The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Golden Leaves from the American Poets. One Vol.
Pp. 384. Fred. Warne and Co.

That America is rich in poetry all know perfectly
well who know anything at all about the writings of
Poe, Bryant, Willis, and Longfellow. But that the
young country is so rich in poets, has so many of
them, has such a choir of nightingales, we hardly
realised in full until we came to the examination of
this dainty gilt-edged volume of selections. Selec-
tions, they are, from the writings of upwards of
one hundred transatlantic songsters and song-
stresses. One hundred and seven are mentioned by
name as contributing their quota to the collection—
to say nothing of three fragments of verse included in
it that are (all three) anonymous. Among these one-
hundred-and-seven, however, it should be here re-
marked at once that--besides the four famous names
already enumerated—there are really and truly
but ten only who are in any way familiarly known
in these latitudes : those ten being Dana, Everett,
Sigourney, Holmes, Lowell, Whittier, Street, Emer-
son, Beecher Stowe, and Bayard Taylor. The rest—
(with perhaps the solitary exception, here supple-
mented as by an afterthought in parenthesis, of
Payne,:the author of that lovely song of our hearths
and hearts, " Home, Sweet Home")—the rest of this
melodious concourse of one-hundred-and-seven in
all are wholly unknown to us on this side of the
Atlantic. So that the collection as a whole has the
conspicuous charm of novelty or freshness—the great
now
jvo
oi tof thersctotnitmenetts of theothe Ebonogklibsheingsubmitted
reader,
with
the rare exception of such old familiar and beloved
favourites as " The Raven" or the " Psalm of
Life," as " Thanatopsis" and " Excelsior," as
"The Bells," and the " Arsenal at Springfield."
As for old favourites like these, we can never read
them too often, we can never meet with them too
frequently. " Familiar in our mouths as household
words"—we know them (literally) by heart. But
clustered here _about them in profusion—clustered
thickly around these choicer blossoms flowering in
the wild and wide prairies of American literature
—are other, lesser, but still eminently beautiful
effusions hitherto wholly unknown to us, unrecog-
nised and unconjectured ! Flowers of transatlantic
verse, that have for the most part, until now, so faras
English readers are concerned, been " born to blush
unseen," if not actually condemned also to " waste
their sweetness on the desert air." The volume—
xhich makes a lovely gift-book, opportunely issued
from the press during the Easter holidays—is
adorned at its outset and enhanced very con-
siderably, both in interest and in value, by a
charming prelection upon American poetry, penned
by Alexander Smith, author of the " Life-Drama,"
and Secretary of the University of Edinburgh. As
a frontispiece to the volume there is a noble head
of Longfellow—from a recent photograph—a head,
the silvering hair and flowing beard of which would
seem to indicate far more than the poet's real age of
fifty-nine, giving him, in fact, an aspect truly patri-
archal.

Hardwickes Shilling Peerage, Shilling Baronetage
and Shilling House of Commons—each in the com-
pactest form, and printed in the clearest typo-
graphy, are again, according to annual custom,
issued from the press very seasonably and oppor-
tunely. The three volumettes, moreover, are still
published under the editorship or revision of Mr.
E. \Valford, already well known as a skilled and
practised man-of-letters, of rare industry, and of
untiring application.

MADEMOISELLE TITIENS.—This unriTalled artiste,
on her passage to Berlin and Hamburg, has been
induced to play four nights at Cologne, and made her first
appearance there last Thursday week as Norma. It is im-
possible to describe the enthusiasm that gifted lady has
created : the prices of admission have been trebled, not-
withstanding which it was impossible to obtain a place,
many hundreds from Bonn, Coblentz, and other Rhenish
towns being obliged to return without being able to hear
her. Many of those disappointed, however, presented them-
selves at her hotel with a petition signed by over 7,000
names, beautifully engrossed on parchment, together with
a magnificent silver gilt crown, of original and chaste
design, bearing the arms of Crefeld, Dusseldorf, Hanover,
Minden, Essen, &e., begging her to visit them each, but
for one evening, on her own terms. This she unfortu-
nately has been compelled to decline, in consequence of
her approacoing return to London, where she is engaged
at her Majesty's Theatre. At Cologne and Hamburg
Titiens receives as honorar (salary) half the total
receipts, amounting frequently to 5,000 f. (.£200) per night.
SAMUEL WILDERSPIN, THE FOUNDER OF INFANT
SCHOOLS, who died on the 10th inst., aged 74, was
born at Hornsey, in Middlesex, not in poverty, as in one
place stated, but in lowly rank. He obtained only an
elementary school education, and was placed to learn a
common trade ; but his sympathies led him to become a
teacher of poor children, he began where we in work-
houses and low neighbourhood ought to begin, namely,
with the " precious infants," using a term which he de-
lighted to employ ; and the honest, truthful, little man suc-
ceeded as he deserved. His first school, we believe, was
in Quaker-street, Spitalfields, London. As " Temple Bar"
in 1861 said, he was at home in the midst of babies."
What a fine touch of nature he displayed when he subdued
to quietude a school full of crying, yelling, kicking, little
rebels, who had risen in boisterous panic to go to their
mothers, by marching among them with his wife's gaily-
ribboned cap stuck on a clothes prop ! He used to be
proud of this feat, and it illustrates the principle on which
he acted. Mr. Wilderspin was married twice, and he had
three daughters. Two of these have gone before him. One
was unmarried, and she lies in Thorne's churchyard, where
also his earthly remains, attended by friends, wore placed
last Wednesday morning. The other was the wife of Mr.
Young, a fellow-worker of Mr.Wilderspin's, now principal
of the Infant department of the Irish Model Schools in
Dublin, who was present at the funeral ; as also was his
son, the Rev. Samuel Wilderspin Young, by whom part of
the service was read, Mr. Jones officiating at the grave.
Mrs. Torrington is the remaining daughter. Her husband
was known to and respected by many here, he having, on
some of his visits several years ago, lectured at our Mecha-
anics' Institution. Her son, too, was present at the funeral.

The Grey River Argus, of the 23d of December,
states that a splendid parcel of gold, weighing 3800 z., was
on the previous day sold to the Bank of New South Wales
by two miners, Moore and his mate, the result of less than
five weeks' work, in a gully about night miles from No
Town. The same party a short time since realised 200 oz.
for a little over a fortnight's work in the same locality.
The gully is a small one, and the other parties in it are
doing quite MI Wcll.--AVMOUrin