Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/171

(< Mrs. Partington" i55 and became known as the author of highly coloured tales of the South-west, adopted the name of "Tom Owen, the Bee- Hunter," an eccentric person who had picturesque adventures on the frontier. Two other men, Samuel A. Hammett (1816- 65) of Connecticut and John Ludlum McConnel (1826-62) of Illinois, travelled in the West and South-west and described their experiences in racy volumes. Mrs. Partington, the American Mrs. Malaprop, was created by Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (1814-90) of The Boston Fast and forms the central figure in at least three books, Life and Sayings of Mrs. Partington (1854), Partingtonian Patch- work (1873), and Ike and his Friends (1879). Her character and manner of expression may be seen in her chance remarks : I am not so young as I was once, and I don't believe I shall ever be, if I live to the age of Samson, which, heaven knows as well as I do, I don't want to, for I wouldn't be a centurion or an octagon and survive my factories and become idiomatic by any means. But then there is no knowing how a thing will turn out until it takes place, and we shall come to an end some day, though we may never live to see it. Her benevolent face, her use of catnip tea, her faith in the almanac, her domestic virtue, and her knowledge of the most significant facts in the life of every person in the village imme- diately made a large circle of readers recognize the lifelike portrayal of a person known in every American community. It is interesting to observe that her nephew Ike and his ex- perience with the dog and cat and with "spirits" is a striking prototype of Tom Sawyer in his relationship to his Aunt Polly. Three New York writers of broad burlesque in both prose and verse may be mentioned together. There appeared in The New York Herald a series of satirical lyrics in the assumed char- acter of an Irish private in the Union Army who rapidly became famous. These were written by Charles Graham Halpine (1829 -68), a versatile Irish journalist and poet who had been with General Hunter in South Carolina, and were pubHshed subse- quently in two volumes as Life and Adventures, Songs, Services and Speeches of Private Miles O'Reilly (1864). The best of this collection is the amusing account of the visit of the hero to the President, the members of the Cabinet, and foreign ministers