White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1859-01-20
~ WHITE CLOUD, KANSAS, THURSDAY JANUARY 90 1850

dashes no more the glittering spray; tn,
fire has died out in the forge the black.
smiths long days work is done
He settled in Innisied when It was bal
district attached to neighboring town.
There were but three or four houses in the
now somewhat populoHs village. Hs
came on foot driving his COW his wifc
following in the wagon, with their little
stock of household goods-not forgetting
his hammer, more potent than Prospero's
wand. The minister, the doctor, and
Squire Kinloch. who constituted the ar
istocracy, yielded precedence in date to
Ralph Hardwick, Knight Of the Ancient
Order Of the Anvil. ali 18
So he toiled faithful to his calling. By
day the din of his hammer rarely ceased,
and by night tho fame and sparks from
his chimney were Pharos to all travel
lers approaching the town. Children
were born to him, for which he blessed
God and worked the harder He attain
ed moderate prosperity, secure from
want, but still dependent upon labor for
bread At length his wife died he sept
like true and noble husband, as he was.
and henceforth was both mother and faith
err to his babes. tlet t eel
During all his life he kept Sunday with
religious scrupulousnesss and with his
family went to the house of worship in
all weathers. From the very first he had
been leader of the choir, and had given
the pitch with a fork hammered and tuned
by his own hands With clear and
sympathetic voice, he had such an instinc-
tive taste and power of expression, that
his song of penitence or praise was far
more devotional than the labored efforts
of many more highly cultivated singers.
Music and poetry flowed smoothly and
naturally from his lips, but in uttering
the common prose of daily life his organs
were rebellious. The truth must be spo-
ken = he stammered badly, incHrably.
Whether it was owing to the attemptsto
overcome his impeachment by making his
speech musical, or to the cadences of his
hammer beating time while his brain was
shaping IFS airy faneics, his thoughts ran
naturally in verse.
Do not smile at the thought OF Fulean's
calloused fingers touching the chords of
the Tyre to delicate mcsic The sun shone
as lovingly upon the swart face Of the
blacksmith in his shop door, as upon the.
scholar in his library window. Poetry
was an angel in his breast" making his
heart glad with her heavenly presence /;
he did not ''make her his drudge, his
maid of all work." as professional verse
makers do.
Mr.. Hardwick's younger sister was
married to hard working, stern, puri-
tanical man, named Davenport, not her
first love, who removed TO a Western
State when it was almost a wilderness,
cleared for himself a farm, and built a
log house. The toll and privations of
frontier life soon wrought their effects
upon Mrs. Davenport'S delicate consti-
tuition. She fell into a rapid decline
and died. Her husband was seized with
fever the summer after, and died also,
leaving two children, Mark AMI Anna.
The blacksmith had six motherless chill
dren of his own but he set out for the
West and brought the orphans home
with him. lie thenceforth treated them
like his own offspring, manifesting wo-
mans tenderness as well as a fathers care
for them.
Mark was comely lad, with the yell
low curling hair, the clear blue eyes, and
the marked symmetry of features that
belonged to his uncle. He had Unborn
love Of reading and study; he was first
in his class a. every winters school, and
had devoured all the books within his
reach. Then he borrowed an old copy OF
Adams Latin Grammar from DR.. Green
field, and committed the rules to memory
without a teacher That was his. intro
duction to the classics.
But Mr.. Hardwick believed in the duty
and excellence Of work, and Mark, as
well as his cousins, was trained to make
himself useful. So the grammar was
studied and Virgil read at chance inter
walls, when storm interrupted out door
work, or while waiting at the upper mill
for grist, or of nights at the shop by
the light of the forge fire. The para
digms were committed to memory with
an anvil accompaniment and long after,
he never could scan line of Homer with
ont hearing the ringing blows of his I'M
cle's hammer keeping time to the verse.
At sixteen years of age he was ready
to enter college, though he had received
little aid in his studies, except when some
schoolmaster who was versed in the hui
mauities CHANGED to be hired for the win
ter. But his uncle was not able to sup
port him at any respectable university.
and the lads prospects for such an edu-
cation he desired seemed to be none of
tbe hest ..a ~ irE- ga Tg a :,
At this point an incident occurred
which changed the course Of our hero's
life, and as it viii serve to explain how
he came to give his notes to Mr.. Kinlceh.
on which the administrators are about to
bring suit, it should properly be related
here. 30
- Mark Davenport was atwork on farm
A short distance from the village. He
hoped to enter college the following An
tumn. and he, knew no means 20 obtain
money for aportion Of his outfit except
by the labor of his hands. He could get
twenty dollars month foE the summer
season. Sixty. or possibly seventy dol
lars !Awhat ideas Of opulence were sug-
gested by the sonnd Of these words
II was damp, drizzly day there was
not settled rain. yet il. was too wet to