Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-02-16
The Glass OF 1909.

/ ''''h
cent death in England of Mrs. Mary
Cowden- Clarke. who was born in 1909,
brings this immortal honor roll to
mind. All save three or four have now
passed away Gladstone, among the
foremost of that year,-either living or
dead-awaits hisreWard with the serene
poise of man who has known all the
heights of honor and has never been
crushed by defeat. Admiral Keppel
in England still survives-a hale old
sailor, still infused with much of the
fire which made his youth 50 notable
In America Colonel Richard w. Thomp-
son of Indiana born in that same year,
watches the rapid current of times ac-
tivities which he knew in calmer.
earlier day. Lawyer, soldier. cabinet
member. he has helped in the solution
of those questions which puzzled gov
eminent when Clay and Webster and
Calhoun and Benton were here.
Abraham Lincoln, born in 1909 to pow
erty. achieved greatness and died at
the pinnacle Of most deserved fame.
Hannibal Hamhn of Maine his vice
president through the trying period Of
Hugh McCulloch of his cabinet. Oliver
Wendell Holmes was born in the same
year. and lived to sing to the end of
four score years the genuine music Of
his soul.
Tennyson. laureate indeed and b5
patent from a source far higher than
his queen. WAS another of the great men
Of the class. SO was Professor Blackic
the Scotchman-a scholar, a lover of
Burns. an essayist and foe TO agnos-
ticism The class of 1909 is rapidly
thinning" he said to Gladstone when
nyson and | are left" 'Tennyson
would not thank you for including us, "
replied the statesman with twinkle
in his eye. We are too noisy for him. >
Haussmann himself was a great man
He made new Paris of a city grown
old and unlovely. and the gayest CAPT
tai in Europe arose. A tinancier, L
master of engineers and of architects
a faVorite of the emperor and depu-
ty of the republic. he knew royal and
imperial and democratic France. Be-
side him from the same birth year was
( Marshal Canrohert, perhaps the most
distinguished soldier in the class. He
conquered the Arab, in 1S4S and 1853
he fought like tiger at 1ukerman, he
led the Zouaves at Magenta, and Won
imperishable fame at Solferino.
There was Charles Darwin: and mod
ern science dates from him. There was
George r. Gliddon. the American Egyp-
tologist; Henry Dawson Rogers, the
geologist; benjamin Pierce, the mathe-
matician: Karl Heinrich Koch. the Ger
man naturalist; Adolph Francke. the
French philosophical writer; Francis
que lltIltl. blIt dlOildtOlOS lSl, anu
James David Forbes, the Scottish ply
sicist. There was Felix Mendelssohn
the composer: Edgar Allen Poe Mrs
Browning and Richard Monckton Mil
mes. in the English tongue, and Fred
ericl Muller Palludan. poet of Den
mark. Names of that famous class
crowd upon one. There was Cyrus
Mccormick the inventor; Shelton Mac
Kenzie. the journalist: Adoplh Fred
eric, the organist; Frederic Otto, the
! chemist; Baron Manteuftel Prussian
/ field marshal; @. :. Fowler the Ameri-
can phrenologist: Albert Zimmerman
and Philippe Aususte Jeauron, a Ger
/ man and French painter.
Among the women of that far year
/ was Mrs. Mary CoWdcn-Clarke, SO re-
| Gently passed aWay-the friend of
| Lamb and of Keats and of Shelley, Of
Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, but above all
the compiler Of that "Complete Concor-
dance, which has added charm even to
the study of Shakespeare. She wrote nov
els and poems and essays almost to the
/ day of her death. Fanny kemble was
/ another. She made her debut at Gov
ent Garden theater in 1929, married Mr..
| Pierce Butler a South Carolina plant
er. in 1884, secured a divorce and re-
| summed her maiden name in 1899 She
was an actress of the very first rank.
an author and an honor to her race.
Space does not suffice to name them
all. the list is so long, but no year--no
five ytars-has produced so many great
and eminent men. But time has
brought them low, and all save three
or four have passed away. The class,
however, will he forever famous.
There are occasions when flibuSter-
4a,pCr i1 IN, NV i,,ctifal orI tn. Do