Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-08-07
John G.. SAKE.

VI 'OiiHoHt, IL naClVo OF that state, an(
was born at Highgate, Franklin County
on the second of June, 1915. Bred on ,
farm, John cultivated pumpkins instead O
puns until he was seventeen. Indeed, hi
awful habit Of punning did not develop,
itself to an alarming degree until he wa
OF age. His youth Of innocence did moi
foreshadow his wicked literary career
Little did the world know, when John wa
dropping corn and pumpkin seed, rakins
hay and digging potatoes, like any othe
honest and industrious swain, that he woult
one day be riding on rail all over the
country, drawing people together in lectur,
rooms and then sending them home with
mouths ajar and the side ache.
1t is Irving, who says that one half O
the world was made to ride and the othel
half to be ridden. AS it respects laugh
ing, the parties are more unequally divi
ded. All mankind were made to laugh
and John G; SAKE was made to make 'en
do it.
At the age of seventeen, John forsool
the grain fields, repudiated manual labor
and went to st. Adams, where, in notous
living on Greek and other roots, he
spent his best days among grammar schoo
Migrants Ere long he strolls to Middle
bury, where, strange to say, he is permit
ted to tarry for four years. When he fl
nally took his departure, the shepherds
who there officiate in the classic fields, in
stead Of cropping an ear, as sheep are Of
ten marked, posted him off with ga. B.
affixed to his name-signifying, we sup
pose, that he had mastered the first
two letters of the alphabet. Encouraged
by his progress in literature, he strayed as
far as West Lewiston, N. Y, where, for g
short time, in the once famous and now de.
funct academy, he taught young ideas how
to shoot-amiss of course. Tired, al
length, of hearing boys and girls hic-hac
hooking it, he took another downward ster
by entering lawyers office in Lockport
few miles from Lewiston. Subsequent,
ly he returned to where he was at length
legally finished, and where he was admit
ted to the bar in September, 1s43. He
had previously practiced in courtins, ant
now began to practice in courts Here W.
may as we'll state that he tceK to himsel
wife and the nine musag almost slmulta
neously.
The first poem which Mr.. SAKE submit
ted to the inspection of an editor, was en-
titled "A legal Ballad called in his pub
lished fs1rks, The Briefess Barrister.' I
was eopzed into this periodical, and half O
our readers, we presume, can SAY it by
heart It showed at once the mournfu
propensity Of the authors mind to the pun
and was in fact, precursor of his head
long career in the forbidden path Of thu
comical. Progress, Satire the longes
poem of his in print, was pronounced be
fore the Alumni of Middlebury College, il
1916, and was soon afterward printed il
New York. 1t is pregnant with verba
and rythmical felicities, and occupies higl
position among our satirieal verse. q
New Rape Of the Lock- appeared in 1s47
The Proud Miss McBride,' in 1e4s, ant
The Times in 1s49. Near the close O
the last mentioned year, his poems wer'
brought out in handsome style BY Messls
Ticknor, Reed 4 Fields, Of Boston, an,
they have run through five editions. H
has since written lengthy poem entitled
New England which he has recited on
hundred and fifty times in as many cite
and villages. 1t is not yet in print Thi
poem, with few shorter ones, is all thu
capital added to his acknowledged metri
cal stock during the last four years. H
has not so much vanity as some other Ply
rotechnists, and does not claim all the fire
works which emenate from his brain. 4
little blaze of metrical wit frequently flash
les up in the columns of the Boston Morn
ing Post anonymously, but It is easy to Sc
what Lucifer made the match. The prime
of punsters cannot rid his poetic offsprin.
of the mare which betrays their parentage
and easier than poor Hester Prynn coult
remove the scarlet letter.
A clever English writer of the last cen
fury, said that the way to expose the I'M
guilty Of punni1g, like the expedient of Gu
ring drunkenness, is to show man in tina
condition! but as Mr.. SAKE is of respecta
bic parentage-no one of the name, for a
least two generations back, having com,
to his end in loop Of strong Irvine, w
spare him.
Whatever Mr. Saxe's behavior may be
he is a respectable looking man-for an ed
itor. He says Of himself
sNow 1 am man, you must learn,
Less famous for bea uty than strength,
And, for aught could ever discern,
Of rather superfuous length"
1t is very modest in him to decry hi
own beauty: being a poet, he is licensed t
do it. Touching his height, he farthe
sings as follows:
SIN truth 'tis but seldom one meets
Such Titan in human abodes,
And when stalk over the streets,
Pm perfect Collussus of roads"
Though giraffe among humans, MI
SAKE is happy example, in length, Of tn
fitness of things, showing that there is
design in the construction of animals, par
ticularly the higher. Born in an uneve
Ipart of the country, it was necessary tina
he, like Green Mountain boys generally
should be tall, in order to look over III
hills We have only to add, in this de
lpartment of personalities, that, though no
decidedly corpulent, our laughing poet
more fat-limb-ic than lymphatic.
In conclusion, we have only to add an