, 1875-02-07
CHARLES SPRAGUE.

Literary Club, Chicago. ut Its Kcgn
lar Meeting, Monday Evening, Eel
1, 1876, by ArIcnas Carter.
| Tue journals Of the last week have given
the reading world the sad Intelligence Of th
death Of Charles Sp1ague the trusted and abl
] dnancier, the honorcd citizen, tho genial gentle
man, the gifted poet. Charles Spsague was
| Boston boy, and in Boston lo has spent his Ion
| and useful life. He was born in 1871. Hi
| father was Samuel Spraguo, one Of til
famous g Boston Tea-Party." He receives
his education, SO far Us schools are cou
cerned, in the common schools Of li
native city. He received a rare suppl
! Of fro from On high. That bright peculia
| Candle Of tho Lord " which wa call gcniul
! lent to him far brighter flame than is com
.mittod to most men. At the age Of Is years h,
| began to earn bis breed by service in a grocery
Early in life. too, to his credit be it said, III
found that service and its surroundings distaste
full, he carried along in life with him rocollec
tons of that grocery. Twenty years later, hs
delivered his eloquent Grafton On Intemper:
| anec. aboundinE in passages often quoted since
Who shall say how much Of the apt power oi
that Grafton came OF that carly experience
that observation of the disagreeablo and the 70.
voting in the grocery?
Wo next bear oi him in tho State Bank. Here
he lad found the school adapted to the business
eide OF his nature, and which uufoldcd aud
trained Ills financial talents. Ills salary as Teller
in the Bank gave him adequate support, whi1o it
left him many hours Of eacl twenty-four to ap-
ply to reading. It was the use le made Of these
hours all tho way along in his young -man-ly life
that gave him his better education. It was not
80 much the common schools for six or eight
years when ha was boy, as the studious habits,
directed and guided by his ine literary
TASTE, that gave to Charles sprague his literary
education. These habits it WAS which SO
soon prepared him, not only to associate with
Sparks and Quincy, Everett and Prescott, but to
shine among them, and, in the lue Of his special
ability, to smpass them all.
All this time, the finer qualities Of sturdy,
manly character were ripening in the midst Of
tho performance of bia duties as an officer of the
Bank Up to this time, his position 10 business
had not been conspicuous. Still, his rapid
aud accurate ability, his epotless itegnty,
his urbauity, his frmness we're already
manifest and, when the Globe Bunk
(now the Globe National BaoI) organized, aud
its D directors looked about them for q Cashier,
tits position in 1925, when be was 81 years cid.
He filled the post. With it's vast work, its heavy
responsibility, for forty years! At the age Of
II, in 1865, he resigned his position in the
Bank, aud retired from active business and
the Directors Of the Bank selected kisson, Charles
james 6praGue, to succeed him, and that
son hoils the position to-day. During
all th1t forty years, shadow Of suspicion Of his
downright integrity touched Charles 6praEue.
became necessary. No yhitewashing committee
was called for, and for The sufficient reason that
no committee could paint character 60 fair es
Charles Sprasua's. Wo hare heard OF negro
so black that charcoal would not make white
mark on him. Charles Sprague' houors and IN
his situation. shond SO bright and fair that the
utmost effort Of q whitewashins committee
would not maize black mark on him
For twelve years, in about the middle Of his
term OF service as Cashier of the Globe Bank, I
was q resident Of Boston, ind knew Charles
Sprague This vas the period OF his finest
manly power. You may begin to say within
yourself that there is very little in all this that
interests you or entities him to fame, beyond
narrow circle Immediately about him. 70 this
ire not so common as to bo void Of
interest anywhere 10 the wide world. |
But it is not particularly for this that have |
brought him to your notice. Rather this IS my |
'oint, that, notwithstanding the uaturarof his I
work, and the engrossng character of it, he
IT'LL found time to study his favorite authors to
cultivate his own literary powers and to use |!
hose rare talents God had given him, from time |
o time all along in his busy life, and always with
nlinent success.
On tho 9Th Of July, 1895. in the great City Of
BOSTON, Charles Sprague delivered tbs city ora
al finish and literary taste, as well as tor fer
eot patriotism. Four years lateE ho was Sc
ectea as the poet on the occasion OF the nunnal
CELEBRATION OF the Phi-Deta Kappa Society, in
cambridge :; and his poem produced for that oc-
aslon has stood almost it not wholly unriyaled
uong the gems OF poetry that occasion has from
ear to year called forth. THIS poem, 81 Curl
ssy" Was delivered in 1929. ltattracted attention
nd Won applause even in England. Our En-
lish cousins, in their admiration Of this poem,
bllity it displayed, called its apthor ''The
merican pope.'
IN 1921 ho won the prize for the best prologne
the opening Of the park Theatre, III New
ork- He woD similar honors at Philadelphia,
1927 at Boston, in 1928; at Phiiadelphia
nd Salem. in 1928 and at Portsmouth,. in 1880.
La poem on Art drew from John Quincy Adnus
he remark that tin forty lines was comprised |
n encyclopedias OF description" lie composed,
apronptu. an inscription for IN arch under |
hlch was to pass the procession which vel |
,ned md escorted La Fayette in Boston, in |
}24. That inscription, if i rightly remember.
MS:
We bow not the head, We bend no. the knee.
But our hearss, Ia Fayette, VIC surrender to thee
hen Mayor Quincy pointed this ont to the
rcuch patriot and he read it, tears came to t1is |
IA. might name THE Winged Nprshipers."
''The Brothers," ths Shaks- +,
.aze Ode, and many others of his poetic compost
oos; but it is necessary and would be tedious.
ls every effort seemed TO win the prize il prize
ere offered In looking over ths list OF his
'euns, it may 4trlke yon, as it did me, that too
lch promine6ce. vas. given to theatres But
arc to notice not the subject merely, but how
treats it, when twe Judge the man. u ia
,arlea Sprague who, IN writing about some i
eatre whose character and aims d,sp1eased | i
H. exclaimed:
Who would grace yon dcsecrated dome,
Wien he c2n read his Shakespeare o'cr ut horne7
It was near the cloee of his Phi-Deta poem Z
at, realizing, in poets sensitive way, tho
tgulsr situation Of ii1nself-a bauk-oficer-
'coursing in verse to the highest culture and
'sss scholarship that cluster about Harvard | .
.iversitY on guch occasions. he spoke OF him
t as :" to tho worlds coarscr service sold,"
said that, for one short hour, he had lived ! {
tong auch Influences and thoughts q. occupied | '
sir years. He had played On The beach oftl,at
on which they we're yoyasing all their lives, | I
lad iaitered at the base OF the mountain they, ! q
many Of them. Tero climbing to its summit. g
should not have undertaken uotice of the | t