The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-08-22
From the Syracuse Journal
JOHN GODFREY SAKE.

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credit for more than one thing at time.
Bryant is known as the poet rather than the
publisher. There are plenty Of people who
are not aware that Longfellow was, for years
one Of the most popular and successful Pro-
fessors Of Harvard College. Doctor Hitch
cock writes and breaches excellent sermons,
but fame has covered them with geological
strata; and when Percival died, the world
mourned the poet and not the geologist.
John e.. SAKE supports, in the motley
ranks of life, the title of 'sthe witty poet;"
which was long since awarded him by acclaim
alton, and title which-unlike hosts Of
others-is richly deserved. lie is, indeed,
occasionally, spoken Of as the ''editor Of the
Burlington Sentinel;" but he might have
edited that hebdomadal for century with
out having been suspected, by nine people
out of ten, OF shaving finger in the ri,
or its leaders. SAKE is known to the public
as the witty poet, and the title is a barnacle
that will cling to his anatomical ''timbers"
until they are shivered by the bomb of death
"a missile that makes no noise when it ex-
podes. But like every other son of genius,
SAKE lives an inner life of which the world
knows but little, ard which we beg leave to
uncurtain, so that those who love and admire
the poet may be constrained to admire and
love the man.
SAKE is conversationalist- word that
carries its own superlative with it. As such
we have rarely met his peer,-neyer his su-
perior. He brings to bear upon his forle Of
the powerful artllIery OF COM
prehenslve intelligence, an opulent fancy,
the keenes. wit, the readie>t repartee; and
possess IS that faculty of successfully adapt
ing himself to Il trivial, or wrestling with a
lofty subject, the envy of which is as common
as its lack. His language is ever fresh and
"stale and Improbable. I"
He talks as free as brook flows; and, like
the brook, the wide margins of his CONVEX
sation are beautifed by the violets and clover
blossoms of simple and elegant rhetorie.--
One of the secrets of his power in this re-
spect exist in the fact that Sake is thor
ough scholar. The classics are his play
things. He remembers what he has studied,
and can quote the knottiest Greek sentences
with no more trouble than he expends in the
act Of respiration. He knows every spear
of grass in the field of bellies ietfres. Met
aphysics are never a dose to him, and his
love for the nalural sciences is almost un-
natural. He is well.informed man-to
adopt a conventional phrase which really
means more than it seems to mean-able to
scope with the professor, the divine, the
saudnt, and sure to ''hold his own" with the
best of them. His power is an educated
power, allied to genius of no ordinary char
acter, and controlled by the strongest good
sense, the most refined taste, and the incest
sense Of propriety. He makes no show of
his learning; he never attempts to air his
vocabulary" but it is impossible for him to
converse at all without evincing the qualities
which we have here set down to his credit
and renown.
SAKE possesses the attribute of geniality
to a remarkable extent. The secret of his
possession lies in his own heart. That heart
is gushing fountain, and not an Artesian
well. Its emotions How forth spontaneously
because they must; they are not drawn up
in buckets. He is not soured by care or suf-
fering. Through them all-and he has ha d
his full share-hc has preserved an amia-
bilty, feeling Of fraternity that beams
from his honest face like morning sun.
He loves the good, the beautiful and true,
and hates their opposites. He is perfectly
familiar with thu acids Of sarcasm, but he
never employs them--upon the vitriol-throw-
er's principle--to gratify any private piaue
or animoslty. His wit is attic; it never gro
vels in the basement. 1t is ever ready to how
and of its flow he himself is unconscious.
1t might be supposed that one who had
climbed to the pinnacles of popularity-who
had been fattered, as the world loves to fat
ter its fayorites--would be in danger of
self -conceit VIII ch would render him repul-
siye to his less favored fellows. This is not
so. SAKE possesses a just appreciation Of
his own abilities-and he is to be pitied who
does not-but it is as different from the feel
ing Of self-conceit as Thafberg's ssLast Rose
of Summer is different from dried hower.
Not one who really knows SAKE can fail to
credit him with modesty as we'll as genius.
Readiness is one of SaHe's prominent char
acteristics. Take him as you will, you will
always find him equal to the emergency. As
a pretty instance Of this quality, let US mem
ton the fact, that when he was last it this
city, and just as he was preparing to leave,
literary gentleman-one Of his warmest
admirers-begged his autograph, SAKE in.
stantly seized pen literally "the pen of q
ready writer and dashed of the following
impromptu.
"My autograph r It's pleasant 70 reflect
Although the thought may Gust single sigh
That what banker would with n reject,
May dnd value In . ascholars eye r.
Is not that neat and pointed?
The career of John G. SAKE, marked
though it has been by glorious achievements
and signal honors, has but begun. II kind
heaven continues his life and health, hs
future win be lit BY the rays Of stars, that
the world has not yet discovered, ard beau-
ti6ed BY aowsrs whose germs have mot yei