The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-29
A DISTINGUISHED INDIANA AUTHOR.
A Sketch of the Life of Maurice Thompson
His knowledge of Southern Dialects.

Maurice Thompson, the author and naturalist,
is an Indianian by birth, though Georgian by
education. His people were from Kentucky, and
settled in Franklin county, this State. Maurice
being born at the little town of Fairfield in that
county When a child his parents removed to
Kentucky thence to Georgia. where they located
in the hill country, about midway between Chat
tanooga and Atlanta, at place called Calhoun
He was twenty-three years old when he left
there for the North, having lived there twelve
years. OF course, he was in the rebel army,
going in as a mere boy and coming out with "a
great store of experience.
Mr.. Thompson's knowledge of Southern life
and customs is extensive and varied, gained by
observations as soldier, as lover of wood
craft as civil engineer, and as naturalist
He once remarked to the writer not as boast,
but as matter of plain fact, that he thought
as a naturalist, he had seen more of the wild
South than any man living. Even now he goes
every winter to some part of the South, pur-
suing his researches in woodcraft and natural
history.
MIR. Thompson is thoroughly conversant with
southern dialects. AS to dialect in Indiana,
anything that is entitled to the specific title Of
Hoosier dialect he does not believe there is any
Indiana" said Mr.. Thompson to the writer, sis
as free from dialect peculiarities of speech of
every sort as any State | know of. When you
cross the Ohio going south you get departure
from the general speech rule, chiefly in accentu-
ation-that broader accent, the disposition to
leave the RS out altogether, with other peculiar
tiles. There is a mountain range that runs
from the upper Ohio into Georgia, and it seems
as if the people all along that range are much
alike 10 their dialect, and it is genuine dialect.
You can 60 further South and find other dia-
lects, as those of the Sandappers and Crackers,
of Georgia South Carolina and Florida The
The outliers OF the creole dialecs stretch along
from Pensacola to Mobile, deepening as you near
New Orleans, and as you go still further, until
you find the genuine creole dialect in the Calca-
sieu and Bayou Teche districts
Mr.. Thompson came to Indiana in the spring
of 1868, and located at Charlottesville. He
came as civil engineer. He had studied law,
and soon took it up again as profession He
was chief engineer of the L., c. & S. w road,
| now branch of the Vandalia. He ran the first
line of that road from Frankfort to Kokomo and
from there on to Lima, O. He began writing
for publication in 1873. He had written some
before that. but he considers cat the Window "
little poem published in the Atlantic Magazine,
as his beginning. 1.-The Witchery of Archery
was written in 1877, and made him famous by
starting the archery craze, in which the same
sort of young ladies and gentlemen now delud-
Ing themselves Win laWH tennis engaged IN
fruitless attempts to shoot like the late lamented
Robin Hood when, matter of course, they
couldn't expect to hit that oftremarked- about
edifce. Mr.. Robin Hoods barn.
Mr.. Thompson's first novel, 1.-THE Tallahassee
Girl" was published in 1881, and was a much
read and very successful book. Since then he
has written much, both prose and verse, his
| most successful book being one of outdoor
sketches, entitled "ByWays and Bird Notes, y
| which is critical and mi-scientific.
| Mr. has al
county in the Legislature, and is now, as every
body knows, State Geologist