Bancroft

“ Bancroft inhaled raggedly. "I'll see that you get a proper bonus for this, Elena. But what else? You said...."
"Yes." Her gaze was steady on him. "We talked, out there in the bay. He wanted to convince me I should help him. Tom—he isn't human."
"Eh?" Bancroft's heavy form jerked. With an effort he steadied himself. "What do you mean?"
"That muscular strength and speed, and telepathy. He can see in the dark and hold his breath longer than any man. No, he isn't human."
Bancroft looked at Dalgetty's motionless form. ”

“ Emerson said of the History: “It is noble matter, and I am heartily glad to have it nobly treated.” Bancroft is less than a quarter of a century dead, and these beautiful laurels are already withered. A new age has accepted other standards than his. 17
Bancroft, our first historian who had studied in Germany, was well known at home and abroad as a hard student and a man of great learning. The abundant foot-notes in the first volumes of his history show how freely he used the sources in foreign languages. His experience in Germany led him to admire German scholarship in all its phases. ”

“ Bancroft, unlike Varnhagen von Ense, whom he was fond of quoting, never lost his pleasure in society. He said that every ten years a man should move nearer the sun. He moved from Boston to New York, from New York to Washington; was Secretary of the Navy; afterwards American Minister to England. ”

“ Bancroft’s college career was a disappointment, and he was evidently regarded as a man spoiled by vanity and self-consciousness, and not commanding a strong influence over his pupils. My father wrote of these two teachers:—
Cambridge, Mass., 21 Nov., 1833.
Cogswell at New York to negotiate. He is much better fitted for a City. He loves society, bustle, fashion, polish, and good living. He would do best in some Mercantile House as a partner, say to Bankers like Prime, Ward, and King. He was at first a Scholar, a Lawyer in Maine. ”

“ And he treated me to as wild a theory as Charlie had cherished: told me that the great cocottes who make heaps of money took as much care of themselves as gentlemen. "Go with a common prostitute and you'll catch something; go with a real topnotcher and she's sure to be all right!' And perfectly at ease he went to work with a will.
Bancroft's way of learning French even was totally different from mine: he went at the grammar and syntax and mastered them: he could write excellent French at the end of four months; but spoke it very haltingly and with a ferocious American accent. ”

“ Bancroft’s impassive face lighted with a bantering smile. “There’s no limit to your bad opinion of a man, is there, Curt, if he once gets into your disfavor? By the way, is it true that the Castletons are behind Johnny Martinez?” ”

“ Bancroft’s eyes were fixed on his plate. Had the others been watching him closely they would have seen no more than a flicker of his eyelids as his face took on a stony impassiveness. But they were looking at Lucy who, with head erect, face flushed, and eyes sparkling, made a pretty picture.
“I’m glad you feel that way, Miss Bancroft,” Curtis exclaimed, his face alight with approval and admiration. “I think myself it’s about as despicable a way of getting money legally as man ever devised. Baxter knows when he loans the money that the poor wretches will never be able to pay back a cent of it. ”

“ And mingled with them was Eric Bancroft's face—the boy he had wronged—the soul that had gone away to sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die, and Eric had sinned, and he and Eric were one. . . . He raised his face to the spring sky. The breath of budding leaves in trim yards came to him out of the earth.
The great church was filled to the doors. Music was on the air and the mellow light of windows, and through it came the voice of the priest, lifting high the sacred cup before the congregation. . . . ”

“ Bancroft became a wiser man. He was no longer a murmurer, but a thankful recipient of the good gifts sent him by Providence. His wife bore him, in all, ten children, five of whom have already attained their majority. He never wanted a loaf of bread for them, nor anything needful for their comfort and happiness. True, he did not "get ahead" in the world, that is, did not lay up money; but One, wiser than he, saw that more than enough would not be good for him, and, therefore, no efforts that he could make would have given him more than what was needed for their "daily bread." ”

“ Bancroft thinks I ought ter, there's no more to be said. I'm willin'.”
An evening or two later, Barkman having gone into Wichita, Bancroft asked Loo to go out with him upon the stoop. For several minutes he stood in silence admiring the moonlit landscape; then he spoke as if to himself:
“Not a cloud in the purple depths, no breath of air, no sound nor stir of life—peace absolute that mocks at man's cares and restlessness. Look, Loo, how the ivory light bathes the prairie and shimmers on the sea of corn, and makes of the little creek a ribband of silver.... ”

“ George Bancroft is the Nestor of American men of letters. Born October 3, 1800, he received his early training at Exeter Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1817. He is now eighty-four years old, and his life has touched every administration in the history of our nation except Washington’s. What mighty changes have been wrought in the land since George Bancroft, a manly youth, stepped forth from his alma mater a full-fledged graduate! Two generations have passed away and a third is now on the stage of action. ”

“ Bancroft informed them that the American Government, believing it was the disposition of Parliament to make a large and liberal alteration in the Navigation Laws, was anxious to co-operate with the English Ministers in that great work, and, in conjunction with them, to set an example which he hoped would be productive of important and salutary effects. Mr. Bancroft’s language was singularly expressive and emphatic. In one of the interviews he said to the English Ministers: “We are ready to do anything you like; if you can do but little, we must do little; if you can do much, we will do much ”

“ The world was beautiful in the old days and human life was vivid. Ought we to deny to all this a warm and graphic setting forth? If we do we shall do it to our cost. Is it the proper attitude of the historian simply to write, without thought of anything so irrelevant as a reader? Bancroft was a pioneer, breaking the way ponderously perhaps, but he delved faithfully. If the orotund rolls too sonorously in his periods it was an excess in which his age upheld him. He was a good path-breaker and ought not to be lightly esteemed by those who now go to and fro with ease through the roads he opened. ”

“ Bancroft owned to himself in impotent anger, “and that means another chain on me.” Another obstacle had [Pg 385] risen in his path that would have to be overcome, one way or another, before he could reach that longed-for security. A little before, safety had seemed so near, and now it was further away than ever! He should have to fight for it, that was plain—and fight he would, to the last inch, Conrad and Jenkins and Baxter. They had pushed him to the wall, but that should not be the end. He would not let them wreck everything if—no matter now what he might have to do to protect himself. ”

“ If the Alien Bill passes, our American friends must mind their p’s and q’s, for if they praise the “model republic” too loudly, they may be packed off at any time, particularly if they have “long beards,” for it seems to be an axiom here that beards, mustaches, and barricades are cousins-german at least. . . . Mr. Bancroft goes to Paris on Monday, the 17th, to pass the Easter holidays. He will go on with his manuscripts, and at the same time witness the elections and meeting of the Convention.
To W. D. B. London, April 19, 1848. ”

“ Bancroft at the age of more than ninety years removes one of the few men in private life who can be ranked as personages. He was, perhaps, the only person in private life whose death would have received a semi-public recognition from any of the rulers of Europe. ”

“ This offer decided him to enter business in San Francisco; so after establishing credit relations with the leading publishing houses of the East, he returned to California, late in 1856.
Engaging a room near the corner of Montgomery and Merchant Street, he began business under the firm name of H. H. Bancroft & Co. At first he made money slowly; but his store expanded and the magnitude of his business increased. ”

“ Bancroft had two enthusiasms which made him a great historian— an enthusiasm for truth which spared no labor and left no stores of information unsearched, and an enthusiastic love of country. He believed that the great emotions and motives which move a free people are the noble, not the mean motives. He has written and interpreted the history of the United States in that faith. ”

“ BANCROFT, RICHARD, D.D. (1544–1610) , archbishop of Canterbury, son of John Bancroft, gentleman, and Mary, his wife, was born at Farnworth, Lancashire, in September 1544. His mother, whose maiden name was Curwen, was niece of Hugh Curwen, bishop of Oxford [q. v.] , and young Bancroft, after being well grounded in 'grammar' (i.e. the Latin language) at the excellent school in his native town, was sent at his great-uncle's expense, and at a somewhat more advanced age than ordinary, to Christ's College, Cambridge. ”

“ Tuesday’s early mail brought Henry Cope a letter bearing the Bancroft postmark, and he opened it somewhat nervously. As he apprehended, it contained a communication from Anson Graham, president of the Northern League, giving notice that there would be held at the office of Rufus Kilgore, in Bancroft, on Thursday evening, at eight o’clock, a meeting of the league directors to consider the protest of Manager Riley relative to Paul Hazelton, “playing with Kingsbridge under the assumed name of Tom Locke.”
“By gum!” growled the grocer disgustedly. “They actually do mean business. ”

“ He had made a good clean-up about that time and increased it by some lucky trading on the Denver stock exchange. Then he went to New Mexico, kept the name of Bancroft, engaged in other business as well as mining, and settled down to be a permanent citizen.
“I congratulate you upon the successful termination of our long chase. I understand Bancroft [Pg 366] is a man of considerable property and I hope you will be able to make him disgorge some of the goods he stole so long ago. ”

“ To represent in any way the vivacity, the buoyancy, the gaiety that belong to youth, its irrepressible humour, its unquenchable hope, is a task that the years make difficult enough for us all. To attempt it successfully is only for those who in themselves have never yet grown old. Lady Bancroft was a lover of young life. She was beloved by all young people who knew her. And one felt in talking to her that, as her voice had kept its magic, so her nature had preserved within a tired body something of its youth. ”

“ Bancroft either went himself or sent an assistant to every old mission, and interviewed every prominent family of Spanish or Mexican origin. At some of these places the original documents were easily procured; at others persuasion procured permission to make copies; and at others money proved the open sesame. It was in this personal manner that Judge Hayes, the enthusiastic collector, gathered up the hundred volumes of matter that passed into Mr. Bancroft's hands. ”

“ After the close of the war Bancroft became principally concerned in dyeing and calico printing, in which he made important discoveries. In 1786 an act of parliament secured him special rights of importing and using a certain kind of oak bark in calico-printing, but in 1799 a bill which had passed the House of Commons, for extending his rights for seven years, failed to pass the Lords, in consequence of the opposition of many northern calico-printers. Bancroft was bitterly disappointed, as he considered be had exercised his rights liberally ”

“ Mr. Bancroft accomplished a herculean labor in bringing to com- pletion the thirty-nine volumes of his Works. To do this required the expenditure of a fortune of money and twenty-five years of such patient devotion and infinite toil as few men can boast. Over- whelmed by the magnitude of his task he had "sat for days and brooded, heart-sick and discouraged."
"If but one copy of Mr. Bancroft's books had been made [it is claimed] the cost of it would be, in time and money, a million of dollars." It was without much doubt the severest labor of its kind ever undertaken by a private individual. ”

“ On Tuesday Mr. Bancroft went down to hear Lord John make a speech to his constituents in the city, while I went to see Miss Burdett-Coutts lay the corner-stone of the church which “the Bishop of London has permitted her to build,” to use her own expression in her note to me. In the evening we dined there with many of the clergy, and Lord Brougham, Lord Dundonald, etc. I went down with the Dean of Westminster, who was very agreeable and instructive. He and Dr. Whately have the simplicity of children, with an immense deal of knowledge, which they impart in the most pleasant way. ”

“ Although I had entered the service only for experience, I was in earnest and did my duty conscientiously; but I soon found out that my colleagues were genuine adventurers, only after money, and caring nothing for their work except as a means of getting it.
Bancroft was the most dishonest of all. He loved his bottle too well and got private supplies for it from Santa Fé, and worked harder with the brandy-flask than with his surveying instruments. Riggs, Marcy, and Wheeler, the three surveyors, emulated Bancroft in this unprofitable pursuit ”