Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-09-04
ThurloW---!in Old Tine Letter

together with those who revere his name
tor bis great labors in the cause of Tenn
perance, will read with pleasure the fol
lowing letter from Hon. III. d. BARRON,
which we take from the Wisconan
Chief of August 18th.
SAINT CRorx FALLS, Wis, Aug. 5, 1868
EMMA: a recent communication in
the editorial columns of the CHIEF, from
one A. G. L., with "TBURLow" Mt the
head, attracts my attention and opens up
a long, dim vista of past memories
years freighted with recollections of de
tails that but few besides you and |, EN-
MA, recognizc as familiar and known.
| was an apprentice--a boy fourteen
years OF age, working weary hours at
the type-case of the Star of Temperance
office, IN my first apprentice year--when
IHURLow wrote his first letter for publ
cation to the Star. The publishers
brother-ln-law, good GEORGE MERRIMAN,
our only other hand--who then but thir-
~, looked young of his age--and who if
alive and appearing to me now, would
seem strange with the gray hairs of fifty
was i'll. The mapuscript-THURLow's
first manuscript for temperance paper,
and probably the first for any press*--
was handed to me by the wife of the ab-
sent publisher, WHO, in deep and serious
consultation with her brother, had critic
ised its holiness, and long considered the
the propriety and improperly of publish
ing it. The pages on the old style fools
cap paper, written with quill pen in
your old farm house home--the failure
throughout TO dot the letter j, which ]
thought at times was an e--his repeated
cross upon an and b--his disposition
to make no mark across the t--are all as
wildly before me here and now as the
occurrences of yesterday. If had been
old enough to have good judgment in
the matter punctuation, none upon my
part wod have been required. The ar
ticle was perfect and distinct in punctua-
ton and photography. "set it" rs /
found it. | followed copy" and it
came forth production of which THUR
LOW often told me that he was more
proud, even in after years. than of many
of his subsequent efforts. 1t stands now
upon the page of my boyhood scrap
books--a relic of the rosy and dear days
in which it was published--the first pro-
duction of moral hero, whose eloquel CO
and devotion to his God and his fellow
man gained the admiration and respect Of
thousands, and thrilled and swayed mass
es as the strong wind thrills and shakes
the weak sapling.
He continued his communications to
the Star until urged by the friends of
that paper to assume its editorial helm.
The briiancy, the force and the genius
displayed in these letters, written by the
country boy, whose world thus far, had
been only the shop and the farm fields,
attracted the attention of accomplished
clergyman, educated men of letters, and
temperance philauthropists. 1t was
Fall Winters day, dark in the four o
clock afternoon, when he came for the
first time to our Office, alighting from the
"Oswego Stage" as it stopped at the
State Street door of the Auburn New
York; Post Office. Crossing the pave
ment, he assembled the stairs, entered the
office, and with bashfuI awkwardness,
often since laughed over by him and me,
inquired for Mr.. DEWEY, the publisher.
This was the beginning of au acquain-
lance. and cherished and sacred
friendship, that remained unbroken and
mistaken amid the change of convictions
and of years, until the spirit bid you and
earth the most sublime farewell that was
ever written by man. To me, to day,
| in nv northern frontier home, there re-
mains but little of THURLow, except the
undying memory of a devoted philan.
thropist--a child of extraordinary gen
ius, a faithful friend, who was as true as
brother; an orator whose equal never
listened to in all my brief observation Of
and experience with public men and
speakers. This, of course, to me, ought
to be enough.
| went with him soon after we became
friends, to school house at Fosterville,
near Auburn, where he was to talk to
the country people about temperance,
and that which he so sincerely believed
to be the curse of bis race. ram. Young,
enthusiastic. with an active memory and
the admiration for genius which type and
the reading of printing office begets, /
listened with strained eyes and open ears
to that school house discourse, from one
who then had made speeches to no larg-
er audience. The sublimity. the grand
eur, the enthusiasm of that effort comes
to me, as write, as freshly as the pen
production. No one novel, no one ap
plauded, and all forgot their own identity.
The eloquence aud The genius that was
to make him future name and fame,
from behind that school house desk.
magnetized all | have since listened to
bis 4th of July orations--to bis Tempe
rance Addresses--to his speeches ut Ag
ricultural Fairs, where the triumph of
the Plow and the Reaper were pictured
as no other then living man could PIC
ture them--to bis demonstrations at po-
lttical meetings. where, thougn | saw
things different from him, his appeals in
behalf of human freedom and human
brotherhood. brought tears, and his de-
nunciation of woman whipping and slave