Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/150

 134 WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER. [1830-40. Flash at Cincinnati, was printed at the City Gazette office, Louisville, Kentucky, in May, 1837. In the preface, Mr. Gallagher said: This volume contains as its leading piece " Cadwallen, a Tale of the Dark and Bloody Ground," and closes the series. With it terminates, likewise, at least for a time, the writer's career as an aspirant for poetic honors. If his trifles are to be remembered a little while, there are already enough of them ; if they are to be forgotten at once, too many. Poesy has been solely a matttr of love with him, and he conceives that he has done quite enough to determine whether he has " loved wisely.-' " May " and " The Mothers of the "West " were among the miscellaneous poems of " Erato No. III." It was very favorably received. Its author, by good authority. East as well as West, was well assured that he had " loved wisely ;" but hterary labors, however industriously pursued, w^ere not remunerative in Ohio in 1837, and Mr. Gallagher adhered to his resolution to abandon poetic labors, " at least for a time." Soon after the publication of " Erato No. III.," he became associated with his brother John M., in the management of the Ohio State Journal, a daily Whig paper at Columbus. Though busily occupied in that capacity, and at the same time legislative correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, he engaged, soon after his re- moval to Columbus, with Otway Curry in the publication of a magazine, entitled The Hesperian, a Monthly Miscellany of General Literature. The first number ap- peared in May, 1838. Three volumes at $2.50 a volume, running through a period of eighteen months, were published; the second and third volumes jNIr. Galla- gher conducted alone. The Hesperian was valued highly for its critical and histor- ical articles, mainly written by the editor, and for its poetic and novelette depart- ments, which were filled with original contributions from writers who have now national reputations ; among whom may be mentioned Otway Carry, Frederick W. Thomas, S. P. Hildreth, George D. Prentice, Laura M. Thurston, Amelia B. Welby, James W. Ward, Julia L. Dumont, Thomas H. Shreve, James H. Perkins, and Daniel Drake. The subscription list was larger than had been secured by any of its predecessors, but not enough to support it ; and again Mr. Gallagher was led from the pursuit of literature to the record and discussion of political doctrines and movements. He was invited by Charles Hammond to assist him in the editing of the Cincinnati Gazette, the oldest, most successful, and then ablest daily paper in the West. He be- came an editor of the Gazette in the latter part of the year 1839, and continued to give character to its literary departments, and to efficiently assist in its political conduct (with the exception of one year, when he conducted a penny daily paper called The Message) till 1850. In 1839, the Western College of Teachers passed a resolution of thanks to Mr. Gallagher for his earnest advocacy, as an editor, of popular educa- tion. In 1841, he edited a volume entitled "The Poetical Literature of the West" — containing selections from the writings of all the poets then generally known in the Mississippi Valley. It was a duodecimo of two hundred and sixty-four pages. U. P. James, a gentleman who has done much to encourage Western Literature, was the publisher. Thirty-eight writers wei-e represented — several of whom, though worthy of more respect, are known now as poets chiefly because their metrical compositions