Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-07-14


Paul H. Hayne, the South's greatest
lumbia county, Ga, at O'Clock on the
night of the 9Th instant.
The death of Mr.. Hayne removes the
most conspicuous figure from contempora-
ry Southern literature, and deprives the
South Of its most widely known poet.
No other man of letters, pure and simple,
born, bred and writing in the South, ex-
cept VIM. Gilmore Simms, has in our
generation attained so marked recogni-
ton beyond the borders of his native
State. Both at the north and abroad Mr..
Haynes poems have been greatly admir-
ed, and whatever may be their absolute
merit, they have certainly done very
much to vindicate the claim of the South
to distinctive place in American litera-
ture.
Mr.. Hayne belonged to an eminent
South Carolina family. and one whose
name has always held a distinguished
place in the annals Of the State. He was
the nephew of Governor Hayne, of nulli-
fication memory, the orator who measur-
ed swords so staunchly with Daniel Web
ster. His father, Lieut. Hayne, of the
United States navy, died while on duty
at Pensacola. Paul Hayne himself was
=
there his childhood and youth was pass
in Charleston College and continued 10
reside in the city until the result of the
war caused him to seek home in an
other State, ,and he went to Georgia, where
he resided until his death.
In sketch by Mrs. Margaret j. Pres
ton, of Virginia, it is stated that during
the prolonged siege of Charleston, Mr..
Haynes house was burnt to the ground
and his household goods had to be trans
ported elsewhere. After the war he set
tied down among the pine-barrens of
Georgia, and there, in the secluson of his
pleasant cottage of "Copse HILL" the last
years of his life were spent. In delicate
health and among trials and difficulties
which must often have been very severe,
he fought with unfiagging courage the bat
tie of life. We borrow from Mrs. Pres
tons Memoir, published while he was yet
alive, this touching allusion to one of the
compensations of that struggle-the only
compensation, doubtless, which could
have made it endurable at dU.
"In this secusion he is sustained and
cheered and buoyed up by such compan-
ionship as blesses few poets and few men:
We do not wish to draw aside the veil of
y
has hidden from view the soft, fair face
which has been content-yea, more than
content-which has rejoiced to concentrate
the glow of its radiance upon her poets
home behind the screen Of Georgia pines
renouncing everything for his sake. But
it would not be just, in a sketch OF MIR.
Hayne, to omit all allusiOn to the woman
who has irradiated his retirement, and
tempered his adversities with a patience
and cheerfulness and la brightness which
have never once succumbed. Let the read
er turn to the dedication of the volume of
Legends and Lyrics published by Lip
pincott in 1872, and see what Mrs. Hayne
has been to her husband"
During his residence at "Copse Hill,"
Mr.. Hayne devoted himself increasingly
to literary pursuits, editing the works of
Henry Timrod, and writing, during the
past twenty years, several volumes of
poems, and contributing to leading maga-
zines, his productions, almost without any
exception, proving very popular.
His remains were taken to Augusta on
Wednesday, and after lying in state until
Sunday, were buried on the afternoon of
that day from st. Paul's Church.
@ The English have in seven hundred
years evolved the principles of freedom.
It is the land of patriots, martyrs, sages
and bards, IAN island famous for i'm
mortal law, for the announcements of
original right, which make the stone ta-
blcs of liberty.