|
"PRAISE FROM
SIR HUBERT."
______
Mr. Kirkland's Endorsement
of
a Times Herald Enterprise.
______
BOBBIE BURNS'
NATIVE SPOT
_______
CALLS FORTH THE HEART-VOICE
OF
A LOYAL SCOT.
_______
A Well-Known Dallas Man Dedicates
a
Literary Gem to the Unrivaled Merit
of "Sights and Scenes of the
World."
______
Among the
many compliments and endorsements that the enterprises of the
TIMES
HERALD
have received, there has been none stronger in fact and more
beautiful in expression, than the following communication from
the pen of Mr. James Kirkland, manager of the mail order department
of Sanger Bros.
Mr. Kirkland is a Scotchman by
birth and education, coming directly from Ayr, having spent his
youth upon "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon." He
has all of the keen sensibility to the romance and beauty of
the lowlands, that has been fostered by surroundings. His old
home was a near neighbor to the famous Burns cottage, and he
has also been a loyal loiterer amid the other Scottish scenes
presented. He can, therefore, speak of the artistic merit and
intrinsic value of the photographic views the TIMES HERALD is
offering its subscribers.
The appreciation of the series
of pictures now being issued by the TIMES HERALD has found expression in the comprehensive and
beautifully written endorsement of Mr. Kirkland:
Ruskin has well said: "Best
hundred books! Nonsense. For a Scotchman, next to his Bible there
is but one book---his native land; but one language---his native
tongue, the sweetest, richest, subtlest, most musical of all
the dialects in Europe. Study your Burns, Scott and Carlyle."
This truth was freshly brought
home to me to-night, the 135th anniversary of Robert Burns, who
occupies a first place among the chosen few of our poets, who
are at once national and universal. A noble gift was his, to
speak in song with perfect thoughts, crystallized in a perfect
expression, to every Scottish heart first, and almost with equal
power to every human heart that hopes, or loves, or longs to
play the man and be free. So, memory turned backward, homeward;
the book of native land was not available, but turning to your
SIGHTS AND SCENES OF THE
WORLD, in portfolio No. 1, I found
an excellent picture of Burn's cottage, situated about two miles
from
"Auld
Ayr wham ne'er a toon surpasse;
For
honest men and bonnie lasses."
Here the poet, on Jan. 25, 1759,
first saw the light of day and passed the tender years of youth
amidst the joys, the sorrows, the hopes, the fears of Scottish
peasant life.
"There
lanely by the ingle-cheek
He
sat and eyed the spucing reek
That
filled wi' hoast-provoking smeek
The
au'd clay bigging,
And
heard the restless rattels squeak
Aboot
the riggin."
There, also, he learned his first lessons in
industry and frugality as he beheld:
The
mother wi' her needle and her shears,
Gar
auld claes look a'maist as weel as new."
And how sweetly he gives us an
insight into his early instruction in piety.
"The
sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace
The
big ha' Bible ance his father's pride."
I have seen many photos of Burns'
cottage, but none that pleased me better than the one now before
me.
It not only gives you a strictly
correct view of the cottage, but also the magnificent beauties
of the hedgerows and the woods, and could the camera but reach
to the deep green of the hill and glen, the vision would be complete.
Oh, how often our feet have wandered here by mossy dells, in
the golden moss, by the bonnie windin' banks where Doon rins
wimplin' clear, and how many happy, pleasing reminiscences well
up in our minds to-night. The whole of that roadway from Ayr
to Doon is a panorama of scenes, new and old. Old, in its association
with Tam O'Shanter, his lanely wife---"nursing her wrath
to keep it warm"---his eerie ride
"Across
the foard
Where
in the shaw the Chapman smoored."
And the well where Munge's mither
hanged hersel'. The weird dance in Alloway's auld Haunted Kirk
and the keystane of the brig o' Doon where Maggie left her ain
grey tail.
New! with Burn's monument, and
shell palace, its walks by Doon, the shady retreat of the lover's
lane, with its myriad recollections of "converse low and
sweet, sweet converse low." We've seen it all, in the full
glory of the noonday sun, and in the dim twilight of a calm summer
evening, when a golden halo was thrown over the beautiful and
delightful sylvan retreats.
How willingly out thoughts revert
to where old companions dwell, to the haunts and scenes of boyhood,
to the braes and glens, to the streams and lochs. That time when
everything looked bright and sunny, when the hills were greener,
the valley's were finer, the streams were clearer and the lasses
lovelier than they have ever been since.
All this delightful, refreshing
train of thought kindled at the sight of one of the many home
scenes.
Leaving the cottage and turning
over the succeeding pages, we run across superb pictures of Melrose
Abbey, Dryburgh Abbey, the great Forth Bridge, St. George's Square,
Glasgow, Crofter's home in Shetland.
If the feast contained in these
first five portfolios is but an earnest preparation of what is
in store for us in the fifteen remaining numbers, what a priceless
treasure this magnificent collection of photographic views will
be.
Under any circumstances, the educational
value of these views cannot be estimated, and the exceptional
excellence and truthful representation of scenes with which we
are familiar, richly enhances the value of sights and scenes
of which we have no personal knowledge.
Having spent a vacation in Ireland
and visited the Giant's Causeway, permit me to add the photo
in Portfolio is, without exception, the best view I have seen
anywhere of this great natural phenomena, the work of a Divine
hand. It gives an accurate idea of the appearance of these 40,000
columns, all beautifully cut and polished, formed of neat pieces
exactly fitting into each other.
In a word, Sights and Scenes of
the World, are in every respect, equal to the much-lauded Stoddard
views, and in many points, they are superior.
The fact that you ask but 8 cents
a portfolio, instead of 10¢, means that we get 64 more of
these elegant pictures, or a total of 320 for the price of 256,
and that you exact only 3 coupons for one portfolio, instead
of 6, speaks volumes for the liberality and enterprise of the
TIMES HERALD,
facts that are duly appreciated by your pleased subscriber.
JAMES KIRKLAND.
Dallas, Tex., Jan. 25, 1894.
- January 26, 1894,
Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 4, col. 3-4.
- o o o -
A
FORTUNE IN
HIS CLUB FEET.
________
HOW BARRY P. WALLACE
GOT HIS
WAR CLAIM THROUGH.
_______
He Has Had Many Ups and Downs
in the
Battle With the World--The Union
Officer Who Took His Property
Recognized His Feet.
Barra P.
Wallace, well known in Dallas as a saddler and harness maker
for years, and, for a short time during the boom, as a real estate
speculator, has succeeded in getting the government to allow
and pay him $53,000 for property destroyed by the federal troops
during the war.
Mr. Wallace, it appears, had valuable
property in Tennessee, the results of his ante-bellum frugality.
During the war, the contending forces fought a battle where this
property was located, the federal troops appropriating what they
did not destroy. This left the Wallace family flat broke, as
the government was not recognizing rebel claims in those days.
For many years, it was a draw between
Mr. Wallace and the world. He came to Dallas in the hope of bettering
his condition, but didn't get much the advantage until the real
estate boom, when he forged to the front rapidly, and, at one
time, could have sold out and realized enough to make him fairly
rich, but, like all the rest, he would not jump a game so long
as "they were coming his way," and when they got to
going against him, he couldn't jump it, and he was left flat
broke again, and at rather an advanced age.
Then it was he set to work to pare
his war claim, going to Washington in person. Fortunately, the
major who commanded the federal forces that destroyed Wallace's
property, happened to be connected with the court of claims at
Washington, and when Wallace appeared to push his claim, the
officer recognized him by his club feet; and this enabled him
to recall the whole circumstances of the destruction of the property,
and he rendered Mr. Wallace valuable assistance in making out
a list of the destroyed property and getting the claim through.
Mr. Wallace has not yet returned
from Washington.
- April 9, 1894, Dallas
Daily Times Herald, p. 1, col. 6.
- o o o -
|