Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1883-11-15
A Wonderful Man.

Dr. Edward Henry Palmer, Englishman,
| Orentulist, Cambridge professor, artist,
| journalist, who was brutally murdered last
year by the Arabs of the Sinaitic Peninsula,
while on diplomatic errand in behalf of
| his native land, was one of the extraordi-
nary men of the time, and the story of his
| Life and Achievements" by Walter Besant,
an acquaintance of dozen years. who be-
| came a friend. and in several undertakings
was fellow workman, is a romance, of
| genius, affection. learning and enthusiasm.
I consccrated TO the highest ends and Welded
( finally in the spirit of martyr. Professor
| Pamer's short life ran deep and stretched
! all the way along from the very humanest
| connections on the one side to the very edge
of the supernatural on the other. a COM
rade of gypsles, whose language he learned
when boy and could speak as if he were
one OF them; mesmerist, who could sub
| Ject a girl to an anTsthetlc influence suf-
cient to carry her through severe surgical
operation without pain linguist Of aston
ishing facility, who learned to speak Italian
ard French before he was eighteen, and
mastered Arabic, Persian, and Hindostani
before he was thirty an artist with rare
eye for color, whose caricatures with the
| pencil filed portfolios and were only
| equaled by the burlesques in verse which he
turned off impromptu with his pen stu
dent who thought nothing of twelve, four
teen, sixteen, eighteen hours day Of close
| application to books, and that day after day
a gymnast, who had the nerve and skill to
| hang himself by heel and toe from bar at
the top of st. Sohn's Chapel tower at
| Cambridge over n drop of three hundred
| feet; Cambridge professor giving lectures
IN three languages; conJuror who could
delight and amaze private company of
| spectators with the most inscrutable tricks
IN legerdemain "mind-reader' who II
Naled Dishop, ana medium who sur
passed Maskelyne and Cooke; translator
equally at home IN rendering dreamy Per
sian poetry INTO exquisite English verse, and
IN critically revising for the British and
Foreign Bible Socltey, Henry Martyrs
Persian version OF the New Testament;
disciple OF lzaak Walton, VINO, with another
Cambridge scholar for boon companion,
loved to dress up as wandering monde
script and roam the tens of Lincolnshire for
weeks at time; Palestine explorer. who
did noble work Tor biblical science IN the
Holy Land. and IN his desert OF the Exo-
du> lett one OF the masterpieces IN that de-
| partment OF literature; story-teller on
whose lips men hung breathleSS; prince
Of good fellows, the iavorite OF clubs,
and IadiatIng personal magnetism at every
point OF contact; man who could intone
the Moran, curse IN Arabic, aud as nurse
was one OF a thousand man with gen
,leness and tenderness OF woman, who
/ could yet IN the desert by gesture and
word awe three hundred Bedoun into sub
JeciIon and bring them TO their knees before
him London Journali<ot versatility
that never halted, an industry that never
halted, an Industry that never Ragged, and
good nature that nothing disturbed; as
intrepid an adventurer as ever handled
rifle and penetrated jungle, and husband
and father OF the most loving heart; alike
the friend OF Henry Irving, the actor, and of
the gypsy tinker at the roadside man who
could speak and write IN ten languages, and
then take to CHINESE as II his mind were
vacant aAd uhempioNedi nero whose name
deserves 70 ne written with NeillnSton's
and Nelson 5, even as MS body rests with
theirs such was Edward Henry Palmer.
And all his iulI, productive lie was lived,
ana all ms wonderful achievements were
done before he was many days past forty
three. lhe capacity, the energy, the elias
ticity OF the human mind have had in mod
ern times no more astonishing illustration.
Mr. famer was born IN lHo4 Ills youth
was day OF small things. His only inherl-
tance was consumptl'e tendency. The
first language he learned next to his own
was Romany-the language OF the S!psiss.
lie mastered Italian and French IN the cafes
and on the wharyes OF London, where lie
lived for while as clerk. His pulmonary
tendency was sinsuiarly broken up By a dose
OF lobella. lie was short man and little,
with stopping shoulders ana narrow chest.
When roaming the streets OF fariS ~ East
ern costume the very Arabs whom ne met
mlstook HIM Tor Mos!em ike themselves.
lie rode through the ninailc Desert IN
disguise which deceived the very elect OF
the Shelks. lie had remarkable nnSerS,
which acted like sentlent organs. He had
curlousiy large and ilmpld eyes fthe sorl that
woman loves. lie was naturally weak
man, but was an easy match for the
snatch tEiei VINO grabbed hls watch
one DAY as ne was walking down the
Wmtechapel Road IN London. 1t was con
tact at Cambridge with learned Pundlt,
Syed Abdullah, which awoke within him the
>lumberinS genius for Orentaism, and
made OF HIM IN breath almost the man he
was destined to be- lie got slzarship at
Cambridge, and then scholarship, and lhen
a fellowship, ana thcn pfotesscrship,
though Jealousy and old-iogyiSm on the part
OF others Kept him out Of the posts which
really belonged TO HIM. by the time he was
twenty-slA II was an acknowledged fact that
no European was so well versed IN Oriental
languages us ne. lie sought an Eastern
mission, but failed OF 1t. lie did JON the
Wilson surveying Expedition IN Sinai IN
lS6S-lS69. With single English compan-
ION, Mf. lrywhlft Drake, he made similar
expedition TO Eastern Palestine IN 1870. For
the next ten years ne settled down at Cam
bridge, scholar, teacher, author, translator,
critic, lecturer, journalist geoerapher,
daily poet, at home IN his ten languages as
If he were native, generous benefactor to
everybody IN need, clever minstrel, always
sketchlng, an inlmitable amateur actor, at
one time praeticlng lawyer, with criminal
l n n oil