458 



LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL. 



joint editor, with Charles Eliot Norton, of the 

 " North American Review," a connection which 

 lasted until 1872. In these periodicals appeared 

 the "Moosehead Journal," "Cambridge Thirty 

 Years ago," "Notes of Travel," and the frag- 

 ment " Fitz Adam's Story." 



Meantime the political events that preceded 

 and led up to the civil war were of the keenest 

 interest to him, and, in order to throw the weight 

 of his influence on the side of the Union, he 

 brought Hosea Biglow and Parson Wilbur 

 again upon the stage, their utterances being 

 given to the world in the pages of the " Atlahtic 

 Monthly." In his introduction to the new 

 poems of Hosea Biglow, Parson Wilbur says: 

 ' I write by express desire of Mr. Biglow him- 

 self, whose entire winter leisure is occupied, as 

 he assures me, in answering demands for auto- 

 graphs, a labor exacting enough in itself, and 

 egregiously so to him, who, being no ready pen- 

 man, can not sign so much as his name without 

 strange contortions of the face (the nose even 

 being essential to complete success) and pain- 

 fully suppressed Saint-Vitus's dance of every 

 muscle of the body." Mr. Wilbur introduces 

 a letter from Mr. Biglow's friend, Mr. Sawin, 

 who had settled in Virginia after the Mexican 

 War. It opens : 



It's some consid'ble of a spell sence I hain't writ no 



letters, 

 An' ther's gret changes hez took place in all polit'- 



cle matters ; 

 Some canderdates air dead an' gone, an' some hez ben 



defeated, 

 Which 'mounts to pooty much the same ; fer it's ben 



proved repeated 

 A betch o' bread thet hain't riz once ain't goin' to 



rise agin, 

 An' it's jest money throwed away to put the emptin's 



in : 

 But thet's wut folks won't never larn ; they dunno how 



to go, 

 Arter you want their room, no more'n a bullet-headed 



beau ; 



Ther's oilers chaps a-hangin' roun' thet can't see pea- 

 time's past, 

 Mis'ble as roosters in a rain, heads down an' tails 



half-mast ; 

 It ain't disgraceful bein' beat, when a holl nation 



doos it, 

 But chance is like an amberill it don' take twice to 



lose it. 



His description of matters down South is fol- 

 lowed the next month by the famous ' Yankee 

 Idyl," " Mason and Slidell." The " Idyl " is in- 

 troduced by a long rhymed dialogue between 

 Bunker Hill Monument and Concord Bridge, 

 which brims over with wit. In the course of it, 

 the monument remarks : 



" Ef we're a-goin' to prove we be growd-up, 



'Twun't be by barkin' like a tamer pup, 



But turnin' to an' makin' things ez good 



Ez wut we're allers braggin' that we could : 



We're boun' to be |Cjood friends, and so we'd oughter, 



In spite of all the.dools both sides the water." 



The bridge replies : 



" 1 b'lieve thet's so ; but harken in your ear, 



I'm older'n you Peace won't keep house with Fear. 



Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du 



Is jes' to show you're up to nghtin', tu. 



/ recollect how sailors' rights was won, 



Yard locked in yard, hot gun-lip kissin' gun. 



Why, afore thet John Bull sot up thet he 



lied gut a kind o' mortgage on the sea ; 



You'd thought he held oy grand'ther Adam's will, 



An' ef you knuckle down, he'll think so still." 



Some stanzas of the " Idyl " read as follows : 

 Ef /turn mad dogs loose, John, 



On your front-parlor stairs, 

 Would it jest meet your views, John, 

 To wait an' sue their heirs ? 

 Ole Uncle S. sez he, " I guess 

 I on'y guess," sez he, 

 Thet ef Vattel on his toes fell, 

 "Twould kind o' rile J. B., 

 Ez wal ez you an' ine ! 



Who made the law thet hurts, John, 



Heads I win ditto tails? 

 " J. B." was on his shirts, John, 

 Onless my memory fails. 



Olc Uncle S. sez he, " I guess, 

 (I'm good at thet)," sez he, 

 " Thet sauce for goose ain't jest the juice 

 For ganders with J. B., 

 No more'n with you or me ! " 



We own the ocean, tu, John, 



You mus'n' take it hard, 

 Ef we can't think with you, John, 

 It's jest your own back yard. 

 Ole Uncle S. sez he, " I guess, 

 Ef thefs his claim," sez he, 

 " The fencin' stuff '11 cost enough 

 To bust up friend J. B.. 

 Ez wal ez you an' me ! " 



An argument that was put forward in sober 

 earnest by many is put in the following fashion 

 by Mr. Sawin in a letter to Hosea Biglow : 



VVarn't it more prof table to bring your raw material 



thru 



Where you can work it into grace an' into cotton tu, 

 Than sendin' missionaries out where fevers might 



defeat 'em, 

 An' ef the butcher didn't call, their p'rishiouers 



might eat 'em ? 



The next installment closes with the follow- 

 ing lines : 



I but, gcn'lemcn, here's a dispatch jes come in, 

 Which shows thet the tide's begun turnin' agin' 

 Great Confednt success ! C'lumbus eevacooated ! 

 1 mus' run down an' hev the thing properly stated, 

 An' show wut a triumph it is, an' now lucky 

 To fin'lly git red o' thet cussed Kentucky, 

 An' how, sence Fort Donelson, winnin' the day 

 Consists in triumphantly gittin' away. 



Perhaps one of the best-known extracts is 

 from the passage from Hosea Biglow, which be- 

 gins thus : 



Once git a smell o' musk into a draw, 



An' it clings hold like precerdents in law; 



Your gra'ma'am put it there when, goodness 



knows 



To jes, this-worldify her Sunday-clo'es ; 

 But the old chist wun't sarve her gran'so.n's wife. 

 (For, 'thout new furnitoor, wut good in life ? ) 

 An' so ole clawfoot, from the precinks dread 

 O' the spare chamber, shrinks into the shed, 

 Where, dim with dust, it fust or last subsides 

 t To holdin' seeds an 1 fifty things besides ; 

 But better days stick fast in heart an' husk, 

 An' all you keep in't gits a scent o' musk. 



Jes so with poets: wut they've airly read 

 Gits kind o' worked into their heart an' head, 

 - So's't they can't seem to write but jest on sheers 

 With furrin' countries or played-out ideers, 

 Nor hev a feelin' ef it doesn't smack 

 O' wut some critter chose to feel 'way back. 







