Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1916-06-09
SAKE CENTENNIAL,
Anniversary Of Middlebury Poet
Recognized by Metropolitan
Papers,

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Papers.
The announcement that Middlebury
College will celebrate at, approaching
commencement the one hundredth ami
yersary of the birth Of John G, SAKE has
served to call attention to the poeI
whose name was once household wore
in Vermont, The New York Sun OF
last Friday said, -
"A century ago today John Godfrey
SAKE was born at Hlghgate, Vermont,
and though it is generally forgotten
that he ran twice for Governor Of his
native State and that he sought emf
nence in the law, his poetry still en-
dures, and some of his unrecorded wit
ticisms linger in the memory of those
who heard them in the days of his
greatness at Saratoga, He edited, lee.
tured-he nourished in the days of
the Lyceum, before the Chautauqua
rose to greatness and wrote with a
light heart and sparkling mind, and
without effort cultivated the reputa-
tion Of wit. There is in his works a
wholesome quality, sanity and a
good temper the student of the bas
relief in the Capitol at Albany would
not look for; they may be read with
pleasure now, and course in his writ
ings would not be without profit to
those who know HIM not.
The New York Times in its issue of
last Sunday also paid tribute to SAKE,
with an appreciatve word concerning
Middlebury College. The grandson to
whom the Times refers is Hon. John G..
SAKE, who has been announced to de-
liver an address on the poet at the COM
mencement dinner. The editorial is
well worth reproduction in full,
"The name John Godfrey SAKE, hon
orably borne by his grandson in this
State, has pleasant sound and SAVIOR
in many memories.
at brings back the scent of old pages
of the Knickerbocker Magazine, some
volume of Mr.. Peter Farley Goodrich s
annual Token lying by its side
on the center table of our
not so remote ancestors who read
Godey's Lady's Book and Graham 9
Magazine and the Democratic Review
and Arcturn and Ballou's Drawing
Room Companion and the The New York
Observer, venerated Mr. Willis and
General Morris, had their backgam-
mon boards soIemnIy bound as The
Complete works of Flavius Josephus,
Mr.. Rollins History on their
shelves, admired The Lamplighter'
and The Lofty and the Lowly,' and
too often swapped their fine mahog-
any old furniture for funeral horse
hair and 'whatnots. Age of inno-
cence, in whose less innocent later
days boys and girls, shy worshippers
of Mr.. Beadle, used to read Mr.. Saxe's
verses in Readers and Speakers,
and singsong them on defamation
days
MANY of those amateur reciters re-
member them fondly still. They are
worth remembering. In the humorous
manner of Tom Hood, the sages tell
u.s. A good manner, simple, clear, eff
fective. Because Mr.. SAKE had not
the scholarly, clever felicities of Cal
verley, the taking bang g-and-cymbal
topsyturviness of Gilbert, shall he be
patronized by superior persons? Just
as there are multitudes of reaction
aries who swear by humble folks like
Whittier and Longfellow, no matter
how industriously the Vorticists whirl
and the Imagists make faces, so divers
oldsters will continue to swear by
SAKE, man with wit an humor an
shrewd Yankee sense, more'n there is
on an old stone fence. Some
PrincoXes say he punned too much.
Habit of the time, which will recur, like
everything else, no matter how weari-
some in the mouths of bunglers. One
may pun beyond forgiveness, as Henry
j. Finn did when he said:
'Ifmy PUNISH head were punished
for every pun | shed, should not
have puny shed to hide my PUNISH
head.
This is debauchery. SAKE is mod
crate punner. He doesn't offend. He
sharpens carelessly antithesis. He is
always neat, makes his point, gets
his laugh. He must have been lee
turer worth hearing in the prime of
The Lyceum. He is often as clever
in the humorous vein as DR.. Holmes.
But he didn't live in the Boston Pale,
though his works were published by
its classic house. So he missed accel-
Grated and imputed fame After he
left Vermont, he settled in Albany.
So he was not in the Knickerbocker
school, albeit his first printed verses
T 4.