The Cecil Whig., 1885-11-28


Emma Alice Brown article. l am sure
there are many noble male and female au
thors in our state whose names are worthy
record in our county papers. Your own
judgment will tell you better than | whom
to choose from the number for your subject.
| shall await impatently the appearance of
YOUR first paper on "The Literature aud
Literateurs of Maryland and Cecil County"
STUDENT.
| must confess the above communication
came upon me somewhat in the form of a
surprise, for l had rot supposed the readers
of today still maintained interest enough in
the work of Maryland and Cecil county
writers to care for review of their labors,
but the idea suggested by my kind cores
pondent appeared to me in a favorable light
and have since planned my series of pa
pers, the first of which shall be upon one
dearly beloved, | hope, yet little read or re-
membered now-a-days-MissS S. j. {. Whit
tlesey. When l occasionally glance over
the ancient files of THE WING l am inva-
riably confronted with the fact that its col
umns have been the first to introduce many
writer's of both sexes, now honored and dis
tinguished, to the critical scrutiny of the
public. Many of its old contributors are
now, if all of them still live, men and wo-
men of renown and distinction. In their
early days of toll and combat with the
world the columns of the venerable WING
served as a household roof-tree for the har-
borment of their first crude etfusions. Poets
and prose writer's in unnamable numbers
were in the habit of coming to his journal
with their youthful efforts. In it we find
the poems of Amelia Welby, Mrs Kidd T,
Miss Kemble, Miss Whittlesey, Emma AL
ice Brown, &c. j )" David Scott, and nu-
merous prose and poetic contributions from
from the local asterids who have thought
better Of life profession since the days of
their first efforts and grown upward in ca
reers entirely estranged from literature yet
who might if they had continued at their
versical emploYnents made bright, inmor
tai names. The galaxy of Maryland and
Cecil county writers, though net brilliant
or at all to be comp'red with the New Eng
land or Massachusetts galaxy, is still of a
rich and delightful character. With the
exception of Edgar Allen Poe, Francis Scott
Paine, Jr., the writer's of Maryland must
be classed under the head of minors. Be-
yond the names have just mentioned lit
erature was not the sole aim or life work of
our local writers. The business of life
bound them too closely to the great mill
stone of toll and endeavor for them 10 soar
very high or swim very far in the air and
on the stream of fame and repown. Among
them all Poe was the only one who devoted
his life to literature, and it gives me pleas
ure to say, is the only one whose name has
endured through the past and present and
| these minor writers there still clung that
fine gossamer fabric of poesy and romance.
| Literary labor was to them a delight and
recreation, yet they were not made of the
proper material to attain those heights in il
which are only attainable by those provi.
dentially invested with genius and talent
In a certain sense, however, the world of
| literature is Indebted to these minor writers,
and to none does it accord more thankful
ness than Miss Whittiesey. OF her life and
| its circumstances / am uniformed, further
than what can CLEAN from the labors of
her pen, which have frequently perused
| with great pleasure and satisfaction. She
is now dead, believe, and was born in Vir-
| ginia but spent much of her life in various
parts of Cecil county, Md. She reached a
no higher degree in her art than the emo
| tional An older and ADLER critic than N.Y.
| self (my mother) has said of her first pub
lished volume, Heart Drops from Mem
ory's Urn:
''This work is collection of poems, most
of which have been previously published
in our leading newspapers and magazines
To the readers of The WHIG it is unneces-
sary to speak of Miss Whittlesey's merits
The articles from her pen, which have
from time to time, appeared in its columns,
have ever borne the unmistakabe evil
dtnces OF genius and taste; and we know
of few female writer's in this country, who
excel her in heart touching pathos, and
purity of execution. The sadness, which
pervades a number of the poems, is en-
tirely redeemed from morbidness by the
high-toned religious sentiment which is
every VIII re apparent. The authoress has
the happy faculty of making her reader
her companion. We are with her in the
period ere yet single hope is blasted, and
while the artless trust that all is true as
bright, fills the heart with gadness-in
the hour when she first begins TO wake
from her dream-life, startled to find there
is falsehood and sorrow in the world-in
the time of her heart crushing anguish,
and when she rises superior to every atflic-
tion and nobly dares all things for the
truth, and last of all, we rejoice with her
that, "'tis not the whole of life to live, nor
all of death to die" 1t may be, that In the
great world" with its. glare and hurry,
its selfishness and its lies, this little work
may he often passed by, but hundreds of
true, earnest hearts, who, needing not the
noisy Babel, quietly pursue the good, the
real, will peruse its pages with pleasure"
Much more than this, II praiseworthy
character, cannot be said of Miss Whit
tlesey. She was not the equal of Emma
Alice Browne, neither of Amelia Welby,
excellent work. Her poems are unauot-
able. Each poem is distinctive creation
which must be viewed in the whole or not
at all. 1t is impossible for me TO discover
any of the native art Of the poet in her
work. She has written without any estah |
lished rnle Of foot or measure, being una
ware, probably, of the full poetic power to |
be obtained from an accurate observance of |
metrcal rules. Her expressions ara simple, |
never sublime, but natal in the heart and |
therefore always pure and sweet. A senti.
mental poetess is not apt to win the admi-
ration of a reviewer, yet there is a tender
ness and simplicity in the sentimentality of
Miss Whittlesey that can only admire.