Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-04
SKETCH OF NIB. Y L

u COuhtiy Ill oe "OuhSee oAuo'S
Chester county, Pennsylyania, Jan;
uary II, 1925. His parents, who are
both living and recently, celebrated
the sixtieth anniversary OF their mar
riage, are descended from the earliest
settlers of Pennsylvania and are per-
sons of note in the quiet township
where they h~aveSalwnys lived, The
future traveller received the usual
advantages of q common school edu-
cation, and, like so>mahy other men
of emiuence, obtained his first i'm
pulse to a literary career through his
connection with the press. At the
age of seventeen years he was regu-
larry ~apprenticed in q newspaper
printing Office i'll West Chester and
employed his leisure in the study OF
Latin and French. His, first pub
lished compositions were verses
which he wrote for the columns of
the newspaper in question, aud were
probably "set up" by his own hand.
The approval of his friends soon in
duced him to send specimens of his
poetic skill to the two recognized
autocrats Of American criticism,
Nathaniel P. Willis and Rufus Will
mot Griswold, then respectively
conducting the New York Mirror
and Graham's Magazine. They were
we'll received, both by those gentle
men and by theereading public IN the
columns of those periodicals. and
others of his compositions were &C
cepted by more than u of the met
ropolitan newspapers. LII 1874 he
collected his scattered verses into q
small volume entitled "Ximena; or.
The Battle of the Sierra Moreno, and
Other Poems" Philadelphia, 1874,
12mo., PIP. 84), which is now n OF
the seafcsst of modern American
books. Que Of his objects IN this
early appearance as an author was to
gain a sufficient status in literatureto
procure him an engagement as cor
respondent for some prominent jour-
nal during a tour in Europe which
he Was eagerly planning, although
the expenses had yet to he provided.
This was a bold project for a youth
of nineteen, but it SUGGESTED in every
respect. His local fame in Chester
county easily reached the city of
Philadelpbis, where his book lad
been priuted, aud he obtained from
Mr.. Joseph r. Chandler, of the Uni
ted States Gazette, and MI. Patter-
ION, oftthe Saturday Evening Post,
an advalce of 500 for letters to be
written from Europe. This Gum,
with the addition of $40 received
from Graham's Magazine for some
accepted poems, was enough to pay
his passage and his expenses for q
few weeks abroad, and he was en-
couraged by Horace Greeley, who
promised to pay for such letters as
should prove readable. He took a
Storage passage for England, trav-
eled on foot through England, Scot
land. Germany, Switzerland. Italy
and France for nearly two years, al
an expense of only $780,, portion OF
which was sent by his parents, but
the larger part was earued by his
eminentls fresh and vivacious news
paper correspondence. On his re-
in arranging his materials into q
volume,s which was published in De-
cemGer. 1876, al New York, under the
title. ..yiews-a-Fooi; or, Europe Seen
witt KHapsack and Staff; with a
Preface by N. P. Willis" The vol
ume had All immediate success re-
ceiving the neartiest praise not only
from r. w. Griswold, but from tina,
sterner censor, the London Atbe.
neum. 1t passed through a dozen
editions, and many even at the
present day be read with pleasure
aud profit. For a year after his re.
turn Mr. Taylor edited and published
q country paper at Phenixville, Pa,
with an unsatisfactory pecuniary
result. In 1S47 he came to New
York to seek his fortune by litera'
ture, aud q number OF his sketchei
aud poems were accepted by the Lit
erary World, which, under the maui
agement of the late Evert A. Duyck.
luck, was then the leading critical
journal of the metropolis. His am
bition was still chiefly directed tc
poetic fame, and at the Christmas
season of 1S47 he issued with the
date of 184S) q new volume Of
"Rhymes of Travel, Ballads ant
other Poems," which did not meet
the commentator of the Literary
World, but was warmly praised BY
Edgar Allan Poe. In February, 1s4S
Mr.. Taylor secured employment
upon the New York Tribune, will
which paper he has ever since beer
connected in some capacity. Early
in 1S49 he became owner of one share
of the Tribune stock, aud was ad
vanced in rank upon its editoria
staff. Just at that time, however
the eastern states were agog with til,
California excitement, aud thithel
young Taylor proceeded by way O.
Panama, returning a few months
later through Mexico. His letters I,
the Tribune, collected under the
title .El Dorado; or, Adventures il
the Path of Empire" e vols., 1850
had: within a few weeks a circulation
of 10000 copies, and of the Englist
reprint $4,000 were sold. More thar
twenty editions have since beer
Issued of this, the most profitable o
all Mr.. Taylor's works. The chic
incentive TO his longest series o
journeys-those begun in 1S51-wai
the death, from consumption, of
beautiful and amiable young lady te
whom he was long engaged, and who
had inspired many pathetic lyrics in
his earlier verse. The marriage GER
emory was performed almost on hel
deathbed, and after her burial he fel
the need of protracted change o
scene. In the summer Of 1876,
Mr.. Taylor set out for u long tou,
in eastern lands, leaving in the hand'
of Iris publisher u third volume o
poems, "A Book of r ,mamce, Lyrics
and Songs" Boston, 1857 which in
cludpd "Tne American Legend" /,
poem delivered the previous yea4
before the Pin Beta KAPPA Society o
Harvard University, and separated,
printed. Mr.. Taylor's journey con
Quoted him by way of England, the
Rhine, Vienna, Trieste aud Smyrn,
to Egypt, reaching Cairo early il
November. He spent the Who'll,
winter IN a voyage up the Nile, pene
traling through Nubia aud tn,
Soudan to the Kingdom of tn
Shlllock negroes, oil the White Nile
and when he reached Cairo in April
1852. he had travelled 1000 miles il
Central Africa. He then made til
usual Oriental tour of Palestine AM
Syria, visited Antioch and Alepp
aud crossed Asia Minor diagonall
from Tarsus. through the passes g
the Taurus range, the forest of al
cient -Phrygia and the Bithynia
Olympus to Constantinople, visitin
also the Troad, He then spent sew
eraI months in Southern Europe, e:
pecially Malta and Sicily, where b
witnessed the eruption of Etna, an
returned to England by way of tn
Tyrol aud Germany. After q bri,
sojourn in England he took a ne,
a ro for thn o- -.- .