RECOLLECTIONS
OF A VARIED LIFE
BYGEORGE CARY EGGLESTON
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Published March, 1910
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MARION MY WIFE
I DEDICATE THESE RECOLLECTIONS
OF A LIFE THAT SHE HAS LOYALLY
SHARED,
ENCOURAGED, AND INSPIRED
CONTENTS
- I. Introductory 1
- II. The Country as I First Knew It--Intensity of Its Americanism--The Lure of New Orleans 2
- III. Provincialism--A Travel Center--Road Conditions--Mails--The Estrangement of Communities and Other Isolating Conditions 4
- IV. The Composite West--Dialect--The Intellectual Class 7
- V. The Sturdy Kentuckians and Their Influence 9
- VI. A Poor Boy's Career 13
- VII. "Shooting Stock" 14
- VIII. A Limitless Hospitality 16
- IX. Industrial Independence and Thrift 18
- X. Early Railroads--A Precocious Skeptic--Religious Restriction of Culture 20
- XI. Culture by Stealth 24
- XII. Civilization on Wheels 26
- XIII. A Breakfast Revolution 28
- XIV. A Bathroom Episode 30
- XV. Western School Methods 32
- XVI. "The Hoosier Schoolmaster"--A Bit of Literary History 34
- XVII. The Biggest Boy--A Vigorous Volunteer Monitor--Charley Grebe 38
- XVIII. What's in a Name? 42
- XIX. A Buttermilk Poet 43
- XX. Removal to Virginia--Impressions of Life There--The Contradiction of the Critics in Their Creative Incredulity 45
- XXI. The Virginian Life 48
- XXII. The Virginian Attitude Toward Money--Parson J's--Checks--The Charm of Leisureliness 49
- XXIII. The Courtesy of the Virginians--Sex and Education--Reading Habits--Virginia Women's Voices 55
- XXIV. The Story of the West Wing--A Challenge to the Ghosts--The Yellow-Gray Light--And Breakfast 60
- XXV. Authors in Richmond--G. P. R. James, John Esten Cooke, Mrs. Mowatt Ritchie, John R. Thompson, etc.--John Esten Cooke, Gentleman--How Jeb Stuart Made Him a Major 66
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- XXVI. The Old Life in the Old Dominion and the New--An Old Fogy's Doubts and Questionings 72
- XXVII. Under Jeb Stuart's Command--The Legend of the Mamelukes--The Life of the Cavaliers--Tristram Shandy Does Bible Duty--The Delights of the War Game and the Inspiration of It 76
- XXVIII. Fitz Lee and an Adventure--A Friendly Old Foe 81
- XXIX. Pestilence 86
- XXX. Left Behind--A Gratuitous Law Practice Under Difficulties--The Story of Tom Collins--A Death-Bed Repentance and Its Prompt Recall 87
- XXXI. Sharp-Shooter Service--Mortar Service at Petersburg--The Outcome of a Strange Story 93
- XXXII. The Beginning of Newspaper Life--Theodore Tilton and Charles F. Briggs 99
- XXXIII. Theodore Tilton 107
- XXXIV. Further Reminiscences of Tilton 111
- XXXV. The Tilton-Beecher Controversy--A Story as Yet Untold 115
- XXXVI. My First Libel Suit 116
- XXXVII. Libel Suit Experiences--The Queerest of Libel Suits--John Y. McKane's Case 119
- XXXVIII. Early Newspaper Experiences--Two Interviews with President Grant--Grant's Method 123
- XXXIX. Charlton T. Lewis 129
- XL. Hearth and Home--Mary Mapes Dodge--Frank R. Stockton--A Whimsical View of Plagiary 131
- XLI. Some Plagiarists I Have Known--A Peculiar Case of Plagiary--A Borrower from Stedman 139
- XLII. The "Hoosier Schoolmaster's" Influence--Hearth and Home Friendships and Literary Acquaintance--My First Book--Mr. Howells and " A Rebel's Recollections"--My First After-Dinner Speech--Mr. Howells, Mark Twain, and Mr. Sanborn to the Rescue 145
- XLIII. A Novelist by Accident--"A Man of Honor" and the Plagiarists of Its Title--A "Warlock" on the Warpath and a Lot of Fun Lost 151
- XLIV. John Hay and the Pike County Ballads--His Own Story of Them and of Incidents Connected with Them 157
- XLV. A Disappointed Author--George Ripley's Collection of Applications for His Discharge--Joe Harper's Masterpiece--Manuscripts and Their Authors--Mr. George P. Putnam's Story 166
- XLVI. Joaquin Miller--Dress Reform la Stedman 172
- XLVII. Beginnings of Newspaper Illustration--Accident's Part in the Literary Life--My First Boys' Book--How One Thing Leads to Another 179
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- XLVIII. The First Time I Was Ever Robbed--The Evening Post Under Mr. Bryant--An Old Fashioned Newspaperits Distinguished Outside StaffIts Regard for Literature--Newspaper Literary Criticism and the Critics of That Time--Thomas Bailey Aldrich's Idea of New York as a Place of Residence--My Own Appointment and the Strange Manner of It 186
- XLIX. A Study of Mr. Bryant--The Irving Incident 194
- L. Mr. Bryant's Tenderness Towards Poets--A Cover Commendation--How I Grieved a Poet--Anonymous Literary Criticism 199
- LI. A Thrifty Poet's Plan--Mr. Bryant and the Poe Article--The Longfellow Incident--The Tupper Embarrassment 205
- LII. Mr Bryant's Index Expurgatorius--An Effective Blunder in English--Mr. Bryant's Dignified Democracy--Mr. Cleveland's Coarser Method--Mr. Bryant and British Snobbery 209
- LIII. The Newspaper Critic's Function--A Literary News "Beat"--Mr. Bryant and Contemporary Poets--Concerning Genius--The True Story of "Thanatopsis" 217
- LIV. An Extraordinary Case of Heterophemy--The Demolition of a Critic 222
- LV. Parke Godwin--" A Lion in a Den of Daniels"--The Literary Shop Again--Literary Piracy--British and American 227
- LVI. The Way of Washington Officials--A Historical Discovery--A Period Out of Place--A Futile Effort to Make Peace--The "Intelligent Compositor" at His Worst--Loring Pacha--War Correspondents--The Tourist Correspondent--Loring's Story of Experience 234
- LVII. "A Stranded Gold Bug"--Results of a Bit of Humor 247
- LVIII. Mrs. Custer's "Boots and Saddles"--The Success and Failure of Books 252
- LIX. Letters of Introduction--The Disappointment of Lily Browneyes--Mark Twain's Method--Some Dangerous Letters of Introduction--Moses and My Green Spectacles 255
- LX. English Literary Visitors--Mr. Edmund Gosse's Visit--His Amusing Misconceptions--A Question of Provincialism--A Literary Vandal 265
- LXI. The Founding of the Authors' Club--Reminiscences of Early Club Life--John Hay and Edwin Booth on Dime Novels 272
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- LXII. The Authors Club--Its Ways and Its Work--Watch-Night Frolics--Max O'Rell and Mark Twain--The Reckless Injustice of the Humorists--Bishop Potter's Opinion--The Club's Contribution of Statesmen and Diplomats--The Delight of the Authors Club "After the Authors Have Gone Home"--" Liber Scriptorum," the Club's Successful Publishing Venture 277
- LXIII. In Newspaper Life Again--Editing the Commercial Advertiser--John Bigelow's Discouraging Opinion--Henry Marquand and Some of My Brilliant "Cubs"--Men Who Have Made Place and Name for Themselves--The Dread Task of the Editor-in-Chief--Yachting with Marquand and the Men I Met on Deck--Parke Godwin--Recollections of a Great and Good Man--A Mystery of Forgetting 286
- LXIV. Newspapers Then and Now--The Pulitzer Revolution--The Lure of the World--A Little Dinner to James R. Osgood 300
- LXV. Service on the World--John A. Cockerill--An Editorial Perplexity--Editorial Emergencies--In Praise of the Printers--Don Piatt--" A Syndicate of Blackguards"--An Unmeant Crime 307
- LXVI. First Acquaintance with Joseph Pulitzer--His Hospitality, Courtesy, Kindliness, and Generosity--His Intellectual Methods--The Maynard Case--Bryan's Message and Mr. Pulitzer's Answer--Extraordinary Political Foresight 319
- LXVII. A Napoleonic Conception--A Challenge to the Government--The Power of the Press 327
- LXVIII. Recollections of Carl Schurz 333
- LXIX. The End of Newspaper Life 337
- LXX. My Working Ways--Extemporary Writing--The Strange Perversity of the People in Fiction--The Novelist's Sorest Perplexity--Working Hours and Working Ways--My Two Rules as to Literary Style 339
