The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-10

were unknown, and most of the Efforts
that moved mems pulses and stirred
their passions persisted with the delivery
and live only in tradition. Take s'lch
eloquent men as Badger, Mangum,
Henry W. Miller, Dobbin and John
Kerr of North Carolina. Few men have
lived who by eloquence eNerted more
sway over their hearers, or
who had more of the genu-
inc orator. but what have we in
permanent form of their great efforts!
1t is we'll that so capable and industrious
a scholar as DR.. Smith is to undertake
this work. He will enter upon it with
a patriotic resolve to revive the fading
reputation of race of orators who
made his native section the home or
eloquence and oratory. DIR. Smith is
the son of the late Rev. Jacob Henry
Smith, d. D., and is native of Green's
boro, North Carolina.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL AND
HIS FRIENDS" by Edward Ever
cit Hale. Houghton, Miffhm & CO.,
Boston, publishers.
During the year of 1898 the readers
of the Outlook were charmed by series
of articles on James Russell Lowell
and His Friends" from the pen of Ed
ward Everett Hale. THESE articles
have now been collected and published
in an elegant volume. An author of or
binary talent, with access to the mate
rial, could net fail to- make story OF
deep interest about the men of genius
OF whom James Russell Lowell was
the foremost. Mr.. Hale, himself en-
titled to rank with the first men of
letters who have given Massachusetts
fame throughout the world, has given
series of sketches that comprise such
glimpses into Lowelrs life as to make
one feel that he has seen and known
the great poet For years Mr.. Hale
and Mr.. Lowell met daily. they were
members. of. circle of giants who
stood head and shoulders above their
fellows in intellectual activity ana
achievement, and Mr.. Hale was well
qualified to give glimpses into the life
not only of Mr.. Lowell, but Charming
Hale, Briggs, FELTON,, Fields, Phillips
Oliver. Wendell Holmes, Story. Gay,
Shaw, Putnam Child, Longfellow,
Gray Agassiz, Norton, Hughes and
Page Ian Sillustrious group of Ameri-
cas- foremost men of letters. In addi-
tion to several pictures of Lowell, the
book has engravings of all these con-
temporaries of Lowell. so that as you
read the pages that tell of the inter
course of master minds you come to
l. H., lx- - q l.,s,.
features. If Dr. Hale had not told
with ii graceful ease how Lowell and
has associate made Cambridge the lit
erary hub of the New World, a glance
at the faces that embellish the book
would have made even the unlettered
say, These are men who mould mind
and lead their fellows"
Lowell is not so popular a poet as
I0ngfellow. He was a poet of the
first water, but he was more than a
poet--he was teacher OF the Mark
Hopkins school, who delighted his stu
dents as he instructed them; he was a
philosopher, deserving to rank with
Emerson; he was diplomat, with the
breadth and capacity of the school of
which Thomas Jefferson and Charles
Francis Adams have beeR--the best
office-holder, and, next TO Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, the writer of the anti
slavery crusade; he was an editor, and
rs the head Of the Atlantic Monthly
took place with those editors of the
class of George William Curtis and
DIR. J. G. Holland, though when
Lowell began his career as an editor.
Nathaniel Parker Willis, then consider
ed the literary leader said j. X.
Lowell, a man of original and decided
genius, has started a monthly magazine
in Boston, and the first number lies
before us, and it justifes our expecta-
ton, namely, that man of genius,
who is merely a man of genius, is a
very unfit editor for periodi-
call" he was critic, and could with
wonderful intuition discern the germs
of genius in young author; he was an
ail-round man-schoar, thinker, work
err, an inspirer to noble deeds and to
civic virtue. When you have finished
DIR. Hale's book You feel proud that
you were fellowcitizen with one who
wrought so i1obly for all that makes for
larger life and growth. While editor
Of the Atlantic Monthly, Lowell dis
covered, so to speak, many men who
obtained high rank in the literary world.
DIR. Hale narrates this anecdote of AL
drich:
When Aldrich somewhat timidly sent
his first poem to the Atlantic, Lowell
at once recognized its worth, and ac-
companied his letter of acceptance with
cordial and kindly thanks. Years after
wards Aldrich found himself in turn
editor of the Atlantic. Lowell, then at
the height of his reputation, sent a
poem to the magazine. Aldrich had
the fun to copy. in acknowledging the
manuscript, the very note in which
Lowell had, twenty years before, re
cogniZed the value of his first contri-
button. Lowell came round to the office
at once to tell Aldrich that the letter
had almost determined him to adopt
literature as his profession.
Lowell was the son of preacher
who, when he heard of one of the freaks
of his son at college, (which by the way
caused him to forfeit commencement
honor, exclaimed in disgust: "Oh
dear! James promised me that he would