Edgar Allan Poe, like Hawthorne, was a most imaginative writer, whose poems, among which are "The Bells" and "The Raven," are

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

weird, melancholy productions.

The poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes are full of a delicate wit, of which "The Deacon's Masterpiece, or the Wonderful OneHoss Shay" is a good example. But his fame does not depend wholly upon his verses, for his prose works, such as the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," and his novels, "Elsie Venner" and "The Guardian Angel," are written in the most delightful English.

James Russell Lowell, who, like Longfellow and Holmes, occupied a professor's chair in His name

Harvard University, gave his whole life to literature.

first became widely known when he published, during the War with

historians, George Bancroft and

James Russell Lowell.

Richard Hildreth, hold high rank

as writers of American history. The first volume of Bancroft's

"History of the United States" appeared in 1834, while the last was not published until 1882. William Hickling Prescott, though laboring under the greatest of

Francis Parkman thoroughly and accurately discuss the position of the French and English in America, and are as interesting as any

of the most valuable contributions to knowledge was that of the English Dictionary, compiled by Noah Webster.

711. Later Writers. The latter half of the century has produced a large number of authors of no small renown, who are

for the beautiful, at first rigorously repressed in many parts of the country, also began to show itself, and artists of no mean ability made their appearance. The

first of these was Benjamin West, a poor Quaker lad, who won for himself great renown in England as well as in America. West was closely followed by John Singleton Copley, the portrait painter, who placed on canvas the features of so many of the patriots of the Revolution. After Copley came Gilbert Stuart, the greatest colorist" America has produced, who painted the bestknown portrait of Washington; and Washington Allston, who is said to have held the place in American art that Washington Irving held in literature. Peale, Trumbull, Vanderlyn, and Malbone, as portrait painters, and Durand, Cole, Kensett, and Inness as landscape

66

Professor Louis Agassiz.

painters, also hold high rank. At the present time American artists have turned their attention to black and white drawings, to watercolors, and to illustrating for books and magazines, which they have raised to the highest degree of art.

713. Sculptors. Of all the arts, that of sculpture was the last to make its appearance. Nevertheless many Americans have won lasting renown by their skill in fashioning the human form in clay. Among the best known of the artists are Hiram Powers, Horatio Greenough, who planned the Bunker Hill monument, Thomas Crawford, one of whose finest works is the statue of liberty on the dome of the Capitol at Washington, Randolph Rogers, who designed the famous bronze doors of the Capitol, and William W. Story.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

THE NATION OF TO-DAY.

714. The South. One of the most noticeable changes that has occurred in the United States during the last thirty years is the recuperation of the South. The forms of industry and the modes of living have been almost revolutionized in many of the States that formerly suffered under the evils of slavery. Marked improvements have taken place in the dwellings and material comforts of the middle classes throughout these Southern States. There has been also a notable change in the status of the negro, who, as a freedman, feeling himself to be his own master, has received some stimulus toward bettering his condition. As labor ceased to be a disgrace, thrift and energy became more common among all classes. The public school has diminished much of the illiteracy that was a necessary accompaniment of slavery.

715. Its Industries. In industry and wealth, the South 'has made remarkable strides during these recent years. Agriculture continues to be the most important occupation. Soil and climate are unsurpassed for the production of many of the most valuable crops. The lumber regions are greater than in most other sections, and half of

the available timber of the country is to be found in the twelve most Southern States. The mines are valuable, and have but just begun to be worked. In four of these States, the output of iron is already more than one-sixth of that of the whole United States, and the coal product multiplied four times between 1880 and 1890. The most marked change has taken place in manufactures. A vigorous start has been made in many directions. Cheap land, good water-power, abundance of coal, iron, and lumber, are important aids. The necessary transportation is furnished by the new railroads, the mileage of which is five times as great as in 1860. The population in some of the States is growing as rapidly as in any portion of the country. The characteristic occupations which formerly distinguished the Southern people are rapidly changing, and the nation is becoming more and more completely unified.

716. The Great West. One of the most important provisions of the Treaty of 1783 (¶ 367) was that which assured to the United States the Northwest Territory. Jefferson's fifteen million dollars added to the young nation the Louisiana Territory (1426). These two great regions have exhibited to the world a growth and development unprecedented in all history. The population has made most remarkable strides, and the productions have increased to an equal extent. In the year 1775 the entire population west of the Alleghanies was so small that no account of it was made. In 1860 one-half of all the inhabitants in the United States lived to the west of the Appalachian range. To-day nearly a quarter of the people inhabit the Northwest Territory, and millions dwell west of the Mississippi River. During the ten years from 1880 to 1890, the population of the United States gained nearly twenty-five per cent, while in the six new States admitted in 1889 and 1890, the growth averaged two hundred and seventy-five per cent.

717. Its Industries. The two most important pursuits of the "Great West" are agriculture and mining. The Northwest Territory produces a quarter of all the corn grown in the country, and nearly a third of the wheat. Six States west of the Mississippi raise nearly a half of all the corn produced in the United States, and nine of these States nearly half the wheat. These fourteen States furnish nearly a fifth of the wheat obtained in the whole world. A large portion of the copper and iron of the United States is found in the