Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-28
Paxne,s Travels in the south

1WtI1rNfDT.
During the latter part of the year 1882.
Payne returned to America. and the dram
attic fraternity gave him splendid benefit
performance at the Park Theatre i'm New
| York, the tickets being five dollars TO any
part of the house. A Mr.. Jones sang.
''HOme. Sweet Home" and a chorus re-
sponded with the ''WelcOme HOme.v with
which the opera of "Clari" closes. A
benefit was also given him in Boston. but
it proved failure. Later on he started
out for tour of the Southern States. and
in New Orleans was given benefit that
cleared him over one thousand dollars.
This, it is said, was his final dramatic ex-
per1ence. He was much given to literary
enterprises, and magazine was one of
his latest unsuccessful projects.
As Payne was something of a Bohe-
milan, he drifted into Georgia during the
troublous times that preceded the removal
of the Cherokee Indians. His intimacy
with the noted chief of the tribe. John
Ross, resulted in his arrest as a danger
GUS visitor. The State and national gov
ernments were in conflict as to Indian af-
fairs, and white men were prohibited
| from visiting the tribes without first Sc
| curing permission of the Statelauthorities
Payne had failed to do this, and being
newspaper correspondent and a writer.
his actions were considered suspicious.
| cured his release after a brief imprisOn-
ment, and he went on his way rejoicing.
and carrying with him good supply of
information
1t is beyond question that Payne was a
great admirer of the ladies, and with all
his poverty and misfOrtunes he could al
ways md an entrance into the best cir
cles of society, where his brilliant talents
made him the central figure. During his
hO mi 70 n To-
ETY., and there are not few old albums in
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and LOuisi-
ana, in which he indIted verses to some
1alr lady whom he met and admired. |
nave before me as | write a once elabo-
rate album, then the property of a charm
ing young lady of Alabama, in which
Payne inscribed a few lines.
This album is now in the possession of
son of the lady, who was a Miss Emily
w. GOode, daughter of Judge Samuel
GOOde, Of Montgomery, Ala. She married
Rev. David Finley, ID. D., an eminent
Presbyterian divine, who graduated at
the old Franklin College, at Athens, Ga,
with such distinguished classmates as
DIR. Crawford W. Long, Gen. Francis S.
| Barlow and Hon. Junius A. Wingfeld.
Both parents are deceased, and the son,
Thomas Finley, Esq, a well-knOwn young
lawyer of Atlanta, treasures this album
as rich legacy.
Miss GOOde was Il lady of rare lowell
ness and varied attractions, and had
many admirers in her circle of society.
1t was not strange. therefore, that when
the brilliant author of ''Home, Sweet
Home, met her and was charmed by her
beauty and accomplishments, there should
have been equally brilliant rivals to chal-
| lenge his knightly attentions and contest
his advances So when he wrote the fol-
lowing tlattering verse in Miss Goodies
album there was at hand a knightlier and
equally brilliant Georgian to match it
with verse as ''gO0d" if not "5etter:"
Lady! your name, if understood.
Explains your nature to aletter.
And may YOU never change from Goode.
JH.PAYNE.
Mirabeau b. Lamar, like Payne, was
journalist, poet, and a gifted man.
He edited the Columbus GA. EnQlUrer.
from 1923 to 1880, and again in
1884 he resumed for a time its
editorial management. 1t was at this
period that Payne was roaming about in
the South, and Lamar coming across his
verse IN Miss Goodies album, penned the
following sharp and personal reply:
am content with being G00de,
To aim at better might be vain:
But if do, It's understood,
Whate'er the cause-it is not Paine.
MlRABEAU b. LAMAR.
Lamar knew, better than Payne, how
to pay delicate compliment to a really
beautiful woman in poetry suited to the
task. He was indeed 1.-THE warrior poet"
and we are told that the ''bravest are the
tenderest.'' Surely no drawer soldier
ever penned a tenderergem of poetry to
fair lady, than this to Miss GoOde, from
Lamar:
The rose | saw upon thy breast.
| deemed the happiest of its race;
In such a world of beauty blest,
HnW cnnld il wish q hrimhtnr nj NO