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BRYANT, WILLIAM 0. 



of the ship, Colonel Willard P. Tisdel, the 

 superintendent of the line, Captain Mayo of 

 the United States steamer Hartford, and other 

 distinguished Americans. The Emperor ex- 

 pressed his satisfaction with the ship and the 

 manner in which the contract had been carried 

 out. 



A famine of unprecedented severity has 

 been experienced in three of the northern 

 provinces, but more particularly in that of 

 Ceara. A protracted drought dried up the 

 springs, brooks, and rivers, completely de- 

 stroyed the crops, and deprived the inhabi- 

 tants of all means of support. In the city of 

 Aracaty, from the 10th to the 18th of Febru- 

 ary, 664 persons died of hunger, and an equal 

 number perished in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood. Many more died from starvation on 

 their way to other provinces. At least 10,- 

 000 persons perished in the province of Ceara 

 since the beginning of the famine, in spite of 

 the efforts of the Government to relieve the 

 distress of the people. As much as $800,000 

 in a single month has been expended by the 

 national Treasury to support the starving pop- 

 ulation and to remove it to more favored dis- 

 tricts. 



BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, an American 

 poet, editor, and author, died in New York 

 June 12, 1878. He was born at Cummington, 

 Hampshire County, Mass., November 3, 1794. 

 His father was Peter Bryant, who was a dis- 

 tinguished local physician of learning and lit- 

 erary acquirements, and was the grandson of 

 Stephen Bryant, who came to this country in 

 the Mayflower. William's remarkable preco- 

 city as a poet places him in this respect in the 

 rank with Pope, Chatterton, and Henry Kirk 

 White. Several metrical translations from the 

 Latin poets, written by him before he was ten 

 years of age, were published in the local paper, 

 and in his fourteenth year he published two 

 important poems called " The Embargo " and 

 " The Spanish Revolution," the former a politi- 

 cal satire relating to the embargo policy of 

 Jefferson in connection with Napoleon's Berlin 

 and Milan decrees. In 1810 young Bryant en- 

 tered Williams College, where he soon distin- 

 guished himself in the languages and belles- 

 lettres; but at the end of two years he left 

 college and engaged in the study of law. He 

 was admitted to the bar in 1815, began prac- 

 tice at Plainfield, and afterward established 

 himself at Great Barrington. He soon took a 

 high rank as a lawyer, but preferred literature 

 to law, and gave much time to the former. In 

 his eighteenth year he wrote his most famous 

 poem, "Thanatopsis," which has been called 

 "one of the most precious gems of didactic 

 verse in the whole compass of English poetry." 

 It was published in 1818 in the " North Amer- 

 ican Review," and led to the life-long friend- 

 ship between its author and the now venerable 

 poet Richard H. Dana, who was then one of 

 the club which conducted the " Review." To 

 this periodical Bryant also contributed several 



prose articles. Mr. Bryant was married while 

 living at Great Barrington, where he wrote 

 some of his best poems, such as "To Green 

 River," "Inscription for an Entrance to a 

 Wood," and " To a Waterfowl." In 1821 he 

 delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society 

 of Harvard College "The Ages," a didactic 

 poem in the Spenserean stanza; and in the 

 same year a volume of his poems was published 

 at Cambridge, and immediately led to his rec- 

 ognition as a writer of high merit. 



In 1825 Mr. Bryant removed to New York, 

 where he became editor of the " New York 

 Review," which was soon after merged in the 

 " United States Review," for which he wrote 

 literary criticisms and several poems. About 

 this time he delivered a course of lectures on 

 Greek and Roman mythology before the Acad- 

 emy of Design. In 1826 he became one of the 

 editors of the " Evening Post," of which Wil- 

 liam Coleman was then editor in chief. This 

 journal then had a marked leaning toward 

 federalism, but Mr. Bryant labored to give it 

 more of a republican character. Acquiring 

 exclusive control of its columns a few years 

 later, he took a bold stand in favor of free 

 trade and against all partial or class legislation, 

 and gave the paper a decidedly democratic 

 tone. From 1827 to 1830, in conjunction with 

 Robert C. Sands and Gulian C. Verplanck, he 

 conducted " The Talisman," a flourishing annu- 

 al, and about the same time wrote the tales of 

 "Medfield " and " The Skeleton's Cave," which 

 appeared in a book called "Tales of the Glau- 

 ber Spa." A complete edition of his poems 

 was published in New York in 1832, and was 

 republished in England with a laudatory pref- 

 ace written by Washington Irving, then in that 

 country. It was favorably reviewed by John 

 Wilson in "Black wood's Magazine," and gave 

 the poet a reputation in Europe not less than 

 that in his own country. After the death of 

 Coleman, William Leggett became associated 

 with Bryant in the management of the " Even- 

 ing Post." In 1834 the latter went with his 

 family to Europe, and traveled through France, 

 Germany, and Italy, studying the languages 

 and literatures of these and other countries, 

 and acquiring a wealth of knowledge of which 

 he made good use in his subsequent writings. 

 He made in 1845 a second and in 1849 a third 

 visit to Europe, extending his travels to Egypt 

 and Syria. During this time he wrote letters 

 to the "Evening Post," which were repub- 

 lished in a book entitled "Letters of a Travel- 

 er." In 1857 he again went to Europe, spend- 

 ing much time in Spain, whose language be- 

 came a favorite study with him. Another vol- 

 ume of his letters to the "Evening Post" was 

 published under the title of "Letters from 

 Spain and other Countries." In the mean 

 time Mr. Bryant had traveled extensively in 

 his own country from Maine to Florida, mak- 

 ing also a trip to the island of Cuba. In these, 

 as in his foreign travels, he regularly wrote to 

 his paper letters which were widely read. 



