Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1880-01-17
IRWIN RUSSELL.

hWlN hUSS6II.
Into the Kellogg-Spofford
Committee room, at New Or
leans, one day came a man of
middle age, whose uncouthness
would have attracted attention
anywhere. His eyes had a mary
elous distortion and there was
about his whole aspect some
thing that showed that the
badge of all his tribe had been
such suffering as makes the
unhappy Christian welcome
death as possible rest, and the
smltten Buddhist sigh for it as
his longed for airvana-the an
initiation of all existence, since
to him life in any form is asso-
ciated only with malediction.
The attire of this strange being
was in complete correspond
ence with this individuality.
There was an evident but un-
prosperous attempt at neatness,
for the coat was well worn, the
shirt only too long unfamiliar
with the laundry, and the pant
aloons such as might be hand
ed down from Old Mortality
! himself: And yet this man,
miserable and forlorn as he was
had that something immortal
about him which gave redemp-
ton to features and circrlm-
stances otherwise uncanny. He
was a scholar and a poet, and
his productions were read by
thousands of persons here and
abroad. In the pages of Scrib-
ner's Magazine, for many
InuntLo, uU nulno was bet1e
known than that of Irwin Rus
sci, and his quaint dialectical
verses, assimilated to the negro
jargon, and perfect OF their
kind, evinced a racy, 1nctuous
humor little COMFORTING with
the tragic features of the poor
fellows actual life. AS Grim
aldi wept behind his clowns
mask, while convulsing pit ane
dome with laughter, so poo
Irwin Russell wrought out IL
; silence, poverty, hunger ant
f despair, hundred witty song
: that Immediately tickled tn
3, fancy of multitudes, as the,
v sat over cheerful firesides, a
q bountiful boards and amid til
: splendors of a modern palace
s Little did the readers of Scrit
e ner know, or care perhaps, ho7
v Jared the creature who spu
= out his brains for their ente'
4 tainment. Little did they Emo
y or care that he wandered aboI
n the great city of the Southwe'
J. with hardly a place to lay h
u tired head that amid the lo.
# GUS, bacchanalian crowd he ha
IS no place and oftentimes NIGH
If in utter destitution, envy tt
y pampered dog that followt
- some fine lady along the gil
A tering boulevard. What wea
/. tramps the poor man had, mig
T. and day, who can tell III
r., temples of Fashion at Chris
y mas with their opulent brave
or Knocked his empty purse. l.
1s tempting display of appetizil
al yiands in the restaurant WI
r.. dows gnawed his vitals like t
Ie vulture of mythology or the +
N of the Spartan. In the metz
a. polls that sits in majesty by t
% imperial river, what unfort
Of nate could match the misery
he him who had the soul to sc
he into the empyrean and the bo
re to endure the fate of Tanta]
re himself. A few weeks ago,
"a never occurred to the writ
re that, by any possibility, sho'
49, he again be called upon to
an member Irwin Russell save
NJ the spectral body that fitted
at little while before the gaze a
IN then siddled away as mystt
wo ously as he came. And )
er here most unexpectedly q
i'm shockingly that singular Wis
ew comes again, full of pathos,
w. the lines before us declare t
er- Irwin Russell, destitute
lb, fricndless, had died in the q