The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-02-14
M,rning Star and Catholic Messenger.
HeW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY H. 1875.
Richard Dalton williams.

sew ORLEANS, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY H. 1910.
Richard Dalton williams.
lRoscommon Messenger
On the 18th of October, 1912, new era IN
Irish literature had it's dawning. On that day
the first number of the Dublin Nation appeared
and, oh! what galaxy of lofty genius it
attracted within its circle! What an Assem-.
S sasss Of Of nas sssasY eniisStsnnent
Truly, it was q bold venture for three young
zen, from as many different provinces of Ire
and, to undertake the publication of o popular
f6urnal devoted to the noble duty of diffusing
ish principles-pledged to the sacred task of
waiting their pauperised island from the mire
|{ong been wailowipg! Yet never was dubious
Enterprise attended with more complete sue
hess than followed that venturesome project of
Thomas Davis, an ardent sonled Corkman,
charles Gavan Duffy, learned Ullidian, and
'gohn Blake Dillon, q patriotic young barr,ster
FROM Mayo. Brilliant as might have been
eheir expectation. little could that eager ITO
anticipate the vast amount OF Literary benefits
that was destined to result from their con
SSrence on that quiet autumn day in 1912! But
Wonderful it really was. week py week IN
Articles, remarkable for their ability, and
which, though over thirty years have elapsed
ssnce their publication. have for us, even now,
: - We read them, a charm that commands our
\; lmiration-while the fame of the glorious
S 5ric lays, dashed forth by the Young poets
{ Fho sprang up in the Nations train, could not
but has become truly worldwide! From
Donegal to the antipodes-from Edinburgh to
@Ean Francisco-the Spirit of the Nation was
purchased, and it's contents carefully read and
criticised. Never was o more brilliant array
Ef gifted intellects collected, in this or in any
Sther land, than that WHICH arose, as it were
81 magic, in the columns of that powerful
4ournal-and it is no exsggeration to state
! shat by far the greater. portion of the merit
(which made the monster meetings of O'Connel
SO imposing, must be ascribed to the teaching
of the Nation-the first newspaper, since the
days of the United Irishmen, that had the
moral courage to instruct tie people in lessons
of nationality
M Among tho many remarkable genius gifted
I Beings, who became contributors TO its pages,
not one, in our opinion, has more deserved the
I 1Dving admiration of bis countrymen than he
whose name we give above. What varied as
acciatiops are connected with that name: for,
9®nant with important events, though short
& md fleetiDg in years, was the chequered career
s sc the noble souled Irishman who bore it (:
Involved in that period from his first appear
Ance on the literary stage in 1s43 (when a
Youthful student of Carlow College, be became
al writer for the Nation) TIL his melancholy
heath, in 1862, in the pestiferous swamps of
1sousiana!
To trace the literary career of Richard Dalton
Williams would be simply to indict con-
"A &inuous laudaton of his productions.
ss* In such a tracing the pointed pen OF criticism
would become blunted, on such a subject even
Is m enemy could express nothing but admira-
calumny must be silent-a more high-mInd
being seldom existed. Mild as the gentle dove
scooing in the shady wood lands, he was bold as
&the noble lion treading the deep forest in un-
disputed majesty. His poetry, as might be
&expected, displays much of that delicate ten
derness SO remarkable in his own meek nature
sT lille vehemence of the warmest kind may be
found in the traces of his pen. Various, in
iced, the themes embraced by his ca
pacious muse. Now it would be lament for a
SsDying Girl" in a Dublin hnspitsl-a scene
,iohh a yvh Ia m les 1Rtu
then would come an enticing description of the
fairies on some Lenster HilI with numbers OF
phookas, banshees, and eihn kings; -, til the
& In a Munster or Copnaught War Song,
dated for some olden time, but suited to the
present as well as the past-and breathing in
5 pxesscr may always expect from the oppressed
315s Sister of Charity truly model of ex-
csilence in it's way-is perhaps the most ad'
From 1913 to 1s4s williams continued to
write for the Nation; but, being warm ad,
1irer of John Mitchell, he became connected
wa editor. When, however, that too truth
lilly out-spoken organ was suppressed, he
started, in conjunction with Kelvin lzed
4 s1yDoherty, new paper. the Irish Tribune
This able journal was destined to be short
lived, for, after a brief existence of four
Feeks, the enraged vulture of British law
Beunctd upon it, and consigned it's ardent
oung editors to government quarters in New
cate prison. Soon they were brought to trial
But the jury-well selected" though the
authorities considered it-could not agree, and
So the felons" were liberated. For nearly
Two years Williams continued on the staff OF
&he revived Nation, till, in 1850, he emigrated
~ the United States, where he became Fro
sssor of Bellies Lettres, at the Catholic College
Is Mobile, in the State of Alabama. 1t is said
etAt in his latter years, much of that vivid
hfightliness of his nature had departed from
him, and he became gloomy and clouded in
zRaDner, caring little to mix in society. 1t
would seem, in fact, that the vigorous labors
BE that overworked mind were telling even on
the earthly case that surrounded it; and so in
S 5aly, 1862, at Thibodeaux, Louisiana, in the
10Th year of his age, he breathed his gentle
soul into the hands of Him who had created it.
OF his poetry there can be no second opinion
k1t to select from it involves oh difficulty
- it is not easy to judge what particular por'
IONS are most beautiful. To him can truth
shlly be applied his own words to Clarence
sngan:
BOW sweet the harp in every string Wild tender
fairy pranks of war, of love, bleeding mother
"a =
ia vUar of the mos