Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1857-12-31

community of men of letters that they
viii not disturb the popular fallacy re-
specting this or that electro gilded ce-
lebrity. There are various reasons for
this forbearance one is old one is
rich one is good-natured one is such
a favoritc with the pit that il would
not be safe to hiss him from the man
ayers box. The venerable augurs of
the literary or scientific temple may
smile family when one Of the tribe is
mentioned but the farce is in general
kept up as we'll as the Chinese comic
scene of cntrcating and emploring a
man to stay with you, with the implied
compact between you that he shall by
no means think of doing it. A poor
wretch he must be who would wanton-
ly sit down on one of these bandbox
regulations. a Prince-Rupert's-dr
which is a tear of una,.nealed glass.
lasts indefinitely. if You KEEP it from
meddling hands but break its tail off,
and it explodes and resolves itself into
powder. These celebrities ! speak Of
are the Prince-Rupert's-drops of the
learned and polite world. See how
the papers treat them What an
array ofplcasant Kaleidoscope phrases,
that can be arranged in ever so many
charming patterns, is at their service !
How kind the Critical Notices -
where small authorship comes to pick
up chips of praise, fragrant. sugary,
and sappy-always are to them =
Well, life would be nothing without
paper-crcdit and other fictions so let
them pass current. Don't steal their
chips; don't puncture their swimming
bladdcrs ; don't come down on their
pasteboard boxes don't break the
ends of their brittle and unstable repu-
tations, You fellows who all feel sure
that your names will be household
words thousand years from now.
az thousand years is a good while, "
said the old gentleman who sits oppo-
site, thoughtfully.
Where have / been for the last
three or four days? Down at the Is
land, deer-shooting.- many did
4 bag? brought home one buck
shot.-The Island is where? No
matter. 1t is the most splendid do
main that any man looks upon in
these ATTITUDES. Blue sea around it.,
and running up into its heart, so that
the little boat slumbcrs like a baby in
lap, while the tall ships are stripping
naked TO fight the hurricane outside,
and storm -stay-sails hanging and fly
ing in ribbons. Trees, in stretches of
miles bccches, oaks, most numerous /.
many of them hung with M
looking like bearded Druids; some
coiled in the clasp of huge, dark-stem-
med grapc-vines. Open patches where
the sun gets in and goes to sleep, and
the winds come so finely siftcd that
they are as soft "a swans down.
Rocks scattered about,
like monoliihs. Frcsh.watcr lakes !;
one of them, Mary's lake, chrystal-
clear, full of flashing pickcrcl lying
under the lilypads like tigers in the
Jungle. Six pounds of ditto one morn
ing for breakfast. Eoo fcct.
The diyinity-studcnt looked as if he
would like to question my Latin. No.
sir, | said, You need not trouble your
self. There is higher law in gram
mcr. not to be put down by Andrews
and Stoddard. Then went on.
Such hospitality as that Island has
seen there has not been the like of in
these our New England sovcrcigntics
There is nothing in the shape of kind
ness and courtesy that can make life
beautiful, which has not found its
home in that ocean-principality. II
has welcomed all who were worthy of
welcome, from the pale clergyman who
came to breathe the sea-air with It's
medicinal salt and iodine, to the great
statesman who turned his back on the
affairs of empire, and smoothed his
Olympian forhead, and flashed his
white teeth in merrimcnt over the long
table, where his wit was the kccncst
and his story the best.
| don't be';eye any man ever talked
like that in rnis world. ] don't be-
lieve talked just so but the fact is,
in reporting ole's conversation, one
can not help Blar-ing it up more or
less, ironing out crumpled paragraphs,
starching limp ones, and crimping and
plating a little sometimes; it is as nat
ural as prinking at the looking-glass.
How can man help writing
poetry in such a place? Everybody
does write poetry that goes there. In
the state archieves, kept in the library
of the Lord Of the Isle, are whole vol
umes of unpublished verscs,--some Ivy
well-known hands, and others, quite
as good, by the last people you would
think of as vcrsitcrs who could
pension off all the genuine poets in the
country, and buy ten acres of Boston
common, if it was for sale, with what
they had left OF course / had to
write my little copy of verses with the
rest; here it is, If you will hear me
read it. When the sun is in the west,
vessels sailing in an eastcrly direction
look bright or dark to one who OBJ
serves them from the north or south,
according to the tack they are sailing
upon. Watching them from one of
the windows of the great mansion, !
saw these perpetual changes, and NOR
allied thus -
As | look from the isle, o',r L. billows of
green.
TO the billows Of foam-crcsted blue,
Yon bark. that afar in the distance l. seen,
Half dreaming. my eyes will pursue;
Now dark in the shadow, she scstiers the
spray
- A. m l.. -.