The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-02
CHIDREN'S STORIES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.
BY Henrietta Christian Wright.


to this that he was an expert swimmer,
once swimming the SchuyllziH with a
4 companion on his back: that he could
tplay on any of half dozen instru-
4 ments for an ilnpromptu dance, that he
could plat a set OF picnic dishes out of
! willow rushes, train dogs, and do a
hundred other clever things. and 1t is
easy to see why he was a general ia
| vorite.
His private rooms were turned into
a museum. The walls were covered
with festoons of birds eggs, the shelves
icrcwded with fishes, snakes, lizards and
i frogs: the chimney displayed 'xtuffed
squirrels and opossums, and wherever
there was room, hung his own paint
| ings of birds. II was the holiday of
/ life for the young lover Of nature and
he enpoyed it with good will.
Here suddenly the idea of his great
work came TO him as he was one day
! looking over his drawings and descrip-
tons Of birds. Suddenly, as it-feemed
to him, though his whole life had led
I to 1t, he conceived the plan of great
work on American ORTHODOXY He
began his gigantic undertaking as a
master in the school of nature, wherein
he had been so faithful a student, for
/ he now saw with joy that the past
which had often seemed idle, had been
in reality rich with labors that We're to
bear fruit.
He began at once to put his work in
/ to scientific form, and nothing better
/ Illustrates his energy and ambition
than the fact that he entered on it
alone and unaided, though none knew
Fbetter than he the toll and ceasaless en-
deavor necessary for its completion.
Except in a very immature FORM AM
erican ornithology at that time did not
exist; it was a region as unknown to
human thought as the new world was
which Columbus discovered.
Season after season from the Gulf to
Canada and back again, these winged
creatures of the air wendell their way,
stopping to hatch and breed their
young, becoming acquainted with Lou
isiana orange groves and New England
apple orchards now fluttering with
kindly sociability round the dwellings
of men and again seeking lonely eeries
among inaccessible mountain tops, pur-
suing their course at all time almost
without the thought and cognizance of
man.
! 1t was Audubon who was the con-
queror if not the disceverer of this aer-
/ ial world of song, of which hes became
the immortal historian. 1t waS-his I'M
firing zeal which gave thus early to
American literature scientific work of
such vast magnitude and Importance
! that IL dSlOnlSQ6u Ine scientists OIL EIu-
rope and won for itself the fame of
being the most gigantic biblical enter
prise ever undertaken by a single in
dividual. To do this meant a life of
almost constant change, and Audubon
I lean hardly have had an abiding place
after his first serious beginning The
wide continent became his home and
he found his dwelling wherever the
winged tribes sought shelter from the
Il c-fN &c
interrupted by occupations necessary
| for the support of his family, for at his
fathers death he had given to his sis
ter his share of the estate and so be-
came entirely dependent upon L1is own
efforts for a livelihood; but at all times,
no matter what his situation, his heart
was in the wild retreats of nature
Travelling through the west and south
! in search of fortune, as well as of spec
linens, his experiences were often dis
enchanting. At Louisville and New
Orleans he would be forced to make
crayon portraits of the principal citi-
zenS in order to raise the money for
family expenses. Again he taught
drawing; he served as tutor fin private
families, and in order TO secure funds
for the publication of his work, he
earned $4,000 by dancing lessons, the
largest sum he had ever earned. Many
business speculations enlisted Audi
bon's hopes, but all failed utterly. Once
he embarked his money in a steam mill
which. being built in an unfit place.
soon failed. At another time he bought
a steamboat which. proving an I'M
lucky speculation, was sold to a shrewd
buyer who never paid the purchase
money. Again he was cheated in the
! clearing of a tract of timber.
| But his studies in natural history all
/ VTba11 Tn hoJ
to pay his passage up the Mississippi,