The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 Part 7

And Linn, distinguish'd for his moral lays, Shall, by his strain, Columbia's triumph raise."

"The Sketches in Verse" was magnificently printed for C. and A. Conrad by Smith and Maxwell in 1810.

To "a pastoral love-ditty" that began--

"Where Schuylkill o'er his rocky bed Roars, like a bull in battle"--

Rose appended the note:

"Our American names, although some of them are truly savage, are not much worse than many of those with which we might be furnished by other nations in abundance; and Schuylkill would not have offended the ears of Boileau more than the Whal and the Leck, the Issel and the Zuiderzee."

THOMAS I. WHARTON (1791-1856), a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, was a frequent contributor, and for a time was editor of the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_.

CHARLES J. INGERSOLL, the author of "Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics," was born in Philadelphia, October 3, 1782, and died there May 14, 1862. His first boyish composition is in the _Port Folio_ of October 24, 1801. It is ent.i.tled "Chiomara," and is introduced by the editor as the work of a "youth ambitious of the fame of Chatterton." Chiomara is a Gaul, who kills a Roman in defence of her honor.

EDWARD INGERSOLL, a younger brother of Charles, wrote poems for the _Port Folio_ on the events of the times, and named them "Horace in Philadelphia." All his poems, of whatever nature, were signed "Horace."

CONDY RAGUET (1784-1842) published in the _Port Folio_ some interesting letters on the "Ma.s.sacre of St. Domingo." He had gone as supercargo to Hayti, and lived there during the exciting scenes of the Revolution. He also contributed numerous papers to the _Port Folio_ upon "Free Trade."

JOHN SANDERSON (1783-1844) was professor of Greek and Latin in the Philadelphia Central High School. He wrote, at the suggestion of Theodore Hook, a capital volume of Parisian sketches, called the "American in Paris," which Jules Janin translated into French. Portions of his "American in London" appeared in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_. He successfully opposed, in a pamphlet signed "Riberjot," the plan of excluding the cla.s.sical languages from Girard College. He was an intimate friend of John E. Hall, and contributed to the _Port Folio_.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY (1783-1818) succeeded Dr. Wistar as professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. He published an edition of Cooper's "Surgery," and "Elements of Surgery," the latter of which was adopted as the text-book in Edinburgh.

ROYALL TYLER was born in Boston, near Faneuil Hall, July 18, 1757. He studied law under John Adams, was made a judge of the Supreme Court in 1794, and, in 1800, became chief justice. He was one of the closest friends of Joseph Dennie, and when the latter became editor of the _Farmer's Weekly Museum_ he wrote for him a medley of verse and social and political skits under the general t.i.tle "From the Shop of Messrs.

Colon and Spondee."

These papers he continued to write for the _Port Folio_. They "are divided between Federal politics, attacks on French democracy, the Della Cruscan literature, and the fas.h.i.+onable frivolities of the day." He also wrote for the _Port Folio_, in 1801, a series of similarly varied articles, richly reminiscent, ent.i.tled "An Author's Evenings."

ROBERT HARE (1781-1858), father of Judge J. I. C. Hare, who was professor of chemistry and natural philosophy in William and Mary College, and, later, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, published a number of moral essays in the _Port Folio_ under the pen-name of "Eldred Grayson."

DR. NATHANIEL CHAPMAN (1783-1850) used the pen-name of "Falkland."

ALEXANDER GRAYDON (1752-1818), a man of elegant manners and author of a useful and entertaining volume of "Memoirs of a Life chiefly pa.s.sed in Pennsylvania within the last Sixty Years," published, in the _Port Folio_, in 1813-14, a series of chatty paragraphs styled "Notes of a Desultory Reader." He lived in the "Slate-Roof House," at Second Street and Norris' Alley, where he had an opportunity of meeting men of rank and fame.

JOSIAH QUINCY (1772-1864), whose opinion of the _Port Folio_ has been already quoted, contributed to it a series of articles, beginning January 28, 1804, in the style of Swift, and signed "Climenole".[16]

[16] The name of the flappers, employed by the inhabitants of Laputa to arouse them from their scientific reveries.

JOHN LEEDS BOZMAN (1757-1823) studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and read law in the Middle Temple, London. He contributed both prose and verse to the _Port Folio_.

GENERAL THOMAS CADWALADER (1779-1841) furnished the magazine with translations of Horace.

RICHARD RUSH (1780-1859) was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1800, and successfully defended William Duane, of the _Aurora_, on a charge of libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He occasionally contributed official and personal anecdotes to the _Port Folio_.

RICHARD PETERS (1744-1828), the witty judge of Belmont, extended princely hospitality at his country seat. His a.s.sociation with the most distinguished men of Europe and America stored his memory with the choicest bits of political and personal history. These odd old ends, stolen out of the secret chronicles of the time, and decked with his rare wit, were given upon irregular occasions to the _Port Folio_.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752-1816) contributed political satires in both prose and verse to Dennie and his confreres.

JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1842), whose authors.h.i.+p of "Hail Columbia" has been already referred to, wrote the articles upon Shakespeare that appeared in the _Port Folio_ between 1801 and 1806. His house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was a favorite meeting-place for Dennie and the wits.

HORACE BINNEY (1780-1875), one of the most distinguished lawyers at a time when a Philadelphia lawyer was a synonym for skill and cleverness, wrote in moments, s.n.a.t.c.hed from a busy and almost breathless profession, some of the clearest and most careful sketches of cla.s.sical literature, as well as the shrewdest of political satires to be found in the early volumes of the _Port Folio_.

HARRIET FENNO, daughter of John Ward Fenno, founder and editor of the _United States Gazette_, signed her verses "Violetta."

MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON was the woman who carried to Was.h.i.+ngton the letter written by Dr. d.u.c.h.e urging concessions to the British as the only means of saving the country from spoliation and ruin. She was a daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Scottish physician, and granddaughter of Sir William Keith. Father and daughter lived for a time in the Slate-Roof House, then in the Carpenter mansion at Sixth and Chestnut, and finally at Graeme Hall in Montgomery County. Her life was written in the _Port Folio_ of 1809 (Page 524). Letters from her appear in various numbers of that magazine, always signed "Laura." Nathaniel Evans wooed Miss Graeme as "Laura" in true Petrarchan fas.h.i.+on. The Philadelphia Library possesses the MS. of a translation of Fenelon by Mrs. Ferguson.

She visited Europe in company with Dr. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, and everywhere her brilliant conversation and refined manners won her recognition and applause in literary society. Laurence Sterne was fascinated by her. "She took a seat upon the same stage with him at the York races. While bets were making upon different horses, she selected a small horse that was in the rear of the coursers as the subject of a trifling wager. Upon being asked the reason for doing so, she said 'the race was not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong.' Mr.

Sterne, who stood near to her, was struck with this reply, and turning hastily toward her begged for the honor of her acquaintance. They soon became sociable, and a good deal of pleasant conversation took place between them to the great entertainment of the surrounding company"

(Knapp, "Female Biography," page 217).

She wrote a parody upon Pope which was printed with Nathaniel Evans'

poems (1772):

How happy is the country parson's lot!

Forgetting bishops, as by them forgot; Tranquil of spirit, with an easy mind, To all his vestry's votes he sits resigned.

Of manners gentle and of temper even, He jogs his flocks, with easy pace, to heaven.

In Greek and Latin pious books he keeps, And, while his clerk sings psalms, he--soundly sleeps.

His garden fronts the sun's sweet orient beams, And fat church-wardens prompt his golden dreams.

The earliest fruit in his fair orchard blooms, And cleanly pipes pour out tobacco fumes.

From rustic bridegroom oft he takes the ring, And hears the milkmaid plaintive ballads sing.

Back-gammon cheats whole winter nights away, And Pilgrim's Progress helps a rainy day.

ALEXANDER WILSON was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. "The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson" was edited by A. B. Grosart, and published at Paisley in 1876. "With the exception of Allen Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns, none of our Scottish vernacular poets have been so continuously kept in print as Alexander Wilson" (Grosart). Seven biographies of him attest the lively interest felt in his personality and his work. In Scotland he was apprenticed to a weaver, and, after serving his time, he continued to work at the loom for four years more. He published "Watty and Meg" in 1792, an anonymous poem, the authors.h.i.+p of which was commonly ascribed to Robert Burns. He came to America in 1794, worked for a year at his trade, and subsequently taught at various schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1802 he settled at Kingsessing, now in the city of Philadelphia, close by the home of Bartram, the botanist. Here he taught the "Union" School. It was in a picturesque spot. Before its doors were cedars and "stripling poplars planted in a row, and old gray white oaks."

But birds were more attractive to him than boys. They commanded him, as the nightingale did the gypsy steward, and he followed them into untrodden wildernesses. Thomas Bradford undertook to publish Wilson's colossal "Ornithology." It was to be distinctly an "American" work. It was to be printed on American paper; and Amies, the paper-maker, even declared that he would use only "American" rags in making it. Seven volumes appeared during the author's life, or between 1808 and 1813.

Wilson published the "Rural Walk" in Brown's _Literary Magazine_ of August, 1804, and the "Solitary Tutor" in the same publication, October, 1804. The former poem was reprinted in the _Port Folio_ of April 27, 1805. Dennie was charmed with the poem, and explained that he reprinted it because the author "delights in pictures of American scenery and landscape, and wisely therefore leaves to European poets their nightingales and skylarks, and their _dingles_ and _dells_. He makes no mention of yews and myrtles, nor echoes a single note of either bullfinch or chaffinch, but faithfully describes American objects, though not entirely in the American idiom." The following four stanzas from the "Rural Walk" may give a conception of Wilson's close observation and nice fidelity to nature.

"Down to the left was seen afar The whitened spire of sacred name,[17]

And ars'nal, where the G.o.d of war Has hung his spears of b.l.o.o.d.y fame.

"There upward where it (Schuylkill) gently bends, And Say's red fortress tow'rs in view,[18]

The floating bridge its length extends-- A lively scene forever new.

"There market-maids in lively rows, With wallets white, were riding home, And thundering gigs, with powdered beaux, Through Gray's green festive shades to roam.

"Sweet flows the Schuylkill's winding tide By Bartram's green emblossom'd bowers, Where nature sports in all her pride Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers."

[17] Christ Church.

[18] Dr. Benjamin Say's house at Gray's Ferry.

Wilson, in 1804, undertook a journey to Niagara. The adventures by the way and the sight of the stupendous cataract supply the theme of his longest and most ambitious poem, "The Foresters." It was published with ill.u.s.trations in successive numbers of the _Port Folio_ of 1809, Volumes I, II and III. The entire poem contained 2,000 lines. The _Literary Magazine_ contains a part of the poem. This appearance, I believe, has never been noted. It is to be found in Volume IV, page 155. The lines were written August 12, 1805, and were published in the same month. In the literary intelligence of the same month the future publication of "The Foresters" is glanced at.

A prose letter and a poem, "The Pilgrim," by Wilson, are in the _Port Folio_, June, 1809, page 499. Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon met in Louisville, Ky., whither the latter had gone after disposing of his farm upon the Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia. Wilson conceived a dislike for Audubon, and wrote to the _Port Folio_ concerning Louisville, "Science or literature has not one friend in this place."

Audubon, into whose mind no thought of publis.h.i.+ng his own fine drawings had yet come, refused out of jealousy to add his name to the subscription list for Wilson's "American Ornithology." Robert Buchanan wrote, "If Audubon had one marked fault it was vanity; he was a queer compound of Actaeon and Narcissus--having a gun in one hand and flouris.h.i.+ng a looking-gla.s.s in the other." Grosart is much too severe when he styles Audubon "a great dilettante impostor."

After Wilson's death three supplementary volumes to his "Ornithology"

were added by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, and it was Lucien Bonaparte's son, Prince Canino, who first suggested to Audubon the publication of his collections.