New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-02-26

s; ,,,s,,sr, ~nosc ,,fe hss been passed under
the open shy, and in companlonsnp WIN fase
whose animal perceptions Se 'ne acus .. aIa a.,
I4athe rstoc hins has hisher qualues IN MIN tnsIo
IL a ssnal b,epding OF tre gthuess v'fsnes OF va
civilized man with the better bauie oI voc ~vo "a
nal Tribes all that in them is noble, generous am
Veal is adoJted into his o~n kindly character, anu
All that Is evil is rejected But why snoun l a.
tempt to snalyze character 70 iSmtiA Lea.ne as
s,c.rirg 1, rowlecged on all haDcs 10 De one OF
,be noble,t as well as most striking aDo Original
sreatious OF fiction. In some OF hs subsequent
novels Cooperfor he had no. ye. aAns me- 20 me
bed his first p'on OF the Character but In inc
Pioufsys il dszxled the world with The spenoof OF
novelty. .a
how from the ycissitudes Of life at sea, its perils
and escapes from the beauty ar terrors Of the gre
ceep from the working OF a vessel on long voyage,
and from the frank brave and generous but peculiar
character Of the seaman may be drawn materials OF
romance by which the minds OF men may De az
deeply moved as by aDy thing IN the 20 yer OF 10,
nance TO present. In this walk Cooper mas nAo
many disciples, but rival- All who have since
written Yomsnees Of the Sea- have been but travellers
in country OF which he was the great oscoverel,
and lone of them all seem TO have loved snip as
Cooper loved it, or have been able 90 strongly to n
terest all classes Of readers In Its fortunes AMONG
other personeges drawn with great sIensla ia ~
Pilot ia the general favoyi.e, Tom CoDn, inc
thorough seaman, with all the virtues, and one or
two Of the infrmiies OF his profession "perstllous
as seamen apt TO be, yet whose tupefsIlIiohs
cogpition Of the Power who holds the ocean I'D the
hollow Of his hand true. hearted gentle, full OF re-
sources collected IN DANGER and at last calmly per
shing at the post Of duty, with the vessel ne mas
long guided, BY what NAV cali great and mag
unanimous death. His rousher and coaIsef com
panion, BOrope, IL drawn with scarcely less SKILL
and with less vigorous hard
The Pioneers is not COoper's best tale OF me
American forest nor the Pilot perhaps IN al re-
tp pss whit, s here The measure Of his fame would,
posslbIy have been scarcely less ample than 1t now
Is Neither of them is far below the best OF his pro
sbs ere atoms of his imaginatIon-two OF the most
| remarkable characters in all fiction. -,
| 1t was about this time that my acquaintance with
| Cooper began, an acquaintance of more than a
quarter of century, IN which his department to-
ward me was that Of unvarled kindness. He then
resided considerable part OF the year in this city,
and here he had founoed q weekly club, TO which
many OF the NEST distinguished men OF the place be.
| lenged. OF the members who have since passed
away, were Chancellor Kent, the JuIlst Wiley, the
intelligent and liberal bookseller Henry ID. Sedg-
wick, always active in schemes OF benevolence
JARVIS, the painter, man of infinite humor, whose
| tests awoke lnextiD guishabe laughter De Kay, the
naturalist Sands, the poet JACOB Harvey waoSe
| genial memory is cherished by many friends. OF
those Who yet living was Morse the inventor Of
the electric telegraph Durand then ono OF the first
of Ell graveYs and less illustroDs as painter
| Henry James Anderson, whose requirements might
awaken the envy of the ripest scholars of the old
world Halleck, the poet and wit VeIplanck, who
has given the world The best edition OF Shakspsre for
| general readers DR.. King, nov at the head OF
| Columbia College, and his two immediate predeces
soIs in that Office might enlarge the list With
many other names OF DO less distinction. The army
| and navy contributed their proportion Of members
whose names are on record In our national history
Cooper when In town was always present, and re-
member being struck With The inexhaustDle vlvaclv
| of his conversation and the minuteness of his
knowledge, in every thing which depended upon
acuteness OF observation and exacsness OF recOlec.
1 ton. / remember, too, being somewhat startled
coming fresh 81 did from the seclusion OF coun-
| try life with certain emphatic frankness In his
manner which; however, came at last to like and
to admire. The club met in the hotel called
Washington Hail. the site of which Is now occupied
by part Of the circuit of Stewards marble building
Lionel Lincoln which cannot be ranked among the
1885, and in the year following appeared the Last Of
the Mohicans which more than recovered the ground
lost by its predecessor In this work. the construc
ton OF The narrative has signal defects, but it il
Of the riumphs of the authors genus that he makes
| US unconscious OF them while we read 1t is only
| when we have had time to awake from the intense
| interest in which he has held us by the vivid
reality Of his narrative. and have begun to search
| for faults in cold blood, that we are able TO find
them. In the Last of the Mohicans we have boder
poTtYaiture Of LeaherstockiDg than in the Pioneers
This work was pub ished in 1926, and in the ga ne
year Cooper sailed with his family for Europe. He
left NewYok as one of the vessels of war described
his romances Of the sea- goes out Of port. amid the
,huncer OF parting salute from the big guns on the
batteries. Dinner was given him just before his
departure a.snded by most Of N" di.tinsnishsSd
| and DR.. King addressed him in terms which some
then thought too glowing. but which would now
seem sufficiently temperate; expressing the good
wishes OF his friends, and dwelling on the satisfaction
they promised Themselves IN possessing illustri-
Gus representative of American literature in the
Old World. Cooper was scarcely in France when
he remembered his friends of the weekly club, and
sent frequent missives to be read at its meetings
but the club missed its founder, went into decline,
ard not long aftelward quietly expired.
The hrst OF COopeI's novels published after leav
ing America, was the Prairie, which appeared early
in 1927, work, with the admirers OF which wholly
agree Tread 1t with certain awe, an underlined
sense of submity, such as one experiences on en-.
enDg, for the first time, upon those immense grassy
deserts, from which the work takes it name The
sQuaiter and his famiy-that brawny old man and
large-liBbed sors, living In sort Of primitive and
patTaTcbal ibarbaiism, sluggish on ordinary occa
siops, but terrible when reused, like the hurricane
that sweeps the grand but monOtonous wilderness IN
which they dwell, seem a natural growth of those
NJ ceDt fields of the west. LealherstockIn hunter
in the Pioneers warrior in the Last ofthe MoAcsns
and now, IN his extreme old age, a trappeT on the
prairie, declined in strength but undecay ed in intel
ect al looking to the near close OF his lfe and
grave under the long grass, as calmly the laborer
at sunset looks to his evening slumber 10 no less IN
harmony with the silent desert in which he wanders
Equally SO are the Indians, still his companions
copies OF the American savage somewhat idealizsd,
but not The less part of the wild nature In which
they have their haunts.
Before the year closed, Cooper had given the
world another nautical tale, the Red Rorsr which
with many, Is greater favorite than the Pilot and
with reason. perhaps If consider principally the
incidents, which are conducted and described with
terror.
It happened to Cooper while he was abroad, as i,
nos unfIe quently happens to our countrymen, TO
hear TIE United States disadv an.as eousy compsred
WIN Europe: He had himself been close observer
| OF things both here and in the Old World ana was
conscious OF being able to refte the detrsctors ~
ms country In regard to many points, He published
IN Is2e, ater he had been ,so years in Europe,
Iratslng Bachelor, in which he gave fsyorahle ac
count OF me working OF our institutions and yindi