Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-01-05
whittier and Geo. D. Prentice,

Ciucinpntf, c6mnnercial CorrespondenFa Interview
az Mr.. Whittier said many things pleas
ant and interesting for me to recall, but
u do mol, know that I should be pardon
able in making. his, friendly private
talks public One or two things I may
sbe allowed to repeat, in my own Ian
sgEage however. Isspoke to. him of q
paragraph I had seen IN the newspa7
pers some time ago. stating that he in
old friends Mr. George ID. Prentice, for
8 proposed volume of his poems. Mr..
Whittier said he had himself seen such
q paragraph, but that it was mistake;
he had never really known. Mr.. Prem
tice and had never seen him He then
related TO me, with q good deal of genial
humor, the history of his succession to
Mr.. Prentice long ago as editor of the
New England Review, at Hartford. As
this may be said to have been the be-
Cunning Of Mr.. Whittier's public liter
ary life, his account was very interest
ing TO me. He said that he was spend
ing a year at school in an academy at
Haverhill, and while there happened to
see o copy of, the New England Review,
edited BY. Mr.. Prentice, which had
struck him with its brightness and
sprightliness as distinguished from the
ordinary newspapers of the time, and,
feeling interested in it, he had yentured
to send its editer two or three of his
acompositions, . as he called them,
which, to his great astonishment, had
been published with commendatory re-
marks. They had induced him to send
other contributions, and so he
continued to do until his year at the
HaverhiH Academy had come to
an end, when he returned to his fathers
farm. Here, one day, q short time
afterward, while he was at work In the
field, hoeing, perhaps letter was
brought to him from the publishers of
the Hartford paper, saying that they
had been requested by Mr.. Prentice to
invite him to become editor of the pa
per during Mr.. Prentice,s absence in
Kentucky, wIither he had gone towrite
a campaign Life of Henry Clay. "I
could not have been more utterly aston
ished, = said Mr.. Whittier, 6 if I had
been told that Isiwas appointed Prime
Minister to the Great Khan of Tartary.
Then he described the struggle between
his boyish ambition and his sense. of
inexperience and unftness. He felt en-
trely unprepared- knew nothing about
public affairs but could not bring
himself to think the opportunity was
got the better of his timidity, and, hay-
ing accepted the call, he finally set of
for Hartford to take possession. This
was then a long journey, he said; even to
90 to Boston was not a slight under
taking. Mr.. Whittier then described,
pleasantly, his interview with his pub
fishers, 9not letting on, I" he said, how
little he knew of editorial duties and
political affairs, but they did not "fnd
him out, = and so he continued for two
years as editor of the Review. His
greatest trial, he told me, was when
the leading party men came to see him
and discuss the political course of the
paper: Then he found his policy was
to maintain a iudicious silence, allow
ing them to do all the talking, which
was quite successful, and left him In
their good graces at the end of each in
terview. What was especially charm
ing to me In the poets account OF this
little farsgone experience, was the
pleasant way in which he seemed to re-
alize his boyish feeling again in its re-
ciSal. Mr.. Whittier spoke kindly OF
Prentice, always having regarded him,
he said, as man of good and generous
impulses, and during the recent war OF
the rebellion, b true Union man, but,
peahaps, unfortunately placed.
An old. man named Dabney KerneH, !,
who, for the last forty years, has kept
a small grocery ON the Lebanon pike,
about four miles from Nashville, Tenn. ,
was murdered in q most shocking man
ner. after dark Tuesday evening. A
party of three men called to get some
whisky, as they said, but while he was
waiting on them they demanded his
money. He Immediately struck one OF
them with heavy stick which he al
ways carried about him, when they com
menced firing upon him. He was shot
several times, and killed almost Instant
Ily. The murderers escaped.
sEx-1sLAND cotton has been grown