Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-12-08

as he disappeared at and from SO many
places, and the next heard of him was
some seven years ago, wien he turned
up in Pittsburgh as an applicant for
work on the newspapers. His life as a
frontiersman and soldier had told on his
constitution, and domestic trouble had
come to him and weighed heavily upon his
mind. STILL he was capable of exercise
of his brilliant mental powers, and few
sketches printed in the Pittsburgh papers
upon various topics Of local interest clio
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. He held his position until The
Commercial was cons olidated with The
Gazette in the early part of 1877. While
attending to his editorial duties, Rcalf
made also reputation as an orator,
speaking on the stump for the Republi-
cans IN several campaigns. and deliver
ing occasional lectures.
About 1866 be married a woman who
was his senior in years, and whose tastes
were so far from harmonizing with him
that they never got along we'll together.
He applied for divorce, and was success
tul in the lower courts, but the supreme
court, on a techn1cality, get aside the de-
cree and ordered new trial. This oc-
CURED almost on the eve OF the day ap-
pointed for his marriage with a young
lady in Utica, N. Y, and proved terri
bic blow to him. He wrote ian epitaph,"
which he sent to the Pittsburg Dispatch.
which led his friends to 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 or the agltator's most ready and eff
Gent allies. At this work he had been
engaged tor the past two years, and had
all the engagements he could Eli in
Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and else
where. Subsequently journey ing to Cal
1t is said that the wife, from
Wfon he was unable 10 obtain divorce.
followed him, and demanding an alimo-
ny which he was unable TO pay, took out
d warrant for his arrest.
Frequently, while doing service in the
ways that lave been mentioned, Realf
sent to the magazines poems OF great
beauty and transfused with the spirit ct
grlet and loss, very subtle in their meta
physics and very transcendent IN their
thought. One of his poems appear in
the October number Of Hurpeq's and the
following is from the current number OF
the atlantic:
JNDIpFCTI0N
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 sweeter;
ana 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 mightier
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
symbO!ed is greater;
Vast the create and beheld, but vastcr 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.
Sltive nerves of receiving
Space is nothing to spirit, the deed is outdone
by the doing;
The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer
the heart of the wooing;
And up from the pits where these SILVER, and
:, 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 Maoa-
zine for July, 1874, might perhaps ex-
press the mood Of the boy poet metamor-
phosed into middle-aged Journalist. II
has won the praise of Longfellow:
MY SLAIN.
This sweet child which hath climbed upon
my knee,
This authenticated, four-summered little
maid
With her unconscious beauty troubleth me,
With her low prattle 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 I sigh,
For the dear babe killed so long ago,
tremble at the touch of your caress;
am not worthy of your innocent faith:
I who with whetted knives of worldiness
Did put myEown child heart edness to death,
Beside whose grave pace forever more,
Like desolation on a shipwrecked shore.
There is q little child within me now,
TO sing back to the thrushes, to leap ND
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 checks are wet
1t is not with the bitterness of the child.
But with the bitter sorrow of sad years.
0, moaning life with life irreconciled;
D backward looking thought, O pain, o tears,
For US there is not any silver sound
Or rhythmic wonders springing from the
ground.
Woe worth the knowledge and the bookish
lore
Which makes men mummies, weighs but
every grain
Of that which was miraculous before,
And sneers the heart down with the scofing
brain;
Woe worth the peering, analytic days,
That dry the tender juices in the breast,
And put the thunder of the Lord to test,
So that no marvel must be, and no praise,
Nor any God except Necessity.
What can ye give my poor, starved life in lieu
Of this dead cherub which slew for We?
Take back your doubtful wisdom, and renew
My early foolish freshness of the Ounce,
Whose simple instincts guessed the heavens
at once.
In regard to Mr.. Realf's utilization with
Lord Byron, or with the Byron family,
nothing definite is known to the present
The different CIRCUMSTANCES that
led to this belief in Kansas were not suf-