Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1878 — OBITUARY. [ARTICLE]

OBITUARY.

Bayard Taylor. Bayard Taylor, American Minister to Germany, died at Berlin, of dropsy, on the 19th of December, 1878. Mr. Taylor was born in Kennett Square, Chester county, Pa., Jan. 11, 1825, and in 1842 became an apprentice in a printing office in West Chester. He had had very slender educational advantages, but his desire to see the world early developed itself, and after two years’ work at the case he started on a trip through Europe. He was already an author, having in 1844 published “ Ximena; or, the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and Other Poems.” Some of these poems were originally published in the New York Mirror and Graham's Magazine. He spent two years traveling through Europe on foot, occasionally suspending his travels to replenish his exchequer by such jobs as he was able to secure. His tour cost him SSOO. On returning to America in 1846 he published the result of his observations in a book entitled “ Views Afoot; or, Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff.” This book may almost be said to have inaugurated a new era in the literature of travels. It was fresh, intelligent and free from the conventionalities of old-time travelers, and soon after it appeared the London Atheneum pronounced it “an earnest, sensible and manly book.” That it was popular is proved by the fact that the twentieth edition was published in 1856, and several editions have appeared since. For a year after his return young Taylor edited a paper in Plucnixville, Pa., and then went to New York and wrote for the Literary World, soon becoming a member of the editorial staff of the Tribune, in which paper several of his books of travel first appeared. In 1849 lie went to California, and returned by way of Mexico, the literary result of which was “ Eldorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire.” This appeared in 1850, in two volumes, and 10,000 copies of it were sold in America in twelve days. Within a few years after its appearance 30,000 copies had been sold in England, and tlie eighteenth American edition was published in 1862. In 1851 he started on a tour of more than-50,000 miles in three continents. He went first to the Levant and ascended to latitude twelve deg. and thirty minutes north, and then traveled extensively through Syria, Asia Minor and Europe. In the latter part or 1852 lie started from England, traveling across Asia to Calcutta, whence lie proceeded to China, where lie joined Commodore M. C. Perry’s expedition and went with it to Japan. Three books resulted from this tour. “A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscape from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of tho White Nile,” was published in 1854. “The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine,Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain,” was published the same year, and “A Visit to India, China and Japan in the Year 1853 ” was published in 1855. All of these books achieved the highest praise from English as well as American critics. In 1862 Mr. Taylor accepted the appointment of Secretary of Legation to St. Petersburg, and in 1863 became Charge d'Affaires. On his return in 1864 he devoted himself to lecturing, and to various literary pursuits. A large part of his time he has spent in Germany, where he collected materials for a projected life of Goethe, and worked on his translation of “Faust.” He spent the summer of 1873 at Vienna. In 1874 he revisited Egypt, and then went to the millennial celebration in Iceland, where he was very cordially received. He delivered a poem at the centennial celebration of American independence, at Philadelphia, July 4, 1876. He then returned to his old place on the New York Tribune, where he remained until appointed Minister to Germany last summer.