Cooper

“ Master Martin will give his daughter to no man save the cooper who, in his house, shall make the most perfect masterpiece which a cooper can produce, and whom at the same time his daughter shall look upon favourably into the bargain. I cast my own art on one side, I learned the cooper's craft, and I am going to Nürnberg to work in Master Martin's workshop. ”

“ James White, a carpenter, well known for his industry and hard application to his work, is the next oldest settler, and Joseph Baldwin, cooper, is the third; the fourth male is James Fenimore Cooper, Esquire. This gentleman was born 1789, and in 1790, was brought an infant, a year old, into the village, with the family of Judge Cooper, of which he was the youngest child. His sister, Mrs. Pomeroy, is the longest resident among the females, neither of those already named as older inhabitants, her own father excepted, having been married at the time of the arrival of her family. ”

“ And this is Chingachgook, the splendid Great Serpent of the later novels.
No doubt Cooper, as a boy, knew both Natty and the Indian John. No doubt they fired his imagination even then. When he is a man, crystallised in society and sheltering behind the safe pillar of Mrs. Cooper, these two old fellows become a myth to his soul. He traces himself to a new youth in them. ”

“ Although the varied charms of the landscapes surrounding Cooperstown, attractive in themselves, and rendered still more fascinating by the magic pen of Cooper, cannot fail to be sources of exquisite delight to all lovers of the beautiful in nature, it is the "Glimmerglass," haunted with the wraiths and shades of the creations of the great Novelist, lying as pure and fair as on creation’s first day,
that appeals most to’ the fancy and dwells longest in the mind. ”

“ Cooper is delighted with it and I think he will own it. He is with me two or three hours at the gallery (the hours of his relaxation) every day as regularly as the day comes. I spend almost every evening at his house in his fine family.
"Cooper is very little understood, I believe, by our good people. He has a bold, original, independent mind, thoroughly American. He loves his country and her principles most ardently; he knows the hollowness of all the despotic systems of Europe, and especially is he thoroughly conversant with the heartless, false, selfish system of Great Britain ”

“ They have showed me a variety of little bowls and other implements, executed cooper-wise, with the greatest neatness and elegance. You will be pleased to remember they are all brought up to the trade of coopers, be their future intentions or fortunes what they may; therefore almost every man in this island has always two knives in his pocket, one much larger than the other ”

“ However, with her cargo of flour, the Stirling sailed from New York in the autumn of 1806 for the English market at Cowes, and therefore when Cooper should have been taking his class degree at Yale, he was outward bound on the sea's highway. Being to the manor born did not admit the sailor before-the-mast to the captain's cabin, but no doubt the long, rough voyage of forty stormy days did make of the young man a jolly tar. Through her usual veil of fog came Cooper's first view of Old England when threatened with Napoleon's invasion. ”

“ Cooper desired to have a portrait of this horse, but could not afford to pay for it, and when a friend remarked, ‘Why not try your own hand on old “Frolic”?’ Cooper set to work, and having finished a picture, he showed it to Sir Henry Meux, who not only purchased it, but became his friend and patron. He now began studying art by making careful copies of horses from engravings published in the ‘Sporting Magazine.’ These were drawn by Benjamin Marshall, to whom Cooper was introduced by his uncle Davis, the well-known equestrian. ”

“ A present-day man-of-letters writes of Cooper: "He paints Indians and Indian scenes with a glow of our sunset skies and the crimson of our autumn maples, and makes them alive with brilliant color. Rifles crack, tomahawks gleam, and arrows dart like sunbeams through the air. Indians fleet of foot and full of graceful movement are these dusky Apollo's Uncas. ”

“ Of his man-servant Cooper wrote: "The English footman I engaged is a steady, little, old man, with a red face and a powdered poll, who appears in black breeches and coat, but who says himself that his size has marred his fortune. He is cockney born, about fifty; quality and splendor act forcibly on his imagination, and he is much condemned in the houses where I visit on account of his dwarfish stature"; and we are told that the English favor pretty faces for their maids and fine figures for their footmen. ”

“ I went on board and applied for a berth with seven others of our party, but having a full crew and being scant of provisions, we were refused, but afterwards some of his men ran away and among them was his cooper, so I shipped as cooper to receive the same lay that the old cooper had. ”

“ Cooper and Cowper.—Cooper Earl of Shaftesbury bears Three Bulls: Cowper Earl Cowper does not.
"The Eagle and Child" having been adopted as the Crest of the Earl of Derby, its Origin is a circumstance of no small curiosity.
Nothing is more common than for a Tenant or Dependant to take the Crest of his Lord or Chief for a Sign; which will account for the greatest part of the Bulls' Heads, Griffins, [203] Falcons, Lions, Boars, &c. in the Kingdom. Thus from one quarter they straggled into different places, as those people who had occasion for Signs emigrated from their own Counties and Districts. ”

“ The Coquette has never got a chase under her lee, that she did not speak.”
“I disparage no ship, sir, for character is character, and none should speak lightly of their fellow-creatures, and, least of all, of anything which follows the sea. I allow the Coquette to be a lively boat on a wind, and a real scudder going large; but one should know the wright that fashioned yonder brigantine, before he ventures to say that any vessel in Her Majesty’s fleet can hold way with her, when she is driven hard.” ”

“ I never knew that these people were in the habit of eating dogs."
"Yes, I could have told you that," said the cooper, "that is to say, as regards another island of this group. I know they do at Ascension, and they prefer them to pigs."
"Well," said I, "I suppose all of us can now testify that they are as good as pigs, if eaten with a sauce of ignorance."
"After the collation comes the ball;" said the cooper. "You see those fellows backing down wood, and getting ready to make a bonfire. They will light up the fire after dark, and then dance and sing round it. ”

“ Lake to the stationmaster. "I know him well, a sober, steady man. He persists still that the red signal was not exhibited; that it was the green."
"Oh, he does, does he?" returned the stationmaster. "He had better prove it. Of course, when they are at their wit's end for an excuse, they invent anything, probable or improbable."
"Cooper is not a man to invent. I am sure he is truthful."
"Let him wait till the inquest," was the significant reply.
The train came in, and they were taken on to Guild station. From thence they found their way to Mrs. Chester's, losing Oliver Jupp on the road. ”

“ After he left the navy, and while he was living in Angevine, Cooper became part owner in a whaling-ship,—The Union, of Sag Harbor. She made trips to different parts of the coast, and several times, for the pleasure of it, Cooper played skipper. Under his direction she once carried him to Newport, with which he was greatly pleased. He explored the old ruin there, but no fancy could ever persuade him to see more than a windmill in it; but the charm of Newport's situation, harbor, and shore lines lingered in his mind and served him for the opening and closing scenes of this work. ”

“ I have never yet seen one myself, but I have sailed with others who have. Captain Upton tells me he has seen two or three in his life, and I don't think he can be mistaken. We have all heard of the Essex affair to which the cooper alluded, and the dreadful sufferings of the crew. I remember it well, for I was cruising on Chili at that time in the Plutarch, and from the statements of the survivors, it is plain enough that that whale went to work deliberately and with malice prepense, as the lawyers would say, to destroy the ship. The cooper's yarn is, doubtless, partly true ”

“ In an old electioneering squib by the late Lord John Townshend, Cowper is made to rhyme to Trooper. The passage alludes to an old county scandal, and I do not therefore quote it.
J. H. L.
There can be no doubt (as it seems to me) that the poet's name ought to be pronounced according to the spelling. I am enabled to state decidedly that he himself pronounced his name Cowper, and not Cooper. I venture to think that the same might also be said with respect to Lord Coke's name; i. e. that the pronunciation Cook is only a "modern affectation." ”

“ Cooper’s Rage—Recourse to the Law—First Result of Arbitration—M. Huré—My Letters to Mme. de Genlis—Visit of Saint-Aubin—His Journey—Emissary from Mme. de Genlis—Letters from Saint-Aubin—His Return—Realized Fears—Mr. Mills’s Tricks—My Correspondence with the English Ambassador.
While I was lamenting over the unexpected departure of my husband and son, Driver-Cooper, for his part, was loudly complaining, and wanting to force me to go back to his house, which he still kept on calling his château at Bellevue, his beautiful château of Colonnes. ”

“ They were as strong in contrast as it was possible for men to be." It was during this visit that the old sailor spun his life-yarn in his own way and Cooper wove it into his book, "Ned Myers."
Perhaps the following interesting Cooperstown story of Cooper's youth is of the time of his return from his Stirling voyage. One day a merry group of young men proposed a footrace, the course to be around the square—a distance of about one hundred yards. James Cooper was named as one of the runners, and his rival was soon chosen. ”

“ Some two years after Cooper's return from abroad, a friend about to sail for Europe met him walking leisurely along Broadway with his coat open and a great string of onions in his hand. Seeing several persons turn to look at him, then speak to each other, the friend too turned—"and behold, it was Cooper!" After greetings he raised his bunch of onions and said: "I have turned farmer, but am obliged to come to town now and then, as you see." Kind remembrances were sent to Greenough; and of Italy he added: "There is no place where mere living is such a luxury." ”

“ The present condition of Cooperstown is sufficiently prosperous, without being in that state of feverish excitement that has afflicted so many other small towns. The trade is not great, but it is steady and profitable. The village contains six dry goods stores, all of which are on a respectable scale ”

“ Thou mayst practise thy skill in horsemanship on the plains of New Jersey with safety; but in the hills of Otsego they may be suspended for a time."
"I may as well then relinquish my saddle at once, dear sir," returned his daughter; "for if it is to be laid aside until this wild country be improved, old age will overtake me, and put an end to what you term my equestrian feats."
"Say not so, my child," returned her father; "but if thou venturest again as in crossing this bridge, old age will never overtake thee, but I shall be left to mourn thee, cut off in thy pride, my Elizabeth. ”

“ The population does not probably vary much from 1,300 souls at the present moment.
Cooperstown is better built than common, for a village of its size. Of the dwelling-houses, there are a good many of stone or brick, as there are also stores and shops. ”

“ Miss Cooper was one of the most characteristic survivals of the old régime in Cooperstown. She lived next door to Fernleigh in Byberry Cottage, which had been built as a home for the two unmarried daughters of the novelist shortly after [Pg 406] the burning of Otsego Hall, and largely out of material rescued from it, including the oaken doors, the balusters of the stairway, and two bookcases from Cooper's library which were transferred to the cottage. ”

“ Cooper, "in these wild braves . . . It was a matter of course that in drawing Indian character he should dwell on the better traits of the picture, rather than on the coarser and more revolting though more common points. Like West, he could see the Apollo in the young Mohawk."
When in July, 1826, Cooper landed in England with his wife and family, he carried his Indian memories and associations with him. They crossed to France, and ascended the Seine by steamboat, and then settled for a time in Paris. ”

“ In the last week of 1654 he made a great bonfire in Lambeth, and threw into it his tent, saddle, pistols, a sword, and a bible, on which ‘the people were ready to stone him.’ On Saturday, 30 Dec., he made his appearance at the parliament house, ‘armed with a long rusty sword,’ asked Cooper the doorkeeper ‘whether he might deliver a petition,’ and was told it could be done through a member. An hour later he came with another armed man, ran at Cooper with his sword, and ‘hurt divers’ till Major Ennis overpowered him. ”

“ Half a century afterward Elihu Phinney declared that whatever the ruling of etiquette might be in this matter, he had never since failed to heed this bit of advice from Fenimore Cooper. Mrs. Stephen H. Synnott, wife of a one-time rector of Christ Church in Cooperstown, remembered Cooper as a genuine lover of children. She was Alice Trumbull Worthington, and during the novelist's latter years she lived as a child in the White House on Main Street, nearest neighbor to Otsego Hall. "To meet Fenimore Cooper on the street in the village was always a pleasure," says Mrs. Synnott. ”