John Lane

“ John Lane was instantly recognised by the reviewers and critics as an achievement of quite exceptional importance. It is now felt that the time has come for a revised and slightly abridged edition of that which was issued four years ago at £5 5s. net. The text has been compressed in some places and extended in others, while certain emendations have been made, and after due reflection, the plan of the book has been materially recast. This renders it of greater assistance to the student. ”

“ FRANKLIN K. LANE TO JOHN H. WIGMORE En route to Chicago, February 25, 1915
MY DEAR JOHN,—I have read your preface with great satisfaction. It will, no doubt, renew your self-confidence to know that it has my approval. You make some profound suggestions which would never in the world have occurred to me. The American believes that the doctrine of equality necessarily implies unlimited appeal. This is my psychological explanation for the unwillingness to give our judges more power. ”

“ LANE, JOHN BRYANT (1788–1868) , painter, born at Helston in Cornwall in 1788, was son of Samuel Lane, chemist and excise-man, and Margaret Baldwin his wife. Lane was educated at Truro until he was fourteen when his taste for art was noticed by Lord de Dunstanville of Tehidy, who afforded him the means to practise it in London. Lane obtained a gold medal from the Society of Arts for an historical cartoon of ‘The Angels Unbound.’ In 1808 he exhibited at the Royal Academy an altarpiece for Lord de Dunstanville’s church in Cornwall ”

“ It was arranged that the king should ride with her in the disguise of her man-servant. Accordingly, at daybreak of 10 Sept. Charles, dressed in a serving-man’s suit, and assuming the name of William Jackson, one of Colonel Lane's tenants, brought Jane Lane's mare to the hall-door at Bentley, and took her up behind him on the pillion. Jane Lane's brother-in-law, John Petre, and his wife, who were not in the secret, were to accompany her as far as Stratford-upon-Avon, also riding saddle-and-pillion; Henry Lascelles was to escort her the whole way. ”

“ General John R. Brooke, who had fought at Gettysburg and later had commanded our forces in Porto Rico, came pretty close to selection. One evening David H. Lane, representing the organization of the Republican party, came up to my house. Lane is a remarkable man. Slight in frame, sandy in complexion, with a face of the Shakespearean type, he is very much of a philosopher and has often been called the brains of the party in Philadelphia, and is conceded by all to be one of its most astute leaders. As a plenipotentiary he tendered to me the nomination. ”

“ The worst enemy that capital has in the country is the man who thinks that he can "put one over" on the people. An institution cannot remain sacred long which is the creator of injustice, and that is what some of our blind friends at Chicago do not see. Very truly yours,
FRANKLIN K. LANE TO JOHN MCNAUGHT NEW YORK WORLD Washington, March 23, 1912
MY DEAR JOHN,—I am very glad indeed to hear from you and to know that you are in sympathy with my "eloquent" address at the University of Virginia. You give me hope that I am on the right track. ”

“ The morning mists hung low over the river, and, under cover of these, the savage paddled away unobserved, his captive lying in a faint on the bottom of the canoe. No prisoner ever received kinder treatment at the hands of an Indian than did David Allison. As he gradually regained his strength he yearned for home and pleaded to be taken back to Virginia, but his captor was obdurate; he wanted the man for a companion and in many ways gave evidence of affection for him. ”

“ As he lay looking out upon the bluff, whereon sat the village, and down on the broad meadow, he admired the location with the eye of a young pioneer. What a delightful spot for a plantation! His boyish imagination pictured a home like “The Hall” on the bluff overlooking the creek. Back of that he would have the negro cabins and the stables, for he would have fine horses like Nat. With such a home he would be as important a man as Squire Danesford and his father need be under obligations to no man. Had Lisbeth married her cousin and gone to England? ”

“ James H. Lane was an Indiana man, son of a preacher; had served with credit as Colonel of Indiana troops in Mexico, and had been Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana and Member of Congress, but getting at odds with his party had migrated to Kansas, where his natural talents and fiery, aggressive courage speedily brought him to the front as the leader of the warlike Free State men, who resisted with force and arms the attempts of the Pro-slavery men to dominate the Territory. ”

“ Lane has succeeded to admiration, and chiefly by reason of being so much interested in her theme herself that she makes no conscious effort to please. She just tells her tales with no more artifice than one might use in narrative by word of mouth, and she keeps the reader's interest as keenly alive as if he were really listening to an amusing story of what had once actually happened. Every one who seeks to be diverted will read 'Kitwyk' for its obvious qualities of entertainment."—Times. ”

“ At John's request they had moved his bed across the doorway of his cabin; and stretched there, he could see the sun spring every morning out the dimpled emerald ocean of the wilderness; and the moon follow at night, silvering the soft ripples of the multitudinous leaves lapping the shores of silence: days when the inner noises of life sounded like storms; nights when everything within him lay as still as memory.
His wounds had behaved well from the out-set. ”

“ Among them Rodney saw Squire Danesford elbowing his way through the door, his face purple with rage, and, once outside, he mounted his horse and rode away at a mad gallop, followed by Black Tom.
The convention over, the delegates went to their homes to make ready for the impending conflict. The war spirit was abroad throughout the Old Dominion, and young Allison found Nat unequal to the riding he was required to do and was furnished with another horse. Volunteers, with such arms as they could procure, 174 drilled daily and some among them were eager for the fray to begin ”

“ Another of Lane's schemes served to keep Brown at Tabor a month longer: a project for "the wholesale assassination of pro-slavery men through a secret order" called Danites. This time Mr. Whitman ably seconded Lane's efforts to interest Brown. He borrowed one hundred and fifty dollars which he enclosed with a letter to him and sent it by Mr. Charles P. Tidd, saying: "General Lane will send teams from Falls City so that you may get your goods all in. Leave none behind. Come direct to this place, and see me before you make any disposition of your plunder.... ”

“ He gave those Hessians a sound drubbing if reports are correct. He was at Trenton, you know. Was disgruntled, because he didn’t get the promotion he wanted, an’ went home.”
“Lucky he did. He was just the man needed to do that job at Bennington. I went as messenger to Portsmouth and heard John Langdon, the speaker of the New Hampshire assembly, pledge his property to fit out Stark. That’s the kind of statesmen to have.”
“A durned sight better than the majority of those in Congress. Whar is yer Uncle Dick, at home worryin’ about ye?” ”

“ And young Allison, here, is a chap as was with me fightin’ Indians out in the Ohio country. I wish all the boys who’ve marched with me could fall into the ranks to-day; we’d keep right on to New York an’ capture Howe, bag an’ baggage.”
“When we take New York,” laughed Zeb, “we’ll need more men than Congress ever has got together, I’m thinkin’. I was there when Washington tried to hold it, because Congress an’ the country expected him to do the impossible. But, Colonel, I will say as how if you led the way, thar’d not be one of ’em, as ever 206 marched with Morgan, who wouldn’t be at yer back.” ”

“ Captain Leslie now came to the support of Fordyce’s men, and Colonel Woodford led his men forward to 191 support Travis, while Colonel Stevens led a body of men, with whom were Enderwood and Allison, to attack the British on the flank.
For a few minutes the skirmish was hot. The British fought doggedly, as many believed what Dunmore had told them, that if captured the Virginians would scalp them. Rodney received a light flesh wound, but most of the Americans escaped uninjured, while several of the enemy were killed. ”

“ I hear talk of shoving Hoover outside the breastworks. Fools! Fools! Best for him but worse for the country. Whole question of Republican success turns on the largeness of Harding. I don't ask a Lincoln—much less will do. If he is only a smooth-footed politician he will fail. So far he has been the gentleman. ...
My love to your whole circle, from Grandmother down.
Affectionately,
F. K. L. To John G. Gehring
Rochester, Minnesota, December 31, [1920]
MY DEAR PADRE,—It is the last night of an unhappy year. Never do I wish for such another. No joy—defeat, dreary waiting. ”

“ Characteristically beautiful spots on the blue-grass landscape are the woodland pastures. A Kentucky wheat field, a Kentucky meadow, a Kentucky lawn, is but a field, a meadow, a lawn, found elsewhere; but a Kentucky sylvan slope has a loveliness unique [13] and local. Rightly do poets make pre-eminently beautiful countries abound in trees. John Burroughs, writing with enthusiasm of English woods, has said that "in midsummer the hair of our trees seems to stand on end; the woods have a frightened look, or as if they were just recovering from a debauch." ”

“ Never before had America witnessed such a brave display, the parade of floats upon the river, the fireworks, the tournaments, the dazzling costumes, the sumptuous banquet and the brilliant ball to conclude it all ”

“ Was there ever anyone in the world who was ever missed except by one or two, and that not because he was great or even necessary, but only because he was beloved by some longing, aching heart? The waters of oblivion settle over a memory as quickly as over a puddle which is disturbed by a pebble thrown by a careless hand. ”

“ But apart from these the rank and file of women, consist of the aimless ones—and there are all sorts of aimless ones: rich and poor, high and low,—who potter vaguely through life, through shops, through streets, through joy, through sorrow; think feebly, talk feebly, and feel feebly, and finally fade away, and cease to exist. Now think of the majority of men frittering away life like that! ”

“ The power a hostess has to blight a crowd of people with her own frost! There is the hostess who greets you as if she had never seen you before, and accepts your hand as if it were a slice of cold fish; there is the haughty hostess who shakes hands limply while she looks over your head at a superior guest; there is the vague hostess who smiles liberally, but sees you not; then there is the hostess with the surface geniality, who, with a hurried glance at you, gushes inquiries across you at the nearest man. ”

“ You are too good a horse to drag the plow on this poor little farm. You shall have one of the greatest men in this great land for a master, while I will stay away from the war and both of us may save our precious skins and perhaps be British subjects in the end. ”

“ It graces afternoon teas, while the guests refresh themselves in stunned silence, or shriek at the top of their voices in vain rivalry, until they melt into the street, where the turmoil of cabs, carts, vans, and motors is soothing and peaceful by comparison. ”

“ But at that moment his joy was too great to harbor strange misgivings. How impossible for any one to understand his feelings then, except perhaps the comrades who had survived the same ordeal!
The vessel glided on. A fresh cool spring breeze with a scent of land fanned Lane's hot brow. It bore tidings from home. Almost he thought he smelled the blossoms in the orchard, and the damp newly plowed earth, and the smoke from the wood fire his mother used to bake over. A hundred clamoring thoughts strove for dominance over his mind—to enter and flash by and fade. ”

“ Lane loved the low hills, the deep, colorful woods in autumn. There he lost himself. He learned. Silence and solitude taught him. From there he had vision of the horde of men righting down the false impossible trails of the world. He felt the sweetness, the frailty, the dependence, the glory and the doom of women battling with life. He realized the hopeless traits of human nature. Like dead scales his egotism dropped from him. ”

“ Eric smiled tolerantly.
"I don't know enough of what people make her out to be," he replied. Sybil was smiling mysteriously and exasperatingly to herself.... "Is the guv'nor working?" he asked his mother.
Eric prowled through the hall to his father's big work-room. Sir Francis was sitting bent over a litter of papers, with a green eye-shade clamped to his lined forehead and an ill-smelling corn-cob drooping from beneath his unassertive grey moustache. In an arm-chair before the fire Geoff was contentedly dozing with the bog-mud steaming from his boots and a half-cleaned gun across his knees. ”

“ On 21st May 1828 poor Lane's promising career was cut short in most tragical fashion. While waiting for a friend at the Horse Repository in the Gray's Inn Road, he stepped upon a skylight, and, falling through, his brains were dashed out upon the pavement below. He left a widow and two children, for whose benefit Egan published a little work in verse called The Show Folks, with illustrations by Lane, as well as a short memoir of the unfortunate artist. ”

“ Sometimes he would stop to get out and make one of his scouting detours, or he would follow a car to some distant roadhouse, or go to the outlying summer pavilions where popular dances were given. More than once, late at night, he was an unseen and unbidden guest at one of the gay bathing parties. Strange and startling incidents seemed to gravitate toward Lane. He might have been predestined for this accumulation of facts. How vain it seethed for wild young men and women to think they hid their tracks! ”