The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1871-01-06
Whittier and Geo, ID. Prentice.

Cincinnati Commercial Correspondents Interview.
Mr.. Whittier said many things pleas
ant and interesting for me to recall, but
1 do not know that 1 should be pardon
able in making his friendly private
talks public One or two things may
be allowed to repeat, in my own Ian
guage, however 1 spoke to him of a
paragraph 1 had seen in the. newspa-
pers some time ago, stating that he in
tended to write his recollections of my
old friend, Mr. George D. Prentice, for
a proposed volume of his poems. Mr..
Whittier said he had himself seen such
a paragraph, but that it was a mistake;
he had never really known Mr.. Prem
tice and had never seen him. He then
related to me, with 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-
ginning of Mr.. Whittier's public liter
ary life, his account was very interest
ing to me. He said that he was spend
ing year at school in an academy at
Haverhill, and while there happened to
see 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 editor two or three of his
compositions" 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
HaYerhill Academy had come to
an end, when he returned to his fathers
farm. Here, one day, a 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, whittier he had gone towrite
O campaign life of Henry Clay. al
could not have been more utterly aston
ished, said Mr.. Whittier, eff 1 had
been told that / was 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. Hefelt en-
tirely unprepared-knew nothing about
public affairs; but could not bring
himself to think the opportunity was
one to be put by, and so his ambition
got the better of his timidity, and, hav-
ing accepted the call, he finally set off
for Hartford to take possession. This
was then a long journey, hesaid; evento
go to Boston was not a slight under
taking. Mr.. Whittier then described,
pleasantly, his interview with his pub
fishers, "not letting on" he said, how
little he knew of editorial duties and
political affairs, but they did not "find
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 judicious 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 far-gone experience, was the
pleasant way in which he seemed to re-
alize his boyish feeling again in its re-
ciGal Mr.. Whittier spoke kindly Of
Prentice, always having regarded him,
he said, as a man of good and generous
impulses, and during the recent war Of
the rebellion, true Union man, but,
peahaps, unfortunately placed.