ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AXD — 



OOLOGIST. 



PUBLISHED BY THE FRANK BLAKE WEBSTER COMPANY. 



ESTABLISHED M,\KCH, 1875. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



Single Copy 

 10 cents. 



Vol. XVIII. 



HYDE PARK, MASS., MAY, 1893. 



No. 5. 



Alexander Wilson. 



" Alexander Wilson had genius, and not 

 much of anything else. Very little learning, 

 scarcely any money, not many friends, and 

 a paltry share of the world's regard while he 

 lived." 



I extract the above from the historical 

 preface of Coues' "Key" in "Forest and 

 Stream" for May 29, 1884, by R. W. Shu- 

 feldt, M.D., U.S.A. I know it was written 

 in a kindly spirit, but it is likely to carry an 

 erroneous impression of Alexander Wilson 

 to those who have never had the pleasure of 

 reading all his works. To simply admit that 

 Wilson had genius does not do him justice. 



Wilson was born in 1766. At the age of 

 thirteen he was apprenticed as a weaver, 

 which at that time could be only about one 

 remove from a pauper's life. I know this 

 from a forty years' connection with the man- 

 ufacture of woolen goods ; but if anything 

 further is needed, we get it from the fol- 

 lowing extract from his " Groans from the 

 Loom " : — 



" To hang like a scarecrow in rags, 

 And live o'er a seat-tree on naught, 

 Good Gods ! shall a mortal with legs. 

 So low, uncomplaining, be brought?" 



Although Wilson had a terrible dislike for 

 weaving, he served faithfully for three years, 

 or until August, 1782, when he wrote the 

 following lines on his indentures : 



" Be't kent to a' the warld in rhime 

 That wi right meikle wark an' toil, 

 For three lang years I've sert my time, 

 While's feasted wi the hazel oil." 



This is written in a much better hand than 

 one would expect from the fact that he had 

 had no opportunity for education. But then 

 modern scholars hardly consider penmanship 

 learning, and yet he was but sixteen years 

 old. If he got any schooling, it could be 

 but a little and of a very poor quality. After 

 his apprenticeship was completed he served 

 four years at the loom in various places, 

 during which time he wrote all his earlier 

 l)oems, which he published in 1790 in an 

 octavo volume of 308 pages, when he was 

 twenty-four years old. During the time that 

 this work was in the publisher's hands Wilson 

 made a peddling tour through the east of 

 Scotland seeking subscriptions with a pros- 

 pectus, and after the work was issued he 

 l)eddled the book from door to door, only 

 two hundred copies being issued with the 

 date of 1790, which he sold, one of which 

 and a copy of the 1791 edition are now be- 

 fore me. His peddling excursions, which 

 continued for three years, were not finan- 

 cially successful, but the freedom of such a 

 life was just what Wilson craved, and they 

 were no doubt among the most interesting 

 years of his life. Wilson had genius at 

 twenty-four and was a wonderful student of 

 human nature. He knew the short-comings 

 of his fellow- men too well ; hence his love of 

 solitude in after life. 



Let us skip back to 1 790, when Wilson 

 was but twenty-four years old. We find him 

 selling from door to door the \ olume of his 

 poems, 308 pages, 8vo., old style leather 

 binding. This book he had written, pub- 

 lished, and was peddling. He did not seek 



Copyright, 1893, by Frank Blake Webster CoMfANY, 



