GATH Tales of the Chesapeake

Excerpts and samples from 1880 publication entitled: "Tales of the Chesapeake: A Literary Revelation"

Reviews and Endorsements of "Tales of the Chesapeake" included in the Third Edition

"I read it more than half through the first evening, picking out the plums, such as 'The Big Idiot' and greatly enjoyed the entertainment." - S.L. Clemens (Mark Twain)

"If the book is an oyster shell, as you are pleased to term it, it is one, I am sure, that has two pearls in it. I have already found two, 'Herman of Bohemia Manor', and 'Old St. Mary's." - Prof. Henry W. Longfellow

"I have read three of the tales - a large slice for me - and find them entertaining and altogether Gath-like. All he writes that I can lay my hands on is always read eagerly." - The President of the United States.

"Of the stories I have read, the one with the famous old Beau Hickman in it had, perhaps, most interest for me, especially on account of the portrait of that worthy, whom I have never seen. I do not know that I have ever got so much of a portrait of him before. The careful study of dialects of our different regions again adds to our interest of the narrative." - Dr. Oliver Wendell Homes

"If the population of the Chesapeake had the cordial appreciation of literary things possessed by the people of the Hudson, these tales would become as classical with them as Rip Van Winkle and Wolfert's Roost. Their fancy and imagination are unequalled since Hawthorne and Hans Andersen. - St. Louis Globe Democrat

LIST OF TALES AND IDYLS (Tales of the Chesapeake Table of Contents) King of Chincoteague
Haunted Pungy
Ticking Stone
The Imp in Nanjemoy
Fall of Utie
Legend of Funkstown
Judge Whaley's Demon
A Convent Legend
Crutch, The Page
Herman of Bohemia Manor
Kidnapped
The Judge's Last Tune
Dominion Over
The Fish
The Circuit Preacher
The Big Idiot
A Bayside Idyl
Sir William Johnson's Night
Phantom Architect
The Lobby Brother
Potomac River
Tell-Tale Feet
Upper Marlb'ro'
Preachers Sons in 1849
Chester River
Old Washington Almshouse
Old St. Mary's

POTOMAC RIVER (page 236-237)

Brave river in the mountains bred,
And broadening on thy way,
So stately that thy stretches seem,
The bosom of the bay!
Thy growth is like the nation's life,
Through which thy current flows-
Already past the cataracts
And widening to repose.

Thy springs are at the Fairfax stone,
Thy great arms northward course,
They join and break the mountain bars
With ever rallying force;
But in thy nature is such peace,
The beaten mountains yield,
And lie their riven
battlements Within thy silver shield.

Through battlefields thy runnels wind,
In fame thy ferries shine;
Thy ripples lave the ancient stones
On Freedom's boundary line;
Where every slave the border crossed,
A living host repass'd,
And of the sentries of thy fords,
John Brown shall be the last!

Yet, O Potomac Of thy peace
Somewhat let faction feel,
And Northern pilgrims patient hear
Of Mosby and MacNeill.
The long trees bloom where Stuart cross'd,
And weep where Ashby bled,
And every echo in thy hills
Seems Stonewall Jackson's tread.

The love we bore in other days
No difference can bar,
And truce was kept at Vernon's grave
However rolled the war.
Like thee, oh river! Human states
By many a rapid rage,
Before they reach the deeper tides
And glass the perfect age.

Brief is the span since Calvert's huts
Were still the Indian's sport,
And Braddock's columns stumbled on
The bordere Cresap's fort,
Till now the tinted hills grow fond
Around yon marble height,
Where Freedom calmly rules a realm
That tires her eagle's flight.

And still the wild deer sip thy springs,
The wild duck haunt thy coves,
And all the year the fisher fleets
Bask o'er thine oyster groves; The strange new bass thy trout pursue,
And where the herring spawn,
The blue sky opens to let through
Thine own majestic swan.

Haste, Nature! Raze yon shiftless halls,
Where pride penurious bides,
The while the richness of the hills
Runs off to choke the tides;
Where every Negro cabin stood
A freeman's hearthside warm,
And broad estates of bramble wood
Expunge in many a farm!

Fill and revive these fair arcades,
O race to Freedom born!
The tinkling herds that roam the glades,
The barge's mellow horn,
The lonesome sails that come and go
Repeat the wish again:
The ardent river yearns to know
Not memories, but MEN!