Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1879-12-18
ALITERARY RELIC.
The First Copy of Shakespeare Ever
Brought West OF the Alloghanies,

The First Copy of Shakespeare Eve
Brought West Oft the Alloghanies,
Correspondence Chicago Times.
The first American edition OF Shaks
peare was in 1895. 1t was published il
Philadelphia. There was probably NJ
copy in the library of the Harvard college
which was burnt Jan. q, 1894, but in tn
course of that year a copy was prcsente,
by an English benelactor, Thomas Hollis
Before his present arrived, however,
Shakespeare turned up in the far west, =
much nearer to Chicago, if not to Omaha
than to Cambridge.
Its discovery find related it book s,
rare that the copy IN the State Historical
society OF Wisconsin is doubtless the onll
specimen now extant in America. Thi
work, "Miscellanes IN Prose and Verse,
by Capt. Thomas Morris, London, 1891, re
lates the authors adventures when he mac
volunteered to risk himself among tn,
savage tribes who had long been Frencl
allies, for persuading them to transfer
their allegiance to the British to whom
France had yielded the country. lie sci
out Aug. 2G, 1854 from Cedar Point, neal
the southwest corner Of Lake Erie, pur
posing to traverse the region that is now
Indiana and Illinois.
Five days after starting he relate, that
mt an Indian council Of Pontiacs tribes
near the Swilts, as he calls the Maumec
rapids, IAN Indian, styled the Little
Chief, presented me with a volume Of
Shakspeare-a singular gift from say.
age. lie, however, begged a little gun.
poS der in return, Il commodity to him
much more precious than diamonds" A
week aiterward that book saved Morris's
life, Ills escort Of French and Indians,
having landed, were assailcd by a whole
tribe, who were lying in wait to kill the
Englishman, and would have been over
powered had he been among them; but
he says; 81 had the good fortune to have
stayed IN the canoe reading the tragedy
Of Antony and Cleopatra In the volume
which Little Chief had given me, and had
pushed the canoe over to the other side Of
the river"
The mission of Morris proved a failure,
After penetrating the country somewhat
further he was so maltreated and threat.
ened that he fled for his life to Detroit,
which he reached twenty three DAYS after
he began his expedition. But before talk
ing to flight, he tells us, 81 left my money
and baggage with one Capucon, French
man. This leaving was in the camp Of
tribe who soon made their submission to
the British, and restored, as there is evl-
denCe, whatever Morris had left in their
charge. So, while he lost his political
end, he probably saved his Shakespeare.
That volume had perhaps come into the
Indians hands at Braddocks defeat, nine
years before; for Morris obtained it near
the same place and from the same tribe
where he saw Braddock's white horse,
which had been the spoil of one of them.
He viewed the book as a GOd-send, for
he was a dramatic enthusiast, and twenty
seven years after he wrote that no pleas
ure the world had ever afforded him-un.
less, perhaps, one-was equal to that of
reading Shakespeare at the foot Of a wa.
tertall in the American DESERT
1t Is hard to believe that he did not car.
ry this finding over the Atlantic when he
returned home with his regiment in 1868,
or that he did not treasure it carefully
and bequeath it as a rich legacy to his
children.
He published SIX works between the
year 1855 and 1902, in some Of which
there may be further account of his
Shakspearian treasure-trove. Unfortu.
nately they are not to be consulted this
side the British museum. The original of
his journal is deposited in the London
record Office ! was once in the very room
where 1t is preserved, but knew not then
what curiosity stood by unawares. His
printed copy was made to be presented to |
George ILL.,, whose sole record saying |
about Shakespeare is, WAS there ever
such stuff" However much exutatioD |
over the Shakspearian find there may have |
been in the original manuscript, it would |
all have been struck out from a petitian to
Georgian majesty on the same principle
that Shakespeare never mentioned tobacco |
in dramas intended to please the monarch
who had written counterblast against it.
Capt. Morris left children. Histather,
and uncle were all officers in
the same regiment with him. 1t must be
easy to discover his family. Let, then,
the first admirer of Shakespeare among
readers of the Times who visits England,
hunt up the Shaksperian Morrises, ascer.
tain the whereabouts of the first Shak-
Speare that was ever seen west of the Al.
leghanics, and beg, borrow, buy, or steal
it, that it may one more behold the Ms.
sssippl valley. 1t will rejoice like old
Enoch in being thus translated.