He considers it a priceless treasure. There is a vague horror to me in the face that is almost insupportable. The snaky hair, the sightless, glaring eyes, are so mysteriously dreadful. He says it will answer for a paper weight. No, Paul, I will lay it away out of sight forever.
A PLEDGE TO LEE
(Written for a Kentucky Company)
[From Southern Poems of the War, edited by Emily V. Mason (Baltimore, 1867)]
We pledge thee, Lee!
In water or wine,
In blood or in brine,
What matter the sign?
Whether brilliantly glowing,
Or darkly overflowing,
So the cup is divine
That we fill to thee!
Vanquished—victorious,
Gloomy or glorious,
Fainting and bleeding,
Advancing, receding,
Lingering or leading,
Captive or free;
With swords raised on high,
With hearts nerved to die,
Or to grasp victory;
Hand to hand—knee to knee,
With a wild three times three
We pledge thee, Lee!
We pledge thee, chief:
In the name of our nation,
Her wide devastation,
Her sore desolation,
Her grandeur and grief!
Where'er thou warrest
When our need is the sorest,
Or in Fortress or forest,
Bidest thy time;
Thou—Heaven elected,
Thou—Angel-protected,
Thou—Brother selected,
What e'er thy fate be,
Our trust is in thee,
And our faith is sublime.
With swords raised on high,
With hearts nerved to die,
Or to grasp victory;
Hand to hand—knee to knee,
With a wild three times three,
We pledge thee, Lee!
[J. ROSS BROWNE]
John Ross Browne, humorist and traveler, was born in Ireland, in 1817, but when an infant his father came to America and settled at Louisville, Kentucky. Browne was educated in the Louisville schools, and studied medicine for a time under several well-known physicians. When eighteen years old he went to New Orleans; and this journey kindled his passion for travel that ended only with his death. Browne took the whole world for his home. He first went almost around the globe on a whaling vessel, and on his return to this country, he published his first book, called Etchings of a Whaling Cruise (New York, 1846). Browne was private secretary for Robert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, for a time, but, in 1849, he went to California as a government commissioner; and in 1851 he went to Europe as a newspaper correspondent. A tour of Palestine is described in Browne's most famous book, Yusef, or the Journey of the Frangi (New York, 1853). He shortly afterwards returned to the United States and became an inspector of customs on the Pacific coast; but the year of 1861 found him again in Europe, residing at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Browne's next work was Crusoe's Island (New York, 1864). His family's residence in Germany resulted in the author publishing An American Family in Germany (New York, 1866), one of his most delightful volumes. Browne's travels in northern Europe are described in The Land of Thor (New York, 1867). He now returned to America and made his home in California. He investigated the mineral resources of the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and his report was issued as Resources of the Pacific Slope (1869). Adventures in the Apache Country (1869), was his last book. Browne was appointed United States Minister to China on March 11, 1868, but he was recalled sixteen months later. He died at Oakland, California, December 9, 1875. Most of his volumes are very cleverly illustrated with his own comical sketches of characters and scenes. That J. Ross Browne was a man of very considerable ability in several directions admits of no argument.
Bibliography. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, 1887, v. i); National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, 1900, v. viii).