The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1869-01-26

Last summer we published the incom7
parable poem entitled "The Beautiful
Snow" which met with such universal
favor and has been so eagerly sought for,
that every copy of the Ledger containing
it has been picked up. Numerous inqui-
ries have been made for it, which we
were unable to fill, and therefore, at the
special request of many friends, we re-
publish the poem. Like "The Dying
Year," by George d. Prentice, THE
Beautiful Snow will bear reading every
month in the year. 1t has been pro-
nounccd by the London Spectator to be
the finest American poem ever written.
This opinion, we think, is not far out of
the way. The Ledger is giving its read
ers some of the best poetry selected
and ginal-that has ever been publish
ed in this country. Two weeks ago we
published the address to a Skeleton"
a rare gem,full of sentiment and thought !;
and last Sunday, "Out in the Snow" a
most meritorious production by one of
our Dayton citizens.
But here is the history of 1.-The Beau
tiful Snow" taken from the Omaha Re
publican:
'How many thousands have let their
tears fall over these lines, as their touch
ing pathos call into recollection the sad
story of other and similar victims to
mans wanton cruelty! In point of
smooth versifcation, easy flowing rythm,
through which is almost heard the plain
tive wall of woman's ruined honor, our
knowledge of English literature brings
to mind no single poem Of such thrilling
sentiment as this.
ave have lately seen an article float
ing the rounds of the press, purporting
to give the authorship of this remarka-
BILE effort; but the writer of the state
ment, who indulged his inspiration
''among the cool breezes of Lake Erie"
seems really to know nothing about its
real history. The writer gives Miss Do
IA Shaw, an actress, and author of "Out
in the Rain," the credit and honor of the
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
Saturday night in the dead of winter,
there died in the Commercial Hospital,
in Cincinnati,a "a young woman over whose
head only two and twenty summers had
passed. She had once been possessed
of an enviable share of beauty, and had
been, as she herself says, ''fiattered and
sought for the charms of the face" but
alas upon her fair brow had long been
written that terrible word-prostitute
Once the pride of respectable parentage,
her first wrong step was the small be
ginning of 'the same old story over
again." which has been the only life his
tory of thousands. Highly educated
and accomplished in manners, she might
have shone 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 poor friendless one died the mclan-
choly death of broken-hearted out
cast.
"Among her personal effects was found
in manuscript "The Beautiful Snow"
which was Immediately carried to Enos
B. Reed, a gentleman of culture and lit
erary 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 ap-
peared in print for the first time. When
the paper containing the poem came, out
on 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