Omaha daily bee., 1907-04-21
ROUNDING OUT ALONG LIFE
Author Of The Man without a Country"
at Four Score and Five.
ACTIVITIES Of REV. EDWARD EvtRtTTHALE
Born n Newspaper Man, He Gravitates
90 the Pulpit and Achieves Dis
tinctiOn as Editor, Author
and Preacher.


''Noblesse oblge," which he translated
our privilege compels, u.s. in an address
before enthusiastic college students, third
Of a century ago. may well be regarded as
the motto CT the Rev Edward Everett
Hale All his long life which rounded out
eighty-fve years on April 3, has been de-
voted to the performance of Its duties,
which he regards as the highest privilege
These have included service as a minister
Of the gospel for more than half century
his only living rivals in length Of service
in this country being DR.. Theodore l.
Cuyler Ct Brooklyn, who has attained the
same length OF years, and Rev. Robert
Collyer, who is ever four-score; work as an
author for even a longer period, in which
his compeers are Donald G. Mitchell, Tx
Marvel" now of the same age, and Colonel
Thomas Wentwoi n Higginson, only a year
younger, who began his literary career
about the same time; lecturing and speak
ing in all parts Of the country for the bene-
fit Of all good causes, and as his latest
place in the public eye officiating as chap
lain Of the United States senate since the
death Of the blind chaplain" DR.. w. II.
Milburn.
Or. Hale is most widely known as the
author of what is considered by many per-
roiS Tie HlJbL tilSCNlNb bllOIl SlOIg IN TIC
English language, THE Man without
Country" which appeared in the At
lantic Monthly in the days OF the civil
war and aroused much excitement by its
literalness, which led many readers to re-
gard it as a transcription of facts. OF the
circumstances under which it was COM
posed Or. Hale himself tells that he wrote
IL in the summer of 1863, when there was
much excitement over the election in Ohio.
The copperheads (who were named after
venomous snake because of their chief
CHARACTERISTIC, had named Clement L.
Vallandgham as candidate for governor.
He had said that he did not wish to live
under such a government as that of the
United States, and had been arrested by
General Burnside and sent to a rebel gen.
eral on the other side of the Ohio river.
Those who believed as he did and disliked
Lincoln's war methods made him their
| candidate. But DR.. ~Hale's story did not
appear until December, and Mr. Vallandig-
ham had been defeated by 10000 majority
in October Still the story achieved instant
popularity. It's authorship had been in
tended to be concealed, but the yearly in
dex disclosed 1t. By one Of the strange
incidents of fiction writing the author
selected the name Philip Nolan for his hero
I
killed by the spaniards in Texas in 1901
six years before the story began. DR.. Hale
afterward wrote a longer story, a novel in
form, Of the real character, calling II
Phillip Noan's Friends" There was
colored Philip Nolan, one of the slaves
from the old Nolan plantation. who fought
| in the civil war and died before Richmond
for the country his imaginary namesake
disavowed
Born Newspaper Man.
While DR.. Hale was the son of a news
| paper editor, and was, as he declares.
Graded in the sheets OF a newspaper"
and wrote for the editorial and other
columns Of many papers for a score of
years more, It was not until he pub
lished MY Double and How He Undid Me-"
in the Atlantic Monthly, in 1859 that
he may be said to have won hts literary
spurs.
He had been pastor in Worcester, Mass,
for ten years, and had been in his Boston
pulpit three years att the time.
The vivid description in this story Of the
burden of fulfilling the many routine public
| duties imposed on a minister was drawn
| from the life. The temptation in conse-
quence to secure the services Of a substitute
who could impersonate him and say the few
| formal words required at board meetings
such as there has been so much said. and
on the whole, so we'll said that will not
occupy the time" and Il agree, in general
with my friend on the other side Of the
ROOM" together with the final undoing are
painted to the life. In reprinting the story,
DR. Hale said that a Boston journal called
It improbable, and he thought IT was
The volume in which this. 1.-The Man
Without Country" and others of the
authors stories gained the dignity OF
covers appeared in 1859. and was entitled,
| 'If. Yes and. Perhaps" with the subtitle,
-Four Possibilities and Six Egaggeratlons.
with Some Bits of Facts"
The preface says: 1.-THE title OF this
book has met general approbrium except
in few quarters. where It was fortunately
regarded as beneath contempt. At
least one of them the living TRUTH so
far as it could he squeezed out Of blue
books and the most proper OF documents.
| Others might have been true II the desti-
mics had so willed. Others would have been
true had they not been untrue. Others
I should have been true had poetical justice
been the working rule OF a vulgar world"
OF the other stories, besides the two men
toned, in the volume, the best known Is
1.-THE Skeleton in the Closet" which first
appeared in THE Galaxy" in 1866. II told
how the rate or the Contederacy was
tangled up with a hoopskirt.
From this initial volume the library OF
the books on whose title pages appear the
name of Edward Everett Hale now exceeds
nifty the latest one dated July. 1906 en-
titled "Tatry at Home Travels" all filled
with the same general spirit. the same
keen observation, the same whimsical
fancy and the same underlying moral and
spiritual unfit that found voice In the
motto OF Ten Times One is Ten
To look un and not down.
To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in,
And TO lend a hand.
The Harry Wadsworth OF that book, the
inspiration OF all the Lend-a-Hand and
Lookup clubs which have snrung from II
and OF The Lend-a-Hand Magazine. was
Frederic William Greenleaf, who died in
1859. DIR. Hale in his latest book speaks OF
him as MY dear and near friend. my other
self may say?"
Nephew of Edward Everett.
DR. Hale was named for his mothers
brother. Edward Everett, the orator states
man and public man whose reputation
ranked with, II It did not rival, that OF
Daniel Webster i'm the first half OF the
last century His father was Nathan Hale