Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-04-26
The Living Poen.

For the IxIEILIsENcE1. go -
The Living Psen.
Ey Euseblos Hersasy Of asbsrssurg p.
believe it is customary when book il
published, for the press to review It to
point out the bad whenever il can be found
by fine toothed comb search, and pass
the good with as little notice a. possible,
and for the public to ne,kly fold the
ha.ds of its mind and say 'it is just to
whatever the critic may say. The work
before me, the title of which have quoted.
think has never had - fair ard square,
review, or at. least II it has,
have not seen it and If it has not,
think the shadow Of , duty unfulfilIed IL
hanging over US, duty we Owe to q local
contemporary, and the shadow must be
dispelled; and if there is any virtue In .
local poet, drunk with the wine divine of
inspiration, or who has been on that kind
of . spree, and is now trying to allay his
thirst at the HelicOnian stream, while his
painting Pegasus rests in the laurels pretty
high up on ParnassusI was going to
say if there is any credit in such q local
shall call it institution ?-we ought to
have all we can get, and if any of my
readers should have seen an earlier bat
certainly no more dispassionate review
they will excuse me, as have missed it
in my readings, which, it may not be out
of place to remark, are confined pretty
closely to the Scriptures, Interesting
ghost stories" and q book of psalms.
This is case of German bard and
ScOtch-Irish reviewer, as it is my desire
to keep rs great a distance as possible be-
tween myself and that naughty, unhal-
lowed Byron, whose low-necked collars
are a pretty good offspring Of his morals.
Bat l. wander from tho sublime to the
ridiculous.
The parents of our poet, AZ he SO aptly
expresses ii, were
Without fancy.
Hcrshcy. Abraham and Nancy"
who were blessed, taking the poetical one
as sample, with quite large family:
"GOd to them nine children gave"
of which
"Two, like them, found each grave"
Eusebius was bOrn-but will let him tell
his own genealogy
NV birthday came as all NAV see
In eighteen hundred and twenty-thrce;
August, on the fourteenth day"
Farther on in the bOok-it must he re-
viewed chronolosically if it is not written
so-the bard says, tersely, indeed, and
right to tn point, an excellent element in
poetic nature or composition
:. '.Eusebius Hershey is my name,
sock not here for earthly fame;
aebersburg is my address,"
From the last line my readers will learn
the address of Mr.. Hershey. should they
be desirous of communicating with him.
That he has local claim upon us, song
bird of our feathers as it were, can he OBJ
seeved when he says speaking of his fathers
family.
- The place where We for ye ars did live,
Ill to the reader plainly give
Lancaster county and Pa,
Three miles of Mannheim, north say"
Now having given my readers the poets
birthday date, and postoffice address,
should any Of them, or all Of them, for that
matter, contemplate giving him q letter
surprise. and settled everything pertaining
to the earlier personal history Of this mis-
sionary and poet, let us proceed to take a
poetic blossoms of his book, that can be
found trailing through its leaves, like
arbutus can be found just now in the
sunny places i'm our WOO dS.
will just step aside here, il my rel der
please, to advise young men if they have
any intention of going to gather arbutus,
to each take companion of the unmar-
ried female persuasion with him, as it in
creases the poetry of the thing greatly !;
and would say in furtherance of the sug-
gested companion. that the young ladies
are always looking for and always find,
too, "Oh such lovely bunch, y" in some
out of tho way hidden-fr from the. .rest-Of-the
party place where no ono can see or hear
if two heads should get SO close together
as they bend down to pull the dainty
plant. But grow ByrOnic in my digres-
siOns.
Mr. Hershey opens the work before mo
with prelude of two stanzas. have
only space to quote one.
"A work for God i'm poetry''
(The italics are mine.)
The authors name outside you'll see;
The seals are broken, read 1t through
Let prejudice not hinder you."
OF course Eusebius. like many other
pOets-Shakspcare, rs a familiar example
suffers somewhat from fragmentary quo
tations. We admire a single apple BIOS
som, but it is only when we see thousands
Of them clustered on the trees that wc are
carried away with, and justice is done, their
loveliness.
He carly lc1fllcu Tie luUucOCc OF Oflgl-
nal sin" on mankind and was evidently a
student of the Bible-King James, edition
no doubt.
'When was young Gods book l read,
learned that in sin was dead.''
He tells US at the verdant age Of eighteen
he took sick.
The fever made my body weak,
For help did the doctor seek"
While in the condition above described,
he says
- The many sins did commit
found IN IN now against me ritz
Overpowered with the unusual sight his
Z" soul was filled with guilty fears.'' and
he sought the Lord in prayer with
tears" Fortunately his lachmyral con-
diti IN improved soon, as he says, "a
burden from my heart did roll.' Rid of
the incubus. he naturally became light of
heart and free Of tongue, and could better
than ever before,
"Praise the Lord, my song was new.''
1t is interesting to learn that modern
revelations undoubtedly, from Eusebius's
experience, partake OF double nature-a
sound united with substance, for he says
plainly: