"A sight it was! that sea of army blue,
The sloping guns of the swift tramping host,
Winding its way the fields and forests through,
As winds some river slowly to the coast.
The snow-white trains, the batteries grim, and then
The steady tramp of sixty thousand men."
Passing over pages filled with stories of the camp and march, and with
moving pictures of the dusky throng of camp-followers who saw in the
coming of Sherman's men "God's new exodus," we come to the dramatic
climax:
"But on a day, while tired and sore they went,
Across some hills wherefrom the view was free,
A sudden shouting down the lines was sent;
They looked and cried, 'This is the sea! the sea!'
And all at once a thousand cheers were heard
And all the army shout the glorious word.
"Bronzed soldiers stood and shook each other's hands;
Some wept for joy, as for a brother found;
And down the slopes, and from the far-off sands,
They thought they heard already the glad sound
Of the old ocean welcoming them on
To that great goal they had so fairly won."
I would not be unmindful of our Iowa poet's other contributions.
Before the century's close, Mr. Byers had written "Switzerland and the
Swiss," and "What I saw in Dixie," also a book of verse entitled
"Happy Isles and Other Poems," besides much occasional verse in
celebration of events in Iowa history. So many and excellent are Major
Byers' contributions to such occasions that their author has fitly
been styled the "uncrowned poet laureate of Iowa." The title is
strengthened by two distinctively Iowa songs, one, "The Wild Rose of
Iowa," a tribute to our State Flower; the other entitled "Iowa," sung
to the air of "My Maryland."
One of Iowa's pioneer poets was signally honored by public insistence
that his "swan song" was the song of another and greater. In July,
1863, John L. McCreery, of Delhi, Iowa, published in _Arthur's Home
Magazine_ a poem entitled "There Is No Death." The poem went the
round of the press attributed to Bulwer Lytton. A newspaper
controversy followed, the result of which was that the Iowa poet was
generally awarded the palm of authorship. But error sometimes seems to
possess more vitality than truth! Every few years thereafter, the
McCreery poem would make another round of the press with Bulwer
Lytton's name attached! Finally, in response to urgent request, the
modest author published his story of the poem.
It is interesting to note the circumstances under which the first and
best stanza was conceived. The author was riding over the prairie on
horseback when night overtook him. Orion was "riding in triumph down
the western sky." The "subdued and tranquil radiance of the heavenly
host" imparted a hopeful tinge to his somber meditations on life and
death, and under the inspiration of the scene he composed the lines:
"There is no death; the stars go down
To rise upon some other shore;
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine forever more."
The next morning he wrote other stanzas, the last of which reads:
"And ever near us, though unseen,
The dear, immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
Is life--there are no dead."
One of the curiosities of literature is the fact that the substitution
of Bulwer's name for that of the author arose from the inclusion of
McCreery's poem (without credit) in an article on "Immortality" signed
by one "E. Bulmer." An exchange copied the poem with the name Bulmer
"corrected" to Bulwer--and thus it started on its rounds. As late as
1870, Harper's "Fifth Reader" credited the poem to Lord Lytton! The
Granger "Index to Poetry" (1904) duly credits it to the Iowa author.
It is interesting to recall, in passing, the fact that nowhere in or
out of the state is there to be found a copy of McCreery's little
volume of "Songs of Toil and Triumph," published by Putnam's Sons in
1883, the unsold copies of which the author says he bought, "thus
acquiring a library of several hundred volumes."
It seems to have been the fate of Iowa's pioneer poets to find their
verse attributed to others. So it was with Belle E. Smith's well-known
poem, "If I Should Die To-night." Under the reflex action of Ben
King's clever parody, it has been the habit of newspaper critics to
smile at Miss Smith's poem. But when we recall the fact that several
poets thought well enough of it to stake their reputation on it; and
that, in the course of its odyssey to all parts of the English-reading
world, it was variously attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, F. K.
Crosby, Robert C. V. Myers, Lucy Hooper, Letitia E. Landon, and
others, and that Rider Haggard used it, in a mutilated form, in
"Jess," leaving the reader to infer that it was part of his own
literary creation, may we not conclude that the verse is a real poem
worthy of its place in the anthologies? In the Granger Index (1904) it
is credited to Robert C. V. Myers,--the credit followed by the words:
"Attributed to Arabella E. Smith"!
If support of Miss Smith's unasserted but now indisputable claim to
the poem be desired, it can be found in Professor W. W. Gist's
contribution on the subject entitled "Is It Unconscious
Assimilation?"[2] Miss Smith--long a resident of Newton, Iowa, and
later a sojourner in California until her recent death--was of a
singularly retiring nature. She lived much within herself and thought
profoundly, as her poetical contributions to the _Midland Monthly_
reveal. In none of her other poems did she reveal herself quite as
clearly as in the poem under consideration. It is in four stanzas. In
the first is this fine line referring to her own face, calm in death:
"And deem that death had left it almost fair."
[2] Midland Monthly, March, 1894.
The poem concludes with the pathetic word to the living:
"Oh! friends, I pray to-night,
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow--
The way is lonely, let me feel them now.
Think gently of me; I am travel-worn;
My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn.
Forgive, O hearts estranged; forgive, I plead!
When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need
The tenderness for which I long to-night!"
I like to think of the veteran Tacitus Hussey, of Des Moines, as that
octogenarian with the heart of youth. This genial poet and quaint
philosopher made a substantial contribution to the century's output of
literature, a collection of poems of humor and sentiment entitled "The
River Bend and Other Poems." This author has contributed the words of
a song which is reasonably sure of immortality. I refer to "Iowa,
Beautiful Land," set to music by Congressman H. M. Towner. It fairly
sings itself into the melody.
"The corn-fields of billowy gold,
In Iowa, 'Beautiful Land,'
Are smiling with treasure untold,
In Iowa,'Beautiful Land.'"
The next stanza, though including one prosaic line, has taken on a new
poetic significance since the war-stricken nations of the old world
are turning to America for food. The stanza concludes:
"The food hope of nations is she--
With love overflowing and free
And her rivers which run to the sea,
In Iowa, 'Beautiful Land.'"
Among Iowans in middle-life and older, the name of Robert J. Burdette,
or "Bob" Burdette as he was familiarly called, brings vividly to mind
a genial, sunny little man from Burlington, who went about doing good,
making people forget their woes by accepting his philosophy--a simple
philosophy, that of looking upon the sunny side of life. The "Chimes
from a Jester's Bells" still ring in our ears, though the jester has
passed on.
Reference has been made to the pioneer magazine of Iowa, the
_Midland Monthly_, of Des Moines. As its eleven volumes include
the first contributions of a considerable number of Iowa authors who
have since become famous, this publication may be said to have
inaugurated an era of intellectual activity in Iowa. Its first number
contained an original story, "The Canada Thistle," by "Octave Thanet"
(Miss French), a group of poems by Hamlin Garland from advance proofs
of his "Prairie Songs," an original story by S. H. M. Byers, and other
inviting contributions.
Looking back over the Iowa field from the viewpoint of 1894, when the
_Iowa Magazine_ entered upon its short-lived career (1894-99), I
find, in addition to the authors and works already mentioned, a
nationally interesting episode of the John Brown raid, by Governor B.
F. Gue. Maud Meredith (Mrs. Dwight Smith), Calista Halsey Patchin and
Alice Ilgenfritz Jones, the three pioneer novelists of Iowa, were
among the magazine's contributors. In 1879, the Lippincotts published
"High-water Mark" by Mrs. Jones. In 1881 appeared Maud Meredith's
"Rivulet and Clover Blossoms," and two years later her "St. Julien's
Daughter." Mrs. Patchin's "Two of Us" appeared at about the same time.
Miss Alice French, "Octave Thanet" to the literary world, has been a
known quantity since 1887, when her fine group of short stories,
"Knitters in the Sun," put Iowa on the literary map. "Expiation," "We
All," a book for boys, "Stories of a Western Town" and "An Adventure
in Photography" followed. Miss French has continued to write novels
and short stories well on into the new century. In fact some of her
strongest creations bear the twentieth century stamp.
Hamlin Garland was also known and read by many as early as the
eighties. His, too, was the short-story route to fame, and Iowa was
his field. From his literary vantage ground in Boston, the young
author wrote in the guise of fiction his vivid memories of boy life
and the life of youth in northeastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin.
His "Main Traveled Roads," the first of many editions appearing in
1891, made him famous. Though the stories contained flashes of humor,
the dominant note was serious, as befitted the West in the Seventies
in which the author as boy and man struggled with adverse conditions.
But the joy of youth would rise superior to circumstance, as is
evidenced in the charming sketch of "Boy Life in the West."[3] I like
to recall the prose-poem with which it concludes:
[3] Midland Monthly, February, 1894.
"I wonder if, far out in Iowa, the boys are still playing 'Hi Spy'
around the straw-piles.... That runic chant, with its endless
repetitions, doubtless is heard on any moonlight night in far-off
Iowa. I wish I might join once more in the game--I fear I could not
enjoy 'Hi Spy' even were I invited to join. But I sigh with a curious
longing for something that was mine in those days on the snowy Iowa
plains. What was it? Was it sparkle of winter days? Was it stately
march of moon? Was it the presence of dear friends? Yes; all these and
more--it was Youth!"
Before the century closed, this transplanted Iowan had also written
"Jason Edwards," a story of Iowa politics, "Wayside Courtships,"
"Prairie Folks," "Spirit of Sweetwater," "Trail of the Gold-seekers,"
and scores of short stories first published in the magazines.
Mr. Garland's twentieth century output has been prolific of popular
novels and short stories. His latest book, "A Son of the Middle
Border," is pronounced by William Dean Howells a unique achievement
and ranking well up with the world's best autobiographies.
A new name associated with Iowa at the close of the last century was
that of Emerson Hough. "The Story of the Cowboy" (1897) can hardly be
classed as fiction, and yet it "reads like a romance." Mr. Hough, long
a roving correspondent of _Forest and Stream_, first tried "his
'prentice han'" as a story-writer in "Belle's Roses," a tense story of
army life on the plains.[4] This was followed by several promising
short stories and, in 1902, by "The Mississippi Bubble," a historical
romance of quality founded upon the adventurous career of John Law,
pioneer in the fields of frenzied finance. Three years later came his
"Heart's Desire," a beautiful love story of the Southwest. In 1907
appeared his "Way of a Man" and "Story of the Outlaw." Several other
novels have come from his facile pen. The most severely criticized and
best seller of the series is his "54-40 or Fight," a historical novel
based on the diplomatic controversy over Oregon in 1845-6. Mr. Hough
is the most successful alumnus of Iowa State University in the
difficult field of fiction.
[4] Midland Monthly, June-July, 1895.
Lingering over the index to the eleven volumes of Iowa's pioneer
magazine, I am tempted to mention in passing several other names that
stand out prominently in the memory of _Midland_ readers.
Mrs. Virginia H. Reichard contributed an interesting paper, "A Glimpse
of Arcadia." Mrs. Caroline M. Hawley gave a valuable illustrated paper
on "American Pottery." Mrs. Addie B. Billington, Mrs. Virginia K.
Berryhill, Mrs. Clara Adele Neidig, and other Iowans contributed to
the poetry in the magazine's columns. Hon. Jonathan P. Dolliver, Hon.
William B. Allison, Gen. James B. Weaver, and many other men prominent
in the public life of Iowa contributed articles of permanent value.
Mrs. Cora Bussey Hillis was the author of "Madame Deseree's Spirit
Rival." Editor Ingham, of the _Register_, then of Algona, Editor
Moorhead, then of Keokuk, now a Des Moines journalist, Minnie Stichter
(Mrs. C. J. Fulton of Fairfield), Mrs. Harriet C. Towner, of Corning,
Charles Eugene Banks, born in Clinton County, now a prominent
journalist and _litterateur_ in Seattle, Dr. J. Foster Bain, then
assistant state geologist, now a resident of London, and one of the
world's most famous consulting geologists, Barthinius L. Wick, of
Cedar Rapids, a voluminous historiographer, are among the many who,
during the last five years of the old century, did their bit toward
putting Iowa on the literary map.
Irving Berdine Richman, of Muscatine, had already written "Appenzell,"
a study of the Swiss, with whom, as consul-general, he had lived for
several years. His _Midland_ sketch, "The Battle of the Stoss," was
followed by a little volume, "John Brown Among the Quakers, and Other
Sketches." But the two great historical works to which he gave years
of enthusiastic research were not published until well on in the
twentieth century. The first of these, "Rhode Island; a Study of
Separation," was honored with an introduction by John Bryce. It was so
well received that the "study" was amplified into a two-volume work,
"Rhode Island; Its Making and Meaning." The second, a work compelling
years of research in old Mexico and Spain, is entitled "California
Under Spain and Mexico." These alone give the Iowa historian an
enviable world-reputation.