Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-10-15
JOHN GODFREY SAKE.
. ". II. Bliss

JOHN GODFREY SAKE.
Edward Duffey in the Brooklyn Magazine
In large and luXuriously furnished
apartment in four-stOry brown-stone
house on State street, in the city of AL
bany, and almost within stones throw
of the great Capitol, sits or walks or re-
clines throughout the day man of 20
years of age. With hair that is silvery
white, Il full beard that is gray-white, a
form that is bent and emaciated. Il step
that is slow and tottering. and a cheek
that is pallid and shrunken-his blue
eyes yet full and lustrous alone indicate
the strength and pride of other days.
This man is John Godfrey SAKE. the poet.
1t is only few wears since the verses
of SAKE were eagerly accepted by the
leading periodicals. and his services as a
lecturer were everywhere popular. In
his day he was bright member of many
a literary gathering, being known per-
sonally to all of the most prominent of
contemporary poets and prose writers.
He was the nations wit and humorist.
whose delicious rhymes brought to him
self fame and a competence, and to many
a household the cheerful smile or hearty
laugh. Even across the sea he was known
a. the Thomas Hood of American
Yet alas. how intensely pathetic i,
the rounding out of this mans days. For
some years he has been dead to all the
world. Few people know that he is yet
alive: few of his numerous former ar
dent admirers think of him now other
than as one who has been. but who nc
longer moves among his kind The vic
tim of deep-seated, ever-present mel
ancholy, his closing years are touchingly
sad and uneventful. the never-ceaSi sing
care of the few relatives that are spared
him even failing to rid him of the deep
gloom in which unhappily his mind is
now shrouded.
Up to the year 1875 John G.. Sake was
a splendid and conspicuous specimen OF
inches tall, proudly erect and muscular
W IN 81 itl - anu ull'lN lIplN'N
head set upon broad and stalwart
shoulders. The latest photograph OF
him. now possessed by his fami-
ly, represents his face in profile
broad, high, intellectual forehead
wavy brown hair in abundance
large, keen eyes set in deeply. and with
strong and suggestive feature outlines
set of by Il mustache and Burnside
whiskers. Less than dozen years age
this picture was fully justified by it,
subject.
The beginning of the end was the poet
dreadful experience and remarkable es-
cape from revolving death in Western
railway disaster in the spring of 1873,
while Oh his return to Brooklyn at the
conclusion of lecture tour in the South
The sleeping car in which he had a berth
was thrown down steep embankment,
and he was rescued therefrom by the
merest chance. As he lay wedged in be-
tween the broken timbers, stunned and
bruised, fellow-passenger who had es-
capped bethought him of a sum of money
which he had left behind him. On re-
turning to the car he stumbled upon the
insensible poet. The latter was thereby
discovered and rescued from what would
inevitably have been death and destruc-
ton by fire, as the sleeper in which he
was found, after brief interval following
his rescue, became a mass of Seething
flame. His flesh was bruised but no
bones were broken. Outwardly he APP
peared to have escaped with slight bodily
injuries.
Not so. \ grievous hurt was there
deep, insidious, and lasting, though al
the time it was unseen and unfelt. The
poets nerve system had received shock
from which it never rallied. Exhaustion
set it; slowly but surely the consequent
weakness oyerspread and undermined
his whole physical being. He began tc
experience Il greater degree OF bodily and
mental fatigue than had been usual with
him. Worst of all was its depressing in
fluence on his eXuberant spirits, which
became more and more subdued, until al
last his mind had lost much of its wonted
buoyancy.
Other Affections wereyet in store. Dur
ing the year just prior to that of the rail
way accident he had inferred his daugh-
ter, Laura, in Greenwood cemetery. Five
years later Death again invaded his Brook
Ign home, the second victim being his
daughter, Sarah. Barely another year
had elapsed when the mother of his chill
dren, a noble woman, was put tenderly
away in dreamless rest. Early in the
year of 1881 the dark reaper for the fourth
time laid his cruel sickle at his door, thi.
time cutting down Hattie, the poets only
remaining daughter. He had two sons