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WM. WALLACE, our old friend and classmate, is crowned with the poet's sweetest triumph, FAME. His magnificent ode “The Gods of Old,” in the July number of the American Review — (which we republished a few weeks from proof slips he sent us in advance) has ago every where received the warmest admiration of the most discriminating scholars and critics. Mr. Poe, of the Brordway [[Broadway]] Journal, a gentleman from whom commendation is valuable because rare, and who is one of the best poets and severest critics of the country, gives it the high praise of being a better conception then either Schiller's or Miss Barretts on the same topic. He quotes part of it and pronounces it executed in a masterly manner. Other Journals of scarcely less critical ability have also given it the warmest praise.
Success to the young bard! We know that in the midst of his triumphs he recalls the time when in our smoky room at College we incurred the frowns of our old president ‘Facwyult,’ by neglecting the dull routine of the classes, to hold converse with the sons of song and genius, while he plumed his fledging wings to emulate their flight.
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Notes:
John Jenkins (1815-1848) was the editor and proprietor of the Vicksburg Weekly Sentinel. (Although unsigned, the tone of the article suggests that was written by the editor.) Jenkins was born in Warren County, Mississippi, and killed in the streets of Vicksburg as the result of a quarrel with Henry Alexander Crabbe (or Crabb), a young lawyer. A description of the incident (originally appearing in the New Orleans Republican) states that the men quarreled following a political meeting, whereupon Crabbe slapped Jenkins. A day later, Jenkins and Crabbe met again in the street and renewed the quarrel. Jenkins then stabbed Crabbe several times with a bowie knife, but Crabbe was able to pull out a pistol and shot Jenkins. Jenkins died from his wounds, while Crabbe, although seriously wounded, recovered, was arrested, adjudicated and the charges dismissed under the assumption that he was defending himself. (Thereafter, Crabbe moved to California, where he became a member of the California State Senate. He was killed in 1857 at Sonora, in Northern Mexico, while engaged in an unsanctioned military encounter with Mexicans, who captured and executed him.) William Ross Wallace (1819-1881) attended the Indiana University Bloomington (formerly the State Seminary of Indiana) and Hanover College, both in Indiana. At what college he and Jenkins were classmates is unclear, as is the identity of the president “Facwyult,” presumably some kind of nickname.
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[S:0 - VTWS, 1845] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Comment on William Wallace (John Jenkins, 1845)