Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1915-01-15
A FAMOUS NOXUBEEAN.


has produced so eminent a scholar and noted poet
the author of the lines accompanying this article.
Thomas Albert Smith Adams was born in Nox-
ubee county in 1885, and educated at Salem school.
He was brother of John f. Adams and the late Mr.
Lem Adams.
He early showed marked literary tastes and abil
ity and was sent to the University of Mississippi.
He later graduated with high honors from Emory
and Henry College in Virginia He then entered the
Methodist ministry, Mobile conference. Later he
transferred to the North Mississippi conference.
He chaplain of the 18th Mississippi Regiment,
volunteers
Mr. Adams early won eminence in his church,
filling important stations and serving at the head of
church educational institutions, notably Centenary
college He mada a Doctor of Divinity by Ok
ford He died suddenly of apoplexy in Jackson, in
1889.
AS preacher, Mr.. Adams was brilliant and pro-
found. Poetica philosophical, spiritual and logi-
cal, scholarly and original teacher and preacher
he was distinguished. He knew Creek Latin and
Hebrew, and several modern languages. He was
able controversialist But poetry was his passion
and his luxury ''Eascotidion or the Shadow of
Death' was his chief work, though he wrote much
short verse of great excellence.
In Enscotidion there are approaches to Dantean
realism and suggestions of Mtonic sweep and gran
deur. The poem received high praise from able
critics. 1t was published in 1876. 1t is believed
that only the unpropritious times in the south pre-
vented the poems receiving the fame it deserved and
the author the literary honors due him.
The excerpt from the poem is taken from the
Library of Southern Literature and from the bogra
phcal and critical review in that publication the
above sketch is gathered His genius and ability is
given high praise and prominence. The description
OF war and its evils timely just now and aptly pic
lures present scenes in Europe
ENSCOTIDION, or SHADOW OF DEATH
"And art thou ignorant" Ambition said
OF all my mighty deeds despotic Death?
Go ask you spectral armies of the dead
VINO sent them hher Yes, wear wreath,
And having won wear. No Boosting vain
r. Has t ever once on, been uttered by my breath
o truckle to the proudest disdan
And here hurl back defiance to thy teeth again"
At this the smiled CHASTITY smile,
And, in cajoling accents thus replied
Hold, noble spirit but reflect awhile
How honors scatter in a storm of PRIDE
Pause now, and all resentment lay aside,
And say not what thou wilt but what thou hast
Accomplished. Mark, thy worth is denied;
But show thy trophies of achiev past
And LET all know the worth of them from first to last.
Pleased at his speech, Ambition took his crown
;, ~ flowers from his brow, and, bending low
Besides the monarchs throne, he laid it down;
Then next his proAered o besow.
VI, ne then proceeded pompousy to show
what meant the various marks and scars it bore;
These served to let a of dastards know
The matchess of the that wore,
"And, lot said he, ''where have been and hurled
Princes and palaces together down,
And wrought the ruin of peaceful world,
o build temple gain a
Are nations naughty luxurious arownp
give them up war rapine and sack;
- ne people household gods overthrown
Their pIlaeed homes and temples, charred and black,
Are suide-posts to Diseases rnd canine my track
"My trophies thou wouIdst sect Lo wonder lie
Ten thousand putreyne carcassesl
Breathe their odor, reekng 20 the sky,l
And feel the enawine of thy hunger less!
j. 20 10 that mother, in her deep distress,
And marked her tears as | have often done;
90 heal her broken heart, her wrongs redress,
BY telling her of the valor of that
Whose face divine she shall look upon
"Ask yonder wretch, whom unrelenins Fate
Has dragged from wealth 20 utter perjury
Why now he wanders homeless, desolate
Begging his bread of earth's cold charity.
Ask OF that broken-hearted maid if he
She loved returned but base, betrayed her trust.
Her sobs will answer NO., mo bitterly;
He fell a victim to Ambitions lust,
And in nameless grave he mouders back to DUST
'Ask of the Borrowing father, whom rude Time
Has lett but hoary looks and furrowed cheeks
And totterins steps, and wihered hopes behindi
Aspiring manhood's miserable wreck;
And II he heave SIGH and fail to speak,
Ask of that pae-aced widow why that child
Meier looks for father now; and she will break
Her silence with the voice of waing wild
The wall OF heart once happy in a land that smiled.
The ruthless steel my right hand sleeps in blood
The left the fagot brandishes on high;
With one ponr earth a crimson food
And with the other light the midnight sky
With horrd conhagration Hank a cry
Rises amid yon ruins, they fall
1t is a hopeless people there that die
To leave niche within temples wall
For such as Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal.
"The blooming earth becomes wilderness
H. Where'er tread. Behold yon distant skies
Where Lucifer, dsdaining o be less
Dared cen against Omnipotence to rise
There first confusion in the symphonies
NH arms r1ada audi IN.