Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text parting splendor.
A Federal band, which, eve and morn,
Played measures brave and nimble,
Had just struck up, with flute and horn
And lively clash of cymbal.
Down flocked the soldiers to the banks,
Till, margined by its pebbles,
One wooded shore was blue with "Yanks,"
And one was gray with "Rebels."
Then all was still, and then the band,
With movement light and tricksy,
Made stream and forest, hill and strand
Reverberate with "Dixie."
The conscious stream with burnished glow
Went proudly o'er its pebbles,
But thrilled throughout its deepest flow
With yelling of the Rebels.
Again a pause, and then again
The trumpets pealed sonorous,
And "Yankee Doodle" was the strain
To which the shore gave chorus.
The laughing ripple shoreward flew,
To kiss the shining pebbles;
Loud shrieked the swarming Boys in Blue
Defiance to the Rebels.
And yet once more the bugles sang
Above the stormy riot;
No shout upon the evening rang--
There reigned a holy quiet.
The sad, slow stream its noiseless flood
Poured o'er the glistening pebbles;
All silent now the Yankees stood,
And silent stood the Rebels.
No unresponsive soul had heard
That plaintive note's appealing,
So deeply "Home Sweet Home" had stirred
The hidden founts of feeling.
Or Blue, or Gray, the soldier sees
As by the wand of fairy,
The cottage 'neath the live-oak trees,
The cabin by the prairie.
Or cold, or warm, his native skies
Bend in their beauty o'er him;
Seen through the tear-mist in his eyes,
His loved ones stand before him.
As fades the iris after rain
In April's tearful weather,
The vision vanished, as the strain
And daylight died together.
But memory, waked by music's art,
Expressed in simplest numbers,
Subdued the sternest Yankee's heart,
Made light the Rebel's slumbers.
And fair the form of music shines,
That bright celestial creature,
Who still, 'mid war's embattled lines,
Gave this one touch of Nature.
JABEZ LAMAR MONROE CURRY.
~1825=----.~
DR. CURRY was born in Georgia, but his father removed to Alabama in
1838, and he was reared in that State. After graduation at the
University of Georgia and at the Harvard Law School, he began the
practice of law in Talladega County, Alabama. He served in the State
Legislature and in Congress, and in 1861 entered the Confederate Army.
After the war he was ordained to the Baptist ministry and became
president of Howard College, Alabama, and later, professor of English,
Philosophy, and Law, in Richmond College, Virginia, which latter
position he filled for thirteen years. From 1881 to 1885 he was agent
of the Peabody Educational Fund; in 1885 he was appointed minister to
Spain, and on his return to America resumed the agency of the Fund.
His wise administration and his well-directed efforts have done much
to further the cause of education; and his ability and effectiveness
as a speaker and writer have given him national fame.
WORKS.
Constitutional History of Spain.
Gladstone.
Southern States of the American Union [just issued, 1895].
RELATIONS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
(_From Gladstone._[23])
By his frank utterances, expressive of his admiration of the people
and the institutions of the United States, he has provoked adverse
criticism from a portion of the English press. He thinks the Senate of
the United States "the most remarkable of all the inventions of modern
politics," and the American constitution "the most wonderful work ever
struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," and that
"its exemption from formal change, has certainly proved the sagacity
of its constructors and the stubborn strength of the fabric."
In the same essay--_Kin Beyond Sea_--speaking of our future, he says,
"She will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the
great household of the world, the employer of all employed; because
her service will be the most and the ablest." In 1856, when the
relations between Great Britain and the United States became
considerably strained, in an able speech may be found this sentence:
"It appears to me that the two cardinal aims that we ought to keep in
view in the discussion of this question are peace and a thoroughly
cordial understanding with America for one, the honor and fame of
England for the other."
In 1884, he wrote: "The convulsion of that country between 1861 and
1865 was perhaps the most frightful which ever assailed a national
existence. The efforts which were made on both sides were marked. The
exertions by which alone the movement was put down were not only
extraordinary, they were what antecedently would have been called
impossible; and they were only rendered possible by the fact that they
proceeded from a nation where every capable citizen was enfranchised
and had a direct and an energetic interest in the well-being and unity
of the State." "No hardier republicanism was generated in New England
than in the slave States of the South, which produced so many of the
great statesmen of America."
In a conversation with Mr. Gladstone in 1887, he referred to the
enormous power and responsibilities of the United States, and
suggested that a desideratum was a new unity between our two
countries. We had that of race and language, but we needed a moral
unity of English-speaking people for the success of freedom.
The English or Anglo-Saxon race is essentially the same in its more
distinguishing characteristics. Unity of language creates unity of
thought, of literature, and largely unity of civilization and of
institutions. It facilitates social and commercial intercourse, and
must produce still more marked political phenomena. We profit
naturally by inventions, by discoveries, by constitutional struggles,
by civil and religious achievements, by lessons of traditions, by
landmarks of usage and prescription. Magna Charta, Petition of Right,
Habeas Corpus, what O'Connell even called the "glorious Revolution of
1688," are as much American as English.
England claims to have originated the representative system six
hundred years ago. Our ancestors brought to this soil, "singularly
suited for their growth, all that was democratic in the policy of
England and all that was Protestant in her religion." Our revolution,
like that of 1688, was in the main a vindication of liberties
inherited. In freedom of religion, in local self-government, and
somewhat in state autonomy, our forefathers constructed for
themselves; but nearly all the personal guarantees, of which we so
much boast on our national anniversaries, were borrowed from the
mother country.
FOOTNOTE:
[23] By permission of B. F. Johnson and Co., Richmond, Va.
MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON.
~1825=----.~
MRS. PRESTON is a native of Philadelphia, the daughter of Dr. George
Junkin who in 1848 removed to Lexington, Virginia, as president of the
Washington College, and remained there till 1861. She was married in
1857 to Prof. J. T. L. Preston of the Virginia Military Institute, her
sister Eleanor being the wife of C Previous Next |