Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/650

 WILLIAM WALLACE HAENEY. William Wallace Harney was born on the twentieth of June, in the year 1832, at Bloomington, Indiana, where his father resided as Professor of Mathematics in the Indiana University. His parents were John H. Harney and Martha Wallace Harney, and both are still living in Jefferson county, Kentucky. His father is widely known as one of the most profound scholars in the West, as the author of several standard works on mathematics, and as the editor of the Louisville Daily Democrat, wielding a wide and powerful influence in politics. Mr. Harney removed to Ken- tucky when William was about five years of age, and his life has been spent in an atmosphere of learning and refinement. After the preliminary training, William Wallace Harney entered Louisville College, where his education was mostly obtained. He did not graduate, following the advice of his father to be always ready for an ex- amination to attain a diploma. His education was perfected under the tuition of Noble Butler, and N. P. Peabody. He taught school in Louisville for some years, and was elected Principal of the High School, which he conducted with signal ability for two years. He was called, upon the establishment of the State Normal School, to a professorship, which he filled, with eminent credit to himself, until the downfall of the school. He then began the practice of his profession, law, in Louisville, until the opening of the gubernatorial canvass of 1859, when he became connected Avith the editorial department of the Louisville Daily Democrat, in which position he has remained, except at brief intervals, ever since. During several years, Mr. Harney was a frequent contributor of poetry to the Louisville Journal, George D. Prentice awarding his poems high merit. He contributed also to the Democrat, and several other papers. These poetic efforts have not been numerous, but varied and entirely successful, as the abundant encomiums awarded them, together with their general popularity, will bear witness. Mr. Harney possesses fine scholarship, a correct and cultivated taste, with extraordinary versatility of talent, a logical mind, and great force of character. He has made a lasting impression upon the public mind in Ken- tucky as an able political writer, and as a genial and brilliant wit. The absorbing character of his duties as a journalist has not left him that leisure for the cultivation of his reputation as a poet, that his friends could wish, and the pure spring of Helicon has been neglected for the dirty pool of politics. (634)