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diff --git a/old/66276-0.txt b/old/66276-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 00eef04..0000000 --- a/old/66276-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6248 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Hoosiers, by Meredith Nicholson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Hoosiers - National Studies in American Letters - -Author: Meredith Nicholson - -Release Date: September 12, 2021 [eBook #66276] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOOSIERS *** - - - - - -THE HOOSIERS - - - - -National Studies in American Letters. - -GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY, EDITOR. - - - OLD CAMBRIDGE. - By THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. - - BROOK FARM. - By LINDSAY SWIFT. - - THE HOOSIERS. - By MEREDITH NICHOLSON. - - - _IN PREPARATION._ - - THE CLERGY IN AMERICAN LIFE AND LETTERS. - By THE REV. DANIEL DULANY ADDISON. - - THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVEL. - By PAUL LEICESTER FORD. - - THE KNICKERBOCKERS. - By THE REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D. - - SOUTHERN HUMORISTS. - By JOHN KENDRICK BANGS. - - FLOWER OF ESSEX. - By THE EDITOR. - - -_Others to be announced._ - - - - - THE HOOSIERS - - BY - MEREDITH NICHOLSON - - New York - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. - 1900 - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1900, - BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. - - Norwood Press - J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith - Norwood Mass. U.S.A. - - - - - To the Memory of - CALEB MILLS - SOMETIME PROFESSOR IN WABASH COLLEGE - THE FRUITS OF WHOSE ENLIGHTENMENT, FORESIGHT - AND COURAGE - ARE AN ENDURING HERITAGE - TO THE PEOPLE OF INDIANA - - - - -PREFACE - - -These pages represent an effort to give some hint of the forces that -have made for cultivation in Indiana. While the immediate purpose has -been an examination of the State’s performance in literature, it has -seemed proper to approach the subject with a slight review of Indiana’s -political and social history. Owing to limitations of space, much is -suggested merely which it would be profitable to discuss at length. It -is hoped that such matters as racial influences, folk-speech, etc., -which are but lightly touched here, may appeal to others who will make -them the subject of more searching inquiry. Only names that have seemed -most significant are included; many creditable writers are necessarily -omitted. - -I take pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Dr. Edward -Eggleston, Miss Anna Nicholas, and Mr. Merrill Moores for their -courteous responses to many requests for information. Miss May Louise -Shipp gave me access to papers relating to her kinswoman, Mrs. Dumont, -which I could not have seen but for her kindness. Miss Eliza G. -Browning, the Public Librarian of Indianapolis, Mr. H. S. Wedding, the -Librarian of Wabash College, and Mr. Charles R. Dudley, of the Denver -Library, were most generous and indulgent on my behalf. - - M. N. - - DENVER, July, 1900. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER I - PAGE - - INDIANA AND HER PEOPLE 1 - - - CHAPTER II - - THE RURAL TYPE AND THE DIALECT - - The Word “Hoosier” 29 - - Pioneer Difficulties 36 - - The Dialect 45 - - - CHAPTER III - - BRINGERS OF THE LIGHT - - Religious Influences 63 - - Early Illiteracy 70 - - Caleb Mills 79 - - Julia L. Dumont and Catharine Merrill 89 - - - CHAPTER IV - - AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIALISM - - New Harmony 98 - - Robert Dale Owen and William Maclure 101 - - Thomas Say and the Scientists 104 - - - CHAPTER V - - THE HOOSIER INTERPRETED - - Edward Eggleston 134 - - James Whitcomb Riley 156 - - - CHAPTER VI - - CRAWFORDSVILLE - - “The Hoosier Athens” 177 - - Lew Wallace 180 - - Maurice Thompson 199 - - Mary H. Krout and Caroline V. Krout 212 - - - CHAPTER VII - - “OF MAKING MANY BOOKS THERE IS NO END” - - Indiana a Point of Departure 214 - - Fiction 217 - - History and Politics 226 - - Miscellaneous 237 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - AN INDIANA CHOIR - - Early Writers 244 - - Forceythe Willson and Elizabeth Conwell Willson 256 - - Later Poets 265 - - The Hoosier Landscape 269 - - - INDEX 273 - - - - -THE HOOSIERS - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INDIANA AND HER PEOPLE - - -The rise of Indiana as an enlightened commonwealth has been -accompanied by phenomena of unusual interest and variety, and whatever -contributions the State may make to the total of national achievement -in any department of endeavor are to be appraised in the light of her -history and development. The origin of the beginners of the State, -the influences that wrought upon them, the embarrassments that have -attended the later generations in their labors, become matters of -moment in any inquiry that is directed to their intellectual history. -It is not of so great importance that a few individuals within a -State shall, from time to time, show talent or genius, as that the -general level of cultivation in the community shall be continually -raised. Where, as in Indiana, the appearance of artistic talent -follows naturally an intellectual development that uplifts the whole, -the condition presented is at once interesting and admirable. Owing -to a misapprehension of the State’s social history, an exaggerated -importance has been given to the manifestations of creative talent -perceptible in Indiana, the assumption being in many quarters that the -Hoosier Commonwealth is in some way set apart from her neighbors by -reason of the uncouthness and ignorance of the inhabitants; and the -word “Hoosier” has perhaps been unfortunate as applied to Indianians -in that it has sometimes been taken as a synonym for boorishness -and illiteracy. The Indiana husbandmen, even in the pioneer period, -differed little or not at all from the settlers in other territorial -divisions of the West and Southwest; and the early Indiana townfolk -were the peers of any of their fellows of the urban class in the Ohio -Valley. - -The Indianians came primarily of American stock, and they have been -influenced much less than the majority of their neighbors in other -states by the currents of alien migration that have flowed around and -beyond them. The frontiersmen, who carried the rifle and the axe to -make way for the plough, were brave, hardy, and intelligent; and those -who accompanied them and became builders of cities and framers and -interpreters of law, were their kinsmen, and possessed the natural -qualities and the cultivation that would have made them conspicuous -anywhere. The Indianians remained in a striking degree the fixed -population of the territory that fell to them. They were sustained and -lifted by religion through all their formative years, and when aroused -to the importance of education were quick to insure intelligence in -their posterity. The artistic impulse appeared naturally in later -generations. The value of the literature produced in the State may be -debatable, but there is no just occasion for surprise that attention to -literary expression has been so general. - -Indiana has always lain near the currents of national life, and her -beginnings were joined to the larger fortunes of the national destiny. -Three flags have been emblems of government in her territory, and wars -whose principal incidents occurred far from the western wilderness -played an important part in her history. Early in the eighteenth -century the French settled on the Wabash, which was an essential link -in the chain of communication between the settlements of the St. -Lawrence and Great Lakes and those of the Lower Mississippi; and the -_coureurs des bois_, as they guided their frail navies up and down -the stream, or sang their _chansons de voyage_ as they lay in lonely -camps, gave the first color of romance to the Hoosier country. The -treaty signed at Paris, February 10, 1763, ended French dominion and -brought British rule. The American Revolution made itself felt on the -Wabash when, in 1779, George Rogers Clark effected the capture of Fort -Vincennes from a British commander. The first territorial governor -of Indiana became the ninth president of the United States after the -rollicking hard cider campaign of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”; and -when, years afterward, Benjamin Harrison, his grandson, was elected -twenty-third president, the bonds between State and Nation were close -and strong. Indiana valiantly defended herself against the Indians in -the War of 1812; she sent five regiments to the Mexican War, equipped -208,300 volunteers for the war of the rebellion, and 7300 for the -war with Spain. Slavery was an issue on Indiana soil long before -the Northwest Territory had been divided. At a convention held at -Vincennes in 1802, a year and a half after the organization of Indiana -Territory, a memorial was sent to the National Congress asking that the -antislavery proviso in the ordinance of 1787 be repealed, and slavery -was thereafter a potent influence in territorial politics until the -admission of Indiana, as a free state, in 1816.[1] - -The victories of George Rogers Clark were not only of great importance -in determining the future political relations of the Northwest -Territory, but they defined the character of the population that -should dominate in the region he conquered. The Ohio was the highway -that led into the new world, and the first comers to Indiana in the -years immediately following the Revolution were mainly drawn either -directly from Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, or Virginia, or were of -that fascinating band of hunters and frontiersmen of similar origin, -who had only a few years earlier begun the redemption of Tennessee -and Kentucky from savagery. Kentucky was a temporary resting-place -for many who later drifted West and Northwest; and their descendants, -markedly of Scotch-Irish origin, are still clearly defined in Indiana. -Philadelphia and Charleston were the two ports to which these -Presbyterian Irish came in greatest numbers in the early years of the -eighteenth century. They at once left the seaboard settlements and -spread along the Alleghanies, the Pennsylvanians moving southward -until they met their Carolina brethren, when the united stream swept -with fresh strength boldly into the Ohio Valley. Emigration from the -north of Ireland “waxed and waned,” says Dr. Eggleston,[2] “as the -great Irish linen industry of the last century declined or prospered.” -Some of these people were steady and thrifty; others were reckless -and adventurous. The frontier life afforded an outlet for their wild -spirits, and Indian wars and the hunting of big game were their -congenial employments. The Germans, also derived from Pennsylvania and -the Carolinas, joined the westward stream; the English, the Dutch, and -the Swiss added to it in varying degree, but the North-Irish element, -dating from the earliest settlement, was long potent in politics, -society, and religion, and became a most important factor in Indiana -history. - -Northern Indiana was settled much more slowly than the southern half -of the State, owing primarily to the fierce resistance of the Miami -Confederacy, which barred ingress by way of the lakes, rivers, and -portages, and defeated successive armies that were sent against it. -When the way was opened, the Middle States and New England slowly -contributed to the population. Many of these immigrants paused first -in the Western Reserve of Ohio, and a smaller proportion in Michigan. -It is a question for the scientists whether the differences still -observable between the people of the northern prairie region in Indiana -and those of the woodland areas--differences of thrift, energy, and -initiative[3]--are not due as much to natural conditions as to racial -influences; and they may also have an explanation of the fact that -Indiana’s literary activity has been observed principally in the -southern half of the State, below a line drawn through Crawfordsville. -The seniority of the southern settlements is not a wholly satisfactory -solution, and the difference in antecedents invites speculation. - -It happened fortunately that the worst element contributed to the -population of Indiana and Illinois in early years--known as “poor -whites”--was the least permanent. Dr. Eggleston describes them as “a -semi-nomadic people, descendants of the colonial bond-servants,”[4] -who moved on in large numbers to Missouri so early as 1845, and thence -from the famous Pike County scattered widely, appearing finally in -California, where Bret Harte took note of them. Professor Fiske in his -account of the dispersion of these people[5] does not mention Indiana -as one of their outlets, and the State’s proportion was unquestionably -small. Romance has not attached to them where they linger in Southern -Indiana, although they are of the same strain as their kindred at the -south who have so often delighted the readers of fiction. By way of -illustration it may be said that in the hills of Brown County the -traveller passes here and there a rude wagon drawn by oxen. A dusty -native walks beside the team, and seated on the floor of the wagon is -an old grandmother, smoking a clay pipe with great contentment. The -same picture may be met within the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains, -but with the difference that in those regions the story-tellers have -woven the spell of romance about the hill folk, whereas in Indiana -similar characters are looked upon as ugly and uninteresting. - -The rural and urban classes produced a first generation that realized -a type drawing strength from both farm and town and destined to -steady improvement throughout the century. New people poured in from -the Eastern States and from Europe; but in no old community of the -seaboard has loftier dignity been conferred by long residence or -pioneer ancestry than in Indiana. This pride was brought in more -particularly from the Southeast, and there are still communities in -which the stranger will be sensible of it. The native Americans of -Indiana have continued the dominant element to a greater extent than -in most Northern States, 74 per cent of the total population in 1890 -consisting of natives; 20 per cent of natives of other States; while -the foreign-born population comprised only 6 per cent of the total.[6] -In the larger cities, as Indianapolis, Evansville, and Fort Wayne, the -Germans had an important part from the beginning, and the Irish were -well distributed; but before the Scandinavians and Slavs had begun to -seek homes in America, the land values in Indiana had so appreciated -that this class of immigrants could find no footing. The centre of -population in the United States, which lay just east of Baltimore in -the first decade of the century, moved gradually westward, until, in -the last decade, it lay in Indiana at a point sixty-five miles south of -Indianapolis. - -The older Indiana towns enjoyed in their beginnings all the benefits -that may be bestowed upon new communities by a people of good social -antecedents. Many of these towns have lost their prestige, owing to -changed political or commercial conditions; the departed glory of -some of them is only a tradition among the elders; but the charm of -many remains. Indiana, as Territory and State, has had three political -capitals, Vincennes and Corydon having enjoyed the distinction before -Indianapolis finally attained it. Vincennes, however, refused to fall -with her political dethronement, but built upon her memories, and -became “no mean city.” In 1847 the railway connecting Madison with -Indianapolis was completed. Madison was thus made the gateway of the -State, and one of the most important shipping points on the Ohio, with -daily steam packet to Cincinnati and Louisville; but this prosperity -was only temporary, for east and west lines of railway soon drew the -traffic away from the river. Madison retains its dignity in spite -of reverses, and is marked by an air of quaint gravity. It may be -called picturesque without offence to the inhabitants, who rejoice -in its repose and natural beauty, and do not complain because their -wharves are not so busy as they used to be. The social life there had -a distinction of its own, which has not vanished, though the names -identified with the town’s fame--Lanier, Hendricks, Bright, King, and -Marshall--have slowly disappeared, and few of the old régime remain. -The juxtaposition of Kentucky was not without an influence in the -years of the town’s ascendancy, and there was no little sympathy with -Southern political ideas in the ante-bellum days. - -Brookville is another town which, like Madison, sent forth many men to -bring fame to other communities. It lies in the White Water Valley, -amid one of the loveliest landscapes in all Hoosierdom. The Wallaces, -the Nobles, and the Rays were identified with the place, and each of -these families gave a governor to the State. Abram A. Hammond, still -another governor, lived there for a short time, as did James B. Eads, -the distinguished engineer, who was a native of Lawrenceburg; and -William M. Chase, the artist, also a native Hoosier, is on Brookville’s -list of notables. John D. Howland and his brother, Livingston, lived -there before their removal to Indianapolis, where the former was one -of the most cultivated men of his day, and the latter a creditable -judge, and a wit much quoted by his contemporaries. Centerville lives -principally in its memories, having been the home of the Mortons, and -of others who attained distinction. The removal of the seat of Wayne -County to Richmond dealt the town a blow from which it has never -recovered, though it shares with its successful rival in the reputation -which the county enjoys for the cultivation of its people. The family -of Robert Underwood Johnson was prominent in Wayne County; and though -the poet and editor was not born there, he lived in the county from -early infancy until his graduation in 1871 from Earlham College, whose -seat is Richmond. His cousin, Mrs. Alice Williams Brotherton, the -author of two volumes of verse, and a contributor to the periodicals, -lived as a young woman at Cambridge, in the same county. Fort Wayne -has always stood a little apart from the capital and the other towns -lying nearer the Ohio. This has been due to its geographical position -and direct railway connection with Chicago and the seaboard cities. -Socially and commercially it has not been so intimately related to the -capital as most of the other Indiana towns; but it was an important -centre, with unmistakable metropolitan airs almost as soon as -Indianapolis. Fort Wayne’s list of distinguished citizens has included -Hugh McCulloch, a native of Maine, who was Secretary of the Treasury -under two presidents, and Jesse Lynch Williams, of North Carolina -Quaker stock, who was prominently identified with canal and railroad -building in Indiana. Mr. Williams was a leader in good works throughout -his long life. Mr. McCulloch wrote “Men and Measures,” a volume of -memoirs, and his family has produced a poet. A grandson and namesake of -Mr. Williams is the author of several volumes of fiction. - -Lafayette is one of the most attractive of Indiana cities, fortunate in -its natural setting and in the friendliness of its people to all good -endeavors. Purdue University, the state school of technology, which is -situated there, is not diligent in the sciences to the neglect of the -arts. Roswell Smith (1829-1892), the founder of the _Century Magazine_, -practised law for twenty years at Lafayette. Terre Haute has been the -home of distinguished politicians rather than of famous literary folk; -but Richard W. Thompson, who became Secretary of the Navy in President -Hayes’s cabinet, was a writer of books; and Daniel W. Voorhees, long a -senator in Congress, was the greatest forensic orator of his day in the -Ohio Valley. Voorhees had none of the qualities essential in a great -lawyer, but he was most effective as a speaker before the people. The -code of 1852 contained a provision giving to the defence the final plea -to the jury in criminal trials; but this was changed in 1873 because -it had become notorious that Voorhees and others of similar persuasive -powers could almost invariably procure the acquittal of persons charged -with the gravest crimes by appealing to the natural sympathies and -domestic attachments of the jurors. Voorhees received from Berry -Sulgrove the name of the “tall sycamore of the Wabash.” His appearance -was commanding, and many of the dangerous qualities that go to the -making of personal magnetism were combined in him. Thomas H. Nelson, -also of the Terre Haute group, was worthy to be named with Thompson and -Voorhees as an orator, though never so widely known as they. He was a -native of Kentucky, and an accomplished man of the world, who filled -acceptably several diplomatic positions. Salem, in Washington County, -is another of the older towns that contained in its earliest years -families of marked cultivation. John Hay, the author, diplomat, and -cabinet officer, and Newton Booth, governor of California and senator -in Congress from that State, were born there. At least one generation -benefited by the instruction of John I. Morrison, sometimes called “the -Hoosier Arnold,” who sent out from the Salem Seminary in the third -decade of the century a group of men destined to take high place in -nearly every field that called for character and intelligence. Hanover, -the seat of Hanover College, enjoyed a somewhat similar atmosphere, -and Noble Butler, who afterward became, at Louisville, the teacher in -literature and elocution of Mary Anderson, the actress, was one of the -Hanover faculty. - -Indianapolis was planned under the direction of Christopher Harrison, a -man of varied talents, who buried himself in the wilderness of Southern -Indiana early in the century, followed by the shadowy tradition that -he had been an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Miss Patterson, -the famous Baltimore beauty who married Jerome Bonaparte. Emerging -from his exile, he became a resident of Salem, sought consolation in -politics, and was elected lieutenant-governor in 1816. Among those who -assisted in marking the lines of the new city was Alexander Ralston, a -Scotchman, who had aided in a similar task at the national capital, and -who brought to his work a fancy for diagonal avenues and broad streets -pleasantly suggestive of Washington. Ralston was said to have been -obscurely implicated in Burr’s conspiracy; but he became a resident -within the boundaries he had drawn for the capital in the woods, and -died there, an exemplary citizen. Indianapolis was named by Jeremiah -Sullivan, in the legislature of 1821, which formally designated the -site of the new capital. The older towns on the Ohio and in the White -Water Valley contributed at once to the population of the place, and -the currents of migration from the East and South met there. Dr. -Eggleston described the town in his novel “Roxy” as it appeared in -1840:-- - - “The stumps stood in the streets; the mud was only navigable to a man - on a tall horse; the buildings were ugly and unpainted, the people - were raw immigrants dressed in butternut jeans, and for the most - part afflicted either with the ‘agur’ or the ‘yellow janders’; the - taverns were new wooden buildings with swinging signs that creaked - in the wind, their floors being well coated with a yellow _adobe_ - from the boots of the guests. The alkaline biscuits on the table - were yellow like the floors; the fried ‘middling’ looked much the - same; the general yellowness had extended to the walls and the bed - clothing, and, combined with the butternut jeans and copperas-dyed - linsey-woolsey of the clothes, it gave the universe an air of having - the jaundice.” - -Old residents pronounce the description unfair; but however crude -the earlier years may have been, the founders were faithful to the -settlement, and among those who were there before 1840 were the -Fletcher, Morris, Merrill, Coe, Ray, Blake, Sharpe, Yandes, and -Holliday families, which were to be associated with the best that was -thought and done in the community. In 1839 Henry Ward Beecher became -pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and he was a useful citizen -through the nine years of his residence. Good lecture courses were -provided so early as 1855, and Edward Everett, Bayard Taylor, Dr. -Holland, Theodore Parker, Park Benjamin, and Ole Bull were cordially -welcomed. The Civil War disturbed the old order, lifting into social -and political prominence men who had had no connection with the -original leaders. Unfriendly feeling between the Eastern element and -the Southerners had already been manifested in political contests, -and the war greatly intensified it. “Copperhead” was the term of most -odious significance known to the majority of Indianians during the war, -and it continued to be such for many years afterward. - -The club idea took hold in Indiana early, and societies for the -study of art, music, and literature have by no means been limited -to the capital. The Indianapolis Literary Club, formed in 1877, has -illustrated perhaps better than any other expression of the life -of Indiana, the quality of the men who have dominated there in the -last three decades. In a State where not to be an author is to be -distinguished, the members have written and read their essays in that -spirit of true cultivation which takes its aspirations and attainments -as a matter of course, and not too seriously. A president and a -vice-president of the United States have been on the club’s rolls, as -have cabinet officers, senators in Congress and foreign ministers; but -literary and ethical questions, oftener than political problems, have -vexed its discussions, and it has been more interested as a society in -Newman, Arnold, and Emerson, and in the thwarting of the _Zeitgeist_, -than in material things. The women of Indiana have been important -contributors to all agencies that tend toward ideal living, and at -Indianapolis they have exerted an intelligent and beneficent influence -in literature. - -The first governors and law-givers were distinctly not of the bucolic -type; and it is an interesting fact of Indiana history that in an -agricultural State, where the “farmer’s vote” has been essential to the -winning party, farmers have rarely found their way to the governor’s -chair. James D. Williams, familiarly known as “Blue Jeans,” who was -elected over Benjamin Harrison in 1876, was the first farmer pure and -simple to hold the office of governor; and this was not until Indiana -had been sixty years a State, and had passed beyond the period in which -an appeal to “Jeffersonian simplicity” would naturally have been most -potent. The second farmer to be elected governor was Claude Matthews, -who was a candidate in the year of Mr. Cleveland’s second success, -and he was a college graduate and a man of affairs, and not really of -the farmer type. When, in 1896, for the third time, the State went to -the country for a governor, James A. Mount, a scientific farmer and -reformer of farm methods, was chosen. The name of Posey County has -long been used as a synonym for any dark and forbidding land; but the -public services of Thomas Posey, the last of Indiana’s territorial -governors, for whom the district was named, were of marked variety and -value, so that the name can hardly be used as a term of opprobrium, -particularly of the county that harbored the New Harmony settlement. -After Indiana had gained the dignity of statehood, and throughout her -earlier years, she continued fortunate in the class of men to whom she -gave her highest honors. Jennings, the first governor, was a native of -New Jersey. He was a fair scholar and wrote creditable English. The -Hendricks family came from Pennsylvania and contributed two governors -to the State, and a vice-president to the nation; and the name remains -after a century locally significant of character and attainment. David -Wallace, the father of General Lew Wallace, and Joseph A. Wright, who -was prominent in affairs in the earlier half of the century, were -natives of Pennsylvania. Wallace had been educated at West Point, -but resigned from the army to take up the law; he became noted as an -orator and was governor of the State. Wright, who paid his way through -Indiana University by acting as janitor, became governor, sat in the -United States Senate, and was minister to Prussia. Governor Whitcomb -was a native of Vermont, Governor Willard of New York, and Morton, -the foremost man of the Civil War period in the State, was a native -Indianian. - -Isaac Blackford (1786-1859), for thirty-five years a justice of the -Supreme Court in Indiana, was a native of New Jersey and an alumnus -of Princeton. He was one of the ablest judges the State has ever -known, and his opinions as they appear in the eight volumes of reports -which he published are models of lucid and direct writing. The law has -always been served in Indiana by able men; and it is a satisfaction to -contemplate the bench and bar of the earliest times, when the court -was itinerant. Under the first constitution the Circuit Court bench -consisted of a presiding judge, who sat in all the courts of a circuit, -and of two associate justices, elected in each county, who were usually -not lawyers. They were supposed to insure an element of common-sense -equity in the judiciary, and even had power to overrule the presiding -judge and give the opinion of the court. But the lawyers had little -respect for the associate justices, and if the presiding judge could -not attend a sitting of the court, they declined to submit important -cases, and sought diversion at the expense of the associate justices by -raising profound questions of abstract law. An attorney named Pitcher -once used the phrase _de minimis non curat lex_ before an associate -justice described by Robert Dale Owen as an illiterate farmer, short -of stature, lean of person, and acrid of temper. The learned counsel -had expected to translate for the benefit of the bench, but before he -could speak, the justice interrupted impatiently, “Come, Pitcher, none -of your Pottawattomie; give us plain English.” The lawyer did not pause -or look at the court, but continued talking to the jury. “The case,” -said he, “turns chiefly on that well-known legal axiom which I have -already had occasion to bring to your notice,--_de minimis non curat -lex_,--which, when reduced to the capacity of this honorable court, -means--observe, gentlemen, means that the law does not care for little, -trifling things, and,”--turning sharply around on the diminutive figure -of the justice,--“neither do I!” - -The first court houses were usually frame or log buildings of two -rooms, one for the grand jury and the other for the court. A pole -stretched across the room separated the members of the bar from the -populace. Spectators travelled hundreds of miles to attend court and -hear the lawyers “plead.” The young attorneys, called “squires,” -long clung to the queue as a kind of badge of their profession, and -were prone to disport themselves before the rustics in the court -yards of strange towns.[7] Good humor prevailed on the circuit; the -long horseback journeys brought health and appetite, and cheerful -landlords welcomed the bar at every county seat. Good horses, trained -to corduroy roads and swimming, were a necessary part of the lawyer’s -equipment; and a little quiet horse-trading between court-sittings was -not considered undignified. The itinerant courts contributed to the -political advantage of the attorneys, taking them constantly before the -people of a wide area. Political ambition was usual, and the lawyers -frequently cherished the hope of sitting in the State legislature, or -of reaching the bench, with a State office or the United States Senate -as their farthest goal. - -The even balance maintained between the two greater parties in Indiana -through many years gave a zest to all political contests. Whether -the Hoosiers have expressed wise preferences or not in the years in -which their vote has been of consequence in national struggles may be -questioned, but it is interesting to remember that Indiana and New York -gave their electoral vote for the same candidate for the presidency -at every election between 1872 and 1896, and that their vote in all -these years, except in 1876, was with the winning side. Political -independence has been fostered to good purpose; in recent years there -have been instances of praiseworthy courage in the protest against -party tyranny. In no other Western State has the idea of the merit -system been propagated so vigorously as in Indiana. Lucius B. Swift, -of Indianapolis, and William Dudley Foulke, of Richmond, were leaders -in the movement for civil service reform, and enlisted under them from -the beginning in a roll of honor were Oliver T. Morton, Louis Howland, -Charles S. and Allen Lewis, of Indianapolis, and Henry M. Williams, -of Fort Wayne. Indiana University and Franklin and Butler Colleges -also gave moral support. Mr. Swift began, in 1889, the _Chronicle_, a -small paper whose publication was not undertaken for profit. For seven -years, or until its object had been attained, he made it a merciless -assailant of civil service abuses, local and national. When the -historian of civil service reform comes to his task he will find that -the _Chronicle_ has in many ways simplified his labors. - -The successes of several Indiana authors were a great stimulus to -literary ambition in Indiana; and the literary clubs were an additional -encouragement. Poetry seems to the amateur much more easily achieved -than prose, and poets rose in every quarter of the State in the years -following the general recognition of James Whitcomb Riley and Maurice -Thompson. There was a time in Indiana when it was difficult to forecast -who would next turn poet, suggesting the Tractarian period in England, -of which Birrell writes that so prolific were the pamphleteers at the -high tide of the movement that a tract might at any time be served -upon one suddenly, like a sheriff’s process. At Indianapolis the end -seemed to have been reached when a retired banker, who had never been -suspected, began to inveigle friends into his office on the pretence -of business, but really to read them his own verses. Charles Dennis, -a local journalist, declared that there had appeared in the community -a peculiar crooking of the right elbow and a furtive sliding of the -hand into the left inside pocket, which was an unfailing preliminary -to the reading of a poem. Rhyming is, however, the least harmful of -amusements, and so fastidious a poet as Gray expressed his belief that -even a bad verse is better than the best observation ever made upon it. - - “But Time, who soonest drops the heaviest things - That weight his pack, will carry diamonds long;” - -and as the office of the discourager of genius is an ungrateful one, it -is doubtless well that many should implore the gods, in the faith that -an occasional prayer will be answered. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE RURAL TYPE AND THE DIALECT - - -The origin of the term “Hoosier” is not known with certainty. It has -been applied to the inhabitants of Indiana for many years, and, after -“Yankee,” it is probably the sobriquet most famous as applied to the -people of a particular division of the country. So early as 1830, -“Hoosier” must have had an accepted meaning, within the State at least, -for John Finley printed in that year, as a New Year’s address for the -Indianapolis _Journal_, a poem called “The Hoosier Nest,” in which the -word occurs several times. It is a fair assumption that its meaning -was not obscure, or it would not have been used in a poem intended -for popular reading. “Hoosier” seems to have found its first literary -employment in Finley’s poem. Sulgrove, who was an authority in matters -of local history, was disposed to concede this point.[8] The poem is -interesting for its glimpse of Indiana rural life of the early period. -Finley was a Virginian who removed to Indiana in 1823 and had been -living in the State seven years when he published his poem. He was an -accomplished and versatile gentleman, and his verses, as collected -in 1866, show superior talents. One of his poems, “Bachelor’s Hall,” -has often been attributed to Thomas Moore. The “Hoosier Nest” is the -home of a settler, which a traveller hailed at nightfall. Receiving a -summons to enter, the stranger walked in,-- - - “Where half a dozen Hoosieroons - With mush-and-milk, tin cups and spoons. - White heads, bare feet and dirty faces - Seemed much inclined to keep their places.” - -The stranger was invited to a meal of venison, milk, and johnny-cake, -and as he sat at the humble board he made an inventory of the cabin’s -contents:-- - - “One side was lined with divers garments, - The other spread with skins of varmints: - Dried pumpkins overhead were strung, - Where venison hams in plenty hung; - Two rifles placed above the door; - Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor,-- - In short, the domicile was rife - With specimens of Hoosier life.” - -“Hoosieroons” is never heard now, and was probably invented by Finley -for the sake of the rhyme. Both Governor Wright and O. H. Smith were of -the opinion that “Hoosier” was a corruption of “Who’s here” (_yere_ or -_hyer_) and Smith[9] has sought to dramatize its history:-- - - “The night was dark, the rain falling in torrents, when the inmates - of a small log cabin in the woods of early Indiana were aroused from - their slumbers by a low knocking at the only door of the cabin. The - man of the house, as he had been accustomed to do on like occasions, - rose from his bed and hallooed, ‘Who’s here?’ The outsiders answered, - ‘Friends, out bird-catching. Can we stay till morning?’ The door was - opened, and the strangers entered. A good log fire soon gave light - and warmth to the room. Stranger to the host: ‘What did you say when - I knocked?’ ‘I said, Who’s here?’ ‘I thought you said Hoosier.’ The - bird-catchers left after breakfast, but next night returned and - hallooed at the door, ‘Hoosier;’ and from that time the Indianians - have been called Hoosiers.” - -This is the explanation usually given to inquirers within the State. The -objection has sometimes been raised to this story, that the natural -reply to a salutation in the wilderness would be “Who’s there?” out -of which “Hoosier” could hardly be formed; but careful observers of -Western and Southern dialects declare that “Who’s hyer?” was, and in -obscure localities remains, the common answer to a midnight hail. - -Sulgrove related the incident of an Irishman, employed in excavating -the canal around the falls at Louisville, who declared after a fight in -which he had vanquished several fellow-laborers that he was “a husher,” -and this was offered as a possible origin of the word. The same writer -suggested another explanation, that a certain Colonel Lehmanowski, -a Polish officer who lectured through the West on Napoleon’s wars, -pronounced Hussar in a way that captivated some roystering fellow, -who applied the word to himself in self-glorification, pronouncing it -“Hoosier.” Lehmanowski’s identity has been established as a sojourner -in Indiana, and his son was a member of an Indiana regiment in the -Civil War. The Rev. Aaron Woods[10] is another contributor to the -literature of the subject, giving the Lehmanowski story with a few -variations. When the young men of the Indiana side of the Ohio crossed -over to Louisville, the Kentuckians made sport of them, calling them -“New Purchase greenies,” and declaring that they of the southern -side of the river were a superior race, composed of “half-alligator, -half-horse, and tipped off with snapping turtle!” Fighting grew out of -these boasts in the market-place and streets of Louisville. An Indiana -visitor who had heard Lehmanowski lecture on “The Wars of Europe” and -been captivated by the prowess of the Hussars, whipped one of the -Kentuckians, and bending over him cried, “I’m a Hoosier,” meaning, -“I’m a Hussar.” Mr. Woods adds that he was living in the State at the -time and that this was the true origin of the term. This is, however, -hardly conclusive. The whole Lehmanowski story seems to be based on -communication between Indiana and Kentucky workmen during the building -of the Ohio Falls Canal. The original canal was completed in 1830; and -as the Polish soldier was not in this region earlier than 1840, ten -years after the appearance of Finley’s poem, it is clear that those who -would reach the truth of the matter must go back of “The Hoosier Nest” -to find secure ground. No one has ever pretended that Finley originated -the word, and it is not at all likely that he did so; but his poem -gave it wide currency, and doubtless had much to do with fixing it -on the Indianians. Bartlett, in his “Dictionary of Americanisms,” -gives the novel solution of the problem that the men of superior -strength throughout the early West, the heroes of log-rollings and -house-raisings, were called “hushers” because of their ability to hush -or quiet their antagonists; and that “husher” was a common term for a -bully. The Ohio River boatmen carried the word to New Orleans, where -a foreigner among them, in attempting to apply the word to himself, -pronounced it “Hoosier.” Sulgrove may have had this meaning in mind in -citing his Irishman, though he is not explicit. Hoosier as a Christian -name has been known in the Ohio Valley; it was borne by a member of -the Indiana Methodist Conference in 1835. A Louisville baker named -Hoosier made a variety of sweet bread which was so much affected by -Indiana people that they were called “Hoosier’s customers,” “Hoosier’s -men,” and so on; but no date can be found for this. The Rev. T. A. -Goodwin, first heard the word at Cincinnati in 1830, where it described -a species of gingerbread, but without reference to Indiana. - -It is clear that the cultivated people of Indiana recognized the -nickname in the early half of the century. Wright and Smith, as -mentioned above, had sought to determine its genesis; and Tilghman -A. Howard, when a congressman from Indiana, writing home to a friend -in 1840, spoke casually of the “Hoosier State.”[11] The word occurs -familiarly in Hall’s “New Purchase” (1855), and it is found also -in Beste’s rare volume, “The Wabash; or, Adventures of an English -Gentleman’s Family in the Interior of America,” published at London -in the same year, and in Mrs. Beecher’s “From Dawn to Daylight” -(1859). And when, in 1867, Sandford C. Cox published a book of verses -containing the couplet,-- - - “If Sam is right, I would suggest - A native Hoosier as the best,”-- - -the word was widely known, and thereafter it frequently occurs in all -printed records touching the State. It is reported from Tennessee, -Virginia, and South Carolina by independent observers, who say that the -idea of a rough countryman is always associated with it. In Missouri it -is sometimes used thus abstractly, but a native Indianian is usually -meant, without reference to his manners or literacy. - -No reader of Hoosier chronicles can fail to be impressed by the -relation of the great forests to the people who came to possess and -tame them. Before they reached the Indiana wilderness in their advance -before civilization, the stalwart pioneers had swung their axes in -Pennsylvania or Kentucky, and had felt the influence of the great, -gloomy woodlands in their lives; but in Indiana this influence was -greatly intensified. They experienced an isolation that is not possible -to-day in any part of the country, and the loss of nearly every -civilizing agency that men value. These frontiersmen could hardly have -believed themselves the founders of a permanent society, for the exact -topography of much of their inheritance was unknown to them; large -areas were submerged for long periods, and the density of the woods -increased the difficulty of building roads and knitting the scattered -clearings and villages into a compact and sensitive commonwealth. Once -cleared, the land yielded a precarious living to the pioneers in return -for their labors and sacrifices; after the first dangers from beasts of -prey, the pestiferous small animals anticipated the harvest and ate the -corn. One ear in four acres remained after the gray squirrels had taken -their pleasure in a Johnson County field.[12] Sheep were out of the -question on account of the wolves; and always present and continuing -were the fevers that preyed on the worn husbandmen and sent many to -premature graves. The women, deprived of every comfort, contributed -their share of the labor, making homes of their cabins; dyeing the -wool, when they had it, with the ooze of the walnut, carding, -spinning, and weaving it, and finally cutting the cloth into garments; -or if linen were made, following the flax from the field through all -the processes of manufacture until it clothed the family. - -The pioneers could not see then, as their children see now, that -the wilderness was a factor in their destiny; that it drove them -in upon themselves, strengthening their independence in material -things by shutting them off from older communities, and that it even -fastened upon their tongues the peculiarities of speech which they had -brought with them into the wilderness. But their isolation compelled -meditation, and when reading matter penetrated the woodlands it was -usually worth the trouble of transportation in a day of few roads -and little travel. The pioneers knew their Bibles and named their -children for the Bible heroes, and most of their other books were -religious. There have been worse places in which to form habits of -thought, and to lay the foundation for a good manner of writing our -language, than the Hoosier cabin. Lying before the fireplace in his -father’s humble Spencer County home during the fourteen years that -the family spent in Indiana,--years that were of the utmost importance -in his life,--Abraham Lincoln studied his few books and caught the -elusive language-spirit that later on gave character and beauty to his -utterances. - -The social life of the first comers also drew its inspiration from -their environment, and was expressed in log-rolling, house-raising, -and other labors that could best be done by coöperation, and which -they concluded usually, in a fashion quite characteristic, with a -frolic. After the axe, the rifle was most important among their -belongings; for they trusted largely to the fortunes of the hunt for -food; and peltries became a valuable medium of exchange in their simple -economy. Expertness in the use of the rifle and friendly rivalry in -marksmanship among the settlers led to other social gatherings; and -even professional men took pride in the sport and participated in these -contests. The militia system in the early days was not an important -feature of Hoosier life. The Hoosier’s sense of humor has always been -keen, and where, as once occurred on muster day in the White Water -country, a part of the officer’s duty was to separate wearers of shoes -from those who appeared in moccasins, and bearers of cornstalks from -those who carried rifles, there was nothing of the pomp and pageantry -of war to captivate the imagination of the people. - -The Hoosier fiddle was a factor in all the festivities of the country -folk. The fiddler was frequently an eccentric genius, ranking with -the rural poet, who was often merely a maker of idle rhymes; however, -the country fiddler in Indiana has held his own against latter-day -criticism and the competition of the village brass band. Governor -Whitcomb enjoyed local fame as a violinist, and Berry Sulgrove and -General Lew Wallace, in their younger years, were skilful with the -bow. Dr. H. W. Taylor, a conscientious student of early Hoosier -customs, connects the Hoosier fiddler with the Scotch Highlanders, -and has expressed his belief[13] that the Highlander folk coming to -the United States naturally sought the mountain country of Virginia, -North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, and that the Scotch fiddle -and its traditions survive principally in these mountainous countries. -We are told that the fiddle of the Hoosiers is an exotic and cannot -long survive, though fifteen years after this prediction a contest of -Hoosier fiddlers was held in the largest hall at Indianapolis, and -many musicians of this old school appeared from the back districts to -compete for the prizes. The great aim of the old time fiddlers was to -make their instruments “talk.” Their tunes enjoyed such euphonious -names as “Old Dan Tucker,” “Old Zip Coon,” “Possum up a Gum Stump,” -“Irish Washerwoman,” “Waggoner,” “Ground Spy,” and “Jay Bird.” Dr. -Taylor discovered that the very Hoosier manner of bowing, _i.e._ -fiddling, was derived from the Scotch, and he gives this description -of it: “The arm, long, bony, and sinewy, was stretched forwards, -downwards, and outwards from the shoulder, and at full length. There -was absolutely no movement of the wrist, a very little at the elbow, -and just a degree more at the shoulder.” Hall ironically observed that -the country fiddler could, like Paganini, play one tune or parts of -nearly two dozen tunes on one string; and like the great _maestro_ -he played without notes, and with endless flourishes. He gives this -attractive portrait of one of the New Purchase fiddlers:-- - - “He held his fiddle against his breast--perhaps out of affection--and - his bow in the middle, and like a cart-whip; things enabling him, - however, the more effectually to flog his instrument when rebellious: - and the afflicted creature would scream right out in agony! Indeed, - his Scremonah bore marks of premature old age--its fingerboard - being indented with little pits, and its stomach was frightfully - incrusted with rosin and other gummy things, till it looked as dark - and careworn as Methuselah! Dan was, truly, no niggard of ‘rosum,’ - for he ‘greased’ as he termed it, between his tunes every time! and - then, at his first few vigorous jerks, fell a shower of dust on the - agitated bosom of his instrument, calling out in vain for mercy under - the cruel punishment.”[14] - -James Whitcomb Riley corroborates the impression of earlier writers in -a characteristic poem, “My Fiddle:”[15]-- - - “My playin’s only middlin’--tunes I picked up when a boy-- - The kind o’-sort o’ fiddlin’ that the folks calls ‘cordaroy’; - ‘The Old Fat Gal’ ‘Rye-Straw,’ and ‘My Sailyor’s on the Sea,’ - Is the old cowtillions _I_ ‘saw’ when the ch’ice is left to me; - And so I plunk and plonk and plink - And rosum-up my bow, - And play the tunes that make you think - The devil’s in your toe!” - -In several of the Southern Indiana counties the least admirable traits -of the ancestors of the “poor whites” who came in from the South have -been continued into a third and fourth generation; but these do not -appear prominently in any fair or comprehensive examination of the -people. Much has been written of the lawlessness of Indianians, and -lynching and white-capping have sporadically been reported from many -of the southern counties. An attorney-general of the State who had -brought all the machinery of the law to bear upon particular instances -of lynching during his term of office, and who had given much study to -the phenomena presented by these outbreaks, expressed his opinion that -the right of way of the Baltimore and Southwestern Railway marked the -“lynching belt” in Indiana. Statistics in confirmation are lacking, -but it is safe to say that a large percentage of the lynchings reported -in the State have occurred either in counties on the line of the road -or in those immediately adjoining. Lynchings have also occurred in -at least half a dozen counties north of Indianapolis, so that all -the crimes of this sort perpetrated in Indiana cannot be charged to -the descendants of the “poor whites” in the more Southern counties. -Lynching has not been viewed with apathy, and every instance of it has -been followed by vigorous efforts at punishment. In 1889 a drastic -law was added to the statutes, defining lynching and providing severe -penalties. It struck to the quick of the matter by making possible the -impeachment of law officers who yield prisoners to a mob. But under -any circumstances these people are so intensely clannish that even the -sincerest prosecution usually fails for lack of witnesses. The Hon. -W. A. Ketcham, State attorney-general, after heroic efforts to fix -responsibility for the lynching of five men in Ripley County on the -night of September 14, 1898, gravely stated in his official report -that he had applied the Sherlock Holmes principle to the incident; -that is to say, after excluding every other possible hypothesis he had -assumed the correctness of the one remaining, and this he stated in his -syllabus of the case to be: “That A broke jail and travelled across -the country to the town where the revolver had been pawned, a distance -of seven miles, broke into the store, stole the revolver, returned -again, broke back into jail, shot himself, then killed B and C and hung -their dead bodies to a tree, put the finishing touches to his crime by -hanging D and E, and then in order that suspicion might be directed -against innocent men, finally hanged himself.”[16] The milder form of -outlawry, known as “white-capping,” has also been practised in Indiana -occasionally, and sometimes with barbarous cruelty; but it, like -lynching, is not peculiar to the State, and its extent has been greatly -exaggerated by Eastern newspapers. - -It has been insisted by loyal Indianians that the speech of the later -generations of natives is almost normal English; that the rough -vernacular of their ancestors has been ground down in the schools, -and that the dictionaries are rapidly sanctioning new words, once -without authority, that inevitably crept into common speech through -the necessities of pioneer expression. It may fairly be questioned -whether, properly speaking, there ever existed a Hoosier dialect. -The really indigenous Indiana words and novel pronunciations are so -few as to make but a poor showing when collected; and while the word -“dialect” is employed as a term of convenience in this connection, it -can only be applied to a careless manner of speaking, in which novel -words are merely incidental. A book of colloquial terms, like Green’s -“Virginia Word Book,” could hardly be compiled for Indiana without -infringing upon the prior claims of other and older States to the -greater part of it. The so-called Hoosier dialect, where it survives -at all, is the speech of the first American settlers in Indiana, -greatly modified by time and schooling, but retaining, both in the -employment of colloquial terms and in pronunciation, the peculiarities -that were carried westward from tide water early in the nineteenth -century. The distinctive Indiana countryman, the real Hoosier, who -has been little in contact with the people of cities, speaks a good -deal as his Pennsylvania or North Carolina or Kentucky grandfather or -great-grandfather did before him, and has created nothing new. His -speech contains comparatively few words that are peculiar to the State -or to communities within it; but in the main it shares such deviations -from normal or literary English with the whole Southwest. - -In his book “The Wabash” Beste describes his interview with an -Indiana carpenter, who questioned whether the traveller was really an -Englishman, because his speech was unlike that of the usual English -immigrants whose trouble with the aspirate had evoked derisive comment -among the Americans. This occurs in his chapter on Indianapolis, in -which the carpenter is quoted thus: - - “‘You do not say ‘ouse’ and ‘and’ for ‘house’ and ‘hand’; all the - children, and all of you, pronounce all these words like Americans, - and not as real English pronounce them. Their way of speaking - makes us always say that we talk better English than the English - themselves.’ I had, indeed, often heard the Americans laughed at - for saying so; but now the matter was explained. My carpenter - repeated with great accuracy various instances of provincialisms - and vulgarisms which he and all of them had noticed more or less, - in all the English emigrants who had come amongst them. Seeing none - of any other class, they naturally supposed that all English people - pronounced the language in the same manner, and so prided themselves - upon the superiority of American English. For notwithstanding the - disagreeable nasal tone and drawling whine in which most of them - speak, and notwithstanding a few national phrases and the peculiar - use and pronunciation of certain words, it must be admitted that the - American people, in general, speak English without provincial dialect - or vulgarisms. Whence, in fact, could they acquire such, since all - the emigrants they see came from different parts of England, and the - provincialisms of the one neutralize those of the other.” - -Professor Whitney, in his “Language and the Study of Language,” -expresses in academic terms much the same idea.[17] - -Lapses in pronunciation have never been punishable with death on the -Wabash, as at the fords of the Jordan, where the shibboleth test of -the Gileadites cost the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. The native -Indianian is not sensitive about his speech and refuses to be humble -before critics from the far East who say “idea-r” and “Philadelphia-r.” -James Whitcomb Riley has made the interesting and just observation -that the average countryman knows in reality a wider range of diction -than he permits himself to use, and that his abridgments and variations -are attributable to a fear lest he may offend his neighbors by using -the best language at his command.[18] This is wholly true, and it -is responsible in a measure for contributions to the common speech -of local idioms and phrases. In rural Indiana and generally in the -Southwest the phrase “’s th’ fellah says” is often used by a rustic -to indicate his own appreciation of the fact that he has employed an -unusual expression. Or it may be an actual quotation, as, for example, -“Come over fer a visit, an’ we’ll treat you ’n a hostile manner, ’s -Uncle Amos use t’ say.” This substitution of hostile for hospitable -once enjoyed wide currency in Indiana and Illinois. Sulgrove confirms -Riley’s impression:-- - - “Correct pronunciation was positively regarded by the Southern - immigration as a mark of aristocracy or, as they called it, - ‘quality.’ The ‘ing’ in ‘evening,’ or ‘morning’ or any other words, - was softened into ‘in,’ the full sound being held finical and - ‘stuck up.’ So it was no unusual thing to hear such a comical string - of emasculated ‘nasals’ as the question of a prominent Indiana - lawyer of the Kentucky persuasion, ‘Where were you a-standin’ at - the time of your perceivin’ of the hearin’ of the firin’ of the - pistol?’... To ‘set’ was the right way to sit; an Indian did not - scalp, he ‘skelped’: a child did not long for a thing, he ‘honed’ for - it,--slang retains this Hoosier archaism; a woman was not dull, she - was ‘daunsy’; commonly a gun was ‘shot’ instead of fired in all moods - and tenses.”[19] - -While the French settlements in Indiana made no appreciable impression -on the common speech, yet it has been assumed by some observers that -the inclination at the South to throw the accent of words forward, as -in gentle_men_, settle_ment_, was fairly attributable to the influence -of the French Catholics in Louisiana and of the Huguenots who were -scattered through the Southeastern colonies, though this would seem a -trifle finespun; but the idiosyncrasy noted exists at the South, no -matter what its real origin may have been, and it has been communicated -in some measure through Southern influences to the middle Western -people. However, Southern Indianians sometimes say _Tennes_-sy, -accenting the first syllable and slurring the last, illustrating again -the danger of accepting any theories or fixing any rules for general -guidance in such matters. Dr. Eggleston remembers only one French word -that survived from old French times in the Wabash country,--“cordelle, -to tow a boat by a rope carried along the shore.” The most striking -influence in the Indiana dialect is that of the Scotch-Irish, who -have left marked peculiarities of speech behind them wherever they -have gone. Notwithstanding the fact that both the English Quakers and -the Germans contributed largely to the settlement of Pennsylvania -and of the Southeastern colonies, the idiosyncrasies of speech most -perceptible in the regions deriving their population from those sources -are plainly Scotch-Irish; as, for example, the linguistic deficiency -which makes _strenth_ and _lenth_ of _strength_ and _length_, or -_bunnle_ of _bundle_, and the use of _nor_ for _than_, after a -comparative adjective. The use of _into_ for _in_ and _whenever_ for -_as soon as_ are other Scotch-Irish peculiarities. These, however, are -heard only in diminishing degree in Indiana, and many of the younger -generations of Hoosiers have never known them. The confusion of -_shall_ and _will_ and of _like_ and _as_ is traceable to North-Irish -influences, and is not peculiar to the spoken language at the South and -West, but is observed frequently in the newspapers, and is found even -in books. - -The anonymous writer of “Pioneer Annals” (1875), a rare pamphlet that -contains much invaluable matter relating to the occupation of the White -Water Valley, speaks of the prevalence of Carolina Quakers among the -first settlers of that region, and remarks that when newcomers were -asked where they came from, the answer would be “Guilford County, near -Clemmens’s Store”; or “Beard’s Hatter-shop”; “Dobson’s Cross Roads”; -or “Deep-River Settlement of Friends.” The same writer gives a dialect -note which illustrates the ephemeral character of idiom. _Sleys_ -(slays) was a term applied by the Carolinians to the reeds used by them -in their home-made looms. A Carolina emigrant bound for Indiana stopped -at Cincinnati and offered to sell a supply of these. It was in August, -and the storekeeper knew but one word having the same sound, sleighs, -which were not used in Cincinnati in midsummer. His ironical comment -almost led to a personal encounter before the Carolinian could explain. -John V. Hadley states in his “Seven Months a Prisoner” that “Guilford -County” and “Jamestown” (North Carolina) were household words in many -families of Hendricks County (Indiana), where he lived. At Jamestown, -on his way to Libby Prison, he was accosted by a citizen who asked -whether a former neighbor who had moved to Indiana, but still owned -property in North Carolina, had not enlisted in the Union army, the -purpose of the inquiry being to obtain testimony on which to confiscate -his estate. - -The circulation of newly coined words has been so rapid in late years, -owing to the increase of communication between different parts of -the country, and to dissemination by the newspapers, that few useful -words originating obscurely are likely to remain local. Lowell amused -himself by tracing to unassailable English sources terms that were -assumed to be essentially American; and if Chaucer and the Elizabethans -may be invoked against our rural communities, the word-hunter’s -sport has grown much simpler when he may cite a usage in one State to -disestablish the priority claimed for it in another. There is risk -in all efforts to connect novel words with particular communities, -no matter how carefully it may be done, and it is becoming more and -more difficult to separate real dialect from slang. Lists of unusual -words that have been reported to the American Dialect Society afford -interesting instances of the danger of accepting terms as local which -are really in general use. The word _rambunctious_, reported from New -York State as expressing impudence and forwardness, cannot be peculiar -to that region,[20] for it is used in Indiana in identically the same -sense. Other words, collected through the same agency and common in -Indiana, are: _scads_, reported from Missouri, signifying a great -quantity; and _sight_, meaning a large amount, noted in New England and -New York. _Great hand for_, meaning a _penchant_, traced from Maine to -Ohio, may be followed also into Indiana, but this, like _druthers_, -for a preference or choice, belongs to the towns rather than to -the country. _Go like_, in the sense of imitation, as “_go like_ a -rooster,” is reported from both Maine and Indiana; and _foot-loose_, -meaning free and untrammelled, observed in Georgia, is used in the -towns, at least, of Indiana. The natural disposition of Americans -to exaggerate led to the creation by the Southeastern element in -Indiana population of _bodaciously_,[21] a corruption of audaciously; -and to the employment of _powerful_, indiscriminately with _big_ or -_little_, as a particularly emphatic superlative. Curiously enough -_powerful_, which is usually identified with the earlier generations -of the Southwest, is reported also from Eastern Massachusetts.[22] -_Sarcumstansis_ for _circumstances_, _b’ar_ for _bear_, and _thar_ for -_there_ reached Indiana through Kentucky, and are now rarely heard. Dr. -Eggleston employs the broad _a_ in “The Graysons,” where one character -says _bar_ while another pronounces the word correctly, explaining that -words are not always pronounced the same in a dialect--an observation -that has also been made by Mr. Riley. - -Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, whose unamiable novel, “From Dawn to -Daylight,” is a dreary picture of Indiana life, gives a few interesting -usages; as _a right smart chance of money_, _heap of plunder_, _sight -stronger_, _proper hard_, showing that her acquaintance was principally -with the Southern element, which she had known at Lawrenceburg and -Indianapolis. _Plunder_, as a synonym for baggage, seems to be largely -Southern and Western, and was probably derived from the Pennsylvania -Germans. The insolent intrusiveness of dialect is illustrated by the -appearance of the word in its colloquial sense in the first chapter of -General Wallace’s “Prince of India.” Dr. Eggleston in “The Graysons” -gives _weth_ for _with_, _air_ for _are_, _thes_ for _just_, _sher’f_ -for _sheriff_, and _yer’s_ for _here is_. Indianians usually pronounce -the name of their State correctly, though the final vowel sometimes -becomes _y_. Benjamin S. Parker remembers that in the early days -pioneers sometimes said _Injuns_, _Injiana_, and _immejut_; but these -usages are obsolete in the State.[23] Mr. Riley frequently uses -_miled_ (mile), and yet the word is somewhat similarly spoken on -Nantucket, _maild_. _Ornery_, a vulgar form of ordinary, seems to be -generally used, and has been observed in the Middle States as well -as in Indiana and Kentucky. The injunction _mind out_, which is used -in Kentucky in such admonitions as “_mind out_ what you are doing,” -becomes _watch out_ in Indiana. _Wrench_ for _rinse_, used in the -States contiguous to the Ohio, is _rense_ in New England. _Critter_ -for _horse_ is still heard in parts of rural Indiana, which derived -population through Kentucky, where the same usage is noted. _Fruit_, as -applied to stewed apples (apple sauce) only, is a curious limitation -of the noun, heard among old-fashioned people of Southern origin in -Indiana. _Some place_ for _somewhere_ is not chargeable to Indiana -alone, but this and the phrases _want on_ and _want off_ seem to be -used chiefly in the West Central States, and they belong to the -borderland between slang and dialect. It would seem a far cry from -the Hoosier speech to the classic Greek, and yet Dr. H. W. Taylor has -pursued this line of philological inquiry with astonishing results, -tracing an analogy of sound and sense most ingeniously between Greek -terms and words found in the American dialects.[24] - -In the speech of the illiterate, there is usually something of rhythm -and cadence. All slang shares a feeling for the balance and nice -adjustment of words, and slang phrases are rarely clumsy. The cry of a -boy calling his mate has its peculiar crescendo, and pedlers the world -over run the scale of human expression in pursuit of odd effects. The -drawl of the Southerner and Southwesterner is not unmusical, though -it may try the patience of the stranger. Even cultivated Indianians, -particularly those of Southern antecedents, have the habit of clinging -to their words; they do not bite them off sharply. _G_ performs its -office as final consonant in _ing_ under many disadvantages; and it -was long ignored, though the school-teachers have struggled nobly to -restore it. The blending of words, which begins with childhood, is -often carried into maturity by the Indianian; thus by a lazy elision -“did you ever” is combined in _jever_, and “where did you get” -becomes _wherjuget_. _Ju_ is, in fact, usual in the Ohio Valley. The -history of the Italian _a_ in this country is in itself interesting. -In New England and in Virginia it finds recognition, whereas in the -intermediate region the narrower sound of the vowel prevails; and -likewise the softening of _r_ is noted in New England and among the -Virginians and other Southerners, while in the intermediate territory -and at the West _r_ receives its full sound. The shrill nasal tone -is still marked in the back country folk of New England, while -the Southern and Southwestern farmer’s speech is fuller and more -open-mouthed. Whether climatic influences have been potent in such -matters remains a matter of speculation, but such theories are to be -received with caution. - -It is unfortunate that there are so few trustworthy records of the -early Southwestern speech, and that first and last bad grammar, -reckless spelling, and the indiscriminate distribution of the printer’s -apostrophe by writers who had no real knowledge to guide them, have -served to create an erroneous impression of the illiteracy of the -Indianians and their neighbors. It is likely that during the next -quarter of a century the continued fusion of the various elements of -Western population will create a dead level of speech, approximating -accuracy, so that in a typical American State like Indiana local usages -will disappear, and the only oddities discernible will be those of the -well-nigh universal slang, which even now reach Colorado and California -almost as soon as they are known at the Atlantic seaboard. At the South -and in New England, where there is less mingling of elements, the old -usages will probably endure much longer; and it is a fair assumption -that in the Mississippi Valley and in the Trans-Missouri country, a -normal American speech free of local idiosyncrasies will appear first. -Our keen sense of humor and our love of the conveniences of speech are -likely to continue to be national traits, leading to the creation and -adoption of slang from time to time; but where a people imply quotation -marks in all their lapses from propriety, they anticipate and destroy -criticism. - -After all, there is nothing reprehensible in dialect, as we loosely -use the word, or even in slang. Flexibility is necessary to the living -language; and the word-hunter who really delights in his avocation, and -is not limited in his researches to the remoter fields of classical -philology, hearing in his daily walks and in the tranquil talk at -peaceful inns the pungent or pictorial word that no lexicographer has -yet detected, knows a joy that is greater than that of fly fishing or -butterfly hunting. “No language,” writes Lowell, “after it has faded -into diction, none that cannot suck up the feeding juices secreted for -it in the rich mother-earth of common folk, can bring forth a sound -and lusty book. True vigor and heartiness of phrase do not pass from -page to page, but from man to man, where the brain is kindled and the -lips suppled by downright living interests, and by passion in its very -throe.” He continues: “Language is the soil of thought, and our own -especially is a rich leaf-mould, the slow deposit of ages, the shed -foliage of feeling, fancy, and imagination, which has suffered an earth -change, that the vocal forest, as Howell called it, may clothe itself -anew with living green.” And this suggests Horace’s words, in “Ars -Poetica”:-- - - “Ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos, - Prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas, - Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata vigentque.” - -As the leaves have fallen through a century in the Wabash country, -they have buried words that will never reappear; and the change will -continue, old words vanishing and new ones taking their places, so long -as tradition and heredity yield to the schoolmaster, that ruthless -forester who grafts and trims to make all trees uniform. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -BRINGERS OF THE LIGHT - - -In his address to the annual council of the Protestant Episcopal -diocese of Indiana in 1863, Bishop Upfold spoke with much vigor against -the use of flowers in the decoration of churches, and said:-- - - “There is no sound principle, no true doctrine involved in the - practice. It is all poetry, and the very romance of poetry, the - conception of romantic and imaginative minds, dictated less by - religious sentiment than by a fondness for show and gaudy display. - Instead of the decoration concentrating the attention devoutly on - the great and glorious fact which flowers are erroneously supposed - to symbolize, it is far more likely to divert it, and impair the - true spiritual emotions and impressions, which the commemorative - services of the day (Easter) are destined to awaken and deepen.... - The practice will not be allowed in this diocese; and I now declare - and desire it may be distinctly understood and remembered,--and I may - as well say it, because I mean to do it--that I will not visit or - officiate in any parish, to administer confirmation, or perform any - other office on Easter Sunday, or on any other occasion, where this - floral display is attempted.” - -Bishop Upfold greatly modified his views before his death, in 1872; but -this declaration is expressive of the general religious attitude of -the earlier Indianians; it was Protestant, intensely Protestant. The -religious phenomena observable in the State are not complex and are -readily explained. The early French were, of course, Roman Catholics, -and their first priests were of the heroic type that had its highest -expression in Marquette and Joliet, and hardly less notably in Father -Sorin of the Order of the Holy Cross, who founded, in Northern Indiana, -Notre Dame University, and lived to see it one of the great Catholic -schools of the continent. But the prevalent religious ideas of the -Hoosiers were not inherited from the early French settlers. North -Carolina contributed members of the Society of Friends to the new -territory, and Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania sent Methodists, -Presbyterians, and Baptists, members of the sect established by -Alexander Campbell, and German Lutherans. Episcopalians were few among -the first Indiana colonists. The diocese of Indiana was created in -1838, and many earnest men have given their labor to its service -first and last; but the slow progress of the Episcopal Church in the -commonwealth has been due to conditions antedating the settlement of -the Ohio Valley, running back, indeed, to the efforts of James I. to -establish Scotch and English colonies in Ireland, the most turbulent -part of his kingdom, and thus forming the base for a migration to -America that was to color the life and thought of a vast area of new -soil. As so large a proportion of the pioneers had rejected apostolic -succession in the Old World, they saw no reason for accepting it in -the Western wilderness. The rugged apostles of Methodism, and the less -rugged but equally diligent and earnest preachers of Presbyterianism, -were leaders in the strenuous religious labors of the early years of -the century. The advance guard of these two religious bodies did not -always dwell together in unity; in educational work, for example, -envy, hatred, and malice were sometimes awakened. The Rev. F. C. -Holliday, writing in 1872,[25] complained of the self-complacency with -which the leading Presbyterians at the West had assumed authority -in educational matters, and “the quiet unscrupulousness with which -they seized upon the trust funds of the States for school purposes, -and made these schools as strictly denominational as though the funds -had been exclusively contributed by members of their own communion.” -It is true that Presbyterians controlled the State University in its -early years, but this was due to their zeal in education and to the -exceptional fitness of many Presbyterian clergymen for teaching. -Princeton extended a friendly hand to the Presbyterians who were -struggling in the new State, and sent, among others, the Rev. George -Bush (1796-1859), who reached Indianapolis in 1824, and two years later -shocked his congregation in the malarious village by denying that there -was any authority of Scripture for the Presbyterian form of church -government.[26] His views became increasingly radical and in 1829 he -left Indiana, accepted the chair of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in -the University of the City of New York, and became a Swedenborgian. He -was a life-long student and a writer of recognized ability. - -The Baptists organized the first Protestant church in Indiana in -1798. The Methodists formed a society in 1803, and in 1805 Peter -Cartwright, one of the great pioneer Methodist evangelists, was at -work in the State. The oldest Presbyterian society was formed in -1806, near Vincennes, then the capital, and William Henry Harrison, -the governor, who had married a Presbyterian wife, was numbered among -its parishioners.[27] The very nature of the pioneer life compelled -the simplest of religious as well as of social observances. The -meeting-houses were of logs, and the ministers were often tillers of -the soil. One of the early Presbyterian clergymen aided the support -of his family by farming, writing the deeds, wills, and other formal -papers of his neighbors, by teaching singing, and by making shoes, and -from all these sources of labor, including his pay as minister, he -averaged only $80 a year for a period of sixteen years. Father (the -Rev. James) Havens, one of the famous apostles of Methodism, who, -in 1824, rode what was known as the Connersville circuit, embracing -several county seats, received $56.06-1/2 for his year’s services. -This does not indicate indifference among the scattered flock, but a -lack of actual money. Instances are reported of men splitting rails or -working in the harvest field at fifty cents a day in order to aid their -ministers. Meetings were held in wayside cabins, in which the near -neighbors gathered, and after the service the housewife prepared a meal -for the clerical guest, and for those of the little congregation who -remained. The ministers of the day were not always profound scholars, -but they were light-bearers, who went ahead of the schoolmasters, -communicating to scores of the youth of the new land an interest in -the world of men and books. It has been said that three-fourths of the -early students of Asbury (DePauw) University came from homes that were -visited by the itinerant Methodist preachers.[28] - -Ministers were required to be extemporaneous speakers, and they -often indulged in joint debates that aroused the greatest interest. -These contests were markedly frequent during the period in which the -“Campbellite” movement gathered force and began to attract members of -the older religious societies. Lay discussion was common, and the free -interpretation of the Bible urged by the Campbellites encouraged it. -“Revivals” and camp-meetings were conducted frequently, and were often -attended with great excitement. During the first quarter of the century -religious enthusiasm manifested itself with an excess and abandon that -were unknown in politics. “Father” was often prefixed to the names -of the venerable pioneer ministers as a mark of affection, and in -recognition of long service. This was not unusual among the Methodists, -and even the Presbyterians occasionally bestowed the term on some of -their old and worn missionaries of the early days. Many of these men -lived until late in the century, and saw the theology of their young -manhood altered or superseded, and amid new men and new manners became -almost strangers in the land they had first known as a wilderness. - -Great care had been taken to assure to the Northwest religious -liberty and free schools. The ordinance of 1787 touched directly on -the questions of religion and education in the Northwest Territory. -“No person,” it declared, “demeaning himself in a peaceable, orderly -manner shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or -religious sentiments in the said territory;” and “religion, morality -and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness -of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever -encouraged.” The ordinance has clearly been one of the great guiding -influences of the nation. It prepared the way in the Ohio Valley -for the attitude of the people toward slavery; and its assurance of -religious freedom and friendliness to learning brought to the new -territory the benefit of the experience of those who had striven for -such liberties and advantages in the seaboard colonies. The history -of civilization in Indiana may be said to date from its passage. -When, in 1804, Congress provided for the disposal of public lands in -the districts of Detroit, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, the act carried -with it a reservation of the sixteenth section in each township for -the support of schools, and also an entire township in each land -district for the use of a seminary of learning; and later, the act of -1816 that raised Indiana Territory to statehood, provided “that one -entire township, which shall be designated by the President of the -United States, in addition to the one heretofore reserved for that -purpose, shall be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning, -to be appropriated solely to the use of such seminary.” Under the -first law Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, selected a -township in Gibson County; and, following further the direction -of Congress, Governor Harrison approved, in 1806, an act of the -territorial legislature, incorporating Vincennes University, which -was not, however, fully open until 1810. The territorial legislators -believed that it would serve a good purpose to admit Indian youth -to the privileges of the school, and the law enjoined the trustees -“to use their utmost endeavors to induce the said aborigines to send -their children to the University for education, who, when sent, -shall be maintained, clothed, and educated at the expense of said -institution.”[29] Only one Indian ever availed himself of this offer. -In 1822 a law was enacted calling for the sale of the Gibson County -lands and the use of the proceeds for the State seminary already -planned at Bloomington. Thus the State boldly confiscated the fief of -one institution and turned it over to another--an act that led to long -litigation; and though Vincennes University was partially successful in -the courts, its revenue was curtailed and permanent injury resulted. It -continues, however, in spite of reverses a lively member of the company -of Indiana schools of the preparatory type. - -Under the act of 1816 President Monroe designated Perry Township, -in the county which was named for him when, in 1818, Orange County -was divided.[30] The selection of the “seminary township” became of -great importance, for it determined not merely the location of the -contemplated seminary, but of the State University, into which it -grew. Efforts have been made repeatedly to remove the institution -from Bloomington, the town that rose about it; but they have been -unavailing. The site chosen by President Monroe, as it was impossible -for him to foresee, was not to remain the most fortunate in point -of convenience and accessibility; but Monroe County has clung -tenaciously to the honor conferred upon her, and seems destined to -carry her dignity through the twentieth century. The first principal -of the seminary was Baynard Rush Hall (1798-1865), the son of a -Philadelphia physician. He was a graduate of Union College and of -Princeton Theological Seminary. He was not only an early and valuable -teacher, but a pioneer author. One of his books “The New Purchase; -or Seven and a Half Years in the Far West” contains a vast amount of -information touching pioneer customs; and while it is not always wholly -good-natured, it is written in the main with spirit and humor.[31] -He declared his belief that he was “the very first man since the -creation of the world that read Greek in the New Purchase”; which -is extravagant, as many of the earlier Protestant ministers were -doubtless learned in the languages, even if the distinction of which -he boasted did not belong to some Roman Catholic missionary. Ten boys -and young men were all that were admitted to the new seminary when it -opened, May 1, 1824. The standards of admission seemed wholly novel -and unnecessary. “Daddy says he doesn’t see no sort a use in the high -larn’d things, and he wants me to larn Inglish only, and book-keepin’, -and surveyin’, so as to ’tend store and run a line,” was the tone of -protest heard from many applicants, as reported by Hall in the “New -Purchase.” Local politicians, viewing the new school as something -exclusive and aristocratic, declared that “it was a right smart chance -better to have no college nohow, if all folks hadn’t equal right to -larn what they most liked best.” Hall was the sole teacher employed -for the first three years, and during this period the only branches -taught were Greek and Latin.[32] While he thus filled all the offices -of the seminary in the woods, he organized his handful of students -into a literary society, which he called the _Henodelphisterian_, -and for which he made the rule that members should drop their proper -appellations while in the academic shades and assume Greek or Latin -names. “Thus,” says Judge Banta, in his reminiscences, “every member -of the society was an Ajax, a Pericles, a Timoleon.” Hall’s salary -at this time was two hundred and fifty dollars a year, and there is -ground for the suspicion that he compensated himself for deficiencies -of income by the free indulgence of his sense of humor. As the young -gentlemen of the _Henodelphisterian_ were occupied out of school -hours in wood-chopping and swine-herding, the joke was rather broad. -Additional instruction was demanded in the third year, and a teacher -of mathematics was employed. The seminary became the State University -in 1838, and among the first trustees were David Wallace, Governor -William Hendricks, Jesse L. Holman, Robert Dale Owen, and Richard W. -Thompson, all of whom were otherwise factors in the early history of -the State, and in several cases members of families distinguished in -subsequent generations. The University’s influence in the State has -been inestimable. It has usually been fortunate in its administrators, -and it has more and more grown to be the centre of agencies related -to the better life and advancement of the commonwealth. After leaving -Indiana, in 1831, Hall taught academies at Bordentown and Trenton, New -Jersey, at Poughkeepsie and Newburgh, New York, and in 1852 he became -principal of Park Institute, Brooklyn. He received the degree of A.M. -from Princeton and of D.D. from Rutgers College. - -So early as 1793 W. Rivet, a French missionary, “a polite, -well-educated, and liberal-minded enthusiast, banished to this country -by the French Revolution,” had conducted a school successfully at -Vincennes. A system of county seminaries was introduced early in the -nineteenth century, and such schools were organized in about half of -the counties; and between 1825 and 1850 seventy-three private and -incorporated schools were opened, traces of which remain. These were -known sometimes by the name of the founder, or were identified with -the name of the town in which they were situated. The democratic idea -that secondary and higher education could not properly be provided -by the State found early and wide acceptance. It was believed that -the obligation of higher education should be undertaken by private -enterprise and by religious organizations; and out of this spirit -came a group of seminaries, similar to those of the counties, and -representing the several churches that had established outposts on the -frontier. Many of these grew into colleges. Hanover and Wabash colleges -thus began under Presbyterian auspices, DePauw (Asbury) University -under the Methodists, and Franklin College under the Baptists; and -while their beginnings were not strictly in the seminary, Notre Dame, -a Catholic university, and Earlham College, an institution of high -character allied to the Society of Friends, were of like origin. -Late in the period during which the seminaries flourished there rose -a number of schools for women, of the academic grade, and all of them -private or denominational. - -Institutions for higher education often precede schools for primary and -intermediate training; and in Indiana care had been taken to provide -seminaries and colleges before the important matter of establishing -a common school system had received intelligent attention. David -Starr Jordan, long identified with education in Indiana, has remarked -that “the growth in educational systems is from above downwards. -In historical sequence Oxford must precede Rugby, and the German -University must come before the gymnasium.” Nearly half a century -after the organization of the first territorial government, no system -of common schools had been perfected in Indiana. Efforts had been -made and the subject had not been wholly overlooked by the lawmakers, -but a prejudice existed in the minds of many against free schools as -undemocratic. The principle that enlightenment must be a condition -precedent to the intelligent exercise of citizenship was not grasped -by the populace; and as a result of inattention the Hoosier, as -Eggleston’s schoolmaster found him, was appearing on the scene. -And yet, in 1837, while this type was increasing, a member of the -legislature declared, during the discussion of a proposed school tax, -that “When I die I want my epitaph written, ‘Here lies an enemy to free -schools.’”[33] - -But while many enemies of common school education were blocking the -way, an unheralded champion was to appear, whose identity was not -generally known for several years after he took the field, and whose -services entitle him to first place among all who have striven for the -advancement of learning in Indiana. This was Caleb Mills, a native -of New Hampshire (1806) and a graduate of Dartmouth (1828) and of -Andover Theological Seminary (1833). In 1831 he had made a tour of -the Southwest in the interest of Sunday-schools, and the social and -intellectual conditions that he found had deeply impressed him. It -was a kind providence that led him back to Indiana in 1833, and that -gave to his adopted State the benefit of his sympathy, intelligence, -and spirit to the end of his life. Among his classmates at Dartmouth -were Milo Parker Jewett, who helped to mould the common school system -of Ohio, and later became the first president of Vassar College, and -Edmund O. Hovey, associated with Mills as a founder of Wabash College, -and long a member of its faculty. Others of his Indiana contemporaries -may have appreciated the gravity of the situation as fully as he, but -it was left for Mills to sound the alarm and lead the charge. In the -first year after he entered the State it was averred by a reputable -witness that “only about one child in eight between five and fifteen -years is able to read.” Dr. Joseph F. Tuttle, the honored president of -Wabash College for nearly a third of a century, described the condition -of affairs in these words:-- - - “In 1840 there were 273,784 children in the State of school age, of - whom only 48,180 attended the common schools. One-seventh of the - adult population could not read, and a large proportion of those - who could read did so imperfectly. In spite of the constitutional - provision of the State and the famous ‘sixteenth section,’ the common - schools of Indiana were in bad condition. As late as 1846 the State - rated lowest among the free States as to its popular intelligence and - means of popular education. Even the capital of the State did not - have a free school until 1853, and then one was kept open only two - months.”[34] - -The census of 1840 showed the illiteracy of Indiana to be 14.32 per -cent. The return made by Illinois at this time was but little better, -while Ohio, on the eastern boundary, showed only 5.54 per cent of -illiterates. Omitting Illinois and Indiana, the illiteracy of the -Northern States was only one in forty; in Illinois and Indiana it was -one in seven. In twenty-two counties of Indiana the average illiteracy -was more than 26.5 per cent. Montgomery County, the home of Wabash -College, returned at this time one-fifth of her adult population as -illiterate, and Putnam County, the seat of Asbury College, returned -one-sixth of her adult population as belonging to the same class.[35] - -With a knowledge of these facts Mills made and published, in the -winter of 1846, “An Address to the Legislature of Indiana,” and -signed it “One of the People.” The motto of this, as of his five -succeeding addresses, was, “Read, discuss, and circulate.” These were -all written in a tone well calculated to interest and arouse. He -handled his statistics skilfully, and made clear the alarming progress -of illiteracy in the State. He was as ready with suggestions as with -criticisms, and his several papers show him to have been thoroughly -informed as to the educational conditions existing in every part of -the country. He possessed great patience, and the series of pamphlets -was marked throughout by good temper. He wrote in a deliberate manner, -rarely showing haste or anxiety, as if confident of the impression that -would be created by fair and judicial statement, and with faith in the -ultimate triumph of his cause. - -In the year following the publication of his first address, a call was -issued for a general meeting of educators to be held at Indianapolis. -Among those interested in the movement were Ovid Butler, afterward the -generous benefactor of Butler College, Henry Ward Beecher, pastor -of the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and John Coburn. -A series of common school conventions followed, and was of great -value in unifying sentiment. In the roll of those who were prominent -in the first meeting appeared the names of Isaac Blackford, Oliver -H. Smith, Calvin Fletcher, Jeremiah Sullivan, Richard W. Thompson, -Solomon Meredith, and James Blake, who were of the saving remnant of -their time. As a result of the agitation by Mills, the conventions of -educators, and the ceaseless activity of many friends of education, -the legislature of 1847-1848 authorized the people to express their -sentiments for or against a tax for the support of free schools, at -the election to be held in the fall of 1848. This was a presidential -year, and the Mexican War issues were discussed bitterly in Indiana -and in the border States, where slavery lifted its head ominously; but -the advocates of free schools forced their issue and evoked from the -enemy a variety of objections which strike the sense curiously in these -later years. Should the industrious be taxed to support the indolent? -Should the people be made benevolent by law? There was priestcraft -in the scheme; free schools were merely a bait; the real object was -the union of Church and State. Free schools would make education too -common, said some; but the fiercest antagonism came from the class -for whom the friends of free schools were laboring--the wretchedly -poor and ignorant.[36] The vote on the school question was 13,000 less -than the vote for president cast the same day, but free schools won, -the affirmative vote being 78,523; the negative 61,887--a majority of -16,636 for free schools. The principal opposition to free schools was -manifested in the counties lying south of a line drawn across the map -along the southern boundary of Marion County, in which Indianapolis -is situated. The northern counties gave a majority of 18,270 for free -schools; while the southern division, deriving its population chiefly -from the South, gave a majority of 1634 against the proposition. -Professor Boone has pointed out that “notwithstanding the denser -population having the older settlements, the established industries, -and all of the colleges but one, the most insistent opposition to free -schools came from the southern half of the State. The influence of -local seminaries and colleges seems to have gone for nothing in the -movement for free elementary schools.” - -Mills returned imperturbably to the attack in a third message -carefully scrutinizing this vote, and showing that of the thirty-one -counties voting negatively, twenty were below the general average of -intelligence. The same measure and tolerance that characterized all his -addresses show finely in this paper, in which he said: “Let the record -of the affirmative vote stand as a proof of the existence in our State -of the spirit of ’76. I rejoice that we have such indubitable evidence -of it. I rejoice that we have been furnished with such proof that we -are not the degenerate sons of noble fathers, but that we possess the -spirit to rebuke selfishness wherever found, and however disguised--a -kindred spirit to that which pledged life and fortune and sacred honor -to the cause of national independence.” - -A new school law was framed by the legislature in 1848-1849, which -legalized public taxation for schools and changed the existing system -of school administration; but the respective counties were to be free -to adopt or reject the law as they might see fit, and it was only -a _via media_, beyond which lay still much ground for the friends -of education to conquer. At an election held in August, 1849, the -counties exercised their privilege to pass on the new law. Friends -and foes of free schools again conducted a heated campaign, both -sides amplifying the arguments advanced in the former contest. The -result was a majority in favor of the law of 15,767, a decrease from -the majority given in the preceding election, though the two results -may not fairly be compared, owing to local issues and animosities. -Fifty-nine counties voted for the law and thirty-one against it, -and of those that rejected it twenty were in the southern half of -the State. But the battle was more nearly won than the friends of -education imagined. The constitutional convention that met in 1850 -prescribed in the organic law of Indiana a foundation which subsequent -legislatures have built upon until a comprehensive system of schools, -intelligently administered and adequately supported, is now the pride -of the State.[37] The friends of education were to meet with further -trials and discouragements; but the pioneer work in Indiana education -closed when the new constitution had been ratified by the people. It -is clear that any examination of the forces that raised Indiana into -an enlightened community must comprehend a knowledge of these early -struggles, and that the showier attainments of later citizens cannot -obscure for the sincere student the services of those who dared to -stand for the cause of free schools in the day of their peril. - -Mills is an especially admirable and winning figure. He was hardly -equalled for sagacity and suavity among his contemporaries, and he -brought to bear upon his great task a steadfastness and quiet energy -that no defeat could overcome. The State recognized his abilities -and rewarded his services by confiding to him the office of State -superintendent of public instruction, of which he was the second -incumbent. He was deeply though sanely patriotic, and during the -Civil War his zeal for the Union cause was so marked that one of his -associates pronounced him the best recruiting officer in Indiana. He -belonged to Wabash College, and continued in its faculty until the -end of his long life (October 17, 1879), giving his last years, with -characteristic unselfishness and devotion, to the organization of the -college library. - -The early Hoosier school-teachers were often poorly trained, and -sometimes were adventurers from England, Scotland, or Ireland. -Occasionally they were intemperate, and frequently they were eccentric -characters, whose vagaries made them ridiculous before their pupils; -but there were competent instructors among them. One of the most -charming figures in the history of cultivation in Indiana is Mrs. -Julia L. Dumont (1794-1857), who was born in Ohio, but for forty-three -years resided at Vevay, in Switzerland County. Among all the -light-bringers of the first half of the century in the Hoosier country -Mrs. Dumont was one of the most distinguished; and she was easily the -woman of most varied accomplishment in the Indiana of her day. She -possessed an instinct for teaching, and Dr. Eggleston remembers that -after she was sixty a schoolroom was built for her beside her husband’s -house, and that she taught the Vevay High School in her old age, when -no properly qualified teacher appeared to take charge of it. Dr. -Eggleston draws her portrait from memory:-- - - “I can see the wonderful old lady now, as she was then, with her - cape pinned awry, rocking her splint-bottom chair nervously while - she talked, full of all manner of knowledge; gifted with something - very like eloquence in speech, abounding in affection for her pupils - and enthusiasm in teaching, she moved us strangely. Being infatuated - with her we became fanatic in our pursuit of knowledge, so that the - school hours were not enough, and we had a ‘lyceum’ in the evening - for reading ‘compositions’ and a club for the study of history. - If a recitation became very interesting, the entire school would - sometimes be drawn into the discussion of the subject; all other - lessons went to the wall; books of reference were brought out of her - library; hours were consumed, and many a time the school session - was prolonged until darkness forced us reluctantly to adjourn. Mrs. - Dumont was the ideal of a teacher because she succeeded in forming - character. She gave her pupils unstinted praise, not hypocritically, - but because she lovingly saw the best in every one. We worked in the - sunshine. A dull but industrious pupil was praised for diligence, - a bright pupil for ability, a good one for general excellence. The - dullards got more than their share, for, knowing how easily such an - one is disheartened, Mrs. Dumont went out of her way to praise the - first show of success in a slow scholar. She treated no two alike. - She was full of all sorts of knack and tact, a person of infinite - resource for calling out the human spirit.”[38] - -Her natural grace and refinement gave to her discipline many a novel -turn. She endeavored, and most happily succeeded in the attempt, to -link the life of the time and place to “high thought and honorable -deeds.” Once, during her administration of the Vevay High School, -a game of ball proved so absorbing that the boys were an hour late -in reporting after the noon recess. They found the teacher calmly -enthroned in her rocking-chair. She did not ask for an explanation, but -spoke to them firmly of their indifference; they had humiliated her, -she said, before the whole town. No recesses would be allowed for a -week, and an apology must be forthcoming the following day. The apology -was duly submitted in writing. The remainder of the incident is best -described in Dr. Eggleston’s own words:-- - - “The morning wore on without recess. The lessons were heard as usual. - As the noon hour drew near, Mrs. Dumont rose from her chair and went - into the library. We all felt that something was going to happen. She - came out with a copy of Shakespeare, which she opened at about the - fifth scene of the fourth act of the second part of King Henry IV. - Giving the book to my next neighbor and myself, she bade us read the - scene, alternating with the change of the speaker. You remember the - famous dialogue in the scene between the dying king and the prince - who has prematurely taken the crown from the bedside of the sleeping - king. It was all wonderfully fresh to us and to our schoolmates, - whose interest was divided between the scene and a curiosity as to - the use the teacher meant to make of it. At length the reader who - took the king’s part read:-- - - “‘O, my son! - Heaven put it in thy mind to take it hence, - That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love, - Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.’ - - Then she took the book and closed it. The application was evident to - all, but she made us a touching little speech, full of affection, and - afterward restored the recess.”[39] - -Mrs. Dumont was the first Hoosier to become known beyond the State -through imaginative writing. In the little school of story-tellers -and poets that flourished in the Ohio Valley in its early history, -she was one of the chief figures. It had not then become the fashion -to transcribe with fidelity our American local life, and her prose -sketches usually reflected nothing of the pioneer times. Her “Life -Sketches from Common Paths: A Series of American Tales,” published -at New York in 1856, is in the best manner of the day. Western is -italicized in the preface of “Ashton Gray,” the novelette which closes -the volume, and the author evidently believed that she was making -a record of the life that lay about her; but after all, the scene -is laid in Ohio and not in Indiana, and a Western atmosphere is not -discernible. The hero is the traditional hero of old romance, “whose -innate delicacy was refinement, and whose generous impulses, chivalry,” -and whose “extreme beauty” was a subject of comment from fair lips. -It is not surprising that Annabel, “the dreamy, the impressible, -the desolate Annabel,” should have found Ashton “her beau-ideal of -the distinctive characteristics of the fearless and self-sustained -backwoodsman.... The untamed horse that tosses his mane in the green -savannas could scarcely have moved with more freedom; and the perfect -development of limb and muscle evidently arose from the conscious vigor -and habitual action of one accustomed to tread, not the gay saloon -and prescribed walks of fashion, but the rough paths of danger, and -the limitless range of voiceless solitudes.” Ashton rescues three -children from a burning cabin, using a ladder, in keeping with the -best traditions, thus winning the heart of Annabel, who marries him -clandestinely, just before he is arrested for murder. He is acquitted -by the testimony of his supposed father, and an old Indian appears -opportunely to confess that Ashton was really the son of Colonel -Ainsworth, Annabel’s guardian. - -There was a particular vocabulary that belonged to this school of -romance, and Mrs. Dumont employed it in all its copiousness. When -rightly used it minimized the importance of invention; and it was -better adapted to the portrayal of delicate and shrinking heroines -and noble and handsome heroes, than to the rougher work of depicting -action. A nice instinct was essential to its proper use, and no one of -her generation wielded it with more grace and ease than Mrs. Dumont. -Scott and Irving were the inspiration of the school in which she took -so high a place; and the verse which it produced so abundantly showed -frequently the influence of Mrs. Hemans. Mrs. Dumont’s technical skill -was superior to that of her Western contemporaries; but it is idle -and ungracious to criticise the writings of one whose talents were so -varied, and whose life was consecrated to good works. - -Her name inevitably suggests that of another teacher, her kinswoman, -Miss Catharine Merrill (1824-1900), who, with a wider field and larger -opportunity, filled a similar place at Indianapolis for fifty years. -She was born at Corydon, the old capital. Samuel Merrill, her father, -was a cultivated man, a native of Vermont, and an early settler of -Indianapolis. He subscribed to the English reviews and owned a large -library, whose contents circulated freely among the pioneers. He -had been educated at Dartmouth, and occasionally taught the higher -branches, but he was a man of affairs, served the public in important -offices, and was one of the ablest of the State’s early financiers. -The daughter taught English literature in Butler College for eighteen -years, and during this time, and subsequently as a teacher of private -classes, inculcated in the minds of three generations a discriminating -taste for literature. Miss Merrill wrote (1869) “The Soldier of -Indiana,” a valuable record of the State’s participation in the war -of the rebellion, which contains much biographical matter that is -nowhere else collected. Mrs. Dumont and Miss Merrill afford delightful -illustrations of the compelling force of personality. In a sense one -succeeded the other, and, though they labored in different fields, -throughout a century they impressed upon the youth of the commonwealth -the nobility of character and the love of learning which they so -happily combined in themselves. - -Samuel K. Hoshour is another sterling figure in Indiana pedagogy. He -was a native of Pennsylvania, and a minister, first in the Lutheran and -afterward in the Disciples Church; but he was a school-teacher first, -last, and always, and taught many hundreds of the youth of Indiana. He -was, in his later years, a resident of Indianapolis, and died there in -1883. Oliver P. Morton, Lew Wallace, and others of the distinguished -men of the State sat under his teaching. In the eyes of two generations -he was the embodiment of learning and scholarship; and he retained to -the last something of the austerity and exaggerated dignity of the -old-fashioned school-teacher. He was, indeed, always the schoolmaster, -and a pedant, though naïvely seeking to avoid the appearance of it. -He was a linguist of wide reputation, and delighted in comparative -philology. He had a fancy for unusual words, and took pleasure in -illuminating their meanings from obscure origins. He wrote a book, -prized by many of his old pupils, called “Altisonant Letters” (1840), -which, as the title indicates, was written in high-sounding words. -It is in the form of correspondence, and was devised as a kind of -philological primer, to be “a stepping-stone from the current everyday -English to the Latin and Greek.” The plan was not a bad one, and was -in some respects a forerunner of the inductive methods of teaching -languages that have since been popular. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIALISM - - -New Harmony, the scene of Robert Owen’s experiment in socialism, -lies in Posey County, in the far southwestern corner of Indiana. The -village is without direct communication with the outer world, but may -be approached by boat on the Wabash River, or by a branch railroad -which ends abruptly at New Harmony after a rough course through wheat -fields, which are, in spring and summer, a charming feature of the -landscape of this region. George Rapp gave expression to his peculiar -religious ideas in the community which he established there, and he -sold his large estate to Owen, who began building on the foundations -left by Rapp a social structure after plans of his own. Owen’s ideas -are not strikingly novel when taken in connection with the history -of socialism; but the movement carried to Indiana many distinguished -persons, and the life of subsequent generations in and about the -village has, to this day, been colored by it. - -George Rapp came to the United States from Germany, in 1803, in -search of a more tolerant home for the sect which he had founded. He -purchased a tract of land in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and during -the summer of 1804 six hundred of his followers, chiefly mechanics -and laborers, joined him, and in the following year the community -known as the Harmony Society was formally organized. The members were -banded together in a Christian brotherhood, and were orthodox in all -essentials. Property was held in common, and thought was directed away -from mundane affairs to the second coming of the Lord, which Rapp -believed to be imminent. The members experienced, in 1807, a great -spiritual awakening, and one of its results was their acceptance of -celibacy as an implied if not obligatory tenet of the sect. - -In 1814, the community sold the greater part of its holdings of real -estate in Pennsylvania and purchased 30,000 acres of land in Indiana, -of which Harmony became the centre. The following year the Rappites -moved to the lower Wabash and continued in a new wilderness their -severe labors and ascetic practices. They marked out a village in -squares, with broad streets, and built houses in which beauty was -sacrificed to stability. It is a tribute to their excellent workmanship -that many of these structures are still in use, having survived two -communistic experiments and falling at last to the incidental needs -of a Western village. The Rappites had been annoyed during their -sojourn in Pennsylvania by unsympathetic neighbors, and fearing similar -experiences with the rough characters that roamed the Wabash country in -those days, they deemed it wise to prepare a defence. They thereupon -built, of brick and stone, a substantial fortress which was used as a -granary. The walls were three feet thick and the loopholes were barred. -The story that this building was connected with Rapp’s house by an -underground passage is authoritatively denied at New Harmony. - -The Rappites had first used a frame building as a place of worship, -but later they erected a large brick meeting-house, carving on the -pediment above the main door a wreath and a rose, the date, 1822, and -the inscription, “Mich IV, 8; in Memory of the Harmony Society; by -George Rapp, 1805.” The colonists were industrious and thrifty. They -cleared the land, planted vineyards, manufactured woollen and cotton -goods and shoes, and found a ready market for all their products. The -original population of the Pennsylvania settlement had been about six -hundred persons; and during the community’s life in Indiana accessions -of friends from Germany increased the number of members to between -seven and eight hundred. In 1824 Rapp again decided to move, and -appointed Richard Flower to negotiate a sale. Flower visited Scotland, -sought Robert Owen, a manufacturer and social reformer, and sold him -the Rappites’ land for $132,000. Subsequently there was an additional -sale of live-stock, tools, and merchandise for $50,000, so that the -total of Owen’s original investment at New Harmony was $182,000. The -Rappites thereupon disappeared from Indiana, returning to Pennsylvania, -where they established a new settlement called Economy, and prospered -greatly. - -Robert Owen was born in Wales, March 14, 1771. His father was a -saddler, and Robert began his career under no favoring circumstances. -He became interested in cotton spinning, for which he showed genius and -at which he made a fortune. He married the daughter of David Dale, the -owner of extensive cotton mills at New Lanark, on the Clyde, became -Dale’s successor, and with growing fortune gave an increasing attention -to social and political questions. He was a pioneer in the reform of -factory abuses; and in his own establishment at New Lanark he made -practical application of his theories. He visited the Continent, where -he became acquainted with many persons of note, not the least of these -being Pestalozzi and Fellenberg; he was much in London, usually in -advocacy of some reform; he acquired skill in writing and speaking, -and taken altogether his biography gives the impression of a strong, -zealous, and indefatigable nature. He was intense and uncompromising, -and, it must be confessed, sadly lacking in humor. He expected to find -in the new world larger opportunities for the demonstration of his -principles. The New Harmony incident illustrates a curious conflict -between the ideal and the practical in Owen. It was quite like him to -undertake the planting of a communistic settlement in America, and to -invest his own money in it; but a natural business caution checked his -generous impulses, and while he extended a sweeping invitation to the -industrious and well-disposed of all creeds to join him, he was in no -haste to divide his property. - -Owen’s lectures in the hall of the House of Representatives at -Washington, February 5 and March 27, 1825, before audiences composed -of the famous men of the day, gave wide publicity to his views. He -displayed a model of the ideal village which he proposed to found -on the Wabash. The community buildings were to form a hollow square -1000 feet long. The material needs of his proposed colony were all -provided for in the buildings of his model village; and he announced a -comprehensive system of education in which the young of the community -should be led from the lowest to the highest branches. Owen had -announced that “these new proceedings,” as he called his plans, were -to take effect at New Harmony--he gave the prefix to Rapp’s name for -the place--in April, 1826. He spent the summer of 1825 in England, but -returned to America in the fall, reaching New York November 7. His -hospitable invitation had awakened the interest of a large number of -persons, ranging from sincere converts to eccentric and irresponsible -vagabonds, drawn from all parts of the United States and Europe. What -is known in New Harmony literature as “the boat load of knowledge” set -out from Pittsburg in December, 1825. About thirty people assembled on -a keel boat, which they made comfortable for the voyage, and turned -toward New Harmony. The ice closed upon them near Beaver, and they did -not reach their destination until the middle of January. The passengers -included Robert Owen and his sons, Robert Dale and William, William -Maclure, Thomas Say, Charles A. Lesueur, Achilles Fretageot and wife, -Captain Donald Macdonald, Dr. Gerard Troost, Phiquepal d’Arusmont, and -Stedman Whitwell, a London architect.[40] Joseph Neef followed in the -spring, and Frances Wright, of Nashoba fame, who married d’Arusmont, -first appeared there in the second year of the community. Schoolcraft -and Rafinesque were both visitors at New Harmony, but not during the -life of the Owen community, though Rafinesque has been erroneously -named as an original member. - -The strength of the keel boat’s contribution to the community lay -in special scientific knowledge; and if Owen’s inclination toward -socialism had been increased by the success of Rapp’s submissive -peasants, he erred gravely in his own choice of followers. William -Maclure (1763-1840) was a wealthy Scotchman, who turned from a -successful mercantile career to the natural sciences. He first visited -the United States in the last years of the eighteenth century, and -planned a geographical survey of the whole country. He explored at -his own expense a vast territory, and prepared maps showing the result -of his investigations. He was a founder of the Academy of Natural -Sciences, at Philadelphia, to which he gave generously of his fortune, -and was its president for more than twenty years. His friend, Thomas -Say (1787-1834), called “the father of American zoölogy,” was also -connected with the Academy in its formative years. The place of both -is secure in the history of American science. Lesueur came to the -United States from the West Indies. His scientific researches had -included extensive investigations in Australia, and he was an early, -if not indeed the first, student of the Mound-builders’ remains in -Indiana. He was an artist of considerable merit, and some of his -work may be seen in the New Harmony library. Troost (1776-1850) was -a scientist of wide and exact knowledge, who went to Tennessee after -the collapse of New Harmony, taught the sciences for many years in the -University of Nashville, and was for eighteen years State geologist. -Neef was a native of Alsace. He had been a teacher in Pestalozzi’s -school, in Switzerland, and met there his wife, who was educated under -the direction of Madame Pestalozzi. They removed to Philadelphia -immediately after their marriage, and became acquainted with Maclure, -who, like Owen, had been attracted by the Pestalozzi system, and who -persuaded them to join the Owenites. Little is known of Macdonald, -though there is a tradition at New Harmony that he returned to Scotland -and inherited a title of nobility. - -Owen’s followers moved into the houses that had been vacated by Rapp’s -colonists, and set about organizing the new community. On April 27 Owen -addressed them in the Rappite church, which had been preëmpted for -sectarian uses and dedicated to liberal thought and free speech. He -spoke with great enthusiasm, declaring that he had come to introduce -a new and enlightened state of society, eliminate ignorance and -selfishness, and remove all cause for contest between individuals; -but the change from the new to the old could not be accomplished in -a day, and he called New Harmony a halfway house between the evils -he complained of and the ideal. In May, the _modus vivendi_ of a -preliminary society was promulgated, as a means of preparation for the -perfect community to which Owen looked forward. Negroes were excluded -from membership, though they might become “helpers,” or they might -form an independent community. Age and experience alone were to confer -precedence. For the first year a committee to be appointed by the -founder was to have charge of affairs, and later the society might -elect three representatives of this council. Members were required -to provide their own household effects, to accept houses assigned to -them, and to render their best services to the community. They were to -receive credit at the community store for their labor, which was to be -appraised by the committee of management. Members might be expelled -for cause, or they might voluntarily retire by giving a week’s notice, -receiving in merchandise any balance that remained to their credit. -Persons wishing to live in the community as non-participants in its -labors might do so by paying for the privilege, and the capital of any -who cared to become investors would be received. American products -were to have the preference in the purchase of supplies. The young -were to be drilled in military tactics, to the end that they might be -of service to their country in emergencies, until society had been -reformed and war made unnecessary. - -Within six months nearly one thousand persons had gathered at New -Harmony, and a considerable proportion of these seem to have been -incapable, either through inexperience or disinclination, of aiding -in the success of Owen’s plans. Rapp’s industries had certainly not -fallen into the hands of skilled or adaptable laborers. Many of the -manufactories which he had made profitable were not operated under -the new régime, and less than a hundred farm laborers volunteered for -service in carrying on the plantations. Plans for education and social -pleasure were received more kindly than those requiring skilled labor. -All children between two and twelve were placed in a separate house, -and clothed, lodged, and educated at the public expense. The fall of -1825 found 130 children so cared for, and there were also day and -evening schools where old and young alike might receive elementary -instruction. A band was organized to provide music, and Tuesday -evenings were set apart for balls and Friday evenings for concerts. -Wednesday evenings were reserved for the more serious business of -discussing the purposes of the society. Military exercises, as proposed -by Owen, were duly conducted, and companies of artillery and infantry -were formed and drilled. - -The senior Owen was absent in Scotland during the summer and fall -of 1825, but returned January 18, 1826, and was received with great -cordiality. He expressed his satisfaction with the progress that had -been made during his absence, and in a few days announced that he felt -justified in suspending the preparatory stage and inaugurating full -equality. A new constitution was adopted February 5, after careful -consideration in town meetings. It provided for community of property -and business and social coöperation. The members were to dwell together -as one family, and no discrimination was to be shown on account -of occupation. Similar houses were to be provided for all, and no -differences in food or clothing were to be permitted. The community -was to be divided into departments of Agriculture, Manufactures and -Mechanics, Literature and Science, Domestic and General Economy, -Education and Commerce. Superintendents for these departments were -to be chosen by an assembly consisting of all adult members of the -community; but the individuals in the several departments might select -their own foremen. A schism occurred before this constitution had been -signed by the members of the preliminary society. The exact cause is -not assigned in the _Gazette_, the official organ of the society, -conducted by Robert Dale Owen, which announced, February 15, that a -new community was about to be formed within two miles of the village -“by some respectable families who were members of the preliminary -society, but from conscientious motives have declined signing the new -constitution.” Two new communities were, indeed, organized, one called -Macluria and the other Feiba Peveli. This latter name was coined after -an intricate system of geographical nomenclature, invented by a member -of the society, by which the latitude and longitude of any place could -be represented. The sole direction of the community was intrusted to -Robert Owen two weeks after the reorganization, the inference from -this fact being that the separation of the two branches had eliminated -those who were antagonistic to the founder. At the end of the first -year the population was distributed about as follows: the original New -Harmony settlement, 800; Macluria, 120; Feiba Peveli, 60 or 70. The -relations between Owen and the seceders were apparently friendly. In -an address delivered at New Harmony, May 9, he spoke with satisfaction -of the success of his undertaking, saying that his hopes had been -surpassed, and mentioning both Macluria and Feiba Peveli with approval. -At Macluria temporary cabins had been built and more land had been -cultivated than was necessary to sustain the members. Spinning and -weaving were practised by the women and children, who produced cloth in -excess of their requirements. Feiba Peveli was a farming and gardening -community, reported by Owen to be doing well. - -At this time the first Rappite church was given up to carpentry and -shoemaking. Boys received industrial training there and slept in the -loft. The second and more pretentious edifice had become a town hall, -used for lectures, open discussions, dances, and concerts. Rapp’s -former home--the best residence in the place--was occupied by Maclure, -who had given $45,000 to assist Owen in his enterprise. Owen lived at -the tavern, which was conducted by the society. The rank and file were -accommodated in four boarding-houses pending changes that would bring -all together at a common table. A uniform dress for the members had -been adopted, but it was not generally worn. Wide trousers, buttoned -over a short collarless jacket, were prescribed for the men; the women -wore a coat reaching to the knee, and pantalettes. Bernard, Duke of -Saxe-Weimar, who visited New Harmony in the spring of 1826, and wrote -a most entertaining account of the community, described the costume -and remarked that the members who had already donned it were of the -higher social class, and that these did not, in the gatherings at -the public hall, mingle with the ruder element. Previous conditions -and employments were evidently remembered in the community, in spite -of the founder’s insistence that there should be no discrimination. -Many in the settlement found the practical details of community life -exceedingly irksome; and one, a Russian lady, confided to the German -nobleman her disgust with New Harmony, stating that “some of the -society were too low, and the table was below all criticism.” - -The educational features of the community were, from all testimony, -a great failure and disappointment. It was one thing to assemble -distinguished scientists, and quite another to organize them into an -effective teaching corps. The school taught by d’Arusmont lasted but -a short time, and Robert Dale Owen, who was himself a teacher in one -of the community schools, while admitting the man’s good qualities, -described him as “a wrong-headed genius, whose extravagance and -wilfulness and inordinate self-conceit destroyed his usefulness.” -Neef had been an officer under Napoleon, and his rough military habits -had not been wholly corrected by his subsequent association with -Pestalozzi. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar gives a lively picture of him, -drilling his boy pupils in military tactics as he led them to the -performance of certain labors in the village. Maclure, Say, and Troost -did not engage actively in teaching. Paul Brown stated, in a pamphlet -assailing the society, that he began teaching in the boarding-school in -September, 1826; but from his own story Brown was chiefly employed with -meditations on the evils of the place, and his manifestations of temper -argue against his value as a teacher. Madame Fretageot was associated -with Neef, and the two had charge of the boarding-school. Madame Neef -was not regularly employed as a teacher, but sometimes assisted her -husband. - -Robert Owen’s unfriendly attitude toward religion had awakened -hostility in England before he came to the United States. Packard, one -of his biographers, expresses no doubt as to Owen’s disbelief in the -inspiration of the Bible and in the divine origin of Christianity. -Lloyd Jones, the writer of another life of Owen, seeks to mitigate the -effect of some of the statements in Owen’s “New Moral World”; but it -is sufficiently clear that when he was at the height of his fame and -usefulness in England, Owen estranged many of his most influential -friends and admirers by his flings at religion, which were serious -enough to arouse the wrath of an occasional heresy-hunting bishop. -Sargent, the author of “Robert Owen and his Philosophy,” says that -Owen suffered for his religious opinions “neglect, hatred, contempt, -calumny, and all the evils that follow the excommunicated man.” In his -“Declaration of Mental Independence” at New Harmony, July 4, 1826, Owen -inveighed against “a trinity of the most monstrous evils that could be -combined to inflict mental and physical evil upon the whole race. I -refer to private or individual property, absurd and irrational systems -of religion, and marriage founded on individual property combined with -some of these irrational systems of religion”--a statement that was -somewhat advanced for the Wabash Valley of that period. He seemed to -ignore the spiritual element in man, though, according to Sargent, he -expressed in his old age his belief that a Divine Providence had guided -him through his long career; and late in life he became a convert to -spiritualism. There is no evidence that Owen ever held loose ideas of -the relations of the sexes, though such opinions were attributed to -him. He believed that marriage should be founded on mutual sympathy -and congeniality, and he wished the imagination to be excluded and -judgment made the sole guide in such matters. This, like many of -his teachings, seems equivocal; but he believed that where these -prerequisites ceased to exist it should be possible to terminate a -marriage. Owen and Maclure both believed fully in the equality of the -sexes. New Harmony schools were co-educational, and women were admitted -to all the councils of the society. It is not clear that they were -always permitted to vote, though widows succeeded to the suffrages of -their husbands. A woman’s society was organized, and is supposed to -have been similar to literary clubs as now known, though there is but -one reference to the organization in the _Gazette_--a notice of the -postponement of a meeting in November, 1825. - -Owen’s refusal to make a formal transfer of his property to the -community continued to be a cause of dissatisfaction. The founder spoke -hopefully of the future, but he took care that his enthusiasm should -not run away with his judgment, so he continued to hold his little -principality in fee simple. When questioned as to his intentions in -this particular, he replied, as officially reported in the _Gazette_ of -August 30, 1826: “I shall be ready to form such a community whenever -you are ready for it.... But progress must be made in community -education before all parties can be prepared for a community of common -property.” The assembly thereupon adopted a resolution that they meet -three evenings in the week for community education, but this was -evidently regarded by the members as a severe penalty to pay for the -cause of socialism. Robert Dale Owen wrote that the meetings continued -“with gradually lessening numbers.” - -Troubles came thick and fast in the fall of 1826. Several adventurers -openly tried to defraud Owen, and an era of suspicion began. A man -named Taylor joined the community, at Owen’s invitation, to take -charge of the industries, but after getting possession of a tract of -land he started a distillery, greatly to the founder’s annoyance. -Brown describes with great particularity the unhappy condition that -prevailed during the fall and winter of 1826. He complains that Owen -was living in luxury at the tavern, while the laborers in the large -boarding-houses fared badly. Although there were several professional -gardeners in the community, there was a lack of vegetables, and the -necessities were doled out sparingly. Brown believed that the founder -was trying to retrieve his fortunes, and he speaks of him as “willing -to shift into the character of a retailer and tavern keeper.” The -_Gazette_ was, in Brown’s belief, the personal organ of Owen, whom he -calls “the lord proprietor of the press”; but this may be merely the -wail of the rejected, for Brown admits that his own contributions were -repeatedly scorned, so that to gain publicity he was obliged to post -them on the gateway of the educational society, taking them in at night -for safety. He says that in spite of the balls and promenade concerts -the people remained strangers, and he deplores the amount of time and -candles wasted in these frivolities. As to the educational features -of the place, Brown expresses his opinion that there was no other -place in the United States where a like number of children in the same -compass “were of so harsh, insolent, rash, boisterous, and barbarous -dispositions.” Brown deals drastically with the auditing department of -the community. He intimates that when a debit balance appeared against -a member on the books, credit was immediately stopped at the store. He -gives the instance of a gardener named Gilbert, who was suddenly served -with his discharge in December, when his family were ill, because he -was performing no labor and had fallen in arrears. Gilbert asked for an -investigation, which was held, and the court found in his favor. - -Twenty heads of families were notified to quit February 1, 1827; March -21 there was an exodus of about eighty persons, who took a steamboat -for the upper Ohio, and March 28 the _Gazette_ contained an editorial -admitting the failure of New Harmony, the central community, but -maintaining that the auxiliary societies were successful. The reason -assigned for the collapse was that “the members were too various -in their feelings, and too dissimilar in their habits, to govern -themselves harmoniously as one community.” Owen delivered a farewell -address to the citizens, May 26. He spoke with patient forbearance of -the element that had joined the community merely to become a burden -upon him; but he was severe upon his associates who had undertaken -the educational work of the society but had failed to organize such -schools as he had expected. He had wished the children to be “educated -in similar habits, dispositions, and feelings, and be brought up truly -as members of one large family, without a single discordant feeling.” -If the schools had not proved ineffectual, he believed that even with -the heterogeneous mass that had collected on his lands a successful -society could have been founded. However, turning from these unpleasant -reflections, with characteristic optimism, he declared that “the -social system is now firmly established; the natural and easy means -of forming communities have been developed by your past experience.... -New Harmony is now, therefore, literally surrounded by independent -communities, and applications are made almost daily by persons who -come from far and near to be permitted to establish themselves in a -similar manner.” The eight communities referred to were probably little -more than tentative colonies, planted on Owen’s lands under lease. -There is no evidence that a community organization was maintained for -any length of time at Macluria or Feiba Peveli after the collapse at -New Harmony village, and of the remainder of the eight to which Owen -referred there is no further record. They vanished with the others, and -presently passed to individual owners or lessees. Brown summarizes the -disappearance of communism and the return of the old order in these -words: “The greater part of the town was now resolved into individual -lots; a grocery was established opposite the tavern; painted sign -boards began to be stuck up on the buildings, pointing out places of -manufacture and trade; a sort of wax figure and puppet show was opened -at one of the boarding-houses, charging twenty-five cents for adults -and twelve and a half for children; and everything went on in the old -style.” - -Owen’s teachings and example led to other experiments in America -besides those he personally conducted on the Wabash; but American -socialism of the Owen period was most fully expressed at New Harmony. -Owen’s ardor for social reforms continued unabated. He visited Mexico -shortly after the New Harmony failure, to secure a concession of land -for further experiments. The negotiations failed, and he is next heard -of at Cincinnati, in April, 1829, debating religious questions with -Alexander Campbell. He did not appear in America again until the fall -of 1844, when he spent a short time on his New Harmony lands, lectured -in many cities, established friendly relations with Brisbane and other -Fourierites, and, in the spring of 1845, visited Brook Farm. He was -last at New Harmony in the fall of 1846. - -It could hardly be expected that a village which had been the home of -two orders of exiles could descend at once to the commonplace, and the -subsequent history of New Harmony is not disappointing. Through many -years scientists of distinction and radicals of all degrees visited the -place; Maclure made it his headquarters; Say lived and died there; the -sons of Robert Owen became residents and gained honorable distinction -in science and politics; books that still have value were written and -published in the village. Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877) turned from -communism to politics and literature, and few citizens of Indiana -have lived lives more useful or memorable. He was educated at Hofwyl, -under Fellenberg, and after a few years of commercial experience at -New Lanark, he joined the New Harmony community. He shared, in large -measure, his father’s interests in social and economic matters, and -after the fall of New Harmony he and Frances Wright conducted a radical -paper called the _Free Enquirer_ at New York. In 1833 he returned to -New Harmony and was soon launched upon a brilliant career. He was -elected a representative to the Indiana General Assembly and to the -National Congress, and he was an influential and active member of the -convention that revised the Indiana constitution. The Indiana laws -granting independent property rights to women were largely due to his -efforts, and he introduced in Congress, in December, 1845, the bill -under which the Smithsonian Institute was organized. He was appointed -chargé d’affaires at Naples in 1853, and when the grade of the post -was raised he was continued as minister until 1858. In 1863, he was -chairman of a commission appointed by the Secretary of War to examine -the condition of the freedmen. He had written to the President, urging -emancipation before this step had been determined upon, and Secretary -Chase said that Owen’s letter to Lincoln had greatly influenced the -President to make his proclamation. Mr. Owen wrote often and well, and -with a facility and force that gave him wide reputation for learning -and literary accomplishment. His books include “Pocahontas: A Dream” -(1837); “Hints on Architecture” (1849); “Footprints on the Boundary -of Another World” (1859); “Beyond the Breakers: A Novel” (1870); -“Debatable Land Between this World and the Next” (1872); and “Threading -my Way” (1874). He became deeply interested in spiritualism, and two -of his books, as the titles indicate, are devoted to this subject. He -travelled much and knew many of the men and women eminent in the early -years of the nineteenth century, including La Fayette and Mrs. Shelley. -His daughter Rosamund married Laurence Oliphant. - -David Dale, another son of Robert (1807-1860), was educated at Hofwyl -and Glasgow, and reached New Harmony in the year of the community’s -failure. He was employed by the Indiana legislature to make a -geological survey of the State, and in 1839 the general government -engaged him to examine Western mineral lands. He explored Illinois, -Iowa, and Wisconsin under this appointment. Ten years later he made -similar surveys in Minnesota. During all this time New Harmony was his -home and headquarters, and the rendezvous of his associates, and his -collections of specimens were assembled there. He was State geologist -of Kentucky from 1854 to 1857, and then turned to Arkansas, of which -he made thorough geological surveys. In 1859 he was appointed State -geologist of Indiana, and held the office until his death. He was a -skilled chemist and a doctor of medicine as well as a trained natural -scientist and geologist. He knew the use of pencil and brush, and -illustrated his reports with sketches that greatly enhanced their value. - -Military talent expressed itself in the Owen family in Richard, still -another of Robert’s sons (1810-1890), who was also a graduate of -Hofwyl. He came to America and engaged in business until the Mexican -War, in which he served as captain, and later assisted his brother, -David Dale, in his surveys of the Northwest. He taught the natural -sciences in the Military Institute of Kentucky, and when it was merged -in the University of Nashville he continued in the same capacity with -the new institution. Meanwhile he had, with the energy and ambition -characteristic of his family, earned the degree of Doctor of Medicine, -though he never practised. He served in the Civil War as colonel of the -Sixtieth Indiana Regiment, principally in the Southwest, and was once -taken prisoner. After the war he taught in the University of Indiana -for fifteen years, retiring finally to New Harmony, where, in the old -Rapp mansion, he continued his studies, writing constantly for the -scientific periodicals. He married a daughter of Neef. William Owen, -who had reached New Harmony in time to aid his brother, Robert Dale, -in editing the _Gazette_, continued to live in Indiana, and became a -successful financier. Descendants of Robert Owen still live at New -Harmony, and the name is one to conjure within all the lower Wabash -Valley. - -The excellent work of the New Harmony press proves that good -craftsmanship was encouraged and appreciated in the early days. -The _Gazette_, and its successor, the _Disseminator_, are models -of accurate and tasteful typography, and the books published from -this isolated village are even more creditable. Say’s “American -Conchology” was wholly printed at New Harmony, the title page bearing -date 1830. Its copious illustrations are the work of New Harmony -lithographers, and the tinting of the engravings, which was done by -Mrs. Say, reproduces accurately the delicate shadings of the shells. -Her colors are still fresh and true in copies of this work. Parts of -Say’s “American Entomology,” which he had begun at Philadelphia, were -finished at New Harmony. Maclure was an industrious writer, and the -imprint of the New Harmony press is found in two substantial volumes, -one dated 1831, the other 1837, in which he collected short essays -on innumerable topics. Josiah Warren was for a time at least the New -Harmony publisher, and Michaux’s “North American Sylva” was reprinted -by him from plates brought from Paris by Maclure, though the unbound -sheets of the New Harmony edition were consumed by fire. - -Warren was a reformer as well as a publisher. He was connected with New -Harmony for a short time in community days, but left, returning in 1842 -to establish a “time store.” In the “time store” he sold merchandise -to none who could not return the actual cash cost, plus a profit which -must be paid in a “labor note.” This form of currency represented a -specified number of hours of labor, pledged by mechanics or others. -When a customer entered his shop and began discussing a purchase, -Warren started a clock which marked the amount of time consumed in the -sale: this was the basis for computing the merchant’s profit. Warren -could often be seen in the streets of New Harmony with large amounts of -labor currency. This medium of exchange required careful handling, as -some would appraise their labor too high, and now and then depreciation -followed an over-issue by some careless or unscrupulous individual. -Warren conducted this enterprise for about two years, departing to -carry the gospel of “equitable commerce,” as he called it, elsewhere. - -In 1838 the Workingmen’s Institute and Library was organized at -Maclure’s suggestion and with money that he contributed. Later, Dr. -Edward Murphy generously gave to this association a handsome building, -which contains the library, an art gallery,--largely Dr. Murphy’s -gift,--a hall, and museum. The building stands in a pretty park and is -ideally adapted to its purposes. The library contains 12,000 volumes, -well selected and particularly rich in scientific works. It includes -every available book relating to American socialism, and many of the -original New Harmony records are preserved there. Dr. Murphy has -provided an endowment for it and for an annual course of lectures. -The lecture course is greatly prized by the citizens, who have heard -under its auspices many of the learned men of the day. There was no -church in the village for many years; indeed, with the passing of Rapp -little attention was paid to religious matters at New Harmony until -late in the century, and though there are Episcopal and Methodist -organizations in the village now, the life of the people does not -centre about the churches as in most communities of the same size. An -old citizen describes the attitude of the inhabitants toward religion -as one of tolerance merely. Several branches of the Owen family are -Episcopalians. Dancing as a feature of social life has survived from -community times, and a first-of-May ball, followed by a dance for -children, has long been fixed in the local calendar. - -Thus Robert Owen’s brief experiment, failing of his purpose, led to -the founding of an American family whose members have shown unusual -talents, creditable alike to their distinguished progenitor and to the -State which became, by chance, their home. He failed to establish an -asylum for the oppressed, as he had intended, but he was responsible -for the impulse that made of his village a centre of scientific inquiry -and the home of men of renown. It is impossible to separate the New -Harmony of to-day from the village of the past. At every turn, the -buildings of the Rappites and the traces of Owen’s disciples suggest -the old times; and descendants of the Owens, Fretageots, Beales, -Fauntleroys, Dransfields, Wheatcrofts, and many others dating back to -community times, still live there. New Harmony is a pleasant place in -May and June, when the great lines of maples in the broad streets are -at their best, and all the quiet valley is fresh and green. It invites -by its air of antiquity and peace; the sheltered life is still possible -there. In the present, it is the ideal Western village; in its memories -it marks the first high tide of cultivation at the West. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE HOOSIER INTERPRETED - - -The rural type in Indiana has found notable interpretation at the -hands of two writers who, working independently of each other and at -different periods, have made records of great social and literary -value and interest. As already indicated, country life at the West and -Southwest has not varied widely in different communities. The same -social conditions and peculiarities of speech have been observable in -many regions deriving population from common sources; but the type -found in the Ohio Valley was best defined in Indiana, and it has gained -its greatest fame through the interpretations of Edward Eggleston and -James Whitcomb Riley. Their outlook on life has been wholly different, -and their literary methods have been antipodal; but they have both -been keen observers of the rural Indianians, though of different -generations. They meet in a strong affection for their native -soil, and in an appreciation of the essential domesticity and moral -enlightenment of the people they depict. - - -I. _Edward Eggleston_ - -Switzerland County lies in the far southeastern corner of the State, -and Vevay, its principal town and capital, is on the Ohio River. The -name of the county is explained by the fact of its settlement by Swiss -immigrants, who were drawn thither by the supposed adaptability of -the soil to the growth of the grape. Vevay lies about midway between -Louisville and Cincinnati, and the steamboats plying between these -two cities are its only medium of communication with the world, as no -railway touches it. It was to this pretty village that Joseph Cary -Eggleston, the father of Edward and George Cary Eggleston, came in -1832. The impression has been abroad that the author of “The Hoosier -Schoolmaster” was himself reared amid the squalor and ignorance which -he described so vividly, but this is without foundation of fact. The -Egglestons were of good Virginia stock, and the members of the Indiana -branch of the family were cultivated people. Joseph Cary was graduated -from William and Mary College in his seventeenth year with high honors. -He had studied law before he left Virginia, and the fourteen years -of his life that remained to him after his removal to Indiana were -spent in the successful practice of his profession. He was, moreover, -popular in the community, for he sat in both branches of the General -Assembly, and was nominated for representative in Congress, but failed -of election. He married, soon after reaching Indiana, the daughter of -George Craig, of Craig township, in Switzerland County. The Craigs were -of a distinguished Kentucky family, and, like the Egglestons, looked -back to a Virginia ancestry. Edward Eggleston was born at Vevay in -1837, and has never failed to speak with great cordiality and affection -of the pretty river town whose chief distinction lies in his own -attainments. He has even taken occasion in recent years[41] to rebuke -“a certain condescension in New Englanders,” which had prompted the -_Atlantic Monthly_ to comment on the hardship it must have been “to a -highly organized man” to be born in southern Indiana in the crude early -years of the nineteenth century. Dr. Eggleston declares that he has -retained enough of local prejudice to feel that he would have lost more -than he could have gained had Plymouth Rock or Beacon Hill been his -birthplace rather than Vevay. He was sensitive to the loveliness of the -Indiana spring and summer, and has paid tribute to it in words which it -is a pleasure to repeat:-- - - “The sound of the anvil in the smithy, and the soft clatter of - remote cow-bells on the ‘commons,’ linger in my mind as memories - inseparable from my boyhood in Vevay. A certain poetic feeling - which characterized me from childhood, and which, perhaps, finally - determined my course toward literary pursuits, was nourished by my - delight in the noble scenery about Vevay, Madison, and New Albany, - in which places I lived at various times. My brother George and - myself were walkers, partly because our father had been one before - us. Nothing could be finer than our all-day excursions to the woods - in search of hickory-nuts, wild grapes, blackberries, paw-paws, or - of nothing at all but the sheer pleasure of wandering in one of - the noblest forests that it ever fell to a boy’s lot to have for a - playground. Then, too, when we had some business five or twenty miles - away, we scorned to take the steamboat, but just set out afoot along - the river bank, getting no end of pleasure out of the walk, and - out of that sense of power which unusual fatigue, cheerfully borne, - always gives.”[42] - -Dr. Eggleston’s early life was full of vicissitude, but he has himself -disclaimed credit for being what is called “a self-made man.” It is -true that he had his own way to make, in great measure, but he began -with all the benefits of good ancestry, and he was, in his own phrase, -“born into an intellectual atmosphere.” Joseph Cary Eggleston, who -died when Edward was only nine years old, provided in his will for -the exchange of his law library for books of general interest, that -his children might have good literature about them in their formative -years--a direction that was followed faithfully by his widow. The boy -Edward grew up with the ideal of a scholarly father before him, and -with an ambition to know books and to read other languages than his -own. He learned also the mystery of type-setting, and contributed items -to the Vevay _Reveille_, duly “set up.” Dr. Eggleston records that in -his primary schooling, conducted by his mother, he proved himself a -dull scholar, but that some kind of climacteric was passed in his tenth -year, and that thenceforward he was the pride of his teachers. Manual -training was hardly dreamed of in those days, but Joseph Eggleston -had an appreciation of its value and left what Edward has described -as “a solemn injunction that his sons should be sent to the country -every summer and taught manual labor on a farm.” This injunction was -carefully obeyed, so that Edward Eggleston had an actual experience of -farming and a contact with farm folk that was a part of his preparation -for the writing of the tales that gave him his first fame. Judge Miles -Eggleston, Joseph’s brother, was more distinctly an Indianian than -any other member of the family by reason of his long residence in the -State and his public services. Guilford Eggleston, Joseph Eggleston’s -cousin, was identified with the family life at Vevay. He was a man of -many accomplishments, and left a deep impression on Edward Eggleston, -who has spoken of his brilliant talk as a perpetual inspiration: “He -incessantly stimulated my love for literature, guided my choice of -books, taught me to make a commonplace book of my reading, and by his -conversation and example made me feel that to lead an intellectual -life was the most laudable pursuit of a human being.” The direction -thus given to the boyish impulse, and the atmosphere of his home, were -of great importance to Edward, for of systematic schooling he was to -know little. He was never but once in his life able to spend three -consecutive months in school, and after he reached his tenth year the -sum of his schooling was only eighteen months. - -Joseph Eggleston had foreseen his own death and provided in various -ways for the education of his sons. He purchased a scholarship in -Asbury (DePauw) College, but continued ill health made it impossible -for Edward to avail himself of its benefits, though his younger -brother, George Cary, became a student there. Just what Edward -Eggleston lost by his irregular schooling, which was almost wholly -independent of instructors in the usual sense of the term, is hardly -a profitable subject for speculation. By following his own bent, he -strengthened himself along lines of natural preference, and he formed -that habit of wise selection and rejection which in itself marks the -educated man. Although schoolhouse doors were closed against him on -account of his precarious health, he was nevertheless permitted to -court death by close application in home study. He acquired, by the -time he reached his twenty-fifth year, some knowledge of six or seven -languages, and a familiar acquaintance with classical English and -French poetry. He knew both the English and French dramatic literature, -though, having been bred in the strictest teaching of the Methodists of -that day, he read few novels, and he gives his own testimony that he -should have esteemed it “a damnable sin to see a play on the stage.” - -When Edward Eggleston was in his twelfth year, his mother remarried, -taking for her husband the Rev. William Terrell, a Methodist minister. -This change brought with it a wider horizon for the boy, as his -stepfather’s duties led the family away from Vevay to Madison and New -Albany, also on the Ohio, but larger towns than Vevay. When sixteen, -he spent more than a year with his father’s family in Virginia. The -sharp transition from the conditions in the newer to those of the older -country quickened his powers of observation. The tribulations of the -Western pioneers had been discussed in his hearing by his elders during -the most impressionable years of his childhood; his grandfather Craig’s -stone house was a reminder of times not remote when the Indians were a -daily menace; and the recitals of the wandering apostles of Methodism -in his mother’s house had given him further contact with the adventure -and romance of pioneer life. Virginia opened new vistas, and the novel -conditions of life that he found there extended his knowledge of men -and manners, and afforded an opportunity for criticism and comparison -that was of definite value. He found himself cousin to a considerable -part of the population, and this wide relationship gave him an -acquaintance with the charming social life of old Virginia; but he -counted himself an abolitionist, he says, from the time of this visit. - -The abundant vitality of Dr. Eggleston’s later years has been so -strikingly characteristic that it is difficult to believe that ill -health followed him from semi-invalid boyhood into manhood; but the -year after his return from Virginia he was sent to Minnesota in the -hope that the change might benefit him, and the kind fates thus threw -him into still other and different experiences. He was in the new -Northwest when the free-soil excitement in Kansas thrilled the country, -and he set out afoot, with a dirk knife as his only weapon, for the -scene of conflict. He has himself described the failure and result of -this excursion:-- - - “After weeks of weary walking and nights spent in the discomforts - of frontier cabins, I grew sick at heart and longed for the - companionship and refinements of home. I was rather glad to learn - that men from the free States were entirely shut out of the besieged - territory on the Iowa side. My moccasins were worn out, my feet - were sore, my little stock of money was failing, and I was tired of - husbanding it by eating crackers and cheese. I turned eastward at a - point west of Cedar Falls, crossed the Mississippi at Muscatine, and - after walking in all three or four hundred miles, I at length boarded - a railway train at a station near Galesburg, and reached my nearest - relatives after an enforced fast of twenty-four hours, without a cent - in my pocket, and looking, in my soiled and travel-worn garments, - like a young border ruffian. I had left home a pale invalid; I - returned sun-browned and well.” - -But this gain in bodily strength was not to profit him long. He had -been bred in the Methodist faith; his stepfather was a minister of -wide reputation in this denomination, and the youth, with his studious -disposition and gift for speech, turned naturally to the ministry. He -has said of himself that an inward conflict between his predisposition -to literary work and the tendency to religion and philanthropy began -in boyhood and has continued throughout his life. There were times in -his youth when his love for literature seemed an idolatry, and once in -a repentant mood he destroyed his youthful manuscripts and resolved -to abandon literature. He was now launched upon the Methodist circuit -rider’s life of hardship and peril, covering a four weeks’ itinerary -in the county of which New Albany is the capital, and performing his -duties with such diligence that in six months he was again a wreck. He -therefore removed to Minnesota, and continued in the ministry, save -for intervals of physical prostration, until, in 1866, he accepted -the editorship of _The Little Corporal_, a popular juvenile periodical -published at Chicago, and from that beginning was irresistibly drawn -to the business of making books. In 1874, he became pastor of a church -in Brooklyn, to which he gave the name of the Church of Christian -Endeavor, and which sought to make sunshine in shady places. It was, -indeed, the “Church of the Best Licks,” of the “Hoosier Schoolmaster,” -slightly conventionalized. Dr. Eggleston continued in the pastorate for -five years, devoting himself to his work with his accustomed zeal and -enthusiasm, which resulted in another collapse. He then retired finally -from the ministry; but the phrase, “Christian Endeavor,” first applied -by Dr. Eggleston to his Brooklyn church, is widely known as the name of -a society of young people. - -Unconscious preparation for a life-employment has rarely been more -clearly exemplified in American literature than in the case of Dr. -Eggleston. This is not true as to his novels of Western life merely, -but as to the later historical writing in which he has so successfully -detected and appraised various aspects of our social growth. His -early experiences at the West were indelibly written in his memory, -and though he did not at once transcribe them, his work as editor -sharpened his instincts and helped him to an appreciation of his own -material. His removal to New York in 1870 was another fortunate step -of preparation, for it gave him a perspective which he could not have -gained had he remained at the West. He wrote almost immediately “The -Hoosier Schoolmaster,” the first draft, designed for _Hearth and Home_, -being in the form of a short story, which he extended to its present -form at the suggestion of one of the proprietors of the periodical. -The reading of Taine’s “Art in the Netherlands” was the quickening -influence that led to the writing of the story. Dr. Eggleston learned -from Taine that an artist should paint what he sees, and he therefore -undertook to portray the illiterate people of southern Indiana. The -story was published in book form and gained wide popularity, which has -not diminished in the thirty years since its appearance. Dr. Eggleston -has been criticised severely in Indiana for the series of novels -that began with “The Hoosier Schoolmaster,” but this criticism has -come largely from a new generation that does not view these tales in -the light of history, and is, therefore, hardly competent to pass on -their veracity. By the legal tests for expert witnesses Dr. Eggleston -is certainly qualified to speak; his own experience and the social -evolution of the people of Indiana contribute to the creation of his -competency; and when we add to these considerations his instinctive -interest in the beginnings and tendencies of American life, it is not -possible to reject him. He knew, as he says, “the antique Hoosier.” The -Indiana of 1850 was very different from that of 1870, and Dr. Eggleston -was looking backward a score of years when he created Ralph Hartsook, -the youthful schoolmaster, and threw about him an atmosphere of -ignorance and vice. The story is an instructive footnote to the history -of education in Indiana. “Bud Means” is of the second generation of -Hoosiers--the generation which, outside of the first social order, had -little or no benefit of education, and which sank to the condition -of illiteracy that awakened presently the efforts of the faithful few -who won the fight for free schools. Courage preceded knowledge as a -requirement of pedagogues in the period of which Dr. Eggleston wrote. -“‘Lickin’ and larnin’ goes together; no lickin’, no larnin’,’ declared -Pete Jones.” The student who may hereafter scan the educational history -of Indiana and read with dismay the statistics compiled by Mills, will -welcome this unadorned tale, that illuminates and confirms the dry -facts of the statistician. Eggleston, the novelist, kept Eggleston, the -preacher, well in hand, and there is no tedious moralizing in the book. -It is not difficult to understand the prompt recognition of the story -or its long-continued attraction. The subject was novel, the characters -were new, and the scene was set in a region that had never before been -seriously explored by the story-teller. It was, as an army officer put -it, a cavalry dash into literature. The incidents were linked together -with skill, and their air of entire credibility has not been lost in -the years that have passed since it surprised and delighted its first -readers. Enjoyment of the story was not limited to English readers. -It was translated into French by Madame Blanc, and was published in -condensed form in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ with the title “Le Maitre -d’École de Flat Creek.” German and Danish translations followed, so -that “Bud Means” has enjoyed opportunities for foreign travel quite -unusual among his neighbors. - -“The End of the World” (1872) continued the series of stories which Dr. -Eggleston had begun in the “Schoolmaster.” Religious phenomena were -the most marked social expression in the time and place of which he -wrote. It was religion that offered to the isolated people of the new -frontier the only relief that their lives knew from toil, hardship, and -danger; and what appears now, at the distance of fifty years, to have -been a mania was with them a grave and vital matter. “The End of the -World” is a tale of the Millerite excitement, which swept the country -in 1842-1843, and Dr. Eggleston adapted it very entertainingly to the -purposes of fiction. “The Mystery of Metropolisville” (1873) led away -from Indiana into Minnesota, with which Dr. Eggleston had become -acquainted as a minister. Against a background of the land-booming -period, he illustrates the dangers and temptations of the pioneers; and -while the tale is less satisfactory than any of the Indiana series, it -remains after thirty years a readable novel. It was hardly possible -for Dr. Eggleston to forget wholly the people he had known on the -Ohio, and he introduces in “The Mystery of Metropolisville” a Hoosier -poet, who had left the “Waybosh” because his literary efforts were not -appreciated there. He carried his ambitions into Minnesota, became a -trapper and land speculator, and there, to quote from one of his own -stanzas,-- - - “His Hoosier harp hangs on the wild water-willer.” - -Dr. Eggleston had been established at New York for eight years when -he wrote “Roxy” (1878), one of the best of his books, and one which -depicts even more vividly than “The Hoosier Schoolmaster” his early -environment. He was now forty-one, and the years that had added to the -sum of his experience had developed also his natural instinct for -character. The dramatic quality, too, shows strongly in this tale, -which is, in its moral relation, a kind of Western “Scarlet Letter.” -There is more or less of Vevay in this novel,--it is not important -to inquire too curiously whether it be more or less,--and the pretty -river village, with its slight foreign color, which was derived from -the Swiss residents, the mystery and novelty of the broad river -highway, the simplicity of the life, its lazy gossip and its religious -enthusiasms, are all depicted with fidelity. The Bonabys, father and -son, the lurking figure of Nancy, Twonnet, and Roxy, possess the -interest that attaches to fresh types. The introduction of the volatile -Twonnet, a member of the Swiss Colony, in contrast with the sober Roxy, -the unobtrusive presentation of the religious problems that held the -attention of the community, and the blending of the threads of young -Bonaby’s destiny, are accomplished with skill and power. - -In “The Circuit Rider” (1874) Dr. Eggleston crossed the Indiana -boundary into southern Ohio, but for all critical purposes the type -remained the same. Political frontiers do not deter the novelist, -who enjoys extra-territorial privileges. “The Circuit Rider” is not -so entertaining a story as “Roxy.” The characters do not take hold of -the imagination here as in the later book, and those somewhat vague -qualities that combine to the creation of atmosphere are not blended -so effectively. But as a picture of the strenuous religious life of -the Ohio Valley in the early half of the century, the story is most -important. In “Roxy” the strife between Calvinism and Wesleyism is more -strongly contrasted; but “The Circuit Rider” gives a vivid impression -of a period that was made remarkable by the heroism and sacrifice of -the Methodist evangelists. After “Roxy” Dr. Eggleston did not return -to the field of his early successes until he wrote “The Graysons” -(1887). Like “The Circuit Rider” this story is not, geographically -speaking, of Indiana, but it is nevertheless of that broader Hoosierdom -which comprehended a small part of southern Ohio and considerably more -of Illinois. This is one of the best of all the Hoosier cycle, and, -indeed, one of the best of American novels. There is not an inartistic -line in the book, and the manner in which Lincoln is introduced -as a character,--appearing as the attorney for a boy charged with -murder, and winning his freedom by a characteristic resort to homely -philosophy,--is achieved so simply that the reader is left wondering -whether it could really have been the great Lincoln who participated -in one scene, performed his part, and thereupon disappeared from the -stage. A clumsy artist would have dwelt upon Lincoln, hinting at -his future greatness and reluctantly dismissing him; Dr. Eggleston -introduces the incident (which is based on fact) with an inadvertence -that enhances its interest and increases its suggestiveness. The -dialect in this tale is much more critical than that in any other -novel of Dr. Eggleston’s Western series. In his earlier stories, -written before the scientific study of American folk-speech had been -undertaken, the dialect is more general. Dr. Eggleston’s other works -of fiction are: “Mr. Blake’s Walking Stick” (1869); “Book of Queer -Stories” (1870); “The Schoolmaster’s Stories for Boys and Girls” -(1874); “Queer Stories for Boys and Girls” (1884); “The Faith Doctor” -(1891); “Duffels” (1893). “The Faith Doctor” is a novel of New York, -in which the prevailing interest in what Dr. Eggleston called “aerial -therapeutics” supplies the motive. “Duffels” is a collection of short -stories written at intervals throughout his literary career, with -scenes laid in many parts of the country, and illustrating happily the -versatility and the story-telling gift of the author. - -Dr. Eggleston began in 1880 researches for a history of life in the -United States. He pursued his studies abroad, as well as in American -libraries, and assembled at his summer home on Lake George a large -collection of Americana. The only published result of these studies -thus far is “The Beginners of a Nation” (1896), the most serious, -searching, and exhaustive essay in _Kultur-Geschichte_ yet presented -by an American. The mere politics of our history and its military -incidents had long received the attention of students, to the exclusion -of the social and domestic. A work such as Dr. Eggleston has undertaken -is vastly more difficult and therefore more important, for it requires -original research in the strictest sense. His other historical works so -far completed are: “A History of the United States and its People for -the Use of Schools” (1888); “The Household History of the United States -and its People” (1888); and “A First Book in American History” (1889). - -Dr. Eggleston’s life makes in itself a delightful story of aspiration -and achievement. Many Americans have experienced hardship and -discouragement, but few have profited so richly as this novelist and -historian by every whim of fortune. Ill health has menaced him all -his days, but physical infirmity has never conquered his ambition or -diminished his mental vitality. There is about him an exuberance of -spirits that is not only a distinguishing personal trait, but a quality -of all his stories. And if ill health in his youth and young manhood -interrupted the orderly course of education, it also brought him -opportunities for acquiring a broad knowledge of American provincial -life that no school could have given him. When Dr. Eggleston began to -write there was, outside of New England, little local literature, and -the value of dialect in interpretative fiction was only beginning to be -understood. Cable, Page, Harris, Murfree, “Octave Thanet,” were names -unknown to the catalogues when “The Hoosier Schoolmaster” appeared. -Mark Twain and Bret Harte were well embarked upon their careers; but -the one was a humorist and the other a romanticist, and neither had -undertaken to reproduce local speech accurately. Dr. Eggleston was the -pioneer provincial realist; and if, as he says, the great American -novel is being written in sections, he certainly contributed early -chapters, and indicated the lines to be followed. - -His marriage, in 1891, to Frances E. Goode, a granddaughter of his -father’s cousin, Judge Miles Cary Eggleston, renewed ties with Indiana -that had never been wholly broken during long years of absence. He has -often been a visitor to Madison, which was Mrs. Eggleston’s home, and -he spent the winter of 1899 in that beautiful and tranquil town. - - -II. _James Whitcomb Riley_ - -Crabbe and Burns are Mr. Riley’s forefathers in literature. Crabbe -was the pioneer in what may be called the realism of poetry; it was -he who rejected the romantic pastoralism that had so long peopled the -British fields with nymphs and shepherds, and introduced the crude -but actual country folk of England. The humor, the bold democracy, -and the social sophistication that he lacked were supplied in his own -day by Burns, and Burns had, too, the singing instinct and the bolder -art of which there are no traces in Crabbe. Something of Crabbe’s -realism and Burns’s humor and philosophy are agreeably combined in -Mr. Riley. His first successes were achieved in the portrayal of the -Indiana country and village folk in dialect. He has rarely seen fit -to vary his subject, and he has been faithful to the environment -from which he derived his inspiration. James Whitcomb Riley is an -interesting instance--perhaps, after Whittier, the most striking in -our literature--of a natural poet, taking his texts from the familiar -scenes and incidents of his own daily walks, and owing little or -nothing to the schools. He was born at Greenfield, the seat of -Hancock County, in 1849. His father, Reuben A. Riley, was a native -of Pennsylvania, of Dutch antecedents, though there is a tradition -of Irish ancestry in the family. He was a lawyer, who enjoyed a wide -reputation as an advocate, and was long reckoned among the most -effective political speakers in Indiana. He was a discriminating -reader and an occasional writer of both prose and verse. The poet’s -mother was a Marine, of a family in which an aptness for rhyming was -characteristic. The Greenfield schools have always been excellent, and -young Riley was fortunate in having for his teacher Lee O. Harris, -himself a poet, who tried to adapt the curriculum of the Hancock -County schools to the needs of an unusual pupil in whom imagination -predominated to the exclusion of mathematics. - -Learning is, as Higginson has aptly condensed it, not accumulation, but -assimilation; and “the Hoosier poet” was born one of those fortunate -men to whom schools are a mere incident of education, but who walk -through the world with their eyes open, adding daily to their stock -of knowledge. Bagehot enlarges on this trait as he discovers it in -Shakespeare, “throughout all whose writings,” he says, “you see an -amazing sympathy with common people.” The common people caught and -held the attention of Mr. Riley, and as the annalist of their simple -lives he established himself firmly in public affection. The half a -dozen colleges within a radius of fifty miles of his home did not -attract him; he was bred to no business, but followed in a tentative -way occupations that brought him into contact with people. He began -to write because he felt the impulse, and not because he breathed -a literary atmosphere or looked forward to a literary career. His -imagination needed some outlet, and he made verses just as he drew -pictures or acquired a knack at playing the guitar, taking one talent -about as seriously as the other. A Western county seat, with its daily -advent of pilgrims from the farms, affords an entertaining panorama for -a bright boy, and Mr. Riley began in his youth that careful observation -of the Indiana country folk, their ways and their speech, that was -later to afford him a seemingly inexhaustible supply of material. - -He had in his younger days something of Artemus Ward’s fondness for a -hoax, and he wrote “Leonaine,” in imitation of Poe’s manner, with so -marked success that several critics of discernment received the poem, -and the story of its discovery in an old school reader, in good faith. -In the experimental period of his career he read widely and to good -purpose, learning the mechanics of prosody from the best models. His -ear was naturally good, and he was distinctly original in his ideas of -form. He delighted in the manipulation of words into odd and surprising -combinations, and though the results were not always dignified, they -were, nevertheless, curious and amusing, and brought him a degree of -local fame. Mr. Riley’s contributions were wholly to newspapers through -many years, during which the more deliberate periodicals would have -none of him. He printed poems in the _Herald_, an Indianapolis weekly -paper, in which the poems of Edith M. Thomas and others who have since -gained a literary reputation first saw the light; and having attracted -the attention of E. B. Martindale, the owner of the Indianapolis -_Journal_, he was regularly employed on that paper, between 1877 and -1885, printing many of his best pieces there. He had the pleasure of -seeing his verses widely copied at that period, when the newspaper -press was his only medium of communication, and before he had printed -a volume. His first marked recognition followed the publication in the -_Journal_ of a series of poems signed “Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone,” -which not only awakened wide interest, but gave direction to a talent -that had theretofore been without definite aim. He encouraged the idea -that the poems were really the work of a countryman, and prefaced them -with letters in prose to add to their air of authenticity, much as -Lowell introduced the “Biglow Papers.” This series included “Thoughts -fer the Discuraged Farmer,” “When the Frost is on the Punkin,” and -“To My Old Friend, William Leachman,” which were winningly unaffected -and simple, bearing out capitally the impression of a bucolic poet -celebrating his own joys and sorrows. The charm of the “Benj. F. -Johnson” series lay in their perfect suggestion of a whimsical, lovable -character, and wherever Mr. Riley follows the method employed first in -those pieces, he never fails of his effect. - -It should be remembered, in passing from Riley masquerading as “Benj. -F. Johnson” to Riley undisguised, that two kinds of dialect are -represented. The Boone County poet’s contributions are printed as -the old farmer is supposed to have written them, not as reported by -a critical listener. There is a difference between the attempt of an -illiterate man to express his own ideas on paper, and a transcript of -his utterances set down by one trained to the business--the vernacular -as observed and recorded by a conscious artist. In every community -there is a local humorist, a sayer of quaint things, whose oddities -of speech gain wide acceptance and circulation, and Mr. Riley is his -discoverer in Indiana. Lowell, with his own New England particularly -in mind, said that “almost every county has some good die-sinker -in phrase, whose mintage passes into the currency of the whole -neighborhood”; and this may be applied generally to the South and -West. Mr. Riley writes always with his eye on a character; and those -who question his dialect do not understand that there is ever present -in his mind a real individual. The feeling and the incident are not -peculiar to the type; they usually lie within the range of universal -experience; but the expression, the manner, the figure of the subject, -are suggested in the poem, not by speech alone, but by the lilt of -the line and the form of the stanza. Mr. Riley is more interested in -odd characters, possessing marked eccentricities, than in the common, -normal type of the farm or the country town, and the dialect that he -employs often departs from the usual vocabulary of the illiterate in -the field he studies, and follows lines of individual idiosyncrasy. -The shrewdly humorous farmer who is a whimsical philosopher and rude -moralist delights him. This character appears frequently in his poems, -often mourning for the old times, now delighting in “noon-time an’ -June-time, down around the river”; and again expressing contentment -with his own lot, averring that “they’s nothin’ much patheticker ’n -just a-bein’ rich.” To these characters he gives a dialect that is -fuller than the usual rural speech: _ministratin’_ (ministering), -_resignated_ (resigned), _artificialer_ (more artificial), -_competenter_ (more competent), _tractabler_ (more tractable), and -_familiously_ (familiarly), not being properly in the Hoosier _lingua -rustica_, but easily conceivable as possible deviations. Mr. Riley has -been criticised for imputing to his characters such phrases as “when -the army broke out” and “durin’ the army,” referring to the Civil War, -and many careful observers declare that he could never have heard -these phrases; but very likely he has heard them from the eccentric -countrymen for whom he has so strong an affinity; or he may have coined -them outright as essential to the interpretation of such characters. -In the main, however, he may be followed safely as an accurate guide -in the speech of the Southeastern element of the population, and his -questionable usages and inconsistencies are few and slight, as the -phrase “don’t you know,” which does not always ring true, or “again” -and “agin,” used interchangeably and evidently as the rhyme may hint. -The abrupt beginning of a sentence, frequently noticed in Mr. Riley’s -dialect verses, is natural. The illiterate often experience difficulty -in opening a conversation, expressing only a fragment, to which an -interlocutor must prefix for himself the unspoken phrases. There is no -imposition in Mr. Riley’s dialect, for his amplifications of it are -always for the purpose of aiding in the suggestion of a character as he -conceives it; he does not pretend that he portrays in such instances a -type found at every cross-roads. “Doc Sifers” and “The Raggedy Man” are -not peculiar to Indiana, but have their respective counterparts in such -characters as Mark Twain’s “Pudd’n-head Wilson” and the wayside tramp, -who has lately been a feature of farce comedy rather than of our social -economy. “Fessler’s Bees,” “Nothin’ to say,” “Down to the Capital,” -“A Liz-town Humorist,” and “Squire Hawkins’s Story” show Mr. Riley at -his happiest as a delineator of the rural type. In these sketches he -gives in brief compass the effect of little dramas, now humorous, now -touched with simple and natural pathos, and showing a nice appreciation -of the color of language which is quite as essential in dialect as -in pure English. But it matters little that the _dramatis personæ_ -change, or that the literary method varies; the same kindliness, the -same blending of humor and pathos, and the same background of “green -fields and running brooks” characterize all. “The crude man is,” the -poet believes, “generally moral,” and the Riley Hoosier is intuitively -religious, and is distinguished by his rectitude and sense of justice. - -Mr. Riley made his work effective through the possession of a sound -instinct for appraising his material, combined with a good sense -of proportion. His touch grew steadily firmer, and he became more -fastidious as the public made greater demands upon him; for while -his poems in dialect gained him a hearing, he strove earnestly for -excellence in the use of literary English. He has written many poems of -sentiment gracefully and musically, and with no suggestion of dialect. -Abundant instances of his felicity in the strain of retrospect and -musing might be cited. The same chords have been struck time and -time again; but they take new life when he touches them, as in “The -All-Golden”:-- - - “I catch my breath, as children do - In woodland swings when life is new, - And all the blood is warm as wine - And tingles with a tang divine.... - O gracious dream, and gracious time, - And gracious theme, and gracious rhyme-- - When buds of Spring begin to blow - In blossoms that we used to know, - And lure us back along the ways - Of time’s all-golden yesterdays!” - -It is not the farmer alone whose simple virtues appeal to him; but -rugged manhood anywhere commands his tribute, and he has hardly written -a more touching lyric than “Away,” whose subject was an Indiana -soldier:-- - - “I cannot say, and I will not say - That he is dead--He is just away!” - -He has his own manner of expressing an idea, and this individuality -is so marked that it might lead to the belief that he had little -acquaintance with the classic English writers. But his series of -imitations, including the prose of Scott and Dickens and the -characteristic poems of Tennyson and Longfellow, are certainly the -work of one who reads to good purpose and has a feeling for style. -When he writes naturally there is no trace of bookishness in his work; -he rarely or never invokes the mythologies, though it has sometimes -pleased him to imagine Pan piping in Hoosier orchards. He is read -and quoted by many who are not habitual readers of poetry--who would -consider it a sign of weakness to be caught in the act of reading -poems of any kind, but who tolerate sentiment in him because he makes -it perfectly natural and surrounds it with a familiar atmosphere -of reality. The average man must be trapped into any display of -emotion, and Mr. Riley spreads for him many nets from which there is -no escape, as in “Nothin’ to say, my daughter,” where the subject is -the loneliness and isolation of the father whose daughter is about -to marry, and who faces the situation clumsily, in the manner of all -fathers, rich or poor. The remembrance of the dead wife and mother -adds to the pathos here. The old man turns naturally to the thought of -her:-- - - “You don’t rickollect her, I reckon? No; you wasn’t a year old then! - And now yer--how old _air_ you? W’y, child, not ‘_twenty_’! When? - And yer nex’ birthday’s in Aprile? and you want to git married that - day? - I wisht yer mother was livin’!--but I hain’t got nothin’ to say! - Twenty year! and as good a gyrl as parent ever found! - There’s a straw ketched onto yer dress there--I’ll bresh it off--turn - round. - (Her mother was jest twenty when us two run away.) - Nothin’ to say, my daughter! Nothin’ at all to say!” - -The drolleries of childhood have furnished Mr. Riley subjects for some -of his most original and popular verses. Here, again, he does not -accept the conventional children of literature, whom he calls “the -refined children, the very proper children--the studiously thoughtful, -poetic children”; but he seeks “the rough-and-tumble little fellows ‘in -hodden gray,’ with frowzly heads, begrimed but laughing faces, and such -awful vulgarities of naturalness, and crimes of simplicity, and brazen -faith and trust, and love of life and everybody in it!” It is in this -spirit that he presents now the naïve, now the perversely erring, and -again the eerie and elfish child. He is a master of those enchantments -of childhood that transfigure and illumine and create a world of the -imagination for the young that is undiscoverable save to the elect few. -He does not write patronizingly to his audience; but listens, as one -should listen in the realm of childhood, with serious attention, and -then becomes an amanuensis, transcribing the children’s legends and -guesses at the riddle of existence in their own language. “The Raggedy -Man” is not a romantic figure; he is the shabby chore-man of the -well-to-do folk in the country town, and the friend and oracle of small -boys. His mind is filled with rare lore, he-- - - “Knows ’bout Giunts, an’ Griffuns an’ Elves - An’ the Squidgicum-Squees ’at swallers therselves!” - -And he may be responsible, too, for “Little Orphant Annie’s” knowledge -of the “Gobble-uns,” which Mr. Riley turned into the most successful of -all his juvenile pieces. He reproduces most vividly a child’s eager, -breathless manner of speech, and the elisions and variations that make -the child-dialect. Interspersed through “The Child World,” a long poem -in rhymed couplets, are a number of droll juvenile recitatives; but -this poem has a much greater value than at first appears. It presents -an excellent picture of domestic life in a western country town, and -the town is Mr. Riley’s own Greenfield, on the National Road. This -poem is a faithful chronicle, lively and humorous, full of the local -atmosphere, and never dull. The descriptions of the characters are -in Mr. Riley’s happiest vein: the father of the house, a lawyer and -leading citizen; the patient mother; the children with their various -interests, leading up to “Uncle Mart,” the printer, who aspired to be -an actor-- - - “He joyed in verse-quotations--which he took - Out of the old ‘Type Foundry Specimen Book.’” - -The poem is written in free, colloquial English, broken by lapses into -the vernacular. It contains some of his best writing, and proves him -to possess a range and breadth of vision that are not denoted in his -lyrical pieces alone. “The Flying Islands of the Night, a fantastic -drama in verse,” his only other effort of length, was written earlier. -It abounds in the curious and capricious, but it lacks in simplicity -and reserve--qualities that have steadily grown in him. - -Humor is preëminent in Mr. Riley, and it suggests that of Dickens in -its kinship with pathos. It seems to be peculiar to the literature of -lowly life that there is heartache beneath much of its gayety, and -tears are almost inevitably associated with its laughter. Mr. Riley -never satirizes, never ridicules his creations; his attitude is always -that of the kindly and admiring advocate; and it is by enlisting -the sympathy of his readers, suggesting much to their feeling and -imagination, and awakening in them a response that aids and supplements -his own work, that Mr. Riley has won his way to the popular heart. -The restraints of fixed forms have not interfered with his adequate -expression of pure feeling. This is proved by the sonnet, “When She -Comes Home Again,” which is one of the tenderest of his poems. In the -day that saw many of his contemporaries in the younger choir of poets -carving cherry stones of verse after French patterns he found old -English models sufficient, and his own whim supplied all the variety -he needed. Heroic themes have not tempted him; he has never attained -sonority or power, and has never needed them; but melody and sweetness -and a singular gift of invention distinguish him. - -Many imitators have paid tribute to Mr. Riley’s dialect verse, for -most can grow the flowers after the seed have been freely blown in -the market-place. Perhaps the best compliment that can be paid to -Mr. Riley’s essential veracity is to compare the verse of those who -have made attempts similar to his own. He is, for example, a much -better artist than Will Carleton, who came before him, and whose “Farm -Ballads” are deficient in humor; and he possesses a breadth of sympathy -and a depth of sincerity that Eugene Field did not attain in dialect -verse, though Field’s versatility and fecundity were amazing. There is -nowhere in Mr. Riley a trace of the coarse brutality with which Mr. -Hamlin Garland, for example, stamps the life of a region lying farther -west. There is no point of contact between Lowell and Mr. Riley in -their dialectic performances, as civic matters do not interest the -Indianian; and his view of the Civil War becomes naturally that of the -countryman who looks back with wistful melancholy, not to the national -danger and dread, but to the neighborhood’s glory and sorrow, as in -“Good-by, Jim.” It might also be said that Mr. Riley has never put the -thoughts of statesmen into the mouths of countrymen, as Lowell did, -consistency being one of his qualities. There has sprung up in Mr. -Riley’s time a choir of versifiers who are journalistic rather than -literary, and who write for the day, much as the reporters do. Mr. -Riley, more than any one else, has furnished the models for these, and -it would seem that verses could be multiplied interminably, or so long -as such refrains as “When father winds the clock” and “The hymns that -mother used to sing” can be found for texts. - -With the publication of the “Benj. F. Johnson” poems in a paper-covered -booklet, Mr. Riley’s literary career began. The intervening years have -brought him continuous applause; his books of verse have been sold -widely in this country and in England, and that, too, in “the twilight -of the poets,” with its contemporaneous oblivion for many who have -labored bravely in the paths of song. He early added to his reputation -as a writer that of a most successful reader of his own poems, and on -both sides of the Atlantic his work and his unique personality have -won for him the friendship of many distinguished literary men of the -day. It is to be said that the devotion of the people of his own State -to their poet, from first to last, has been marked by a cordiality -and loyalty that might well be the envy of any man in any field of -endeavor. No other Western poet has ever occupied a similar place; and -the reciprocal devotion, on the other hand, of the poet to his own -people, is not less noteworthy or admirable. He has always resented -the suggestion that he should leave Indiana for Boston or New York, -where he might be more in touch with the makers of books; and in recent -years he purchased the old family residence at Greenfield, to which -he returns frequently for rest and inspiration. For fifteen years he -has been the best-known figure in Indianapolis, studying with tireless -attention the faces in the streets, nervously ranging the book-stores, -and often sitting down to write a poem at the desk of some absentee -in the _Journal_ office. His frequent reading and lecturing tours -have been miserable experiences for him, as he is utterly without the -instinct of locality, and has timidly sat in the hotels of strange -towns for many hours for lack of the courage requisite for exploration. -Precision and correctness have distinguished him in certain ways, being -marked, for example, in matters of dress and in his handwriting; his -manuscripts are flawlessly correct, and the slouch and negligence of -the traditional poet are not observed in him. - -His long list of books includes “Afterwhiles” (1887); “Pipes of Pan at -Zekesbury” (1888); “Old-fashioned Roses” (1889); “Rhymes of Childhood” -(1891); and “Poems Here at Home” (1897); and he has known the luxury of -a cosmopolitan edition of his writings in a series that embraced the -definitive Stevenson. Fame came to Mr. Riley when he was still young, -and it is only a fair assumption that he has not exhausted his field, -but that he will grow more and more secure in it. Serious work it has -not always been possible for him to do, for his audience learned to -expect humor in all his verses, and refused to be disappointed; but -his ambition lies beyond humorous dialect, though he finds no fault -with the public preference. All that he writes is welcome, for he is -a preacher of sound optimism and a sincere believer in the final good -that comes to all. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -CRAWFORDSVILLE - - -There is an ineffable charm about an old town that has outlived its -ambition to be a great city, and Crawfordsville is a fine type of such -a place. The region was settled in 1823, and the Montgomery County -people, both farmers and townfolk, have long been counted among the -sturdiest and most intelligent in the State. A cultivated society has -always existed at Crawfordsville, and as the seat of Wabash College it -acquired in its youth an academic air that it has never shaken off. -The town has been called “The Hoosier Athens,” by envious and less -favored neighbors. The analogy is not wholly fortunate, as there are -neither porticoes nor statues on the college campus, and no Cimon found -occupation here, as at the elder Athens, in tree-planting. Nature had -anticipated the need of “groves of academe,” and the trees about the -college and through the town are truly of the forest primeval, giving -the agreeable impression of a _rus in urbe_. Crawfordsville has often -sent young men elsewhere to find occupation; but if its commercial -attractions have been slight, its educational advantages have been -proportionately great, and Wabash is able to point to a long list of -successful alumni. The spirit of change has rarely invaded the college, -and men are now holding chairs who have grown old in its service. -Wabash has been content to do honest college work and has never made -false pretensions as to its ability to do more. “Mere literature,” as -Bagehot fondly called it, has not been disregarded, and in no college -of ampler endowment have the classics been taught more sympathetically -or intelligently. It is one of the few colleges remaining at the West -which close their doors to women, although importunate hands have long -besought the wicket. - -The honor and dignity of learning have come to have a real meaning -here, not only to those who seek instruction at the college, but to the -people of the town as well. Wabash may not have directly influenced -those who made Crawfordsville a seat of authorship, but certainly a -fortunate chance led makers of books to seek the congenial atmosphere -created by the college. In such a place one may not grow rich, but one -may dwell contented; and while coarser commerce has not flourished -greatly, much valuable manuscript has freighted the east-bound mails -from Crawfordsville. Authorship and scholarship alone have not engaged -the inhabitants. Joseph E. McDonald, later a senator in Congress, once -lived here, as did also John M. Butler, who became McDonald’s law -partner at Indianapolis and one of the ablest men of the Western bar. -Butler’s son, John Maurice Butler, was born at Crawfordsville, and his -untimely death (1896) removed the man of most charming personality, -and the keenest wit of his generation at the capital. Henry Beebee -Carrington had identified himself with Indiana’s participation in -the War of the Rebellion before he became (1870-1873) professor of -military science at Wabash. His stay at Crawfordsville was brief, -but the inhabitants prefer to believe that as he once breathed the -Athenian air they are entitled to share with Connecticut, his native -State and later home, in the credit for his writings. The Whitlocks and -the Elstons were among the first settlers, and were prominent in all -the earlier labors of the community. Henry S. Lane, General Wallace’s -brother-in-law, was a senator in Congress (1860-1867), and lived and -died here. - - -I. _General Lew Wallace_ - -General Lew Wallace, whose varied achievements have contributed so -largely to the town’s fame, was not born at Crawfordsville, but at -Brookville, in Franklin County, April 10, 1827. His father, David -Wallace, had resigned from the regular army soon after his graduation -from West Point in 1821. He studied law at Brookville, and soon began -an interesting public career. He was one of the political giants of -the State in his day, holding many offices and positions of honor. -His first wife, General Wallace’s mother, was the daughter of John -Test, of a family long prominent in the State. General Wallace was an -adventurous boy, impatient of all restraint, and fond of wandering, -and he therefore received little systematic education; but his father -owned an excellent library, and, as has happened with other boys who -have refused to submit to the schoolmaster, he found his own way to -the book shelves. He was for a time a student at Hoshour’s school at -Centerville; and he once ran away to join an older brother at Wabash; -but he was either unwilling or unable to break his nomadic habits, -and continued to roam the woods until, at sixteen, his school bills -were audited for the last time. He was beset by several ambitions; -literature, art, and a military career invited him. He had some skill -at sketching, and painted a portrait of Black Hawk, the Indian chief, -drawing on the family medicine chest for castor oil to use in mixing -his colors. He also completed a novel, “The Man at Arms: A Tale of -the Tenth Century,” of which he remembers little; but Sulgrove in one -of his chronicles darkly hints that it was of the school of G. P. R. -James. Robert Duncan, clerk of Marion County, in which Indianapolis -is situated, employed him as copyist, and he varied this prosaic -occupation by reading law in his father’s office. The Mexican War now -broke upon the country, and as Lewis--the second syllable disappeared -during the Civil War--had painted a picture and written a romance, he -now turned naturally to his third ambition. He organized a company and -went south with the First Indiana Infantry. The regiment saw little -of the war, but the campaign and his personal experience in military -matters confirmed young Wallace’s purpose to write a novel of Mexico, -for which, by a kind of prevision and the inspiration of Prescott, -he had already made tentative sketches. On his return to Indiana he -again took up the law, and practised at Covington until 1852, when -he removed to Crawfordsville, which has ever since been his home. -He presently organized a military company, known as the “Montgomery -Guards,” and equipped it with the Zouave uniform. This furnished an -outlet for his ceaseless energy, and also for his pocket-book, as the -State contributed nothing to the company’s support. He brought it to -a high standard of efficiency, and at the outbreak of the Civil War -it was one of the best-drilled military organizations in the country. -Governor Morton appointed Mr. Wallace adjutant-general of the State -at the first sign of hostilities, but he served in this capacity for -a short time only, and organized the Eleventh Indiana Regiment, with -his original Crawfordsville company as nucleus, and began an active -and brilliant career in the army. Almost immediately his regiment -distinguished itself in West Virginia. He was a brigadier-general -before the capture of Fort Henry, and was made major-general for -gallantry at Donelson. A year after Shiloh, a friend called General -Wallace’s attention to the official reports of that engagement, and he -learned for the first time that he had been censured for his conduct on -the first day of the battle. He asked at once for a court of inquiry, -which was denied, and a long controversy followed. This died out for -a time, but was renewed when Grant began the serial publication of -his memoirs. It was always maintained by General Wallace’s friends -that Grant was unjust to Wallace; that the Indiana officer faithfully -obeyed orders actually given him; and certainly no one who ever had -any acquaintance with General Wallace would believe him capable of -intentionally taking a circuitous route to a battle-field. The -effective service of his command on the second day of the battle -should forever have stilled criticism; as it was, Grant wrote in his -memoirs--the last words that ever came from his pen--a footnote to his -account of Pittsburg Landing that fairly acquitted General Wallace of -all blame. Much has been written, by participants and others, touching -the incident, and it has been made the subject of an exhaustive study -by George F. McGinnis.[43] While stationed at Baltimore, in 1864, -General Wallace prevented a Confederate descent upon Washington by -intercepting Jubal Early at Monocacy. He threw 6,000 men against -Early’s force of 28,000, suffering defeat, but detaining the enemy -until Grant could send reënforcements from Virginia. This was one of -the most important of all his military services, and he received for it -Grant’s cordial praise. General Wallace was a member of the court that -tried the conspirators implicated in the assassination of Lincoln; and -he was president of the commission that tried and convicted Captain -Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville Prison. - -When General Wallace returned to Crawfordsville at the close of the -war he was thirty-eight; he had served creditably in one war and -with enviable distinction in a second, and he turned to the arts of -peace from a military experience that had given him wide reputation -and acquaintance among public men of the Civil War period. He began -industriously to reëstablish himself in his law practice, and varied -his occupation with study and literary work. “The Man at Arms,” his -youthful attempt at “A Tale of the Tenth Century,” had disappeared -during his absence in Mexico; but the ambition to write a romance -of the invasion of Cortez, and his manuscript beginnings of it, had -survived two wars, and he now set about finishing the story. He had -at this time no definite ambition to become an author, and he gave -his evenings to the writing of “The Fair God” with little idea of -ever publishing it. After its completion he carried it East with him -on a business journey. Whitelaw Reid gave him an introduction to a -Boston publisher, and the result was the appearance of the tale in -1873. He had spent in all about twelve years on the book, part having -been written, as already stated, in his boyhood; and the author’s -faithfulness to his early purpose through many years that had brought -new duties and obligations is in keeping with his whole character. - -The scenes of “The Fair God” were unfamiliar to the novel reader, and -the very names in the book were somewhat disconcerting; but the tale -was received in the beginning with a fair degree of interest, and it -has ever since enjoyed a steady sale. The subsequent success of “Ben -Hur” directed attention anew to General Wallace’s earlier tale, but -the romance was something more than an amateur effort, and time has -not diminished its entertaining qualities. As a picture of Aztecan -civilization it is accurate, and the incidents are related in an -orderly and natural manner that holds the attention. The devotion of -the people to their religion is impressive; but the tale is essentially -a military romance. The battle scenes following the appearance of -Cortez and his Spaniards are described with an animation and an -amplitude that impart to the reader the sense of beholding a series of -great spectacles. The book is rich in those surprises which it is the -business of the romancer to produce; and the chapters descriptive of -the battle towers (_mantas_) which were among the European’s resources, -and of the retreat of the invaders, are noisy with the clang of battle. -The prophecies of the mystic priest Mualox, who sees through the eyes -of a child the coming of the Spaniards, are interesting; and curiously -enough they had their origin in an incident of General Wallace’s own -experience in Indiana, showing how the imagination may play upon the -commonplace. When he lived at Covington, he formed the acquaintance -of a tailor who was deeply interested in the occult sciences, and who -once invited General Wallace to his shop to witness manifestations of -his powers. The tailor placed his apprentice under a kind of hypnotic -influence, and told General Wallace to take the boy’s hand and to -follow in his own mind some route with whose details he was familiar. -General Wallace obeyed, mentally reviewing a highway that led to the -house of a farmer client. The boy’s lips moved, and he coherently -described the road, and presently the farmhouse, just as General -Wallace saw them; then he abruptly ceased to follow the leader’s train -of thought. He said that it was night; that some one came out of the -house with a light, walked about inspecting the barnyard, and then -returned to the house. The boy had now become exhausted; the tailor -revived him, and General Wallace went on to his home. A few days -later, when the countryman whose farm had figured in the incident -came to town, General Wallace asked him if he had been at home at -the hour mentioned; he replied that he had been at home and asleep. -Further questioning elicited the statement that at about the time of -the experiment at the tailor shop he had been aroused by noises in the -barnyard, and that, fearing some marauder was after his fowls, he had -taken a light and gone out to see that all was secure. - -The friendly reception of “The Fair God” did not awaken any unusual -interest in General Wallace as a writer. He continued at Crawfordsville -the life of a lawyer of polite tastes, keenly interested in politics. -“The Fair God” out of the way, he began almost immediately to cast -about for some new literary employment. In about 1874 it occurred -to him to write a novelette, whose principal incident should be the -meeting of the Wise Men in the Desert and the birth of Christ. The -brief account in the Gospels had long appealed to his imagination, and -he wrote what is now the first book of “Ben Hur,” intending to offer -it to some magazine for publication as a sketch, with illustrations. -While the manuscript still lay in his desk, he met on a railway journey -an old friend, Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, and in the course of -conversation the famous sceptic touched on the subject of Christianity. -General Wallace had always been indifferent in religious matters, -neither denying nor affirming; but Ingersoll’s downright iconoclasm -alarmed him. He determined to investigate the subject and form his -own conclusions; and he began researches and studies which continued -through five years. When he had concluded, he fully accepted the tenets -of Christian faith, and he had amplified his sketch of the Wise Men -into the novel “Ben Hur.” Continuous labor had not been possible during -the writing of this tale: he had been busy with everyday affairs; -politics received a share of his attention; and he became, in 1878, by -appointment of President Hayes, governor of New Mexico Territory. He -lived at Santa Fé for three years, and much of “Ben Hur” was written -in the governor’s house there. General Wallace had never visited -Palestine when he wrote “Ben Hur,” but there are points of resemblance -between the landscape of New Mexico and that of the Holy Land, and -these were of assistance. He procured a profile map of Palestine, and -was so attentive to topographical detail that later, when he visited -the scenes of his story in company with a recognized authority in -ancient history, every feature of the country as described in the book -was verified. An immense amount of labor is represented in this novel. -Many volumes were consulted in the search for antiquarian lore, that it -might lack nothing that would aid in conveying an accurate impression -of the period. - -The book was capitally planned, striking episodes falling into place -naturally, and not too abundantly. The meeting of the Wise Men, the sea -fight, and the chariot race are dramatic to a degree; but the sombre -picture of the crucifixion is unmarred by excess. The reverence which -characterizes every mention of the Saviour is the author’s happiest -achievement in the story. The subject is difficult, but it is handled -with admirable taste and refinement. However, the book does not depend -for continued attention on its interest as a religious novel; it is -equally noteworthy for its comprehensive grasp of the politics of the -period, its picture of the various peoples that flowed through the -streets of Jerusalem and Antioch, and the suggestion of a romantic -commerce whose exploits lay in strange seas and beyond the deserts. -Nothing in the book is accomplished more skilfully than the slow -extinction of the idea of the coming of a great ruler of the world, -to rebuild the throne of Solomon, and the gradual acceptance of the -spiritual significance of Christ’s advent; and it may be taken, in -connection with the history of the novel, as a revelation of the growth -in the author’s own mind of a belief in the divine Saviour. Historical -novels, particularly those that look to antiquity for subjects, follow -necessarily certain traditions, and these are observed carefully by -General Wallace. Scott, more than any other, helped him, and “Ivanhoe,” -in particular, was his model. The writing in “Ben Hur” is uniformly -good, and the dialogue in archaic speech is well sustained. General -Wallace wrote out of an ample vocabulary enriched by the constant -reading of Oriental narrative, and in his descriptions the epithets -are always apposite. The success of “Ben Hur” was not immediate. It -sold slowly for several years, but it gained steadily in popularity -and continues in favor with the booksellers. It has been translated -into all the European languages, into Arabic and Japanese, and it is -accessible to the blind in raised-letter. The sale of the copyright -edition in America (1900) exceeds 1,200,000, which is probably -greater than that of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Many playwrights and actors -proposed to General Wallace from time to time the dramatization of -“Ben Hur,” but he feared that the spirit of reverence, which he had -so consistently communicated to the novel, would be lost in any play -founded upon its incidents. He declined all offers until, in 1899, a -plan was submitted which met his approval, and in the fall of that -year the play was given its first presentation at New York. - -When President Garfield appointed General Wallace minister to Turkey, -he wrote across his commission “Ben Hur.” General Wallace called at the -White House, just before leaving for his post, to pay his respects to -the President, and Garfield said to him: “I expect another book from -you. Your official duties will not be so onerous that you cannot write -it. Make the scene Constantinople.” The opportunity thus presented for -further literary work was a consideration in accepting the post. The -Turkish occupation of Constantinople is an incident of great historical -importance, and in his search for material for a new romance, General -Wallace determined to write a tale that should present a picture of -the fierce struggle between Christian and Moslem. His studies at -Constantinople led to the writing of “The Prince of India.” The Prince -is “The Wandering Jew.” He appears as a man of mysterious gifts, who -wields great wealth and power. He has discovered what he believes to -be common ground upon which all the spiritually minded may meet, -irrespective of religion. He appears before the Emperor Constantine and -presents his plan for a universal religious union, but he horrifies -the theologians, and finding the Christians unsympathetic, he turns -to Mohammed, and bestows upon him the sword of Solomon, the sign of -conquest, which he had found in the tomb of Hiram, King of Tyre. The -tale has neither the interest of “Ben Hur” nor the novelty and military -ardor of “The Fair God.” The subject required deliberate treatment, -and the hero, who is a scholar and a mystic, naturally deals in words -oftener than in actions. - -General Wallace’s other writings are “The Boyhood of Christ” (1889), -and “The Wooing of Malkatoon: a Turkish Tale, with Commodus, a Play” -(1898), both in blank verse. - -There is nothing in General Wallace’s literary career to encourage -hasty and careless workmanship. His methods have been, from the -beginning, those of a conscientious artist, who strives for excellence -and is capable of cheerfully casting aside the work of many days if, -by additional labor, he can gain better results. He parleys with a -sentence or debates with a synonym with a caution that is akin to -Oriental diplomacy. He has probably never written even a social letter -carelessly, and if his correspondence were to be collected, it would -prove to be of the same quality as his best printed work. There has -always been a dignity in his ambitions. Military leadership came to -him naturally, and when he took up literature, it was in a serious -way, with subjects that were new and daring. By making every stroke -count, and paying no heed to changing literary fashions, he has, in the -intervals of unusually varied and exacting employments, cultivated the -literary art with enviable success. - -Heredity and environment explain nothing in General Wallace. He is an -estray from the Orient, whom Occidental conditions have influenced -little. This is proved by all his imaginative writing, by his military -tastes, by many qualities of his personality, and by his appearance -and bearing. He has never written of American life, and the attraction -of Mexico as a field for fiction lay in the splendor and remoteness -of the early civilization of the country, combined with the romance -of its conquest by soldiers of Spain. In like manner, “Ben Hur” and -“The Prince of India” are such subjects as would naturally appeal -to him. His fancy has delighted always in the thought of pageantry, -conquest, mystery, and mighty deeds; it has pleased him to contemplate -the formal social life of the old heroic times. The beginning of his -friendship with the Sultan illustrates a sympathy, native in him, with -the Oriental character. General Wallace had reached Constantinople -after his appointment as minister, but had not been formally received. -On Friday, the Moslem Sunday, he went with the multitude to see the -Sultan go to prayer. General Wallace was entitled, by act of Congress, -to wear the uniform of a major-general in the United States army, and -he was clad in all the regalia of the rank. Between the gate of the -imperial park and the Mosque which the Sultan attended was a small -house, with a platform in front of it, set apart to strangers, and -there General Wallace viewed the procession. The dark man in the rich -uniform attracted the attention of the Sultan as he passed, and from -the Mosque he sent Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna, then marshal of -the palace, to learn the identity of the stranger. On finding that he -was the new American minister awaiting audience, the Sultan sent an -invitation to General Wallace to accompany him on his return to the -palace, an honor never before accorded to a minister not yet received. -A carriage was sent for the American, who returned in the brilliant -cortège next to the carriage of the Sultan. The reception at the palace -was particularly distinguished, and thereafter the relations between -the two were intimate and cordial. The Sultan often summoned the -minister to the palace, sometimes requesting interviews at the dead of -night. All their conversation was through an interpreter, as the Sultan -knew no English and General Wallace did not speak French. - -There was early stamped upon General Wallace an air of authority that -went well with the military profession; but later years have softened -this into a courtliness and grace of manner wholly charming. The -Oriental strain in him has become more and more pronounced, suggesting -that the years spent in the study of Eastern history, and his actual -contact with Oriental peoples, have emphasized it. - -Mrs. Wallace (born Susan Arnold Elston) is a native of Crawfordsville. -Her father was a pioneer of central Indiana. The homes of his -descendants are grouped in Elston Grove, one of the prettiest spots in -Crawfordsville. General and Mrs. Wallace were married in 1852, and she -is “the wife of my youth,” to whom “Ben Hur” was dedicated. He received -so many consolatory letters based on this inscription, which seemed to -be misunderstood, that in later editions he changed it, adding “who -still abides with me.” Mrs. Wallace began writing at an early age, both -prose and verse. She has never collected her poems, though several of -them, as “The Patter of Little Feet,” written years ago, are frequently -brought to the attention of a new audience by the newspapers. She has -printed one book of fiction, “Ginevra” (1887), and three books of -travel sketches, “The Storied Sea” (1884); “The Land of the Pueblos” -(1888); and “The Repose in Egypt” (1888). Mrs. Wallace has a happy -manner of describing places and incidents, and the papers in these -volumes show the spontaneity and ease of good letters, and are without -the guide-book taint. They were intended, as the author stated in the -preface to “The Storied Sea,” for patient, gentle souls seeking rest -“from that weariness known in our dear native land as mental culture.” -Mrs. Wallace shares her husband’s liking for Eastern subjects, and her -Egyptian and Turkish papers, in particular, are delightful reading. - - -II. _Maurice Thompson_ - -No other Indianian has lived so faithfully as Maurice Thompson a -life devoted to literary ideals, and none of his contemporaries -among writers of the West and South has been more loyally devoted to -pure _belles-lettres_ than he. Abstract beauty has appealed to him -more strongly than to any other writer of the Indiana group, and he -has expressed it in his poems, through media suggested by his own -environment, with charm and grace. He is a native of Indiana, having -been born at Fairfield, near Brookville, September 9, 1844. His father -was of Scotch-Irish ancestry; his maternal grandfather was of Dutch -origin; and both lines were represented in the Southwestern migration -at the beginning of the century. In Maurice’s childhood his father, -who was a Baptist clergyman, made several changes of residence, all -tending southward, removing first to southeastern Missouri, then to -Kentucky, and again within a few years to the valley of the Coosawattee -in northern Georgia. Here the senior Thompson became a planter, and -Maurice enjoyed thereafter, until he reached manhood, a life in -which the study of books was ideally blended with the freedom of the -country. He has always expressed great obligations to his mother’s -influences during these years; her literary tastes were sound, and -she imparted to her children the love of good books, overcoming by -her own encouragement and guidance the absence of schools in their -neighborhood. Tutors were procured for higher mathematics and the -languages; but the chief impulse to the study of the old literatures -lay in the youth’s own taste and temperament. Like Lanier, Hayne, -Esten Cooke, John B. Tabb, and others who were to become known in -literature, he entered the Confederate army (1862), and saw hard -service until the surrender. Even these years of soldier experience -did not interrupt wholly his studies, for he usually managed to carry -with him some book worth reading, the essays of De Quincey and Carlyle -belonging to this period. Mr. Thompson returned to his father’s -plantation at the close of the war, and remained there for three -years, continuing his studies as before, but substituting hard manual -labor for the life of pleasant adventure by field and flood that had -given him from boyhood into early manhood an intimate acquaintance -with wild things. He now began, of necessity, to accommodate himself -to the changed conditions of the community and of his own family. He -had studied engineering, and he perfected himself in it, and read law. -Reconstruction moved forward slowly, and wishing to get as quickly -as possible into a region where his material prospects could be -improved, he went to Crawfordsville, without fixed purpose, and found -employment with a railway surveying party. He supported himself by -engineering until he felt justified in taking up the law, in which -he was successful, and to which he was constant until the increase of -literary reputation and steady employment in more congenial labor made -it possible for him to abandon it. His marriage to a daughter of John -Lee, an influential citizen of the county, fixed him as a resident of -Crawfordsville, which has since remained his home. For a number of -years he was prominent in local politics. He sat once in the State -legislature, and he was appointed State geologist in 1885. - -Mr. Thompson had written experimentally in boyhood, and after his -removal to Indiana he continued the cultivation of his gifts, and -beginning slowly, attained to an abundant production, in both prose -and poetry, that made him through many years the Western author whose -name most frequently occurred in the indices of the best magazines. -During his youth in the Cherokee country he had been initiated into -the mysteries of archery by a hermit who lived in the midst of a pine -forest near his home. Mr. Thompson and his brother, Will H. Thompson, -were both enthusiastic archers and hunters, and their adventures in the -wilds of Florida were full of romantic interest. The bow was with them -a kind of protest against the shot-gun, and assured a less murderous -extirpation of game. Their own skill with the primitive weapon was -remarkable, and as a recurrence of interest in the bow in this country -is not imminent, they may be considered the last of American archers. -Proficiency in this sport and the acquaintance with woodcraft to which -it led were important influences in Mr. Thompson’s first literary work. -In the seventies, a great revival in archery swept the country, and -this was wholly due to a series of articles on archery and on hunting -with the long bow which Mr. Thompson printed in the periodicals. These -papers were gathered into a book (1878), and although he had published -three years before a volume of sketches called “Hoosier Mosaics,” his -writings on this subject, with the attractive title “The Witchery of -Archery,” gave him his first footing as an author. The long bow has -again fallen into disuse, but the freshness and zest of those sketches -have not passed away. However, the archer had found in his woodlands -more important material than he had yet made use of; for while he -was following Robin Hood, he was also the servant of Theocritus and -Meleager, and he wrote at this period many lyrics that suggested, by -their spirit at least, the Greek pastoral poetry more than anything -in English. They were published under the descriptive title “Songs -of Fair Weather” (1883), and are included also in a larger volume of -Mr. Thompson’s verse, “Poems” (1892). E. S. Nadal writes[44] that he -has never known any scenery so classical as the glades which border -the forests of Ohio and Indiana. In fancy, he is able to people them -with figures of mythology, and in no other spots, he says, has his -imagination been equal to this task. It is pleasant to find this -comment running into a reference to Mr. Thompson: “When I was the -literary reviewer of a New York daily,” says Mr. Nadal, “I was always -on the lookout for the verses of a young poet who lived in this part of -the world. I remember that one of his poems related how that once when -Diana was at her bath in some clear spring, no doubt known to the poet, -a sort of sublimated Hoosier of the fancy, himself quite nude and -classic, passed near by. He quickly, however, ran away far through the -green thick groves of May,-- - - “‘Afeard lest down the wind of Spring - He’d hear an arrow whispering.’” - -There is a great deal of the Indiana landscape to be found through -Mr. Thompson’s poems, though he often looks southward to the north -Georgia hills and to Florida. Servile descriptions he does not give, -but against backgrounds traced with great delicacy and beauty he throws -suddenly and for a moment only some fleeting spirit of the woodland. -There is in his language “the continual slight novelty” which is -indispensable in poetry that is to haunt and taunt the memory. As an -instance of his felicity a poem called “Before Dawn” may be cited:-- - - “A keen, insistent hint of dawn - Fell from the mountain height; - A wan, uncertain gleam betrayed - The faltering of the night. - - “The emphasis of silence made - The fog above the brook - Intensely pale; the trees took on - A haunted, haggard look. - - “Such quiet came, expectancy - Filled all the earth and sky: - Time seemed to pause a little space; - I heard a dream go by!” - -Such subjects he always handles finely, leaving the thought in a spell -of mild wonder and awe, as if something beautiful had passed and -vanished. Similar effects were often possible with him in his younger -days; and it is a question whether the moods from which such work -proceeds recur after youth, the dream, has departed and taken that from -the heart which “never comes again.” Those early pieces could not have -been written by an indoors man; there is a refreshing quality of the -open air in every line of them. The note is unusual, and is perhaps -best sounded rarely; lightness and deftness are necessary to him who -would evoke its entire purity and melody. In “The Death of the White -Heron,” “A Flight Shot,” “Diana,” “The Fawn,” and “In the Haunts of -Bass and Bream,” he trusted his fortunes to rhymed couplets of eight -syllables, which are particularly well adapted to his purposes. The -last-named poem relates with tantalizing deliberation the taking of -a bass; the life of the stream pending the capture is described in -musical, transitional passages to the refrain,-- - - “Bubble, bubble, flows the stream, - Like low music through a dream.” - -He again employs couplets in one of the most appealing of all this -series, “In Exile,” which is the prayer of an archer of the new world -that England, the mother of archers, will call him home. Later Mr. -Thompson essayed a number of poems in a flexible ode form, showing -a broadening of his powers and a widening of his personal horizons. -The flight in such pieces as “In Captivity” and “Before Sunrise” is -longer than in the earlier poems. It is a pleasure to find a poet -to whom America is so satisfactory as a field that he dares to set -up the mocking-bird against the nightingale. Mr. Thompson makes the -home-songster a medium for communicating the spirit and significance of -our democracy to our friends overseas. The movement through all these -poems is free and vigorous, and the irregular lines please by the happy -chance of the rhymes. The pleasant winds of which the poet writes -so refreshingly creep often into his measures. Patriotic subjects -he touches with nobility and fervor; and he became the laureate of -reconstruction when he penned his ringing poem “To the South,” the -conclusion of which must not be omitted here:-- - - “I am a Southerner; - I love the South; I dared for her - To fight from Lookout to the Sea, - With her proud banner over me. - But from my lips thanksgiving broke - As God in battle thunder spoke, - And that Black Idol, breeding drouth - And dearth of human sympathy - Throughout the sweet and sensuous South, - Was, with its chains and human yoke, - Blown hellward from the cannon’s mouth, - While Freedom cheered behind the smoke!” - -Again, when invited to read a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa, of -Harvard, in 1893, he chose for his subject “Lincoln’s Grave,” -expressing, with greater care, similar feelings of loyalty, and -recounting Lincoln’s high qualities with eloquent appreciation. - -Mr. Thompson has published a number of novels: “A Tallahassee Girl” -(1882); “His Second Campaign” (1882); “At Love’s Extremes” (1885); -“A Banker of Bankersville” (1886); “A Fortnight of Folly” (1888); -and “Stories of the Cherokee Hills” (1899), a volume of short tales -reminiscent of slave days and the author’s boyhood. “A Tallahassee -Girl” is a graceful and pretty story, the scene of which is laid at -the South, as is true also of the two tales that immediately followed -it. They convey distinct impressions of phases of Southern life in -the early post-bellum period, and abound in romantic color. “Alice of -Old Vincennes” (1900), is a captivating tale of the French period of -Indiana history, closing with the surrender of Vincennes to Clark. The -heroine is delightful, and Father Beret is a character worthy of Dumas. -The book shows in all ways a marked advance over any previous prose -work of this author. He has also written “The Boys’ Book of Sports” -(1886); and “Louisiana” (1888), in the Stories of the States series, -and “The Ocala Boy” (1885), all for juvenile readers. He has written -many essays in which some phase of literature has been observed from -the point of view of a nature-lover; and his touch in such instances -is always light and his matter bright and stimulating. Two volumes of -such papers have been collected, “By-ways and Bird Notes” (1885) and -“Sylvan Secrets” (1887). The scientist and the litterateur meet in -his discussions of the mind and memory of birds, and the anatomy of -bird-song; and his essay on Shakespeare, written within sound of the -Gulf of Mexico, to the accompaniment of the songs of mocking-birds, is -wholly characteristic of his independence in literary matters. He has -been one of the most courageous champions of the romantic as against -the analytic and realistic. He delivered at the Hartford Theological -Seminary, in 1883, a series of lectures dealing comprehensively with -the question of morality in literature, and he embodied these in a -volume, “The Ethics of Literary Art” (1883). Mr. Thompson became, -in 1889, literary editor of the New York _Independent_, reserving, -however, the privilege of continuing his residence at Crawfordsville. -His home, “Sherwood Place,” is on a quiet margin of the town, and the -house has stood for half a century shielded from the public eye by -native beeches and alien pines. Mr. Thompson’s life is wholly devoted -to study and writing. His instincts are thoroughly scholarly, and in -some directions, as in Greek poetry and Old French literature, where -long and loving study have given him special knowledge, he is an -authority. He has no complaints of the world’s treatment of him or his -work, and he declares that his writings have been received with much -more cordiality than they have deserved. He is exceedingly kind to -beginners in literature, and his criticisms have been of benefit to -many young Western and Southern writers. Wabash College conferred upon -him, in 1900, the degree of Doctor of Letters. - -His brother, Will H. Thompson, was born in Missouri (1846), and the -experiences of their youth and early manhood were similar. Will -Thompson was a marvellous archer, and shared his brother’s enthusiasm -for hunting with bow and arrow. He has not been, in recent years, a -resident of Crawfordsville, having removed to the State of Washington, -but he wrote while in Indiana his “High Tide at Gettysburg,” one of -the few poems of the Civil War that has adequately expressed the spirit -of battle and the larger meaning of the conflict. - - -III. _Mary H. Krout_--_Caroline V. Krout_ - -Mary H. Krout, another Crawfordsville author, has added to the -distinction of an Indiana family in which an admiral, George Brown, -and several scholars and scientists have appeared. In her girlhood she -wrote the verses “Little Brown Hands,” which have enjoyed a vitality -not always relished by the author, whose later and longer flights are -better deserving of recognition. Miss Krout has been an indefatigable -traveller, and her books include “Hawaii and a Revolution” (1898), an -account of her personal experiences in the Sandwich Islands during -the political crisis that preceded annexation; also “A Looker-on in -London” (1899), which describes novel phases of English life freshly. -Miss Krout more recently penetrated to the interior of China, visiting -cities remote from the beaten track of travel. Her sister, Caroline V. -Krout, a classical scholar of high attainment, has written, under the -nom de plume “Caroline Brown,” “Knights in Fustian” (1900), a novel of -Indiana. The “knights in fustian” are “Knights of the Golden Circle,” -a treasonable society which menaced Indiana during the Civil War. The -principal characters are the fatuous rustics, who indulge their crude -taste for the mysterious in the secret meetings and sonorous ritual of -the society. Miss Krout knows the people of her own soil thoroughly, -and the particular type that has attracted her is set out in her pages -with photographic accuracy. The tale is true to history and to the -local life, and its literary excellence places the author’s name high -on the roll of Western writers. She has also written many short stories -for the periodicals. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -“OF MAKING MANY BOOKS THERE IS NO END” - - -The multiplication of books by Indianians increased steadily during -the last decade of the nineteenth century. Much of the production in -prose is unimportant save as it is taken in connection with the general -rise of cultivation in the State, and not a little derives interest -principally from the personality of the writers. Fiction attracted -many during the period indicated, and the impulse in this direction -has been attended with notable successes. The part played by Indiana -in the Civil War has latterly received attention, and the newer -phases of village life have also been treated. Local history has not, -unfortunately, attracted the literary fledgling in Indiana so often as -could have been desired, though the field is inviting, and thorough -work of this kind is far likelier to enjoy permanency than fair or -indifferent fiction or mediocre verse. Criticism is naturally last to -receive attention, and little critical writing can be credited to the -State. It is, however, remarkable that so much good work is done in the -several departments, the inference being that where so many are moved -to make experiments, the general average of cultivation must be high. - -Indiana has been a kind of way station for many who have gained their -chief distinction elsewhere. Joaquin Miller and John James Piatt were -born in Indiana, but left in childhood, and Mary Hartwell Catherwood -lived in the State for a number of years; but these writers may hardly -be numbered among Indiana authors. James Newton Matthews, an Indianian -who has lived for many years in Illinois, has written much good verse, -and is included in discriminating anthologies. Lyman Abbott began his -ministry in Indiana as pastor of the Congregational Church at Terre -Haute. Both Charles Warren Stoddard and Maurice Francis Egan were -members of the faculty of Notre Dame University at different periods. -The Rev. Arthur Wentworth Eaton, a poet and writer on Acadian life, -was once a resident of Indianapolis; and Henry F. Keenan, who wrote -“Trajan” and other novels, edited the Indianapolis _Sentinel_ before -he became an author. The Rev. Bernard Harrison Nadal (1812-1870) held -a professorship at Asbury University from 1854 to 1857, and was the -father of E. S. Nadal, an essayist whose critical papers appeal to the -admirers of a calm and pensive style of writing. Miss Lucy S. Furman’s -“Stories of a Sanctified Town” (1896) were written at Evansville, -though the scenes are laid in Kentucky. The Rev. James Cooley Fletcher, -of the well-known Indiana family of that name, is the author of “Brazil -and Brazilians” (1868); and his daughter, Julia Constance, wrote, under -the pen-name “George Fleming,” the novels “Kismet” (1877); “Mirage” -(1878); “The Head of Medusa” (1880); “Vestigia” (1884); and “Andromeda” -(1885). Both have long been absent from the State, Mr. Fletcher in -California and his daughter in Italy. - - -I. _Fiction_ - -Booth Tarkington stands with Mr. Riley as the exponent of a Hoosier who -is kindly, generous, humorous, and essentially domestic. His novel, -“A Gentleman from Indiana” (1899), depicts the semi-urban type that -Mr. Riley so often celebrates in verse. Whitecapping as introduced -in this story is only the coarse exploit of a vicious colony living -on the outskirts of the town in which Mr. Tarkington’s tale has its -habitation. The author plainly states that his whitecaps are not to -be confounded with vigilance committees that undertake to reform the -morals of individuals, but that they are rowdies who masquerade as -whitecaps merely for purposes of private mischief and vengeance. Their -settlement resembles in some degree the “tough neighborhood” often -found in cities. The hostility between the people of Plattville and -the Cross Roads element dates back to the first movement of population -on the long trail from North Carolina into the Ohio Valley. The Cross -Roads folk had been evil and worthless in their early homes, and they -carried their worst traits with them into Indiana. Mr. Tarkington -has followed accurately the social history of the good stock and the -bad, illustrating the antipathy existing between the prosperous and -intelligent and the idle and ignorant. The distinction of Plattville -as a county seat of the central West is well established, and its -indolence, amiability, and pride are characteristic. The hero is a new -type of Hoosier, who has little kinship with the earlier people of -Eggleston, or with the Hoosier as Riley reports him; he is a native, -but has experienced at an Eastern college an intellectual change “into -something rich and strange,” and after long absence becomes a pilgrim -of light among his own people. - -Mr. Tarkington has a perfect appreciation of the strength of local -affection in the Hoosier, and also of the thoroughly American -absorption in politics which seems to be more marked in county seats of -a few thousand inhabitants than in large cities. History in towns like -Plattville is not dated, _anno urbis conditæ_, but from a political -incident or the visit of a President; and a national campaign is a -quadrennial blessing that renews in the obscurest inhabitant the sense -of his individual responsibility to the government. Mr. Tarkington -emphasizes the homogeneity of the Middle Western folk; and this is -warranted fully by the statisticians. The people of his town live -together like a great, kind family, who are sufficient unto themselves. -He has thrown into the story the sincerity, affection, and loyalty -that are their attributes; and he adds, moreover, the atmosphere of -the Indiana landscape, with a nice appreciation of its loveliness, -sometimes hinted and often charmingly expressed. There is a crisp, -bracing quality in the writing that fitly accompanies the story, which -is, taken all in all, one of the most creditable novels yet written -of life in the Ohio Valley. There is every reason why Mr. Tarkington -should know his Indiana well, as his family has been prominent in the -State for three generations, and he is a native, having been born at -Indianapolis (1869). He was educated at Purdue and Princeton, receiving -from the latter the degree of A.M. in 1898. He has also written (1900) -“Monsieur Beaucaire,” a dramatic novelette of the eighteenth century, -in which a few striking incidents are handled most effectively. The -story has the charm of an exquisite miniature. - -Indiana village life has been made the subject of careful study by Anna -Nicholas, in a series of short stories collected under the title “An -Idyl of the Wabash” (1899). Religious phenomena have greatly attracted -Miss Nicholas, and she has supplemented Dr. Eggleston’s studies of an -earlier period with her artistic sketches of contemporary life. The -social importance of the church, the vagaries of belief in a typical -Western village, and the intensity of the “revival” spirit are treated -with sympathy and humor. Several of these tales are, between the lines, -a tribute to that vigorous Protestant evangelization of Indiana, which -triumphed over mud and malaria and carried the gospel far beyond the -sound of church bells. Miss Nicholas has written with keen penetration -of the suppressed tragic element in rural life, but without morbidity. -Her characters are always inevitably related to the incidents, and she -communicates with unfailing success a sense of the humble atmosphere -of her farm and village. These stories are distinguished by the evident -sincerity of their purpose to reflect life honestly, and they are -written in a straightforward manner that aids the impression. They -illustrate anew the possibilities of a local literature that follows -progressively the formative years of a community’s life. It is even -now difficult to persuade the present generations of Indianians that -Dr. Eggleston’s Hoosiers ever lived; and Miss Nicholas, Mr. Riley, -and Mr. Tarkington have continued the story that was begun by their -predecessor, adding chapters equally instructive and valuable. - -Mary Jameson Judah’s “Down Our Way” (1897) is not limited to a -particular region, but combines with studies of the author’s own -Indiana, sketches of social life at the South. The allurements of those -organizations for individual improvement and general reform that have -enlisted the energies of so many women in recent years have appealed to -Mrs. Judah’s sense of humor; and her stories show a fine appreciation -of the niceties of social perspective and proportion in Southern and -Western cities. The short story is happily adapted to the need of the -casual observer of local life, and tales like these, which bear the -stamp of fidelity, have an inestimable value for future students. - -An increasing attention to local historical matters has lately been -marked, and an excellent instance of this is afforded by Millard Cox -(“Henry Scott Clark”) in “The Legionaries” (1899), a story of the -Morgan raid into Indiana. The political and social conditions on the -Indiana-Kentucky border during the Civil War were interesting, and -worthy of the study that has been given to them in this novel. The -military episode of which Morgan was the chief figure, though slight -in comparison with the larger movements of the war, was dramatic and -daring, and it lends itself well to this romantic setting. Mr. Cox is a -native Indianian (1856). - -James A. Wickersham, an Indiana educator, has analyzed certain -religious conditions minutely in “Enoch Willoughby” (1900). This is a -novel of character rather than of incident, and marks still another -departure in method among writers of the Indiana group. The tale is -not wholly indigenous, as the characters belong as truly to one State -as to another of the Middle West. The Willoughbys are studied as a -family in which peculiarities have always been observed, and in Enoch -an hereditary “queerness” is manifested in religious idiosyncrasies. - -The revival of interest in romantic fiction, that marked the closing -years of the century, witnessed the unusual successes of a number of -novels by American authors. One of the most popular romances of this -period is “When Knighthood was in Flower” (1898), by Charles Major, a -native of Indianapolis (1856), who is living at Shelbyville, twenty -miles distant from the capital. Mr. Major served no apprenticeship as -an author; this romance was his first book. He was educated in the -Indiana public schools and at the University of Michigan, and was -actively engaged in the practice of law when he wrote the novel, as a -diversion, on his Sunday afternoons at home. The friendliness of the -English-reading public to this tale is not difficult to understand. -It is a love story whose chief characters, Charles Brandon and Mary -Tudor, possess those qualities of youth, vivacity, and spirit that so -inevitably win the heart in fiction or the drama. The tale is told by -Sir Edwin Caskoden, a master of the dance at the court of Henry VIII., -and not by the author direct,--a familiar trick of the historical -novelist; and it serves an excellent purpose, affording a valid excuse -for the ostensible editor to render the sixteenth-century narrative -of Caskoden into racy nineteenth-century English. This novel is one -of the noteworthy achievements of Indianians in the field of romance, -suggesting again what has been so true of General Wallace,--that the -imagination is superior to all laws, and that the romantic vision -easily pierces barriers of circumstance. - -George Cary Eggleston, a brother of Edward, was born at Vevay (1839), -received his preliminary education in the schools of Vevay and Madison, -and attended Asbury University, but did not complete his course there. -When still under seventeen he took charge of a school in a wild -district of the State, but at the end of his engagement he went to -Virginia to the old homestead of his father’s family, completed his -college course, studied law, and served in the Confederate army. He -has for many years been a well-known New York journalist, and he is -the author of many books. He has always maintained relations with his -native State, and has utilized his knowledge of it in his writings. -In his novel “A Man of Honor” (1873), the hero is an Indiana boy, the -son of a Kentucky mother and a Virginia father, as was the case with -Mr. Eggleston himself. Another novel, “Juggernaut” (1891), opens in -Indiana. A Hoosier boy is the hero, and the description of his early -life among the hills of southern Indiana is pleasantly reminiscent of -the author’s own experiences. In a number of juvenile stories, among -them being “The Last of the Flat-boats” (1900), Mr. Eggleston has drawn -upon his recollections of Hoosierdom, and there is, he says, something -of Indiana in everything that he has written. Before Mr. Eggleston had -seriously begun literary work the name of his brother Edward was so -identified with Hoosier soil that the younger man could hardly invade -it with literary intent without risking the charge of imitation; -yet it is significant of the tenacity of his early impressions that -throughout his life the scenes of his childhood and youth have -continued to invite his imagination. - - -II. _History and Politics_ - -It is a pleasure to include George W. Julian (1817-1899) among those -who have added lustre to Indiana’s name. He was born at Centerville, -Wayne County, of Quaker parents who had followed the familiar line -of march from North Carolina to Indiana. He worked in the fields, -studied by the light of the fireplace, taught school, read law, and -in general experienced those vicissitudes and embarrassments that -beset so many ambitious American youths of his generation. The law -was a stepping-stone to politics, and from 1840 until the last years -of his long life he was constantly an eager observer of political -movements when not an active participant in campaigns. He was a founder -and leader of the Free-soil party, and was its candidate for the -vice-presidency on the ticket headed by John P. Hale in 1852. He was -repeatedly elected a representative in Congress, first as a Free-soil -candidate, and thereafter as a Republican, from what was known as “the -burnt district” in eastern Indiana, serving through the Civil War. He -was a vigorous opponent of slavery, and his “Speeches on Political -Subjects” (1872), for which Lydia Maria Child wrote an introduction, is -a record of his radical opposition that began in 1850 and continued to -the close of the rebellion. His integrity of opinion was unimpeachable. -He was a laborious student, and, although without the graces of -oratory, he was an impressive and effective speaker. He shared the -ignominy that was visited upon Lovejoy, Phillips, Giddings, and others -of the early antislavery phalanx, and his Congressional campaigns were -marked by bitter and violent abuse from his opponents. His powers of -invective made him a formidable antagonist. When his severity was -criticised, he would say that “there is nothing in my speech but the -truth that hurts.” He was essentially a reformer and an independent, -and broke fearlessly with his party when he could not conscientiously -follow it. Thus he joined in the Liberal Republican movement, and -supported Greeley. He then became, and remained to the end of his -life, a Democrat, and was appointed by Mr. Cleveland surveyor-general -of New Mexico. He made his home for thirty years at Irvington, a -suburb of Indianapolis and the seat of Butler College, where he was -the village Nestor. He delighted in literature, lived among books, -contributed often to the periodical press, and wrote (1892) the “Life -of Joshua R. Giddings.” - -Civic interests have marked also the career of William Dudley Foulke, -who was born in New York City (1848) and educated at Columbia College, -being graduated in 1869. Mr. Foulke’s antecedents were Quakers, and he -removed, in 1876, to Wayne County, one of the principal centres of the -Society of Friends in Indiana. Mr. Foulke practised law and sat in the -State senate (1883-1885) as a Republican, but became an independent -upon the nomination of Mr. Blaine, and thereafter gave his attention -to various political reforms, notably in the civil service, conducting -investigations and frequently delivering addresses. He published (1887) -“Slav and Saxon,” an essay on the future of the two races which are, -in his belief, to contend finally for supremacy in the world. He gave -many years to the study of the war period in Indiana, with a view to -writing the life of Oliver P. Morton, Indiana’s “War Governor,” who had -been a citizen of Wayne County; and this biography (1899) is not only a -thorough study of Morton’s public services, but of the period to which -he belonged as well. - -Early associated with Mr. Foulke in civil service reform work in -Indiana was Oliver T. Morton (1860-1898), the son of Governor Morton, -who was born in Wayne County and educated at Yale and Oxford. His -volume of essays, “The Southern Empire” (1892), contains, besides the -title paper, an historical essay on Oxford and an excellent discussion -of civil service reform. The opening essay is a most suggestive -presentation of the slaveholders’ ambitions to found a vast tropical -slave empire. It is of interest to read this, in the light of the -senior Morton’s herculean efforts against slavery; but that one -generation may easily differ from another is proved by the concluding -essay in advocacy of the merit system, which found few friends in the -period of which Senator Morton was a dominating figure. - -Mr. Foulke’s brother-in-law, Arthur Middleton Reeves (1856-1891), -found employment for his scholarly tastes in unusual channels. After -his graduation from Cornell (1878), he devoted himself to the study of -Icelandic language and lore, in which his interest had been aroused -by Professor Willard Fiske; and he subsequently continued his studies -abroad in Europe and Iceland. He was an industrious and painstaking -student, with a passion for accuracy, and the volume of his letters -collected and published for his friends shows him to have possessed -unusually varied talents. He wrote “The Finding of Wineland the Good: -The History of the Icelandic Discovery of America” (1890); “Lad and -Lass: Story of Life in Iceland” (1890); “Jan: A Short Story” (1892); -and he had begun, with Dr. Valtyr Gudmundsson of Copenhagen, a -translation of the _Laxdæla Saga_ when, on the occasion of a visit to -his home in Indiana, he was killed in a railway accident. - -The first Indiana historian was John B. Dillon, who was born at -Wellsburg, West Virginia (1808), learned the printer’s trade, and -removed to Indiana in 1834. While resident at Logansport he studied -law and was admitted to the bar; but his quiet, studious habits and -natural reserve unfitted him for the practice, and he never tested his -powers. He turned, fortunately, to the study of Indiana’s history; and -appreciating the importance of assembling data before the death of -witnesses and participants, began collecting material, and published -(1859) a “History of Indiana,” covering the period from the first -explorations to 1856. This work represents many years of laborious -research in a field that was practically untouched. It is the point -of departure for all who study Indiana history, and it is as exact as -diligent care could make it. Dillon published “Notes on Historical -Evidence in Reference to Adverse Theories of the Origin and Nature of -the Government of the United States” (1871); and at his death left the -manuscript of a work called “Oddities of Colonial Legislation.” He -received a number of minor appointments under the Federal government, -residing at Washington from 1863 to 1875. He returned to Indianapolis -at the termination of these employments and died there, in 1879. He was -gentle, patient, modest, and industrious, a man of merit, faithful in -all things. He never married, and had no interests save those of the -student. His proper place was in the quiet alcoves of libraries; and it -must always be remembered to his credit that with little encouragement, -and for the love of the labor, rather than for any reward, he gave -many laborious years to the task of establishing the State’s place in -history. - -Jacob P. Dunn, who wrote “Indiana: A Redemption from Slavery,” in the -American Commonwealth series (1888), employed critical methods that -were not known in Dillon’s day. His work deals with a brief period, -and with events that had not previously been viewed in their proper -perspective. He brought to bear upon his subject a scientific analysis -and an exhaustive research that show especial fitness for historical -writing. His descriptions of the early French _habitant_ are -delightfully written, and give a distinct impression of the first white -settlers of the Wabash. Mr. Dunn has written also “Massacres of the -Mountains” (1886), an account of the Indian wars of the West, which is -noteworthy for its thorough treatment of the Mountain Meadows incident. -It is a standard work of reference, and one of the most popular books -catalogued in Western libraries. Mr. Dunn served a term as State -librarian, and has been for many years tireless in promoting interest -in libraries for rural communities. He was born at Lawrenceburg (1855), -and was graduated (1874) from Earlham College. - -John Clark Ridpath (1840-1900), one of the most prolific of Indiana -authors, was born in Putnam County and was graduated from Asbury -University, with which he was subsequently connected in various -teaching and administrative capacities for many years. He was a most -successful teacher, particularly of history. Besides many text-books he -published “A Cyclopædia of Universal History” (1885); “Great Races of -Mankind” (1894); “Life and Memoirs of Bishop William Taylor” (1895); -and many monographs on historical and biographical subjects. - -Richard G. Boone’s “History of Education in Indiana” (1892) is one of -the most important books in the State’s bibliography. Mr. Boone is -also the author of “Education in the United States” (1894). He was for -ten years identified with the common schools of Indiana, and for seven -years held the chair of pedagogics at Indiana University, resigning to -become superintendent of schools at Cincinnati. - -“The Puritan Republic” (1899), by Daniel Wait Howe, shows further the -grasp of newer methods in historical writing, and is distinguished by -thorough treatment and judicial temper. It would seem that nothing -could be added to the literature of this subject, which has attracted -so many skilled historians; but Judge Howe adduced much new material -and presented the old and familiar in an orderly and attractive -manner. This is a thorough and exact work, which has taken rank -with the accepted authorities. Judge Howe is entitled to his word on -the Puritan, as his ancestors were among the pioneers of Sudbury, -Massachusetts. He was born in Switzerland County (1839), was graduated -from Franklin College, served four years in the Civil War as an Indiana -soldier, and enjoyed the unusual distinction of sitting for fourteen -years continuously as a judge of the Superior Court at Indianapolis. -He has contributed valuable essays to the publications of the Indiana -Historical Society. - -William H. English (1822-1896) gave many years to a study of the life -and services of George Rogers Clark, and produced (1896) “Conquest of -the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, and Life of George Rogers -Clark,” an elaborate work in two volumes, which is a veritable -encyclopædia of facts. As Clark had been one of the neglected figures -in American history, the preparation of his biography was in the nature -of a public service. Mr. English is also the author of an historical -and biographical work on the Indiana constitution. He was born in -Scott County, and received his education in the public schools and at -Hanover College. He served as a representative in Congress (1853-1861), -and in 1880 was the Democratic candidate for vice-president on the -ticket with Hancock. - -“Early Indiana Trials and Sketches” (1858) is a racy record of the -personal experiences of Oliver H. Smith (1794-1859), who had a kind of -Boswellian instinct for the interesting. As a lawyer he “rode circuit” -with Miles Eggleston, David Wallace, James Rariden, John Test, and -others famous in the early days; and no one has written of these men -with nicer appreciation of their high qualities. He was elected a -senator in Congress in 1836, and served for one term. - -William Wesley Woollen (1828) has also added to the literature of local -biography. His “Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana” -(1883) contains information that is nowhere else accessible, and it is, -moreover, a well-written and entertaining volume. - -David Demaree Banta (1833-1896) wrote often and well on subjects of -local history, and his “Historical Sketch of Johnson County” (1881) -shines amid the dreary waste of Indiana County histories. It contains a -rare fund of information touching pioneer life in general, and reflects -in some degree the personality of the accomplished and versatile -author, who was a fine type of the native Hoosier. - - -III. _Miscellaneous_ - -The press of Indiana has aided greatly in the State’s intellectual -advance. In the larger towns the newspapers have usually been -well-written, and many of them have extended sympathetic encouragement -to beginners in authorship. Many Western writers found their first -friendly editors at the offices of the _Herald_ or _Journal_ at -Indianapolis. John H. Holliday, G. C. Matthews, Anna Nicholas, Elijah -W. Halford, Charles Richard Williams, A. H. Dooley, Lewis D. Hayes, -Morris Ross and Louis Howland are among those who, in the hurried -labors of daily newspaper-making, have found time to preach the gospel -of “sweetness and light” through the Indianapolis press. High on the -roll of Indiana journalists whose talents are especially deserving -of remembrance is Berry R. Sulgrove (1827-1890), who was born at -Indianapolis, attended local schools, learned the saddler’s trade, -and worked for a short time as a journeyman. His aptness and love of -learning had attracted attention, and in 1847 he was enabled to enter -Bethany College, West Virginia, then under the presidency of the famous -Alexander Campbell. His preparatory studies at the “Old Seminary” of -Indianapolis had been so thorough that he was graduated at the end -of one year with all the honors of the college, and delivered his -commencement oration in Greek. He studied law and practised for a -few years, but became connected with the _Journal_ in 1854, and was -thereafter identified with the press of Indianapolis. He possessed -an extraordinary memory that was a source of constant amazement to -his friends and associates. His information in many departments of -knowledge was both extensive and exact, and he retained, to the end -of his life, his interest in public matters, foreign and domestic. -He wrote with precision and grace, and his use of homely, local -illustrations added to the interest and force of what he had to say. -Now and then a Macaulay-like roll would sound in his sentences; and he -would frequently imitate Macaulay’s rhetorical tricks, as by declaring, -with conscious humor, that some local event had “never been equalled -between the old bridge and the bayou”; but he wrote usually without -affectation, and his prodigious memory made possible a variety of -suggestion and illustration that never failed to distinguish his work. -During many years he was at different times a contributor of editorial -matter to all of the Indianapolis newspapers, extending his field at -intervals to the Chicago and Cincinnati dailies. He wrote usually at -his home, and latterly had no desk in any newspaper office, though -a member of the _News_ staff to the end of his life. His manuscript -was famous among Western printers, who encountered it at Cincinnati, -Indianapolis, and Chicago, and in the day of Mr. Sulgrove’s greatest -activity seemed unable to escape from it. He wrote habitually on -the backs of old election tickets, on scraps of programmes, on bits -of paper picked up on his country walks, but never by any chance on -a clean new sheet designed for the purpose. His handwriting was -microscopic, but perfectly legible, carefully punctuated, and free from -erasure. A slip the length and breadth of the hand might contain half -a column. No more interesting figure than he ever appeared in Indiana -journalism; but his ambitions were not equal to his talents, and he was -long an obscure figure in the city of his birth, whose intimate history -he knew familiarly. His “History of Indianapolis and Marion County” -(1884) contains only slight hints of his superior abilities. - -His contemporary, George C. Harding (1829-1881), was a native of -Tennessee, but gave the best years of his life to journalism at -Indianapolis. He was a student of human nature rather than of books, -but his literary instincts were true, and in the two weekly newspapers, -the _Herald_ and the _Review_, which he conducted, he was at once -the inspiration and the terror of his contributors. Some of the -sketches in a volume of his “Miscellaneous Writings” (1882) show an -agreeably humorous turn. He had the trained journalist’s appreciation -of condensed wisdom. It was his habit to repeat, week after week, a -satirical paragraph in which some individual was pilloried until -the victim’s name became a by-word and a hissing in the community. -Sometimes this served a moral purpose; again the intention was -purely humorous. Years ago a candidate for constable, who was also a -delegate to the nominating convention held at Indianapolis, received -therein exactly one vote. The question, “Who voted for Daubenspeck?” -was thereupon reiterated weekly in the _Herald_, until it passed -permanently into a phrase of local speech. - -Angelina Teal’s “John Thorne’s Folks” (1884), and “Muriel Howe” -(1892); Margaret Holmes’s “Chamber Over the Gate” (1886); Martha -Livingstone Moody’s “Alan Thorne” (1889); Harriet Newell Lodge’s “A -Bit of Finesse” (1894); many excellent short stories by Helen Rockwood -Edson, literary essays by Harriet Noble and Kate Milner Rabb, and Ida -Husted Harper’s “Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony,” emphasize the part -that women have played in the State’s literary achievement. The Rev. -Charles R. Henderson, of Lafayette, a member of the faculty of Chicago -University, has been a prolific writer on sociological subjects. -John Augustine Wilstach, also of Lafayette, has busied himself with -philological studies. He translated Virgil (1884) and Dante (1888), and -coincidently with the publication of these versions issued critical -reviews of the literature touching his subjects. The text of Lucian -was edited for school use (1882) by Charles Richard Williams, who -became an Indianapolis journalist; and Demarchus C. Brown translated -selections of Lucian into English (1896). George Ade, who discovered -fresh subjects for materialistic fiction in Chicago, was born in -Indiana and educated at Purdue, as was also his illustrator, John T. -McCutcheon. Mr. Ade has a touch all his own, and his character studies -are thoroughly original. He and Hector Fuller, another Hoosier writer -of short fiction, show how the journalist may successfully turn his -hand to book-making. William P. Fishback, one of the founders of the -Indianapolis Literary Club, has published (1895) his “Recollections of -Lord Coleridge,” with whom he enjoyed a delightful acquaintance; and -another member of the club, Augustus Lynch Mason, wrote “Romance and -Tragedy of Pioneer Life” (1883). Benjamin Harrison’s public services -cannot obscure the fact of his authorship of “This Country of Ours” -(1899), a capital account of the functions of the several departments -of the Federal government. - -That form of humorous writing which has become a feature of American -journalism, and which is, moreover, a sharply critical commentary -on contemporaneous American life, not to be rejected lightly, is -also produced in great volume in Indiana. This goes to the public -anonymously, but Emma Carleton, R. D. Stevenson (“Wickwire”), and Wood -Levette Wilson are among those whose dialogues, paragraphs, and jingles -constantly appear in many publications. S. W. Gillilan, who wrote -“Finnigan to Flannigan,” the verses in Irish dialect which have become -a kind of American railway classic, is an Indianian. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -AN INDIANA CHOIR - - -I. _Early Writers_ - -The specific talent necessary to the expression of local life is much -rarer than the ability to write of life in the abstract. If the knack -of writing accompanied a sensibility to the life that lay nearest, we -should long ago have had an abundant American literature descriptive of -conditions that have passed and will not, in the very nature of things, -recur. But the line of impressionability may not be controlled; and -though many protests have been launched against minor American poets -for looking beyond the robin to the nightingale, the rejection of the -near continues, though in a diminishing degree. The early poets of the -Ohio Valley did not often approach closely to the Western soil; they -lacked insight and courage and their work was usually not interesting. -When they occasionally essayed a Western subject, they were unable -to bring to bear upon it any novelty of treatment; it was all “icily -regular, splendidly null.” William T. Coggeshall states in the preface -to his “Poets and Poetry of the West” (1864) that in the early years -of the nineteenth century “soldiers, hunters, and boatmen had among -them many songs descriptive of adventures incident to backwoods -life, some of which were not destitute of poetic merit; but they -were known only around campfires, or on ‘broadhorns’” (flat-boats), -and tradition, he adds, preserved none worthy to be included in his -anthology. But these racy songs would have been of greater value than -much of the verse that he has preserved in his pages, though as a -part of the history of development this, too, is not to be spurned. -Coggeshall’s work includes notices of ninety-seven men and fifty-five -women. Twenty-three of the total he attributes to Indiana by reason of -residence, and thirteen of the number were natives of the State. Only -a small proportion of the poets named by Coggeshall survived, though -the writers of the biographical notes accompanying his selections were -cordial and anxious to confer immortality. William D. Howells and John -J. Piatt are included, and Mr. Howells wrote several of the sketches. -It is diverting to read the opinion of Mr. Howells’s biographer that -“some of his prose sketches are quite equal in grace of conception -and individuality of treatment to any of his poems.” He was then -twenty-seven. - -Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky, were early rivals for literary -prominence at the West: one was the seat of Cincinnati College, -the other of Transylvania University. Many books were published at -Lexington before 1825, and _The Medley_, or _Monthly Miscellany_, -which appeared there in 1803, is believed to have been the first -magazine published west of the Alleghanies. Hunt’s _Western Review_, -which was formerly regarded as the pioneer, dated from 1819, and was -also a Lexington publication. Lexington dropped out, and Louisville -fell into place as a defender of the literary faith with the advent -of George D. Prentice, who became the ardent champion of the muses in -the Ohio Valley. The headquarters of poets for this region was the -office of the Louisville _Journal_ during Prentice’s reign, and all -of the Coggeshall poets laid the tribute of their song before him. -To paraphrase Bishop Butler’s remark about the strawberry, quoted by -Walton, doubtless Prentice might have declined a poem or discouraged a -poet, but doubtless he never did. He was not an exacting critic, and he -encouraged many who were without talent; but he took away the reproach -of the neglected and unappreciated, and now and then he found a few -grains in the chaff to pay him for his trouble. - -The _Literary Gazette_, which appeared at Cincinnati in 1824, with -the motto “Not to display learning, but to excite a taste for it,” -numbered Mrs. Julia L. Dumont, of Vevay, among its contributors; and -she was the first Indiana writer to become identified with the group of -aspirants that now began to appear along the Ohio. The prospectus of -another _Western Review_, published at Cincinnati for three years from -May, 1827, declared that “we are a scribbling and forthputting people. -Little as they have dreamed of the fact in the Atlantic country, we -have our thousand orators and poets.” However this may have been, -“the Atlantic country” invaded the Ohio Valley in 1835, when the -_Western Messenger_ was begun at Cincinnati, under the auspices of the -Western Unitarian Association. It was edited first by the Rev. Ephraim -Peabody, and later, at Louisville, by James Freeman Clarke. Clarke left -Louisville in 1840, and the _Messenger_ was continued at Cincinnati -by the Rev. W. H. Channing. John B. Dillon represented Indiana in its -table of contents, and found himself in good company, with Emerson, -William Ellery Channing, Jones Very, and C. P. Cranch. The periodical -was, as Venable calls it, “an exotic--a Boston flower blooming on -the Ohio,” and it ceased to appear in 1841. In the same year, the -_Ladies’ Repository_ made its appearance at Cincinnati, under Methodist -auspices, and was published continuously for thirty-six years. Mrs. -Dumont, Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton, Miss Mary Louise Chitwood, Mrs. Rebecca -S. Nichols, Mrs. A. L. Ruter Dufour, Horace P. Biddle, and Isaac H. -Julian were the principal Indiana contributors. The number of Indiana -writers increased steadily, and the _Genius of the West_, a Cincinnati -magazine dating from 1855, extended the list to include the names -of Benjamin S. Parker, John B. Dillon, and Louise E. Vickroy. Peter -Fishe Reed, also a contributor to the _Genius of the West_ and similar -magazines of the period, combined farming with literary experiments -near Mount Vernon (Indiana), and lived for a time at Indianapolis. The -majority of these pioneer periodicals lived only a short time, and the -Civil War brought a final interruption to most of them; they passed -out with the “annuals,” whose literary flavor was similar. Indiana’s -ante-bellum writers usually looked to Louisville and Cincinnati for -publicity, and no serious effort was made to establish literary -magazines within the State.[45] It curiously happened, however, that -Emerson Bennett, a voluminous producer of “penny dreadfuls,” published -a literary paper called the _Casket_, at Lawrenceburg (1846), but soon -abandoned it. The patient research of Venable discovered the _Western -Censor_, published at Indianapolis in 1823-1824, and _The Family -Schoolmaster_, which had a brief existence at Richmond in 1839. _The -Querist_ was conducted by Mrs. Nichols for a few months at Cincinnati -in 1844, and Henry Ward Beecher’s _Indiana Farmer and Gardener_ was -begun at Indianapolis in 1845, but removed to Cincinnati in the -following year. Beecher’s contributions to this paper were the nucleus -of his book “A Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming.” The -_Literary Messenger_ is credited to Versailles, 1854. - -Coggeshall included among the Indianians in his anthology William -Wallace Harney, who was born (1832) at Bloomington, where his father -was a professor in Indiana University; and William Ross Wallace, born -(1819) at Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at Bloomington and Hanover -colleges; but as the literary life of both began after they had left -the State, they may hardly be catalogued as Indiana authors. The Rev. -Sidney Dyer, a native of New York State (1814), was for a number of -years (1852-1859), a Baptist minister at Indianapolis. He is the -author of a number of books, and his writings include many popular -songs and poems. Isaac H. Julian, a native of Wayne County (1823), -and the brother of George W. Julian, hardly added subsequently to the -reputation he had gained prior to the publication of Coggeshall’s -book, and the same is true of Granville M. Ballard, who was born in -Kentucky (1833), and after his graduation from Asbury University became -a resident of Indianapolis, where he is still living. Horace P. Biddle, -born in Ohio (1818-1900), removed at an early age to Indiana, where he -became prominent in affairs, and held many public offices before his -retirement. He aided in the early efforts in behalf of common school -education, and was a diligent student and writer. Noble Butler is -placed in Kentucky’s list of early writers, though his residence at -Hanover gives Indiana a claim upon him. He frequently translated German -poetry and wrote original verse occasionally; but the fugitive essays -of his nephew, Noble C. Butler, of Indianapolis, are better literature. -Coggeshall includes also Jonathan W. Gordon and Henry W. Ellsworth, of -Indianapolis, whose contributions to the literature of the period were -slight and without distinction. Ellsworth was a native of Connecticut -and a graduate of Yale (1834). Amanda L. Ruter Dufour (1822-1899) and -Laura M. Thurston (1812-1842) are properly included among Indiana’s -early poets. The latter wrote the lines “On Crossing the Alleghanies” -and “The Green Hills of My Fatherland,” which are above the average in -the collection and were once much applauded. George W. Cutter, whose -“Song of Steam,” beginning,-- - - “Harness me down with your iron bands; - Be sure of your curb and rein,”-- - -was once in favor, lived in Indiana, and sat in the General Assembly. -He died at Washington in 1865. Rebecca S. Nichols was long associated -with the little band of writers who printed verses and tales in -Louisville and Cincinnati publications, and her literary instincts were -truer than those of most of her contemporaries. She is still living at -Indianapolis. - -A mournful interest attaches to the work of Mary Louise Chitwood, who -was born at Mount Carmel, October 29, 1832, and died there twenty-three -years later, sincerely mourned by the whole choir of Western poets. -Prentice had encouraged her, and he wrote a memoir to accompany a -volume of her verses that appeared in 1857. Her work promised well, -though it shared the defects of most of the verse of the day. - -Sarah T. Bolton is one of the most interesting figures in Coggeshall, -and though born in Kentucky (1820), her long life was spent principally -in Indiana. Her husband, Nathaniel Bolton, edited the first newspaper -ever published in Indianapolis. Mrs. Bolton began writing at an early -age, and through many years it may be said that she stood for poetry -in Indiana. Many of her poems are stiff and formal and show little -originality; but often her pieces are free and spontaneous, and she -had humor, which most of the early poets of the West lacked. Her last -volume (1891) is dedicated “To the poets of Indiana, my children after -the spirit.” She was known to Willis and Morris, of the Knickerbocker -group contemporary with her. Her husband was appointed consul at -Geneva in 1855, and she lived for a number of years abroad, finding -fresh material for poems in her travels. She died at Indianapolis in -1893. Her best-known poem is “Paddle Your Own Canoe.” She was a loyal -Indianian and wrote the lines:-- - - “The winds of Heaven never fanned, - The circling sunlight never spanned - The borders of a better land - Than our own Indiana.” - -Benjamin S. Parker, of all the poets discovered in Indiana by -Coggeshall, acquired the greatest skill in versification, and wrote -most comprehensively of the pioneer life. He was born on a farm near -New Castle (1833), and is one, at least, to whom the phrase “racy of -the soil” needs no explanation. He lived in a log cabin, performing the -hardest farm labor, and long observation of life at the West made him -an authority in matters of customs and dialect. His volume “The Cabin -in the Clearing” (1887) contains many poems in which the trials of the -earlier settlers are graphically depicted, and it was his right, as -one who had aided in the rough work of the pioneers, to urge the new -generations to use worthily the opportunities which they inherited. Of -the fauna and flora of his own woodlands Mr. Parker became the especial -celebrant. The following lines from one of his most graceful pieces are -characteristic of his happiest moods:-- - - “I had a dream of other days,-- - In golden luxury waved the wheat; - In tangled greenness shook the maize; - The squirrels ran with nimble feet, - And in and out among the trees - The hangbird darted like a flame; - The cat-bird piped his melodies, - Purloining every warbler’s fame: - And then I heard triumphal song, - ’Tis morning and the days are long.” - -Mr. Parker felt, more than any other poet of the Ohio Valley, the -grandeur of the vast woodlands as the pioneers found them, and he -has touched upon it constantly in his writings. He lived for several -years in Canada, as a consular officer, and wrote a series of poems -under Northern influences; but he has been most fortunate in subjects -derived from home experiences. He is a connecting link between the -earliest Indiana writers and their successors, and he has been one -of the humblest and most devoted and sincere of all the servants of -literature in his State. - - -II. _Forceythe Willson_ - -It is an abrupt transition from these pioneers of poesy to Forceythe -Willson, the only Indiana poet who ever came in contact with the New -England group. Emerson, in the preface to his “Parnassus” (1874), says, -“I have inserted only one of the remarkable poems of Forceythe Willson, -a young Wisconsin poet of extraordinary promise, who died very soon -after this was written.” The poem chosen was “In State.” This placing -of Willson in Wisconsin is, as Piatt says in his eloquent sketch of the -poet,[46] rather needless, for he was never connected with Wisconsin -in any way. He was born at Genesee Falls, New York, April 10, 1837. In -1846 his father removed to Kentucky, and in 1852 to New Albany. Willson -spent about a year at Antioch College, in Ohio, and went afterward -to Harvard, but left in his sophomore year, owing to ill health. His -home was in Indiana from 1852 to 1864. He wrote his best poems, -indeed the greater part of his slender product, at New Albany, and his -residence there, in immediate contact with the seat of war, colored -his distinctive work. He married, in 1863, Elizabeth Conwell Smith, -whom he had met the preceding year at New Albany, and whose literary -gifts created a bond of sympathy between them. They removed shortly -to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where one of Willson’s brothers was in -school. He purchased a house on the Mount Auburn road, near Lowell’s -home, with an outlook on the Charles River. James R. Gilmore (Edmund -Kirke) was his neighbor and saw much of him at Cambridge. He wrote, in -1895, his recollections, testifying to Willson’s unusual qualities, and -giving this description of his personal appearance:-- - - “Take him, all in all, he was the most lovable man I ever knew; and - as a mere specimen of physical manhood he was a joy to look at. A - little above the medium height, he was perfectly proportioned and of - a sinewy, symmetrical figure. His hair was raven black, wavy, and - glossy as satin. His skin was alight olive, slightly tinged with red, - and his features were regular, somewhat prominent, and exceedingly - flexible, showing an organization of a highly sensitive character. - But his eyes were what riveted the observer’s attention. Mr. - Longfellow told me they were the finest type of the Oriental, but I - never saw eyes--Eastern or Western--to compare with them in luminous - power. They were full, large, and dark, with overhanging lashes; but - for the life of me I cannot tell their precise color. At times they - seemed a deep blue, at other times an intense black, and then they - were balls of fire, as he was stirred by some strong emotion. They - spoke the ready language of a deep, strong, fiery, yet chastened, - nature as it was moved by love, joy, sorrow or indignation.”[47] - -Piatt remarks upon his “Oriental look and manner,” and all who knew -him were impressed by his distinguished appearance and grave courtesy. -In 1858 New Albany became interested in spiritualism. Willson fell -under the spell and began a study of the subject. Piatt says that -Willson “soon abandoned the professors, but retained until his death -a serious spiritual theory or faith of his own. He believed--and he -was absolutely honest and sincere, I am sure, in his faith--that the -spirits of the dead could, and at times do, have communication with the -living.” - -Willson seems not to have had an active occupation at any time. His -father had been successful in business, and dying at New Albany in -1859, left a comfortable fortune to his children. The poet lived by -himself for a number of years, at New Albany, in a small house where he -surrounded himself with books and led the life of a student. Louisville -is directly across the Ohio from New Albany, and Willson was known -to a few of the literary people on the Kentucky side, particularly -to Prentice. The approach of the Civil War aroused in him a deep -interest in its great issues, and he wrote editorials in support of -the Union cause for Prentice’s _Journal_. He began in the first year -of the war, and concluded later, his poem “In State,” which, in spite -of its occasional vagueness and its despairing view of the political -situation, is written in an effective stanza and is splendidly -imaginative. He gloomily assumed that the nation was dead--hence his -personification of it as a prone figure lying “in state,” and he brings -the rulers of Europe to look upon it,-- - - “The winds have tied the drifted snow - Around the face and chin; and lo, - The sceptred giants come and go - And shake their shadowy crowns and say: ‘We always feared it would be - so!’” - -There is hardly a stanza in the poem that does not contain some -striking image. It moves on in the mournful cadence of a _miserere_:-- - - “The Sisterhood that was so sweet, - The Starry System sphered complete, - Which the mazed Orient used to greet, - The Four and Thirty fallen Stars glimmer and glitter at her feet.” - -He published, January 1, 1863, as a carrier’s address in the Louisville -_Journal_, “The Old Sergeant,” which Piatt believed to have been “the -transcript of a real history, none of the names in it being fictitious, -and the story being reported as exactly as possible from the lips -of a Federal assistant surgeon named Austin, with whom Willson was -acquainted at New Albany.” The poem appeared anonymously, and for some -reason, which was never explained, Willson seemed reluctant at first -to admit its authorship. It attracted wide attention. Gilmore relates -that early in 1863, in the office of the _Atlantic Monthly_, he met -Dr. Holmes, who held in his hand a copy of the Louisville _Journal_, -containing “The Old Sergeant.” “Read that,” said he, “and tell me if -it’s not the finest thing since the war began. Sit down and read it -here; you might lose it if I let you take it away.” The ballad is found -in “The Old Sergeant and Other Poems” (1867). It is a vivid narrative -of sustained power and interest, deriving strength from the earnestness -of the recital and the simple language, sometimes descending to army -slang, of the soldier. The poem is historically accurate and is a fine -celebration of the battle of Shiloh: - - “There was where Lew Wallace showed them he was of the canny kin, - There was where old Nelson thundered, and where Rousseau waded in; - There McCook sent ’em to breakfast, and we all began to win-- - There was where the grapeshot took me, just as we began to win. - - “Now, a shroud of snow and silence over everything was spread; - And but for this old blue mantle and the old hat on my head, - I should not have even doubted, to this moment, I was dead-- - For my footsteps were as silent as the snow upon the dead!” - -There is a suggestion of Poe, whom Willson greatly admired, in the -repetition, with slight variation, of the third line of the stanza; -but such points Willson always considered carefully. He was certainly -not servilely imitative, and he is an ungenerous critic who would pick -flaws in a poem that is so fine as a whole. “The Old Sergeant” is -entitled to a place with the best poems of the war--with Mrs. Howe’s -“Battle Hymn,” Brownell’s stirring pieces, Will H. Thompson’s “High -Tide at Gettysburg,” and Ticknor’s “Little Giffen.” These stand apart -from Lowell’s “Commemoration Ode” and similar poems, which are civic -rather than military. In “The Rhyme of the Master’s Mate,” Willson -turned again to the heroic, and while the poem is less artistic than -“The Old Sergeant,” it has a swing and a stroke that fit his theme -well. His volume contains a number of mystical pieces, colored by his -belief in spiritualism, and a few lyrics, as “The Estray” and “Autumn -Song,” which have an elusive charm and increase admiration for his -talents. Willson was emphatically a masculine character. In literature -and in life he liked what he called “muscle,” and he certainly showed -a sinewy grasp in his best poems. It is related that once during the -war he organized, and armed at his own expense, a home guard to protect -New Albany in a dangerous crisis, and at other times he displayed -great personal courage. If it had not been for his ill health he would -undoubtedly have enlisted. - -Willson was not immediately identified at Cambridge as the author of -“The Old Sergeant.” As Dr. Holmes said after Willson’s death, “He came -among us as softly and silently as a bird drops into his nest,” and it -was not like him to call attention to his own performances. After the -death of his wife and infant child, October 13, 1864, Willson was often -at Gilmore’s house, where he first saw Emerson. Gilmore relates that he -returned home one day from Boston to find Lowell lying at full length -on a lounge in the library, in animated conversation with Willson. -On this occasion an incident occurred illustrative of Willson’s gift -of “second sight.” Longfellow was mentioned in the conversation, and -Willson remarked that the poet would be there shortly. No one had -an intimation of the visit, but Willson described the route that -Longfellow was then following toward the house; and when the poet -presently arrived, he affirmed the statement of his itinerary as -Willson had given it. Willson’s interest in life ended with the death -of his wife, whose few poems he published privately. She is remembered -at New Albany as a girl of great beauty and refinement. - -Willson left Cambridge in the fall of 1866 for New Albany. While there -he suffered hemorrhages of the lungs and was ill for a month. He never -regained his strength, and his death occurred February 2, 1867, at -Alfred, New York. His convictions as to spiritualism grew firmer after -his wife’s death, and toward the last, so one of his brothers wrote, -“his wife and child seemed to be with him constantly, and he talked -to them in a low voice.” He was buried at Laurel, the home of Mrs. -Willson’s family, in the White Water Valley. His wife and child lie in -one grave beside him. The quiet hilltop cemetery commands a view of one -of the loveliest landscapes in Indiana, and it is fitly touched with -something of the peace, strength, and beauty that are associated with -Willson’s name. - - -III. _Later Poets_ - -Willson marked the beginning of better things, and a livelier fancy and -a keener critical spirit is henceforward observable--in the writings -of a veteran like Parker, and in the new company of writers that was -forming. The Civil War had profoundly moved the Central States, and -Indiana had perhaps felt it more than her neighbors. Willson had lifted -his voice for the Union while the war cloud still lay upon the land, -and the Thompson brothers spoke for the South from Indiana soil on the -arrival of the era of better feeling. Ben D. House, who had served -in the Federal armies, wrote with truth and spirit. He ran away from -his home in Vermont when he was seventeen, and entered the army from -Massachusetts. He saw hard service, and received wounds which were a -constant menace for the remainder of his life. He was mustered out -finally at Indianapolis, and lived there almost continuously until -his death in 1887. His idiosyncrasies and affectations were many, and -included the wearing of a great cloak, in which he sombrely wrapped -himself in cold weather. His poems were printed privately by his -friends in 1892. He had fair luck with the sonnet, and wrote, on the -occasion of Grant’s death, “Appomattox,” which follows:-- - - “To peace-white ashes sunk war’s lurid flame; - The drums had ceased to growl, and died away - The bark of guns, where fronting armies lay, - And for the day the dogs of war were tame, - And resting on the field of blood-fought fame, - For peace at last o’er horrid war held sway - On her won field, a score of years to-day, - Where to her champion forth a white flag came. - O nation’s chief, thine eyes have seen again - A whiter flag come forth to summon thee - Than that pale scarf which gleamed above war’s stain, - To parley o’er the end of its red reign-- - The truce of God that sets from battle free - Thy dauntless soul, and thy worn life from pain.” - -Lee O. Harris, a native of Pennsylvania (1839), removed to the State -in 1852, and was an Indiana soldier in the Civil War. His verse, as -collected in “Interludes” (1893), shows little of the military feeling, -but is strongly domestic, a forerunner of the work of Mr. Riley, whose -teacher Mr. Harris had been at Greenfield. - -Dan L. Paine, an Indianapolis journalist (1830-1895), possessed a -sound taste, and his occasional pieces were well executed. He wrote -an elegy on the death of his friend and fellow-journalist, George C. -Harding, which is a meditation on the courage of such spirits:-- - - “On Freedom’s heights they stand as sentinels, - Brave tropic suns, delve in earth’s deepest caves, - And climb the ladder of the parallels - To sleep in icy graves.” - -Such felicities were not uncommon with him. He was the friend and -helpful critic of all the younger Indiana writers, and literary -reputations have been created from slighter talents than his. His poems -were collected privately, under the title “Club Moss” (1890). - -So far nearly every name identified with the literary impulse in -Indiana has been met south of a line drawn across the State at -Crawfordsville; but Evaleen Stein carried it farther north, to -Lafayette. Miss Stein’s verse illustrates happily the growing -emancipation of the younger generation of Western poets from bare -didacticism, and an escape from the landscape of tradition. She finds -her subjects in nature, and draws pictures for the pleasure of it, and -not with the expectation of tacking a moral to the frame. Earnestness -and conviction characterize her verses, and there is often a kind of -exultance in the note when she sings of the rough hill pastures or -the marshes and bayous that invite her study. She has something of -Thoreau’s genius for details, and her volume “One Way to the Woods” -(1897) is an accurate calendar of the moods of nature. Her work marks -really a new generation, the change of fashion, and the passing of the -ante-bellum poets of the region. Twenty years earlier no Ohio Valley -poet would have explored a bayou, or could have written of it so -musically as Miss Stein:-- - - “Ah, surely none would ever guess - That through that tangled wilderness, - Through those far forest depths remote, - Lay any smallest path, much less - A way wherein to guide a boat!” - -A small volume of the poems of M. Genevieve Todd (1863-1896), of the -order of Sisters of Providence, was published after her death. They -are wholly devotional, and are marked by elevation of spirit wedded to -correct taste. Sister Mary Genevieve was born at Vevay, of Protestant -parents, and died at the convent of St. Mary’s of the Woods near Terre -Haute. Albion Fellows Bacon, Mrs. D. M. Jordan, Richard Lew Dawson, -and William R. Williams have also been creditable contributors to the -Hoosier anthology. - -Indiana offers, on the whole, a fair field for poets. The prevailing -note of the landscape is tranquillity. There is hardly a spot in the -State that touches the imagination with a sense of power or grandeur, -and yet there are countless scenes of quiet beauty. The Wabash gathers -breadth and grace as it flows southward. Long curves here and there -give to the eye the illusion of a chain of lakes, and the river’s -valley is a rich garden. The Tippecanoe is another beautiful river, -famous among fishermen, and there are a number of charming lakes in the -northern part of the State. The Kankakee marsh was long haunted by the -migrant wild birds, and in recent years a wild goose was found there -with the piece of an Eskimo arrow, made of reindeer bone, through its -breast. Poets and novelists have found inspiration in the Kankakee. -Maurice Thompson and Evaleen Stein have celebrated the region in song; -and there is a tradition that the manuscript of “Ben Hur” visited both -the Kankakee and Lake Maxinkuckee at certain crises in its preparation. -The possibilities of mixed forests are nowhere more happily illustrated -than in Indiana, whether in the earliest wistful days of spring or -in the full glory of autumn. The beech and the elm, the maple, the -hickory and the walnut, and the humbler sassafras and pawpaw are -companions of a royal order of forestry, from which the sycamore--the -self-constituted guardian of rivers and creeks--is excluded by nature’s -decree confirmed by man’s preference. The variety of cereals that may -be grown saves the tilled areas from monotony. There are no vast plains -of corn or wheat as in Kansas or the Dakotas, but the corn ripens -between wheat stubble on one hand, and green pastures or remnants of -woodland on the other. The transitional seasons bring more of delight -to the senses than the full measure of winter and summer, and have for -the observer constant novelty and change. There are qualities in the -spring of the Ohio Valley--qualities of sweetness and wistfulness that -are peculiar to the region; and when the winds are all from the south, -and the winter wheat is brilliant in the fields; when the sap sings -beneath the rough bark of the old forest trees, and the young orchards -are a blur of pink and white, spirits are abroad there with messages -for the sons of men. - - - - -INDEX - - - Abbott, Lyman, 215. - - Ade, George, 242. - - “Artemus Ward,” 159. - - - Bacon, Albion Fellows, 269. - - Bagehot, Walter, 158, 178. - - Banta, D. D., 75, 236. - - Baptists, organized first church, 67. - - Beales, at New Harmony, 132. - - Beecher, Henry Ward, 18, 83, 250. - - Beecher, Mrs. H. W., 35, 56. - - “Ben Hur,” how written, 189, 193; - MS. of, 270. - - Benjamin, Park, 19. - - Bennett, Emerson, 248. - - Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 113, 115. - - Biddle, Horace P., 248, 251. - - Blackford, Isaac, 22, 83. - - Blake family, 18. - - Blake, James, 83. - - Bolton, Nathaniel, 253. - - Bolton, Sarah T., 253. - - Boone, Richard G., 234. - - Booth, Newton, 16. - - Brook Farm, Robert Owen visits, 123. - - Brookville, 12. - - Brotherton, Alice Williams, 13. - - Brown, Admiral George, 212. - - Brown, Demarchus C., 242. - - Brown, Paul, at New Harmony, 115, 119. - - Bull, Ole, 19. - - Bush, Rev. George, 66. - - Butler College, 26, 82, 95, 228. - - Butler, John M., 179. - - Butler, John Maurice, 179. - - Butler, Noble, 16, 251. - - Butler, Noble C., 251. - - Butler, Ovid, 82. - - - Cambridge, 13. - - Campbell, Alexander, 123, 238. - - Carleton, Emma, 243. - - Carleton, Will, 172. - - Carrington, H. B., 179. - - Cartwright, Peter, 67. - - Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 215. - - Centerville, 12. - - _Century Magazine_, 14. - - Channing, W. E., 248. - - Channing, W. H., 248. - - Chase, W. M., 12. - - Child, Lydia Maria, 227. - - Chitwood, Mary L., 248, 252. - - “Christian Endeavor,” origin of name, 144. - - _Civil Service Chronicle_, 26. - - Clark, George Rogers, 4, 5. - - Clarke, James Freeman, 248. - - Coburn, John, 83. - - Coe family, 18. - - Coggeshall, W. T., 245, 250, 251. - - Corydon, 11, 94. - - Costume at New Harmony, 113. - - Cox, Millard, 222. - - Cox, Sandford C., 36. - - Craig, George, 134. - - Cranch, C. P., 248. - - Crawfordsville, 8, 177, 267. - - Cutter, George W., 252. - - - Dale, David, 102. - - D’Arusmont, Phiquepal, 105, 114. - - Dawson, Richard Lew, 269. - - Dennis, Charles, 28. - - DePauw University, 68, 77. - - Dillon, John B., 231, 249. - - Dooley, A. H., 237. - - Dransfields, at New Harmony, 132. - - Dufour, Mrs. A. L. Ruter, 248, 251. - - Dumont, Mrs. Julia L., 89-94, 247, 248. - - Duncan, Robert, 181. - - Dunn, Jacob P., 232. - - Dyer, Rev. Sidney, 250. - - - Eads, James B., 12. - - Earlham College, 77. - - Eaton, Arthur Wentworth, 215. - - Edson, Helen Rockwood, 241. - - Egan, Maurice Francis, 215. - - Eggleston, Edward, 8, 17, 51, 79, 89, 91, 133-155, 225. - - Eggleston, George Cary, 134, 224. - - Eggleston, Guilford, 138. - - Eggleston, Joseph Cary, 134, 137, 139. - - Eggleston, Miles, 138, 236. - - Ellsworth, Henry W., 251. - - Emerson, R. W., 248, 263. - - English, William H., 235. - - Episcopalians, early difficulties of, 65. - - Everett, Edward, 19. - - - Fauntleroys, at New Harmony, 132. - - Feiba Peveli, 111, 112, 122. - - Fellenberg, 102, 124. - - Field, Eugene, 172. - - Finley, John, 29, 34. - - Fishback, W. P., 242. - - Fiske, John, 8. - - Fletcher, Calvin, 83. - - Fletcher family, 18. - - Fletcher, Julia C., 216. - - Fletcher, Rev. J. C., 216. - - Flower, Richard, 101. - - Flowers in churches, 63. - - Fort Wayne, 13. - - Foulke, William Dudley, 26, 229. - - Franklin College, 26, 77. - - Fretageot, Achilles, 105. - - Fretageot, Madame, 115, 132. - - Fuller, Hector, 242. - - Furman, Lucy S., 216. - - - Gallatin, Albert, 71. - - Garland, Hamlin, 172. - - Gillilan, S. W., 243. - - Gilmore, James R. (“Edmund Kirke”), 257, 260, 263. - - Goode, Frances E., 155. - - Goodwin, Rev. T. A., 35. - - Gordon, Jonathan W., 251. - - - Hadley, John V., 53. - - Halford, E. W., 237. - - Hall, Bayard Rush, 73. - - Hanover College, 77. - - Harding, George C., 240, 267. - - Harney, W. W., 250. - - Harper, Ida Husted, 241. - - Harris, Leo O., 157, 266. - - Harrison, Benjamin, 4, 243. - - Harrison, Christopher, 16. - - Harrison, W. H., 4, 67, 71. - - Havens, Rev. James, 67. - - Hay, John, 16. - - Hayes, Lewis D., 237. - - Hayes, President, 190. - - Henderson, Rev. C. R., 241. - - Hendricks, William, 76. - - _Henodelphisterian_ Society, 75. - - Higginson, T. W., 157. - - Holland, J. G., 19. - - Holliday family, 18. - - Holliday, John H., 26, 237. - - Holliday, Rev. F. C., 65. - - Holman, Jesse L., 76. - - Holmes, O. W., 260, 263. - - “Hoosier Athens,” 177. - - Hoosier dialect, 45-62, 152, 163. - - Hoosier Fiddle, 41. - - Hoosier, origin of word, 29-36. - - “Hoosier Schoolmaster,” 145. - - Hoosierdom, extent of, 151. - - Hoshour, Samuel K., 96, 181. - - House, Ben D., 265. - - Hovey, Edmund O., 80. - - Howard, Tilghman A., 35. - - Howe, Daniel Wait, 234. - - Howells, W. D., 246. - - Howland, John D., 12. - - Howland, Livingston, 12. - - Howland, Louis, 26, 237. - - - Indiana: relation to national life, 3-5; - slavery in, 5; - foreign and native element, 11; - political preferences, 26; - pioneers, 36, 39; - religious influences, 65-69; - education in, 70; - illiteracy in, 81, 87; - early poets, 245; - landscape of, 36, 219, 269. - - Indiana University, 26, 73-76. - - Indianapolis, 17-20. - - Indianapolis Literary Club, 19. - - Ingersoll, Robert G., 189. - - - James, G. P. R., 181. - - Jennings, Governor, 22. - - Jewett, Milo Parker, 80. - - Johnson, Robert Underwood, 13. - - Jordan, David S., 78. - - Jordan, Mrs. D. M., 269. - - Judah, Mary Jameson, 221. - - Julian, George W., 226, 251. - - Julian, Isaac H., 248, 251. - - - Ketcham, W. A., 44. - - Keenan, Henry F., 215. - - Krout, Caroline V., 212. - - Krout, Mary H., 212. - - - Lafayette, 14, 267. - - Lane, Henry S., 180. - - Lee, John, 202. - - Lehmanowski, Colonel, 32. - - Lesueur, Charles A., 104, 106. - - Lewis, Allen, 26. - - Lewis, Charles S., 26. - - Lincoln, Abraham, 38, 125, 152. - - Lodge, Harriett Newell, 241. - - Longfellow, H. W., 258, 263. - - Lowell, J. R., 160, 172, 263. - - Lynching, 43. - - - Maclure, William, 104, 105, 115, 129. - - McCulloch, Hugh, 14. - - McCutcheon, John T., 242. - - McDonald, Joseph E., 179. - - McGinnis, Gen. George F., 184. - - Macluria, 111, 112, 122. - - Macdonald, Donald, 105, 107. - - Madison, 11, 155. - - Major, Charles, 223. - - “Mark Twain,” 164. - - Martindale, E. B., 160. - - Mason, A. L., 242. - - Matthews, Claude, 21. - - Matthews, G. C., 237. - - Matthews, James Newton, 215. - - Meredith, Solomon, 83. - - Merrill family, 18. - - Merrill, Miss Catharine, 94. - - Merrill, Samuel, 94. - - Militia, early, 39. - - Miller, Joaquin, 215. - - Millerites, 148. - - Mills, Caleb, 79, 80, 85-88. - - Moody, Martha Livingstone, 241. - - Morris family, 18. - - Morrison, John I., 16. - - Morton, Oliver P., 22, 229. - - Morton, Oliver T., 26, 229. - - Mount, James A., 21. - - Murphy, Dr. Edward, 130. - - - Nadal, E. S., 204, 216. - - Nadal, Rev. Bernard H., 216. - - Nashoba, 105. - - Neef, Joseph, 105, 106. - - Neef, Madame, 115. - - Nelson, Thomas H., 15. - - New Albany, 140, 143, 256, 257, 258, 259. - - New Harmony, 21, 98-132. - - _New Harmony Disseminator_, 128. - - _New Harmony Gazette_, 111, 118, 128. - - Nicholas, Anna, 220, 237. - - Nichols, Rebecca S., 248, 250, 252. - - Noble, Harriet, 241. - - North Carolina, influence of, in dialect, 52. - - Notre Dame University, 77, 215. - - - Oliphant, Laurence, 126. - - Owen, David Dale, 126. - - Owen, Richard, 127. - - Owen, Robert, 99, 101, 103, 104, 110, 115, 121, 122, 123, 124, 131. - - Owen, Robert Dale, 24, 76, 104, 111, 114, 124, 125. - - Owen, William, 104, 128. - - - Paine, Dan L., 267. - - Parker, Benj. S., 56, 249, 254, 265. - - Parker, Theodore, 19. - - Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, 248. - - Pestalozzi, 102, 107. - - Piatt, John James, 215, 246, 256, 258, 260. - - Pioneers, books of, 38. - - Poe, Edgar A., 261. - - Poetry, characteristics of early Western, 244. - - “Poor Whites,” 8, 44. - - Posey, Thomas, 21. - - Prentice, George D., 246, 247, 253. - - Protestantism, phases of, in Indiana, 64. - - - Rabb, Kate Milner, 241. - - Ralston, Alexander, 17. - - Rapp, George, 98-101. - - Rariden, James, 236. - - Ray family, 18. - - Reed, Peter Fishe, 249. - - Reeves, Arthur M., 230. - - Reid, Whitelaw, 185. - - Richmond, 13. - - Ridpath, John Clark, 233. - - Riley, James Whitcomb, 27, 42, 49, 57, 133, 156-176, 217. - - Riley, Reuben A., 157. - - Ross, Morris, 273. - - - Salem, 16, 17. - - Say, Thomas, 104, 106, 115, 128. - - Scotch-Irish, 7, 51, 65. - - Sharpe family, 18. - - Smith, Elizabeth Conwell (Willson), 257. - - Smith, O. H., 31, 83, 236. - - Smith, Roswell, 14. - - Sorin, Father, 64. - - Stein, Evaleen, 267, 270. - - Stevenson, R. D., 243. - - Stoddard, Charles Warren, 215. - - Sulgrove, Berry, 15, 49, 181, 237. - - Sullivan, Jeremiah, 17. - - Swift, Lucius B., 26. - - - Tarkington, Booth, 217-221. - - Taylor, Bayard, 19. - - Taylor, Dr. H. W., 40, 58. - - Teal, Angelina, 241. - - Terre Haute, 14, 215. - - Terrell, Rev. William, 140. - - Test, John, 180, 236. - - Thomas, Edith M., 159. - - Thompson, Maurice, 27, 199-211, 270. - - Thompson, Richard W., 14, 76, 83. - - Thompson, Will H., 202, 211. - - Thurston, Laura M., 252. - - Todd, M. Genevieve, 268. - - Troost, Gerard, 105, 106, 115. - - Tuttle, Joseph F., 80. - - - Unitarians, in Ohio Valley, 248. - - Upfold, Bishop, 63. - - - Venable, W. H., 249. - - Very, Jones, 248. - - Vevay, 89, 134. - - Vickroy, Louise E., 249. - - Vincennes, 5, 11. - - Vincennes University, 72. - - Voorhees, Daniel W., 15. - - - Wabash College, 77, 80, 88, 173, 211. - - Wallace, David, 22, 76, 180, 236. - - Wallace, General Lew, 22, 56, 180-199, 261. - - Wallace, Mrs. Lew, 198. - - Wallace, William Ross, 250. - - Warren, Josiah, 129. - - Wheatcrofts, at New Harmony, 132. - - Whitcomb, Governor, 22. - - Whitecaps, 43. - - Whitwell, Stedman, 105. - - Wickersham, James A., 222. - - Willard, Governor, 22. - - Williams, Charles R., 237, 242. - - Williams, Henry M., 26. - - Williams, James D., 20. - - Williams, Jesse Lynch, 14. - - Williams, W. R., 269. - - Willson, Forceythe, 256-264. - - Wilson, W. L., 243. - - Wilstach, J. A., 241. - - Woodlands, influence of on pioneers, 36. - - Woods, Rev. Aaron, 33. - - Woollen, William Wesley, 236. - - Wright, Frances (D’Arusmont), 105, 124. - - Wright, Joseph A., 22, 31. - - - Yandes family, 18. - - - - -NATIONAL STUDIES IN AMERICAN LETTERS - - -Old Cambridge - -BY - -THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON - -Cloth. 12mo. Price $1.25 - - -“... Some charmingly reminiscent pages, having for their subject the -three authors most widely associated with Old Cambridge,--Holmes, -Longfellow, and Lowell; and their pleasant gossip makes up the major -part of the volume, which is altogether a most enjoyable and valuable -one.”--_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph._ - -“It is just the sort of book that one would expect from the author, -graceful in form, abounding in the genuine atmosphere of the old -university town, full of pleasant personal anecdotes and reminiscences -of the Cambridge of forty or fifty years ago. Many great figures -pass across the stage, with nearly all of whom Colonel Higginson was -personally acquainted; and this intimacy gives the book a charming -flavor.”--_Brooklyn Life._ - -“The book contains material to be had nowhere else, for it is a -commentary on the side history of a great epoch in American letters, -written by one who had a place in it.”--_San Francisco Argonaut._ - -“What he has to tell will be interesting to every person who honors -New England and sets store by her literature. The book is steeped -in the Attic dew of which the Cambridge cicadas were fond; it has a -smack of ambrosia,--American ambrosia,--and its leaves rustle with the -unmistakable Parnassian suggestion--a Puritan Parnassus to be sure.... -The Cambridge he dwells upon is the Cambridge of the Boston circle -of poets, philosophers, politicians, reformers, scholars, statesmen, -preachers, and divine cranks. He sketches everything and everybody -freely, swiftly, and lightly.”--_Independent._ - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - - - - -Brook Farm - -_ITS MEMBERS, SCHOLARS, AND VISITORS_ - -By LINDSAY SWIFT - -Cloth. 16mo. Price $1.25 - - -CONTENTS - -THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB--BROOK FARM--THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS--THE -MEMBERS--THE VISITORS--THE CLOSING PERIOD--BIBLIOGRAPHY--INDEX - -“Mr. Swift ... deals with the experimenters rather than with the -experiments ... and with the influence of the life at Brook Farm upon -the individuality of its members.”--_The Mail and Express._ - -“Mr. Lindsay Swift takes up and describes very amply the most romantic, -interesting, and far-reaching movement in the history of American -literature--the story of Brook Farm.”--_Times Saturday Review._ - -“The book has a value apart from its delineation of Brook Farm.... It -ought to be widely and carefully read, especially where ... socialistic -notions are gaining many adherents, for it will aid the young -enthusiast to define what may be and what cannot be for a very long -century at least.”--_The Outlook._ - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[1] Dunn’s “Indiana,” p. 302 _et seq._ - -[2] Preface to “The Hoosier Schoolmaster,” Library Edition. - -[3] McCulloch’s “Men and Measures,” p. 78. - -[4] Preface to “The Hoosier Schoolmaster,” Library Edition. - -[5] “Old Virginia and Her Neighbors,” II, 320. - -[6] Statistical Atlas, U. S. Census, 1890, p. 24. - -[7] Smith’s “Early Indiana Trials,” p. 6. - -[8] “History of Indianapolis and Marion County,” p. 72. - -[9] “Early Indiana Trials,” p. 450. - -[10] “Sketches,” p. 45. - -[11] Woollen’s “Sketches,” p. 265. - -[12] Banta’s “Johnson County,” p. 55. - -[13] The _Current_, November, 1884. - -[14] “The New Purchase,” p. 401. - -[15] “Neighborly Poems,” p. 26. - -[16] Report of W. A. Ketcham, attorney-general, 1897-8, p. 173. - -[17] Fifth Edition, 1872, pp. 171-172. - -[18] _The Forum_, Vol. 14, p. 465. - -[19] Sulgrove, p. 90. - -[20] “Dialect Notes,” Part VIII, p. 392. - -[21] “The New Purchase,” p. 143. - -[22] “Dialect Notes,” Part IV, p. 211. - -[23] _D_ before _i_ or _u_ does not become _j_ in cultivated usage -anywhere at the west. Personally, I have never heard _Injiana_ within -the State; but I have heard it from a Bostonian, a native of Maine, who -had never lived outside of New England. - -[24] “Souvenir of the Western Association of Writers,” 1891. - -[25] “Indiana Methodism,” p. 317. - -[26] Edson’s “Early Indiana Presbyterianism,” p. 171. - -[27] Evans’s “Pioneer Preachers,” p. 43; Edson’s “Early Indiana -Presbyterianism,” p. 40. - -[28] Goodwin’s “Heroic Women of Indiana Methodism,” p. 9. - -[29] Woodburn’s “Higher Education in Indiana,” p. 31. - -[30] Woodburn, p. 75. - -[31] In Dr. Hall’s narrative “Woodville,” “Spiceburg,” “Sugartown,” -“Sproutsburg,” and “Timberopolis” are respectively Bloomington, -Spencer, Crawfordsville, Lafayette, and Indianapolis. The author -assumes the names “Carlton” and “Mr. Clarence.” “Cutswell” became -Governor Whitcomb; “The Rev. James Hilsbury” is the Rev. Isaac Reed; -“Dr. Bloduplex” is Dr. Wiley, and “Dr. Shrub” is the Rev. George Bush. - -[32] Banta’s “History of Indiana University,” p. 44. - -[33] Boone’s “History of Education in Indiana,” p. 87. - -[34] “Caleb Mills and Indiana Common Schools,” _Tuttle Miscellany_, -Vol. 38. - -[35] Boone’s “Education in Indiana,” p. 87. - -[36] Boone, _supra_, p. 104 _et seq._ - -[37] In 1899 Indiana’s total school fund, exclusive of college -endowment, was $10,312,000. The school revenue for that year, from all -sources, was $6,534,300. The census of 1890 showed the per cent of -illiterates (ten years of age and older) in Indiana to be 6.32; in Ohio -5.24; in Illinois 5.25; in Michigan 5.92. In Massachusetts it was 6.22; -in New York 5.53; in New Jersey 6.50; in Pennsylvania 6.78. - -[38] “Some Western Schoolmasters,” _Scribner’s Magazine_, Vol. 17, p. -747. - -[39] _Scribner’s_, _supra_. - -[40] One of the passengers on “the boat load of knowledge,” Victor -Duclas, is still living (July, 1900) at New Harmony. - -[41] _The Forum_, November, 1890. - -[42] _The Forum_, _supra_. - -[43] “War Papers,” Indiana Commandery, Loyal Legion, 1898. - -[44] “Essays at Home and Elsewhere,” p. 211. - -[45] “Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley,” by W. H. -Venable, LL.D., p. 58 _et seq._ - -[46] _Atlantic Monthly_, Vol. 35. - -[47] Indianapolis _News_, March 2, 1895. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOOSIERS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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