The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-18
DEATH STILLS DANA'S PEN
Continued From First Page.)

with George Ripley, the New American
| Cyc.opedia," and the original edition was
| completed in 1868, and became the Amer
lean Cyclopedla" between 1878 and 1876; in
1867 he started the Chicago Republican;
and on Jan. q. 1868, he issued the first
number under his management of the New
York Sun and became its editor and pro-
| prietor making it in 1872 a democratic
newspaper. continuing in its control dur
ing the twenty-seven succeeding years,
| and now so remaining"
| The foregoing condensed narrative sug-
| gests the character of Mr.. Dana's unre>
hitting intellectual labors for more than
| half century of exceedingly active duty:
After describing the paternal ances-
| tors of Mr.. Dana, beginning with Richard
Dana, who came from England to Cam
bridge, Mass, in 1910. Senator Chandler
| says:
Mr.. Dana's mother was Ann Denison,
whose grandfather was Seth Paine, a
member of the Connecticut state conven-
| ton which ratified the federal constitu-
ton in 17SS Her uncle was Elijah Paine
| United States senator from Vermont from
1895 to 1901.
THE first Denison who came to Ameri-
ca returned for a few years and fought
| at Naseby with Cromwell. The English
Denisons appear to have been singularly
able men. Lord Ossington, a speaker OF
SSAN4'sSNA
| family.
1.-The traits inherited from such an an
cestry doubtless gave Mr.. Dana the with
and strength to overcome the difficulties
which met him in early life. 1t is not
wise to eXaggerate these or to represent
him as starting in excessive poverty and
hardship, merely in order to make a
striking contrast of his humble begin
nings with his later signal successes.
"Xat tr11th requires that if SbOuld he
stated that the hardships and troubles he
encountered would not have been success
fully met by an ordinary boy. After he
went. at the age of u, to live with his
uncle William, the chief dry goods mer-
chant of Buffalo, the panic of 1887 brought
failure TO the firm, and the young man,
then only 49, was by the assignee made
his representative TO carry on and wind
up the business.
During the period of this work the de-
termination to acquire greater learning
took possession of him, and he decided
against his fathers view, to go to col
lege; and he prepared himself to enter
| while serving in the store, reading al night
and at all odd moments which he could
find. When he entered Harvard College,
in 1889 without a condition. he could re-
| ly upon no financial assistance from his
| family, and pushed on only by teaching
| school al Scituate three months during a
college vacation and by borrowing from
| the college fund, the college taking an in
surance on his life and receiving its fin
| al reimbursement nearly twenty years
| later. Then came deprivation of eyesght
| so that he managed to finish his sopho-
| more year without failure at the exam
nations only through the help of class
mate, John Emory, who read to him
and heard his rectations.
That Mr.. Dana overcame this weakness
| of eyesight is remarkable. II Influenced
| him to join the Brook Farm community,
where he could work outdoors and yet be
surrounded by a literary atmosphere,
which he utilized by learning and teach
| ing Spanish and mathematics. The init
mate friendship of the boy of % with
| George Ripley, George William Curtis,
| Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Parker,
| William H. Canning and Margaret Fuller,
| in the youthful days of those humane and
| gentle enthusiasts who were seeking to
| live according to their highest ideals of a
| perfect life-subjected him to formative
| influences Of the best and most enduring
| character; and upon the breaking up of
| the Brook Farm experiment he may be
said to have begun his literary career,
yet with eyes that never afterward ceased
to trouble him.
1T is difficult to assign him to an exact
| position in the world of letters, because
/
| the great mass of the contributions to the
American Cyclopedia and in the imper-
sonal editorials in the Sun, that their
! quantity and value can be accurately
! known to no one, and doubtless all his own
| work could not now be designated even by
! him. The specific writings known to have
| come from his pen, beside a few short
poems, and his chapters in the life 'of
| Grant prepared in 1868, in connection with
! Gen. James II. Wilson, are not numerous.
1T is certain however, that he is a
! linguist of unusual atainments, that his
| knowledge of books is wide, that his
! literary taste and judgment are of the
! highest order that he has no superior
| as literary critic; and that he has writ
! ten such notable articles on such an ex-
| tensive variety of subjects for the Cyclic
! pedia and the Tribune and Sun during
a period of fifty years, usually with ac-
| curacy, always in a style felicitous ana
! forcible as to place him indisputably in
the ranks of the most expert masters Of
the English language and the closest stu
dents of the literature of Europe and
America.
His 'Houshold Book of Poetry first
published in 1857, and 1882 revised and
enlarged with a preface dated November,
| 1882 states that its purpose is to COM
prise within. the bounds of a single vol
ume whatever is truly beautiful and adj
| mlraDle among the minor poems OF the
English language Fifty Perfect Poems:
! Selected and Edited by Charles A. Dana
and Rossiter Johnson is the title of a
volume published in 1888. In Representa-
tive Poems of Living Poets: Selected by
the Poets Themselves, published in 1886,
and edited by Mrs. jeanette l.. Glider, who
writes the preface, are to be found three
of Mr. Danas poems: Eternity Herr
| llebste' and Manhood
Of Mr.. Dana's war services, Senator
Chandler says:
"He went to the front wherever vital
battles were to be fought; made himself
welcome to every union commander; mas
tered every situation; gave helpful adj
vice on the spot. and wrote letters to
Stanton and Lincoln full of facts which
they would not otherwise have known,
and of suggestions which were of the
highest importance. The nature, extent
and value of Mr.. Dana's work, and the
remarkable traits Of the man himself, can
only be known and appreciated through
| a careful perusal of his kilograms and
letters, which are to be found in so many
volumes of the War Records published
| by the government.
IF he had done nothing but his serv-