The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-14

cherished his memory with an unusual
affection. His name was Joseph BenJa-
min, brother of the celebrated, very ac-
complished and very able Judah =
BENJAMIN, Secretary Of State OF the
Southern Confederacy in the illustrlous
President Jefferson Davis Cabinet. Inc
brothers were Jews. My friend had
first cousin 1 knew. and we'll rememper'
man of gifts, Of small stature, put
not handsome like 10 was. His name
was Lionel Lincoln Levy. They were
from New Orleans, where the eminent
lawyer and statesman then lived, Who
was of such extraordinary gifts that
upon settling in London after the col
lapse of the Confederacy, chow many tens
Of thousands to this hour wish there had
been no fateful collapse, but glorious
triumph) he became, in few years, one
of the Queens counsel. Once only until
recently have 1 seen any reference 10
Joseph Benjamin. In the war he fought
for the South and it's noble. most sacred
cause. | see it announced in the Uni
yersity Bulletin among the Neurology
for the last few months, that the fr1end
of nv boyhood was born in 1926, died III
September, 1902, was graduated at the
University in June, 1S47 and was plant
er near Puerto Cortez, Honduras. the
death record as given in the current Bull
letin of University alumni, counts fifteen,
Among them were Hon. Thomas billiard
Johnston. Asheville, Captain in c. S. A.,
Presidential elector in 1872, member OF
the Congress for two terms, was born in
1910. and died the oath of June, 1902;
NJ n @
c. S. A., Judge of Superior court, and died
oath Of April, 1902; Alexander McIver,
graduated 1858. died End of August 1902
in Moore county He was a Professor
of Mathematics in Davidson College and
University of North Carolina. State SUI
perintendent of Public Instruction, Su-
perintendent of Greensboro Graded
Schools.
l wrote in my last briefly of Philip
James Bailey, and his very famous poem
"Festus." If it is ever republished 1t
should be the original work of 10000 lines
and not the extremely long accretion
and addition of 10000 lines-making 40
600 in all It was a brilliant book, full
of beauty and power, but its teachings
and contentious have passed into "innocu-
Gus desuetude" to quote an ex-Prcsident
with of but little grace but of much vim.
1t is Of the school discarded in the first
half of the last Gentry as "spasmodic," to
which belonged Alexander Smith and
few other foils of that time.
The London correspondent of the New
York Saturday Review wrote recently of
Bailey and his book:
"The reader and admlrer Of 'Festus'
was held to be a bold man, who dared
TO read unorthodox books, and a man of
culture who could admire books that
rest of us found unreadable One can al
vays obtain the name of being cultured
by protesting an admiration for books
that the great majority of people find te-
dious."
That is hardly correct, for in 1870 so,
thousands of the readers of "Festus"
were scholarly and cultivated people |
we'll remember that my old schoolmaster,
Lovejoy, read it with great admiration,
and praised 1t enthusiastically in 1S45 or
1916. He led me by his warm praise to
read it when a youth. The London
writer thinks "Festus" would not attract
now He says:
''Yet 1t is probable that the world has
outgrown speculations such as those OF
'Festus.' There was a time when they
had something Of the air of novelty and
the PRONUNCIATION of them required GER
tain degree of courage. But we are long
past that time"
I received on LIST instant a letter from
an old friend Of quite fifty-fve years
was with him at the University-who