AUDUBON CALLED BACK. 



W. T. IIORNADAY. 



Every lover of nature, man or woman, 

 boy or girl, owes Miss Maria R. Audu- 

 bon, and Charles Scribner's Sons, a debt 

 of genuine gratitude for " Audubon and 

 His Journals." To the vast majority of 

 our people who 

 happened to be 

 born later than 

 1845, the great art- 

 ist-naturalist h a s 

 ever been almost a 

 stranger. To the 

 present generation 

 of young Ameri- 

 cans, born since 

 1870, let us say, his 

 personality has 

 been, until now, 

 wholly matter of 

 history. His im- 

 mortal delineations 

 do indeed remain — 

 accessible only in 

 public libraries, or 

 the homes of a 

 wealthy few to 

 whom they have 

 have descended by 

 inheritance. Pos- 

 sibly one boy out 

 of every 10,000 in 

 this country has 

 actually seen the 

 " Birds of Amer- 

 ica," or the " Quad- 

 rupeds." Two Au- 

 dubon monuments 

 have been erected, 

 and in March, 1893, 



of North America" became concealed in the 

 back of an old secretary, and fire, water and 

 the mice mercifully spared them from 1843 

 to 1896! And why? Solely that through 

 it, through " The European Journals," 



Scribner's 



zine published 



Maga- 



a 



most welcome bit 

 of biography, a 

 newly discovered 

 life sketch by Au- 

 dubon, entitled 

 "Myself." But still 

 Audubon the Illus- 

 trious continued to 

 glide from us into 



AUDUBON IN HIS PRIME. 

 Frcmi the portrait by his son, John IVoodhouse A udnbon {about 1841 s ), 



the Past, and at last his personality became 

 so dim that by millions only the outlines of 

 his figure remained. It is unnecessary to 

 enumerate the causes for this, save that it 

 seemed to be inevitable Fate. 



But now — presto! The whole of the Mis- 

 souri River Journal has been found. By 

 some strange Providence, the records of 

 that journey in behalf of " The Quadrupeds 



" The Labrador Journals," " The Epi- 

 sodes," and a goodly collection of portraits 

 and other pictures, Audubon's grand- 

 daughter might now bring back to us the 

 magnetic personality of the man who when 

 living was fairly the idol of America, Eng- 

 land and Scotland. 



For the past 20 years or more, I have 

 thought I " knew " Audubon. While still 



