LOCKE, DAVID Ross, more widely known by his nom de plume of Petroleum V. Nasby; b. Vestal, Broome co., N. Y., 1833. He becarne a printer in the office of the Cortland Democrat, and subsequently publisher and editor of the Plymouth, Advertiser, the Mansfield Irerald, the Bucyrus Journal, the Findlay Jeffersonian, and the Toledo Blade, all in Ohio. In 1860 he began the publication of the Nasby letters in the Findlay Jeffer sonian, and soon after continued them in the Toledo Blade. They were designed to throw ridicule on the fihnsy logic then in vogue to bolster or shield the institution of slavery. The keenness and pungency of the satires were instantly recognized wherever read. They soon gained wide circulation, and became a powerful auxiliary to the administra tion of Lincoln in aiding to paralyze the efforts of northern sympathizers with the south ern cause. In 1866, when president Johnson was seeking popular support for his policy by traveling in the west with his cabinet, Locke, under the satne nom de plume, made the expression of " swinging round the circle" as ridiculous and notorious as possible, by grotesquely journalizing the daily doings of the cortege. As an editor Mr. Locke is
remarkable for terse and vigorous thought and dietion; and whether humorous or seri ous is always a trenchant writer. It is his misfortune, however, to have courted popu larity among men of low tastes, and the tendency of Ins writings bas been of late to a lower grade of subjects. In 1875 lie published The Morals of Abou Ben Adhem; and in 1879 a coarse comic drama entitled the Widow _Mott, simply an adaptation of the comic story of that name written by 3Ir. Frances M. Whitche in 1854, and of no credit to Mr. Locke in conception or adaptation, though it has proved popular with a certain grade of theater-goers. Mr. Locke is still publisher and editor of the Toledo Blade.
See TETANUS.