IRWIN RUSSELL

Irwin Russell was born in Port Gibson, Mississippi, June 3, 1853. When he was but three months old he endured an attack of yellow fever which left him with a frail constitution.

Dr. Russell moved this same year to St. Louis, and in the schools of that city Irwin was prepared for college. He entered the collegiate department of the St. Louis University, and in 1869 completed the commercial course extending through four years, the Russells having long before returned to Mississippi to throw in their lot with the South in the impending struggle.

Irwin immediately began the study of law, and under an act of legislature was admitted, though a minor, to the bar, September 11, 1873, as the minutes of the Circuit Court, Claiborne County, show. The young lawyer became proficient as a conveyancer, but never had a case in court, for his interests were steadily turning to literature. He had early grown fond of music, becoming a remarkably skilful performer on the banjo. He wrote much for the local paper and for the pleasure of his personal friends.

January, 1876, his first contribution to Scribner's Monthly appeared. Most of his work was published in that journal, but he wrote for Puck and for Appleton's Journal also. In December, 1878, with gripsack

full of literary wares, the young poet went to New York City, full of hope. He was stricken down and endured a season of sickness which had as its only redeeming feature the fact that such men as R. W. Gilder and H. C. Bunner were drawn in friendship to him.

When he recovered, he returned to New Orleans and spent several months in poverty, sorrow, and distress. His father having died, his mother and sisters had moved to. California and did not know of his trials. He died December 23, 1879, and lies buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St, Louis.

APPRECIATIONS

"Irwin Russell will always hold a place in the roll of literary genius."

- R. W. GILder.

"Personally I owe much to him. It was the light of his genius shining through his dialect poems — first of dialect poems then and still first — that led my feet in the direction I have since tried to follow. Had he but lived, we should have had proof of what might be done with true negro dialect; the complement of 'Uncle Remus.'

THOMAS NELSON PAGE.

"Irwin Russell was among the first-if not the very first of Southern writers to appreciate the lit

erary possibilities of the negro character, and of the unique relations existing between the two races before the war, and was among the first to develop them. The opinion of an uncritical mind ought not to go for much, but it seems to me that some of Irwin Russell's negro character studies rise to the level of what, in a large way, we term literature.”

-JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.

"Skill in the use of a dialect is a purely literary excellence, but when a writer portrays and thus perpetuates the peculiar life of a people numbering four million, he is to that extent an historian; and Irwin Russell's example in this respect meant a complete change of front in Southern literature. He did not go to Italy for his inspiration as Richard Henry Wilde had done. You find no Rodolph, or Hymns to the Gods, or Voyage to the Moon among his writings; but you find that deeper poetic vision that saw pathos and humour and beauty in the humble life that others had contemned.

"The appearance of Christmas-night in the Quarters meant that Southern literature was now to become a true reproduction of Southern conditions. Our writers were henceforth to busy themselves with the interpretation of life at close range."

- DR. C. A. SMITH: Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, 1899.

SIDNEY LANIER

Sidney Lanier was of Huguenot and Scottish stock. The earliest Lanier to come to America settled in Virginia in 1716. Sidney's father, Robert S. Lanier, was born in Georgia. He married a Virginian of Scotch blood, Miss Mary J. Anderson. The first child of the young couple was born February 3, 1842, in Macon, and was named Sidney. Later a brother was born to Sidney; afterward a sister.

As a boy Sidney was exceedingly fond of outdoor sports, but this fondness did not prevent his acquiring a love for reading. His musical gifts, too, early showed themselves, and as a mere boy, with almost no instruction, he became proficient on a number of musical instruments. The flute was early his favorite. In his fifteenth year Lanier was admitted into the sophomore class of Oglethorpe College, a Presbyterian institution near Milledgeville. The course does not seem to have been a worthy one, and Sidney got little of value from Oglethorpe except opportunity for wide reading in the field of English literature. Immediately after his graduation he was chosen to a tutorship in his Alma Mater.

But war took the young tutor from books to arms. In April, 1861, a member of the Macon Volunteers, he went to Virginia as part of the Second Georgia

Battalion. Together with his brother Clifford he took part in several battles. After the "seven days' fighting," both brothers were transferred to the signal service. In 1863 they saw mounted service in Virginia and North Carolina. Next, each was assigned as signal officer on a blockade-runner. Sidney's boat was soon captured, and he was imprisoned at Point Lookout until exchanged, February, 1865. He undertook the journey to Georgia on foot, and, utterly worn out, reached Macon to be stricken to his bed with desperate illness. During his convalescence his mother died of consumption. Soon he sought recuperation on Mobile Bay, returning to Montgomery to fill a hotel clerkship. In September, 1867, he became principal of the Prattville, Alabama, Academy, and the same year was married to Miss Mary Day of Macon.

Early next year he returned to Macon, where, until 1872, he practiced law with his father. In the autumn he sought relief from failing health in Texas; but he soon found that his days would be few and he must husband his strength to do the work he felt himself called to do. He was true to the vision which pointed out his place among literary men.

December, 1873, he entered upon an engagement to play the first flute in the Peabody Symphony Concerts of Baltimore. He made wise use of the opportunities for study offered by his new home. As result