CROFFUT, William Augustus, author, born in Redding, Connecticut, 29 January 1835. He received his education in the public schools of Orange, Conn. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the U. S. army, and with a certain pride records that the warrant of a corporM is the highest military appointment he has ever held. He was a journalist before joining the army, and has been successively engaged upon the New Haven, Connecticut, "Palladium," the Rochester, New York, "Democrat," the St. Paul. Minn.. "Times," the Minneapolis "Tribune," the Chicago "Post," the New York "Graphic," "Tribune," and "World," and the Washington, D. C., "Post." He has twice visited Europe and traveled through Mexico, Yucatan, Cuba, and Nova Scotia, and has been a voluminous correspondent of papers in most of the large cities of the west. He wrote the libretto of a comic opera entitled "Deseret," brought out in New York in 1882, for which Dudley Buck composed the music. The motive for this opera was drawn from life among the Mormons. He is the author of "The History of Connecticut in the Rebellion" (New York, 1867); "A Helping Hand" (Cincinnati, 1868); "Bourbon Ballads," a popular series of political rhymes (New York, 1880); "A Midsummer Lark" (1882); and 'The Vanderbilts" (1886). The "Midsummer Lark" is a humorous account of a tour through Europe, written in rhyme, but printed for the most part in the form of prose.