Joel Barlow was a native of Connecticut, and was graduated at Yale College. After completing his studies, he was a while chaplain in the army. He was a lawyer by profession. A considerable portion of his life was spent in Europe, and he was, at one time, minister plenipotentiary to the French government. At Paris, he was honored with receiving the rights of citizenship. He died at an obscure village, near Cracow, while on a journey to confer with Napoleon, at Wilna, in Poland. He belonged to the first class of writers of his time. Columbiad, an epic poem, is the principal of his works, though The Hasty Pudding is the most popular of his poetical writings. Barlow was a man much respected for his ardent patriotism, and for the purity of his life. THE HASTY PUDDING. I SING the sweets I know, the charms I feel, Assist me first with pious toil to trace, Through wrecks of time, thy lineage and thy race; First learned with stones to crack the well-dried maize, The yellow flour, bestrewed and stirred with haste, Then puffs and wallops, rises to the brim, And the whole mass its true consistence takes. Dear Hasty Pudding, what unpromised joy Doomed o'er the world through devious paths to roam, Each clime my country, and each house my home, The My soul is soothed, my cares have found an end; But here, though distant from our native shore, With mutual glee, we meet and laugh once more. The same! I know thee by that yellow face, That strong complexion of true Indian race, Which time can never change, nor soil impair, Nor Alpine snows, nor Turkey's morbid air; For endless years, through every wild domain, Where grows the maize, there thou art sure to reign. But man, more fickle, the bold license claims, In different realms, to give thee different names. Thee the soft nations round the warm Levant Polanta call; the French, of course, Polante. E'en in thy native regions, how I blush To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee Mush! On Hudson's banks, while men of Belgic spawn Insult and eat thee by the name Suppawn. All spurious appellations, void of truth; earliest youth; I've better known thee from my "In haste the boiling cauldron, o'er the blaze, The tender ear, and wound the stony plate; But most to me, whose heart and palate chaste My song, resounding in its grateful glee, From thee what health, what vigor, he possessed, To roast or boil, to smother or to bake, In every dish 't is welcome still to me, But most, my Hasty Pudding, most in thee! And now, the corn-house filled, the harvest home, Meanwhile, the housewife urges all her care, First, with clean salt she seasons well the food, ། I leave them to their feast. More copious matters to my There still belong faithful song. For rules there are, though ne'er unfolded yet, Some with molasses line the luscious treat, Milk, then, with pudding, I would always choose; To this in future I confine my muse. First, in your bowl, the milk abundant take, Then drop with care, along the silver lake, There is a choice in spoons. Though small appear Fear not to slaver; 't is no deadly sin; The wide-mouthed bowl will surely catch them all. 24 ALEXANDER H MILTON. 1757-1804. Alexander Hamilton was born on one of the West India Islands. His father was a Scotch gentleman, and his mother a descendant of a French Huguenot. At the age of fifteen, he so distinguished himself by a written account of a hurricane, that he was sent to the United States to be educated. He entered King's College, New York. Here he was conspicuous for his acuteness and eloquence, and particularly for the part he took, when only seventeen, in resisting the oppressions of England. As an officer under Washington, he attracted the admiration of his general, and became his most confidential aid. After the war, he with great rapidity prepared himself for the bar. He became a member of Congress, where he had great influence, by his profound political essays, his eloquence, sagacity, and love of justice. He was Secretary of the Treasury, under Washington. On resigning this office, he was thronged with clients, but, at Washington's request, became his first officer in the provisional army. There were few incidents in his history after this. He was killed in a duel, by Aaron Burr, at Weehawken. His death occasioned deep and universal mourning throughout the country, and Burr, from this time, became a fugitive and a vagabond. [From a Letter to Colonel Laurens.] THE FATE OF ANDRÉ. NEVER, perhaps, did any man suffer death with more justice, or deserve it less. The first step he took, after his capture, was to write a letter to General Washington, conceived in terms of dignity without insolence, and apology without meanness. The scope of it was to vindicate himself from the imputation of having assumed a mean character, for treacherous or interested purposes: asserting that he had been involuntarily an impostor; that, contrary to his intention, which was to meet a person for intelligence on neutral ground, he had been betrayed within our posts, and forced into the vile condition of an enemy in disguise; soliciting only, that, to whatever rigor policy might devote him, a decency of treatment might be observed, due to a person, who, though unfortunate, had been guilty of nothing dishonorable. His request was granted in its full extent; for, in the whole progress of the affair, he was treated with the most scrupulous delicacy. The board of officers were not more impressed with the candor and firmness, mixed with a becoming sensibility, which he displayed, than he was penetrated with their liberality and politeness. He acknowledged the generosity |