{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3264", "width": "2027", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.\\nChap. Copyright No.\\nShelf\u00e2\u0080\u009eVS27^b\\nUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "JOHN GODFREY SAXE.\\nA Biogfraphical Sketch of Vermont s Lawyer,\\nJournalist, Lecturer and Rhymster.\\nBY RUSSELL W. TAFT.\\nOne of One Hundred Copies Privately\\nPrinted*\\nBurlingfton, Vermont.\\nJ 900.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "T WO COPIES\\n\u00e2\u0096\u00a0MAR! 7 1900\\n3G206\\nCopyrighted 1S99\\nBY\\nR. W. Taft.\\nSiiCJiMi ci^^Y,", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "TO THE READER.\\nIt is unnecessary to remark that the following\\nsketch is carelessly written and hastily compiled.\\nIt is reprinted from a series of articles appearing\\nin the Vermont University Cynic during the\\nwinter of 1899-1900 and is, so far as we have\\nbeen able to ascertain, the first published biog-\\nraphy of the poet. As, in the future, the\\ncompiler may attempt a more carefully written\\ntribute to Saxe s memory, he earnestly requests\\nthose into whose hands the present work may\\ncome to communicate to him any errors or in-\\nconsistencies that they may detect, as well as\\nfacts or incidents that will add completeness to\\nthe sketch.\\nR. W. T.\\nBurlington, Yt., March 30, 1900.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "JoH.v G. Saxk.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "JOHN GODFREY SAXE.\\nI.\\nA German origin must be assigned to the\\nSaxe family, the ancestor of which, John Sachse,\\nimmigrated early to the Dutch settlements along\\nthe Hudson river. Many of the Dutch and\\nGerman settlers were Tories who, to escape pol-\\nitical difficulties, moved further north. Among\\nthem John Sachse or Saxe removed in 1Y87\\nthrough Lake Champlain to Highgate, the ex-\\ntreme northwest town of the mainland of Yer-\\nmont, taking with him his wife and a family of\\neight sons and one daughter. The same year he\\nbuilt the first grist mill in northern Vermont on\\nSaxe s brook, tributary to Rock river, a small\\nstream in the northwest corner of the township,\\nwhere a little settlement is still known as Saxe s\\nMill. The dam still remains to testify to the\\ncare with which it was planned and constructed.\\nPrior to this the nearest mills were at Platts-\\nburgh, New York, across Lake Champlain by\\ncanoe, or at Burlington thirty-five miles distant.\\nThe mill must have been a welcome institution\\nfor there were no houses between Saxe s mill\\nand Burlington and it is recorded that John\\nSaxe in 1787 visited Burlington with no", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0013.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "2\\nguide but his pocket compass, over a trail\\nbeset with hostile savages. John Saxe was\\na man of ability and perseverance, in every\\nway calculated to cope with the hard-\\nships of a first settlement. He had, with his\\nfamily, many perils to encounter and trials to\\nendure they were harrassed by the noble red\\nmen and less noble but more inoffensive bears\\nand catamounts and it is chronicled that at one\\ntime Mr. Saxe was obliged to swim the river\\nbreaking the ice with his hands, though as to the\\nreason therefor the annalist is silent.\\nThe children of John Saxe were John, George,\\nWilliam, Matthew, Godfrey, Peter, Jacob, Con-\\nrad and Hannah. John, the eldest, died at the\\nage of twenty-two Godfrey at twenty-eight\\nJacob carried on the furnace business Conrad\\nwas a blacksmith and farmer George a trapper\\nand cattle drover William turned his hand to\\nsurveying Matthew, who was first town clerk of\\nHighgate, became a wheelwright and afterwards\\na merchant, while Peter kept a store and later\\nmanaged his father s mill. It needs but a glance\\nat the early annals of Highgate to assure one\\nthat the family were prominent in town affairs.\\nIn the first book of records the first rec-\\nord is a bond from Ira Allen of Colches-\\nter to John Saxe, dated July 31, 1792.\\nJohn Saxe was town treasurer in 1799.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0014.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "3\\nThe first marriage in Highgate, that of\\nAndrew Wilson and Eachel Wilson, was per-\\nformed March 19, 1800, by Matthew Saxe, J. P.;\\nthe first death was that of Catherine, wife of\\nJohn Saxe, in 1791 in 1801 the first store and\\ntavern was kept by Matthew, Godfrey and Peter\\nSaxe 1799, 1800, 1805 and 1806 Matthew Saxe\\nwas town clerk, a position held by his brother\\nPeter in 1810, 181i; 1828 and 1829. Matthew\\nwas town representative in 1800 and 1802 as was\\nPeter in 1806, 1807, 1818 and 1827. Peter, who\\nseems to have been the politician of the family,\\nwas postmaster and justice of the peace as well\\nas, in 1818, county judge for the county of\\nFranklin. In 1806, 1807 and 1811 he was\\nselectman as was Conrad, his brother, in 1821.\\nConrad, the belligerent of the group, was one of\\nHighgate s twelve militia captains and served in\\nthat capacity in the war of 1812, doing garrison\\nduty at Swanton Falls. At the time of the bat-\\ntle of Plattsburgh he raised a company of vol-\\nunteers but was not on the scene, being unable\\nto obtain transportation further than Grand Isle,\\nwhere the cannonading was plainly heard.\\nPeter Saxe, storekeeper, mill-owner and local\\npolitician, married, in 1813, Elizabeth Jewett,\\nand their second son, for whom a niche at least\\nmay be reserved in America s literary Valhalla,\\nis the subject of the present sketch. John God-", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0015.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "frey Saxe was born in Highgate on June 2, 1816,\\none day later than Charles Gamage Eastman,\\nVermont s lyric poet.\\nSaxe s early years passed quietly away. From\\nhis ninth to his seventeenth year he attended\\ndistrict school and worked in his father s mill.\\nTradition in the guise of the oldest inhabitant\\nrecalls him as a care-free, happy-go-lucky,\\nwhistling, barefoot lad, tall and lank, forever\\nroaming about with the cattle and flocks and\\nconducting himself generally in a manner that\\nwon him among the puritanical neighbors the\\nname of Saxe s fool, an appelation the merit of\\nwhich he soon amply disproved. Mrs. Caroline\\n(Brown) Freer, who died recently at Warren,\\nOhio, at the advanced age of ninety-three, taught\\nwhen she was eighteen years of age, the district\\nschool near Saxe s mill and boarded in the Saxe\\nfamily. John was one of her pupils and she\\noften recalled him as a lively, mischievous and\\nsometimes unruly lad, to whose shoulders she was\\nmany a time obliged to apply the rod. Mrs.\\nFreer treasured jealously the poet s first attempt\\nat versification, which he sent her after she left\\nHighgate. The paper is yellow and the ink\\nfaded but the sentiment remains,\\nYou go away, while here I stay\\nBut still we join in heart,\\nFarewell I And be your journey here\\nA pathway to a brighter sphere.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0016.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "5\\nIn later years Saxe s loyalty to his old teacher\\ndid not abate and he visited her frequently.\\nA pleasant remini^nce of the poet s childhood\\nis found in his ballad of Little Jerry, the Mil-\\nler.\\nLITTLE JERRY, THE MILLER,\\nBeneath the hill you may see the mill\\nOf wasting wood and crumbling stone\\nThe wheel is dripping and clattering still,\\nBut Jerry, the miller, is dead and gone.\\nYear after year, early and late,\\nAlike in summer and winter weather.\\nHe pecked the stones and calked the gate,\\nAnd mill and miller grew old together.\\nLittle Jerry t was all the same,\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nThey loved him well who called him so\\nAnd whether he d ever another name,\\nNobody ever seemed to know.\\nTwas, Little Jerry, come grind my rye\\nAnd Little Jerry, come grind my wheat\\nAnd Little Jerry was still the cry,\\nFrom matron bold and maiden sweet.\\nTwas Little Jerry on every tongue,\\nAnd so the simple truth was told\\nFor Jerry was little when he was young.\\nAnd Jerry was little when he was old.\\nBiit what in size he chanced to lack,\\nThat Jerry made up in being strong\\nI ve seen a sack upon his back\\nAs thick as the miller, and quite as long.\\nAlways busy, and always merry,\\nAlways doing his very best.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0017.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "e\\nA notable wag was Little Jerry,\\nWho uttered well his standing jest.\\nHow Jerry lived is known to fame,\\nBut how he died there s none may know\\nOne autumn day the rumor came,\\nThe brook and Jerry are very low.\\nAnd then t was whispered, mournfully,\\nThe leech had come, and he was dead\\nAnd all the neighbors flocked to see\\nPoor Little Jerry I was all they said.\\nThey laid him in his earthy bed,\\nHis miller s coat his only shroud\\nDust to dust, the parson said.\\nAnd all the people wept aloud.\\nFor he had shunned the deadly sin,\\nAnd not a grain of over-toll\\nHad ever dropped into his bin.\\nTo weigh upon his parting soul.\\nBeneath the hill there stands the mill,\\nOf wasting wood and crumbling stone\\nThe wheel is dripping and clattering still,\\nBut Jerry, the Miller, is dead and gone.\\nLittle Jerry, a diminutive T renchman of re-\\nmarkable strength, wit and good nature, for\\nmany years tended the grists at the mill in High-\\ngate. Saxe says of him His surname was\\nwritten Goodheart in the mill-books but he\\noften told me that our English translation was\\nquite too weak, as the real name was spelled\\nFortboncoeur^", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0018.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "However, the days\\nWhen knaves were only found in books,\\nAnd friends were known by friendly looks.\\nAnd love was always true\\nsped by\\nall too soon. In 1833 and 34 Saxe attended the\\nGrammar School of St. Albans where he prepar-\\ned for college. In 1835 he entered Wesleyan\\nUniversity, MiddletoWn, Connecticut, but did\\nnot stay the year out. In those days a college\\neducation was acquired under difficulties that\\nwould discourage an average youth of the present\\ngeneration. Railroads were few and long jour-\\nneys had to be made on horseback or in heavy\\nstage-coaches, lumbering over rough and uneven\\nroads, and many a stout-hearted boy, fired by an\\nambition that was later to win him fame and\\nwealth, has footed it to school and home again.\\nCollege then meant separation from home\\nand friends for the whole year, perhaps for the\\nwhole course a serious thing in a boy s sight.\\nThis may be why Saxe continued his pursuit of\\nknowledge nearer home, for, in the fall of 1836,\\nhe enrolled himself in the sophomore class of\\nMiddlebury College, being then twenty years of\\nage. Like many another he had to economize\\nwhile struggling for an education, but his nature\\nwas o]3timistic and he was always on the sunny\\nside of fate, so it is not to be supposed that a few", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0019.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "discouragements made liis college days any the\\nless joyous. At any rate in his Carmen Lae-\\ntum occur these lines reminiscent of under-\\ngraduate life\\nAh well I remember the halcyon years,\\nToo earnest for latighter, too pleasant for tears,\\nWhen life was a boon in yon classical court,\\nThough lessons were long and though commons were\\nshort!\\nCommons referred to the daily meals. Then,\\nas now, the students contributed each a small\\nsum weekly toward the support of the dining\\nhall and shared their meals in common. This\\nwas easier upon the boys pockets, though harder\\nperhaps upon their digestive apparatus, for there\\nwas no startling variety to the bill of fare nor\\nwas there always enough to satisfy the vigorous\\nappetites that were concerned, and often it was a\\ncase of first come, first served. In the same\\npoem Saxe also recalls President Bates in the\\nwords\\nAh well I remember the President s face,\\nAs he sat at the lecture Avith dignified grace,\\nAnd neatly unfolded the mystical themes\\nOf various deep, metaphysical schemes,\\nHow he brightened the path of his studious flock,\\nAnd he gave them a key to that wonderful Locke\\nHow he taught us to feel it was fatal indeed\\nWith too much reliance to lean upon Reid.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0020.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "9\\nThe members of Saxe s class were, for the most\\npart, sober minded and studious young men, de-\\nvoted to the prescribed course of study. Of the\\nthirty-seven who graduated, two embraced the\\nmedical profession, nine became lawyers, nine\\nbecame teachers, and the remaining seventeen\\npreached the gospel. While Saxe did not neg-\\nlect the regular studies of the course, hjis taste\\nran more in the line 6i literature and the ielles\\nleitres. In mathematics he was an average stu-\\ndent and, though an ardent lover of the classics,\\nhis translations were rather elegant than literal.\\nHis love for the classics continued unabated\\nthroughout his life. The allusions to Latin au-\\nthors so common in his poems attest an intimate\\nacquaintance with Yirgil, Ovid and Horace,\\nwhile we find in an old St. Albans Republican\\nthe following apt rendition of a certain English\\njuvenile classic into the mother tongue.\\nJack et Gilla.\\nJack et Gilla\\nAscendunt montem,\\nAquam parare\\nAd certem fontem,\\nProcidit Jack,\\nEt praeter hac,\\nFrangit e]\\\\xs fundum\\nEt de Gilla,\\nEtiam ilia,\\nProcidit secundum.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0021.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "10\\nIn person Saxe was of fine presence. He was\\ntall and erect,with a kindly face framed in flow-\\ning locks, a clear skin and a deep gray eye. His\\nmanners were pleasing and a certain youthful\\nawkwardness soon disappeared under the influ-\\nence of his social life, for he at once became a\\nfavorite both in college and in the town. He\\nwas a great smoker and was known, accordingly,\\nas Tobacco Saxe among the girls. Saxe\\nstudied while in college, to make a good con-\\nversationalist and gave presage of many of the\\nqualities that afterward appeared in his writings.\\nHe was witty, happy in repartee, something of a\\npunster and was well equipped with funny anec-\\ndotes that he employed skilfully, thereby making\\nhimself an entertaiaing and attractive companion,\\nalbeit with a spice of egotism. His literary\\ntaste was far above the average; he read exten-\\nsively the works of standard English authors,\\nboth in prose and poetry, and was fond of quot-\\ning their brightest and most brilliant thoughts.\\nAs a debater he ranked well and it was a pleas-\\nure to listen to him in Lyceum, while if a literary\\nprogram was the order of the day he was assured\\nof a prominent place.\\nThe young collegian s suamter in modo\\nstood him in good stead. He could far out-\\ndo any member of his class in politeness\\ngotten up for the occasion when called upon", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0022.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "11\\nto answer a question upon wliicli he was totally\\nunprepared nor did he ever hesitate for a reply.\\nHe was generally among the last to enter the\\nchapel for morning prayers. On one occasion\\nthe students apparently had all assembled and the\\nexercises were about to commence, when Saxe\\ncame hurrying in, his long overcoat flung over\\nhis shoulders. As he was hastening to his seat\\nthe President addressed him, Good morning,\\nMr. Saxe. He turned toward the President\\nwith a graceful salute, and with a deep, clear\\nvoice returned the greeting, Good morning.\\nPresident Bates. No one else in the audience\\ncould have returned the President s greeting\\nunder those circumstances so imperturbably. As\\nshowing Saxe s versatility in adapting means to\\nends Eev. Byron Sunderland of Washington, D.\\nC, relates this incident Saxe roomed as other\\nstudents did, over the then famous bookstore of\\nJonathan Hagar in the vicinity of the river\\nStyx, which meandered between the village and\\nthe first old square frame college building, then\\nused for chapel and students rooms. I remem-\\nber one cheerless autumn morning about 5\\no clock, on my way to chapel prayers, calling at\\nhis room in Hagar s whose fair daughters, by the\\nway, at their room on Weybridge street, had the\\nnight before entertained a formal company, of\\nwhom Saxe was one. As I knocked for admis-", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0023.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "12\\nsion, his loud, clear voice replied, Come in,\\nand there he was just out of bed, with his black\\npants in one hand and stick of sealing wax in the\\nother, bending over the feeble flame of a sputter-\\ning tallow candle and trying with the melt-\\ned wax to patch a rent which unfortunately had\\nbeen made in his nether garments the night\\nbefore. As I looked in upon him he caught my\\neye with a most quizzical expression, and pointing\\nto the rent in his dark pants, which now showed\\nat a little distance off to be only a blood-red spot as\\nof a discoloration or a stain, he remarked, ^That,\\nnow 1 take it, has been done with neatness and\\ndispatch. Then taking his quill pen, he smeared\\nthe wax with ink and hastily jumped into his\\nclothes, crying as he donned his broad-brimmed\\nhat, Come on, my son, we shall be late to pray-\\ners.\\nProf. Truman K. Wright of Elbridge, E Y.,\\nwho was a classmate of Saxe, writes as follows\\nSaxe was genial, jovial and inclined to be wag\\ngish. His room-mate Wicker was a fine scholar\\nin mathematics, and once solved a difficult prob-\\nlem for the next daj^ s recitation by working until\\nmidnight and when he went to bed he left the\\nsolution on his writing desk. Saxe came in late,\\nsaw the problem worked, and examined it some-\\nwhat. When the bell rang in the morning\\nWicker was sound asleep. Saxe gathered up", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0024.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "13\\nthe manuscrij3t, noiselessly closed the door, and\\nhastened to the recitation room, where he spread\\nout the solution upon the black-board. Great\\nwas the astonishment to see Saxe solve the most\\ndifficult problem of the day in fact the aston-\\nishment was so great that though intended to be\\na joke on Wicker, it proved to be a joke on\\nSaxe.\\nEdwin Everts, who died in 1898 at Virden.\\n111., was the poet s intimate college friend. They\\nwere interchangeable guests almost daily, were\\nboth in attendance at the winter term of the\\nsenior year, read, recited and talked French\\ntogether under the tutelage of Prof. Stoddard,\\nand belonged to the Tub Philosophers. Paint-\\ner Hall, in which Saxe roomed the latter part of\\nhis course, is still standing, though unoccupied.\\nThe room in which the poet spent his college\\ndays is small and plain the plaster is falling off\\nand the doors and window cases are battered and\\nscarred.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0025.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "II-\\nStrange to say, Saxe, when in college, did\\nnot woo the muse as ardently as prevalent\\nundergraduate tradition demanded, yet he was\\nconsidered the poet of the class and when-\\never he read a few stanzas before them he was\\nlistened to with marked attention. He and his\\nclassmate. Carlos Bisbee were rival versifiers.\\nOn one occasion when Bisbee had read a few\\nstanzas before the class, after the class was dis-\\nmissed Saxe exclaimed with considerable stress\\nBisbee a poet Bisbee write poetry He\\ndoesn t know enough to steal a good poem\\nSaxe s first literary efforts were published about\\nthe beginning of his junior year in the local\\nprints. My Uncle William or Love vs. Law was\\nhis first printed effort and was meritorious chiefly\\non account of its brevity. The Autobiography\\nof a Pocket Knife, the next offspring of his\\nbudding fancy, also shows no palpable traces of\\ngenius. Later on Saxe became a member of the\\nTub Philosophers a la Diogenes who turned\\nloose their literary talent on the Green Moun-\\ntain Argus. The Philosophers salutatory was\\nby Saxe and ran as follows\\nGentle Read -but hold, we do not know that\\nyou are gentle nor, indeed are we quite sure", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0026.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "15\\nyou would like the application of the term to\\nyourself, however appropriate. Gentleness, un-\\nluckily enough, has almost ceased to be thought\\na virtue. Indeed, it has come to be regarded as\\nunbecoming a man, barely pardonable in womefi\\nand indispensable in horses. The animal is\\nperfectly gentle, sir. You will hardly hear the\\nword in any other connection. We will try\\nagain.\\nIntelligent reader\u00e2\u0080\u0094 alas! how few readers are\\nintelligent how few thoroughly understand a\\ntithe of what they read. How few are careful\\nalways to regard the writer s end. How often\\nis he dispraised as superficial, when he never\\nmeant to be profound. How often denied the\\npraise of wit, when he aims only to be pleasant.\\nWe ll try once more.\\nIndulgent reader\u00e2\u0080\u0094 the phrase sounds smoothly\\nbut alas how few readers are indulgent. How\\nready are many persons to misconstrue and per-\\nvert whatever is susceptible of distortion, or,\\nmore unfairly still, hide each virtue in some\\nneighboring vice. Almost the only reader who\\nmay be allowed the title of indulgent, is the\\nauthor,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 when reading his own productions.\\nThe world is deplorably selfish, and people have\\nlittle indulgence for other people s children.\\nAgain have we wandered from our subject,\u00e2\u0080\u0094 let\\nus return once more.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0027.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "16\\nReader whatever title suit thee best gentle,\\nor simple intelligent, or stupid, indulgent, or\\nsevere, we, the Tub Philosophers quite un-\\nknown to jou, but very well known among our-\\nselves, intend to write, and very respectfully\\nrequest you to read. If you will not, your folly\\nwill be upon your owii heads. Let every Tub\\nstand on its own bottom.\\nTo the ensuing philosophical flux Saxe seems\\nto have contributed several bits of verse as well\\nas six Semi-Moral Essays the fourth of which\\nwe venture to quote\\nSHAKING HANDS.\\nThe lesser civilities of human life, however\\ntrivial their appearance when separately consid-\\nered, contribute largely in their collective influ-\\nence to the sum total of human happiness. In-\\ndeed, they may be regarded as distinctive char-\\nacteristics of enlightened society and, in every\\nnation, the growth of refined etiquette marks\\nwith great accuracy the grade of civilization.\\nThe various rites of urbanity are not only the\\ninvariable attendants, but eminently productive\\nof good society and are hence, worthy of the\\nmost punctual observance. Of all the forms of\\ncourtesy which prevail at the present day, none\\nis of more frequent occurrence than shaking\\nhands. It is the most general and expressive", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0028.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "17\\nmode of salutation in the civilized world. It is\\na token of amity a pledge of good faith a\\nconfession of friendship or, the seal of pardon.\\nWithout undertaking to point out the most\\nrefined and eligible style of shaking hands, I\\nshall proceed to describe, as accurately as may\\nbe, the different methods which ought to be\\navoided. First in the list comes the pump-han-\\ndle shake. The epithbt is sufficiently significant\\nto illustrate the modus operandi. It is a regular,\\nmechanical, perpendicular motion, and highly\\ninelegant pray you avoid it.\\nThen there s your horizontal shake quite as in-\\ndecorous as the other, and more dangerous. It\\nis the very motion that Hamlet cautioned the\\nplayers against when he said do not saw the air\\ntoo much. In performing the horizontal\\nshake, your friend grasps your hand and violently\\njerks your arm from right to left with the apparent\\npurpose of dislocating your shoulder. It is worse\\nthan the fever and ague bating the fever.\\nCommend such fellows to my enemies. Next,\\ncomes the sentimental shake it is practiced\\nchiefly by romantic young ladies, and delicate\\nyoung gentlemen in white kid gloves. It is a\\nmisnomer, however, to call it a shake it s only\\ncontact at best. If you ever approached a young\\nlady with the design of saluting her don t be\\nalarmed, madam, with the design, I say, of", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0029.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "18\\nshaking her hand, and received a lifeless lump of\\nclay, extended with a languid air, as though\\nenergy were indelicate or criminal if joii have\\nbeen through with all this, you have a very good\\nidea of the shake sentimental. I prefer the\\ncold bath. It is amusing to see one of the senti-\\nmental -shakers encounter one of the pump-\\nhandle order. However, between, the inertia of\\nthe one and the vigor of the other, you get a\\nresultant motion not far from the true standard.\\nSome persons have a habit of offering a single\\nfinger. It is a scurvy practice a pitiful evasion\\nof duty a miserable attempt to defraud. It is\\nthe conduct of a solvent debtor who tenders you\\none-fifth of your dues who proposes to com-\\npound at twenty per cent on the dollar. If any\\nperson offer to treat you thus ungenerously al-\\nlow him to shake a corner of your pocket-hand-\\nkerchief.\\nSome people, to the great scandal of good\\nmanners, offer you their left hand. Don t take\\nit. A man has no 7 ight to give you his left\\nhand besides he cannot do it dexterously.\\nPause before you accept it the person who\\npresents it, may fairly be suspected of sinister\\nmotives.\\nI must not omit to mention the squeezers.\\nThese fellows seem to think it a virtue to crush\\nyour very bones with the violence of their grasp.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0030.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "19\\nDepend upon it, it s a vice. Commend me a\\nbear-hug in preference.\\nGive me the man who meets me half way\\nlooks me full in the face, and gives me a cordial,\\ngenerous shake not with the violence of a\\nwrestler, but with a temperate vigor which be-\\nspeaks a feeling too respectful to be rude.\\nSeveral of Saxe s later epigrams, among them\\nA Plain Case and Lucus a Non, seem to\\nsmack of college sentiment.\\nA PLAIN CASE.\\nWhen Tutor Thompson goes to bed,\\nThat very moment, it is said.\\nThe cautious man puts out the light,\\nAnd draws the curtain snug and tight.\\nYou marvel much why this should be,\\nBut when his spouse you chance to see,\\nWhat seemed before a puzzling case\\nIs plain as Mrs. Thompson s face\\nLUCUS A NON.\\nYou ll oft find in books, rather ancient than recent,\\nA gap in the page marked with cetera clesunt,\\nBy which you may commonly take it for granted\\nThe passage is wanting without being wanted\\nAnd may borrow, besides, a significant hint\\nThat desunt means simply not decent to print I", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0031.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "20\\nWhile in college Saxe did not belong to a Greek\\nletter fraternity in fact there were no Greek\\nsocieties at Middlebury until 1843, When the Mu\\nchapter of Chi Psi was founded. In 1853, how-\\never, the poet was enrolled as an honorary mem-\\nber of Psi Upsilon by the Harvard Alpha Chap-\\nter. The circumstances of the initiation are thus\\nrecalled by Eev. W. S. Mackenzie, D. D., in the\\nDiamond of Psi Upsilon\\nI very well remember the night that he was\\nmade a member of the Alpha Chapter of I^air\\nHarvard. He had been chosen to deliver the\\npoem at the anniversary in Cambridge in 1853,\\nand two or three weeks previous to the event be\\ncame out to Cambridge to be installed as a mem-\\nber of the Alpha. We made a little feast for the\\noccasion, and after the installation services we sat\\ndown to eat, drink and make such speeches as the\\ntime suggested. Mr. Saxe was very joyous and\\nwitty. When he left at midnight to return by\\ncoach to The Revere House his liat was missing\\nand he had to return hatless to Boston. Soon\\nafterward the Chapter had a large, very fine hat\\nmade and sent him at Burlington, Yermont. In\\nreturn he forwarded a framed crayon bust of\\nhimself, and on the lower margin of the picture\\nwas the following autograph verse\\nAn exchange it will be Baid\\nEemarkably equal and pat\\nYou sent him a hat for his head,\\nAnd he sends you his head for his hat", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0032.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "21\\nThe poet s love for Psi Upsilon and its mem-\\nbers was deep and lasting and he was a familiar\\nfigure at the reunions and banquets of the order\\nwhere some of his cleverest thoughts were deliv-\\nered as toasts. On July 21, 1863, a few weeks\\nafter his initiation, at the festival referred to\\nSaxe read some characteristic post-prandial verses\\npart of which ran as follows\\nSuccess to Psi Upsilon i-Beautiful name\\nTo the eye and the ear it is pleasant the same\\nMany thanks to old Cadmus who made us his debtors\\nBy inventing, one day, those capital letters\\nWhich still, from the heart, we shall know how to speak\\nWhen we ve fairly forgotten the rest of our Greek\\nThe closing lines ran thus\\nRemember tis blessed to give and forgive\\nLive chiefly to love, and love while you live\\nAnd dying, when life s little journey is done,\\nMay your last, fondest sigh be PSI Upsilon\\nThe last line of the above is still current among\\nthe members of the fraternity, and with them the\\npoet s popularity is yet undimmed. His eldest\\nson and grandson both became members-the\\nformer honorarily at Union College and the latter\\nat Columbia, where he is at present a law student,\\nbaxe took from Middlebury the degree of A\\nB in 1839 and A. M. in 1843, while in 1866 his\\nAlma Mater conferred upon him the honorary\\ndegree of LL. D, which, indeed, he merited asa\\nman of letters rather than as a man of law", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0033.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "22\\nIII.\\nUpon his graduation from college Saxe went\\nto Lewiston, near Lockport, 1^. Y., to engage in\\nthe study of the law, but returned to Yermont,\\npresumably to take unto himself a helpmate, for,\\non September 9, 1841, he was wedded to Miss\\nSophia ISTewell Sollace, sister of a classmate,\\nCalvin T. Sollace, and daughter of the Hon. Cal-\\nvin S. Sollace of Bridport, Yt. Mrs. Saxe, who\\nwas her husband s junior by three years, was re-\\ngarded as the belle of her native town.\\nMr. Saxe completed his reading in Yermont\\nand was admitted to the bar in St, Albans in\\nSeptember, 1843. For the next seven years he\\nwas engaged in the practice of his profession at\\nSt. Albans and at Highgate. While residing at\\nthe latter place he attained the exalted distinc-\\ntion of being elected justice of the peace.\\nSaxe was all his life a zealous and consistent\\ndemocrat and, shortly after becoming a lawyer,\\nhe seems to have turned his pen to some account\\npolitically. During the Clay campaign of 1844\\nhe contributed various campaign songs and squibs\\nto the St. Albans Republican. One of the epi-\\ngrams runs thus", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0034.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "23\\nEPIGRAM.\\nThe image of the Syrian monarch s dream\\nA type of modern whiggery would seem\\nA little gold, some iron and much brass\\nComposed in part the ill compounded mass,\\nBut yet so strong, it might have stood to-day,\\nHad not its pedestal been made of Clay\\nFor the term of a year (1847-48) Mr. Saxe\\nserved as superintendent of the common schools\\nof Franklin county. His experiences among the\\nteachers undoubtedly prompted his clever bit of\\nverse, Ye Pedagogue, which has offered many\\nan audacious urchin an opportunity to get even\\nwith a tyrannical master on Declamation day.\\nYE PEDAGOGUE.\\n(A Ballad.).\\nI.\\nRighte learned is ye Pedagogue,\\nFuUe apt to reade and spelle,\\nAnd eke to teache ye parts of speeche,\\nAnd strap ye urchins welle.\\n11.\\nFor as tis meete to soake ye feete,\\nYe ailinge heade to mende,\\nYe younker s pate to stimulate.\\nHe beats ye other ende 1\\nHI.\\nRight lordlie is ye Pedagogue\\nAs any turbaned Turke\\nFor welle to rule ye District Schoole,\\nIt is no idle worke.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0035.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "24\\nIV.\\nFor oft Rebellion lurketh there\\nIn breaste of secrete foes,\\nOf malice f ulle, in waite to puUe\\nYe Pedagogue his nose\\nV.\\nSometimes he heares with trembling feares,\\nOf ye ungodlie rogue\\nOn mischieffe bent, with felle intent\\nTo licke ye Pedagogue\\nVI.\\nAnd if ye Pedagogue be smalle,\\nWhen to ye battell led,\\nIn such a plighte, God sende him mighte\\nTo breake ye rogue his heade\\nVII.\\nDaye after daye, for little paye,\\nHe teacheth what he can,\\nAnd bears ye yoke, to please ye f olke,\\nAnd ye committee-man.\\nVIII.\\nAh many crosses hath he borne,\\nAnd many trials founde,\\nYe while he trudged ye district through\\nAnd boarded rounde and rounde\\nIX.\\nAh many a steake hath he devoured,\\nThat, by ye taste and sighte,\\nWas in disdaine, twas very plaine.\\nOf Daye his patent righte 1", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0036.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "25\\nX.\\nFuUe Bolemn is ye Pedagogue,\\nAmonge ye noisy churls,\\nYet other while he hath a smile\\nTo give ye handsome girls.\\nXI.\\nAnd one, ye faryest mayde of all,\\nTo cheere his wayninge life.\\nShall be, when springe ye flowers shall bringe,\\nYe Pedagogue his wife\\nThis is a specimen of the poet s best work\\nand aptly illustrates the off hand play of his\\nnimble wit. It also hints at one of the reasons\\nwhy his fame has declined the local allusions\\n60 common in all his work. The reference in\\nverse IX to the inventor of patent leather,\\nthen just coming into vogue, would scarcely be\\nunderstood by the rising generation.\\nAs a young lawyer Saxe s literary fame began\\nto broaden through his having become a regular\\ncontributor to the Knickerbocker, the leading\\nmagazine of that day. One of his first contrib-\\nutions was the Rhyme of the Rail upon which,\\nperhaps more than any other, rested his early\\nfame. It went the rounds of the press time and\\nagain and was known to generations of school-\\nchildren. The sound admirably echoes the sense.\\nIn reading it one can close his eyes and almost\\nhear the varied sounds that form an undersong\\nto the monotonous rumble of the cars.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0037.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "26\\nRHYME OF THE RAIL.\\nSinging through the forests,\\nRattling over ridges,\\nShooting under arches,\\nRumbling over bridges,\\nWhizzing through the mountains,\\nBuzzing o er the vale,\\nBless nie this is pleasant.\\nRiding on the Rail\\nMen of different stations\\nIn the eye of Fame\\nHere are very quickly\\nComing to the same.\\nHigh and lowly people.\\nBirds of every feather.\\nOn a common level\\nTravelling together\\nGentleman in shorts,\\nLooming very tall\\nGentleman at large.\\nTalking very small\\nGentleman in tights,\\nWith a loose-ish mien\\nGentleman in gray.\\nLooking rather green.\\nGentleman quite old.\\nAsking for the news\\nGentleman in black.\\nIn a fit of blues\\nGentleman in claret,\\nSober as a vicar\\nGentleman in Tweed,\\nDreadfully in liquor", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0038.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "2f\\nStranger on the right,\\nLooking very sunny,\\nObviously reading\\nSomething rather funny.\\nNow the smiles are thicker.\\nWonder what they mean\\nFaith he s got the Knicker-\\nbocker magazine\\nStranger on the left,\\nClosing up his peepers\\nNow he snores amain.\\nLike the Seven Sleepers\\nAt his feet a volume\\nGives the explanation,\\nHow the man grew stupid\\nFrom Association\\nAncient maiden lady\\nAnxiously remarks,\\nThat there must be peril\\niVIong so many sparks I\\nRoguish-looking fellow.\\nTurning to the stranger,\\nSays it s his opinion\\nShe is out of danger\\nWoman with her baby,\\nSitting vis-a-vis\\nBaby keeps a squalling\\nWoman looks at me\\nAsks about the distance,\\nSays it s tiresome talking\\nNoises of the cars\\nAre so very shocking\\nMarket-woman careful\\nOf the precious casket.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0039.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "28\\nKnowing eggs are eggs,\\nTightly holds her basket\\nFeeling that a smash,\\nIf it came, would surelj\\nSend her eggs to pot\\nRather prematurely\\nSinging through the forests,\\nRattling over ridges,\\nShooting under arches.\\nRumbling over bridges.\\nWhizzing through the mountains.\\nBuzzing o er the vale,\\nBless me this is pleasant,\\nRiding on the Rail\\nSaxe s services also began to be in demand at\\ncollege commencements and like affairs. He\\nread Progress before the Middlebury alumni\\nin 1846, The Times before the Boston Mer-\\ncantile Library Association in 1849, Carmen\\nLaetum at Middlebury in 1850 and New\\nEngland at the Hamilton College commence-\\nment of 1849. New England has disappear-\\ned. At least in none of Saxe s works does the\\ntitle or theme appear and the poem was probably\\nnot deemed worthy of preservation. In view of\\nthis fact the following lurid notice in a local\\npaper, elicited by its delivery at the commence-\\nment of the Henry Female College at Louisville,\\nKentucky, seems rather absurd", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0040.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "29\\nThe poem of Saxe was supreme and inimita-\\nble, and perliaps we might as well relieve our-\\nselves from the responsibility of saying anything\\nfurther by adding that it was indescrihaUe. It\\nwas perfectly magical. It was like that of some\\nexquisite hymn at the close of a ^ey, England\\nchurch service\u00e2\u0080\u0094 heightened even above its in-\\ntrinsic charm by the unbroken and wearying\\nsolemnity of the preceding rites. But its intrin-\\nsic charm required no heightening. The theme\\nof the poem was the poet s own IS^ew England\\nand the poem itself was, or is (for we have no use\\nfor any tense but the present in speaking of so\\nimmortal a thing) an all but matchless combina-\\ntion of wit, humor, poetry, and patriotism. It\\nIS a sad mistake to fancy that Saxe is merely the\\nwittiest of poets. He is among the most poetical\\nof wits. His sense of the beautiful is large and\\ndelicate, and, on occasion, he can be as great as\\nhe always is smart. They must have strange\\neyes indeed who do not perceive the empyrean\\ngleam of his genius through the starry host of\\nhis wit.\\nIn 1846 Saxe s iirst published volume came\\nfrom press, Progress, a Satire. It was dedi-\\ncated to Oliver Wendell Holmes after this fash-\\nion", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0041.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "30\\nTo Oliver Wendell Holmes, as a slight token\\nof the admiration which the writer entertains for\\nhis fine poetical genius his unequalled power of\\nplayful satire, and his terse and felicitous versi-\\nfication, this poem is respectfully inscribed by\\nhis obliged friend,\\nThe Author.\\nProgress was favorably received by the press\\nand we venture to quote one of the notices as\\nlikely to prove of interest.\\nA JS^EW Satire. About six weeks ago\\nthere adventured into Gotham a sandy-haired,\\nsix-foot Yermonter, who in divers stage coaches,\\ncanal packets, and steamboats had found his way\\nfrom the northwest corner of the Green Moun-\\ntain State and brought with him the manuscript\\nof a satirical poem entitled Progress, which\\nhe wished to see in print. For a wonder, the\\nvery first publisher he called on agreed to bring\\nit out, and it is very neatly done, by Mr. John\\nAllen, and now lies before us, in a handsome\\npamphlet of Sti pp. 8vo. We had heard the\\nverses well spoken of, and opening to the first\\npage, read on as follows\\nIn this, our happy and progessive age,\\nWhen all alike ambitious cares engage\\nWhen beardless boys to sudden sages grow,\\nAnd Miss her nurse abandons for a beau", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0042.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "31\\nWhen for their dogmas Non-Resistanta fight,\\nWhen dunces lecture and when dandies write\\nWhen matrons, seized with oratorio pangs.\\nGive happy birth?to masculine harangues,\\nAnd spinsters, trembling for the nation s fate,\\nNeglect their stockings to preserve the state\\nWhen critic- wits their brazen lustre shed\\nOn golden authors whom they never read,\\nWith parrot praise of Roman Grandeur, speak,\\nAnd in bad English eulogize the Greek\\nWhen facts like these no reprehension bring,\\nMay not uncensured an attorney sing?\\nDecidedly he may! If John G. Saxe,\\nEsquire, sings in* this fashion, he may as well\\nsing on. Mr. Saxe, attorney, will be better known\\none of these days, than at prsent, or at least\\nmore widely. (A prophecy amply fulfilled.)\\nProgress, the poem before us, made a sensa-\\ntion before it got into print. It was written at\\nthe request of the Associated Alumni of Middle^\\nbury College, and spoken before that so-\\nciety the 22d of last July (1846). It was\\nin the Presbyterian meeting-house, where a\\nlaugh was considered highly improper, and\\nany demonstration of applause little less\\nthan sacrilege. But before our attorney\\nhad read twenty lines the house was in a broad\\ngrin\u00e2\u0080\u0094 a little further on there came a most un-\\noriental roar of laughter, and soon after came a\\nburst of applause. The parsons could not hush", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0043.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "32\\nthe noise for laughing. It was a literary excite-\\nment unparalleled in the Green Mountain State,\\nWe agree with the Associate Alumni, that Prog-\\nress is a capital satire. They did very rightly\\nin applauding it, even in a Presbyterian meeting\\nhouse. The parsons need not be ashamed of\\ntheir excited risibilities. The poem is the best\\nof its kind that has been written in ten years\\nand touches up the topics of the day with ex-\\nquisite humor, an easy flow of verse, a piquant\\nwit, and a satire quite free from all malice.\\nIn 184Y followed The New Eape of the\\nLock, later known as Captain Jones s Misad-\\nventure, but Saxe s literary reputation was not\\nfirmly established until in 1848 Proud Miss\\nMacBride caught the public ear and won uni-\\nversal popularity for her author. This poem\\nis a Yankee version of Hood s Golden Legend.\\nIts vigor may be judged by the following scath-\\ning arraignment of American family pride\\nOf all the notable things on earth,\\nThe queerest one is pride of birth,\\nAmong our fierce Democracy\\nA bridge across a hundred years,\\nWithout a prop to save it from sneers,\\nNot even a couple of rotten Peers,\\nA thing for laughter, fleers, and jeers.\\nIs American aristocracy\\nEnglish and Irish, French and Spanish,\\nGerman, Italian, Dutch and Danish,", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0044.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "33\\nCrossing their veins until they vanish\\nIn one conglomeration\\nSo subtle a tangle of blood indeed,\\nNo modern Harvey will ever succeed\\nIn finding the circulation\\nDepend upon it, my snobbish friend,\\nYour family thread you can t ascend,\\nWithout good reason to apprehend\\nYou may find it waxed at the other end\\nBy some plebean vocation\\nOr, worse than that, your boasted line\\nMay end in a loop of stronger twine.\\nThat plagued some worthy relation\\nIn 1849 Saxa s first collected edition was is-\\nsued at the instance of James T. Fields, the pub-\\nlisher, and from then on Saxe was a public char-\\nacter in American letters.\\nThe following verses appeared in the St. Al\\nbans Messenger for March 27, 1848. They were\\naddressed by Saxe to his friend, the late Dr.\\nJohn L. Chandler. It seems the lawyer and\\ndoctor engaged in a friendly, metrical sparring\\nmatch, these verses being in reply to some by\\nthe doctor\\nTO J. L. C.\\nA physician who heard, what no one discards,\\nThat Apollo was patron of doctors and bards,\\nConceived that himself, as a matter of course,\\nWas endowed by the god with a duplicate force\\nAnd licensed to dabble, whene er he thought fit.\\nWith mercury, metaphor, jalop and wit.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0045.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "34\\nDear doctor, quoth Phoebus, (who knows in a trice\\nWhat his sons are about,) here s a bit of advice.\\nDon t mistake your vocation I ve heard you rehearse\\nMost equivocal sense in most horrible verse\\nI ve seen you play doctor and bardling to boot,\\nNow mending a leg, and now marring a foot\\nNow talking of Attic-salt, then of salt-petre,\\nNow curing a cold and now murdering metre.\\nNay Don t be offended. Away with that frown,\\nThere is nt a better physician in town.\\nBut the doQtrine is settled and you ought to know it,\\nOne may make a good poultice and not be a poet\\nMay thrive as a doctor, yet fail as perfumer\\nMay know much of humors and nothing of humor.\\nThus I own you re a match for corporeal ills.\\nBut doctor dear doctor pray stick to your pills.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0046.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "35\\nlY.\\nIn 1850 Mr. Saxe removed to Burlington, to\\npractice his profession, and for ten years lived at\\n177 South Union street, in the house now occu-\\npied by J. G. Bellrose. For the next year he\\nserved as state s attorney of Chittenden county,\\nan office to which he was elected not without the\\nsuspicion of having been counted in by the\\ntown of Bolton. With his growing love for\\nliterary work law began to irk the poet and he\\noften expressed the intention of giving it up as\\nsoon as he could find a more congenial means of\\nmaking a living. He was not a success as a law-\\nyer the brilliancy of his intellect forbade his\\nrelishing the dry profundity of the abstract\\nscience, and his practice, which was never large,\\nwas cared for by ex-lieutenant governor Levi\\nUnderwood. His only appearance before the\\nSupreme Court was in State v. Woodward 23\\nVt. 92 argued for the State by J. G. Saxe,\\nstate s attorney, with whom was L. Underwood.\\nIn this he seems to have had the wrong end of\\nthe argument for the decision favored the respond-\\nent. Woodward. Saxe s attitude toward the law\\nis shown in some lines of advice to a young friend\\nwho thinks he should like to be a lawyer in\\nwhich, among similar sentiments, he says", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0047.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "36\\nNo, no, my boy, let others sweat\\nAnd wrangle in the courts\\nThere s nothing pleasing in a Plea\\nYou cannot trust Reports.\\nAlthough the law of literature\\nMay your attention draw,\\nI m very sure you wouldn t like\\nThe literature of Law.\\nHe once jocosely remarked that he was no\\nlawyer, for out of three divorces secured by him\\ntwo couples had remarried and gone to living\\ntogether again. Saxe was occasionally seen in the\\ncourt room, located in what is now the Fletcher\\nLibrary, where, during the trial of Weed v.\\nBeach, a particularly tedious suit involving some\\nwater rights in the town of Jericho, he scribbled\\nthe following epigram for the edification of his\\nlegal brethren\\nMy wonder is really boundless,\\nThat among the queer cases we try,\\nA land case should often be groundless.\\nAnd a water case always be dry.\\nThe law gave birth to some of the poet s\\ncleverest verses. The Briefless Barrister pub-\\nlished in the Knickerbocker for September, 1844:,\\ntravelled fugitively through the papers of\\nAmerica and took a new lease of life after having\\nbeen copied into Punch.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0048.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "37\\nTHE BRIEFLESS BARRISTER.\\nAn attorney was taking a turn,\\nIn shabby habiliments drest\\nHis coat it was shockingly worn,\\nAnd the rust had invested his vest.\\nHis breeches had suffered a breach,\\nHis linen and worsted were worse\\nHe had scarce a whole crown in his hat,\\nAnd not half k crown in his purse.\\nAnd thus as he wandered along,\\nA cheerless and comfortless elf,\\nHe sought for relief in a song,\\nOr complainingly talked to himself\\nUnfortunate man that I am\\nI ve never a client but grief\\nThe case is, I ve no case at all,\\nAnd in brief, I ve ne er had a brief\\nI ve waited, and waited in vain,\\nExpecting an opening to find.\\nWhere an honest young lawyer might gain\\nSome reward for the toil of his mind.\\nTis not that I m wanting in law,\\nOr lack an intelligent face,\\nThat others have cases to plead,\\nWhile I have to plead for a case.\\nO, how can a modest young man\\nE er hope for the smallest progression,\\nThe profession s already so full\\nOf lawyers so full of profession.\\nWhile thus he was strolling around,\\nHis eye accidentally fell\\nOn a very deep hole in the ground.\\nAnd he sighed to himself It is well", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0049.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "38\\nTo curb his emotions he sat\\nOn the curb-stone the space of a minute,\\nThen cried, Here s an opening at last\\nAnd in less than a jiffy was in it\\nNext morning twelve citizens caine,\\nTwas the coroner bade them attend),\\nTo the end that it might be determined\\nHow the man had determined his end.\\nThe man was a lawyer, I hear,\\nSaid the foreman, who sat on the corse,\\nA lawyer alas said another,\\nUndoubtedly died of remorse\\nA third said, He knew the deceased\\nAn attorney well versed in the laws,\\nAnd as to the cause of his death,\\nTwas no doubt for the want of a cause.\\nThe jury decided at length\\nAfter solemnly weighing the matter,\\nThat the lawyer was drownded because\\nHe could not keep his head above water\\nThe looked for opportunity to renounce the\\nlaw arrived when, in 1851, Saxe entered the\\nsphere of journalism and became editor and pro-\\nprietor of the Vermont Sentinel, a democratic\\nweekly published in Burlington. Mr. Saxe\\nrightly turned to journalism as offering the read-\\niest means of applying his talents and his tastes.\\nHis editorial labors interested him by bringing\\nhim into contact with varied phases of humanity\\nand led to unexpected results by involving him", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0050.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "39\\nin the small politics of the day. He was, for a\\ntime, deputy collector of customs in the Bur-\\nlington Custom House and later, in 1 859 and\\n1860, ran for governor of Vermont on the demo-\\ncratic ticket, but the nomination was purely com-\\nplimentary as the party has never gained suffi-\\ncient strength in the state to elect an executive.\\nMr. Saxe deemed theimatter a great joke and in\\nacceptance of the first nomination wrote a short\\nletter closing with the words For further\\npolitical views, and opinions, I will refer you to\\nmy inaugural message. An incident of the\\ncampaign gave rise to the following epigram\\nA CANDID CANDIDATE.\\nWhen John was contending (though sure to be beat)\\nIn the annual race for the Governor s seat,\\nAnd a crusty old fellow remarked to his face,\\nHe was clearly too young for so lofty a place,\\nPerhaps so, said John but consider a minute,\\nThe objection will cease by the time I am in it.\\nToward the close of his residence in Burling-\\nton Mr. Saxe began to manifest a reserved dis-\\nposition and became subject to spells of melan-\\ncholy forerunners of the gloom that brooded\\nover his later years during several of which\\nhe made attempts upon his own life. One who\\nknew him then says He was not the jovial,\\nwhole-souled fellow that he appeared in his", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0051.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "40\\npoems. Perhaps Saxe was disheartened at not\\nhaving made more of his brilliant talents and\\nperhaps the choice of a career that made him ex-\\npected to be funny contributed to this. At any\\nrate he has pointed out in his Comic Miseries\\nthe disadvantages of being regarded as a come-\\ndian\\nMy dear young friend, whose shining wit\\nSets all the room ablaze,\\nDon t think yourself a happy dog\\nFor all your merry ways\\nBut learn to wear a sober phiz,\\nBe stupid, if you can,\\nIt s such a very serious thing\\nTo be a funny man.\\nMany instances of Saxe s wit yet linger in the\\nmemories of Burlington people. At one time\\nhe attended a Roman Catholic funeral in the\\ncapacity of bearer. High mass was sung and\\nthe bearers stood throughout the long service.\\nFinally a companion whispered to the humorist\\nPretty long drawn-out, isn t it, Saxe? Yes,\\nwas the reply. They will run it into the ground\\npretty soon. Another instance, from which his\\npower of incisive raillery and broad appreciation\\nof absurdity may be well judged, is his Vindi-\\ncation of Saint Peter. David Barker of Maine,\\na poet of some local celebrity, after the birth of\\nhis first child wrote and published the following\\nverses", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0052.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "41\\nOne night, as old St. Peter slept,\\nHe left the door of Heaven ajar.\\nWhen through a little angel crept.\\nAnd came down with a falling star.\\nOne summer as the blessed beams\\nOf morn approached, my blushing bride\\nAwakened from some pleasing dreams,\\nAnd found that angel by her side.\\nGod grant but this I ask no more\\nThat when he leaves this world of pain\\nHe ll wing his way to that bright shore,\\nAnd find the way to heaven again.\\nSaxe seems to have been sceptical as to the\\ndivine origin of the little angel for, deeming\\ninjustice to have been done the good saint, he\\npenned the following hitherto unpublished vin-\\ndication as St. Peter s reply\\nFull eighteen hundred years or more\\nI ve kept my gate securely fast\\nThere has no little angel strayed,\\nNor recreant through the portals passed.\\nI did not sleep, as you supposed,\\nNor leave the door of heaven ajar,\\nNor has a little angel left\\nAnd gone down with a falling star.\\nGo ask that blushing bride and see\\nIf she don t frankly own and say.\\nThat when she found that angel babe,\\nShe found it in the good old way.\\nGod grant but this\u00e2\u0080\u0094 I ask no more\\nThat should your number still enlarge,\\nYou will not do as done before.\\nAnd lay it to old Peter s charge.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0053.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "42\\nIn his Carmen Lsetum, recited after dinner\\nbefore the Alumni of Middlebury College at their\\nsemi-centennial celebration in 1850, after com-\\nmenting on the general good health of his Alma\\nMater, Saxe adverts to an effort to unite Middle-\\nbury and the University of Vermont.\\nIndeed, I must tell you a bit of a tale,\\nTo show you she s feeling remarkably hale\\nHow she turned up her nose, but a short time ago,\\nAt a rather good-looking importunate beau.\\nAnd how she refused, with a princess-like carriage,\\nA very respectable offer of marriage\\nYou see, my dear Brothers, a neighboring college\\nWho values himself on the depth of his knowledge,\\nWith a prayer for her love, and eye to her land,\\nWalked up to the lady and offered his hand.\\nFor a minute or so she was all in a flutter,\\nAnd had not a word she could audibly utter\\nFor she felt in her bosom, beyond all concealing,\\nA kind of a sort of a widow-like feeling\\nBut recovering soon from the delicate shock.\\nShe held up her head like an old-fashioned clock,\\nAnd, with proper composure, went on and defined,\\nIn suitable phrases, the state of her mind\\nSaid she wouldn t mind changing her single condition.\\nCould she fairly expect to improye her position\\nAnd thus, by some words of equivocal scope.\\nGave her lover decided permission to hope.\\nIt were idle to talk of the billing and cooing\\nThe amorous gentleman used in his wooing\\nOr how she replied to his pressing advances\\nHis oscular touches and ocular glances", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0054.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "43\\nTis enough that his courtship, by all that is known,\\nWas quite the old story, and much like your own\\nThus the matter went on, till the lady found out,\\nOne very fine day, what the rogue was about,\\nThat all that he wanted was merely the power\\nBy marital license to pocket her dower,\\nAnd then to discard her in sorrow and shame,\\nBereaved of her home and her name and her fame.\\nIn deep indignation ^she turned on her heel,\\nWith such withering scorn as a lady might feel\\nFor a knave, who, in stealing her miniature case,\\nShould take the gold setting and leave her the face\\nBut soon growing calm as the breast of the deep,\\nWhen breezes are hushed that the waters may sleep,\\nShe sat in her chair, like a dignified elf.\\nAnd thus, while I listened, she talked to herself\\nNay, twas idle to think of so foolish a plan\\nAs a match with this pert University-man,\\nFor I haven t a chick but would redden with shame\\nAt the very idea of my losing my name\\nAnd would feel that no sorrow so heavy could come\\nTo his mother as losing her excellent home.\\nTis true I am weak, but my children are strong,\\nAnd won t see me suffer privation or wrong\\nSo, away with the dream of connubial joys,\\nI ll stick to the homestead, and look to the boys\\nMr. Saxe did not try to make the Sentinel a\\npower in politics or literature for his literary\\nfame was broadening and his services as a lec-\\nturer being more in demand, his dependence\\nupon journalism for a livelihood was less essen-\\ntial, yet he certainly enjoyed his editorial labors", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0055.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "44\\nand in his verses several clever sketches attest\\nthe influence of the newspaper office.\\nThese lines were probably the fruit of an edi-\\ntorial day dream\\nIn the close precincts of a dusty room\\nThat owes fev/ losses to the lazy broom,\\nThere sits the man you do not know his name,\\nBrown, Jones, or Johnson it is all the same,\\nScribbling away at what perchance may seen!\\nAn idler s musing, or a dreamer s dream\\nHis peri runs rambling, like a straying steed\\nThe we he writes seems very wee indeed\\nBut watch the change behold the wondrous power\\nWrought by the press in one eventful hour\\nTo-night, tis harmless as a maiden s rhymes\\nTo-morrow, thunder in the London Times!\\nThe ministry dissolves that held for years\\nHer Grace, the Duchess, is dissolved in tears\\nThe Rothschilds quail the church, the army, quakes\\nThe very kingdom to its centre shakes\\nThe Corn Laws fall, the price of bread comes down,\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nThanks to the we of Johnson, Jones, or Brown\\nThe following skit in the columns of the\\nSentinel in the year 1851 was suggested by a\\ncommunication from an irate subscriber to whom\\nthe editor s political views did not command\\nthemselves\\nA free soil patron of the Sentinel\\nPolitely bids us send the thing to hell.\\nA timely hint. Tis proper, we confess,\\nWith change of residence to change the address\\nIt shall be sent, if Charon s mail will let it,\\nWhere the subscriber will be sure to get it.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0056.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "45\\nlu 1856, no longer finding it necessary to rely\\nupon journalism, Mr. Saxe sold the Sentinel and\\ntrusted to literature for a living. The trust was\\nsecurely placed for, through economical treat-\\nment of his income, he acquired means which\\nafforded him an opportunity for leisure and\\ntravel.\\nMr. Saxe s life in Burlington was quiet. He\\nwas domestic in his tastes and supremely happy\\nin his home surroundings. His family consisted\\nof a wife and five children John Theodore,\\nborn April 22, lS4:3 Charles Gordon, born June\\n7, 184:8 Sarah Elizabeth, born February 10, 1850;\\nHarriet Sollace, born August 14, 1853, and Laura\\nSophia, born November 13, 1856. A son, George\\nBrown Saxe, born February 1, 1846, was the\\nonly one of the poet s six children that did not\\nlive to maturity. His death on November 18,\\n1847, suggested the sonnet Bereavement\\nwhich serves as a companion piece to Longfel-\\nlow s Eesignation.\\nBEREAVEMENT.\\nNuy, weep not, clearest, though the child be dead\\nHe lives again in Heaven s unclouded life,\\nWith other angels that have early fled\\nFi om these dark scenes of sorrow, sin and strife.\\nNay, weep not, dearest, though thy yearning love\\nWould fondly keep for earth its fairest flowers,\\nAnd e n deny to brighter realms above", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0057.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "46\\nThe few that deck this dreary world of ours\\nThough much it seems a wonder and a woe\\nThat one so loved should be so early lost,\\nAnd hallowed tears may unforbidden flow\\nTo mourn the blossom that we cherished most,\\nYet all is well God s good design I see,\\nThat where our treasure is, our hearts may be.\\nAs a Family Man Mr. Saxe was an entire\\nsuccess, despite his seemingly querulous lines un-\\nder that title. Mrs. Saxe, a worthy and devoted\\nwoman, was most dear to him and her sudden\\ndeath contributed above all else to the gloom\\nthat enshrouded his later years. To her the\\npoet dedicated the Diamond edition of his poems\\n(1874:) as follows\\nTo my Best Friend, (A Diamond Edition of\\na Woman,) I Inscribe This Diamond Edition of\\nthe Poems of Her Husband\\nJ. G. S.\\nThe daughters are described as extremely beau-\\ntiful girls. Of the three Miss Sarah was perhaps\\nthe wittiest and most brilliant, while Miss Har-\\nriet was more quiet in her tastes and attainments.\\nJohn, the eldest son, graduated from \\\\^ermont\\nUniversity in 1862. He was a member of Lamb-\\nda Iota and took high rank as a student. He\\nwas exceptionally bright and once or twice turn-\\ned his hand to writing verse, but his literary", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0058.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "47\\nefforts were persistently discouraged by liis father,\\nand he soon relinquished them. Upon his grad-\\nuation he engaged in the lumber business with\\nhis uncle Charles in Troy, New York.\\nMr. Saxe had a lounge made to order, to ac-\\ncommodate his great length and after supper,\\nclad in dressing gown and slippers, he would\\noften throw himself upon it with some such re-\\nmark as, Now if ai^y one is happier than I am\\nI d like to see him. His domestic contentment\\nfrequently shines forth in his verses in the ex-\\npression of such sentiments as this\\nI see a group of boys and girls\\nAssembled round the knee paternal,\\nWith ruddy cheeks and tangled curls,\\nA.nd manners not at all supernal.\\nAnd one has reached a manly size\\nAnd one aspires to woman s stature\\nAnd one is quite a recent prize,\\nAnd all abound in human nature\\nThe boys are hard to keep in trim\\nThe girls are often rather trying\\nAnd baby\u00e2\u0080\u0094 like the cherubim\\nSeems very fond of steady crying\\nAnd yet the precious little one,\\nHis mother s dear, despotic master,\\nIs worth a thousand babies done\\nIn Parian or in alabaster\\nPerhaps the best tribute to Mr. Saxe s success\\nas a family man is tlie last will of his eldest son,\\nfrom which we venture to make an excerpt.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0059.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "48\\nAs my brother Charles has been to me all\\nthat a brother should be, and as my knowledge\\nof his cliaracter for all that is good and manly\\nin all the trials of life covers an experience of\\nover thirty years, I, with most perfect confi-\\ndence, commit to his guardianship my infant\\nson, John Godfrey Saxe, asking him to see that\\nso far as may be in his power ray boy grows up\\nto be a healthy, cultivated, manly and Christian\\ngentleman. My son John will, with a father s\\nblessing, bear in mind as he grows to manhood\\nthat his father and his mother, who has gone\\nbefore but who often spoke of it before her\\ndeath, wished him of all things to be a good\\nman rather than rich or distinguished hoping\\nstill that he would make the best and the most\\nof the talents God has evidently given him, and\\nbe an honor to the name he bears.\\nSaxe s relatives recall many instances of his\\ncleverness suggested by domestic events. His\\nyoungest brother, James, a merchant of St.\\nAlbans, Vermont, was married in 1850 to Sarah\\nStorrs Sollace, the youngest sister of the poet s\\nwife. Bearing this relationship in mind one can\\nappreciate the following message from the poet\\nto the bride during the wedding trip\\nOh lovely Sal, you naughty gal,\\nPray how s your noble Jim\\nAnd how is she who made for me\\nA brother-in-law of him", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0062.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "49\\nThe wit of the family was not confined to the\\nl^oet for this same brother once made the obser-\\nvation that he dealt in dry goods and John in\\ndry jokes. Twin sons of Charles Saxe were\\nnamed by him after his brothers John and James.\\nThe remaining brother, Peter, said that they\\nsliould botli have been named after him, Peter.\\nThat would be Petqr and Re-peater retorted\\nthe poet. Upon the birth of the same twins\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nwho are now Saxe Saxe, attorneys, of Boston\\nthe poet sent their father the following lines\\nThe proverb says in aomber tone\\nTroubles seldom come alone\\nBut, to recompense our cares,\\nBlessings are sometimes sent in pairs,\\nThus, when a single babe was due,\\nThe grateful father welcomed two.\\nGod bless them in this world of trouble\\nMay both find all their blessings double,\\nAnd, to the joy of sire and mother,\\nEach prove an honor to his brother\\n50", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0063.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "50\\nY.\\nIn 1860 Mr. Saxe decided to remove to Alba-\\nny, ISTew York, as likely to be a city more con-\\ngenial toliis social tastes and widening reputation,\\nand in April of that year lie made the change,\\ntaking with him his family, excepting his eldest\\nson, then a sophomore in Vermont University.\\nMr. Saxe purchased an Albany residence upon\\nMadison Avenue, nearly opposite the cathedral\\nof the Immaculate Conception. Here for the\\ndozen years ensuing he made his home, and his\\ntall form was a familiar sight upon the streets of\\nthe city. This period comprehended the happi-\\nest days of the poet s life he was surrounded\\nby a loving family and a host of friends the\\nbest society was at his command his means were\\nample and he was so situated that he could feel\\nthe pulse beat of public events without taking\\nany more share in them than he chose. He\\nwas now at the height of his fame the reputa-\\ntion given him by Proud Miss MacBride had\\nbeen still further spread by the magazines, to\\nwhich, chiefly Harper s and the Atlcmtic\\nMonthly^ lie was a regular and valued contrib-\\nutor until as late as 1874. _ It was at this time,\\nalso, that the popular lecture was rampant as a\\nsource of public education and incidentally as a", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0064.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "51\\nreplenislier of depleted literary exchequers, and\\nno leading lecture course was thought com-\\nplete unless it contained the name of the fore-\\nmost poet of satire and humor. Saxe drew\\nequally well with Wendell Phillips, George Wil-\\nliam Curtis, ITeni y Ward Beecher, Kev. Dr. E.\\n11. Chapin, Anna E. Dickinson and others who,\\nin the decade from 1859, were kept on the go\\nfrom early fall until the spring apples were ripe.\\nSaxe was not a forcible lecturer in prose and\\noften his hearers were a trifle disappointed at his\\nrendering of his own verses, which were put to\\nthe test of repeated delivery, yet he held his\\nplace on the lecture programs by virtue of the\\nreputation his poems had given him. He had\\nbut to set the date and name his price, as an op-\\nportunity to see the author of Proud Miss Mac-\\nBride was not to be missed by the lecture-going\\npeople of the day. To the eyes of the audience,\\nat least, the investment must have seemed a wise\\none, for at liis best, physically, Saxe was a re-\\nmarkably handsome man. He was six feet two\\ninches tall, proudly erect and muscular, with a\\nlarge, round and finely poised head set upon\\nbroad and stalwart shoulders. Photographs of\\nhim taken at this time represent his face in pro-\\nfile a high, l)road, intellectual forehead, wavy\\nbrown liair in al)undance and keen,-deepset eyes.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0065.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "52\\nwhich were gray in color, and remarkably ex-\\npressive. His feature outlines, strong and sugges-\\ntive, except for the chin, were set off by a heavy\\nmoustache and Burnside whiskers, Saxe\\nlaughingly alludes to his size in his Rliymed\\nEpistle to the Editor of the Knickerbocker Mag-\\nazine in the lines\\nNow I am a man, you must learn,\\nLess famous for beauty than strength,\\nAnd, for aught I could ever discern,\\nOf rather superfluous length.\\nIn truth tis but seldom one meets\\nSuch a Titan in human abodes.\\nAnd when I stalk over the streets,\\nI m a perfect Colossus of roads\\nMr. Saxe s last regular occupation was upon\\nthe Sentinel, but, while in Albany, he was con-\\nnected with the Albany Evening Journal as cor-\\nrespondent, and was frequently called upon to\\nwrite editorials both for this paper and for the\\nAlbany Morning Argus. The Hon. William\\nCassidy, proprietor of the latter sheet, was a\\ndemocrat and at this time perhaps the nearest\\npersonal friend of the poet and to him Saxe\\ndedicated the Highgate edition (1871) of his\\npoems. Many an hour did these two cronies\\nwhile away in the Argus editorial rooms when\\nthere was not over much to do, and when-\\never Saxe .roamed in during busy hours he", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0066.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "53\\nwould pick up a book or novel and soon become\\nlost in it, totally oblivions of the snrronnding\\nconfusion and rush of a newspaper editorial de-\\npartment. He would often sit with his feet\\ncocked up on one of the reporters tables, com-\\nfortably fitted into a reporter s chair, and perhaps\\nsmoking a reporter s pipe, reading a novel until\\nway along into the wee sma hours. Saxe\\noccasionally wrote criticisms and reviews for the\\nArgus and a son of Mr. Cassidy, who was then a\\nsmall boy, tells of the way the poet would come\\ninto the editorial rooms. He would wander in,\\nsay good day to the reporters, then hunting around\\nuntil he found a book he thought he would like\\nhe would bury himself in it. Casually my father\\nwould ask him if he would not write a review\\nfor. the paper. Saxe, won t you write that book\\nup for us We haven t had time yet. Well,\\nI don t know yes, I guess so he would reply\\nand go on reading. Presently, falling upon a\\npassage that pleased him, he would start up\\nand slioving tlie book into the pocket of his\\nvelveteen jacket (a style of coat of which he was\\nalways very fond) would say I guess I ll carry\\nthis away with me. That was usually tlie last\\nseen of the book, but in a day or two the criti-\\ncism would appear.\\nIn his happier days Mr. Saxe enjoyed to the\\nutmost travel and social life. He was a bright", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0067.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "54\\nmember of many a literary gathering, being\\nknown, personally, to all the most prominent\\nof contempory poets and prose writers. He\\nloved to watch the men and women about liim\\nand keen powers of observation conpled with a\\nfacile pen gave birth to many of his cleverest\\nproductions, such as Le Jardin Mabille,\\nSome Pencil Pictures, The Way of the\\nWorld, and The Mourner a la Mode, where\\nhe dwells with quiet humor on the specious grief\\ndisplayed in billows of crape,\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2Indeed, it is scarce without measure,\\nThe sorrow that goes by the yard.\\nTwenty three consecutive summers Mr. Saxe\\nspent at the springs in Saratoga where he wrote\\nsome of his best verses. At such a place he was\\nin his element a brilliant conversationalist and\\nsomething of a ladies man withal, he never\\ntired of talking when he had a good subject and\\ninterested listeners, and often he would spend\\nmany hap])y hours conversing far into the night.\\nThe fashions and foibles of the famous M^atering\\nplace afforded a rich mine of satire and how dil-\\nigently the poet worked it may be discovered by\\na run through his collected poems. The Song\\nof Saratoga was caught up by the public when\\nit first appeared and for years was as regular in\\nits summer rounds of the press as was Clement", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0068.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "55\\nC. Moore s JSTiglit Before Christmas as a bird\\nof winter passage.\\nSONG OF SARATOGA.\\nPray, what do they do at the Springs\\nThe question is easy to ask\\nBut to answer it fully, my dear,\\nWere rather a serious task.\\nAnd yet, in a bantering way,\\nAs the magpie or mocking-bird sings,\\nI ll venture a bit of a song\\nTo tell what they do at the Springs\\nImprimis, my darling, they drink\\nThe waters so sparkling and clear\\nThough the flavor is none of the best,\\nAnd the odor exceedingly queer\\nBut the fluid is mingled, you know.\\nWith wholesome medicinal things.\\nSo they drink, and they drink, and tliey drink,\\nAnd that s what they do at the Springs\\nThen with appetites keen as a knife,\\nThey hasten to breakfast or dine\\n(Tlie latter precisely at three,\\nThe former from seven till nine.)\\nYe gods what a rustle and rush\\nWhen the eloquent dinner bell rings\\nThen they eat, and they eat, and they eat,\\nAnd that s what they do at the Springs\\nNow they stroll in the beautiful walks,\\nOr loll in the shade of the trees\\nWhere many a whisper is heard\\nThat never is told by the breeze\\nAnd hands are commingled with hands,", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0069.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "56\\nRegardless of conjugal rings\\nAnd they flirt, and they flirt, and they flirt,\\nAnd that s what they do at the Springs\\nThe drawing-rooms now are ablaze,\\nAnd music is shrieking away\\nTerpsichore governs the hour,\\nAnd Fashion was never so gay\\nAn arm round a tapering waist,\\nHow closely and fondly it clings\\nSo they waltz, and they waltz, and they waltz,\\nAnd that s what they do at the Springs\\nIn short as it goes in the world\\nThey eat, and they drink, and they sleep\\nThey talk, and they walk, and they woo\\nThey sigh, and they laugh, and they weep\\nThey read, and they ride, and they dance\\n(With other unspeakable things\\nThey pray, and they play, and they pay,\\nAnd that s what they do at the Springs\\nIn 1867, leaving liis two elder daughters in\\nthe family of his brother James and his young-\\nest in a convent near Albany, Mr. Saxe, accom-\\npanied by his wife, visited Europe. This trip\\nwas not idled away but was productive of results\\nwhich added both to the fame and the fortune of\\nthe poet. Mr. and Mrs. Saxe visited the Paris\\nExposition of that year and also met the present\\nPrince of Wales. The Cockney, one of\\nSaxe s wittiest sketches, is reminiscent of the\\ntrip.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0070.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "57\\nTHE COCKNEY.\\nIt was in my foreign travel,\\nAt a famous Flemish inn,\\nTliat I met a stoutish person\\nWith a very ruddy skin\\nAnd his hair was something sandy,\\nAnd was done in knotty curls,\\nAnd was parted in the middle,\\nIn the manner of a girl s.\\nHe was clad in checkered trousers,\\nAnd his coat was of a sort,\\nTo suggest a scanty pattern,\\nIt was bobbed so very short\\nAnd his cap was very little,\\nSuch as soldiers often vise\\nAnd he Avore a pair of gaiters,\\nAnd extremely heavy shoes.\\nI addressed the man in English,\\nAnd he answered in the same,\\nThough he spoke it in a fashion\\nThat I thought a little lame\\nFor the aspirate was missing\\nWhere the letter should liave been,\\nBut where er it wasn t wanted,\\nHe was sure to put in\\nWhen I spoke with admiration\\nOf St. Peter s mighty dome,\\nHe remarked Tis really nothing\\nTo the sights we ave at omc\\nAnd declared upon his honor,\\nThough, of course, twas very (jueer,\\nThat he doubted if the Romans\\nAd the /lart of making beer I", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0071.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "68\\nWhen I named the Colosseum,\\nHe observed, Tis very fair\\nI mean, ye know, it loould be,\\nIf they d put it in repair\\nBut what progress or /iimprovement\\nCan those curst Italians ope\\nWhile they re /lunder the dominion\\nOf that blasted muff, the Pope?\\nThen w^e talked of other countries.\\nAnd he said that he had heard\\nThat iiZamericans spoke Hinglish,\\nBut he deemed it quite /iabsurd\\nTet he felt the deepest /^interest\\nIn the missionary vrork.\\nAnd would like to know if Georgia\\nWas in Boston or New York\\nWhen I left the man-in-gaiters,\\nHe was grumbling, o er his gin.\\nAt the charges of the hostess\\nOf that famous Flemish inn\\nAnd he looked a very Briton,\\n(So, methinks, I see him still),\\nAs he pocketed the candle\\nThat was mentioned in the bill", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0072.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "59\\nVI.\\nAgain deciding to change his residence, Mr.\\nSaxe, in 1872, removed to Brooklyn, JST. Y,, where\\nhe bought a home at No. 28 First place. The\\nlocation was one of the coolest and pleasantest\\nin the city while among the poet s neighbors\\nwere Austin Corbin, Demas Barnes, the Rev.\\nDr. Ludlow and other people of culture and re-\\nfinement. The house was a three-story brown-\\nstone edifice with a deep court yard in front,\\nwhich was covered with close green turf.\\nIn the poet s last collection we find a reference\\nto his home in his lines\\nTO A BACHELOR FRIEND IN THE COUNTRY.\\nCome and see us, any day\\nWith his choicest mercies\\nHeaven has showered my rugged way,\\nPlenty as my verses.\\nShare my home, oh lonely elf,\\nCosiest of houses,\\nWisely ordered, like myself\\nBy the best of spouses.\\nThough tis small upon the ground,\\nI may fairly mention\\nToward the sky it will be found\\nOf sublime extension.\\nNarrow is a city-lot,\\nWhen you ve truly said it\\nBut the stories we have got\\nYou would scarcely credit I", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0073.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "60\\nThough the stairs are something tall,\\nYou have but to clamber\\nUp the fourth upon the wall\\nIs the Prophet s chamber.\\nThence my garden you may view,\\nKept with costly labor,\\nSpecially for me and you,\\nBy my wealthy neighbor.\\nBooks, you hardly need be told\\nWait your welcome coming\\nSome I warrant mainly old\\nWorthy of your thumbing.\\nFor the rest, I only swear,\\nThough they re rather recent,\\nYou will find the printing fair,\\nAnd the binding decent.\\nBreakfast? Mutton chops at eight\\n(Cook will do them nicely).\\nDinner? What you choose to state.\\nServed at two precisely.\\nBed Delicious (not a few\\nWere the swans who lined it)\\nAs a bachelor like you,\\nCould expect to find it\\nHere, then, Saxe designed to spend the wan-\\ning years of his life in happiness and content-\\nment. He had accumulated a competence and\\nexpected to live out his allotted days in peace\\nsurrounded by his children but little did he an-\\nticipate how heavily the hand of Fate was\\nto be laid upon him. His former melan-\\ncholy began to grow upon him more and more", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0074.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "61\\nand, as if warned of the trouble that lay before\\nhhn, he bought, soon after fixing his residence\\nin Brooklyn, a family burying lot in Greenwood\\ncemetery that was fittingly adorned for the inter-\\nment that all too speedily was made in it. His\\nfirst sorrow was in 1874, His youngest daughter,\\nLaura, had contracted lung trouble while at a\\nboarding school in Masssachusetts. After nobly\\nbattling with the disease she returned from an\\nunavailing sojourn in Florida to die.\\nThe next spring, while returning home at the\\nclose of a lecture tour in the south, in an acci-\\ndent on the Panhandle road near Wheeling,\\nWest Yirginia, the sleeping car in which Mr.\\nSaxe had a berth was derailed and thrown down\\na steep embankment. The other passengers\\nwere gathered near when a lady cried out, I\\ndon t see the tall gentleman whose berth was\\nopposite mine. Search was at once made, but\\nmeanwhile a fellow passenger, who had escaped,\\nbetliought him of a sum of money which he had\\nleft behind. On returning to the car he stum-\\nbled upon the bruised and insensible poet wedged\\nbetween heavy timbers. Mr. Saxe was thereby\\nrescued from a revolting death for the sleeper\\nin which he was found, after a brief interval fol-\\nlowing his rescue, became a mass of seething\\nflames. Even under these fearful circumstances", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0075.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "62\\nthe poet s wit did not fail him, for when some\\none asked him how he liked Riding on the\\nRail now, he replied A great deal better than\\nriding off from it! Mr. Saxe s flesh was\\nbruised, but no bones were broken and outwardly\\nhe seemed to liave escaped with slight bodily\\ninjuries. Returning to his Brooklyn home he\\nrecovered from the wounds received in the acci-\\ndent, but his nervous system had suffered a shock\\nfrom which it never rallied. This, as appeared\\nupon examination after his death, was induced,\\nat least in part, by a severe blow upon the head,\\nreceived no doubt in the wreck, which had affect-\\ned the poet s brain.\\nUp to this time Mr. Saxe was a splendid and\\nconspicuous specimen of virile manhood but from\\nnow on all was changed. The grievous and in-\\nsidious nervous shock was intensified by added\\nsorrows. Slowly but surely the consequent weak-\\nness overspread and undermined his whole phy-\\nsical being he began to experience a greater\\ndegree of bodily and mental fatigue daily his\\nform became more bent and his step more feeble\\nand his spirits more subdued until at last his\\nmind lost altogether its wonted buoyancy. Ex-\\ncepting the ill-starred lecture tour referred to,\\nMr. Saxe s last appearance before the general\\npublic was on September 27, 1873, when he", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0076.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "63\\nread an ode on the occasion of the unveiling\\nof a bust of John Howard Payne, in Prospect\\nPark, Brooklyn. However, true to fraternal\\npromptings, he read some post prandial verses\\nat Delraonico s, on April 8, 1874, the occa-\\nsion being a festival of the Forty-first Annual\\nconvention of Psi IJpsilon. Among other sen-\\ntiments the j)oet expresses a dislike to being\\ntermed old and says\\nIs he old who, in spite of his fast thinning curls,\\nHas a joke for the boys and a smile for the girls\\nIs he old who owes nothing to fraudulent art\\nAbove all, is he old who is young at the heart\\nThese words came very near being ironical.\\nIn 1875 the poet s last collection came from\\npress Leisure Day Rhymes and these show\\nhis waning power. The pristine vigor of his\\nearlier verses is not so evident and he is occupied\\nwith more placid themes. More touches upon\\ntheology occur. In Here and Hereafter he\\nsays\\nAs for me,\\nMy creed is short as any man s may be\\nTis written in the Sermon on the Mount,\\nAnd in the Pater Noster I account\\nThe words Our Father (had we lost the rest\\nOf that sweet prayer, the briefest and the best\\nOf all the liturgies) of higher worth,\\nTo ailing souls, than all the creeds on earth.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0077.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "64\\nAnd in Miserere Domine he says\\nOur Father! Ever blessed name\\nTo Thee we bring our sin and shame\\nWeak though we be, perverse of will,\\nThou art our gracious Father still,\\nWho knowest well how frail we be.\\nMiserere Domine\\nThe perennially appropriate ode to the New\\nYork legislature, in which he says that if we\\nare expected to respect the laws tis not best to\\nsee them made, shows a vivid flash of the old-\\ntime fire.\\nIn 1879 death again invaded the poet s house,\\nthe second victim being his eldest and favorite\\ndaughter Sarah, then in the thirtieth year of her\\nage. Scarcely had a year elapsed when Mrs.\\nSaxe, a noble woman who had always been all to\\nhim that a wife should be, died suddenly of a\\nsyncope which burst a blood vessel in the brain\\nand was put tenderly away in dreamless rest.\\nShe had always been a strong and robust woman\\nand at this last blow, the most crushing of all,\\nthe already stricken poet was beside himself.\\nThe mother of his children dead She who had\\nbeen so tender a helpmeet for forty years It\\nwas too utterly monstrous for credence and for\\ndays Saxe sat in his room with bowed head re-\\npeating over and over to himself the words,\\nI can t believe it.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0078.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "65\\nOther trials were yet in store. In June,\\n1881, the dark reaper for the fourth time entered\\nhis home, this time cutting down his sole re-\\nmaining daughter, Harriet. After his first\\nthree afflictions Mr. Saxe resolved to maintain\\nhis charming home in Brooklyn, but at the\\ndeath of Miss Hattie his heart broke. On Sun-\\nday, June 5th, the day of the funeral, many of\\nhis old friends attended the services, expecting\\nto catch a glimpse of him, but he did not leave\\nhis room, and could not be induced to ride to\\nthe cemetery. The poet s mental malady so\\nclouded his mind as to shut out all the pleasures\\nof life. He occupied his room and scarcely ever\\ncould be induced to leave it. Old friends, to\\nwhom he had formerly been closely attached,\\nwould gladly have endeavored to cheer him, but\\nhe rejected all overtures and was inaccessible, a\\nprey to the settled melancholy that was to over-\\nshadow him till his death. This melancholy was\\nfurther enhanced by his finding, upon attempting\\nto do some literary work, that his pen faltered\\nand his thoughts were weak. Grief over the swift\\ncourse of death and the departure of his old gifts\\ncombined to produce acute mental misery which\\nhe attributed to imaginary physical ills. His\\nphysician, Dr. Wanderlich, wrote of him I\\nhave never encountered a more obstinate man.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0079.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "66\\nHe sits in his room all day long, grieving over\\nthe loss of his power as a poet, and imagining\\nthat he is the greatest sufferer. I cannot detect\\nthat he is physically any worse than one of his\\nage would naturally be supposed to be. His ail-\\nment is chiefly mental, and his mind has assumed\\na most painful hypochondriacal hue. He\\nimagines that he cannot eat anything, yet he\\nconsumes plenty of food. Then he thinks that\\nhe is wasting away in flesh, but I cannot detect\\nthat he is growing any thinner, and I sometimes\\nthink he is gaining flesh. He does not go out\\nof his room, and cannot be coaxed or driven to\\ntake exercise. I think that if he would take\\nplenty of exercise, change the scene of his daily\\nlife, and seek companions who would divert his\\nmind from himself, he would recover his animal\\nspirits, and be more like the brilliant, witty man\\nhe once was.\\nMr. Saxe s condition was in sorrowfully strik-\\ning contrast to his mood when he wrote the fol-\\nlowing\\nLINES ON MY THIRTY -NINTH BIRTHDAY.\\nOh, few that roam this world of ours,\\nTo feel its thorns and pluck its flowers,\\nHave trod a brighter path than mine\\nFrom blithe thirteen to thirty-nine.\\nHealth, home, and friends (life s solid part,)\\nA merry laugh, a fresh young heart,", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0080.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "67\\nPoetic dreams and love divine\\nHave I not these at thirty-nine\\nOh, Time Forego thy wasted spite,\\nAnd lay thy future lashes light,\\nAnd, trust me, I will not repine,\\nAt twice the count of thirty-nine.\\nHow sadly did Father Time answer the poet s\\nprayer A few years previously his verses were\\neagerly accepted by the leading periodicals, he\\nwas the nation s wit and humorist whose delicious\\nrhymes brought to himself fame and a compe-\\ntence and to many a household the cheerful\\nsmile or hearty laugh. Even across the sea he\\nwas known as the Thomas Hood of America.\\nYet at sixty-five his condition much resembled\\nthe closing days of Scott, Southey, Cowper, and\\nTom Moore. Mr. Saxe now made no effort to\\ncombat his melancholy. His light had gone out\\nforever; not a gleam recalled the brilliant\\nflashes of wit that had played so merrily across\\nthe literary firmament of twent} years agone\\naud his last years afford but another instance of\\nthe fatality that seems especially to beset the\\ngone of laughter.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0081.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "68\\nYII.\\nThe stricken poet wa8 now inaccessible to all.\\nHe would allow none to approach him, yet his\\ndomestic solitude was more than he could bear\\nand he soon sold his Brooklyn home and was\\ntaken to Albany to the home of his eldest son.\\nEven here misfortune followed for once again\\nthe inexorable hand of fate was laid heavily\\nupon him. Within the month precedinoj his son s\\nwife had died. Nine weeks after her decease\\nJohn himself, not arising at the usual hour, was\\nfound dead in bed. x Thus, in the brief space of\\nseven years, had the poet s wif e,his three daugh-\\nters, his eldest son and his daughter-in-law crossed\\nthe mystic river before his very eyes. What\\nwonder then, that death seemed to him his best\\nfriend as with whitened locks, bent form and sad\\neyes he wearily sought shelter with his only sur-\\nviving child, Charles, beneath whose rooftree he\\nwas to spend the last sorrowful years of his life,\\nbrooding hopelessly in solitude over his afflic-\\ntions, his mind still Tiaunted by joyous memories\\nof the golden past.\\nWhen Mr. Saxe began to feel in some degree\\nthe stability of this last shelter, he made a last\\npitiful effort to hold at bay the grief that\\noppressed his being. During the first three\\nyears he spent some hours each pleasant day loit-\\nering in the beautiful park near his son s house", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0082.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "69\\nor tranquilly seated in a shady arbor, watching\\nthe children at their play. He chatted with the\\nmembers of his son s family or read the news-\\npapers. A bright young man was secured for a\\ncompanion and he tried to forget, but it was of\\nno avail, the struggle was a vain one, and in 1884\\nhe withdrew altogether from the eyes of men.\\nWith his retirement his literary fame had de-\\nclined; death and the turmoil of life wrought\\nneglect even among his quondam admiring\\ncompanions, until now, except for an occasional\\nsympathetic reference in the public prints, hard-\\nly a person knew that, one who, in his time, did\\nmore than any other to brighten the world around\\nhim, was ending his days apart from his fellow\\nmen, crushed by bereavements and the victim of\\na settled melancholy. It is one of the eccentric-\\nities of fate that a man whose mission was to dad-\\nden others should thus drag out his last years,\\ndead to the world which was once so kind to\\nhim. In the poet s own words Isn t it queer\\nthat one who made others laugh should end his\\ndays so in sorrow\\nCharles Saxe occupied two adjoining brown-\\nstone houses connected by alcoves and situated\\non State street barely a stone s throw from the\\ngreat capitol. In the spacious double home of\\nhis son, who ever ministered to his wants with", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0083.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "TO\\nfilial tenderness and solicitude, the poet was\\ngiven spacious quarters where he existed rather\\nthan lived for three years more, despite the pre-\\ndictions of eminent physicians, whom his family\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2had consulted in his behalf in 1881, on his first\\ncoming to Albany, that he would not survive two\\nyears longer.\\nThese last three years of the once exuberant\\npoet and stalwart man were patlietic in the ex-\\ntreme. He was much changed in form and\\nfeature being but the shadow of his former virile\\nself. With hair that was silvery white, a full,\\ngray-white beard, a form bent and emaciated, a\\ntottering step and a face pallid and shrunken the\\nclear gray eyes alone bore witness to the\\nstrength of other days. Physically a wreck, his\\nmind, though feeble and languid, was clear up\\nto the tinje of his death.\\nThe poet s daily existence was not varied. He\\nrose about 6:30 and retired between the hours of\\nnine and ten. His food was of the plainest\\ndescription as he suffered much from indigestion,\\nas well as from insomnia and neuralgia in the\\nhead the latter superinduced, no doubt, by the\\nblow received in the railroad accident. Through-\\nout the day he would move leisurely about,\\noften lost in meditation, recline upon a couch\\nor sit in an easy chair gazing out upon the river.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0084.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "n\\nhis mind ever and anon reverting to his irrepara-\\nble bereavements. Of his wife and children he\\noften spoke tenderly and regretfully, manifest-\\ning a keen interest in the proper care of their\\ngraves. Part of his time he devoted to a peru-\\nsal of the leading magazines, sent him regularly\\nand unsolicited by the publishers thereof, in\\nkindly remembrance of past favors, or occasion-\\nally he would read a few pages in one of\\nhis favorite prose authors, usually Hawthorne,\\nDickens or Thackeray, judiciously selecting\\ntherefrom matter of cheerful tone. The news-\\npapers he refused to look at, manifesting no in-\\nterest in current events. He would say it pains\\nme to meet with the details of so much crime\\nand so many casualties, and this was no new\\nsentiment to him, for in The Press, written in\\n1855, occur these lines\\nThe News, indeed pray do you call it news\\nWhen shallow noddles publish shallow views\\nPray, is it news that turnips should be bred\\nAs large and hollow as the owner s head\\nNews, that a clerk sliould rob his master s hoard\\nWhose meagre salary scarcely pays his board\\nNews, that two knaves, their spurious friendship o er,\\nShould tell the truths which they concealed before\\nNeivs, that a maniac weary of his life,\\nShould end his sorrows with a rope or kuife?\\nNews, that a wife should violate the vows\\nThat bind her, loveless, to a tyrant spouse?", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0085.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "72\\nNetos, that a daughter cheats paternal rule,\\nAnd weds a scoundrel to escape a fool\\nThe news, indeed Such matters are as old\\nAs sin and folly, rust and must and mould\\nAt increasingly rare intervals a brighter mood\\nwould come upon him, reviving a transient in-\\nterest in old friends and associations. The name\\nof Longfellow was often on his lips and that\\npoet s death affected him deeply. His memory\\nat times showed momentary gleams of its pris-\\ntine vigor and at one time he surprised his son\\nnot a little by repeating verbatim one of Charles\\nLamb s longest essays.\\nOne of the few friends who had an opportuni-\\nty to know something of the poet s recluse ex-\\nistence, wrote in the summer of 1886 During\\nthe past two years no public eye has seen him.\\nThe apartment in which he spands his melan-\\ncholy days consists of a suite of three rooms,\\nlocated in the rear end of the house on the\\nthird floor, and overlooking the noble Hudson to\\nthe South. Here by the window he whiles\\naway much of his time in watching the busy\\nriver craft, and in contemplating the picturesque\\nlandscape. Of street attire he no longer has a\\nneed in dressing-gown and slippers he paces the\\nfloor with slow and trembling steps, seldom or\\nnever going beyond the confines of his own\\nroom.", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0086.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "73\\nAs time passed ou the cloud that brooded orer\\nthe poet s being settled heavier and yet more\\ndarkly. He gave up reading the magazines, nor\\ncould he be induced to open a book. A.t one\\ntime Mrs. James Saxe, liis wife s sister and bro-\\nther s wife, who was alivays a favorite with him,\\ntook some books up to his room on the plea that\\nthey were in the way down stairs, but he would\\nnot allow them to be left, saying gently but\\nfirmly, No. I can t have them here. They\\nremind me of the past. Finally he denied hhn-\\nself to the members of the family, even saying,\\nwhen asked if he would receive his favorite\\nsister-in-law No. Tell her I would like to see\\nher, but\u00e2\u0080\u0094 I cannot, I cannot bear to be reminded\\nof what I once was of the days of my hope and\\nstrength, when the world had charms that are\\nnow dead to me before sickness liad deprived\\nme of my health, and death had robbed me of\\nmy loved ones.\\nHis only companion was now his valet,\\na middle-aged colored man who, by reason of\\nprior service with eminent people at Wash-\\nington and other places, was more than ordinar-\\nily intelligent and entertaining. With him\\nthe poet chatted, sometimes with a more than\\nusual degree of interest and animation. In the\\npoet s apartment hung a small portrait of Thomas", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0087.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "74\\nHood, given liim by the English liumorist s son,\\nand to this Mr. Saxe attached more than ordinary\\nvalue. Sometimes in his walk he vsrould pause\\nbefore it and, gazing sadly at it, say: I wonder\\nif poor Tom Hood ever suffered as I suffer now\\nAgain the observation escaped him I do not\\nsee how any human being can continue to live in\\na condition so utterly hopeless as mine. The\\nlast lustrum of Saxe s life was only along craving\\nfor the final summons to join the loved ones who\\nhad gone before.\\nThe Century for June, 1886, contains the\\nfollowing lines to the poet by C. S. Percival\\nO genial Saxe, whose radiant wit\\nFlashed like the lightning from the sky,\\nBut, though each flash as keenly hit,\\nWounded but what deserved to die\\nAlas the cloud that shrouds thy day\\nIn gathering darkness, fold on fold.\\nServes not as background for the play\\nOf those bright gleams that charmed of old\\nFor, from its depths where terrors hide.\\nThere crashed a bolt of dreadful tone\\nScattered thy household treasures wide,\\nAnd left thee silent, bruised, alone.\\nWe miss thy song this pleasant May\\nAnd, in the meadows, pause to think", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0088.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "75\\nWhat if, amid their bright array,\\nWe heard no voice of Bobolink\\nYet charms not now his blithesome lay\\nNor flowery mead in verdure clad\\nThe world that laughed when thou wast gay,\\nNow weeps to know that thou art sad.\\nJohn Godfrey Saxe died on March 31, 1887,\\nand was laid at rest in the family lot in Green-\\nwood by the side of his wife and daughters.\\nOnly his relatives and a few personal friends\\nwere present at the funeral.\\nThe sad termination of his life reminds one of\\nthe well known anecdote of Liston, the famous\\ncomedian. One day there came to Abernethy\\na man who sougrht cure for a melancholia so con-\\nfirriied and constant that it threatened to under-\\nmine his reason. Pooh Pooh the famous\\nsurgeon replied if that is all you are easily\\ncured; go to Covent Garden and see Liston.\\nAlas! his patient replied, I am Liston!", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0089.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0090.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0091.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0092.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3208", "width": "2073", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0093.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS\\n015 871 601 A\\n^x\\nX Av^^V\\nv", "height": "3273", "width": "2082", "jp2-path": "johngodfreysaxeb00taft_0094.jp2"}}