Historic leaves, volume 2, April, 1903 - January, 1904

[6] treasury. The originator of Pencillings was George Russell Jackson, who in 1877, after twelve years of newspaper experience, began to write for the Journal. He conducted the department until 1884, meanwhile contributing to the paper comical police reports, which were a feature of interest. Mr. Hayden speaks of Mr. Jackson as a born humorist, the peer of any in his native power. He not only wrote fun by the yard, but he overflowed with it in private conversation. Such writing has an evanescent quality, making quotation hazardous. But the following quatrains are not untimely—–

When icy blasts come from the pole,
     And redden nose and chin,
Then happy is the man whose coal
     Is safely in the bin.

On second thoughts, when from the pole
     Come blasts that chill us through,
Then happy is the man whose coal
     Is in and paid for, too.

Not infrequently Mr. Jackson uttered a wise maxim in the midst of his jokes, as: ‘The man who always says what he thinks should think well what he says.’ Again, ‘The man who knows that he doesn't know everything, knows something.’ So said Socrates.

Mr. Jackson contributed to the Boston Courier, the Boston Commercial Bulletin, the New York Independent, and the Atlantic Monthly. He wrote many songs, and was the author of a popular opera-cantata, called ‘The Cranberry Pickers.’ He died December 9, 1898, aged fifty-eight years.

As a means of preparing for an easy transition a little later from the men to the women writers of Somerville, let us speak of the Munroe family. Edwin Munroe, of Scotch descent, married Eliza (?) Fowle, of Lexington. Three children of these parents, a brother and two sisters, have intimate relation with the literary history of Somerville. These are Edwin Munroe, who married Nancy Thorning, Eliza Ann Munroe, who married Rev. Henry Bacon, and Martha Fowle Munroe, who married Rev. Elbridge