The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-03-28
Washington Irving.

Washington Irving.
1t is a hundred years ago, on the Sd
of April, that Washington Irving was
born in the city of New York, and he
is still its most famous son. The only
New-Yorker who could dispute this
claim is John Jay. But universal and
honorable as is jays renown in his own
country, the name Of Irving is more
familiar to the Englisl1-speaking race.
It is the synonym of sweet literary
grace and harmless gayety of humor
which retain their charm in the midst
of new tastes and among powerful rivals.
Irving no longer shares with Byrant and
Cooper the glory of being the sole or
chief representatives of American liter
ature, but he is still and forever its
kindly patriarch, the modest author who
first modestly answered the truculent
question, Who reads an American book
by offering to the world an American
book which it was delighted to read.
That instrinsically modest air never
disappeared either from the works or
the character of the benign writer. In
the height Of ibis renown there was no
kind of presumption or conceit in his
simple and generous heart. Some time
after his return from his long absence
in Europe, and before Putnam became
his publisher, he found some disinclina-
ton upon the part Of publishers to issue
new additions of his books, and he ex-
pressed with entire good-humor his be-
lief that he had had his day; and meet
Ing some years afterward, in Mr.. Put
- Il ! H. .E1 "a
erary beginners, he said, with a
humorous twinkle in the eye, and with
he husky whispering voice which gave
proper flavor to every pleasantly,
I'VE old fellows had the advantage of
GU young men for we wrote without
iyals."
Every literary man of Irving's time,
neither old or young, had nothing but
fectionate praise of his artess urbanity
nd exhaustless good-nature. These
ualities are delightfully."- reflected in
hackeray's stories of him in the
roundabout Paper upon Irving and
!. acaulay-"the Goldsmith and the
ibbon of our time" He came to one
my lectures in Washington, Thacke-
says, and the retiring President, Mr..
N llmore, and his successor, Mr.. Pierce,
na ERE present-"Two kings Of Brentford
4 lelling at one rose" said Irving, with
". good-humored smile. In his little
" liver of home at Sunnyside he was
= mays accessible. One English news
4 per man came and introduced himself
d partook of luncheon with the fami-
be which was his habit, the wary
hF.ts l. "a a
n.y. erything in the house, and served up
description to the British public,
y. luding the nap Of his entertainer AT
S1s' pther time Irving said, 1.-TWO persons
Pie to me, and one held me in CONVEX
ion while the other miscreant took my
leTS trait"
hackeray tells these little stories with
- hiring sympathy. His manly heart
bays grew tender over his fellow
= hors who had no acrid drop in theil
lC ct humor. Irving was the earliest
tSg American satirists, but there is nc
!. g in the laughter that he moves
DEPOT was the first of our humoTists, but
humor ispure lymph. It's unmixeC
AND malice and although, as Warner
nscLH es even his friend Gulian Verplancl
,uRgR nted little the fun of Knickerbock
II, upon md some scions of the old Dutcf
\ Of fair Mannahatta assumed to b.
-- gnant with his resiStlessly droll por
..lsis ure Of the fathers of New Amster
lrying's own limpid good-naturt
plyed the hard feeling, and left onl!
lON. pest understanding.
Walter Scott, who recognized a
the power and the humoT Of Knick
Streets cker's History, felt its kindred witt
great works Of similar genius il
lsh llterature--a stroke Of Swift,
Of Sterne. But recent pape
- American literature in Blackwoo,
., that it is ludicrous to compare tn
I mr.. humor of Rip Van Wrinkle witt
robustious fun" of Swift This j
MISS. nous arrangement of epitaphs
. has wit, and satiric power, an,
sryl ng inyective, ard ribaldry, ant
is CO. u, scornful humor; but fun, in an.
! be g ,sSFITf ehse, he has not. The airy grac
Imaginative play of Rip Van Wiz
win r'1'' eWholly beyond the reach of Swift
certainly true, as Blackwood RI
That Shakespeare, Milton, Dry
s Aadlson, Pope, and $50 many more
n,srRIcr q be replaced by "Mr. Washing
! o ni III Sc wing and Mr.. Lowell" But it
! and pee Y true that the Rape Of the Loci,
..,,.oo, ae "Absalom and Atchitophel
,ckhavsn. displace Knickerbocker's Hist,
the Biglow Papers. Since Swii
Eastwood critic can not find
literature political satire MOI
uFAcTgeaE snt, humorous, and effective tina
ARIoN SSs slew Papers, and nothing in swi
nvspAuE priginal.
us and the other chief America
are not rivals of their associate
literature Of the language; the
my comrades. Pope and Dryde
me peers Of Shakespeare an
but they are nevertheless POI