The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-12-11

newspapers, ana got, perhaps, sonie IT,
enumeration for poems and other literary
work. Falling into some financial diff
Guilty here, he was arrested, taken to the
Tombs, and 50 harshly treated by the po-
lice that his life was despaired OF; and a
writtenitleter by him from the Tombs
was as pathetic a thing as misery ever
launched upon the world. He disap-
peared here, and disappeared from here
as he disappeared at and from so many
places, and the next heard of him was
some seven years ago, when ne turned
up in Pittsburgh as an applicant tor
work on the newspapers. His life as
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 elic
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 1Ae
Gazette in the early part of 1877. While
attending to his editorial duties, Realf
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
we're 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 technicality, set aside the de-
cree and ordered new. trial. This &C.
CURED almost on the eve OF the day ap-
pointed for his marriage with young
lady in Utica, N. Y, and proved terri
BILE blow to him. he wrote "an 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 of the agitators most ready and eff
Gent allies. At this work he had been
, engaged for the past two years, and had
= all the engagements he could fill in
Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and else
, where. Subsequently journeying to- CAL
1fornia, it is said that the wife, from
whom he was unable to obtain divorce
4 followed him, and demanding an alimo-
ny which he was unable to pay, took out
70 a warrant for his arrest.
{ Frequently, while doing service in the
= ways that have been mentioned, Real1
= sent to the magazines poems of grea
: beauty and transfused with the spirit O.
- grief and loss, very subtle in their meta
= physics and very transcendent. in thei
u thought. One Of his poems appear il
Z the October number of Jumpers and tn
following is from the current number o
the atlantic:
INDIRECTION.
Fair are the flowers and the children, bu
their subtle suggestion is fairer;
At Rare is the rosebud of dawn, but the secre
!. that clasps it is rarer;
/ Sweet the exultance OF song, but the stral
that precedes it is sweeter;
y And never was poem yet writ, but the meal
Il. ing ADMINISTERED the metre.
Eh Never a daisy thatgrows, but a mystery quiz
IN eth the growing;
no tres the flowing;
ooe Never Shakespeare that scared but strong
III than he did enbold him;
lie Nor ever prophet foretells but might
be seer haIh fOretOld MIN.
o. Back of the canvas that throbs the painter
DIS limited and hidden;
oo Into the statue that breathes the soul of Il
g sculptor is hidden;
ID Under the ioy that is felt lie the infinite iss
ers Of feeling;
he Growing the glory revealed is the glory th
ar crowns the revealing.
y, Great the symbols OF being but that which
MS sVmhOle0 ia greater:
his Vast the create and beheld, but vaster the
S ol Back Of the sound broods the silence, back
liz the gift stands the giving,
ION Back of the hand that receives thrills the s,
bic sitive nerves of receiving.
70 Space is nothing to spirit, the deed is outde
by the doing;
her The heart Of the wooer is warm, but warn
5as, the heart of the wooing;
up And up from the pits where these shiver, 8
+he up from the nights where those shine,
~ .no Twin voices and shadows swim starward, {
the the essence of life is divine.
Lee A poem published in Harper's Mo-
ooe zine for July, 1874, might perhaps
ted press the mood Of the boy poet metam
IL phosed into middle aged Journalist.
re-. has won the praise of Longfellow:
>me MY SLAIN.
and Ihls sweet chlld winch main cnmDed VI
uos my knee,
was This amber haired, four-summered Ii
maid,
was With her unconscious beauty troubleth
not WIN ner low pratCle l1ahetn Me atIai w.
VIII You hurt me, though you do not see me
md, Nor hear the WEAKNESS with which si
had For the dear babe I killed so long ago,
ions l tremble at the touch OF your cares;
soio I who with whetted knives of worldiness
aere Did put my own child heart edness to deaf
: to Beside whose grave pace forever more
inia Like desolation on shipwrecked shore.
rov- There is a little child within me now,
ling When June Winds kiss me. When an a. q,
lers. bough