Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1919-02-21
Lowell Revisited

are fixed only once in a hundred years
For so many Februarys we have SO
dutifully consecrated the 22nd to ting
Father of Our Country, that he were
ungracious indeed if he would not step
aside this year in Difference to the fact
that tomorrow marks the Tooth ami
versary of the birth of that patriot,
poet, sharpshooting satirist and Yam
kee friend James Russell Lowell.
We are, moreover, partial toward
such an occasion as this, for literary
holidays" may be widely and happily
observed without many of the consider
atoms that cucumber those fetes reg
ularly set down upon the calender.
Our Notification on New Years eve
NAV be mixed with modification over
the still unpaid Christmas bills; Easter
may be completely miserable, lacking
new clothes to wear; the Fourth brings
heat and crowds to reckon with;
Thanksgiving has the terrifying pros
pect of acute Indigestion, and Christ
mas has its eternal problems both be-
fore and after,
Celebration of a literary centenary
may be contemplated more sublimely,
Weather cannot mar it; poverty can
not cloud it; and crowds are no factor
"Only the book, and thou.
1t was with such animadverslons
that we rescued "LowelIs Poetical
Works" from our attic storage the other
day, blew the dust from its gilded edges,
and squinted through reading glass at
the two-point type in which it was
printed. 1t was embellished through
out its 400 odd pages with red-line
panel, which, it struck us, would have
never got further than the title page
in these days of the high cost OF print
ing. Doubtless, copies of this same de
like edition are to be found in many an
Addison County home library, Tor
half century ago Lowell was even
more of a living force with us than IS
anv one contemporary writer today
Tempus does fugit! And so does our
temper, for some of Lowell's hot passes
with England over the Trent affair and
other items that ranked the Union in
Civil War days, make strange reading
in contrast with the little love-affalr
that now exists between the two coun-
tries.
Lowell, however, is to be enjoyed, re-
CARELESS of the historical pint O view,
as much as he ever was, or more His
"Biglow Papers" constitute the best
thesaurus extant of good old-fashloned
Yankeeisms, so many of which we are
reluctant to see passing or already gone.
Any reader any patient reader who
will put up with Lowell's purposeful
but generally overdone "interspus-
sions" of quotation from the dead Ian
will be assured of full week
ends enjoyment if he turns back to
THE Biglow Papers" to discover or
rediscover the pearls of jest and satire |
that lurk in these pages, and possibly !
to rescue from his buried store of
Yankeeisms one or two that we may |
proftably draw back for current use.
Certain it is that nothing in present
day idiom or slang has anything like |
the vigor and heartiness OF phrase that
is characteristic of some of the old |
Y ankeeisms For our part we rejoice
today when we detect here and there
among our populace, in this once for
nidable Yankee stronghold, sur
vival of those "divinely illiterate" Yam
zee clowns such as "Brdofreedum
Sawin".
The Yankee is no longer 100 per cent
pure, but some of us, fortunately, are
,till unconsciously preserving some
,hoice or puckery bits from his lingo.
1t is not rare to hear that classic
Y ankeeism Il dunow's | know, which,
as Lowell says, is the nearest that the
rue Yankee ever comes to acknowled-
ring ignorance A hill side is to many
If us yet a "sidehill" Seem" is ha-
)itual with us in its strange Yankee
ises, as II can't seem to be suited" or 81
ant seem to know him."
Are there yet some old maids who
hyper" around to get tea? Whiskey
S still rot gut"-and promises to be-
.ome even more so, but we seldom
rear of man making a Virginia
ence" when he walks drunken fashion.
Gander parties" are less frequent than
hey ulster was" We seldom take
,ains to designate the Devil as "Old
,phtfoot"; and we have entirely let
lip from us that beautiful word
moonglade" to characterize the track
4 moonlight on the water. Editors /
nay still be said to be about "as pop
lar as a hen with one chick, but they I
ecome more so, and "quicker'n creased
ghtnin'" when there is a favor to be !