MR. CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN
On the 2d of March, at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, hardly more than a fortnight after his golden-wedding anniversary, Mr. Charles Carleton Coffin passed away. He died suddenly, and so escaped the pain and weariness of lingering illness. Some readers of the Round Table who were in the great throng of young people in the New York Building at the World's Fair, when we kept our first reunion in the beautiful White City, no doubt remember Mr. Coffin as one of the speakers on that happy occasion. With Kirk Munroe, Charles Dudley Warner, and others, Mr. Coffin was present then, and he said several things which made a deep impression on my mind as I looked over the sea of bright young faces gathered under our starry flag. He told the boys that they owed something to their country, that they must grow up prepared to be her lovers and defenders, to stand up for her through all things, and to be good true citizens, and Americans who cared for America wherever they might go.
What Mr. Coffin said that day with his voice so eloquently he had been saying in print for many years. He wrote nineteen books, all of them the gift of a fine mind and true heart, to the boys and girls of America. The names of these books are familiar to you, and the very titles are attractive, as, for example, My Days and Nights on the Battle-field, Following the Flag, Winning his Way, The Boys of '76, Our New Way 'Round the World, and similar stirring and suggestive names. Among Mr. Coffin's delightfully exciting volumes, I am very fond of The Story of Liberty, a book which carries us back to old England, and shows us the cradle of our American freedom in the mother-land. Mr. Coffin had the rare art of standing outside his story and letting it tell itself. He marshalled its incidents and events with historic accuracy, and so made his narrative always useful and acceptable as supplementary reading to the boy or girl who was studying a period at school, but he also allowed his people to speak and act in a natural way. His books unroll like the panorama at the show, and a very satisfactory panorama they are, ideally painted for the library of young America.
Personally Mr. Coffin was full of enthusiasm and enjoyment in his work, and he cared a great deal for his youthful audience. He did not under-rate their intelligence and write down to them. He took it for granted that our young people are intelligent and interested in both work and play, and his books paid them the compliment of dealing with serious themes, though always in a sprightly manner. All his books are so beautifully illustrated that they are really fine picture galleries, in which one sees how people dressed, how buildings and streets looked, and how houses were furnished in the times of which Mr. Coffin wrote.
A man who spent his life in such a beautiful way, writing books so worthy, and never writing a sentence one would wish omitted, bestowed a great gift on his period. His books will live and continue to give pleasure to hosts of young people, to whom Mr. Coffin will be a guide and friend in years to come, for the author of a good book never dies.
Winter News from Jamaica.
It is our winter now in the shape of north winds and cold rains, beginning in November and ending in March or April, and we thoroughly detest them.
I would like to know something about Lord Byron. My great-uncle was at school with him, and I would like to know about him, as I have never read anything about him, or scarcely ever read anything of his.
I have a dear little kitten now—a tortoise-shell. He is very funny. Last night his mother, Trilby, was very uneasy till we let her out. Then after we had shut the door my kitty became unhappy too. So my father opened the door, and cat and kitten ran against each other. Trilby had a nice fat rat. We suppose she must have smelt it outside. Her child's name is Tony. He hates Tipsy, my little dog, and poor Tipsy is so frightened of it, and always walks away when she sees the dear fluffy pet. Would it bother dear Mrs. Sangster if I wanted her autograph? I love Harper's Round Table, as I am sure all members of the Order do.
I have eleven Seychells stamps, and two Sicilies, of which I am very proud. The 1d. blue Jamaica, cut in half, is, I believe, not in any catalogue, though it is perfectly genuine. I have a lovely Lilium Speciosa open now. My aunt gave it to me. The other day we caught a mongoose in a trap, but before my father could shoot it, Tipsy and Bennie, her child, had killed it. Poor Tipsy in the excitement of killing sent her own sharp tooth right through her lip. It must have hurt her dreadfully. I have about 2500 stamps. The other "Round-Tablers" have helped me a lot.
Nellie Stephens.
Radnor, Hagley Gap, Jamaica, W. I.
Mrs. Sangster will send her autograph if you ask her.