CHAPTER XXVIII 



THORNS ON THE ROSE 



Contributions to magazines— Attacked in Philadelphia— Statement to 

 Sully— The rattlesnake episode — Behavior of a Philadelphia editor- 

 Mistaken identity in account of the reptile — Lesson of the serpent's 

 tooth — Audubon's long lost lily rediscovered — "Nosarians and Anti- 

 Nosarians" — Bachman and Audubon on vultures — Aim of the critics — 

 Authorship in the Biography — His most persistent heckler — Pitfall of 

 analogy. 



We have seen that John James Audubon had at- 

 tended the school of adversity many years before he was 

 known to the pubhc in either America or Europe. The 

 difficulties inseparable from such colossal undertakings 

 as that in which he engaged were well nigh insuperable ; 

 but to these were added others which perhaps might 

 have been avoided but which could hardly have been 

 foreseen. From the moment he began to write for pub- 

 lication, he was bitterly and persistently assailed by a 

 nimaber of detractors, who seemed bent upon ruining 

 his reputation and thus undermining the work to which 

 he was devoting his life and upon which he depended 

 as a means of support. 



Were no worthy purpose to be served, it would be 

 folly to resurrect the animosities of a past generation, 

 but since a few "fed fat the ancient grudge they bore 

 him," and since this hostility, handed down through the 

 years, is occasionally echoed at the present day, the im- 

 partial historian is left no choice; he must weigh the 

 merits of the case to the best of his ability. The reader, 

 I think, will find that the law of compensation has 



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