Howe

“ It was in these days that she went with Laura to call on him, and found him in his library, a big, bright room, looking out on the Charles River, books lining the walls, a prevailing impression of atlases and dictionaries open on stands. The greeting between the two was pleasant to see, their talk something to remember. "Ah, Mrs. Howe," said the Autocrat, "you at seventy have much to learn about life. At eighty you will find new vistas opening in every direction!" ”

“ Howe was a man lavishly gifted, one of the most effective orators America has produced, fearing no man and no task however great, filled with a vitality, a humor, a broad sympathy for his fellows that gave him the blind obedience of thousands of followers and the glowing friendship of countless firesides. There are still old men in Nova Scotia whose proudest memory is that they once held Howe's horse or ran on an errand for a look from his kingly eye. ”

“ It is a sad spectacle, that of the great man knocking at preferment's door, and knocking in vain. Howe was a statesman, with his head full of ideas of Imperial consolidation. His was a great wild heart, deeply touched indeed with ambition, 'the last infirmity of noble minds,' but deeply conscious also of great powers, emotional and intellectual. ”

“ We returned to the city very slowly, of necessity, for the troops nearly filled the road. My dear minister was in the carriage with me, as were several other friends. To beguile the rather tedious drive, we sang from time to time snatches of the army songs so popular at that time, concluding, I think, with
"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the ground;
His soul is marching on."
The soldiers seemed to like this, and answered back, "Good for you!" Mr. Clarke said, "Mrs. Howe, why do you not write some good words for [p. 275] that stirring tune?" ”

“ Howe’s appeals to his countrymen. The greater part of his life was devoted to the healing arts of the good physician. Yet the portraits of him, taken during the tremendous struggle of the anti-slavery period, show a sternness not visible in his younger nor yet in his later days.
In her poem “A Rough Sketch” my mother described him as he seemed to her at this time:
A great grieved heart, an iron will,
As fearless blood as ever ran;
A form elate with nervous strength
And fibrous vigor,—all a man.
Charles Sumner came often to Green Peace when he was in Boston. We children greatly admired him. ”

“ In short, should Howe's plans for the coming season work, as there was every reason to expect, then there would be little enough left of the Revolution in its cradle and stronghold, with the troops at New York, Albany, and Newport acting in well-devised combination.
71
Brilliant only when roused by the presence of danger, Howe as easily fell into his habitual indolence when the danger had passed by. In effect, what had he to fear? Washington was beyond the Delaware, with the débris of the army he had lately commanded, which served him rather as an escort than a defence. ”

“ Enoch and Jacob looked at the speaker in surprise which bordered on bewilderment.
"Do you mean that General Howe will march out of the city when there is no necessity of his doing so?"
"He will unquestionably march out very shortly; but there is good reason for the move. He has accomplished nothing by remaining there, and fears he may find himself in trouble. Four days before the carnival Howe issued an order for the heavy baggage of the army to be prepared for embarkation at the shortest notice, and for the soldiers to lighten their personal luggage. ”

“ This cursed project of Miss Howe and her Mrs. Townsend (if I cannot contrive to render it abortive) will be always a sword hanging over my head. Upon every little disobligation my beloved will be for taking wing; and the pains I have taken to deprive her of every other refuge or protection, in order to make her absolutely dependent upon me, will be all thrown away. But perhaps I shall find out a smuggler to counterplot Miss Howe.
Thou remembrest the contention between the Sun and the North-wind, in the fable; which should first make an honest traveller throw off his cloak. ”

“ Howe, private secretary to Sir Howard. The carriage, a handsome one, is driven by a span of full-blooded Arabian horses; magnificent specimens of their species; proudly sits their owner in his costly equipage. As a man of wealth, high family, Mr. Howe occupied a prominent position in the household of the Douglas family. His coming is awaited with eagerness. Captain Douglas, his friend and companion, is at his side in a moment addressing him with hearty familiarity, "Howe, you are late. Has business been pressing? Takes some time to get reconciled to the hum drum of life in New Brunswick! ”

“ When the war was over no officer had a more brilliant record of service than Howe. He was appointed colonel of the 46th foot in Ireland in 1764, and was made lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight in 1768 (Home Office Mil. Entry Book, xxvii. 266) . When Howe's elder brother, the third viscount, fell at Ticonderoga in 1758, his mother issued an address to the electors of Nottingham, for which the viscount had been member, begging their suffrages on behalf of her youngest son, then also fighting for his country in America. ”

“ After attending the parish school Howe was apprenticed to a house-painter at Edinburgh, but employed his time in painting panoramic exhibitions, devoting himself especially to animals. Howe obtained a great reputation for his skill in drawing horses and cattle, and was employed in drawing portraits of well-known animals for a series of illustrations of British domestic animals, published by the Highland Society of Scotland to stimulate breeding. ”

“ The chief regarded the speaker with an inquiring glance for a moment, then said: "Whirlwind is not to be played with. When the antelope says she will go with him, he will take her, if she is hemmed in with arrows."
"Whirlwind, I will be plain with you," said Howe, "for I know you are noble, generous, and brave. Jane is not my child, and is not mine to dispose of; but as she has no other guardian here, I will protect her until once more restored to her family. ”

“ But the mound whereunder the Markmen were laid was called Thiodolf’s Howe for many generations of men, and many are the tales told of him; for men were loth to lose him and forget him: and in the latter days men deemed of him that he sits in that Howe not dead but sleeping, with Throng-plough laid before him on the board; and that when the sons of the Goths are at their sorest need and the falcons cease to sit on the ridge of the Great Roof of the Wolfings, he will wake and come forth from the Howe for their helping. ”

“ Literary rambles and literary sketches were {29} all very well, but what really roused enthusiasm in those days was the political struggle. 'Poetry was the maiden I loved,' said Howe in after years, 'but politics was the harridan I married.' In the early nineteenth century aristocracy and democracy, alike in politics and in society, were fighting their battle all over Europe, and the struggle had spread to the British colonies. In the first year of his editorship Howe had a little brush with the lieutenant-governor and his circle, but not for some time did the crisis come. ”

“ Women rule the roost here, sir, as they do elsewhere,” he said, turning to Howe. “Mistress Martha will have it she has a right to the honour of entertaining some of your party; you went to her gate first, it seems.”
“True,” said Howe, smiling. “We are flattered by your desire, madam. We think there is one amongst us who has already found a flame, and is trying to singe his wings; if she lead the way, he will not refuse to follow,” and as he spoke he looked towards where Marie and William Parkmann were talking to each other. ”

“ Howe’s only son, Henry Marion, graduated at Harvard University in 1869 and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1871, is a mining [308] engineer and expert, and is a professor in the School of Mines at Columbia University. His book on “The Metallurgy of Steel” has won for him a high reputation. It will thus be seen that Mrs. Howe has had the rare and perhaps unequaled experience of being not merely herself an author, but the mother of five children, all authors. She has many grandchildren, and even a great-grandchild, whose future career can hardly be surmised. ”

“ Longfellow's letter to Dr. Howe also has been preserved among the precious relics of the time.
My dearest Chevalier,—
From the deepest dungeons of my heart, all the imprisoned sympathies and affections of my nature cry aloud to you, saying "All hail!" On my return from Portland this afternoon, I found your note, and before reading it I read in Sumner's eyes your happiness. The great riddle of life is no longer a riddle to you; the great mystery is solved. ”

“ Howe had only thirty- three ships of the line; Cordova had forty-six, and, had he brought the English to action, must have prevented the relief of the fortress. On the 13th he got under way; but, refusing to engage and neglecting to maintain his position between the English fleet and the Rock, he allowed Howe to get to the westward of him, so that when, on the 16th, the wind came round to the east, the convoy was able to slip in at pleasure, while the ships of war, lying to the east of the bay, guarded against any interruption. By the 19th the stores and troops had been landed ”

“ Howe, by the last advices, was manœuvering his fleet and army in such a manner as to give us expectations of an expedition somewhere; but whether to Rhode Island, Halifax, up the North River, or the Delaware, is left to conjecture. I am much in doubt whether he knows his own intentions. A faculty of penetrating into the designs of an [283] enemy is said to be the first quality of a General, but it is impossible to discover the designs of an enemy who has no design at all. An intention that has no existence, a plan that is not laid, cannot be divined. ”

“ The coats, of both the Regulars and Provincials, were cut short at the waist, and no officer or private was allowed to carry more than one blanket and a bear skin.
Howe himself lived as simply and roughly as his men. The soldiers were devoted to their young commander, and were ready to follow him to the death.
"That's something like a man for a general," Nat said enthusiastically, as he marched, with the Royal Scouts, past the spot where Lord Howe was sitting on the ground, eating his dinner with a pocket knife. ”

“ Howe, frowning at Miss Ruth's hand, and then glancing at Mr. Dale's, and thrusting out his lower lip, while his bushy eyebrows gathered in a frown.
"What is Ward?" asked Mr. Dale, sorting his cards. "Old or new school?"
"I'm sure I don't know the difference," said Dr. Howe; "he's a blue Presbyterian, though, through and through. He didn't have much to say for himself, but what he did say made me believe he was consistent; he doesn't stop short where his creed ceases to be agreeable, and you know that is unusual." ”

“ Howe after the Restoration, 'he very freely told him, with tears running down his cheeks, that if Richard had but at that time hanged up him and nine or ten more, the nation might have been happy' (Life of Howe, p. 26) . He signed the invitation of the army to the members of the Rump to return to their seats, and was appointed both a member of the council of state and one of the committee who nominated to all offices (May 1659) . ”

“ HOWE, JOSEPH (1804–1873) , Canadian statesman, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 13th of December 1804, the son of John Howe (1752–1835) , a United Empire Loyalist who was for many years king’s printer and postmaster-general for the Maritime Provinces and the Bermudas. He received little regular education, and at the age of 13 entered his father’s office. In 1827 he started the Acadian, a weekly non-political journal, but soon sold it, and in 1828 purchased the Nova Scotian, which later became amalgamated with the Morning Chronicle. ”

“ The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long surviving her husband; and, at her death, left behind her many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who was a distinguished mechanic and artist, [2] as well as warrior ”

“ In answer to this speech Howe wrote to Lord John Russell four open letters, which were republished in almost every Canadian newspaper, and which, issued in pamphlet {58} form, were sent to every British newspaper and member of parliament. Never did he reach a higher level. Vigorous, sparkling, full of apt illustration and sound political thought, they grip 'little Johnny Russell's' speech and shake it to tatters. 'By the beard of the prophet!'—to use one of Howe's favourite oaths—here is a big man, a man with a gift of expression and a grip of principle. ”

“ If I lagged behind, he would cry, "Come on! it's as bad as going to a funeral to ride with you." And so, I suppose, it was. I remember one day when a great palm branch had fallen across our path. I thought that my horse would certainly slip on it, sending me to depths below. Fortunately he did not. That very day, while Dr. Howe was taking his siesta, I went to the place where this impediment lay, and with a great effort threw it over the steep mountain-side. The whole neighborhood of Samana is very mountainous, and I sometimes found it impossible to obey the word of command. ”

“ Knott had arrived, so had the appreciative select; Mr. Howe's cravat and waistcoat had been duly jerked into place by his wife, and now the baby "really must be woke." Mrs. Howe sprinkles a little jockey-club on Mr. Howe's handkerchief, takes one last lingering look in the mirror, readjusts a stray ribbon, changes the latitude of a gold head pin, then steps up to the rose-wood cradle, and draws aside the lace curtains.
What a pity! There is no flush on the babe's face! and how very pale she looks! Mrs. Howe takes hold of the plump little waxen hand that lies out upon the coverlid. ”