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"THAT DEAR OLD DOUBLE HOUSE."[frontispiece.]STANZA DLXXVII.
AMERICAN BOYHOOD.
BYHORACE P. BIDDLE.
"It is opportune to look back upon old times and contemplate our forefathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched from the past world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity comes at long strides upon us."--SIR THOMAS BROWNE.
PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1881.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by J..B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
page: [5][View Page [5]]DEDICATION.
TO THE MEMORY
OF THE LATE
THOMAS EWING,
OF OHIO, WHO WAS
A NOBLE SPECIMEN OF AMERICAN BOYHOOD,
AND THE
GREATEST SELF-MADE MAN OF HIS
TIME,
THIS POEM IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED
BY ONE WHO REVERED THE SAGE AND LOVED
THE MAN.
THE AUTHOR.
page: [6][View Page [6]] page: 7[View Page 7]PREFACE.
THE following poem is an attempt to portray American Boyhood, with its surroundings, as it was in the early part of the nineteenth century. It is mainly a picture of country boyhood, because the boyhood of our great cities is more or less exceptional. The muscle, brain, health, and vigor of the nation have been, and must ever be, principally supplied from the great country. Besides, it is the country, and not the city, which forms the character of every free people. It is an effort to represent National Boyhood--the boyhood of all sections and of every class-- blended into the unity--AMERICAN.
If some of the scenes described appear homely to the present generation, they will be better able to appreciate the advantages they enjoy compared with those possessed by their ancestors, who laid the foundation of their prosperity. But it is difficult, indeed quite impossible, for the present inhabitants, with the privileges they enjoy, to realize the privations endured by the early settlers.
The descriptions in the poem are all taken from real and many of them are actual pictures, which, if page: 8[View Page 8] not sketched soon by some one, must evidently be lost forever.
Incidentally the author sings of our heroes, statesmen, sages, philosophers, poets; of our fathers and mothers,-- their trials and struggles, their truth and devotion; of the loves of their sons and daughters,--our brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors; of freedom and the rights of the human race.
page: 9[View Page 9]TO THE READER.
- THESE flowers may perish on my tomb,
- And frosts may kill the vine,
- Yet they again will spring and bloom
- For other hands to twine;
- Or, borne away to other climes,
- They there may live again,
- To flourish in far distant times,
- And bear along the strain!
- I throw the garland on the stream,
- And trust to other days;
- The leaves may die, and yet the theme
- Will bloom in other bays;
- But should it wither by the way,
- Or perish on the wave,
- Then bring the faded wreath and lay
- It gently on my grave!
CONTENTS.
- PROEM. 15
- HOME AND PARENTS 18
- CHILDHOOD AND AGE 23
- PIONEERS AND CABINS 30
- HOMESTEADS AND SOCIAL LIFE. 63
- PURSUITS AND AMUSEMENTS 76
- HOUSEHOLDS AND INDUSTRY 92
- SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 112
- CHURCHES AND MINISTERS 128
- MILLS AND DISTILLERIES 135
- ARTISANS AND PROFESSIONS 142
- PROSPERITY AND HOSPITALITY 157
- TOWN AND COUNTRY 172
- THE CONTINENT AND ITS RESOURCES 183
- REMINISCENCES AND CONCLUSION 194
- NOTES 205
