Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-09-23
DONALD G. MITCHELL.

SoAAJ AC4 90 AAoCl CoUAuS ooAbJCCU . Uuc pTO-
fession could ask, for he is one of the few
the saying is, who has completely recov
health. The history is highly curious.
Mr.. Mitchell was a son of the famous
jurist, Stephen Mix Mitchell, and brother
Of the clergyman and author, Rev. Alfred
Mitchell, and was born in Norwich, Conn.,.
April 10, 1922. In spite Of his physical
weakness he acquired IN academic educa-
ton quite early in life and was graduated
from Yale at nineteen in the somewhat
famous class of Al. He was a member of
the Alpha Delta Phi and of "Skull and
Bones," was college editor for his class.
and was selected to give the farewell class
address.
Heworked three years on a farmland i'm
proved in health but a little. He journeyed
to England and in a few weeks was
warned by the physicians that he must get
Il of those fogs. He started to the Isle
of Jersey IN Il little sailing vessel, which
was blown far out to sea by a storm still
noted on the coast. The old Norman cap
tain aftefward said it was a question
whether he should let his sole passenger
die on board or brace him up long enough
to die on land. He braced him up, and
II of the first things Mr.. Mitchell noticed
after a few days rest was that his breath
ing was perfectly free.
The trouble in his lungs was gone for
ever. For nearly a week he was SO desper-
ately seasick that he could not s%traighten
himself, and, as he humorously added, 'as
everything else came up so did the tuber-
cles." He took a long tour on foot and re-
fnrna6 lrDna with tho hoo1th af op o+l1o&o
The results appeared in 1916 in his first
book, Fresh Gleanings; or, d New Sheaf
from the Old Fields of Continental Europe"
He studied law and did not like it, went
abroad again in 1849 and got caught in the
grand revolutionary movement OF that
year, the account of his observations ap-
pearing in his 1.-THE Battle Summer" pub
lished in 1849. He then began 1.-THE Lor-
gnette" in weekly numbers, but it soon ap-
peared in book form.
1t wa in 1850 that he published his most
popular work, "Reveries of a Bacnelor,n
and this was followed the next year by
Dream Life" written in much the same
strain and almost as popular. He con
tinued to write and publish for thirty
years longer, but none Of his later works
appears to have attracted the general reader
as did those two.
MI. Mitchell has changed his style and
written many things more practical than
would seem possible for the author of
Dream Life" He has become noted as a
landscape gardener, and his %utterances
thereon are authority. The park at East
Rock, N. H., was laid out and adorned by
his directions, and so were many private
parks and grounds. He has lectured often
on agriculture and received the applause
of practical farmers. He was one of the
judges of industrial art at the Centennial
of 1875 and United States commissioner al
the Paris exposition of 1859. In short
there is nothing dreamy" in his business
life.
OF his home he gives this description in
one of his works: II have a quiet farm
house in the country, a very humble place,
tenanted by a worthy maj of the old New
England stamp, whereN sometimes go for
a day or two in the winter to look over the
farm accounts and to see how the stock is
thriving on the winters keep. One side
the door, as you enter from the porch, is a
little parlor, scarce IL by 10 feet, with a
cozy looking fireplace, a heavy oak floor,
a couple of armchairs and q brown table
with carved lions feet. Out of this room
opens a little cabinet, only big enough for
a broad bachelor bedstead, where I sleep
upon feathers and wake in the morning
with my eye upon a saucy colored litho-
graph print of some fancy Bessie. 1t hap
pens to be the only house in the world Of
which I am bona fide owner"
This is the Edgewood, which leads In
the title of SO many of his works. May 81,
1858, he married Miss Mary F. Pringle, of
Charleston, and soon after sailed with her
to Venice, where he was American consul
for two years. In 1856 he bought the 200
acres near New Haven, and there he has
made the beautiful Edgewood farm,
which is still his home. The pretty uni
versity city is but two miles away, and be-
You'd lies the placid sound, o. the other
side of which rise the heights of Long
Island. And in this place, says Mr..
Michel, it is TO him always spring,
=. q. BEADLE.