The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Besides writing for the Tribune, Gurowski was employed by Ripley and
Dana on the first four volumes of the New American Cyclopaedia, for
which he wrote the articles on Alexander the Great, the Alexanders of
Russia, Aristocracy, Attila, the Borgias, Bunsen, and a few others. It
was at this time also that he wrote his books, "Russia as it is," and
"America and Europe." In preparing for publication his articles and his
books, he had the invaluable assistance of Mr. Ripley, who gratuitously
bestowed upon them an immense amount of labor, for which he was very ill
requited by the Count, who quarrelled both with him and Dana, and for a
time wantonly and most unjustly abused them both in his peculiar lavish
way.
For two or three years longer I lost sight of him, during which period
he led a somewhat wandering life, visiting the South, and residing
alternately in Washington, Newport, Geneseo, and Brattleborough. The
last time I saw him in New York was at the Athenaeum Club one evening in
December, 1860, just after South Carolina had seceded. A dispute was
raging in the smoking-room, between Unionists on one side and
Copperheads on the other, as to the comparative character of the North
and South. Gurowski, who was reading in an adjoining room, was attracted
by the noise, and came in, but at first said nothing, standing in
silence on the outside of the circle. At last a South-Carolinian who was
present appealed to him, saying, "Count, you have been in the South, let
us have your opinion; you at least ought to be impartial." Gurowski
thrust his head forward, as he was accustomed to do when about to say
anything emphatic, and replied in his most energetic manner: "I have
been a great deal in the South as well as in the North, and know both
sections equally well, and I tell you, gentlemen, that there is more
intelligence, more refinement, more cultivation, more virtue, and more
good manners in one New England village than in all the South together."
This decision put an end to the discussion. The South-Carolinian
retreated in dudgeon, and Gurowski, chuckling, returned to his book or
his paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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