The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-08-12
BEAUTIFUL SNOW.

'1he beautiful Snow has been pronounced
by many to be the best poem Of the age.
There are in it sentiments that should melt
the hardest heart and bring tears to that eve
that has never known tear.
Considering all the circumstances, this i,
the most pathetic poem we have read. Read
it to your friends; rectc it to those you hold
nearest and dearest and il may be its stilrin Q
pathoS will save some soul to which this
world has become as a vanished DREAM
The Omaha Republican gives this brief
history Of the poem:
''IIow many thousands have let their tears
fall over those lines, as their touching pathos
call into recollection the sad story of other
aud similar victims to mans wanton cruelty .
In point of smooth versitication, easy flowing
rhythm, through which is almost heard the
plaintive wall of womans ruined honor, our
knowledge Of English literature brings to
mind no single poem of such thrilling Semt-
ment as this.
We have lately seen an article tlnating
the rounds of the press purporting 10 give
the authorship Of this remarkable effort but
the writer of the statement, who indulged
his inspiration amid the cool brrczes OF Lake
Erie seems really to know something of its
real history. The writer gives Miss Dora
Shaw, an actress, and author of Out in the
Rain the credit of author Of this poem. This
is a mistake. Dora Shaw has written some
pleasant lines, but her brain never flashed
that sparkling gem, The Beautiful Snow
In the early part Of the war, one dark Sat
urday night in the dead Of winter there died
in the Commercial Hospital in Cincinnati, a
Young woman over whose head only two and
twenty summers had passed. She had been
once possessed of an cnyiablc share of beauty.
and had been, as she herself says, 'llattercd
and sought for the charms Of the face ); but
alas. upon her fair brow had been written
that terrible wOrd-prosttute. Once the pride
Of respectable parentage, her first wrong step
was the small beginning ofthe same old story
over again. which has been the only life his
tory Of thousands. Highly educated and ac-
complished in manners. she might have shonc
in the best Of society. But the evil hour that
proved her ruin was the door from childhood.
and having spent a young life in disgrace and
shame, the poortl'iondlcsS one died the melan-
choly death of Il broien-hcarted outcast
Among her personal effects was found in
manuscript The Beautiful Snow, which was
immediately carried to Enos B. Reed, a gen
tlcmanoi culture and literary tastes, who was
at that time editor of the National Union. In
the columns of that paper. on the morning Of
the day following the girls death, the poem
appeared in print for the FIRST time When
tilc 'aptI containing me poem came our OF
Sunday morning, the body of the victim had
not yet received burial. The attention Of
Thomas Buchanan Read, one of the first of
American poets, was soon directed to the
newly published lines, and he was so taken
with their stirring pathos that he Immediately
followed the corpse to its final resting place.
Such are the plain facts concerning her
whose beautiful Snow shall long be remcm-
bercd ~ one of the brightest gems in Ameri-
can literature.