The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-07-13
Paul H. Hayne

pine forest, dear to the heart Of the poe,
Paul H. Hayne, the laurelled singer o
the South, slept the sleep that know
no waking in this lower world. He ha.
valisntly, laboriously, faithfully. de
voutly finished his course. In honora
BILE poverty, after early affluence, h,
struggled on, always keeping the torcl
of literary genius resplenden abovet hi
head. Beyond his immediate famil,
and the ALL Father, few can understant
how tremendous struggle this giftet
man waged Increasingly with the ..un
spiritual god-Circumstance." .Unft
ted for the ruder conflicts of the mateliA.
universe, and shrinking from the rodkh
contact of the weekday world, he He.
voted his existence to his art, and neYe,
recognized another intellectual rival In
that orbit. What prodigies, for what
scant reward, that busy brain and tire
less hand wrought! What beautiful
poems, from year to year or month to
month, shaped themselves in his pure
imagination or flashed from this land to
that other cline, which he pined to bee,
but never was permitted to behold / He
was master too of nervous, picturesque,
suggestive prose, in nearly every chord
of passionate pathos or delicate irony, to
say nothing of the spiritual insight that
illumined and enchanted everything
serious that came from his pen. How
tenderly and eloquently and piously he
gathered the immortal flowers that fell
from Timrod's hand and made the world
weep at one Of the saddest stories of
neglected genius since tho days Of Chat
terton, 1.-The marvellous boy who perish
ed in his PRIDE" Timrod, unlike Chat
terton, awaited the summons of his Ma
ker and passed away revercntly when
Love was stronger than Life" Happy
was he in having had friend like Hayne
to lead his gentle apparition down the
Of tia,e.'' -
In this connection, too, it Is 4 gracious.
that his last prose contribution
was in sympathetic aid Of the venerable
Charles Gayarre, who, in his old age,
has not had the consideration his wonder
ful talents and services deserve. 1t was
IN impulse Of love that made Hayne the
literary executor of Timrod. 1t was the
chiSnlric call Of fratcrhal duty thst rous-
ed him, in his last days, to rebuke the
South for its churlishness toward such
. man as Gayarre. This was one of
Paul Haynes noblest virtues. He had
40 jealousy of his professional brethren
but was swift and eager to do them any
and to espouse their cause in
my practicable fashion.
Hayne was an ardent lover Of nature
md, like Wordsworth, had laid his ear
70 the bosom Of the mighty mother,
,earkening to secrets which she never
ails to reveal to children who nestle in
Ter arms and confide in her inspiration.
The winds had music for him, in storm
'r zephyr. The sky, in serenity or fury
'cld messages for his Muse. Flower.
horn, heritage, the multitudinous mira.
les Of creation were creatures Of his
ancy and gold mines Of his thought.
Al were instinct to him with the Pow
II that permitted them, and he saw the
majesty Of God in the loveliest violet a
veil as in the plunge of the cyclone
trough the shrieking woodland.
Luckily for Paul Hayne, he had some
nestimable compensation. No man was
yer blessed with wife who 80 thorough
understood and appreciated him
nd the same, in relative degree. was
rue of the remarkable son who has
nherited tho gentleness Of one parent
nd the talent Of the other. All that
'"s = happy family. despite the trials
nd thwarting Of life Harmony was
here and love and trust and heavenly
Mon. The master-singer has departed .
[e has laid down his cross and taken
is crown, in Gods great mercy. An
nspeakable void is in the hillside home
nd the two faithful hearts that admired |
I'D adorcd him beyond human expres.
on. But praise be to Christ the Re
eeiner and Healer the do not mourn 40
le hopeless! A little while and thew
'all rejoin him. His splendid work
'mains to make them and the people
'joice that he lived. His memory is
ainless. The good he did was incalcu.
tle. A