Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1923-05-18

Through the kindness of the editor
of the Chronicle, who published re-
quest I sent him, have been put IN
touch with him and his life-work, in
a most remarkable way. Whereas
knew next to nothing about him or MS
work, I am now in possession OF TWO
copies of his works, one printed in
1928, in Philadelphia, by Atkins &
Alexander, called 1.-THE Harp of Del
aware" a gift to me from an uneX-
pected source; the other much later
and more complete volume, published
in Baltimore, by John Murphy in the
year 1916, only about three years prior
to the Bards death. This book is a
loan by relative of the poet, which
I appreciate very much. So 1 have
been put in possession of much know
ledge concerning him, not only by his
works, but by other supplementary
information.
After reading all these, feel i'm
PEELED to speak few words in his be-
half. He has been dead almost three
quarters of a century, and his lie
work has almost been forgotten. A
volume of his work is so rare, that but
few possess one. Yet I feel that JUS
tice has never been done him. His
faults have been allowed to obscure
his virtues. Faults that were more
the results of the day and age in
which he lived, than they were his IN
dividually. He was accused of being
an opium eater for twenty years Of
his life. Suppose that we grant this to
be true. In the day that he lived 1t
was Just as easy to buy a bottle or
laudanum, or Godfrey's Cordial, IN
any store, as it was to buy anything
else. Those articles were kept in the
family medicine chest, as was castor
oil, and were just as common RENE
dies. The mothers of that day thought
nothing of giving them to their chill
dren. The wonder is that there were
no more addicts to the habit than
there were.
He was accused of drinking to eX-
cess at times, in day when liquor
was lust as common almost as water
in every house nearly. You could buy
whiskey at any grocery store, for
few cents a quart, and there were no
restrictions on the sale of it. Besides
that, there were cider mills and dis
tilleries galore in every ne1ghDor-
hood, 1 can remember those days my
self quite well. No wonder men and
boys drank to excess. They were not
SO much to blame as the custom OF the
age in which they lived. Things are
not that way now, and we cannot
Judge men fairly who lived then, IN
20 daW
So we want to write Of the Milford
Bard, not what he was not, but what
he was. Not what he did not do, but
what he did. We want to speak OF
what he could have done, if he had
not been handicapped.
We want to tell what some of those
handicaps were, and why they were.
Other men have lived, who had as
grave faults as he, or graver, but those
faults have long been forgotten, and
their virtues and merits have been
brought to the light, until their one
time frailities can no longer be seen.
What we most earnestly desire to do
is to rescue the memory Of the Mill
ford Bard from the dust and cObWebs
of the last seventy-five years, and to
try to get the people Of Delaware to
see him in the clear sunlight, minus
the handicaps, that have heretofore
obscured their vision of one whom l
consider to have been a much greater
poet and writer in general than he
ever got credit for being.
In the days when our Republic was
young, while George Washington yet
rode his daily rounds on his Mt. Yer
non estate. Before the advent Of steam
boats or railroads. Before there was
anything dreamed about any such
thing as the telegraph or telephone.
Before postage stamps were invented,
or a flying machine was even thought
of. When people travelled by stage
coach or on horse back, dressed in
home-spun clothing. In the year 1898
on the 9th of March, in the then little
town Of Milford, in the State Of Del
aware, a little boy baby was born.
His parents were Isaac and Cynthia
Lofand. Like the father Of the fore
runner of our Saviour, they said "his
name shall be called john" He lived
and grew as other babies live and
grow. When he was yet scarcely old
enough to go to school, his parents
sent him to the schools of the day,
such as they were. He was desultory
in his studies and did not take to
learning well. It is related Of him that
it took six months for him to master
the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.
The town was not large then and he
knew every nook and Granny in it, its
and by-ways. He was like
other boys. When he was old enough
he went fishing in the Mispillion Riv-
or, or swimming as the case might be.
His face was freckled and his hair
was red, no doubt. He loved to rove
where the birds were nesting and to
.ook in the nests where the speckled
Eggs were lying; but he did not touch
hem, for I think his parents had