POEMS
BY ARTHUR MACY
With an Introduction by
WILLIAM ALFRED HOVEY
W. B. CLARKE CO.
BOSTON
1905
COPYRIGHT 1905 BY MARY T. MACY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Editors of The Youth's Companion, St. Nicholas, and The SmartSet, The H. B. Stevens Company, The Oliver Ditson Company, and Messrs.G. Schirmer & Company, have kindly permitted the republication ofseveral poems in this collection.
INTRODUCTION
Arthur Macy was a Nantucket boy of Quaker extraction. His name alone isevidence of this, for it is safe to say that a Macy, wherever found inthe United States, is descended from that sturdy old Quaker who was oneof those who bought Nantucket from the Indians, paid them fairly for it,treated them with justice, and lived on friendly terms with them. Inmany ways Arthur Macy showed that he was a Nantucketer and, at least bydescent, a Quaker. He often used phrases peculiar to our island in thesea, and was given, in conversation at least, to similes which smackedof salt water. Almost the last time I saw him he said, "I'm coming roundsoon for a good long gam."
He was a many-sided man. In his intercourse with a friend like myself hewould show the side which he thought would interest me, and that only.He was above all things cheery, and, to his praise be it said, he hateda bore. I remember that a mutual friend was talking baseball to me bythe yard. Arthur was sitting by, listening. It was a subject in which hewas much interested. Nevertheless,[vi] turning to our mutual friend, hesaid, "Don't talk baseball to him. He don't care anything about it, hedon't know anything about it, and he don't want to." On the other hand,although little given to telling of his war experiences, he was alwaysready to talk over the old days with me. Of what he did himself, hemodestly said but little, but of the services of others, more especiallyof the men in the ranks, he was generous in his praise.
Early in the war Macy enlisted in Company B, 24th Michigan VolunteerInfantry. He was twice wounded on the first day at Gettysburg, andmanaged to crawl into the town and get as far as the steps of the CourtHouse, which was fast filling with wounded from both sides. His sense ofhumor was in evidence even at such a time. A Confederate officer rode upand asked, "Have those men in there got arms?" Quick as a flash Macyanswered: "Some of them have and some of them haven't." He remained inthis Court-House hospital, a prisoner within the Confederate lines,until the battle was over and Lee's army retreated. All woundedprisoners who could walk were forced to go with them, but Macy's woundwas in the foot, and, fortunately for him, he was spared the horrors ofa Southern prison.
[vii]He was on duty later at the Naval Academy Hospital in Annapolis,presided over by Dr. Vanderkieft, perha