Lives of Poor Boys Who Became FamousBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Biography
He was made Lieutenant-General, March 4, 1869, and when General Sherman
retired from the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Nov. 1,
1883, Sheridan moved to Washington, to take his place. The office of
"Lieutenant-General" expires with General Sheridan, he being the last of
our three great and famous generals,--Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. In
this latter city he has a home purchased by thirty-one of his leading
friends from Chicago. He is devoted to his wife and children, honest,
upright, and manly, and deserves the honors he has won.
* * * * *
General Sheridan was taken ill of heart disease about the middle of May,
1888. After three months, he died at Nonquitt, Mass., near the ocean, at
twenty minutes past ten on the evening of August 5, 1888. He left a wife
and four children, a girl of eight, a boy of six, and twin daughters of
four. After lying in state at Washington, he was buried with military
honors at Arlington Heights, on Saturday, August 11, in the midst of
universal sorrow.
THOMAS COLE.
Four of my favorite pictures from childhood have been Cole's "Voyage of
Life." I have studied the tiny infant in the boat surrounded by roses,
life's stream full of luxuriant vegetation; the happy, ambitious youth,
looking eagerly forward to the Temple of Fame, steering the boat
himself, with no need of aid from his guardian angel; then the worried
and troubled man, his boat tossing and whirling among the broken trees
and frightful storms that come to all; and lastly, perhaps most
beautiful, the old man sailing peacefully into the ocean of eternity,
the angel having returned to guide him, and the way to heaven being
filled with celestial spirits. I have always hung these pictures near my
writing-table, and their lesson has been a helpful and inspiring one.
No wonder that Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, said when he looked upon
them in Rome, "O great artist! what beauty of conception! what an
admirable arrangement of parts! what an accurate study of nature! what
truth of detail!" He told Cole that his work was entirely new and
original, executed in a masterly manner, and he commended the harmony
of color.
These pictures are hung in thousands of homes; but how few persons know
the history of the artist! Born in England, Feb. 1, 1801, the only son
in a family of eight children, and the youngest but one, we find him
when a mere child, in some print-works, learning to engrave simple
designs for calico. His father, a woolen manufacturer, had failed in
business, and the family were thrown upon themselves for support. He was
a kind and honest man, always hoping to succeed, but never succeeding;
always trying new scenes to build up his fortune and never building it.
Like other fathers, especially those who have been disappointed in life,
he had hopes that his boy would accomplish more than himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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