Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-15
he must take food or die."-Dr. Willard
Parker, of NelO York city.

IHE LONG expected biography OF VII
liam Cullen Byrant, by his son-in-law,
Parke Goodwin, has been issued from the
press of Messrs. Appleton. 1t is work of
great interest and will be hailed with de-
light by a large portion of the literary
public. His precocity, evidenced by his
early poetical productions. was most
remarkable, and the delineation of this
portion of his life, forms most charming
feature of his history. He entered up
On the practice of law at Great Darlington,
Massachusetts, and was cotemporary at
the Berkshire bar, with Governor George
N. Briggs, the Hon. Henry W. Dwight and
other prominent and notable lawyers of
that day. But law practice had for him
no attraction-it was rather repul-
sive-and he drifted away from
his native hills to the city of New York,
and engaged in the more congenial line of
literary labor. It was in 1926 that he took
up his abode in New York, and engaged
as assistant editor of the New York Rerietc,
on a salary of $1,000 year. The RerielO
was not a success, and Just as things
seemed at their darkest, Mr.. Bryant was
engaged temporarily as assistant editor of
the EUeniRg Post. But his temporary en-
ployment resulted in permanency, and in
1927 he began his career with the PoSt, which
ended only with his death. He gave fame
and prosperity to that journal, and left his
deep and abiding impress upon its daily
columns. The chapter of the biography
containing the story of Mr.. Bryant's
early struggle as editor of the
Post is the most interesting
in the the book. Notwithstanding his hard
work as the editor of a daily paper he
found time to collect and publish vol
ume Of his poems. Washington Irving
was then minister to England, and to him
he sent the advance sheets in the hope
that he could find him publisher in LoE-
don. The task Mr.. Irving gladly under
took, bat met many rebuffs before finding
one, which he finally did in Mr.. Andrews,
who consented to undertake it on the con-
dition that line in the "Song of Marion's
Men," which reads
''The British foeman trembles,''
should be changed to
to avoid wounding British susceptibilities.
The book was published in March, 1882,
with dedication to Samuel Rogers, which
spoke in the warmest terms of
the poems contained in it. About
the sale of the book in America
Mr.. Bryant writes to Mr.. R. h. Dana, of
Boston that if the whole edition is sold it
will bring him in $500. Mr.. Goodwin went
on the Post in 1886, when but three peri
sons were on the staff, now there are twen-
ty. Mr.. Bryant wrote the leading articles
and reviews of books; his first as
sistant had the exchanges and the
theaters, the third acted as general report
er. AS the staff was so small, the labor
was very severe; but it fell most heavily on
Mr.. Bryant, who had taught his public to
expect every day some disquisition worthy
to be read. The hours were from O'Clock
a. m, to about 4 P. NJ; and promptly every
morning Mr.. Bryant was at his desk, work
ing without intermission till the paper
had gone to press. His articles, always
prepared in the Office, were written, like
Pope's "Homer." on the first scrap of
paper that came to hand-the backs of old
letters, or the reverse side of former arti-
cles. Writing slowly and carefully, with
many erasures and corrections, but IN
neat and graceful script, his proofs re-
quired but little rectifcation. Often the
foreman of the printing room would stand
over him, shipping of line by line as he
wrote, in order to be in time for the make
up" Commonly he began his disquisition,
whatever it might be, with an anecdote or
story illustrative of the theme, which
caused a witty opponent, whom he had
castigated, to say that the Erening Post al
ways opened with stale joke and closed
with a fresh lie. He seldom surpassed a
half column of print in getting his thought
well out. Mr.. Bryant struggled with great
discouragements and adverse circum-
stances to sustain the Post, and was often
on the point of giving up
the hard strife, but vigorous
perseverance finally brought it out all
right, and he obtained great newspaper as
we'll as literary and political fame. As a
poet he stands deservedly first on the list
of our American bards. The following
extract from aletter written in 1888 to his
brother John, cannot fail to be read with
absorbing interest, and will be instructive
to the young journalists of the present
day, as showing what resolute,eyen logged,
indomitable perseverance can accomplish.
Referring to his literary projects, he wrote:
81 have 10 time for such things. When 1
went to Europe the Erening Post was pro-
ducing liberal income; Mr.. Leggett, who
conducted it, espoused very zealously the
cause of abolition, and then was taken
i'll. The business of the establishment fell
into the hands of a drunken and saucy
clerk to manage, and the hard times came
on. All these things had bad effect on
the paper, and when 1 returned they were
reduced to little or nothing. In the mean
time Mr.. LeCgett and myself had contract
ed large debt for the purchase of the
Ersning Post. He retired and the whole
was left on my shoulders. have been Ia
boring very diligently to restore the paper
to prosperous condition, and begin to