Show PETROLEUM V NASBY How His Writings Helped the Union Cause A FAVORITE OF ABE LINCOLN 1 Something of Lockes Iilfe Printer 3 dltor Lecturer Author Etc Etc David Ross Locke better known to the American public under the nom deplume de-plume of Petroleum V Nasby died at his home in Toledo Ohio yesterday in the fiftyfifth year of his age The immediate cause of his death was consumption con-sumption of the lungs for a period of over thirty years Mr Locke had been prominently before the public as a writer an editor and a lecturer and during all that time there were but few journalists in this country more widely or favorably known At the time of his death Mr Locke was the editor and proprietor of the Toledo Blade one of the most widely circulated and influential influen-tial journals in the west HIS EARLY DAYS Mr Locke was a native of New York having been born in Vestal Broome County this State on the 20th of September Sep-tember 1833 His father Nathaniel Reed Locke yet living near Toledo at the advanced age of ninetyfour was a soldier in the war of 1812 and among the very first in the whole country to embrace antislavery sentiments which he was always ready everywhere to maintain boldly Jfrom him came naturally to the son his strong love of liberty and his determined opposition and hatred of the institution of slavery which made him such a power with his pen and voice during the war From his father too came that decision of character that rendered the son so extremely ex-tremely steadfast in nil his enterprises no matter what the difficulties might be in the way A PRINTERS APPRENTICE Young Locke was given only the advantages ad-vantages of a village common school education whioh was the best his native na-tive town could furnish in those days and at the early age of ten years he was apprenticed for seven years to learn tne trade of a printer in the office of the Cortland Democrat There he learned the trade of a printer and he learned it as ho did everything else with complete thoroughness To those who knew him only in later years his extensive familiarity with books and the readiness with which he used his pen upon all subjects seems wonderful in view of the fact that all of the regular regu-lar schooling which he ever had was obtained during the first tender years of boyhood In this case the precocious preco-cious child became the man of intellectual intellec-tual power Alter jue had mastered the art of setting set-ting type he for several years led a i varabondish life at one time as R compositor com-positor and at another time as a reporter re-porter OH HIS RAMBLES During all this time he was in reality finishing his education His wanderings wander-ings for a time took him through a good portion of the Southern States and what he saw confirmed the strong antislavery anti-slavery sentiments which he had received re-ceived from his father He learned then and there to hate everything connected con-nected with the peculier institution and his political bias was determined for the future Finally he reached Pittsburg and became there first a reporter and then assistant editor of tho Chronicle Grown weary at last with not being his own man he joined fortunes with aMend a-Mend James G Robinson and the two m 1852 went to Plymouth Ohio and started the Advertiser which paper is still in existence A HARD STRUGGLE For two years these young men rich in nothing but their brains and a capacity capa-city for hard work beginningwith but 42 between them labored night and day at an enterprise that seemed about as hopeless as any that could be under aken They bought a second hand mtfit they edited the paper they s > the t-he type did the presswork and everythIng every-thing else and it is needless to say they i gained the confidence of the public and won the success which they de erved Wnen they sold out at the nd of two years they had lCOO to be divided between them a small sum it seems now but a mine of wealth in hose days Afterward Mr Locke be jim connected with several western papers and was successively editor and publisher of the Mansfield Herald Bu nvrug Journil and Findley JfffirsoninH He was editing tho last named paper when the war broke out and in its columns appeared the famous Nasby ettersthe first one bearing the date of March 211S61 THE KASBY LETTERS These letters were political satires on the Secession Movement and they sprangat once into great popularity They were copied into newspapers everywhere quoted in speeches read around campfires of Uuion armies and exercised enormous influence in moulding public opinion North ia favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war The first letter was dated at Wigerts Corners a small settlement in Crawford County full of Southern sympathizers and the Corners resolved to secede from frequent violation of its rights by the tyrannical State A second letter soon followed in the same vein and then others They at once gained wide popularity pop-ularity were copied far and wide and made for the author a high reputation as a political humorist They have been written regularly for twentyfive years and continued to find eager readers He obtained control of the Bellefontaine Republican about 1865 wherein he published many of his cleverest ar icles notably the series of Andrew Johnsons swinging rou d the circle Be ng a practical printer he often went to his case and set the articles up LINCOLN LIKES THEM I President Lincoln took a keen delight in these satires and it was said always is A e eK a nw > > u8iS jJ I kept them in his table drawer and when he was especially weary would rest mind and body by their perusal It is also said that he read one of these aloud to his Cabinet just before discussing discus-sing with them his draft of the emancipation eman-cipation proclamation George S Boutwell Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln declared de-clared in a speech at Cooper Union Now York at the close of the war that the success of the Union arjis wits due to three causesthe army the navy and the Nasby letters Charles Sumner declared Unquestionably Unques-tionably they were among the influences influ-ences and agencies by which disloyalty in all its forms was exposed and public opinion assured upon the right side It is impossible to measure their value Against the devices of slavery and its supporters each letter was liKe a speech stir the or one of those songs which people It is said of Petroleum V Nasby that he spells very badlyin jest but he thinks rightly in earnest To thoroughly understand his unpar the alleled success as a humorist during gloomy days of tile Civil War one needs only to remember that he was always al-ways a teacher of loyalty and honor which he never failed to inculcate in his grotesque mauner He one time early in the war raised a company of volunteers volun-teers and applied to Governor Brough of Ohio for a commission as captain which was refused on the ground that he could do more good for the Union cause with his pen than in tho field LECTURER AND EDITOR The immense popularity of the Nasby letters led to the demand for Mr Locke to enter the lecture field and he appeared ap-peared in all the principal cities cf the North Though as he acknowledged not master ol oratory he always had crowded and delighted audiences Offic al positions were offered to him by President Lincoln and also by President Presi-dent Grant but Mr Locke steadily declined de-clined as big only ambition was in the editorial field In 1SG5 he assumed cbarge of the Toledo Blade first on a salary afterwards after-wards purchasing an interest and finally entire control In 1871 Mr Locke removed to New York and became managing editor of the Ecering Bait in this city but still maintained his connection with the Blade He was a complete failure and returned to Toledo where he continued to reside up to the time of his death i AS AN AUTHOR Mr Locke in addition to his regular journalistic duties did a vast amount of work of a purely literary character He published during his life many humorous hu-morous books among which may be mentioned Divers Views Opinions and Prophecies of Yours Truly Swinging Round the Circle Ek koes from Kentucky The Moral History of Americas Life Struggle The Struggles of P V Nasby The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem or East ern Fruits in Western Dishe A Paper City Hannah Janea poem and Nasby m Exile Besides these he was also the author of numerous pamphlets on political social and literary liter-ary topics He was also the author of two or three plays one of the most successful suc-cessful of which was Widow Bedott in which Neil Burgess scored a hit a few years ago Mr Locke was also a poet ot no mean order and several ot bis devotional poems can be found in various vari-ous church hymnals Mr Locke was possessed of a rugged constitution which enabled him to withstand the wear and tear of a rather irregular life and at the same time permitted per-mitted him to tlo a vast amount of work By his letters and books alone Mr Locke made over 200OOu He was rather robust in size brigan dish in appearance free and easy in social intercourse and constitutionally opposed to corporeal exertion Mr Locke leaves a wife and three sons New York Herald |