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diff --git a/40898.txt b/40898.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f12f938..0000000 --- a/40898.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4095 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Friendly Club and Other Portraits, by Francis Parsons - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Friendly Club and Other Portraits - -Author: Francis Parsons - -Release Date: September 30, 2012 [EBook #40898] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDLY CLUB AND OTHER PORTRAITS *** - - - - -Produced by Emmy, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - -_The_ FRIENDLY CLUB & OTHER PORTRAITS - -FRANCIS PARSONS - - - - -[Illustration: JOEL BARLOW - -From an Engraving by Durand - -After the Portrait by Robert Fulton] - - - - -The - -FRIENDLY CLUB - -And - -OTHER PORTRAITS - -_By_ Francis Parsons - - "_Whose yesterdays look backwards - with a smile._" - --YOUNG'S _Night Thoughts_ - -[Illustration] - - Edwin Valentine Mitchell - Hartford, Connecticut - 1922 - - - - - Copyright, 1922, - By Edwin Valentine Mitchell - - _First Edition_ - - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - TO - THE MEMORY OF - MY FATHER - - - - -NOTE - - -THE thanks of the author are due to Mr. Charles Hopkins Clark, Editor of -"The Hartford Courant," in which most of the following essays originally -appeared anonymously, for permission to republish them in the revised, -enlarged and sometimes entirely re-written form in which they are here -presented. "The Friendly Club," "The Mystery of the Bell Tavern" and -"Our Battle Laureate" have not been previously printed. - -Citation of authorities, except so far as they appear in the text, has -been considered inappropriate in the case of such informal articles as -these. It would be ungracious, however, to omit mention of the writer's -indebtedness in connection with the second essay to Mr. Charles Knowles -Bolton's "The Elizabeth Whitman Mystery," which is the latest and most -comprehensive document on this baffling incident of New England social -history. - - F. P. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - I The Friendly Club 13 - II The Mystery of the Bell Tavern 47 - III The Hemans of America 69 - IV Whom the Gods Love 83 - V An Eccentric Visitor 95 - VI Who Was Peter Parley? 107 - VII A Preacher of the Gospel 121 - VIII A Friend of Lincoln 135 - IX Our Battle Laureate 147 - X The Temple of the Muses 161 - XI The Friend of Youth 181 - XII The Christmas Party 191 - XIII The Fabric of a Dream 201 - XIV The Quiet Life 213 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - JOEL BARLOW _Frontispiece_ - From the engraving by Durand after the portrait - by Robert Fulton - - LEXINGTON MONUMENT AND BELL TAVERN, DANVERS 64 - From Barber's "Massachusetts Historical Collections" - - THE SIGOURNEY MANSION 75 - From an old woodcut - - LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY 78 - From a miniature in the Colt Collection by - permission of the Wadsworth Atheneum - - INSCRIPTION TO DANIEL WADSWORTH IN J. G. C. - BRAINARD'S HAND 91 - - TITLE PAGE OF BRAINARD'S "OCCASIONAL PIECES OF POETRY" 92 - - THE WATKINSON LIBRARY 166 - Drawing by Seth Talcott - - SILHOUETTE OF DANIEL WADSWORTH 170 - By permission of The Connecticut Historical Society - - - - -_I: The Friendly Club_ - - -A HARVARD man, not exempt from the complacency sometimes attributed to -graduates of his university, once observed, according to Barrett -Wendell, that the group of forgotten litterateurs, who toward the close -of the eighteenth century attained a brief measure of fame as the -"Hartford Wits," represents the only considerable literary efflorescence -of Yale. The remark did not fail to provoke the rejoinder, doubtless -from a Yale source, that nevertheless at the time when the Hartford Wits -flourished no Harvard man had produced literature half so good as -theirs. - -How good this literature was considered in its day is not readily -understood by the modern reader, for from the Hudibrastic imitations and -heroic couplets of these writers, whose brilliance was dimmed so long -ago, the contemporary flavor has long since evaporated. Indeed there is -no modern reader in the general sense. It is only the antiquarian, the -literary researcher, the casual burrower among the shelves of some old -library who now opens these yellow pages and follows for a few moments -the stilted lines that seem to him a diluted imitation of Pope, -Goldsmith and Butler. Professor Beers of Yale ventures the surmise that -he may be the only living man who has read the whole of Joel Barlow's -"Columbiad." - -Yet in their time this coterie of poets, who gathered in the little -Connecticut town after the close of the war for independence, became -famous not only in their own land but abroad, and the community where -most of them lived and met at their "friendly club"--was it at the Black -Horse Tavern or the "Bunch of Grapes"?--shone in reflected glory as the -literary center of America. No Boswell was among them to record the -sparkling epigrams, the jovial give and take, the profound "political -and philosophical" debates of those weekly gatherings. Yet imagination -loves to linger on the old friendships, the patriotic aspirations, the -common passion for creative art, the wooing of the Muses of an older -world, thus dimly shadowed forth against the background of the raw -young country just embarking on its mysterious experiment. - -Do not doubt that these personages whose individualities are now so -effectually concealed behind the veil of their sounding and artificial -cantos were real young men who cherished their dreams and their hopes. -One can see them gathered around the great wood fire in the low ceiled -room redolent of tobacco, blazing hickory and hot Jamaica rum. - -Here is Trumbull, the lawyer, the author of "M'Fingal" which everybody -has read and which has been published in England and honored with the -criticism of the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews. He is a little man, -rather frail, rather nervous, not without impatience, with a ready wit -that sometimes bites deep. Here is Lemuel Hopkins, the physician, whose -lank body, long nose and prominent eyes are outward manifestations of -his eccentric genius. His presence lends a fillip to the gathering for -he is an odd fish and no one can tell what he will do or say next. -Threatened all his life with tuberculosis he is nevertheless a man of -great muscular strength and during his days as a soldier he used to -astonish his comrades by his ability to fire a heavy king's arm, held -in one hand at arm's length. In his verses he castigates shams and -humbugs of all kinds, whether the nostrums of medical quacks or the -irreverent vaporings of General Ethan Allen-- - - "Lo, Allen, 'scaped from British jails - His tushes broke by biting nails, - Appears in hyperborean skies, - To tell the world the Bible lies." - -Perhaps Colonel David Humphreys, full of war stories and anecdotes of -his intimacy with General Washington, on whose staff he served, is in -Hartford for the evening. A well dressed, hearty, sophisticated traveler -and man of the world is Colonel Humphreys, who would be recognized at -first glance as a soldier, though not as a poet. Nevertheless he is -addicted to the writing of verse which is apt to run in the vein of -comedy or burlesque when it is not earnestly patriotic. To look at him -one would know that he enjoys a good dinner, a good story and a bottle -of port. - -We may be sure that Joel Barlow is here, the vacillating, visionary -Barlow who has tried, or is to try his hand at many pursuits besides -epic poetry--the ministry, the law, bookselling, philosophy, journalism -and diplomacy--but who is pre-occupied now, as all his life, with his -magnum opus, "The Vision of Columbus," later elaborated into "The -Columbiad." He is a good looking, if somewhat self-centered young man, a -favorite in the days of his New Haven residence with the young ladies of -that town. Perhaps it was there that he first met the charming and -talented Elizabeth Whitman, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Elnathan -Whitman, sometime pastor of the South Congregational Church in Hartford, -who often visited her friend Betty Stiles, the daughter of the president -of Yale College. A few of Elizabeth Whitman's letters that have -survived--the packet bearing an endorsement in Barlow's handwriting--are -evidence that he made her a confidante of his literary schemes and hopes -and welcomed her assistance with his great epic. A strong friendship and -entire harmony seem to have existed between her and Ruth Baldwin of New -Haven, whom Barlow married during the war, and who is said to have -"inspired in the poet's breast a remarkable passion, one that survived -all the mutations of a most adventurous career, and glowed as fervently -at fifty as at twenty-five." For nearly a year the marriage was kept a -secret, but parental forgiveness was at last secured and Barlow has now -brought his wife to Hartford where he is continuing his legal studies, -begun in his college town. But the law will not engross him long. Soon, -with his friend Elisha Babcock, he is to start a new journal, "The -American Mercury," of which his editorship, like all of Barlow's early -enterprises, is to be brief, though the paper is to continue till 1830. - -A tall, slender man, Noah Webster by name, a class-mate of Barlow at -Yale, though four years his junior, sits near him, relaxing for the -moment in the informality of these surroundings his strangely intense -powers of mental application, divided just now between the law and the -preparation of his "Grammatical Institute." To the "poetical effusions" -of his friends he contributes nothing, but he was an intimate of them -all and no doubt often attended their gatherings. - -Perhaps, now and later, something of the poet's license in the matter of -chronology may be granted. Let us assume, then, that young Dr. Mason -Cogswell is in town for a day or two, looking over the ground with a -view of settling here in the practice of medicine and surgery in which -he is now engaged at Stamford, after his training in New York where he -served with his brother James at the soldiers' hospital. It is true that -the fragments of his diary, which by a fortunate chance were rescued -from destruction, do not mention any visit to Hartford as early as this, -though his journal does describe a short sojourn here a few years later. -Still, his presence is by no means impossible. He is a companionable -youth, as popular with the young ladies as Barlow, but with an easier -manner, a readier humor. Delighted at this opportunity to sit for an -evening at the feet of the older celebrities, he is a welcome guest, for -already he has a reputation for versatility and culture and the fact -that he was valedictorian of the Yale Class of 1780--and its youngest -member--is not forgotten. - -Richard Alsop, book-worm, naturalist and linguist, who is beginning to -dip into verse, has locked up his book shop for the night and is here. -Near him sits a man who is, or is soon to be, his brother-in-law, a -tall, dark youth, Theodore Dwight, the brother of the more famous -Timothy, whose pastoral duties detain him at Greenfield Hill, but who is -sometimes numbered as one of this group. Theodore is now studying law, -but he has a flair for writing and makes an occasional adventure into -the gazettes. - -These more youthful aspirants have their spurs to win. A little later -they, with their friend Dr. Elihu Smith, who published the first -American poetic anthology, are to get into print in a vein of satirical -verse ridiculing the prevalent literary affectation and bombast. After -journalistic publication these satires will appear in book form under -the title of "The Echo," in the introduction to which the anonymous -authors state that the poems "owed their origin to the accidental -suggestion of a moment of literary sportiveness." "The Echo" was -"Printed at the Porcupine Press by Pasquin Petronius." - -That particular sportive moment is still in the future. Now it is -sufficient for these younger men to shine in the reflected luster of the -established luminaries. These greater lights are worthy indeed of the -worship of the lesser stars. Three of them have achieved, or are soon to -acquire, an international as well as a national reputation. That -"M'Fingal" had provoked discussion in England has been noted. -Humphreys's "Address to the Armies of America," written in camp at -Peekskill, and dedicated to the Duke de Rochefoucault, was issued with -an introductory letter by the poet's friend, the Marquis de Chastellux, -in a French translation in Paris, after its publication in England where -the Monthly and Critical Reviews gave it a fair amount of praise, though -they could not refrain from the statement that the poem was "not a very -pleasing one to a good Englishman." Barlow's "Vision of Columbus" was -published almost simultaneously in Hartford and London in 1787. - -In short these men had attained a genuine intellectual eminence in their -generation. They were the cognoscenti of their day. Like most young -intellectuals their gospel concerned itself with reform, with the -ridicule of shams, with the refusal to accept the popularity of new -doctrines as a final test of their value. Trumbull and Barlow, both Yale -graduates, had fought with their friend Timothy Dwight their first -reform campaign which was an effort to introduce into the somewhat -archaic and outworn body of the Yale curriculum the breath of the -humanities and of modern thought. Trumbull, according to Moses Coit -Tyler, was an example of a "new tone coming into American -letters--urbanity, perspective, moderation of emphasis, satire, -especially on its more playful side--that of irony." - -Their interests were not only literary. They were publicists, political -satirists, social philosophers, not without their religious theories. In -all these matters their search was for the true standards and as -champions of causes and enthusiasts of ideals they exhibited a variation -from type in that their warfare was waged, not against the recognized -conventions in government, religion and society, but in favor of them. -Priding themselves on untrammelled and direct thinking, their reasoning -led them to support the established, the orderly, the stable. -Temperamentally aristocrats, theoretically republicans--in the broad -sense of the term--they were practically federalists. "The Anarchiad," a -series of poems they were contributing anonymously about this time to -"The New Haven Gazette," dealt satirically with the dangers of national -unrest and instability, of selfish aggrandizement and of a fictitious -currency. In these verses Hesper addresses "the Sages and Counsellors at -Philadelphia" as follows: - - "But know, ye favor'd race, one potent head - Must rule your States, and strike your foes with dread." - -And in the same passage occur some lines, attributed to Hopkins, that -Daniel Webster may have read: - - "Through ruined realms the voice of UNION calls; - On you she calls! Attend the warning cry: - YE LIVE UNITED, OR DIVIDED, DIE!" - -They ridiculed unsparingly the dangers hidden under the cloak of -"Democracy"--dangers imminent and menacing in the days following the end -of the war in which most of them had served. In fighting these perils -they were sagacious in making use of the means frequently employed by -advocates of radicalism--invective, irony and ridicule. For these -methods secured, as they naturally would secure if cleverly managed, a -wide appeal. Yet the efficiency of such weapons depends very largely -upon the occasion. Their potency is contemporary with the events against -which they are directed and with the passing years their force weakens. -Who reads nowadays the political diatribes of Swift, the tracts of -Defoe, or the letters of Junius? Here perhaps is in part an explanation -of the great temporary influence of the Hartford Wits, as well as of -their complete modern obscuration. The brilliant blade they wielded had -a biting edge, but the rust of a century and a half has dulled it. - -This general leaning toward the established canons, this impatience with -the new doctrines that in the judgment of these men made for disunion -and disaster, should be qualified, at least in the religious aspect, in -two interesting particulars, each contradictory to the other. Hopkins -began adult life as a sceptic but became a defender of the Christian -philosophy. Barlow, on the other hand, deserted in later life the -orthodox ideals of his youth, never, perhaps, very enthusiastically -championed, and during his sojourn in France became a rationalist and -free-thinker. - -In general, however, the Hartford Wits fought for the established order -against the forces of innovation and disintegration and thus when they -sat down to unburden their minds of their visions of their country's -future greatness, or of their impatience with demagoguery and political -short-sightedness, it was natural that their sense of tradition and -order should lead their thoughts to seek expression in the verse forms -lifted into fame by the masters of an older and greater literature and -accepted as the conventional vehicle of poetic expression. Here is -another reason, if they must be catalogued, for the forgetfulness of the -Hartford Wits. These balanced, formal lines, so expressive of the -artificial modes and manners of the subjects of Queen Anne and her -successors, are to us prosy, old-fashioned and imitative. Their charm -has fled. Can you imagine Miss Amy Lowell reading Hudibras? And we must -admit that "M'Fingal," though it has given to literature some still -remembered aphorisms, such as-- - - "No man e'er felt the halter draw - With good opinion of the law"-- - -is, on the whole, poorer reading than its model. - - -ii - -It is significant that the distinction of the individuals united in the -"friendly club" was not confined to their literary activities. In an age -sometimes esteemed narrow and limited in its cultural aspects they are -refreshing in their versatility. Trumbull was a well-known lawyer and -served on the bench for eighteen years, part of his legal training -having been pursued in the office of John Adams. It was a strange -combination, not unprecedented but nevertheless arresting, of this -talent for the law associated with the artistic temperament. For with -all his practical attributes Trumbull was essentially an artist. His -early poem entitled "An Ode to Sleep," says Tyler, "is a composition -resonant of noble and sweet music and making, if one may say so, a -nearer approach to genuine poetry than had then [1773] been achieved by -any living American except Freneau." And in the following bit of -autobiography, quoted by Tyler, may be discerned the self-distrust and -depression to which no soul that longs and strives for the beautiful in -this imperfect world is entirely a stranger: "Formed with the keenest -sensibility and the most extravagantly romantic feelings . . . . I was -born the dupe of imagination. My satirical turn was not native. It was -produced by the keen spirit of critical observation, operating on -disappointed expectation, and revenging itself on real or fancied -wrongs." - -This is an extraordinary item of self-revelation to come from a man who -at various times held office as State's Attorney for Hartford County, -member of the General Assembly and Judge of the Superior and Supreme -Courts of his State. It may not be an entirely fanciful surmise to -attribute a partial cause of the delicate health that followed Trumbull -all his long life to the warring elements that strove to unite in his -brilliant mentality. - -With Dr. Hopkins poetizing was distinctly a by-product. His chief -concern was the practice of medicine and in his profession he won a -reputation that is not entirely forgotten today by members of the -faculty, for he was probably the first American physician to assert that -tuberculosis was curable and his success as a specialist in this field -was so marked that, says Dr. Walter R. Steiner in a monograph upon him, -"patients with this disease came to him for treatment from a great -distance--one being recorded to have made the trip all the way from New -Orleans." In his treatment he was unique in his day in very largely -discarding the use of drugs and relying more upon pure air, good diet -and moderate exercise when strength permitted. His theory that fresh air -was better for colds than the warm air of houses was revolutionary, but -so was almost everything he did--or so it seemed to his contemporaries. -At one time he evidently considered that New York City might offer a -wider field of practice than the Connecticut capital, for in December, -1789, Trumbull wrote to Oliver Wolcott, "Dr. Hopkins has an itch of -running away to New York, but I trust his indolence will prevent him. -However if you should catch him in your city, I desire you to take him -up or secure him so that we may have him again, for which you shall have -sixpence reward and all charges." In spite of his malady he lived till -almost fifty-one, dying in April, 1801, the head of the medical -profession in Connecticut. - -It is to be noted that though Dr. Cogswell was one of the chief -contributors to "The Echo" his main business in life was as a surgeon -rather than a poet, and he became one of the most skillful surgical -practitioners in the country, being the first to introduce into the -United States the operation for cataracts and the first to tie the -carotid artery. Closely associated with him is the pathetic memory of -his daughter Alice who became stone deaf in early childhood and whose -infirmity led to the establishment at Hartford of the first school in -this country for the education of the deaf. Of this institution Dr. -Cogswell was one of the founders and he was a leader in other -philanthropic enterprises. He lived till 1830. To the last he wore the -knee breeches and silk stockings customary in his youth and which he -considered the only proper dress for a gentleman. His death broke the -heart of his daughter Alice, to whom he had been a never-failing -protection and support, and she died within a fortnight after her -father. - -In contrast with the activities of their colleagues, the careers of -Theodore Dwight and Alsop are associated solely with the product of -their pens. Dwight, however, was more of a publicist and editor than a -creative literary worker. He had the brains with which nature had -endowed his family and his history of the unjustly maligned Hartford -Convention is a thoughtful and able piece of work--an original -historical document that is illuminating and suggestive. Such -distinction as Alsop attained was strictly literary, yet one gets the -impression that he worked at writing rather as an amateur than a -professional. He was really a student, a scholar, a research worker, and -seems to have sought his reward more in the pleasure of following his -interests than in the quest of public recognition. Much that he wrote -was never published. - -There was a great deal in life that Colonel Humphreys enjoyed besides -composing verses and a great many activities other than poetry for which -he may be remembered. Not the least hint of any paralyzing -self-distrust, no subtle questionings as to whether it was all worth -while, disturbed his equanimity. And fate rewarded his zest in life by -furnishing him with a variety of experiences. They began in the war from -which he emerged with a reputation for gallantry and daring and, what -was perhaps more valuable, with the firm friendship of George -Washington. He participated in the raid into Sag Harbor by Colonel Meigs -in '77 and the next year raided the Long Island shore on his own -account, burning three enemy ships and getting away without the loss of -a man. It was only a freak of the weather that perhaps withheld from him -a more glorious exploit for on Christmas night, 1780, he headed a -desperate venture that had for its object no less an achievement than -the capture of Sir Henry Clinton at his headquarters in New York. The -rising of the wintry northwest gale drove the boats of the little group -of adventurers away from the intended landing near the foot of Broadway -and swept them down through the British shipping in the harbor to Sandy -Hook. After Yorktown he was ordered by Washington to carry the captured -colors to Congress which in the enthusiasm of the moment voted him a -handsome sword. - - "See Humphreys, glorious from the field retire. - Sheathe the glad sword and string the sounding lyre," - -wrote Barlow in his "Vision of Columbus," The lyre accompanied songs in -praise of his country, tributes to his commander-in-chief, political -satires, and even love lyrics-- - - "Enough with war my lay has sung - A softer theme awakes my tongue - 'Tis beauty's force divine; - Can I resist that air, that grace, - The charms of motion, figure, face? - For ev'ry charm is thine." - -But this was by the way. Appointed secretary to the commission, -consisting of Franklin, John Adams and Jefferson, sent to negotiate -treaties of commerce and amity with European nations, he no doubt -thoroughly enjoyed his two years in London and Paris. In theory the -nobility of Europe may have been anathema to a patriotic citizen of a -republic, but practically there were many persons among them whose -acquaintance was agreeable to an amiable and gallant gentleman of -sensibility like Colonel Humphreys and there was, no doubt, a certain -gratification in dedicating one's poems to a duke and in having them -reviewed by a marquis who incidentally disclosed the fact that he was an -old companion in arms. Also it was pleasant to be elected a fellow of -the Royal Society. - -On Colonel Humphreys's return he spent some time as a member of the -family at Mount Vernon where Washington encouraged him in his project of -writing a history of the war which, however, never got any further in -print than a memorial of his old general, Putnam. At Mount Vernon he -wrote an ode celebrating his great and good friend whose friendship we -may reasonably infer constituted one of his chief conversational assets: - - "Let others sing his deeds in arms, - A nation sav'd, and conquest's charms: - Posterity shall hear, - 'Twas mine, return'd from Europe's courts - To share his thoughts, partake his sports - And sooth his partial ear." - -It is clear that European life had its attractions for Colonel -Humphreys. At all events he returned to it, serving as minister to -Portugal and later to Spain whence he imported his famous merino sheep -to his acres at Humphreysville, now Seymour. Here, and in the adjoining -town of Derby, he projected and to a creditable extent realized, an -ideal patriarchal manufacturing and farming community, instructing his -operatives and husbandmen in improved industrial methods, in scientific -agriculture and stock raising, athletics, poetry and the drama in which -one of his productions was actually presented on the stage. At least he -accomplished his wish, voiced in his poem "On the Industry of the United -States of America"-- - - "Oh, might my guidance from the downs of Spain - Lead a white flock across the western main, - - . . . . . - - Clad in the raiment my merinos yield, - Like Cincinnatus, fed from my own field: - - . . . . . - - There would I pass, with friends, beneath my trees, - What rests from public life, in letter'd ease." - - -iii - -Though the friends grouped around the tavern fire are united in two -sympathetic qualities--devotion to the Muses and a proud conviction, -singularly justified by events, of the destiny of their country--it is -manifest that the membership of the little club furnishes only another -illustration of the truism that human personality is the most varying -thing in the world and that life has different lessons for each of us. -The most baffling individuality of them all, the man whose story seems -to have been a quest for some mysterious, unattained goal, was Joel -Barlow. - -In early life everything he attempted went to pieces. His chaplaincy in -the army was a _tour de force_ which he dropped as soon as possible. The -law proved a mistake almost as soon as begun and his editorship of "The -American Mercury" was abandoned after less than a year. Perhaps it was -with renewed hope, perhaps it was with something of desperation, that he -persuaded himself to embark on an entirely new undertaking and to accept -a proposal to journey overseas to procure settlers for the Ohio lands -which the Scioto Land Company desired to sell to unsuspecting Frenchmen. -It is an established fact that Barlow was unsuspecting himself, but -after he had procured the settlers and shipped them off with golden -promises the project turned out to be a gigantic fraud. Personal -humiliation was added to general discouragement. Yet somehow he survived -the mortification. It may be that at this particular time mundane -affairs did not seem to be of the utmost importance. He was dwelling -somewhat in the clouds, in a vision--the "Vision of Columbus," which he -proposed to amplify and republish in a form more fitting the great theme -than the first modest edition of the original poem. He was pre-occupied -with the millenium he foresaw. - -To the present day reader it is of the highest interest to note that the -"Vision" foretold the Panama Canal, and that the climax of the poem is a -congress of the nations. - - "Hither the delegated sires ascend, - And all the cares of every clime attend. - - . . . . . . - - To give each realm its limits and its laws - Bid the last breath of dire contention cease, - And bind all regions in the leagues of peace." - -Indeed with the break-down of his career as a promoter the tide began to -turn. Barlow's friends knew he was innocent of complicity in the land -swindle. In Paris he found himself at last in an environment where -freedom of thought was encouraged, where the ambitions of a poet were -regarded with respect and admiration. He was always an idealist and he -caught the contagion in the mental atmosphere of Paris as the revolution -came on. Perhaps it seemed to him that his dream of the millenium was -coming true. He became a Girondist and a political writer, supporting -himself mainly by his pen, with the re-writing of the "Vision" always in -the back of his mind. Was this the real Barlow--or was it a phase, a -manifestation of a kind of philosophic idealism, fostered by the air of -Paris, so favorable to the blossoming of this new flower of liberty and -universal human brotherhood which centered on France the minds of all -the dreamers of the world? - -What did he now think, we wonder, of his dedication of the first edition -of his epic, published the year before he sailed for France, to Louis -the Sixteenth whom, as one commentator has noted, he soon indirectly -assisted in sending to the guillotine? He had gone a long way from the -militant conservatism of the brilliant companions of his youth--from the -days when he had preached the gospel to American soldiers and had -collaborated with Timothy Dwight, at the request of the General -Association of the Connecticut Clergy, in getting out an edition of -Isaac Watts's metrical versions of the Psalms--to which he had added a -few poetical renderings of his own. - -For the following years his residence alternated between Paris and -London where he found congenial souls among the artists and poets who -were members of the Constitutional Society. His "Advice to the -Privileged Orders" was attacked by Burke, praised by Fox, proscribed by -the British government and translated into French and German. In 1792 he -presented to the National Convention of France a treatise on government -which was in fact a remarkable state paper, combining profound -philosophic theories of government with practical administrative and -executive suggestions. As a result he was made a citizen of France--an -honor he shared among Americans with only Washington and Hamilton. - -Defeat for election as a deputy from Savoy and his repugnance to the -excesses of the Revolution appear to have thrown him out of practical -politics for a time. And then a strange thing happened. This visionary -poet and idealist attempted to retrieve his fortunes in commerce and -speculation and actually succeeded. During his consulship at Algiers, -from which he anticipated he might never return, he left a letter for -his wife in which he stated that his estate might amount to one hundred -and twenty thousand dollars if French funds rose to par. - -This appointment came to him in a pleasant way. One day in the summer of -1795 he returned from a business trip to the Low Countries to find an -old friend waiting for him. Colonel Humphreys, now minister at Lisbon, -had arrived at the request of the administration to ask Barlow to accept -this mission to Algiers where for a year and a half he was to labor, -succeeding in the end in liberating imprisoned countrymen and in -effecting a treaty that composed troublesome difficulties. - -It must have been an interesting reunion. Humphreys was too much of a -cosmopolitan, too generous in spirit, to make Barlow's growing -liberalism of thought a personal grievance. Here for the exiled American -was first-hand news of the old Connecticut friends--that Trumbull, -between ill health and the pressure of public affairs, was neglecting -the Muses; that Noah Webster was said to be working on a great lexicon; -that Dr. Cogswell had settled in Hartford and married a daughter of -Colonel William Ledyard who was killed at Fort Griswold with his own -sword in the act of surrender; that a play by Dr. Elihu Smith had been -acted at the John Street Theatre in New York; that Timothy Dwight would -probably succeed Dr. Stiles as President of Yale--and much besides. Very -likely Humphreys confided to his friend his growing interest in Miss Ann -Bulkley, an English heiress, whom he had met in Lisbon and who soon -afterward was to become his wife, and Barlow no doubt found a -sympathetic listener to his great project of enlarging and re-publishing -the "Vision." - -His return from Algiers found French consols rising with the Napoleonic -successes and Barlow lived as became a man of wealth and distinction. -Robert Fulton, who made his home with him, painted his portrait in the -intervals of experimenting with submarine boats and torpedoes in the -Seine and the harbor at Brest. Indeed Barlow had now acquired so strong -an influence with the Directory and the French people that his -biographer attributes to him the chief part in averting war between -France and the United States in the tense days after 1798. - -Then followed a return to his own country where he had an ambition to -found a national institution for education and the advancement of -science. He built a beautiful home, not in New England, be it noted, but -near Washington--the "Holland House of America"--and began, but never -finished, a history of the United States. He did, however, at last -complete "The Columbiad," which was published in Philadelphia in -1807--"the finest specimen of book-making ever produced in America." - -Did the great moment hold something of disillusion and disappointment, -when, amid the somewhat perfunctory adulation, came the bitter criticism -of the Federalists and the expressed conviction of some of his old Yale -and Hartford friends that he was an apostate in politics and religion? -To him it was clear that they did not understand. How could it be -expected that Timothy Dwight, for example, the grandson of Jonathan -Edwards, with all of New England's conservatism and provincialism in his -blood, could understand? Yet Barlow's ancestral background was the -same--but who can fathom the depths of personality, or solve the -complexity of motive and aspiration? - -Perhaps there were times when the returned wanderer grew homesick for -Paris. At last the chance to return to the land that had adopted him -came--a chance for notable service in an honorable capacity. War was -again in the air and in 1811 Barlow went back to France as minister -plenipotentiary, charged with the duty of again averting conflict and -negotiating a treaty embodying a settlement of the differences. - -In the French capital he took his old house. His old servants came back -to him with tears of joy. Old friends gathered about him. It was not -easy, however, to clinch the treaty. The Emperor was involved in -momentous affairs. The Russian expedition was on foot. The ministers -procrastinated. There is an intimation in the record that the poet and -political theorist was out-maneuvered in the negotiations by players of -a game that had nothing to do with poetry or abstract questions but that -concerned itself, persistently and relentlessly, with very definite but -not entirely obvious purposes. Yet it does not seem that this inference -is conclusively supported by the evidence. However that may be, it was -given out that Barlow had secured, and he unquestionably believed that -he had secured, an agreement as to the provisions of the proposed -treaty. At any rate the Emperor consented to meet the American envoy if -he would come to Vilna in West Russia. - -So in that dreary winter he set out with a high hope of achieving his -greatest service to his country, but what would have happened at Vilna -we shall never know, for on Barlow's approach to that town an incredible -and stupendous piece of news awaited him. The invincible Grand Army was -retreating, apparently in some demoralization. Everything was in -confusion. Where the Emperor was, no one knew. Obviously nothing could -now be done and the American minister started to return. - -Somewhere on those frozen roads the Emperor passed him, racing for Paris -to save his dynasty and himself. In the exposure and hardship Barlow -fell ill. At the little village of Zarnovich, near Cracow, it became -evident that he could travel no further and there, in the midst of that -historic cataclysm, he died. - -It was a strange ending for one of the old Hartford coterie. In the -clairvoyance said sometimes to accompany the supreme moment did he -realize that if his great epic might not live forever he had at least -given form in his day to a dream of which civilization would never let -go? Did any intimation come to him that his "Ode to Hasty Pudding," -written off-hand at a Savoyard inn, held more real emotion than all the -balanced cadences of his monumental work? No doubt his delirious fancies -sometimes went back to the old days. Perhaps he saw once more the faces -of his old companions of the friendly club, not clouded now with -misunderstanding or disapproval. From beyond the frosted panes came -intermittently the confused noises of the great retreat, with all their -implications of selfish ambition, human suffering and the continual -warfare of the world. Was his belief in the final triumph of the -fraternity of mankind shaken by that sinister monotone? It is idle to -conjecture, but let us hope that he was comforted by a lingering faith, -revived in this hour of his extremity from the days of his youth, that -he would soon learn as to the truth of his vision and that he would find -as well the answers to the other riddles that had puzzled him all his -life. - - - - -_II: The Mystery of the Bell Tavern_ - - -THE investigator of early American fiction will find that a peculiar -interest attaches to two novels, both published in the last decade of -the eighteenth century, both following Richardson in their epistolary -form and both founded on fact. - -One of these was called "Charlotte Temple, or a Tale of Truth." In the -graveyard of Trinity Church in New York, at the head of Wall Street, is -a large stone, flush with the ground, bearing the name of the heroine of -this now forgotten story which in its day attained an astonishing -popularity. The tale is of a young girl who during the War of the -American Revolution eloped from an English school with a British officer -who abandoned her in New York where she died soon after the birth of a -daughter. The tradition runs that more than a century ago the daughter, -grown to womanhood, caused her mother's body to be removed to an -English churchyard, but the stone still marks the first resting place -and when the writer last saw it two wreaths lay upon it. - -In 1797--seven years after the date of the first edition of "Charlotte -Temple"--the second of our two novels appeared. It was called "The -Coquette" and was written by Mrs. Hannah Foster, the wife of a Brighton, -Massachusetts, minister. For many years it was read and re-read -throughout the country, the latest edition appearing in 1866. Like -"Charlotte Temple" its theme was the tragedy of abandonment. It seems, -indeed, that the writer who wished to intrigue the interest of our -ancestors of this period was compelled to hang his plot on the -judiciously interwoven threads of sentiment and gloom. Perhaps no -further proof of this is needed than the example of Charles Brockden -Brown's portentous and sinister romances, with their undeniable flashes -of genius. But it is well to remember, too, that these were the days -when "The Castle of Otranto," "Clarissa Harlowe," and "The Vicar of -Wakefield" were all popular, and all exhibited varying phases of the -literary vogue of the day. In other words, though the prevailing mode -of thought found expression in different forms, the imaginative impulses -beneath the various manifestations were the same. - -Therefore it is not surprising to find little relief from the tragic -note in "The Coquette." It is true that the author endeavors to present -the heroine, Eliza Wharton, as a worldly and volatile young woman, but -these touches of lightness have lost with the passing years whatever -approaches to polite comedy they may have once implied. One must confess -that regarded strictly as a piece of fiction the book makes rather hard -reading today. But examined with some knowledge of the mystery upon -which it is founded, the old novel becomes a genuine human document. - -Mrs. Foster was a family connection of Elizabeth Whitman, the original -of "Eliza Wharton," and may have known her. Whatever the shortcomings of -her portrayal may be, it is clear that the authoress was endeavoring to -set forth in her book the character, as she estimated it, of the -charming and gifted girl, the tragedy of whose death is still -unexplained. It is true that the accuracy of the portrait in all -respects may be doubted. For example, the few letters of Elizabeth -Whitman that have been preserved are far more spontaneous and delightful -than any of Eliza Wharton's epistles which constitute so large a part of -the story. - -Evidently they are the letters of a different person, as well as a more -attractive one, than Mrs. Foster's heroine. Then, too, Mrs. Foster's -tale has something of the effect of a tract, of a moral effort. She is -driving home an ethical lesson and Eliza is the example to be shunned, -whereas modern speculation, grown more tolerant, is apt to question the -pre-judgment which guided the novelist's pen. He who today seeks to -penetrate the old secret realizes that he is furnished with only half of -the evidence. On that incomplete data how can a verdict of condemnation -be fairly based? Elizabeth's own story has never been told. - -Nevertheless, here, for what it is worth, is Mrs. Foster's notion, -adapted to her fictional purposes, of the kind of person the real -Elizabeth was, and from this reflection, faint and clouded though it may -be, of a genuine and appealing character, the old novel today gathers -its greatest interest. For against the somewhat somber background of -her New England period this Hartford girl stands forth with a flash of -brilliancy and charm. In the midst of a somewhat limited and narrow -social life, she was an individualist, an exotic. In contrast with her -Puritan environment she seems almost Hellenic--yet one fancies that -there is something about her more Gallic than Greek. - -She was the eldest of the three daughters of the Rev. Elnathan Whitman, -D.D., a Fellow of Yale College, and pastor from 1732 till his death in -1777 of the Second Church in Hartford. It is a singular coincidence that -through her mother, born Abigail Stanley, she traced kinship to the -Charlotte Stanley who was the original of "Charlotte Temple." Her father -was a grandson of that noted divine, Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, -who, it will be remembered, was the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards. -John Trumbull, the poet and judge, was a cousin and so was Aaron Burr. -Besides these, the Pierreponts, the Whitneys, the Ogdens, the Russells, -the Wadsworths, were all kin or connected by marriage. - -Fairly early in life Elizabeth became engaged to be married to the Rev. -Joseph Howe, a Yale graduate, and for a while a tutor at the college, -whose chief pastorate was at the New South Church in Boston. During the -siege he was compelled to flee from the city and, his health failing, he -died at Hartford, probably in 1776. - -In that rare volume, "American Poems, Selected and Original," published -at Litchfield, 1793, is "An Ode, Addressed to Miss--. By the late Rev. -Joseph Howe, of Boston." Its occasion was the departure, by sea, of the -young woman to whom it was addressed. - - "Nor less to heaven did I prefer, - For thy dear sake, my pious prayer. - O winds, O waves, agree! - Winds gently blow, waves softly flow, - Ship move with care, for thou dost bear - The better part of me." - -It is possible, indeed probable, that Elizabeth Whitman, who visited -occasionally in Boston, inspired these lines, but it appears that on her -part this love affair was of only moderate intensity and that her -father's death, which occurred in the year following the death of her -betrothed, affected her far more than that of the young minister she was -to have married. Not long after Mr. Whitman died, while Elizabeth was -visiting in New Haven at the home of Dr. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale -College, whose daughter Betsy was her intimate friend, her second love -affair developed. - -The Rev. Joseph Buckminster was also a Yale graduate and tutor, later -settling at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in Dr. Stiles's old parish, where -his life was spent. He was considered an exceptionally brilliant and -promising young man and he seems to have loved and wooed Elizabeth -ardently. It appears that she had a deep affection for him, but also an -intense dread of the harrowing melancholia from which he at times -suffered. There is an intimation, too, as to her own growing doubts of -future happiness in the somewhat limited role of a New England -minister's wife. Would her free and eager spirit find satisfaction in a -lifetime of parochial routine? She was discussing her final decision in -this matter with her cousin Jeremiah Wadsworth in the arbor of her -mother's garden when Buckminster, who did not like Colonel Wadsworth, -suddenly appeared and, misunderstanding the situation, went away in -great anger. - -Are the following lines from a letter of Elizabeth to Joel Barlow, -written at Hartford, February 19, 1779, references to this affair? - - ". . . . to find yourself quite out of Ambition's way, - and in the very bosom of content,--this certainly is - agreeable, and never more than when one has met with - trouble in a busier place. I felt myself no longer - afraid when a certain subject was started. I neither - trembled nor turned pale, but sat at my ease and felt - as if nobody would hurt me. I know you will laugh at - me for a pusillanimous creature for being ever so - afraid as you have seen me; but I cannot help it. . . . - - "As to Mr. Baldwin, if he were at the door, I would - not run into the cupboard to avoid him. He may mean - well, in writing all to Buckminster and nothing to me; - but I do not think it." - -After the encounter in the garden Elizabeth wrote Buckminster explaining -the matter, and, we may infer, telling him that her decision would have -been unfavorable. His reply was the announcement of his approaching -marriage, but in spite of this rapid _volte face_ he is said to have -cherished Elizabeth's memory during all of his life. Mrs. Dall in her -"Romance of the Association" tells the story of his burning the first -copy of "The Coquette" he read, which he found on a parishioner's table. -"It ought never to have been written," he said, "and shall never be -read--at least, not in my parish. Bid the ladies take notice, wherever I -find a copy I shall treat it in the same way." - -Familiar letters are always a fairly clear indication of character, and -it is from these letters of Elizabeth Whitman, printed in part in her -little book by Mrs. Dall, that we may obtain our most direct knowledge -of her personality. After reading them one closes the book with the -conviction that here was a rare and lovely woman. Here is wit, -originality, sympathy--one is almost tempted to say a certain -tenderness--encouragement, good sense and good advice. The writer -obviously had that quality that will forever be wholly captivating to -the masculine mind--the ability to enter whole-heartedly into the -aspirations and ambitions of a friend, to make them her own, and to -supply the comforting assurance and admiration that the male sex so -frequently craves and that is so often the spur to high endeavor. There -is something very winning about this affectionate sympathy as displayed -in these old letters, all, with one exception, written to Joel Barlow at -the time when he was striving for accomplishment and recognition as a -poet. Yet the writer's praise is not blind or overdone, for she does -not hesitate to criticise adversely, though in a most engaging way, some -of Barlow's verses that he sends to her for her comment: - - "There are so many beauties in your elegies, that it - looks like envy or ill-nature to pass them and dwell - upon the few faults; but you know that I do not leave - them unnoticed or unadmired. If you will have me find - fault, I can do it in a few instances with the - expression. The sentiments are everywhere beautiful, - just and above all criticism. . . . Why are you gloomy? - You must not be. Expect everything, hope everything, - and do everything to make your circumstances - agreeable." - -Perhaps Elizabeth did not feel incompetent to assume the role of a -critic and literary adviser, for she herself had the true artist's -desire for self-expression and this found relief in her own poetry which -usually took the form of the heroic couplet. - -It is inevitable that the reader of these letters should ask himself: -Was there anything more than friendship between Barlow and Elizabeth? -Doubtless the answer is in the negative. When Elizabeth Whitman first -met the poet he was engaged to be married to Ruth Baldwin who always -remained one of Elizabeth's closest friends and who through all of -Barlow's strange career was his faithful and beloved wife. Yet it is -evident that in his correspondent Barlow's wavering and self-centered -spirit found a steadying and assuring solace that he could never have -forgotten. Is it possible that he knew the secret of the final mystery? - -Of love affairs, other than those here indicated, that may have -transpired in Elizabeth's experience before the catastrophe, we know -little or nothing. No doubt certain emotional adventures occurred as the -years passed. She was exceptionally cultivated and entertaining and all -accounts agree that she was beautiful, though her exact type of beauty -is a matter of speculation, for her portrait which for years after her -death hung in her old home was destroyed in 1831, when the house was -burned--perhaps with much memoranda which would have given us a clue to -her secret. - -The following well-rounded sentence from Mrs. Locke's historically -inaccurate but emotionally true preface to the edition of 1866 of "The -Coquette" is not without its character-illuminating quality. "By her -exceeding personal beauty and accomplishments," wrote Mrs. Locke of -Elizabeth, of whose personality she seems to have had some reliable -evidence, "added to the wealth of her mind, she attracted to her sphere -the grave and the gay, the learned and the witty, the worshippers of the -beautiful, with those who reverently bend before all inner graces." - -For a young woman of the period her life was reasonably varied and her -acquaintance extensive. At President Stiles's home, and elsewhere in New -Haven, where she often visited, she met many men of distinction. She and -Betsy Stiles both spoke French fluently and it is said that Elizabeth -was greatly admired by several of the French officers who had known Dr. -Stiles at Newport and who called upon him from time to time at New -Haven. Certain, it must be confessed rather indefinite, "foreign -secretaries" are alleged to have fallen victims to her charms. - -There is an intimation that after her father's death she did not always -find life at home congenial. This is an inference--though not entirely -an inference--that one may readily accept. There was an irony in the -fate that placed this vivid creature in a New England parsonage in the -last half of the eighteenth century. Paris or Florence in the days of -the Renaissance--in such a setting one can visualize her. But, alas! -there was little in common between the New England of 1780 and the -France or Italy of three hundred years before. - -And yet one thing was common--as it is common wherever individuals of -the human race abide. When the great passion overwhelmed her and swept -her away from all that she had known to a mysterious end, Elizabeth -Whitman was no longer a young girl. She was a woman of experience, -knowing the ways of her world as well as any one of her day and time. -The love that broke down all restraints, that surrendered everything, -that threw the world away, was no ordinary affair of the heart. It was, -in truth, the irresistible, the incredible, the historic passion. It was -of a piece with the substance of which the great dramas of the world are -made and against the New England scene it now became the motif of a -tragedy. - -On a day late in May, 1788, Elizabeth took the stage at Hartford for -Boston where she was to visit her friend, Mrs. Henry Hill. No doubt her -family knew that something was wrong. They knew, among other things, -that she had spent all the preceding night alone in the starlight on -the roof of William Lawrence's house on the north side of the old State -House square. It was a strange proceeding, but their daughter and sister -was, after all, a strange, temperamental creature whose impulses and -mental processes they seldom understood and frequently disapproved. Of -how much more they were aware we do not know--they must have had their -suspicions--but at least they were ignorant of her purpose in her -journey. From the moment when she drove away in the stage neither they -nor any one of her Hartford friends saw her again--nor did she reach her -destination. - -On Tuesday, July 29, 1788, the Salem "Mercury" printed the following -notice: - - "Last Friday, a female stranger died at the Bell - Tavern, in Danvers; and on Sunday her remains were - decently interred. The circumstances relative to this - woman are such as to excite curiosity, and interest - our feelings. She was brought to the Bell in a chaise, - from Watertown, as she said, by a young man whom she - had engaged for that purpose. After she had alighted, - and taken a trunk with her into the house, the chaise - immediately drove off. She remained at this inn till - her death, in expectation of the arrival of her - husband, whom she expected to come for her, and - appeared anxious at his delay. She was averse to - being interrogated concerning herself or connections; - and kept much retired to her chamber, employed in - needlework, writing, etc. She said, however, that she - came from Westfield [Wethersfield?], in Connecticut; - that her parents lived in that state; that she had - been married only a few months; and that her husband's - name was Thomas Walker,--but always carefully - concealed her family name. Her linen was all marked E. - W. About a fortnight before her death, she was brought - to bed of a lifeless child. When those who attended - her apprehended her fate, they asked her, whether she - did not wish to see her friends. She answered, that - she was very desirous of seeing them. It was proposed - that she should send for them; to which she objected, - hoping in a short time to be able to go to them. From - what she said, and from other circumstances, it - appeared probable to those who attended her, that she - belonged to some country town in Connecticut. Her - conversation, her writings, and her manners, bespoke - the advantage of a respectable family and good - education. Her person was agreeable; her deportment, - amiable and engaging; and, though in a state of - anxiety, and suspense, she preserved a cheerfulness - which seemed to be not the effect of insensibility, - but of a firm and patient temper. She was supposed to - be about 35 years old. Copies of letters, of her - writing, dated at Hartford, Springfield, and other - places, were left among her things. This account is - given by the family in which she resided; and it is - hoped that the publication of it will be a means of - ascertaining her friends of her fate." - -The hope of the editor of the "Mercury" was realized. This notice, -coming to the attention of Mrs. Hill, finally resulted in the -identification of the mysterious lady of the Belt Tavern as Elizabeth -Whitman. - -[Illustration: Monument and Bell Tavern, Danvers.] - -And that, really, is the whole story. The succinct newspaper statement, -with its contemporary note and its effect of reality, furnishes a more -effective climax than the phrases of any modern chronicler. - -Yet one cannot quite close the record without mention of a few incidents -of the last days. - -The copies of letters mentioned as found among Elizabeth's belongings -evidently escaped her, for, fearful of the outcome of her illness, she -burned, as she supposed, all her papers. A poem and part of a letter, -both clearly addressed to her lover or husband, though no name was -given, escaped her. - - "Must I die alone?" she wrote in those final days. - "Shall I never see you more? I know that you will - come, but you will come too late: This is, I fear, my - last ability. Tears fall so, I know not how to write. - Why did you leave me in so much distress? But I will - not reproach you: All that was dear I left for you: - but do not regret it.--May God forgive in both what - was amiss:--When I go from hence, I will leave you - some way to find me:--if I die, will you come and drop - a tear over my grave?" - -There is a legend, perhaps apocryphal, that one afternoon she wrote in -chalk on the inn door, or on the flagging before it, her initials or -other sign, which a small boy rubbed out without her knowledge. That -evening, the legend runs, an officer in uniform rode into the town on -horseback looking carefully at all the doors and walks, but speaking to -no one. Not finding what he evidently sought, he is said to have ridden -despondently away. - -During all her stay at Danvers, Elizabeth wore a wedding ring and at her -request it was buried with her. - -As to the identity of the man whom Elizabeth loved there have been many -speculations. A cousin of hers, an able man, distinguished in the -history of his time, has often been assumed to have been the cause of -her tragedy, but it is fair to his memory to say that he denied this -assumption vehemently. The late Charles Hoadly, State Librarian of -Connecticut, had a theory that the man was a prominent member of the -Yale class of 1776, but no evidence for this belief is given. Another -supposition is that Elizabeth, against the wishes of her family, had -contracted a marriage with a French Romanist who, had he acknowledged -this union, would have forfeited his inheritance. Probably Jeremiah -Wadsworth, who was her friend and adviser, knew the secret, but if so it -perished with him. - -Her brother William, who was eight years younger than she, long survived -her, dying in Hartford on Christmas Day, 1846, at the age of eighty-six. -In the old man, who was one of the last in his city to wear the knee -breeches of the preceding century, it would have been difficult to -recognize Elizabeth's "little rogue of a brother" whom she frequently -commended to Joel Barlow's care while at Yale. Through a slight -knowledge of medicine he acquired the title of "Doctor," but he was also -admitted to the bar and for some time was Town Clerk, and Clerk of the -City Court. In his later years he became something of an antiquary and -after the Wadsworth Atheneum was built he found in that castellated home -of the humanities, particularly in the library, a grateful refuge from -the world, where he was always ready to converse with other visitors -upon incidents of days long gone by. One subject, however, was -universally accepted as unapproachable. With his son, who died unmarried -in Philadelphia in 1875, the line of the Rev. Elnathan Whitman became -extinct. - -After Elizabeth's death her brother is not known to have mentioned her -name outside of the family, but for many years he made an annual -pilgrimage to her grave with his sister Abigail. The letter of an old -resident tells us that after Elizabeth died the door of her room in the -Whitman home was kept locked and nothing disturbed till fire destroyed -the building. - - - - -_III: The Hemans of America_ - - -IN 1866, the year after her death, Timothy Dwight, later beloved -president of Yale University, contributed to "The New Englander" an -article on Mrs. Sigourney in the form of a review of her posthumous -autobiography, entitled "Letters of Life." This article deserves to be -remembered because, for one thing, it reflects from its author's mind a -sense of humor which Mrs. Sigourney never, even in her most inspired -moments, displayed. - -We all recall the old story of the Hartford personage who achieved a -certain measure of fame by remarking that Mrs. Sigourney's personal -obituary poems had added a new terror to death. Dr. Dwight's paper -begins with a reference to this same phase of the poetess. - -"Whenever any person has died in our country," he says, "during the last -score of years, who was of public reputation sufficient to justify it -. . . a kind of calm and peaceful confidence has rested in our minds, -that, within a brief season, a poetical obituary would appear in the -public prints from the well-known pen of Mrs. Sigourney. Indeed so -general has been this confidence among the people of Connecticut, that -some persons, who, from peculiar modesty or from some other reason, have -desired to escape the notice of the great world after death, have been -beset by a kind of perpetual fear that she might survive them, and thus, -having them at a great disadvantage, might send out their names unto all -the earth." - -And later on in the essay he mentions the reported story of the man who -was unwilling to travel from New Haven to Hartford on the same train -with the distinguished Hartford lady lest in case of a railroad accident -she might put him into rhyme. - -Though it is doubtful if the author of "The Anthology of Spoon River" -ever heard of these obituary poems, they form a strange precedent for -that original collection of verse. Some of them were gathered by their -authoress in a volume entitled "The Man of Uz, and Other Poems," -published at Hartford in 1862, where the literary antiquarian may still -peruse them. If they originally possessed any poetry it is now extinct, -and the only interest remaining is the personal one. To those for whom -the older Hartford still has its appeal such names as those of Colonel -Samuel Colt, Samuel Tudor, "The Brothers Buell," Harvey Seymour, D. F. -Robinson, Judge Thomas S. Williams, Deacon Normand Smith, Governor -Joseph Trumbull, and Mary Shipman Deming--to mention only a few--have -their memories and possibly their family associations. - -Perhaps it is not strange that such a considerable part of Mrs. -Sigourney's facile effusions related to the tomb for hers was the age of -pensive sentiment. It was the time when the weeping willow was popular -in all forms of art, from the tombstone to the mezzotint illustration, -when young ladies sang captivatingly, to the harp, of an early death, -when funeral sermons were printed, widely circulated and even read, and -when everybody was wondering whether they were numbered among the -"elect" or--not. - -Yet it would be a mistake to give the impression that all the sentiment -of the time, or all of Mrs. Sigourney's poetry, partook of gloom. Far -from it. Though there was, to be sure, a kind of background of agreeable -melancholy, and such alluring titles of her books as "Whisper to a -Bride" and "Water Drops" (a plea for temperance) were doubtless not -intentionally humorous, Mrs. Sigourney could be playful at times and she -invariably painted the immediate scene in colors of the rose. She was, -in fact, an idealist. She so far idealized her early surroundings in -Norwich, where she was born, that Dr. Dwight, who also knew Norwich in -his boyhood, finds difficulty in identifying places and people. She even -idealized the Park River, sometimes known in her day, as in ours, by a -less euphonious title, alluding to it as "the fair river that girdled -the domain [her home on what is now known as Asylum Hill] from which it -was protected by a mural parapet." Who other than Mrs. Sigourney could -have transformed an ordinary stone wall into a "mural parapet"? - -[Illustration: THE SIGOURNEY MANSION] - -Speaking of the Park River, Mrs. Sigourney, in the course of describing -the pastoral surroundings of what was then her country home, confesses -that she could never understand why pigs were unmentionable in polite -society--though we think she herself refrained from referring to them -by their ordinary term. "Such treatment," she asserts "is peculiarly -ungrateful in a people who allow this scorned creature to furnish a -large part of their subsistence, to swell the gains of commerce and to -share with the monarch of ocean the honor of lighting the evening lamp." - -Here are two other references, quoted by Dr. Dwight, to this rural -"domain" of which the dwelling house, it will be remembered, is still -standing: - -"Two fair cows, with coats brushed to a satin sleekness, ruminated at -will, and filled large pails with creamy nectar." - -And again, the poultry "munificently gave us their eggs, their offspring -and themselves." - -But even this idealized Sabine farm was not exempt from the troubles -that lie in wait for all of us, and we must be chivalrous enough to -admit that Mrs. Sigourney bore the sorrows that came to her with grace -and dignity. Soon after the poetess and her husband took up their -residence here Mr. Sigourney was overtaken by business troubles, which -his wife translates into "obstructions in the course of mercantile -prosperity," and she cheerfully undertook various economies, among -which was "prolonging the existence of garments by transmigration." -Later the family moved to a less pretentious home on High street where -the latter part of the life of Mrs. Sigourney, who survived her husband, -was spent. - -Later still this house became a kind of shrine, and a distinguished Yale -teacher and poet, whose people, back in his undergraduate days of the -sixties, dwelt for a time in the poetess's old home, has told the writer -how nice old ladies from the country used to make pilgrimages thither to -pluck a spray of lilac from the garden where the poetess was wont to -walk and to see the room where she "mused." - -The fact is that she appears to have dwelt in a world of the mind that, -however real to her, was in reality distinctly artificial, like most of -her poetic writings. In these faded verses there now appears to be -little real thought, still less real poetry. The only stanzas about -which any flavor of poetic eloquence still clings are those entitled -"The Return of Napoleon from St. Helena" and "Indian Names." Compare her -"Niagara" and "The Indian Summer" with the poems on the same subjects by -J. G. C. Brainard, another now almost forgotten Hartford poet of her -time, whose early death prevented the flowering of a fame that was just -beginning to unfold, and the reader grasps at once the difference -between a certain graceful turn of thought and facility of phrase on the -one hand, and genuine poetic genius on the other. - -[Illustration: LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY - -FROM A MINIATURE IN THE COLT COLLECTION - -BY PERMISSION OF THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM] - -And yet in her day she had a prodigious vogue and the reference to her -as "The Hemans of America," while now holding a certain facetious -implication, was gravely accepted at the time. Her journey abroad after -her husband's death was in its way a sort of mild ovation. She met Queen -Victoria and it is significant as well as amusing to find that our -Hartford citizeness alluded to the Queen as "a sister woman." Her verses -were translated into several languages and she received presents and -letters of commendation from the King of Prussia, the Empress of Russia -and the Queen of France. - -The explanation of her contemporary popularity must lie in the state of -mind of the period. In that era "sensibility" was the passport to -literary success and Mrs. Sigourney certainly possessed sensibility, if -nothing else, to a high degree. Those sentimental, yearly gift books -known as "annuals" were a phenomenon of the time, and no "annual" was -complete without one or more of her poems. It is time that some -qualified person gave to the world a study of this old "annual" -literature, so sentimental, so romantic, and so generally languishing. -The most delightful appreciation that comes to mind at the moment, of -the "annual" as a literary curio is contained in Professor Beers's life -of Willis in the American Men of Letters series--or in his essay on -Percival in "The Ways of Yale." - -There is a certain pathos in the fact that the years have denied this -Hartford poetess's gentle claim to immortality, because the -impossibility of granting this claim has led the world to neglect two -very definite and admirable characteristics she possessed. - -One is that she was a remarkably good woman. She carried her Christian -precepts into her daily practice in a way that few of us seem to succeed -in doing. In spite of a little harmless vanity, everyone who came in -contact with her appears to have admired and loved her. - -In the social life of the old city she was a leading and popular figure. -Samuel G. Goodrich in his "Recollections of a Life Time" describing -Hartford in the second decade of the nineteenth century says of Mrs. -Sigourney, then Miss Huntley: "Noiselessly and gracefully she glided -into our social circle and ere long was its presiding genius. . . . -Mingling in the gayeties of our social gatherings and in no respect -clouding their festivity, she led us all toward intellectual pursuits -and amusements. We had even a literary cotery under her inspiration, its -first meetings being held at Mr. Wadsworth's." Before the writer lie a -half dozen of Mrs. Sigourney's letters written in her distinct and -regular handwriting. They relate to business matters, to social -engagements, and a few are letters of consolation. Perhaps they seem a -little stilted and formal, but in all the personal notes there is -evident a very genuine and very charming spirit of sympathy and -kindliness. - -The other trait that has been largely forgotten is that she was a -natural teacher of youth. In her early days in Hartford she conducted a -school for girls on singularly successful and somewhat original lines. -This she relinquished on her marriage, but for nearly half a century -those of her old pupils who lived never failed to meet annually with her -in remembrance of their early association. Clearly, she inspired in -them all an ardent and lasting affection. - -On the writer's desk, among her letters, lies an ancient school -copy-book containing the transcript of an address she made to her old -scholars August 17, 1822, "on their meeting to form a Charitable and -Literary Society." It is characteristic that the greater part of this -composition is concerned with affectionate and what now seem rather -pathetic sketches of the five young girls of her flock who had died. The -address confirms what we know from other sources--that her school was -started in 1814, soon after she came from Norwich to Hartford. - -The old manuscript abounds in unimpeachable moral aphorisms. One may, -perhaps, smile at the carefully balanced phraseology of this: "Some -sciences are more attractive to ambition, more congenial with fame, more -omnipotent over wealth, but I know of none so closely connected with -happiness as the science of doing good." Yet most of us would be better -men and women if we applied that maxim in our lives as constantly as did -this gentle "lady of old years." In her teaching "the science of doing -good" was not a theoretical matter alone. It was directed to practical -ends. "During a period of somewhat less than two years and a half," she -says, "you completed for the poor 160 garments of different -descriptions, many of which were carefully altered and repaired from -your own--among them 35 pairs of stockings, knit without sacrifice of -time during the afternoon reading and recitation of history. You -likewise contributed ten dollars to the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, -five dollars to the schools then established among the Cherokees, and -distributed religious books to an amount exceeding ten dollars, among -the children of poverty and ignorance. . . . Some of you were accustomed -to gain time for these extra employments by rising an hour earlier in -the morning." - -Had Mrs. Sigourney continued her school it is not by any means -preposterous to believe that her fame as an educator might have -outlasted her reputation in literature, and that she might have shared -with Miss Beecher of the old Hartford Female Seminary a certain degree -of distinction in connection with the early education of women in this -country. - - - - -_IV: Whom the Gods Love_ - - -IN the year 1822 there drifted into the friendly social life of the old -town a short, odd looking young man who, it developed, had come to take -editorial charge of "The Connecticut Mirror," a weekly newspaper, -strongly federal in politics, which had been established in 1809 by -Charles Hosmer and which, at this time, had just been bought by Messrs. -Goodsell and Wells, whose place of business was at the corner of Main -and Asylum streets. - -The name of this young man was John Gardiner Calkins Brainard and he was -twenty-six years old. Those who inquired about him learned that he was a -native of New London and the son of Judge Jeremiah G. Brainard of the -Superior Court. In 1815 he had been graduated at Yale--a classmate of -that strange genius James Gates Percival, poet, physician, geologist. -After studying law in his brother's office he had practiced for a time -in Middletown, but it was rumored that his tastes were literary rather -than legal, and that the law had not proved very successful. - -In spite of his rather uncouth appearance this newcomer soon became a -favorite among the young people. He was clever--any one could see that. -His frequent witty and amusing sayings gathered an arresting emphasis -from their contrast with intervals of quietness and even of apparent -depression. Perhaps this hint of an underlying seriousness had its -especial charm for the young ladies. Remember that in those days Byron -was in fashion. But there was something about this young man that -attracted also friends of his own sex. "The first time I ever saw him," -says a writer in the "Boston Statesman," quoted by Whittier in his -memoir of Brainard, "I met him in a gay and fashionable circle. He was -pointed out to me as the poet Brainard--a plain, ordinary looking -individual, careless in his dress, and apparently without the least -claim to the attention of those who value such advantages(?). But there -was no person there so much or so flatteringly attended to. . . . He -was evidently the idol, not only of the poetry-loving and gentler -sex--but also of the young men who were about him. . . ." - -We can picture young Mr. Brainard as one of the leading figures in that -"literary cotery," which Goodrich describes and which was presided over -by Mrs. Sigourney. It was in a room adjoining Goodrich's at Ripley's -Tavern that Brainard soon took up his abode and the two became fast -friends. - -The discovery was soon made that young Mr. Brainard was by way of being -a poet--if, indeed, the fact was not already known. Verses, obviously -from his pen, appeared constantly in his newspaper. Indeed some of the -paper's readers may have recognized the new editor's hand through their -familiarity with the verse he had sometimes written for the "Mirror" -before his official connection with that journal. His first contribution -to the paper in his new capacity appeared in the issue for February 25, -1822, in which the change of ownership and the new editor were -announced. This contribution was in the form of a poem "On the Birthday -of Washington."--"Behold the moss'd cornerstone dropp'd from the wall," -ran the first line. It was not a great poem, but it sounded a sincere, -patriotic note, had a genuine poetic touch and far excelled most -newspaper verse of the day. - -And so this original young man, with his light brown hair, rather pale -face, large eyes and obvious "temperament" began to acquire the -character and reputation of a poet. We fancy that this reputation was -somewhat limited until on a sudden impulse he wrote "The Fall of -Niagara." This piece of blank verse, though now largely forgotten in the -lapse of years, had in its time a tremendous vogue. It was copied far -and wide, took its place in school readers and for years was declaimed -by youthful orators before committees and admiring parents at school -exhibitions. - -We do not know the exact date of its composition, but it must have been -before 1825, for it appeared in the author's first collection of verse -published in that year. It was written one raw March evening in an -emergency, to make copy for the next morning's paper. Goodrich tells the -story. Brainard was half ill with a cold and Goodrich went over with him -to the "Mirror" office and started a fire in the Franklin stove, while -his companion, miserable and depressed, talked at random, abhorring the -compulsion that made writing a necessity and his procrastination that -had postponed his work, till the last moment. - - "Some time passed," says Goodrich, "in similar talk, - when at last Brainard turned suddenly, took up his pen - and began to write. I sat apart and left him to his - work. Some twenty minutes passed, when, with a radiant - smile on his face, he got up, approached the fire, and, - taking the candle to light his paper, he read as - follows: - - - THE FALL OF NIAGARA. - - 'The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, - While I look upward to thee. It would seem - As if God pour'd thee from his 'hollow hand.' - And hung his bow upon thy awful front; - And spoke in that loud voice, which seem'd to him - Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, - 'The sound of many waters'; and had bade - Thy flood to chronicle the ages back. - And notch his cent'ries in the eternal rocks.' - - "He had hardly done reading when the [printer's] boy - came. Brainard handed him the lines--on a small scrap - of rather coarse paper--and told him to come again in - half an hour. Before this time had elapsed, he had - finished, read me the following stanza: - - 'Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we, - That hear the question of that voice sublime? - Oh, what are all the notes that ever rung - From war's vain trumpet by thy thundering side? - Yea, what is all the riot man can make, - In his short life, to thy unceasing roar? - And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him - Who drown'd a world, and heap'd the waters far - Above its loftiest mountains?--a light wave, - That breathes and whispers of its Maker's might.' - - "These lines having been furnished, Brainard left his - office and we returned to Miss Lucy's parlor. He seemed - utterly unconscious of what he had done. . . . The - lines went forth and produced a sensation of delight - over the whole country." - -It is not too much to say that Niagara brought Brainard fame. To the -modern ear inured to free verse its lines may sound perhaps a trifle -over sonorous and formal. But it has real poetic eloquence and -inspiration. Brainard had never been within less than five hundred miles -of the great falls. - -The Niagara is the first poem in that collection of the poet's verses -published in 1825, alluded to above. Before the writer at the moment -lies a copy of this rather rare volume. Goodrich arranged for its -publication with Bliss and White of New York and with difficulty -persuaded Brainard to do the necessary work of collection and revision. -It was the only collection of his verses that was published during the -poet's life. Two others were issued after his death--one in 1832, with a -memoir by Whittier, and one, with a prefatory sketch by the Rev. Dr. -Robbins, in 1842. The copy of the first collection, now on the writer's -desk, bears on the fly-leaf this inscription in the author's -handwriting: - -[Illustration: Handwritten: - -Will you allow this a place in your Library and oblige - - Yours very respectfully - JGCBrainard - -To/D Wadsworth Esq] - -The thin little book has the title, "Occasional Pieces of Poetry," which -is peculiarly appropriate, for most of Brainard's poems were suggested -by incidents of daily life that came to his attention. For example, the -stage coach from Hartford to New Haven falls through a bridge and two -lives are lost--the occurrence prompts him to write the "Lines on a -Melancholy Accident;" the visit of Lafayette to this country in 1824 -occasions some verses to "the only surviving general of the Revolution;" -the death of two persons who were struck by lightning during a religious -service in Montville suggests "The Thunder Storm;" the humorous verses -entitled "The Captain" result from the genuinely amusing situation that -arose in New London harbor when the wreck of the Norwich Methodist -meeting house, that had come down the river in a freshet, collided with -an anchored schooner. - -[Illustration: - - OCCASIONAL - - PIECES OF POETRY. - - BY JOHN G. C. BRAINARD. - - - Some said, "John, print it;" others said, "Not so,"-- - Some said, "It might do good;" others said, "No." - - _Bunyan's Apology_ - - - NEW-YORK: - PRINTED FOR K. BLISS AND E. WHITE - _Clayton & Van Norden, Printers._ - 1825.] - -The fact that the poet took many every-day affairs as the immediate -occasion for his versifying accounts for the trivial character of some -of his work. On the other hand it illustrates the theory he held of the -need of a genuine American literature. Though he read eagerly Byron and -Scott, he deprecated in the columns of the "Mirror" the imitation of -foreign writers by American men of letters, holding that our own -history, traditions and environment gave inspiration enough. - -He welcomed the appearance of Cooper with enthusiasm, and a story which -ran in the "Mirror" under the title of "Letters from Fort Braddock" -and which was largely in the Cooper manner was written by him though -published anonymously. Indeed a great part of his work dealt with local -matters. "Matchit Moodus" expresses a fantastic legend of the "Moodus -noises." "The Black Fox of Salmon River" embodies in verse another grim -local tradition. "The Shad Spirit" and "Lines to the Connecticut River" -are other similar examples of his use of the folk-lore of the -Connecticut valley. - -Professor Beers of Yale cites the exquisite little lyric beginning "The -dead leaves strew the forest walk," as about the best example of his -work. Goodrich says it was written after the departure from Hartford of -a young lady from Savannah to whom the poet had been devoted during her -visit. Very attractive, too, are the lines on "Indian Summer." The blank -verse entitled "The Invalid on the East End of Long Island," has a -melancholy note but deserves remembrance. It was there that Brainard -spent the few weeks just before the end. - -He was too sensitive and unaggressive a soul both for the law and for -the political wrangling which attended the newspaper controversies of -the day. In the practical life of his country and his time, which had -small place for artistic aspiration or expression, he was an anomaly -simply because he was a real poet. To this situation may be attributed -no doubt in large measure the sense of failure, unquestionably -exaggerated, which he often expressed. "Don't expect too much of me," he -said to Goodrich at their first meeting, "I never succeeded in anything -yet. I could never draw a mug of cider without spilling more than half -of it." - -His frequent depression, however, was not all temperament--it had a -physical basis. In the spring of 1827 incipient tuberculosis compelled -him to give up his work on the "Mirror," and on September 26, 1828, a -month before his thirty-second birthday, he died at his home in New -London. - -His death called forth the customary poetic obituary from his friend -Mrs. Sigourney--one of the best she ever wrote--voicing a sincere and -generous appreciation. Whittier, with other poets of the day, added his -word of memory and praise. Perhaps a line from Snelling best expresses -in a few words the whole story-- - - "The falchion's temper ate the scabbard through." - - - - -_V: An Eccentric Visitor_ - - -WE may be permitted to take a certain pride in the fact that most -strangers who sojourn for a time among us express admiration and liking -for the town. There has been, however, one historic and notable -exception. A young man named Percival who visited us in 1815, the year -of his graduation from Yale College, did not care for Hartford at all -and, moreover, did not hesitate to proclaim his distaste in some of the -verses he was then engaged in writing. However, poor Percival did not -like any spot very well. It is with a sense of faint amusement or, when -we know his history, of compassion, rather than with any shade of -resentment, that we now read the stanzas in which he published his -sentiments to an unappreciative world: - - "Ismir! Fare thee well forever! - From thy walls with joy I go, - Every tie I freely sever, - Flying from thy den of woe. - - * * * * - - Ismir! Land of cursed deceivers, - Where the sons of darkness dwell - Hope, the cherub's base bereavers,-- - Hateful city! Fare thee well." - -When he wrote this James Gates Percival was twenty years old. Some of -the emotion of these lines arose simply from uncurbed youthful reaction -from disappointment. Most of it, however, was individual and -characteristic temperament--the same uncomfortable mental constitution -that seemed to make it impossible for him to withhold the vitriolic -verses he wrote and printed on the character of a clergyman who had -objected to Percival's suit for his daughter's hand. - -The young poet had come to Hartford on the invitation of his classmate, -Horace Hooker, who later entered the ministry and whose wife wrote for -the young a number of very instructive and very pious stories which in -their day attained a considerable popularity. It was hoped that in the -literary atmosphere which at that time existed in Hartford this odd -young man, with his undoubted poetic strain and his dreamy and -contemplative nature, would find a congenial milieu. - -The visit, however, was a failure. Young Percival was not popular. "He -was too shy and modest," says his biographer, "to adapt himself to -different circles. He wanted confidence, and at social gatherings [in -Hartford] he talked at great length on single subjects, but in so low a -tone that people could not hear him. He was not treated as he expected -to be; it seemed to him that he was not appreciated, and he came away in -disgust." - -This charge against us of lack of appreciation finds some mitigation in -the fact that the poet departed from many places in the same frame of -mind and for the same reason. Percival was one of those pathetic spirits -who find the world an unhappy abiding place. His constitutional -wretchedness was in fact so extreme that he is said in early life to -have attempted self-destruction and one of his best poems, as well as -one of the gloomiest in the language, reflects his moods at this period -under the title of "The Suicide." - -Fortune aggravated the disadvantage of one unfitted at the best to cope -with the world by allotting to him a life of penury. For many years he -lived as a recluse in the State Hospital Building in New Haven where he -was allowed the use of three rooms which he never permitted visitors to -enter--on one occasion even refusing to admit Henry Wadsworth -Longfellow. It is related that at another time a somewhat pompous -gentleman, accompanied by two ladies, was visiting the building and, -learning that the poet lived there, rapped at his door and then stood -waiting, a lady on each side of him. The door opened a crack and -Percival's face appeared. "I am extremely happy and rejoiced," began the -visitor, with a great deal of manner, "that I have the honor of -addressing the poet Percival--" But he got no further, for Percival -instantly ejaculated "Boo!" and slammed the door. This seems to have -been his customary manner of excusing himself to callers. - -Percival's lack of means was in a way his own fault--or at least it was -the result of his peculiar disposition which, in its sensitiveness to -purely imaginary slights and its impossibility of concession or -adaptation, worked constantly against his prosperity. His friends were -faithful and long-suffering and often came to the rescue. In spite of -his oddities there seems to have been a singular charm about the man -like the charm of an unexpectedly original child. When the bane of an -intense bashfulness was removed and he was alone with one or two -intimates, his talk is said to have been delightful. He became -absolutely absorbed in any topic in which he was interested and brought -to bear upon it a wealth of allusion and comment of which few minds were -capable. - -As a poet he is now forgotten, yet it is a suggestive and significant -fact that in 1828, when a project was in hand to publish a group picture -of nine living American poets, Percival was to occupy the center of the -stage, while such minor lights as Bryant, Irving and Halleck, with -others, were to surround him. - -But the fame he longed for and, with an almost childlike naivete, -claimed as his due, was short-lived. It barely touched him and passed -him by. Yet he deserves remembrance, if only for his versatility. While -it is chiefly as a poet that mention is made of him in encyclopedias and -other books of reference, he was capable, but for his temperamental -disabilities, of shining in many lines and in one pursuit other than -poetry he has left a lasting memorial. He studied law, was admitted to -the bar and never practiced. He served his medical apprenticeship under -his good friend Dr. Eli Ives of New Haven, took his degree, practiced a -little and, though he was always afterward known as "Doctor," abandoned -the profession--except that later in life he was post surgeon at Boston -till his abhorrence of examining recruits compelled him to relinquish -the work. At one time he thought of entering the ministry and he was -always an authority on theology and dogma. He gave up his appointment as -a professor of chemistry at the Military Academy at West Point because -in going to his quarters he had to use the same hallway with other -officers. He was a learned botanist and a linguist of rare attainments. -In 1827 he carried through successfully the immense task of correcting -the proofs and supervising the publication of Webster's unabridged -dictionary--and seems to have been happier in this work of enormous -detail than at any other time of his life. - -But it was as a geologist that his most valuable practical work was -done. His "Report on the Geology of Connecticut," published in 1842, was -the result of five years of arduous labor and is a sufficient monument -for any man. - -"While engaged in this survey," he wrote, "I can confidently say that I -have been laborious and diligent. While traveling, it was my practice -to rise early, in the longer days generally at dawn; in the shorter -generally I got my breakfast and was on my way by daybreak, I continued, -scarcely with any relaxation, as long as I had daylight and then was -generally obliged to sit up till midnight, not unfrequently till one -o'clock A. M. in order to complete my notes and arrange my specimens. -This was continued, not only week after week, but month after month, -almost without cessation." - -Under the law Percival could not be paid till his report had been -approved by the governor. It is characteristic of the whimsical -geologist that he refused to submit to this approval by one whom he -considered incompetent to pass upon his labors and it was only by the -ruse of a friend who got possession of the report and presented it to -the governor, who at once approved it, that Percival secured his pay. - -This work brought Percival a high reputation as a geologist. He was -engaged by the American Mining Company to investigate the lead deposits -in Wisconsin and this in turn resulted in his employment by that state -to make a geological survey similar to that of Connecticut. He had made -his first report and was engaged upon his second when he became ill and -in May, 1856, he died and was buried in Hazel Green, Wisconsin. "Eminent -as a Poet," runs his epitaph, "rarely accomplished as a Linguist, -learned and acute in Science, a Man without Guile." - -During his employment in Wisconsin his friends had bought a lot and -built a house for him in New Haven. It was a queer structure, built -after the poet's own plans, with the entrance at the rear, blind windows -at the front, and of only one story in height. He was looking forward to -spending here his last years, close to his college, with his few -intimate friends, surrounded by his books. During an interval in his -Wisconsin employment he came to New Haven to inspect his future home and -is said to have broken down completely as he was compelled to leave by -the duty that called him westward. - -He was a strange creature, impossible to get along with, handicapped by -an over-sensitiveness that led him into resentments that often held the -implication of ingratitude, and with a constant grudge against the -world. He should have been endowed and relieved of all the detail of -life. Even then it is doubtful if he would have produced great poetry, -unless he had been rigorously trained by some dominant master to -condense, revise and work over again and again his diffuse, sentimental -and dreamy verses. A few of them retained for a time a certain vogue and -then gradually passed into oblivion. Perhaps the two that were longest -remembered were "To Seneca Lake" and "The Coral Grove." It is an odd -thing, but some selections from a boyish effort entitled "Seasons of New -England," hitherto generally cited as evidence of his youthful -absurdities, would make excellent examples of the free verse that -nowadays is taken so seriously. In this respect, at least, he was ahead -of his time. - -In his review of the "Life and Letters" Lowell seems rather dogmatic and -intolerant, but with his inevitable insight and art of statement he -crystalizes into one sentence the whole trouble with Percival. "He -appears," writes Lowell, "as striking an example as could be found of -the poetic temperament unballasted with those less obvious qualities -which make the poetic faculty." - -It should be recorded that children loved this old bachelor in spite of -his eccentricities and that with them he seemed to feel unrestrained -and free, forgetting the shyness that formed an insuperable barrier to -ready friendship with adults. In our Connecticut history he should not -be forgotten and if any of the spirits of the departed revisit the -glimpses of the moon this strange apparition ought sometimes to be met, -driving his phantom buggy through forgotten lanes of the state he loved, -or with his hammer and bag of specimens, climbing on foot the hills and -ledges he knew so well. - - - - -_VI: Who Was Peter Parley?_ - - -IF your great-grandmother were living, dear reader, she would be -appalled at your ignorance in propounding this question. Everybody knew -the identity of "Peter Parley." In his day his name was as familiar a -_nom de plume_ as Mark Twain. He was, of course, Samuel G. Goodrich. And -who--alas for the question!--was Samuel G. Goodrich? - - "Ah, pensive scholar, what is fame? - A fitful tongue of leaping flame; - A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust, - That lifts a pinch of mortal dust; - A few swift years, and who can show - Which dust was Bill, and which was Joe?" - -He does not deserve to be forgotten. Born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, in -1793, he died at New York City in 1860. For twenty-four hours his body -lay in state in St. Bartholomew's Church where crowds passed his bier -and at Southbury, Connecticut, where he was buried, groups of children -preceded the coffin and strewed flowers in its path. - -It was a fitting and touching ceremony, for all his life he had been the -friend of children. It was almost entirely for them that he wrote his -two hundred books, of which he estimated, five years before his death, -that seven million copies had then been sold, including, we assume, -those editions that had been translated into nearly every modern -language, even Greek and Persian. - -Rummage among the top shelves of any old library and you will be pretty -sure to discover some of these almost forgotten volumes--Parley's "Tales -of the Sea," "Tales About the Sun, Moon and Stars," tales about New -York, about ancient Rome, about Great Britain, about animals, about -almost everything in this interesting world and outside of it. Of his -"Natural History" George Du Maurier says--"Last, but not least of our -library, was Peter Parley's 'Natural History,' of which we knew every -word by heart," and a writer in the "Congregationalist" a quarter of a -century ago ventured the opinion, "We have no doubt, were it needed, -that 1,000 aged people could rise and repeat the widely famous lines, -'The world is round and, like a ball, seems swinging in the air.'" - -You will find as a frontispiece for some of these well worn books a -picture of a kindly old gentleman in a cocked hat, with a crutch and a -gouty foot, his pockets bulging with good things for children. This was -the mythical "Peter Parley", and Goodrich tells an amusing story of how, -during a visit in the South, his host's little grandson, after -cautiously inspecting the visitor who had been introduced to him as -Peter Parley, took his grandfather aside and warned him that the guest -must be an impostor, for his foot wasn't bound up and he didn't walk -with a crutch. - -Perhaps in your search on the dusty shelves you will be fortunate enough -to find a copy of Goodrich's verses entitled "The Outcast, and Other -Poems," printed in 1841, or an odd number of "The Token," an "annual," -which Goodrich published from 1828 till 1842 and in which were first -given to the world some of the early productions of such young literary -sparks as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth -Longfellow. - -During the course of an eventful life Goodrich came into relations more -or less intimate with many famous people. A few of them, beside those -just mentioned, were Daniel Webster (who had a great admiration for his -writings), James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Whittier, Jeffery, -founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review, Sir Walter Scott and -Lockhart his son-in-law and biographer. Goodrich was an eye-witness in -Paris of the Revolution of '48 and he draws a vivid portrait of the -third Napoleon on the eve of the Coup d'Etat. His daughter tells of an -informal celebration in Florence, planned in his honor by Charles Lever, -at which there were present the Brownings, the Tennysons, (she liked -Frederic the best) the Storys, Gibson and Powers the sculptors, Lowell, -Lamartine, Longfellow, Trollope, Buchanan Read and others--surely a -brilliant company of which to be the center. - -In London he was present at the ceremonies attendant upon the return of -Byron's body from Greece. He heard Clay, Calhoun, John Randolph and -other celebrities of the day speak in the Senate. He was a guest at -levees at the White House and gives a dramatic account of a meeting -there between Jackson and John Quincy Adams on the night of the former's -defeat for the presidency by the latter. He saw John Marshall presiding -over the Supreme Court. He presents a minute description of President -Monroe whom he encountered both at Washington and also at Hartford -during a ceremony at the School for the Deaf, and whose personal -appearance he thought far from prepossessing. In fact, there are few -persons who attained distinction during the first half of the nineteenth -century of whom the reader will not find an entertaining and graphic -sketch in Goodrich's "Recollections of a Life Time." - -It is a book well worth reading for not only is it written in an amusing -and racy style and enlivened by anecdote and delightful comment, but it -is a historic review of the politics, literature, international -relations and social life of the time, put together by a writer -eminently qualified for the task. We are chiefly concerned, however, -with Goodrich's picture of life in the old town a century ago. - -He came here as a youth of seventeen in 1811 and Hartford was his home, -though he was frequently absent in Europe and elsewhere, till 1826 when -he moved to Boston. - -The city when he arrived was, he says, "a small commercial town, of four -thousand inhabitants, dealing in lumber and smelling of molasses and Old -Jamaica--for it had still some trade with the West Indies. . . . There -was a high tone of general intelligence and social respectability about -the place, but it had not a single institution, a single monument that -marked it as even a provincial metropolis of taste, in literature, art, -or refinement." In this latter respect things were changed before he -left. Trinity (then Washington) College, the American School for the -Deaf, the Retreat for the Insane and other philanthropic and educational -institutions were established during his residence in the provincial -capital. - -On his arrival he worked as a clerk in a dry goods store and his -intimate friend was George Sheldon, "favored clerk" in the "ancient and -honored firm" of Hudson & Goodwin, publishers of the "Connecticut -Courant," Webster's Spelling Book, and much besides. Mr. Goodwin, of -this firm, he describes as "a large, hale, comely old gentleman, of -lively mind and cheerful manners. There was always sunshine in his bosom -and wit upon his lip. He turned his hand to various things, though -chiefly to the newspaper, which was his pet. His heaven was the upper -loft in the composition room; setting type had for him the sedative -charms of knitting work to a country dame." - -At the home of his uncle, Senator Chauncey Goodrich, he met all the -prominent members of the famous "Hartford Convention," which finds in -him a vigorous defender against the charge of unpatriotism. - -During the War of 1812 he served at New London as a member of a Hartford -artillery battery, a sort of _corps d'elite_, under the command of -Captain Nathan Johnson, a well known lawyer who afterward became general -of militia. Though he was for a few brief moments under the bombardment -of the British ships that were blockading Decatur, Biddle and Jones in -the Thames, his service was bloodless and he narrates it with humor and -gusto. - -He began his career as a publisher in partnership with Sheldon whose -early death terminated that enterprise. Goodrich himself, however, here -published by subscription the poems of John Trumbull, whom he knew well, -eight volumes of the Waverly novels, then arousing intense interest, -and several school books and "toy books," as he calls them, for -children. He was a leading member of a literary club which included -Bishop J. M. Wainwright, Isaac Toucey, William M. Stone, Jonathan Law -and S. H. Huntington. - -Another literary "cotery," of which Mrs. Sigourney was the presiding -genius, met generally at Daniel Wadsworth's home. Some of the poems and -papers read at the first of these clubs were published by Goodrich in a -short-lived periodical called "The Round Table." - -We find gossipy sketches of Jeremiah Wadsworth, Dr. Cogswell and his -deaf and dumb daughter Alice, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Theodore Dwight, -the poets Brainard and Percival, Dr. Strong, pastor of the "Middle -Brick" (the Center) Church, Colonel John Trumbull, the artist and his -beautiful wife, who was supposed to be the daughter of an English earl -but about whose lineage there was an impenetrable mystery. Many others -of the old Hartford characters live again in these pages which furnish -us what is doubtless a very accurate, as well as a very charming -impression of the social life of the old town one hundred years ago. - -But the great world called the future "Peter Parley" and his ambitions -and love of variety drew him away from the place of his earliest -literary experience to foreign residence and travel and to the little -brown house that he afterward built at Jamaica Plain. Later in life he -returned again to Europe and for two years was American Consul at Paris. - -He had his failures as well as his successes, his days of financial -losses, as well as of affluence. He experienced, too, his periods of -feeble health. But he possessed the courage that ancestry like his often -seems to breed and one cannot fail to accord a hearty tribute to the -resolution with which, in an impaired physical condition, he set -himself, like Mr. Clemens, to overcome adversity with hard work, with -his pen. - -His Parley books were the outgrowth of two impulses or -characteristics--his innate love of children and his personal rebellion -on the one hand against the dull school books of his boyhood and on the -other against what he considered such ridiculous and deleterious old -fairy stories as "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Jack the Giant Killer." -He did not think the climax of "Little Red Riding Hood" was healthy -reading for children and he did not at all approve of Jack the Giant -Killer's morals. In his opinion there was no particular sense in the -Mother Goose jingles. - -And so he tried to give children, in the guise of perfectly proper but -at the same time interesting stories and verses, the information and a -good deal of the education they required. He may have carried his theory -to some extremes, but he was one of the first among us to realize that -with children effective educational methods must take into consideration -the securing at the outset of interest and attention. - -What extraordinary success he achieved has already been intimated. Yet -it is pathetic to note that he himself was the first to acknowledge the -fact that his fame would be temporary. "I have written too much," he -says at the height of his reputation, "and have done nothing really -well. You need not whisper it to the public, at least until I am gone; -but I know, better than anyone can tell me, that there is nothing in -this long catalogue [of his books] that will give me a permanent place -in literature." - -Yet it is safe to say that as long as the human mind loves to dip into -the past and to re-create in familiar surroundings the scenes and -people of long ago his "Recollections of a Life Time" will have its -readers. And many of us would cheerfully relinquish any hope of immortal -memory could we be assured of the love of the countless children to whom -"Peter Parley" was a dear friend and companion. - - - - -_VII: A Preacher of the Gospel_ - - -IT is not often claimed that the small city or country town produces -proportionately more of the human phenomena popularly denominated -"characters" than does the larger municipality. Whether this is indeed a -fact, or whether the truth is that in the small group variations from -type are more conspicuous, is perhaps immaterial. At all events the -memories and traditions of pronounced personalities seem to be -frequently associated with the less populous communities, especially in -New England. - -In any review of the personages that lived in the capital of Connecticut -in the last century the individuality of one of the life-long pastors of -its oldest church stands forth as a shining example of the capricious -and at the same time engaging forms in which humanity may be clothed. -Above all else the Rev. Doctor Joel Hawes was a "character." - -To begin with, his personal appearance was sufficiently extraordinary. -Tall, gaunt, awkward, with large hands and feet, he would have attracted -attention--and did attract attention--anywhere. His face was homely and -in repose unprepossessing, but when he became interested in talk his -expression gathered from the play of thought an animation which caused -his listeners to forget the essential unattractiveness of his features. - -In many respects there was something Lincoln-like about him, though he -lacked the fine eyes, the wistful, haunting look, that distinguish the -later portraits of his great contemporary. Like Lincoln, too, he came -from the common stock and was trained in a rough school. The story of -his tacking loose leaves from the Bible on the walls of the store, where -in his youth he worked, and memorizing verses between visits of -customers recalls somewhat similar methods of self-education employed by -the boy who became president. With no money, with no friends except of -his own making, with no "advantages" or "background," with not even a -fair start, he early developed a tremendous courage and determination; -when to this was added a sense that the hand of God was upon him -nothing could stop him. That in his day he should become one of the -foremost divines in the country was inevitable. - -It was his earnestness and force that made him what he was and not, it -must be confessed, any outstanding brilliancy of mind. His -fellow-citizen, Doctor Bushnell, far excelled him in mental power, in -breadth and originality of thought, in versatility and imagination. In -Horace Bushnell was always something of the poet, much of the mystic. -His books are bought today and his name remembered, while Dr. Hawes, -except in his old church and city, is forgotten. Yet it is to be doubted -whether, considering Joel Hawes's early difficulties and his moderate -mental equipment, one could find a better example than his life -furnished of what may be accomplished by a man who cherishes a -conviction of personal destiny. He became assured that God intended him -to preach the gospel and he proceeded to do just exactly that with -confidence, single-mindedness and consequent success during a long life. -His last sermon was delivered three days before his death. - -Here is his theory of the preacher's mission: "Truth, God's truth -especially, is _eternally_, and _must_ be, interesting to the mind of -man; and, if I can succeed in getting that truth before the minds of my -people, I shall not fail to interest and instruct all classes of them, -be their cultivation and tastes and habits ever so dissimilar. This, -then, shall be the great, leading object of my preaching: I will get as -much of God's truth into my sermons as I can" . . . . - -Might not this principle be adopted to advantage by many a modern -clergyman? - -It was in a rough-shod manner, regardless of obstacles, that Doctor -Hawes plowed his way through life. He did not know how to compromise. -Tact, adaptability, adjustment, finesse,--these words were not included -in his vocabulary. He paid little attention to the amenities of -existence, but went directly to his object, as on the occasion when in -prayer meeting, after lamenting the fact that ordinarily only a few -persons took active part in these gatherings, he suddenly called upon -one diffident attendant, whose voice had never been heard, with the -peremptory request, "Brother Jones, will you lead us in prayer--and we -won't take any excuse." - -He spoke the plain truth as he saw it, regardless of whether it was -appropriate, or sometimes whether it hurt. A distinguished lawyer, no -longer living, once told the writer that when he was a small boy the -doctor met him one day in the street, stopped him, put his hand on his -head, and, after gazing intently at him for so long that the child -became rather frightened, at last ejaculated, "Charles, you remind me so -much of your grandfather--_he_ was a hard-featur'd man!" - -This absolute sincerity, this disdain of any pretense or artificiality, -this almost childlike naivete, while they furnished many amusing and -sometimes embarrassing incidents, had no small part in endearing the -good man in the hearts of his people. Indeed the significant thing about -the numerous anecdotes of him that are still occasionally quoted is that -while so many of them turn on his peculiarities and eccentricities, none -of them seems to detract from the affection and esteem in which the man -and his memory are held in the traditions of his church. Doubtless the -reason is that these stories essentially serve to delineate and illumine -the portrait of an intensely earnest, able and vigorous servant of God -and his fellow men. - -His humor was not all unconscious. He had his own notions of the -incongruous and diverting. On one of his journeys abroad he wrote of -the tombs in Westminster Abby--"There lie in promiscuous assemblage -kings, queens, statesmen, warriors, poets, scholars, prostitutes, and -villains, each, by his epitaph, now in heaven, but all awaiting the -decisions of the last day, which, in a great majority of cases, will, it -cannot be doubted, reverse forever the judgment of man." - -There was, too, another side to him. Hidden in the uncouth body was a -kindly and sympathetic heart. Children, at first awed and possibly -repelled by his appearance and manners, soon grew to love him. His -biographer quotes him as saying that he could never go past a hand-organ -in the street without stopping to listen with the children and see the -monkey. - -Sorrow and suffering found in him an instant response and the -instinctive impulse to comfort and help. Generally these traits, while -partly inherent, are emphasized and made of value to others, as well as -to one's self, by experience. Doctor Hawes's life had its tragic sorrows -and these were translated into a singular ability to comfort and help. -Then, too, while he would never compromise for an instant with -temptation, weakness and sin, he could understand. As in the case of -most forceful, passionate natures, his early days, before he discovered -the Bible, had their period of wildness, brief though it was. In the -practical conduct of life he was no theorist, no amateur. He had -struggled against poverty and loneliness, as he had fought and conquered -the devil in his own life, and he recognized his old adversary and knew -how to deal with him when he saw the fight going on in the experience of -others. - -Perhaps it was all this as much as anything that constituted the -foundation for his interest in the youth of his church and city. In 1827 -this interest resulted in a series of "Lectures to Young Men" delivered -on successive Sunday evenings to crowded and enthusiastic assemblies in -his own church, and later repeated at Yale College where subsequently he -became a member of the corporation. The following year the lectures were -published "at the united request" of his hearers and instantly became -famous. "Few books," says Doctor Walker in his history of the First -Church, "attained a like circulation." Nearly a hundred thousand copies, -in various editions, were issued in this country and more in Great -Britain. One Scotch publisher alone, asserts Doctor Walker, printed -fifty thousand copies. - -Reading these lectures today, nearly a century after their composition, -one is impressed by the fact that here is a compendium, as valuable now -as at the time of delivery, of practical rules for a good and useful -life. The titles of the five original addresses indicate the subject -matter--"Claims of Society on Young Men;" "Dangers of Young Men;" -"Importance of Established Principles;" "Formation and Importance of -Character;" "Religion the Chief Concern." - -The lectures deal with plain, fundamental truths, in a straightforward -business-like way. There is as little ornament as imagination about -them; they have more vigor than originality, but they are bristling with -common sense and set forth with tremendous earnestness the principles of -a practical Christian philosopher. Epigrammatic touches, indeed, are not -wanting. "A lover of good books," says the lecturer, "can never be in -want of good society;" and again, "He who cares not for others will soon -find that others will not care for him." "The Gospel may be neglected," -he asserts, "but it cannot be understandingly disbelieved." "Character -is power; character is influence," he says, "and he who has character, -though he may have nothing else, has the means of being eminently -useful, not only to his immediate friends, but to society, to the church -of God, and to the world." - -Today the mind of youth is questioning. It is seeking not only rules for -the conduct of life but a rational interpretation of religious creed and -aspiration that will prove a guide in explorations on ground that -perhaps Doctor Hawes would have considered forbidden. He was not a -meta-physician. To him the way was plain. The fundamental truths, the -orthodox acceptances, were good enough for him. The questions that for -long troubled Doctor Bushnell not only did not worry Doctor Hawes--he -did not understand why one should ask them. Doctor Bushnell was ahead of -his time. He began where Doctor Hawes left off, and soon about the -younger man gathered a school of disciples who shared in sympathy, if -not with equality of intellectual penetration, the tenets of the -religious philosopher, the visions of the seer and poet. - -It was inevitable that two such divergent personalities as Hawes and -Bushnell, laborers in the same field, living in the same city, should -come into conflict. The story of that famous difference, of the -struggles to find common ground and of the final reconciliation, have -today a note of pathos. For the lay reader it is not easy at first -glance to see what it is all about, and yet what feeling and bitterness -were aroused! - -There is no space here to go into the details of that old dispute. The -letters the two ministers exchanged, like all sincere letters, are -typical of their respective characters and a memorialist of Doctor Hawes -finds nothing for which to apologize in his side of the correspondence. -His letters, indeed, evidence what a modern theologian might consider -his speculative limitations, but they show, too, beneath his -determination to adhere to his principles, a genuine grief at the -separation and a hope that the two churches might be "rooted and -grounded in the truth, and their pastors as happily united in fellowship -and love." - -The church of which Doctor Hawes was minister was, and still is, -something more than an ecclesiastical organization. It is a civic -institution. It founded the town. Its minister takes rank as a public -personage. In this character Dr. Hawes was interested in many local -activities. An example of this was his connection with the famous -Hartford Female Seminary--and this may serve also as another -illustration of his interest in young people. On the Seminary's -organization he was chosen a trustee--an office he held till his death. -For many years he was its president. At the reunion of its graduates in -1892, a speaker who had been one of his "boys," and who was the executor -of his will, gave a little address on his old pastor which is one of the -best portraits of him that remains. - -". . . the Hartford Female Seminary," said this speaker, "was his especial -delight. To its principals he was a devoted friend; its teachers were -his proteges and assistants; the pupils his spiritual garden. It was to -him the nursery of all that was best in womanhood. I do not know how his -sober judgment would have ranked, in relative importance, Yale College, -the A. B. C. F. M., and the Seminary; but I know that in his affection -this school had the warmest place. How regularly on Monday morning he -opened its sessions with fervent prayer; how benignantly his benediction -fell on the school as he took his departure, you all know who were in -attendance in his time. And although you may have smiled at his -peculiarities, I do not believe a doubt ever crossed one of your minds -that Joel Hawes was a loving, faithful friend, and truly a man of God." - - - - -_VIII: A Friend of Lincoln_ - - -IN the Spring of 1869 Gideon Welles, who had been appointed Secretary of -the Navy by Lincoln and had served to the end of the Johnson -administration, returned to Hartford where he lived till his death in -1878. His diary for May 2, 1869, contains the following entry: - - "We left New York at 3 P. M. and reached Hartford at - seven, stopping at the Allyn House. Nearly four years - have passed since I have been here, more than eight - since I left and took up my residence in Washington. . . . - Hartford itself has greatly altered--I might say - improved--for it has been beautified and adorned by - many magnificent buildings, and the population has - increased. These I see and appreciate; but I feel more - sensibly than these, other changes which come home to - my heart. A new and different people seem to move in - the streets. Few, comparatively, are known to me. A new - generation which knows not Joseph is here." - - -Perhaps it was natural that the retiring secretary of the navy, -returning quietly and unannounced and with possibly a trace of the -depression that comes with the relinquishment of great affairs, should -fancy a certain lack of enthusiasm in his welcome. But a little later, -when he had bought the house, now No. 11 Charter Oak Place, which was to -be his future home, and his presence was more widely known, he found his -friends more appreciative. - - "During the week," he writes some days later, "old - friends have called and welcomed me back. . . . My old - friend, Calvin Day, was absent from the city when I - arrived and did not get home till midnight on - Saturday. As soon as he knew I was here, on Monday - morning, he called. H. A. Perkins, Mrs. Colt, Beach, - Seymour, etc., etc., called. Mark Howard is absent. - Governor Hawley saw me at breakfast on Wednesday last - and immediately came and greeted me." - -It is not without interest to note that the servant question was at the -time a great problem. This, and the confusion of getting settled, of -unpacking loads of furniture, of arranging the contents of two hundred -and twenty-four boxes that arrived from Washington, while Mrs. Welles -was confined to her room as the result of a fall, "have made me," he -writes, "unused as I am to these matters, exceedingly uncomfortable." -Nevertheless, there is some mitigation, as this entry shows: - - "Met Mr. Hamersley--who invited me to his store, where - we had an hour, on political subjects chiefly. It is - somewhere about fifteen years since we have had such - and so long a conversation. So far as I have met and - seen old friends, I have had every reason to be - satisfied. Though not very demonstrative or forward in - calling, they have without exception been cordial and - apparently sincere." - -During the nine remaining years of his life Mr. Welles lived quietly, -devoting most of his time to writing, his chief pieces of work being an -elaborate article claiming for the navy, which he felt had never -received its proper share of the credit, the most important part in the -capture of New Orleans, and a little volume entitled "Lincoln and -Seward." - -The career which he looked back upon in these last years was one which -should have brought to any man the satisfactions that come from -important work well done. There were, of course, elements that would -naturally interfere with such satisfactions--and these a man like Gideon -Welles took to heart more seriously than another might have done. No one -could have served as he did in high administration during those eight -eventful years without a sense of the blundering, the waste, the -cross-purposes, the petty motives, and even the treachery that were -exhibited in such a disheartening fashion to those behind the scenes. -But through all this he pursued steadfastly his honest and able way, not -exempt from bitter criticism, like all his colleagues, nor from spiteful -intrigue. He seems such a unique and stalwart figure that one is led to -inquire, as one reads his history and his personal record, why he was -not more famous in his day and time. - -Perhaps one reason is that while he had a remarkable gift of common -sense, he lacked a sense of humor and the sense of proportion that -accompanies it. His diary, it is quite true, is at times what one would -call humorous reading, but the humor is either unconscious or partakes -of sarcasm. He took life pretty seriously--and indeed he had occasion to -do so. - -Then one infers another characteristic which is so difficult to define -and in its way so subtle that one hesitates to be dogmatic about it. Yet -reading between the lines of the diary, which is one of the frankest -human documents in the world, one reader at least gains the impression -that the author, perhaps realizing the innate tendency, which the diary -shows, to pronounce judgment, felt before the world the necessity of -putting a curb upon this propensity. In public he never seems to have -asserted himself in the Rooseveltian manner. He had decided opinions of -his own and was altogether an independent, fearless person, but he -appears to have been one of the rather reticent members of the cabinet. -A friend tells him on one occasion that he should have been more forward -in expressing his views and the diary has many references to times when -he judged silence the better course--as very likely it was--for with him -silence never went so far as to constitute consent to anything he -disapproved. Far more single-minded and straightforward than some of the -other cabinet ministers, he apparently lacked the art, which many men of -smaller caliber possessed, of getting his personality in a large way -before the country. - -One feels that here was a capable and high-minded public servant, with -many qualities which in another personality would have produced a great -leader of men. But there was always this reticence. Was it possibly the -inheritance of a New England ancestry? - -However, if in his life-time Gideon Welles lacked the gift for -individual prominence that with some of his contemporaries seemed to be -the main object of life, the publication of his remarkable "Diary" has, -long after his death, immortalized him. In this journal we have both a -revelation of personal character that is illuminating and a historic -document that is invaluable. - -It is fortunate for us that when Gideon Welles sat down to his diary all -restraint and repression disappeared. His clarity of vision, his -firmness in his belief of what was just and right, his devotion to duty, -his singular ability to estimate men and to portray character--all this -gives even a casual reader a very clear conception of what manner of man -he himself was. As for others, the figures that live forever in these -pages are real people, wrestling in their various characteristic ways -with portentous problems, the solutions of which we now look back upon -as historic matters long since worked out, but which in many instances -presented very different aspects at the time from those which now are -obvious to us. It is remarkable how the judgment of posterity as to -individuals has confirmed Welles's contemporary estimate. - -To cite these portraits in detail would be to give a catalogue of the -prominent characters of the day. At once the greatest and, to the modern -reader the most interesting, is that of Abraham Lincoln. His personality -does not appear complete and finished in any one description, but is a -composite of comment, conversation and action recounted from time to -time in the pages covering the period that elapsed before his death. -Thus we see the gradual growing appreciation of his character from that -early day when Welles noted that "much had been said and was then -uttered by partisans of the incompetency of Mr. Lincoln and his -unfitness," to that later cloudy morning when, by the bed on which the -murdered President had to be laid diagonally because of his great -height, Welles "witnessed the wasting life of the good and great man who -was expiring before me." Any reader of the diary who is also familiar -with the latest study of the war President--that by Lord Charnwood--and -who has read or seen Drinkwater's "Lincoln," is instantly aware of the -value of this journal to the historian and the dramatist. - -Perhaps the ability to depict personality is the most conspicuous trait -of Gideon Welles as a writer. In this respect he adds to his ability to -gauge character the expressive qualities of the literary artist. While -his estimates of men are startlingly frank and definite, he is always -fair, even toward those whom he disliked. Even in those biting, incisive -phrases relating to his _bete noir_, Senator John P. Hale, there is -something of the inevitable, impersonal condemnation of a court. - -The suggestions of a certain reserve in public must not be interpreted -as implying any hesitation to express the diarist's convictions when he -considered that the occasion called for them. Far otherwise. Read, for -example, the careful recitals of those deliberate, overwhelming, -sledgehammer conversational blows the secretary inflicted on the head of -Senator Hale when the opportunity at last came of loosing long pent-up -emotions. The senator must have emerged from that interview a stunned, -if wiser, man. - -And very early in their mutual official connection the Secretary of -State discovered that Mr. Welles, and only Mr. Welles, was going to run -the Navy Department. When Seward attempted to interfere surreptitiously -with the naval expedition to relieve Sumter he found himself in a great -deal of trouble, the net result of which may be summarized in the -following quotation from the diary: - - "On our way thither [to see the President] Mr. Seward - remarked that, old as he was, he had learned a lesson - from this affair, and that was, he had better attend - to his own business and confine his labors to his own - department. To this I cordially assented." - -The return of the Secretary to Hartford brought many memories of old -times--days, when as editor of the "Hartford Times" he had worked for -Jackson's election, later days when, slavery being injected as a moral -issue into politics, he had abandoned the democratic creed and adopted -the republican. Then there were the years when he had served as -postmaster, as member of the general assembly, as state -comptroller--and, again, that searching period when for the sake of his -convictions he was willing to face sure defeat as republican candidate -for governor. For eight years he had served as a member of the -republican national committee and he was chairman of his state -delegation to the convention that nominated for the presidency the man -who was to be afterward his chief and his staunch friend--Abraham -Lincoln. We have Lincoln's own word for it, as reported verbatim in the -diary, that there was no wire-pulling in connection with Gideon Welles's -appointment. The fact that he was a New England man may have had -something to do with it, but the real consideration was his record. - -It was a life full of service for his country and of devotion to the -faith that was in him, that the old man looked back upon in the closing -years. - - - - -_IX: Our Battle Laureate_ - - -ABOUT six months before Gideon Welles returned to his old home, an -ensign in that navy of which Mr. Welles was, under the President, -commander-in-chief, landed in the port of New York on the U. S. steam -frigate "Franklin". The "Franklin" bore the flag of Admiral Farragut, -who was returning from a two-year command of our European Squadron, and -the ensign, Henry Howard Brownell, of East Hartford, was a member of the -great sailor's personal staff on which he had served during the war. - -It was the end of Brownell's service and travels. Four years later, on -October 31, 1872, at the height of the Grant-Greeley campaign, he died -at the family homestead after a long and distressing illness. He had -been born in 1820. Seven years before his death Dr. Holmes, in a review -in the "Atlantic" of one of his slim volumes of verse, had called him -"Our Battle Laureate." - -Uneven as his verse was, he was a true poet. A spark of the divine fire -had fallen upon him. Other activities had been attempted, but for him -there clearly was in them no satisfaction. As a youth he tried -mercantile life in New York, but abandoned it after less than a year. -Teaching seems to have been the practical--if poetry is not -"practical"--pursuit which proved most congenial and it is singular that -his first work as a teacher was in Mobile near which the great -experience of his life later occurred. This short sojourn in the South -came after his graduation in 1841 from Trinity College and was followed -by study of the law in Hartford where he was admitted to the bar and for -a short time practiced in partnership with his brother Charles. - -But the law was not for him. The poetic muse was always whispering in -his ear. He saw visions and dreamed dreams--witness his "Song of the -Archangels." Yet he was rather a direct and rugged sort of poet. -Subtlety and indirection, fine shadings, carefully wrought lines, had -little place in his methods. He appears to have been impatient of -revision. He felt deeply and the need of expression was instant. Often -he wrote, as he states in the preface to "Lyrics of a Day," _currente -calamo_, and most of his verses were seen first in the pages of the -Hartford newspapers. In the light of modern technique many of them seem -already a little old-fashioned. Perhaps the present-day undergraduate -would call some of them "simple." Yet any of our young intellectuals -might be proud of having written "In Articulo Mortis"; surely there is -nothing very simple about "The Sphinx." And one is occasionally startled -by lines that have the perfect, the inevitable phrase--as in these from -"The Tomb of Columbus"-- - - ". . . . the fragrant breath - Of unknown tropic flowers came o'er my path, - Wafted--how pleasantly! for I had been - Long on the seas, and their soft, waveless glare - Had made green fields a longing." - -It would be difficult to improve on that last line. Again--to most -readers there will come a swift and dramatic vision from the two stanzas -of "Qu'il Mourut"-- - - "Not a sob, not a tear be spent - For those who fell at his side-- - But a moan and a long lament - For him--who might have died! - - "Who might have lain, as Harold lay, - A King, and in state enow-- - Or slept with his peers, like Roland - In the Straits of Roncesvaux." - -In all his early verse there is much that is haunting and memorable, -together with much that is trivial and even flippant, It was the coming -of the Civil War that made Henry Brownell known as a poet. Indeed he -published little before that time. - -In our own day we have had great moral issues in war and we have known -what the response to them could be. These issues were, however, involved -with many other peoples, their application was, in a way, diffused; to -different races they presented different aspects. But the Civil War was -our _own_ war, its issues were concentrated; it not only involved -national honor, it concerned, and vitally concerned, the question -whether the nation should live. - -To these portentous messages and alarms, borne on every breath of the -wandering breezes of those tense days, the spirit of Henry Brownell -responded with an intuitive instinct, a poetic eloquence, akin to that -of the seers and the prophets. - - "World, art thou 'ware of a storm? - Hark to the ominous sound, - How the far-off gales their battle form, - And the great sea swells feel ground!" - -In 1860, the Hartford papers were full of his "fiery lyrics" and the -writer--was it Hawley or Warner?--of an appreciation of Brownell in the -"Courant" shortly after his death tells how well he remembered the day -in the anxious winter of 1860-61 when Brownell brought into the office -of the old "Evening Press" the manuscript of "Annus Memorabilis"--verses -breathing a resolution and exaltation of courage that brought a generous -measure of fame. There is something about "Annus Memorabilis"--not only -the meter which is the same--that suggests Macaulay's "Naseby," -something, too, remotely suggestive of Kipling. Into this mood of -exaltation there ran occasionally a vein of humor that only deserves -mention in the case of the verses "Let Us Alone," inspired by Jefferson -Davis's statement in his inaugural address, "All we want is to be left -alone." Though of little poetic merit these lines caught the popular -fancy and were long remembered and quoted. - -And so the war came on, and the poet's vision, which had been laughed at -by some readers, was justified by events. There came defeats, almost -countless deaths, occasional victories, doubts of final victory--all the -ebb and flow and waste of war--and to it all the sensitive but vigorous -spirit responded in many chords. Of the gentler lays, the most winning -to the writer are the verses called "The Battle Summers." Here are a few -of the stanzas-- - - "All vain--Fair Oaks and Seven Pines! - A deeper hue than dying Fall - May lend, is yours!--yet over all - The mild Virginian autumn smiles, - - . . . . . - - "We pass--we sink like summer's snow-- - Yet on the mighty Cause shall move, - Though every field a Cannae prove, - And every pass a Roncesvaux. - - "Through every summer burn anew - A battle summer,--though each day - We name a new Aceldema, - Or some dry Golgotha re-dew." - -On the whole, however, it was the magnificence, the drama, of the -struggle that possessed him--sometimes the realization of the -tremendous stakes for which the game was played, sometimes the actual, -objective romance of events, as in the beginning of the famous "River -Fight"-- - - "Would you hear of the River Fight? - It was two of a soft spring night-- - God's stars looked down on all, - And all was clear and bright. - But the low fog's chilling breath-- - Up the River of Death - Sailed the Great Admiral." - -His own participation in the fighting came about in a strange way. He -paraphrased in verse, first published in the "Evening Press," the rather -dramatic general orders preparatory to the "River Fight." Poetically it -was not a great performance, but in some way it came to the attention of -Farragut who was greatly impressed. The acquaintance thus begun resulted -in the unusual appointment of Brownell as master's mate on Farragut's -staff and, shortly thereafter, as ensign, with the duties of secretary. - -One can fancy the lift and glory in the heart of this rather retiring -poet and teacher, with a hitherto unsatisfied thirst for action and -drama, as he stood on the quarter-deck of the "Hartford" fighting her -way up Mobile Bay on that early August morning in 1864. At last he was -in the midst of great events. This was his crowded hour--and the gods -gave him full measure. Even in plain prose it is a gallant story. What a -life-time must have been lived in those moments when Craven's monitor -"Tecumseh", off to port, making for the Confederate ram "Tennessee", -struck a torpedo and went down; when the "Brooklyn", leading the column, -just ahead of the "Hartford", backed down upon the flag-ship, in fear of -more torpedoes; when Farragut, lashed in the rigging, saw his line -doubling up in confusion close under the Confederate batteries! It was -then occurred the famous colloquy and order. "What is the trouble?" was -asked of the "Brooklyn" by the flag-ship and the answer--"Torpedoes." -"Damn the torpedoes!" shouted the Admiral. "Captain Drayton, go ahead! -Jouett, full speed!" And the "Hartford," increasing speed rapidly, -passed under the stern of the "Brooklyn" and took the lead, firing her -starboard batteries as fast as the men could work. One did not need to -be a poet to secure a thrill from such a situation, but what must it -have meant to the creative imagination that till then had pictured such -scenes only in fancy! - -And this was only the early part of the fight. Through it all Brownell -took notes, as he had been ordered, of the progress of the action and -literally wrote at least one stanza of "The Bay Fight." During the -battle he dropped one of his papers which was later found and returned -to him with an expression of admiration that he could write so legibly -in the midst of such excitement. "If I were killed," he replied, "I -didn't want any of you to think I'd been afraid." - -Probably "The Bay Fight" was Brownell's most famous poem, though "The -River Fight" is generally classed with it. The ballad has its faults. It -is too long and too detailed for modern taste. It is ragged in -places--the poet made his own versification much of the time. But it has -vigor, vividness and sincere emotion, and through it all runs the -turmoil and thunder of the battle. "The Bay Fight" has been compared to -the work of Campbell, Drayton and Tennyson--yet no one has suggested a -special likeness in temper and methods, in its narrative portions, to -"The Ballad of the Revenge" of which it reminded one reader. At the -close, where the meter changes to a quieter rhythm, there are a -tenderness and aspiration and felicity of phrasing that arrest even the -casual reader-- - - "To-day the Dahlgren and the drum - Are dread Apostles of his name; - His Kingdom here can only come - By chrism of blood and flame. - - "Be strong; already slants the gold - Athwart these wild and stormy skies; - From out this blackened waste, behold, - What happy homes shall rise! - - . . . . . . - - "And never fear a victor foe-- - Thy children's hearts are strong and high, - Nor mourn too fondly--well they know - On deck or field to die." - -The verse of the Great War and that of the Civil War show one marked -contrast. The best poetry of the recent titanic struggle is -individualistic. It reflects the re-actions of personality to the stress -and tension, the long-drawn, desperate drudgery, the tragedy, and -sometimes the humor, of the strange experience. It pictures the dreams -of home and peace. Most of the best of it has been written by young -soldiers, many of whom were novices in the poetic role. On the whole -the well-known poets did not come up to expectations. There were of -course exceptions, but most of this recent verse, appealing and -beautiful as it is, misses the higher vision, perhaps because the -immediate scene and the personal experience were so overwhelming. The -poets of our Civil War, however, were obsessed with the meaning of it -all, with the hopes and fears for the country's future. Have we as yet -anything in American verse about the Great War that we can place beside -the best war poetry of Holmes and Whittier? Can we find sustained poetic -inspiration that compares with Lowell's "Commemoration Ode"? Whereas to -this recent conflict is the lyric power of the "The Battle Hymn of the -Republic"? And, coming down to mere narrative and descriptive verse, -what incident of this modern Armageddon has found among us its immortal -ballad, as the battle of Mobile Bay found its eloquent poetic record in -"The Bay Fight"? - - - - -_X: The Temple of the Muses_ - - -TO older citizens the Wadsworth Atheneum has an especial and peculiar -charm. Doubtless more recent residents also feel this attraction, but it -is natural that to those who as children lived in its shadow, as it -were, the appeal should be strongest. - -Here we were wont to go on rainy afternoons to look at the illustrated -papers in the reading room. In the historical society's quarters -upstairs it used to give one a peculiar thrill to sit on the link of the -chain which during the Revolution was stretched across the Hudson at -West Point, and which we had read about in the "Boys of 'Seventy-Six." -There was, too, a certain ghastly emotional experience to be derived -from an inspection of the sword holes, just over the heart, in the -waistcoat and shirt of Colonel Ledyard. Then there were those Saturday -mornings spent with the good friend of all children in the weekly -proceedings at the Atheneum of the old "Agassiz Association." - -In those days we were reading "Kenilworth" and "Woodstock" and the -castellated structure acquired in our minds a quality of mystery and -romance. Certain precincts of the building were denied us and an -impression gained credence that somewhere in the edifice, the plan of -which we never fathomed, were secret rooms, passages and staircases. -Certainly if ghosts walked anywhere the place where you would be most -likely to find them was on some Hallowe'en midnight among these relics -of the past. But we never got in at midnight--in fact nothing could have -persuaded us to attempt such an entry. - -More mature experience removed something of the mystery, but the charm -never entirely vanished. It came, however, to be exercised in different -ways. Perhaps it was necessary during vacations to supplement college -reading by the use of the historical society's library, then installed -in the delightful quarters that had been the first home of the Watkinson -collection. In many ways it seems a pity that this old library, with its -oak bookshelves, arranged in alcoves, its galleries and delightful -little staircases, has been abandoned for modern, but less atmospheric -quarters. It was a charming room and the only place of its kind in the -state, except the old library at Yale, the proposed alteration of which -recently created such a storm of opposition. - -It was discovered, however, that the newer and larger Watkinson Library -also offered a quiet refuge when one wanted to study or read without -interruption. Here, too, were and still are alcoves, galleries and -staircases, but loftier, more imposing and triumphant than in the -intimate and friendly and older library. The main room of the Watkinson -is, however, an alluring spot where one may escape from the financial -implications of the immediate environment into a world with which money -and business have little to do. - -Increasing years brought an interest in the old portraits. Our childhood -acquaintance with the pictorial features of the Atheneum was chiefly -confined to Trumbull's paintings of the Revolutionary battles. These -seemed to us at the time perfect representations of what really happened -at Bunker Hill, Princeton and Quebec. But the inevitable development of -a more catholic artistic sense led us to dwell with a growing interest -on the work of some of the great masters displayed in the art gallery. -With these the portraits of state and local worthies in the historical -society's rooms could not compete very successfully from the standpoint -of workmanship, but these local portraits acquired a new importance as -the story of the state and the old town took its place in our enlarging -appreciation of relative values. At least we could gather from them some -idea of what the people looked like who had walked the streets where we -had played as children and who had taken their parts in the building of -the city, the state and the nation. - -We heard the story of Elizabeth Whitman and the portraits of her father -and mother became something more than merely faded old pictures. Oliver -Ellsworth was no longer only a name--there he was, sitting at a table -with his wife, his familiar house visible in the distance. And when -curiosity grew as to Daniel Wadsworth, the founder of the Atheneum, we -were able to satisfy this in some degree by hunting up the two portraits -of him--one as a boy, leaning on his father's shoulder, the other -Ingham's painting of him in middle life. - -[Illustration: THE WATKINSON LIBRARY] - - -ii - -It is strange that so little has been written about Daniel Wadsworth. He -was the original Maecenas of Hartford. But he had no Horace to celebrate -him and he would have abhorred the publicity which the Roman patron of -the arts and letters seems rather to have enjoyed. His modesty is well -illustrated by the fact that he requested that Dr. Hawes should at his -funeral services attempt no formal eulogy, in the fashion of the day. He -died at ten minutes past one on the morning of July 28, 1848, a few days -before his seventy-seventh birthday. Though he lived to this advanced -age his health was always frail and this fact may account, in part, for -his rather retiring disposition. - -He was, however, by no means a recluse. His home, altered, but still -standing at the southwest corner of Prospect Street and Atheneum -Street--formerly "Wadsworth's Alley,"--now laboring under the -alliterative title of "Atheneum Annex," was the center of a simple and -delightful social life. In its notice of Mr. Wadsworth after his death -the "Courant" said of this home that it "has remained for half a century -a scene of cheerful hospitality, where persons of humble worth as well -as those of distinction, have been received with kindness and courtesy, -and cheered by the unclouded sunshine of Mrs. Wadsworth's benevolence -and lovely manners." - -Mrs. Wadsworth was the daughter of the second Governor Trumbull. "Her -mind," says Dr. Hawes, in the funeral sermon which in his wife's case -Mr. Wadsworth did not prohibit, "was sprightly, inquisitive, -well-balanced and excellently cultivated; her temper was uncommonly -mild, affectionate and cheerful, often exhibiting a pleasant playfulness -of spirit, enlivening conversation and intercourse, but never light, -censorious or severe; her heart replete with tenderness, and alive to -every social and sympathetic feeling." She died two years before her -husband. Their married life extended over fifty-three years. - -After her death a Miss Sarah McClellan, who seems to have been a -connection of Mrs. Wadsworth, appeared in the character of secretary for -Mr. Wadsworth, who was very feeble during the last two years of his -life. She kept a diary, now in the possession of the Connecticut -Historical Society, through which we get contemporary glimpses of the -kindly life of the old street, though most of the references are in the -nature of a catalogue of visits paid and received, such as,-- - - "Jan. 1, 1848. Received a beautiful book as a New - Year's present from Mrs. Sigourney . . . Judge - Ellsworth, Doctor Grant, Mr. Clair [Clerc?] and Mr. - Barnard called in the morning. P. M. Judge Williams, - Mr. Smith [Alfred?], Mr. Roswell and John Parsons - called. Went down to see Mrs. Hudson--found her - better." - -On another occasion she records how Dr. Grant brought to the house four -children, aged from nine to thirteen, known as the "Apollonians," who -were to give a concert in the evening and who sang to Mr. Wadsworth at -his home as he was not well enough to attend the concert. After they had -left Miss McClellan went to Dr. Grant's "and took a galvanic shock for -my painful arm." - -The most valuable part of the diary historically, however, relates to -the last illness of Mr. Wadsworth and his death on a night of midsummer -thunderstorms, and this is rather long and rather intimate for -quotation. - -In fact most of our knowledge of the founder of the Atheneum comes more -from memories and traditions than from exact data. These legends picture -him as a fragile man with a stoop, fond of wearing even in the house, an -artist's cap and a cloak, partly to protect himself from drafts, of -which he had an exaggerated dread, partly, we fancy, to exemplify in his -person his artistic ideals. - -[Illustration: DANIEL WADSWORTH - -BY PERMISSION OF - -THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY] - -For art was his great interest in life and his wealth enabled him to -gratify his artistic inclinations and to perpetuate in the city he loved -a center for the humanities which to him seemed so far above riches. In -a way he was a cosmopolitan, for he had been educated in France and -England, accompanying his father, Jeremiah Wadsworth, there when he was -twelve years old. Many of the paintings and prints, of which he was an -inveterate collector, came from Europe--as most examples of good art -then did. - -He was himself an illustrator and painter. The illustrations of his -friend's--Professor Benjamin Silliman's--"Tour From Hartford to Quebec," -are by him and they include two views of his beautiful country seat, -"Monte Video," on Talcott Mountain. It is characteristic of Professor -Silliman's regard for what were doubtless his friend's wishes that Mr. -Wadsworth's name is not mentioned in his description of the spot. We -know of at least one home, and there are probably several, where -attractive and interesting sketches and paintings by Mr. Wadsworth -are still cherished. - -As the years increased upon him the care of his health seems to have -become something of a pre-occupation. It is related that he had a series -of capes of differing colors and sizes which he superimposed one upon -another, as the weather grew colder, attracting thus considerable -attention in his walks abroad. In his big yellow coach he installed a -stove in cold weather, and a smoke-stack, which may have caused our -fellow citizens of that day to wonder whether they were beholding a -steamboat on wheels--or even a motor vehicle of the period. Into his pew -in the southwest corner of the Center Church he invariably had a foot -stove carried when attending service in winter. - -Looking back through the years the life of his time seems to have had a -more friendly and neighborly element than our urgent affairs today -appear to permit. Perhaps there is something of fancy in this, but it is -not all fancy to believe that in the institution that bears his name -Daniel Wadsworth has transmitted to succeeding generations a flavor and -memory of this old life, as well as an opportunity to know the -refreshment of certain things that can not be measured in money--the -things of the mind and the spirit. - - -iii - -On the whole, the portion of the Atheneum that was the most popular with -the children of an older day, and became through familiarity the least -mysterious, was the reading room. In retrospect this room seems to have -had a distinct quality of its own. For one thing it appears, in memory, -to have been characterized by a pervading aroma of wet umbrellas, -rubbers and damp clothing. Probably this is due to the fact that one -generally frequented it on rainy days when out-of-door pursuits were -impossible. Somebody was always opening a window to let in a little air. - -At that time the room was in the northeast corner of the main building. -Its chief furnishings were the many rows of oak reading desks, shaped -like inverted V's, raised on standards to a convenient height. To these -slanting surfaces the papers were clamped by wooden contrivances which -materially interfered with a comprehensive view of all double page -pictures. - -Nevertheless one rather approved of these old oak reading desks. They -gave a studious air to the room and separated the floor space into -sections that contributed a certain effect of privacy. Also they -concealed the upper portions of readers on opposite sides, or in -different sections, from one another. It was rather diverting to peek -underneath and endeavor to construct mentally from the shoes, trousers -and skirts--they were long enough in those days--thus visible, the -respectively corresponding upper sections of anatomy. After a creative -effort of this kind it was interesting to move around to the other side -and see how nearly right you were. - -On the whole the English illustrated papers were the most popular of the -periodicals and sometimes in the attempt to secure exclusive possession -of these there was a good deal of squabbling which had to be terminated -by the young woman in charge, who, however, was reasonably tolerant and -far more popular than the dragon who guarded the historical museum -upstairs. - -The first real war any of us remembered was then in progress and the -"Illustrated London News" and the London "Graphic" were full of -pictures of British warships bombarding Alexandria and of charging -Highlanders at Tel-el-Kebir. Though soon supplanted by our own "Life," -"Punch," too, was something of a favorite, with its drawings by Du -Maurier of tall, wasp-waisted, beautiful ladies with remarkable -coiffures and trailing skirts, and of men with Dundreary whiskers, frock -coats, top hats and monocles--all engaged in what seemed to us -singularly inane conversation. Most of us had "St. Nicholas" at home and -of the other American publications "Harper's Young People" easily held -first place, with "Harper's Weekly" a close second. The girls were often -discovered poring over "Harper's Bazaar"--an inexplicable thing to the -masculine mind. That seemed to us a silly paper. - -In time certain habitues of the reading room became familiar to us--by -sight, that is. There was, of course, the nondescript crowd of persons -out of employment, or idlers, who came in to get warm or to pass an hour -or two. These were the floating population, as it were, and the -individuals varied with the seasons. Some of them seemed to be searching -the advertising columns of the dailies for a job. Others read strange -technical papers--engineering magazines or trade journals. One has -often wondered since what perennial hopes, what latent ambitions, what -undiscovered geniuses, were concealed amid this rather drab clientele of -the reading room. - -But that some definite purposes animated certain devotees could not be -doubted--though what the exact individual motives were was not always -apparent. There was, for example, the queer old man--short, stocky, with -gray beard and spectacles--whose specialty seemed to be the New York -papers and the political and economic magazines. He was generally -supposed to be a little "off" and he had Doctor Johnson's habit when -walking along the street of tapping with his stick every post and tree -he passed. If he abstractedly missed one he would go back and rap it. We -often noticed unkind urchins of our own age following him and reminding -him of any omissions, for the intense joy of seeing him invariably -return and perform this rite. Let us hope that none of us attempted -this, though it can not be asserted that the temptation was always -resisted, even if no memory of succumbing to it remains. - -Then there was another frequenter of the reading room who was generally -supposed to be not quite normal mentally. He was a kindly, gentle soul, -however, and it is pleasant to remember that he was never the subject of -ridicule. Indeed his deprecating manner, his invariable courtesy, even -to children, effectually disarmed any suggestion of the sort. We all -liked him and perhaps he did not dislike us. He would come softly in, -with bent head and humble air, put his umbrella in the rack, look about -to ascertain what favorite papers of his had not been pre-empted, slide -with the effect of an apology into some empty place, put on his -spectacles, get out his note book and pencil and begin to transcribe. -During each of his visits he was continually taking notes and the -imagination is appalled at any effort to compute the number of note -books he must have filled, for he was a constant visitor. The occupation -was of course an obsession, a phase, no doubt, of various mental -vagaries he harbored. Probably as children we missed something of the -pathos of the fine mind thus clouded, but it is a comfort to remember -that we did not altogether fail in appreciation of the spirit of the -gentleman. - -There comes dimly to memory the figure of a rather elderly woman who -wore an old-fashioned bonnet and rather odd clothing of a bygone style. -She was a busy person, flitting from paper to paper, forever in quest of -some apparently elusive data. It seemed to be necessary for her to hold -frequent consultations with the attendant. These were carried on, for -her part, in loud, hissing whispers that were far more penetrating and -distracting than ordinary conversation would have been and the -good-natured presiding genius of the room spent much of her time looking -up references for this curious and acquisitive visitor. What she was -seeking we never knew, but, though it was manifestly of the utmost -importance to her, one could not escape the impression of futility. -Surely a public reference or reading room is an excellent place in which -to study the caprices of the human mind. - -This person's audible conferences with the attendant bring to mind the -notice that was prominently posted in various parts of the room,-- - - LOUD TALKING OR PROLONGED - CONVERSATION WILL NOT BE - ALLOWED IN THIS ROOM - -Now that the statute of limitations has barred civil, if not criminal -proceedings, the writer will confess that some years later, when an -undergraduate of Yale College, he abstracted, after the unoriginal -fashion of his kind, one of these notices and took great pride in -displaying it in a prominent place on the wall of his room at college -where its apt and ironic message aroused great envy and admiration. - -But to return to our memories of the reading room's habitues--there was -Cousin George. This vicarious relative was an unattached Congregational -minister who sojourned in the city from time to time. The nomadic -character of his ministry was due partly to principle, partly to a kind -of wanderlust. In this old bachelor there was a wandering streak--he was -not happy for long in one place. But he had a strong social instinct and -a keen interest in and affection for his friends and was greatly beloved -by them. A great purveyor of news, he was an insatiable reader of the -papers and toward the middle of the morning he invariably came into the -reading room, as into a club, to look through the news of the day. His -soft, black hat, overcoat with short shoulder cape, eyeglasses with -black ribbon and mutton-chop whiskers gave a distinct individuality to -his appearance. About his looks there was an effect of oddity--and -indeed, like most of us, he had his whimseys and peculiarities. There -was little externally to indicate his kindly sympathy, his talent for -friendship, his thoughtfulness for others, particularly for the sick. -For that reason, doubtless, it was not until maturer years that that -side of his character fully dawned on one. There was nothing to denote -this in the picture of him, seated in a good reading light, in one -corner of the room, his cape-overcoat thrown back on his shoulders, his -thin legs crossed, absorbed in last night's "New York Evening Post." - -Like the others we have mentioned he will never come to the reading room -again. Did they, we wonder, surmise that certain small eyes were -observing them, that certain youthful personalities were conferring -about them, that certain immature minds were striving to grasp what -manner of men and women they were? Truly memories of us all may live -long in unsuspected places. - - - - -_XI: The Friend of Youth_ - - -IT was announced the other day in the public prints that the Private -Coachman's Benevolent Association had filed its certificate of -dissolution. Over this laconic statement in the morning paper one -reader, at least, paused and let his thoughts wander. To him there -seemed a significant and, indeed, a rather melancholy interest in the -announcement. The incident thus briefly mentioned not only marked the -end of an ancient brotherhood; it furnished a striking commentary on -changing social conditions. - -As a type the private coachman is disappearing, and with him vanish the -coaches, landeaus and victorias, the well-matched pairs of reliable -family horses with shining harnesses and jingling chains, the snappy -trotters, the buggy rides and the horse in general as a voucher of -social responsibility and standing. - -The possession of a motor car and the services of a chauffeur, though -generally involving more financial outlay than a stable and coachman -necessitated, somehow do not quite confer the reflected glory in which -the employer of a coachman used to shine. Everybody has a motor and the -very prevalence and numerousness of the chauffeur, capable and loyal -soul though he be, necessarily detract from the distinction which the -rarer coachman used to give. - -One usually stood rather in awe of the coachman--particularly in -boyhood, the period with which he is chiefly associated in the memories -of most of us. He was a person of strange and exalted attainments. He -held mysterious and telepathetic communication with his horses. He -understood them, and they him. He had theories about shoeing, he could -prescribe for most of their ailments, he hissed at them queerly as he -groomed them. Moreover, he had the real sporting spirit. He knew all -about the performances of Maud S. and John L. Sullivan. He called the -firemen and policemen by their first names and the fire bell would send -him running out of the stable at any hour. - -If the boy wanted to acquire a puppy he got the coachman to select it -and to clip its ears (without anaesthetic) behind the stable--or, if the -coachman was wise, he persuaded a friend to do this surgical work at -some livery stable, out of earshot of the family. Probably when the -puppy was grown the coachman surreptitiously staged fights with him -against rival dogs, chaperoned by brother coachmen, late at night after -the boy and his elders were asleep, thus occasionally providing a -precarious addition to his wages if the dog came up to expectation. To -tell the truth, it was generally selected for its fighting qualities. - -He had strange tales of adventure, many of them doubtless fictitious, -but showing the swift imagination of the race from which he generally -sprang. The great event of his life was his trip to Philadelphia at the -time of the Centennial when he was temporarily a soldier and had charge -of the major's horse. For years brilliant lithographs of the exhibition -buildings were tacked to the stable wall above the shelf where stood -bottles of horse liniment and harness dressing. He had seen men and -cities and out of his experience had grown a practical and homely -wisdom that was by no means lost upon his young admirers. He was the -friend of youth. - -And now it seems that the guild is officially extinct. Hail and -farewell, private coachman! Though legally dissolved you are not -forgotten, but remain ever enshrined in our memories of an older and -simpler day. - -In those memories the coachman assumes multiform incarnations. The -individuals varied as the years of childhood lengthened, but they all -conformed to type. - -At the end of one of those dim vistas of childish recollections, -illumined by the mellow light that always plays about our earliest -remembrances, stands the figure of Patrick, the first coachman of them -all. His first appearance was so very long ago--as a life-time is -measured--that the vision, emerging from the mists in which the first -consciousness of the world is enveloped, is painted somewhat vaguely on -the retina of the mind. How much of it is real, how much an idealized -memory, can not perhaps be definitely determined. After all, it is only -a picture and a feeling. - -One seems to remember being enthroned on a rug spread on the grass of -the garden, beneath the big apple tree, in the level sunlight of a late -afternoon in spring. It must have been spring for the apple tree was in -bloom. About one, seated on the grass, was grouped a circle of the maids -of the household and their visitors. No experience of later years has -ever given the slightest intimation that one could possibly be or became -such a center of interest and admiration as that microcosm of dawning -intelligence then consciously was to that laudatory audience. There was -a distinct sense of being the source of the happiness and laughter that -composed the mental atmosphere of that golden afternoon. Such an -assurance that the world was entirely good and beautiful has not since -been attained. - -Then, suddenly, Patrick was added to the circle--a smooth-shaven, -apple-cheeked, merry man--having doubtless strolled over from the -neighboring stable yard. Was it partly because a masculine note of -admiration was added to the feminine chorus that the effect of general -well-being and of mirth seemed, with his arrival, to be emphasized and -confirmed? At all events there was an instinctive perception between -Patrick and the center of interest that they understood each other, and -Patrick was welcomed from the rug with evidences of the recognition of -this bond which precipitated another wave of delightful worship. - -It was the beginning of a firm friendship. Patrick soon shared with the -nurse of those Elysian days the early confidences, the awakening and -absurd aspirations, of the childish mind. In the first cloud of trouble, -which after some years grew from the marriage and departure of the -nurse, he was a never failing solace. He received with serious -consideration a carefully thought-out plan to compel her return by -engaging one of the hook and ladder companies to pull down her new home, -thus presumably leaving her without any abiding place but the parental -roof. Seated on the front seat of the old carriage with his young -friend, taking the air about the city, he assisted in plotting the -details of this scheme. It was so subtly diluted by other interests, and -disappeared so gradually, that no particular disillusion resulted. - -Why Patrick left and when remain a mystery. He was succeeded by a -Scotchman with reddish whiskers and for long was lost to sight. Then, -unexpectedly, he re-appeared. - -One afternoon, years afterward, while calling at a friend's home and -talking over old days, it developed that Patrick was still alive--a very -old man now--that he was employed by these friends as gardener--that, as -a matter of fact, he was at the moment at work in the garden. It was, -indeed, possible to see him from the window. What was the meaning of -that instant sense of doubt as to whether it would be well to walk over -to the window? At least this hesitancy did not prevail and there, in a -far corner, raking among the shrubbery, could be discerned the figure of -a little, bowed old man in blue denim overalls and a weather-beaten felt -hat. One could not see his face--his back was toward the window. How -small he looked! Why, Patrick had been a fine figure of a young -Irishman, not tall, perhaps, but of a respectable height. - -The suggestion was inevitable that it would be interesting to go over -and talk to him. Indeed a start was made, but again came that impulse of -hesitation, stronger this time and not to be gainsaid. Was Patrick -well--was he happy? On the whole the answer was in the affirmative. He -had, it appeared, touches of rheumatism, but he could still do light -work, and he liked to putter about the lawns and the flower beds. At -home he was comfortable. Generally speaking, it seemed that life had -treated him not too harshly. It was clear that he was with kindly -people--and there one left him. - -After all, it is comforting to realize that the picture of Patrick that -is best remembered is not of a bent old man, leaning somewhat heavily -upon his rake, but of the figure that takes shape out of the mists of -childhood--a figure that somehow always personifies the attributes of -kindliness and sympathy--standing in a long vanished garden, beneath an -apple tree in bloom. - - - - -_XII: The Christmas Party_ - - -WE always stood rather in awe of Raymond's Uncle Horace because it was -said he had once taught Latin in a boys' school. Any one who had ever -wielded the power of a teacher was a person with a background of -authority and importance whom one could not approach too familiarly. -Indeed, it would have been difficult to be familiar with Raymond's Uncle -Horace under any conceivable circumstances, for he was essentially a -dignified and aloof person. - -It was understood that the abandonment of teaching had been caused by -failing health and to the same origin was perhaps due the reserve and -apparent preoccupation that militated against any real intimacy with his -nephew's young friends. There was some vague story of a young wife who -had died years before, but an experience of that sort was so far beyond -our comprehension that the rumor added but little to the isolation in -which Raymond's uncle seemed to dwell. He was never really an actor in -the drama of our young lives. Sometimes appearing in the wings, more -often in the critic's seat, he was an onlooker rather than a -participant. - -One remembers him chiefly as walking back and forth on the old street -between Raymond's grandfather's house and certain indefinite rooms he -dwelt in which were probably in the edifice then known as the Charter -Oak building. - -The impression that persists is of one very carefully wrapped up against -the weather. He wore a long ulster, a seal-skin cap, with a visor, and -about his neck, under his iron-gray beard, a muffler was efficiently -disposed. His large, gold-rimmed spectacles gave him the customary -owlish, peering expression, but in spite of them he could not seem to -recognize us, or any one else, except when close at hand. He carried a -stout walking stick, the point of which he never raised from the ground, -but dragged after him between alternate steps and he stood so straight -that he appeared to lean a little backward. It would seem that in the -warmer seasons this habitual manner of dress must have been modified, -but there is no recollection of any other costume. - -A tradition of immense learning clung about him. It was said that in his -mysterious rooms the walls were lined with books which he spent all his -time in reading. It was even whispered that he read Latin and Greek for -fun--and no higher intellectual achievement than this could be imagined. -There was something facile and careless, too, about the idea of reading -for pleasure dead languages with which we had as yet no acquaintance but -which loomed as educational obstacles in the not distant future. This -casual facility appealed to our youthful sporting spirit and compelled a -reluctant admiration. Whatever Raymond's uncle's shortcomings as an -intimate might be, he had at least reached the point where matters that -were soon to be weighty problems to us were to him merely a question of -amusement. - -Raymond's grandparents lived in an old house around the corner from the -old street. Their home was, in fact, one of the oldest houses in the -city. They were people of wealth for that day and the house had been -brought up to date in the fashion of that time when the finer harmonies -of the antique were not as yet appreciated. Plate glass windows had -replaced the small panes, hard wood floors covered the fine oak planking -and varnished inside shutters had supplanted the dignified panelling of -the originals. But our aesthetic appreciations, like those of our -elders, noticed no incongruity. To us the old house was the acme of -contemporary good taste, as well as the abode of comfort and even -luxury. - -It was here that Raymond's grandparents gave their annual Christmas -party for their grandson and his friends. This was a festival famous in -the young life of that neighborhood. Its celebrity was chiefly due to -the Gargantuan amount of delightful food available. There was a tree, of -course, but the presents were of the edible, rather than the permanent -kind, and no less appreciated on that account. Nowhere else was there to -be found such an amount and variety of candy, fruit, ice cream, cake, -nuts, raisins, chicken salad, sandwiches, jellies, jams, _pate de foies -gras_, and other pleasing forms of nourishment--to say nothing of -lemonade and various kinds of "shrub"--as at Raymond's Christmas party. -At the close of each of these events it did not seem that we could ever -eat again, yet there was a certain assurance of the continuance of the -fete in carrying home a paper bag containing an orange, an apple and a -generous selection of sweets. - -After the assembly had been fed there were games--"Drop the -Handkerchief," "Still Pond, No More Moving," that perennial juvenile -pastime where the participants chant the memorable chorus beginning -"Oats, peas, beans and barley grow," and sometimes, much against the -sentiments of the boys, that embarrassing game where the player who -became "It" was compelled to "Bow to the wittiest, kneel to the -prettiest and kiss the one you love best." The boys decided early in -their social experience that no self-respecting male ought to play this -game and it soon fell into disrepute, though the girls fought for its -continuance for a time. - -Youthful spirits rise with food as rapidly as does a thermometer under -the sun's rays and a good deal of noise and romping invariably -accompanied these games. Raymond's dear old grandfather and grandmother -enjoyed all these manifestations of young life as keenly, so far as we -could see, as did the children themselves, but Uncle Horace, it was -evident, did not like noise and confusion. Memory pictures him standing -in the background of the party, as in the background of life, a quiet -spectator, blinking shortsightedly but not unkindly, through his big -spectacles, and vanishing altogether as the excitement increased. - -Once one of the youthful guests, while the festivities were at their -height, wandered into a remote part of the house in search of some -accessory required for an approaching game and entered by a rear door a -room where Uncle Horace had been reading. He had put his book down in -his easy chair and was now discovered standing in the other doorway, his -back to the room. - -An intense curiosity to look at one of Uncle Horace's learned volumes -took possession of the interloper and at that age it did not occur to -him that delicacy might demand some hesitation. He tiptoed over to the -chair expecting to see on the cushion some calf-bound, ancient tome -written in characters that were hieroglyphics to him. But a complete -reversal of his ideas about Uncle Horace was at hand. The book that lay -there was in blue-and-gold cloth binding and was a copy of the first -edition of "Huckleberry Finn." - -The intruder looked in some astonishment at the spare figure of -Raymond's uncle and perceived that there was no danger of discovery for -the attitude was that of a man completely absorbed. He was listening -intently. At this distance the general hubbub was softened and there was -a rather wistful quality in the childish voices rising and falling with -the lilting old refrain: - - "Thus the farmer sows his seeds. - Thus he stands and takes his ease, - Stamps his foot (bang!) and claps his hand (smack!) - And looks around to view the land." - -After the lapse of a good many years it is this picture of Raymond's -Uncle Horace that is the most vivid. There was some implication in the -listening figure, with head slightly bowed, one hand resting on the -casing of the doorway, that carried, even to a childish mind, a -suggestion of hitherto unsuspected aspects of the rather lonely -widower's personality. At the time it was all very vague and -unformulated and later speculation has hesitated somewhat before the -privacy thus unwittingly invaded. Yet afterward one could not help at -least wondering what visions of his own childhood he saw as he listened -to the silly old lines of the ancient folk game, handed down through so -many generations and bearing their little testimony to the continuity of -experience. - -A tardy sense of eavesdropping awoke at last in the youthful visitor's -mind--an understanding that he did not belong there. He slipped out as -quietly as he had entered, but he took with him a dawning appreciation -of a new incarnation of Raymond's Uncle Horace. - - - - -_XIII: The Fabric of a Dream_ - - "_And that night . . . . a dream of that place came to - Florian, a dream which did for him the office of a - finer sort of memory, bringing its object to mind with - a great clearness, yet, as sometimes happens in dreams, - raised a little above itself, and above ordinary - retrospect. The true aspect of the place . . . . the - fashion of its doors, its hearths, its windows, the - very scent upon the air of it, was with him in sleep - for a season. . . ._" - - --THE CHILD IN THE HOUSE. - - -COUSIN MARY'S home was a little, old, brick house standing flush with -the street. A woodshed where the cat slept in summer extended easterly -from the house and in the angle thus formed was a diminutive garden -where such old-fashioned flowers as holly-hocks, bachelors' buttons, -sweet william and larkspur seemed to bloom earlier and last longer than -elsewhere. - -Everything about Cousin Mary's home was on a small scale. She herself -was a very small and slight old lady, but she had inherited from the -hardy New England race from which she sprang a certain tradition of -vitality and longevity which she lived long enough to exemplify in her -own person. Other family legends of uncomfortable eccentricity and -general worrisomeness she utterly disproved, for never was there a -kindlier or more placid soul than she. - -Of course she wore a cap with lavender ribbons and gowns of black -bombazine for every day and black silk with lace at the throat for great -occasions. She seldom ventured out of doors, except into her garden, or, -on such annual celebrations as Thanksgiving and Christmas, to a -neighboring relative's home where she was with difficulty persuaded to -take at dinner a glass of port or Madeira, though she always protested -that she did not really need it. Most of her life was spent in the -southeast downstairs sitting-room, where she used to sit in the -smallest, oldest rocking-chair ever seen. On memorable occasions she -would take possession of the kitchen, against the protests of Drusilla, -her companion, and make gingerbread that was famous in the neighborhood, -especially among the children. - -To childish imaginations there always seemed something mysterious about -the rooms in Cousin Mary's house--doubtless merely because we never -visited them,--except the sitting-room and the kitchen. The sitting-room -communicated with another room--I think it was called the "parlor"--by -folding doors. These were generally open, but in there the blinds were -always closed and the room was in a kind of perpetual dusky twilight. We -could dimly see within, but no recollection of entering remains, though -there is a faint memory of an obscure marble-topped center-table--were -there not wax flowers on it under a glass cover?--and ancient mahogany -chairs. - -We never reached the upper floors, at least till after Cousin Mary's -death, when it seems as if there was an expedition to the attic in -company with some older person of authority. It was a brief and somewhat -nervous experience. Those were the days when all ghost stories might -possibly be true and the attic, like the "parlor," was dark. The visit -was long enough to leave only a memory of dim corners, piles of old -horse-hide trunks, a remarkable collection of ancient cooking utensils -adapted for use over the open fires of colonial and Revolutionary -days--where, we wonder, has all this old kitchen equipage gone?--and -rafters from which hung dried roots and leaves of one kind and another. -It was a distinct relief to get out of doors again. - -But of course the mysterious qualities we attributed to certain -precincts of Cousin Mary's house existed entirely in our youthful minds. -No one could be imagined who had less to conceal than this serene old -lady. Yet it was natural that there should be romantic stories about -her. - -She had never married and it was not strange that speculations about her -past should concern themselves with early love affairs. These fancies -crystallized into the quite customary tradition that she had been -engaged in her early youth to a young man whose future was then so -uncertain that her parents objected to the match. The years have dimmed -recollection of the details of the story--there were other romantic -complications--but at all events the young man afterwards married -another and lived to disprove the early doubts of sceptical parents as -to his chance of success in life. But Cousin Mary remained true to her -early love. - -Many years after her death one of the children who used occasionally to -call upon her, and to whom even now the odor of certain old-fashioned -flowers will bring back a vivid picture of that little garden, had a -curious dream about her. - -He was again in that familiar sitting-room, but in some way he was -invisible to the other two occupants. One was of course Cousin Mary--but -quite a different Cousin Mary. Youth had come back to her. She was a -young girl again--and one of the prettiest young girls the dreamer had -ever seen. Her hair was dressed high at the back of her head. A great -comb was in it. Curls hung down over her cheeks, as sitting in the -familiar diminutive rocking-chair she bent her head forward listening to -the words of her visitor. Old lace was about her throat which was of a -singular whiteness and beauty. Her gown was of some shimmering stuff, -high-waisted, with many flounces. Her whole figure gave the beholder a -sense of delicate and rather fragile beauty. She was a creature of -race--a thoroughbred. - -Seated close before her and talking softly and eagerly was a -good-looking young man in the uniform of a naval officer of, I should -guess, the period of the second war with Great Britain. His sword and -cap lay on the floor beside his chair. - -Incongruities in dreams are generally accepted without surprise, but in -this case the sleeper afterward recalled a sense of astonishment at the -character of this stranger. Who was he? So far as was known no sailor -had ever been associated with Cousin Mary's life. - -Even in dreams a sense of the proprieties sometimes follows one and it -was evident to the dreamer that his presence was superfluous. He turned -to the dark "parlor" and for the first time entered. - -It was a queer place. All sorts of curios from the East were scattered -about it--yet "scattered" is not the right word for there was a method -in the arrangement, grotesque though it was. The dreamer, however, had -little opportunity to observe all this for he was drawn at once to a -corner where was a strange, spiral staircase, built of some light Indian -wood, and leading through the ceiling to the story above. He ascended -and emerged into the unknown region overhead. - -It was a wonderful place. The details are gone--one recalls only an -impression of happiness, sunshine, scents of exotic flowers, the singing -of innumerable birds, the tinkling sound of a hidden fountain. It was -no longer a room--it was a new country. Here, it seemed, dwelt peace, -content, beauty. A fragment of a familiar poem drifted into the -dreamer's fancies-- - - "It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles - And see the great Achilles whom we knew--" - -And there was more than a sense of well-being. There was, for a little -moment, a fantastic sensation of fulfillment in one's presence there. -There was a feeling of power. Here, one was somehow assured, ambitions -would be accomplished, hopes would come true. Here could be done the -things one always wanted to do. - -The dreamer wished to go on, to explore, to find the happy secret of -this region, but this, for some reason, was denied him. Some -all-powerful influence compelled him to go back, to descend the little -staircase into the darkened parlor. - -Standing there he looked through the open folding doors into the -well-known sitting-room and the picture he saw halted him. - -Cousin Mary and her sailor lover were standing in the middle of the -room. His arms were about her, her hands were on his shoulders, her face -raised to his. . . . - -Almost as soon as it was perceived the vision began to fade, receding -slowly into the formless, tenuous clouds of semi-consciousness. In a -moment the sleeper awoke. For an instant it was difficult to -disassociate from the spirit of his dream the golden light of the early -spring morning, the twittering of birds, the light drip from the eaves -of the brief rain left by the vanished April shower. - - * * * * * - -The later history of the spot where Cousin Mary dwelt offers its -commentary on a fast changing civilization. Soon after her death the -little brick house was pulled down and the cubic space it occupied was -filled with heavy machinery which daily filled with its reverberations -this place which was once the very epitome of quietude. Now, in their -turn, the huge presses have given way to one corner of a vast office -building where an army of busy clerks pursues the urgent and exacting -routine of a great corporation. - -The Latin poets liked to believe that every locality had its own -peculiar divinity--the "genius of the place." What has become of the -goddess who for so long dedicated to peacefulness this abode of a benign -old age? Is it that she was so closely identified with the one who -dwelt there that when that life ceased the guardian angel fled with the -departing spirit to some still fairer abode--or is the genius of the -place really called Memory, who, in the minds of those who cherish her, -effectually preserves against any merely material desecration the places -she once held dear? - - - - -_XIV: The Quiet Life_ - - "_More than half a century of life has taught me that - most of the wrong and folly which darkens earth is due - to those who cannot possess their souls in quiet; that - most of the good which saves mankind from destruction - comes of life that is led in thoughtful stillness._" - - --THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT. - - -WITH the thoughtless cruelty of childhood we used to call him -"Thermometer" Tatlock because he was forever watching the temperature. -The tradition was that whenever he went down cellar to look at the -furnace he arrayed himself in overcoat, fur cap, muffler and arctics. -Nicknames are not always brutal and the cruelty of this case lay only in -the peculiar features of the situation--the fact, in short, that the -subject of our joke was such a gentle, retiring, almost apologetic old -gentleman. He was deprecatory even toward us children. To adult -reflection it seems ruthless to have made any fun of him at all. - -Yet there was no doubt about the fact that he was an odd character. The -incarnation of bashfulness, he was, like most bashful persons, -persistent and consistent in doing just exactly as he liked so far as -the demands of a world, not primarily constituted for people of his -stripe, allowed. It must be confessed that, in modern parlance, he got -away with it pretty successfully. - -Probably this was because he was wise enough not to demand very much. It -did not seem that either the rise and fall of nations or of the stock -market gave him very much concern. Doubtless he did not disturb himself -greatly over the question of who was to be the next president. His chief -worry seemed to be the weather, though why he should have troubled -himself about this, when most of his life was spent indoors, remains a -mystery. Memory seems to recall some story of ill-health in early life -which perhaps inculcated a habit of consulting weather conditions that -lasted as long as life itself--and he lived to a green old age. - -The spacious brick mansion that was his home stood sideways, as it were, -to the street, behind a tall fence with panelled posts and blunt, -rounded pickets, like large broomsticks of alternating heights. Both -the main front door and what we should now call the service entrance -were reached by a gravelled driveway with a flag walk beside it that -terminated around in the rear of the house at the stable. Narrow flights -of steps with wrought-iron railings, topped here and there with brass -balls, led to the two doors. - -The entrance hall was almost square, a passage way running off toward -the kitchen from the left-hand farther corner and the staircase -ascending on one's left as one entered. At the landing, halfway up, was -a large window, opening to the north, which illumined the hall and -stair-well with an even, rather bare light. Somewhere in the wall was a -recess in which stood a bust of Cicero, of which the eyes, formed -without indication of the pupils after the fashion of its period of -sculpture, gave an effect of blindness fascinating to the childish -imagination. - -On the right was a little room where Mr. Tatlock's sister, a dear old -lady who always wore a little flat lace cap with a black bow, generally -sat knitting. Straight ahead was the parlor where occasionally, when Mr. -Tatlock's niece was visiting at the house, there were subdued children's -parties. On these occasions he was never visible. His own room was the -library, east of the parlor, with a southern exposure toward the garden. - -Here we never entered, but once or twice we caught a glimpse of the -interior through the door left unguardedly open by some momentary -oversight. The picture thus presented had as its background the south -wall of the room with its two windows between which stood the chimney -piece. Above the mantle, which was supported by miniature Ionic columns, -hung a portrait of a gentleman with a great deal of hair and shirt -frill, and below a bright fire burned, partly concealed by a fire -screen, beside which, reading in a large easy chair, was Mr. Tatlock. -Recollection is still vivid of the startled, rather furtive glance, the -look of a timid animal whose place of refuge had been discovered, -directed toward us as we peeked in. - -What was the old man reading as he sat there day after day and year -after year, while presidents were elected, national policies inaugurated -and abandoned, the maps of the world changed here and there, automobiles -invented, and the children grew up, went to college, got married and -left the old street? Probably no one knows for a certainty, but we -should be willing to guess that his favorites were Burke, the Spectator, -Boswell's Johnson, Pope, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt and perhaps Gibbon. -Did he, we wonder, ever read a novel? If so, it is doubtful whether he -got much beyond Jane Austen and Mrs. Gaskell. - -The house had a lovely old garden that stretched away to the east, down -a slope that was broken into two or three terraces. At the eastward end -was a level portion where the box-lined gravel walk from the house made -a circle around an old oak tree under which was a bench. There were a -good many old fashioned flowers and shrubs in the garden and some pear -trees, but who took care of the pruning and gardening, except Mr -Tatlock's sister who assuredly could not do it all, is still -unexplained. - -There was a hired man whom we called "Mister" O'Neil who sometimes went -to the post office and may have done other errands, but as his title -implies he seems to have been above gardening. At any rate there is no -recollection of seeing him at work in the garden. In spite of his name -there was nothing in his appearance that indicated Irish extraction. He -was not a hired man at all in the New England sense; he was more the -type of the confidential servant of the English novelists. He was dark, -wore a beard, dressed habitually in black and looked like a particularly -doleful undertaker. - -We never saw Mr. Tatlock and "Mister" O'Neil together and yet -imagination--perhaps it is only imagination--somehow groups them as a -pair of confidants. In a way their characteristics were similar. Both -were inscrutable, quiet persons, content to remain in the background. -For all of them the world might wag. In our imaginations at least, -"Mister" O'Neil knew all about Mr. Tatlock. He accepted the other's -peculiar reticences, so like his own, as a matter of course; he knew his -innocent secrets; he even could tell, if he wished, what books he read -there before the fire that burned from September to June. With this -taciturn individual we doubted if Mr. Tatlock was bashful. Possibly -their mutual congeniality of temperament centered about the furnace, for -they both watched it. - -"Mister" O'Neil could have revealed, we believe, what the shock was that -we all decided Mr. Tatlock must have received early in life. The girls -were convinced that this shock was emotional--an unhappy love affair, -or the death of some dear friend. The boys, on the other hand, were -inclined to talk about a purely physical catastrophe--a runaway -accident, perhaps, or a blow on the head from a highway robber. For all -of these surmises we had not the slightest foundation, except in fancy, -and mature reflection leads to the conclusion that probably we were -entirely in error. It seems now much more likely that this old -bachelor's oddities were due to life-long frail health. - -And yet one can never be sure and somehow one glimpse of Mr. Tatlock -which it was permitted one of the children to catch hinted, inexplicably -and without any particular warrant, at other possibilities. It was the -only out-of-door memory of him that is left. The boy, who still -remembers well that spring day, was in the next yard, hanging over the -fence looking into Mr. Tatlock's garden when he suddenly became aware -that Mr. Tatlock himself was sitting on the bench in the circle the path -made around the old tree. The old gentleman did not see the small -spectator who had been betrayed into an unaccustomed quietness by the -absence of companions and some subtle and unacknowledged influence of -the first warm afternoon of the year. - -Nothing whatever happened, Mr. Tatlock sat there, looking up from time -to time at the young leaves above him, tapping his stick on the soft -turf and smiling to himself. Of what long-gone springs was he dreaming? -It was clear that whatever his thoughts were, they were happy ones. - -Probably to most boys the ideal life is one that comprises "the joy of -eventful living." Here for the first time it dawned upon this youthful -interloper that one could be happy in quietness and seclusion. There -were, it appeared, certain satisfactions in other careers than those of -the cowboy and the soldier. Up to this time the boy had never been able -to understand why heaven was so often spoken of as a place of rest. He -did not understand wholly now, but a later comprehension had here its -inception. - -And so let us remember Mr. Tatlock sitting, lost in meditation, in his -garden. After all he was not without influence in his environment, -unobtrusive soul that he was. He made himself felt in his little world. -He counted. The boy who watched him over the fence that day thought of -him again when he read in a recent essay: "The truth is that a man's -life is the expression of his temperament and that what eventually -matters is his attitude and relation to life . . . . not only his -performance." - - * * * * * - -Transcriber's Notes: - -Repeated chapter titles were deleted. - -Obvious punctuation errors repaired. - -Page 31, "activites" changed to "activities" (activities of their -colleagues) - -Page 57, "orginality" changed to "originality" (wit, originality, -sympathy) - -Page 71, "Englandler" changed to "Englander" (contributed to "The New -Englander") - -Page 73, "Willaims" changed to "Williams" (S. Williams, Deacon Normand) - -Page 103, "geolological" changed to "geological" (to make a geological) - -Page 228, "abondoned" changed to "abandoned" (and abandoned, the maps) - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Friendly Club and Other Portraits, by -Francis Parsons - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDLY CLUB AND OTHER PORTRAITS *** - -***** This file should be named 40898.txt or 40898.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/8/9/40898/ - -Produced by Emmy, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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