weight of moral purpose, and when his father was nominated the Freesoil candidate for President in 1848 he took the stump in advocacy of the "old gentleman's" cause. The prince told the people he had now got hold of a moral principle--FREE SOIL; it was the first time in his life he had got hold of such a thing. It was to him a novel sensation, quite refreshing, and he was going to work that moral principle for all it was worth. In the sketch of Mr. Pugh is told how he scared two wild Indians of the plains who were threatening his life by taking out his set of false teeth, moving them in both hands slowly toward them, at the same time scowling ferociously. In telling me of the incident. he laughingly said, "Soon as I did that they spurred up their ponies, and were out of sight in a twinkling. I suppose they thought the next thing to happen was I would take off my head and throw it at them. 66 How came you to think of it?" I inquired. "I felt as though something must be done at once. We were in great peril, unarmed, totally defenceless, and from an incident of a few evenings previous it flashed upon me to try my false teeth. We three Friends commissioners were in a tepee in an Indian village preparing to retire for the night. The place was crowded with squaws and their children gazing in wonder when one of us took out his teeth to clean, whereupon the whole crowd grunted ugh ugh!' and rushed out panicstricken.' It is the unknown that especially frightens savages, which has a further illustration in an anecdote told of a party of English circus men in Asia Minor, who, discerning a body of wild Arabs riding down upon them with hostile intent, their long spears at charge, commenced turning summersaults from the backs of their horses, and then looking at them from under and between their legs, when the Arabs turned and fled. About three miles southwest of Waynesville, near the Little Miami, stood, on April 29, 1836, a small log-house, and on that day joy was under its roof, for there a boy babe was born. The father was a Quaker, an Abolitionist; had begun as a surveyor, then a teacher, and finally a farmer. This new comer was to grow, and finally, when the Quaker father had passed away, to thus write of him as "His eye in pity's tears Would often saintly swim; "At rural toils, he strove; In beauty, joy he sought. Of the mother he also wrote, "She was of Scottish descent, a practical, energetic lady, and handsome." Of course she was. To every dutiful lad his mother's face is handsome. Such were the parents of WILLIAM HENRY VENABLE, LL.D., sometimes called the Teacher Poet. He was born early enough to have a part in the Harrison campaign of 1840. His father, an old-time Whig, who had named him, after Gen. Harrison, William Henry, took him to a mass-meeting in a grove near Lebanon, and introduced him to the general, who patted him on the head, and though but four years old he remembers that interview, for long after that memorable day he wore a Tippecanoe medal with a portrait of Harrison, and on the other side a log-cabin, and the other boys called him "Tip," much to his disgust. When the Mexican war broke out he was ten years old, and the air was saturated with anecdotes of Tom Corwin, and even the small boys of Warren county could feel the force of that great orator's eloquence, and enjoy the ludicrous comicality of his grotesque faces. The universal talk caused by Corwin's great speech against the Mexican war infused even the children of that period, for it was, Venable writes, "very violent talk." He says: "I was going to school at Ridgeville, and I remember some of the boys stained their hands and faces blood-red with pokeberry juice, and then cried out, 'If I were a Mexican, as I am an American, I would welcome the American soldiers with bloody hands to hospitable graves.' Several of the big boys of the Ridgeville school, Lew Staley, Amos Kelsey and Joe Githens, enlisted and went to Mexico in 1846. One day some of us little shavers' fancied we heard ominous booming sounds of a cannon far away, and having vague ideas of distances we fancied that a battle was going on at Monterey, and wondered whether Joe Githens would be killed." When a lad of but seven, although of very delicate constitution, he was active in body and alert in mind. It was his delight to ramble along Newman's Run" and the "Big Woods," hunting squirrels, fishing, and gathering wild flowers and May berries; or in winter, tracking rabbits or sliding over the "Old Swimming Hole." Inheriting from his father a love for books, he soon learned to read. The first that attracted him were those of travel and adventure, as "Robbins' Journal," Lewis & Clark's Journal" and "Bruce's Travels." Although the school duties were irksome he was a faithful scholar, and "decidedly enjoyed the company of the pretty girls, with one or another of whom he was forever in love." Thus early with him began, as some one has called it, the most wisely ordained, inspiring humbug of life. At the age of seventeen he became a schoolteacher to earn money to continue his education, and began, Nov., 1854, in a little, miserable old school-house at Sugar Grove, near Waynesville; compensation, sixty cents a day. Then for several years he was a teacher and student in Alfred Holbrook's noted Normal Academy at Lebanon. From 1862 to 1886, twenty-four years, he was a professor of natural science in Chickering's famous institute in Cincinnati, and on the death of the latter remained for five additional years its principal and proprietor. Mr. Venable's educational and literary career began early, and he has achieved a fine reputation as a teacher, writer and lecturer. His quick eye for character, his delicious humor and swift imagination, and his dramatic instinct of scene and situation make him an interesting story-teller, whether in speaking or in writing, as witness his "Thomas Tadmore," a narrative lecture of the humor and pathos of boy life, with which he has delighted hundreds of audiences. A late writer says of him: Possessing decided executive ability, he organized in Cincinnati the Society for Political Education, of which he was the first president. In the winter of 1882-3 he formed and conducted an African School in Popular Science and History," in which fifteen eminent lecturers took part, and which was patronized by many ladies and gentlemen. In 1881 Mr. Venable was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In June, 1886, the Chio University bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Prof. Venable is the author of a "History of the United States," pronounced by The Nation "the best of its class; and of two volumes of poems, June on the Miami,' and Melodies of the Heart." The poem by which he first became generally known, The Teacher's Dream," has been praised by Longfellow, Holmes, Garfield and other noted men, and is popular with teachers everywhere. It is far surpassed in poetical merit by many of the author's later pieces. A New England critic writes of his recent แ volume: "It seems to me I have never yet read a book of verses which satisfied me more, and I am sure I have read from no minor poet on either side of the ocean so many satisfactory strains. Such equal strength in love, patriotism, religion and humor is rarely found.' Another says his "Melodies of the Heart" is as a little open chest, "filled with simplicity, beauty, melody, purity, pathos and humor, the whole perfumed with love." Mr. Venable has just issued from the press of Robert Clarke & Co. "Beginning of Lit erary Culture in the Ohio Valley," a work of singular value and interest. The "Teacher Poet" is happily married to a woman in every way worthy of him. The marriage was a love-match not without its romance. A very pleasant glimpse of the Venable home at Mount Tusculum is given by the Hon. Coates Kinney, the author of the far-famed lyric, "Rain on the Roof:" "Mr. Venable has a poet's home and a poet's wife-a talented woman who appreci ates him and inspires him with her loving admiration. Just east of Cincinnati, on the Little Miami Railroad, there is a picturesque suburb named (by some admirers of Cicero) Tusculum. Leaving the station, climbing the up-hill street of the town, turning into the wood, passing down through a glen, winding about, and again climbing by stone steps up gentle slopes, across rustic plank bridges, under overhanging trees, and you come to the poet's home-a commodious country house almost on top of the hill, looking down over all the landscape of slopes, and glens, and ravines, and woods that you have just come through. "This is the poet's home; and a delightful home it is, full of love and poetry and children. Venable is, in the city, a man of business and bustle in the daytime, but a dreamer here on the hills at night. An evening with him there in his cozy library, overlooking the brown ravine, is a rest and refreshment not soon to be forgotten. THE TEACHER'S DREAM. The weary teacher sat alone The weary teacher sat alone, Unnerved and pale was he; "Another round, another round "Of no avail is constant zeal, "I squander on a barren field My strength, my life, my all; The seeds I sow will never grow, They perish where they fall. He sighed, and low upon his hands And then he lifted up his face, But started back aghast The room by strange and sudden change Assumed proportions vast. It seemed a senate hall, and one Addressed a listening throng; The 'wildered teacher thought he knew Tell me your sorrows, and talk of your joys; Shake to their memory, brother, Say, are you married, or are you in love? Speak out, for you know we are like hand and glove; I used to think you and Belle Esmond would wed. Yes, yes, as I wrote you, the baby is dead; I thought for a while that my wife's heart must break; Your hand, dear old comrade-don't mind me, Let's shake! God bless you! I'm awfully glad you are here. You must not make fun of this womanish 'Twas only a baby, scarce two Aprils old, Why, somehow or other, we're not quite content With this planet; but when all the worry and strife Are over, I hope we may strike a new life You'll give me the grip there, old fellow, WAYNESVILLE is nine miles northeast of Lebanon, on the Little Miami river, and one and a half miles from Corwin Station on the P. C. & St. L. R. R. Newspapers: Miami Gazette, neutral, T. J. Brown, editor and publisher; News, Republican, Drew Sweet, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal; 1 Episcopal; 1 Christian; 2 Friends' meeting houses. Banks: (T. H. Harris) J. J. Mosher, cashier; Waynesville National, S. S. Haines, president; W. H. Allen, cashier. Population, 1880, 793. School census, 1888, 237. Wm. M. Harford, school superintendent. Waynesville was laid out in February, 1796, by Samuel Highway, an emigrant from England, and Dr. Evan Banes. More than a year later Highway hired two wagons, a guide and three or four woodmen to cut a road from Columbia to the projected town, there to make the first settlement. The wagons were three or four days on the journey, arriving at the site of the new town March 8, 1797. Francis Baily, a young Englishman, was with the party, and gives an interesting account of the founding of Waynesville in his "Journal of a Tour in the Unsettled Parts of North America in 1796 and 1797." While the sound of the axe was heard felling the trees for the first residences, Baily and Dr. Banes went hunting and killed one bear and two or three deer, and saw a great number of wild turkeys. Francis Baily later became a celebrated astronomer, and President of the "Royal Astronomical Society." Rev. James Smith visited Waynesville October 11, 1797, and found fourteen families settled there. He says: "We lodged with a Mr. Highway, an emigrant from England, who with a number of his country people suffered inconceivable hardships in getting to this country. It was curious to see their elegant furniture and silver plate glittering in a small, smoky cabin." A large number of the early settlers in this vicinity were Friends. MORROW is ten miles southeast of Lebanon, on the Little Miami river, at the junction of the Little Miami and the C. & M. V. divisions of the P. C. & St. L. R. R. Morrow was laid out by Wm. H. Clement and others when the Little Miami R. R. was completed to the mouth of Todd's Fork in 1844, and was named in honor of Gov. Morrow, then president of the railroad. Churches: 1 Catholic; 1 Methodist; 1 Presbyterian. Bank: Morrow (A. N. & Theo. Couden), E. C. Dunham, cashier. Population, 1880, 946. School census, 1888, 385; O. W. Martin, superintendent schools. HARVEYSBURG is twelve miles northeast of Lebanon. It was laid out by William Harvey in 1828. Near the town are "the fifty springs" of mineral waters. Churches: 1 United Brethren; 1 Methodist Episcopal; 1 Colored Methodist Episcopal; 1 Baptist; 1 Orthodox Friends; 1 Hicksite Friends. Population, 1880, 539. School census, 1888, 196. SPRINGBORO is eight miles north of Lebanon. Population, 1880, 553. School census, 1888, 188. Springboro was laid out by Jonathan Wright in 1815, and took its name from one of the finest springs in the State, the water of which has been utilized in running a flouring-mill and woollen factory. RIDGEVILLE was laid out in 1815 by Fergus McLean, father of Justice John McLean, and is situated on one of the most elevated ridges on the line of the L. & N. R. R., in the north part of the county. BUTLERVILLE was laid out by Abram B. Butler in 1838. MURDOCH was named from the distinguished actor and reader, who resided there about twenty-five years. It is on the line of the L. M. R. R., in the southeast corner of the county. MASON is eight miles southwest of Lebanon, on the C. L. & N. R. R. Population, 1880, 431. School census, 1888, 178. It was laid out in 1815 by Major William Mason, and first called Palmyra. MAINEVILLE is nine miles south of Lebanon. Population, 1880, 324. School census, 1888, 132. It was first called Yankeetown, being founded by emigrants from Maine, the first of whom, Dr. John Cottle, came in 1818. FOSTER'S CROSSINGS is ten miles southeast of Lebanon, on the L. M. R. R., and long famous as a point for the raising of sweet potatoes of a superior quality; and KINGS MILLS, near it, also on the railroad and river, where gunpowder is largely manufactured. : |