St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-21
TEMNYsON's TURNC0AT.
BY JOSEPH j. DAVIES.

almost until the eve Of his peaceful
passing away, the eye of the artist
was not dimmed nor his natural
force abated. There was the old
charm of matchless music, the old
enthusiasm for noble ideals, the old
swinging blows against unchivalry
and shams, ringing like battle-aX on
armor of steel; the old dreams of
vague desire" and penetrative vision
into the philosophy of his age; the
old love of nature for her own dear
sake; the old
Thoughts that lift the souls of men;
and the old. yet undying
Faith as clear as the heights of the
June-blue heaven;
And a fancy, as summer new,
AS the green of the Dra2Nen amid the
gloom of the heather.
But one poem, THE Churchman and
the Citrate" stands out from this mel
lowed blending of beauties bold and
solitary. Rugged and racy of his native
SOIL it is lit up with flashes of humor
almost Shakespearean in their insight
and vigorous fidelity to nature. Moth
ing could be more simple and appro-
pirate than the setting of this poem, in
which the uncouth Lincolnshire dialect
is nodded into melody The farmer,
who is also churchwarden, is at work
in the field, when the village curate ac-
costs him with a hearty Good day"
The farmer looks up with digriijed de-
liberation, half resenting that any
thing-saving always himself-in the
universe should be declared good,
least of all the weather, to ffatter which
was sign of an unobSerYant or weak
mind. 1t was a notion to be scorned
any day or night between New Years
eve and Christmas. So he meets the
unfortunate greeting with a full-fav-
ored grunt.
Eli? Good daay! Good daay! thaw it
bean't mooch of a daay;
Nasty, casselty weather. an mea haafe
down wi my haay!
The curate repents him hastily, and
kindly inquiries how the farm is getting
on. The bare hint of so palpable an
absurdity as agricultural prosperity is
indicative of such a depth of ignorance
in matters practical as to be pitiable
indeed, and it is therefore the merest
justice that it should be promptly re-
jected with curt and categorical con-
tempt,
How be the farm gittin' on? Noaways.
Gittin' on i'deead!
Why tonups was haafe on 'em fingers
an toas, an the mare broken
kneead,
An pigs didn't sell at fall, an wa lost
wer Holdeny COW.
Thus is the worthy farmer intro
duced. To avoid further irritating ques-
tons he proceeds to discourse on the
most interesting of all subjects, namely,
himself. The garrulous and lively
monologue affords unique instance of
the complacent seif-revelation of a bu-
collie turncoat
And here we may remark ii would be
difficult in the range of English litera-
ture, to discover more perfect delinea-
tons of the egotistic than in Tenny-
sons three Lincolnshire farmers. 1.-THE
old and new style" farmers have for
upwards of half a century been IA
miliar to students of the late laureates
works. They are not hattering por-
traits. The first is bluff old heather,
whose manners had been inherited I'M
impaired from some Viking; a man
who bowed the knee to one deity and
one only, the squire; man who grun-
bled hard, but worked harder.
For he tooiled and mooiled hissen
deead.
1IOuSI1 Tic iitN-Sly1S lrIulCI DOS-
sesses the virtue of fidelity to the
same power, and is no less devoted to
work than his ''feyther," his character
is more modern and more complex
He is innocent of any redeeming gener-
Gus motive. He is logged. mean and
money-grubbing. The third character
in this remarkable group is probably
contemporaneous with the first. He
has the same devotion to ''quolity." the
same bluntness to all beneath the dig
nifty of the squire, the same virtue of
hard work. But he is an unblushing
time-server. He has great difficulty in
concealing his own merits. In his con-
versation with the curate he reveals his
golden rule of life, by following which
he has
COON to the top O. the tree.
If tina cottons down TO thy betters, an
keeps thysen to thysen,
But niyer not speak plain out if tina
wants to get forrards bit,
But creeap along the hedge bottoms,
an tha'il be bishop yit.
But the dear old church warden had
his reservations. He knew that world
ly prudence had its limits. These linn
its, however, were not prescribed so
much by the eXigencies of religion or
morality as by a sense of security
Plain speaking was a Christian duty.
True. But there was a duty trans
fcending any mere sentimental prin-
ciples-the duty to ones self. The
whole duty of man was to git
'igher,' to advance his own interests.
) If the ways of the world and the pre-
Gcepts of the Gospel didn't exactly
j square, so much the worse for the
Gospel. BE humble, cotton down,
,creeap, crawl, to your betters;" that
was the cardinal principle of success
. Was he not himself an illustrious ex-
fampIe of the infallibility of his doc
5trine of conduct?
+ Fur if liver thy feyther ed riled me
KEEP mysen meeak as a lamb.
= And then he confesses to his patient
auditor, with a glow of conspicuous
pride,
AN now by the grace O. the Lord, Mr..
) Harry, L ham wot [ ham.
8 What more convincing proof of his
r utility of humility could the edited
,curate need?. Yet there were times
and seasons when the rule might be
relaxed. 1t was not in human nature,
least of all in an honest fen farmers
nature, ''to hopple the tongue" always.
A man must relieve his feelings by
giving somebody "a bit of his mind"
The crucial point, according to the
curate's officious mentor, was to be
careful who the Somebody was who
was especially adapted to be a safe re-
ceptacle for ones pent-up and explo-
sive conscientious candor. 'fKick the
man that's down" was a good general
rule that commended itself to the chiv-
alrous nature of the church warden.
The dissenters were a poor and de-
spised sect. Weak in numbers; abso-
lutely powerless to retaliate; an insult
and menace to the church, as by the
law established (of which he was
Cody pillar; it was perfectly safe to
pour out the overchafged walls of
wrath upon them. Yes, he would
strongly commend the Baptists to his
kindly consideration as a sure safety
valve for any plain speaking he might
feel constrained to indulge in during