The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-15

tiful Snow" had been printed in many west
ern journals, admitted TO him that she not
only never wrote it, but never even claimed
1t; that the Beautiful Fl alter in the Ohio
was baptized author of Beautiful Snow"
by some irresponsible Cincinnati newspaper
reporters who fou ID printed but unsigned
version OF the poem on the beautiful
hoater's person when she was pulled to the
snore, and wishing to hallow her last hours
With some pious ceremony, bestowed on the
unknown an honor it was not theirs to give.
Richard II. Chambers claims are less
easily dtsprovef. He Is living, an old man,
In cheap lodging house at Ne. Is Bowery.
DE says he composed Beautiful Snow in
Otto Finck,s tavern, at the northwest cor
ner of William and Spruce streets, in the
course of a heavy snow-storm In March,
1856. Mr.. Chandler SAYS he thought out the
poem while lying in bed In a room on the
TOP floor of the building, and that some time
after that drunken man who had strayed
in Through the storm door and had gone to
sleep by the stove was daubed with ink as a
joke by some hilarious printers, and went out
vowing vengeance on him (Chandlerl as the
author of his woe. This supostitious
drunken man, Mr.. Chandler afirms, was
no other than John w. Watson himself
who sent around a shorthand writer to
Finck's Hotel few days afterward, ex-
tracted the poem now known as Beautiful
Snow" from Mr.. Chandler-who hadn't
even named it then-ani subsequently, pub
liShed it in HdrpeT'S Weekly. Mr.. Chand-
Ter brings no other evidence than his bare
assertion in proof of this remarkable story,
and naively observes that the reason why
he has never had published any other poem
akin o"Beautiful Snow, y is the fact thatthe
publishers ''sent EN- all back to b m.m
The only evidence in favor of John Nc
Masters claim Is the assertion that he sent
the verses to the New York SUNDAY Times
In 1865 over his name. Some time after
that McMaSters declared that he had first
published Beautiful Snow in western
newspaper" which he did not name Eliza
beth Akers, Dora Thorne aud Henry w.
taxon were credited with the authorship of
the poem by various ones of the almost in
Vulnerable newspapers which reprinted it
from time to time, but they promptly denied
that they were responsible. That seems to
dispose OF all the known claimants but Sillo-
way and Sisourney.
The true name Of elizabeth Akersn is
Elizabeth Akers Allen, who also wrote over
the name of Florence Percy" and who is
the undisputed author of that widely
quoted poetic gem, Rock Ne to Sleep
Mother" on which her poetic fame res s.
William Allen Silloway, who resides at
No. 1917 West Washington place. In this
city, and who has laid claim to the author
ship of other poems which he did not write
is now an old man, who, it is charitable to
believe, has been mentally i'm
paired by years and misfortune.
lie is the most emphatic and
now the only living claimant to the
authorship of Beautiful Snow" He SAYS
he was inspired to its composition by the
degradation through drink of his wife, "a
niece of Willard Fillmore" who was found
dead by a policeman in a snowdrift in
Leonard street in the winter of 1854. He
says that in ths last week Of January, 1854,
he published this poem in twelve stanzas,
and called 1t 1.-The Fallen Snowflake" He
also AYERS that it was first published in "the
first Journal for women published in New
York, which he also describes as maria
Louise Hankin's p ,per. "Mr Silloway says his
poem was copyrighted in the district court
of the Southern district of New York But
Mr.. Silleway has recently written card in
which ne ascribes the authorship of Beau
tiful Snow" to one III. H. Sigourney," and
as there is good reason to believe III. H.
Sigourney" Is a nom de guerre of William
Allen Sideways, the Sllloway CLAIM can
only be looked on with suspicion. He has
been asked to bring forward evidence of his
authorship, and has failed to do so on the
ground that it could only be produced from
old New England magazines and news
papers, printed prior to 1858, which are
inaccessible
Now, If Watson didn't, who did write
Beautiful Snowr