The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06

II is hard and unfair, yet Is Is the
truth of.the ages, that the fulness Of gen.
ius is never recognized until the fires
of life have burnt out and tins old BODY
which is but the casing for that Whlch
lives, speaks, and loves-has become
brother to the common clay
On the birthday Of Sidney Lanler ap-
propriate ceremonies were held and steps
.taken to erect white marble monument
of magnificent proportions, to honor the
illustrious oead. whose beautiful songs
aud stories are a precious legacy to not
only Georgians. but TO all Southern peo-
pie.
This monument will be erected at MAJ
con. Ga, where II years ago he was born.
All honor to the dead man of letters!
All honor to the man who wrote,
MARSHES of Glynn," and '"fhe Song of
the Chattahootcheef Aye, and these
will be read long after the present gem
Grafton have joined the lnnumerable
throng. All, listen! This recognition has
come to the dead man-after years of~un-
awakened sleep; the living man, with the
fires of genius burning in his heart
Walking an uncrowned king among men,
was no more than you or me to an un-
appreciative world.
Sidney Lanier fought a hard, unequal
battle with life He was bounded by the
sleuth hounds of poverty, hunted con-
stantly with the desire for the unobtain-
able and forever haunted with the dread
fear of tuberculosis-he suffered pangs IN
6escribable, yet with his Imperial Will ne
fought on and on. handicapped as ne
was, he never lost hope.
Never was a record more pathetic than
his. He contracted consumption while in
camp during the civil war and was after
wards driven from place to place In
search for that which would never more
be his-health.
His was not a nature to complain, but
al one time under stress of pain and dis
appointment upon beng upbraided for
not writing to an old friend, who loved
him. a brother poet, he replied With the
following letter. embodying all the pathos
Of longing and despair:
II never could tell you the extremity
of illness. of poverty, of unceaslng toll,
which l have spent the last three years,
and you would need only once to see
the WEAKNESS whereWith I crawl to bed
after a long days work and after long
nights work at the heels of it-Sunday
in your heart full warrant for my si-
lence
at seems incredible that l should have
printed such an unchristan lot of mat
ter, all, too, tolerable successful, and Sc
cured so little money, and the wife, ,the
four little boys, who are so lovely that
| should not think palace too good for
them-if I had it-makes ones earnings
seem all the less.
His entire life was heavily freighted
with sadness, he was passionately fond
of music, for which he possessed a rare
talent which he had no time to cultivate,
a strain of music love threaded all his
ancestry, one of whom was master of the
kings music at the court of James |.
When he was 10 years old he entered
Oglethorpe college. Here he did not ap-
ply himself to the curriculum, but to the
cultivation of a circle of most congenial
friends A classmate, who was bosom
friend, wrote of him in after years:
II can recall my association with him
with the sweetest pleasure, for they were
the dearest. tenderest recollections of my
life especially those attic nights, When
with a few chosen friends, we would read