San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1880-02-07
Tho Literature or Ohle, ladI.
nna and Ken eucky.

ma ana Kentucky. %
Literature began to receive attentio
in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, ve,
soon after the first settlements wei
made, and many q son Of toll engage
in clearing away "the forests primeval
made use Of the long winter evening
to study by the light Of his log fire, th
best models of English oompositio
that were at his command. Book
were scarce; but the few volumes
be found In any neighborhood were 70
the most part standard classics. tha
the active and educated young me-
from New England and other olde
and more enlightened countries ha,
brought with. them, when they cam
Wsst ITO occupy the land" ."u,J oo.
The conditions Of life in what wa
then termed "The West" were fa
different from those that surround th'
pioneers of the new States and Terri
tories of the present. Then tho for
ests teemed with life and q few aorel
of cleared land furnished sufficient
in addition to the supplies of fish and
game, for the support of the people
There were no railroads, no rapid trans.
portation, and scarcely any markets
The work Of clearing away the forests
was arduous. but the newly cleared
grounds produced liberal crops with
small attention. There was no rush
of business, and the facilities for dis.
sipation were meager. The rowlyiug,
brutal element INDUCED in whisky and
isticuffs at the villages on Saturday.
and either hunted or toiled during the
remainder of the week. at.r
Here and there school. houses were
built, which were at once school
houses. churches. and seats of mock
legislatures, debating clubs er literary
societies. When book came into a
neighborhood it went the rounds, and
was read and largely remembered by
every intelligent person. young and
old, within the circle of local associ-
alton. The mock legislators, the de-
baters and youthful essayists at once
gathered strength from its contents and
formed their sentences upon its mod
els. Poetry and eloquence, while they
are the lightest forms of mental effort
in which the refined and cultured of
all l1ages have expressed the diviner
emotions Of the soul, are also the first
in which new civilization gives voice
to its hopes and aspirations or chron.
icles its progress. While ours is not
a new civilization, in the strictest ia.
terpretation Of the word, it is an ex.
tension Of IN old civilization into new
fields under such conditions as to rem.
der it peculiarly sensitive to the
charms of eloquenco and poetry. ~
Our early poets were found among
the farmers, the struggling young law.
yers and physicians, the poorly paid
editors and printers, and the mothers
Of growing families. Many WHO have
sincs become famous in political and
professional fields. wooed the muses.
then. Fifty years ago "the West" was
not without a poetical literature, nei-
ther was it devoid Of literary centers
md literary publications.
In the year 1889, Return Jonathan |
Meigs read poem of considerable
length and much real merit at Fourth
Of July celebration at Marietts, Ohio.
The progress of poetical literature in
Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, dates
rom that time, and instead of being
plant that has grown up and blossomed
within the last decade, as asserted by q
'ecent Eastern writer of vast and
various misinformation," it is more
han ninety years Of age, and may in
! few years celebrate its first century.
The first magazine of the West was
established at Lexington. Kentucky.
This was the Western Review.
monthly of 6S pages, furnished to SUBJ
'cribers at s. 90 per year. and edited
'y William Gibbs Hunt. This maga-
.ine lived and fourished through four
consecutive volumes. Prior TO this,
however, the literature of the section
rad found expression in the Western
Spy, started 10 Cincinnati. in 1899, by
Joseph Carpenter. aud the Kentucky
iazette established in l1S3. In the
anne year that the Western Review
vas established at Lexington, Ken
ucky. the Literary Cadet was started
q Cincinnati, BY Joseph Bnch anan and
oon after the Western Spy was con-
olidated with it. For three or four
-esrs. however. Western writers had
eceived encouragement through the