The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-30
Halleck and Drake.

NhCdSO CnrOnlcie.
 One of the most interesting chapters ir American literary history includes the relations to each other of Fitz Green Hal leck and Joseph Rodman Drake. Both were born at the close of the eighteenth century and were among the most dis- tinguished American poets of the early part of the nineteenth century. Halleck was a few years older than Drake, but he was one of those phenom- enal men on whom years do not tell and whose mental sprightliness is proof against the advance of years. Born in 1790. passing through decades of business, literary and social activity, retaining ex cellent health and the full possession of his mental faculties to the last, he died in 1867.
 Drake had a different temperament He was older than his years indicated and was ripe at an age when many men are just beginning to approach maturity. He was born in 1895 and died of pulmonary disease at the age of 25 yearsy During his brief manhood he made an indelible mark on the literary progress of the country.
 Francis Rodman Drake was the author of the finest poem in existence on the subject of the flag of any country. Cem- pared to the inspiring cadences of Drake's apostrophe to the American flag, "The Star Spangled Banner Is mere sublim- ated doggerel. If Drakes irregular stan- gas could be set to music the ode would be the best national hymn that ever was written. The Star Spangled Banner is popular only because it was set to the catchy notes of an old libidinous song named "Anacreon in Heaven" which IS associated with mirth, love and pleasure in all Its meretricious infections.
 Drake's poem on the American flag ac- quires its best force from the lips of an expert elocutionist. As a recitation it IS equal to the best lyrical poems in our lan- guage. As sort of chant it might be ef- fective. One or its verses describes the flag of the brave'' in battle, ending:
 Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
 And covering foes shall sink beneath
 Each gallant arm that strikes below
 That lovely messenger of death.
 The verse en the flag of the ocean closes:
 Each dying wanGerer of the sea
 Shall look at once to Heaven and tnec
 And smile to see thy splendors fly
 In triumph OCT his closing eye.
 Drake's "Culprit Fal' Is the story of a gnome who had broken his vestal VOW ir loving an earthly maid and in showing his AbNOhA A5ApihtJ Uy iyAhS oh tAC uC" OA HUI lip, flaming her cheek with his tiny wings and summing himself in the light of her eyes. It has passages as airy dainty and etheral as those in Shake. speare's description of Queen Nab.
 In some respects Fftz Green Halleci was a greater poet than Drake, while he had similar genius for the lighter kinds of verse which are like the tendrils of poetry clinging around and ornament ing the sturdier trunks and branches ot genius. His poems on Burns, Red Jacke and Alnwick Castle, with the great lyric on Marco Bozarris, the Greek hero, ado inestimably to the wealth of American lit erature.
 Halleck was a business man and served as clerk in the great banking house O. Jacob Barker, afterward filling a plac, In the establishment of John Jacob As tor the founder of the Astor family 1T America. He blended literature, espe cially poetic literature, with business and an uncommon event, was successful il both.
 "The Culprit Fay" was not printed dur ing Drake's lifetime. It was copied b! Halleck and remained in manuscript un til after it's authors death. Halleck anC Drake were literary partners in othe ways. They wrote together satires of so cial life and politics in New York eighty five years ago which were immensel! popular at the time and are very read able in these days. These production were amiable, without sting of malig nifty in their lines.
 1t was a rare literary society which ex sted in New York during the second anC third decades of the last century. Will lian Cullen Bryant was a dean of tn literary school. Among it's members wer Halleck. Drake, Willis George P. Nor ris >'Woodman, Spare That Tree'), Will liam 1.eggett. Edgar A. Poe and othN y,IIng men about town with literary gift and ambition, Halleck never wrote linn of :,,.'rY until he was 27 years old He lowered late. while the most of hi brilliant contemporaries wrote their bes poems as they were just about emerging fro Iii youth to manhood.
 These "reminiscences are timely, as thu grave of Drake in the Bronx Cemetery il about to be disturbed in order to lay ou a roadway. Under these circumstance Gen. James Grant Wilson recalled a re quest made to him personally by Hal leck late in life hoping that if Drake remains ever were removed they might b. rebured beside his own. The request vii be honored. and the retirement will sooi take place and will be literary memoria event of uncommon interest.
 General Wilson was most intimate friend of Halleck. whose biography h. wrote and whose letters he edited for pub lication.