Massachusetts, a full list of state officers and a legislature were
chosen. Governor Robinson was elected for the third time, and all the
other members of the Republican ticket were chosen,--it being a
re-election for each one, excepting Alanson W. Beard, who succeeds D. A.
Gleason as Treasurer.
* * * * *
The name of the West Roxbury Park, in the city of Boston, has been
changed to the Franklin Park, and a fund established by Dr. Franklin
applied to its purchase. In 1791 he left to the city L1,000 which was to
accumulate for one hundred years, when L100,000 was to be appropriated
for some public object, and the balance to accumulate for another
century. The amount specified will not be realized, however, in 1891, as
the fund will then reach only about $350,000.
* * * * *
December 8.--Elections were held in thirteen Massachusetts cities. The
Mayors elected are as follows: Chelsea, Mayor Endicott, re-elected;
Somerville, Mayor Burns, re-elected; Cambridge, Mayor Russell,
re-elected; Brockton, John J. Whipple; Salem, John M. Raymond;
Gloucester, Mayor Parsons, re-elected; Haverhill, C. H. Weeks; Lowell,
J. C. Abbott; Lawrence, A. B. Bruce; Taunton, R. H. Hall; Fall River, W.
S. Greene; Springfield, E. D. Metcalf; Newton, D. H. Kimball.
FOOTNOTES:
[E] This department hereafter will be made much more complete, and will
cover all of the New England States.
NECROLOGY.
November 21.--The death occurred of Hon. Elizur Wright, a well-known
Massachusetts man, and a resident of Medford. Mr. Wright was born in
South Canaan, Conn., February 12, 1804, and graduated at Yale, in 1826.
In his early life he was a teacher, from 1829 to 1833 being Professor of
Mathematics in Western Reserve College. He became in 1833 Secretary of
the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York. In 1838 he came to
Boston, and for twenty years was actively engaged in editorial work,
taking a stand as a most pronounced abolitionist. Since then he has been
Insurance Commissioner or Actuary for the State till the time of his
death. Mr. Wright has been an earnest advocate of the project for
converting the "Middlesex Fells" into a park in later years. He was
always an earnest, active man.
LITERATURE AND ART.
For more than twenty-five years the public has been familiar with the
products of the skill and genius of John Rogers, in which he has
illustrated a variety of social, domestic, literary, and political
subjects. During the War of the Rebellion, when the hearts of the people
were quickly reached by anything that brought vividly before them the
scenes of soldier life or the experiences of the "brave boys in blue,"
the artist won his way to a wide circle of admirers by his stirring
representations of those scenes and experiences. His illustrations of
Rip Van Winkle touched another chord in the public heart and increased
the number and the enthusiasm of those who acknowledge the charm of his
rare and facile power. He has produced three groups illustrative of
scenes in Shakespeare, of which the latest, representing the interview
between King Lear and Cordelia,[F] described in Act IV. Scene VII., is
one of his best. The king had discarded and banished Cordelia, and
divided his kingdom between his other two daughters; but their
ingratitude and ill-treatment had driven him crazy. He had been brought
in and laid on a couch by his old friend Kent,--who is disguised as a
servant,--and the doctor. Cordelia, who still loves him truly and
tenderly, tries to recall herself to his wandering mind. The whole group
is conceived with remarkable power and truthfulness, and in it nothing
is more noteworthy than the expression of filial love and sorrow on the
face of the daughter. This group will both sustain and increase the
artist's well-won reputation as an interpreter of life and its
experiences.
* * * * *
The first two or three books of "Charles Egbert Craddock" secured to
their author a most enviable literary reputation, and the writer's
latest book[G] will be regarded with no less interest because it is now
known that "Mr. Craddock" is Miss Mary Murfree. As in her other works,
the book before us deals with the peculiar characteristics of life in
the mountains of Tennessee, and is largely in the dialect of that
region. Her rendering of this dialect has been strongly criticised by
some, but we do not know who can be better authority than Miss Murfree
herself, who has spent years among the people, engaged in careful and
intelligent observation and study.
The _Prophet_ is eminently a readable book, and is charming to those who
like stories in dialect. The Prophet, which one would expect to be a
very strong character, is not brought out to such a degree as the
writer, it would seem, could have easily done; but there are many word
pictures which will long remain vivid in the reader's memory. We think
Miss Murfree's literary reputation will be still further enhanced by the
_Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains_, and the book may be wisely
selected for reading, even by those who take time for only a very few
stories.
* * * * *
_Princes, Authors and Statesmen_,[H] edited by James Parton, is a
collection of very entertaining sketches of noted persons, written, for
the most part, by relatives, personal friends or others who have known
them under favorable circumstances. The habits and demeanors of eminent
persons are always matters of curiosity and interest to the general
public, and this book contains abundant material which will gratify just
this harmless instinct, and yet there is no violation of that privacy
which always ought to be observed. The volume contains "Dickens with his
Children," by Miss Mamie Dickens; "Reminiscences of Arthur Penrhyn
Stanley," by Canon Farrar; "Victor Hugo at Home," by his secretary, M.
Lesclide; and valuable chapters on Emerson, Longfellow, Gladstone,
Disraeli, Thackeray, Macaulay and many other authors, besides emperors,
kings and princes. The illustrations are numerous, and include many
scenes of places and excellent portraits.
* * * * *
In no department of publishing has there been a greater advance than in
the production of juvenile literature. Not many years ago there were
very few really appropriate books for children published, and hardly
anything in the way of periodical literature of a high standard for
young folks. To supply a long felt need, Harper & Brothers began a few
years ago to publish a weekly magazine for children, employing in its
production not only the best writers but the best artists to be found.
The year's numbers up to November last, make a bound volume[I] of more
than eight hundred pages of choicest juvenile reading, all crowded with
beautiful illustrations, about 700 in number, and many of them gems of
art. It would hardly seem possible to praise such a book too much. It is
a storehouse of pleasure which may well delight any intelligent boy or
girl.
* * * * *
The art of sculpture is commanding the interest of a steadily growing
class outside the practical workers with the chisel, or the professional
critics. Clara Erskine Clement's new book[J] is on the plan of her
"Outline History of Painting." For beginners in the sculptor's art, it
is an admirable text-book, which must be welcomed by all in that class,
while to the amateur, or the mere admirer of the art, it is a very
pleasing and instructive book. It presents the salient facts about
sculptors and their works from the earliest times, and the reader is
given a large amount of help in the illustrations, which represent
specimens of the art in every age and of every school.
* * * * *
Mr. Hamerton's _Paris_[K] is a work which is sure to attract attention,
to be read, and to be highly prized. The author's long residence in the
great French metropolis has given him rare opportunities for this work,
and he has given us the result of painstaking research in every quarter
of the city. The author has made special reference to changes in the
architecture and topography of Paris, and the book contains a large
amount of matter of antiquarian value. The illustrations, of which there
are many, are mostly simple outline sketches, or in the etching style,
relating to architectural forms, and well serve their purpose.
* * * * *
Lovers of the quaint and curious in art, science, and literature have
formed a pleasing acquaintance with _Notes and Queries_,[L] which has
reached its forty-second number. The latest issue (December, 1885),
which closes the second volume, contains a full and carefully prepared
index to the entire work, which was begun in July, 1882. This magazine
abounds in information concerning matters not usually treated of in more
formal and pretentious works, and well deserves a cordial support from
an inquiring public.
* * * * *
For the best quality of American humor it is pretty well settled that
the popular weekly paper _Life_ is not equalled by any of its
contemporaries. From the fifty-two numbers of the last twelve months the
best of the humorous designs have been selected and bound into a
handsome quarto volume.[M] Pen and pencil combine in making its pages
laughable, and there are many incisive thrusts at the weak spots in
society, but without coarseness or vulgarity.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] King Lear and Cordelia. Roger Groups of Statuary. New York: John
Rogers.
[G] The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains. By Charles Egbert
Craddock, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
[H] Some Noted Princes, Authors and Statesmen of Our Time. Edited by
James Parton. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
[I] Harper's Young People, Volume VI. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price
$3.50.
[J] An Outline History of Sculpture. By Clara Erskine Clement. New York:
White, Stokes & Allen.
[K] Paris, in Old and Present Times. By Philip Gilbert Hamerton. Boston:
Roberts Brothers.
[L] Miscellaneous Notes and Queries, with Answers in all Departments of
Literature. One Dollar a year. S. C. & L. M. Gould, Manchester, N. H.
[M] The Good Things of _Life_. Second Series. New York: White, Stokes &
Allen.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
ANSWERS.
4.--A good account of the "Know-Nothings" is to be found in the
"Magazine of American History," Vol. 13, p. 202, in article "Political
Americanisms," by Charles Ledyard Norton.
6.--That antiquarian scholar, Samuel Gardner Drake, made an exhaustive
study of the Massachusetts Indians, which is embodied principally in his
"Book of the Indians," the "Old Indian Chronicle" and the "Particular
History of the Five Years' French and Indian War." Much Indian history
is also given in notes, introductions, and appendices, in his editions
of Church's and Mather's "King Philip's War," and Mather's "Early
History of New England."
7.--There is no extended biography of Robert Rantoul, Jr., but sketches
of him may be found in the "North American Review," Vol. 78, p. 237, and
the "Democratic Review," Vol. 27, p. 348; the latter containing a
portrait.
3.--A lady thoroughly identified with the Anti-Slavery cause, and
abundantly able to answer the query "Who was the first American woman to
publicly espouse the cause of Anti-Slavery," writes as follows in
response to a request for her opinion:--
The question is on some accounts rather a difficult question to
answer, as I do not quite understand its intent. You doubtless
know that until the Anti-Slavery movement and some time after,
no woman, except those of the Society of Friends, ever spoke or
even prayed in public. If women wished to show their interest
on any question, it was in societies and meetings exclusively
for women. And this was the case with the Anti-Slavery women.
Women's Societies were very early organized, and a great many
women were active in them.
But I suppose the question relates to the women who addressed
_mixed_ audiences of men and women.
At the convention held in Philadelphia, 1833, to form the
National Anti-Slavery Society, all the delegates were men, but
a large number of women were present, and Lucretia Mott, who
was a minister of the Friends' Society, and consequently was
used to speaking to both sexes in Friends' meetings, spoke at
the convention, but did not make any formal address. Several
other women, also "Friends," spoke; and several years after,
Samuel J. May, in speaking about it, said he was ashamed to say
that though the convention passed a vote of thanks to the women
for their interest, no one thought of asking any of them, not
even Lucretia Mott or Mary Grew, to sign the "Declaration of
Sentiments." I think the first women, undoubtedly, who
addressed a _mixed_ audience of men and women of _all_
denominations were Angela Grimke, afterwards married to
Theodore D. Weld, and her sister Sarah M. Grimke. Being
Southerners, and having been slaveholders, being allied to the
best families of Charleston, S. C., their knowledge was
considered authentic, and a great interest was shown to hear
them. They too began by addressing meetings of women, but when
they spoke in Boston, in 1837, so great was the desire of the
_men_ to hear them, that they were persuaded to hold public
meetings of both sexes. I well remember the crowded audiences
which listened to them with rapt attention.
One can judge somewhat of the interest they excited from the
fact that, at a time when no large halls or churches could be
obtained for any kind of an Anti-Slavery meeting, the "Odeon,"
at the corner of Federal and Franklin Streets, then the largest
and most popular hall in Boston, was obtained for a course of
five lectures by these ladies, and was filled every evening by
a dense crowd. Angelina was the finer speaker and gave three
lectures out of the five. This was the only time the Odeon was
ever opened to Anti-Slavery. They were members of the Friends'
Society, which undoubtedly prevented them from embarrassment in
addressing mixed audiences.
Wendell Phillips says of them, "No man who remembers 1837 and
its lowering clouds, will deny that there was hardly any
contribution to the Anti-Slavery movement greater or more
impressive than the crusade of these Grimke sisters from South
Carolina, through the New England States."
You see my answer to the question would be emphatically
_Angelina and Sarah M. Grimke_.
Very truly,
SARAH H. SOUTHWICK.
WELLESLEY, Mass.
PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT.
The Publishers and Editors of THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, in compliance with
urgent suggestions from many friends, and in the belief that its
interests will be in every way promoted by the change, have decided to
enlarge the scope of the Magazine so as to include in its plans not only
the "Bay State" but _all_ of its sisters in the historical New England
group.
THE NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE will, therefore, aim to become a treasury of
information relating to matters of special interest to citizens of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and
Maine, and to be of incalculable value as an authoritative _recorder_
and medium of interchange and information for all Libraries and
Historical Societies especially, and for all history and literary loving
people generally.
Especial attention will be given to the features which have made the Bay
State Monthly so acceptable, and NEW features will be introduced which
it is believed will add greatly to the interest and value of forthcoming
numbers.
[Illustration: MADAM SARAH ABBOT.
FOUNDER OF ABBOT ACADEMY, ANDOVER.
_From the original portrait in the possession of the Academy, supposed
to have been painted by T. Buchanan Read._]