River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-12-12

some seven years ago, wren ne turned
up in Pittsburgh as an applicant fol
work on the newspapers. His life as /
frontiersman and soldier had told on hi;
constitution, and domestic trouble hao
come to him and weighed heavily upon his
mind. SEiil he was capable of exercise
of his brilliant mental powers, and few
sketches printed In the Pittsburgh paper:
upon various topics of local interest ellie,
tied notice, and led to his regular EN-
ployment upon the staff of The Pittsburgh
Commercial. His brilliant talents and
his gentle manners made him friends on
every hand, and he soon became assistant
editor. lie held his position until IN,
Commercial was cons olidated with TIL
Gaestte in the early part of 1877. While
attending 10 his editorial duties, Real
made also a reputation as an orator
speaking on the stump for the Republi'
cans in several campaigns, and deliver
ing occasional lectures.
About 1865 be married woman who
was his senior in years, and whose tastes
were so far from harmonizing with him
that they never got along well together
He applied for divorce, and was success
lul in the lower courts, but the supreme
court, on a technleality, set aside the de-
cree and ordered a new trial. This oc-
CURED almost ON the eve OF the day APP
pointed for his marriage with young
lady in Utica, N. Y, and proved terri
bic blow to him. He wrote IAN epitaph,
which he semitic the Pittsburg Dispatch,
which led his friends 10 suspect that he
at that time contemplated suicide. He was
one of the first to join Francis Murphy in
the temperance revival, and soon became
one of the agitator's most ready and eff
eient allies. At this work he had been
engaged for the past two years, and had
ali the engagements he could fill in
PENNSYLVANIA, Ohio, New York and else
where. Subsequently journeying to CAL
lfornia, it is said that the wife, from
wbora he was unable 10 obtsin a divorce,
followed him, and demanding an alimo-
ny which he was unable to pay, took out
a warrant for his arrest.
frequently, while doing service in the
WAYS that ave been mentioned, Realf
sent TO the magazines poems of great
beauty and transfused with the spirit OF
grief and loss, very subtle in their meta
physics and very transcendent in their
thought. One of his poems appear in
the October number Of Ha7per's and the
following is from the current number OF
the atlantic
INpIRECTIoN.
Fair are the flowers and the children, but
their subtle suggestion is fairer;
Rare is the rosebud of dawn, but the secret
that clasps it is rarer;
Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain
that precedes it is swceter;
And never was poem yet writ, but the mean
ing ADMINISTERED the metre.
Never daisy that grows, but mystery guild
eth the growing;
Never river that flows, but majesty scep-
tres the flowing;
Never a Shakespeare that scared but stronger
than he did enbold him;
Nor ever a prophet foretells but a mightler
seer hath foretold him.
Back of the canvas that throbs the painter is
limited and hidden;
Into the statue that breathes the soul of the
sculptor is hidden;
Under the Joy that is felt lie the Infinite issue
OF feeling;
Growing the glory revealed is the glory that
crowns the revealing.
Great the symbols OF being, but that which is
symboled is greater;
Vast the create and behold, but yaster the in
ward creator;
Back of the sound broods the silence, back of
The gift stands the giving,
Back of the hand that receives thrills the SEN
sidve nerves Of receiving.
Space is nothing to spirit, the deed is ontdone
by the doing;
The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer
IA, I, = a IN inc
And up from the pits where these shiyer, ard
up from the nights where those shine,
Twin voices and shadows swim starward, and
the essenc. of life is divine.
A poem published in Harper's Nigga
zine for July, 1874, might perhaps ex-
press the mood of the boy-poet metamor-
phosed into middle aged Journalist. 1t
has won the praise of Longfellow:
MY SLAIN.
This sweet child which hath climbed upon
my knee,
This amberhaired, four-summeIed little
maid,
With her unconscious beauty troubleth me-
With her low pfattlc maketh me afraid.
All, darling! when you cling and nestle so
You hurt me, though you do not see me cry
Nor hear the WEAKNESS with which ! sigh.
For the dear babe killed so long ago,
trembie at the touch Of your caress;
| am not worthy of your innocent faith;
/ who with whetted knives of worldiness
Did put my own child heartedness TO death,
Beside whose grave / pace forever more,
Like desolatiou on a shipwrecked shore.
There is little child within tie now,
To sing back to the thrushes, to leap UP
When June winds kiss me, when an apple
bough
Laughs into blossoms, or a buttercup
PLAYS with the sunshine, or a violet
Dances In the glad dew. Alas! ALAS
The meaning Of the daisies in the grass
/ have forgotten; and if my cheeks are wet
1t is not with the bitterness of the hid,
But with the bitter sorrow of sad years.
o, moaning life with life irreconeiled;
O acknowledging thought, pain, tears
For us there is not any silver sound
Or rhythmic wonders springing from thu
ground.
Woe worth the knowledge and the bookisl
lore
Which makes men mummies, weighs bu
every grain
Of that which was miraculous before,
And sneers the heart down with the scoffint
BRAIN
Woe worth the peering, analytic days,
That dry the tender juices in the breast,
And put the tlAunder Of the Lord to test,
So that no marvel must be, and no praise,
Nor any God except Necessity.
What can We give my poor, starved life in liel
OF this dead cherub which slew for ye?
Take back your doubtful wisdom, and renew
MY early foolish freshness of the Ounce,
Whose simple instincts guessed the heaven
at once.
In regard to Mr.. Realf's affiliatlon witt
Lord Byron, or with the Byron family
nothing definite is known to the presen
reporter. The different circustances tina
led to this belief in Kansas were not suf
ficentlv definite to base judgement up
on. The fact that at the age of % or q
he bore. a striking resemblance t
Lord Byron at the same period of his life
the reports that he received remittance
IRON the Byron homestead, the fact tina
hesknew a great deal of English high ilift
and had been most carefully educated il
the literary line, the fact that he wrot
poetry which his friends thought to b
Bvronic, the fact was he was an advent
urer in the name of liberty, and his cam
paign in the free state war of Kansas wa
considered to bear a resemblance to ByI
ons campaign for liberties of Greece, ar
poor evidences of relationship to Byron b
blood, and are made poorer Dv the fac
that in 1856 Realf could hardly have bee
more than 90, whereas Byron's death oo
CURED thirtY-two years before that timt
Realf himself never made allusion t
the subject, and no one else could hav
alluded to il in bis presence, so reserve
was ne in his manner. 1t was strang
and adventurous and unhappy life, |
nm with CLEANS Of romance. poetry. herr