Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-08-18

ASoS
Tennyson's ssBrook":
81 come from the haunts OF coot and hern,
make sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern
To bicker down a valley"
And now comes that most charming of
all Christmas ballads, 1.-THE Night before
Christmas" written by Clement Clark
Moore:
+" Twas the night before Christmas, when all
through TIE house
Not creature was stirring, not even mouse;
The stockings were hung in the chimney
with care,
In the hope that st. Nicholas soon would be
there"
Mr.. Hillard gives no sketch Of DR..
Moore's life, but it may be interesting 10
know that he was a man of culture, and
published, in 1874, book of excellent
poems, and yet this ballad seems to be the
only one Of the collection which will be
long remembered. He was born in New
York in 1779, and died in 1853. He was
the son Of Bishop Moore, of Rhode Island,
and was educated at Columbia college,
making the study of Hebrew speciality.
Later he published a Hebrew and
English lexicon, which was the first book
OF that kind ever printed. In 1921 he was
made professor OF biblical learning in the
Protestant Episcopal theological seminary
of New York, where he remained twenty
nine years. The plot of land on which
this seminary stood was the gift of DIR.
Moore.
Another poem, which is far too good to
be an anonymous production, is 1.-THE
Picket Guard, the first stanza OF which
is:
"'All quiet along the Potomac" they say;
Except. now and then, stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat to aud fro,
By rifeman hid in the thicket."
And che last reads:
"All quiet along the Potomac tonight.
No sound save the rush OF the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face Of the
dead
The picket's off duty forever"
1.-THE Solitude OF Alexander Selkirk, !"
by Cowper, is supposed to express his sen
timents while on his solitary island:
II am monarch Of all survey;
My rights there are none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the SCI,
am lord OF the fowl and the brute"
Even in the little ''Second Reader" we
find very attractive rhymes,such as:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How wonder what you are?"
MARY had q little lamb;
"a Heece was whjta
"How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour"
Little drops Of water,
Little grains Of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land"
/ The prose selections in both series OF
these readers must be read as far as pos
sible in the light of the times of their pub
LEGATION. 1t must be remembered that
grave questions of national Importance
| filed public Neutrality-suspicious. involv-
ing the integrity of the Union itself, both
| by reason Of danger from abroad and of
internal discussions.
| The conscience of the country was more
| and more being quickened to the moral
obliquity OF slavery as feature of the
| political institutions of the country.
| Hence the numerous selections, full of
inspiration and hope, from Washington,
Webster, Choate, Sumner, John Quincy
Adams, Writ, Fisher Ames, and others
who were and had been in public life. On
| the moral side were Beecher, Claiming,
Horace Mann, William II. Seward, and
men Of that type, whose burning utter
ances aroused resentment against the
| further domination OF slavery in the coun-
try. Over all these, were loud calls to
universal justice and freedom by men like
Chatham, Burke and Fox abroad.
The finest in English literature was rep
resented in part by selections from Addi-
son, Steele, De Foe, johnson, Goldsmith,
Scott, Irving, Cooper, Macaulay and
Dickens. There was also strain OF pro-
found religious faith running through
many articles in these readers, while
others instilled simple moral lessons,
wherein virtue met its reward and vice its
punishment. Industry, temperance and
obedience to parental authority formed
the theme of many selections.
Who can say, when the final stress came
upon this country, and we faced the alter
| native OF dissolution of this Union or
war, that the boys who sat under this in
struction did not thereby receive inspira-
ton which carried them from every
school district in the North to the periIs
of battle for the destruction of slavery
and the maintenance OF the Union?
Why She Fattened.
l. Zangwill tells the following story:
The fat girl OF c. is not myth nor a