Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-01-06
THE AUTHORS or WASHINGTON.
VINO THEY ARE, AND SOMETHING ABOUT THEM

VINO THEY ARE, AND SOMETHING ABOUT THEM.
From various causes, among others the mild
ness of the climate, the libraries and scientific
collections for reference, the opportunity for
government employment or newspaper letter
writing not incongenial with literary pursuits
Washington is growing to be literary center.
The list of writers who are authors-have writ
ten books-is pretty long one, and If to these
were added the magazinsts and letter-writers
who have written much and well, but have not
yet figured in binding, the roll would stretch out
almost indefinitely.
We have here, and making their homes here,
Walt whitman, Albert Pike; Mrs. Lippincott
C'Grace Greenwood ~ Mrs. Southworth, George
Alfred Townsend. ('Gath,' y Professor Joseph
Henry, Ben Perley Poore, ,"Perley,"D A. R.
Spofford, Charles Astor Bristed, ("Carl Ben
sop,') Charles Lanman, Harriet Prescott Spot
ford, Helen G. Weeks, DIR. j. NJ. Toner, the
three Piatts-Donn Piatt, John James Piatt
and his wife, Mrs. S. b. Piatt, formerly Sarah
M. Bryan Of the Prentice-Louisville journal,
galaxy Of poets)-william d. O'Connor, Mrs.
Baden, DIR. L. s. Verdi, John Burroughs, L. A
Gobright, Mrs. Eastman, X. j. Hinton. Mrs
Bouligny, De B. X. Klein, DIR. Howard, f. G.
Adams, Miss Esmeralda Boyle, and others whose
names do not for the moment occur to us.
As above indicated, a number of the writer's
here are Department clerks, or the wives of
clerks. The great body of the clerks here in
government employ are men of culture and in
telligence, and they form an element of our
population not to be overlooked in estimating
the position which Washington is destined to
take in literature and science. 1t would seem,
with such large writing element in our midst,
that fTst-class monthly magazine ought to
succeed here; and, in fact, one has been Sc
riously contemplated and planned, TO be called
" The Dome" with
W. D. o'CoNNoR
for editor. Mr.. O'Connor, who is a clerk in the
Treasury Department, has displayed fine ca
pacty as a magazine writer, and very likely
would do well as an editor, though the ability
to write does not always indicate the ability to
edit. He is a native of Massachusetts,.
JOHN BURROUGHS,
who has been mentioned a probable contrib
utor to the new magazine, is also a Depart
ment clerk, and is getting famous through his
admirable articles on natural history in the
Aaontic Monthly. He already takes rank as our
most perceptive observer of American Nature,
and raciest describer thereof. Mr.. Burroughs
is the author of awake Robin" and 0 Notes on
Walt Whitman being an enthusiastic admirer
of "the good gray poet" Mr.. Burroughs, aged
So, is a native of New York.
Then the poet
WALT WHITMAN
is a clerk in the Attorney Generals office. His
age is but 81, despite his venerable beard. For
the present it seems to he his fate to be neg
lected by publishers, insultingly slurred by
critics and sundry official magnates in his own
country, but welcomed with admiration and
applause both as person and poet by the best
authorities abroad, translated i'm Germany and
Denmark, republished in England, and pro.
nounced by the Westminster Rerie,c "the first
and only representative in art of American
Democracy"
HELEN c.. WEEKS,
who is probably the most popular writer of
stories for children next to Miss AIcott is the
wife of a department clerk, DIR. Weeks, the in
dividual who brought down upon himself such
storm of popular objurgation for his plain
speaking at the Social Evil Meeting at Lincoln
Hall. Mrs. Weeks is the author OF 80 Grandpa
House, "The Ainsie Stories," "white aud
Red; Narrative OF Life among the Northwest
Indians" and is a prominent contributor to
"Our Young Folks and ''The Riverside Maya
zine"
Quite certainly the name OF no writer turns up
oftener than that of George Alfred Townsend.
whether as author, magazinist, or letter-writer.
1t is next to impossible to take up newspaper
without coming upon some extract credited to
&c. A. T." or to "Gath," his Chicago Tribune
nonaEle de plume:
GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND
is of Eastern Shore, Maryland, extraction and
was born at Georgetown, in Delaware, 1911. He
was educated at W Washington and Delaware Col
leges, on " the Peninsula" and at the Phila-
delphia High School. He began to publish tales
and verses in 1856, and In 1859, the day after
graduating, went on the daily press and was
managing editor Of the Philadelphia Iaquirer.
and afterward city and dramatic editor of the
Press. In 1862 he was correspondent of the
New York Herald with the army in McClellan's
and Pope's campaigns. After this he went to
Europe, and was a contributor to the CornhiY
Magazine, Chambers Journal, the st. James, and
the Social Science RecieW. After nearly two
years absence he returned to New York and
became the descriptive writer on the World,
giving that paper the chief eclat of the
kind it has ever had in letters on the
close Of the rebellion. simultaneously he
edited the New York Citizen, and made the
paper wicked on Tammany Hall, where
General Halpine had made it merely lively.
About the same time he published "The Crime
of j. Wilkes Booth" and "The Real Life of
Lincoln" pamphlets, and "The Campaigns of a
Non-Combatant!" In this and the two succeed
ing winters, he lectured above 200 nights in
every part of the country, on such topics as:
Europe Armed" "The Lands to the North of
U.s." 1.-The Pennsylvania Dutch" "What
Governs U.s." etc. In 1866 he went to see the war
between Prussia, Austria and Italy, and in 1867
attended the Paris exhibition, doing his best work
for the New York Tribune. In the spring of 1865
he moved to Washington. He is naturally an in
dependent political writer, and his presence
here was instantly acknowledged. He signalized
his advent by making q rupture between the
President-apparent, Mr.. Wade, and the West
ern republican journals, which lightened the
fall Of what were called the recalcitrant republi
can Senators. Vigor, diligence, versatile read.
ing, fecund fancy and a sweeping diction, oc-
casionally let down to humor, made the new
writer's audacity formidable in political writing
Since 1868 he has published two bulky volumes:
''The New World Compared with the Old" and
"Lost Abroad, q romaunt," and book of poems,
andwritten for the general newspaper press, lead
ing the list with the Chicago Tribune, which has
paid him $50 900 for coo columns preferred mat
ter, furnished at the rate of an colin m M nor