Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-01-19
tnisfellaneni1s.
Bayard Taylor.

In religion Bayard Taylor might have
been very properly regarded as a Unita-
rian, possibly as Deist. though at the
same time he ALWAYS evinced great rev.
erence for the faith of his Quaker ancestry.
| In his dress he was careless and indiffer-
emit, having but little respect for anything
in the way of style and conventionality.
He always chose a stout, plain suit OF
clothes which had the elements of thor
ough durability in them-garments which
could be worn long time; stout, heavy
shoes or boots, large gray overcoat and
| a broad brimmed SLOUGH hat. These COM
pleted his wearing outfit. He always
wrote strikingly beautiful hand, and al
ways expressed himself to the effect that
illegible. slovenly writing was an abomin-
alton. He always wrote quietly and ap-
parently slowly, yet he produced great
er amount of copy" in the course OF an
hours time than one would suppose in
view of the great ease and entire absence
of haste which characterized his efforts.
He was a prodigious intellectual toiler.
with probably few equals in this country
or abroad. AS an example of what he
could accomplish with his brains and pen
| in given space of time, it is related OF
him that during his last service upon the
staff of the New York Tribune, one Thurs
day evening two large octave volumes
containing poems by Victor Hugo, in the
French, were handed to him for review. 1t
was necessary that the review should ap-
pear in the Tribune the following
Saturday morning, consequently the
copy would have to be in the printers
hands by early Friday night. Taylor was
suffering from i'll health at the time, be-
sides he had an engagement to give two
lectures in the interval, one in New York
and the other in Brooklyn. He completed
his review in season for the printer Friday
evening, and the article, nearly page in
length, appeared in the Tribune the next
morning. As piece of criticism.
Edmund C.. Stedman states: ut was
equal to any of his literary criticisms, and
surpassed any analysis of Hugo's genius
that / have ever seen. One remark
able feature of the review wa over col
umn of translation into English poetry
from the original, including several lyrics
and idyls. so beautifully done that they
seemed like original gems in the English
In his career as a journalist no individual
had warmer regard for the profession,
or was more deeply devoted to the work
belonging thereto than he. He expended
the same degree of labor on its success
which he gave to any and every purely
literary achievement he ever performed,
never taking his pen in hand for the mere
purpose of saying something, unless it
were really worth saying and could be
well said.
Another most admirable trait in his
character was the entire lack of jealousy
toward any brother toiler with the pen.
No feeling of hatred entered into his
nature, while, on the contrary, the success
of friend gave him as much pleasure as
| if it had been his own. Among his fellows
he was generous to a fault, ever
ready to do a kind act for any one
who needed help, though the service
so rendered cost him more than he could
well bestow. No wife or child ever had
more tender devotion shown them than
this noble man was wont to give his COM
panion in life and his only child, while
the love he bore his parents even to the
hour of his death was something almost
akin to worship.
Prof. Moses Colt Tyler once remarked
to me that he had met in his lifetime two
persons each of whom was the embodi-
ment of real loneliness, and one was
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. the other
Bayard Taylor. During the last years OF
his life he began to lose his old love for
travel. and would set out on long Jour-
ney with extreme reluctance. Though he
had visited all parts of the world, there
was no country to him like America, and
New York was city which. for resi-
dence, he preferred to any European cap
ital He thought more highly of his
poetry than of his prose. and at heart de-
sired that on the former, rather than on
the latter. his fame should rest. In a let
ter to Mr.. John J. Platt of Ohio, in 1875.
he says he feels his ability to write verse
to be really the best faculty of his intel
lectual lite, and that his best poetry is vet
to be written.
Bayard Taylor had wonderful memo
~, and nothing he ever read was forgot
ten-He was an excellent linguist. and
especially as student of German litera-
ture he was without doubt the finest
scholar our country has ever produced.
In the domain of literature he achieved a
rare reputation, but had he lived to the
allotted period of man his fame would
have shone with the fairest lustre.-Geo.
NeaceU Louejoy, in the Repubzic