Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/137

Rh that it is or was the biggest, the most remarkable, or the most terrible thing ever known on this continent. Bull Run was reported as the most terrific battle that ever took place on this continent; the pumpkin exhibited at a late Agricultural Fair was the biggest—we beg pardon, the most colossal—pumpkin ever raised on this continent; and Buncombe is, always has been, and always will be, one of the most remarkable places, and its people are, always have been, always will be, the most intelligent and enterprising people on this continent. A characteristic example of this use of the phrase in question appears in an account of the strange accident which happened on the railway between Mobile and Montgomery, by which two bears, two tigers, and a hyena, were set free from their cages, which had been shivered by the collision, and who, having first dashed into an adjoining forest, came out together to prey upon the carcass of a deer that had been killed by the same casualty by which they were set free. This having been set forth in terms which, in the judgment of the relator, the "remarkable incident" demanded, we come upon the inevitable territorial superlative. "Now," he says, rising to the crest of his narrative, "Now occurred one of the most remarkable contests of brutes that has ever taken place on this continent." One distinguishing trait of your man who writes in the continental superlative style is, that he always assumes at once that what he relates has taken place on this continent several times before, if not much oftener, and that the case he has in hand is the most remarkable among many. If a she griffin were to be discovered in Utah, or a cherub that could sit down, this writer would immediately assure us that this was the most remarkable she griffin, and that the most perfect cherub, ever seen—we beg pardon again, ever witnessed on this continent. The phrase, however, is beginning, although ever so slightly, to go out of use. Another has appeared to which it must give place, and that is, "on this hemisphere;" this will soon be followed by, "on this planet;" and this in turn must pass away before another; for, ere long, our superlative writer will be contented with nothing less than assuring us that the man or the event that is his subject, is the most remarkable ever witnessed in this universe.

an unfortunate error, several of the concluding verses of the exquisite poem entitled "Love's Largess," by H. H., were omitted when it appeared in the November. In justice to the author, and for the benefit of the readers of the magazine as well, we below give the poem entire:

Love standeth, like a king beside His royal treasury, whose wide Gates open swing and cannot hide
 * Their priceless store.


 * His touch and hold

Its common things to jewels turned; In his sweet fires the dross lie burned Away; and thus he won, and earned.
 * And made its gold.


 * So rich I find

Myself in service of this king, The goods we spare, in alms I fling, And breathless days too few hours bring
 * Me to be kind