grant says he won't call an extra session of Congress unless +the war in Europe is likely to give us trouble. So he is determined +that if the gods bring us one calamity, he will immediately step +forward with another. + +For list of candidates see first page.--_Banner_. For the candidates +themselves--but you needn't trouble yourself to see them; they'll see +you. + +The French General Failly, who was killed by a Prussian shell, and was +afterward murdered by his own soldiers, and subsequently blew out his +own brains, is now a prisoner at Mayence--whether dead or alive, the +telegraph does not inform us. + +The Glasgow _Times_ tells of a man in Georgia, fifty years of age, who +never in his life drank a glass of whiskey, smoked a pipe, or courted +a woman. The poor wretch has lived utterly in vain. The man who has +never sat by a beautiful woman, with a pipe in his mouth, a glass of +whiskey in one hand, and the whalebones of her palpitating stays in +the other, and "with a lip unused to the cool breath of reason, told +his love," has no more idea of Paradise than a deaf and dumb +orang-outang has of metaphysics. Even without the pipe and whiskey +there is, strictly speaking, nothing disagreeable about it. + +The United States navy has but one Admiral Poor. We wish we could say +it has but one poor admiral. + + + + +WILLIAM C. WATTS + + +William Courtney Watts, author of a single historical novel which is +regarded by many as the finest work of its kind yet done by a Kentucky +hand, was born at Salem, Kentucky, February 7, 1830. His family has no +record of his school days, but he was married to Miss Nannie Ferguson +when a young man, and six children were born to them. Watts's early +years were spent at Salem and Smithland, Kentucky, but he later went +to New Orleans as a clerk in the firm of Givens, Watts and Company, +cotton brokers. He shortly afterwards joined the New York branch of +this New Orleans house, known as Watts, Crowe and Company, as a +partner in the business; and from New York Watts went to Liverpool, +England, to represent the firm of W. C. Watts and Company, which was +the foreign title for the New Orleans and New York houses. For some +years the business was very prosperous, and Watts, of course, shared +largely in the firm's success. After the usual congratulatory messages +between England and the United States had been exchanged, Watts is +said to have sent the first cablegram across the Atlantic. After many +years of prosperity, failure overtook the house of Watts, and he +returned to New York, setting up in business with a Mr. Slaughter. +Some time subsequently he came back to Kentucky, making his home in +Smithland, but rheumatism ruined his health, causing lameness, and +making him an invalid for the remainder of his life. In Smithland, +during days of illness, Watts wrote his splendid story, _The +Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement_ (New York, 1897). This novel of +early Kentucky life is one of the most charming and delightful tales +ever told by an American author, although founded upon fact and, in a +sense, twice-told. _The Chronicles_ is the only book Watts wrote, and +he has come down to posterity with this single story in his feeble +hand. The preface, signed on the sixty-seventh anniversary of his +birth, was done but ten months before his death, which occurred at +Smithland, Kentucky December 27, 1897. He is buried in the cemetery of +the little Kentucky town over which he cast the glamour of romance, +almost unknown to its citizen of this day, and still unappreciated and +unheralded by Kentuckians. His _Chronicles_ is known only to the +student and collector, as it was never properly put before the public, +though published by a powerful New York firm. His family knows little +of his life and is quite careless of his fame. In years to come the +_Chronicles_ may take high rank among the finest series of historical +pictures ever penned of a single Southern settlement, and then William +Courtney Watts will come into his very own. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (December 28, 1897); letter + from Watts's daughter to the author. + + +A WEDDING AND A DANCE[15] + + [From _Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement_ (New York, 1897)] + +A few weeks after the race there was a grand wedding, and, this time, +Squire Howard united in holy matrimony Jefferson Brantley and Emily +Wilmot, the ceremony taking place at the residence of the bride's +father. Joseph Adair and Horace Benton were the groomsmen, and Laura +Howard and Ada Howard the bridesmaids. A young lady from Princeton was +to have been one of the bridesmaids, but illness prevented her +attendance, and Ada Howard took her place. The residence of Mr. Wilmot +was too small to admit of dancing, but the company present had a merry +time--the fun and frolic being kept up until a late hour. It was then +the custom to "give" (hold) the infare at the residence of the groom's +parents or some other near relative, but, as Mr. Brantley had no +relatives in the county, his infare was held at the Brick Hotel in +Salem, and great were the preparations made on the occasion--never had +such an elegant and sumptuous table been spread in those "parts"; there +were meats of many sorts, including barbacued pigs, and cakes, +pastries, fruits, nuts, and wines and liquors in abundance. Silas Holman +and Billy Wilmot were never in better trim, and their fiddles seemed the +fountain of such ecstatic sounds as to set the nerves of old as well as +young tingling with a pleasurable excitement which could only find its +true expression in the quick and graceful movements of the dance. And +dancing there was, and such dancing! There was Bird McCoy, who could +"cut the double shuffle,"--spring into the air, strike his feet together +thrice before lighting, and not lose step to the music. And among the +young ladies--many of them country girls whose lives in the open air +made them as active as squirrels and as graceful as fawns--were many +good dancers, but it was conceded that among them all the slight, +sylph-like Ada Howard was the best--"the pick of the flock." And the +mirth and fun grew "fast and furious," and the "dancers quick and +quicker flew." Nor did the fun and frolic cease until faint streaks of +light in the East heralded the coming morn. They almost literally + + "Danced all night 'til broad daylight, + And went home with the girls in the morning." + +And yet, be it said that, while there was a good deal of drinking that +night, there was no drunkenness, rowdyism, unseemly behavior, or +ungentlemanly conversation; for woe to the young man who at such a +time and place, when ladies were present, had violated the recognized +rules of decorum! + +It is certain, however, that several young persons came very near that +night being "fiddled out of the church." There was one gay, +good-humored, hearty country girl who, when "churched" for dancing +that night, admitted that she was "on the floor with the so-called +dancers"; that she had a "partner," and took part in the movements; +but, she contended, that inasmuch as she had not _crossed her feet_, +she had violated no rule of the church. "What," she asked, "if I walk +forward and backward and turn and bow _without_ music, is that +dancing? And if I do the same when there _is_ music, does that make it +dancing?" And the good old brethren, who were sitting in judgment, +after mature deliberation, came to the conclusion that they were not +"cl'ar on the p'int 'bout crossin' the feet." "And," said one, "if we +err, let it be on the side o' marcy." "Yes," replied another, "but let +the young sister understand that she must n't do it ag'in." And so the +matter was settled. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[15] Copyright, 1897, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. + + + + +J. PROCTOR KNOTT + + +James Proctor Knott, he who made Duluth famous, was born at Lebanon, +Kentucky, August 29, 1830. In 1851 he became a Missouri lawyer, and +later a member of the Missouri legislature. For a time he was +attorney-general of the state but, refusing to take certain test oaths +prescribed for officials, his office was declared vacant and he +returned to Lebanon, his birthplace. In 1866 Knott was sent to the +lower house of Congress, and he was re-elected two years later. On +January 27, 1871, he delivered his celebrated Duluth speech upon the +St. Croix and Superior land grant, which effort brought him a national +reputation as an orator and humorist, but which injured him as a +constructive statesman--if he ever was or could be such a statesman! +Knott was in Congress again from 1875 until 1883, when he was elected +governor of Kentucky. Governor Knott was not an overly forceful +executive, but the people enjoyed his witty stories and speeches, and +thus his term wore on and out. It was an era of good feeling, +Kentuckians smiling and taking their governor good naturedly at all +times. His brief eulogy to remember James Francis Leonard, the +Kentucky telegrapher, was the finest literary thing he did while +governor of Kentucky. The governor was dean of the law faculty of +Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, from 1894 to 1901, when, old age +coming on, he returned to his home at Lebanon, where the final years +of his life were passed, and where he died on June 18, 1911. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY: _Oddities in Southern Life and Character_, by Henry + Watterson (Boston, 1883); _The Life of James Francis Leonard_, by + J. W. Townsend (Louisville, 1909). + + +FROM THE DULUTH SPEECH + + [From _Oddities in Southern Life and Character_, edited by Henry + Watterson (Boston, 1883)] + +Hence, as I have said, sir, I was utterly at a loss to determine where +the terminus of this great and indispensable road should be, until I +accidentally overheard some gentleman the other day mention the name of +"Duluth." [Great laughter.] Duluth! The word fell upon my ear with +peculiar and indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of a low +fountain stealing forth in the midst of roses, or the soft, sweet +accents of an angel's whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping +innocence. Duluth! 'Twas the name for which my soul had panted for +years, as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. [Renewed laughter.] But +where was Duluth? Never, in all my limited reading, had my vision been +gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. [Laughter.] And I felt +a profounder humiliation in my ignorance that its dulcet syllables had +never before ravished my delighted ear. [Roars of laughter.] I was +certain the draughtsman of this bill had never heard of it, or it would +have been designated as one of the termini of this road. I asked my +friends about it, but they knew nothing of it. I rushed to the library +and examined all the maps I could find. [Laughter.] I discovered in one +of them a delicate, hair-like line, diverging from the Mississippi near +a place marked Prescott, which I supposed was intended to represent the +river St. Croix, but I could nowhere find Duluth. + +Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that its +discovery would constitute the crowning glory of the present century, +if not of all modern times. [Laughter.] I knew it was bound to exist +in the very nature of things; that the symmetry and perfection of our +planetary system would be incomplete without it [renewed laughter]; +that the elements of material nature would long since have resolved +themselves back into original chaos if there had been such a hiatus in +creation as would have resulted from leaving out Duluth. [Roars of +laughter.] In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that +Duluth not only existed somewhere, but that wherever it was it was a +great and glorious place. I was convinced that the greatest calamity +that ever befell the benighted nations of the ancient world was in +their having passed away without a knowledge of the actual existence +of Duluth; that their fabled Atlantis, never seen save by the hallowed +vision of inspired poesy, was, in fact, but another name for Duluth; +that the golden orchard of the Hesperides was but a poetical synonym +for the beer gardens in the vicinity of Duluth. [Great laughter.] I +was certain that Herodotus had died a miserable death because in all +his travels and with all his geographical research he had never heard +of Duluth. [Laughter.] I knew that if the immortal spirit of Homer +could look down from another heaven than that created by his own +celestial genius upon the long lines of pilgrims from every nation of +the earth to the gushing fountain of poesy opened by the touch of his +magic wand; if he could be permitted to behold the vast assemblage of +grand and glorious productions of the lyric art called into being by +his own inspired strains, he would weep tears of bitter anguish that, +instead of lavishing all the stores of his mighty genius upon the fall +of Ilion, it had not been his more blessed lot to crystalize in +deathless song the rising glories of Duluth. [Great and continued +laughter.] Yet, sir, had it not been for this map, kindly furnished me +by the legislature of Minnesota, I might have gone down to my obscure +and humble grave in an agony of despair, because I could nowhere find +Duluth. [Renewed laughter.] Had such been my melancholy fate, I have +no doubt that, with the last feeble pulsation of my breaking heart, +with the last faint exhalation of my fleeting breath, I should have +whispered, "Where is Duluth?" [Roars of laughter.] + + + + + +GEORGE G. VEST + + +George Graham Vest, exquisite eulogist of man's good friend, the dog, +was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, December 6, 1830. At the age of +eighteen years Vest was graduated from Centre College, Danville, +Kentucky; and five years later Transylvania University granted him his +degree in law. The year of his graduation from Transylvania, 1853, Vest +went to Missouri, settling at Georgetown. He rapidly attained a +State-wide reputation as a lawyer and orator. In 1860 he was a +presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, and a member of the +Missouri House of Representatives. Vest's sympathy lay with the South +and he resigned his seat in the legislature in order to become a member +of the Confederate Congress. He served two years in the Confederate +House and one year in the Senate. After the war he resumed the practice +of his profession at Sedalia, but he later removed to Kansas City. In +1878 Vest was elected United States Senator from Missouri and this +position he held until 1903. In the Senate his powers as an orator and +debater were generally recognized, and he became a national figure. Of +the many speeches that Senator Vest made, his tribute to the dog, made +in a jury trial, is the one thing that will keep his memory green for +many years. It appears that Senator Vest was called into a case in which +one party was endeavoring to recover damages for the death of a favorite +dog, and when it came time for him to speak he arose and delivered his +tribute to the dog, and then resumed his seat without having mentioned +the case before the jury in any way whatsoever. The jury understood +however, and the Senator won his case. Senator Vest died at Sweet +Springs, Missouri, August 9, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. vi); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + 1910, v. xii). + + +JEFFERSON'S PASSPORTS TO IMMORTALITY[16] + + [From _The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_ (Washington, 1905, v. + xii)] + +Upon the canvas of the past, Washington and Jefferson stand forth the +central figures in our struggle for independence. The character of the +former was so rounded and justly proportioned, that, so long as our +country lives, or a single community of Americans can be found, +Washington will be "First in war, first in peace, and first in the +hearts of his countrymen." + +To Washington we are more indebted than to any one man for national +existence; but what availed the heroism of Bunker Hill, the sufferings +of Valley Forge, or the triumph of Yorktown, if the government they +established had been but an imitation of the monarchy from which we +had separated? + +To Jefferson we owe eternal gratitude for his sublime confidence in +popular government, and his unfaltering courage in defending at all +times and in all places, the great truth, that "All governments derive +their just powers from the consent of the governed." + +The love of liberty is found not in palaces, but with the poor and +oppressed. It flutters in the heart of the caged bird, and sighs with +the worn and wasted prisoner in his dungeon. It has gone with martyrs +to the stake, and kissed their burning lips as the tortured spirit +winged its flight to God! + +In the temple of this deity Jefferson was high priest! + +For myself, I worship no mortal man living or dead; but if I could +kneel at such a shrine, it would be with uncovered head and loving +heart at the grave of Thomas Jefferson. + + +EULOGY OF THE DOG + + [From _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1910, v. xii)] + +Gentlemen of the Jury: + +The best human friend a man has in the world may turn against him and +become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving +care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, +those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become +traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies +away from him, perhaps, when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be +sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are +prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may +be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud +upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have +in this selfish world, the one that never deceives him, the one that +never proves ungrateful and treacherous is his dog. + +A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and +in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry wind +blows and the snow drifts fiercely, if only he may be near his +master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He +will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the +roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if +he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains. When +riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in +his love as the sun in its journeys through the heavens. If fortune +drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and +homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of +accompanying, to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, +and when, the last scene of all comes and when death takes the master +in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter +if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside may the +noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open +in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Copyright, 1905, by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association. + + + + +WILLIAM P. JOHNSTON + + +William Preston Johnston, biographer and poet, was born at Louisville, +Kentucky, January 5, 1831, the son of the famous Confederate general, +Albert Sidney Johnston. He was graduated from Yale in 1852. During the +Civil War young Johnston was on the staff of Jefferson Davis. After +the war he was professor of history and literature in Washington and +Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, for ten years. In 1880 he +accepted the presidency of Louisiana State University, at Baton Rouge. +Paul Tulane's magnificent gift in 1883 made Tulane University +possible, and Johnston became its first president. This position he +held until his death, which occurred at New Orleans, July 16, 1899. +President Johnston's _Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston_ (New +York, 1878), is one of the most admirable biographies ever written by +a Kentuckian. His graphic description of the battle of Shiloh, in +which his famous father met death and the South defeat, is now +accepted, even in the North, as the best account of that desperate +conflict. Had General Johnston lived a day longer no one can even +guess what it would have meant to the South and to the North. +President Johnston was also the author of _The Prototype of Hamlet_ +(1890), in which his power as a Shakesperian scholar is well proved; +and he published _The Johnstons of Salisbury_. He was a maker of +charming verse, which may be read in his three collections, _My Garden +Walk_ (1894), _Pictures of the Patriarchs_ (1896), and _Seekers After +God_ (Louisville, 1898), a book of sonnets. As a man, Johnston was a +true type of the courtly Southern soldier and scholar. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Appletons' _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1888, v. iii); _William Preston Johnston's Work for a New + South_, by A. D. Mayo (Washington, 1900); _Library of Southern + Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, v. vii). + + +BATTLE OF SHILOH--SUNDAY MORNING + + [From _The Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston_ (New York, 1879)] + +Saturday afternoon, April 5th, the sun, breaking through the mists +which drifted away, set in a cloudless sky. The night was clear, calm, +and beautiful. General Johnston, tired out with the vigils of the +night before, slept quietly in an ambulance-wagon, his staff +bivouacking by the camp-fires around him. Some of Hardee's troops +having wasted their rations, he and Bragg spent a large part of the +night getting up provisions for them. Before the faintest glimmer of +dawn, the wide forest was alive with preparations for the mighty +contest of the coming day. No bugle-note sounded, and no drum beat the +reveille; but men took their hasty morning meal, and looked with sharp +attention to the arms that were to decide the fortunes of the fight. +The cool, gray dawn found them in motion. Morning opened with all the +delicate fragrance and beauty of the season, enhanced by the contrast +of the day before. The sky was serene, the air was bracing, the dew +lay heavy on the tender green of leaf and herb, and the freshness of +early spring was on all around. When the sun rose it was with +unclouded brilliancy; and, as it shed its glories over the coverts of +the oak-woods, the advancing host, stirred by the splendor of the +scene and the enthusiasm of the hour, passed the omen from lip to lip, +and welcomed its rising as another "sun of Austerlitz." + +The native buoyance of General Johnston's self-repressed temper broke +its barriers at the prospect of that struggle which should settle for +all time by the arbitrament of arms the dispute as to his own military +ability and skill and the fate of the Confederate cause in the West. +He knew the hazard; but he knew, too, that he had done all that +foresight, fortitude, energy, and strategy, could accomplish to secure +a victory, and he welcomed with exultant joy the day that was about to +decide not only these great questions, but for him all questions, +solving the mysteries of life and death. Men who came within his +influence on the battle-field felt and confessed the inspiration of +his presence, his manner, and his words. As he gave his orders in +terse sentences, every word seemed to ring with a presage of victory. + +Turning to his staff, as he mounted, he exclaimed, "Tonight we will +water our horses in the Tennessee River." It was thus that he formulated +his plan of battle. It must not stop short of entire victory. + +As he rode forward he encountered Colonel Randal L. Gibson, who was +the intimate friend of his son. When Gibson ordered his brigade to +salute, General Johnston took him warmly by the hand and said: +"Randal, I never see you but I think of William. I hope you may get +through safely to-day, but we must win a victory." Gibson says he felt +greatly stirred by his words. + +Sharp skirmishing had begun before he reached the front. Here he met +Colonel John S. Marmaduke, commanding the Third Arkansas Regiment. +This officer, in reply to General Johnston's questions, explained, +with some pride, that he held the _centre_ of the front line, the +other regiments forming on him. Marmaduke had been with General +Johnston in Utah, at Bowling Green, and in the retreat to Corinth, and +regarded him with the entire affection and veneration of a young +soldier for his master in the art of war. General Johnston put his +hand on Marmaduke's shoulder, and said to him with an earnestness that +went to his heart, "_My son_, we must this day conquer or perish!" +Marmaduke felt himself moved to a tenfold resolution. + +General Johnston said to the ambitious Hindman, who had been in the +vanguard from the beginning: "You have _earned_ your spurs as +major-general. Let this day's work win them." + +"Men of Arkansas!" he exclaimed to a regiment from that State, "they +say you boast of your prowess with the bowie-knife. To-day you wield a +nobler weapon--the bayonet. Employ it well." It was with such words, +as he rode from point to point, that he raised a spirit in that host +which swept away the serried lines of the conquerors of Donelson. + + + + +WILL WALLACE HARNEY + + +Will Wallace Harney, poet, was born at Bloomington, Indiana, June 20, +1832, the son of John H. Harney, professor of mathematics in the +University of Indiana, and author of the first _Algebra_ edited by an +American. When the future poet was seven years of age his father removed +to Louisville, Kentucky, to accept the presidency of Louisville College. +In 1844 President Harney became editor of the Louisville _Daily +Democrat_, which he conducted for nearly twenty-five years. Will Wallace +Harney was educated by the old grammarian, Noble Butler, and at +Louisville College. He became a teacher in the public schools of the +city, in which he taught for five years; and he was the first principal +of the high school there, holding the position for two years. +Know-Nothingism then swept the city and elected a new board of trustees, +which requested Harney's resignation. He was appointed to a +professorship in the State Normal School at Lexington, which he held for +two years. He then returned to Louisville to practice law, but he was +shortly afterwards asked to become assistant editor of the _Daily +Democrat_; and after his father's death, in 1867, he became editor of +that paper. Harney's masterpiece, _The Stab_, that John J. Piatt called +"a tragic little night-piece which Heine could not have surpassed in its +simple, graphic narration and vivid suggestiveness," was written in +Kentucky before 1860. In 1869 Harney removed to Florida, where he +planted an orange grove and wrote for the high-class magazines and +newspapers of the East and South. From 1883 to 1885 he was editor of +_The Bitter Sweet_, a newspaper of Kissimmee. Harney spent the final +years of his life with his only son, William R. Harney, a business man +of Jacksonville, to whom he inscribed his one book, _The Spirit of the +South_ (Boston, 1909). This volume brought together his poems and short +stories which he cared to preserve from newspapers and periodicals. The +poet died at Jacksonville, Florida, March 28, 1912. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Blades o' Blue Grass_, by Fannie P. Dickey + (Louisville, 1892); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by + J. S. Johnston (Chicago, 1896). + + +THE STAB[17] + + [From _The Spirit of the South_ (Boston, 1909)] + + On the road, the lonely road, + Under the cold white moon, + Under the ragged trees, he strode; + He whistled, and shifted his heavy load; + Whistled a foolish tune. + + There was a step timed with his own; + A figure that stooped and bowed; + A cold white blade that flashed and shone, + Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown-- + And the moon went behind a cloud. + + But the moon came out, so broad and good, + The barn cock woke and crowed; + Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood, + And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood, + That a dead man lay on the road. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[17] Copyright, 1909, by the Author. + + + + +J. STODDARD JOHNSTON + + +Josiah Stoddard Johnston, journalist and historian, was born at New +Orleans, February 10, 1833. He is the nephew of the celebrated +Confederate cavalry leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston. Left an +orphan when but five years old, he was reared by relatives in Kentucky. +He was graduated from Yale in 1853; and the following year he was +married to Miss Elizabeth W. Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson, +Confederate governor of Kentucky. Johnston was a cotton planter in +Arkansas from 1855 to 1859, and a Kentucky farmer until the Civil War +began. He served throughout the war upon the staffs of Generals Bragg, +Buckner, and Breckinridge. Colonel Johnston was editor of the old +Frankfort _Yeoman_ for more than twenty years; and from 1903 to 1908 he +was associate editor of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_. In 1871 +Colonel Johnston was Adjutant-General of Kentucky; and Secretary of +State from 1875 to 1879. He has been vice-president of the Filson Club +of Louisville since 1893; and he is now consulting geologist of the +Kentucky Geological Survey. Colonel Johnston's knowledge of plants and +mammals is very extensive and most surprising in a man of literary +tastes. His tube-roses and flower gardens is one of the traditions of +the old town of Frankfort. Colonel Johnston has published _The Memorial +History of Louisville, Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1896, two vols.); _The First +Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); and _The Confederate +History of Kentucky_. Colonel Johnston is one of the finest men in +Kentucky to-day, dignified, cultured, and deeply learned in the history +of Kentucky and the West. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Memorial History of Louisville_ (Chicago, 1896); + _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1909, v. vi). + + +"CAPTAIN MOLL"[18] + + [From _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1898)] + +The Revolutionary War was drawing to a close, involving Virginia in +its last throes in the devastation of an invading army. The whole +eastern portion was overrun by the British forces under Arnold and +Tarleton, the capital taken, and much public and private property +destroyed everywhere. Charlottesville, to which the legislature had +adjourned, Monticello, and Castle Hill were raided by Tarleton's +dragoons, and the legislature, Mr. Jefferson, and Doctor Walker barely +escaped capture. An interesting incident of the raid is recorded well +illustrating the spirit which actuated the American women of that +period. Not far distant from Charlottesville, on an estate known as +"The Farm," resided Nicholas Lewis, the uncle and guardian of +Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. +His wife was Mary Walker, the eldest daughter of Doctor Walker. Her +husband was absent in the army when Tarleton with his raiders swooped +down on her home and proceeded to appropriate forage and every thing +eatable and portable. She received the British cavalryman with spirit +and dignity, and upbraided him sharply for his war on defenseless +women, telling him to go to the armies of Virginia and meet her men. +Tarleton parried her thrusts with politeness as well as he could, and +after his men were rested, resumed his march. + +After his departure Mrs. Lewis discovered that his men had carried off +all her ducks except a single old drake. This she caused to be caught +and sent it to Tarleton by a messenger, who overtook him, with her +compliments, saying that the drake was lonesome without his companions, +and as he had evidently overlooked it, she wished to reunite them. From +that time she was known as "Captain Moll," and bears that sobriquet in +the family records. She was a woman of strong character, was still +living at "The Farm" in 1817, and left many descendants in Virginia and +in and near Louisville, Kentucky. On the 19th of October, 1781, +Tarleton's career closed, and Virginia was relieved from similar +devastation for a period of eighty years by the surrender at Yorktown. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[18] Copyright, 1898, by John P. Morton and Company. + + + + +JULIA S. DINSMORE + + +Miss Julia Stockton Dinsmore ("F.V."), poet, was born in Louisiana +about 1833, but most of her long life of nearly eighty years has been +spent in Kentucky. For many years Miss Dinsmore published an +occasional poem in the newspapers of her home town, Petersburg, +Kentucky, but, in 1910, when she was seventy-seven years of age, the +New York firm of Doubleday, Page and Company discovered Miss Dinsmore +to be a poet of much grace and charm, and they at once issued the +first collection of her work, entitled "Verses and Sonnets." This +little volume contains more than eighty exquisite lyrics, which have +been favorably reviewed by the literary journals of the country. _Love +Among the Roses_, _Noon in a Blue Grass Pasture_, _Far 'Mid the +Snows_, _That's for Remembrance_, and several of the sonnets are very +fine. Miss Dinsmore is a great lover of Nature, as her poems reveal, +and she is often in the saddle. A most remarkable woman she surely is, +having won the plaudits of her people when most women of her years +have their eyes turned toward the far country. Another volume of her +verse may be published shortly. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Current Literature_ (June, 1910); _The Nation_ + (July 14, 1910). + + +LOVE AMONG THE ROSES[19] + + [From _Verses and Sonnets_ (New York, 1910)] + + "What, dear--what dear?" + How sweet and clear + The redbird's eager voice I hear; + Perched on the honeysuckle trellis near + He sits elate, + Red as the cardinal whose name he bears, + And tossing high the gay cockade he wears + Calls to his mate, + "What, dear--what, dear?" + + She stirs upon her nest, + And through her ruddy breast + The tremor of her happy thoughts repressed + Seems rising like a sigh of bliss untold, + There where the searching sunbeams' stealthy gold + Slips past the thorns and her retreat discloses, + Hid in the shadow of June's sweetest roses. + Her russet, rustic home, + Round as inverted dome + Built by themselves and planned, + Within whose tiny scope, + As though to them the hollow of God's hand, + They gladly trust their all with faith and hope. + + "What, dear--what, dear?" + Are all the words I hear, + The rest is said, or sung + In some sweet, unknown tongue. + Whose music, only, charms my alien ear; + But bird, my heart can guess + All that its tones express + Of love and cheer, and fear and tenderness. + + It says, "Does the day seem long-- + The scented and sunny day + Because you must sit apart? + Are you lonesome, my own sweetheart? + You know you can hear my song + And you know I'm alert and strong + And a match for the wickedest jay + That ever could do us wrong. + As I sit on the snowball spray + Or this trellis not far away, + And look at you on the nest, + And think of those beautiful speckled shells + In whose orbs the birds of the future rest, + My heart with such pride and pleasure swells + As never could be expressed. + + "But, dear--but, dear!"-- + Now I seem to hear + A change in the notes so proud and clear-- + "But, dear--but, dear! + Do you feel no fear + When day is gone and the night is here? + When the cold, white moon looks down on you, + And your feathers are damp with the chilly dew, + And I am silent, and all is still, + Save the sleepless insects, sad and shrill, + And the screeching owl, and the prowling cat, + And the howling dog--when the gruesome bat + Flits past the nest in his circling flight + Do you feel afraid in the lonely night?" + + "Courage! my own, when daylight dawns + You shall hear again in the cheerful morns + My madrigal among the thorns, + Whose rugged guardianship incloses + Our link of love among the roses." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[19] Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page and Company. + + + + +HENRY T. STANTON + + +Henry Thompson Stanton, one of the most popular poets Kentucky has +produced, was born at Alexandria, Virginia, June 30, 1834. He was +brought by his father, Judge Richard Henry Stanton, to Maysville, +Kentucky, when he was only two years old. Stanton was educated at the +Maysville Academy and at West Point, but he was not graduated. He +entered the Confederate army as captain of a company in the Fifth +Kentucky regiment, and through various promotions he surrendered as a +major. Major Stanton saw much service on the battlefields of Kentucky, +Tennessee, and Virginia. After the war he practised law for a time and +was editor of the Maysville _Bulletin_ until 1870, when he removed to +Frankfort, Kentucky, to become chief assistant to the State +Commissioner of Insurance. Major Stanton's first volume of verse was +_The Moneyless Man and Other Poems_ (Baltimore, 1871). This title +poem, written for a wandering elocutionist who "struck" the town of +Maysville one day, and asked the major to write him "a poem that would +draw tears from any audience," made him famous and miserable for the +rest of his life. For the nomad he "dashed off this special lyric and +it brought all Kentucky to the mourners' bench. It was more deadly as +a tear-provoker than 'Stay, Jailer, Stay,' and though the author wrote +other things which were far better, the public would never admit it, +and many people innocently courted death by rushing up to Stanton and +exclaiming: 'Oh, and is this Major Stanton who wrote 'The Moneyless +Man?' So glad to meet you.'" One Kentucky poet took the philosophy of +_The Moneyless Man_ too seriously, and _A Reply to the Moneyless Man_ +was the pathetic result. The rhythm of the poem is very pleasing, but +it is, in a word, melodramatic. Major Stanton's second and final +collection of his verse was _Jacob Brown and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, +1875). It contains several poems that are superior to _The Moneyless +Man_, but the general reader refuses to read them. From 1875 till 1886 +he edited the Frankfort _Yeoman_; and during President Cleveland's +first administration he served as Land Commissioner. Besides his +poems, Major Stanton wrote a group of paper-backed novels, entitled +_The Kents; Social Fetters_ (Washington, 1889); and _A Graduate of +Paris_ (Washington, 1890). Major Stanton died at Frankfort, Kentucky, +May 8, 1898. Two years later _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville, +1900), containing the war lyrics of the major, was artistically +printed as a memorial to his memory. The introduction to the little +book was written by Major Stanton's friend and fellow man of letters, +Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, and it is an altogether fitting +remembrance for the author of _The Moneyless Man_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville, 1900); + _Confessions of a Tatler_, by Elvira Miller Slaughter (Louisville, + 1905). + + +THE MONEYLESS MAN + + [From _The Moneyless Man and Other Poems_ (Baltimore, 1871)] + + Is there no secret place on the face of the earth, + Where charity dwelleth, where virtue has birth? + Where bosoms in mercy and kindness will heave, + When the poor and the wretched shall ask and receive? + Is there no place at all, where a knock from the poor, + Will bring a kind angel to open the door? + Ah, search the wide world wherever you can + There is no open door for a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look in yon hall where the chandelier's light + Drives off with its splendor the darkness of night, + Where the rich-hanging velvet in shadowy fold + Sweeps gracefully down with its trimmings of gold, + And the mirrors of silver take up, and renew, + In long lighted vistas the 'wildering view: + Go there! at the banquet, and find, if you can, + A welcoming smile for a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look in yon church of the cloud-reaching spire, + Which gives to the sun his same look of red fire, + Where the arches and columns are gorgeous within, + And the walls seem as pure as a soul without sin; + Walk down the long aisles, see the rich and the great + In the pomp and the pride of their worldly estate; + Walk down in your patches, and find, if you can, + Who opens a pew to a Moneyless Man. + + Go, look in the Banks, where Mammon has told + His hundreds and thousands of silver and gold; + Where, safe from the hands of the starving and poor, + Lies pile upon pile of the glittering ore! + Walk up to their counters--ah, there you may stay + 'Til your limbs grow old, 'til your hairs grow gray, + And you'll find at the Banks not one of the clan + With money to lend to a Moneyless Man! + + Go, look to yon Judge, in his dark-flowing gown, + With the scales wherein law weighteth equity down; + Where he frowns on the weak and smiles on the strong, + And punishes right whilst he justifies wrong; + Where juries their lips to the Bible have laid, + To render a verdict--they've already made: + Go there, in the court-room, and find, if you can, + Any law for the cause of a Moneyless Man! + + Then go to your hovel--no raven has fed + The wife who has suffered too long for her bread; + Kneel down by her pallet, and kiss the death-frost + From the lips of the angel your poverty lost: + Then turn in your agony upward to God, + And bless, while it smites you, the chastening rod, + And you'll find, at the end of your life's little span, + There's a welcome above for a Moneyless Man! + + +"A MENSA ET THORO" + + [From _Jacob Brown and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1875)] + + Both of us guilty and both of us sad-- + And this is the end of passion! + And people are silly--people are mad, + Who follow the lights of Fashion; + For she was a belle, and I was a beau, + And both of us giddy-headed-- + A priest and a rite--a glitter and show, + And this is the way we wedded. + + There were wants we never had known before, + And matters we could not smother; + And poverty came in an open door, + And love went out at another: + For she had been humored--I had been spoiled, + And neither was sturdy-hearted-- + Both in the ditches and both of us soiled, + And this is the way we parted. + + +A SPECIAL PLEA + + [From the same] + + Prue and I together sat + Beside a running brook; + The little maid put on my hat, + And I the forfeit took. + + "Desist," she cried; "It is not right, + I'm neither wife nor sister;" + But in her eye there shone such light, + That twenty times I kiss'd her. + + +SWEETHEART[20] + + [From _Blades o' Bluegrass_, by Mrs. F. P. Dickey (Louisville, + Kentucky, 1892)] + + Sweetheart--I call you sweetheart still, + As in your window's laced recess, + When both our eyes were wont to fill, + One year ago, with tenderness. + I call you sweetheart by the law + Which gives me higher right to feel, + Though I be here in Malaga, + And you in far Mobile. + + I mind me when, along the bay + The moonbeams slanted all the night; + When on my breast your dark locks lay, + And in my hand, your hand so white; + This scene the summer night-time saw, + And my soul took its warm anneal + And bore it here to Malaga + From beautiful Mobile. + + The still and white magnolia grove + Brought winged odors to your cheek, + Where my lips seared the burning love + They could not frame the words to speak; + Sweetheart, you were not ice to thaw, + Your bosom neither stone nor steel; + I count to-night, at Malaga, + Its throbbings at Mobile. + + What matter if you bid me now + To go my way for others' sake? + Was not my love-seal on your brow + For death, and not for days to break? + Sweetheart, our trothing holds no flaw; + There was no crime and no conceal, + I clasp you here in Malaga, + As erst in sweet Mobile. + + I see the bay-road, white with shells, + I hear the beach make low refrain, + The stars lie flecked like asphodels + Upon the green, wide water-plain-- + These silent things as magnets draw, + They bear me hence with rushing keel, + A thousand miles from Malaga, + To matchless, fair Mobile. + + Sweetheart, there is no sea so wide, + No time in life, nor tide to flow, + Can rob my breast of that one bride + It held so close a year ago. + I see again the bay we saw; + I hear again your sigh's reveal, + I keep the faith at Malaga + I plighted at Mobile. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[20] Copyright, 1892, by the Author. + + + + +SARAH M. B. PIATT + + +Mrs. Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt, one of Kentucky's most distinguished +poets, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, August 11, 1836. Her +grandfather was Morgan Bryan, brother-in-law of Daniel Boone, and one of +the proprietors of Bryan's Station, near Lexington, famous in the old +Indian wars. When only three years old she left Lexington to make her +home near Versailles, Kentucky, where her beautiful mother died in 1844. +After her mother's death she was sent to her aunt's home at New Castle, +Kentucky. Miss Bryan was graduated from Henry Female College, New +Castle; and on June 18, 1861, she was married to John James Piatt, the +Ohio poet. George D. Prentice, of course, was the first to praise and +print Mrs. Piatt's poems and start her upon a literary career. Her +husband, too, has been her chief critic, and responsible for the +publication of her work in book form. From the first Mrs. Piatt's poems +have been deeply introspective, voicing the heart of a woman in every +line. Her work has been cordially commended by Bayard Taylor, William +Dean Howells, John Burroughs, Hamilton Wright Mabie, and many other +well-known and capable critics in America and Europe. Several of Mrs. +Piatt's poems were published in _The Nests at Washington and Other +Poems_ (Cincinnati, 1861), but her first independent volume, issued +anonymously, was _A Woman's Poems_ (Boston, 1871). This is her best +known work, made famous by Bayard Taylor in his delightful little book, +_The Echo Club_. This was followed by _A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles +and Other Poems_ (1874); _That New World and Other Poems_ (1876); _Poems +in Company with Children_ (1877); _Dramatic Persons and Moods_ (1880); +_The Children Out of Doors and Other Poems_ (with her husband, 1885); +_An Irish Garland_ (1885); _Selected Poems_ (1885); _In Primrose Time_ +(1886); _Child's-World Ballads_ (1887); _The Witch in the Glass_ (1889); +_An Irish Wild-Flower_ (1891); _An Enchanted Castle_ (1893); _Complete +Poems_ (1894, two vols.); _Child's-World Ballads_ (1896, second series); +and _The Gift of Tears_ (Cincinnati, 1906). These volumes prove Mrs. +Piatt to be one of the most prolific and finest female poets America has +produced. English reviewers have often linked her name with Mrs. +Browning's and Miss Rossetti's, and if she has not actually reached +their rank, she has surely shown work worthy of a high place in the +literature of her native country. Mrs. Piatt is at the present time +residing at North Bend, Ohio, near Cincinnati. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Echo Club_, by Bayard Taylor (Boston, 1876); + _The Poets of Ohio_, by Emerson Venable (Cincinnati, 1909). + + +IN CLONMEL PARISH CHURCHYARD + +AT THE GRAVE OF CHARLES WOLFE + + [From _An Irish Garland_ (North Bend, Ohio, 1885)] + + Where the graves were many, we looked for one. + Oh, the Irish rose was red, + And the dark stones saddened the setting sun + With the names of the early dead. + Then, a child who, somehow, had heard of him + In the land we love so well, + Kept lifting the grass till the dew was dim + In the churchyard of Clonmel. + + But the sexton came. "Can you tell us where + Charles Wolfe is buried?" "I can-- + See, that is his grave in the corner there. + (Ay, he was a clever man, + If God had spared him!) It's many that come + To be asking for him," said he. + But the boy kept whispering, "Not a drum + Was heard,"--in the dusk to me. + + (Then the gray man tore a vine from the wall + Of the roofless church where he lay, + And the leaves that the withering year let fall + He swept, with the ivy away; + And, as we read on the rock the words + That, writ in the moss, we found, + Right over his bosom a shower of birds + In music fell to the ground). + + ... Young poet, I wonder did you care, + Did it move you in your rest + To hear that child in his golden hair, + From the mighty woods of the West, + Repeating your verse of his own sweet will, + To the sound of the twilight bell, + Years after your beating heart was still + In the churchyard of Clonmel? + + +A WORD WITH A SKYLARK (A CAPRICE OF HOMESICKNESS)[21] + + [From _Songs of Nature_, edited by John Burroughs (New York, + 1901)] + + If this be all, for which I've listened long, + Oh, spirit of the dew! + You did not sing to Shelley such a song + As Shelley sung to you. + + Yet, with this ruined Old World for a nest, + Worm-eaten through and through,-- + This waste of grave-dust stamped with crown and crest,-- + What better could you do? + + Ah me! but when the world and I were young, + There was an apple-tree, + There was a voice came in the dawn and sung + The buds awake--ah me! + + Oh, Lark of Europe, downward fluttering near, + Like some spent leaf at best, + You'd never sing again if you could hear + My Blue-Bird of the West! + + +THE GIFT OF TEARS[22] + + [From _The Gift of Tears_ (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1906)] + + The legend says: In Paradise + God gave the world to man. Ah me! + The woman lifted up her eyes: + "Woman, I have but tears for thee." + But tears? And she began to shed, + Thereat, the tears that comforted. + + (No other beautiful woman breathed, + No rival among men had he, + The seraph's sword of fire was sheathed, + The golden fruit hung on the tree. + Her lord was lord of all the earth, + Wherein no child had wailed its birth), + + Tears to a bride? Yea, therefore tears. + In Eden? Yea, and tears therefore. + Ah, bride in Eden, there were fears + In the first blush your young cheek wore, + Lest that first kiss had been too sweet, + Lest Eden withered from your feet! + + Mother of women! Did you see + How brief your beauty, and how brief, + Therefore, the love of it must be, + In that first garden, that first grief? + Did those first drops of sorrow fall + To move God's pity for us all? + Oh, sobbing mourner by the dead-- + One watcher at the grave grass-grown! + Oh, sleepless for some darling head + Cold-pillowed on the prison-stone, + Or wet with drowning seas! He knew, + Who gave the gift of tears to you! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Copyright, 1901, by McClure, Phillips and Company. + +[22] Copyright, 1906, by John James Piatt. + + + + +BOYD WINCHESTER + + +Boyd Winchester, author of a charming book on Switzerland, was born in +Ascension Parish, Louisiana, September 23, 1836. He came to Kentucky +when a youth and entered Centre College, Danville, where he studied +for three years. He subsequently spent two years at the University of +Virginia. Mr. Winchester was graduated from the Law School of +Louisville, Kentucky, in 1858, and that city has been his home ever +since. He rose rapidly in his profession; and he later served a single +term in the Kentucky legislature, and two terms in the lower House of +Congress. President Cleveland appointed Mr. Winchester United States +Minister to Switzerland, in 1885, and the next four years he resided +at Berne. While in Switzerland Mr. Winchester was an ardent student of +the country's history and a keen observer of its aspects and +institutions. On his return to the United States he wrote his +well-known book, _The Swiss Republic_ (Philadelphia, 1891). A fire his +publishers, the Lippincotts, suffered shortly after his volume was +issued, destroyed the unsold copies, and the small first edition was +soon exhausted. The work has thus become exceedingly scarce. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _National Cyclopaedia of American Biography_ (New + York, 1906, v. xiii); _General Catalogue of Centre College_. + + +LAKE GENEVA[23] + + [From _The Swiss Republic_ (Philadelphia, 1891)] + +The Lake of Geneva is the largest of Western Europe, being fifty-seven +miles long, and its greatest width nine miles; it has its storms, its +waves, and its surge; now placid as a mirror, now furious as the +Atlantic; at times a deep-blue sea curling before the gentle waves, +then a turbid ocean dark with the mud and sand from its lowest depths; +the peasants on its banks still laugh at the idea of there being +sufficient cordage in the world to reach the bottom of the +_Genfer-See_. It is eleven hundred and fifty-four feet above the sea, +and having the same depth, its bottom coincides with the sea-level; +the water is of such exceeding purity that when analyzed only 0.157 in +1000 contain foreign elements. The lake lies nearly in the form of a +crescent stretching from the southwest towards the northeast. +Mountains rise on every side, groups of the Alps of Savoy, Valais, and +Jura. The northern or the Swiss shore is chiefly what is known as a +_cote_, or a declivity that admits of cultivation, with spots of +verdant pasture scattered at its feet and sometimes on its breast, +with a cheery range of garden, chalet, wood, and spire; villas, +hamlets, and villages seem to touch each other down by the banks, and +to form but one town, whilst higher up, they peep out from among the +vineyards or nestle under the shade of walnut-trees. At the foot of +the lake is the white city of Geneva, of which Bancroft wrote, "Had +their cause been lost, Alexander Hamilton would have retired with his +bride to Geneva, where nature and society were in their greatest +perfection." The city is divided into two parts by the Rhone as it +glides out of the basin of the lake on its course towards the +Mediterranean. The Arve pours its turbid stream into the Rhone soon +after that river issues from the lake. The contrast between the two +rivers is very striking, the one being as pure and limpid as the other +is foul and muddy. The Rhone seems to scorn the alliance and keeps as +long as possible unmingled with his dirty spouse; two miles below the +place of their junction a difference and opposition between this +ill-assorted couple is still observable; these, however, gradually +abate by long habit, till at last, yielding to necessity, and to the +unrelenting law which joined them together, they mix imperfect union +and flow in a common stream to the end of their course. At the head of +the lake begins the valley of the Rhone, where George Eliot said, +"that the very sunshine seemed dreary mid the desolation of ruin and +of waste in this long, marshy, squalid valley; and yet, on either side +of the weary valley are noble ranges of granite mountains, and hill +resorts of charm and health...." Standing at almost any point on the +Lake of Geneva, to the one side towers Dent-du-Midi, calm, proud, and +dazzling, like a queen of brightness; on the other side is seen the +Jura through her misty shroud extending in mellow lines, and a +cloudless sky vying in depths of color with the azure waters. So +graceful the outlines, so varied the details, so imposing the +framework in which this lake is set, well might Voltaire exclaim, "Mon +lac est le premier," (my lake is the first). For richness combined +with grandeur, for softness around and impressiveness above, for a +correspondence of contours on which the eye reposes with unwearied +admiration, from the smiling aspect of fertility and cultivation at +its lower extremity to the sublimity of a savage nature at its upper, +no lake is superior to that of Geneva. Numberless almost are the +distinguished men and women who have lived, labored, and died upon the +shores of this fair lake; every spot has a tale to tell of genius, or +records some history. In the calm retirement of Lausanne, Gibbon +contemplated the decay of empires; Rousseau and Byron found +inspiration on these shores; there is + + "Clarens, sweet Clarens, birthplace of deep love! + Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought; + Thy trees take root in love." + +Here is Chillon, with its great white wall sinking into the deep calm +of the water, while its very stones echo memorable events, from the +era of barbarism in 830, when Count Wala, who had held command of +Charlemagne's forces, was incarcerated within the tower of this +desolate rock during the reign of Louis le Debonnaire, to the +imprisonment of the Salvation Army captain. + + "Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls; + A thousand feet in depth below, + Its massy waters meet and flow; + Below the surface of the lake + The dark vault lies" + +where Bonnivard, the prior of St. Victor and the great asserter of the +independence of Geneva, was found when the castle was wrested from the +Duke of Savoy by the Bernese. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[23] Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. + + + + +THOMAS M. GREEN + + +Thomas Marshall Green, journalist and historian, was born near +Danville, Kentucky, November 23, 1836, the son of Judge John Green, an +early Kentucky jurist of repute, who died when his son was but two +years old. Green was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in what +is now known as the famous class of '55, which included several men +afterwards distinguished. In 1856 Green joined the staff of the +_Frankfort Commonwealth_, then a political journal of wide influence; +and in the following year he became editor of that paper. He left the +_Commonwealth_ in 1860, to become editor of the _Maysville Eagle_, of +which he made a pronounced success, its screams smacking not at all of +the dignified days of its first editors, the Collinses, father and +son. His _Historic Families of Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1889), gave him +a place among Kentucky historians, but the late Colonel John Mason +Brown, of Louisville, gave to Green his greatest opportunity when he +published his _The Political Beginnings of Kentucky_ (Louisville, +1889). This work of Colonel Brown's was, in effect, an avowed +vindication of the reputation of his grandfather, John Brown, first +United States Senator from Kentucky, who, in the stormy days in which +his lot had been cast, had been violently attacked for his alleged +connection with the Spanish Conspiracy of Aaron Burr, which was +charged in a controversy running through many years of violent +disputation, to have been an attempt in connection with General James +Wilkinson, Judges Sebastian, Wallace, and Innes of the Kentucky Court +of Appeals and others to detach Kentucky from her allegiance to the +United States, and annex her territory to the Spanish dominions of the +South and South-west, through which the much-desired free navigation +of the Mississippi would be assured. Colonel Brown was a brilliant man +of unusual scholarly attainments and deeply read in American history. +These qualities with his large legal training enabled him to present a +strong case in the vindication of his grandfather's reputation. His +arguments, theories, and proofs were illuminating, able, and to many +minds most convincing, while they fell with small effect upon Green +and many others who held the opposite view. For this reason Green +wrote and published _The Spanish Conspiracy_ (Cincinnati 1891), a +wonderfully well informed and clever work, and the one upon which he +takes his place among Western historians. Students who would be fully +informed as to the many phases--the charges and matter relied upon for +defense, pro and con, in this bitter controversy which marshalled +Kentucky into two hostile camps, whose alignments were more or less +maintained through many strenuous years--must study these two books. +They present the last word on either side. Colonel Brown's untimely +death, which occurred in 1890, some months before the appearance of +Green's book, probably lost Kentucky a reply to the Maysville +historian that would have added to the flood of light thrown on this +early and vital crisis. _The Spanish Conspiracy_ was supplemented and +supported in its conclusions by Mr. Anderson C. Quisenberry's _The +Life and Times of Hon. Humphrey Marshall_ (Winchester, Kentucky, +1892). Thomas M. Green died at Danville, Kentucky, April 7, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky_ + (Cincinnati, 1878); _Library of Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, + 1910, v, xv). + + +THE CONSPIRATORS[24] + + [From _The Spanish Conspiracy_ (Cincinnati, 1891)] + +The grief of the reader in learning from the _Political Beginnings_, +that Humphrey Marshall was "violent, irreligious and profane," will be +mollified by the assurance given in the same work that Harry Innes +"was a sincerely religious man." It might with equal truth have been +stated that Caleb Wallace, who had abandoned the Presbyterian pulpit +to go into politics, kept up his church relations, and practiced his +devotions with the utmost regularity. Sebastian also, who had cast off +the gown of the Episcopal ministry in his pursuit of the "flesh pots +of Egypt," continued, it is believed, the exercise of all religious +observations, and, in the depth of his piety, deemed a treasonable +overture entirely too good to be communicated to an infidel. While +John Brown, who had absorbed faith as he sat under the very droppings +of the sanctuary, it will be cheerfully conceded was the most devout +of the four. On the other hand, John Wood, one of the editors of the +_Western World_, whom they afterwards bought, was a reprobate; and +young Joseph M. Street, whom they could neither bribe nor intimidate, +and the attempt to assassinate whom proved a failure, was a sinner. It +is distressing to think that, like Gavin Hamilton, the latter "drank, +and swore, and played at cards." It may be that the wickedness of the +editors of the _Western World_, and the contemplation of their own +saintliness, justified in the eyes of the four Christian jurists and +statesmen the several little stratagems they devised, and paid Littell +for introducing into his "Narrative," in order to obtain the advantage +of the wicked editors in the argument. The contrast of their +characters made innocent those little mutilations by Innes of his own +letter to Randolph! The same process of reasoning made laudable John +Brown's suppression of his Muter letter, his assertion that it was +identical with the "sliding letter," and his claim that the acceptance +of Gardoqui's proposition would have been consistent with the alleged +purpose to make some future application for the admission of Kentucky +into the new Union! While the suppression of the resolution of Wallace +and Wilkinson in the July convention, and the declaration that such a +_motion never was made_, in order to prove the unhappy editors to be +liars, became as praiseworthy as the spoiling of the Egyptians by the +Israelites! The scene of those four distinguished gentlemen seated +around a table, with a prayer-book in the center, planning the screen +for themselves and the discomfiture of the editors, would be a subject +worthy of the brush of a Hogarth. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[24] Copyright, 1891, by Robert Clarke Company. + + + + +FORCEYTHE WILLSON + + +Forceythe Willson, "the William Blake of Western letters," was born at +Little Genesee, New York, April 10, 1837, the elder brother of the +latest Republican governor of Kentucky, Augustus E. Willson. When +Forceythe was nine years old, his family packed their household goods +upon an "ark," or Kentucky flatboat, at Pittsburgh, and drifted down +the Ohio river, landing at Maysville, Kentucky, where they resided for +a year, and in which town the future governor of Kentucky was born. In +1847 the Willsons removed to Covington, Kentucky, and there +Forceythe's education was begun. The family lived at Covington for six +years, at the end of which time Forceythe entered Harvard University, +but an attack of tuberculosis compelled him to leave without his +degree. He returned to the West, making his home at New Albany, +Indiana, a little town just across the Ohio river from Louisville. A +year later Willson joined the editorial staff of the _Louisville +Journal_, and together he and Prentice courted the muse and defended +the cause of the Union. Willson's masterpiece, _The Old Sergeant_, +was the "carrier's address" for January 1, 1863, printed anonymously +on the front page of the _Journal_. The author's name was withheld +until Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes pronounced it the best ballad the war +had produced, when Willson was heralded as its author. _The Old +Sergeant_ recites an almost literally true story, and it is +wonderfully well done. In the fall of 1863 Willson was married to the +New Albany poet, Elizabeth C. Smith, and they removed to Cambridge, +Massachusetts, where the future executive of the Commonwealth of +Kentucky was a student in Harvard University. The Willsons purchased a +home near Lowell's, and they were soon on friendly terms with all of +the famous New England writers. In 1866 _The Old Sergeant and Other +Poems_ appeared at Boston, but it did not make an appeal to the +general public. Forceythe Willson died at Alfred Centre, New York, +February 2, 1867, but his body was brought back to Indiana, and buried +on the banks of the Whitwater river. Willson believed it quite +possible for the living to hold converse with the dead, and this, with +other strange beliefs, entered largely into his poetry. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. His authoritative biographer, Mr. John James Piatt, + the Ohio poet, has written illuminatingly of this rare fellow, + with his "almond-shaped eyes," as Dr. Holmes called them, and his + Oriental look and manner, in _The Atlantic Monthly_ (March, 1875); + _Lexington Leader_ (September 13, 1908). His brother, Hon. + Augustus E. Willson, will shortly utter the final word concerning + him and his work. + + +THE OLD SERGEANT + + [From _The Old Sergeant and Other Poems_ (Boston, 1867)] + + The Carrier cannot sing to-day the ballads + With which he used to go, + Rhyming the glad rounds of the happy New Years + That are now beneath the snow: + + For the same awful and portentous Shadow + That overcast the earth, + And smote the land last year with desolation, + Still darkens every hearth. + + And the carrier hears Beethoven's mighty death-march + Come up from every mart; + And he hears and feels it breathing in his bosom, + And beating in his heart. + + And to-day, a scarred and weather-beaten veteran, + Again he comes along, + To tell the story of the Old Year's struggles + In another New Year's song. + + And the song is his, but not so with the story; + For the story, you must know, + Was told in prose to Assistant-Surgeon Austin, + By a soldier of Shiloh; + + By Robert Burton, who was brought up on the Adams, + With his death-wound in his side; + And who told the story to the Assistant-Surgeon, + On the same night that he died. + + But the singer feels it will better suit the ballad, + If all should deem it right, + To tell the story as if what it speaks of + Had happened but last night. + + "Come a little nearer, Doctor--thank you--let me take the cup: + Draw your chair up--draw it closer--just another little sup! + Maybe you may think I'm better; but I'm pretty well used up-- + Doctor, you've done all you could do, but I'm just a-going up! + + "Feel my pulse, sir, if you want to, but it ain't much use to + try--" + "Never say that," said the Surgeon, as he smothered down a sigh; + "It will never do, old comrade, for a soldier to say die!" + "What you _say_ will make no difference, Doctor, when you + come to die." + + "Doctor, what has been the matter?" "You were very faint, they + say; + You must try to get to sleep now." "Doctor, have I been away?" + "Not that anybody knows of!" "Doctor--Doctor, please to stay! + There is something I must tell you, and you won't have long to + stay! + + "I have got my marching orders, and I'm ready now to go; + Doctor, did you say I fainted?--but it couldn't ha' been so-- + For as sure as I'm a Sergeant, and was wounded at Shiloh, + I've this very night been back there, on the old field of Shiloh! + + "This is all that I remember: The last time the Lighter came, + And the lights had all been lowered, and the noises much the same, + He had not been gone five minutes before something called my name. + 'Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton!'--just that way it called my + name. + + "And I wondered who could call me so distinctly and so slow, + Knew it couldn't be the Lighter--he could not have spoken so-- + And I tried to answer, 'Here, sir!' but I couldn't make it go; + For I couldn't move a muscle, and I couldn't make it go! + + "Then I thought: It's all a nightmare, all a humbug and a bore; + Just another foolish _grape-vine_[25]--and it won't come any more; + "But it came, sir, notwithstanding, just the same way as before: + 'Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton!'--even plainer than before. + + "That is all that I remember, till a sudden burst of light, + And I stood beside the River, where we stood that Sunday night, + Waiting to be ferried over to the dark bluffs opposite, + When the river was perdition and all hell was opposite!-- + + "And the same old palpitation came again in all its power, + And I heard a Bugle sounding, as from some celestial Tower; + And the same mysterious voice said: 'It is the eleventh hour! + Orderly Sergeant--Robert Burton--it is the eleventh hour!' + + "Doctor Austin!--what _day_ is this?" "It is Wednesday night, + you know." + "Yes--to-morrow will be New Year's, and a right good time below! + What _time_ is it, Doctor Austin?" "Nearly Twelve." "Then + don't you go! + Can it be that all this happened--all this--not an hour ago! + + "There was where the gunboats opened on the dark rebellious host; + And where Webster semicircled his last guns upon the coast; + There were still the two log-houses, just the same, or else their + ghosts-- + And the same old transport came and took me over--or its ghost! + + "And the old field lay before me all deserted far and wide; + There was where they fell on Prentiss--there McClernand met the + tide; + There was where stem Sherman rallied, and where Hurlbut's heroes + died-- + Lower down, where Wallace charged them, and kept charging till he + died. + + "There was where Lew Wallace showed them he was of the canny kin, + There was where old Nelson thundered, and where Rousseau waded in; + There McCook sent 'em to breakfast, and we all began to win-- + There was where the grape-shot took me, just as we began to win. + + "Now, a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread; + And but for this old blue mantle and the old hat on my head, + I should not have even doubted, to this moment, I was dead-- + For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead! + + "Death and silence! Death and silence! all around me as I sped! + And behold, a mighty Tower, as if builded to the dead-- + To the Heaven of the heavens, lifted up its mighty head, + Till the Stars and Stripes of Heaven all seemed waving from its + head! + + "Round and mighty-based it towered--up into the infinite-- + And I knew no mortal mason could have built a shaft so bright; + For it shone like solid sunshine; and a winding stair of light, + Wound around it and around it till it wound clear out of sight! + + "And, behold, as I approached it--with a rapt and dazzled stare-- + Thinking that I saw old comrades just ascending the great Stair-- + Suddenly the solemn challenge broke of--'Halt, and who goes + there!' + 'I'm a friend,' I said, 'if you are.' 'Then advance, sir, to the + Stair!' + + "I advanced! That sentry, Doctor, was Elijah Ballantyne! + First of all to fall on Monday, after we had formed the line! + 'Welcome, my old Sergeant, welcome! Welcome by that countersign!' + And he pointed to the scar there, under this old cloak of mine! + + "As he grasped my hand, I shuddered, thinking only of the grave; + But he smiled and pointed upward with a bright and bloodless + glaive: + 'That's the way, sir, to Head-quarters.' 'What Head-quarters!' + 'Of the Brave.' + 'But the great Tower?' 'That,' he answered, 'Is the way, sir, of + the Brave!' + + "Then a sudden shame came o'er me at his uniform of light; + At my own so old and tattered, and at his so new and bright; + 'Ah!' said he, 'you have forgotten the New Uniform to-night-- + Hurry back, for you must be here at just twelve o'clock to-night!' + + "And the next thing I remember, you were sitting _there_, and I-- + Doctor--did you hear a footstep? Hark! God bless you all! Good by! + Doctor, please to give my musket and my knapsack, when I die, + To my Son--my Son that's coming--he won't get here till I die! + + "Tell him his old father blessed him as he never did before-- + And to carry that old musket"--Hark! a knock is at the door! + "Till the Union--" See! it opens! "Father! Father! speak once + more!" + "_Bless you!_"--gasped the old, gray Sergeant, and he lay and + said no more! + +FOOTNOTE: + +[25] Canard. + + + + +W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE + + +William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, orator and journalist, was born +at Baltimore, Maryland, August 28, 1837, the son of Rev. Robert J. +Breckinridge (1800-1871), and an own cousin of John C. Breckinridge +(1821-1875). He was graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, +in the famous class of '55, after which he studied medicine for a +year, when he abandoned it to enter the Louisville Law School. Before +he was of age he was admitted to the Fayette County Bar, and he was a +member of it when he died. In July, 1862, he entered the Confederate +Army as a captain in John Hunt Morgan's command; and during the last +two years of the war was colonel of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. The +war over, Colonel Breckinridge returned to Lexington and became editor +of _The Observer and Reporter_, which he relinquished a few years +later in order to devote his entire attention to the law. In 1884 +Colonel Breckinridge was elected to the lower House of Congress from +the Ashland district, and he took his seat in December, 1885, which +was the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress. One of his +colleagues from Kentucky was the present Governor of the Commonwealth, +James B. McCreary; another was John G. Carlise, who was chosen speaker +over Thomas B. Reed of Maine. Colonel Breckinridge served ten years in +the House, closing his career there in the Fifty-third Congress. In +Washington he won a wide reputation as a public speaker, being +commonly characterized as "the silver tongue orator from Kentucky." In +1894, after the most bitter congressional campaign of recent Kentucky +history, he was defeated for re-election; and two years later as the +"sound money" candidate he again met defeat, Evan E. Settle, who was +also known in Congress as a very eloquent orator, and who hailed from +the Kentucky county of "Sweet Owen," triumphing over him. Colonel +Breckinridge was never again a candidate for public office. In 1897 he +resumed his newspaper work, becoming chief editorial writer on _The +Lexington Herald_, which paper was under the management of his son, +Mr. Desha Breckinridge, the present editor. During the last eight +years of his life Colonel Breckinridge achieved a new and fresh fame +as a writer of large information upon State and national affairs. +Simplicity was the goal toward which he seemed to strive in his +discussions of great and small questions. His articles upon the Goebel +tragedy were really State papers of importance. Upon more than one +occasion his editorial utterances were wired to a New York paper, +appearing simultaneously in that paper and in his own. He declined +several offers to become editor of metropolitan newspapers. While at +the present time Colonel Breckinridge is remembered by the great +common people as an orator of unsurpassed gifts, and while a great +memorial mass of legends have grown about his name, it is as a writer +of real ability, who had all the requisites and inclinations of a man +of letters save one of the chief essentials: leisure. When his +speeches and writings are collected and his biography written his true +position in the literature of Kentucky will be more clearly and +generally appreciated than it now is. Colonel Breckinridge died at +Lexington, Kentucky, November 19, 1904. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. The eulogy of John Rowan Allen is the finest summing + up of Colonel Breckinridge's life and labors (_Lexington Leader_, + November 23, 1904); _Kentucky Eloquence_, edited by Bennett H. + Young (Louisville, Kentucky, 1907). His papers, together with + those of his grandfather and father, are now in possession of the + Library of Congress. + + +"IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON?" + + [From _The Lexington Herald_ (Christmas Day, 1899)] + +"And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." And this has +been the universal truth since those days--the one unchangeable, +pregnant, vital truth of development, of progress, of civilization, of +happiness, of freedom, of charity. The perpetual presence, the +ceaseless personal influence, the potent force of His continual +association alone renders human history intelligible or makes possible +the solution of any grave problem which man meets in his upward march +to better life and more wholesome conditions. And to-day the accepted +anniversary of the birth of the "carpenter's son" is the one day whose +celebration is in all civilized nations, among all independent people +and in all learned tongues. The world has not yet accepted Him; there +are nations very large in numbers, very old in histories, very devout +in their accepted religions, which have not accepted His claim to be +divine, nor bowed to the reign of His supreme authority. And the +contrast between such nations and those who have accepted His claim +and modeled their laws upon His teachings form the profoundest reason +for the verity of that claim and the beneficence of those teachings. + +Millions to-day will assemble themselves in their accustomed houses of +worship, and with songs and instruments of music, with garlands and +wreaths, with glad countenances and uplifted hearts, render adoration +to the carpenter's son of Nazareth; adoration to the lowly Jew who was +born in a manger and died upon a cross. Many millions will not attend +worship, but still render unconscious testimony to the wondrous power +which He has exercised through the centuries in the glad happiness +which springs from conditions which are only possible under His +teachings and by the might of His perpetual presence. They will not +know that "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," but the day is full of joy, +the homes are radiant with happiness, the cheer is jovial and the +laughter jocund, the eye brightens under the glances of loved +ones--because He has passed by and scattered love and charity with +profuse prodigality along the pathway He trod. + +He has walked through the gay hearts of little children, and joy has +sprung up as wild flowers where His footsteps fell; He has lingered at +the mother's bedside and ineffable love has filled the heart of her +who felt His gentle presence. In carpenter shops like unto that in +which He toiled for thirty years, in humble homes, in the counting +rooms of bankers, in the offices of lawyers and doctors, in the +charitable institutions which are memorials of His teachings, He has +passed by; those within may not have been conscious thereof; they were +possibly too absorbed to feel the sweet and pervading fragrance of the +omnipotent force which He always exerts; yet over them and their +thoughts He did exert that irresistible power; and to-day the world is +better, sweeter, more joyful, more loving, because of Him. + +It is in its secular aspect that we venture to submit these thoughts; +it is His transforming power secularly to which we call attention this +sweet Christmas morning. "Christ the Lord Has Risen," but it is Jesus +the man--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter, the new teacher +of universal brotherhood, the man who went about doing good; the +obscure Jew who brought the new and nobler era of charity and +forgiveness and love into actual existence that _The Herald_, a mere +secular paper, desires to hold up. + +And peculiarly to that aspect of His life that was social; the friend +of Lazarus; the diner at the table of Zaccheus; the pleased and kindly +guest at the wedding of Cana; the man who leaned His head on the breast +of His friend, the simple gentleman who took little children in His arms +and loved them; the obedient son, the loyal friend, the forbearing +associate, the forgiving master, the tender healer of disease, the +loving man who was touched with a sense of all our infirmities. + +To-day with jollity let us turn the water of our common lives into the +wine of sweet domestic happiness; let us take the children of +misfortune to our breast; let us be loyal to our weaker friends; let +us share our fullness with our brethren who are lean in this world's +goods, and, shedding smiles and kind words, and pleasant phrases +through the day, it may be that some stricken heart made glad may say: +"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." + + + + +BASIL W. DUKE + + +General Basil Wilson Duke, historian of Morgan's men, was born near +Georgetown, Kentucky, May 28, 1838. He was educated at Georgetown and +Centre Colleges, after which he studied law at Transylvania University. +He was admitted to the bar, in 1858, and entered upon the practice at +St. Louis. In 1861 he was a member of the Kentucky legislature; and in +June of that year he married the sister of John Hunt Morgan and enlisted +in Morgan's command. Upon Morgan's death, in 1864, General Duke +succeeded him as leader of the band. After the war he settled at +Louisville, Kentucky, as a lawyer, and that city is his home today. From +1875 to 1880 General Duke was commonwealth's attorney for the Fifth +Judicial District; and since 1895 he has been a commissioner of Shiloh +Military Park. His _Morgan's Cavalry_ (Cincinnati, 1867; New York, +1906), is the authoritative biography of the noted partisan leader and +history of his intrepid band. General Duke was one of the editors of +_The Southern Bivouac_, a Louisville magazine, from 1885 to 1887. His +_History of the Bank of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1895), filled a gap in +Kentucky history; and his _Reminiscences_ (New York, 1911), was a +delightful volume of enormous proportions. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1897); + _The Bookman_ (December, 1907). + + +MORGAN, THE MAN + + [From _Morgan's Cavalry_ (Cincinnati, 1867)] + +General Morgan had more of those personal qualities which make a man's +friends devoted to him than any one I have ever known. He was himself +very warm and constant in the friendships which he formed. It seemed +impossible for him to do enough for those to whom he was attached, or +to ever give them up. His manner, when he wished, prepossessed every +one in his favor. He was generally more courteous and attentive to his +inferiors than to his equals and superiors. This may have proceeded in +a great measure from his jealousy of dictation and impatience of +restraint, but was the result also of warm and generous feeling. His +greatest faults arose out of his kindness and easiness of disposition, +which rendered it impossible for him to say or do unpleasant things, +unless when under the influence of strong prejudice or resentment. +This temperament made him a too lax disciplinarian, and caused him to +be frequently imposed upon. He was exceedingly and unfeignedly modest. +For a long time he sought, in every way, to avoid the applause and +ovations which met him everywhere in the South, and he never learned +to keep a bold countenance when receiving them. + +His personal appearance and carriage were striking and graceful. His +features were eminently handsome and adapted to the most pleasing +expressions. His eyes were small, of a grayish blue color, and their +glances keen and thoughtful. His figure on foot or on horseback was +superb. He was exactly six feet in height, and although not at all +corpulent, weighed one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His form was +perfect and the rarest combination of strength, activity, and grace. +His constitution seemed impervious to the effects of privation and +exposure, and it was scarcely possible to perceive that he suffered +from fatigue or lack of sleep. + +Men are not often born who can wield such an influence as he exerted, +apparently without an effort; who can so win men's hearts and stir +their blood. He will, at least, be remembered until the Western +cavalrymen and their children have all died. The bold riders who lived +in the border-land, whose every acre he made historic, will leave many +a story of his audacity and wily skill. + + + + +HENRY WATTERSON + + +Henry Watterson, the foremost Kentucky journalist, and one of the most +widely known newspaper men in the United States, was born at Washington, +D. C., February 16, 1840. This accident of birth was due to the fact +that his father, Harvey McGee Watterson, with his wife, was in +Washington as a member of the lower house of Congress from his native +state, Tennessee. In consequence of defective vision, Henry Watterson +was educated by private tutors; but he did attend the Episcopal School +at Philadelphia for a short time. At the age of eighteen years he became +a reporter on the Washington _States_; but, in 1861, he returned to +Nashville, Tennessee, to edit the _Republican Banner_. Watterson was a +staff officer in the Confederate Army, and in 1864 chief of scouts for +General Joseph E. Johnston, but throughout the war he was also editing a +newspaper. After the war he married and revived the _Banner_, which he +edited for about two years, when he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and +succeeded George D. Prentice as editor of the _Journal_. In the +following year Watterson, with Walter N. Haldeman, consolidated the +_Journal_, _Courier_, and _Daily Democrat_ to form _The +Courier-Journal_. The first issue of this paper appeared November 8, +1868, and Colonel Watterson has been its editor ever since. He has made +it the greatest newspaper in Kentucky, if not in the South or West, and +one of the best known papers printed in the English language. His +editorials are unequalled by any other writer in America, either from +the point of thought or construction; and his style is always more +interesting than his substance. Colonel Watterson has held but one +public office, having been a member of the Forty-fourth Congress, in +1876, and the personal friend and most ardent supporter of Samuel J. +Tilden in the infamous Hayes-Tilden controversy of that year. Colonel +Watterson has been a delegate-at-large from Kentucky in many Democratic +presidential conventions, in all of which bodies he has been a +conspicuous figure. He is famous as a journalist, orator, and author. +His eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln has been listened to in almost every +state in the Union, and it is his best known effort in oratory. Though +now past his three score years and ten, Colonel Watterson is as vigorous +and vindictive as ever in the handling of public questions and of his +legion of enemies, as the country witnessed in the presidential campaign +of 1912. He edited _Oddities of Southern Life and Character_ (Boston, +1882); and he has written _The History of the Spanish-American War_ +(Louisville, 1898); _The Compromises of Life: Lectures and Addresses_ +(New York, 1902), containing his ablest speeches delivered upon many +occasions; and _Old London Town_ (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1911), a group of +his European letters to _The Courier-Journal_, edited by Joseph Fort +Newton. Colonel Watterson has an attractive country home near +Louisville, "Mansfield," but in recent years his winters have been spent +at Naples-on-the-Gulf, in Florida, and his summers in "grooming +presidential candidates!" + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Bookman_ (February, 1904); _Harper's Weekly_ + (November 12, 1904); _The Booklovers Magazine_ (March, 1905). + + +OLD LONDON TOWN[26] + + [From _Old London Town, and Other Travel Sketches_ (Cedar Rapids, + Iowa, 1910)] + +London, less than any of the great capitals of the world--even less than +Berlin--has changed its aspects in the last four decades of alteration +and development. During the Second Empire, and under the wizard hand of +Baron Hauseman, a new Paris sprang into existence. We know what has +happened in New York and Chicago. But London, except the Thames +Embankment and the opening of a street here and there betwixt the City +and the West End--the mid-London of Soho and the Strand--is very much +the London I became acquainted with nearly forty years ago. To be sure +many of the ancient landmarks, such as Temple Bar, the Cock and the +Cheshire Cheese, have gone to the ash heap of the forgotten, whilst some +imposing hostelries have risen in the region about Trafalgar Square; +but, in the main, the biggest village of Christendom has lost none of +its familiar earmarks, so that the exile set down anywhere from Charing +Cross and Picadilly Circus to the bustling region of the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street, blindfold, would, the instant the bandage were +removed from his eyes, exclaim, "It is London!" + +Yes, it is London; the same old London; the same old cries in the +street; the same old whitey-brown atmosphere; even the same old Italian +organ-grinders, the tunes merely a trifle varied. Nor yet without its +charm, albeit to me of a rather ghostly, reminiscental sort. I came here +in 1866, with a young wife and a roll of ambitious manuscript, found +work to do and a publisher, lived for a time in the clouds of two +worlds, that of Bohemia, of which the Savage Club was headquarters, and +that of the New Apocalypse of Science which eddied about the School of +Mines in Jermyn Street and the _Fortnightly Review_, then presided over +by George Henry Lewes, my nearest friend and sponsor the late Professor +Huxley. I alternated my days and nights between a somewhat familiar +intimacy with Spencer and Tyndall and a wholly familiar intimacy with +Tom Robertson and Andrew Halliday. Artemus Ward was in London and it was +to him that I owed these later associations. Sir Henry Irving had not +made his mark. Sir Charles Wyndham was still in America. There were +Keenes and Kembles yet upon the stage. Charles Matthews ruled the roost +of Comedy. George Eliot was in the glory of her powers and her +popularity. Thackeray was gone, but Charles Dickens lived and wrote. +Bulwer-Lytton lived and wrote. Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade vied +with one another for current favor. Modern Frenchification had invaded +neither the restaurants nor the music halls. Evans's Coffee House +(Pendennis core of Harmony) prevailed after midnight in Covent Garden +Market. In short, the solidarities of Old England, along with its roast, +succulent, abundant and intact. + + * * * * * + +To me London was Mecca. The look of it, the very smell of it, was +inspiration. Incidentally--I don't mind saying--there were some cakes +and ale. The nights were jolly enough down in the Adelphi, where the +barbarians of the Savage Club held high revel, and George Augustus +Sala was Primate, and Edmund Yates and Tom Robertson were High +Priests. Temple Bar blocked the passage from Belgravia to the Bank of +England, and there was no Holborn Viaduct nor Victorian Embankment. + +Aye, long ago! How far away it seems, and how queer! To me it was the +London of story-books; of Whittington and his cat and Goody Two-Shoes +and the Canterbury Shades; of Otway and Marlowe and Chatterton; of +Nell Gwynne and Dick Steele and poor Goldsmith; of all that was +bizarre and fanciful in history, that was strange and romantic in +legend; and not the London of the Tower, the Museum and Westminster +Abbey; not the London of Cremorne Gardens, newly opened, nor the +Argyle Rooms, which should have been burned to the ground before they +were opened at all. + +Since then I have been in and out of London many times. I have been +amused here and bored here; but give me back my old fool's paradise +and I shall care for naught else. + +One may doubt which holds him closest, the London of History or the +London of Fiction, or that London which is a mingling of both, and may +be called simply the London of Literature, in which Oliver Goldsmith +carouses with Tom Jones, and Harry Fielding discusses philosophy with +the Vicar of Wakefield, where Nicholas Nickleby makes so bold as to +present himself to Mr. William Makepeace Thackeray and to ask his +intercession in favor of a poor artist, the son of a hairdresser of +the name of Turner in Maiden Lane, and even where "Boz," as he passes +through Longacre, is tripped up by the Artful Dodger, and would +perchance fall upon the siding if not caught in the friendly arms of +Sir Richard Steele on his way to pay a call upon the once famous +beauty, the Lady Beatrix Esmond. + +But yesterday I strolled into Mitre Court, and threading my way +through the labyrinth of those dingy old law chambers known as the +Middle and Inner Temple, found myself in the little graveyard of the +Temple Church and by the side of the grave of Oliver Goldsmith. Though +less than a stone's throw from Fleet Street and the Strand, the place +is quiet enough, only a faint hum of wheels penetrating the cool +precincts and gloomy walls. There, beneath three oblong slabs, put +together like an outer stone coffin, lies the most richly endowed of +all the vagabonds, with the simple but sufficient legend: + + "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith, + "Born Nov. 10th, 1728. Died April 4th, 1774." + +to tell a story which for all its vagrancy and folly, is somewhat dear +to loving hearts. He died leaving many debts and a few friends. He +lived a lucky-go-devil, who could squander in a night of debauch more +than he could earn in a month of labor. Yet he gave us the good +Primrose and _The Deserted Village_ and _The Traveler_, and many a +care-dispelling screed beside. + +The Frenchman would say "his destiny." The less fanciful Briton, "his +temperament." Poor Noll! He seemed to know himself fairly well in +spite of his dissipations and his vanity, and he sleeps sound enough +now, perhaps as soundly as the rest of those who in life held him in a +rather equivocal admiration and affectionate contempt. There are a few +other tombs--an effigy or two--round about, the weird old Chapel of +the Templars, shut in by great walls from the streets beyond, to keep +them solemn company. For Goldsmith, at least, there seems a fitness; +for his life, and such labor as he did, eddied round these sad +precincts. Nigh at hand was the Mitre tavern, across the way the +Cock, and down the street the Cheshire Cheese. Without the Vandal has +been busy enough, within all remains as it was the day they buried +him. Perhaps he was not a desirable visiting acquaintance. I dare say +he was rather a trying familiar friend. Pen-craft and purse-making are +often wide apart. The charm of authorship ends in most cases upon the +printed page. The man carries his sentiment in a globule of ink and it +evaporates by exposure to the atmosphere of the world of action. The +song of Dickens died by its own fireside. Kipling, for all his +word-painting, is hardly a miracle of grace. Why should one wish to +have known Goldsmith, or grudge him his place by the side of the great +old Doctor, and Burke, and Reynolds, and Garrick? He lived his own +life, and, though it was not very clean and wholly unprosperous, +perhaps he enjoyed it. He left us some rich fruitage dangling over a +wall, which may well conceal all else. Of the dead, no ill! Their +faults to the past. The rest to Eternity! + +Gradually, but surely, a new London is showing itself above the debris +of the old. Miles of roundabout are reduced by short cuts. Thoroughfares +are ruthlessly cut through sacred precincts and landmarks obliterated to +make room for imposing edifices and widened streets. In the end, London +will be rebuilt to rival Paris in the splendor, without the uniformity +of its architecture. The grime will, of course, attach itself in time to +the modern city as it did in the ancient, so that the London that is to +be will grow old to the coming generations as the London that was grew +old to the generations that went before. + + "To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow + Creeps on this petty pace from day to day, + And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death." + +Ever and ever the old times, the dear old times! Were they really any +better than these? I don't think so--we only fancy them so. They had +their displacements. It was then, as now, "eat, drink, and be merry, +for to-morrow ye die," life the same old walking shadow, the same old +play, or, lagging superfluous, or laughing his hour upon the stage +and seen no more, the same old + + "... tale told by an idiot, + Full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing." + +Somehow, London has a tendency to call up such reflections; sombre, +serious itself, to provoke moralizing, albeit a turmoil, with incessant +flashes of light and shade, the contrasts the vividest and most +precipitate on earth, deep and penetrating, even from Hyde Park corner +to St. Martins-in-the-Field, and on eastward beyond the Tower and into +the purlieus of Whitechapel and the solitudes of Bethnal Green. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[26] Copyright, 1910, by The Torch Press. + + + + +GILDEROY W. GRIFFIN + + +Gilderoy Wells Griffin, essayist, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, +March 6, 1840, the son of a merchant. He was educated in the University +of Louisville, and admitted to the bar just as he attained his majority. +He soon became private secretary for George D. Prentice, and this +pointed his path from law to letters. Griffin was dramatic critic of the +Louisville _Journal_ until after Prentice's death; and his first book +was a biographical study of the great editor. His _Studies in +Literature_ (Baltimore, 1870), a small group of essays, was followed by +the final edition of _Prenticeana_ (Philadelphia, 1871), which he +revised and to which he also contributed a new sketch of Prentice. +Griffin was appointed United States Consul to Copenhagen, in 1871. His +_Memoir of Col. Charles S. Todd_ (Philadelphia, 1872), was an excellent +piece of writing. The most tangible result of his sojourn in Copenhagen +was _My Danish Days_ (1875), one of the most delightful of his works. In +Denmark his most intimate friend, perhaps, was Hans Christian Anderson. +His _A Visit to Stratford_ (1875), was worth while. The year following +its publication, Griffin was transferred to a similar position in the +Samoan Islands, and he left in manuscript a work on the Islands which +has never been published. In 1879 Griffin was again transferred, this +time being sent to Aukland, New Zealand, where he remained until 1884; +and the time of his departure witnessed the appearance of his last work, +_New Zealand: Her Commerce and Resources_ (Wellington, N. Z., 1884). +President Arthur sent him as consul to Sydney, which post he held for +seven years. Griffin's death occurred while he was visiting his old +home, Louisville, Kentucky, October 21, 1891. His brother was the +step-father of the famous Mary Anderson, the former actress, and she has +a goodly word for the memory of Griffin in her autobiography. He was a +patron of the drama, a faithful and far-seeing diplomat, and a very able +writer. His wife, Alice M. Griffin, published a volume of _Poems_ +(Cincinnati, 1864). + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (October 22, 1891); _A Few + Memories_, by Mary Anderson de Navarro (London, 1896). + + +THE GYPSIES + + [From _Studies in Literature_ (Baltimore, 1870)] + +The Gypsies are wholly ignorant of their origin, and have kept but an +imperfect record of their migrations; but it is evident that they are +a distinct race of people. Like the Jews, they have no country of +their own, and are scattered over all parts of the globe. Time has +made little or no change in their peculiarities. They have the same +language, personal appearance, habits, and customs, that they had +centuries ago. The name of Gypsies (meaning Egyptians) is doubtless an +incorrect one. At least we know of nothing to justify them in the +assumption of the title. In Italy they are called "Zingari," in +Germany "Zigeuner," in Spain "Gitanos," in Turkey "Tchengenler," in +Persia "Sisech Hindu," in Sweden "Tartars," and in France "Bohemiens." + +Borrow expresses the opinion that the name of Gypsies originated +among the priests and learned men of Europe, who expected to find in +Scripture some account of their origin and some clew to their skill in +the occult sciences. + +Simson, the author of a recent work entitled the _History of the +Gypsies_, believes that they are a mixture of the shepherd-kings and the +native Egyptians, who formed part of the "mixed multitude" mentioned in +the Biblical account of the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt. Grellman, +however, traces their origin to India. He says that they belong to the +Soodra caste. Vulcanius describes them simply as robbers and outlaws, +and Hervas regards their language as "a mere jargon of banditti." + +Their keen black eyes, swarthy complexion, long raven locks, high +cheek-bones, and projecting lower jaws evidently indicate Asiatic +origin. It is certain that neither their language nor physiognomy are +African. It is argued that if really Egyptians, they would in all +probability have preserved a religion, or some of the forms of worship +so characteristic of the descendants of that people; whereas, the +Gypsies have no religion at all. + +Indeed, it is a proverb with them that "the Gypsy church was built of +lard, and the dogs ate it." + +Whether Egyptians or not, they are doubtless what they claim to be, +"Rommany Chals," and not "Gorgios." Very few who have seen them will +refuse to believe that they do not understand the art of making +horse-shoes, and of snake-charming, fortunetelling, poisoning with the +drows, and of singing such songs as the following: + + "The Rommany chi + And the Rommany chal + Shall jaw tasaulor + To drab the bawlor, + And dook the gry + Of the farming rye. + + "The Rommany churl + And the Rommany girl + To-morrow shall hie + To poison the sty, + And bewitch on the mead + The farmer's stead." + + + + +JOHN L. SPALDING + + +John Lancaster Spalding, the poet-priest, was born at Lebanon, Kentucky, +June 2, 1840. He is a nephew of Archbishop Martin John Spalding. John L. +Spalding was graduated from St. Mary's College, Maryland, in 1859; and a +short time later he was ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic +church. In 1865 he was secretary to the bishop of Louisville; and four +years later he built St. Augustine's church for the Catholic negroes of +Louisville. In 1871 Spalding was chancellor of the diocese of +Louisville. From 1872 to 1877 he was stationed in New York City. He was +consecrated bishop of Peoria, Illinois, May 1, 1877, which position he +held until 1908, when ill-health compelled his retirement. Bishop +Spalding was appointed by President Roosevelt as one of the arbitrators +to settle the anthracite coal strike of 1902, and this appointment +brought him before the whole country for a time. In 1909 he was created +titular archbishop of Scyphopolis. Bishop Spalding continues his +residence at Peoria, but recently his health has broken so badly that +his life has been despaired of more than once. For many years it has +been his custom to spend his summers in Kentucky with his boyhood +friends and neighbors. He is the author of _The Life of the Most Rev. +Martin John Spalding, Archbishop_ (New York, 1872); _Essays and Reviews_ +(1876); _Religious Mission of the Irish People_ (1880); _Lectures and +Discourses_ (1882); _America and Other Poems_ (1885); _Education and the +Higher Life_ (Chicago, 1891); _The Poet's Praise_ (1891); _Things of the +Mind_ (Chicago, 1894); _Means and End of Education; Thoughts and +Theories of Life and Education_ (Chicago, 1897); _Songs: Chiefly from +the German_ (1896); _God and the Soul; Opportunity and Other Essays_ +(Chicago, 1901); _Religion, Agnosticism, and Education_ (Chicago, +1902); _Aphorisms and Reflections_ (Chicago, 1901); _Socialism and +Labor_ (Chicago, 1902); _Glimpses of Truth_ (Chicago, 1903); _The +Spalding Year Book_ (1905); _Religion and Art, and other Essays_ +(Chicago, 1905). Bishop Spalding's biography of his famous kinsman, +Archbishop Spalding, is his finest prose work, and as a poet he has done +some pleasing verse, most of which, of course, is marred by being woven +into his religion. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Harper's Weekly_ (October 25, 1902); _The Dial_ + (January 1, 1904). + + +AN IVORY PAPER-KNIFE.[27] + + [From _The Hesperian Tree_, edited by J. J. Piatt (Columbus, Ohio, + 1903)] + + O snow-white blade, thou openest for me + So many a page filled with delightful lore + Where deathless minds have left the precious store + Of words that breathe and truth that makes us free. + To hold thee in my hand, or but to see + Thee lying on my desk, O ivory oar, + Waiting to drive my bark to any shore, + Is fortaste of fresh joy and liberty. + Thou bringest dreams of the Dark Continent + Where herded elephants in freedom roam, + Or blow their trumpets when they danger scent, + Or in wide rivers shoot the pearly foam, + Yet art of vital books all redolent, + Where highest thoughts have made themselves a home. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[27] Copyright, 1902, by John James Piatt. + + + + +NATHANIEL S. SHALER + + +Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, the distinguished Harvard geologist, poet, +historian, and sociologist, was born at Newport, Kentucky, February +20, 1841. He was graduated from Harvard in 1862, where he had the +benefit of almost private instruction from the great Agassiz. Shaler +returned to Kentucky, and for the next two years he served in the +Union army. In 1864 he was appointed assistant in palentology at +Harvard; and four years later he became assistant in zoology and +geology in the Lawrence Scientific School and head of the department +of palentology. In 1873 the Governor of Kentucky appointed Professor +Shaler director of the Kentucky Geological Survey, and he devoted +parts of the next seven years to this work. He was the most efficient +State geologist Kentucky has ever known, and his work for the Survey +pointed out the path trodden by his successors. His assistant, +Professor John R. Proctor, followed him as Director, and he stands +next to his chief in the work he accomplished. _The Kentucky +Geological Survey_ (1874-1880, 6 vols.), volume three of which, +entitled _A General Account of the Commonwealth of Kentucky_ +(Cambridge, Mass., 1876), was written entirely by Shaler, are +excellent memorials of the work he did for his native state. In 1884 +Shaler was placed in charge of the Atlantic division of the United +States Geological Survey; and in 1891 he was chosen dean of the +Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. This position he held until a +year or two before his death. Dean Shaler published _Thoughts on the +Nature of Intellectual Property_ (Boston, 1878); _Glaciers_ (Boston, +1881); _The First Book of Geology_ (Boston, 1884); _Kentucky: A +Pioneer Commonwealth_ (Boston, 1885), the philosophy of Kentucky +history summarized; _Aspects of the Earth_ (New York, 1889); _Nature +and Man in America_ (New York, 1891); _The Story of Our Continent_ +(Boston, 1892); _Sea and Land_ (New York, 1892); _The United States_ +(New York, 1893); _The Interpretation of Nature_ (Boston, 1893); +_Domesticated Animals_ (New York, 1895); _American Highways_ (New +York, 1896); _Outlines of the Earth's History_ (New York, 1898); _The +Individual_ (New York, 1900); _Elizabeth of England_ (Boston, 1903, +five vols.), a "dramatic romance," celebrating "the spacious times of +great Elizabeth"; _The Neighbor_ (Boston, 1904); _The Citizen_ (New +York, 1904); _Man and the Earth_ (New York, 1905); and _From Old +Fields_ (Boston, 1906), a book of short poems. Besides these books, +Dean Shaler wrote hundreds of magazine articles, reports, scientific +memoirs, miscellaneous essays. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, +April 10, 1906, just as he was about to make ready for a final journey +to Kentucky. Dean Shaler was loved and honored more at Harvard, +perhaps, than any other teacher the University has ever known. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The World's Work_ (June, 1906); _Science_ (June 8, + 1906); _The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, with a + Supplementary Memoir by his Wife_, published posthumously (Boston, + 1909), is a charming record of his days at Harvard and in Kentucky. + + +THE ORPHAN BRIGADE[28] + + [From _From Old Fields_ (Boston, 1906)] + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-one: + There in the echo of Sumter's gun + Marches the host of the Orphan Brigade, + Lit by their banners, in hope's best arrayed. + Five thousand strong, never legion hath borne + Might as this bears it forth in that morn: + Hastings and Cressy, Naseby, Dunbar, + Cowpens and Yorktown, Thousand Years' War, + Is writ on their hearts as onward afar + They shout to the roar of their drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-two: + Well have they paid to the earth its due. + Close up, steady! the half are yet here + And all of the might, for the living bear + The dead in their hearts over Shiloh's field-- + Rich, O God, is thy harvest's yield! + Where faith swings the sickle, trust binds the sheaves, + To the roll of the surging drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-three: + Barring Sherman's march to the sea-- + Shorn to a thousand; face to the foe + Back, ever back, but stubborn and slow. + Nineteen hundred wounds they take + In that service of Hell, yet the hills they shake + With the roar of their charge as onward they go + To the roll of their throbbing drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-four: + Their banners are tattered, and scarce twelve score, + Battered and wearied and seared and old, + Stay by the staves where the Orphans hold + Firm as a rock when the surges break-- + Shield of a land where men die for His sake, + For the sake of the brothers whom they have laid low, + To the roll of their muffled drums. + + Eighteen hundred and sixty-five: + The Devil is dead and the Lord is alive, + In the earth that springs where the heroes sleep, + And in love new born where the stricken weep. + That legion hath marched past the setting of sun: + Beaten? nay, victors: the realms they have won + Are the hearts of men who forever shall hear + The throb of their far-off drums. + + +"TOM" MARSHALL[29] + + [From _The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler_ (Boston, + 1909)] + +I have referred above to Thomas F. Marshall, a man of singular +attractiveness and talents with whom I had a curious relation. I first +met him when I was about fourteen years of age, when he, for some time a +congressman, had through drunkenness fallen into a curious +half-abandoned mode of life. He was then an oldish fellow, but retained +much of his youthful splendor. He was about six feet three inches high, +but so well built that he did not seem large, until you stood beside +him. His face, even when marred by drink, had something of majesty in +it. Marshall, when I knew him, picked up a scanty living as a lecturer. +When sober, which he often was for months at a time, his favorite +subject was temperance. On this theme he was as eloquent as Gough; in +his season of spree, he turned to history. The gradations were not +sharp, for he would, as I have seen him, preach most admirably of the +evil of drink while he supported himself in his fervent oratory with +whiskey from a silver mug. In matters of history, he had read widely. +One of his favorite themes was the mediaeval history of Italy. I recall +with a distinctness which shows the impressiveness of his discourses his +story of Florence, so well told that ten years after, when I saw the +town for the first time, the shape of it and of the neighboring places +was curiously familiar. Along with some other youths, I noted down the +dates of events as he gave them and looked them up. We never caught him +in an error, though at times he was so drunk that he could hardly stand +up. I have known many historians who doubtless much exceeded him in +learning, but never another who seemed to have such a capacity for +living in the events he narrated. + +I had no sooner met "Tom" Marshall than we became friends. He at once +took a curious fancy to me, talked to me as though we were of an age, +and gave me my first chance of such contact with a man of learning and +imagination. The relation, while on one side largely profitable to me, +became embarrassing, for the unhappy man got the notion that I could +stop his drinking if I would stay with him. A number of times when he +had his dipsomaniac fury upon him I found that by sitting by his bed +and talking with him on some historical subject, or rather listening +to his talk, he would apparently forget about his drink and in a few +hours drop asleep and awake to be sober for some months. + +Sometimes these quiet interviews were most interesting to me. I recall +one of them when I found him in an attack of half delirium. His +memory, always active, took him back to the days when he was in +Congress and to the scene when he, a very young member of the House, +had been chosen by some careful elders to lead an attack on John +Quincy Adams. They, the elders, were to come to his support when he +had drawn the enemy's fire. It all became so real to him, that he +sprang out of bed and in his tattered nightgown gave, first his own +speech with all the actions of a young orator, and then the +deliberate, crushing rejoinder of his mighty antagonist. At the end of +it he fell back upon his bed, cursing the villains who led him into +the fight and left him to take the consequences. + +My relations with Marshall continued until I went to Cambridge but my +influence over his drinking gradually lessened as he sank lower, and +his able mind began to be permanently clouded. When I had been some +months at college, I espied the poor fellow in the street, carpet-bag +in hand, evidently making for my quarters. I sent word by a messenger +to my chum, Hyatt, to receive and care for him, but to say that I had +left town, which was true, for I went at once to Greenfield, where I +had friends. Hyatt was also to provide the wanderer with a suit of +clothes and a railway ticket back to Kentucky. I stayed away until I +learned that Marshall was on his way home. I have always been ashamed +of my conduct in this matter, but the unhappy man was at that time of +his degradation an impossible burthen for me to carry; once ensconced +in my quarters it would have been impossible to provide him with a +dignified exit, and there was no longer hope that I might reform him. +Yet the cowardice of the action has grieved me to this day. + +Two years afterwards, in 1862, I saw Marshall for the last time. I was +with a column of troops going through the town of Versailles, +Kentucky. He was seated in front of a bar-room, with his chin upon +the top of his cane. He was so far gone that the sight merely troubled +his wits without affording him any explanation of what it meant. His +bleared though still noble face stays in my memories as one of the +saddest of those weary years. + + +LINCOLN IN KENTUCKY + + [From the same] + +Among the interesting and in a way shaping incidents of my boyhood, +was a brief contact with Abraham Lincoln about 1856. He was coming on +foot from the town of Covington; I was on horseback, and met him near +the bridge over the Licking River. He asked the way to my +grandfather's house, which was about a mile off. Attracted by his +appearance, I dismounted and asked him to get on my horse, which he +declined to do; so I walked beside him. Probably because he knew how +to talk to a lad--few know the art, and those the large natures +alone--we became at once friendly. When I had shown him into the +house, I hung about to find his name. As I had never heard of Mr. +Lincoln of Illinois, it was explained to me that he was the man who +was "running against" the Little Giant. We lads all knew Stephen A. +Douglas, who was so popular that farm tools were named for him: the +Little Giant this and that of cornshellers or ploughs. While Mr. +Lincoln was with my grandfather, my mother dined or supped with him. +When she came home she said: "I have had a long talk with Mr. Lincoln, +who is called an Abolitionist; if he is an Abolitionist, I am an +Abolitionist." I well remember the horror with which this remark +inspired the household: if my mother had said she was Satan, it could +not have been worse. The droll part of the matter is that all the +reasonable people about me were in heart haters of slavery. They saw +and deplored its evils, and were full of fanciful schemes for making +an end of it. But the name Abolitionist was abominated. + +I never knew what brought Mr. Lincoln to my grandfather's house. It is +likely that he came because a certain doctor of central Kentucky, an +uncle of Mr. Lincoln, a widower, had recently married an aunt of mine, +a widow. This union of two middle-aged people, each with large +families, brought trouble; since family traditions were against +divorce, a separation was effected which had an amusing though tragic +finish. When all other matters of property had been arranged and P. +had betaken himself to his plantation in Mississippi, as an +afterthought he set up a supplementary claim to a saddle mule +belonging to my aunt which he had forgotten to demand in the +settlement. This reopened the question, and it was determined in +family council that the grasping doctor should not be satisfied. We +boys had the notion that Mr. Lincoln's visit related to this episode +of the mule, for shortly after the "critter" was sent with a servant +by steamboat, to be delivered to the claimant at the landing of his +plantation on the Mississippi River. In due time the negro returned +and made report: It was that the unworthy suitor came with a group of +his friends to witness his success, mounted, and started to ride away, +but the beast, frisky from its long confinement, "stooped up behind," +as the darkeys phrase it, and threw his master and killed him. Whether +Lincoln had a hand in the negotiations which led to this finish or +not, I am sure that the humor of it must have tickled him. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[28] Copyright, 1906, by Houghton, Mifflin Company. + +[29] Copyright, 1909, by Houghton, Mifflin Company. + + + + +WILLIAM L. VISSCHER + + +William Lightfoot Visscher, poet, was born at Owingsville, Kentucky, +November 25, 1842. He was educated at the Bath Seminary, Owingsville, +and graduated in law from the University of Louisville, but he never +practiced. He was a soldier in the Civil War for four years. Colonel +Visscher--which title he did not win upon the battlefield!--has been +connected with more newspapers than he now cares to count; and he has +written hundreds of verses which have appeared in periodicals and in +book form. He is the author of five novels: _Carlisle of Colorado_; +_Way Out Yonder_; _Thou Art Peter_; _Fetch Over the Canoe_ (Chicago, +1908); and _Amos Hudson's Motto_. The first of these is the best known +work he has done in prose fiction. His _Thrilling and Truthful History +of the Pony Express_ (Chicago, 1908), filled a small gap in American +history. A little group of biographical sketches and newspaper +reminiscences, called _Ten Wise Men and Some More_ (Chicago, 1909), is +interesting. Colonel Visscher has also published five books of verse: +_Black Mammy; Harp of the South; Blue Grass Ballads and Other Verse_ +(Chicago, 1900); _Chicago: an Epic_, and his most recent volume, +_Poems of the South and Other Verses_ (Chicago, 1911). The colonel is +also a popular lecturer; and he has actually put paint on his face and +essayed acting. He is a poet of the Old South, one reading his verse +would at once conclude that not to have been born in Kentucky before +the war, one might as well never have lived at all. He is a versified, +pocket-edition of Mr. Thomas Nelson Page; and while he has not reached +the sublime heights of true poesy, he has written some delicious +dialect and much pleasing verse. _Proem_, printed in two of his books, +is certainly the best thing he has done hitherto. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Century Magazine_ (July, 1902); _Who's Who in + America_ (1912-1913). + + +PROEM[30] + + [From _Poems of the South and Other Verse_ (Chicago, 1911)] + + In the evening of a lifetime + While the shadows, growing long, + Fall eastward, and the gloaming + Brings the spell of vesper song, + Fond memory turns backward + To the bright light of the day, + Where joys, like troops of fairies, + Gaily dance along the way, + Full-armed with mirth and music, + Driving skirmishers of care + Howling, back into the forest, + And their dark, uncanny lair. + So the pastures of Kentucky, + And the fields of Tennessee, + The bloom of all the Southland + And the old-time melody; + The vales, and streams, and mountains; + The bay of trailing hounds; + The neigh of blooded horses + And the farm-yard's cheery sounds; + The smiles of wholesome women + And the hail of hearty men, + Come sweeping back, in fancy, + And, behold, I'm young again. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[30] Copyright, 1911, by the Author. + + + + +BENNETT H. YOUNG + + +Bennett Henderson Young, historian and antiquarian, was born at +Nicholasville, Kentucky, May 25, 1843, the son of blue-stocking +Presbyterians. His academic training was received at Centre College, +Danville, Kentucky, and Queen's College, Toronto, Canada. He was +graduated in law from Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland. Colonel Young +was with General John Hunt Morgan and his men during the Civil War, +being in charge of the raid through St. Alban's, Vermont. He was a +member of the fourth Constitutional convention which formulated +Kentucky's present constitution. Colonel Young is now one of the +leading lawyers of Louisville, and commander-in-chief of the United +Confederate Veterans. He has published _The History of the Kentucky +Constitutions_ (1890); _The History of Evangelistic Work in Kentucky_ +(1891); _History of the Battle of the Blue Licks_ (Louisville, 1897); +_The History of Jessamine County, Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); _The +History of the Division of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky_ +(1898); _The Battle of the Thames_ (Louisville, 1901); _Kentucky +Eloquence_ (Louisville, 1907); and _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_ +(Louisville, 1910). Colonel Young has taken a keen interest in "the +prehistoric men of Kentucky," the mound-builders; and his collection +is one of the finest in the country. His work upon these ancient +people is far and away the ablest volume he has written. It +represented the researches of a life-time, and the results of his +labors are quite obvious. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1897); + _Who's Who in America_ (1912-1913). + + +PREHISTORIC WEAPONS[31] + + [From _The Prehistoric Men of Kentucky_ (Louisville, Kentucky, + 1910)] + +The life of prehistoric man, judging from the large number of +fortifications existing in Kentucky to this day, must have been one of +constant and general warfare. His weapons were all constructed for +conflict at short range. + +First was his ax of two kinds, grooved and grooveless. The indications +are that these were used contemporaneously, and though this is not +certain, their proximity to each other in so many places would tend to +show that they were made during the same period. The grooved ax would +be more reliable either in domestic use or in war than the grooveless +ax, because of the grip of the handle, aided materially by the groove, +permitting it to be held much more closely and to admit of heavier +strokes and more constant action. The battle-axes vary in weight from +one to thirty-two pounds. They were doubtless so variant in weight by +reason of the conditions that surrounded the makers, and also by +reason of the ability of the user to carry either light or heavy +weight. With handles from three to six feet and firmly bound with +rawhide, which could be obtained from several animals, these men were +enabled to fasten the handle tightly around the ax, either grooved or +ungrooved. These axes would require close contact in battle. They had +flint saws or knives which enabled them to cut the hickory withe or +sapling from which these handles were made. After soaking the handle +in hot water, or for that matter in cold water, it could easily have +been bent around the ax and tied with rawhide, which, by its +contraction when drying, would press the handle closely in the groove. + +They also used what is known as a battle-ax blade, that is, a thin +piece of flint, oval in shape, about five by three and a half inches. +By splitting the handle and placing the flint blade between it, and +then binding with rawhide, they were enabled to fasten it very +securely. These handles were about two or two and a half feet in +length, and with the blade projecting on either side, became a +dangerous weapon at close range. + +The most damage, however, done by these prehistoric people was doubtless +accomplished by the bow and arrow. The bows were about six feet in +length, judging by the strings which we have seen and one of which the +writer has been able to secure from Salts Cave. They would be made of +many woods, preferably of hickory, cedar, or ash, but hickory usually +possesses greater strength than other timbers of similar size. It is not +probable that they had any tools with which they could split the hickory +trees. They would, therefore, be compelled to use the hickory saplings +in the manufacture of bow staves. + +The penetrative force of the stone-tipped arrow, driven by the strong +and skillful arms of these prehistoric men, must have been very great. +Quite a number of instances are known and specimens preserved in which +they were driven practically through the larger bones of the body. The +author has a human pelvis found in a cave in Meade County. Imbedded in +this is a portion of a flint arrow-point, the position of which shows +that it had been driven through the body, penetrating the bone on the +opposite side from which it entered. The point reached into the socket +of the hip joint. There it remained, causing necrosis of the bone, +until by processes of Nature the wastage was stopped, and the point +remained in the bone until the death of the individual, which the +indications show occurred long after receiving the wound. In one +instance an arrowhead was driven three inches into the bone of the leg +just below its union with the hip, and evidently caused the death of +the party into whom it had been shot. A number of instances are known +in which these arrowheads penetrated several inches into bone, and it +was no unusual thing that they attained sufficient penetrative force +to drive them through both coverings of the skull. + +Three of these arrowheads that have come under the immediate +observation of the author are not sharp at all, but rather blunt. The +smaller triangular arrowheads, if sufficiently strong--and probably +they were--could have been driven readily into bone without the use of +any great force, but an arrow-point about three inches in length, and +with a blunt point, thus driven into the bones of the body, +demonstrates beyond all question that the power which was used in +their propulsion must have been comparatively very great. + +The wooden or cane shafts probably were tipped with many kinds of +points, some beveled, some serrated, some triangular, some blunt, +being fastened thereto with the sinew of the deer or other animal. +There are some evidences, although not entirely conclusive, that these +arrow-points were often tipped with poison. It is said that at one +time the Shawnees in Western Kentucky were so well versed in the use +of poisons that they could place them in springs and thus destroy +their enemies, and also that quite large streams of water were +impregnated with these dangerous elements. We sometimes comment upon +the savageness of the methods of these people, but the poisoned arrow +is no worse than the soft-nose or explosive bullet, which has been +used by civilized nations in the memory of living people. + +The next weapon was the spear. These carried points so large that they +could not have been used with the ordinary bow. They must have been +attached to a larger piece of wood or cane than the arrow-shaft. They +were probably mounted upon cane or pieces of wood from four and +one-half to seven feet in length. They were doubtless used also in the +destruction of the larger animals, either bears or buffaloes, during +the buffalo period in Kentucky. The spear would be much more +formidable in close quarters with an animal even as large as the +wildcat than the bow and arrow. It would be comparatively as efficient +as the bayonet of modern times. + +Many of the flint knives were mounted on wooden handles. These +sometimes measure from one to ten inches in length, and at very close +range would become formidable weapons--not as formidable, however, as +the battle-ax blade which has been described above. + +In Kentucky there are no evidences of the cross-bow having been used. +The five weapons which we have described completed the military +accoutrement of these men, who must have spent a large portion of +their lives in warlike scenes and exploits. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[31] Copyright, 1910, by the Filson Club. + + + + +JAMES H. MULLIGAN + + +James Hilary Mulligan, the author of _In Kentucky_, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, November 21, 1844. He was graduated at St. Mary's +College, Montreal, Canada, in 1864; and five years later Kentucky +(Transylvania) University granted him his degree in law. For forty years +Judge Mulligan has been known in Kentucky as a lawyer, orator, and maker +of clever, humorous verse. He was editor of the old Lexington _Morning +Transcript_ for a year; and for six years he was judge of the Recorder's +Court of Lexington, from which work he won his title of "judge." From +1881 to 1888 Judge Mulligan was a member of the Kentucky House of +Representatives; and from 1890 to 1894 he was in the State Senate. In +1894 President Cleveland appointed Judge Mulligan Consul-General at +Samoa, and this post he held for two years. While in Samoa he saw much +of Robert Louis Stevenson, who was working upon _Weir of Hermiston_, and +well upon his way to the undiscovered country when the Kentucky diplomat +met him. When Stevenson died, December 4, 1894, the first authoritative +news of his passing came in a now rare and precious little booklet of +thirty-seven pages which Lloyd Osbourne, Judge Mulligan, Bazett Haggard, +brother of the English novelist, and another writer, sent out to the +world, entitled _A Letter to Mr. Stevenson's Friends_ (Apia, Samoa, +1894). It contained a detailed account of the writer's last days, his +death, and funeral. Mr. Osbourne "ventured also to reprint Mr. Gosse's +beautiful lines, _To Tusitala in Vailima_, which reached Mr. Stevenson +but three days before his death." President Cleveland offered to send +Judge Mulligan to Cape Town, Africa, but he declined the appointment, +and came home. For the past fifteen years he has devoted his attention +to the law and to the writing of verse and prose. His _Samoa, the +Government, Commerce, and People_ (Washington, 1896), is said to be the +most exhaustive account of that island ever published. Judge Mulligan's +little humorous poem, _In Kentucky_, has made him famous. First read at +a banquet in the old Phoenix Hotel, Lexington, in 1902, it has been +declaimed in the halls of Congress and gotten into the _Congressional +Record_. It has been parodied a thousand times, reproduced in almost +every newspaper in English, illustrated, and at least one Kentuckian has +heard it chanted by an Englishman in the shadow of the Pyramids in +Egypt! More than a million souvenir postal cards have been sold with the +verses printed upon them; and had the author had _In Kentucky_ +copyrighted, he would have reaped a harvest of golden coins. As poetry +Judge Mulligan's _Over the Hills to Hustonville_, or _The Bells of Old +St. Joseph's_, are superior to _In Kentucky_, but they are both +comparatively unknown to the general public. Judge Mulligan's home, +"Maxwell Place," on the outskirts of Lexington, was the birthplace of +_In Kentucky_. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Lexington Leader_ (April 4, 1909); _Library of + Southern Literature_ (Atlanta, 1910, v. xiv). + + +IN KENTUCKY + + [From _The Lexington Herald_ (February 12, 1902)] + + The moonlight falls the softest + In Kentucky; + The summer days come oftest + In Kentucky; + Friendship is the strongest, + Love's light glows the longest, + Yet, wrong is always wrongest + In Kentucky. + + Life's burdens bear the lightest + In Kentucky; + The home fires burn the brightest + In Kentucky; + While players are the keenest, + Cards come out the meanest, + The pocket empties cleanest + In Kentucky. + + The sun shines ever brightest + In Kentucky; + The breezes whisper lightest + In Kentucky; + Plain girls are the fewest, + Their little hearts the truest, + Maiden's eyes the bluest + In Kentucky. + + Orators are the grandest + In Kentucky; + Officials are the blandest + In Kentucky; + Boys are all the fliest, + Danger ever nighest, + Taxes are the highest + In Kentucky. + + The bluegrass waves the bluest + In Kentucky; + Yet, bluebloods are the fewest(?) + In Kentucky; + Moonshine is the clearest, + By no means the dearest, + And, yet, it acts the queerest + In Kentucky. + + The dovenotes are the saddest + In Kentucky; + The streams dance on the gladdest + In Kentucky; + Hip pockets are the thickest, + Pistol hands the slickest, + The cylinder turns quickest + In Kentucky. + + The song birds are the sweetest + In Kentucky; + The thoroughbreds are fleetest + In Kentucky; + Mountains tower proudest, + Thunder peals the loudest, + The landscape is the grandest-- + And politics--the damnedest + In Kentucky. + + +OVER THE HILL TO HUSTONVILLE + + [From _The Lexington Leader_ (April 4, 1909)] + + Over the hill to Hustonville, + Past mead and vale and waving grain + With fleecy clouds and glad sunshine + And the balm of the coming rain; + On where hidden beneath the hill, + In the widening vale below-- + Chime and smith and distant herd + Sing a song of the long ago. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + Where silent fields are sad and brown, + And the crow's lone call is blended + With the anvil beat of the town; + Where sweet the hamlet life flows on, + And the doors ever open wide, + Welcome the worn and wandering + To the ingle and cheer inside. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + I knew and loved as a child, + A scene that yet lights up to me + With a radiant glow and mild; + With drowsy lane and quiet street, + Gables quaint and the houses gray, + Ancient inn with battered sign, + And an air of the far-away. + + Over the hill to Hustonville + Where men are yet sturdy and strong + As were their sires in days long past-- + As true as their flint-locks long. + And maids are shy and soft of speech-- + As the wild-rose, lithsome and true, + Eyes alight as the coming dawn, + Softly blue, as their skies are blue. + + Some--sometime--in the bye and bye, + With all my life-won riches rare-- + Dead hopes and faded memories-- + A silken floss of baby hair; + Fast locked close within my heart-- + Worn of strife and the empty quest-- + I'll over the hill to Hustonville, + To dream ever--and rest--and rest. + + + + +NELLY M. McAFEE + + +Mrs. Nelly (Nichol) Marshall McAfee, novelist and verse writer, was +born at Louisville, Kentucky, May 8, 1845, the daughter of Humphrey +Marshall, the younger. When but eighteen years of age she embarked +upon a literary career. Her verse and short-stories appeared in many +of the best American newspapers and magazines, and they brought her a +wide reputation. On February 13, 1871, after a romantic courtship of +some years, Miss Marshall was married to Captain John J. McAfee, a +former Confederate soldier, then a member of the Kentucky legislature. +Mrs. McAfee published two volumes of verse, entitled _A Bunch of +Violets_, and _Leaves From the Book of My Heart_. Her novels include +_Eleanor Morton, or Life in Dixie_ (New York, 1865); _Sodom Apples_ +(1866); _Fireside Gleamings_ (Chicago, 1866); _Dead Under the Roses_ +(1867); _Wearing the Cross_ (Cincinnati, 1868); _As by Fire_ (New +York, 1869); _Passion, or Bartered and Sold_ (Louisville, 1876); and +_A Criminal Through Love_ (Louisville, 1882). Mrs. McAfee died at +Washington, D. C., about 1895. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Woods-McAfee Memorial History_, by N. M. Woods + (Louisville, 1905); _Dictionary of American Authors_, by O. F. + Adams (Boston, 1905). + + +FINALE + + [From _A Criminal Through Love_ (Louisville, Kentucky, 1882)] + +Many years have been gathered to the illimitable past, and we find +ourselves, with undiminished interest, seeking to learn all we can in +regard to the positions and attainments of the characters who have +been with us for so long. + +This is the gist of what we have learned about them. + +Walter Floor's firm has grown and flourished; the dark cloud of sorrow +that so long overshadowed his sky, has rolled away, and he is +nevermore melancholy or oppressed. His home is the resting-place and +haven for everybody who chooses to enjoy shelter and repose. Constant +and Valentine are standing guests at the Floor mansion; the talented +painter has no longer any need to work for money. The mention of his +name opens every door to him, and Fortune and Fame await him with +their arms laden with golden sheaves and shining laurel wreaths. His +greatest work of art--his masterpiece--was taken from Mozart's Opera +of _Don Juan_. At a glance any one could tell that the artist painted +the portrait _con amore_, for Donna Anna was nothing more than a +portrait of Margarethe Heinold--whom we must ever after this moment +remember only as Margarethe Hendrik. More happiness than came with +this name to her could scarcely be enjoyed by mortal. Great sums were +offered again and again to Constant for this picture, but he refused +to sell it; it now graces the elegant _Salon_ of Julian Hendrik in his +magnificent villa, which stands on the banks of the Rhine. + +Margarethe, after the night of her brilliant _debut_, never stepped +upon the boards. She was often urged to let the world hear her +splendid voice, which returned to her in all its volume and beauty +after she regained her health, but she refused to entertain the +proposition for an instant, declaring that public life, however +glorious, had no charms for her; that she lived only for her husband, +to whom she becomes ever more tenderly attached the better she became +acquainted with his noble heart, elevated mind, and peerless character +as a man and a gentleman. + +Didier Mametin is still in Paris; at the death of old Vincent he +became his heir, and was at last able to open such a photographer's +_Atelier_ as other artists pronounced perfect in every detail. The +lighthearted Frenchman, never accustomed to an extravagant mode of +living, is just as merry in humor and abstemious in diet as of yore. +Henriette often declares that he acts as if he were afraid of +starving--he is such a hoarder for "rainy days." But Didier had a +varied experience, and the lessons he learned were not easily +forgotten. One happy fact remains: He and Henriette love each other +dearly, and would not exchange their places or give up their home to +be a king and queen and live in a palace. + +Roderick Martens attends to the ship-building interests of Jyphoven, +in Amsterdam, and occupies the old Jyphoven mansion. Herr and Madame +Jyphoven continue to reside in Paris. Bella is enchanted with life in +the French city, and declares that to be mistress of the whole +world--if she would go but for a day--could be no inducement to her to +set her foot in the old Holland fishery, as she now describes it to +be. She is entirely reconciled to Francisca. The beauty and happiness +of the young wife would captivate the most callous heart. + +And Von Kluyden? This man who devoted himself to intrigue and +rascality for so long, knew not, while he lived, how otherwise to +occupy his time. He was never satisfied. Nemesis held him fast in her +cruel clutches. When the time came for Hendrik to assert and prove his +rights, he did so most successfully; and that for which Isabella +bartered her honor, and beauty, and youth, passed like sand through +the fingers, and was hers no more. Von Kluyden was successful in +nothing that he undertook to accomplish; the ghost of the murdered +Horst followed him day and night;--he finally died in a madhouse! +Isabella had, a little while before his dementia, entrusted herself +and her million of money into the hands of a young man of the titled +nobility--who in his turn did not love the young widow even for her +marvelous beauty--but for the _thalers_ and _gulden_ that brought +plenty to his empty coffers and luxury to his impoverished home. In +this marriage Isabella did not find the happiness she expected to +find, and for which she had so long waited. The Prince squandered her +enormous fortune, as Princes are usually supposed to squander +fortunes, in about the half of a year's duration, and by that time, +having found out and enjoyed all that life held for him of pleasure or +excitement, he closed his career by putting a pistol-ball through his +head, early one morning, while the sun was shining, and the birds were +singing, and flowers were blooming on every side. + +So it has come to pass that Isabella--although not yet twenty-five +years of age, has been twice a widow--(and a very charming one she +is!) not likely now ever to be aught else! The sale of her beauty, her +honor, her peace of mind, has brought to her, as a recompense for what +she has lost, a varied and rich experience, which will save her +forever hereafter from the chance of being deceived and betrayed +through the tenderest and noblest impulses of the human heart. + +And so the curtain goes down forever between us and those with whom we +have whiled away some pleasant hours, and gathered, it may be, profit +or amusement from their acting on the stage of life. + +_Voila tout._ + + + + +MARY F. CHILDS + + +Mrs. Mary Fairfax Childs, maker of dialect verse, was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, May 25, 1846. She is the daughter of the Rev. +Edward Fairfax Berkley (1813-1897), who was rector of Christ Church, +Lexington, for nineteen years. Dr. Berkley baptized Henry Clay, in +1847, and buried him five years later. Miss Berkley was a pupil at the +Misses Jackson's Seminary for young ladies until her thirteenth year, +or, in 1858, when her father accepted a call to St. Louis, in which +city he labored for the following forty years. In St. Louis, she +continued her studies at a private school for girls, when she left +prior to her graduation in order to devote herself more especially to +music, Latin, and French. Miss Berkley was married, in 1870, to +William Ward Childs, a returned Confederate soldier; and in 1884 they +removed to Clinton, Missouri, where they resided for seven years, when +business called them to New York, their home until Mr. Child's death +in 1911. Mrs. Childs's life in New York was a very busy one. She was +prominent in several social and literary groups; and for many years +she was corresponding secretary of the New York Chapter of the United +Daughters of the Confederacy. Her first poem that attracted wide +attention was entitled _De Namin' ob de Twins_, which originally +appeared in _The Century Magazine_ for December, 1903. It was the +second in a group of _Eleven Negro Songs_, written by Joel Chandler +Harris, Grace MacGowan Cooke, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and one or two +other poets. That Mrs. Childs's masterpiece was the flower of the +flock admits of little question: it is one of the best negro dialect +poems yet written by a Southern woman. Exactly a year later the same +periodical published her _A Christmas Warning_, with the well-known +refrain, _Roos' high, chicken--roos' high_. These, with many others, +were brought together in an attractive volume, entitled _De Namin' ob +de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton Land_ (New York, 1908). +This collection is highly esteemed by that rather small company of +lovers of dialect verse. Mrs. Childs's poem, _The Boys Who Wore the +Gray_, has been printed, and is well-known throughout the South. She +has recently completed another collection of sketches, called +_Absolute Monarchy_, which will appear in 1913. At the present time +Mrs. Childs is historian of the Society of Kentucky Women of New York, +although she is residing at Kirkwood, Missouri, near St. Louis. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Mrs. Childs to the present writer; _The + Century Magazine_ (January, 1906). + + +DE NAMIN' OB DE TWINS[32] + + [From _De Namin' ob de Twins, and Other Sketches from the Cotton + Land_ (New York, 1908)] + + What I gwine name mah Ceely's twins? + I dunno, honey, yit, + But I is jes er-waitin' fer de fines' I kin git, + De names is purty nigh run out, + So many niggahs heah, + I 'clar' dey's t'ick as cotton-bolls in pickin'-time o' yeah. + + But 't ain' no use to 'pose to me + Ole secondary names, + Lak 'Liza_beth_ an' Jose_phine_, or Caesah, Torm, an' James, + 'Ca'se dese heah twinses ob mah gal's + Is sech a diff'ent kind, + Dey's 'titled to do grandes' names dat ary one kin find. + + Fer sho dese little shiny brats + Is got de fus'-cut look, + So mammy wants fine city names, lak you gits out a book; + I ax Marse Rob, an' he done say + Some 'rageous stuff lak dis: + He'd call de bruddah Be'lze_bub_, de sistah Gene_sis_; + + Or Alphy an' Omegy--de + Beginnin' an' de en'-- + But den, ob co'se no man kin tell, what mo' de Lawd 'll sen'; + Fer de pappy ob dese orphans-- + You heah me?--I'll be boun', + While dey's er-crawlin' on de flo', he'll be er-lookin' roun'; + + 'Ca'se I done seen dem Judas teahs + He drap at Ceely's grabe, + A-peepin' 'hind his han'kercher, at ole Tim's yaller Gabe; + A-mekin' out to moan an' groan, + Lak he was gwine 'o bus'-- + Lawd! honey, dem dat howls de mos,' gits ober it de fus'. + + Annynias an' Saphiry, + Sis Tab done say to me, + But he'p me, Lawd! what _do_ she 'spec' dese chillum gwine o' + be? + 'Sides, dem names 's got er cur'us soun'-- + You says I's hard to please? + Well, so 'ould any granny be, wid sech a pa'r as dese. + + Ole Pahson Bob he 'low dat I + Will suttinly be sinnin', + Onless I gibs 'em names dat starts 'em right in de beginnin'; + "Iwilla" fer de gal, he say, + F'om de tex' "I will a-rise," + An' dat 'ould show she's startin' up, todes glory in de skies; + + An' fer dis man chile, Aberham-- + De fardah ob' em all-- + Or else Belshazzah, who done writ dat writin' on de wall; + But Pahson Bob--axcuse me, Lawd!-- + Hed bettah sabe his bref + To preach de gospel, an' jes keep his "visin" to hiss'f; + + Per nary pusson, white nor black, + Ain' gib no p'int to me + 'Bout namin' dese heah Chris'mus gifs, asleep on granny's knee; + (Now heshaby--don' squirm an' twis', + Be still you varmints, do! + You anin' gwine hab no niggah names to tote aroun' wide you!) + + 'Ca'se on de question ob dese names + I sho is hed mah mine + _Per_zactly an' _per_cidedly done med up all de time; + Fer mah po' Ceely Ann--yas, Lawd, + Jes nigh afo' she died, + She name' dis gal, "Neu-ral-gy," her boy twin, "Hom-i-cide." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[32] Copyright, 1908, by B. W. Dodge and Company. + + + + +WILLIAM T. PRICE + + +William Thompson Price, dramatic critic, creator of playwrights, was +born near Louisville, Kentucky, December 17, 1846. He was educated in +the private schools of Louisville, but the Civil War proved more +interesting than text-books, so he ran away with Colonel E. P. Clay, +whom he left, in turn, for John H. Morgan, and Generals Forrest and +Wheeler. He was finally captured and imprisoned but he, of course, +escaped. After the war Mr. Price went to Germany and studied for three +years at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin. From 1875 to 1880 he +was dramatic critic for the Louisville _Courier-Journal_; and the +following five years he devoted to editorial work for various +newspapers, and to collecting material for his enormous biography of +the Rev. George O. Barnes, a noted and eccentric Kentucky evangelist, +which appeared under the title of _Without Scrip or Purse_ +(Louisville, 1883). Mr. Price went to New York in the early eighties, +and that city has remained his home to this day. In 1885 he was +dramatic critic for the now defunct New York _Star_, which he left +after a year to become a reader of new plays for A. M. Palmer, the +leading manager of his time, whom he was associated with for more than +twenty years. Mr. Price's _The Technique of the Drama_ (New York, +1892), gave him a high position among the dramatic writers of the +country. A new edition of it was called for in 1911, and it seems +destined to remain the chief authority in its field for many years. In +1901 Mr. Price became playreader for Harrison Grey Fiske; and in the +same year he founded the American School of Playwriting, in which men +and women, whom the gods forgot, are transformed into great +dramatists--perhaps! His second volume upon the stage, _The Analysis +of Play Construction and Dramatic Principle_ (New York, 1908), is the +text-book of his school. At the present time Mr. Price is editor of +_The American Playwright_, a monthly magazine of dramatic discussion. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. Letters from Mr. Price to the present writer; _Who's + Who in America_ (1912-1913). + + +THE OFFENBACH AND GILBERT OPERAS[33] + + [From _The Technique of the Drama_ (New York, 1892)] + +The light-hearted genius of Paris composed a new style of opera for +the general merriment of the world. Who can describe the surprises, +the quaintness of song, the drolleries of action of the Offenbach +school? It was the intoxicating wine of music. Gladstone, when premier +of England, found time to say that the world owed as much in its +civilization to the discovery of the fiddle as it did to steam. + +This cannot be applied in its whole sense to Offenbach, but this +master of satire and the sensuous certainly expressed his times. He +set laughter to song. It was democratic. It spared not king, courtier, +or the rabble. It was wisdom and sentiment in disguise. It was born +among despotisms, and jested when kingdoms fell. It was the stalking +horse behind which Offenbach hunted the follies of the day and bagged +the absurdities of the hour. If it had _double entendre_, its +existence had a double meaning. Its music and purpose defied national +prejudices. Under its laughter-compelling notes the sober bass-viol +put on a merry disposition, and your cornet-a-piston became a wag. It +was flippant, the glorification of youthful mirth and feelings, and it +made many a melancholy Jacques sing again the song of Beranger, + + "_Comme je regrette ma jambe si dodu._" + +It is not the purpose here to commend its delirious dances, but to +admit that there was genius in it. In a technical sense the dramatic +part of them are models compared with the inane and vague compositions +of a later school. + +The opera bouffe is in a stage beyond decadence, and no longer regards +consistency, even of nonsense, in its dramatic elements. Some of the +conventionalisms of its technique remain. + +We hear again and again the old choruses, the drinking songs, the +letter songs, the wine songs, the conspirators' songs, the departure +for the war, the lovers' duets, and what-not, with the old goblets, +the old helmets and all in use; but order is lost, and the topical +song often saves the public patience, apart from the _disjecta +membra_, upon which are fed the eye and the ear. + +The Gilbert opera. The delicate foolery of Gilbert and the interpreting +melody of Sullivan created an inimitable form of opera that delighted +its generations. In its way perfection marks it. There is much in it +that ministers to inward quiet and enjoyment. "Pinafore," "The Mikado," +and all the list, are products of genius. "Ruddygore" is structurally +weak, proving that even nonsense must have a logical treatment. +Successful in a manner as "Ruddygore" was, it was filled with +characteristic quaintness. We accept Rose Maybud as a piece of good +luck, from the moment her modest slippers demurely patter to the front; +and it is a sober statement to say that our generation has seen nothing +more charming than her artful artlessness and innocence. She is worthy +of Gilbert. His taste is refined beyond the point of vulgarity in +essence or by way of expediency. His fancy is not tainted with the +corruption of flesh-tight limbs, and he holds fast only to such physical +allurements as the "three little maids just from school" in the "Mikado" +or the impossibly good and dainty Rose Maybud may tempt us with. In the +dance there is no lasciviousness, only joy. Gilbert and Sullivan have +called a halt to the can-can and bid the world be decent. The whole +history of comic opera is filled with proof that music first consented +to lend itself to foolery on condition that there should be some heart +in it; and even Offenbach, the patriarch of libidinous absurdities, +could not get along without stopping by the wayside to make his sinners +sing love-songs filled with pure emotion. + +Rose Maybud is a piece of delicate coquetry with the mysterious +simplicity of maidenhood, giving offense in no way. These authors are +satirists, not burlesquers and fakirs. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[33] Copyright, 1892, by Brentano's. + + + + +GEORGE M. DAVIE + + +George Montgomery Davie, a verse-maker of cleverness and charm, was +born near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, March 16, 1848. He began his +collegiate career at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, but he later +went to Princeton, from which institution he was graduated in 1868. +Two years later he established himself as a lawyer at Louisville. +Davie rose rapidly in his profession, and he was soon recognized as +one of the ablest lawyers in Kentucky. Though busy with his practice, +he found time to write verse and short prose papers for periodicals +that were appreciated by many persons. Davie was a Latinist of decided +ability, and he often employed himself in turning the odes of Horace +into English. His original work, however, is very charming and clever, +a smile being concealed in almost every line he wrote, though it is a +very quiet and dignified smile, never boisterous. He was one of the +founders of the now celebrated Filson Club, of Louisville. He died at +New York, February 22, 1900, but he sleeps to-day in Louisville's +beautiful Cave Hill cemetery. _Verses_ (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.), +a broadside, contains Davie's best original poems and translations and +it is a very scarce item at this time. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Courier-Journal_ (February 23, 1900); _Kentucky + Eloquence_ (Louisville, 1907). + + +"FRATER, AVE ATQUE VALE!" + +(Catullus, Car. CI.) + + [From _Verses_ (Louisville, Kentucky, n. d.)] + + Through many nations, over many seas, + Brother, I come to thy sad obsequies: + To bring the last gifts for the dead to thee, + And speak to thy mute ashes--left to me + By the hard fate, that on a cruel day, + From me, dear brother, called Thyself away. + Receive these gifts, wet with fraternal tears; + And the last rites, that custom old endears; + These fond memorials would my sorrow tell-- + Brother! forever, hail thee--and farewell! + + +HADRIAN, DYING, TO HIS SOUL + + [From the same] + + Animula vagula blandula, + Hospes comesque corporis, + Quae nunc abibis in loca, + Pallidula rigida nudula; + Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos? + + Thou sprite! so charming, uncontrolled, + Guest and companion of my clay, + Into what places wilt thou stray, + When thou art naked, pale, and cold? + Wilt then make merry--as of old? + + + + +JOHN URI LLOYD + + +John Uri Lloyd, novelist and scientist, was born at West Bloomfield, +New York, April 19, 1849. He is the son of a civil engineer who came +West, in 1853, for the purpose of surveying a railroad between +Covington and Louisville, known as the "River Route." Mr. Lloyd was +thus four years old when his father settled at Burlington, Boone +county, Kentucky, near the line of the road. The panic of 1854 came +and the railroad company failed, but his parents preferred their new +Kentucky home to the old home in the East, and they decided to remain, +taking up their first vocations, that of teaching. For several years +they taught in the village schools of the three little Kentucky towns +of Burlington, Petersburg, and Florence. Mr. Lloyd lived at Florence +until he was fourteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to a +Cincinnati druggist, but he continued to be a resident of Kentucky +until 1876, since which time he has lived at Cincinnati. In 1878 he +became connected with the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, and this +connection has continued to the present day. In 1880 he was married to +a Kentucky woman. Mr. Lloyd is one of the most distinguished +pharmaceutical chemists in the United States. He has a magnificent +library and museum upon his subjects; and he is generally conceded to +be the world's highest authority on puff-balls. Mr. Lloyd's scientific +works include _The Chemistry of Medicines_ (1881); _Drugs and +Medicines of North America_ (1884); _King's American Dispensatory_ +(1885); _Elixirs, their History and Preparation_ (1892); and he, as +president, has edited the publications of the Lloyd Library, as +follows: _Dr. B. S. Barton's Collections_ (1900); _Dr. Peter Smith's +Indian Doctor's Dispensatory_ (1901); _A Study in Pharmacy_ (1902); +_Dr. David Schopf's Materia Medica Americana_ (1903); _Dr. Manasseh +Cutler's Vegetable Productions_ (1903); _Reproductions from the Works +of William Downey, John Carver, and Anthony St. Storck_ (1907); +_Hydrastis Canadensis_ (1908); _Samuel Thomson and Thomsonian Materia +Medica_ (1909). Dr. Lloyd has won his general reputation as a writer +of novels descriptive of life in northern Kentucky. His first work to +attract wide attention was entitled _Etidorpha, or the End of Earth_ +(New York, 1895), a work which involved speculative philosophy. This +was followed by a little story, _The Right Side of the Car_ (Boston, +1897). Then came the Stringtown stories, which made his reputation. +"Stringtown" is the fictional name for the Kentucky Florence of his +boyhood. There are four of them: _Stringtown on the Pike_ (New York, +1900); _Warwick of the Knobs_ (New York, 1901); _Red Head_ (New York, +1903); and _Scroggins_ (New York, 1904). In these stories the +author's aim was not to be engaged solely as a novelist, "but to +portray to outsiders a phase of life unknown to the world at large, +and to establish a folk-lore picture in which the scenes that occurred +in times gone by, would be paralleled in the events therein narrated." +_Stringtown on the Pike_ is Mr. Lloyd's best known book, but _Warwick +of the Knobs_ is far and way the finest of the four. + + BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Bookman_ (May, 1900); _The Outlook_ (November + 16, 1901); _The Bookman_ (December, 1910). + + +"LET'S HAVE THE MERCY TEXT"[34] + + [From _Warwick of the Knobs_ (New York, 1901)] + +Warwick made no movement; no word of greeting came from his lips, no +softening touch to his furrowed brow, no sparkle to his cold, gray +eye. As though gazing upon a stranger, he sat and pierced the girl +through and through with a formal stare, that drove despair deeper +into her heart and caused her to cling closer to her brother. + +"Pap, sister's home ag'in," the youth repeated. + +"I know nothing of a sister who claims a home here." + +Mary would have fallen but for the strong arm of her brother, who +gently, tenderly guided her to a great rocking-chair. Then he turned +on his father. + +"I said thet sister's home agin, and I means it, pap." + +Turning the leaves of the Book to a familiar passage, Warwick read +aloud: + +"'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life +is not of the Father, but of the world.' This girl has no home here. +She is of the world." + +"Father, ef sister hes no home here, I hav'n't none, either. Ef she +must go out into the world, I'll go with her." + +The man of God gazed sternly at the rebellious youth. Then he turned +to the girl. + +"The good Book says, 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the +earth.'" + +Joshua stepped between the two and hid the child from her father. + +"Pap, thet book says tough things to-night. The text you preached from +to-day was a better one. I remember et, and I'll leave et to you ef I +am not right. 'I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep my +anger forever.' Thet's a better text, and I takes et, God was in a +better humor when He wrote et." + +"Joshua!" spoke the father, shocked at his son's irreverence. + +"Listen, pap. I hate to say et, but I must. You preached one thing +this morning, and you acts another thing now. Didn't you say thet God +'retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy?' I +may not hev the words right, but I've got the sense." + +"My son!" + +"Pap, I axes the question on the square. Ain't thet what you preached?" + +"That was the text." + +"It ain't fair to preach one text in the meetin'-house and act another +text at home." + +"Joshua!" + +"Let's hev the mercy text to-night. Pap, sister's home ag'in. Let's +act the fergivin' text out." + +Joshua stepped aside and the minister, touched in spite of himself, +glanced at his daughter, a softened glance, that spoke of affection, +but he made no movement. Then the girl slowly rose and turned toward +the door, still keeping her eyes on her father's face. She edged +backward step by step toward the door by which she had entered. Her +hand grasped the latch; the door moved on its hinges. + +"Stop, sister," said Joshua. "Pap, ef sister opens thet door I go with +her, and then you will sit alone in this room ferever. You will be the +last Warwick of the Knob." + +Warwick, with all his coldness and strength, could not stand the ordeal. + +"Come back, my children," he said. "It is also written, 'I will be +merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities +will I remember no more.'" And then, as in former times, Mary's head +rested on her father's knee. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[34] Copyright, 1901, by Dodd, Mead and Company. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. + +The oe ligature in this etext has been replaced with oe. + +Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original. + +Page xxi: The title of the Emerson poem "Goodby Proud World" is as in +the original. + +Page 251: 1833 has been changed to 1883 as this follows chronologically +from the surrounding sentences. (... and in 1883 his study ...) + +Page 273: A missing quote in (... to Write "Grace Truman: ...) is as in +the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Kentucky in American Letters, v. 1 of 2, by +John Wilson Townsend + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KENTUCKY IN AMERICAN *** + +***** This file should be named 39406.txt or 39406.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/4/0/39406/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Douglas L. 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