FEINBERG/WHITMAN LITERARY FILE POETRY FILE "Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's" (Feb. 1890). Printed copy. Box 28 Folder 9[*VOL XXXIX FEBRUARY,1890 N°.4*] THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE MIDWINTER.NUMBER FEBRUARY 1890 Vodder [Bobbett] THE CENTURY.CO.UNION. SQUARE.NEW.YORK T.FISHER UNWIN.PATERNOSTER:S a LONDON. [*Copyright, 1890, by The Century Co.] (Trade-Mark Registered Oct. 18th, 1881.) [Entered at N. Y. Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter*][*[The entire contents of this Magazine are covered by the general copyright, and articles must not be reprinted without special permission.]*] THE CENTURY MAGAZINE. CONTENTS FOR FEBRUARY, 1890. Ralph Waldo Emerson about 185……………………………………………………………………………Frontispiece An Artist's Letters from Japan………………………John La Farge…………………………………………………..483 With pictures by the author Thought...………………………………………………………...Richard Henry Stoddard...…………………………….491 The Old Band...………………………………...…………….James Whitcomb Riley...………………………………..492 With pictures by E. W. Kemble The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson ..............................Joseph Jefferson ...........................494 With four portraits of Edwin Forrest. Washington and Montana. Have they made a Mistake in their Constitutions?................................... Francis Newton Thorpe..........................................504 Blomidon...................................................Charles G. D. Roberts...............................................508 Friend Olivia. IV .................................................Amelia E. Barr..................................................509 The Poems of Emma Lazarus..............................Margaret Crosby.............................................522 Laramie Jack........................................................A. a. Hayes.....................................................523 With pictures by Allan C. Redwood. Lucina..........................................................Edith M. Thomas....................................................531 The Nature and Method of Revelation. III....................Prof. George P. Fisher............................532 To Youth.................................................................Orelia Key Bell.............................................542 The "Merry Chanter".........................................Frank R. Stockton.............................................543 With pictures by C. D. Gibson. Old Age's Ship and Crafty Death's.....................................Walt Whitman..................................553 A Side Light on Greek Art.....................................Charles de Kay...............................................554 With pictures of terra-cotta groups. Abraham Lincoln: The Capture of Jefferson Davis; The End of Rebellion; Lincoln's Fame.................................John G. Nicolay, John Hay…………………………..561 With a picture of the Review of the Union Troops at the Close of the War. Abraham Lincoln: I. The Life Mask...............................................................Stuart Sterne......................................578 II. The Cenotaph..........................................James T. McKay......................................................578 How Sal Came Through.....................................................H. S. Edwards....................................578 With pictures by E. W. Kemble. Smiles and Tears..................................................................A. W. R...........................................585 Pursuit and Capture of Jefferson Davis..............Gen. James Harrison Wilson............................586 With a facsimile of a poster. William P. Stedman.............................................594 A Corner of Old Paris...................................................Elizabeth Balch.......................................597 With eighteen facsimiles, portraits, etc. "The Realm of Congo": I. By the Commissioner of the U. S. ....................................W. P. Tisdel.............................609 II. By One of Stanley's Former Officers................................E. J. Glave..................................618 With pictures by F. H. Lungren from photographs. Emerson's Talks with a College Boy..................................Charles J. Woodbury.........................621 With a frontispiece portrait. The Merit System versus The Patronage System......................Theodore Roosevelt...……....628 TOPICS OF THE TIME. Further Electoral Reform ……………………………………....633 The Fire-Risk....................................634 The New President of Columbia College....................................................................................635 OPEN LETTERS. Was Swedenborg Insane?................................................................T. F. Wright, J. M. Buckley...…..636 Base-Ball and Rounders................................V. C. Webb, Walter Camp....................................636 "The Newness"....................George S. Burleigh The New Croton Aqueduct.............................637 An Anecdote of Jefferson Davis...........................Carlisle Terry, M.D.........................................638 Comments on "Abraham Lincoln: A History".............................................................................638 BRIC-À-BRAC. A Valentine............................................Clinton Scollard...........................................................640 My Grandmother's Turkey-tail Fan......................Samuel Minturn Peck....................................640 "By de Massysippi Sho".......................Virginia Frazer Boyle......................................................640 Trady Wit...............................................J. A. Macon..................................................................640 [*Terms:-$4.00 a year in advance; 35 cents a number. Bound volumes (containing the numbers for six months) in old gold or green cloth, gilt top, each $3.00, or without gift top, $2.75. The same in half-russia, gilt top, $4.00. Booksellers and Postmasters receive subscriptions. Subscribers may remit to us in P. O. or express money orders, or in bank checks, drafts, or registered letters. Money in letters is at senders's risk. Back numbers will be exchanged, if in good condition, for corresponding bound volumes in gold cloth, with gift top, for $1.00 per volume (six numbers); half-russia for $2.25; olive-green cloth, plain top, 75 cents each; subscribers paying charges both ways. Postage on THE CENTURY volumes, 35 cents. All numbers sent for binding should be marked with owner's name. We cannot bind or exchange copies the edges of which have been trimmed by machine. Cloth covers for binding THE CENTURY, 50 cents. Leather backs and corners, for binding in half-russia, 65 cents. ROSWELL SMITH, Prest FRANK H. SCOTT, Treas. CHAS. F. CHICHESTER. Ass't Treas. WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH, Secy. THE CENTURY CO. 33 East 17th Street (Union Square), New-York, N. Y.*] OLD AGE'S SHIP AND CRAFTY DEATH'S 553 "I DON'T KNOW THAT IT'S MY PLACE TO GIVE ADVICE." "You' re too modest," said Doris. Shortly after this the butcher took the opportunity to speak to me privately. "If I were to marry that young woman who's left us," said he, "and she was on board this ship, and worrying and hankering to start for Boston, it strikes me I would tell her all about the sand bank and the barnacles and the seventy cart-loads of paving stones in the hold." I looked at him severely. "But you are not married to her," I said; "and not being married, you do not know what a married person should say to the person to whom he is married." To this the butcher made no reply. (To be concluded in the next number.) Frank R. Stockton. OLD AGE'S SHIP AND CRAFTY DEATH'S. From east and west across the horizon's edge, Two mighty masterful vessels, sailers, steal upon us: But we'll make race a-time upon the seas—a battle-contest yet! bear lively there! (Our joys of strife and derring-do to the last!) Put on the old ship all her power to-day! Crowd extra top-gallants and royal studding-sails! Out challenge and defiance—flags and flaunting pennants added, As we take to the open—take to the deepest, freest waters. Walt Whitman. Vol. XXXIX.—77A SIDE LIGHT ON GREEK ART. SOME OF THE NEWLY DISCOVERED TERRA COTTAS. VOLUMINOUS Pliny caught in the drag-net of his natural history the legend of the maid of Corinth who drew a line along the shadow on the wall made by her lover's profile, so that she might have something to remember him by when he was sailing the Ægean. She was the daughter of an early potter, and found her father sympathetic. Availing himself of his skill in modeling the decorations of pots, the kind man fashioned the features of the absent lover on the outline in relief, and placed the clay in his kiln to bake. Down to the time that Mummius took Corinth whosoever doubted the story was taken to the Nympheum and shown the terra cotta itself. The pretty tale recurs to memory while examining groups and single figurines of terra cotta which have been appearing in Paris one by one since 1878 after a somewhat mysterious fashion. The point that strikes one first on turning over a specimen is the unfinished state of the back, which argues that these fragile creations were meant to be seen from one side only. A hole that is commonly found in the roughly finished rear suggests that they were hung against a wall on a peg, like many pieces of Japanese earthenware. The portrait modeled by Dibutades for his daughter offers a sufficiently appropriate beginning for the art. It savors of home and happy loves, while the terra cottas that are now coming into favor belong to the same department. They are often cracked, and sometimes the mending has hurt them further, because attempts have been made to conceal the breaks. They are also, when untampered with, covered with the finely powdered remains of a suit of paint, so that we may place them with those gaudy figurines that are sold in Europe to-day at country fairs. They were meant to stand on shelf or in niche, if not to be suspended on a peg; sometimes they are arranged for both. In fine we have in them examples of the objects that Greeks of all ages saw about them in their small houses, placed in their shrines, gave to one another as presents, and offered to the ashes of their loved ones in the tomb. Humble as the purposes of these statuettes may have been, they occupy a very serious office now, if we desire to embrace the general view of Greek art. Their beauty, variety, and archeological interest make them indispensable to any one who wishes to understand how intimate in the populace was the blending of a taste for lovely forms with the legends that offered chances for the expression of shapes in a plastic way. They throw a side light on Greek art that was much needed, notwithstanding the engravings on mirrors for women, the paintings on vases, the bas-reliefs of tombs, and all the other works that may be classed among the minor productions of Greek artists. Within the twelvemonth a pediment has been unearthed at Athens which offers an example of what we may consider the first step in the evolution of these charming pieces of popular sculpture. It is decorated with painting alone, and that without human figures. The groups in terra cotta, which have been appearing from Greece during the last ten years, seem to attach themselves to statuary for the pediments of temples by their general outline, their one-sidedness, and the nature of the subjects they commonly represent. Suppose we regard them as popular editions of works by masters, suited, by the material in which they are fashioned and the methods used to fashion them, to the slender purses of the people. Southern Italy and Sicily yielded terra cottas that did somewhat to hint the existence in other parts of the Greek world of a popular decorative art taking rank below the restful creations of the old masters. But at Tanagra figures of baked clay have been found which were plainly the embellishment of the two triangular spaces over the two entrances to a small temple, representing Pluto and Theseus seizing each his bride. They were cast in a mold, not modeled on a core, and resembled the figurines in having the backs rude. Some were in comparatively low relief; but others, like the horses of Theseus and Pluto, were boldly projected from the centers of the pediments. The male and female figures appear to have been fastened by their flat backs to the wall, and are so arrangeable that the largest hold the middle and the stooping or smaller figures occupy the narrowing angles. In them we have the connecting link between the painted decoration of pediments and the sculptures in marble occupying the same place in the highest state of Greek art. 554