Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1884 — Wilson, the Ornithologist. [ARTICLE]

Wilson, the Ornithologist.

In connection with the early history of the enterprise of the elder Clarks and thread making the interesting fact is mentioned that Alexander ’Wilson, the father of American ornithology, used to be employed by them in the days when he was unknown and unappreciated. It was then that Wilson indulged those vain dreams of his of emulating Burns, and did so much aimless wandering on the banks of the then unpolluted Cart, seeking an inspiration that never came to him in its pure force and brooding much upon the wrongs of the people, of whose cause he was always the fearless champion. Little wonder that his fellow-workmen regarded him as a “lazy sort of fellow,” and left him to the fate proverbial to the prophet in his own country. How much he despised his human surroundings may be gathered from an extract Irom his journal of this time, in which he rhapsodizes thug upon the beauties of the Scottish scenery: “These are pleasures which the groveling sons of interest and the grubs of this world know as little of as the miserable spirits doomed to everlasting darkness know of the glorious regions and eternal delights of paradise.” Here it was that he gave forth his “Groans form the Loom,” a poem in which he exalted the claims of labor and deprecated the tyranny of the capitalist; here it was that he published a satire in the Scottish dialect, directed against a Paisley manufacturer, and for that act had to undergo a short term of imprisonment and burn the libel with his own hand at the town cross of Paisley. Not long after this AVilson said “good-bv” to his native town and began life afresh in the new world, where he took up the study of ornithology with an earnestness and ability that brought him fame if not profit. He never returned to Paisley, but his memory lingers as a kindly radiance over one anoient corner of the Seedhills factories, and in the town square his statue has been erected, occupying there a position of equal prominence with that of Tannahill, the poet, who was also a native of Paisley. —London Society .