Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-06-07

effect of the utterance and an
phasiS Of movement was to work,
first a spell Of profound mute
ness, then, from the vast audi
ence, a tumultuOuS response to
the sentiment.
When |, then a little boy, first
read the Well-known six lines
from Tennyson on the Eagle-a
poem which a great scholar told
me would have made Tennsyson
immortal had he written nothing
more-I experienced the same
braintingle which [ felt when
Mason by speech and gesture
wrought out the smile SO per-
fectly. Though familiar to so
many readers Of polite literature,
[ quote the few lines so big'with
poetry. In the final couplet there
is a kinship creditable to Mason
between his prose rhythm and
T~ennyson's rhythmic verse on
the eagle:
Lie 1liSIJo bIlt u d. W llOOhCtl CtIlt
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world he tands
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like Il ~thunderbolt he falls"
MI. Mason's reference to North
Carolina as the good-natured
Dutchman was drawn from Wash
ington Irving's Rip Van Winckle.
[ admit that the application, as
was the purposed implication,
was a fine tribute to North Caro-
lima. 1t was dainty, but it was
enough, if not too much. 1t was
the one quaint and unexpected
mosaic wrought in the pure white
of the pavement owe which
swept the splendid retinue of
thought and metaphor. 1t was
not a sharp dissonance, but an
undertone. Happily, it was the
only point at which the pains
taking work was in peril OF
sagging from the stateliness of
an Grafton to the level of a speech
as commonly understood and
rhetorically distinguished. To
the nearer familiar with Godfrey
Crayon papers of Washington
Irving, the reference could not
be dis-aSSOciated from ScOlding
Dame Van Wrinkle, nor the oddi-
! ties Of Rip himself. Hence adj
) ministering to the sense of mirth-
fulness, it correspondingly fell
below the serious structure, spirit
and genius of the magnificent
whole. But, in the keeping of
such a natural orator, it did not.
nor could it, fall below the line Of
J average cleverness. 1t was, how
ever, not companionable with the
following-one of the many eX-
| amples Of the Grafton, which,
were appositeness possible.
might have been worthily de
claimed from an Athenian por-
tico. Hear him in the passion
Of poet and orator:
5 "Shall we say of the Confederate
: soldier that he died in vain. Shall we
I say of his mighty struggle that 1T has
no higher meaning than defeats? Shall
we stand above his grave and declare
THAT all Is lOSU Jul IOIHOIs YIN
t smoking altar of his sacrifice is there
no incense to ~virtue?: Does the world
bless him only who wears a crown OF
laurels? Is there no beauty On the brow
that wears a crown OF thornS? We're tt e
:, oraclesGod lost to man when His chosen
+ people passed under h yoke of Rome:
= Were the laws and language of Rome
lost to the world when the Goth struck
down her eagles? Was Cromwell LOST
c 4 10 J,i+ain yuhap agStuar ri aa1na hack
= to her throne?"
AS an orator he is vigorous
when dispensing his native
forces; at times, opulent. Blu
/ his bookish things he uses some.
e what sparingly, hence fifty an6
IT. pleasingly. His work is always
velvety and when not even it is
vt as a rumpled weave of wateret
silk-its ridgy places refractins
< the softest possible light; an ex
quisite, trembling radiance.
h | have remarked that hi:
IS scholarly sense is discreet. From
d stretching a gathering hand owe.
IF fields of mellow fruits and adorn
IS ing flowers, he fetches but a we,
Us harvest in the grip of his intel
lectual fist. Discriminatory
'p avoiding the weight, jam am
strain of overlooking, he Gull
from the are and the precious
he If he fetch nourishing fruit it
I'd juices are as nectar; if flowers
It. not one is of flaming or gaud
I'd dye, though each have tint Q
of royal purple, or eyes of blinking
le gold. JOHN r. NORRIS.