The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-12-18

Some years ago The London Spec
tatoT. a most worthy and very high
authority. printed the above verses
and pronounced il the finest poem
ever written in America. The con-
tention as 10 its authorship is one
OF much interest. and may be said
10 be centered in two persons. James
w. Watson and Dora Shaw, with
preference for the former, chiefly
in the fact that Watson has written
a great many other excellent poems.
and Dora Shaw has claimed the au-
thorship TO no other In all the col
leetions of popular poems The
Beautiful Snow" is either printed
anonymously or is credited TO Wat
son.
The first appearance of the poem
in a collection was under the title
Beautiful Snow and Other Poems,
by J. ". Watson. published by T b.
Peterson & Brothers. 500 Chestnut
street, Philadelphia, in 1869. Beauti-
full Snow" finely illustrated, is the
first poem in the volume. which con-
tains twenty-five others. including
The Dying Soldier" Ring Down
the DROP Cannot Play" The Old
est Pauper in the Town" and Il
Would that She Were Dead" all Of
which have been more or less popu-
lar. but none OF them to the extent
of Beautiful Snow"
A writer in a daily newspaper, IN
der the signature OF Camille" re-
Gently said: From voluminous and
cumulative data for many years the
writer states his belief that Dora
Shaw and not James ". Watson,
was the real author Of Beautiful
snow 1t would seem to be the
plaintive wall of one. born of her
own experience. and this commenc-
ing during the period of 1850 and
1860. becoming cumulative in her
death. in the early days OF the war
at Cincinnati, Ohio, a pauper in an
aims house.
She was born and grew into wo-
manhood in the Wabash Valley, In
diana, and married in 1850 F. S. lie
Baum, OF ST. Louis. Mo. She was
divorced by him because of her
entering upon a stage career under
the management of Ben De Bar.
Thomas Buchanan Read. Chester
County's t-painter-artist, learn
ing of her death at the Cincinnati
aims house, interested himself and
another Read, a publisher, in the
matter, and one or both followed her
remains 10 the cemetery. Among
her effects in manuscript, said TO
have been in her own handwriting,
this poem of Beautiful Snow was
found. Evidence that she had the
education and talent 10 have written
such a poem, born of her own sad
experience. is ample to justify the
belief that she was the author of
Beautiful Snow.
The story in brief, as related Of
Dora Shaw, is as follows: The early
part of the war. one dark Saturday
night. in the dead of winter there
died in the Commercial Hospital. of
Cincinnati, a young woman over
whose head only two and twenty
summers had passed.
She had once been possessed of an
enviable share of beauty. and had
been, as she herself says, BATTERED
and sought for the charms of her
face" But, alas. upon her fair brow
was written mat terrible word
dissipation" Once the pride of re-
spectacle parents. her first wrong
step was the small beginning of the
same old story over again" which
has been the only life history OF
thousands.
Highly educated and with accom-
plished manners, she might have
shown in the best society. But the
evil hour that had proved her ruin
was the door from childhood. and
having spent a young life in dis
grace and shame. the poor. friend
less one died the melancholy death
OF broken-hearted outeast.
Among her personal effects was
found the manuscript of The Beau
tiful SNOW which was Immediately
carried to Enos B. Read, a gentle
man of culture and literary tastes.
who was at that time editor of the
National Union
In the columns OF that paper, on
the morrdng OF the day following the