HALCYON 



2664 



HALE 



England hake, or whiting, the common Euro- 

 pean hake, which may be found as far north 

 as Greenland, and the California, or merluccio, 

 which is found from Santa Catalina to Puget 

 Sound, on the Pacific coast, The New Eng- 

 land hake, as well as the silver species, are 

 common from Newfoundland to the Bahama 

 Islands. The flesh is somewhat coarse and of 

 watery texture, and for this reason is not 

 highly esteemed for the table. 



HALCYON, hal'seon, an old name for the 

 kingfisher, a bird of the grebe family, which 

 lays its eggs in nests which are really floating 

 islands made of plant stems, grass and reeds. 

 In folklore or fable this bird was said to have 

 the power of quieting the winds during the 

 time of incubation. The term halcyon days 

 arose from this fancy, and is used to denote 

 the seven days preceding and the seven follow- 

 ing the shortest day of the year, because calm 

 and beautiful weather generally prevails at this 

 period. The poet Bret Harte applies it in the 

 following lines: 



Thou bring'st me back the halcyon days 

 Of grateful rest, the week of leisure. 



HAL'DIMAND, SIR FREDERICK (1718-1791), a 

 Swiss soldier of fortune and British colonial 

 administrator, who held important commands 

 in America during the French and Indian Wars 

 and the Revolutionary War, and was Gov- 

 ernor-General of British North America from 

 1778 to 1784. Haldimand was bora in a village 

 near Neuchatel, Switzerland, and as a young 

 man served in the Sardinian and Prussian 

 armies. He entered the British service in 1756, 

 and held various commands in America until 

 shortly after the beginning of the Revolution- 

 ary War, when he was recalled to London to 

 act as the government's adviser on American 

 affairs. He was sent to Canada as Governor- 

 General in 1778. There he kept a firm hand, 

 and according to French-Canadian historians 

 :rsh hand, on the sympathizers with the 

 rebelling colonists. More important was the 

 encouragement and help he gave to thousands 

 of United Empire Loyalists. Haldimand's ef- 

 forts were largely responsible for the success- 

 ful settlement of these people in Canada. 



HALE, EDWARD EVERETT (1823-1909), a bril- 

 liant lecturer, :il>le writer, clergyman and phil- 

 anthropist, He has been called "The Ameri- 

 can Defoe," because his romances run along 

 in such a straightforward way that the reader 

 is inclined to accept them as facts. His mas- 

 terpiece, The Alan Without a Country, was 



widely read during the War of Secession, and 

 sales of the book increased again during the 

 Spanish- American conflict. It is said to Iiave 

 done more than any other book to stimulate 

 and intensify American patriotism. The story 

 was accepted in 

 such sober earnest 

 that in a later 

 edition the 

 author felt 

 obliged to state 

 in an appendix 

 that it was not 

 founded on fact. 

 The Man With- 

 out a Country . 

 The Man With- 

 out a Country 



was a v o u n 2 



3 EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

 army officer who, One of the best loved of 



during the War New England's notable group 



t 10 ,o, , , of literary men. 



of 1812, was tried 



by court-martial for an offense, and upon being 

 asked if he wished to say anything to show 

 that he had always been faithful to the United 

 States, cried out in a fit of frenzy, "Damn the 

 United States ! I -wish I may never hear of 

 the United States again!" The military court 

 ordered that he should be sent out to sea and 

 kept there, where he would never hear the 

 name of the United States again. He was put 

 on board ship, and instructions were issued 

 that no one should convey to him any news, 

 or mention the United States in his presence. 

 He was transferred from one ship to another 

 as the vessels neared the United States, and 

 in this way he was kept out of sight and hear- 

 ing of his country for many years. On his 

 deathbed he begged for news from home and 

 requested that a stone be set up in his mem- 

 ory, bearing this inscription: 



In Memory of 

 PHILIP NOLAN, 



Lieutenant of the Army of the United Staies. 



He loved his country as no other man has loved 



her ; but no man deserved less at her hands. 



Life of Hale. Dr. Kale's family was a noted 

 one, and several of his immediate relatives 

 find prominent places in American biography. 

 His father was Nathan Hale, first editor of the 

 Boston Daily Advertiser; Nathan Hale, the 

 patriot and martyr, is of the same line; and 

 Edward Hale, one of the most accomplished of 

 American orators, was of the same family. 



Dr. Hale was graduated from Harvard Col- 

 lege in 1839, and became pastor of a Unitarian 



