Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-10-01
A ROM Eace
of Progress
BY ALBERT PAYSON TERhUlIE
SAMUEL JOHNSoN-Crank and
Dictionary Maker

In the worst rainstorm OF the sea-
son, one day in the middle Of the
eighteenth century, man stood on
street corner of Lichfield, England.
He w&s unprotected from the weather
by so much az a great coat and wait
cd meekly, receiving the deluge of
rain and jeers Of passersby He was
giant in size and strength, enor-
mously fat and clad in shabby, soiied
garb. His swollen, red face was
blotched, SCARED and distorted with
scrofula and twitched uncontrollably,
his great head rolled from side to
side and he muttered constantly to
himself. This strange figure was DR..
Samuel Johnson, greatest man of his
day, and revolutioniZer Of the English
language. His vigil in the rainstorm
was but one of thousand eccentric
tiles. AS a lad he had refused to go
on an errand for his father one rainy
day. Now 80 years later it had oc-
Cured to him to take this queer way
of atoning for his boyish disobedi-
ence.
Johnson was the son of an old
bookseller. He spent his boyhood
reading ravenously every one of his
fathers books he could lay hands on.
He had the rare faculty of remember
ing everything he read. At 10, though
miserably poor, he went to Oxford.
There his ragged clothes, dirty linen
and physical oddities made him
general laughing stock. Then his ia
Their lost what scant means he had
had For lack of funds Samuel was
forced to leave college without gradu-
alton. He spent the next few years
as schoolmaster book writer, transla-
tor and at any other work he could
pick up.
But his eccentricity, strange appear
ance and overstrung nerves proved
great drawback His wagging head,
facial grimaces, slovenly, dirty
clothes and linen
Ecc n er CITY and uncouth ways
WRECKED quo made a bad i'm
cess preston If he
were asked to a literary reception he
was quite likely to create a diver
sion by snatching off lady's slipper
or clawing her false hair, or by sud
denly shouting line from the Lord s
Prayer. At the few dinners he was
invited to the half-starved genius ate
ravenously, tearing his food like a
wild beast and growing over it.
The English tongue and English lit
erature were growing. Certain ETY.
mologies and lexicons were in use,
but the language had no dictionary
worthy of the name. Several book
sellers combined and hired Johnson
to compile, in two volumes, COM
plete dictionary of the English Ian
guage For this mammoth work he
was allowed seven years times and
$4,500 He was obliged to employe a
small army of lesser writers to help
him, and this quickly ate up his
profits He had no rich patron, as
had most writer's of the time, for he
could not truckle to the great. He
worked on in poverty His wife died,
leaving him alone in the world. These
were the darkest years of Johnson S
life. His mother whom he had sup
ported out of his lean purse, also died
and to pay her funeral expenses he
wrote his great philosophical novel
'Rasselas."
Then, in 1855, appeared his great
dictionary. 1t was not only the first
real English dictionary ever pub
lished, but the clearness, scope and
beautiful language of its definitions
formed a new literary era and caused
revolution in literature.
Now that he was successful, the
world fiocked to do him homage. A
| coterie of writer's, actors and states
men formed about him. He was their
oracle and idol. With pompous superb
ority he tyrannized over them
bullied them, lee
Spoiled by Pros tured them, made
Perity. them listen in re
spectful silence to his endless ora
tons. At the Cheshire Cheese and
other places of the kind he was wont
to hold species of semi-regal court
with himself as undisputed king and
despot. He grew indolent, Stunned
work of all sorts and lived on his
past record In earlier years he had
| rallied at the custom of pension Civ
ing, styling it pay given to a state
hireling to betray his country" Yei
when the new monarch, George III.
offered him pension of $1,000 yeal
Johnson promptly accepted.
At about this time he met James
Boswell, young Scotch lawyer
Johnson hated Scotland, but took
fancy to Boswell, saying in explana
ton: Much may be done with
Scotchman if he is caught young
Boswell religiously took down al
Johnsons epigrams and later pub
lished his recollections of the grea
photographer in one of the most fas
cinating biographies ever written
Johnson filled his house with beg
gars and decayed gentlefolk, whom ht
supported and who quarelled among
themselves and bullied their benefac
tor as he bullied the world.
But at length these mendicants died
as did many of JOhnson's closes
friends. Alone in the world, embit
tered, and suffering from combina
ton of fatal maladies, the man WHIT
had revolutionized the English Ian
guage, and who feared death with ;
terror almost childiike in its unrea
sonableness, died on December IL
! 1884, leaving an unparalleled recor;
of long and successful battle agairs
circumstances, and standing OFT Tor
ever as the oldest, most picturesque
figure in the world of letters.
(Copyrfghted.J