A Short History of Pittsburgh Part 5

Rev. Henry C. McCook's very successful novel, "The Latimers," is an engaging study of the whisky insurrection of early Pittsburgh days.

Thomas B. Plimpton is remembered by some as a writer of verse. Judge J.

E. Parke and Judge Joseph Mellon have written historical essays. Josiah Copley wrote "Gathering Beulah." Logan Conway is the author of "Money and Banking." He has also written a series of essays on "Evolution."

Miss Cara Reese has published a little story ent.i.tled "And She Got All That." Miss Willa Sibert Cather has just published her "Poems." Charles McKnight's "Old Fort Duquesne; or Captain Jack the Scout" is a stirring book that has fired the hearts of many boys who love a good tale.

William Harvey Brown's story, "On the South African Frontier," was written and published while he was a curator in the Carnegie Museum.

Pittsburgh has produced a group of standard schoolbooks--always of the very first importance in the literature of any country. Among these are the books by Andrew Burt and Milton B. Goff, and a series of readers by Lucius Osgood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Design of University of Pittsburgh]

Henry J. Ford's "Rise and Growth of American Politics" is a well-studied work. Henry A. Miller's "Money and Bimetallism" is a conscientious statement of his investigations of that question. Judge Marshall Brown has written two books, "Bulls and Blunders" and "Wit and Humor of Famous Sayings." Frank M. Bennett's "Steam Navy of the United States" is a useful technical work.

L. C. Van Noppen, after pursuing his studies of Dutch literature in Holland, came to Pittsburgh and wrote a translation of Vondel's great Dutch cla.s.sical poem "Lucifer." Vondel published the original of this work some ten or fifteen years before Milton's "Paradise Lost" appeared, and critics have tried to show by the deadly parallel column that Milton drew the inspiration for some of his highest poetical flights from Vondel. It is probable, however, that Milton was unconscious of the existence of Vondel's work.

S. L. Fleishman has translated the poems of Heine with tenderness and feeling. Ella Boyce Kirk has written several educational pamphlets.

Morgan Neville published a poem, "Comparisons." From that Prince Rupert of the astronomers, Professor James E. Keeler, who has made more than one fiery dash across the borderland of known science, we have "Spectroscopic Observations of Nebulae." That truly gifted woman, Margaretta Wade Deland, was born in Pittsburgh in 1857 and resided here until her marriage in 1880. Among her books are "John Ward, Preacher,"

"The Story of a Child," "Philip and His Wife," and "Old Chester Tales."

Jane Grey Swisshelm wrote the recollections of an eventful experience under the t.i.tle "Half a Century of Life." Nicholas Biddle composed a studious "Life of Sebastian Cabot," and another book, "Modern Chivalry."

Mrs. Annie Wade has written poems and stories. The city has fathered many able writers against slavery and intemperance, among whom was William H. Burleigh, who wrote "Our Country." William B. Conway wrote "Cottage on the Cliff." From Rev. John Black we have "The Everlasting Kingdom," and Rev. John Ta.s.sey published a "Life of Christ." William G.

Johnston's interesting book, "Experiences of a Forty-niner," was published in 1892. John Reed Scott has published two successful novels, "The Colonel of the Red Hussars" and "Beatrix of Clare." Martha Fry Boggs wrote "A Romance of New Virginia." Then there are "Polly and I,"

by Cora Thurmston; "Free at Last" and "Emma's Triumph," by Mrs. Jane S.

Collins; "Her Brother Donnard," by Emily E. Verder; "Essays," by Anna Pierpont Siviter; "Human Progress," by Thomas S. Blair; "Steel: A Manual for Steel Users," a useful monograph by William Metcalf; and "Memoir of John B. Gibson," by Colonel Thomas P. Roberts. Then there are some poor things from my own pen, if, in order to make the record complete, I may add them at the end--"Oliver Cromwell: A History" (1894); "John Marmaduke: A Romance of the English Invasion of Ireland in 1649"

(1897); "Beowulf: A Poem" (1901); "Penruddock of the White Lambs," a novel (1903); "The Brayton Episode," a play (1903); "The Sword of the Parliament," a play (1907); and this, "A Short History of Pittsburgh"

(1908).

And such is the list. Imperfect though it may be, it is the best that I have been able to compose. But how large and full the measure of it all is! History, biography, philosophy, religion, nature, science, criticism, government, coinage and finance, art, poetry, the drama, travel, adventure, fiction, society, education, all avenues of human activity, all themes of human speculation, have been covered in books written with more or less interest and power by men and women of Pittsburgh. Much of this volume of production is ephemeral, but some of it on the other hand is undoubtedly a permanent addition to the world's literature.

X

One word more before leaving this subject. Literature has not until recently enjoyed that degree of attention from the public press of Pittsburgh which it deserves. It ought to be the concern of every human unit in the nation to receive honest guidance in the development of literature; for literature, once again, is the written record of thought and action. Mobs will melt away when the units in the mob begin to think, and they will think when they read. Then will the law be paramount, and then will our inst.i.tutions be safe. Thousands of our serious people annually subscribe for literary reviews of one kind or another in order that they may follow the rapid expansion of the written record of the thought and action of the world, when the whole department might be covered so admirably by our daily newspapers. Should not the newspaper give each household practically all it needs in criticism and information outside of the printed books themselves? How easily we could spare some of the glaring and exaggerated headlines over the daily record of crime, misconduct, and false leaders.h.i.+p, which inflame the mind and the pa.s.sions with evil fire, and how joyfully we would welcome instead an intelligent, conscientious, comprehensive, discriminating, piquant--in short, a masterful discussion from day to day of the written record of the thought and action of the world as unfolded in its statesmans.h.i.+p, its oratory, its education, its heroism, and its literature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh]

XI

And so my little story of Pittsburgh comes to an end. It is the story of a great achievement in the building of a city, and the development of a community within its boundaries. I have sometimes heard a sneer at Pittsburgh as a place where undigested wealth is paramount. I have never beheld the city in that character. On the contrary, I have, on frequent occasions, seen the a.s.semblage of men native here where a goodly section of the brain and power of the nation was represented. There is much wealth here, but the dominant spirit of those who have it is not a spirit of pride and luxury and arrogance. There is much poverty here, but it is the poverty of hope which effort and opportunity will transform into affluence. And especially is there here a spirit of good fellows.h.i.+p, of help one to another, and of pride in the progress of the intellectual life. And with all of these comes a growth toward the best civic character which in its aggregate expression is probably like unto the old Prophet's idea of that righteousness which exalteth a nation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park]