TAYLOR, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



TENNESSEE. 



757 



nessy or 13-0 Limerick, and foi^snoods heavy 

 cotton or silk or jointed piano-wire. The 

 bait is usually mullet or some common fish. 

 The tarpon season may be said to last all 

 winter in Florida, though it is best toward 

 spring. It is the habit of the fish when struck 

 to make a rapid rush of 50 or 60 yards, and 

 then leap from the water, opening his immense 

 mouth and gills to their widest extent, and 

 shaking himself with such violent contortions 

 that the hook is often torn out, and he swims 

 away, none the worse for his adventure and 

 probably none the wiser. By experienced 

 fishermen the tarpon is regarded as a far more 

 difficult antagonist than, the salmon, and he 

 must no doubt take rank as the king of Ameri- 

 can game-fishes. Very little has as yet been 

 published about the tarpon outside of the bare 

 scientific details, or in the letters of newspaper 

 correspondents, but the time is no doubt at 

 hand when sportsmen will' come from across 

 the sea to test their skill against his strength 

 and endurance. 



TAILOR, BENJAMLN FRANKLIN, an American 

 author, born in Lowvillf, N. Y., July 19, 1819; 

 died in Cleveland, O., Feb. 24, 1887. He was 

 graduated at Madison University, Hamilton, 

 N. Y., of which his father, Stephen W. Taylor, 

 was president, in 1839, and at the age of twenty- 

 one he became literary editor of the Chicago 

 " Evening Journal," and subsequently its war 

 correspondent. He also appeared frequently 

 before literary associations and the general 

 public as a lecturer. Among his published 

 writings are " Attractions of Language " (New 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TAYLOR. 



York, 1845); " January and June" (Chicago, 

 1853) ; " Pictures in Camp and Field " (1871) ; 

 "The World on Wheels" (1873); "Old-Time 

 Pictures and Sheaves of Rhyme" (1874); 

 "Songs of Yesterday" (1877); "Summer 

 Savory, Gleaned from Rural Nooks" (1879) ; 

 "Between the Gates," pictures of California 

 life (1881); "Dulce Dornum, the Burden of 

 Song "(1884); and a complete collected edi- 

 tion of his poems (1887). Shortly before his 



death he delivered to his publishers the manu- 

 script of his first novel, entitled " Theophilus 

 Trent." Much of Mr. Taylor's prose is very 

 fine. Although his fancy was exuberant and 

 untrained, it was also picturesque, sympathetic, 

 and earnest. The London " Times " called him 

 the Oliver Goldsmith of America. His letters 

 from the seat of war were among the most 

 vivid and notable that filled the newspapers 

 at that tragic period. His "Battle above the 

 Clouds," a description of the engagement on 

 Lookout mountain in November, 1863, was 

 especially famous. Like his prose, Mr. Taylor's 

 verse is somewhat embarrassed by conceits 

 and cadenced syllables, but he has left a few 

 poems that pass from one anthology to another, 

 and constantly find their- way into scrap-books 

 and newspaper corners. Among these are 

 notably "Ihe Isle of the Long Ago," which 

 begins 



u Oh ! a wonderful stream is the river Time, 

 As it flows through the realm of Tears," 



tl Rhymes of the River," of which the open- 

 ing is 



" Oh river, far flowing, 



How broad thou art growing, 

 And the sentinel headlands wait grimly for thee," 



and " The Old Village Choir." A fine speci- 

 men of Mr. Taylor's work, both as to concep- 

 tion and style, is found in a fragment entitled 

 "The Northern Lights": 



" To claim the Arctic came the sun, 

 With banners of the burning zone ; 

 Unrolled upon their airy spars, 

 They froze beneath the light of stars ; 

 And there they float, those streamers eld, 

 Those Northern Lights, for ever cold ! " 



Personally, Mr. Taylor was genial and re- 

 sponsive, but he was so sensitive and shrink- 

 ing that he invented methods to avoid meeting 

 strangers, and to account for his late appear- 

 ances before and sudden disappearances after 

 his lectures. To the chairman who was to in- 

 troduce him, he would say : " Do it quickly ! I 

 would rather chop a oord of wood than sit 

 here five minutes." In his later years Mr. 

 Taylor traveled extensively in California, 

 Mexico, and the islands of the Pacific. The 

 University of California gave him the degree 

 of LL. D. 



TENNESSEE. State Government, The following 

 were the State officers during the year: Gov- 

 ernor, Robert L. Taylor, Democrat; Secretary 

 of State, John Allison ; Treasurer and Insur- 

 ance Commissioner, J. W. Thomas; Comp- 

 troller, P. P. Pickard; Attorney-General, B. 

 J. Lea ; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 T. H. Paine, succeeded by Frank M. Smith ; 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, Statistics, and 

 Mines, A. J. McWhirter, succeeded by B. M. 

 Hord; Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, 

 Peter Turney ; Associate Justices, W. C. Tolkes, 

 W. C. Caldwell, B. L. Snodgrass, and W. H. 

 Lurton. 



Legislative Session. The session of this year 

 extended from January 3 to March 29. On 



