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A brooding peace of the morning, stay!
Nor swift as her presence fly,
Sing aye, my heart, as the wild birds sing,
While the sweet morn passes by.

IN THE HAMMOCK.

IN the mottled shade of the maple trees,
Where robin builds and sings,

And the cool leaves shake in the idle breeze
The children's hammock swings:
Breathe softly, O song of the summer air,
Bend tenderly down, O sky.
Nor suffer a cloud to darken where

Three wee, brown maidens lie!

Aloft where the dusk of the twilight dwells,
The red-breast's hammock swings,
Where the delicate tint of sea-green shells

Has given place to wings

Come, dreamy and sweet to their noonday rest
The softest airs that blow,-

To the birds asleep in the robin's nest,
And brownies asleep below!

EVENTIDE.

THE ghostly heat of summer noon is laid,
The pallid fever of his reign is spent;
A world-wide blessing woven of the shade,
Cool evening lifts the star-folds of her tent.

A subtile hint of balm is in the air;

The breath of flowers, in dream-enfolded sleep, Floats like the incense of a lifted prayer, While insect murmurs, rhythmic measure keep.

The valley's dusk in dewy silence lies,

For labor's song and weary tumult cease; The stars in quiet hold the summer skies, And evening wears her perfect crown of peace.

BURNS.

His birthday 'mid the Scottish hills
Is glad with love and song,

For dear they hold his precious name,
And burning hate of wrong.
For high above the shams of rank,
Or accident of birth,

He sat the royalty of man

And loved him for his worth.

-The Ballad of the King.

THE

JOHN TALMAN.

HE branch of the Talman (also spelled Tallman,) family in America sprang from three brothers, who, coming from their native Germany in the seventeenth century, settled upon Long Island. Several representatives of the sturdy race served in the Continental army under Gates and Wayne, and it was upon the battle-field of Saratoga that the father of the subject of this memoir was born.

John Talman first saw the light on a farm near Rochester, N. Y., on July 30, 185г. He was educated at the public schools and Macedon Academy. In the spring of 1867, he left his home and wandered to Southern Minnesota. The next eighteen months of his life were spent in farming and "roughing it" in the wilds of the far Northern Wisconsin forests. In October, 1868, the boy returned to Rochester, N. Y., to which city his parents had removed, and went into business with his father. Becoming seized with the newspaper fever, he took a position on the staff of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle at the age of twenty, and remained with that paper until October, 1873, when he removed to Albany to become telegraph editor and occasional editorial writer on the Albany Argus, then owned and controlled by the late Daniel Manning. Here Mr. Talman remained until September, 1878, when he retraced his steps and put in a year's work on the papers of Rochester. In August, 1879, Mr. Talman removed his lares and penates to St. Paul, Minn., where he entered the service of the Pioneer Press, of which paper he is now night editor. He has also been for several years the general Northwestern correspondent of leading New York and Philadelphia papers and an occasional contributor to Judge, Outing, etc.

When the true spirit of song is in the heart, it usually finds expression at an early age. Our poet was no exception to this rule. His first verses were written before he was twelve years old. About two years later he began to write regularly and almost constantly. Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five he produced a vast amount of verse, each successive year marking greater accuracy and maturity of thought. During the succeeding eleven years he wrote scarcely anything worthy of note, his whole time being devoted to the routine of journalism; and throughout this long period of silence he fought the poetic spirit which struggled for utterance, and which he fancied handicapped him in the practical field of newspaperdom, but the battle was lost. The poet in him triumphed over the newspaper man. For the past three years he has "burned the midnight oil" to good purpose. Al

though having but little time to devote to the art at whose shrine he worships, his latest verse is written with a nicety and fineness of touch that characterizes all healthful literary growth.

If we were to single out one predominant trait of Mr. Talman's character, that one would be fidelity. While commanding in physique, he is singularly natural and unostentatious in manner. In his tastes, he is decidedly domestic, and being a natural musician, he prefers a quiet hour with his guitar to the more glaring delights of the club. He is also extremely fond of indulging his natural bent as an antiquarian and an insatiable delver among books. His poetical tendency is an inherited one, his father, sister, grandmother and a maternal uncle all having been versifiers before him.

Mr. Talman's successful life has been crowned by the love of a good wife. He was married in 1874 to the daughter of the late Thomas Doney, the English artist, whose engravings were a prominent feature of the standard American magazines of a generation ago; and one child, a dainty maiden of seventeen years, is the light of a beautiful home where love and intelligence walk hand in hand. C. L. S.

REST.

WHEN grim affliction fills each weary hour,
From every sky the clouds of sorrow lower,
Our bleeding souls cry out in vain for rest,
And, worn with weeping, cull the passion flower.

Where may the drooping, tortured spirit find
This panacea for the troubled mind?

When shall no longer fruitless be our quest,
And life take on an aspect less unkind?

Not when o'er earth are robes of ermine cast
And howls the winter's biting, swirling blast
O'er Flora's tomb; nor yet when buds the rose
In spring, or summer burns the landscape vast.

Not when autumnal fingers, gently cold,
Transmute the leaf's green to red, brown and gold,
Doth her fair form the fugitive disclose
And gild the searcher with her wealth untold.

Not when the smiles of Phœbus newly born
Surmount the hills sweet with the breath of morn,
Bathing earth's bosom in their quickening beams,
The night's abandoned dwelling to adorn.

Not when the bees and humming birds attune
Themselves amid the blazonry of noon

In voice responsive to the purling streams,
Behold we this inestimable boon.

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'Mong thy limbs with coy caress,
Round thy great trunk's ruggedness,
Up and down thine outlines brant
Lifting thy spray's palpitant,
Will the sensuous south wind play
All the languorous summer day.
To the roll of thunder deep
Will the lightnings through thee leap,
And thy torn boughs bend and rock
In the mighty tempest's shock.
When the snows of winter drift
Round thy base, and thou dost lift
Valiantly thy forefront bare
And December's anger dare,
Powerless be the blast to whelm
Thee in ruin's night, mine elm!

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JOHN M. HARPER.

OHN M. HARPER was born February 10, 1845,

JOHN

at Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, but for a number of years has resided in Canada. His father was a printer and publisher, and the founder of the first weekly newspaper of Johnstone. The rudiments of his education were received at the district schools of his native place. From thence he went to the Glasgow S. C. Training School, entering college as a Queen's scholar of the first rank. He retired with the highest certificates granted by the lords of committee of Council on Education, and with special certificates from the Science and Art Department, Kensington. After coming to this country he graduated from Queen's University, Kingston, and some years ago received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the Illinois University. In 1881 he was unanimously elected a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, an honor not often conferred. Before leaving Scotland he successfully filled an appointment at the New Brunswick Academy. Several years later he was appointed principal of the Victoria and High Schools of St. John, N. B. Here he was equally successful and introduced many improved methods of imparting instruction. In 1877 a flattering offer from the Hon. L. H. Davies, Premier of Prince Edward Island, was received and declined. Not long after the Victoria school building being destroyed in the St. John fire, the principalship of the Provincial Normal School in Charlottetown was tendered by Mr. Davies, and accepted by Dr. Harper. Aside from his professional pursuits Dr. Harper has been actively engaged in the cultivation and furtherance of literature, contributing to various periodicals both prose and verse. He is the compiler of several school text-books, and the author of several excellent lectures. Dr. Harper has always been most ready to lend his experience and professional training to the educational interests of Canada.

Dr. Harper is at present Inspector of Superior Schools for the Province of Quebec; examiner for teachers' licenses; secretary-treasurer of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners, and for a season was interim professor of mathematics in Movius College. He is president of the Teachers' Local Association; vice-president of the Provincial Association of Teachers; vice-president of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society and president of the St. Andrew's Society.

He was married to Agnes, daughter of William Kirkwood, Esq., of Stanley Muir, Paisley, by whom he has had two sons and five daughters. Mrs. Harper died in 1883. H. M.

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