The Irish standard., 1886-07-03

y
the early part of the present century.
Moore sailed from Spithead on the
25th of September, 1908, on the frigate
Phaeton for Norfolk, Va. The frigate
stopped at the Azores, and it was
';under the lofty peak Of Pica'' that
Moore wrote the poem beginning:
"Swent moon! If like Crotona's sage,
BY any spell my hand could dare
To make that disc it's ample page.
And write my thoughts, my wishes there"
From Norfolk Moore sailed to Ber-
uuda, where he met the we'll known
Capt. Basil Hall, then a nlidshipman.
Capt. Hall, in his Fragments Of Voy-
ages and Travels" speaks highly Of
Moore;s description of Bermuda to be
found in the latter's codes and Epis-
ties" r. was at Bermuda that Moore
made the acquaintance of Capt. Doug
lass, of the frigate Boston, in which he
returned to Norfolk. On this trip he
composed 1.-THE Steersman's Song" he
ginning:
'.Wi1en freshly blows the northern gale,
And under courses snug we fly:
Or when light breezes swell the sail,
And royals proudly sweep the sky;
'Longside tue wheel, unwearied still
stand and, as my watchtul eye
Doth mark the needles faithful thrill,
think OF herI loved, and, cry,
Port, my boy! port.'
It was June, 1904, that Moore reached
Washington. There, to use his own
words, II passed some days with the
English Minister, Mr.. Merry, and was
by him presented at the levee Of the
President, Jefferson, whom found
sitting with Gen. Dearbon, and one or
two other officers, and in the same
homely costume, comprising slippers
and Connemara stockings, in which Mr.
Merry had been received by him much
to that formal Minister'S horror when
waiting upon him, in full dress, to de-
liver his credentials. My single inter-
view with this remarkable person was
of very short duration, but to have seen
and spoken with the man who drew up
the Declaration of American Indepen~
dence was an entnot to be forgotten -
Moore's opinions of this country,
which generally were unfavorable, he
explained latter in life in the following
words: ''Few and transient, too, as
had been my opportunities of judging
for myself Of the political or social
state of the country, my mind was left
open too much to the influence Of the
feelings and prejudices of those /
chiefly consorted with, and certainly in
no quarter was so sure to find decided
hostility both to the men and princi-
pies then dominant throughout the
Union as among officers of the British
Navy and in the ranks of Ell angry
Federalist opposition. For any bias,
therefore, that under the circumstances
my opinions and feelings may be
thought to have received, full allow
ance, of course, is to be made in ap-
praislng the weight due to my author
ity on the subject Moore thus wrote
his mother, May IL, 1904: The enyirons
of New Y York are pretty, from the num-
ber of little, fanciful wooden houses
that are scattered, to the distance of
six TO eight miles around the city, but
when one reflects upon the cause Of
this, and that these houses are the re-
treats of the terrified, desponding in
habitants from the wilderness of death
which every autumn produces in the
city, there is very little pleasure III the
prospect, and. Notwithstanding the rich
fields and the various blossoms of their
orchards, prefer the barren, breezy
rock of Bermuda to whole continents
of such dearly purchased fertility.;'
Whether Moore desired to see or not
to see the crooked Streets of Boston,
it is quite certain that he never came
nearer to that city than the Hudson
river, for we find him at Passaic balls
the latter part Of June, 1904, in Sara
toga July 10, and at Niagara on the
24th Of the same month. In letter to
his mother of this date referring to his
visit to the Falls, Sunday, July %, he
wrote as follows: 81 felt as if approach
ing the very residence Of the Deity; the
tears started into my eyes, and I re-
NAMED for moments after we had lost
sight of the scene in that delicious alb
sorption which pious enthusiasm can