File:John U. Shorter (1844-1904) obituary in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Brooklyn, New York on 14 March 1904.jpg

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John U. Shorter Dead. Son Of The Confederacy. For Twelve Years He Was First Assistant District Attorney in Kings County. Uncle Was A War Governor. Deceased Had a Local Reputation as a Poet, Daughter, an Actress, Summoned to Funeral. John U. Shorter of 61 Fifth avenue, 60 years old, confederate officer, lawyer, poet and for twelve years first assistant district attorney of Kings County, died at the Senry Hospital at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon after a two days illness. Heart disease it assigned as the cause of death. Mr. Shorter had not been in the best of health for a month before, but bis illness did not take a serious turn until Wednesday of last week, when his physician advised him to go-to a John U. Shorter, hospital for treatment. He had Just returned from a trip to the South for the benefit of his health when matters took this turn for the worse. He seemed to be holding his own while at the hospital and his death came unexpectedly. The deceased comes from a distinguished Southern lineage. His grandfather was the late Ell S. Shorter of Columbus, Ga., where John U. Shorter spent his boyhood and youth. He studied law with his uncle, John Gill Shorter, the war governor of Alabama. The war of the rebellion broke out while he was engaged in the study of law and he joined his father in the army of Virginia, remaining in service for some months. He then entered the military academy of the South at the University of Alabama. After a year spent here he was detailed as instructor of tactics at the camp of confederate troops located at Talladega, Alabama. From here he entered active service as adjutant of the Thirty-first Regiment of Alabama. He was still a boy when he received his commission, but did well on the field of battle, serving with credit around Vicksburg before the siege of that city. He was taken prisoner and passed some time in the Union prison for officers at Sandusky, Ohio. After the war he taught school for a time at Bainbridge, Georgia, continuing the study of the law he had begun while in the Federal prison. Later he continued his studies In the office of his uncle, Governor Shorter, at Eufala, Alabama, from which place he was admitted to practice. In 1870 he came to Brooklyn and for thirty years had been a well known figure at the bar of Kings County. He was associated for a time with Howe & Hummel of New York, later on joining fortunes with James W. Ridgway. When the latter was elected district attorney of Kings County in 1883 he appointed his law partner as his first assistant, which post was held by Mr. Shorter until 1895, when he retired to private practice. He was made an honorary member of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Regiment Veterans Association a few years ago, a distinction he alone held as a Southern soldier. He leaves a wife and one daughter, Laura Dean Shorter, who is an actress and plays under the name of Laura de Nio. She is at present a member of the cast, in "An English Daisy," now playing at Baltimore, and came on from there last evening. She was compelled to return again immediately to participate in this evening's performance, but will return here tomorrow morning to attend the funeral. This will take place from the residence at 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. Mr. Shorter had achieved a considerable local reputation as a poet, many contributions from his pen having been published in the Eagle. His wife has In her possession the typewritten manuscript of a number of his poems and may publish them in book form. The following la one of the last published. It Is entitled "Pegasus": Have patience, poet, do not think ln one short hour you enn drink. From sprlns Pierian puch a drauitht An makes you kinn Uwns your cratt, The poem that I read for years is wrought in Borrow, pain and tears. Fee how the architect, with aid Of many thousand hands, hath made, Our mighty structures, till on nlfril They seem to hruee the bending sky, Complete at last, though long delayed. For one by one each stone was la'd. ftp here a palntlnft Titian wrought, Nc sudden Bweep of brush had eausht The varied lights and shaded it Fhows, Where every color burnt! and glows, The fleeting yearn were all too short To give perfection to his art. Behold the Forty Pyramids, the Sphinx. Against whose dark and gloomy forms Old Kgvpt. for five thousand years, Had vainly sjient her Minding storms. These mysteries of mysteries. All were the work pf centuries. A hundred times Pygmalion His Galatea carved in stone, t'ntll beneath his wondrous knife The gods, beholding. gave It life. Remember, 'ere you write your song. That life Is short and art is long.

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