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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36697-h.zip b/36697-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70f510e --- /dev/null +++ b/36697-h.zip diff --git a/36697-h/36697-h.htm b/36697-h/36697-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..752f50e --- /dev/null +++ b/36697-h/36697-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6681 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Revisiting The Earth, by James L. Hill, D.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Revisiting the Earth, by James Langdon Hill + +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: Revisiting the Earth + +Author: James Langdon Hill + +Release Date: July 11, 2011 [EBook #36697] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVISITING THE EARTH *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>REVISITING THE EARTH</h1> + +<h2>BY JAMES L. HILL, D.D.</h2> + +<h3><i>Author of "The Immortal Seven," "The Scholar's Larger Life," "The Worst +Boys in Town," "Favorites of History," "The Century's Capstone," "Memory +Comforting Sorrow," "A Crowning Achievement," etc.</i></h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"We know not the future,—the past we have felt"</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>RICHARD G. BADGER<br /> +THE GORHAM PRESS<br /> +BOSTON</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1920, by Richard G. Badger</span></h3> + +<h3>All Rights Reserved</h3> + +<h3>Made in the United States of America</h3> + +<h3>The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'<i>Tis sweet to remember! I would not forego</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The charm which the Past o'er the Present can thro</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>THE LITTLE SEMINARY OF LETTERS</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Revisiting the Earth</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">The Picture Land of the Heart</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">The Dearest Spot on Earth to Me</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">The Land of Used-to-be</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Seen Through the Long Vista of Departed Years</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Where we Played Mumble-the-Peg</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">The Scene of the School Fights</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Touching a Long Slumbering Chord</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">What Had Become of the Old Eccentricities</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">To See and Feel the Past</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">A Return to One's Holy Land</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">Looking up the Sons of Well-Remembered Mothers</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Things that had Passed Away "Still Live"</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Where a Visitant Sees More than a Resident</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Where I Met Myself</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">Retracing the Old Paths</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">Going Back to my Padan-Aram</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">A New Knock at an Old Door</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p><a href="#illus1"><span class="smcap">The Little Seminary of Letters</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus2">"<span class="smcap">I Remember, I Remember the House Where I Was Born</span>"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus3"><span class="smcap">The Little Sanctuary</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus4"><span class="smcap">Paradise Lost—Before the Salem Fire</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus5"><span class="smcap">Paradise Regained—After the Conflagration</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus6"><span class="smcap">The Meeting of "The Senate"</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus7"><span class="smcap">A Seat of Learning Full of Memories</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus8"><span class="smcap">The Grounds of the Beloved College</span></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus9"><span class="smcap">The Greatest Pleasure Given To Man</span></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>REVISITING THE EARTH</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>REVISITING THE EARTH</h3> + + +<p>To revisit the earth after one's departure from it has always been a +common wish among men. The frequency with which this desire is expressed +in biographies and in literature, keeps the project alive, and works it +to the front in one's plans. Benjamin Franklin presents the thought in +such attractive dress that we incline to adopt it for a programme. There +is one item in his proposition that calls for argument at the bar of +public opinion. It touches the length of the interval that should be +suffered to elapse before the visit is made. So rapid is the growth, so +radical are the changes, that if one's reappearance is too long delayed +he would recognize nothing in the new conditions. He might as well set +himself down in some other unfamiliar place. The postponement should not +exceed a third of a century. It is his world that a man wants to see, +and each one has his own. His antecedents and experiences have given to +it a distinctive character.</p> + + +<h3><i>To Open Books that are Sealed</i></h3> + +<p>On a golden day the thought came to me unbidden, I have seen three and +thirty years rise and fall since I have viewed the identical spots that +I would care most to look upon. Instantly I made the resolve, I will +visit, in the first eight weeks of summer, every place in which I have +lived or loved or labored. I ascertained, in advance, the name of some +kindly disposed person at each point in my itinerary, who could identify +the site of the house in which I lived, if it is not still standing, +also of the school and church that I attended. The letter I had written +was handed in one case to the editor of the local paper, who featured +it, in his columns, asking for the names of persons now living who +remembered me. Here is plainly seen an insuperable objection to waiting +Ben Franklin's interval of one hundred years before revisiting the +earth. This correspondence, which contributed immeasurably to the +pleasure and profit of the project, ought to be undertaken, while there +are two parties to conduct it. Where one's coming is expected and +welcomed he passes at once into the right relations to the place, also +into the atmosphere he desires.</p> + + +<h3><i>Let Me Drop a Hint Here Like a Seed</i></h3> + +<p>I care not how widely you have traveled if you have never made a pious +pilgrimage to your childhood's shrines—you have still missed your +superlative pleasure.</p> + +<p>It is possible for you to live your life over and the part commended for +you to live over again is when you were young.</p> + +<p>Here is rejuvenation. To live one's life over is to live it twice. This +amounts to doubling it. Who would not do it? If the period of time +during which one may live on the earth is fixed, it certainly is +limited, if there is a possible way to live twice, what one does live, +he would better be extremely hospitable to the scheme. Opposition will +come from three sources, first from the man who thinks himself taken up +by the future and by his hopes. But it is patience that works +"experience and experience hope." Hope detached from the present and the +past is such a baseless fabric of a vision that it probably will not +leave even so much as a wreck behind. Another man will counter with the +familiar statement that his eyes are on the front of his head and he +only travels in the direction that they lead.</p> + +<p>Now my kind, optimistic brother, I have a word here for you. You are +traveling in blinders. You are a mechanical pace-setter. All your +training is for the middle of the road. It is counted a physical +deformity if a person cannot turn his head. It is an expression of +opprobrium to find people stiff-necked. The chief office of a vehicle is +to carry on, yet for use at home, a carriage that cannot be turned round +would be extremely inconvenient.</p> + + +<h3><i>Pausing for a Fore-taste</i></h3> + +<p>The observation car giving the best view to be had of the mountain +landscape as it waltzes by, is placed at the rear of the train. The most +extravagant demonstrations of joy and gratitude, our most hallowed +feelings come from looking back on what has been done unto us and for +us.</p> + +<p>Hesitancy about revisiting the earth comes lastly from those who think +they have lost their interest in days that are gone, that forgetfulness +has done its sad work, that the dead past has buried its dead. It is to +witness the miracle of a resurrection that we are uttering our cry.</p> + + +<h3><i>Waymarks of the Journey</i></h3> + +<p>They assume that a fact or a name is gone into oblivion when, for +example, they are unable by a repeated effort to recall it. The mind is +a delicate organism. You cannot well force things. It has its own laws +of suggestion. Once coming into the old surroundings, which rake up the +past, standing again on a recognized corner, which carry one's thoughts +back with delight into familiar haunts, the law of association will put +on the tip of your tongue names and incidents that you supposed to be +clean forgotten. If a person had asked me to give the name of the first +barber that ever set foot in the town of my boyhood home, I would have +believed it sunk in oblivion. In the summer coming upon the cross-roads, +I said, "Here stood the first barber shop in town." The name of the +negro, even, that kept it flashed on my mind. It was Stanbach, the last +syllable as he pronounced it ended with the German guttural. His son, a +little freckled mulatto, was called Johnnie Stanbach. When a little +full-blooded negro appeared, Johnnie would not associate with him. He +was "too black," "black enough to smut a body."</p> + + +<h3><i>The Mind's Re-invigoration</i></h3> + +<p>When Hon. James O. Crosby, an eminent lawyer, in my native village, +having a large practice in the courts of the county, met the father of +John R. Mott of merited distinction, a living force, this was the +dialogue: "How do you do, Mr. Mott!" "How do you do, Mr. Crosby!" and +then taking Mr. Crosby's hand Mr. Mott said to him, "Your face seems +familiar but I cannot seem to recall your name." This occurrence gives a +volume of experience in revisiting the earth. When Mr. Mott badgered his +mind to recall Mr. Crosby's name, his intellect balked, utterly, and +continuously refused to act. The mind often halts, even as to common +words. One's mental powers come to a sudden pause, like circus horses, +and a man recovers their use, not by any effort of will, but by some +sudden, and almost impulsive, suggestion. Recent events and dates are +easily lost or pass into confusion while those of long prior time still +hold firm root and their right place in remembrance. As we have seen, a +quick, unerring, even unconscious mental spring, acting according to the +laws of the association of ideas will unaided and without effort, bring +a name, pent up in one's memory, promptly forward for his instant use. +The value of this power is beyond estimation. Occurrences supposed to be +forgotten are very much alive, when upon old familiar ground. Revisiting +the earth is a simple string of these acts of spontaneous recollection. +If you hear a few notes of music, the inseparable association, that +exists in the mind, suggests the rest of the tune. That is a very apt +expression, when a person says he is haunted by a tune. It implies an +existence, in the chambers of the brain, that is making a stir and which +he supposed to be dead. The simple act of thus recalling an event is in +itself the most wonderful of all mental processes.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Re-creation of the World</i></h3> + +<p>I heard of a man who had over-looked the fact that memory paints with +fast colors, also that a recollection that is dim in one locality is +bright in another. On reaching a scene of early associations, on picking +up a thing, he found it was like one of the links of a chain, that one +being stirred, others were moved and the man was found discoursing on +How I improved my memory in one evening. On revisiting the earth, +memories are awakened which, but for coming upon the old soil, would +probably have slept silently to the end of life. It is given to me, to +have a distinct testimony in this matter. Many others can corroborate +these hints by startling facts in their own lives and without any +stretch of their imagination. I was brought to the belief, that a person +may not ever forget anything. The recollection turns out to be a +faithful, painstaking, autobiographer. This almost scares a person. A +wand seemed to be waved and forth came people and anecdotes and events +that he supposed were in oblivion. There turns out to be, not only a +recollection of the head, but also a memory of the heart. The process is +different. On the one hand a boy commits to memory and learns by rote, +on the other hand there are some things he loves. All these he knows by +heart. This is an undying, imperishable recollection. It is the +immortality of the affections. Vividness of feeling does it. All that +pertains to home, he learns by heart. It is as indestructible as his +eternal being. "Dot must be der vonderful blace Ohm, to make der British +cry. I tink to myself, I vill go and see dis blace, Ohm, vot der vos no +blace like. Vich is der vay to 'Ohm, Sweet Ohm?'" Where the affections +have been unlocked and the whole inner man has been stirred,—a high +water mark has been registered in one's memory that can never be +eradicated. Your heart shall live forever, so shall all of your heart's +histories. They give you something that the thieving years can never +take away. I have pleasure in adding to the assurance of it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Blessing in the Guise of an Excursion</i></h3> + +<p>It is now only one hundred and eighty generations, as we used to be +taught, since Adam, peace to his memory and his ashes, who was +grandfather of us all. There are thus but one hundred and seventy-eight +generations between us and him. This would take but one hundred and +seventy-eight father-to-son steps to bring us to the original family +home in the Garden of Eden. There are only one hundred and eighty +life-times to review. The grandfather of Noah, who was six hundred years +old when he encountered the flood, was Methuselah, who remembered Adam. +If our line of ancestry is so short, and if all the progress we have +made has been accomplished within a history so brief, it is little +wonder that the transformations to be witnessed in one of these not +numerous generations are so incredible and so instructive.</p> + +<p>I do not know, but I may class traveling among our duties. It opens new +spheres of thought and observation and places us in new relations to +mankind and makes us better students of human nature. Leisure is sweet +to the taste and for that reason it soon palls. Pleasure is a +by-product. Enjoyment is greatest when it is incidental to some +well-advised quest. Idleness is the least pleasure of a holiday. To make +high festival of a pilgrimage to a shrine is more common in the older +nations than in our own. It is the habit of the human mind to love that +which is memorial in its character. We cannot, as Longfellow says, buy +with gold the old associations. "He that is searching for rare and +remote things will neglect those that are obvious and familiar. It is +remarkable," continues Dr. Johnson in the preface to his dictionary, +"that in reviewing my collection of words I found the word 'sea' +unexemplified." I have had many vacations, in places wide apart. Having +gone further and fared worse, returning to what is nearer, having an +inspiration of beauty upon it, I say, touching Revisiting the Earth, as +David declared of Goliath's sword, There is none like that, give me it. +Never did a child perform an errand with more alacrity than I executed +this mission.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE PICTURE LAND OF THE HEART</h3> + + +<p>The day is blue above, without a cloud. Will you walk with me through +our village, gentle reader? We will begin at the handsome open square. +Now as we advance my heart leaps at the sight of my birthplace. What a +pretty location it is! Here is "the cot of my father:" "In youth it +sheltered me." It is the "loved spot which my infancy knew." "How dear +to my heart" is this "scene of my childhood." Happy childhood thus early +blessed with blessings hereditary to all after hours! There is no place +so suggestive and interesting in our adult years as that in which we +began life. It is one of those exquisite situations which paint their +own picture insensibly in the memory while you look on them, natural, +daguerreotypes, as it were. Considered only as a house, it left some +things to be desired but it is never to be considered only as a house. +Why is it that we thus love the place of our birth? Why have all men +done the same? The son of the mist, in Scott, in his dying hour, begged +that he might be turned so that his eyes could rest once more upon his +native hills and close with their latest vision fixed there. Why did the +hero of Virgil, in his death hour, manifest his love for the place of +his birth which is so beautifully narrated by that immortal bard? It is +an instinct, which gives to it a place in the human heart, and such an +expression in human thought. Like poetry it is born with us, not made. +There probably is no stronger feeling in us than that of attachment to +our first home. A man transplanted to another field may have succeeded +well. His condition may have been vastly improved and yet he may have +drooped without apparent cause, in his temporary home, pining for those +days which were passed in the Eden of his life. I could not get enough +of the place. Must I leave thee, dear sacred spot, how can I leave thee? +My heart was full and the tears started to my eyes as I gazed around +upon every object. The words of my earliest progenitor, on leaving our +ancestral garden, as quoted by Milton, came to me, "Must I leave thee, +paradise?"</p> + + +<h3><i>The Vine Must Have the Wall</i></h3> + +<p>Luther could appear in battle scenes for social and religious reform +with undaunted spirit. He could oppose the enemies of his faith without +a trembling nerve. He could resist those, bent on his destruction, with +the courage and calmness of a Christian hero, but when upon a journey +to meet the Counts of Mansfield, he came in sight of his own native +Eisleben, the great man was overcome with emotion and he bowed his head +and wept.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>The Man Returned who Left these Haunts a Boy</i>"</h3> + +<p>Congress voted unanimously in 1824 to invite Lafayette to visit this +country. He was received everywhere with great demonstrations of popular +enthusiasm and his progress through the country resembled a continuous +triumphal procession. He visited, in succession, each of the twenty-four +states, and all the principal cities which vied to do him honor, but +relatively he was unmoved. A splendid coach was at his service. He +passed beneath an elaborate arch blazoned with words of welcome, but +Lafayette relatively was unmoved. Sitting quietly with no expectation +excited, before a screen in a public assembly, the curtain lifted and +there stood his birthplace, in speaking beauty and suggestiveness and +all the deeps of his heroic nature were broken up and he sobbed audibly +like a child. The strong old home still held him to its heart.</p> + +<p>How is such a birthplace marked? Chiefly by a gush of rich emotion in +the heart of him who claims it as his own. Nature attends to that. A boy +has warm affections. A birthplace may have no Forefathers' Rock. +Peregrine White was not born there. No Charter Oak or Washington Elm, +with living dignity may identify the place. There may be no cellar which +concealed the royal judges, nor any door pierced by Indian bullets, nor +drums which awaked the sleepers at Lexington and Concord, yet it is +distinctively sacred to one's childhood days. It has the deep endearment +of a darling home.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I remember, I remember<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The house where I was born<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little window where the sun<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Came peeping in at morn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Where is my home? I want to go before dark," said a spirited little +fellow of three years. The action of his inner nature was like the +turning of the needle to the pole. Thus an unfortunate child will put up +a fight for his birthright and he will not yield without returning to +the struggle. He wants his heritage.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER, THE HOUSE WHERE I WAS BORN"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><i>The Gate to Life</i></h3> + +<p>Somehow my heart keeps flying back to my birthplace as Antony's kept +flying back to Egypt. If a man has no heart, if he is altogether lacking +in veneration the attention given to his birthplace by other persons +would impress it upon his notice. "Where were you born?" asks the life +insurance agent. What has that to do with it? How does that affect the +situation? Why does he not limit himself to vital statistics, like +your age, habits, general health? Through more than three thousand +closely printed pages, Who's Who in America, carefully mentions in each +biography the birthplace of the subject. There must be some reason for +making this one of the chief facts when the space is needed to tell of +positions held, wealth and fame acquired.</p> + +<p>At this point a daily paper comes to my desk containing an interesting +recital touching America the Beautiful. We are informed that Miss Bates +"has a most sympathetic personality" and "is a native of Falmouth on +Cape Cod." Are the song and person better or different from that which +they would have been if instead of Falmouth the birthplace had been +Yarmouth or Barnstable or Wellfleet Several towns in France are +disputing the honor of being the birthplace of General Foch. The papers +and magazines speak of his genius, of his responsible position, the most +distinguished in military history, of his never-resting blow-on-blow +method of conquering, but they cut the thread of an interesting +narrative short, to consider the question of his birthplace as if that, +after all, was a principal question. It seems that "the Lord shall count +when he writeth up the people that this man was born there." Agents and +learned men, and it appears even the deity, attach significance to the +place of one's birth. So then will I.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Dear native village, I foretell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though for a time I say farewell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wheresoe'er my steps shall tend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whensoe'er my course shall end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My soul will cast the backward view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">THE LONGING look alone on you."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But there are spots on the sun. There's a fly in the ointment. I am +suffering from an incurable complaint. I was born too soon. I cannot now +put the clock back. Besides we are entering on a new era. There is to be +an overturning. Society and the ways of government and the methods of +business are to be changed and I want to be a witness and would like to +be a factor. The temper of each generation is a surprise. This new +period is to be different in its ideals, employments, and conditions and +I would like to be entirely of it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Footprints on the Sands of Time</i></h3> + +<p>I took up the other day a book of fiction that is equally the delight of +the child and of the man and opened it where a picture represented the +surprise of Robinson Crusoe at discovering the print of a man's foot on +the seashore. On revisiting the earth it touches one's emotion after +being orphaned, islanded, for a generation from one's father to come +upon his footprints in his old haunts. Without the experience of it, on +visiting an early home, no one would imagine, what a shadowy train of +memory, involving all the past, would come crowding before his eyes, +filling his heart with a pleasant pain, and a sweet bitterness. Only +once stand in the old environment and feel the atmosphere of early +living conditions and a vivid panorama of faces that it was thought had +vanished and scenes that it was supposed had faded will unroll "when +fond recollection presents them to view." I hardly realized how sweet +those memories were to me until my visit. I began to see that one must +get away from home, be exiled for a while, to gain a pensive mood. +Homesickness is in reality a spiritual instinct, a needed, useful force. +Howard Payne felt its power when living in a garret in Paris, on the +edge of starvation, he longed for his "lowly thatched cottage again," as +David longed for a drink of the water of the well of his birthplace, +which is by the gate of Bethlehem. This locality was the playground of +my childhood. It is connected with the sweetest ties that can bind one's +thoughts to the past. I stand in a fixed position. This is the location +of my earliest recollection. Here memory began. This was a new birth. +Commencing in the community and continuing all along thereafter, by +inquiry, I have sought widely to ascertain at what point in the lives of +other persons, recollection made a start. From his biography by his +daughter I learn that my whilom instructor, Professor Austin Phelps, +remembered Napoleon's death, an event that occurred when he was two. +Franklin says he was a reader from his infancy. Samuel Johnson, before +he was two, had begun to take a permanent hold upon events. One of my +associates recalls a theatric incident that occurred when he was two. My +recollection made no registration until after I was three and this was a +scene here in my father's new unfinished church, and among its primitive +temporary seats which were without backs. Thus I stand where my outlook +on the world began. At that point I see myself for the first time in my +career. Other events follow in close order but it has been a great +pleasure that my angel mother and her beloved church are ineffaceably +pictured on the front page of my book of remembrance.</p> + + +<h3><i>Things Sweet to Remember</i></h3> + +<p>To discover that modest House of Prayer in which my father began his +ministry was like a miracle, like finding someone who had risen from the +dead. My eye was not satisfied with seeing it twice or thrice. I +contemplated it as I would the "House not made with hands," I could have +kneeled and kissed the threshold of this historic but very lowly temple. +It seemed a construction transported, ready-built into this world and +located in one of its most delightful spots. It seemed different, like +a piece of meteoric stone which for a fact appears here but whose +home has been in the skies, and like the stony pillow on Judea's plain +it became to my vision a House of God. This is a holy land to me. It +savors of the assemblies of the saints. If I were looking for beauty I +would return to that divine abode. A stranger not knowing the +antecedents of the little sanctuary would discern no form nor comeliness +in it. It was an hour when one could think of but two things, one was +home, and one was heaven. These earthly objects have a comeliness, a +simple dignity, and nattiness which are beyond the reach of art. How it +elevates the spirit to stand, thrilled by a beautiful romance and find +that it is not romance at all but unspeakably sacred reality.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Aye call it holy ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soil where first they trod."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>THE LITTLE SANCTUARY</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Oh the brave, the noble souls who have laid foundations. They were elect +people set apart to a sacred service which has no equal in this world's +history. I am not "the wretch</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who never to himself hath said<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is my own my native land."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE DEAREST SPOT ON EARTH TO ME</h3> + + +<p>The flood gates of memory opened wide as the lamented Queen of England, +with the weight of eighty years resting upon her, was wheeled in her +chair, from room to room in the old fashioned brick palace at +Kensington. Here in this unpretentious princely abode with its beautiful +name, she was born, and here when she was waked very early out of heavy +sleep to be hailed, Queen, she said prettily, "I will be good."</p> + +<p>She kept her word. Here remain, as she left them her doll's house, the +miniature counter where she sold ribbons and laces to imaginary +customers, the doll's linen, marked with her own childish cross-stitch +and the furniture and mementoes which cause the plain, irregular, rather +homely structure to be hallowed as the shrine of Victoria. Here she saw +her little set of cooking utensils, her child's scrapbook and little +boxes of paints with camel's hair brushes. She lingered lovingly over +these objects, which once meant so much to her, and as the vivid +association and tender suggestiveness of her surroundings touched her +feelings, in the presence of a group of dolls, being amid her toys, she +desired the attendants who accompanied her to withdraw, expressing the +desire, in that sacred place, to be alone.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Glory of Life in its First Spring</i></h3> + +<p>On revisiting the earth I wanted to be alone on reaching my memory room. +In that corner stood my trundle bed and about here, well say about +there, is where I kneeled to say my earliest prayers. I have never felt +so rich since, as I did when I came into the undisputed and sole +possession of a hair-covered trunk which I could lock and bear away the +key. Into this trunk I emptied the week's accumulation of all my +week-day pockets as often as I put on my Sunday clothes. In this old +hide-bound trunk were my sainted mother's letters, and missives with my +own name in large John Hancock looking letters on the back, from my +grandfather who kept store and sometimes sent me pocket pieces of money. +On the outside of the pack, always in view, always to be kept, no more +resembling others than an electric light resembles a tallow dip, was the +first letter personally addressed to me that I ever received. Here was a +child's cheap album containing photographs of Commodore Nutt and Minnie +Warren, of a family of Albinos having white hair and pink eyes, and of +a fat boy only 16 years old that had struck me with wonder. Here is a +red morocco bag in which I kept my ill-gotten gains in marbles. Although +forbidden to play "keeps" myself, the neighbor's boy, a surer shot, did +not hesitate with my capital to engage in the excitement and to make a +"divy" of the proceeds, while I watched the game, and as a better +disciple carried the bag. I used to feel a real pride in my collection. +I knew the price of each kind and computed the value of them all to a +cent. That day was marked by the event when I exchanged so many of the +brown, baked, clay sort, for a big taw alley (made of alabaster). Some +of the big chinas were striped in varied colors and we made a sharp +difference between those where the bright color was laid on and soon +began to wash and wear and those where it was baked in like the pictures +on cups, where it is as indestructible as the material itself. To this +day I cannot see boys playing at marbles without feeling a strong desire +to join them.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Rule of the Shekel</i></h3> + +<p>Among playthings my specialty was marbles. I specialized on three lines, +blue clays, real agates, the handsomest of all marbles, and big glass +center-pieces. I knew well just what I must hold to dominate the market +and just how many of the common sort a boy would give for an alley taw, +or tor, as we used to pronounce it. Taw is the line or limit from which +the players shoot. Others would have returned from the visit to the old +time school-house to the hotel. I knew a merchant well, who being +delighted with his entertainment in Lucerne did not think it worth while +to go out to the leaf-embowered pool to see Thorwaldsen's Lion. Naples +has such outstanding beauty that the visitor is ready to "die" and thus +omits any visit to Vesuvius, the most famous elevation in the world. But +I went from the school-ground to the place, where the soil was once +beaten to the hardness of a floor, by the village boys, who, each of +them, placed one or two marbles in a ring and in turn shot at them and +he who obtained most of them by beating them out of the ring was the +winner. We were happy</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To kneel and draw<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chalky ring and knuckle down at taw."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here in this trunk were my old club skates which I used to sharpen +myself and tie on with strings and leathern thongs, and here was an old +ball which, I, having first ravelled the yarn, wound myself and cut the +cover out of an old boot top in the good democratic days of town-ball or +of "Two-old-cat," when we chose up, for the ins, and did not leave the +playing to a few, and half of them from out of town, when a "foul" and +"daisy-cutter" were unknown terms. While one dear, sweet, +not-to-be-valued-with-the-Gold-of-Ophir object remained among them, it +has been hard for me to "put away childish things." Most people are +extremely like one's self, and choosing among relics would be supposed +to first take one of the sandals of Empedocles, fabled to have been cast +forth by Aetna. This father of rhetoric, statesman, prophet, and +reformer threw himself into that volcano to disappear and leave no trace +and thus establish a belief that he was so beloved of the gods that he +was translated. But the volcano would not stand for this imposition and +threw out one of his sandals. But I am not interested in such a relic +when it is compared with a little token that tells of the deep desire +there is in every heart to be remembered.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Last Wish of Ambitious Minds</i></h3> + +<p>We shrink from the fate of being dropped out of sight and out of +thought. It strikes a pang to a mother's heart to even hear the adage +"out of sight, out of mind." Trading upon her warm feelings, she was +solicited to buy, as a birthday gift for her boy, a little china cup, +highly colored, inscribed with the words, "remember me." This little +token proved to be the best seller on the market. The longer it is kept +the greater is the desire to keep it. The child is not asked to prize +the gift. The legend upon it tells rather her intensest longing. Her +one deepest wish at the moment of final parting could not be better +expressed.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A place in thy memory, dearest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is all that I claim:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pause and look back when thou hearest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of my name."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The absence of the giver makes the gift more dear. I do not call this +idolatry. A German doctor of divinity has expressed the common feeling +in an exaggerated form, by saying that he loved God, in his mother and +in his wife and children. He saw God-likeness in them and they commended +the love of God to him. Certainly next to pleasing God the desire to +honor the memory of my father and mother has been my highest incentive +in life. One of these motives does not leave off when the other begins. +It is a kind of piety which is natural to me. It is spontaneous and +seems divinely implanted. Reverence toward Godly people is at least a +schooling in piety. I mean of course God's church and God's Book when I +speak of my mother's church and my mother's bible. When one is given his +old seat in his childhood's home, his mother seems near, and he feels +like saying to her,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I've passed through many a changing scene<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since thus I sat by thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, let me look into thine eyes;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their meek, soft, loving light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Falls like a gleam of holiness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon my heart tonight."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That great truth which Gray tells us he discovered for himself, and +which very few people learn, till they find it by experience, went to my +heart, that in this world a human being never can have more than one +mother.</p> + +<p>It is a peculiar expression that people use when they say that they +"keep" Lent, or "keep" Sunday, or "keep" Christmas, or "keep" a +birthday. They mean that they observe it, and by thus marking it they +get something out of it which is pleasant and suggestive. We all have +our little festivals, life's private anniversaries, these jubilees of +the heart which we love to celebrate. That day is a high day, when the +old homestead becomes an inspiration point. Stores, long ago laid by in +the memory, come forth from their hiding places. In unexpected +exaltation of spirit, one is lifted above himself.</p> + + +<h3><i>Strikes a Chord Unconsciously</i></h3> + +<p>He gets out of himself and lives for the hour a sort of sublime life. It +was worth the trip to obtain such a revelation of my own mind. Of all +the works of the Creator's power and wisdom the mind bears most plainly +the private mark of the invisible God. Things have almost a miraculous +power to visualize persons. This is true to an extent that will not be +believed. And here is a perplexity. Shall I insist upon the point? The +incredible part is the particular thing I want to emphasize. The trundle +bed, the hair-covered trunk, the stairs, the door, the window become +active factors, and the faculties awaking out of long heavy slumber +become vocal. Faces and tones are at once recalled and intensely vivid +remembrances take shape, hue and voice. Spirits of father and mother, +are ye here, entering into the high communion of this hour? The +suggestiveness of the environment was such that somehow and suddenly, I +was a boy again. This is such a day as that in which our parents blessed +us, and such a day as that in which our mother fulfilled both of those +relations to us. Her love was like spikenard, perfuming the house. Two +good friends I there summoned to go with me, memory and resolution. One +of these friends reinforces the work of the other. When I vividly +remember, I want to make a consecration. I want to do some sacrificial +act, and to do it distinctively for mother's sake. Now, henceforth, "No +day without something learned: no day without something done." I took +some live coals off the home altar to start new fires. Our ancestors +had, what they styled "living" money and "dead" money. In emergencies +they sought to convert dead resources into currency. My legacy is a +memory and the old battered trunk which was a little world in itself.</p> + + +<h3><i>Old Home Looks Young Again</i></h3> + +<p>In the days of my top and kite-hood, the trunk had constantly to be +opened because something had been forgotten. How small a thing it was to +contain as much as I thought there was in it. I showed my regard for it +by the things I entrusted to it. The germ of every home I ever had was +in it. Its contents I have almost idolized. I speak advisedly, I would +rather lose the house than what, reserved from it, has come down with me +through the years, taken with their setting. A boy likes a place to keep +his things. A boy accumulates. That's his nature. An associate has just +said that his first memory was a suit that had pockets. There is +something in a boy's constitution that gives him a large use for +pockets. To empty them is not a convenience, merely, but a necessity, as +in his use of them they project like two bay-windows. His nature +necessitates a trunk. There must be a secret spot around which can rally +the sentiments that a home awakens and conserves. A mother loves to get +a Bible into this trunk, which is to be the center-point to his heart +and home. Mother's sentiment was well chosen. This book will keep you +from sin and sin will keep you from this book. They do not go together. +They do not keep company. This Bible had about it what it calls "a sweet +smelling savor." A new pocket book, a gift from my grandfather, was also +quite redolent but the odor of these was different.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Odor of Apple Blossoms</i></h3> + +<p>I read in an old legend that a Damascus Blade gave forth both sparks and +perfume. My sense of smell was always exceedingly acute. It has guarded +me often against exposure. I can instantly detect invisible forms of +peril. I knew a way to find out about those qualities of a Damascus +Blade. A boy is always ready to educate himself by the use of his sense +perceptions, and is particularly prompt with taste and smell. I had from +the first a rare, refreshing pleasure from flowers, perfumes, aromatic +materials producing a sweet odor when burned and the smell of fruits. I +used to love the fragrance of new hay and of the freshly plowed ground +and of the earth when moistened by a quick summer shower, the scented +fumes wafted from the land when approached from the ocean, and the fishy +smell of the shore when you have reached it. The odor of a well-kept +light harness when well warmed up on a fine gaited horse, and the odor +of the varnish on the carriage, I, to this hour, remember from my +boyhood days. I loved the intensity of odors so peculiar, so unlike +those of summer, that we used to notice after the frost had fallen, when +the winter was at hand, and the aroma of the woods having been first +imprisoned, was exhaled by a warm sun, in a cloud of incense. All the +sense perceptions were wide open to the mind. We were constantly +learning. Life was a school without recesses or vacations and had a full +corps of instructors in all the departments.</p> + +<p>"Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee." "There are, it may be, so +many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without +signification."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE LAND OF USED-TO-BE</h3> + + +<p>The particular thing taught in the early school, as I recall it, was to +make a bow. When a boy was about to speak a piece he made his manners +and at the conclusion of his address he again caused his head to descend +and made a quick nervous stoop. Declamation was made of three parts, two +of which were the introductory bow and the concluding one. If the bow +was grotesque, the speaker was recalled, not only to bow, but to do it +gracefully. It is nothing to the credit of those scholars that in later +life they sometimes forgot to perform the gracious act, which this +master sacrificed other items to teach. The schedule, day by day, was a +mere overture to the main performance which came at the end of the term +which was the exhibition. This came "the last day." As the libraries +were small the pupils searched high and low to find a "piece." This was +a new task to those who had been simple answer-hunters. In arithmetic +they were informed in advance what result they must attain and to reach +it was to do their sums. But now there is involved also the human +equation.</p> + + +<h3><i>Dolling Up</i></h3> + +<p>When they came "to speak in public on the stage," they were noisily +dressed. They would have looked better and felt better in customary +apparel, but they were ill at ease and this helped to mark a red-letter +day.</p> + +<p>The whole town was moved. The scholars were full of excitement over the +glory of the occasion. The country side was deserted. The farmers with +all the members of their families appeared in town. There was no room to +stable the horses and so they were covered with many other articles +besides blankets, there being no uniformity to their uniform. They were +tied for the very long evening in the lee of some stack or shed. The boy +who spoke the last piece excited great admiration, particularly, in the +minds of his proud father and of his adoring mother.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So sleeps the pride of former days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So glory's thrill is o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hearts that once beat high for praise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now feel that pulse no more."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Interest in these things so then developed that Mr. Caldwell had to +compose dialogues of a spicy picturesque character for our public use. +He incited his scholars to enter into the spirit of their single pieces +and dialogues and his exhibitions surprised and delighted the audiences +so admirable became the performance of children and youth. Fine +declamation was to him what painting is to an artist, or melody to the +musician, it was a passion, and nerved him for effort. Scholars still +live all about who can "witness if I lie." The stage afterward must have +claimed many of those actors for they showed unquestioned genius for the +art of theatrical representation. The conditions were primitive, but for +the platform we must have curtains, so when the eventful moment came, +sheets and table-cloths instead were pulled aside, these being the only +curtains that were available and we had to live with what we had. The +"stage properties" were hastily gathered from the homes of participants.</p> + + +<h3><i>Fitted for a Day Sure to Come</i></h3> + +<p>As the parents attended these exhibitions, the contagion caught them and +then followed the lyceum. It swept the town, it was the most popular +thing ever. I distinctly remember the evening when they discussed Neal +Dow's Maine liquor law, my father participating. One of our neighbors +carried the honor of out-talking the whole field. Let his thoughts slide +into the familiar current and they flowed on easily and indefinitely. +For debate they caught at Bulwer's dramatic sentence, The pen is +mightier than the sword, and they argued the pros and cons without +getting a verdict, leaving thus to Germany and the Allies to bring the +time honored discussion to an end with a demonstration that no one will +ever be able effectively to question. To these meetings each man brought +a candle but no candle-stick. From the lighted end, he would drop a +little tallow on the desk, and thus set up the candle, that it would +give light to all that were in the house. What a sight greeted us the +next morning.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Isles of Greece!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Isles of Greece!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Friction matches, which according to Faraday, were the most useful +invention of the age were not then sold, loose in boxes, but were made +in cards, each match being detached only a part of its length from the +others which stood with it in a thin layer of wood. The word, Lyceum, +marks an era in the United States. It means a great school of debate, a +college that grants no degrees. It gives me a sadness that is not akin +to pain, to hear a young person designate a building as Lyceum Hall, +using the word as if it were Grampian Hall or Hamilton Hall, having no +glorious, clear conception of what the name of the hall signified to the +early community. Tradesmen, farmers, professional men, themselves +readers and thinkers, above all restless and eager disputants would meet +night after night to discuss the unselfish problems of life. At first +they were not allowed to speak upon irritable subjects. They tried to +escape both the Scylla and the Charybdis of religious and political +contentions, but in early days narrow was the way. Some sanguine souls +sought to build a suspension bridge over the foaming waters of +controversy and to find a way of union for the bitter strife and +dissension that only cases of conscience can supply. This little +community-university was co-educational. The women too were welcomed, +not only to the meeting where their presence was a stimulus to the +debaters, but to participation in the conduct of the lyceum paper, +which, read by one of the sterner sex, often contained contributions by +the women. In it were witty conundrums, based on local names and +conditions, pointed suggestions, humorous hits at the hardships they +were at the moment experiencing, which enabled the people to laugh at +their own privations. Deep feeling and marked literary ability were +often shown in the contributions to this unprinted paper. It was for +just such pages as these that the first poems of Lucy Larcom were +produced, and she says that if she had learned anything by living it was +that education may proceed "not through book learning alone, sometimes +entirely without it."</p> + + +<h3><i>Flights of Oratory</i></h3> + +<p>The outstanding feature of the lyceum was the report of the critic. He +must be a bright glad witty man without a shade of vulgarity, a perfect +master of all those nice little arts which give zest to conversation and +a quaint coloring and a good deal of it, to his thoughts. I have a +pleasant record of him. His chief theme was always, The Ladies. No one +of them could do anything poorly enough to get anything but a warm +encomium. If the debaters did well it was because the ladies by their +presence gave just such cheer as bands of music contributed to +Napoleon's army, when getting their heavy cannon over St. Bernard Pass. +This critic never had the affrontery to lecture the participants. "Who +made thee a ruler and a judge over us?" Mathew Arnold came over here to +lecture us, from the know-it-all point of view, and began his work +without any specific preparation for any evening, discussing no +sympathetic theme, and the people declined to hear. The great benefit of +the lyceum, to say the least of it, was that the whole conduct of it +rested solidly on the men who blended in it and habitually attended it. +It came right up out of the intellectual force, the convictions, the +good neighborhood feeling and intelligence of the community. These +debates developed leaders in the various departments of mental effort. +It sent debaters straight into the State legislature. It was like +running a magnet over a dust heap, in that it revealed metal, and drew +it out, and this was what people were looking for. Any one who looks +over the surface of our towns finds many minds, endowed by nature with +brilliant faculties and framed by their Creator for great usefulness and +honor, waiting to have their energies awakened and invigorated.</p> + + +<h3><i>Choosing the Front Subject</i></h3> + +<p>The thing that made the lyceum was in the air. What is discussed now in +the papers was then a theme for argument, evenings, in the stores and +taverns. Our word caucus, is derived from the Caulkers, ship-builders, +hardy, upright efficient men who gave tone and character to the meeting +that they with others held, to discuss politics and the other live +issues of the day. To increase the number of parts taken, certain grave, +slow men, not likely to share in the discussions, noted chiefly for +their moderation and caution, were named in advance as judges, and their +decision was to be based first, on the weight of argument, and then on +the merits of the question. To keep up the excitement, the decision was +sometimes appealed to the house. If I close my eyes and open the +chambers of memory I distinctly see the young men, with many signs of +diffidence rising timidly to participate in the proceedings. At the +earlier meeting, two persons had been appointed to maintain the +affirmative and two other members were requested to maintain the +negative. The free-for-all fray was let loose with the old time +question, Does any one desire to debate that question? Sometimes we had +"rough house" which was always followed at the next meeting of the +lyceum by a capacity audience. As Samson found the honey, so these +lyceums discovered talent where it would be looked for least. Men came +to look for good in each other under these conditions, and that helped +some. And there is a partial explanation of the fact that so many men, +who became prominent in early politics, were from small towns. Great +opportunity was given for discovering and developing latent literary and +oratorical talent and for invigorating and confirming every germ of +reform and political aspiration. Leaders were discovered in the various +departments of investigation and of influence. It must be kept in mind +that the communities were to an exceptional degree homogeneous and +over-whelmingly American.</p> + + +<h3><i>Educating Themselves</i></h3> + +<p>I never look upon the panorama of the past where vivid life forms have +lost little of their original distinctness without thinking of the +village oracles who exercised their eloquence in these local, free +schools of debate. They gave a permanent bias and coloring to the genius +and taste and style, in all their subsequent years, to men distinguished +for their talents, whom the lyceums discovered and trained, who shone +splendidly in after life. To find the place of the lyceum in the +evolution of the debaters, we will eliminate genius. To draw a rude +likeness was once genius. In mechanics genius ceased to be recognized as +soon as labor could equal the result, once attributed to nature's gift, +acting unaided. Whittier tells us that when he began life verse-making +was a monopoly. Good citizenship is not a gift or an inheritance any +more than is good soldiering. Courage alone does not make the soldier +nor honesty alone the citizen. Training is essential to both. In the +recent constitutional convention held in Massachusetts those who worked +like Trojans, looked forward with apprehension, to the oratorical +assaults, that would be made upon their results. They recognized the +disproportionate advantage, but a real advantage never-the-less, of +oratory, and this was not over-looked but acknowledged. For a fact, some +excellent ideas went begging for the support of those who had talents +and training for speaking exceptionally well. One who surpasses the +ordinary standards, but a little, takes a position quite in advance of +his fellows. Superiority on the race course is a matter of seconds and +half-seconds. The honor bestowed by us on excellence in public address +is greater than that attributed to men in literature or the professions, +in business, or invention. The difference becomes so plain and is so +conspicuous that it gains attention. The ablest speaker arouses the +sympathies and gains the result. Where a cause is to be presented I have +heard this formula. A poor cause, a good speaker. A good cause, any +speaker. All of us have been present when a fine speaker having what may +be called the wit of speech where a laugh was loaded with a principle +where the address was clear, sparkling, above all things witty, wit +being the rarest of qualities and surest of appreciation, the audience +worked up by the rough and ready eloquence of a popular orator, reaching +indeed an extraordinary pitch of excitement, has swept everything with +the weaker side of the case. No accomplishment gains consideration for +its possessor and his cause so speedily as public speaking. When +billions were being raised in Liberty Loans, during the German war, the +telling factor was the four-minute speakers that came out of the +Phillips debating societies in the various communities, and these +speakers having come to the front show some disposition to remain +there.</p> + + +<h3><i>A New Impetus</i></h3> + +<p>Here is brought to light the reason, that those northern states in which +these elementary schools of patriotism and freedom have existed, cling +so tenaciously, for local government, to the old town meeting. In this +country where the motive power is public opinion, the ability to help in +forming it is greatly to be coveted. The power of the lyceum would be +instantly admitted, if we could use it for a moment as a negative +quantity, and show how completely unfitted for public work many of our +strongest factors would have been, had these little schools of oratory +never opened their doors. I share in the well expressed opinion that +there are four kinds of human activity for which a man must have a +natural preparation, music, the sculptor's art, the painter's art, these +three, and the highest forms of oratory. For these, most successful men +must have aptitude. But to a person with the gift of utterance, occasion +must say, Oratory, come forth! Money does not talk. Culture not wealth +is the mark of distinction. Take a man whose father was poor and also +the descendant of poor men with all their ideas of life associated with +conditions of extreme poverty. The atmosphere and practices were such +that Henry Wilson besought the legislature to change his name from +Jeremiah Jones Colbaith to that one that he made famous as United States +senator and as vice-president being elected on the ticket with Grant. He +had known what it was to ask his mother for bread when she had none to +give. Before he was twenty-one he had never had but two dollars and had +never spent more than one dollar. At the end of an eleven years' +apprenticeship to a farmer, he received a yoke of oxen and six sheep +which he sold for eighty-four dollars. During these eleven years he +never had more than twelve months schooling. The turning point in his +life was the lyceum which he attended, following the lines of argument, +but lacking courage to share in the debate. But one evening when the +discussion was thrown open to the audience he engaged in it to the +delight of his friends. His pastor called upon him and expressed his +gratification and the lyceum increased in popularity as a place to hear +him. His pastor urged him to seek an education. The lyceum had awakened +his dormant powers. His special forte, his biographer says, was +extemporaneous speaking and debate. In meetings held once or twice a +week he acquired the drill he needed for coming conflicts.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Onward Upward Course</i></h3> + +<p>Henry Clay rose to fame, by a sudden impulse at the meeting of a lyceum +in Lexington. He overcame timidity and embarrassment, that had +oppressed him, and in this favorite forum for the display of youthful +talent, first exhibited the evidence of his extraordinary powers of +oratory. His hour had struck. In this school for the highest powers of +debate he discovered himself. He used a very common expedient and made +it great and was proud to descend from the summit of political +preferment to honor that arena, such as any community can provide, in +which any ambitious young man can educate himself. Both Mr. Beveridge's +brilliant oratory and Dolliver's success, as the greatest campaigner +America has produced, are proof, that a training field is an +indispensable condition of getting results, in the study of eloquence +and in the art of oratory.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SEEN THROUGH THE LONG VISTA OF DEPARTED YEARS</h3> + + +<p>In Bates Hall in the old public library in Boston, lying open on one of +the ledges to any visitor, was an Ignorance Book, in which any one could +ask a question on which he desired information, and after an interval, +return to find it was answered. The Redwood library at Newport, R. I., +has had, upon a commodious desk, a book by means of which readers can +take their intellectual needs to those who have the ability to meet +them. The Lyceum was once a great solvent. Nothing has taken its place. +It was an evil day when this profoundly useful educational institution +closed its doors. People are sitting on its front steps awaiting a +reopening. They have, before them, a new map, a new world, and a new set +of questions.</p> + + +<h3><i>What is Your Problem</i></h3> + +<p>Can a person change his disposition? The features of children are as +diverse as their faces, all have the family likeness, but each has his +own peculiar temperament.</p> + +<p>Is it the brain, and not the soul, that does the thinking? Is man a +machine and not a living spirit, inhabiting a physical body? Do people +speak advisedly who use the expression "Keeping soul and body together?"</p> + +<p>Why did not the slaves in the South do more for their own emancipation?</p> + +<p>Why does a minister use a text? This custom prevails among pulpit +orators who do not believe in miracles or in the inspiration of the +Scripture or in the authority of the Bible. There's a reason. What is +it?</p> + +<p>Our teachers, in faithfulness and friendship, used to stand next to our +parents and are entitled to and will ever receive our most grateful +recollections. They are happy men whose natures sort with their +vocations. On revisiting the earth there was one instructor who beside +exercising a benign and stimulating personal influence had high +qualities and remarkable fitness for his noble profession, whom I would +cheerfully make a sabbath day's journey to honor. Let me preserve his +name, S. H. Folsom. Schoolmaster was about the right word for him for he +was master as well as teacher. His severity is to be attributed to the +times rather than to him. It is said that a drowning man can in two +minutes live over again every incident in a long and checkered career, +and a boy does not doubt the possibility of such phenomena, if he has +been publicly requested, by the master, to remain after school to be +whipped. We all remember him with kindly feelings and there are hundreds +of his pupils living who have not lost their sense of indebtedness to +him.</p> + + +<h3><i>On the Road to Learning</i></h3> + +<p>A boy lays up nothing against a noble, faithful, patient teacher who +whips him. Pain is nothing to boys. They give it, and suffer it, in +their sports, many of which have penalties. They uplift tearful eyes, +but it is in entreaty, and not in rage. It was from him I acquired a +life-long practice of the little economies of time. We are now so +interlocked with others, we are so far from living or laboring alone +that our time is much disposed of by other people. "Do you ever reflect +how you pass your life? If you live to seventy-two, which I hope you +may, your life is passed in the following manner: an hour a day is three +years. This makes twenty-seven years sleeping, nine years dressing, nine +years at table, six years playing with children, nine years walking, +drawing, and visiting, six years shopping, and three years quarrelling."</p> + +<p>I now save the time I used to spend in going to the postoffice. I used +to reckon how many trips would make twenty miles. Still the flight of +time grieves me. I must draw tighter and tighter every string. The +school that I attended was a mere vest-pocket edition of the one which, +year by year, like a starling, keeps adding to the nest, on which Mr. +Folsom now looks down in benediction. This building has a telephone +switchboard. I recognized only the switch which in my day was a weeping +willow. When a gone feeling was experienced, a boy could dig up a small +coin, go to a grocery and buy a pickle, but now schools have a buffet +car attachment supplied by the woman's club.</p> + + +<h3><i>The By-product of Development</i></h3> + +<p>It was an unrealized deprivation, but I do not seem to remember, when I +was under the ferule, the teacher's maid, such as waits upon the +children at the new training school here, nor do I seem to recall the +school physician, such as the city now elects, nor the piano, nor the +victrola, nor do I remember any free transportation to and from school +except by "punging" when we had to take what came in terms of the sleigh +driver's whip.</p> + +<p>The principle of the Declaration of Independence was taken literally +that all are created equal, which makes in education a Procrustes' bed +and every boy or girl in a class, supposed to be equally capable, as +they were not, was to be stretched to learn lessons of equal length. +They trained up a child in the "way." The way was first fixed. It was a +grown up theory. They thought more of the way than of the child. The +child's primitive nature had no play. The process often lost the scholar +his childhood. He was robbed of his birthright. The old maxims even, +also taught that anything saved from sleep was so much saved.</p> + +<p>With his pen, Mr. Folsom could, with unerring grace, draw an eagle, put +an inscription into his mouth and thus stir in his pupils astonishment +and patriotic feeling. In writing he made a specialty of capital +letters, which had the last touch of nicety. Any line of his writing was +as neatly molded as Spencerian copy. We had thus two epochs in our +school, the Ciceronian and the Spencerian periods. One was distinguished +by the graces of speech, the other by waves of ink. We have always been +given to understand, that if the cradles in a neighborhood were +assembled the occupant of one of them would call those present to order. +It is thought to be a wonder that an American is born knowing how to +conduct a public meeting. He early learns how to make motions. It is +instinctive to know that a motion cannot have more than two amendments +offered, at the same time, and to know the order in which they must be +put, the second amendment before the first. When we wonder at some of +the traits of colts we are told that they are born with their +peculiarities; so with boys. The crown of everything was public +declamation.</p> + + +<h3><i>Best When Most Catching</i></h3> + +<p>All paths led to the exhibition as we have seen. Other studies were +subordinated to the all absorbing preparation for it. Other branches +suffered from eclipse. The taste for it became very great. It fixed the +boy's bent. The men having a lyceum, the boys took the infection and +even had a relapse. In our community they formed a lyceum, and among the +questions discussed was this: Which is preferable, city or country life? +Having the stern rule that the less favored one must also stand up I was +invited at the age of ten to share in the deliberations. I became so +absorbed in some of the follies, presented by my opponents, and so lost +sight of the occasion, that, when called upon by name, I was startled. +The boys took sides in the universal conflicts of opinion. Nobody could +find rest on a fence. It was a picket fence. The ground was the only +safe place to stand on. As a regiment takes on the character of its +colonel, so a school in a particular degree, reflects the teacher. I +cannot tell how we all came out of the craze. When penmanship was the +rage and writing became epidemic the scholars developed the villainous +habit of scribbling always and everywhere. As stationery was not +plentiful they used the leaves and margins, not only of their own +books, but those of the others. They decorated the walls and desks. As +the nights were extremely cold, the ink would be turned by the frost +from a liquid to a solid state. Hence the bottles were placed on the +stove for thawing purposes and would sometimes decorate the ceiling or +empty their contents on the stove and floor, accompanied by a detonation +like that of a pistol.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Love of Conquest</i></h3> + +<p>Now this man Folsom understood human nature in its initial stages. His +insight showed him that boys and girls crave some reward and +recognition, so when he could approve a youngster's conduct and +application, he would award him a diminutive ticket on which, in his +beautiful writing, was the word Perfect. By touching up emulation he +ruled the school. When ten small tickets were carefully acquired they +would be proudly cashed up into a somewhat larger chromo with the same +device. Before we call anyone lucky, who takes a prize, let us call him +unlucky, who is without the desire to make the effort to win it. It is +fine for him to contend to the uttermost for even the meanest prize that +is within his reach, because by such strenuous contention, his nature +grows and by lack of it, nature decays. A poor boy cannot rival the +wealthy, in items of luxury, but in a school he finds himself in a +little republic, where the prizes do not fall to the rich, because they +are such. A boy out of an humble home may have lacked recognition and to +receive it makes him a new creature. To find himself appreciated and +well-liked touches a spring at the center of his being. A boy is often +made over by the quickening thought that to him might fall one of the +little early prizes of life.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Impulse From Incentive and Reward</i></h3> + +<p>The fire and the force to do great things were slumbering in Senator +Wilson's soul.... "His future course of life," his biographer says, was +affected by Mrs. Eastman, who handed him, when he was eight years old, a +little book. "Now carry it home with you and read it entirely through +and you shall have it." A book he had never owned. To him it was a +golden treasure. He hurried home to read it. He coveted the prize. In +seven days he called to say that he had read it from end to end. This +little book, a Testament, he kept all his living days, saying, that the +presentation of it was the starting point in his intellectual life. The +reason, as Sir Walter Scott believed, why the passion for books so lifts +up a poor boy, is that he makes himself a master of what he possesses, +before he can acquire more. Queen Judith, a princess of rare +accomplishment, promised a finely illuminated book of Saxon poems, to +which, her son, Alfred the Great, when young had been listening with +enthusiasm, to such of her sons as should the soonest be able to read +them. The innate energy of those dormant talents of "the Darling of the +English" was roused and he made his name the brightest that adorns +Anglo-saxon history. He became the most illustrious monarch that ever +filled the English throne. He founded the University of Oxford, +established trial by jury, and sought to emulate the deeds, to the +recital of which he so early loved to listen. It is said that when this +promise of the book was made, "Alfred returning to Queen Judith, eagerly +inquired if she actually intended to give the book to the person who +would soonest learn to read it?" His mother repeated the promise, with a +smile of joy at the question; the young prince took the book, found out +an instructor, and learned to read, and soon recited all its contents to +her.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Fascination of Matching Abilities and Efforts</i></h3> + +<p>Oh for some angel visitant to stir the waters of the Bethesda of +self-improvement as it was once done by the use of this principle of +emulation in our class in spelling. Alphabetically the scholars were +called out into a line, toeing a crack in the floor. Beginning at the +head of the class the master puts out the word and those who have +studied their lesson pass above those who have not. It is an unequalled +revelation for a boy's later life. How came I at the foot? When one boy +has competitors and they attend to their business and he does not, he +will gravitate downward. I had been trained in the catechism to believe +that it was first Adam and then Eve, but this theory was upset, when we +stood up to spell. I can still see one of those girls stick to the head +of the class. Blessed be the bad roads, "kind the storm" that housed the +girl, for a day, as on her return she went to the foot. At length she +modestly said to the master, "Put out any word in the book and I will +spell it." With such proficiency we challenged the nearest district +school to a spelling match.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Tug of War</i></h3> + +<p>Before the interest began to flag, it was understood that as a final +test, every body in the house should rise and spell down. With blushing +honors, under the spell of emulation, this unobtrusive girl would rally +her powers, and hold her timid self up to meet all comers by sheer force +of a moral courage, unsurpassed by men who go over the top and look into +the cannon's mouth. The audience grows breathless. She clings to her +position like that which Oliver Wendell Holmes called The Last Leaf. Our +best girl won. Our boys seeing any members of the defeated school would +use their two palms for a trumpet and shout the pivotal word, on which +our victory turned, "Phthisic." It was a great incitement to strive to +equal or excel when a rival was seen to take a reward for doing what we +might have done, but didn't. The name of the winner became a household +word and was garlanded. I have felt depressed by my consciousness of the +unworthiness of the response, that my life has made, to such an +excellent instructor in penmanship and spelling. His name is embalmed in +all our hearts. The terms of school soon ended. Beyond this we have no +record of our eminent teacher's life and as Bunyan says of one of his +characters "We saw him no more."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>WHERE WE PLAYED MUMBLE-THE-PEG</h3> + + +<p>It is with diffidence that I name a suggestion that has been very much +on my heart since retreading these streets and revisiting these early +haunts. It is to get rich, not with dollars in the purse, but deposits +in the bank of memory. No other human faculty can be more rapidly and +strongly and surely developed than an ability to keep things in mind. +Yet many people are making use of methods that impoverish recollection. +Devices are increasing for memory-saving which have the effect of memory +destroying. A faculty's development is arrested from want of use. The +memory has not grown, but the habit of putting things down with a pencil +has developed. Our schedule of work is not unfolded in the mind and +committed to memory but is committed to little slips of paper. Things +are not carried in the brain but in the pocket and are in danger of +being laid off with one's apparel. We feel dependent on the memoranda. +Our best power, that likes to be trusted, that responds to discipline, +has no growth, but wastes away instead, owing to defective nutrition, +and lack of exercise. The memory falls into a stunted and partially +disabled condition. That minister, the most widely read of any American +clergyman, sharply points out, that a capacity falling into disuse, +falls also into a dying process, and is extirpated and withdrawn. Any +capacity kept under, allowed no range or play, suppressed, is soon +stupefied and blunted. A man was endowed with a fine faculty, and has +not turned it to account, "Take, therefore, the talent from him."</p> + + +<h3><i>Developing a Real and Fixed Deformity</i></h3> + +<p>We once had to remember our errands but parents now hand to children a +written list. Facts, stories, incidents are not stored in the intellect, +but in a cabinet. Mental equipment, then, is all gone in the event of a +fire. Instead of being thankful that the cabinet maker was preserved it +would have been better to have saved the cabinet. There is more in that +than in him.</p> + +<p>In the intemperate man the better parts of his nature do not have fair +play. His body is disordered, his brain confused, by a succession of +trespasses. All diseases and abuses are self limited. Improvement would +come, by a delivery from his baneful habit, and by strengthening his +principles. Memory when respected, when it uses its wings and makes +nothing of time or distance is an angel power. It is full of rural +incidents and has a great deal of nature and of soul in it. The past is +not altogether dead. It must be used to enable us to understand the real +living history around us. Now look. Do you observe that every child has +a health instinct? Intuitively it seeks the open air. A child is not +fussy about the weather. Those have the best health that go out under +all skies. Take notice that a child's birthright is freedom. When +walking with his mother he seeks to unclasp his hand from hers and make +a little detour in the grass along the way. His nature revolts at +following, forever, when out for pleasure, a beaten path. Seeing real +life reflected, you do not fail to notice, that in coasting, which in +childhood could be called, The Great Joy, the girls take a prominent +part, and there is no effort by the elders to play the spy nor block the +sport. Here are boys and girls together, oblivious of sex, like a +family, in beautiful, healthful, animating sport. It is remarkable that +coasting keeps first place, seeing that it involves climbing up as well +as sliding down. The return walk, involving a change of position, an +interchange of mind, a fine spirit of comradeship, a greatly increased +intake of ozone became for a fact a cordial of incredible virtue. God +sets all little children playing for this. He lays the necessity of play +upon them, and the restless little fellows hunger and thirst for +physical activities. On a holiday the city is emptied into the country +to enjoy for a few hours the true conditions of a healthy physical +condition.</p> + + +<h3><i>An Increased Reverence for the Human Organization</i></h3> + +<p>The bashful athlete, as if by mere chance, takes hold of the rope just +opposite to the pretty girl of the party, I mean to one of the pretty +girls of the party, whose ear he wishes to command. As the boys owned +the sleds, the spirit of gallantry greatly promoted proprietorship, in a +double runner, which was vital to the social spirit of the sport. One +that could fly was the ideal aimed at. It seemed animate. It was well +shod. A heavy load gave momentum. It was guided with rare judgment, +watched, compared with others, improved, made to look better, until its +associated owners prided themselves in it, as a thing of life and beauty +and speed, as mariners do in a ship. Some people have to go abroad to +find folks who seem eager for an excuse to get out, to even take their +meals in the open air. The European seems chafed in his own house. He +takes his supper with his family in the face of all the world, and +enjoys the publicity. He walks about to see how other families are +faring, and they do not resent it. It would not disturb him to take his +dinner on the side-walk on Broadway. So in Southern California, nobody +shuts a door. The weather, being about like our April, the barber shops +and restaurants have no heat and often a strong current of air, that the +natives would enjoy, came streaming in through wide-open doors and +windows.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Open-door Policy</i></h3> + +<p>Book stores were not warmed at all. One morning at breakfast I rose and +put on my overcoat, and a visitor at the next table, at the conclusion +of the meal said, What part of the country do you come from, that you +have to put on your overcoat? The reason those people put their doctors +out of business is not alone in the climate but in their becoming +accustomed to living in God's great and good out-of-doors. We could live +much colder than we do, and live more largely out of doors, and reap at +least some of the benefits that people gain by going abroad.</p> + +<p>In looking over the familiar places, when revisiting the earth, that +were once the haunts of the idlers of the town, I was struck by the +entire absence of whittling in which they formerly engaged. Who could +reckon their indebtedness to the pine, which supplied the favorite +material? Each man kept in pretty good order, if he owned nothing else, +a fine piece of cutlery, with a history which he had made familiar to +the minds of his easy-going associates. To whittle with an edgeless +knife is dull sport, hence at intervals, each loafer would lay his right +foot upon his left knee, and upon the leather of his heavy boot +characteristic of that day, would strop the blunt blade until he had put +it again on edge.</p> + + +<h3><i>Our Knives Confiscated by Teachers</i></h3> + +<p>Every loss is thought to have its compensation. If whittling is out of +vogue, the benches before the boys at school are, for that reason, +better preserved. A common present to a boy in that day was a pretty +good knife. Boys are very imitative. They sought to whittle and would +notch the school desks until their edges were serried into a semblance +of a cross-cut saw. As the term of school wore on the teacher had made +himself the custodian of most of the fancy hardware owned by the +ingenious scholars. Not remote from the school-house door we turn aside +and stand over the identical spot where we sat, with our heels wide +apart, facing a chum, and played mumble-the-peg, or mumblety-peg, as the +boys pronounced it.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The boys were playing some old game, beneath that same old tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have forgot the name just now,—you've played the same with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On that same spot; 'twas played with knives, by throwing so and so;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The loser had a task to do,—there, twenty years ago."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As the knives were thrown from a series of positions, the winner would +show himself something of the savage still, for when the loser failed to +make the knife blade stick in the ground, he would, with the heavy +handle of the knife, drive a peg into the ground, by a certain number of +blows, which the loser was compelled to draw out with his teeth. The +severity of the penalty was not in using a long peg, like a wooden +tooth-pick, but a short one that could still be struck a blow or two +after it was below the surface of the soil. Thus the unskillful player +had to root for it, while the boys, being called together, encircled him +and jeered.</p> + + +<h3><i>Happy Hours by Living Streams</i></h3> + +<p>The appearance and needs of this dirty-faced boy caused the whole bunch +to hie away to the swimming-hole. The Romans seem always to have been +looking out for places to bathe and always finding them. So with boys. +Where is the boy that did not strive to get to the water? Who is there +that did not, in his youth, love some stream? Here is the landscape +toward which the mind, during the interval of a generation, has fondly +turned. Last summer I followed the same old path to exactly the same +square foot of ground on the willow-lined shore from which I had a +hundred times stepped into the stream. I could locate exactly the spot +where a bigger boy, who wanted to race, raised an oar and told me to +jump over to lighten the boat, which I had to do, and there in deep +water, as it was sink or swim, survive or perish, I paddled the best I +could and learned to swim in one short, self-taught lesson.</p> + + +<h3><i>Healing in the Pool</i></h3> + +<p>This illustrates again the health instincts of boys which they seek to +obey without knowing the why and wherefore of the feeling that impels +them to bathe often. Swedenborg had to have a revelation from heaven to +enable him to catch a glimpse of his malady which he ought to have known +by intuition. His nature was all the time complaining, and what an +expression that is when men speak of their "complaints," when by pains, +which are warnings, nature is reporting her grievances at head-quarters. +But the heavens were opened and Swedenborg went into ecstasy over the +kindness of the angel whose message to him was a warning not to eat so +much. The body shows divine workmanship as well as the soul. When young +we follow nature and the result is a red-blooded, vigorous youngster, +and if, as we went on in life, we had souls enough to appreciate the +free air and sunlight with their health-giving properties, which are so +lavishly bestowed upon us, we should better reverence the temple in +which the spirit dwells. A recent association formed in Boston for the +erection of a monument to Franklin, used in the picture, on their +certificate of membership, the figure of Franklin with a kite leaning +against him and a view of the telegraph. The kite employed by the +philosopher in his experiment is a plaything of the young, while the +experiment it served to make so successful, is the last word in science +when applied to light, heat and transportation. The picture shows the +connection between our sport and the great realities of life.</p> + + +<h3><i>And That Reminds Me</i></h3> + +<p>Play underlies the future responsibilities and events of life. +Recreation has a direct relation to efficiency. I wish that some boys +that I know would play a little more. To watch boys is to study their +character. The story of a boy's life deserves to be written as well as +the life of a man. A boy has been pointed out who on returning from +school is seized and imprisoned in a back parlor with nothing to look at +but his weary lessons. He is pining. His eye needs brightening. His +blood wants reddening. An Oriental traveler, watching a game of cricket, +was astonished to hear that some of those playing were rich. He asked +why they did not pay some poor people to do it for them. The play will +show itself in still greater riches when radical important work is +undertaken and when an entire revolution in the world's methods is to be +accomplished. Exercise, like mathematics, cannot be seized by might nor +purchased by money. It is not true that every hour taken from a child's +play is an hour saved. In some cases, where a boy is given a little time +to play, it is done grudgingly. Thinking now of efficiency they hire, +here, leaders to teach children to play. Vivacious representatives of +the Young Women's Christian Association sent word through the little +villages along the Volga that there would be games for the Russian +children on the village squares. These refugee children had seen so many +sorrows that they had forgotten that they were young. Whole towns turned +out. They looked on in wonder. "Have you brought us bread?" they asked, +as the games were about to be started. The spirit of joy had forsaken +them and needed to be recalled. Little games of competition and +emulation, that were mirth-producing and health-giving, gave the +impression that "Some angels must have been at play." As Thoreau says of +animals, so we may say of human beings, that their most important part +is their anima, their vital spirit.</p> + + +<h3><i>One of Life's Schools</i></h3> + +<p>When revisiting the earth I met on intimate terms a classmate. I was in +and out of his place of business many times. He had plenty to do. +Indeed he had too much to do. The distinct impression he made upon me +was, that he was being hurried, all the time, a little faster than he +could well travel. Hurry, if continuous, becomes simply worry under +another name. Let a person catechize his own experiences on this +subject: it will have a salutary effect. He drew me into a confidential +conversation, in which he said, that he was not earning a good living +and asked me what I thought of his situation. I advised him at once to +take a vacation and refresh his mind. He was working like a quarry +slave. A person needs to stand away from a house to see it. He needed to +readjust himself. His mind had lost its spring. A little recreation +would do him more good, than the same time in the treadmill. Sometimes +you see that a man made up what mind he has, when he was too tired; it +was no proper expression of him.</p> + + +<h3><i>Loafing and Laboring</i></h3> + +<p>What was once play has become work and what was once work in the garden, +wood-yard, and barn may now become play. A person can stop work and yet +not have any recreation. When a person after excessive physical exertion +is resting he is not recreating. You do not say of persons at rest that +"they shout for joy, they also sing." After sunset, the lonely twilight +hours, with Jacob, represented the accepted, needed rest and after that +came the pensive reverie, the dream and with it the ladder and the angel +ministration. In his own person, every one must have noticed, that after +a period of rest, often as late as Sabbath afternoon, come the holy +influences of the hour, the music that is audible to the fine ear of +thought, the stillness, the purity, the balm. A man, who is busy all the +time or tired all the time, breaks the curfew law of God. The evening +concentrates the retrospect, also the prospect of our lives. If you are +communing with a confidential friend you do not like to have any body +else talking in the room at the same time. You want to become attuned, +like musicians, about to begin to play.</p> + + +<h3><i>Foibles of the Famous</i></h3> + +<p>These persons are often quarrelsome, in spite of the fact, that their +constant employment is the production of harmony. It is the effect of +play, to bring into harmony. This is one of its most benign results. A +man, found to be out of harmony with the spirit of the place, or of the +time, only awaits displacing. M. Protopopoff, the last minister of the +interior under the old regime in Russia, told nearly the whole truth +when he said to an Associated Press representative, who visited him in +prison, that his crime consisted of "not understanding the spirit of my +age." Mistaking the time, he became a worker for a separate peace with +Germany. That man of the past is not as black as he first appeared, for +he has at least this redeeming trait, finding himself out of harmony +with the temper of his time, he confesses it, and incriminates himself, +and does not bitterly criticise those participating in the advent of a +new era, which is the common practice, under such conditions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE SCENE OF THE SCHOOL FIGHTS</h3> + + +<p>The proof that a robust, daring, well-fed boy starts by being a sort of +half domesticated little animal as well as a Sunday school immortal is +set out in his school fights. These best illustrate how hard it is to +eradicate the savage, hereditary traits of our early barbaric ancestry. +It is suggested that all fully domesticated animals dislike children. +They have an instinctive fear of their tricks and their thoughtlessness.</p> + +<p>The rude jostle, pretty nearly instinctive with boys coming from school, +breaks the peace. There is the quick impulse to resist aggression with +violence, particularly on the part of an impulsive unrelenting temper, +not adverse to battle. Wrestling and boxing were very much in vogue, a +generation ago, which made the average boy very ready with his fists and +anxious if there was to be a clinch, to get "the underholt." This +preparedness increased the likeliness of a clash. If a boy took occasion +to state the events that led up to Armageddon, we used to hear, He +called me names. His budding sense of honor, an exaggerated feeling of +obligation to take care of his better self, his name, was the most +frequent incentive to try conclusions.</p> + + +<h3><i>Precipitating a Fracas</i></h3> + +<p>The tendency to give a nickname, to remind a boy in a word of the color +of his hair, or the cut of his clothes, or of some unfortunate incident +in his life or that of his family was painfully wide-spread, and it hurt +like a blow and started resentment. A boy, that by his disposition and +taste, was too proud to fight could not always keep out of it as the +active belligerent might be overbearing or might be, at the time, +imposing on some helpless party. This is an unprovoked declaration of +war when peace can only be had by conquering it. It is interesting to +study a man's life in terms of those early scuffles. In Pilgrim's +Progress the fight of Christian and Apollyon was the kernel of the +story. Henry Higginson, "Bully Hig," a business man of remarkable +success in Boston, was the leader of the Latin school forces and +engagements which were as fiercely fought as some in which the same boys +later took part on the battle fields of the South. A boy's anger and a +boy's pain pass away like clouds on a summer morning and leave the sky +purer and fairer than before. Boy's fights often began with +snow-balling. They were implied by the use of the word snow-forts, on +the old site of which we took occasion to stand. For days the boys would +roll up immense snow-balls to form the redoubt. They worked, like the +ants, those sociologists of the insect-world who combine their efforts +to move an object toward the ant hill, approach the thing to be moved, +using all their strength wherever they can apply it, causing the object +to stagger along, and the small, industrious, courageous creatures by +frantic partisan effort landed it where individual work never could have +so well located it. Those who built the fort were determined to defend +it. They talked over their grievances until they seemed bigger than they +were. Trouble would soon begin to boil, like the witches' brew into +which all kinds of ingredients entered and the situation soon forced all +boys to take sides.</p> + + +<h3><i>Sectional and Factional Fights</i></h3> + +<p>It was common to hear the inquiry, Are you on my side? It started a +campaign. There was no neutral zone. There were no pacifists. If a snow +fort was to be stormed the snow-balls were dipped in water and were as +hard as canister. The contending forces were under boy commanders. The +volatile spirit of the organization lasted after the snow was gone. The +contending parties were easily provoked. Boys used to take off their +coats and lay them aside like those that stoned Stephen. The question +to be settled was Who is bigger? The custom was to place a chip upon the +shoulder and flatly dare a fancied antagonist to knock it off, which +being done, hostilities were let loose with a spring. The other boys +would gather about and witness the excitement, their only concern being +to see that there was every way a square deal. Until such a time as one +or the other would say, Hold, enough, I am through. Things were then +deemed settled. An incidental indication that boys before re-birth were +little animals, was the use of their nails. The face of him that was +worsted would bear a diagram of the battle.</p> + + +<h3><i>Suffering From Personal Collision</i></h3> + +<p>On reaching home his mother's consternation and sympathy and displeasure +at the injury he had received, causing her haste to apply a soft sponge +and remedial lotions, would displace all effort to ascertain if her boy +was in any degree at fault in bringing on the fray. It is no wonder that +there is an enormous increase in the number of physicians in these days +if boys thus settle who is the best man. The doctors, we are told, got +rich upon small pay, yet now they flourish in treble numbers, as they +are required, upon all foot-ball grounds, in particular, and upon all +athletic fields in general. Life in miniature is exhibited by the petty +incidents of a school boy's history. A single bold adventure is +decisive sometimes of a campaign. A challenge to fight two boys at once +has been known to give a courageous youngster reputation. The opposition +did not want to fight but was intent to discover if the new lad in +school would keep his ground saying, like the Scotch thistle, Don't +touch me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>There has been during a generation such a fine growth of sentiment that +many of the former things, like corporal punishment, have passed away. +In school Luther was flogged every day. We have no other right to +associate ourselves with a great reformer except in the matter we are +now considering. The school thrashing was shown to be a method of +separating the chaff from the wheat.</p> + + +<h3><i>Birch, Beech, and Willow Were the Branches Taken</i></h3> + +<p>It certainly was not the custom in our day for the teacher to get down +on his knees to the pupils and offer them peppermints if they would only +consent to behave. In the government exhibit at Omaha, in a World's +Fair, was a series of framed pictures, filled with painful suggestions, +illustrating what may be termed, the evolution of the disuse of the +switch. The world has moved on to some new conception of moral suasion. +These pictures, however, were from real life, as many of us can +testify. If any one wanted glimpses of the good old time, there they +were. First was a small boy being flogged by a pretty lady teacher. I +know that picture to be correct. In the next instance the boy was curled +up in bitter anticipation of what was going to happen to him. Next a boy +was holding out a ruler at arm's length. Then followed very properly the +dunce cap and the fool stool. Then we witnessed the process of shaking +or churning where the churner grasps the lapels of the churnee's coat +and proceeds to violently agitate the latter with many oscillations. The +most suggestive picture of an old-fashioned school was where the +discipline appeared to be founded on Solomon's warning. The master +stands near the stove with his book in one hand and switch in the other +with only one eye on the book. New Jersey now prohibits by law corporal +punishment in schools. Eight states prescribe a penalty for excess +amounting to cruelty. In Arizona alone the law gives authority to whip. +In ten states the courts have decided that, as flogging has been the +commonest mode of discipline from time immemorial, the teacher requires +no permission to use the birch. In Providence a teacher in the primary +grade has to get the written consent of the parents to whip a boy and +have it filed with the city superintendent. All these formalities have +been developed since the period that we are canvassing.</p> + + +<h3><i>America's Unhappy Hour</i></h3> + +<p>The incident of flogging a pupil did not seem to disturb the school nor +seem to interrupt the studies appreciably except when it was one of the +big boys that had incurred the master's displeasure. When it was obvious +that there was to be a battle royal it became the custom for the +tender-hearted, larger girls to rise, without a word or sign from them +or the teacher, and pass quietly out of the room at the instant it +became plain that hostilities were to begin. The ruler, introduced into +the school as an aid in drawing, was often used as a punitive +instrument. When the old attendants upon the school get together as +jolly good fellows, their word being now unquestioned on any matter of +fact, it is noticeable that in reciting their sufferings, it was never +the master's fortune to get hold of the guilty party. According to their +testimony, the boy that introduced the disorder was not the one that +stood for the infliction of punishment. There is usually one boy in +school that can on occasion, look cross-eyed and another boy that can +move his ears. This comes to the attention of the apple-cheeked girl, +who laughing, showed all her teeth like a row of white piano keys. Her +fear of discipline made her press the palm of her hand over her pretty +mouth, in a sudden, forced attempt to suppress a giggle. The boy, who +came next into the comedy, was likeliest to meet the frown of him who +must, at once, rule his little empire into a terrified silence.</p> + + +<h3><i>Putting on the Character with the Coats of Gentlemen</i></h3> + +<p>The gymnasium, organized athletics, the ambition of boys to gain a place +on the various teams has brought in a milder reign. Another influence is +the reflex effect of wearing better clothes. Dress strangely changes the +person and curiously affects the character. One of the best preventives +of rude Sabbath breaking is a nicely folded, well-fitting Sunday suit. +With a rough, coarse, untearable suit goes rough usage all around, and +with fine clothes goes politeness of manner. The clothing worn used to +be much thicker and heavier. About the neck was a comforter, tippet, +scarf, or even a small sized shawl. Men wore fur standing collars, +cow-hide boots, and tucked the lower ends of their trousers' legs into +them, in rough weather and when engaged in rough work. A bootjack was +the commonest kind of household furniture. Boys wore heavy calf-skin +boots with attractive red tops, which they desired to have seen, and +this foot-wear was copper-toed so that a boy could lie on his face on +his sled and steer it in its swift descent of the hill, by ploughing +first one toe and then the other into the icy roadway. Any one's +feelings will indicate to him, that he must treat himself, and that he +must be treated differently by others, when he is clad in light woolens +and in thin foot-wear. He must have more civilized walks, a more even +warmth in the house, and a more genteel order of life. It shows the +reflex influence of refined dress.</p> + + +<h3><i>New Facings to Old Opinions</i></h3> + +<p>On revisiting the earth it is an amazement to find, that in so short a +time, most boys are made millionaires. They sit in a building at school, +that cost scores of thousands of dollars. In their own right, they walk +into a library, worth tens of thousands, housed in a building that is +high priced. The latest books are added to their library. Money has been +expended to have a card catalogue made. It used to be tiresome to get +about town, and to visit the metropolis, but great stores of money have +been used to give them ease and save the wear and tear. Boys have parks +to play in and have artificial skating rinks and table luxuries and new +forms of furniture and free text-books. Boats drop down the James river +loaded with melons. At Norfolk one negro tosses a watermelon to another +colored man and he to another until they are loaded in a car which +starts express at night, when it is cool, for the northern cities. Boats +and trains and service cost money, but it seems very little to a boy in +his new circumstances, who has luxuries which we used to do without. Not +much was done for us children, compared with present home furnishings, +which have Hawthorne's "Wonder Books" and Longfellow's "Evangeline" and +pictured illustrations of the world and of life. In our early days most +of our picture books were brought from England. If boys then lived in a +poor part of the city it was a chosen location for saloons but now boys +do not have to live in a location where they have saloons. This +improvement of a boy's environment is greatly to his advantage.</p> + + +<h3><i>Fair to Illustrate by the Best Examples</i></h3> + +<p>The most frequent question asked the visitor is how things, taking the +years together, seem to be going. The improvement in conditions is +glaring. This is not, and cannot be, without result. This of itself +makes a showing in men. It was the same quality of seed that fell among +thorns and by the way-side and upon stony places. In visiting the field, +the first observation is not touching the seed, but outside conditions, +and their direct relation to the product. Men reveal even more plainly +the effect of extraneous influences. It is said that on hearing the +younger Silliman lecture, an enthusiastic auditor exclaimed, "Why, he +beats the old gent!" The elder Silliman, who had been listening to the +lecture, overheard the remark, and gaining the attention of its author, +quietly observed, "Of course he does. He stands upon my shoulders." The +old stock was good and stood high but the new generation has the +advantage of better position and of a finer outlook.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>TOUCHING A LONG SLUMBERING CHORD</h3> + + +<p>If houses have souls, as Hawthorne believed and taught, and can admire +and remember, there is one residence, toward which I turn my willing +pilgrim feet, on revisiting the earth, which supports his way of +thinking. I was hardly within the door of this dwelling, once occupied +by my father, himself a clergyman, when it began to reel off to me, the +impressions it had received and retained, for a generation. First, came +in minute detail, with all the vividness of moving pictures, a recital +touching the old-fashioned donation party which, like the husking-bee +and the quilting-bee or house-raising, requires a good deal of +interpretation to those, living in days, when money flows like water. +The mingling of work and pleasure, combining philanthropy and social +enjoyment was the custom of the time. All came together in a fine spirit +of neighborliness and all the labor and all the supplies for the feast +were gratuitously furnished. A Donation Party was featured particularly +by spare-ribs, also by cake, bags of flour, and pies, also by all kinds +of things both from the cellar and larder of the members of the parish. +The soiree with refreshments, was always a surprise, with this exception +that the minister's wife was asked, with a knowing look, if the dominie +was to be at home. The outstanding fact was the overwhelming abundance +of everything. The party over, when we sat down to a meal, we began just +where we left off at the last repast.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Past at Least is Secure</i></h3> + +<p>Wood, in sled lengths, used to be dragged to our door. Coal was unknown +to our experience. When a man had a pig-sticking, in anticipation of the +school-teacher's coming to his house to board, he brought a portion of +the result to the manse, as if to obtain and enjoy a blessing on the +rest. A minister's salary was by necessity used for pocket money. The +occasions were joyous, social, extremely helpful, and welcome. The cake +left a precious memory behind. Sometimes the lambs of the flock combined +to procure something that the shepherd was known to need. What killed +the Donation Party and buried it, beyond the hope of resurrection, was +the fun and ridicule and wit that came to be aimed at its ludicrous +features. A colored porter, on a Pullman car, said he had a good +position until the comic papers took up the prevalent method of +collecting tips and made it ridiculous. One must orient himself to +place the right estimate upon this party at the minister's house. He was +not in those days independent to the point of being defiant. There was +no beggary, no humiliation, and the people were generous, considering +that they had, in many cases, difficult problems of their own. If a +minister went into a community to live, as they did, there was a fine +feeling all around.</p> + + +<h3><i>Where a Critical Struggle was Beginning</i></h3> + +<p>As I stood in the floor of my early home all the situations were plainly +outlined for me. In the front corner of one of the best rooms, stood the +study table of the dominie, on which he wrote the ministerial +recommendations. Ministers used to be mediators: that was their office. +This kindly disposition, to put the influence of one's name, and the +weight of his ministerial character, behind any good thing, that seemed +to need promoting, could be developed into a form of second nature. The +new form of charity, "Not alms, but a friend," did not reduce the number +of letters of recommendation. We were taught that a little kindness is +often worth more than a great deal of money. The poor, unemployed man +lacked opportunity, acquaintance, and recognition. The minister, in pure +disinterestedness, brothers him. The usual form of helpfulness is a +letter. The misfortune is that everybody can recommend anybody. +Exaggerations can be given to certain qualities and a discreet silence +observed with regard to others. Thus Mrs. Stowe accentuates the negro's +peculiarly religious character and disposition. Thus Wendell Phillips +never tells the truth, and yet he always tells truth.</p> + + +<h3><i>Rising Young Men</i></h3> + +<p>The relation of this subject to the book canvasser is extremely +suggestive. Some of those who have written their names highest on the +rolls of deserved honor have followed this laudable calling. The +foremost American, George Washington, sold two hundred copies of +Bydell's "American Savage." Our most melodious poet, Longfellow, sold +books by subscription. Our pre-eminent orator, Daniel Webster, handled +de Tocqueville's "America." Our greatest general, the hero of +Appomattox, Ulysses S. Grant, canvassed for Irving's "Columbus." And our +magnetic statesman, James G. Blaine, began his career as a canvasser for +a life of Henry Clay. In the small, dark, dingy parlors of country +hotels, travelers on rainy days often now find copies of books that were +sold, or rather traded, to the well-fed, good natured, boniface in +exchange for entertainment. I can remember items that I have read in +these books. I can now go to the tavern and the table where I read after +dinner from Butler's book his explanation of the reason that he lost +more cases after he became celebrated as a lawyer than he did before. +After his fame was established clients flocked to him, with desperate +cases. They did not balk at the amount of his retaining fee. As these +hotly contested cases had been put through all of their preliminary +stages, in all the lower courts, Benjamin F. Butler has lost each one of +these chances to get his client by. The case was substantially decided +adversely before the great lawyer appeared in it at all.</p> + + +<h3><i>Tendency to Exaggerate Rather than to Daguerreotype</i></h3> + +<p>The dependence of the agent upon ministers is a testimonial to their +sympathy. It stamps them as leaders and establishes the fact that their +influence in the community is effective. Great evils are wrought in +churches and communities by the fact that indorsements are so easily +obtained. A man who wants testimonials can get them. Some of our little +home missionary churches in the West, that deserve better things, are +grievously tormented. This department of religious helpfulness has been +so sadly overworked that it is suggestive to find one Christian +association of young men that now omits to give letters of +recommendation, feeling that discrimination is always difficult and +certainly invidious.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Practice Has Boomerang Implications</i></h3> + +<p>When one is in doubt about recommending a person or thing he ought to +take the elder Weller's advice with regard to widows, "Don't." A letter +of recommendation ought not to express the judgment of him who seeks it, +but of him who gives it. Recommendations too often embody the opinion of +the applicant only voiced in the words of a man of influence and +position. The pen had over-employment as compared with the feet. We +ought to help convicts, released from prison, at the expiration of their +sentence, to get employment; but the employer ought to be put in +possession of the facts. There is probably no one of us but can say that +his letters of recommendation have surpassed in fruitfulness every other +form of helpful service. By them currents have been set in motion that +have changed the course of many a life. Among those eminent deeds that +have caused most of happiness to others, that the angels unmistakably +approved, stand out foremost in all one's past those instances in which +a letter of introduction and of unhesitating recommendation has brought +certain rare spirits into appropriate positions of usefulness and honor. +An aged clergyman, loving and beloved, tells a wondering company, how +one of Boston's merchant-princes went up to the metropolis of New +England, cherishing in his pocket as his chief possession, a letter that +meant every word it said and into which a whole country church, through +its minister, had put its true estimate of a young, manly, Christian +character, also its well wishes and its hopes.</p> + + +<h3><i>Things with a Difference</i></h3> + +<p>There is a saying that Adam once returned to the earth where he +recognized no country but Spain. "Ah," said he, "this is exactly as I +left it." Since 1880 we have built more than five hundred cities in +America, among them some of the smartest in the world. We once lived +here, in a plain country town, and now forsooth they have a little doll +of a city. In a Boston burial ground there is an enclosed grave-lot. The +iron fence is warping and rusting and crumbling. On the iron gate-way to +the lot is moulded the caption, "Never to be disturbed." Nature the +same, everything else changes is the rule. Even in hoarse, brutal, +unprogressive Russia everything is becoming new fangled, dress, +features, manners, pursuits, all are becoming new. The alterations, in +our former place of abode, have been so unconsciously and so gradually +made, as to escape the attention of the resident. The secrecy with which +all forms of business was conducted is an example. "No admittance" +signs were once so much used that the form could have been manufactured +in lots and kept in stock to supply the constant demand. It used to be +the custom, in paying a bill, for a man as he drew out his pocket-book, +to turn half way around, and with his back to the gentleman he was +dealing with, open the wallet and examine his money.</p> + +<p>There has been an astonishing increase in the number of employments, as +compared with the few different vocations of earlier days. Medical men +and lawyers had no specialties as they do now. Many doctors today, who +would like an all-round development, would better enjoy a country +practice. The sons of the physicians have gone into vocations that were +hardly recognized when their fathers began practice. One of the +electrical firms asked to be given, for their work alone, the entire +graduating class of 1900 from Cornell University.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Changing World</i></h3> + +<p>The slang of a generation ago, some of it is given a permanent place in +our language, and while in the dictionaries it is rated as a +colloquialism, it is thus recognized. It has increased so greatly in the +speech of the people, it comes freely also from student bodies, from the +trades and sports and from the war camps, that it will now keep the +lexicon makers busy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>PARADISE LOST—BEFORE THE SALEM FIRE]</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus5" id="illus5"></a> +<img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>PARADISE REGAINED—AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Swearing has grown milder. The grossness and blasphemy are largely +barred, while the expletives that technically may not be swearing at +all, being used for raciness, vigor and emphasis, have increased one +hundred fold.</p> + +<p>A symptom of decadence is the elimination of book-stores. Speaking +broadly it is impossible to find a stall with a stock of books except in +the larger cities. When desirous of substantial reading matter I am +sometimes able to buy biographies and other books, worth while, at the +drug store in a country town. On moving into flats, families commit an +unpardonable sin in disposing of their books. The most sickening sight +in New York, Chicago, or Boston is to see second-hand books faded and +weather-beaten exposed on the street for sale at a seedy, feeble price.</p> + +<p>In spite of the strong drift of governments toward democracy, in +revisiting the earth, I detected an exaggeration of class feeling as +compared with the early days when there were no poor in the whole town +and hardly any very rich. Our pleasures were then more simple and our +life, on the whole, more serious.</p> + +<p>The increased height in houses is apparent. As the family prospers, it +seeks to have the walls in the second story carried up full height, +that they may not show inside the pitch of the roof which is the +distinguishing mark of a cottage.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Unexpected Happens</i></h3> + +<p>I suppose that the passing years make little or no impression on a +well-built stone wall, but where growth and prosperity abound they are +not likely to preserve many of the primitive buildings and land-marks, +but if any living man had predicted the entire remaking and reshaping of +this place of my early residence the reply would have been that if the +Lord would work a miracle then might this thing be. The man who +professed to know just how we are made, as an automobile maker knows a +car, tells us that in seven years we get, physically, a brand new +outfit, that old things pass away, and all things become new. As we have +not now the same bodies so we have not the same mind. Our ideals, our +manners are different. We are different. We have had many a re-birth. +Time has brought changes that could no more be withstood than you could +resist the earth in its revolution. It is the miracle of a generation, +which to relate, were not a history but a piece of poetry, and would +sound to many ears like a fable. The growth in population and in wealth, +during a long constructive period, has kept up the clatter of the +hammer, the cry of "mort," and the scent of the resinous odor of the +pine. Inventions and improvements have placed man in a new relation to +the globe he inhabits. Since new ideas began to prevail former methods +have been discarded. Even a snake, with years, sheds its scales and +envelopes itself in a new skin. The sun once stood still, and the Jordan +was arrested in its banks, but life and the stream of events have flowed +on without pause or rest. People who have never made a visit, like ours, +will talk freely, far from wisely, about what they have always said, and +always thought, as if they had always looked through the same eyes, and +judged by the same standards. Not so. You looked on life as it seemed +then and are looking again with the picture shifted. Your whole point of +view is changed. When a man says, "I have always felt," he means that he +has felt thus, back part way, or to a given point, but not so certainly +much beyond it.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Past Looks Like a Dream</i></h3> + +<p>We made from recollection and were aided by inquiry, a catalogue of the +false prophets who early moved away, to the big cities, saying that the +place where we had lived would never increase much in business or +population. There is a French proverb which warns people not to use the +words "never or always." The Wall Street Journal has just used that +unreliable forbidden word "never." It heads an article, "Cheap Food +Never Again." Any man living in our old place of residence would be wary +of the use of the term "never." He would feel that almost any good +fortune may come. With tractors and gang-plows operating in the Land of +the Dakotas, South Dakota alone being a quarter larger than all New +England, and Montana, the third largest state in the union, very much +more than equal in size to England, Scotland, Ireland combined and Texas +as big as Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland together, +these states being now chiefly unfarmed, with shoals of immigrants after +the war to work these fields, bounded only by the sky line, how can a +man use the expression, Cheap Food Never Again? The statesman Cambon +said that never would Rome cease to belong to the people and that never +would Rome be the capital of the king of Italy. A Clergyman here, of +high authority and position, showed how all the sovereigns of the chief +European nations were blood relatives and announced that there could +never be another great war. He became positive. He said such a thing was +unthinkable. Look next at the harvest of death in the German war. "He +who, outside of mathematics, pronounces the word 'impossible' lacks +prudence."</p> + + +<h3><i>Achilles Pondered in His Tent</i></h3> + +<p>Yankee Doodle's criticism was quite just. He could not see the town +because there were so many houses. We need to get away from the crowded +streets and narrow lanes and talkative people to win a true perspective. +I wanted to sit down alone and think things over. The people, generally, +were as strange to me as I was to them, and yet there was a time, when I +was as well-known to everybody, as a child is to his own mother, and +when I knew everybody in town. All the alterations of things are +wondrously complete, but these were nothing to the change of appearance +in the faces of the people. The old familiar countenances, where were +they? I looked here and I looked there and everywhere but they had +largely vanished from above and below the earth. The character of the +dog has undergone less change, than that of the human master, to whom he +is so strangely attached. Change, that immutable law of nature, had +wrought such shifts in the faces among old acquaintances that all smiles +of recognition were wanting. But when I look in the glass I see no +change. To the people I must have appeared as the veriest Rip Van +Winkle. It was not the fault of the thrifty, prosperous place that I had +slept so long, but like Rip Van Winkle it was in me to come back, and I +am trying to learn to say with him, Everything is changed and I am +changed. He recalled the occurrences before he entered upon his extended +slumber and returned to find that the place was altered. It was enlarged +and more populous and had rows of houses which he had not seen before. +The dress of the people, too, was of a different fashion from that to +which he was accustomed but whether under the somnolent influences of +his lethargies, or free from them, he mused amid all the changes of +outward affairs upon one immutable scene, "the lordly river moving on +its silent but majestic course."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>WHAT HAD BECOME OF THE OLD ECCENTRICITIES</h3> + + +<p>On revisiting the earth nothing is more remarkable than to find that +with each man goes one striking characterization. There is usually one +prevalent well-founded recollection based upon a temperamental +peculiarity, and the impression was made, that the former citizen was +fortunate to leave that one item in the memory of the people. You make +reference to him, "Oh, yes, he was our town clerk for twenty years." As +often as you mention him you are told again the fact which distinguishes +him. One beloved character was Abiel Bassett. "Oh yes, he was our good +deacon, Deacon Bassett." He was a farmer. As such, he made his living, +but that was nothing to the point. "Deacon Bassett"—that was all. Cain +stands in the catechism for one fact. There are two things beside, that +could be said of him. It is not usual to mention them. Judas must have +had excellent qualities or he would not have been made an apostle. One +thing attaches to him. If a person's picture is to be taken he might +like to designate the occasion and expression, but then he might show +self-consciousness which spoils everything. He must not appear to want +"to be seen of men." History wants to make his picture a likeness, just +as he is, and as his friends see him, every day. On revisiting the earth +I find that one act is always stated of my father. It gave him earthly +immortality. It was not his greatest act nor his best. He took no pose +for the permanent picture. Joseph Jefferson, Kate Claxton and Edwin +Booth had, each of them, one part that fitted them like a garment and +fully expressed them. It would inevitably become the favorite selected +for a "Benefit Night." Audiences in part determined their public +character. My father took his permanent position thus by a kind of +election.</p> + +<p>He was not consulted. History does not say, "How would you like to have +your picture taken now?" He is caught like a fly in the amber and there +he remains. His repute is imperishable. Thus statuesque is history.</p> + + +<h3><i>Forgetting all Except One Truth</i></h3> + +<p>My mother left one clear-cut impression. It remained like the imprint of +a fern leaf on a rock, a suggestive though accidental record of the +years gone by. It was a simple picture stamped with a strange +indelibility, like the patience of Job, the meekness of Moses, the +daring of Daniel, the greed of Shylock, the indecision of Hamlet, the +jealousy of Othello, the furious driving of Jehu. One story was told +with endless iteration by the old-time neighbors who feel themselves +under no obligation to laboriously dig up a second story when the usual +one is the best and is so thoroughly characteristic. Thus all other +occurrences are suffered to fade from the community's recollection. When +a patriarch was returning from battle with his spoils, a priest, meeting +him, stretched forth his arms and blessed him. In this pose history's +snap-shot was taken. After thousands of years we find that he "abideth a +priest continually." Such men are the moral pivots of society. Their +claim on remembrance, like William the Silent, Charles the Bold, Richard +the Lion-Hearted turned upon one conspicuous thing and history will so +nail that one fact down and so hammer it that it is practically +impossible to effect a readjustment, as in the matter of Daniel +Webster's physical condition while making his Rochester speech and of +the obloquy cast upon Chief Justice Taney in the Dred-Scott decision, +that the negro "had no rights that the white man was bound to respect." +The learned judge never made that affirmation. His sympathies in the +recital were against, rather than with, the sentiment he named. In +revisiting the earth you find that history did not fasten upon the best +form of characterization and you try to argue. Oh never mind now, our +story is a good one; it will have to stand. It has been attacked +before.</p> + + +<h3><i>Personalities of Rarest Types</i></h3> + +<p>The difficulty has been pointed out of recalling our childhood, exactly +as it was, for the reason that as we travel backward, we take our +present selves with us. Imagination is now less active, and so things +are shorn of their size and of their exaggerated features. On coming to +town we miss the lion of the place. Our juvenile Hall of Fame was +featured by the Sagamore of the tribe. In the good old days society had +its leader, its model, its dictator who would have led an army or +governed a kingdom. He merited the description by which the Norse sages +so often carried a meaning of high praise when they declared one to be +"not an every-day man." His individual life was less lost in the crowd. +His isolation reacted on his character. His residence was one of the +show places of the town. It was the resort for the itinerant politician, +holding out the glad hand, who was to speak in the evening, and was with +us to electioneer. In such a community it falls usually to one and the +self-same family to entertain. The house is known as the Quaker tavern, +or the Methodist tavern. Its hospitality is proverbial. It had its spare +room. This became locally quite famous for the celebrities it had +welcomed, before they had come to their later fame. Hospitality in this +form is the grace of small, remote, detached places. The minister's +house had a prophet's chamber, with a "bed and a table and a stool and a +candle-stick" so that when any "holy man of God" passed by he could turn +in thither. A minister's wife said plaintively that she never knew how +many she was cooking a meal for. On one occasion she had provided a +custard pie, more than ample, for the few she then had in mind. It was +however necessary later to cut it into six pieces and that, +notwithstanding the fact that it was imperative, by an unforseen +situation, for the mother herself and her daughter not to "care for any" +that day. The minister's family adopted a code of S. O. S. signals which +it would sound around F. H. B., "Family hold back," M. I. K., "more in +the kitchen." To the manse any minister, though a total stranger and +unannounced, could come with complete assurance. The itinerant and his +horse were now and then forced by a snow-storm to remain a few days +until the roads were broken up and settled.</p> + + +<h3><i>Poet of the One-Hoss Shay Said, "No Extra Charge"</i></h3> + +<p>The lobby, in the earlier country tavern, was universally called the +bar-room. Travel was thus staging from one bar-room to another. The +tables were served by the village belles. Other employment, as in +factories or stores, did not then exist. The inn holder was a +conspicuous man. He picked up the news from the stage driver and his +passengers. When the old-fashioned Concord stage coach approached town +the four fine horses were slowed down into an easy pace for a few +furlongs but reaching the suburbs, the horses were given the word, and +the long whip was cracked and they dashed into town, making the arrival +peculiarly enlivening.</p> + +<p>Presently the country landlord would appear on the long broad platform +to sound the summons to the table. This was done by the loud violent +ringing of a dinner bell, which was swung by a whole arm-movement on +both sides of the artist's body, and made to publish in double tones its +noisy welcome. The ringer's whole anatomy entered for the time being +into the contortion for producing sound.</p> + +<p>Every institution is said to be the lengthened shadow of some +personality. It was a happy thought that gave those men the title of +fathers of their country. The term is very significant of their +munificence or of some real thing that made them kings in the hearts of +men. Those names are enshrined in some academy, or other school, or +bank, or business house, or attached to some central conspicuous street. +A return to the residence discovers that imagination had given it a part +of its size and that its proportions were carried over from the local +prominence of its occupant. "I saw an angel standing in the sun," said +St. John. Position gives size. A man who stands near a camp fire +projects portentous dimensions on space behind him. The aristocracy of +such a man sometimes was certainly not in his dress. He wore the +old-fashions, walked in the old ways, and was a revelation of things +that had passed away. He wore a heavy, tall, silk cylinder hat in which +he carried a bandana handkerchief, valuable papers, and a large +pocket-book that was wrapped round with a thin band of leather that was +passed under a succession of loops. We used to call him a gentleman of +the old school. We used to secretly wonder how he escaped the flood.</p> + + +<h3><i>Links with the Past</i></h3> + +<p>When he adopted his style of dress his apparel was the last word in +fashion. It suited his taste, was becoming, comfortable, and +satisfactory. His course was consistent. He adhered to it and kept right +on. Toward the last of his career he depended somewhat upon it to make +him a marked man. Such an individual with obsolete manners was, like +Melrose Abbey, impressive in its decay. In his age, disliking changes, +his distrustful mind would cling to what was nearest to him, his +appearance. He did not see why his style of dress should be interfered +with. He made no reckoning with time. That item alone gives a rude +awakening to a recruit. In a call for troops he was passed by. Again in +a call for troops he is summoned. He is substantially what he felt +himself before to be, only time, simply time has passed and he is +twenty-one and takes a new relation to his own parents and to his +country and to his fortune. The city of Washington used to contain a set +of pensioned admirals, retired army officers and officials, who still +wore the hall marks of their life when at its climax. The simple +revolution of the earth made them fossils and relics and reminders that +the procession of which they had been honored members had now for the +greater part turned the corner and passed out of view. Sometimes an old +man and his wife, tall and antique in appearance, resembling Abraham and +Sarah of old, are distinguished chiefly for looking "like the afternoon +shadow of other people."</p> + + +<h3><i>Boys Did Not Know What to Make of Them</i></h3> + +<p>On revisiting the earth the old albums are the first things inevitably +brought out and was there ever anything more grotesque and unearthly +than that which is shown in their hideous, faded contents? A woman, in +those days, so deformed her fine form, that the wonder was expressed, +and the surprise, that with that make-up she ever got a husband.</p> + +<p>When de Tocqueville was in this country looking for evidences of +democracy in America, he frankly states in the introduction to his +epoch-making book that he saw more than there was. Impossible. You +cannot find what does not exist, yet his untruth is the exact +unqualified truth. He that seeketh findeth. He plainly saw signs of +democracy before he left the company's dock as he landed from the ship. +He saw it too at the hotel. It takes a big volume to tell all the tokens +he discovered. If he had been accompanied by a twin brother, different +in heart, in sympathies, and in his specialty he could in turn have +found money kings, railroad kings, kings of fortune, landlords, laborers +in a stand-up fight with capitalists. McAllister found a social set +limited in number to four hundred. A real estate man takes a different +view of the Hawthorne house or of Independence Hall or the Old South +Church from the antiquarian. Dr. W. J. Dawson knew a man who sailed with +Napoleon but could tell of him later but two items, one of which had +some reference to silk hosiery, that his mind probably revolted at, as +extravagant or as prudish. Of the same incident, some said it thundered, +others said an angel spake. An artist and a banker traveled together +abroad and on hearing their recital you would suppose they visited +different lands.</p> + + +<h3><i>Heroes and Fine Old Gentlemen</i></h3> + +<p>One of the curiosities of history was the great game of +follow-my-leader, that the whole community used to play. Under the hat +of the great man of the village was a brain large enough for the ruler +of a nation. He seemed the peer of a Bismarck in executive force. We +have had since a high grade of general education but then we had a +giant. He had an individuality peculiar and surprising. His mental +traits were exceptional. The dominant features of his character were +energy, industry, and courage. He was an able, genial, hard-working man, +a treasure and a blessing, but giving some evidence of rusty mental +machinery and of being belated in the world's history and of absolute +inability to train a successor. A modern, typical exhibition of the +relation of the big man to the town was given at Three Oaks, Michigan, +when Admiral Dewey gave a cannon to the committee that after the Spanish +war was arranging a memorial to the dead soldiers and sailors. It was +offered to the city that in proportion to its population would make the +largest contribution to the monument. Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and +San Francisco all vied with each other. The case turned on the clear +swung conception of one master mind. It would never be possible, Mr. E. +K. Warren observed, "to rouse all the inhabitants of a large city to +give to such a cause," but every man, woman and child in Three Oaks would +give a dime or a dollar on condition that he himself gave a thousand +times the amount. The people owe a debt of gratitude to such a man, a +marked individual specimen of human worth, with a character of his own, +who plays the part of fountain to their reservoir. There is a fine +reflex influence in being what the New Testament calls "a lover of good +men." There is nothing better that can enter the human soul than +admiration and reverence for high character. They are the crown of our +moral nature. One element in them is appreciation. It was a fine +training for boys to show and feel deference. This is one thing that a +boy does not bring into the world with him. It is not natural to look +up.</p> + + +<h3><i>Sounds a Characteristic Note</i></h3> + +<p>We live in an age of interrogation when all things are questioned, not +only as to their right to exist, but particularly as to their right in +any degree to rule. Every age has its own lesson and adds its own +peculiar gift to those preceding it. Are we better or worse? This only I +know that these men were beacon lights to the young, illuminating their +path and beckoning them on, and deserve to be enshrined in a perpetual +and revered remembrance. From all this there has come a reaction. +Congressmen and legislators have not lowered in grade, far from that, as +the elimination of the bar from the capital would be one of many +evidences, but the public intelligence has risen so that they, +relatively, seem to have descended. Instead of a century plant the usual +attraction now is a garden. A great social revival has been abroad; the +people are getting together. There is now more concerted action. In the +business world individuals are forming alliances. Interests are being +confederated. As the community spirit comes to consciousness the +individuality of men diminishes. Society forms into clubs, chambers of +commerce, and into boards of directors in which men are less marked +individually and much, even of their personality, is concealed by the +extravagant multiplication of societies and institutions and meetings of +every kind. The churches have pretty nearly lost the individual, since +the introduction of team work, itself a blessing, but the individual has +withered. He is leveled down and smoothed out by the necessity of acting +only in conjunction with groups.</p> + + +<h3><i>Some Incongruities of Character</i></h3> + +<p>The Arabian Nights would make queer history, yet they would prove a wet +fuse and fail to kindle the mind if they did not suggest actual +experience. Who is your "old man" that sticks to your shoulders putting +you in Sinbad's class? Each village carries its unconventional +character. He gives a touch of color to the place. Rip Van Winkle, an +old drunkard, who slept for twenty years in the Catskills was a great +favorite with the children. They would shout for joy whenever he +approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, and +taught them to fly kites. He was surrounded by a troop of them. He had a +distinct individuality. He was a hero, with all his characteristics well +marked. A person on revisiting the earth misses such a striking familiar +figure in the neighborhood. We saw Mrs. Van Winkle beat up old Rip with +a broom-stick, but although she was a clean, tidy, thrifty person who +kept her house swept and garnished in spite of her improvident husband, +in the estimation of the boys she was not to her well-known husband a +companion character.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Jack Sprat could eat no fat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His wife could eat no lean."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Young eyes are sharply drawn to persons so dissimilar in their tastes. +Children are quick to see that this very difference in taste produced a +peculiar situation. Our early life is peopled with distinctive and +marked characters and they have gone along with us through life. It is +the peculiar outstanding people that, like a burr, stick to the memory.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>TO SEE AND FEEL THE PAST</h3> + + +<p>It is a matter of common knowledge that Washington at the time of his +death was the richest man in the country. All are familiar with the fact +that he acquired property through his brother Lawrence, and the widow +Custis whom he married, but less attention is given to the suggestive +fact that he invested widely in land in what was then the West. We have +letters to his agents. Judson destroyed all his own letters and papers +touching private matters, but there they are, in Washington's case, and +he who runs may read. He had been a surveyor. He knew a good thing when +he saw it. His invariable rule was to buy quality. Showing the same +wisdom he did in his campaigns and his farewell address, which has never +lost its influence, he turned to the West to do his buying. Entirely +aside from the Revolution, if Washington had not been a great general, +he was well started on lines that would have made him a very substantial +citizen. The confidence he expressed in the West is believed to be, and +has been stated to be, a higher monument to his fame than the +metal-tipped, slender, tapering sky-pointing and heaven-reaching obelisk +reared in his honor near the banks of the Potomac. He was invited to +visit France but could not, he said, bring his affairs into a state of +order, during the remainder of his life, and the matters that most +needed his care were his large purchases of land in the West which now, +with some little contiguous territory are worth Twenty Million Dollars. +Washington remains our richest president not only relatively but +absolutely.</p> + + +<h3><i>People Looked, People Wondered, People Praised</i></h3> + +<p>We find him making a sixth journey to see his lands which were located +on the right and left banks of the river, and bounded thereby, +forty-eight miles and a half. This portrayal makes very obvious what is +implied when it is said of an individual that he is not a good business +man. He simply lacks what Washington had, intensity of interest in his +affairs, energy of mind, promptness. We do not say foresight, there is +no such thing as foresight, we mean insight, good judgment, and a fine +knowledge of the trend of things, a perception of the direction taken by +popular movements. Washington was accused of being close-fisted, but +some one takes the ground that a man must close his fist if there is +something in it that others were seeking by illegitimate means to get. +At his death he was worth a half million dollars, and four hundred +thousand dollars of it lay in western lands. "Would God we may have +wisdom to improve the opportunity," a prayer in which many persons who +have had much better chances than ever came to him, pressed as he was +with patriotic service, wished they had joined, but who allowed +opportunity to knock at the door and turn away, unwelcomed. What a sight +to Washington, now revisiting the earth, would a night view of +Pittsburgh be with her deep fires and the lid off. Washington's insight +was apparent by locating his purchases near the possibilities of a city +whose tonnage exceeds that of any other city of the Union, whose vast +manufacturing interests send up volumes of smoke that become a pillar of +cloud by day and whose furnaces are pillars of fire by night, to lead +the people on to prosperity and success. The mind has less influence on +the will than many persons suppose. A man may know a fact and then do +nothing about it. A lazy man may know the advantage of wealth and yet be +without the motive to attain it. It is often a poor boy who has felt +poverty and has some feeling about it that makes success with him a +passion. He who hesitates is lost. It was the plunge of Curtius that +saved Rome.</p> + + +<h3><i>Making Hay While the Sun Shines</i></h3> + +<p>That great orator of nature to whom school-boys are so much indebted for +energetic, passionate, effective declamations, Patrick Henry, father of +fifteen children, made his widow and eleven surviving children rich by +his early judicious purchases, like Washington, of lands. This much +needs to be said, lest fortune be thought of as a blind goddess. A man +that once was cutting grass and herding cattle earning his bread by the +sweat of his brow is now Prince Fortunatus. No chance luck about it, for +the opportunity that beckoned him called to others but their ears were +dull of hearing. All of us, who are interested in vital reforms, must +have been attracted to the career of Gerrit Smith, who gave thirty +thousand dollars to destitute old maids and widows in the state of New +York. No public subscription lacked his name, and he always gave away +$50,000.00 and not seldom $100,000.00 each year. In his business life of +fifty-six years he gave away $8,000,000.00 and left an estate of more +than a million dollars. Such a recital, as in the case of Washington, +makes us curious to find the sources of such philanthropy. We find that +with rare acumen he developed the business of his father, who when a +poor youth, kept a small store and traded for furs at first hands with +the Indians. When his partner Mr. Astor bought real estate in New York +city, the elder Smith purchased sixty thousand acres of land in the +central part of the state of New York, of which enough was sold at +auction to repay the purchase price and still leave enough to make him +the largest landholder in the state. Subsequent additions made him the +owner of more acres than any other man in the Union. Such a preparative +study as this gave me intensest interest, when revisiting the earth, in +treading the beautiful field, my birthplace, that my father bought in +Iowa at the Government price of a dollar and a quarter an acre, that has +since been sold at $205.00 an acre and the price paid for it at the last +sale of it was $300.00 an acre and the buyer was offered $3,000.00 for +his bargain. It is the percentage of gain that tells the story. It seems +like the miracle of the loaves and fishes.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Death of the Mortgage</i></h3> + +<p>Besides learning these items and handling the papers that confirmed +them, out came a fact that took my breath away. Once men profited by +nature's bounty. To him that hath is given. That is the common way. Now +comes the uncommon thing. From him that hath not is (not) taken away +even that he hath. The sun and stars now look down upon a changed +condition. The wildest dream has come true, a by-product of the war. It +is one of the many things begun under circumstances which the German +treaty-breakers, the disturbers of the peace, thrust upon us, a thing +designed to aid agriculturists to feed our armies and allies, which, +with the war over, will never be abated. We raise our eyes, and see a +moneyed millennium coming down a common country road. It is in the form +of an original system of rural credits. The Treasury Department of the +United States has inaugurated a Federal Farm-Loan Bureau. Its +outstanding feature is, if a borrower of a large amount pays his +interest, he never hears again of the debt. Interest at six and a half +per cent not only takes care of that item, but it pays it off, in less +than a generation, also the money borrowed. A farmer at the start +requires money for buildings, machinery, and herds. The aching heart of +many a widow bereft of her home by the foreclosure of a mortgage on her +property will see the deep significance in the sacrament that I am +seeking to describe. The process is called amortization. The syllable +"mort" as in "mortal," means death of the debt. From the first the +mortgage is struck with death.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Heaven-sent Device</i></h3> + +<p>So happy to all concerned is this method, resembling a co-operative +bank, of obtaining a greatly needed working capital that we may well +rejoice with a large class of deserving people, who for the first time +have the means of doing a larger, more profitable business, with the +sting and hazard graciously removed. With what bitterness we have all +heard the children of the poor recite the anguish that came into the +home when the mortgage, like the naked sword suspended by a hair over +the head of Damocles, came to do its dreaded office! "But the children +began to be sorely weary," says Bunyan, "and they cried out unto Him +that loveth pilgrims to make their way more comfortable." We have come +to see the Government make the way of the children who inherit a +mortgage more comfortable. All's well! You have no trouble with the +interest. Only go on as you have been going. The farm, the home, are all +yours. The mortgage is dead.</p> + + +<h3><i>They Were a Family Again</i></h3> + +<p>A day on a real farm did not have a dull moment in it. It was not only +full of incident and instruction but as compared with a generation ago +it was different. Immediately a very young calf was noticed that, to use +the farmer's unexpected phrase, his mother does not "claim." I supposed +he would say that his mother would not "own." The cow was put in a +stall, in a barn, the calf being nourished and thus openly adopted by +the mother they became effusively chummy. At first the cow "did not +care" for the calf. When care began a noticeable regard commenced.</p> + + +<h3><i>How Much Like Folks</i></h3> + +<p>More curious still it seemed to find that in breaking out of a pasture +the cattle were led by one member of the herd. The community of cattle +would be quiet and contented except for one breaching individual. Here +again I went to school to a farmer in the use of words. In his reference +to this creature he designated the trouble maker as an "outlaw." I had +not thought of applying that word to cattle.</p> + + +<h3><i>Absence of the Big Stick</i></h3> + +<p>I stood still and wondered at the constant and varied use of the voice +by a farmer as he moves about among the creatures that he owns. Armed +with a whip, like an Irishman with his shillalah at a fair, I supposed +he would keep it flourishing about his head and that he would be +accompanied by a dog. An owner will not trust his cattle to the care of +a man that employs a shepherd dog. Cattle must be kept quiet. A dog +wakes them all up and sets back the gain that they would make for the +day. Farmers and drovers are whistling, singing, calling, shouting, +talking, all the time to their creatures and they like it.</p> + + +<h3><i>An Outlaw in the Herd</i></h3> + +<p>It is everywhere, I suppose, well known that the western spirit has +always been less tolerant of an outlaw than the people of the East are. +I asked the ranch man what course he took with an outlaw among cattle. +"As soon as I detect him I get rid of him, not stopping at anything to +do it." On the fourth of July I went out upon the piazza of the hotel, +and looking up the street I saw a man, hung in effigy, upon a telephone +pole in front of his own store, with his name placarded upon the +suspended figure, that it should not be a case of mistaken identity. He +had offended the decencies of life. The townspeople waited for a day or +two to see if the authorities took it up. There was nothing doing. Then +the citizens made public what they thought of the outlaw.</p> + + +<h3><i>Testing Mighty Principles by Small Experiments</i></h3> + +<p>It seems that Schopenhauer had a gold piece which he used to put beside +his plate at the table where he ate, surrounded by the young officers of +the German army, and which was to be given to the poor, the first time +he heard any conversation that was not about promotion or women. If +this experiment were tried one's contribution to charity would not be +large, provided the subjects were changed in the various well known +localities. In the time of the great inflation in Chicago when any one +could make his fortune by simply buying building sites and selling out +before the ink had dried with which the first transfer was recorded, the +subject discussed in hotels and offices would be Corner Lots.</p> + +<p>These locations were sold and resold, each time at a large advance on +the former price, and became the inexhaustible topic of conversation. +Everybody was growing rich on paper and The City of the Lakes was the +Mecca of speculators, a genuine Eldorado, where affluence was made easy, +and first lessons in finance were given. The original gold coin was +staked amid specific well understood surroundings. When environment +changes topics change. In one town all the talk is money, money. At a +public table in some localities where once it was all horse talk, in one +corner of the dining room, the interchange of mind is on the speed of +automobiles, the improvement made in cars since two years ago, the +amount of gasoline to the mile, and the comparative excellence of the +different manufactures.</p> + +<p>In revisiting the earth on coming into close relations with each town, I +found it had its distinctive atmosphere. The value of land did not +depend upon the soil nor upon the climatic conditions so much as upon +the human equation. Two communities upon the same railway with like +physical conditions will find themselves growing apart. One place might +have slightly inferior outward conditions. These are speedily overcome. +Watch it grow.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Home of the Angels</i></h3> + +<p>In this garden of the earth one quickly loses his heart to Los Angeles. +Her hotels are the last word in luxury. Thousands of citizens having +become rich in Iowa spend their money in this Land of the Afternoon. +While they have found California about as nature made it, besides the +elements of the air and soil, Los Angeles has an atmosphere that is +purely social. It is an attractive place to live, choice people have +assembled there, and so, under pleasant conditions, others are drawn. +The money in Pasadena never came out of the soil contiguous to the +place. A man buying land saw how things were tending and the +neighborhood in which he was going and said to the driver that he need +not go any farther. The lay of the land and quality would make no +difference. The atmosphere was alien and he was through. In the same +state you find towns that are as unlike as if they stood on different +continents. In San Francisco, all unannounced, you, on crossing a +street, pass an equatorial, invisible line into the Chinese quarter +which, in atmosphere, is five thousand miles away. There is in Paris an +activity, a rapidity of movement that you do not find in Holland or in +England. The people walk faster, talk faster, eat faster, ride faster, +and live faster in all respects than do their neighbors. The English +love the past and protest against the removal of the ancient land-marks, +while the French love innovation. The atmosphere of the city of +Washington, not being like most national capitals, a center of trade, is +world-wide from that of Chicago. So much is it out of the popular drift +that while a state was voting over-whelmingly for constitutional +prohibition the measure was discountenanced by both of its senators. One +atmosphere has in it a kind of vitalizing life, a perpetual marvel and a +perpetual delight, reviving every faculty and affection, while in +another the doctors administer quinine to the saffron-colored sojourners +in its fever-haunted marshes.</p> + + +<h3><i>New Forms of Matter, New Crystallizations</i></h3> + +<p>Every region has its peculiar fitness for some particular kind of +growth, Missouri apples, Michigan peaches, California oranges, Kentucky +blue-grass, Wisconsin clover. To the south and west is the corn belt. +Specific well-known places are best adapted to the varied form of animal +life. The three northern continents are temperate; the three southern +continents are tropical. In these warmest regions nature displays its +fullest energy, its greatest diversity, its richest colors, and +development. The animal kingdom grows in strength and perfection in this +privileged zone, yet man presents his purest and most perfect type at +the center of the temperate continents. At the base of the Himalayas +vegetation is of a tropical character; at an elevation of five thousand +feet European plants succeed. Wheat grows at an elevation of thirteen +thousand feet, barley at fifteen thousand. We do not look for the best +trees on the bleak mountain top but in the genial valley. As we go up +the struggle for existence increases until even the sturdiest fail to +thrive above the "timber line." Number one wheat can be produced only in +localities where the summers are short and the winters long and cold. +Corn is capable of the widest cultivation, but even that has its +northern and southern limits. Climate is nature's smile and goes with +the land. No man can farm against the climate and no medication can do +for an invalid what the half-tropical sunshine will do in an oasis city. +There is no more fascinating study than that of the sustaining, +producing, and modifying effects of atmosphere.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Lesson that Will Last a Lifetime</i></h3> + +<p>It enhances our interest as we return to breathe again the air that made +us ourselves as distinguished from others. We have known well our own +standards, our ideals, our resolves, but how came we with what we find +ourselves possessed. It adds interest to the old temples to visit the +quarries which furnish them forth. In revisiting the earth it thrills us +to look at the rock whence we were hewn. Our temptations were those +peculiar to that locality. What I know about temptation is entirely +different from what a remote stranger would guess. Our struggles were +such as that environment occasioned and are not appreciated by persons +in a different zone. Each soul has its own climate. Even man's sight +responds to his environment. On watch, day in, day out, on a sailing +vessel, scanning the distant horizon, the eye, becoming adapted to it, +is far-sighted. It can hardly read fine print held close to the person. +Even children brought up at the seaside and accustomed to far sights +have to patiently await a readjustment of their vision. I can now trace, +in my being, some reflex effect of each set of surroundings, in which +for a term of years, I was placed. My experience in a new environment +amounted to a re-birth. One educator considers the proximity of a +mountain, worth at least to the student, one endowed professorship. "Let +no one say he has written my life," said Walpole. "He has not the +needful information. He never knew the crowd of little things which went +to make my individual being and career. No one knows them but myself." +One's interruptions and trials and crises and providences come with +such surroundings as he then has and it is a striking experience, when +revisiting the earth, to discover for one's self the agencies and +influences by which he was moulded.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A RETURN TO ONE'S HOLY LAND</h3> + + +<p>It is said that at Florence there is a circular hall, faced with +separate mirrors. In the center is a statue of exquisite beauty. Each of +these mirrors reflects the image of the statue at different angles, and +consequently exhibits some particular point more prominently and +accurately than any of the others. Artists study the statue through +these mirrors, and thus can estimate the beauty of each separate part, +and form a better judgment of the perfection of the whole. Let me show +you, gentle reader, how you will get the truest conception of yourself. +If you please, stand for a moment in this hall. In each mirror you will +see yourself in the most impressionable period in your life. There is a +reflection at the moment your destiny beckoned you, when you were in the +act of getting hold of yourself and without ceremony began your career, +seeming to yourself to be like Saul, who "went to seek his father's +asses and found a kingdom."</p> + +<p>As in water face answers to face so, in one angle of a mirror you +recognize a first-rate likeness of yourself as you sat for the first +time under your own vine and fig tree, remembering this long after as +though you had seen a great sight. Like St. John you turned to see the +voice that spake to you. Its last cadence may die in the air but it +leaves an impression that will never fade.</p> + + +<h3><i>Casting a Reflection Means Nothing Bad</i></h3> + +<p>These looking-glasses show your figure, life-sized, standing on a +corner. Emergency met you. It really proved a providential +interposition, and now these fortunate interventions mark the period in +your life more than the days and months and years, and they were +accompanied by an interior guidance, more distinctly discerned now, than +it was felt at the time. There is none so homely but loves a +looking-glass; however little or much a man is favored in looks he +notices reflections made of himself, particularly if question is raised +touching his appearance as viewed by his critics. In his autobiography +Mr. Seward records that no matter what care and diligence we exercise +and whatever be a man's ability or inclination, the mysterious factor is +a vital force in the world and has to be reckoned with. Judicial +preferment was the aim of his ambition. He meant to be a lawyer, and he +wished to be a judge. His early bias in this direction was caused by his +observation of the deference paid to his father as a justice of the +peace.</p> + +<p>"One day," said President Lincoln, "an emigrant stopped at my store, and +asked me to buy a barrel of odds and ends, of little value, for which he +had no room in his wagon. I found in it a two-volume copy of +Blackstone's Commentaries. I devoured them. I never read anything which +so interested and thrilled me. Soon after I began the study of law, and +that is how I came to be a lawyer."</p> + + +<h3><i>The Glory of Supremacy</i></h3> + +<p>Old soldiers cannot be made to keep their seats as an excursion train +pulls into Gettysburg. "There is where I was wounded. There is where we +met the charge." It is touching to witness the comraderie, their +sympathy. As they from the car windows come into sight of their +struggles and victories they cannot avoid exclaiming "There we made our +stand. There we advanced."</p> + +<p>"There a man with forty-eight wounds was left for dead, and yet revived +and lived beyond all expectations." One thing would be Spangler Springs +from which, one night both sides drank. There the First Maryland, a +Confederate regiment, clashed with the Second Maryland and two brothers, +named Clark, were brought face to face, one being in each regiment and +hence on each side of the fight. The Bloody Angle is a sort of Holy of +Holies. You stand and read from an open book "The High Water Mark." Up +to this point of ground, thus indicated, things seemed outwardly to be +going one way. Turning points in history have a location on the earth. +On a spot so exactly known as to bear the legend, cut in stone, "High +Water Mark," the fortunes of war so abruptly turn that General Lee +himself said, "This is the beginning of the end." Napoleon wanted +Hougoumont, for as Hugo says, "This bit of earth, could he have taken +it, would perhaps have given him the earth." On a piece of very common +ground near Luz Jacob received an uninvited angel visitation. The stone +on which he rested his head was only one of thousands. But with the +morning what a change! It came like a beautiful vision</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That loves to come at night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make you wonder in the morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What made the earth so bright."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His pillow became a pillar and he said, "This is the gate of heaven. The +heart sanctifies the place." Like any boy, egged on by curiosity I have +stood just inside the door and seen the Israelites shuffling about with +their hats on and the Rabbi reading the evening service, all being in +motion, in imitation probably of the forty years' travel to Canaan. The +command of a prophet to the people was distinctly "Take off thy shoes +for this is holy ground." There was no command to take off the hat. They +were to respect their contact with the location. It is the spot set +apart by the deep experience that becomes hallowed. If a struggle, be it +physical or moral, is victorious the place is consecrated by it forever.</p> + +<p>The entire planet is redeemed by such a dedication of the many revered +localities in it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Silent Sentinels of the Silent Years</i></h3> + +<p>There is the rock of all rocks in the western world. It has done the +most for our ideals, for the tone and character of our institutions. +Poets, like Mrs. Hemans, and orators like Webster and Choate have +glorified it and cannot stay their praise. It is ever new, it is ever +old. Its hold is upon one's imagination. In its undivided influence, yet +in its already cloven form, ever perfect in its detached pieces it is +ever living in its broken body. Many representatives from many states +were once gathered at Plymouth Rock to put forth their Burial Hill +confession. "Standing by the ..." they say. The place is an inspiration. +It is tonic. It gives an uplift. It lends elevation. "We do now declare +our adherence ... we declare that the experience...." It has stood the +test. It has worked. All honor for well-located facts. They are well +grounded. In this is their solidity.</p> + +<p>A visit is not required of us, yet most of us have taken part in so +pious a duty. America's foremost shrine is Mt. Vernon. With more +vividness than by any other method we can almost see the form of him +twice elected unanimously to the Presidency, whose character is +America's greatest gift to the world. Plymouth is a close second, as a +Mecca for willing pilgrim feet. Baptized into the Puritan spirit and +versed in Pilgrim lore, in no other way can a lover of their annals so +clearly discern the real Pilgrims as by inhabiting for a brief period +their haunts. One of the patriarchs built "there" an altar because +"there" he had an affecting experience. In all statements of the deeper +life specific use is made of the adverb of place, making the plain +implication that the location is immortalized. It has entered for keeps +into his life.</p> + + +<h3><i>Sunny Silent Homes</i></h3> + +<p>Each of us stands in a peculiar relation to a holy land. It includes a +shrine. "We have just the right morning light in which to see it. Well, +now look, my dear, the curtain is up. Before us are the white houses set +in emerald green. Is not that a pretty picture?" There is a sepulchre in +this garden. Adjacent to the town, in the burial ground, where the +esteemed forefathers of the hamlets sleep, is the early grave of my +angel mother. Our hearts glow with a burning gratitude to the local +authorities for their affectionate, guardian care over that sacred +enclosure. What varied pages have been written in history and in the +book of life by the sleepers here. It is a spot further removed from +perdition and nearer to paradise than any other in all the world. "My +mother, mother, mother." The meaning of the word deepens just in +proportion as one's nature is developed. Repetition is a form of +emphasis. And such a mother! Her affection was her diadem. In her excess +of tenderness she caused her hand to rest upon my head in blessing as +she taught me to say after her, sentence by sentence, the Lord's prayer, +the most precious item of instruction in the religious history of our +race.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh for the touch of a vanished hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sound of a voice that is still."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I stand in life's Holy of Holies. There are hours which the heart would +still leave in silence. They have given me an emotion of indescribable +tenderness towards her. I will tell you a tale of tears. Before the iron +had entered into my soul, before my memory had a tomb in it, before it +became the cemetery, the Greenwood, the Mt. Auburn of the soul, my first +grief here set me out alone, like one set apart by sorrow. The scene one +can no more leave behind him than he can leave his own soul. My spirit +is joined with her spirit. Feeling that I had visited the place to honor +her and do reverence to the spot I felt like speaking, "Mother, we are +here." The incense from her dear heart has perfumed my existence. The +odor of the ointment that once filled the house now fills the little +world in which she moved. Is this praising my mother? I do not wish to +praise her but to describe her.</p> + + +<h3><i>Heart Histories Laid Open</i></h3> + +<p>I give a deep interpretation to a custom used in many countries at +funerals where a violin is played at the head of the coffin, and +questions are addressed to the deceased in the course of which it is +customary to ask pardon for having injured or offended the departed one +during life. My questions are all framed and have been, lo these many +years. The dead past has not buried its dead. Memory makes the present +sacred with a light, like that of the stars which has been many years on +its way. Nothing that ever enters into the field of experience is left +unrecorded. There the record lies and I am testifying touching the place +and the hour at which it is blazoned forth. It is at the spot where you +point and say "There the mortal put on immortality." Her spirit hovers +near us, to awaken in us, a motive to reflect back certain qualities in +a remote degree upon her, in respect and blessing. In pictures we often +see a pilgrim, home from his wanderings, leaning upon a staff, at such a +grave. As I write of it and think of the occasion my heart swells in +gratitude for receiving the impulse to revisit the earth. It is +well-worthwhile for one to travel far to sit for a few moments in his +early home with only God and his mother. An appeal is made to reverence, +which is a very much needed address. I wish we could learn from Europe +the noble and beautiful use it makes of those who have gone down to +their windowless homes by keeping their graves and memories green and +imperishable and particularly by transferring their virtues into the +daily life of the community. The ancient Egyptians blended with the +actual present, current, daily life a galaxy of characters whose +influence they would not willingly let die. The ancient Romans made +their daily paths, near just such memorial places, as we can show with +pride, in a garden of graves. So many monuments are scattered through +these busy years of a laborious life, that I cannot enter each sanctuary +of sorrow nor pause to read each inscription. The statues, those calm +and majestic intelligences, make up an impressive congregation of the +silent, and exert a magic influence upon the soul.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Legacy of Pleasant Memories</i></h3> + +<p>A mother in heaven can be brought to view and a heavenly childhood +reinstated when visiting the spot where sacred dust is buried. This is +the place that faithful fantasy most frequently portrays.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oft, in the stilly night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fond Memory brings the light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of other days around me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smiles, the tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of boyhood's years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The words of love then spoken;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eyes that shone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now dimmed and gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cheerful hearts now broken!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I hold the sentiment of him who said, "My heart melts with compassion +for the motherless affectionate lonesome boy who suffers for the want of +intelligent sympathy, for someone who marks his little sorrows, binds up +his wounds, wipes off his tears, and kisses him as he goes to bed." Our +deepest feelings require a foothold on the earth. Like Antaeus they get +strength by touching the soil. There must be certain spots around which +patriotic feeling and family feeling and religious feeling can rally, +like Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord and Appomattox and Yorktown +and Independence Hall and the old home and the old church. Where feeling +is wide-spread it needs certain locations and community centers to give +it points of contact with the solid, visible, tangible earth. The +influence of a family would be deplorably weakened if once for all it +should be detached from any specific habitation that it could claim as a +home. Home, home, there is no place like it. "A charm from the skies +seems to hallow us there."</p> + +<p>At Torwood two ministers met and spent a day in high spiritual +communion. Later one of them, Mr. Kidd, of Queen's Ferry parish, having +sore trial and depression of spirits, sent a note to his friend, the +minister at Culross, informing him of his troubles and dejection of +spirits and desiring a visit. "I cannot go," was the reply, "but tell +Mr. Kidd to remember Torwood." The answer was effective. That was a +place. It had its atmosphere that could be recalled. The Pilgrim in his +progress believes in what he sees from the mountain. When on low ground +he cannot quite discern the celestial city, he keeps his course, staking +everything upon the experience at an earlier well-remembered place.</p> + + +<h3><i>The World Teaches an Attentive Mind</i></h3> + +<p>When revisiting the earth surprise was expressed that we carried so much +feeling into the pilgrimage. Said a business man, "You have very many +old residenters where you live. They have some beautiful graveyards in +Boston. When any one dies here, why he's dead. He's just dead. We +mustn't expect anything more from him because the man is dead. We try to +get someone to take his place. That poor fellow is dead." Marshall Field +is dead in Chicago; Phillips Brooks, in Boston; Edward Payson, in +Portland; and Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore; Peter Cooper, in New York, +yet in their cities they are an active force and even in their ashes +live their wonted fires. Meade and Howard and Sickles and Pickett and +Longstreet and Lee live evermore. A visit to the best marked monumental +field in the world makes you feel afresh the grandeur of their +achievement.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Death may rob us of the painter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But his works to us belong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He may steal from us the singer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he cannot seize the song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, though he may take the lives that<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mean our share of joy, yet he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May not rob us of the treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a single memory!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"If you wound the tree in its youth," we read in the story of an African +farm, "the bark will cover over the gash, but when the tree is very old, +peeling the bark off and looking carefully you will see the scar there +still. All that is buried is not dead." And that is a fact too. I bow my +head now and grieve over certain acts or rebukes or injustices or +humiliations or wounds. They all come in review, they are all there; I +come upon them on occasion. Someone has told us that the pearls of life +and of home, like the pearls of the deep sea, grow around wounds and are +the costly burials of pain.</p> + + +<h3><i>Where New Chapters Begin</i></h3> + +<p>Returning from voluntary exile, to my father's house, not as a prodigal +son, to make confession of sins, or of wasted patrimony or of wasted +life, but to gain impressions from early places, where any boy gets the +most important part of his education, seeing that it is in our youth +that we lay the foundation of whatever character, position, or +usefulness we later attain, I was most deeply stirred at those places +that directly touch my interior life. "There is a story lodged in a room +here," said Bushnell in speaking of Yale College, "that I pray God his +recording angel may never suffer to be effaced." I removed my hat and +bowed alone in silence standing before a place hallowed by a neighbor. +He had everybody's sympathy on account of his bereavements. Adjacent to +our garden was his barn, which he used as a devotional closet and like +Daniel, as we infer, prayed aloud. When his voice broke the silence with +spontaneous, vital prayer and grew tremulous with emotion and +earnestness, there was a power and pathos in it, that penetrated the +center of my soul and woke to life all the slumbering feeling of my +better nature. A sense of awe took entire possession of me. My deference +would have been less if I had been bowed, and with him, hearing the +several petitions. But as it was I was conscious only of his communion +and thought all the time of the two persons concerned in it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Nothing Insignificant, Nothing</i></h3> + +<p>It is the early life that makes the after life. As every little brook, +rivulet, and stream give depth and volume to the broad after current so +in sailing up a river. As we make a journey to a birthplace we keep +meeting the rills and tributaries to which we are so much indebted. One +of them is named Example, a gentle effective teacher, who, it is said, +lays his hand on your shoulder and remarks, This is the way to do it. In +revisiting the earth by a singular discovery we find we are closely +drawn where we took the hard lessons taught by Experience. This is the +teacher that is said to throw us into the deep pool, exclaiming briskly: +Now, swim. Human existence is rarely a great prairie stretching +monotonously onward to the great river. Blessings and misfortunes meet +us in disguise. Just as in the world's history, and in the history of +invention, and in our political annals, we have our great days so we do +in our personal experience, when destiny turns on a pivot. If one will +give a recital of the ten most memorable days of his life the rest of it +would be a matter of easy inference by his hearers. The time between +them, and all its events, seem compressed into the narrowest space, +verily a hand's breadth. Hidden forces have been at work, progress has +been made with painstaking, untold influences meanwhile have not been +idle, and upon a day all unforeseen springs of action are touched, +concentrated power is let loose and a resistless energy awakes to +action.</p> + + +<h3><i>Halcyon Days</i></h3> + +<p>Our great days are the fruit of past toil. To count time only by +sunrises and sunsets omits, in the reckoning, the human equation. Where +daily wages and yearly dividends are concerned, it is a very convenient +system, but it is no measure of our real life. Noah's ark answered to +float lazily and safely on the old flood, but steam and electricity are +internal powers. These forces enable a navigator to steer right out into +the teeth of a storm.</p> + +<p>Distinguished natural historians have given us a fine classification of +the animal kingdom. But to put men in rows, and to put days into the +orders shown in the calendars does not make them tally with what we know +of them by observation and experience. Even a plant is a distinct +individual. No other one is just like it. Yet it reveals its type. +Species cannot be confounded, a briar will clasp a solid trunk of a tree +and weave its tendrils and leaves through the branches of the pine to +its top, but the briar was briar in every thorn and leaf and the pine +was itself in all its green needles of which Nature makes her sweetest +wind harp in the world. We are alike in the general features and +attributes of body and soul. We are under similar laws, have similar +wants, have a similar origin, common sympathies, and a common destiny, +yet no two of us are alike. Nature never repeats itself. It has been +shown that there is little difference in man's bodily stature. A fathom, +or thereabouts, a little more or a little less is the ordinary elevation +of the human family. Should a man add a cubit to his stature, he is +followed along the streets as a prodigy; should he fall very far short +of it, people pay money for a sight of him as a great curiosity. But +were there any exact measurements of mental statures, we should be +struck by an amazing diversity. It is obvious also that on certain days +we are more alive and capable than on others, yet we are the same +persons with the same education, with the same capabilities, and +antecedents. On occasion, from causes of which at the time we were +somewhat unconscious, our ideas and resolves were awaked and become +effective. Some new energies, we did not know we had, were unlocked and +came into play, and life was transfigured, on that spot, and that is the +locality we long to revisit.</p> + + +<p>"<i>I am a Part of All that I have Seen</i>"</p> + +<p>The place where any event in our history has occurred becomes a memorial +of the feelings which that event excited in us. When one comes back to +those places, it is as when one reads old letters or meets old friends. +Byron affirms that after the most careful recollection of his +experience, he could recall only eleven days of happiness, which he +could wish to live over again. Memory hits the high places. Only +relatively do the others come up into recognition. Mr. James Russell +Lowell, standing upon the Alps, turned toward Italy, and raising his +hat, exclaimed, "Glories of the past, I salute you." We express a like +salutation. Grave ideas, movements, and reforms have their birthplace +and their cradle, and we cannot fail to be interested in them. Long +afterward, tender recollections come back to us like the murmurs of a +distant hymn, and it is a great pleasure to listen to such voices.</p> + +<p>One day we have full view of the delectable mountains, on another day we +are mired in the slough of despond. There is a joyful holiday for the +human intellect, which it will not soon forget, when the light blazes on +us, and then come days of drudgery,—who cannot respond to this!—when +our powers are shut up and will not come forth. Some of our best days +seem reserved for celestial visitants. In others we "grunt and sweat +under a weary life." There are many toilsome days of monotonous travel +that we would gladly exchange for the single spectacle of Vesuvius in +the plenitude of its eruptive power.</p> + +<p>Those ideal days, in which we visited Mt. Washington, the loftiest +object in our Atlantic country, made more grand with our greatest name, +or in which we saw Niagara, the most remarkable waterfall in the world's +scenery, or in which we heard the Messiah, or Beethoven's Ninth +Symphony, perhaps the grandest piece of music ever composed by man, +would stand in a succession of days and yet stand apart from them in our +memory. So in the pulpit. Robert Hall was for fifty years the Prince of +Preachers. His first three efforts had been failures. One day +distinguished him. He did not know that the Princess Charlotte was dead +till he entered his church and the sermon he preached then was the +richest and most eloquent of all the hundreds delivered in the realm.</p> + + +<h3><i>There's a Reason</i></h3> + +<p>Dole out to a person six minutes and tell him to take them and go back +and use them simply for what they would be worth, at different times, in +his career and he could probably revolutionize his whole life. Many men +could thus easily have made themselves rich, others could have made +themselves happy. Sleeping crimes, that awake at unexpected times and +produce an awkward situation, could have been omitted. Many a man has +become little in a trice. The rudder of principle was caught by a swift +current from his grasp, and he became ship-wrecked when near a safe +port, where sails might have been furled in peace, and golden opinions +won. All things would be a matter of only six minutes. The issue of a +single day may change all the schemes of the most ambitious. A family of +aristocrats may be prominent in government for seven centuries and in a +specified day an armistice is signed wherein their kind of a world comes +to its end. We are cleansed as by fire. We undergo a regeneration. We +find a new world. Former things are past away. The slate is wiped clean. +A leaf is turned. The pen is dipped for the rewriting of history. We +have new lines of thought; we have a new map of Europe. To put that +country back into its former dismal environment would be like attempting +to force an eagle back into its long discarded shell. Men have dreamed +of a brighter day approaching and lo, the dream comes true. Events were +once showing a new trend when Dr. Charles Hodge and Dr. Musgrave were +walking out together—both old men—when Dr. Musgrave said: "Charley, +this train is moving, and if you are going to get aboard you had better +hurry." A new spirit has now gone abroad which no walls can bound or +circumscribe. The unforgettable picture, drawn by Mary Antin, of the +immigrant Jew, leading the procession of his children into the +schoolroom with reverence, as though it were the Lord's temple, bowing +before the teacher, as the high Priestess of the one true God, and +offering his homage, in impossible English, exhibits the act of one +morning, for which an unseen agency had prepared the way. Yet it is the +event that signalizes the place and makes the day so impressive.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>LOOKING UP SONS OF WELL-REMEMBERED MOTHERS</h3> + + +<p>One of the outstanding features of revisiting the earth was to find, in +the banks and stores, in the professional and political offices, the +sons of women, full of thought, who used to magnetize me by their +presence and character. I have a passion for tracing the indebtedness of +successful sons to their fine mothers. In visiting the Studebakers' +wagon ware-rooms in Chicago it starts a sensation to sit in the chariot +presented by the government to Lafayette, but it was more affecting to +see in their counting room a large portrait of their mother. These +honorable and phenomenally successful men recognize the source of their +power. Now and then a speaking likeness seemed to us in our early years +so scenic that it is indelibly stamped upon us. This was true of the +words under the picture of an old man and a boy playing checkers, which +adorned the impressive, never to be forgotten, first page of The Child's +Own Book.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To teach his grandson draughts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His time he did employ<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until at last the old man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was beaten by the boy."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The unlooked-for element in the case came from the infusion of a high +quality and ability which were a mental inheritance that the lad gained +from his mother. Like Rizpah, like the mother of the Gracchi, mothers +seem to feel themselves selected for their high office. Their turn of +mind is to acquit themselves well in it and with all their hearts to try +to rise to a level with their responsibilities.</p> + + +<h3><i>Consecrated Their Talents to Elevation of Humanity</i></h3> + +<p>They look right after the future of their boys. That welcome, +resplendent orb, the day-star, fades only at the rising of the sun. The +mother of Zebedee's children thought there was no position too +commanding for her boys. Nothing would be too good. It did not occur to +her that either of them would be inadequate for an exalted position. She +had not a moment's hesitation in seeking to have her boys well-placed in +life. Such confidence in them is inspirational and makes the boys +themselves look up. If there is a dispute between a boy and his teacher +he feels that his side of the case is not considered and he takes the +matter home to his mother. "She understands." She believes in her boy +and this helps him to believe in himself. She does not believe he was +wrong in his intention.</p> + +<p>Nothing so stirs the mother-spirit as a closed door. In fact it seems to +develop curiosity in any woman to know what is behind it. When she +reads, No Admittance to the Public, over an entrance it seems to arouse +a determination to get in at any price. No matter what is inside she is +ready to die to get there. There may be an exclusive social set in the +place where she lives. The society is probably not as good as that which +she already enjoys but shut a door in her face or against her children</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And there is not a high thing out of heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her pride o'ermastereth not."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Without realizing why they do it the woman's club trades on this +principle. If the number that would naturally join the organization is +two hundred and seventy-five the limit of the membership is set at two +hundred and fifty and the waiting list is crowded with impatient +applicants. The reflex influence is felt by all who have already joined +and this greatly enhances the privilege of those who are already +members. We sometimes see a fence post standing on nothing. The earth of +a bank has all slidden away from it but the fence was fastened to it and +held it up. This, sometimes the family does for a boy. Such a mother +will go without new gloves and up-to-the-minute costumes while her son +is being educated. Knowing all the traditions of his school days it is +plain that the teaching in school did less for him than the influence of +his mother at home. She would cause him to see factors and movements in +a great world of which her own active mind had caught glimpses.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Reproof to Defamers of Human Nature</i></h3> + +<p>I do not care what later delights may be in store for a neglected child, +there will be a void, a sin of omission, a cheat, a missing factor in +his composition, a loneliness, if the mother element was absent in his +development. In this was the safety of Samuel in the poisoned air of +Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons. The environment was exactly the same +for the boys of both families but one boy, as compared with the bad lot, +was so enveloped by the mother influence that he was kept pure amid +surroundings which were charged with temptations. I used to be greatly +impressed with the vast amount of what the Chinamen called the By and By +there is in the life of one of these mothers. No day is self-contained. +Her happiness depends upon a succession of futures. Intersect her career +at what point you will and you find her mind taken up with coming +events. The harvest of her struggles is to be reaped later. Life's +deferred gains bulk up largely in her life. She reminded me of +Washington's campaigns which were not usually immediately fruitful. +McKinley's mother or Moody's mother or Garfield's mother, like Bunyan's +Pilgrim, was in heaven before she had come at it by the consummation of +glory in the life of her son. All her wishes and prayers were more than +met. But there was the day by day life that had to be lived while this +fruition was in a very remote future. I visited the home of a mother who +said her happiness would be complete if she could only see her son +fitted for life and well settled in it.</p> + +<p>The slogan "Back to the land" carries a meaning a little obscured until +one recalls the conditions of a generation ago when the people lived +closer to nature than they do now. We can only go back to a place where +we were. It implies an earlier connection with land that we can go back +to it. It may have been a family connection. This spirit of association +is seen in that singular expression, "Thou hast been our dwelling place" +(How a residence for us?) "In all generations." We must then have lived +in what has gone before, if we had our dwelling place in former +generations.</p> + + +<h3><i>One an Illustration of Many</i></h3> + +<p>In the generation just gone a mother wanted her son to have a better +educational equipment and suggested, no matter what the sacrifice, that +they leave the land and move to town to put the boy into a higher grade +of schools. Her husband opened a general country store of the old type +for the sale of anything the people needed and if he did not have it he +would get it. He sold everything from needles to nails, from harvesters +to quinine capsules, from ready-made boots to dried codfish. It was a +convenience to have the post office boxes in a front corner of the store +which was a place of general resort. I recall the frequent sight, a +farmer's wife, paying for postage stamps by handing out eggs from a +basket up to any number the postmaster might indicate. I once saw an +article lying upon the counter that I desired to buy and said to the +storekeeper that I would take it. The woman put out her hand +deprecatingly and said, "I am trading for it." Now this is what she +meant,—the country merchant had fixed the price on his wares. Then when +farm produce is offered in exchange he presumes to fix the price on that +also. One of the parties to the transaction is left out of the account. +"If you fix the price on yours ought I not to fix the price on mine?" He +cannot live without the store and the store cannot live without the +customer. A basis of agreement must be reached. Cannot you give me a +little better trade? We speak of a storekeeper as in trade in a large +city. The expression has come with the people from their earlier homes. +One of the causes of the high price of living is the use of the +telephone in ordering supplies hastily from the store which are paid +for, in the lump, without visiting the stores and stalls and considering +the relative value of the commodities in view of all the facts. Any one +knows that on visiting the market and seeing the great variety of +supplies offered for sale he used his money in a different way from what +he expected. In Washington, where Daniel Webster used to go to market +with a basket on his arm, the people are finding themselves benefited by +the free open air in going to the tempting remarkable markets.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Lure of the Store</i></h3> + +<p>The general store in our town was a landmark. It was central to the +community. In it gathered each evening the men of the place and +questions of the day were discussed around the old drum stove. Store +haunting developed into a habit in winter when there was little to do. +Here men played checkers through long evenings and tried to reach the +king row. This place of merchandise was a political hotbed. It filled a +place that even the church could not supply, also in exposing evil doers +to scorn. Skulduddery would here get some body blows. Public opinion is +police, ever on the alert, without pay in a small town. "Opinion is the +queen of the world." It is feared and is the chief deterrent. Both men +and women are saved by it, which is very much more active and a better +recognized agency in small places than in great. It pretty nearly rules +the town. People bow to it. Town talk has an unequalled power to +regulate, restrain and actually govern conduct. In small communities the +real ruler can be rightfully named the Public.</p> + +<p>The store was the place for the born story-teller. A man with thrilling +adventures in the seven seas found in this "senate" a responsive +auditory. A woman knew where her husband could be found if any one +called and wanted to see him.</p> + + +<h3><i>He Lived With His Mother's Spirit</i></h3> + +<p>Ibsen represents the Master Builders as oppressed by a strange fear. He +hears the young knocking at the door and he fears that the young will +enter in and dispossess him. A mother, with nobleness of nature and +sweetness of disposition, is too magnanimous for such an apprehension. +In my visit no one needed to inquire who was the mother of one man whom +I met, his success and the honors paid him bore testimony to her worth. +Providence was kind to him. I remember the mother so revered by the son, +as fragile yet dignified, and the fineness of the feminine element +imparted gentility to her boy. Watch the expression on such a face, keep +your gaze fixed on it and you will learn a lesson for life. A man's +nature when submitted to tests turns on its quality. He was sought in +society and was the life of many a company. "Did you ever meet his +mother?" was asked. "No." "Well, if you had you would understand him. He +is what she made him." To these sons the mothers reveal themselves. To +them, the mothers are no more alike than fair women are alike in the +eyes of their worshippers. A mother's love has a peculiar carrying +quality. The real significance of her patience is not seen at once. It +is like orders given to a sea commander, not to be opened until he gets +into a certain latitude. "What I do thou knowest not now." +After-meanings are disclosed with touching beauty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus6" id="illus6"></a> +<img src="images/illus6.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>THE MEETING PLACE OF "THE SENATE"</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><i>Astonished as if He Had Seen a Vision</i></h3> + +<p>In determining what kind of women these mothers were we are to compare +their standards, not with ours now, but with the standards of the times +in which they lived.</p> + +<p>When revisiting the earth the ordinary life of the people had in it a +great fascination. I wonder that the pleasures of memory and association +are not more vividly realized in connection with the people we have +known. The lessons are very salutary. With the hope of having my ideas +more nearly approach my ideals I resolved increasingly to cultivate +admiration. If called upon off-hand to cite one of the most striking +impressions it would be that a pure, beautiful, intelligent, and +well-bred woman "is the most attractive object of vision and +contemplation in the world." I thought that nature had lavished her +gifts about equally without and again within the human family. It is not +a question of six of one and half a dozen of the other, but of half a +dozen and a dozen. There is no answer to the question, What will God +give us when he takes the sea? It is its only parallel. Without +detracting from it there is also a world of beauty in an amazing river, +always arriving, always departing; its banks wondrously deeply colored +with green and gold. The mountains and the canyon and the waterfall have +commanding attractions. These are without the human race, but for +objects of study and enthusiasm and deference I turn to those made but +little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor.</p> + +<p>Let me add another recollection of the moment, that my eyes, my ears, my +whole soul seemed sometimes to be just opening upon what appeared to me +a new fact that such a mother of charming character, such as I used to +see, was the day-star of that apotheosis of mother which reached its +climax in the last year of the German war. A nation does not know what +it has until it comes to exhibit it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Retrospect is Cheering</i></h3> + +<p>The son of such a mother who became philanthropic looked benevolent. The +commercialized look their part. Business men are in the saddle. Sons +succeed sires as we pass into trade. The teachers and accountants and +the scholars looked somewhat bookish. The boys had been making faces. +Each man had made his. I never knew a man equally transfigured with one +I saw. It is not guessing, it is not flattery, it is exact truth. It is +not to be discussed under general rules. It is a real case with a +particular history. It is a confirmed expression. It has atmosphere, +almost a dim remote shade of halo. This is labeled on him for the +townspeople to read. It fell to me thus to take a few short lessons in +heredity. On returning to the homes of these people I remembered the +pictures they had upon their walls that were all new and different to +boyhood's eyes and seemed a real part of the make-up of the town. I now +turn to the belief that they had their influence on the families. The +religious portrayal of the child Samuel and so of others were silent +evangelists and remained right there till they fixed an impression. I +remember that mothers held their boys up to these pictures and +encouraged them to talk to them, which they did, and now they report +the conversation. Queenly mothers! Blessed among women shall they be!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All my fears are laid aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I but remember only<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such as these have lived and died!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>You may think that children cannot understand or don't care. They can +understand and they do care. It is not a matter of the mind only but of +the instinct. Mother's chair and father's Bible make a place for +themselves in the family history. In one year, 1782, there were born in +four families residing in three different states Daniel Webster, John C. +Calhoun, Lewis Cass, and Martin Van Buren. The families were +undistinguished as such from the multitude of others about them. Not so, +however, with the sons, for just the reason that has now come under our +observation.</p> + +<p>The woman who stands in her humble doorway and waves her tearless adieu +to her brave enlisted son is no less a hero than he. She remains to keep +the home fires burning and suffers a thousand deaths through her +affections and fears. She makes the larger sacrifice for she would give +many lives for the boy who has but one to lose.</p> + + +<h3><i>No Love Like Mother Love</i></h3> + +<p>A mother with a baby lying across her knees was asked, "Do you love it?" +She looking up, her face radiant, with the light indescribable, said, +taking a very deep breath, "I love it so that if Christ had not gone to +Calvary to give my boy life eternal, if by so doing I could secure life +eternal for him, I would go to hell that he might go to heaven."</p> + +<p>A soldier, returning home, was telling a mother about her son found +dying on the field after a battle. Said she, "I wish I had been there." +"You were there all right," was the rejoinder, "you came first to the +boy's mind. He had your name on his lips when he died." The mother has +first place when the boy is in the stress of life. Ambulance men and +nurses find her in sweet companionship when they reach the wounded boy. +These were his passions, love of mother, home, and country. We had the +evidences on the surface of the life that was lived within.</p> + +<p>If Archimedes had a station on which to rest his lever he could move the +world. The world had been moved by a power unknown to him. Our country +is the station where the lever rested.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>Turning the Bend in the Road</i>"</h3> + +<p>Never before in all the history of our world have so many deaths +occurred from war in so short a time. The very gates of death would seem +to have been literally crowded by such multitudes passing through them. +The soldiers have given to the world "a new death." Fresh inspiration +was imparted to the French heart by the soldier at Verdun, a mere lad, +who, wounded, called upon the dead to rise and fight the Germans. There +is a spiritual partnership between dead heroes and living patriots. The +Kaiser, in addressing his troops, made this utterance, "No mercy will be +shown, no prisoners will be taken. The Huns, under King Attila, made a +name for themselves which is still mighty in traditions and legends +today." He omitted from his thought that part of the "traditions and +legends" on which our minds are dwelling. The old chroniclers relate +that Peter and Paul appeared to Attila in camp and terrified him with +threats, a visit immortalized by Raphael. This factor that a governor of +Judea had not reckoned with, was suggested to Pilate's wife. A woman's +intuitions do not ask to have a cautionary signal repeated. She does not +mean to invite tragedy and go spell-bound to destruction. An +acknowledged leader in modern art, Kaulbach, so depicts character and so +sees it in action and situation as to take a spectator by storm. With +great power he reveals the spirits of the Huns and Romans who perished +under the walls of the eternal city as renewing the combat in the air. A +characteristic trait of the Germans appears by displaying the ruler of +the Huns as an equal with the figure of the Teutonic "Gott." The Huns +who destroyed seventy cities in Greece and barbarously murdered eleven +thousand virgins, whose bones are preserved in the church of St. Ursula +in Cologne, found that angel forces were against them. Those whom they +had slain reappeared so that they had to encounter an immortal +assemblage which had been mustered to resist them.</p> + + +<h3><i>Presence of Our Celestial Helpers</i></h3> + +<p>"Alas, my master, how shall we do?" said the servant of Elisha in +terror, when, his eyes being opened, he saw the mountains full of horses +and chariots of fire. Our soldiers with rapturous joy testified that +guardian spirits watched over them. The Scriptures abound with allusions +to invisible benefactors. Shakespeare, to whom no side of human nature +was unknown, with splendid genius, having to deal with the irresolute +temper of Hamlet, calls to his aid a factor from the militant hosts of +heaven. "Look! my lord! It comes." It was his father's spirit in arms. +"Lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold, list, list, oh list." +It is often stated that the great Charlemagne is not dead but on +occasions places himself at the head of the nation, to lead it forward +again to victory and glory. The world does not fight its battles for +nothing. It would be just as erroneous to speak lightly of Marathon or +Waterloo or Bunker Hill, or Vicksburg, or the third Battle of Piave +which ended the German war by removing Austria-Hungary from the field +and creating an indefensible Bavarian front, as it would be to +underrate the significance of our recent national awakening. On +revisiting the earth I felt in every place a great ground swell of +national feeling. War is the last thing in the world to go according to +program. This keeps people guessing and wakeful and interesting to +others because they are themselves so interested. The whole country had +become a great university for the study of folks in their elemental +character. We can get a helpful vision when we take a straight look at +people, elevated in feeling so preoccupied as to be unconscious of the +self-revelation they are making. Shakespeare is right when he makes love +control the destinies of his heroines. They may aspire reasonably but +they were never meant to trample upon their own hearts and the hearts of +others. We believe there are few men whose ambition has not been at some +time during their lives the very slave of their affections. The great +yearning of old and young in affections as well as intellect is to be +appreciated. We are sure that there is a friend or lover for us +somewhere, a companion for every thought and wish.</p> + + +<h3><i>Out of Evil Cometh Good</i></h3> + +<p>The mother has come to her own as a by-product of the war. Such is her +elevation that you will explore the pages of history and read the annals +of mankind in vain to find anything that is a parallel to it. And now +comes Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts stating by proclamation that +when Lincoln's mother, "a wonderful woman, faded away in his tender +years from her death bed in humble poverty, she dowered her son with +greatness. There can be no proper observance of a birthday which forgets +the mother." It has been a profoundly moving thought, when crossing the +ocean, that two miles underneath there lay the live Atlantic telegraph +cord stretching from one shore to the other. Vitalized with living +messages of love and welfare, with the speed of lightning, on Mother's +Day, the mysterious current communicated to the country the number of +letters and the weight of the mail in tons that were on their way to +gladden the mother who was keeping the home fires burning. Some women +who are mothers started a wave of moral power which will never cease to +roll until it has enveloped the earth. "Thy son liveth" is an assurance +that, with a new accent, is now given when a boy makes the supreme +sacrifice. His life hitherto has been but preparative. The separation of +the living and the dead is less complete than formerly. The voters in +Baldwin, Maine, paid tribute to the only boy that, from that town, died +in the service, by standing, one hundred and fifty of them, in silence +with their heads bowed. It is reported that the lips of three or four of +the veterans moved as though uttering a prayer for the lad. Thus a new +attitude is taken by many people toward death and towards the departed. +Some say they feel as close as ever to those who, though they have +turned a leaf in their biography, are characters in a story that still +goes on. The feature of the war has been "the thinning of the veil +between life and death." Forever living, incapable of death, seems the +new verdict touching those promising young men who while they paid the +price, bequeathed to those who survived, the glory and the honor.</p> + + +<h3><i>Pushed by Unseen Hands</i></h3> + +<p>It is believed that we have lived to see the meting out of some divine +awards. "Germany's collapse is the most dramatic judgment in the history +of the world." In all the growth of Christianity, no such certitude has +been so universally and emphatically expressed, touching the continuance +of human personality. It is the diapason of a new literature produced by +the war. It colors correspondence. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle feels that +death has not robbed him of his son's companionship. The family feeling +seems to continue unimpaired. "We are seven" is the sentiment, when "we +are not all here," but "some are in the church-yard laid."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"All houses wherein men had lived and died<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are haunted houses. Through the open doors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With feet that make no sound upon the floors.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We meet them at the doorway, on the stair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the passages they come and go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Impalpable impressions on the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sense of something moving to and fro."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THINGS THAT HAD PASSED AWAY "STILL LIVE"</h3> + + +<p>There are three things which every man persuades himself he can do +better than anyone else: poke the fire, handle the reins, and tell a +story. Unless the poker is hidden, the next man will take it and give +the embers two or three additional touches. This is a universal trait. +In case of peril, it is instinct in a man, to make motions in reaching +out to take the lines. If a story is known to another person, it is pure +nature in him on hearing it told, to show how some detail might have +been better rendered. I add a fourth thing that a person wants to +improve upon no matter who is handling it. If my splendid teacher were +again instructing me out of a book showing the difference between memory +and recollection I would have to bite my tongue to compel it to silence. +I should indeed of all men be the most miserable unless I could bear +testimony. You say the miracle of memory has been the theme of your +study. That for a summer was mine. It is common for scholars, taking +what they call a palimpsest, an ancient manuscript and applying chemical +process to so renovate it as to enable them to plainly read it. The +effusions of later profane poets and the recent chronicles of monks have +been over-spread upon the precious parchments. The orations of Cicero +and precious versions of the New Testament have been over-laid and were +regarded as lost. The early inscriptions were supposed to be effaced +from our own memories.</p> + + +<h3><i>Books Written by Ourselves</i></h3> + +<p>But a magician, in an instant, seemed to touch, with a sponge, the whole +surface of the memory, and things that had been invisible were found to +be well embalmed and made immortal. All that had become dim was found to +be stereotyped forever. Thus every stage of one's existence leaves him +some memorial of its presence in the life of today. I did not know what +large deposits I had once been making in the bank of memory. This is +occasioned by the fact that a boy lives his first years more keenly +alive, to the things about him, than does a man. Even our food does not +later have its earlier relish. If a man thinks, that what he recalls of +a thing, when absent from it, is the whole of his memory of it, he very +much underestimates the fact. It is the glow of youth, the freshness of +heart, that give us those bright memories by which we save the past from +the extinguishing stroke of oblivion,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Like to some dear, familiar strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For which we ask and ask again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ever, in its melodious store,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finding a spell unheard before."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The flaming sword which once guarded the gates of our youthful paradise +is not turned against us preventing, as in the case of our first +parents, our return to our early homes, as many persons, by keeping at a +distance, appear to believe. One can approach this Eden boldly. The +password at the gate is Welcome. Any pilgrim like myself will have his +astonishment divided between the disclosure made of his own power of +recollection and of the unforeseen suggestiveness of the place, when +memory faithful to her task unties her budget.</p> + +<p>It was a blessing to me to be well born, yet I was born with neither a +gold nor a silver spoon in my mouth. My warfare has been at my own +charges. While my classmates and associates were enjoying a winter +vacation, I taught a country school. There is a choice spot to me. To +revisit the earth without viewing that scene and unclasping, there, the +book of memory would be like quitting London before one has stood within +the shadowed aisles of Westminster or coming back from Italy without +entering the gates of the Eternal City.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Hard Road to Travel</i></h3> + +<p>I thought I had seen mud before but slow progress to the rural +school-house gave me a deep experience of it. Any evidence of road +making could not be found. There was a track, we could not lose it, yet +you could not make much headway in it. The condition of the road +conditioned the opening of the school. The roads were three rods wide +and often three feet deep, particularly when the frost was coming out of +the ground. They then became yeasty, which heaves the sub-soil, and +stirs and mixes the surface loam, in preparation for seed sowing in the +spring. It was not a time to be abroad. Traveling was then a very +different act from that which it has now become. The conditions were +beyond conception and utterance. As memory is the recognizing faculty, +it identified, on the way, the same old farmhouse hastening indeed to +its ruin, the same old fire which glows upon the ample hearth, the same +old well thumbed Bible which lies, as ever, upon the altar, the same +"old oaken bucket" which hangs in the well. My heart made me so familiar +with the neighborhood that I could have mapped it, from recollection, +without other aid. The vividness of everything touched me. It was like +an experience of reading snowbound in Whittier's old home. It is like +standing in the presence of the Lion of Lucerne after being indebted +only to memory for a conception of a strange reality. No words can +possibly describe the impression. All the men that lived hereabouts were +so well known to me that were my imagination strong enough I might +almost have seen their ghosts. Many of those I knew in active life had +passed the summit and were going down the hill; indeed some have already +gone out of sight. The names and works of some of them are now nearly +stranded on the stream of time. But they once exercised a powerful +influence on the local life of their day. We plodded our way to school +and all carried our dinners. At noon-tide we were brought into a fine +intimacy.</p> + + +<h3><i>Teaching and Learning</i></h3> + +<p>I never had such close association with boys and girls. Some of the +warm-hearted little creatures would exchange portions of their dinner +with each other, not for variety only but as an expression of kindly +feeling. The generosity of the little people was a very real and fine +thing. They give what they want. They love to bestow. It is to them a +pleasure and a luxury. When they met on the first day of school it was +pathetic to see the intensity of their pleasure on being again with each +other. They lived on scattered farms, miles apart, and were gladder to +see one another than anybody should be. No one ought to feel so isolated +and detached, or, on the other hand, so yoked up with adults as if on +the principle of breaking in a colt with a cart-horse. They love to be +with those of their own age and kind. They return to the original +meaning of fellowship, fellow in the same ship. Many of their interests +are the same. Their destination is identical. A young man's social +nature craves the companionship of his mates. He is susceptible most of +all to the influences of good or evil from young persons of his own age +and tastes and ambitions in life. We are told distinctly what "the +fellowship of kindred minds" is like.</p> + + +<h3><i>Transported Back to the Past</i></h3> + +<p>In one hand, I hold, as I write, that marvel of creative volumes +Webster's spelling book, of which more than a million copies are still +sold annually. "The boy that stole the apples," as in "Fable First," is +still in a composed attitude in the tree just where he placed himself +long years ago waiting for "The old man to try what virtue there was in +stones." It is remarkable that every individual in school recited from +Webster's spelling-book. If I could choose a picture of myself it would +be at the time when I sat in a country school-house and had a little +Abecedarian that hung down her head and kept one thumb in her mouth, +stand at my knee learning letters beginning with the "perpendicular +reading" on the alphabetical page and coming later, in an eventful day, +to "horizontal reading" beginning, of course, with the monosyllabic and +well-remembered words, "Go on." The wonder that abides with me is how +those tiny scholars that had only set foot on the first step of +learning's ladder, were kept in school after being taught only in three +or four brief intervals during the day to know their letters, by sight, +and as some one expressed it also by name, for six wearisome hours with +nothing doing to enable them to beguile their time. The Kindergarten was +yet to be. The scheme of public transportation by which all scholars are +assembled at one central point in a township and graded and given +instruction by methods adapted to their years had never then come to the +attention of the people not even in their dreams. With no slates, no +stationery, no desks in front of them, no attention from anyone, their +natures as playful as kittens, accustomed to the sweep of the fields, +full of animal spirits and frolic, packed for the day in a box-like room +when, to use their expression "school's up," out they would rush +tumultuously to enjoy God's great and good out-of-doors. To "keep +school" my implements of learning were a ruler, a bell, and a Bible. The +"district" supplied a water-pail and tin dipper. About midway to recess +after "school's in," as a reward for fine behavior, one envied scholar +was designated to pass the water. In this common sacrament we all +partook, in beautiful communion of spirit, day after day from the same +rusty dipper, microbe, baccilli, and other like organisms not being then +invented.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Boy a "Feeble Beginning of a Mighty End"</i></h3> + +<p>As soon as the school was established civilization was safe. Many of the +scholars were almost men and women in size, but they were not as old as +their stature indicated. A real responsibility fell upon the teacher, +for all the training that some young citizens ever had, was obtained in +one of these little crowded school-houses that dot the farming +communities of the state. Many began an active useful life without +troubling any other school, college, or academy. At their freedom year, +came to many of them a point where their education stopped and their +adult life began. It gave to my work a peculiar interest, as I tried +like John Adams, when teaching in Worcester, to regard the school as the +world in miniature, that before me were the country's future jury-men, +judges, tradesmen, capitalists, law-makers and office-holders. One only +had to imagine, what might prove true, that a certain boy was to go upon +the bench of the Superior Court, as proved to be the case in one of my +classes, that another was to be a titled clergyman, as came true, that +others were to be honored in the high administration of executive +offices, it turned out to be a fact, in order to stimulate a teacher to +that course of effort, without which youth fitted for those respective +offices would be lost. What government we had was never called +government. I never happened to find any bad boys. A thorough search in +the gallery of memory has been made in vain to discover them. Anyway +they did not exist to me. I taught branches that I had never myself +taken in school. My mind was let out to its limit to keep one day ahead +of my classes.</p> + + +<h3><i>Human Nature Unchanged</i></h3> + +<p>Life was full orbed in that little "knowledge box" as it was sometimes +used for meeting by the Society of Friends and so on "fourth day," for a +little space of time, school gave way to a Quaker wedding. The very +profound and continued silence that preceded the ceremony made it +extremely impressive. I shut my eyes and it all comes before me. The +beauty of the bride, and the maxim accords with truth, she that is born +of beauty is half married, she needs to borrow nothing of her sisters, +gave her that attractiveness which conferred an immediate power over +others. This beau ideal of a young Quakeress, her simple, modest, +consistent apparel, which was chiefly drab, relieved by the use of dark +olive colored material, enlisted everyone's attention. Without the aid +of priest or magistrate, without prayer or music, after a fitting quiet +interval, they took each other by the hand and in the presence of +witnesses, among them all the school, including the teacher, solemnly +and calmly promised to take each other for husband and wife, to live +together in the fear of God, faithfully, so long as they should live. A +record was then produced for signatures. It was signed by the happy +company, the bride using her new name. After the relatives had signed, +good feeling so prevailed that the scholars down to those of few years +added their signatures, which detracted nothing from the legality of the +document.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O! not in the halls of the noble and proud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where fashion assembles her glittering crowd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where all is in beauty and splendor arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were the nuptials perform'd of the meek Quaker maid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas there, all unveil'd, save by modesty, stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Quakeress bride, in her pure satin hood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her charms unadorned by garland or gem,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet fair as the lily just pluck'd from its stem.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The building was humble, yet sacred to Him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before whom the pomp of religion is dim;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose presence is not to the temple confined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But dwells with the contrite and lowly of mind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here I formed my strange liking, to which I have to plead guilty, for +country boys. These sturdy little men did not complain of their lot +though at times it was hard. They had the ring of the genuine coin. With +entire naturalness they assumed that they had their own way to make. +Their calculations were not based upon a legacy. A young man in need of +money who has expectation from an unmarried aunt looks upon toil in a +different way from what he would if she had nothing to bestow. "What is +the matter with Kansas?" When this question was raised it was found that +she had been helped, and by that act she was done for.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Coronation of Labor</i></h3> + +<p>Here is the secret of country boys when they go up to the city. They are +not done for. The reflex influence of this is often a hindrance. It is +not self help. It overlooks economy, enterprise, personal initiative, +and intense application. The young man with money usually takes a young +partner from the country to get the practical ability and energy. The +country home is like a bee-hive for industry in every profitable way. +Farm life looks toward more productiveness. Eight or ten hour limits are +not observed in days that are from morn to dusk. The country boy does a +lot of unrequited labor. He hitches up, breaks out the road, and takes +the whole bunch to the evening singing school. He takes off the wagon +body, puts it upon runners, and stows it so full of mortal souls that +they had to be cautioned, by their parents, as the sons of Jacob were by +their father, "not to fall out by the way." Lay a plank on the ground, +someone has truly said, and a million people can walk it without thought +of losing balance. Lift it twenty-five feet and only one in a thousand +will dare to walk it. Lift it one hundred feet and not more than one in +a million will venture upon it. Country boys keep their balance near the +ground. As persons grow stilted they lose their poise. If they have a +disposition to rise higher it is by the old way of climbing, step by +step, making each rise count one. They are not at first familiar with +the elevator to carry them up and so suppose that their chance is by the +stair-case. "One thing I must observe," says an Englishman, writing from +Andover, "that I think wants rectifying, and that is their pluming pride +when adjoined to apparent poverty." John G. Brady had not only "apparent +poverty," but the real thing when deserted by his father, when he was +made a ward of a Children's Aid Society. He became governor of Alaska. +Some such boys were ravenous for knowledge. They were awkward and +uncouth but possessed minds that were bright, vigorous, susceptible, and +retentive. It was a joy to teach them.</p> + + +<h3><i>Not Criticism, Just Description</i></h3> + +<p>"You're a colt," said a farmer, "bye and bye you will grow to be a staid +old horse. Till you do steady down and lose your coltish tricks I will +enter with you into the spirit of your colthood, for I know you're not +vicious. There is not a streak of evil in your nature." I saw a fine +picture at one of the world's fairs of the School of Charlemagne, at the +moment that Alcuin is informing the emperor that the poor boys have +surpassed the rich in scholarship. It is a symbol of the way that things +level up in every country. Country boys learn to feel their way, which +is the healthiest method, and I have had frequent painful occasions to +contrast it with the plunging method that we are frequently called to +witness. At no other point, at the same exposition to which I have +referred, were gathered so dense a crowd as about the model school for +the blind. A poor girl without sight was reading about some boys that +came upon a hive of wild bees and honey. When a word seemed difficult to +her, she would instinctively apply both hands to the pages. Men coming +from all quarters into this presence would unconsciously uncover their +head. Feeling one's way excites sympathy. The poor have the gospel +preached to them. Have any of the rulers believed on Him? No, no, no, it +was the common people that heard Him gladly. City merchants advertising +for a clerk often say, "One from the country preferred." I used to see +the boys studying the map of the future and laying out work for manhood +and age. Their longings were to be men. They were panting to have a part +in the great drama of life and would rush in as soon as any door was +open. It did not occur to them that the world already owed them a +living, that they were to be fed by the raven. The man who calls upon +Jupiter was to put his own shoulder to the wheel.</p> + + +<h3><i>To Go to the Top, First Go to the Bottom</i></h3> + +<p>It is a riddle that persons, like the Lawrences, coming from the +country, Groton, into the city out-step the natives and become their +masters. Country life and country education are at least practical and +invigorating to body and mind and hence those who are thus qualified +triumph in the race of life. Country training and experience serve as a +foothold for progress. Amos Lawrence, the initial genius in Boston in +that line of merchant princes that founded Lawrence and the mills in +Lowell and Ipswich (when one of the mills of Ipswich was losing one +hundred dollars a day, one of the Lawrences was sick and the only +comment was "too much Ipswich,") when a clerk in a dry-goods store sold +a parcel of goods, promising to have them delivered in Charlestown by +twelve o'clock M.,—the porter, who was to take them over, failed to +return as soon as was expected,—loaded the goods on a wheelbarrow and +trundled them over the long bridge, through the streets thronged with +ladies and gentlemen, and had them there on time. It was a natural act +of the country boy. A city young man would have felt an inclination to +wait. Andrew Carnegie came over from Scotland with only a sovereign in +his pocket but with sovereignty in his soul and fired a stationary +engine at two dollars and a half a week.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Renewal of the Face of the World</i></h3> + +<p>Jeremiah says, "Pharaoh King of Egypt" is but a noise. He agitates the +atmosphere. He is a clamorous self advertiser. On the other hand a +country boy reaching the city is often obliged to raise the simple bread +and butter question. Give us this day our daily bread. I used to find +these boys extremely capable and very warmly affectionate. City boys +gave their mothers what money would buy, while the country boys gave +their mothers what money could not buy, and no one was happier than the +country mother with a letter from her boy telling her that there was so +much love in his letter that he would have trouble in getting it into +the envelope. She thought she saw that he was winning a widening way +into recognition from his employer, also from his associates. Such a man +is likeliest to realize in life all the promise he gave in boyhood. If a +country boy lost a step he felt that he must make it up. I could stand +before that boy, hat in hand, and pay him honor and respect. He is not +top heavy. He is solid. The corner stones of character are laid in +place and well laid. Splendid specimens of boyhood, first work hard to +supply their needs and then go on to make money to supply their wants. +By all the rules of the business world they have earned all that they +have gained.</p> + + +<h3><i>Cables Binding to Safe Moorings</i></h3> + +<p>On "first day" there being no school I worshiped with Quakers and never +to this hour have departed from their heaven-born doctrines. When George +Fox prayed, the spirit bearing witness with his spirit, men trembled, +and so were called Quakers because they thus quaked. The wonder is not +that they were agitated, but that people do not quake where they sit in +profound silence until the spirit moves. When a person rises one's first +thought is, There, that's the motion of the spirit, the inner witness. +It is the responsive factor in us that makes the Quaker doctrine take +hold. They have an Inward Light which lighteth every man that cometh +into the world. A friend, a lady with a serene, intelligent, illumined +face, fluent and correct in expression, with most engaging modesty, +moved by the spirit, arose and spoke, with a power stronger than human +genius, her understanding being opened, her heart enlarged, in a manner +wonderful to herself exhorting us to take heed to the light within us. +That was reasonable. Who could say nay to such entreaty assuming that +there is in us that which of itself responds to it, "as face answers to +face in a glass?" In the intense quiet, in the solemn silence, all being +retired into the presence chamber of God, the attitude being that of +Samuel when he said, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth" when an angel +voice speaks to us who would not follow whithersoever it leads the way? +"Go feel what I have felt" and you will know by experience how Quakers +get their name. It is a respectful doctrine; it only urges recognition +of what hath shined into our hearts to give us light.</p> + +<p>Revisiting the earth I say now, on the site where I taught school, what +I felt then, that Quaker doctrines are as honeycomb, sweet to the soul, +and health to the bones. Even the men's manners are gentle and winsome +and kindly, and kindly enough to proceed from the spirit. When +conducting social affairs I have in uncounted cases asked that we might +imitate the Quakers who before leaving their positions, beginning in the +high seats, shake hands with those on the right and left who are next to +them, it means we are on a level and on good terms, we must be social.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Fashion that is Wearing Away</i></h3> + +<p>When men were clad in short clothes, wearing knee buckles, laces, and +ruffles, and frills, and fringes, and finery, and frippery, the Quakers +took strong ground for plain, unaffected simplicity in male attire and +they carried the day. Honor to whom honor is due, I am with them as +usual. The weather worn, long used, hard used little one room, one story +school-house without an entry, is now in declining condition and +exceedingly infirm. It seems broken, decrepit, wears a look of great +age, seems inclined to melancholy and its dissolution is near. The dear +old seminary of letters was not young when I was introduced to it. +Change and decay have passed rapidly upon it. There is no making life +stand still. I went back to it with my heart in my eyes. Its well worn +old threshold and its battered entrance spoke of hospitality to vigorous +youngsters who had reached their freedom year, when education stopped, +and their adult life began. It was assumed that the door, exposed to the +weather, would bind a little at the bottom, and so simultaneously with +putting their hands to the latch the children would strike the door at +the bottom with one of their heavily shod feet. The act was so +unconscious and so natural that no impression was made except on the +door.</p> + + +<h3><i>Time Can Obliterate as Well as Create</i></h3> + +<p>The floor of that little edifice wore sundry patches of new white pine +boards which were nailed over the crevices and flaws which gave the +appearance of new cloth in an old garment. This rickety fabric has +ceased forever from the name and form of a seat of learning, but it is +tight full of memories and of public favor. A child when going through a +museum said he liked the sculpture better than a painting because he +could walk around the sculpture. With that feeling of regard for sacred +places and times and things which we felt in our childhood, I viewed +that building and went round about it, that I might tell it to the +generation following. If anyone shall say,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A bare old house with windows dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bare old house is still to him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And it is nothing more,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I shall still look upon it with reverence. It has performed its office +and its pictured form will bring up facts and throng my vacant hours +with beautiful visions. Lord Jeffrey speaks fondly of that "dear retired +adored little window" where he labored and prepared himself for the +arrival of that brighter day which is almost sure to come to those who +are careful to fit themselves for the duties that accompany it.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Table of Priorities</i></h3> + +<p>The progress of the allied forces in the German war seemed at first very +slow, partly because of the colossal number of men engaged, but chiefly +because Germany derived a great advantage at the start. It is a +difficult matter to make up for a bad beginning. On revisiting the earth +we seemed to be set down upon a commanding eminence, having a panoramic +view of occurences which showed distinctly the path we had trodden. If +we noticed the milestones, we observed a succession, that was unbroken, +that led directly to the place where, with different ways opened to us, +we made life's vocational adventure. In the light of that first move we +see the way to every subsequent position. Years rise up like the steps +of the Pyramids and more and more extensive becomes the review of life. +How different a landscape looks when we have simply reversed our steps +and are faced the other way. I must always remember it as one of the +pleasures of life, that all the invisible lines that connect every later +service and place of residence were set vibrating from the desk where I +taught my first term of country school when I was seventeen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus7" id="illus7"></a> +<img src="images/illus7.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>A SEAT OF LEARNING FULL OF MEMORIES</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><i>Tremendous Trifles</i></h3> + +<p>Taking deliberately one's position, here, that point in life, of which +everyone's personal history has so many examples, the peak Teneriffe, +the effect of volcanic action, after much slumbering, fills all the +foreground. From such a mount of vision "see thy way in the valley."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There's a chain of causes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Linked to effects,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>that seemed trifles, that, on a review of life, have a new significance. +It can be seen at a glance that all subsequent events are a lengthened +chain from this early landmark, at which, hat in hand, I stood. The +connection is direct, the links are distinctly interlocked. As in the +growth of a stalk of corn, each section makes a close jointure with the +next below it as well as with the next above it, so is it in any +individual career. The same school, the second winter, was needed to +give publicity to a situation, which resulted in an invitation to take +the school at the community center, an elevation which had not even in +dreams and reveries entered my mind. Out of this came an appointment to +teach in a college town and so to this hour every stage has brought +about the next step which the last one made inevitable. In that first +school was struck the medial key-note. It is the C, and the whole melody +of life rests upon it. Some people remark upon fruit and flower, as if +detached and independent of their seed. Not by God's mercy! Personal +history has its teachings, a golden thread runs through it, on which are +strung, a series of events in a logical succession, represented in +pictures unrivalled for their distinctness, delineated by time's own +hand and lifted out into powerful relief. The more widely I looked for +connected events the more I saw. It pleased the Father to command the +light to shine out of darkness. Dull and unimaginative as I am, even I +felt the divinity stir within me, and I found it difficult to suppose +otherwise than that, while the public takes no cognizance of such +things, yet a look into one's personal biography exhibits a moving +picture of Providence. To feel that we are tethered to a place of +beginning, though we live on the other side of the world, is not to say +that we would like to go back there to reside. We are viewing it only as +a factor in our past life. It was like the experience once of reading +Whittier's Hampton Beach when there. It made past history realistic. It +was like standing in the presence of the Lion of Lucerne after being +indebted only to memory for your conception of its vivid character. No +words can possibly describe the impression, of thus revisiting the earth +and doing our own thinking instead of sending some neighbor to do it for +us.</p> + + +<h3><i>Critical Periods</i></h3> + +<p>Instead of seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, how much +more self-respecting for each of us to himself stand in the actual +presence of these silent talkers and perceive the guide marks to all the +paths which led us through the tangle of life. Above all else one lesson +blazes out in letters of living light. How careful Providence is about +beginnings. It is only in looking down upon the battle field that we +can clearly discern the maneuvers that lead to victory. We must place +ourselves at a given point, not too remote from the causes, that make +our history, to justly estimate them, if we could begin again, that +tragic wish having been conceded to us, all our activity would be best +used at these clearly discerned centers. To gain greater effectiveness +opportunity here makes his call upon us and comes unawares and his +approach is invariably disguised in humble garb.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Master of human destinies am I.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deserts and seas remote, and passing by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hovel, and mart, and palace, soon or late<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knock unbidden once at every gate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those who doubt or hesitate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Condemned to failure, penury, and woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seek me in vain and uselessly implore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I answer not, and I return no more."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>WHERE A VISITANT SEES MORE THAN A RESIDENT</h3> + + +<p>When in the company of a citizen, I am reviewing my place of early +residence, while he obviously knows the town well, yet I see all that he +does and recollection faithful to its office supplies me with an image +of the past which he does not perceive. He gets no glimpse of the +panorama that is passing in review before me. In looking over an +illustrated volume of the place there are two pictures on each page. +There is the one I now see, and to my inner sight there is just above it +the one I remember. It is a case of what philosophers call Compound +Perception. The absence of the object is contrasted with its presence. +You imagine it gone, and perceive the blank it would leave. You observe +the object, you also consider it as a negative quantity, for a moment +thinking it away. There is the depot. I do not need to have it pointed +out. Beside this building I instantly see the picture of another station +unobserved by the present generation, which was connected with a +different route. Before the Rock Island and before the Central of Iowa, +we had the underground R. R. In Grinnell that came first. It did a good +business. It had a through line. Its chief station still exists. The +glamor of the past is upon it. I knew the station master. I am on +intimate terms with one of its conductors. When its train was made up +any one could compute its horse-power. The place had public spirit +enough for a half dozen average towns. There is the church where the +college diplomas were awarded. How plainly I also saw the church where I +was, at its completion, an habitual hearer of the Word, that stood on +the same noble corner. I never could understand how any mortal could be +hired to tear down the earlier sacred edifice. It must have been done by +aliens. No one could have bribed me to do it. There isn't money enough. +I would as soon have lifted my hand against her who gave me being. The +fate of Uzza, whom the Lord smote for a smaller impiety, would have +given me alarm.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Sort of Homesickness</i></h3> + +<p>All religious annals will be searched in vain for a better example of +the community church. Everybody attended it. All our pleasures were +connected with it. Anyone could get the key to hold a meeting. There was +always something doing. It had a part in everything that interested the +people. When in the Civil War there were victories, the farmers came +in, and there sang Praise God, etc., and when we had reverses there was +a meeting to appoint a fast. Far away down the gallery of memory hangs a +picture. It is a church scene. The figures are the deacons and others, +in colors that are fresh and glowing to this hour. The artist that could +portray them on canvas would be immortalized in that one act. Extremely +fastidious critics would call them old fashioned, but they have at least +this merit, they are life-like. It would be becoming in us to honor them +as they, in their day, honored the community. I recollect nearly every +family that sat under the benign ministry of that church, and could come +near to designating each pew they occupied. There was a kind of +exaltation about the place, which held the fire, in the old days, on +God's altars, and the quaint bare building became as the temple on Mount +Zion. Never in the splendid temples, seen in after life, where the +wealth of princes had been lavished, to decorate the world famous +cathedrals, where stained windows shed an impressive light over the +solemn courts, and where the ponderous organ rolls its deep thunders on +the ear, have I seemed to be so near the Holy of Holies, as on one or +two occasions when my heart was lifted up in that unadorned place of +worship. Once the clergyman had pronounced the blessing and the +congregation were dispersing when I lingered behind to make a single +vow. Tear down that church! I could not have stood it to be present. To +some meeting houses they attach a card giving, in plain letters, the +church's name and age.</p> + + +<h3><i>Recollections of Other Years</i></h3> + +<p>If, as a boy, I had been asked to prepare a tablet to place on that +heaven-blessed house of prayer, I should have put up the sign, "The Lord +lives here." There was a solemnity, in its very simplicity, and an +impressiveness not artificial, which to a religious fanatic might easily +seem supernatural.</p> + +<p>The large plain room was pervaded, in the evening, by a dim religious +light that proceeded from a few reeking kerosene lamps. Any kind of a +meeting was opened with prayer and much decorum and orderliness were +observed by the citizens, old and young. The church took everything hard +that concerned its own folks. The building was our cradle of liberty. +Both men and boys rocked that cradle. A large sweetly toned bell, +joyously rung by lads at day break on Independence Day, was finer music +to our juvenile ears than would be the combined bands of the world. In +the capitol at Richmond, a painting is exhibited, representing the Earl +of Chatham pointing to a little flame on the altar of liberty. At that +flame how many torches have been lighted. Some have held that the church +must be opened only to old age, but that was not the view then and +there held. I loved the church. I never saw it surpassed. All its ideals +are mine today. I have labored and sacrificed to exhibit them and +realize them in other places. If the older present resident members were +to visit the people that once had their church home with them there, +they would find no trouble in recognizing the leaven which had been +carried away from that sanctuary. Temperaments were different, all were +unlike and individual, with unequal education, with diverse talents, not +able to see with each other's spectacles, yet all learned from each +other and all united on the big things. I feel myself indebted to those +with whom I associated there, some of whom afterward obtained high and +merited distinction. Some of them, God has made princes in the earth. +There is the place where they grew up and there they had their vision of +service. My warmest prayers have always been for their success. A throng +of recollections which I can not repress starts from every corner of the +old church and attends my walks about the streets.</p> + + +<h3><i>Through Tears of Memory</i></h3> + +<p>There is no other such dark day as when a boy parts with his home and +his native state for good, to find a home God only knows where, and the +old life that meant so much to him is over. There were our friends, +there was our home, and there are our graves, my father having given +commandment concerning his bones. Pardon me, gentle reader, if for the +moment I speak with a personal accent. An individual cannot inherit his +experience. It is my feeling that it is well to know some part of the +world thoroughly. "He who is everywhere is nowhere." Neither a +globe-trotter, running like a wandering Jew all over the world, nor a +tramp knows the countries he travels over. Here in my early day was a +place without amusements.</p> + +<p>The hoe, the hod, the plough, the scythe, the shovel, the woodsaw, and +the axe, these are all old friends of mine. It is possible that as +things are now viewed our sphere had in it a trifle too much of +constraint, that the soul had hardly free play enough to unbend and +recreate the mind, that we settled down too early, like well broken +horses, to the work of life. A little shadow passes over my mind as I +think of the analogy to bitting a horse. But when at sunset all nature +rings the Angelus, we all say in our hearts, God bless the town and all +its people.</p> + + +<h3><i>Unterrified Visitors</i></h3> + +<p>"It would be no unprofitable thing," said Increase Mather, "for you to +pass over the several streets and call to mind those who lived here so +many years ago." On my approach, the homes of my day, that now survive, +seemed to come right out to meet me. The old citizens appeared to start +forth from their portrait frames. "They come like shadows and so +depart." The old time town was revivified. The dry bones were stirred +and made to live. The gates opened their arms widely finding us early +residents and bold enough to enter. The same bordered walk led up to the +front door. Houses, Say on. You want to speak. Utter your voices. Tell +your story. I know its truth. You will not startle me. Many appeared to +answer me as I stood, with my greetings, before them. Our old relations +are all in my heart. In my day, everybody knew his neighbor and his +neighbor was everybody. As is known of ancient Athens, at its best, +quoting from an oration writer, "It is impossible for a man in this city +to be of good repute or otherwise without all of us knowing it."</p> + +<p>Even the most beautiful scenery needs absence to gain its hold upon us, +and to unite a new and an old revaluation into something better than +either. There is an old proverb, What is ever seen, is never seen. What +is always heard, is never heard. The sound of Niagara becomes inaudible +to the waiters at the hotels. "To feel the same thing always and not to +feel at all, come to the same thing." A man casts his shadow over "A +land where all things always seem the same."</p> + + +<h3><i>When the World was Young</i></h3> + +<p>As a boy goes zig-zagging along, dilatorily, of a May morning to school, +in and out, among and around the byways, where anything unusual is +proceeding, he actually knows a town better than many a man who has +lived in it longer, and I would not barter the pleasant memories of my +early home for treasures of gold. I would not exchange even the +impressions made indelibly on my mind for a gift of public office. There +is nothing that I care to take in exchange for my soul. Upon the side of +Mt. Blanc is a little patch of verdure called Le Jardin. It is always +green. In the deserts are oases. In the ocean wastes we find islands of +tropical beauty, so here with nature's extreme fertility we have, +enameled with flowers, what they call in Evangeline's land a Grand Pre, +extending to the horizon's out-most rim.</p> + + +<h3><i>You Can't Paint the Sunrise</i></h3> + +<p>In boyhood's happy days, in the jocund season of youth, the grass grew +quietly in the highways of the town, and bleating sheep and frolicsome +calves sported about on the verdant savannas. In the days of which I am +writing, cattle and horses were lawful commoners, and roamed at will +over much of the town plat. On rising early a boy would find a group of +small cattle just in the act of making up its mind that day was +breaking. Some would be rising from their hard beds, some had risen and +commenced to graze, others were still lying as they had reposed all +night, the dew glistening on their hair. Mists were floating over the +low grounds in the swales of the prairies, but the reddening east was +waking all nature into newness of life, and presently, the ever-punctual +sun rose up to do his circuit of the earth. It was a healthy boy's walk +amid the fields of morning and he was enraptured with the delightful +vision. The day began earlier then. It was long, and like a clothes-line +being so extended, required a prop in the middle, hence dinner could not +be deferred then until an evening hour. Noon is now becoming as extinct +as the mastodon. It faded out. It seems unreal, and belongs to the past. +Boys did not carry watches and became quite expert in using a north and +south fence for a divider in finding that medial line that cuts the day +in halves. We still have the expressions A. M. and P. M. but we make +little use of the M. We have God's time, and man's time, for the sake of +daylight saving, but my memory testifies that we used the daylight for +about all it was worth, anyway up to our limit, at both ends of the day. +People then were much more expressive than they are now. If they felt +refreshed and exuberant they did not care who knew it. We used to feel +with Dickens, Give us, oh give us, the man who sings at his work! He +will do more in the same time, he will do it better. He will persevere +longer.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Amidst the storm the Pilgrims sang,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the stars heard, and the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the anthems of the free."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Children were very much more commonly sung to sleep with a mother's foot +upon the rocker of the cradle. If we could take out of our minds the +fact that the hymn most widely used was for children, we all would say, +How beautiful! Pious hymns and patriotic songs were the great leaders. +Down through the corridors of time I can still hear the voices of both +men and women who sang as they wrought. They who found that their wives +did not sing when employed about the house set themselves to find the +reason of the suspension and to remove it. This being done, +unconsciously the house was gladdened again by impromptu song. From the +fact that men worked more in solitary, quiet places, as contrasted with +factories, having heavy machinery, men used to whistle. Some became very +expert. When one man would say, Let's see how does that tune go? the +custom was for the other to take up a few bars by whistling. When +soldiers or parades or processions were passing, if the band should +stop, those marching would take up some patriotic or other air and all +would whistle it. This would spread to the boys on the side walk and +extend through the town, and be revived the next day.</p> + + +<h3><i>Another Relic of the Past</i></h3> + +<p>Men worked more hours and had more chores to do, early and late, so +being physically weary, when they sat down to read there was a kind of +physical preparation for it. The eye did not drop on a newspaper +casually at any time. To begin to read required then a kind of personal +adjustment illustrated remotely by that of a person who sits down when +about to partake of a meal. Thus we used to see people take a book, and +get ready to read it as you often see a person now who is about to sing +in public, show what he is going to do by using a moment or two in +getting himself ready for it.</p> + +<p>It augurs well to discover more generally established what the French +call the Hotel of God. The Hospital used to be in the same class with +the Hospice. It was originally an outgrowth of the church, through the +element of charity, very much as we find it on missionary ground in +foreign lands. There was usually a chapel included in the construction.</p> + +<p>It seemed on review to be the strong and rugged that were struck down, +while the semi-invalids appeared to live to ripe old age. He who wins in +the first round, does not always seem to come out, in the final test, +as the best man. The battle is not to the strong. Like Romulus and Remus +placed in a trough, cast adrift on the Tiber, nourished in the marshes +by a wolf, some persons seem to be strengthened by the worst things to +which they are exposed, while others succumb at their approach. It is +hard to pass this same matter over as applied to the college without +setting down outstanding illustrations. Some who were distinctly strong, +like the pendulum of a dying clock soon passed away.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>A Flood of Thoughts Comes O'er Me</i>"</h3> + +<p>It became a great trial to me that our forbears never half believed one +of the most eloquent and profound statements of the inspired volume. +Recognizing, in faith, these beautiful words, what a mockery is +artificial light, and how unnecessary a watcher. "Surely the darkness +shall cover me, the night shall be light about me, the darkness and the +light are both alike." When a soul had left its body and is wearing a +crown, it was then the custom, when one of our neighbors had been +invited, to be a guest in heaven, for some one of us who felt tenderly +and neighborly to offer to serve as a watcher. It was then counted good +form for someone other than a member of the family to keep awake +throughout the night and that, in no remote part of the house out of +which the spiritual world had just received a tenant. It was then the +rule of my life never to resist my good impulses and to me it seemed to +fall to render this melancholy duty which struck into my soul with +terror. My fright, I suppose would have been less if I had lived a +better life. I noticed the rattling of the plastering over head.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus8" id="illus8"></a> +<img src="images/illus8.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>THE GROUNDS OF THE BELOVED COLLEGE</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"Deep horror then my vitals froze."</p> + +<p>I did not know that a bureau with its closed drawers contained so much +creaking. It seemed a self-starter. A mid-night lunch had been made +ready. I was usually fond of the pleasures of the table, but this repast +was the least welcome of any I ever tasted. I needed no artificial aid +to keep awake. I was far removed from drowsiness. My eyes would not be +surprised at anything in that presence except sleep. This night seemed +as much too long as all other nights seemed to me too short, but I sat +it out alone till the day, to my inexpressible relief, dawned over the +distant fields. Soon after I reached my room some of my associates +called me to wake me for breakfast. "You didn't suppose I was asleep, +did you?" Lord Brougham pretended to die in order to read what was said +of him in the papers. At Athens, Alabama, a minister preached his own +funeral sermon for he said, "I know my own faults and my own good points +as nobody else knows and I am not going to have people after I am gone +talking of a thing they don't understand." The whole affair was arranged +as if it had been the real thing, with the minister's family in the pew +in deepest mourning. By very much of what I had been reading, and by +more, that all along I had been hearing, while my motives were well +enough in volunteering my services as a watcher, yet I was surprised to +find how ill-fitted I was for the office. The minds of ingenuous +childhood would not now be subjected to quite so much frightfulness. +There seems to be something in them when well stirred up, that responds +with fearful alacrity to that kind of address. It can be found any time +in children if one has the lamentable disposition to try to appeal to +it. By an unintended combination of circumstances I had been supplied +with uncommon numbers of ghost stories until I was afraid to be out +alone, particularly in some localities where it was extra dark.</p> + +<p>On leaving the neighbor's house for home I would induce someone to stand +in the door until I, after moving rapidly, should shout back that I was +safe.</p> + + +<h3><i>Stepping Into the Past</i></h3> + +<p>The bogy-man in the cellar is not conjured with in governing children +now as much as formerly, still a child likes those plays best which give +a good deal of exercise to the imagination. So on the other hand the +ills we imagine afflict us most. The microscope magnifies the object +without altering it. How the thoughts of those troubled times of long +ago come trooping over the hills and valleys of memory after so many +years have been passed to our account in the book of the Recording +Angel. There are some sights that we can never forget. Some occurrences +are so scenic and suggestive that they come home unbidden to every man's +heart and are with him in the market and on the street.</p> + + +<h3><i>The College Empire</i></h3> + +<p>When I first came on the campus the students' rooms were bare and +uninviting. No freshman's room was carpeted. A mat in front of his desk +and one in front of his bed, a very plain bureau, three or four chairs, +a wash-stand, pail, pitcher and bowl, and a few text-books made the +outfit. An apartment was featured best by what it did not have. We lived +the simple life. "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every +man did that which was right in his own eyes." The new president came in +the morning of an opening educational era, during which more +improvements have been made than occurred in long centuries before. With +great distinction he served his day and its sun sank before the horizon +in its evening splendor and that of his youthful, buoyant successor rose +in its morning glory. The initial steps or incidents in the election of +the present sovereign if ever known are now lost to history. The event +was so spontaneous and natural that we can only say in scriptural +language, Now it came to pass. The vote was only a memorandum. It was +what everyone wanted, everybody expected.</p> + +<p>In my day we all knew one another. A college may be good as an +institution of learning and still fall far short of supplying what we +feel this elite college did for us. The elective system has not been +wholly a blessing. If left to himself, a student might elect to follow +the line of the least resistance. In one of these institutions the whole +class never meets together after the first day for any academic purpose. +The class is no longer the social unit it once was. No two men take +exactly the same course.</p> + + +<h3><i>Just How it Feels</i></h3> + +<p>A boy's relation to his home is changed the instant his feet betake +themselves to classic ways. His face is set toward an independent +career. It is a beginning of a detachment and the home is behind this +program and perhaps without quite recognizing all the results and +sacrifices that are involved. No family is ever again quite the same +after it has a son graduated from college. The plane of life is lifted +all around. The kind of atmosphere in which he must live and move and +have his being, for four years, will affect him. The traditions and the +predominant type of student character will give him a pull which it is +hoped is in the right direction. Where the majority of the students are +disposed to do right, and to make a serious use of their great +opportunities, the chances are that the graduate will feel his life long +that he paid his tuition to the college, when he was for a fact most +indebted to his associates. All testimony shows that students recite to +the faculty and learn from one another. We are well beyond the old +heresy that a boy goes to college for his mental training, enters +society for his social life, and the church for his religious +development. The college ideal, as stated, is to give a boy opportunity +to do for himself the best he can do, also to do for each student the +best that can be done for him and to give all possible advantage to the +poorest student.</p> + + +<h3><i>Just Plain Friends</i></h3> + +<p>We all drank at the same fountain and felt the thrill of the same +spirit. There was no caste or social class. We may well doubt whether +higher life success would have attended us, if we launched from a +different port. An earnest endeavor was made to put a young man on an +equality with the demands of his time. It undertook to furnish a basis +from which it was possible for him to advance himself to that level of +usefulness, in his generation, to which his native gifts relegated him. +The college cannot undertake to supply brains. In the presence of +stupidity even the gods are powerless. I do not need to praise the +college. As Cromwell said of his government, "This is a thing that +speaks loudly for itself." Webster made, in the greatest address ever +delivered to a jury, much of the proverb, Murder will out, but this is +no peculiarity of murder. Character will out, mental discipline will +out, education will out, and the lack of education will out. Without +this item some vocations cannot be entered at all, and there is no +vocation in which the mental training would not be a fine additional +equipment.</p> + + +<h3><i>Rekindled Fires</i></h3> + +<p>At my Alma Mater, on revisiting the earth, in conversation with friends +the inquiry was altogether natural, at Commencement, as to how I would +approach things, if I were to begin my studies again. I would try to +remember that it is the intensity of the work that does the good. A +horse needs, in practice, to be tested at his top speed. He must have +the occasional fast mile to fit him for a real occasion. The mind +requires to be tasked. The faculties ought then to be alert. The need is +of "sinewy thinking." Gird up the loins of the mind. Pull yourself +together. We read of One who, as he prayed, sweat. Study and have it +over. Dawdling over a newspaper is the arch enemy of all this. When one +reads he ought to read with attention. If, by this power, we throw our +whole minds upon an important subject, we make it a prompt and easy +matter of recollection. Genius is really intensity of thought, feeling, +emotion, activity. All the faculties are in earnest. "A man is not +educated, till he has the ability to summon, in case of emergency," said +Webster, "all his mental power in vigorous exercise to effect his +object." The great gain is in the undivided, intense mental power of +application. Be all there. Play hard. To spend two hours on a lesson +that could better be done in one is a suicidal process. The greatest +benefit of study is the trained power to concentrate the faculties. What +one sees, he ought to see strongly. The importance of this matter lies +in the fact, that the habits which a student acquires while pursuing his +studies, generally adhere to him through life.</p> + +<p>If I could begin again, I would give my chief attention to disciplinary +study. If a person has a fair library, as every man and woman should +have, he would acquire information, daily, his life long. While a +student, his aim should be discipline. It is a vice for him to spend so +much time over fugitive ephemeral literature which is like the grass, in +the morning it flourisheth, in the evening it withereth. After hard +work, skimming over such gossipy literature as one finds in the papers +may restore tone to the mind but it is not to be classed as reading, but +as recreation. Its effect dies with the day that gave it birth.</p> + +<p>Of all my studies, I have rejoiced most in the discipline acquired by +the study of Latin. If I could go back and acquire early a classical +enthusiasm I would make myself sure of the educational passion.</p> + + +<h3><i>Fortune Keeps Her Own Secrets</i></h3> + +<p>There is a certain fluency of speech, fertility of expedient and power +of application which a student should cultivate for what Lord Coke +called the "occasion sudden." The appeal to students to aim at good +public speaking, while in college, and to awaken then and there, the +active powers of the soul, is based upon two observations: that Albert +Beveridge like recent orators showed his gait while still in his +university, and that such gifts are not ideal but practical and not +studied merely for their own sake but because of their connection with +our civil liberty. To attain an end so indispensable if, in my studies, +I was worked out to my limit, I would incline to the discussion of +questions that would not send me to the library but into the open air, +themes on which I could prepare myself during a stroll, subjects that I +could stick in the corner of a mirror to formulate while I shaved.</p> + +<p>Why did not the negroes do more to help secure their own emancipation?</p> + +<p>Can a man change his disposition?</p> + +<p>Why do ministers that do not believe in the inspiration of the Bible use +a text? A man will take a text and explain it away. Why did he choose +it?</p> + +<p>Is it the brain or the soul that does the thinking? Is our body the +agent or is it a living spirit that uses the organisms? Is it the +imagination whose wings uplift or am I at the center of the circle of my +faculties making use of them?</p> + +<p>Is there any causal relation between justice and victory in arms?</p> + + +<h3><i>Some Social Features</i></h3> + +<p>This student life establishes certain relationships both with the +institution, also with individuals which are felt to be the choicest +holding of a man's whole later life. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not +equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Here is a strong +illustration of how deep and enduring are the attachments of an eager +hearted boy. They are more ardent perhaps than they should have been, +but there they are, and the college gains thus a token of attachment +and tender recollection of unreturnable youth. The most exquisite, the +most unforeseen, the most compensative feature of my life has been, my +personal friendship with the professors. Some of them I admired +extravagantly. Silhouetted upon my memory for all time is my first sight +of Professor Leonard F. Parker. I remember a particular day when we +gathered somewhat early for a Sabbath service. Some of us who were to be +his pupils had no acquaintance with him even by sight. Assuming that the +leading scholar of the place would attend the meeting it was for us a +question of identification. Soon there came a man in the succession not +a farmer, possibly a resident clergyman, and some of us thought it might +be he. But something within me said "Query." I tried to make it into the +professor.</p> + +<p>A good man doubtless, but I wanted to see something in this worshiper +that was not in him. He did not fill the picture. He did not make me +say, It is enough. Soon there came a man who needed no badge, no +signature, no guarantee. His face was an index of him. All of us joined +in a common feeling of relief. We felt his presence. We knew that this +was the man. The bearing of a professional man in those days was more +sedate than now, occasioned by what he thought to be due to his +professorship. He looked upon his office as a high and sacred calling, +and it met all the ends of his ambition if he could be, not teaching +students, but educating men and women. It is said of the Roman +conquerors that they were so used to victory that they carried on their +faces the secret of an imperial people who knew not defeat.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>Fixing Up</i>"</h3> + +<p>There was an obvious neatness about him and a perfection of dress, which +usually requires an absence of anything which draws attention to itself. +He excelled all men whom I have ever known in the teaching profession +for enkindling among his pupils an ardent zeal in their literary +pursuits. A great personal force was needed in those days to teach +disciplinary studies only, in an effective manner, and to dominate the +industrial spirit and the trade spirit by those classical enthusiasms +which were the joy and ornament of his youth. Mercantilism was unbridled +in the general community, yet it is an acknowledged fact, that at the +beginning the responsibility of the teacher has much to do with the +success of the school. No teaching is worth much without enthusiasm, and +enthusiasm is generated by concentrating interest at a focal point. One +cannot teach for more than he is.</p> + +<p>A little history is worth a great deal of opinion. By his unusual gifts, +by his out-reaching personal sympathies, by the individual impress of a +great teacher, many of his pupils became interested through him in the +classics. Let him be judged by his product. I never hear President Main +in one of those vigorous, fine-phrased, official statements, in language +impressive, copious and beautiful, the outward sign of an inward grace, +making a sort of an Iliad out of a routine college president's report, +without saying to myself and to others,—That power of statement, +discipline of mind, felicity of speech, the administration itself, if +you please, are the fruitage of patient discipline acquired in his early +and long study of Greek. Alexander of Macedon used to say that he owed +his life to his father, but to his teacher, Aristotle, a greater debt, +for it was that philosopher who taught him how to make the most of life. +While the ability to teach is a treasure committed to earthly vessels, +some are of finer clay than others.</p> + + +<h3><i>He Had no Pet Virtue</i></h3> + +<p>The Professor was a natural leader, full of vision and initiative, whose +heart was in his work, and the old college impulse never left him, and +he represents a part of what has given a worthy name and character to +the college. A man gets to do what he is fitted to do. I do not believe +he will be allowed to come back from the other world to this but he will +hardly know what to do with himself when separated from those +interesting associations on which so much of his happiness depended. A +father or mother or both would come to town, wander about the place, +invariably in company with the object of their affection. These parents +are not first of all astronomical, or philosophical, or mathematical, +they are human, and they are not there to hear about the new water-works +or the freshly paved streets, or the perfect miracle of an artificial +lake. They are there because their treasure is, and a kind word spoken +to them about their young hopeful is like a spark of fire upon tinder. +These folks used to wait about the doors and walk the streets and hope +to throw themselves in the Professor's way, with the idea that he would +talk with them a little about their scion. I was once driving the +distance between two railroads and a dark night and a continuous +downpour of rain settled drearily upon me, and I was forced to stop at +random at a farm house, and beg for entertainment. Disposing of my case +in a few words, the family resumed its talk relative to a letter they +had received from the Professor about their descendant in whom were +centered great expectations. And when they had said everything that +could be said, someone, as if by accident, would pull a string and let +loose again the flood of talk about that letter. Someone, coming in, for +a moment, out of the storm, would divert the attention, and then they +would apply the flail again to that letter and thrash out some further +kernels of wheat that they had not at first noticed. The family, of +course, found out that I knew the Professor, and so, although I was to +start in the morning while it was still dark, the mother was +unexpectedly up, and had the table so spread, that she could at once sit +down, when I did, and talk over her happiness and the rewards of her +self-sacrifice in having a boy at college. She had hoped and believed +all that had been written, and yet it was a great comfort to have the +professor say it.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Disposition to Build Tabernacles</i></h3> + +<p>He lived close to the people. When Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress, +found himself in the City of Destruction, he departed speedily out of +it, whereas our professor would consider if the situation was +remediless. I was present when he, having given the best of his life to +the college, under the weight of his years, resigned. It was touching, +as a great American author has pointed out, to see the new attitude that +the community had taken toward him, putting him into a new relationship +and into a new atmosphere, in which it was recognized that he was +undeniably and irresistibly older than he had been. People had hardly +thought that he was not a permanent feature. The evidences of +Christianity stand very much in facts. I point to the fact of his +consistent fruitful life and to the fact of his triumphant peaceful +death. They make a fresh volume on the evidences of Christianity. I have +heard of a man who had one foot in the grave, but here was a man who had +one foot in heaven. Dear friend, and my father's friend, friend of my +youth, and all my later years, teacher, counselor, encourager, model of +my student life, to whom my heart was knit in all the ardor of the first +enthusiasm over the idea of going to college, to whom my obligations are +beyond computation, Thou hast thyself gone to sit at the feet of the +Great Teacher.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>WHERE I MET MYSELF</h3> + + +<p>I can thankfully say that I have been on earth twice, once walking on +air, when I graduated from college, and again when I, walking across the +College campus, with heart lifted up, tenderly recalling the past, saw +the jejune young hopeful that I used to be and sat down with him under a +birch, the queen of trees,—many savage nations worship trees,—and +debated for an hour with this young blonde, that I met, that I used to +be, this question, Which is better for the person graduating, the +opportunities which were lined up, reaching out their hands to us, that +we had, or the greater academic advantages which the students now enjoy. +I could not seem to make him see that the present advantages develop +opportunities which are quite as acceptable and fruitful as those that +in early days came to us ready-made.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Old and New</i></h3> + +<p>Discussion over, this rather immature youngster, that I met, that I used +to be, rising up, I getting up, went down town, or perhaps more +properly, he went down town and I went with him. He found a man, I did +not so easily recognize, that was Sophomoric at about the same period +that he was and I experienced a bad quarter of an hour. The situation +had in it an uncomfortable pinch. I became self-conscious. I found +myself stammering and protesting the past. We had come upon a tall, +sparsely-haired, gray-bearded bent figure, with a smooth shiny head, +with furrows in his cheeks and forehead, having evidently, as Webster so +well said, come down to us from another generation. I knew that he was +of my age but I never dreamed that I was of his. This callow stripling +then started to show us around, and unlike Elihu, in the days of Job, +who apologized for showing his opinion, seeing he was so young, asserted +that once we were led by the clergy, then by lawyers, then by business +men, but that now everything pointed to a great revival of the college +and its influence in affairs. Then he stood right out apart and began to +plaster praise on his own institution. I thought that the young man +gestured too much, and I told him so, but he dramatically with open +mouthed vehemence of adoration told of her spirit, her fellowship. I +tried to use the soft pedal, suggesting that perhaps he had too many +exciting topics to discuss thus in public, and that we might later +adjourn to a restaurant where we could make an afternoon of it. But he +was in high spirits and made his talk like a young man who had the world +at an advantage. It was June in his personal history and the top tide of +his youthful happiness. That part of his existence was so satisfactory +to him that he liked to dwell upon it.</p> + + +<h3><i>Words Pale and Inadequate</i></h3> + +<p>I kept noticing that I was much more interesting to this unripe young +sprig, who, I thought, had much to learn, and whose mind seemed like an +unweeded garden, than he was even to me, for I had seen him before, +while I had for him all the interest that is excited by a relic, +something designed by Providence to arrest attention, like those that +after a great convulsion of nature came out of their graves and went +into the city and appeared unto many.</p> + +<p>Then this sappy, beardless representative of the rising generation that +I met, that I used to be, with the Aurora-spirit, had the effrontery to +ask me how it happened that a man had but one youth and then came age +and infirmity, while a college, like a nation, seems under favorable +administration to have a re-birth and a renewal of the vitality of youth +twice or even thrice. I thought that the excess of his knowledge was too +much for him and that he was cross examining me, and so side-stepping +the main issue, I stammered out something about the excessive beauty of +the classic town with embowered streets and sunny gardens, a sort of a +metropolis of education, the very capital of a little republic of +letters.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be equality in all the competitions for the prizes of +student life, with no favors and yet no privilege denied. There was fair +play and all good feeling, with no caste of wealth, and no apology for +the laggard. Even when whipping up a little I flagged miserably in all +the conversation. This lad, in his leading strings, was an incomparable +gossip. I felt that he had a kind of genius for picking up news. Anyway +he used great liberality in the diffusion of it. He was I thought a +charitable reporter. While he had breathed the classic atmosphere of the +place, yet all the books he had to read had been dumped there, like a +sort of terminal moraine. For scholars today the whole stock would be +not only a curiosity, but a relic, being little else than folios on +serious subjects. They were books that must be reverenced, as members of +the eldest liturgical church would reverence the bones of the blessed +martyrs. I inquired, Do you participate in athletics? Yes, by dividing +cord wood into stove lengths, toying with the spade, coquetting with big +bundles of grain. Golf and basket ball were not in his day introduced +into the college curriculum. I thought he was flippant. I felt that +comparisons were odious, as some one must suffer when a comparison is +instituted. So I said with a good deal of voice, My Friend, hear me, I +am older than thou. Your question shows what your diploma cannot cover +nor absolve. Nobody thinks that you lack courage. I wish now that you +would try and be polite.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>Far Away and Long Ago</i>"</h3> + +<p>So far from gratifying this wish, in another connection he put it right +up to me, that I was looking around with complaisance, as though it was +a college of this present size and appearance that I graduated from, but +that such was not the historic fact. It did not seem nice in the +stripling to move right out in the direction of ocular demonstration, +and make particular inquiry of me about the library and chapel and +training field and gymnasium that I used in that college that I +graduated from. His very impudence made him interesting to me. But I +wished he would cultivate more repose and serenity. He had sense enough +to know better but his resources in that direction were not immediately +available.</p> + +<p>As we were looking around I observed that this young tyro was all the +time tipping his hat and bowing and scraping as often as a pretty face +came within the horizon, and so I knew that there was a way I could +divert his remarks from poor me, and that was to ask him outright about +the girls. I was astonished that I had not named them to the fledgling +before. I was amazed that I was capable of passing them by so long. He +said that there was nothing like them, that the air was favorable to +their elegance and charm, that there was no place of its size in that +state or in any other that could show fairer specimens of the various +kinds of feminine attractiveness. But in his talk on the comeliness of +the young ladies I noticed that he quoted from an actress who seems to +have said that three things are necessary for success on the stage, +vivacity, ability and beauty, and I told him that I could not be too +thankful that the stage of practical life did not insist on these rigid +requirements.</p> + + +<h3><i>Stepping Stones in Recent History</i></h3> + +<p>It was a holiday within a holiday to traverse the town with this +lambkin. I came to the right place to squarely meet him. Here they +introduce people to themselves. This stripling that I used to be seemed +bent on hiring a horse and carriage to show me about. That was his only +idea of hospitality. On the best streets in town, he did not have far to +go, the livery stables were as convenient to the homes of the people as +the school-houses and churches. A very convenient location was near the +public library. His fear was that all the horses would be already taken +as there were a good many visitors in town. If the high steppers were +out we would find their keepers in more or less rickety arm chairs +tilted back against the side of a wall awaiting their return.</p> + +<p>There are two panels placed side by side in the old palace at Potsdam. +The left contains Napoleon refusing the queenly Louise favorable terms +of peace at Tilsit, the right contains the nephew of that Napoleon +receiving notoriously hard terms from the son of the beautiful Louise at +Sedan. Entire shifts in history are vividly seen in companion pictures. +On the left is a picture of the horse with the caption, The Greatest +Pleasure-giver to Man. On the right is the picture of a Ford. All that a +man hath will he give in exchange for an automobile. The left exhibits +what God made, the right, what man made. No one living in the city will +look at a horse. He now shows that he feels that he is something left +over. Survey the specimens that remain, low-headed, tail-switching, +creatures, with an indolent air, shuffling gait, abject, pitiable +objects with mis-shapen, stumbling legs in front. No one doubts but that +it takes all day to go anywhere and return with these antique, stunted, +gaunt-ribbed, swollen-jointed, knock-kneed, piteous-eyed creatures that +now survive. Knowing the pleasure that young people once had in horses +and ponies, it seems odd to find that the rising generation has +almost forgotten their existence.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus9" id="illus9"></a> +<img src="images/illus9.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>THE GREATEST PLEASURE GIVEN TO MAN</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><i>Worthy of Unstinted Praise</i></h3> + +<p>But they had a fine history. Stonewall Jackson, the hero of the flank +movement, gained his great victories and his great reputation by the +celerity of his movements, made possible by the familiarity of +Southerners with horses. When pressed in battle the Russians could fall +back sullenly and the Japanese unfamiliar with horses could not strike +their flank nor cut off their retreat. The mastery of nations has +sometimes come from the possession of horses. The amazing spread of +Mohammedanism came from the same sort of ownership. The horse gave to +Paul Revere and to Phil Sheridan their place in history. He was in their +day the greatest factor in strategy and surprise. He is docile, +affectionate, and capable of a deep and lasting attachment. He has a +real craving for human notice. He dislikes to be left in a solitary +position. Essentially by his very nature he must love something. It +touches the heart to have a horse reach out his fore foot and begin to +paw until his master assures him that he recognizes him. This is what +the horse likes. I confess to a feeling of pride when, leaving him +untied at the door, I have gone into a house and have heard him whinny +for me to return when he might have gone off and left me. Although there +were other persons all about he would neigh at my approach and turn his +well-shaped head, full of character, with clear intelligent eyes of the +speaking kind, toward me. Such a warm-blooded sensitive horse will +always exhibit in ways of his own the friendly relations that exist +between us.</p> + + +<h3><i>Time Tries All Things</i></h3> + +<p>On revisiting the earth it is found that the owner of a high-stepper, +threatened with speed, can now only lead a shame-faced kind of +existence. If out in the daylight he feels like apologizing to every one +he meets. This man used to electrify the street with his tallyho coach +crowded with gaily dressed guests accompanied by a footman and a +trumpeter, with a hitch of four noble grays showing by their arched +necks and high knee action that they felt pride in belonging to a rich +man. As in the case of the bicycle, the fashion changed abruptly. He had +to load a lot of portable property into the carriage to get some poor +relation to take the outfit for a gift. I find that a person can now buy +a discarded silver-mounted harness for the cost of a halter and that the +people today like an upholstered life. Gasoline spelled the doom of the +horse and it must be said now that Dobbin's future never looked so +uninviting.</p> + +<p>There are four new experiences for which no description ever adequately +prepares us, the view of a volcano in violent eruption, a visit to the +home of cliff dwellers (prehistoric peoples who left their homes just as +they used them), a walk on a moving glacier, and the first survey of the +Grand Canyon. I was lifted off my feet by discovering, when talking with +that college youngster and comparing things closely, that the five +senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—have had another added +to them. Each of those we named over uses a distinctive organ. The +surface of the whole body contributes to the sense of touch. These are +pointed out as the receiving agents of the mind which keeps her hidden +seat and receives communication from the distant provinces of her +empire. They put us in possession of just the information needed +concerning external things. On revisiting the earth it is awakening to +engage in controversy with the young scion of the college that I used to +be, touching learning's last word. He believed that we had all the +possible senses defined and numbered like the fingers on the hand and +now comes the new sense of balance having the exact function we have +been naming. I remember the moment and the place where I was made +conscious of this sixth sense. I did not learn it. I had it. I had +bought a bicycle. I had no teacher. I was sitting on it in the hall +giving the animal a little gentle exercise. "Keep your balance. Employ +what sense you have; you do not need to acquire it, use it." It is so +with aviators. We call them bird men. They were born, like birds, with a +certain innate sense of equilibrium. Birds find out when to go north and +to go south and how to build and line their own nests and where to find +their food and how to maintain themselves in the air. All this is in +them. Nature takes care of that. A small child, learning to walk, shows +that he has an instinctive faculty of adjustment and equipoise and tries +early to get his little legs to support his position. An untutored lad +when mounted thinks he is riding a horse, whereas the quadruped, knowing +at once that the boy does not know anything about his business, allows +him to simply balance himself while he gives him a ride. The boy voyages +like an unballasted ship. He does not acquire a new sense; he follows +his intuitions and all is well. A seed of grain would not differ from a +dust speck or tiny pebble except for what it is, but it is yet to +manifest by its inherent vitality. You would not know, looking at a boy, +that he has this instinct of balance, but he has and he will find it and +use it. As the pilgrim with his staff wends his way to Mecca, so I went +to that place to meet that particular stripling. He was the youngster +that was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. I wanted to +stay beside him much longer. His heart was young. He was fresh for his +work.</p> + + +<h3><i>The World a Wheel</i></h3> + +<p>The skeleton of a horse is given in an automobile catalogue. He is +depicted as a fossil and the statement is made, These animals were used +until about the year 1900. Every man, woman, and child in the state of +South Dakota could be seated at one time in the automobiles owned by the +people of that one state. Eighty per cent of those cars have been bought +in the last two years. It seems like flying or ballooning after jolting +for years in a heavy farm wagon, and what miles they were! The Dutch are +economical of money, but have been very profuse of time. Their +conveyances by sea or land have been slow and "Dutch speed" has grown +into a proverb for tardiness, but now, with scarfs over their heads, +Dutch women loll in the back seats of a Pierce-Arrow with, not the +father, but a son, in the family to drive. While in my earlier life I +had never dodged an automobile and I have never been injured by one +except in my disposition, we are all unspeakably indebted to them for +getting people out-of-doors and for contributing more to the temperance +reformation than all the lectures in Christendom. The automobile +enforces the same abstinence upon the people that the railroads require +of engineers. Automobiles plainly show that the only place for saloons +is that place Rev. William A. Sunday so graphically describes, and while +our streets do not yet come up to the requirements of the boulevards of +the New Jerusalem as described by St. John, yet we are done with those +crossings at the street corners made up of granite stringers. Carriages +had worn down the softer material just before and just after the granite +crossings, so that if a person rode rapidly length-wise of the street he +would jolt and bite his tongue at every intersection. These depressions +in the road were called "Thank you, marms," because persons in passing +each corner would forcibly be made to bow their heads, as if in +expression of gratitude, to some imagined object. Another transformation +has overtaken the community, changing its general appearance in some +cases for the better, almost beyond recognition.</p> + + +<h3><i>Pigs is Pigs</i></h3> + +<p>All barns in the towns are upon the market and dealers in lumber have +opened a second-hand department where they dispose of what is left of +the barns to farmers for the construction of granaries. Back to the farm +applies now even to lumber. The horse, the cow, and the pig once formed +a part of the family circle and how kindly and carefully were they +provided for. The execrable back alley was conducted on the pig-sty +basis. How slatternly the old back alley fence would look now that the +parking system is adopted by neighbors. In earlier days the sumptuous +houses were fenced or hedged always. After the old English idea the +grounds were private. It remains now to have fences removed among +denominations. They stand for the old time privacy and exclusiveness +that once prevailed in business. Down south they forced business out +into the open, requiring by ordinance that all employees shall be paid +in the public square. The parking system proceeds upon the principle +that a resident owes something to the town. The present ideal is to +induce people not to shut the blinds or draw the shades when the house +is lighted but to see in the evening how far each little candle can +throw its beams.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>RETRACING THE OLD PATHS</h3> + + +<p>At the sight of the Eternal City, Luther prostrated himself and +exclaimed,—Holy Rome, I salute thee. A graduate of Andover, on +approaching the Sacred Hill, feels a disposition to manifest a like +deference. Before him rises the hallowed ground. Andover is not large +but there are those who love her. She was always a good mother to me. +Andover on the map you can cover with your thumb, but you cannot so +cover Andover. Its vital expansive influence has gone out through all +the world and its words to the end of it. In an outburst of passionate +eloquence, Mr. Webster once exclaimed, "What has America given to the +world? It has given to the world the character of Washington." What has +Andover given to the world? There is the East. There is India. There is +our Western coast, where rolls the Oregon. There are our colleges and +churches at home and over seas. In these she has given the world +immortal names that were not born to die. It is said that no man now +living can read even the alphabets of all the languages through which +her sons have sought to interpret the Word of God to the world. Think +the graduates of Andover out of it at that time, and sacred literature +and religious results would drop immeasurably below their actual +attainments. Andover, the very name is beautiful, especially when you +look at it in the light of the old days. Its memories are delightful. +There I sat at the feet of my own Gamaliel.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Land We Love</i></h3> + +<p>It is impossible that any institution living or dead, in this country or +any other, ever gained a firmer hold on the affections of her alumni. If +love is the greatest thing in the world, Andover had it in a sort of +double measure. With some knowledge of the whole field I do not know of +any other place that so takes hold of its students on their affectional +side. To do this, all experience teaches that a place must not be too +large. A country home grows tendrils around a man's heart that a house +numbered with others, in a uniformly brick-faced block, fails to do. A +thoroughly cultivated or built-up country is much less beloved by its +people than an open one that is close to nature. A strictly fenced +locality where all surfaces are exclusively appropriated, leaving only +the dusty highways to the people, does not gain the attachment that we +all feel for Andover, beautiful for situation. When the Creator +prepared the Seminary grounds on that crowning elevation he left little +for the hand of man to do in the way of improvement. In my day, the oak +tree was still standing into which Dr. Pearson climbed to locate +buildings, trace the walks and indicate the settings for trees. Being +located in a county that has more people in it than the entire state of +Vermont and four times as much wealth, a county of cities, it has +afforded great opportunity for students to get experience in pulpit work +and the incidental wherewithal. It gave me no trouble or inconvenience +the last year of my studies to earn eight hundred dollars. Most students +on reaching Andover begin, I began like the rest, by occupying the +little Union Chapel on the slope of the Blue Hill in Readville, on the +edge of Hyde Park. The honorarium was five dollars, and the fares from +Boston. In that pulpit, that has meant so much to under-graduates, +Phillips Brooks preached his last sermon. Rev. Samuel F. Smith, author +of America, was on his way to preach there when death overtook him and +arrested his journey.</p> + + +<h3><i>Lines Cast in Pleasant Places</i></h3> + +<p>When I sing America I think of Andover. She is what S. F. Smith thought +of, for in a nature stroke, writing the words in Andover, he sings, "I +love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills," just as +Whittier so simply depicts other delightful features of Essex County +which were indelibly impressed upon the sensitive plate of his brain. We +discern the scenery behind the words. This the Swiss heart does when it +is pathetically affected in hearing, in music, as if upon bells, "The +return of the Cows." There never has been a nation without patriotism. +There never has been a people without a God. The author of the hymn so +much used in our great revival of national feeling was in Andover to +study theology and produced our most common expression of patriotism. +Andover was well born. She has beauty in her own right. This is evident +since the first time she sat for her picture. My relations have been +such, that it falls to me at times, having visitors from a remote part +of the land, to entertain them and to show them the East. For typical +New England towns I have usually taken them to Plymouth, Concord and +Andover. These three. But in the matter of a large fairly well-trained +and useful progeny, the greatest of these is Andover. Dr. Henry M. +Storrs used to style the place, the mother of his mind.</p> + + +<h3><i>Andover is Different</i></h3> + +<p>It is Acadian. In other residential localities it is their custom not to +point out any celebrities except millionaires. Everything in the +community is leveled to its cash basis and a habit of doing it is +ingrained, and unconsciously money slips into the conversation and out +of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks. But in Andover names do +not stand just for mere crude wealth. The homes of the professors were +never handled as a commercial proposition. Everything was not computed +in terms of bankable wealth. Prosperity was only one word, another was +welfare. That noun of all nouns, dollar, was not so often heard as the +name Andover. The teaching force is as uncommercialised as Agassiz, +Lafayette, or John Brown. Their wealth is their learning and their +character. "Now how much is he worth?" He is worth a lot to his pupils. +Here is a community which every member belongs to with a conscious +pleasure and pride. All the ideals bounded by the dollar are replaced. +She had an entirely different code of values, which were not pecuniary.</p> + + +<h3><i>Where Every Prospect Pleases</i></h3> + +<p>I felt that I was exalted to heaven in point of privilege to be there at +all. Here I had my first view of acres of girls. At the end of the study +hours they would throng through the gates of the Abbott Female +Seminary—"The Fem Sem"—and spread out over the town, young, joyous, +carefree, fresh-faced, handsomely dressed. It was a delight to see them +about.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The hill of Zion yields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand sacred sweets<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before we reach the Heavenly fields<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or walk the golden streets."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So many of the books in the library with which I was most familiar, my +father's, were published at Warren F. Draper's in Andover that on +reaching the town, which my imagination had always placed in Class A, I +sent my baggage to the Mansion House that I might not deny myself two +things, to go on foot with much feeling up the long hill, also to get a +first preliminary glimpse of Draper's. Could so much that is good come +out of that Nazareth? It was a travesty on my expectation. I was looking +for a book store like Appletons' or Revell's, or Harpers'. When my +father graduated, there were thirty different parts on the Commencement +programme and I was looking for things on an immense scale like that.</p> + + +<h3><i>A World of Tender Memories</i></h3> + +<p>Andover develops the "We" feeling. The students constitute a +brotherhood, while with the years the word grew greatly yet it never +outgrew its original manifestation. That little word We is the talisman +that awakes the consciousness that there must be sympathy, fellowship +and co-operation among students, among those in the same high calling +between pastor and people, as there must be for good results between +teacher and pupil, between physician and patient. The Seminary gave to +us that soul of kindred, which so few understand. It is an essence which +perfumes life. Its influence is nothing less to me than sacred, and the +benefit received is beyond any estimate I compute. In anticipation of a +recent particular visit to that shrine of the heart, for no other +purpose than to express my admiration amounting even to reverence, also +my indebtedness, to that far famed and justly distinguished seat of +learning, I arranged with that useful, unselfish, helpful resident, +Charles C. Carpenter, that we should canvass together the sacred +precincts. Among holy places none is holier than this. My errand there +was to see a great deal and to feel a great deal. I bow with deep +veneration at the remembrance of each one of the ornaments of the place. +We walked about among the friends whom we had known who were resting in +God's acre. The inscriptions made for us a book of remembrance. Some +personality lingered about the most far-away name. We lingered long +where sleep the great who made themselves a record among the mighties. +No other spot in the land, of equal space, contains the dust of so much +eminence. By one of the ironies of history those who differed most, +where the contention was so sharp between them, like Barnabas and Paul, +that they departed asunder, one from the other, come close together in +their burial.</p> + + +<h3><i>Andover's Crowning Glory</i></h3> + +<p>When Oliver Alden Taylor, late of Manchester, was graduating from Union +College his biographer says:<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> "We find him deliberating where he +should resort for his theological education. His thoughts were turned +toward Andover, but he says, 'I am afraid of the dislike of elegant +speaking which is said to characterize the faculty.' He was reassured +however with very faint praise, for he writes, 'Dr. Nott tells me that +Andover is not opposed to good speaking, though the graduates are too +generally poor speakers.'" We wish that he could have heard Richard +Salter Storrs, father and son, Horace Hutchinson, Leonard Swain, George +Leon Walker, or either of the brothers, Walter M. or John Henry Barrows, +or as he was speaking of the faculty, Professor Park, or his very close +second, a very different man but highly distinguished for brilliant +uniform work, Austin Phelps.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Man of Noble Parts</i></h3> + +<p>While in the Himalaya Mountains they have many exalted peaks, still +there is one that towers above the rest, Mt. Everest, the highest +ascertained point on the surface of the globe. So at Andover there was +a high general range of intellect, yet there existed one master mind +that dominated the whole sphere. The pulpit was his throne. I had never +seen a man take so high a position on the mount of God as Professor +Edwards A. Park, at the crest of his popularity and power, did as he +rose to his own high level in his masterpiece, the Judas sermon. I +remember my delight and wonder. He magnetized his audience. I was +greatly drawn to him. The heart of the congregation touches his. Deep +calleth unto deep. There are those who testify that he became the first +vigorous intellectual presence they ever encountered, and they gained +much from the relation to so great a man. Of larger than ordinary mould, +I suppose no real credit or desert fell to him for rising to his work +like a giant refreshed, any more than belonged to Goliath for wielding a +spear like a weaver's beam in his mighty hand instead of a weapon of +ordinary size. He was one of those rare men who are scarcely ever +duplicated. He was not classed with any one in his own or in previous or +in subsequent times. His appeal was such that one's own moral sense +confirmed all his teachings. The mark of talent is to do easily what is +difficult for others. His imposing almost majestic presence, his +powerful and brilliant intellect, his great learning, his genius, his +uncommon gift of eloquence, his fervor, I do not now describe, after my +memory of it, which shines to me like a star, but according to my idea +cf what now it will seem to a stranger. It is impossible to reproduce +his work in cold type. To attempt it is to spoil it. When we have seen +him reported verbatim—that was not his sermon, only its ghost, its +shade, its tenantless remains. The air about him became electric as he, +having located Judas for a time nearly in front of him, a little to the +right, dealt with him as one of the foes of the household. He considered +his case past praying for. After he had his picture well drawn he put on +more color and the moment he had him well blacked, with sudden great +dramatic effect he swung a perfectly knock-out gesture, saying, "Woe to +that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Good were it for that man +if he had never been born." It needs the Sinai voice to get the effect.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Soul Melted Into a Voice</i></h3> + +<p>Passion, unabated emotion pervaded the great effort from the beginning +to the end of the masterpiece. Every sentence, every word had been +pruned of every ineffective syllable, like changing "penetrate" to the +word of one syllable, "pierce". Every idea went to its mark like a +bullet. There was not a cold or weak passage in it. In preparing his +direct discourse he did not stick a stake and cart material to it. His +great thoughts were not drawn from without but from his subject which +he fathomed. He had depth, as someone said, for elephants to swim in +and places for lambs to wade. He seemed from the first to be starting a +great offensive. I took occasionally great delight in a few moments of +his company and I always have congratulated myself that I lived for +three years in the same town, and at the same time with so illustrious a +person.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He is one of the stars, a planet I should say, in the firmament of the +pulpit. "Go and feel his power" I used to say; no one can describe it. +Everything seemed to conspire to make my life exceptionally happy and +fortunate at Andover, knowing him at the zenith of his glory. Professor +Park's work had the element of nicety about it. It was fascinating. We +were spell-bound, lost in admiration, even in amazement. His elegance in +diction would make one's sense of beauty ache. "Honor is the substance +of my story," said the imposing, uplifting man starting on his moving +recital, told in his unique, felicitous style, with utterance broken by +emotion, of the life and death of Miss McKeen of Abbott Academy, of +whose board of trustees he had been president for thirty years. That +trinity of qualities, wisdom, eloquence, and pathos, swept everything. +Rhetoric cannot be shut up in a book. Its play of words, even in a +sympathetic auditory, and among vibrant hearers, while it sparkles, +dies.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>GOING BACK TO MY PADAN-ARAM</h3> + + +<p>Ernest Renan tells us of the vanished city Is, which, years ago, +disappeared below the waves. Up from those depths, fishermen say, that +on calm summer nights they can hear the bells chiming. In my heart is a +cherished Is. As the years rise and fall I love to hear the harmonies +that float to me from its past. Distance does not dissipate the gentle +sounds and they come to me like echoes from another life. At that +enchanted time I met my heart's ideal and have been wondering ever since +how it happened, that on seeing a certain face, it seems to you +distinctive, set apart from all others. Is it familiar, because you have +seen it before, or is it impressed on you, because it is an expression +of your intuitive sense of what suits you, and what you like and what +you want? The expression, love at first sight, would be intelligible +enough if it was only finished with the words, when one's dream comes +true. When it materializes it is of course all at once. A person busy +with his profession, going along happily and more or less prosperously, +meeting people, judging young folks, almost unconsciously forms an ideal +of face, figure, graciousness, type, temperament, intelligence. This is +the product of half a dozen years. The work of choosing, so far as he is +concerned, is all done. His mind is made up. His idea is clearly +defined. Jesse made Eliab pass before Samuel and the Lord said, "Look +not on his countenance nor on his stature." Then Jesse called Abinadab, +then Shammah, and seven passed in review, when David came along, who was +ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to, +"That's the one. This is he." First there is an image in the mind, and +when the counterpart appears, instantly, of course, one recognizes it. +Samuel did not shirk any real question nor did he make up his mind +before he had any mind to make up. There was a choice to be made and he +had come to a conclusion so far as he was concerned, and expressed +himself at the earliest moment, without being irresolute or vacillating, +which is an abomination when a social choice is to be made.</p> + + +<h3><i>First View of Intimate Friends</i></h3> + +<p>There is in us a tendency to selection and preference of one human being +before all others. This action of the heart is forceful and even almost +irresistible to us and yet may not accord with other persons' ideas of +appropriateness. This strange preference, in its early stages, and in +its strength and duration, is nature's greatest sidelight upon our +individuality. It is entertaining to see what people pass right by and +then to see what they choose. It distinguishes itself most at the +further end of a long life and seems to have an unfading quality which +shows that it is nature itself. This tendency to selection affords +people the strongest argument against Dr. Johnson's position that all +marriages would be better made if they were arranged by the Lord +Chancellor. Also against that multitude of students, of the subject and +writers, who show that marriages seem best, last best, and are best for +a fact, when the parties themselves have little to do in bringing them +about, when all such matters are left to parents and others as in the +royal families who rest everything on the pure merits of the case.</p> + +<p>In waking hours, in reveries, and in dreams, pictures had been painted +on the fancy, and now the lenses were given, through which they could be +viewed. A vague and indistinct idea had now taken a form. It was very +unromantic, but it seemed the expression of an intuition. It was like an +acquaintance, accidentally met at the way-side. There seemed to be a +susceptibility hid away, hitherto kept dormant, that the slightest cause +seemed to magnetize.</p> + + +<h3><i>Cupid's Marksmanship</i></h3> + +<p>However this may be, there is such instinctive insight in the human +heart, that we often form our opinion, almost instantaneously, and such +impressions seldom change and they are not often wrong. To notice +anything, so casual, sounds like an imprudence and yet it is almost a +revelation. It seems as if we were but renewing the relations of a +previous existence. Some one, from this, goes on to inquire, What will +the doubters of impressions do with a fact like this? Almost everyone +has experienced something similar. In this house, we often speak of our +instant meeting, our introduction, and the destinies which were made to +swing on such a chance acquaintance. It wanted not a word, not a hint, +for within was the consciousness of what was to be. The problem was +solved. My foreshadowing was realized. If a person is looking for a +lesson in Providence, here it is. I could plainly see how I had been led +along. "Come live with me." The irrevocable yoke of life was on us. The +mysteries of Providence are felt in the coincidence of two paths over +surfaces so widely apart. We are astounded at this miracle of meeting. A +breath, a lifting of the hand, an inconceivably small intervention would +have diverted the attention of either of us. There, too, is the miracle +of hinging so much of destiny and of happiness on so small an occasion, +that might easily have been no occasion at all. It is like taking +letters out of the alphabet. The art is in placing them side by side in +such a way as to make words. Use no skill of location and the +arrangement into which they have fallen is inappropriate and +unfortunate. Standing apart the letters are meaningless. Jumbled or +jarred together the chances are very much against their having any +significance, but when brought to their final position, by what they +spell together, they are read of all men with approbation. The first +time that Mr. Paul R. George of Concord, N. H., met the young lady that +became his wife he felt a little click in the neighborhood of his heart. +Now about this "click" to which so many persons bear witness. Men are +great imitators. They follow a crowd. But a hit duck flutters the water. +It is like the late selective draft: a man is touched; he attempts no +evasion; he knows he was selected and comes promptly forward and puts on +the uniform. The way the mind receives this impress, is noticeable in +the further fact that if Paul R. George had been abroad, and the meeting +had been so casual that he received no introduction, it would have been +permanent just the same. The heart never loses anything. Touch the right +string later and the impression is sure to be reproduced. All that is +peculiar about Mr. George's case is his confession. We know that +matrimony is either heaven-made or done in purgatory. The issue seems +too important to turn once for all on the original early choice of an +inexperienced person. An individual is not thus forced to choose once +for all in determining what college he will take. He may choose Williams +and change to Dartmouth. Nor is it an unchangeable choice on entering +business. He may begin with law and change to politics or he may incline +to manufacturing and take to banking. If, however, he enters the +matrimonial field, having put his hand to the plow, there is no turning +around nor looking back.</p> + + +<h3><i>Remember Lot's Wife</i></h3> + +<p>There are, however, some good rules for an individual to follow. One, +for example, would be, to take a girl that was a favorite with other +girls. Another to be uninfluenced in your choice by dowry. The question +before the house is matrimony, not money making. Acquire lucre by +another process. Too much is at stake to be moved now by thirty pieces +of silver. The young man was worthy of all admiration who on his wedding +trip asked the bride how much of a dot she had left after paying for her +trousseau. She said, "Half a dollar." "Well," he said, "heave it over +into the canal and let us make an even start." I can better understand +how a girl could be induced to shy a silver coin into the canal than +how she could be reconciled to parting with such a name as she sometimes +must drop. Here is a girl just reported engaged to a soldier. Her name +was Priscilla Weymouth Alden, which tells not only her illustrious +descent but in just what locality, in the old colony, her branch of the +family made its distinguished nest. In this country the wife or maiden +invariably walks by the side of her male companion and never follows +after him in Indian file, like geese returning from pasture. It is +against nature for a man to say "my house" or my this or that. He should +be unable to pronounce the word. In this house our account at the bank +is open for either to check upon. Our exchequer, on the one hand, or our +politics on the other, are a joint affair. The family is the unit. When +Bunker Hill monument was still incomplete interest flagged. Money was +gone. Work came to a full period. An appeal was made to the women of the +land to hold a great fair to obtain the wherewithal so that the builder +should bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying Grace, +grace, unto it. Subscriptions and contributions hurried to its aid from +every section and it rose to "meet the sun in his coming," "to be the +last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore and the +first to gladden his who revisits it." It is not good for man to work +alone. The house in which a man is married seems to him odd.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Supply is Not Exhausted</i></h3> + +<p>Bridgewater is a belle among residential communities. The best place in +this country or in any other to raise girls. The street is attractive. +The house fine, yet it seems distinct, different. I think most men feel +so about the house in which they were married. In all other shrines I +had made a home. Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan-Aram to +take a wife from thence, and God appeared unto Jacob again when he came +out of Padan-Aram and blessed him. Under similar conditions the Duke of +Buckingham dropped his purse so that the person finding it might feel +that nothing but good fortune attends the visit to a home like that. I +used to like to go there, yet I had to do, every day, the full work of +an adult at home, and so it became plain that I would get along better +if I could locate both of my interests in the same place. In speaking of +weddings much is said with truth about "the negligible groom." I could +not long live on angel cake and so I had to turn abruptly to face the +prosier plain bread and butter question; so when the bird was caught and +caged I took up the inquiries, What shall we eat and wherewithal shall +we be clothed? It is a merciful provision that this latter question +rests lightly upon the groom for the first decade, as some part of the +hat the bride wore to Washington (it being understood that a wedding +admits no variation but means either a trip to Washington or Niagara +Falls) will reappear as a feature of her headdress with much variation +of location during the next ten years.</p> + +<p>The place of the wedding is always a conspicuous shrine. On revisiting +the earth we were strolling around the streets, quite a number of +soldiers were about and were entertaining the girls at a soda fountain, +and one of the enlisted men told a pitiful story about swallowing a pin, +and when a vivacious young lady expressed alarm and sympathy, "Oh," he +said, "no harm could come of it; it was a safety pin."</p> + + +<h3><i>Heart Histories</i></h3> + +<p>We go there often and sit on the stone steps of the old Unitarian church +just as we did when we were young and foolish. Times have changed +incredibly since the visit to Padan Aram or else a favorite and very +accomplished writer just at this writing is all dead wrong in throwing +the weight of his great influence against what he calls being "married +without capital." This would cut out the wedding of Dr. Joseph Parker of +the City Temple, London, the greatest expositor of scripture known to +us. "Improvident" is the word his biographer uses "certainly when tested +by the maxims of the world. He was twenty-two without having secured a +definite position." But marriages are to be judged by their history. Let +us hear the eloquent orator himself. He speaks of "Annie, the soul I +loved, the girl who saved me and made me a man." His estimate of her +varied from the opinion the editor we have quoted would have put upon +her. She was gentle, domesticated, cultivated, with a poetic turn of +mind, and like Mary of Bethany, religiously meditative. She read widely, +being now more assiduous than ever in her Bible studies. Her appetite in +this was twofold for her husband and herself. She asked God to bless him +and He blessed them both. He was strong, constituted for public life, +full of fire, and prepared to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. We +feel like questioning Cupid's sanity when he brings together persons of +such diverse natures, training, antecedents, and tendencies, but among +opposites, in disposition, Cupid displays his best achievements. They +took life together as they found it. To have "saved" one of the world's +greatest forces, to have "made him a man" was more than an equivalent +for living on short commons for some few weeks while they were getting +under way. Working out good fortune together is great happiness to many +young people who know each other well and without reservation believe in +each other and in their future. A young man graduating or entering a +business life must make his capital before he can share it. There is +much to be said in favor of what many healthy spirited girls achieve +when their affections are satisfied. Adam was asleep when he chose his +wife and this is one reason why things proved so out of joint. The +strong dissuasive to become "married without capital" would have borne +heavily upon Peter H. Burnett when a clerk in a country store on two +hundred dollars a year, less than four dollars a week beside his board.</p> + + +<h3><i>Women Not Gone to the Dogs</i></h3> + +<p>He had met a beautiful girl and one day having dined with her family and +talked with the young lady herself after dinner he came out of the house +and was amazed to discover that the sun was gone from the sky. In a +confused manner I enquired of her father what had become of the sun. He +politely replied, "It has gone down." A new heaven and a new earth +surrounded him. They were married and lived happily ever after. It was +not Mrs. Burnett "and her lesser fraction." An humble home was paradise +to him with the right girl. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is +than a stalled ox without it. Sometimes I think that the rich face +greater problems in the matter of marriage than even the poor. Such a +wedding based on affection goes far toward nullifying the phrase +"lottery of marriage." An American girl can marry an English Duke if her +father has money enough. In this country the prevalent sanctity of +marriage can be attributed chiefly to the fact that among the rank and +file, husbands and wives have generally married each other for love. +Perhaps this statement would not apply to the smart set in some +commercial cities. This young man did his best. He became the president +of the Pacific Bank of San Francisco and the first Governor of +California. And as for a young woman she will become quite a heroine, in +hard outward conditions, if her affections are entirely satisfied. +Having spirit and courage and health she often becomes quite a prop to +the prosperity of the household. She does not need to be supported in +idleness by her husband. As between the two, it is often the case that +she can earn about as much as he can. A young lady has just become a +bride who had been receiving a larger salary than her own father ever +earned. In new countries, under pioneer conditions, that is true today, +which was distinctly a fact in early New England, that a marriage was a +partnership, which made for thrift. Of course affection works out her +sums by different rules.</p> + + +<h3><i>Shall the Union Survive</i></h3> + +<p>Chinese wives are valued by their weight. French marriages have been +generally happier than the English owing to the comparative ascendency +which the French wives possess over their husbands, or better, the +equality we find that exists between them.</p> + +<p>There is a proverbial prejudice in an English establishment against the +interference of a woman in the husband's conduct of his private affairs. +This is that one matter in which any theorist can prove his position, +for in solving the problem it is natural to him to count the hits and +not the misses. He arrays unquestioned facts and depends on those who +follow his recital to jump at the conclusion he desires. It was +suggestive to notice that Governor Burnett, when presenting such a fine +specimen of feminine attractiveness, that while showing us that he was +overwhelmed by it, did not directly describe the girl, but made us infer +what the facts were by the situation and by the results she brought +about. To make you appreciate the Lady of the Lake, Scott alludes to her +in attitude and grace and lets the reader's mind supply the picture.</p> + + +<h3><i>Lights in Their Dwellings</i></h3> + +<p>It is astonishing to notice what heroic young women have been doing in +meeting rather hard conditions occasioned in part by the high cost of +living. Give the girl all round confidence, imagine her susceptibilities +and energies to be happily employed, and she will undertake a temporary +encounter with poverty with bravery. The one she has chosen among men +has to meet it whether he will or no. In addressing themselves to that +problem, by united enterprise, some young people have passed their most +joyous years. We find here the magic spell which transforms a house into +a home. Musicians rarely give their best exhibition when singing or +performing in a hostile atmosphere. It is so with women. Happiness is +never an accident. There is no such thing as an accident. Everything has +a cause if we can find it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>A NEW KNOCK AT AN OLD DOOR</h3> + + +<p>Forty years were long enough to eliminate all the Israelites of one +generation. It appears that in that length of time all the adults of one +generation that had dwelt in Egypt were gone except two. Reckoning +things then on a scriptural basis and assuming that all who lived forty +years ago are gone, except two, a grave responsibility obviously rests +upon me, as I have seen more than a generation rise and wane, to let the +people of the present age or period in a definite locality know how +things look in that lifetime just preceding their own. I remember when +we had preaching services Sunday afternoon in all our churches at three +o'clock and by count in our church the attendance often differed only by +two, forenoon, afternoon and evening. I remember when Christmas and +Easter observances were introduced into Sabbath services, it having been +customary from Puritan days in New England to make, on Sunday, next to +no reference to them excepting in Catholic and Episcopal Churches.</p> + + +<h3><i>Lost Facts of Local History</i></h3> + +<p>Unless one sticks a stake, at some definite point, say less than a +generation ago, he is not likely to remember that powerful electric +lights have not always been, like the images of the Israelites, on every +high hill and under every green tree. It is hard for me to realize that +at my table I burned the midnight oil in Lynn, particularly when the +next morning was Sunday, and my library during my ministry of twelve +years was never decorated with anything but a student lamp. The city was +in the kerosene oil period. The front hall lamp used to drip petroleum +upon the carpet on the stairs, and I was contributing my full share to +give John D. Rockefeller a start in his oil-refining business, a start +indeed that I hear he has not been slow to appreciate and improve. After +reaching the big hall down town, as the lights supplied to Professor +Churchill, the renowned elocutionist from Andover, seemed dim, I left +the hall and went out and bought a student lamp and had a wick put in +and filled it with kerosene, which if now brought into a blazing +auditorium in these enlightened days would be like holding a candle to +the sun. In a more significant way the city has turned from Darkness +into light.</p> + + +<h3><i>Publicity is Light</i></h3> + +<p>We stood in relation to the gambling evil about where the country now +stands in relation to drunkeries, whose death warrant we have lived to +see signed. The hand-writing was written on the wall touching lotteries +but they were winked at when conducted only for sweet charity's sake +even after the death-knell had sounded. In a church fair a fine young +acquaintance got a pony for fifty cents as he held the lucky ticket. +Unless a person has felt it or witnessed it, he little conceives the +fury of the passion to which gambling appeals. When fired up, there are +men who would cross Sheol on a rotten pole to make money in a game of +chance. It starts an appetite that feeding does not satisfy. It seems to +rage by the fuel it feeds on. These lotteries, like the plague of frogs, +were everywhere. For constructing the earliest building of Williams +College, that is in particular the mother of missionaries, a lottery was +granted and $3500 were raised.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> It goes with the blood in +Massachusetts, for when the State was hard up she used to spring a +lottery, in one of which Harvard College drew four tickets, and +clergymen seemed to have been particularly successful, and teachers for +purposes of publicity were likeliest of all to profit by the turn of +the wheel, till at length the whole gambling fabric suddenly, like the +walls of Jericho, fell down flat.</p> + + +<h3><i>Cupid All Smiling</i></h3> + +<p>Here was purely and distinctively an American City. The people were +homogeneous in language, modes of thought and type of character. She had +the specific New England, or Yankee, cast of mind. For her factories, +forces were drawn from the hillsides, particularly of New Hampshire. +There were elderly people, as we shall see, but the prevailing type was +youthful, and the young lady contingent was attractive and had a good +deal of the quality which we call charm. I wrote a column for a local +paper, out of my experience on "Tying the Silken Knot," and Dr. Henry +Hinckley, referring to my contribution and using my title, went beyond +even my testimony, affirming that the City of Shoes furnished more +marriageable material to the square rod than any other city of its size, +and he seemed to attribute the fact, not merely to the incident that +they met here under pleasant auspices, but that they heard in churches +that marriage is honorable and that it is not good for man to be alone.</p> + +<p>A couple would come to the parsonage, and if the associate pastor went +to the door the young man would say, "Where's your foreman?" meaning +her husband. As the lady of the Manse was entirely supported by her +wedding fees and had money to lend, and as I married more people than +could be seated in my church, if they should come together at one time, +I have often deeply regretted that in the hurry and toil of removal, it +did not occur to me to invite them all to attend a special service to be +arranged for them, with specific hymns, and a practical address. I think +I can claim for the couples that I made happy, the banner low record in +the small percentage of divorces.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Royal Families</i></h3> + +<p>The house of one parishioner was built in the century before the last, +while General Washington was alive and on the earth, and was rich in +history and tradition. A call upon the family was a lesson out of +Colonial Records, the paper on the wall like that at Mt. Vernon, being +of the same period.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And, from its station in the hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">an ancient timepiece says to all,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">'Forever—never!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Never—forever!'"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Through days of sorrow and of mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through days of death and days of birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through every swift vicissitude<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as if, like God, it all things saw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It calmly repeats those words of awe<br /></span> +<span class="i6">'Forever—never!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Never—forever!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It knew more than I did, and could point out the moon's changes, and the +seasons, and the seconds.</p> + +<p>What makes the place? Not any one man, nor any group of men, but the +inner spirit of the city, what I will call the genius of community life, +which gives that indefinable tone that marks the city from the town, and +that when amplified belongs only to an industrial assemblage of people. +I attributed her phenomenal individualism, first to her unpedestaled +idol, Rev. Parsons Cook, D.D., who made so much of individual work and +accountability, also to her antecedents and atmosphere in which men +working alone developed the contemplative habits of shoemakers. As they +kept thinking they kept having new ideas and they had them hard. +Families dwelt apart. Nothing is so revolutionary as the development of +apartment hotels, and particularly of a prodigious number of +restaurants. Her social, charitable and benefit associations must have +arisen in the years under review, from almost a negligible quantity to +well-nigh half a thousand.</p> + + +<h3><i>A Social Revolution</i></h3> + +<p>In the self-evolving life of the place there has been a strong trend +toward associated life, which has reconditioned everything. It is +without a parallel in the entire history of the community. Cities are +themselves prominent waymarks in human history. Cincinnatus, when at his +plow, was summoned by voices from the city. The tendency toward +congregate life is witnessed by the enormous increase in the number of +play-houses and in the attendance upon them. In an earlier day one stood +for a time in solitary prominence and has become grandfather to a big +brood. There has been an astounding increase in what I will call the +department of service. If a person is on the street in the late +afternoon when the matinees are over, and the women's clubs, and as well +the errands and social visits, he will see another form of new, +associated life, in the descent by hundreds, upon all the new +delicatessen shops, and similar departments in stores where cooked and +nicely prepared foods are kept for evening tables. If anything has +seemed hungrier than these individuals, it has been the furnace during +severe weather.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Glory of the Commonplace</i></h3> + +<p>Because of increasing wealth and education and refinement, people put +out their work more into laundries and bakeries and general mutual +business concerns. This, like mercy, blesses him that gives and him that +takes. If anything is to be inferred from the growth in co-operative +housekeeping in the last generation it will come to some real good, +complete result, surely, in the next decade. Speed the day. It is of +course the solution in part of the servant girl question. What was once +a luxury is now assumed to be a necessity. As things are going, men will +soon refuse a mansion in the skies, unless luxuries are promised that +our ancestors never heard of. We would expect great development in a +rural community that is in the knee-pant period. As Cicero said, +"Nothing is discovered and perfected at the same time." We do well, for +every reason, to make much of what is so delightfully historic.</p> + +<p>Even patriotism is grounded and rooted in the past. I like a certain +relish there is in the place. The soul of it, too, suits my fancy. +Things, there, were in some way pitched in the right key. It took New +York a hundred and seventy-five years to gain its first thirty-three +thousand inhabitants. While our industrial city has developed very much +more rapidly, the unlikeness ceases, when it comes to the matter of +crooked streets, which prevail also in Boston, but some one has said +that he does not include Boston when he speaks of the United States. In +the inspired volume we read of a street that was called Straight, but +that term would not be applied to Pearl St. in New York, which hits +Broadway twice. Mr. Ruskin tells us that there is not one straight line +in nature.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Missing Link</i></h3> + +<p>Some newly revealed sources of wealth were uncovered, and the city +received her crown. More new men with high grade mechanical skill came +to be employed in the electric-light works than there were in Xenophon's +famous army. A rare opportunity came and she did that which is rarely +done. Some cities are famous for one thing. Kansas City for beef, +Chicago for modesty, Hartford for insurance, Milwaukee for beer, +Atlantic City for Board-walks, and Lynn for her new Boulevard to Nahant +and Swampscott. After a North-Easter, particularly on a high full tide, +when the spray is thrown over the tops of the telephone poles, the sight +is exhilarating. There is education in contact with affairs. The place +came to be the home of a capacious department-school of the mechanical +arts, and of the latest and most popular of all the sciences. Her +graduates filtered out into all the land. The situation was peculiar. +There were sounds in the air like the cracking of the ice, at the +incoming of spring, to prove to everybody that the Labor Movement was on +the way unlike the ice which forms at the bottom and rises to the top. +The Labor Movement was organized from the top downward, rather than from +the bottom up. The reformers felt a disposition to criticize existing +conditions. The custom prevailed of saying things derogatory to the +place. Then came a rather general practice of habitually decrying one's +town. Now there are two or three curious things about this habit of +disliking one's own town. One of them is that this vice seems to coexist +in human nature with even an intense degree of patriotism. Persons who +are second to none in love of country are among those who will permit +themselves to speak sneeringly of their particular town. Another amazing +fact about this evil habit is its prevalence. Max O'Rell has noted that +if you wish to hear some criticism of America you have only to go to +Boston. Persons, who have ever lived in the country, are sure that their +particular village is the worst place for gossip on the globe, and as if +this were not dispraise enough, they will refer to their native towns as +"dead and alive" places, or make some allusion to their having "gone to +seed," or prove to you that the best families have moved elsewhere, or +will apply the epithets "sleepy," "deserted," "God-forsaken," or else +they will sum up their villifications in a single expression and style, +for short, their native place as a "one-horse-town," and express +thankfulness that there are so many roads by which any one can leave it. +We all wish to be delivered from a man who so far from developing what I +will call place-pride, does not speak well of his own folks. I know of +a dog, that is said never to bark except at his own folks. The graduate +of a college, on entering politics is often deprived of his rightful +influence, by the popular feeling, that he feels called upon only to +criticise. But the further peculiarity of the habit of which I am +speaking is that it works on without discrimination. It involves some +places that are entitled to exception.</p> + + +<h3><i>Money in all Pockets</i></h3> + +<p>I had heard that money talked, but in this place it walked. It went up +and down the streets. I used to be amazed at the amount of money that +was out of doors. The plenitude of money, especially among young people, +astonished me. I had seen money after harvest, "When the ship comes in," +but here the young men and women were paid every week, and seemed to +have their money right where they could lay their hands upon it. I had +come from a place where people were well clothed, but here, it was +different, they were well dressed. There were no slums, no streets of +squalor. No quarters given over to the submerged tenth, to the socially +non-elect. There were a few improvident, impoverished or really +unfortunate families. One philanthropist drew the line on helping any +family that showed intemperance or kept a dog.</p> + +<p>The Oratorio Society, the far-famed choirs, with a master of +assemblies, more than a captain, a host in himself developing enthusiasm +in vocal music in the public schools, privately employed to visit +Sunday-schools to get everybody to sing, not only had a great influence +in the city, they had too much. They were exclusive, they smothered the +lyceum, displaced the lecture, hushed elocution.</p> + +<p>I used to complain publicly that the other arts did not get their +hearing.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Wine of Sweet Remembrance</i></h3> + +<p>As anyone who has lived in the past is expected to utter a wail that the +former days were better than these, I will be true to type and say +plainly that, nature being originally so profuse in her gifts, I greatly +miss the glorious gardens of an earlier day. Blossom Street and Vine +Street and Cherry Street tell, by their names, their own story: and the +tall ranks of the dahlias and the color of the azaleas, still sometimes +seen in miniature kindergartens, faintly indicate the early glories of +the place.</p> + +<p>In the good old times we had our sunken gardens. Their surface was often +lower than the grade of the streets, and this low rich soil of deep +alluvium had a perfect fury of productiveness.</p> + +<p>So, too, in constructing their earliest House of Prayer, the oldest +Congregational Church in the world<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> that stands on its original +ground, for warmth, not having stoves, they adopted the policy, like the +Germans, of digging themselves in, and laid the sills of their +meeting-house three feet under ground. As they advanced they were +children of fortune in the style and architecture of many of their +public buildings.</p> + +<p>The City Hall, in the period in which it was built, at the close of the +Civil War, was a gem. When I have seen some of the monstrosities worked +off on some of our cities and towns, made hideous under the guise of +architecture, with churches that in design seemed studied insults to the +Deity, I have repeatedly told the builders the exact amount of the fare +to this city where they could at least get their ideas up, obtain a +vision and gain a conception of what a building might become.</p> + + +<h3><i>Ancientness is Falling Off</i></h3> + +<p>I have attributed a remarkable escape, speaking broadly, from such +deformities, such travesties on the grace of architecture, the least +developed of the arts, that with pain we are forced to contemplate, to +the fact that this city is conspicuously a place of the people and they +will not stand for cranky, crazy fads and obsessions. At any hour for +forty years, a stranger to fear, with absolute confidence I could point +to buildings that it would be well enough to call perfect of their +kind. Once it would have been tolerable at a great Public Fair to +exhibit inventions, wares, and products under a rough shed; but public +taste has so advanced that at a World's Fair nothing less than a palace +meets the general expectation. On revisiting the earth, one awakens to +the fact that business organizations have set out to have buildings that +are not only commodious and suitable but they must be attractive and +interesting.</p> + +<p>The same fact is apparent in the evolution of railway architecture when +buildings must be pleasing as well as useful.</p> + + +<h3>"<i>Stray Historical Facts Corralled</i>"</h3> + +<p>This city did not happen. She adopted the policy of faith, and made +others believe in her because she believed in herself. She has attended +strictly to business, and has come to hold twice as many people as the +fourth largest state in the Union. In point of population, she is as +much entitled to an exclusive Congressman and to two United States +Senators as a state that is larger than New York, Pennsylvania, +Delaware, and Maryland combined. Or to use a better measure, she exceeds +in population one of the states that would overlay all New England. For +my work, no better place could have been found beneath the all-beholding +sun than this fair, expansive city, on its crescent bay, with its shore +drive where the Indians once held their running matches, which has now +become one of the boulevards of the world. Like the apple trees in an +old New England orchard, the men were marked by individuality. They were +fruitful, needed, prized, each had a place, but they were so different +in the way they stood up. There were active men, gifted in speech, who +had the training that came out of the old Lyceum and the Silsbee Street +Debating Society. Oxford Street Chapel, the home of a sort of +free-for-all religion, became a general receiver for all these +organizations and for reformatory work generally and eloquence was +dog-cheap. I have no doubt that many of these men are dead, but they are +alive to me. I see them as of old. To me they live in the same houses +and have the same peculiarities, and carry, on them, the same years that +they then wore.</p> + + +<h3><i>The By-products of Development</i></h3> + +<p>As I had been mixed up for some time with a professional set, I used to +sit in mute surprise to see such men, knowing the value of things, with +practised minds, devoting themselves to business life rather than the +old time professions, to the arts rather than to the sciences. Some of +these men had mental endowment enough to be physicians or Judges in +Court, but they devoted their fine minds to manufacturing. Some of them, +undoubtedly of great ability, did not deem themselves too good for +business or for the world. Men speak of conducting a business, but you +can not conduct a thing that is not moving, any more than a pilot can +steer a boat that is lying still, although I suppose it is possible to +conduct a vehicle when it is headed for the cemetery. They were just +suited to the times, and to the place, and to the task, and each one +seemed to contribute an individual part in making the city the world's +great shoe centre. Some men were strong at home, others were good +advertisers and solicitors and did work in the field from which all the +manufacturers benefited, whose manner of life need not be changed if the +Millennium had already come. For straight-forward, right-minded, +high-principled men, who keep their word, and keep the faith, I am bold +enough to invite the test, laid down in the inspired volume, which the +great patriarch met with such intense concern. First came the overture +that disaster should be averted from an imperiled city if fifty +creditable men should be found in it. He felt some misgiving about +finding fifty and entreated that the number be reduced to forty-five and +then that he be answerable for finding only forty, then thirty, then +twenty, then ten. I believe that if any one there were answering for +that place during the Golden Age, he could not only begin with the +smallest required number, ten, but that he could go up through the +schedule and find twenty, thirty, forty, forty-five, and fifty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Page 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Harper's Cyclopedia, p. 390, and The Book of Berkshire, +p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See Cook's Centuries, p. 30.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Revisiting the Earth, by James Langdon Hill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVISITING THE EARTH *** + +***** This file should be named 36697-h.htm or 36697-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/6/9/36697/ + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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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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: Revisiting the Earth + +Author: James Langdon Hill + +Release Date: July 11, 2011 [EBook #36697] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVISITING THE EARTH *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + REVISITING THE EARTH + + BY JAMES L. HILL, D.D. + +_Author of "The Immortal Seven," "The Scholar's Larger Life," "The Worst +Boys in Town," "Favorites of History," "The Century's Capstone," "Memory +Comforting Sorrow," "A Crowning Achievement," etc._ + + + "_We know not the future,--the past we have felt_" + + + RICHARD G. BADGER + THE GORHAM PRESS + BOSTON + + COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY RICHARD G. BADGER + + All Rights Reserved + + Made in the United States of America + + The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. + + + "'_Tis sweet to remember! I would not forego + The charm which the Past o'er the Present can thro_" + + + + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE SEMINARY OF LETTERS] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. REVISITING THE EARTH + +II. THE PICTURE LAND OF THE HEART + +III. THE DEAREST SPOT ON EARTH TO ME + +IV. THE LAND OF USED-TO-BE + +V. SEEN THROUGH THE LONG VISTA OF DEPARTED YEARS + +VI. WHERE WE PLAYED MUMBLE-THE-PEG + +VII. THE SCENE OF THE SCHOOL FIGHTS + +VIII. TOUCHING A LONG SLUMBERING CHORD + +IX. WHAT HAD BECOME OF THE OLD ECCENTRICITIES + +X. TO SEE AND FEEL THE PAST + +XI. A RETURN TO ONE'S HOLY LAND + +XII. LOOKING UP THE SONS OF WELL-REMEMBERED MOTHERS + +XIII. THINGS THAT HAD PASSED AWAY "STILL LIVE" + +XIV. WHERE A VISITANT SEES MORE THAN A RESIDENT + +XV. WHERE I MET MYSELF + +XVI. RETRACING THE OLD PATHS + +XVII. GOING BACK TO MY PADAN-ARAM + +XVIII. A NEW KNOCK AT AN OLD DOOR + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THE LITTLE SEMINARY OF LETTERS + +"I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER THE HOUSE WHERE I WAS BORN" + +THE LITTLE SANCTUARY + +PARADISE LOST--BEFORE THE SALEM FIRE + +PARADISE REGAINED--AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION + +THE MEETING OF "THE SENATE" + +A SEAT OF LEARNING FULL OF MEMORIES + +THE GROUNDS OF THE BELOVED COLLEGE + +THE GREATEST PLEASURE GIVEN TO MAN + + + + +REVISITING THE EARTH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +REVISITING THE EARTH + + +To revisit the earth after one's departure from it has always been a +common wish among men. The frequency with which this desire is expressed +in biographies and in literature, keeps the project alive, and works it +to the front in one's plans. Benjamin Franklin presents the thought in +such attractive dress that we incline to adopt it for a programme. There +is one item in his proposition that calls for argument at the bar of +public opinion. It touches the length of the interval that should be +suffered to elapse before the visit is made. So rapid is the growth, so +radical are the changes, that if one's reappearance is too long delayed +he would recognize nothing in the new conditions. He might as well set +himself down in some other unfamiliar place. The postponement should not +exceed a third of a century. It is his world that a man wants to see, +and each one has his own. His antecedents and experiences have given to +it a distinctive character. + + +_To Open Books that are Sealed_ + +On a golden day the thought came to me unbidden, I have seen three and +thirty years rise and fall since I have viewed the identical spots that +I would care most to look upon. Instantly I made the resolve, I will +visit, in the first eight weeks of summer, every place in which I have +lived or loved or labored. I ascertained, in advance, the name of some +kindly disposed person at each point in my itinerary, who could identify +the site of the house in which I lived, if it is not still standing, +also of the school and church that I attended. The letter I had written +was handed in one case to the editor of the local paper, who featured +it, in his columns, asking for the names of persons now living who +remembered me. Here is plainly seen an insuperable objection to waiting +Ben Franklin's interval of one hundred years before revisiting the +earth. This correspondence, which contributed immeasurably to the +pleasure and profit of the project, ought to be undertaken, while there +are two parties to conduct it. Where one's coming is expected and +welcomed he passes at once into the right relations to the place, also +into the atmosphere he desires. + + +_Let Me Drop a Hint Here Like a Seed_ + +I care not how widely you have traveled if you have never made a pious +pilgrimage to your childhood's shrines--you have still missed your +superlative pleasure. + +It is possible for you to live your life over and the part commended for +you to live over again is when you were young. + +Here is rejuvenation. To live one's life over is to live it twice. This +amounts to doubling it. Who would not do it? If the period of time +during which one may live on the earth is fixed, it certainly is +limited, if there is a possible way to live twice, what one does live, +he would better be extremely hospitable to the scheme. Opposition will +come from three sources, first from the man who thinks himself taken up +by the future and by his hopes. But it is patience that works +"experience and experience hope." Hope detached from the present and the +past is such a baseless fabric of a vision that it probably will not +leave even so much as a wreck behind. Another man will counter with the +familiar statement that his eyes are on the front of his head and he +only travels in the direction that they lead. + +Now my kind, optimistic brother, I have a word here for you. You are +traveling in blinders. You are a mechanical pace-setter. All your +training is for the middle of the road. It is counted a physical +deformity if a person cannot turn his head. It is an expression of +opprobrium to find people stiff-necked. The chief office of a vehicle is +to carry on, yet for use at home, a carriage that cannot be turned round +would be extremely inconvenient. + + +_Pausing for a Fore-taste_ + +The observation car giving the best view to be had of the mountain +landscape as it waltzes by, is placed at the rear of the train. The most +extravagant demonstrations of joy and gratitude, our most hallowed +feelings come from looking back on what has been done unto us and for +us. + +Hesitancy about revisiting the earth comes lastly from those who think +they have lost their interest in days that are gone, that forgetfulness +has done its sad work, that the dead past has buried its dead. It is to +witness the miracle of a resurrection that we are uttering our cry. + + +_Waymarks of the Journey_ + +They assume that a fact or a name is gone into oblivion when, for +example, they are unable by a repeated effort to recall it. The mind is +a delicate organism. You cannot well force things. It has its own laws +of suggestion. Once coming into the old surroundings, which rake up the +past, standing again on a recognized corner, which carry one's thoughts +back with delight into familiar haunts, the law of association will put +on the tip of your tongue names and incidents that you supposed to be +clean forgotten. If a person had asked me to give the name of the first +barber that ever set foot in the town of my boyhood home, I would have +believed it sunk in oblivion. In the summer coming upon the cross-roads, +I said, "Here stood the first barber shop in town." The name of the +negro, even, that kept it flashed on my mind. It was Stanbach, the last +syllable as he pronounced it ended with the German guttural. His son, a +little freckled mulatto, was called Johnnie Stanbach. When a little +full-blooded negro appeared, Johnnie would not associate with him. He +was "too black," "black enough to smut a body." + + +_The Mind's Re-invigoration_ + +When Hon. James O. Crosby, an eminent lawyer, in my native village, +having a large practice in the courts of the county, met the father of +John R. Mott of merited distinction, a living force, this was the +dialogue: "How do you do, Mr. Mott!" "How do you do, Mr. Crosby!" and +then taking Mr. Crosby's hand Mr. Mott said to him, "Your face seems +familiar but I cannot seem to recall your name." This occurrence gives a +volume of experience in revisiting the earth. When Mr. Mott badgered his +mind to recall Mr. Crosby's name, his intellect balked, utterly, and +continuously refused to act. The mind often halts, even as to common +words. One's mental powers come to a sudden pause, like circus horses, +and a man recovers their use, not by any effort of will, but by some +sudden, and almost impulsive, suggestion. Recent events and dates are +easily lost or pass into confusion while those of long prior time still +hold firm root and their right place in remembrance. As we have seen, a +quick, unerring, even unconscious mental spring, acting according to the +laws of the association of ideas will unaided and without effort, bring +a name, pent up in one's memory, promptly forward for his instant use. +The value of this power is beyond estimation. Occurrences supposed to be +forgotten are very much alive, when upon old familiar ground. Revisiting +the earth is a simple string of these acts of spontaneous recollection. +If you hear a few notes of music, the inseparable association, that +exists in the mind, suggests the rest of the tune. That is a very apt +expression, when a person says he is haunted by a tune. It implies an +existence, in the chambers of the brain, that is making a stir and which +he supposed to be dead. The simple act of thus recalling an event is in +itself the most wonderful of all mental processes. + + +_The Re-creation of the World_ + +I heard of a man who had over-looked the fact that memory paints with +fast colors, also that a recollection that is dim in one locality is +bright in another. On reaching a scene of early associations, on picking +up a thing, he found it was like one of the links of a chain, that one +being stirred, others were moved and the man was found discoursing on +How I improved my memory in one evening. On revisiting the earth, +memories are awakened which, but for coming upon the old soil, would +probably have slept silently to the end of life. It is given to me, to +have a distinct testimony in this matter. Many others can corroborate +these hints by startling facts in their own lives and without any +stretch of their imagination. I was brought to the belief, that a person +may not ever forget anything. The recollection turns out to be a +faithful, painstaking, autobiographer. This almost scares a person. A +wand seemed to be waved and forth came people and anecdotes and events +that he supposed were in oblivion. There turns out to be, not only a +recollection of the head, but also a memory of the heart. The process is +different. On the one hand a boy commits to memory and learns by rote, +on the other hand there are some things he loves. All these he knows by +heart. This is an undying, imperishable recollection. It is the +immortality of the affections. Vividness of feeling does it. All that +pertains to home, he learns by heart. It is as indestructible as his +eternal being. "Dot must be der vonderful blace Ohm, to make der British +cry. I tink to myself, I vill go and see dis blace, Ohm, vot der vos no +blace like. Vich is der vay to 'Ohm, Sweet Ohm?'" Where the affections +have been unlocked and the whole inner man has been stirred,--a high +water mark has been registered in one's memory that can never be +eradicated. Your heart shall live forever, so shall all of your heart's +histories. They give you something that the thieving years can never +take away. I have pleasure in adding to the assurance of it. + + +_Blessing in the Guise of an Excursion_ + +It is now only one hundred and eighty generations, as we used to be +taught, since Adam, peace to his memory and his ashes, who was +grandfather of us all. There are thus but one hundred and seventy-eight +generations between us and him. This would take but one hundred and +seventy-eight father-to-son steps to bring us to the original family +home in the Garden of Eden. There are only one hundred and eighty +life-times to review. The grandfather of Noah, who was six hundred years +old when he encountered the flood, was Methuselah, who remembered Adam. +If our line of ancestry is so short, and if all the progress we have +made has been accomplished within a history so brief, it is little +wonder that the transformations to be witnessed in one of these not +numerous generations are so incredible and so instructive. + +I do not know, but I may class traveling among our duties. It opens new +spheres of thought and observation and places us in new relations to +mankind and makes us better students of human nature. Leisure is sweet +to the taste and for that reason it soon palls. Pleasure is a +by-product. Enjoyment is greatest when it is incidental to some +well-advised quest. Idleness is the least pleasure of a holiday. To make +high festival of a pilgrimage to a shrine is more common in the older +nations than in our own. It is the habit of the human mind to love that +which is memorial in its character. We cannot, as Longfellow says, buy +with gold the old associations. "He that is searching for rare and +remote things will neglect those that are obvious and familiar. It is +remarkable," continues Dr. Johnson in the preface to his dictionary, +"that in reviewing my collection of words I found the word 'sea' +unexemplified." I have had many vacations, in places wide apart. Having +gone further and fared worse, returning to what is nearer, having an +inspiration of beauty upon it, I say, touching Revisiting the Earth, as +David declared of Goliath's sword, There is none like that, give me it. +Never did a child perform an errand with more alacrity than I executed +this mission. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PICTURE LAND OF THE HEART + + +The day is blue above, without a cloud. Will you walk with me through +our village, gentle reader? We will begin at the handsome open square. +Now as we advance my heart leaps at the sight of my birthplace. What a +pretty location it is! Here is "the cot of my father:" "In youth it +sheltered me." It is the "loved spot which my infancy knew." "How dear +to my heart" is this "scene of my childhood." Happy childhood thus early +blessed with blessings hereditary to all after hours! There is no place +so suggestive and interesting in our adult years as that in which we +began life. It is one of those exquisite situations which paint their +own picture insensibly in the memory while you look on them, natural, +daguerreotypes, as it were. Considered only as a house, it left some +things to be desired but it is never to be considered only as a house. +Why is it that we thus love the place of our birth? Why have all men +done the same? The son of the mist, in Scott, in his dying hour, begged +that he might be turned so that his eyes could rest once more upon his +native hills and close with their latest vision fixed there. Why did the +hero of Virgil, in his death hour, manifest his love for the place of +his birth which is so beautifully narrated by that immortal bard? It is +an instinct, which gives to it a place in the human heart, and such an +expression in human thought. Like poetry it is born with us, not made. +There probably is no stronger feeling in us than that of attachment to +our first home. A man transplanted to another field may have succeeded +well. His condition may have been vastly improved and yet he may have +drooped without apparent cause, in his temporary home, pining for those +days which were passed in the Eden of his life. I could not get enough +of the place. Must I leave thee, dear sacred spot, how can I leave thee? +My heart was full and the tears started to my eyes as I gazed around +upon every object. The words of my earliest progenitor, on leaving our +ancestral garden, as quoted by Milton, came to me, "Must I leave thee, +paradise?" + + +_The Vine Must Have the Wall_ + +Luther could appear in battle scenes for social and religious reform +with undaunted spirit. He could oppose the enemies of his faith without +a trembling nerve. He could resist those, bent on his destruction, with +the courage and calmness of a Christian hero, but when upon a journey +to meet the Counts of Mansfield, he came in sight of his own native +Eisleben, the great man was overcome with emotion and he bowed his head +and wept. + + +"_The Man Returned who Left these Haunts a Boy_" + +Congress voted unanimously in 1824 to invite Lafayette to visit this +country. He was received everywhere with great demonstrations of popular +enthusiasm and his progress through the country resembled a continuous +triumphal procession. He visited, in succession, each of the twenty-four +states, and all the principal cities which vied to do him honor, but +relatively he was unmoved. A splendid coach was at his service. He +passed beneath an elaborate arch blazoned with words of welcome, but +Lafayette relatively was unmoved. Sitting quietly with no expectation +excited, before a screen in a public assembly, the curtain lifted and +there stood his birthplace, in speaking beauty and suggestiveness and +all the deeps of his heroic nature were broken up and he sobbed audibly +like a child. The strong old home still held him to its heart. + +How is such a birthplace marked? Chiefly by a gush of rich emotion in +the heart of him who claims it as his own. Nature attends to that. A boy +has warm affections. A birthplace may have no Forefathers' Rock. +Peregrine White was not born there. No Charter Oak or Washington Elm, +with living dignity may identify the place. There may be no cellar which +concealed the royal judges, nor any door pierced by Indian bullets, nor +drums which awaked the sleepers at Lexington and Concord, yet it is +distinctively sacred to one's childhood days. It has the deep endearment +of a darling home. + + "I remember, I remember + The house where I was born + The little window where the sun + Came peeping in at morn." + +"Where is my home? I want to go before dark," said a spirited little +fellow of three years. The action of his inner nature was like the +turning of the needle to the pole. Thus an unfortunate child will put up +a fight for his birthright and he will not yield without returning to +the struggle. He wants his heritage. + +[Illustration: "I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER, THE HOUSE WHERE I WAS BORN"] + + +_The Gate to Life_ + +Somehow my heart keeps flying back to my birthplace as Antony's kept +flying back to Egypt. If a man has no heart, if he is altogether lacking +in veneration the attention given to his birthplace by other persons +would impress it upon his notice. "Where were you born?" asks the life +insurance agent. What has that to do with it? How does that affect the +situation? Why does he not limit himself to vital statistics, like +your age, habits, general health? Through more than three thousand +closely printed pages, Who's Who in America, carefully mentions in each +biography the birthplace of the subject. There must be some reason for +making this one of the chief facts when the space is needed to tell of +positions held, wealth and fame acquired. + +At this point a daily paper comes to my desk containing an interesting +recital touching America the Beautiful. We are informed that Miss Bates +"has a most sympathetic personality" and "is a native of Falmouth on +Cape Cod." Are the song and person better or different from that which +they would have been if instead of Falmouth the birthplace had been +Yarmouth or Barnstable or Wellfleet Several towns in France are +disputing the honor of being the birthplace of General Foch. The papers +and magazines speak of his genius, of his responsible position, the most +distinguished in military history, of his never-resting blow-on-blow +method of conquering, but they cut the thread of an interesting +narrative short, to consider the question of his birthplace as if that, +after all, was a principal question. It seems that "the Lord shall count +when he writeth up the people that this man was born there." Agents and +learned men, and it appears even the deity, attach significance to the +place of one's birth. So then will I. + + "Dear native village, I foretell, + Though for a time I say farewell, + That wheresoe'er my steps shall tend, + And whensoe'er my course shall end, + My soul will cast the backward view, + THE LONGING look alone on you." + +But there are spots on the sun. There's a fly in the ointment. I am +suffering from an incurable complaint. I was born too soon. I cannot now +put the clock back. Besides we are entering on a new era. There is to be +an overturning. Society and the ways of government and the methods of +business are to be changed and I want to be a witness and would like to +be a factor. The temper of each generation is a surprise. This new +period is to be different in its ideals, employments, and conditions and +I would like to be entirely of it. + + +_Footprints on the Sands of Time_ + +I took up the other day a book of fiction that is equally the delight of +the child and of the man and opened it where a picture represented the +surprise of Robinson Crusoe at discovering the print of a man's foot on +the seashore. On revisiting the earth it touches one's emotion after +being orphaned, islanded, for a generation from one's father to come +upon his footprints in his old haunts. Without the experience of it, on +visiting an early home, no one would imagine, what a shadowy train of +memory, involving all the past, would come crowding before his eyes, +filling his heart with a pleasant pain, and a sweet bitterness. Only +once stand in the old environment and feel the atmosphere of early +living conditions and a vivid panorama of faces that it was thought had +vanished and scenes that it was supposed had faded will unroll "when +fond recollection presents them to view." I hardly realized how sweet +those memories were to me until my visit. I began to see that one must +get away from home, be exiled for a while, to gain a pensive mood. +Homesickness is in reality a spiritual instinct, a needed, useful force. +Howard Payne felt its power when living in a garret in Paris, on the +edge of starvation, he longed for his "lowly thatched cottage again," as +David longed for a drink of the water of the well of his birthplace, +which is by the gate of Bethlehem. This locality was the playground of +my childhood. It is connected with the sweetest ties that can bind one's +thoughts to the past. I stand in a fixed position. This is the location +of my earliest recollection. Here memory began. This was a new birth. +Commencing in the community and continuing all along thereafter, by +inquiry, I have sought widely to ascertain at what point in the lives of +other persons, recollection made a start. From his biography by his +daughter I learn that my whilom instructor, Professor Austin Phelps, +remembered Napoleon's death, an event that occurred when he was two. +Franklin says he was a reader from his infancy. Samuel Johnson, before +he was two, had begun to take a permanent hold upon events. One of my +associates recalls a theatric incident that occurred when he was two. My +recollection made no registration until after I was three and this was a +scene here in my father's new unfinished church, and among its primitive +temporary seats which were without backs. Thus I stand where my outlook +on the world began. At that point I see myself for the first time in my +career. Other events follow in close order but it has been a great +pleasure that my angel mother and her beloved church are ineffaceably +pictured on the front page of my book of remembrance. + + +_Things Sweet to Remember_ + +To discover that modest House of Prayer in which my father began his +ministry was like a miracle, like finding someone who had risen from the +dead. My eye was not satisfied with seeing it twice or thrice. I +contemplated it as I would the "House not made with hands," I could have +kneeled and kissed the threshold of this historic but very lowly temple. +It seemed a construction transported, ready-built into this world and +located in one of its most delightful spots. It seemed different, like +a piece of meteoric stone which for a fact appears here but whose +home has been in the skies, and like the stony pillow on Judea's plain +it became to my vision a House of God. This is a holy land to me. It +savors of the assemblies of the saints. If I were looking for beauty I +would return to that divine abode. A stranger not knowing the +antecedents of the little sanctuary would discern no form nor comeliness +in it. It was an hour when one could think of but two things, one was +home, and one was heaven. These earthly objects have a comeliness, a +simple dignity, and nattiness which are beyond the reach of art. How it +elevates the spirit to stand, thrilled by a beautiful romance and find +that it is not romance at all but unspeakably sacred reality. + + "Aye call it holy ground + The soil where first they trod." + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE SANCTUARY] + +Oh the brave, the noble souls who have laid foundations. They were elect +people set apart to a sacred service which has no equal in this world's +history. I am not "the wretch + + Who never to himself hath said + This is my own my native land." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DEAREST SPOT ON EARTH TO ME + + +The flood gates of memory opened wide as the lamented Queen of England, +with the weight of eighty years resting upon her, was wheeled in her +chair, from room to room in the old fashioned brick palace at +Kensington. Here in this unpretentious princely abode with its beautiful +name, she was born, and here when she was waked very early out of heavy +sleep to be hailed, Queen, she said prettily, "I will be good." + +She kept her word. Here remain, as she left them her doll's house, the +miniature counter where she sold ribbons and laces to imaginary +customers, the doll's linen, marked with her own childish cross-stitch +and the furniture and mementoes which cause the plain, irregular, rather +homely structure to be hallowed as the shrine of Victoria. Here she saw +her little set of cooking utensils, her child's scrapbook and little +boxes of paints with camel's hair brushes. She lingered lovingly over +these objects, which once meant so much to her, and as the vivid +association and tender suggestiveness of her surroundings touched her +feelings, in the presence of a group of dolls, being amid her toys, she +desired the attendants who accompanied her to withdraw, expressing the +desire, in that sacred place, to be alone. + + +_The Glory of Life in its First Spring_ + +On revisiting the earth I wanted to be alone on reaching my memory room. +In that corner stood my trundle bed and about here, well say about +there, is where I kneeled to say my earliest prayers. I have never felt +so rich since, as I did when I came into the undisputed and sole +possession of a hair-covered trunk which I could lock and bear away the +key. Into this trunk I emptied the week's accumulation of all my +week-day pockets as often as I put on my Sunday clothes. In this old +hide-bound trunk were my sainted mother's letters, and missives with my +own name in large John Hancock looking letters on the back, from my +grandfather who kept store and sometimes sent me pocket pieces of money. +On the outside of the pack, always in view, always to be kept, no more +resembling others than an electric light resembles a tallow dip, was the +first letter personally addressed to me that I ever received. Here was a +child's cheap album containing photographs of Commodore Nutt and Minnie +Warren, of a family of Albinos having white hair and pink eyes, and of +a fat boy only 16 years old that had struck me with wonder. Here is a +red morocco bag in which I kept my ill-gotten gains in marbles. Although +forbidden to play "keeps" myself, the neighbor's boy, a surer shot, did +not hesitate with my capital to engage in the excitement and to make a +"divy" of the proceeds, while I watched the game, and as a better +disciple carried the bag. I used to feel a real pride in my collection. +I knew the price of each kind and computed the value of them all to a +cent. That day was marked by the event when I exchanged so many of the +brown, baked, clay sort, for a big taw alley (made of alabaster). Some +of the big chinas were striped in varied colors and we made a sharp +difference between those where the bright color was laid on and soon +began to wash and wear and those where it was baked in like the pictures +on cups, where it is as indestructible as the material itself. To this +day I cannot see boys playing at marbles without feeling a strong desire +to join them. + + +_The Rule of the Shekel_ + +Among playthings my specialty was marbles. I specialized on three lines, +blue clays, real agates, the handsomest of all marbles, and big glass +center-pieces. I knew well just what I must hold to dominate the market +and just how many of the common sort a boy would give for an alley taw, +or tor, as we used to pronounce it. Taw is the line or limit from which +the players shoot. Others would have returned from the visit to the old +time school-house to the hotel. I knew a merchant well, who being +delighted with his entertainment in Lucerne did not think it worth while +to go out to the leaf-embowered pool to see Thorwaldsen's Lion. Naples +has such outstanding beauty that the visitor is ready to "die" and thus +omits any visit to Vesuvius, the most famous elevation in the world. But +I went from the school-ground to the place, where the soil was once +beaten to the hardness of a floor, by the village boys, who, each of +them, placed one or two marbles in a ring and in turn shot at them and +he who obtained most of them by beating them out of the ring was the +winner. We were happy + + "To kneel and draw + The chalky ring and knuckle down at taw." + +Here in this trunk were my old club skates which I used to sharpen +myself and tie on with strings and leathern thongs, and here was an old +ball which, I, having first ravelled the yarn, wound myself and cut the +cover out of an old boot top in the good democratic days of town-ball or +of "Two-old-cat," when we chose up, for the ins, and did not leave the +playing to a few, and half of them from out of town, when a "foul" and +"daisy-cutter" were unknown terms. While one dear, sweet, +not-to-be-valued-with-the-Gold-of-Ophir object remained among them, it +has been hard for me to "put away childish things." Most people are +extremely like one's self, and choosing among relics would be supposed +to first take one of the sandals of Empedocles, fabled to have been cast +forth by Aetna. This father of rhetoric, statesman, prophet, and +reformer threw himself into that volcano to disappear and leave no trace +and thus establish a belief that he was so beloved of the gods that he +was translated. But the volcano would not stand for this imposition and +threw out one of his sandals. But I am not interested in such a relic +when it is compared with a little token that tells of the deep desire +there is in every heart to be remembered. + + +_The Last Wish of Ambitious Minds_ + +We shrink from the fate of being dropped out of sight and out of +thought. It strikes a pang to a mother's heart to even hear the adage +"out of sight, out of mind." Trading upon her warm feelings, she was +solicited to buy, as a birthday gift for her boy, a little china cup, +highly colored, inscribed with the words, "remember me." This little +token proved to be the best seller on the market. The longer it is kept +the greater is the desire to keep it. The child is not asked to prize +the gift. The legend upon it tells rather her intensest longing. Her +one deepest wish at the moment of final parting could not be better +expressed. + + "A place in thy memory, dearest, + Is all that I claim: + To pause and look back when thou hearest + The sound of my name." + +The absence of the giver makes the gift more dear. I do not call this +idolatry. A German doctor of divinity has expressed the common feeling +in an exaggerated form, by saying that he loved God, in his mother and +in his wife and children. He saw God-likeness in them and they commended +the love of God to him. Certainly next to pleasing God the desire to +honor the memory of my father and mother has been my highest incentive +in life. One of these motives does not leave off when the other begins. +It is a kind of piety which is natural to me. It is spontaneous and +seems divinely implanted. Reverence toward Godly people is at least a +schooling in piety. I mean of course God's church and God's Book when I +speak of my mother's church and my mother's bible. When one is given his +old seat in his childhood's home, his mother seems near, and he feels +like saying to her, + + "I've passed through many a changing scene + Since thus I sat by thee; + O, let me look into thine eyes; + + Their meek, soft, loving light + Falls like a gleam of holiness + Upon my heart tonight." + +That great truth which Gray tells us he discovered for himself, and +which very few people learn, till they find it by experience, went to my +heart, that in this world a human being never can have more than one +mother. + +It is a peculiar expression that people use when they say that they +"keep" Lent, or "keep" Sunday, or "keep" Christmas, or "keep" a +birthday. They mean that they observe it, and by thus marking it they +get something out of it which is pleasant and suggestive. We all have +our little festivals, life's private anniversaries, these jubilees of +the heart which we love to celebrate. That day is a high day, when the +old homestead becomes an inspiration point. Stores, long ago laid by in +the memory, come forth from their hiding places. In unexpected +exaltation of spirit, one is lifted above himself. + + +_Strikes a Chord Unconsciously_ + +He gets out of himself and lives for the hour a sort of sublime life. It +was worth the trip to obtain such a revelation of my own mind. Of all +the works of the Creator's power and wisdom the mind bears most plainly +the private mark of the invisible God. Things have almost a miraculous +power to visualize persons. This is true to an extent that will not be +believed. And here is a perplexity. Shall I insist upon the point? The +incredible part is the particular thing I want to emphasize. The trundle +bed, the hair-covered trunk, the stairs, the door, the window become +active factors, and the faculties awaking out of long heavy slumber +become vocal. Faces and tones are at once recalled and intensely vivid +remembrances take shape, hue and voice. Spirits of father and mother, +are ye here, entering into the high communion of this hour? The +suggestiveness of the environment was such that somehow and suddenly, I +was a boy again. This is such a day as that in which our parents blessed +us, and such a day as that in which our mother fulfilled both of those +relations to us. Her love was like spikenard, perfuming the house. Two +good friends I there summoned to go with me, memory and resolution. One +of these friends reinforces the work of the other. When I vividly +remember, I want to make a consecration. I want to do some sacrificial +act, and to do it distinctively for mother's sake. Now, henceforth, "No +day without something learned: no day without something done." I took +some live coals off the home altar to start new fires. Our ancestors +had, what they styled "living" money and "dead" money. In emergencies +they sought to convert dead resources into currency. My legacy is a +memory and the old battered trunk which was a little world in itself. + + +_Old Home Looks Young Again_ + +In the days of my top and kite-hood, the trunk had constantly to be +opened because something had been forgotten. How small a thing it was to +contain as much as I thought there was in it. I showed my regard for it +by the things I entrusted to it. The germ of every home I ever had was +in it. Its contents I have almost idolized. I speak advisedly, I would +rather lose the house than what, reserved from it, has come down with me +through the years, taken with their setting. A boy likes a place to keep +his things. A boy accumulates. That's his nature. An associate has just +said that his first memory was a suit that had pockets. There is +something in a boy's constitution that gives him a large use for +pockets. To empty them is not a convenience, merely, but a necessity, as +in his use of them they project like two bay-windows. His nature +necessitates a trunk. There must be a secret spot around which can rally +the sentiments that a home awakens and conserves. A mother loves to get +a Bible into this trunk, which is to be the center-point to his heart +and home. Mother's sentiment was well chosen. This book will keep you +from sin and sin will keep you from this book. They do not go together. +They do not keep company. This Bible had about it what it calls "a sweet +smelling savor." A new pocket book, a gift from my grandfather, was also +quite redolent but the odor of these was different. + + +_The Odor of Apple Blossoms_ + +I read in an old legend that a Damascus Blade gave forth both sparks and +perfume. My sense of smell was always exceedingly acute. It has guarded +me often against exposure. I can instantly detect invisible forms of +peril. I knew a way to find out about those qualities of a Damascus +Blade. A boy is always ready to educate himself by the use of his sense +perceptions, and is particularly prompt with taste and smell. I had from +the first a rare, refreshing pleasure from flowers, perfumes, aromatic +materials producing a sweet odor when burned and the smell of fruits. I +used to love the fragrance of new hay and of the freshly plowed ground +and of the earth when moistened by a quick summer shower, the scented +fumes wafted from the land when approached from the ocean, and the fishy +smell of the shore when you have reached it. The odor of a well-kept +light harness when well warmed up on a fine gaited horse, and the odor +of the varnish on the carriage, I, to this hour, remember from my +boyhood days. I loved the intensity of odors so peculiar, so unlike +those of summer, that we used to notice after the frost had fallen, when +the winter was at hand, and the aroma of the woods having been first +imprisoned, was exhaled by a warm sun, in a cloud of incense. All the +sense perceptions were wide open to the mind. We were constantly +learning. Life was a school without recesses or vacations and had a full +corps of instructors in all the departments. + +"Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee." "There are, it may be, so +many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without +signification." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAND OF USED-TO-BE + + +The particular thing taught in the early school, as I recall it, was to +make a bow. When a boy was about to speak a piece he made his manners +and at the conclusion of his address he again caused his head to descend +and made a quick nervous stoop. Declamation was made of three parts, two +of which were the introductory bow and the concluding one. If the bow +was grotesque, the speaker was recalled, not only to bow, but to do it +gracefully. It is nothing to the credit of those scholars that in later +life they sometimes forgot to perform the gracious act, which this +master sacrificed other items to teach. The schedule, day by day, was a +mere overture to the main performance which came at the end of the term +which was the exhibition. This came "the last day." As the libraries +were small the pupils searched high and low to find a "piece." This was +a new task to those who had been simple answer-hunters. In arithmetic +they were informed in advance what result they must attain and to reach +it was to do their sums. But now there is involved also the human +equation. + + +_Dolling Up_ + +When they came "to speak in public on the stage," they were noisily +dressed. They would have looked better and felt better in customary +apparel, but they were ill at ease and this helped to mark a red-letter +day. + +The whole town was moved. The scholars were full of excitement over the +glory of the occasion. The country side was deserted. The farmers with +all the members of their families appeared in town. There was no room to +stable the horses and so they were covered with many other articles +besides blankets, there being no uniformity to their uniform. They were +tied for the very long evening in the lee of some stack or shed. The boy +who spoke the last piece excited great admiration, particularly, in the +minds of his proud father and of his adoring mother. + + "So sleeps the pride of former days, + So glory's thrill is o'er, + And hearts that once beat high for praise + Now feel that pulse no more." + +Interest in these things so then developed that Mr. Caldwell had to +compose dialogues of a spicy picturesque character for our public use. +He incited his scholars to enter into the spirit of their single pieces +and dialogues and his exhibitions surprised and delighted the audiences +so admirable became the performance of children and youth. Fine +declamation was to him what painting is to an artist, or melody to the +musician, it was a passion, and nerved him for effort. Scholars still +live all about who can "witness if I lie." The stage afterward must have +claimed many of those actors for they showed unquestioned genius for the +art of theatrical representation. The conditions were primitive, but for +the platform we must have curtains, so when the eventful moment came, +sheets and table-cloths instead were pulled aside, these being the only +curtains that were available and we had to live with what we had. The +"stage properties" were hastily gathered from the homes of participants. + + +_Fitted for a Day Sure to Come_ + +As the parents attended these exhibitions, the contagion caught them and +then followed the lyceum. It swept the town, it was the most popular +thing ever. I distinctly remember the evening when they discussed Neal +Dow's Maine liquor law, my father participating. One of our neighbors +carried the honor of out-talking the whole field. Let his thoughts slide +into the familiar current and they flowed on easily and indefinitely. +For debate they caught at Bulwer's dramatic sentence, The pen is +mightier than the sword, and they argued the pros and cons without +getting a verdict, leaving thus to Germany and the Allies to bring the +time honored discussion to an end with a demonstration that no one will +ever be able effectively to question. To these meetings each man brought +a candle but no candle-stick. From the lighted end, he would drop a +little tallow on the desk, and thus set up the candle, that it would +give light to all that were in the house. What a sight greeted us the +next morning. + + "The Isles of Greece! + The Isles of Greece!" + +Friction matches, which according to Faraday, were the most useful +invention of the age were not then sold, loose in boxes, but were made +in cards, each match being detached only a part of its length from the +others which stood with it in a thin layer of wood. The word, Lyceum, +marks an era in the United States. It means a great school of debate, a +college that grants no degrees. It gives me a sadness that is not akin +to pain, to hear a young person designate a building as Lyceum Hall, +using the word as if it were Grampian Hall or Hamilton Hall, having no +glorious, clear conception of what the name of the hall signified to the +early community. Tradesmen, farmers, professional men, themselves +readers and thinkers, above all restless and eager disputants would meet +night after night to discuss the unselfish problems of life. At first +they were not allowed to speak upon irritable subjects. They tried to +escape both the Scylla and the Charybdis of religious and political +contentions, but in early days narrow was the way. Some sanguine souls +sought to build a suspension bridge over the foaming waters of +controversy and to find a way of union for the bitter strife and +dissension that only cases of conscience can supply. This little +community-university was co-educational. The women too were welcomed, +not only to the meeting where their presence was a stimulus to the +debaters, but to participation in the conduct of the lyceum paper, +which, read by one of the sterner sex, often contained contributions by +the women. In it were witty conundrums, based on local names and +conditions, pointed suggestions, humorous hits at the hardships they +were at the moment experiencing, which enabled the people to laugh at +their own privations. Deep feeling and marked literary ability were +often shown in the contributions to this unprinted paper. It was for +just such pages as these that the first poems of Lucy Larcom were +produced, and she says that if she had learned anything by living it was +that education may proceed "not through book learning alone, sometimes +entirely without it." + + +_Flights of Oratory_ + +The outstanding feature of the lyceum was the report of the critic. He +must be a bright glad witty man without a shade of vulgarity, a perfect +master of all those nice little arts which give zest to conversation and +a quaint coloring and a good deal of it, to his thoughts. I have a +pleasant record of him. His chief theme was always, The Ladies. No one +of them could do anything poorly enough to get anything but a warm +encomium. If the debaters did well it was because the ladies by their +presence gave just such cheer as bands of music contributed to +Napoleon's army, when getting their heavy cannon over St. Bernard Pass. +This critic never had the affrontery to lecture the participants. "Who +made thee a ruler and a judge over us?" Mathew Arnold came over here to +lecture us, from the know-it-all point of view, and began his work +without any specific preparation for any evening, discussing no +sympathetic theme, and the people declined to hear. The great benefit of +the lyceum, to say the least of it, was that the whole conduct of it +rested solidly on the men who blended in it and habitually attended it. +It came right up out of the intellectual force, the convictions, the +good neighborhood feeling and intelligence of the community. These +debates developed leaders in the various departments of mental effort. +It sent debaters straight into the State legislature. It was like +running a magnet over a dust heap, in that it revealed metal, and drew +it out, and this was what people were looking for. Any one who looks +over the surface of our towns finds many minds, endowed by nature with +brilliant faculties and framed by their Creator for great usefulness and +honor, waiting to have their energies awakened and invigorated. + + +_Choosing the Front Subject_ + +The thing that made the lyceum was in the air. What is discussed now in +the papers was then a theme for argument, evenings, in the stores and +taverns. Our word caucus, is derived from the Caulkers, ship-builders, +hardy, upright efficient men who gave tone and character to the meeting +that they with others held, to discuss politics and the other live +issues of the day. To increase the number of parts taken, certain grave, +slow men, not likely to share in the discussions, noted chiefly for +their moderation and caution, were named in advance as judges, and their +decision was to be based first, on the weight of argument, and then on +the merits of the question. To keep up the excitement, the decision was +sometimes appealed to the house. If I close my eyes and open the +chambers of memory I distinctly see the young men, with many signs of +diffidence rising timidly to participate in the proceedings. At the +earlier meeting, two persons had been appointed to maintain the +affirmative and two other members were requested to maintain the +negative. The free-for-all fray was let loose with the old time +question, Does any one desire to debate that question? Sometimes we had +"rough house" which was always followed at the next meeting of the +lyceum by a capacity audience. As Samson found the honey, so these +lyceums discovered talent where it would be looked for least. Men came +to look for good in each other under these conditions, and that helped +some. And there is a partial explanation of the fact that so many men, +who became prominent in early politics, were from small towns. Great +opportunity was given for discovering and developing latent literary and +oratorical talent and for invigorating and confirming every germ of +reform and political aspiration. Leaders were discovered in the various +departments of investigation and of influence. It must be kept in mind +that the communities were to an exceptional degree homogeneous and +over-whelmingly American. + + +_Educating Themselves_ + +I never look upon the panorama of the past where vivid life forms have +lost little of their original distinctness without thinking of the +village oracles who exercised their eloquence in these local, free +schools of debate. They gave a permanent bias and coloring to the genius +and taste and style, in all their subsequent years, to men distinguished +for their talents, whom the lyceums discovered and trained, who shone +splendidly in after life. To find the place of the lyceum in the +evolution of the debaters, we will eliminate genius. To draw a rude +likeness was once genius. In mechanics genius ceased to be recognized as +soon as labor could equal the result, once attributed to nature's gift, +acting unaided. Whittier tells us that when he began life verse-making +was a monopoly. Good citizenship is not a gift or an inheritance any +more than is good soldiering. Courage alone does not make the soldier +nor honesty alone the citizen. Training is essential to both. In the +recent constitutional convention held in Massachusetts those who worked +like Trojans, looked forward with apprehension, to the oratorical +assaults, that would be made upon their results. They recognized the +disproportionate advantage, but a real advantage never-the-less, of +oratory, and this was not over-looked but acknowledged. For a fact, some +excellent ideas went begging for the support of those who had talents +and training for speaking exceptionally well. One who surpasses the +ordinary standards, but a little, takes a position quite in advance of +his fellows. Superiority on the race course is a matter of seconds and +half-seconds. The honor bestowed by us on excellence in public address +is greater than that attributed to men in literature or the professions, +in business, or invention. The difference becomes so plain and is so +conspicuous that it gains attention. The ablest speaker arouses the +sympathies and gains the result. Where a cause is to be presented I have +heard this formula. A poor cause, a good speaker. A good cause, any +speaker. All of us have been present when a fine speaker having what may +be called the wit of speech where a laugh was loaded with a principle +where the address was clear, sparkling, above all things witty, wit +being the rarest of qualities and surest of appreciation, the audience +worked up by the rough and ready eloquence of a popular orator, reaching +indeed an extraordinary pitch of excitement, has swept everything with +the weaker side of the case. No accomplishment gains consideration for +its possessor and his cause so speedily as public speaking. When +billions were being raised in Liberty Loans, during the German war, the +telling factor was the four-minute speakers that came out of the +Phillips debating societies in the various communities, and these +speakers having come to the front show some disposition to remain +there. + + +_A New Impetus_ + +Here is brought to light the reason, that those northern states in which +these elementary schools of patriotism and freedom have existed, cling +so tenaciously, for local government, to the old town meeting. In this +country where the motive power is public opinion, the ability to help in +forming it is greatly to be coveted. The power of the lyceum would be +instantly admitted, if we could use it for a moment as a negative +quantity, and show how completely unfitted for public work many of our +strongest factors would have been, had these little schools of oratory +never opened their doors. I share in the well expressed opinion that +there are four kinds of human activity for which a man must have a +natural preparation, music, the sculptor's art, the painter's art, these +three, and the highest forms of oratory. For these, most successful men +must have aptitude. But to a person with the gift of utterance, occasion +must say, Oratory, come forth! Money does not talk. Culture not wealth +is the mark of distinction. Take a man whose father was poor and also +the descendant of poor men with all their ideas of life associated with +conditions of extreme poverty. The atmosphere and practices were such +that Henry Wilson besought the legislature to change his name from +Jeremiah Jones Colbaith to that one that he made famous as United States +senator and as vice-president being elected on the ticket with Grant. He +had known what it was to ask his mother for bread when she had none to +give. Before he was twenty-one he had never had but two dollars and had +never spent more than one dollar. At the end of an eleven years' +apprenticeship to a farmer, he received a yoke of oxen and six sheep +which he sold for eighty-four dollars. During these eleven years he +never had more than twelve months schooling. The turning point in his +life was the lyceum which he attended, following the lines of argument, +but lacking courage to share in the debate. But one evening when the +discussion was thrown open to the audience he engaged in it to the +delight of his friends. His pastor called upon him and expressed his +gratification and the lyceum increased in popularity as a place to hear +him. His pastor urged him to seek an education. The lyceum had awakened +his dormant powers. His special forte, his biographer says, was +extemporaneous speaking and debate. In meetings held once or twice a +week he acquired the drill he needed for coming conflicts. + + +_The Onward Upward Course_ + +Henry Clay rose to fame, by a sudden impulse at the meeting of a lyceum +in Lexington. He overcame timidity and embarrassment, that had +oppressed him, and in this favorite forum for the display of youthful +talent, first exhibited the evidence of his extraordinary powers of +oratory. His hour had struck. In this school for the highest powers of +debate he discovered himself. He used a very common expedient and made +it great and was proud to descend from the summit of political +preferment to honor that arena, such as any community can provide, in +which any ambitious young man can educate himself. Both Mr. Beveridge's +brilliant oratory and Dolliver's success, as the greatest campaigner +America has produced, are proof, that a training field is an +indispensable condition of getting results, in the study of eloquence +and in the art of oratory. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SEEN THROUGH THE LONG VISTA OF DEPARTED YEARS + + +In Bates Hall in the old public library in Boston, lying open on one of +the ledges to any visitor, was an Ignorance Book, in which any one could +ask a question on which he desired information, and after an interval, +return to find it was answered. The Redwood library at Newport, R. I., +has had, upon a commodious desk, a book by means of which readers can +take their intellectual needs to those who have the ability to meet +them. The Lyceum was once a great solvent. Nothing has taken its place. +It was an evil day when this profoundly useful educational institution +closed its doors. People are sitting on its front steps awaiting a +reopening. They have, before them, a new map, a new world, and a new set +of questions. + + +_What is Your Problem_ + +Can a person change his disposition? The features of children are as +diverse as their faces, all have the family likeness, but each has his +own peculiar temperament. + +Is it the brain, and not the soul, that does the thinking? Is man a +machine and not a living spirit, inhabiting a physical body? Do people +speak advisedly who use the expression "Keeping soul and body together?" + +Why did not the slaves in the South do more for their own emancipation? + +Why does a minister use a text? This custom prevails among pulpit +orators who do not believe in miracles or in the inspiration of the +Scripture or in the authority of the Bible. There's a reason. What is +it? + +Our teachers, in faithfulness and friendship, used to stand next to our +parents and are entitled to and will ever receive our most grateful +recollections. They are happy men whose natures sort with their +vocations. On revisiting the earth there was one instructor who beside +exercising a benign and stimulating personal influence had high +qualities and remarkable fitness for his noble profession, whom I would +cheerfully make a sabbath day's journey to honor. Let me preserve his +name, S. H. Folsom. Schoolmaster was about the right word for him for he +was master as well as teacher. His severity is to be attributed to the +times rather than to him. It is said that a drowning man can in two +minutes live over again every incident in a long and checkered career, +and a boy does not doubt the possibility of such phenomena, if he has +been publicly requested, by the master, to remain after school to be +whipped. We all remember him with kindly feelings and there are hundreds +of his pupils living who have not lost their sense of indebtedness to +him. + + +_On the Road to Learning_ + +A boy lays up nothing against a noble, faithful, patient teacher who +whips him. Pain is nothing to boys. They give it, and suffer it, in +their sports, many of which have penalties. They uplift tearful eyes, +but it is in entreaty, and not in rage. It was from him I acquired a +life-long practice of the little economies of time. We are now so +interlocked with others, we are so far from living or laboring alone +that our time is much disposed of by other people. "Do you ever reflect +how you pass your life? If you live to seventy-two, which I hope you +may, your life is passed in the following manner: an hour a day is three +years. This makes twenty-seven years sleeping, nine years dressing, nine +years at table, six years playing with children, nine years walking, +drawing, and visiting, six years shopping, and three years quarrelling." + +I now save the time I used to spend in going to the postoffice. I used +to reckon how many trips would make twenty miles. Still the flight of +time grieves me. I must draw tighter and tighter every string. The +school that I attended was a mere vest-pocket edition of the one which, +year by year, like a starling, keeps adding to the nest, on which Mr. +Folsom now looks down in benediction. This building has a telephone +switchboard. I recognized only the switch which in my day was a weeping +willow. When a gone feeling was experienced, a boy could dig up a small +coin, go to a grocery and buy a pickle, but now schools have a buffet +car attachment supplied by the woman's club. + + +_The By-product of Development_ + +It was an unrealized deprivation, but I do not seem to remember, when I +was under the ferule, the teacher's maid, such as waits upon the +children at the new training school here, nor do I seem to recall the +school physician, such as the city now elects, nor the piano, nor the +victrola, nor do I remember any free transportation to and from school +except by "punging" when we had to take what came in terms of the sleigh +driver's whip. + +The principle of the Declaration of Independence was taken literally +that all are created equal, which makes in education a Procrustes' bed +and every boy or girl in a class, supposed to be equally capable, as +they were not, was to be stretched to learn lessons of equal length. +They trained up a child in the "way." The way was first fixed. It was a +grown up theory. They thought more of the way than of the child. The +child's primitive nature had no play. The process often lost the scholar +his childhood. He was robbed of his birthright. The old maxims even, +also taught that anything saved from sleep was so much saved. + +With his pen, Mr. Folsom could, with unerring grace, draw an eagle, put +an inscription into his mouth and thus stir in his pupils astonishment +and patriotic feeling. In writing he made a specialty of capital +letters, which had the last touch of nicety. Any line of his writing was +as neatly molded as Spencerian copy. We had thus two epochs in our +school, the Ciceronian and the Spencerian periods. One was distinguished +by the graces of speech, the other by waves of ink. We have always been +given to understand, that if the cradles in a neighborhood were +assembled the occupant of one of them would call those present to order. +It is thought to be a wonder that an American is born knowing how to +conduct a public meeting. He early learns how to make motions. It is +instinctive to know that a motion cannot have more than two amendments +offered, at the same time, and to know the order in which they must be +put, the second amendment before the first. When we wonder at some of +the traits of colts we are told that they are born with their +peculiarities; so with boys. The crown of everything was public +declamation. + + +_Best When Most Catching_ + +All paths led to the exhibition as we have seen. Other studies were +subordinated to the all absorbing preparation for it. Other branches +suffered from eclipse. The taste for it became very great. It fixed the +boy's bent. The men having a lyceum, the boys took the infection and +even had a relapse. In our community they formed a lyceum, and among the +questions discussed was this: Which is preferable, city or country life? +Having the stern rule that the less favored one must also stand up I was +invited at the age of ten to share in the deliberations. I became so +absorbed in some of the follies, presented by my opponents, and so lost +sight of the occasion, that, when called upon by name, I was startled. +The boys took sides in the universal conflicts of opinion. Nobody could +find rest on a fence. It was a picket fence. The ground was the only +safe place to stand on. As a regiment takes on the character of its +colonel, so a school in a particular degree, reflects the teacher. I +cannot tell how we all came out of the craze. When penmanship was the +rage and writing became epidemic the scholars developed the villainous +habit of scribbling always and everywhere. As stationery was not +plentiful they used the leaves and margins, not only of their own +books, but those of the others. They decorated the walls and desks. As +the nights were extremely cold, the ink would be turned by the frost +from a liquid to a solid state. Hence the bottles were placed on the +stove for thawing purposes and would sometimes decorate the ceiling or +empty their contents on the stove and floor, accompanied by a detonation +like that of a pistol. + + +_The Love of Conquest_ + +Now this man Folsom understood human nature in its initial stages. His +insight showed him that boys and girls crave some reward and +recognition, so when he could approve a youngster's conduct and +application, he would award him a diminutive ticket on which, in his +beautiful writing, was the word Perfect. By touching up emulation he +ruled the school. When ten small tickets were carefully acquired they +would be proudly cashed up into a somewhat larger chromo with the same +device. Before we call anyone lucky, who takes a prize, let us call him +unlucky, who is without the desire to make the effort to win it. It is +fine for him to contend to the uttermost for even the meanest prize that +is within his reach, because by such strenuous contention, his nature +grows and by lack of it, nature decays. A poor boy cannot rival the +wealthy, in items of luxury, but in a school he finds himself in a +little republic, where the prizes do not fall to the rich, because they +are such. A boy out of an humble home may have lacked recognition and to +receive it makes him a new creature. To find himself appreciated and +well-liked touches a spring at the center of his being. A boy is often +made over by the quickening thought that to him might fall one of the +little early prizes of life. + + +_The Impulse From Incentive and Reward_ + +The fire and the force to do great things were slumbering in Senator +Wilson's soul.... "His future course of life," his biographer says, was +affected by Mrs. Eastman, who handed him, when he was eight years old, a +little book. "Now carry it home with you and read it entirely through +and you shall have it." A book he had never owned. To him it was a +golden treasure. He hurried home to read it. He coveted the prize. In +seven days he called to say that he had read it from end to end. This +little book, a Testament, he kept all his living days, saying, that the +presentation of it was the starting point in his intellectual life. The +reason, as Sir Walter Scott believed, why the passion for books so lifts +up a poor boy, is that he makes himself a master of what he possesses, +before he can acquire more. Queen Judith, a princess of rare +accomplishment, promised a finely illuminated book of Saxon poems, to +which, her son, Alfred the Great, when young had been listening with +enthusiasm, to such of her sons as should the soonest be able to read +them. The innate energy of those dormant talents of "the Darling of the +English" was roused and he made his name the brightest that adorns +Anglo-saxon history. He became the most illustrious monarch that ever +filled the English throne. He founded the University of Oxford, +established trial by jury, and sought to emulate the deeds, to the +recital of which he so early loved to listen. It is said that when this +promise of the book was made, "Alfred returning to Queen Judith, eagerly +inquired if she actually intended to give the book to the person who +would soonest learn to read it?" His mother repeated the promise, with a +smile of joy at the question; the young prince took the book, found out +an instructor, and learned to read, and soon recited all its contents to +her. + + +_The Fascination of Matching Abilities and Efforts_ + +Oh for some angel visitant to stir the waters of the Bethesda of +self-improvement as it was once done by the use of this principle of +emulation in our class in spelling. Alphabetically the scholars were +called out into a line, toeing a crack in the floor. Beginning at the +head of the class the master puts out the word and those who have +studied their lesson pass above those who have not. It is an unequalled +revelation for a boy's later life. How came I at the foot? When one boy +has competitors and they attend to their business and he does not, he +will gravitate downward. I had been trained in the catechism to believe +that it was first Adam and then Eve, but this theory was upset, when we +stood up to spell. I can still see one of those girls stick to the head +of the class. Blessed be the bad roads, "kind the storm" that housed the +girl, for a day, as on her return she went to the foot. At length she +modestly said to the master, "Put out any word in the book and I will +spell it." With such proficiency we challenged the nearest district +school to a spelling match. + + +_The Tug of War_ + +Before the interest began to flag, it was understood that as a final +test, every body in the house should rise and spell down. With blushing +honors, under the spell of emulation, this unobtrusive girl would rally +her powers, and hold her timid self up to meet all comers by sheer force +of a moral courage, unsurpassed by men who go over the top and look into +the cannon's mouth. The audience grows breathless. She clings to her +position like that which Oliver Wendell Holmes called The Last Leaf. Our +best girl won. Our boys seeing any members of the defeated school would +use their two palms for a trumpet and shout the pivotal word, on which +our victory turned, "Phthisic." It was a great incitement to strive to +equal or excel when a rival was seen to take a reward for doing what we +might have done, but didn't. The name of the winner became a household +word and was garlanded. I have felt depressed by my consciousness of the +unworthiness of the response, that my life has made, to such an +excellent instructor in penmanship and spelling. His name is embalmed in +all our hearts. The terms of school soon ended. Beyond this we have no +record of our eminent teacher's life and as Bunyan says of one of his +characters "We saw him no more." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHERE WE PLAYED MUMBLE-THE-PEG + + +It is with diffidence that I name a suggestion that has been very much +on my heart since retreading these streets and revisiting these early +haunts. It is to get rich, not with dollars in the purse, but deposits +in the bank of memory. No other human faculty can be more rapidly and +strongly and surely developed than an ability to keep things in mind. +Yet many people are making use of methods that impoverish recollection. +Devices are increasing for memory-saving which have the effect of memory +destroying. A faculty's development is arrested from want of use. The +memory has not grown, but the habit of putting things down with a pencil +has developed. Our schedule of work is not unfolded in the mind and +committed to memory but is committed to little slips of paper. Things +are not carried in the brain but in the pocket and are in danger of +being laid off with one's apparel. We feel dependent on the memoranda. +Our best power, that likes to be trusted, that responds to discipline, +has no growth, but wastes away instead, owing to defective nutrition, +and lack of exercise. The memory falls into a stunted and partially +disabled condition. That minister, the most widely read of any American +clergyman, sharply points out, that a capacity falling into disuse, +falls also into a dying process, and is extirpated and withdrawn. Any +capacity kept under, allowed no range or play, suppressed, is soon +stupefied and blunted. A man was endowed with a fine faculty, and has +not turned it to account, "Take, therefore, the talent from him." + + +_Developing a Real and Fixed Deformity_ + +We once had to remember our errands but parents now hand to children a +written list. Facts, stories, incidents are not stored in the intellect, +but in a cabinet. Mental equipment, then, is all gone in the event of a +fire. Instead of being thankful that the cabinet maker was preserved it +would have been better to have saved the cabinet. There is more in that +than in him. + +In the intemperate man the better parts of his nature do not have fair +play. His body is disordered, his brain confused, by a succession of +trespasses. All diseases and abuses are self limited. Improvement would +come, by a delivery from his baneful habit, and by strengthening his +principles. Memory when respected, when it uses its wings and makes +nothing of time or distance is an angel power. It is full of rural +incidents and has a great deal of nature and of soul in it. The past is +not altogether dead. It must be used to enable us to understand the real +living history around us. Now look. Do you observe that every child has +a health instinct? Intuitively it seeks the open air. A child is not +fussy about the weather. Those have the best health that go out under +all skies. Take notice that a child's birthright is freedom. When +walking with his mother he seeks to unclasp his hand from hers and make +a little detour in the grass along the way. His nature revolts at +following, forever, when out for pleasure, a beaten path. Seeing real +life reflected, you do not fail to notice, that in coasting, which in +childhood could be called, The Great Joy, the girls take a prominent +part, and there is no effort by the elders to play the spy nor block the +sport. Here are boys and girls together, oblivious of sex, like a +family, in beautiful, healthful, animating sport. It is remarkable that +coasting keeps first place, seeing that it involves climbing up as well +as sliding down. The return walk, involving a change of position, an +interchange of mind, a fine spirit of comradeship, a greatly increased +intake of ozone became for a fact a cordial of incredible virtue. God +sets all little children playing for this. He lays the necessity of play +upon them, and the restless little fellows hunger and thirst for +physical activities. On a holiday the city is emptied into the country +to enjoy for a few hours the true conditions of a healthy physical +condition. + + +_An Increased Reverence for the Human Organization_ + +The bashful athlete, as if by mere chance, takes hold of the rope just +opposite to the pretty girl of the party, I mean to one of the pretty +girls of the party, whose ear he wishes to command. As the boys owned +the sleds, the spirit of gallantry greatly promoted proprietorship, in a +double runner, which was vital to the social spirit of the sport. One +that could fly was the ideal aimed at. It seemed animate. It was well +shod. A heavy load gave momentum. It was guided with rare judgment, +watched, compared with others, improved, made to look better, until its +associated owners prided themselves in it, as a thing of life and beauty +and speed, as mariners do in a ship. Some people have to go abroad to +find folks who seem eager for an excuse to get out, to even take their +meals in the open air. The European seems chafed in his own house. He +takes his supper with his family in the face of all the world, and +enjoys the publicity. He walks about to see how other families are +faring, and they do not resent it. It would not disturb him to take his +dinner on the side-walk on Broadway. So in Southern California, nobody +shuts a door. The weather, being about like our April, the barber shops +and restaurants have no heat and often a strong current of air, that the +natives would enjoy, came streaming in through wide-open doors and +windows. + + +_The Open-door Policy_ + +Book stores were not warmed at all. One morning at breakfast I rose and +put on my overcoat, and a visitor at the next table, at the conclusion +of the meal said, What part of the country do you come from, that you +have to put on your overcoat? The reason those people put their doctors +out of business is not alone in the climate but in their becoming +accustomed to living in God's great and good out-of-doors. We could live +much colder than we do, and live more largely out of doors, and reap at +least some of the benefits that people gain by going abroad. + +In looking over the familiar places, when revisiting the earth, that +were once the haunts of the idlers of the town, I was struck by the +entire absence of whittling in which they formerly engaged. Who could +reckon their indebtedness to the pine, which supplied the favorite +material? Each man kept in pretty good order, if he owned nothing else, +a fine piece of cutlery, with a history which he had made familiar to +the minds of his easy-going associates. To whittle with an edgeless +knife is dull sport, hence at intervals, each loafer would lay his right +foot upon his left knee, and upon the leather of his heavy boot +characteristic of that day, would strop the blunt blade until he had put +it again on edge. + + +_Our Knives Confiscated by Teachers_ + +Every loss is thought to have its compensation. If whittling is out of +vogue, the benches before the boys at school are, for that reason, +better preserved. A common present to a boy in that day was a pretty +good knife. Boys are very imitative. They sought to whittle and would +notch the school desks until their edges were serried into a semblance +of a cross-cut saw. As the term of school wore on the teacher had made +himself the custodian of most of the fancy hardware owned by the +ingenious scholars. Not remote from the school-house door we turn aside +and stand over the identical spot where we sat, with our heels wide +apart, facing a chum, and played mumble-the-peg, or mumblety-peg, as the +boys pronounced it. + + "The boys were playing some old game, beneath that same old tree; + I have forgot the name just now,--you've played the same with me, + On that same spot; 'twas played with knives, by throwing so and so; + The loser had a task to do,--there, twenty years ago." + +As the knives were thrown from a series of positions, the winner would +show himself something of the savage still, for when the loser failed to +make the knife blade stick in the ground, he would, with the heavy +handle of the knife, drive a peg into the ground, by a certain number of +blows, which the loser was compelled to draw out with his teeth. The +severity of the penalty was not in using a long peg, like a wooden +tooth-pick, but a short one that could still be struck a blow or two +after it was below the surface of the soil. Thus the unskillful player +had to root for it, while the boys, being called together, encircled him +and jeered. + + +_Happy Hours by Living Streams_ + +The appearance and needs of this dirty-faced boy caused the whole bunch +to hie away to the swimming-hole. The Romans seem always to have been +looking out for places to bathe and always finding them. So with boys. +Where is the boy that did not strive to get to the water? Who is there +that did not, in his youth, love some stream? Here is the landscape +toward which the mind, during the interval of a generation, has fondly +turned. Last summer I followed the same old path to exactly the same +square foot of ground on the willow-lined shore from which I had a +hundred times stepped into the stream. I could locate exactly the spot +where a bigger boy, who wanted to race, raised an oar and told me to +jump over to lighten the boat, which I had to do, and there in deep +water, as it was sink or swim, survive or perish, I paddled the best I +could and learned to swim in one short, self-taught lesson. + + +_Healing in the Pool_ + +This illustrates again the health instincts of boys which they seek to +obey without knowing the why and wherefore of the feeling that impels +them to bathe often. Swedenborg had to have a revelation from heaven to +enable him to catch a glimpse of his malady which he ought to have known +by intuition. His nature was all the time complaining, and what an +expression that is when men speak of their "complaints," when by pains, +which are warnings, nature is reporting her grievances at head-quarters. +But the heavens were opened and Swedenborg went into ecstasy over the +kindness of the angel whose message to him was a warning not to eat so +much. The body shows divine workmanship as well as the soul. When young +we follow nature and the result is a red-blooded, vigorous youngster, +and if, as we went on in life, we had souls enough to appreciate the +free air and sunlight with their health-giving properties, which are so +lavishly bestowed upon us, we should better reverence the temple in +which the spirit dwells. A recent association formed in Boston for the +erection of a monument to Franklin, used in the picture, on their +certificate of membership, the figure of Franklin with a kite leaning +against him and a view of the telegraph. The kite employed by the +philosopher in his experiment is a plaything of the young, while the +experiment it served to make so successful, is the last word in science +when applied to light, heat and transportation. The picture shows the +connection between our sport and the great realities of life. + + +_And That Reminds Me_ + +Play underlies the future responsibilities and events of life. +Recreation has a direct relation to efficiency. I wish that some boys +that I know would play a little more. To watch boys is to study their +character. The story of a boy's life deserves to be written as well as +the life of a man. A boy has been pointed out who on returning from +school is seized and imprisoned in a back parlor with nothing to look at +but his weary lessons. He is pining. His eye needs brightening. His +blood wants reddening. An Oriental traveler, watching a game of cricket, +was astonished to hear that some of those playing were rich. He asked +why they did not pay some poor people to do it for them. The play will +show itself in still greater riches when radical important work is +undertaken and when an entire revolution in the world's methods is to be +accomplished. Exercise, like mathematics, cannot be seized by might nor +purchased by money. It is not true that every hour taken from a child's +play is an hour saved. In some cases, where a boy is given a little time +to play, it is done grudgingly. Thinking now of efficiency they hire, +here, leaders to teach children to play. Vivacious representatives of +the Young Women's Christian Association sent word through the little +villages along the Volga that there would be games for the Russian +children on the village squares. These refugee children had seen so many +sorrows that they had forgotten that they were young. Whole towns turned +out. They looked on in wonder. "Have you brought us bread?" they asked, +as the games were about to be started. The spirit of joy had forsaken +them and needed to be recalled. Little games of competition and +emulation, that were mirth-producing and health-giving, gave the +impression that "Some angels must have been at play." As Thoreau says of +animals, so we may say of human beings, that their most important part +is their anima, their vital spirit. + + +_One of Life's Schools_ + +When revisiting the earth I met on intimate terms a classmate. I was in +and out of his place of business many times. He had plenty to do. +Indeed he had too much to do. The distinct impression he made upon me +was, that he was being hurried, all the time, a little faster than he +could well travel. Hurry, if continuous, becomes simply worry under +another name. Let a person catechize his own experiences on this +subject: it will have a salutary effect. He drew me into a confidential +conversation, in which he said, that he was not earning a good living +and asked me what I thought of his situation. I advised him at once to +take a vacation and refresh his mind. He was working like a quarry +slave. A person needs to stand away from a house to see it. He needed to +readjust himself. His mind had lost its spring. A little recreation +would do him more good, than the same time in the treadmill. Sometimes +you see that a man made up what mind he has, when he was too tired; it +was no proper expression of him. + + +_Loafing and Laboring_ + +What was once play has become work and what was once work in the garden, +wood-yard, and barn may now become play. A person can stop work and yet +not have any recreation. When a person after excessive physical exertion +is resting he is not recreating. You do not say of persons at rest that +"they shout for joy, they also sing." After sunset, the lonely twilight +hours, with Jacob, represented the accepted, needed rest and after that +came the pensive reverie, the dream and with it the ladder and the angel +ministration. In his own person, every one must have noticed, that after +a period of rest, often as late as Sabbath afternoon, come the holy +influences of the hour, the music that is audible to the fine ear of +thought, the stillness, the purity, the balm. A man, who is busy all the +time or tired all the time, breaks the curfew law of God. The evening +concentrates the retrospect, also the prospect of our lives. If you are +communing with a confidential friend you do not like to have any body +else talking in the room at the same time. You want to become attuned, +like musicians, about to begin to play. + + +_Foibles of the Famous_ + +These persons are often quarrelsome, in spite of the fact, that their +constant employment is the production of harmony. It is the effect of +play, to bring into harmony. This is one of its most benign results. A +man, found to be out of harmony with the spirit of the place, or of the +time, only awaits displacing. M. Protopopoff, the last minister of the +interior under the old regime in Russia, told nearly the whole truth +when he said to an Associated Press representative, who visited him in +prison, that his crime consisted of "not understanding the spirit of my +age." Mistaking the time, he became a worker for a separate peace with +Germany. That man of the past is not as black as he first appeared, for +he has at least this redeeming trait, finding himself out of harmony +with the temper of his time, he confesses it, and incriminates himself, +and does not bitterly criticise those participating in the advent of a +new era, which is the common practice, under such conditions. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SCENE OF THE SCHOOL FIGHTS + + +The proof that a robust, daring, well-fed boy starts by being a sort of +half domesticated little animal as well as a Sunday school immortal is +set out in his school fights. These best illustrate how hard it is to +eradicate the savage, hereditary traits of our early barbaric ancestry. +It is suggested that all fully domesticated animals dislike children. +They have an instinctive fear of their tricks and their thoughtlessness. + +The rude jostle, pretty nearly instinctive with boys coming from school, +breaks the peace. There is the quick impulse to resist aggression with +violence, particularly on the part of an impulsive unrelenting temper, +not adverse to battle. Wrestling and boxing were very much in vogue, a +generation ago, which made the average boy very ready with his fists and +anxious if there was to be a clinch, to get "the underholt." This +preparedness increased the likeliness of a clash. If a boy took occasion +to state the events that led up to Armageddon, we used to hear, He +called me names. His budding sense of honor, an exaggerated feeling of +obligation to take care of his better self, his name, was the most +frequent incentive to try conclusions. + + +_Precipitating a Fracas_ + +The tendency to give a nickname, to remind a boy in a word of the color +of his hair, or the cut of his clothes, or of some unfortunate incident +in his life or that of his family was painfully wide-spread, and it hurt +like a blow and started resentment. A boy, that by his disposition and +taste, was too proud to fight could not always keep out of it as the +active belligerent might be overbearing or might be, at the time, +imposing on some helpless party. This is an unprovoked declaration of +war when peace can only be had by conquering it. It is interesting to +study a man's life in terms of those early scuffles. In Pilgrim's +Progress the fight of Christian and Apollyon was the kernel of the +story. Henry Higginson, "Bully Hig," a business man of remarkable +success in Boston, was the leader of the Latin school forces and +engagements which were as fiercely fought as some in which the same boys +later took part on the battle fields of the South. A boy's anger and a +boy's pain pass away like clouds on a summer morning and leave the sky +purer and fairer than before. Boy's fights often began with +snow-balling. They were implied by the use of the word snow-forts, on +the old site of which we took occasion to stand. For days the boys would +roll up immense snow-balls to form the redoubt. They worked, like the +ants, those sociologists of the insect-world who combine their efforts +to move an object toward the ant hill, approach the thing to be moved, +using all their strength wherever they can apply it, causing the object +to stagger along, and the small, industrious, courageous creatures by +frantic partisan effort landed it where individual work never could have +so well located it. Those who built the fort were determined to defend +it. They talked over their grievances until they seemed bigger than they +were. Trouble would soon begin to boil, like the witches' brew into +which all kinds of ingredients entered and the situation soon forced all +boys to take sides. + + +_Sectional and Factional Fights_ + +It was common to hear the inquiry, Are you on my side? It started a +campaign. There was no neutral zone. There were no pacifists. If a snow +fort was to be stormed the snow-balls were dipped in water and were as +hard as canister. The contending forces were under boy commanders. The +volatile spirit of the organization lasted after the snow was gone. The +contending parties were easily provoked. Boys used to take off their +coats and lay them aside like those that stoned Stephen. The question +to be settled was Who is bigger? The custom was to place a chip upon the +shoulder and flatly dare a fancied antagonist to knock it off, which +being done, hostilities were let loose with a spring. The other boys +would gather about and witness the excitement, their only concern being +to see that there was every way a square deal. Until such a time as one +or the other would say, Hold, enough, I am through. Things were then +deemed settled. An incidental indication that boys before re-birth were +little animals, was the use of their nails. The face of him that was +worsted would bear a diagram of the battle. + + +_Suffering From Personal Collision_ + +On reaching home his mother's consternation and sympathy and displeasure +at the injury he had received, causing her haste to apply a soft sponge +and remedial lotions, would displace all effort to ascertain if her boy +was in any degree at fault in bringing on the fray. It is no wonder that +there is an enormous increase in the number of physicians in these days +if boys thus settle who is the best man. The doctors, we are told, got +rich upon small pay, yet now they flourish in treble numbers, as they +are required, upon all foot-ball grounds, in particular, and upon all +athletic fields in general. Life in miniature is exhibited by the petty +incidents of a school boy's history. A single bold adventure is +decisive sometimes of a campaign. A challenge to fight two boys at once +has been known to give a courageous youngster reputation. The opposition +did not want to fight but was intent to discover if the new lad in +school would keep his ground saying, like the Scotch thistle, Don't +touch me. + + * * * * * + +There has been during a generation such a fine growth of sentiment that +many of the former things, like corporal punishment, have passed away. +In school Luther was flogged every day. We have no other right to +associate ourselves with a great reformer except in the matter we are +now considering. The school thrashing was shown to be a method of +separating the chaff from the wheat. + + +_Birch, Beech, and Willow Were the Branches Taken_ + +It certainly was not the custom in our day for the teacher to get down +on his knees to the pupils and offer them peppermints if they would only +consent to behave. In the government exhibit at Omaha, in a World's +Fair, was a series of framed pictures, filled with painful suggestions, +illustrating what may be termed, the evolution of the disuse of the +switch. The world has moved on to some new conception of moral suasion. +These pictures, however, were from real life, as many of us can +testify. If any one wanted glimpses of the good old time, there they +were. First was a small boy being flogged by a pretty lady teacher. I +know that picture to be correct. In the next instance the boy was curled +up in bitter anticipation of what was going to happen to him. Next a boy +was holding out a ruler at arm's length. Then followed very properly the +dunce cap and the fool stool. Then we witnessed the process of shaking +or churning where the churner grasps the lapels of the churnee's coat +and proceeds to violently agitate the latter with many oscillations. The +most suggestive picture of an old-fashioned school was where the +discipline appeared to be founded on Solomon's warning. The master +stands near the stove with his book in one hand and switch in the other +with only one eye on the book. New Jersey now prohibits by law corporal +punishment in schools. Eight states prescribe a penalty for excess +amounting to cruelty. In Arizona alone the law gives authority to whip. +In ten states the courts have decided that, as flogging has been the +commonest mode of discipline from time immemorial, the teacher requires +no permission to use the birch. In Providence a teacher in the primary +grade has to get the written consent of the parents to whip a boy and +have it filed with the city superintendent. All these formalities have +been developed since the period that we are canvassing. + + +_America's Unhappy Hour_ + +The incident of flogging a pupil did not seem to disturb the school nor +seem to interrupt the studies appreciably except when it was one of the +big boys that had incurred the master's displeasure. When it was obvious +that there was to be a battle royal it became the custom for the +tender-hearted, larger girls to rise, without a word or sign from them +or the teacher, and pass quietly out of the room at the instant it +became plain that hostilities were to begin. The ruler, introduced into +the school as an aid in drawing, was often used as a punitive +instrument. When the old attendants upon the school get together as +jolly good fellows, their word being now unquestioned on any matter of +fact, it is noticeable that in reciting their sufferings, it was never +the master's fortune to get hold of the guilty party. According to their +testimony, the boy that introduced the disorder was not the one that +stood for the infliction of punishment. There is usually one boy in +school that can on occasion, look cross-eyed and another boy that can +move his ears. This comes to the attention of the apple-cheeked girl, +who laughing, showed all her teeth like a row of white piano keys. Her +fear of discipline made her press the palm of her hand over her pretty +mouth, in a sudden, forced attempt to suppress a giggle. The boy, who +came next into the comedy, was likeliest to meet the frown of him who +must, at once, rule his little empire into a terrified silence. + + +_Putting on the Character with the Coats of Gentlemen_ + +The gymnasium, organized athletics, the ambition of boys to gain a place +on the various teams has brought in a milder reign. Another influence is +the reflex effect of wearing better clothes. Dress strangely changes the +person and curiously affects the character. One of the best preventives +of rude Sabbath breaking is a nicely folded, well-fitting Sunday suit. +With a rough, coarse, untearable suit goes rough usage all around, and +with fine clothes goes politeness of manner. The clothing worn used to +be much thicker and heavier. About the neck was a comforter, tippet, +scarf, or even a small sized shawl. Men wore fur standing collars, +cow-hide boots, and tucked the lower ends of their trousers' legs into +them, in rough weather and when engaged in rough work. A bootjack was +the commonest kind of household furniture. Boys wore heavy calf-skin +boots with attractive red tops, which they desired to have seen, and +this foot-wear was copper-toed so that a boy could lie on his face on +his sled and steer it in its swift descent of the hill, by ploughing +first one toe and then the other into the icy roadway. Any one's +feelings will indicate to him, that he must treat himself, and that he +must be treated differently by others, when he is clad in light woolens +and in thin foot-wear. He must have more civilized walks, a more even +warmth in the house, and a more genteel order of life. It shows the +reflex influence of refined dress. + + +_New Facings to Old Opinions_ + +On revisiting the earth it is an amazement to find, that in so short a +time, most boys are made millionaires. They sit in a building at school, +that cost scores of thousands of dollars. In their own right, they walk +into a library, worth tens of thousands, housed in a building that is +high priced. The latest books are added to their library. Money has been +expended to have a card catalogue made. It used to be tiresome to get +about town, and to visit the metropolis, but great stores of money have +been used to give them ease and save the wear and tear. Boys have parks +to play in and have artificial skating rinks and table luxuries and new +forms of furniture and free text-books. Boats drop down the James river +loaded with melons. At Norfolk one negro tosses a watermelon to another +colored man and he to another until they are loaded in a car which +starts express at night, when it is cool, for the northern cities. Boats +and trains and service cost money, but it seems very little to a boy in +his new circumstances, who has luxuries which we used to do without. Not +much was done for us children, compared with present home furnishings, +which have Hawthorne's "Wonder Books" and Longfellow's "Evangeline" and +pictured illustrations of the world and of life. In our early days most +of our picture books were brought from England. If boys then lived in a +poor part of the city it was a chosen location for saloons but now boys +do not have to live in a location where they have saloons. This +improvement of a boy's environment is greatly to his advantage. + + +_Fair to Illustrate by the Best Examples_ + +The most frequent question asked the visitor is how things, taking the +years together, seem to be going. The improvement in conditions is +glaring. This is not, and cannot be, without result. This of itself +makes a showing in men. It was the same quality of seed that fell among +thorns and by the way-side and upon stony places. In visiting the field, +the first observation is not touching the seed, but outside conditions, +and their direct relation to the product. Men reveal even more plainly +the effect of extraneous influences. It is said that on hearing the +younger Silliman lecture, an enthusiastic auditor exclaimed, "Why, he +beats the old gent!" The elder Silliman, who had been listening to the +lecture, overheard the remark, and gaining the attention of its author, +quietly observed, "Of course he does. He stands upon my shoulders." The +old stock was good and stood high but the new generation has the +advantage of better position and of a finer outlook. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TOUCHING A LONG SLUMBERING CHORD + + +If houses have souls, as Hawthorne believed and taught, and can admire +and remember, there is one residence, toward which I turn my willing +pilgrim feet, on revisiting the earth, which supports his way of +thinking. I was hardly within the door of this dwelling, once occupied +by my father, himself a clergyman, when it began to reel off to me, the +impressions it had received and retained, for a generation. First, came +in minute detail, with all the vividness of moving pictures, a recital +touching the old-fashioned donation party which, like the husking-bee +and the quilting-bee or house-raising, requires a good deal of +interpretation to those, living in days, when money flows like water. +The mingling of work and pleasure, combining philanthropy and social +enjoyment was the custom of the time. All came together in a fine spirit +of neighborliness and all the labor and all the supplies for the feast +were gratuitously furnished. A Donation Party was featured particularly +by spare-ribs, also by cake, bags of flour, and pies, also by all kinds +of things both from the cellar and larder of the members of the parish. +The soiree with refreshments, was always a surprise, with this exception +that the minister's wife was asked, with a knowing look, if the dominie +was to be at home. The outstanding fact was the overwhelming abundance +of everything. The party over, when we sat down to a meal, we began just +where we left off at the last repast. + + +_The Past at Least is Secure_ + +Wood, in sled lengths, used to be dragged to our door. Coal was unknown +to our experience. When a man had a pig-sticking, in anticipation of the +school-teacher's coming to his house to board, he brought a portion of +the result to the manse, as if to obtain and enjoy a blessing on the +rest. A minister's salary was by necessity used for pocket money. The +occasions were joyous, social, extremely helpful, and welcome. The cake +left a precious memory behind. Sometimes the lambs of the flock combined +to procure something that the shepherd was known to need. What killed +the Donation Party and buried it, beyond the hope of resurrection, was +the fun and ridicule and wit that came to be aimed at its ludicrous +features. A colored porter, on a Pullman car, said he had a good +position until the comic papers took up the prevalent method of +collecting tips and made it ridiculous. One must orient himself to +place the right estimate upon this party at the minister's house. He was +not in those days independent to the point of being defiant. There was +no beggary, no humiliation, and the people were generous, considering +that they had, in many cases, difficult problems of their own. If a +minister went into a community to live, as they did, there was a fine +feeling all around. + + +_Where a Critical Struggle was Beginning_ + +As I stood in the floor of my early home all the situations were plainly +outlined for me. In the front corner of one of the best rooms, stood the +study table of the dominie, on which he wrote the ministerial +recommendations. Ministers used to be mediators: that was their office. +This kindly disposition, to put the influence of one's name, and the +weight of his ministerial character, behind any good thing, that seemed +to need promoting, could be developed into a form of second nature. The +new form of charity, "Not alms, but a friend," did not reduce the number +of letters of recommendation. We were taught that a little kindness is +often worth more than a great deal of money. The poor, unemployed man +lacked opportunity, acquaintance, and recognition. The minister, in pure +disinterestedness, brothers him. The usual form of helpfulness is a +letter. The misfortune is that everybody can recommend anybody. +Exaggerations can be given to certain qualities and a discreet silence +observed with regard to others. Thus Mrs. Stowe accentuates the negro's +peculiarly religious character and disposition. Thus Wendell Phillips +never tells the truth, and yet he always tells truth. + + +_Rising Young Men_ + +The relation of this subject to the book canvasser is extremely +suggestive. Some of those who have written their names highest on the +rolls of deserved honor have followed this laudable calling. The +foremost American, George Washington, sold two hundred copies of +Bydell's "American Savage." Our most melodious poet, Longfellow, sold +books by subscription. Our pre-eminent orator, Daniel Webster, handled +de Tocqueville's "America." Our greatest general, the hero of +Appomattox, Ulysses S. Grant, canvassed for Irving's "Columbus." And our +magnetic statesman, James G. Blaine, began his career as a canvasser for +a life of Henry Clay. In the small, dark, dingy parlors of country +hotels, travelers on rainy days often now find copies of books that were +sold, or rather traded, to the well-fed, good natured, boniface in +exchange for entertainment. I can remember items that I have read in +these books. I can now go to the tavern and the table where I read after +dinner from Butler's book his explanation of the reason that he lost +more cases after he became celebrated as a lawyer than he did before. +After his fame was established clients flocked to him, with desperate +cases. They did not balk at the amount of his retaining fee. As these +hotly contested cases had been put through all of their preliminary +stages, in all the lower courts, Benjamin F. Butler has lost each one of +these chances to get his client by. The case was substantially decided +adversely before the great lawyer appeared in it at all. + + +_Tendency to Exaggerate Rather than to Daguerreotype_ + +The dependence of the agent upon ministers is a testimonial to their +sympathy. It stamps them as leaders and establishes the fact that their +influence in the community is effective. Great evils are wrought in +churches and communities by the fact that indorsements are so easily +obtained. A man who wants testimonials can get them. Some of our little +home missionary churches in the West, that deserve better things, are +grievously tormented. This department of religious helpfulness has been +so sadly overworked that it is suggestive to find one Christian +association of young men that now omits to give letters of +recommendation, feeling that discrimination is always difficult and +certainly invidious. + + +_The Practice Has Boomerang Implications_ + +When one is in doubt about recommending a person or thing he ought to +take the elder Weller's advice with regard to widows, "Don't." A letter +of recommendation ought not to express the judgment of him who seeks it, +but of him who gives it. Recommendations too often embody the opinion of +the applicant only voiced in the words of a man of influence and +position. The pen had over-employment as compared with the feet. We +ought to help convicts, released from prison, at the expiration of their +sentence, to get employment; but the employer ought to be put in +possession of the facts. There is probably no one of us but can say that +his letters of recommendation have surpassed in fruitfulness every other +form of helpful service. By them currents have been set in motion that +have changed the course of many a life. Among those eminent deeds that +have caused most of happiness to others, that the angels unmistakably +approved, stand out foremost in all one's past those instances in which +a letter of introduction and of unhesitating recommendation has brought +certain rare spirits into appropriate positions of usefulness and honor. +An aged clergyman, loving and beloved, tells a wondering company, how +one of Boston's merchant-princes went up to the metropolis of New +England, cherishing in his pocket as his chief possession, a letter that +meant every word it said and into which a whole country church, through +its minister, had put its true estimate of a young, manly, Christian +character, also its well wishes and its hopes. + + +_Things with a Difference_ + +There is a saying that Adam once returned to the earth where he +recognized no country but Spain. "Ah," said he, "this is exactly as I +left it." Since 1880 we have built more than five hundred cities in +America, among them some of the smartest in the world. We once lived +here, in a plain country town, and now forsooth they have a little doll +of a city. In a Boston burial ground there is an enclosed grave-lot. The +iron fence is warping and rusting and crumbling. On the iron gate-way to +the lot is moulded the caption, "Never to be disturbed." Nature the +same, everything else changes is the rule. Even in hoarse, brutal, +unprogressive Russia everything is becoming new fangled, dress, +features, manners, pursuits, all are becoming new. The alterations, in +our former place of abode, have been so unconsciously and so gradually +made, as to escape the attention of the resident. The secrecy with which +all forms of business was conducted is an example. "No admittance" +signs were once so much used that the form could have been manufactured +in lots and kept in stock to supply the constant demand. It used to be +the custom, in paying a bill, for a man as he drew out his pocket-book, +to turn half way around, and with his back to the gentleman he was +dealing with, open the wallet and examine his money. + +There has been an astonishing increase in the number of employments, as +compared with the few different vocations of earlier days. Medical men +and lawyers had no specialties as they do now. Many doctors today, who +would like an all-round development, would better enjoy a country +practice. The sons of the physicians have gone into vocations that were +hardly recognized when their fathers began practice. One of the +electrical firms asked to be given, for their work alone, the entire +graduating class of 1900 from Cornell University. + + +_The Changing World_ + +The slang of a generation ago, some of it is given a permanent place in +our language, and while in the dictionaries it is rated as a +colloquialism, it is thus recognized. It has increased so greatly in the +speech of the people, it comes freely also from student bodies, from the +trades and sports and from the war camps, that it will now keep the +lexicon makers busy. + +[Illustration: PARADISE LOST--BEFORE THE SALEM FIRE] + +[Illustration: PARADISE REGAINED--AFTER THE CONFLAGRATION] + +Swearing has grown milder. The grossness and blasphemy are largely +barred, while the expletives that technically may not be swearing at +all, being used for raciness, vigor and emphasis, have increased one +hundred fold. + +A symptom of decadence is the elimination of book-stores. Speaking +broadly it is impossible to find a stall with a stock of books except in +the larger cities. When desirous of substantial reading matter I am +sometimes able to buy biographies and other books, worth while, at the +drug store in a country town. On moving into flats, families commit an +unpardonable sin in disposing of their books. The most sickening sight +in New York, Chicago, or Boston is to see second-hand books faded and +weather-beaten exposed on the street for sale at a seedy, feeble price. + +In spite of the strong drift of governments toward democracy, in +revisiting the earth, I detected an exaggeration of class feeling as +compared with the early days when there were no poor in the whole town +and hardly any very rich. Our pleasures were then more simple and our +life, on the whole, more serious. + +The increased height in houses is apparent. As the family prospers, it +seeks to have the walls in the second story carried up full height, +that they may not show inside the pitch of the roof which is the +distinguishing mark of a cottage. + + +_The Unexpected Happens_ + +I suppose that the passing years make little or no impression on a +well-built stone wall, but where growth and prosperity abound they are +not likely to preserve many of the primitive buildings and land-marks, +but if any living man had predicted the entire remaking and reshaping of +this place of my early residence the reply would have been that if the +Lord would work a miracle then might this thing be. The man who +professed to know just how we are made, as an automobile maker knows a +car, tells us that in seven years we get, physically, a brand new +outfit, that old things pass away, and all things become new. As we have +not now the same bodies so we have not the same mind. Our ideals, our +manners are different. We are different. We have had many a re-birth. +Time has brought changes that could no more be withstood than you could +resist the earth in its revolution. It is the miracle of a generation, +which to relate, were not a history but a piece of poetry, and would +sound to many ears like a fable. The growth in population and in wealth, +during a long constructive period, has kept up the clatter of the +hammer, the cry of "mort," and the scent of the resinous odor of the +pine. Inventions and improvements have placed man in a new relation to +the globe he inhabits. Since new ideas began to prevail former methods +have been discarded. Even a snake, with years, sheds its scales and +envelopes itself in a new skin. The sun once stood still, and the Jordan +was arrested in its banks, but life and the stream of events have flowed +on without pause or rest. People who have never made a visit, like ours, +will talk freely, far from wisely, about what they have always said, and +always thought, as if they had always looked through the same eyes, and +judged by the same standards. Not so. You looked on life as it seemed +then and are looking again with the picture shifted. Your whole point of +view is changed. When a man says, "I have always felt," he means that he +has felt thus, back part way, or to a given point, but not so certainly +much beyond it. + + +_The Past Looks Like a Dream_ + +We made from recollection and were aided by inquiry, a catalogue of the +false prophets who early moved away, to the big cities, saying that the +place where we had lived would never increase much in business or +population. There is a French proverb which warns people not to use the +words "never or always." The Wall Street Journal has just used that +unreliable forbidden word "never." It heads an article, "Cheap Food +Never Again." Any man living in our old place of residence would be wary +of the use of the term "never." He would feel that almost any good +fortune may come. With tractors and gang-plows operating in the Land of +the Dakotas, South Dakota alone being a quarter larger than all New +England, and Montana, the third largest state in the union, very much +more than equal in size to England, Scotland, Ireland combined and Texas +as big as Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland together, +these states being now chiefly unfarmed, with shoals of immigrants after +the war to work these fields, bounded only by the sky line, how can a +man use the expression, Cheap Food Never Again? The statesman Cambon +said that never would Rome cease to belong to the people and that never +would Rome be the capital of the king of Italy. A Clergyman here, of +high authority and position, showed how all the sovereigns of the chief +European nations were blood relatives and announced that there could +never be another great war. He became positive. He said such a thing was +unthinkable. Look next at the harvest of death in the German war. "He +who, outside of mathematics, pronounces the word 'impossible' lacks +prudence." + + +_Achilles Pondered in His Tent_ + +Yankee Doodle's criticism was quite just. He could not see the town +because there were so many houses. We need to get away from the crowded +streets and narrow lanes and talkative people to win a true perspective. +I wanted to sit down alone and think things over. The people, generally, +were as strange to me as I was to them, and yet there was a time, when I +was as well-known to everybody, as a child is to his own mother, and +when I knew everybody in town. All the alterations of things are +wondrously complete, but these were nothing to the change of appearance +in the faces of the people. The old familiar countenances, where were +they? I looked here and I looked there and everywhere but they had +largely vanished from above and below the earth. The character of the +dog has undergone less change, than that of the human master, to whom he +is so strangely attached. Change, that immutable law of nature, had +wrought such shifts in the faces among old acquaintances that all smiles +of recognition were wanting. But when I look in the glass I see no +change. To the people I must have appeared as the veriest Rip Van +Winkle. It was not the fault of the thrifty, prosperous place that I had +slept so long, but like Rip Van Winkle it was in me to come back, and I +am trying to learn to say with him, Everything is changed and I am +changed. He recalled the occurrences before he entered upon his extended +slumber and returned to find that the place was altered. It was enlarged +and more populous and had rows of houses which he had not seen before. +The dress of the people, too, was of a different fashion from that to +which he was accustomed but whether under the somnolent influences of +his lethargies, or free from them, he mused amid all the changes of +outward affairs upon one immutable scene, "the lordly river moving on +its silent but majestic course." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHAT HAD BECOME OF THE OLD ECCENTRICITIES + + +On revisiting the earth nothing is more remarkable than to find that +with each man goes one striking characterization. There is usually one +prevalent well-founded recollection based upon a temperamental +peculiarity, and the impression was made, that the former citizen was +fortunate to leave that one item in the memory of the people. You make +reference to him, "Oh, yes, he was our town clerk for twenty years." As +often as you mention him you are told again the fact which distinguishes +him. One beloved character was Abiel Bassett. "Oh yes, he was our good +deacon, Deacon Bassett." He was a farmer. As such, he made his living, +but that was nothing to the point. "Deacon Bassett"--that was all. Cain +stands in the catechism for one fact. There are two things beside, that +could be said of him. It is not usual to mention them. Judas must have +had excellent qualities or he would not have been made an apostle. One +thing attaches to him. If a person's picture is to be taken he might +like to designate the occasion and expression, but then he might show +self-consciousness which spoils everything. He must not appear to want +"to be seen of men." History wants to make his picture a likeness, just +as he is, and as his friends see him, every day. On revisiting the earth +I find that one act is always stated of my father. It gave him earthly +immortality. It was not his greatest act nor his best. He took no pose +for the permanent picture. Joseph Jefferson, Kate Claxton and Edwin +Booth had, each of them, one part that fitted them like a garment and +fully expressed them. It would inevitably become the favorite selected +for a "Benefit Night." Audiences in part determined their public +character. My father took his permanent position thus by a kind of +election. + +He was not consulted. History does not say, "How would you like to have +your picture taken now?" He is caught like a fly in the amber and there +he remains. His repute is imperishable. Thus statuesque is history. + + +_Forgetting all Except One Truth_ + +My mother left one clear-cut impression. It remained like the imprint of +a fern leaf on a rock, a suggestive though accidental record of the +years gone by. It was a simple picture stamped with a strange +indelibility, like the patience of Job, the meekness of Moses, the +daring of Daniel, the greed of Shylock, the indecision of Hamlet, the +jealousy of Othello, the furious driving of Jehu. One story was told +with endless iteration by the old-time neighbors who feel themselves +under no obligation to laboriously dig up a second story when the usual +one is the best and is so thoroughly characteristic. Thus all other +occurrences are suffered to fade from the community's recollection. When +a patriarch was returning from battle with his spoils, a priest, meeting +him, stretched forth his arms and blessed him. In this pose history's +snap-shot was taken. After thousands of years we find that he "abideth a +priest continually." Such men are the moral pivots of society. Their +claim on remembrance, like William the Silent, Charles the Bold, Richard +the Lion-Hearted turned upon one conspicuous thing and history will so +nail that one fact down and so hammer it that it is practically +impossible to effect a readjustment, as in the matter of Daniel +Webster's physical condition while making his Rochester speech and of +the obloquy cast upon Chief Justice Taney in the Dred-Scott decision, +that the negro "had no rights that the white man was bound to respect." +The learned judge never made that affirmation. His sympathies in the +recital were against, rather than with, the sentiment he named. In +revisiting the earth you find that history did not fasten upon the best +form of characterization and you try to argue. Oh never mind now, our +story is a good one; it will have to stand. It has been attacked +before. + + +_Personalities of Rarest Types_ + +The difficulty has been pointed out of recalling our childhood, exactly +as it was, for the reason that as we travel backward, we take our +present selves with us. Imagination is now less active, and so things +are shorn of their size and of their exaggerated features. On coming to +town we miss the lion of the place. Our juvenile Hall of Fame was +featured by the Sagamore of the tribe. In the good old days society had +its leader, its model, its dictator who would have led an army or +governed a kingdom. He merited the description by which the Norse sages +so often carried a meaning of high praise when they declared one to be +"not an every-day man." His individual life was less lost in the crowd. +His isolation reacted on his character. His residence was one of the +show places of the town. It was the resort for the itinerant politician, +holding out the glad hand, who was to speak in the evening, and was with +us to electioneer. In such a community it falls usually to one and the +self-same family to entertain. The house is known as the Quaker tavern, +or the Methodist tavern. Its hospitality is proverbial. It had its spare +room. This became locally quite famous for the celebrities it had +welcomed, before they had come to their later fame. Hospitality in this +form is the grace of small, remote, detached places. The minister's +house had a prophet's chamber, with a "bed and a table and a stool and a +candle-stick" so that when any "holy man of God" passed by he could turn +in thither. A minister's wife said plaintively that she never knew how +many she was cooking a meal for. On one occasion she had provided a +custard pie, more than ample, for the few she then had in mind. It was +however necessary later to cut it into six pieces and that, +notwithstanding the fact that it was imperative, by an unforseen +situation, for the mother herself and her daughter not to "care for any" +that day. The minister's family adopted a code of S. O. S. signals which +it would sound around F. H. B., "Family hold back," M. I. K., "more in +the kitchen." To the manse any minister, though a total stranger and +unannounced, could come with complete assurance. The itinerant and his +horse were now and then forced by a snow-storm to remain a few days +until the roads were broken up and settled. + + +_Poet of the One-Hoss Shay Said, "No Extra Charge"_ + +The lobby, in the earlier country tavern, was universally called the +bar-room. Travel was thus staging from one bar-room to another. The +tables were served by the village belles. Other employment, as in +factories or stores, did not then exist. The inn holder was a +conspicuous man. He picked up the news from the stage driver and his +passengers. When the old-fashioned Concord stage coach approached town +the four fine horses were slowed down into an easy pace for a few +furlongs but reaching the suburbs, the horses were given the word, and +the long whip was cracked and they dashed into town, making the arrival +peculiarly enlivening. + +Presently the country landlord would appear on the long broad platform +to sound the summons to the table. This was done by the loud violent +ringing of a dinner bell, which was swung by a whole arm-movement on +both sides of the artist's body, and made to publish in double tones its +noisy welcome. The ringer's whole anatomy entered for the time being +into the contortion for producing sound. + +Every institution is said to be the lengthened shadow of some +personality. It was a happy thought that gave those men the title of +fathers of their country. The term is very significant of their +munificence or of some real thing that made them kings in the hearts of +men. Those names are enshrined in some academy, or other school, or +bank, or business house, or attached to some central conspicuous street. +A return to the residence discovers that imagination had given it a part +of its size and that its proportions were carried over from the local +prominence of its occupant. "I saw an angel standing in the sun," said +St. John. Position gives size. A man who stands near a camp fire +projects portentous dimensions on space behind him. The aristocracy of +such a man sometimes was certainly not in his dress. He wore the +old-fashions, walked in the old ways, and was a revelation of things +that had passed away. He wore a heavy, tall, silk cylinder hat in which +he carried a bandana handkerchief, valuable papers, and a large +pocket-book that was wrapped round with a thin band of leather that was +passed under a succession of loops. We used to call him a gentleman of +the old school. We used to secretly wonder how he escaped the flood. + + +_Links with the Past_ + +When he adopted his style of dress his apparel was the last word in +fashion. It suited his taste, was becoming, comfortable, and +satisfactory. His course was consistent. He adhered to it and kept right +on. Toward the last of his career he depended somewhat upon it to make +him a marked man. Such an individual with obsolete manners was, like +Melrose Abbey, impressive in its decay. In his age, disliking changes, +his distrustful mind would cling to what was nearest to him, his +appearance. He did not see why his style of dress should be interfered +with. He made no reckoning with time. That item alone gives a rude +awakening to a recruit. In a call for troops he was passed by. Again in +a call for troops he is summoned. He is substantially what he felt +himself before to be, only time, simply time has passed and he is +twenty-one and takes a new relation to his own parents and to his +country and to his fortune. The city of Washington used to contain a set +of pensioned admirals, retired army officers and officials, who still +wore the hall marks of their life when at its climax. The simple +revolution of the earth made them fossils and relics and reminders that +the procession of which they had been honored members had now for the +greater part turned the corner and passed out of view. Sometimes an old +man and his wife, tall and antique in appearance, resembling Abraham and +Sarah of old, are distinguished chiefly for looking "like the afternoon +shadow of other people." + + +_Boys Did Not Know What to Make of Them_ + +On revisiting the earth the old albums are the first things inevitably +brought out and was there ever anything more grotesque and unearthly +than that which is shown in their hideous, faded contents? A woman, in +those days, so deformed her fine form, that the wonder was expressed, +and the surprise, that with that make-up she ever got a husband. + +When de Tocqueville was in this country looking for evidences of +democracy in America, he frankly states in the introduction to his +epoch-making book that he saw more than there was. Impossible. You +cannot find what does not exist, yet his untruth is the exact +unqualified truth. He that seeketh findeth. He plainly saw signs of +democracy before he left the company's dock as he landed from the ship. +He saw it too at the hotel. It takes a big volume to tell all the tokens +he discovered. If he had been accompanied by a twin brother, different +in heart, in sympathies, and in his specialty he could in turn have +found money kings, railroad kings, kings of fortune, landlords, laborers +in a stand-up fight with capitalists. McAllister found a social set +limited in number to four hundred. A real estate man takes a different +view of the Hawthorne house or of Independence Hall or the Old South +Church from the antiquarian. Dr. W. J. Dawson knew a man who sailed with +Napoleon but could tell of him later but two items, one of which had +some reference to silk hosiery, that his mind probably revolted at, as +extravagant or as prudish. Of the same incident, some said it thundered, +others said an angel spake. An artist and a banker traveled together +abroad and on hearing their recital you would suppose they visited +different lands. + + +_Heroes and Fine Old Gentlemen_ + +One of the curiosities of history was the great game of +follow-my-leader, that the whole community used to play. Under the hat +of the great man of the village was a brain large enough for the ruler +of a nation. He seemed the peer of a Bismarck in executive force. We +have had since a high grade of general education but then we had a +giant. He had an individuality peculiar and surprising. His mental +traits were exceptional. The dominant features of his character were +energy, industry, and courage. He was an able, genial, hard-working man, +a treasure and a blessing, but giving some evidence of rusty mental +machinery and of being belated in the world's history and of absolute +inability to train a successor. A modern, typical exhibition of the +relation of the big man to the town was given at Three Oaks, Michigan, +when Admiral Dewey gave a cannon to the committee that after the Spanish +war was arranging a memorial to the dead soldiers and sailors. It was +offered to the city that in proportion to its population would make the +largest contribution to the monument. Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and +San Francisco all vied with each other. The case turned on the clear +swung conception of one master mind. It would never be possible, Mr. E. +K. Warren observed, "to rouse all the inhabitants of a large city to +give to such a cause," but every man, woman and child in Three Oaks would +give a dime or a dollar on condition that he himself gave a thousand +times the amount. The people owe a debt of gratitude to such a man, a +marked individual specimen of human worth, with a character of his own, +who plays the part of fountain to their reservoir. There is a fine +reflex influence in being what the New Testament calls "a lover of good +men." There is nothing better that can enter the human soul than +admiration and reverence for high character. They are the crown of our +moral nature. One element in them is appreciation. It was a fine +training for boys to show and feel deference. This is one thing that a +boy does not bring into the world with him. It is not natural to look +up. + + +_Sounds a Characteristic Note_ + +We live in an age of interrogation when all things are questioned, not +only as to their right to exist, but particularly as to their right in +any degree to rule. Every age has its own lesson and adds its own +peculiar gift to those preceding it. Are we better or worse? This only I +know that these men were beacon lights to the young, illuminating their +path and beckoning them on, and deserve to be enshrined in a perpetual +and revered remembrance. From all this there has come a reaction. +Congressmen and legislators have not lowered in grade, far from that, as +the elimination of the bar from the capital would be one of many +evidences, but the public intelligence has risen so that they, +relatively, seem to have descended. Instead of a century plant the usual +attraction now is a garden. A great social revival has been abroad; the +people are getting together. There is now more concerted action. In the +business world individuals are forming alliances. Interests are being +confederated. As the community spirit comes to consciousness the +individuality of men diminishes. Society forms into clubs, chambers of +commerce, and into boards of directors in which men are less marked +individually and much, even of their personality, is concealed by the +extravagant multiplication of societies and institutions and meetings of +every kind. The churches have pretty nearly lost the individual, since +the introduction of team work, itself a blessing, but the individual has +withered. He is leveled down and smoothed out by the necessity of acting +only in conjunction with groups. + + +_Some Incongruities of Character_ + +The Arabian Nights would make queer history, yet they would prove a wet +fuse and fail to kindle the mind if they did not suggest actual +experience. Who is your "old man" that sticks to your shoulders putting +you in Sinbad's class? Each village carries its unconventional +character. He gives a touch of color to the place. Rip Van Winkle, an +old drunkard, who slept for twenty years in the Catskills was a great +favorite with the children. They would shout for joy whenever he +approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, and +taught them to fly kites. He was surrounded by a troop of them. He had a +distinct individuality. He was a hero, with all his characteristics well +marked. A person on revisiting the earth misses such a striking familiar +figure in the neighborhood. We saw Mrs. Van Winkle beat up old Rip with +a broom-stick, but although she was a clean, tidy, thrifty person who +kept her house swept and garnished in spite of her improvident husband, +in the estimation of the boys she was not to her well-known husband a +companion character. + + "Jack Sprat could eat no fat + His wife could eat no lean." + +Young eyes are sharply drawn to persons so dissimilar in their tastes. +Children are quick to see that this very difference in taste produced a +peculiar situation. Our early life is peopled with distinctive and +marked characters and they have gone along with us through life. It is +the peculiar outstanding people that, like a burr, stick to the memory. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +TO SEE AND FEEL THE PAST + + +It is a matter of common knowledge that Washington at the time of his +death was the richest man in the country. All are familiar with the fact +that he acquired property through his brother Lawrence, and the widow +Custis whom he married, but less attention is given to the suggestive +fact that he invested widely in land in what was then the West. We have +letters to his agents. Judson destroyed all his own letters and papers +touching private matters, but there they are, in Washington's case, and +he who runs may read. He had been a surveyor. He knew a good thing when +he saw it. His invariable rule was to buy quality. Showing the same +wisdom he did in his campaigns and his farewell address, which has never +lost its influence, he turned to the West to do his buying. Entirely +aside from the Revolution, if Washington had not been a great general, +he was well started on lines that would have made him a very substantial +citizen. The confidence he expressed in the West is believed to be, and +has been stated to be, a higher monument to his fame than the +metal-tipped, slender, tapering sky-pointing and heaven-reaching obelisk +reared in his honor near the banks of the Potomac. He was invited to +visit France but could not, he said, bring his affairs into a state of +order, during the remainder of his life, and the matters that most +needed his care were his large purchases of land in the West which now, +with some little contiguous territory are worth Twenty Million Dollars. +Washington remains our richest president not only relatively but +absolutely. + + +_People Looked, People Wondered, People Praised_ + +We find him making a sixth journey to see his lands which were located +on the right and left banks of the river, and bounded thereby, +forty-eight miles and a half. This portrayal makes very obvious what is +implied when it is said of an individual that he is not a good business +man. He simply lacks what Washington had, intensity of interest in his +affairs, energy of mind, promptness. We do not say foresight, there is +no such thing as foresight, we mean insight, good judgment, and a fine +knowledge of the trend of things, a perception of the direction taken by +popular movements. Washington was accused of being close-fisted, but +some one takes the ground that a man must close his fist if there is +something in it that others were seeking by illegitimate means to get. +At his death he was worth a half million dollars, and four hundred +thousand dollars of it lay in western lands. "Would God we may have +wisdom to improve the opportunity," a prayer in which many persons who +have had much better chances than ever came to him, pressed as he was +with patriotic service, wished they had joined, but who allowed +opportunity to knock at the door and turn away, unwelcomed. What a sight +to Washington, now revisiting the earth, would a night view of +Pittsburgh be with her deep fires and the lid off. Washington's insight +was apparent by locating his purchases near the possibilities of a city +whose tonnage exceeds that of any other city of the Union, whose vast +manufacturing interests send up volumes of smoke that become a pillar of +cloud by day and whose furnaces are pillars of fire by night, to lead +the people on to prosperity and success. The mind has less influence on +the will than many persons suppose. A man may know a fact and then do +nothing about it. A lazy man may know the advantage of wealth and yet be +without the motive to attain it. It is often a poor boy who has felt +poverty and has some feeling about it that makes success with him a +passion. He who hesitates is lost. It was the plunge of Curtius that +saved Rome. + + +_Making Hay While the Sun Shines_ + +That great orator of nature to whom school-boys are so much indebted for +energetic, passionate, effective declamations, Patrick Henry, father of +fifteen children, made his widow and eleven surviving children rich by +his early judicious purchases, like Washington, of lands. This much +needs to be said, lest fortune be thought of as a blind goddess. A man +that once was cutting grass and herding cattle earning his bread by the +sweat of his brow is now Prince Fortunatus. No chance luck about it, for +the opportunity that beckoned him called to others but their ears were +dull of hearing. All of us, who are interested in vital reforms, must +have been attracted to the career of Gerrit Smith, who gave thirty +thousand dollars to destitute old maids and widows in the state of New +York. No public subscription lacked his name, and he always gave away +$50,000.00 and not seldom $100,000.00 each year. In his business life of +fifty-six years he gave away $8,000,000.00 and left an estate of more +than a million dollars. Such a recital, as in the case of Washington, +makes us curious to find the sources of such philanthropy. We find that +with rare acumen he developed the business of his father, who when a +poor youth, kept a small store and traded for furs at first hands with +the Indians. When his partner Mr. Astor bought real estate in New York +city, the elder Smith purchased sixty thousand acres of land in the +central part of the state of New York, of which enough was sold at +auction to repay the purchase price and still leave enough to make him +the largest landholder in the state. Subsequent additions made him the +owner of more acres than any other man in the Union. Such a preparative +study as this gave me intensest interest, when revisiting the earth, in +treading the beautiful field, my birthplace, that my father bought in +Iowa at the Government price of a dollar and a quarter an acre, that has +since been sold at $205.00 an acre and the price paid for it at the last +sale of it was $300.00 an acre and the buyer was offered $3,000.00 for +his bargain. It is the percentage of gain that tells the story. It seems +like the miracle of the loaves and fishes. + + +_The Death of the Mortgage_ + +Besides learning these items and handling the papers that confirmed +them, out came a fact that took my breath away. Once men profited by +nature's bounty. To him that hath is given. That is the common way. Now +comes the uncommon thing. From him that hath not is (not) taken away +even that he hath. The sun and stars now look down upon a changed +condition. The wildest dream has come true, a by-product of the war. It +is one of the many things begun under circumstances which the German +treaty-breakers, the disturbers of the peace, thrust upon us, a thing +designed to aid agriculturists to feed our armies and allies, which, +with the war over, will never be abated. We raise our eyes, and see a +moneyed millennium coming down a common country road. It is in the form +of an original system of rural credits. The Treasury Department of the +United States has inaugurated a Federal Farm-Loan Bureau. Its +outstanding feature is, if a borrower of a large amount pays his +interest, he never hears again of the debt. Interest at six and a half +per cent not only takes care of that item, but it pays it off, in less +than a generation, also the money borrowed. A farmer at the start +requires money for buildings, machinery, and herds. The aching heart of +many a widow bereft of her home by the foreclosure of a mortgage on her +property will see the deep significance in the sacrament that I am +seeking to describe. The process is called amortization. The syllable +"mort" as in "mortal," means death of the debt. From the first the +mortgage is struck with death. + + +_A Heaven-sent Device_ + +So happy to all concerned is this method, resembling a co-operative +bank, of obtaining a greatly needed working capital that we may well +rejoice with a large class of deserving people, who for the first time +have the means of doing a larger, more profitable business, with the +sting and hazard graciously removed. With what bitterness we have all +heard the children of the poor recite the anguish that came into the +home when the mortgage, like the naked sword suspended by a hair over +the head of Damocles, came to do its dreaded office! "But the children +began to be sorely weary," says Bunyan, "and they cried out unto Him +that loveth pilgrims to make their way more comfortable." We have come +to see the Government make the way of the children who inherit a +mortgage more comfortable. All's well! You have no trouble with the +interest. Only go on as you have been going. The farm, the home, are all +yours. The mortgage is dead. + + +_They Were a Family Again_ + +A day on a real farm did not have a dull moment in it. It was not only +full of incident and instruction but as compared with a generation ago +it was different. Immediately a very young calf was noticed that, to use +the farmer's unexpected phrase, his mother does not "claim." I supposed +he would say that his mother would not "own." The cow was put in a +stall, in a barn, the calf being nourished and thus openly adopted by +the mother they became effusively chummy. At first the cow "did not +care" for the calf. When care began a noticeable regard commenced. + + +_How Much Like Folks_ + +More curious still it seemed to find that in breaking out of a pasture +the cattle were led by one member of the herd. The community of cattle +would be quiet and contented except for one breaching individual. Here +again I went to school to a farmer in the use of words. In his reference +to this creature he designated the trouble maker as an "outlaw." I had +not thought of applying that word to cattle. + + +_Absence of the Big Stick_ + +I stood still and wondered at the constant and varied use of the voice +by a farmer as he moves about among the creatures that he owns. Armed +with a whip, like an Irishman with his shillalah at a fair, I supposed +he would keep it flourishing about his head and that he would be +accompanied by a dog. An owner will not trust his cattle to the care of +a man that employs a shepherd dog. Cattle must be kept quiet. A dog +wakes them all up and sets back the gain that they would make for the +day. Farmers and drovers are whistling, singing, calling, shouting, +talking, all the time to their creatures and they like it. + + +_An Outlaw in the Herd_ + +It is everywhere, I suppose, well known that the western spirit has +always been less tolerant of an outlaw than the people of the East are. +I asked the ranch man what course he took with an outlaw among cattle. +"As soon as I detect him I get rid of him, not stopping at anything to +do it." On the fourth of July I went out upon the piazza of the hotel, +and looking up the street I saw a man, hung in effigy, upon a telephone +pole in front of his own store, with his name placarded upon the +suspended figure, that it should not be a case of mistaken identity. He +had offended the decencies of life. The townspeople waited for a day or +two to see if the authorities took it up. There was nothing doing. Then +the citizens made public what they thought of the outlaw. + + +_Testing Mighty Principles by Small Experiments_ + +It seems that Schopenhauer had a gold piece which he used to put beside +his plate at the table where he ate, surrounded by the young officers of +the German army, and which was to be given to the poor, the first time +he heard any conversation that was not about promotion or women. If +this experiment were tried one's contribution to charity would not be +large, provided the subjects were changed in the various well known +localities. In the time of the great inflation in Chicago when any one +could make his fortune by simply buying building sites and selling out +before the ink had dried with which the first transfer was recorded, the +subject discussed in hotels and offices would be Corner Lots. + +These locations were sold and resold, each time at a large advance on +the former price, and became the inexhaustible topic of conversation. +Everybody was growing rich on paper and The City of the Lakes was the +Mecca of speculators, a genuine Eldorado, where affluence was made easy, +and first lessons in finance were given. The original gold coin was +staked amid specific well understood surroundings. When environment +changes topics change. In one town all the talk is money, money. At a +public table in some localities where once it was all horse talk, in one +corner of the dining room, the interchange of mind is on the speed of +automobiles, the improvement made in cars since two years ago, the +amount of gasoline to the mile, and the comparative excellence of the +different manufactures. + +In revisiting the earth on coming into close relations with each town, I +found it had its distinctive atmosphere. The value of land did not +depend upon the soil nor upon the climatic conditions so much as upon +the human equation. Two communities upon the same railway with like +physical conditions will find themselves growing apart. One place might +have slightly inferior outward conditions. These are speedily overcome. +Watch it grow. + + +_The Home of the Angels_ + +In this garden of the earth one quickly loses his heart to Los Angeles. +Her hotels are the last word in luxury. Thousands of citizens having +become rich in Iowa spend their money in this Land of the Afternoon. +While they have found California about as nature made it, besides the +elements of the air and soil, Los Angeles has an atmosphere that is +purely social. It is an attractive place to live, choice people have +assembled there, and so, under pleasant conditions, others are drawn. +The money in Pasadena never came out of the soil contiguous to the +place. A man buying land saw how things were tending and the +neighborhood in which he was going and said to the driver that he need +not go any farther. The lay of the land and quality would make no +difference. The atmosphere was alien and he was through. In the same +state you find towns that are as unlike as if they stood on different +continents. In San Francisco, all unannounced, you, on crossing a +street, pass an equatorial, invisible line into the Chinese quarter +which, in atmosphere, is five thousand miles away. There is in Paris an +activity, a rapidity of movement that you do not find in Holland or in +England. The people walk faster, talk faster, eat faster, ride faster, +and live faster in all respects than do their neighbors. The English +love the past and protest against the removal of the ancient land-marks, +while the French love innovation. The atmosphere of the city of +Washington, not being like most national capitals, a center of trade, is +world-wide from that of Chicago. So much is it out of the popular drift +that while a state was voting over-whelmingly for constitutional +prohibition the measure was discountenanced by both of its senators. One +atmosphere has in it a kind of vitalizing life, a perpetual marvel and a +perpetual delight, reviving every faculty and affection, while in +another the doctors administer quinine to the saffron-colored sojourners +in its fever-haunted marshes. + + +_New Forms of Matter, New Crystallizations_ + +Every region has its peculiar fitness for some particular kind of +growth, Missouri apples, Michigan peaches, California oranges, Kentucky +blue-grass, Wisconsin clover. To the south and west is the corn belt. +Specific well-known places are best adapted to the varied form of animal +life. The three northern continents are temperate; the three southern +continents are tropical. In these warmest regions nature displays its +fullest energy, its greatest diversity, its richest colors, and +development. The animal kingdom grows in strength and perfection in this +privileged zone, yet man presents his purest and most perfect type at +the center of the temperate continents. At the base of the Himalayas +vegetation is of a tropical character; at an elevation of five thousand +feet European plants succeed. Wheat grows at an elevation of thirteen +thousand feet, barley at fifteen thousand. We do not look for the best +trees on the bleak mountain top but in the genial valley. As we go up +the struggle for existence increases until even the sturdiest fail to +thrive above the "timber line." Number one wheat can be produced only in +localities where the summers are short and the winters long and cold. +Corn is capable of the widest cultivation, but even that has its +northern and southern limits. Climate is nature's smile and goes with +the land. No man can farm against the climate and no medication can do +for an invalid what the half-tropical sunshine will do in an oasis city. +There is no more fascinating study than that of the sustaining, +producing, and modifying effects of atmosphere. + + +_A Lesson that Will Last a Lifetime_ + +It enhances our interest as we return to breathe again the air that made +us ourselves as distinguished from others. We have known well our own +standards, our ideals, our resolves, but how came we with what we find +ourselves possessed. It adds interest to the old temples to visit the +quarries which furnish them forth. In revisiting the earth it thrills us +to look at the rock whence we were hewn. Our temptations were those +peculiar to that locality. What I know about temptation is entirely +different from what a remote stranger would guess. Our struggles were +such as that environment occasioned and are not appreciated by persons +in a different zone. Each soul has its own climate. Even man's sight +responds to his environment. On watch, day in, day out, on a sailing +vessel, scanning the distant horizon, the eye, becoming adapted to it, +is far-sighted. It can hardly read fine print held close to the person. +Even children brought up at the seaside and accustomed to far sights +have to patiently await a readjustment of their vision. I can now trace, +in my being, some reflex effect of each set of surroundings, in which +for a term of years, I was placed. My experience in a new environment +amounted to a re-birth. One educator considers the proximity of a +mountain, worth at least to the student, one endowed professorship. "Let +no one say he has written my life," said Walpole. "He has not the +needful information. He never knew the crowd of little things which went +to make my individual being and career. No one knows them but myself." +One's interruptions and trials and crises and providences come with +such surroundings as he then has and it is a striking experience, when +revisiting the earth, to discover for one's self the agencies and +influences by which he was moulded. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A RETURN TO ONE'S HOLY LAND + + +It is said that at Florence there is a circular hall, faced with +separate mirrors. In the center is a statue of exquisite beauty. Each of +these mirrors reflects the image of the statue at different angles, and +consequently exhibits some particular point more prominently and +accurately than any of the others. Artists study the statue through +these mirrors, and thus can estimate the beauty of each separate part, +and form a better judgment of the perfection of the whole. Let me show +you, gentle reader, how you will get the truest conception of yourself. +If you please, stand for a moment in this hall. In each mirror you will +see yourself in the most impressionable period in your life. There is a +reflection at the moment your destiny beckoned you, when you were in the +act of getting hold of yourself and without ceremony began your career, +seeming to yourself to be like Saul, who "went to seek his father's +asses and found a kingdom." + +As in water face answers to face so, in one angle of a mirror you +recognize a first-rate likeness of yourself as you sat for the first +time under your own vine and fig tree, remembering this long after as +though you had seen a great sight. Like St. John you turned to see the +voice that spake to you. Its last cadence may die in the air but it +leaves an impression that will never fade. + + +_Casting a Reflection Means Nothing Bad_ + +These looking-glasses show your figure, life-sized, standing on a +corner. Emergency met you. It really proved a providential +interposition, and now these fortunate interventions mark the period in +your life more than the days and months and years, and they were +accompanied by an interior guidance, more distinctly discerned now, than +it was felt at the time. There is none so homely but loves a +looking-glass; however little or much a man is favored in looks he +notices reflections made of himself, particularly if question is raised +touching his appearance as viewed by his critics. In his autobiography +Mr. Seward records that no matter what care and diligence we exercise +and whatever be a man's ability or inclination, the mysterious factor is +a vital force in the world and has to be reckoned with. Judicial +preferment was the aim of his ambition. He meant to be a lawyer, and he +wished to be a judge. His early bias in this direction was caused by his +observation of the deference paid to his father as a justice of the +peace. + +"One day," said President Lincoln, "an emigrant stopped at my store, and +asked me to buy a barrel of odds and ends, of little value, for which he +had no room in his wagon. I found in it a two-volume copy of +Blackstone's Commentaries. I devoured them. I never read anything which +so interested and thrilled me. Soon after I began the study of law, and +that is how I came to be a lawyer." + + +_The Glory of Supremacy_ + +Old soldiers cannot be made to keep their seats as an excursion train +pulls into Gettysburg. "There is where I was wounded. There is where we +met the charge." It is touching to witness the comraderie, their +sympathy. As they from the car windows come into sight of their +struggles and victories they cannot avoid exclaiming "There we made our +stand. There we advanced." + +"There a man with forty-eight wounds was left for dead, and yet revived +and lived beyond all expectations." One thing would be Spangler Springs +from which, one night both sides drank. There the First Maryland, a +Confederate regiment, clashed with the Second Maryland and two brothers, +named Clark, were brought face to face, one being in each regiment and +hence on each side of the fight. The Bloody Angle is a sort of Holy of +Holies. You stand and read from an open book "The High Water Mark." Up +to this point of ground, thus indicated, things seemed outwardly to be +going one way. Turning points in history have a location on the earth. +On a spot so exactly known as to bear the legend, cut in stone, "High +Water Mark," the fortunes of war so abruptly turn that General Lee +himself said, "This is the beginning of the end." Napoleon wanted +Hougoumont, for as Hugo says, "This bit of earth, could he have taken +it, would perhaps have given him the earth." On a piece of very common +ground near Luz Jacob received an uninvited angel visitation. The stone +on which he rested his head was only one of thousands. But with the +morning what a change! It came like a beautiful vision + + "That loves to come at night, + To make you wonder in the morn, + What made the earth so bright." + +His pillow became a pillar and he said, "This is the gate of heaven. The +heart sanctifies the place." Like any boy, egged on by curiosity I have +stood just inside the door and seen the Israelites shuffling about with +their hats on and the Rabbi reading the evening service, all being in +motion, in imitation probably of the forty years' travel to Canaan. The +command of a prophet to the people was distinctly "Take off thy shoes +for this is holy ground." There was no command to take off the hat. They +were to respect their contact with the location. It is the spot set +apart by the deep experience that becomes hallowed. If a struggle, be it +physical or moral, is victorious the place is consecrated by it forever. + +The entire planet is redeemed by such a dedication of the many revered +localities in it. + + +_Silent Sentinels of the Silent Years_ + +There is the rock of all rocks in the western world. It has done the +most for our ideals, for the tone and character of our institutions. +Poets, like Mrs. Hemans, and orators like Webster and Choate have +glorified it and cannot stay their praise. It is ever new, it is ever +old. Its hold is upon one's imagination. In its undivided influence, yet +in its already cloven form, ever perfect in its detached pieces it is +ever living in its broken body. Many representatives from many states +were once gathered at Plymouth Rock to put forth their Burial Hill +confession. "Standing by the ..." they say. The place is an inspiration. +It is tonic. It gives an uplift. It lends elevation. "We do now declare +our adherence ... we declare that the experience...." It has stood the +test. It has worked. All honor for well-located facts. They are well +grounded. In this is their solidity. + +A visit is not required of us, yet most of us have taken part in so +pious a duty. America's foremost shrine is Mt. Vernon. With more +vividness than by any other method we can almost see the form of him +twice elected unanimously to the Presidency, whose character is +America's greatest gift to the world. Plymouth is a close second, as a +Mecca for willing pilgrim feet. Baptized into the Puritan spirit and +versed in Pilgrim lore, in no other way can a lover of their annals so +clearly discern the real Pilgrims as by inhabiting for a brief period +their haunts. One of the patriarchs built "there" an altar because +"there" he had an affecting experience. In all statements of the deeper +life specific use is made of the adverb of place, making the plain +implication that the location is immortalized. It has entered for keeps +into his life. + + +_Sunny Silent Homes_ + +Each of us stands in a peculiar relation to a holy land. It includes a +shrine. "We have just the right morning light in which to see it. Well, +now look, my dear, the curtain is up. Before us are the white houses set +in emerald green. Is not that a pretty picture?" There is a sepulchre in +this garden. Adjacent to the town, in the burial ground, where the +esteemed forefathers of the hamlets sleep, is the early grave of my +angel mother. Our hearts glow with a burning gratitude to the local +authorities for their affectionate, guardian care over that sacred +enclosure. What varied pages have been written in history and in the +book of life by the sleepers here. It is a spot further removed from +perdition and nearer to paradise than any other in all the world. "My +mother, mother, mother." The meaning of the word deepens just in +proportion as one's nature is developed. Repetition is a form of +emphasis. And such a mother! Her affection was her diadem. In her excess +of tenderness she caused her hand to rest upon my head in blessing as +she taught me to say after her, sentence by sentence, the Lord's prayer, +the most precious item of instruction in the religious history of our +race. + + "Oh for the touch of a vanished hand + And the sound of a voice that is still." + +I stand in life's Holy of Holies. There are hours which the heart would +still leave in silence. They have given me an emotion of indescribable +tenderness towards her. I will tell you a tale of tears. Before the iron +had entered into my soul, before my memory had a tomb in it, before it +became the cemetery, the Greenwood, the Mt. Auburn of the soul, my first +grief here set me out alone, like one set apart by sorrow. The scene one +can no more leave behind him than he can leave his own soul. My spirit +is joined with her spirit. Feeling that I had visited the place to honor +her and do reverence to the spot I felt like speaking, "Mother, we are +here." The incense from her dear heart has perfumed my existence. The +odor of the ointment that once filled the house now fills the little +world in which she moved. Is this praising my mother? I do not wish to +praise her but to describe her. + + +_Heart Histories Laid Open_ + +I give a deep interpretation to a custom used in many countries at +funerals where a violin is played at the head of the coffin, and +questions are addressed to the deceased in the course of which it is +customary to ask pardon for having injured or offended the departed one +during life. My questions are all framed and have been, lo these many +years. The dead past has not buried its dead. Memory makes the present +sacred with a light, like that of the stars which has been many years on +its way. Nothing that ever enters into the field of experience is left +unrecorded. There the record lies and I am testifying touching the place +and the hour at which it is blazoned forth. It is at the spot where you +point and say "There the mortal put on immortality." Her spirit hovers +near us, to awaken in us, a motive to reflect back certain qualities in +a remote degree upon her, in respect and blessing. In pictures we often +see a pilgrim, home from his wanderings, leaning upon a staff, at such a +grave. As I write of it and think of the occasion my heart swells in +gratitude for receiving the impulse to revisit the earth. It is +well-worthwhile for one to travel far to sit for a few moments in his +early home with only God and his mother. An appeal is made to reverence, +which is a very much needed address. I wish we could learn from Europe +the noble and beautiful use it makes of those who have gone down to +their windowless homes by keeping their graves and memories green and +imperishable and particularly by transferring their virtues into the +daily life of the community. The ancient Egyptians blended with the +actual present, current, daily life a galaxy of characters whose +influence they would not willingly let die. The ancient Romans made +their daily paths, near just such memorial places, as we can show with +pride, in a garden of graves. So many monuments are scattered through +these busy years of a laborious life, that I cannot enter each sanctuary +of sorrow nor pause to read each inscription. The statues, those calm +and majestic intelligences, make up an impressive congregation of the +silent, and exert a magic influence upon the soul. + + +_A Legacy of Pleasant Memories_ + +A mother in heaven can be brought to view and a heavenly childhood +reinstated when visiting the spot where sacred dust is buried. This is +the place that faithful fantasy most frequently portrays. + + "Oft, in the stilly night, + Ere Slumber's chain has bound me, + Fond Memory brings the light + Of other days around me; + The smiles, the tears, + Of boyhood's years, + The words of love then spoken; + The eyes that shone, + Now dimmed and gone, + The cheerful hearts now broken!" + +I hold the sentiment of him who said, "My heart melts with compassion +for the motherless affectionate lonesome boy who suffers for the want of +intelligent sympathy, for someone who marks his little sorrows, binds up +his wounds, wipes off his tears, and kisses him as he goes to bed." Our +deepest feelings require a foothold on the earth. Like Antaeus they get +strength by touching the soil. There must be certain spots around which +patriotic feeling and family feeling and religious feeling can rally, +like Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord and Appomattox and Yorktown +and Independence Hall and the old home and the old church. Where feeling +is wide-spread it needs certain locations and community centers to give +it points of contact with the solid, visible, tangible earth. The +influence of a family would be deplorably weakened if once for all it +should be detached from any specific habitation that it could claim as a +home. Home, home, there is no place like it. "A charm from the skies +seems to hallow us there." + +At Torwood two ministers met and spent a day in high spiritual +communion. Later one of them, Mr. Kidd, of Queen's Ferry parish, having +sore trial and depression of spirits, sent a note to his friend, the +minister at Culross, informing him of his troubles and dejection of +spirits and desiring a visit. "I cannot go," was the reply, "but tell +Mr. Kidd to remember Torwood." The answer was effective. That was a +place. It had its atmosphere that could be recalled. The Pilgrim in his +progress believes in what he sees from the mountain. When on low ground +he cannot quite discern the celestial city, he keeps his course, staking +everything upon the experience at an earlier well-remembered place. + + +_The World Teaches an Attentive Mind_ + +When revisiting the earth surprise was expressed that we carried so much +feeling into the pilgrimage. Said a business man, "You have very many +old residenters where you live. They have some beautiful graveyards in +Boston. When any one dies here, why he's dead. He's just dead. We +mustn't expect anything more from him because the man is dead. We try to +get someone to take his place. That poor fellow is dead." Marshall Field +is dead in Chicago; Phillips Brooks, in Boston; Edward Payson, in +Portland; and Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore; Peter Cooper, in New York, +yet in their cities they are an active force and even in their ashes +live their wonted fires. Meade and Howard and Sickles and Pickett and +Longstreet and Lee live evermore. A visit to the best marked monumental +field in the world makes you feel afresh the grandeur of their +achievement. + + "Death may rob us of the painter + But his works to us belong, + He may steal from us the singer, + But he cannot seize the song. + And, though he may take the lives that + Mean our share of joy, yet he + May not rob us of the treasure + Of a single memory!" + +"If you wound the tree in its youth," we read in the story of an African +farm, "the bark will cover over the gash, but when the tree is very old, +peeling the bark off and looking carefully you will see the scar there +still. All that is buried is not dead." And that is a fact too. I bow my +head now and grieve over certain acts or rebukes or injustices or +humiliations or wounds. They all come in review, they are all there; I +come upon them on occasion. Someone has told us that the pearls of life +and of home, like the pearls of the deep sea, grow around wounds and are +the costly burials of pain. + + +_Where New Chapters Begin_ + +Returning from voluntary exile, to my father's house, not as a prodigal +son, to make confession of sins, or of wasted patrimony or of wasted +life, but to gain impressions from early places, where any boy gets the +most important part of his education, seeing that it is in our youth +that we lay the foundation of whatever character, position, or +usefulness we later attain, I was most deeply stirred at those places +that directly touch my interior life. "There is a story lodged in a room +here," said Bushnell in speaking of Yale College, "that I pray God his +recording angel may never suffer to be effaced." I removed my hat and +bowed alone in silence standing before a place hallowed by a neighbor. +He had everybody's sympathy on account of his bereavements. Adjacent to +our garden was his barn, which he used as a devotional closet and like +Daniel, as we infer, prayed aloud. When his voice broke the silence with +spontaneous, vital prayer and grew tremulous with emotion and +earnestness, there was a power and pathos in it, that penetrated the +center of my soul and woke to life all the slumbering feeling of my +better nature. A sense of awe took entire possession of me. My deference +would have been less if I had been bowed, and with him, hearing the +several petitions. But as it was I was conscious only of his communion +and thought all the time of the two persons concerned in it. + + +_Nothing Insignificant, Nothing_ + +It is the early life that makes the after life. As every little brook, +rivulet, and stream give depth and volume to the broad after current so +in sailing up a river. As we make a journey to a birthplace we keep +meeting the rills and tributaries to which we are so much indebted. One +of them is named Example, a gentle effective teacher, who, it is said, +lays his hand on your shoulder and remarks, This is the way to do it. In +revisiting the earth by a singular discovery we find we are closely +drawn where we took the hard lessons taught by Experience. This is the +teacher that is said to throw us into the deep pool, exclaiming briskly: +Now, swim. Human existence is rarely a great prairie stretching +monotonously onward to the great river. Blessings and misfortunes meet +us in disguise. Just as in the world's history, and in the history of +invention, and in our political annals, we have our great days so we do +in our personal experience, when destiny turns on a pivot. If one will +give a recital of the ten most memorable days of his life the rest of it +would be a matter of easy inference by his hearers. The time between +them, and all its events, seem compressed into the narrowest space, +verily a hand's breadth. Hidden forces have been at work, progress has +been made with painstaking, untold influences meanwhile have not been +idle, and upon a day all unforeseen springs of action are touched, +concentrated power is let loose and a resistless energy awakes to +action. + + +_Halcyon Days_ + +Our great days are the fruit of past toil. To count time only by +sunrises and sunsets omits, in the reckoning, the human equation. Where +daily wages and yearly dividends are concerned, it is a very convenient +system, but it is no measure of our real life. Noah's ark answered to +float lazily and safely on the old flood, but steam and electricity are +internal powers. These forces enable a navigator to steer right out into +the teeth of a storm. + +Distinguished natural historians have given us a fine classification of +the animal kingdom. But to put men in rows, and to put days into the +orders shown in the calendars does not make them tally with what we know +of them by observation and experience. Even a plant is a distinct +individual. No other one is just like it. Yet it reveals its type. +Species cannot be confounded, a briar will clasp a solid trunk of a tree +and weave its tendrils and leaves through the branches of the pine to +its top, but the briar was briar in every thorn and leaf and the pine +was itself in all its green needles of which Nature makes her sweetest +wind harp in the world. We are alike in the general features and +attributes of body and soul. We are under similar laws, have similar +wants, have a similar origin, common sympathies, and a common destiny, +yet no two of us are alike. Nature never repeats itself. It has been +shown that there is little difference in man's bodily stature. A fathom, +or thereabouts, a little more or a little less is the ordinary elevation +of the human family. Should a man add a cubit to his stature, he is +followed along the streets as a prodigy; should he fall very far short +of it, people pay money for a sight of him as a great curiosity. But +were there any exact measurements of mental statures, we should be +struck by an amazing diversity. It is obvious also that on certain days +we are more alive and capable than on others, yet we are the same +persons with the same education, with the same capabilities, and +antecedents. On occasion, from causes of which at the time we were +somewhat unconscious, our ideas and resolves were awaked and become +effective. Some new energies, we did not know we had, were unlocked and +came into play, and life was transfigured, on that spot, and that is the +locality we long to revisit. + + +"_I am a Part of All that I have Seen_" + +The place where any event in our history has occurred becomes a memorial +of the feelings which that event excited in us. When one comes back to +those places, it is as when one reads old letters or meets old friends. +Byron affirms that after the most careful recollection of his +experience, he could recall only eleven days of happiness, which he +could wish to live over again. Memory hits the high places. Only +relatively do the others come up into recognition. Mr. James Russell +Lowell, standing upon the Alps, turned toward Italy, and raising his +hat, exclaimed, "Glories of the past, I salute you." We express a like +salutation. Grave ideas, movements, and reforms have their birthplace +and their cradle, and we cannot fail to be interested in them. Long +afterward, tender recollections come back to us like the murmurs of a +distant hymn, and it is a great pleasure to listen to such voices. + +One day we have full view of the delectable mountains, on another day we +are mired in the slough of despond. There is a joyful holiday for the +human intellect, which it will not soon forget, when the light blazes on +us, and then come days of drudgery,--who cannot respond to this!--when +our powers are shut up and will not come forth. Some of our best days +seem reserved for celestial visitants. In others we "grunt and sweat +under a weary life." There are many toilsome days of monotonous travel +that we would gladly exchange for the single spectacle of Vesuvius in +the plenitude of its eruptive power. + +Those ideal days, in which we visited Mt. Washington, the loftiest +object in our Atlantic country, made more grand with our greatest name, +or in which we saw Niagara, the most remarkable waterfall in the world's +scenery, or in which we heard the Messiah, or Beethoven's Ninth +Symphony, perhaps the grandest piece of music ever composed by man, +would stand in a succession of days and yet stand apart from them in our +memory. So in the pulpit. Robert Hall was for fifty years the Prince of +Preachers. His first three efforts had been failures. One day +distinguished him. He did not know that the Princess Charlotte was dead +till he entered his church and the sermon he preached then was the +richest and most eloquent of all the hundreds delivered in the realm. + + +_There's a Reason_ + +Dole out to a person six minutes and tell him to take them and go back +and use them simply for what they would be worth, at different times, in +his career and he could probably revolutionize his whole life. Many men +could thus easily have made themselves rich, others could have made +themselves happy. Sleeping crimes, that awake at unexpected times and +produce an awkward situation, could have been omitted. Many a man has +become little in a trice. The rudder of principle was caught by a swift +current from his grasp, and he became ship-wrecked when near a safe +port, where sails might have been furled in peace, and golden opinions +won. All things would be a matter of only six minutes. The issue of a +single day may change all the schemes of the most ambitious. A family of +aristocrats may be prominent in government for seven centuries and in a +specified day an armistice is signed wherein their kind of a world comes +to its end. We are cleansed as by fire. We undergo a regeneration. We +find a new world. Former things are past away. The slate is wiped clean. +A leaf is turned. The pen is dipped for the rewriting of history. We +have new lines of thought; we have a new map of Europe. To put that +country back into its former dismal environment would be like attempting +to force an eagle back into its long discarded shell. Men have dreamed +of a brighter day approaching and lo, the dream comes true. Events were +once showing a new trend when Dr. Charles Hodge and Dr. Musgrave were +walking out together--both old men--when Dr. Musgrave said: "Charley, +this train is moving, and if you are going to get aboard you had better +hurry." A new spirit has now gone abroad which no walls can bound or +circumscribe. The unforgettable picture, drawn by Mary Antin, of the +immigrant Jew, leading the procession of his children into the +schoolroom with reverence, as though it were the Lord's temple, bowing +before the teacher, as the high Priestess of the one true God, and +offering his homage, in impossible English, exhibits the act of one +morning, for which an unseen agency had prepared the way. Yet it is the +event that signalizes the place and makes the day so impressive. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LOOKING UP SONS OF WELL-REMEMBERED MOTHERS + + +One of the outstanding features of revisiting the earth was to find, in +the banks and stores, in the professional and political offices, the +sons of women, full of thought, who used to magnetize me by their +presence and character. I have a passion for tracing the indebtedness of +successful sons to their fine mothers. In visiting the Studebakers' +wagon ware-rooms in Chicago it starts a sensation to sit in the chariot +presented by the government to Lafayette, but it was more affecting to +see in their counting room a large portrait of their mother. These +honorable and phenomenally successful men recognize the source of their +power. Now and then a speaking likeness seemed to us in our early years +so scenic that it is indelibly stamped upon us. This was true of the +words under the picture of an old man and a boy playing checkers, which +adorned the impressive, never to be forgotten, first page of The Child's +Own Book. + + "To teach his grandson draughts + His time he did employ + Until at last the old man + Was beaten by the boy." + +The unlooked-for element in the case came from the infusion of a high +quality and ability which were a mental inheritance that the lad gained +from his mother. Like Rizpah, like the mother of the Gracchi, mothers +seem to feel themselves selected for their high office. Their turn of +mind is to acquit themselves well in it and with all their hearts to try +to rise to a level with their responsibilities. + + +_Consecrated Their Talents to Elevation of Humanity_ + +They look right after the future of their boys. That welcome, +resplendent orb, the day-star, fades only at the rising of the sun. The +mother of Zebedee's children thought there was no position too +commanding for her boys. Nothing would be too good. It did not occur to +her that either of them would be inadequate for an exalted position. She +had not a moment's hesitation in seeking to have her boys well-placed in +life. Such confidence in them is inspirational and makes the boys +themselves look up. If there is a dispute between a boy and his teacher +he feels that his side of the case is not considered and he takes the +matter home to his mother. "She understands." She believes in her boy +and this helps him to believe in himself. She does not believe he was +wrong in his intention. + +Nothing so stirs the mother-spirit as a closed door. In fact it seems to +develop curiosity in any woman to know what is behind it. When she +reads, No Admittance to the Public, over an entrance it seems to arouse +a determination to get in at any price. No matter what is inside she is +ready to die to get there. There may be an exclusive social set in the +place where she lives. The society is probably not as good as that which +she already enjoys but shut a door in her face or against her children + + "And there is not a high thing out of heaven + Her pride o'ermastereth not." + +Without realizing why they do it the woman's club trades on this +principle. If the number that would naturally join the organization is +two hundred and seventy-five the limit of the membership is set at two +hundred and fifty and the waiting list is crowded with impatient +applicants. The reflex influence is felt by all who have already joined +and this greatly enhances the privilege of those who are already +members. We sometimes see a fence post standing on nothing. The earth of +a bank has all slidden away from it but the fence was fastened to it and +held it up. This, sometimes the family does for a boy. Such a mother +will go without new gloves and up-to-the-minute costumes while her son +is being educated. Knowing all the traditions of his school days it is +plain that the teaching in school did less for him than the influence of +his mother at home. She would cause him to see factors and movements in +a great world of which her own active mind had caught glimpses. + + +_A Reproof to Defamers of Human Nature_ + +I do not care what later delights may be in store for a neglected child, +there will be a void, a sin of omission, a cheat, a missing factor in +his composition, a loneliness, if the mother element was absent in his +development. In this was the safety of Samuel in the poisoned air of +Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons. The environment was exactly the same +for the boys of both families but one boy, as compared with the bad lot, +was so enveloped by the mother influence that he was kept pure amid +surroundings which were charged with temptations. I used to be greatly +impressed with the vast amount of what the Chinamen called the By and By +there is in the life of one of these mothers. No day is self-contained. +Her happiness depends upon a succession of futures. Intersect her career +at what point you will and you find her mind taken up with coming +events. The harvest of her struggles is to be reaped later. Life's +deferred gains bulk up largely in her life. She reminded me of +Washington's campaigns which were not usually immediately fruitful. +McKinley's mother or Moody's mother or Garfield's mother, like Bunyan's +Pilgrim, was in heaven before she had come at it by the consummation of +glory in the life of her son. All her wishes and prayers were more than +met. But there was the day by day life that had to be lived while this +fruition was in a very remote future. I visited the home of a mother who +said her happiness would be complete if she could only see her son +fitted for life and well settled in it. + +The slogan "Back to the land" carries a meaning a little obscured until +one recalls the conditions of a generation ago when the people lived +closer to nature than they do now. We can only go back to a place where +we were. It implies an earlier connection with land that we can go back +to it. It may have been a family connection. This spirit of association +is seen in that singular expression, "Thou hast been our dwelling place" +(How a residence for us?) "In all generations." We must then have lived +in what has gone before, if we had our dwelling place in former +generations. + + +_One an Illustration of Many_ + +In the generation just gone a mother wanted her son to have a better +educational equipment and suggested, no matter what the sacrifice, that +they leave the land and move to town to put the boy into a higher grade +of schools. Her husband opened a general country store of the old type +for the sale of anything the people needed and if he did not have it he +would get it. He sold everything from needles to nails, from harvesters +to quinine capsules, from ready-made boots to dried codfish. It was a +convenience to have the post office boxes in a front corner of the store +which was a place of general resort. I recall the frequent sight, a +farmer's wife, paying for postage stamps by handing out eggs from a +basket up to any number the postmaster might indicate. I once saw an +article lying upon the counter that I desired to buy and said to the +storekeeper that I would take it. The woman put out her hand +deprecatingly and said, "I am trading for it." Now this is what she +meant,--the country merchant had fixed the price on his wares. Then when +farm produce is offered in exchange he presumes to fix the price on that +also. One of the parties to the transaction is left out of the account. +"If you fix the price on yours ought I not to fix the price on mine?" He +cannot live without the store and the store cannot live without the +customer. A basis of agreement must be reached. Cannot you give me a +little better trade? We speak of a storekeeper as in trade in a large +city. The expression has come with the people from their earlier homes. +One of the causes of the high price of living is the use of the +telephone in ordering supplies hastily from the store which are paid +for, in the lump, without visiting the stores and stalls and considering +the relative value of the commodities in view of all the facts. Any one +knows that on visiting the market and seeing the great variety of +supplies offered for sale he used his money in a different way from what +he expected. In Washington, where Daniel Webster used to go to market +with a basket on his arm, the people are finding themselves benefited by +the free open air in going to the tempting remarkable markets. + + +_The Lure of the Store_ + +The general store in our town was a landmark. It was central to the +community. In it gathered each evening the men of the place and +questions of the day were discussed around the old drum stove. Store +haunting developed into a habit in winter when there was little to do. +Here men played checkers through long evenings and tried to reach the +king row. This place of merchandise was a political hotbed. It filled a +place that even the church could not supply, also in exposing evil doers +to scorn. Skulduddery would here get some body blows. Public opinion is +police, ever on the alert, without pay in a small town. "Opinion is the +queen of the world." It is feared and is the chief deterrent. Both men +and women are saved by it, which is very much more active and a better +recognized agency in small places than in great. It pretty nearly rules +the town. People bow to it. Town talk has an unequalled power to +regulate, restrain and actually govern conduct. In small communities the +real ruler can be rightfully named the Public. + +The store was the place for the born story-teller. A man with thrilling +adventures in the seven seas found in this "senate" a responsive +auditory. A woman knew where her husband could be found if any one +called and wanted to see him. + + +_He Lived With His Mother's Spirit_ + +Ibsen represents the Master Builders as oppressed by a strange fear. He +hears the young knocking at the door and he fears that the young will +enter in and dispossess him. A mother, with nobleness of nature and +sweetness of disposition, is too magnanimous for such an apprehension. +In my visit no one needed to inquire who was the mother of one man whom +I met, his success and the honors paid him bore testimony to her worth. +Providence was kind to him. I remember the mother so revered by the son, +as fragile yet dignified, and the fineness of the feminine element +imparted gentility to her boy. Watch the expression on such a face, keep +your gaze fixed on it and you will learn a lesson for life. A man's +nature when submitted to tests turns on its quality. He was sought in +society and was the life of many a company. "Did you ever meet his +mother?" was asked. "No." "Well, if you had you would understand him. He +is what she made him." To these sons the mothers reveal themselves. To +them, the mothers are no more alike than fair women are alike in the +eyes of their worshippers. A mother's love has a peculiar carrying +quality. The real significance of her patience is not seen at once. It +is like orders given to a sea commander, not to be opened until he gets +into a certain latitude. "What I do thou knowest not now." +After-meanings are disclosed with touching beauty. + +[Illustration: THE MEETING PLACE OF "THE SENATE"] + + +_Astonished as if He Had Seen a Vision_ + +In determining what kind of women these mothers were we are to compare +their standards, not with ours now, but with the standards of the times +in which they lived. + +When revisiting the earth the ordinary life of the people had in it a +great fascination. I wonder that the pleasures of memory and association +are not more vividly realized in connection with the people we have +known. The lessons are very salutary. With the hope of having my ideas +more nearly approach my ideals I resolved increasingly to cultivate +admiration. If called upon off-hand to cite one of the most striking +impressions it would be that a pure, beautiful, intelligent, and +well-bred woman "is the most attractive object of vision and +contemplation in the world." I thought that nature had lavished her +gifts about equally without and again within the human family. It is not +a question of six of one and half a dozen of the other, but of half a +dozen and a dozen. There is no answer to the question, What will God +give us when he takes the sea? It is its only parallel. Without +detracting from it there is also a world of beauty in an amazing river, +always arriving, always departing; its banks wondrously deeply colored +with green and gold. The mountains and the canyon and the waterfall have +commanding attractions. These are without the human race, but for +objects of study and enthusiasm and deference I turn to those made but +little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor. + +Let me add another recollection of the moment, that my eyes, my ears, my +whole soul seemed sometimes to be just opening upon what appeared to me +a new fact that such a mother of charming character, such as I used to +see, was the day-star of that apotheosis of mother which reached its +climax in the last year of the German war. A nation does not know what +it has until it comes to exhibit it. + + +_Retrospect is Cheering_ + +The son of such a mother who became philanthropic looked benevolent. The +commercialized look their part. Business men are in the saddle. Sons +succeed sires as we pass into trade. The teachers and accountants and +the scholars looked somewhat bookish. The boys had been making faces. +Each man had made his. I never knew a man equally transfigured with one +I saw. It is not guessing, it is not flattery, it is exact truth. It is +not to be discussed under general rules. It is a real case with a +particular history. It is a confirmed expression. It has atmosphere, +almost a dim remote shade of halo. This is labeled on him for the +townspeople to read. It fell to me thus to take a few short lessons in +heredity. On returning to the homes of these people I remembered the +pictures they had upon their walls that were all new and different to +boyhood's eyes and seemed a real part of the make-up of the town. I now +turn to the belief that they had their influence on the families. The +religious portrayal of the child Samuel and so of others were silent +evangelists and remained right there till they fixed an impression. I +remember that mothers held their boys up to these pictures and +encouraged them to talk to them, which they did, and now they report +the conversation. Queenly mothers! Blessed among women shall they be! + + "All my fears are laid aside, + If I but remember only + Such as these have lived and died!" + +You may think that children cannot understand or don't care. They can +understand and they do care. It is not a matter of the mind only but of +the instinct. Mother's chair and father's Bible make a place for +themselves in the family history. In one year, 1782, there were born in +four families residing in three different states Daniel Webster, John C. +Calhoun, Lewis Cass, and Martin Van Buren. The families were +undistinguished as such from the multitude of others about them. Not so, +however, with the sons, for just the reason that has now come under our +observation. + +The woman who stands in her humble doorway and waves her tearless adieu +to her brave enlisted son is no less a hero than he. She remains to keep +the home fires burning and suffers a thousand deaths through her +affections and fears. She makes the larger sacrifice for she would give +many lives for the boy who has but one to lose. + + +_No Love Like Mother Love_ + +A mother with a baby lying across her knees was asked, "Do you love it?" +She looking up, her face radiant, with the light indescribable, said, +taking a very deep breath, "I love it so that if Christ had not gone to +Calvary to give my boy life eternal, if by so doing I could secure life +eternal for him, I would go to hell that he might go to heaven." + +A soldier, returning home, was telling a mother about her son found +dying on the field after a battle. Said she, "I wish I had been there." +"You were there all right," was the rejoinder, "you came first to the +boy's mind. He had your name on his lips when he died." The mother has +first place when the boy is in the stress of life. Ambulance men and +nurses find her in sweet companionship when they reach the wounded boy. +These were his passions, love of mother, home, and country. We had the +evidences on the surface of the life that was lived within. + +If Archimedes had a station on which to rest his lever he could move the +world. The world had been moved by a power unknown to him. Our country +is the station where the lever rested. + + +"_Turning the Bend in the Road_" + +Never before in all the history of our world have so many deaths +occurred from war in so short a time. The very gates of death would seem +to have been literally crowded by such multitudes passing through them. +The soldiers have given to the world "a new death." Fresh inspiration +was imparted to the French heart by the soldier at Verdun, a mere lad, +who, wounded, called upon the dead to rise and fight the Germans. There +is a spiritual partnership between dead heroes and living patriots. The +Kaiser, in addressing his troops, made this utterance, "No mercy will be +shown, no prisoners will be taken. The Huns, under King Attila, made a +name for themselves which is still mighty in traditions and legends +today." He omitted from his thought that part of the "traditions and +legends" on which our minds are dwelling. The old chroniclers relate +that Peter and Paul appeared to Attila in camp and terrified him with +threats, a visit immortalized by Raphael. This factor that a governor of +Judea had not reckoned with, was suggested to Pilate's wife. A woman's +intuitions do not ask to have a cautionary signal repeated. She does not +mean to invite tragedy and go spell-bound to destruction. An +acknowledged leader in modern art, Kaulbach, so depicts character and so +sees it in action and situation as to take a spectator by storm. With +great power he reveals the spirits of the Huns and Romans who perished +under the walls of the eternal city as renewing the combat in the air. A +characteristic trait of the Germans appears by displaying the ruler of +the Huns as an equal with the figure of the Teutonic "Gott." The Huns +who destroyed seventy cities in Greece and barbarously murdered eleven +thousand virgins, whose bones are preserved in the church of St. Ursula +in Cologne, found that angel forces were against them. Those whom they +had slain reappeared so that they had to encounter an immortal +assemblage which had been mustered to resist them. + + +_Presence of Our Celestial Helpers_ + +"Alas, my master, how shall we do?" said the servant of Elisha in +terror, when, his eyes being opened, he saw the mountains full of horses +and chariots of fire. Our soldiers with rapturous joy testified that +guardian spirits watched over them. The Scriptures abound with allusions +to invisible benefactors. Shakespeare, to whom no side of human nature +was unknown, with splendid genius, having to deal with the irresolute +temper of Hamlet, calls to his aid a factor from the militant hosts of +heaven. "Look! my lord! It comes." It was his father's spirit in arms. +"Lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold, list, list, oh list." +It is often stated that the great Charlemagne is not dead but on +occasions places himself at the head of the nation, to lead it forward +again to victory and glory. The world does not fight its battles for +nothing. It would be just as erroneous to speak lightly of Marathon or +Waterloo or Bunker Hill, or Vicksburg, or the third Battle of Piave +which ended the German war by removing Austria-Hungary from the field +and creating an indefensible Bavarian front, as it would be to +underrate the significance of our recent national awakening. On +revisiting the earth I felt in every place a great ground swell of +national feeling. War is the last thing in the world to go according to +program. This keeps people guessing and wakeful and interesting to +others because they are themselves so interested. The whole country had +become a great university for the study of folks in their elemental +character. We can get a helpful vision when we take a straight look at +people, elevated in feeling so preoccupied as to be unconscious of the +self-revelation they are making. Shakespeare is right when he makes love +control the destinies of his heroines. They may aspire reasonably but +they were never meant to trample upon their own hearts and the hearts of +others. We believe there are few men whose ambition has not been at some +time during their lives the very slave of their affections. The great +yearning of old and young in affections as well as intellect is to be +appreciated. We are sure that there is a friend or lover for us +somewhere, a companion for every thought and wish. + + +_Out of Evil Cometh Good_ + +The mother has come to her own as a by-product of the war. Such is her +elevation that you will explore the pages of history and read the annals +of mankind in vain to find anything that is a parallel to it. And now +comes Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts stating by proclamation that +when Lincoln's mother, "a wonderful woman, faded away in his tender +years from her death bed in humble poverty, she dowered her son with +greatness. There can be no proper observance of a birthday which forgets +the mother." It has been a profoundly moving thought, when crossing the +ocean, that two miles underneath there lay the live Atlantic telegraph +cord stretching from one shore to the other. Vitalized with living +messages of love and welfare, with the speed of lightning, on Mother's +Day, the mysterious current communicated to the country the number of +letters and the weight of the mail in tons that were on their way to +gladden the mother who was keeping the home fires burning. Some women +who are mothers started a wave of moral power which will never cease to +roll until it has enveloped the earth. "Thy son liveth" is an assurance +that, with a new accent, is now given when a boy makes the supreme +sacrifice. His life hitherto has been but preparative. The separation of +the living and the dead is less complete than formerly. The voters in +Baldwin, Maine, paid tribute to the only boy that, from that town, died +in the service, by standing, one hundred and fifty of them, in silence +with their heads bowed. It is reported that the lips of three or four of +the veterans moved as though uttering a prayer for the lad. Thus a new +attitude is taken by many people toward death and towards the departed. +Some say they feel as close as ever to those who, though they have +turned a leaf in their biography, are characters in a story that still +goes on. The feature of the war has been "the thinning of the veil +between life and death." Forever living, incapable of death, seems the +new verdict touching those promising young men who while they paid the +price, bequeathed to those who survived, the glory and the honor. + + +_Pushed by Unseen Hands_ + +It is believed that we have lived to see the meting out of some divine +awards. "Germany's collapse is the most dramatic judgment in the history +of the world." In all the growth of Christianity, no such certitude has +been so universally and emphatically expressed, touching the continuance +of human personality. It is the diapason of a new literature produced by +the war. It colors correspondence. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle feels that +death has not robbed him of his son's companionship. The family feeling +seems to continue unimpaired. "We are seven" is the sentiment, when "we +are not all here," but "some are in the church-yard laid." + + "All houses wherein men had lived and died + Are haunted houses. Through the open doors + The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, + With feet that make no sound upon the floors. + + We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, + Along the passages they come and go; + Impalpable impressions on the air, + A sense of something moving to and fro." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THINGS THAT HAD PASSED AWAY "STILL LIVE" + + +There are three things which every man persuades himself he can do +better than anyone else: poke the fire, handle the reins, and tell a +story. Unless the poker is hidden, the next man will take it and give +the embers two or three additional touches. This is a universal trait. +In case of peril, it is instinct in a man, to make motions in reaching +out to take the lines. If a story is known to another person, it is pure +nature in him on hearing it told, to show how some detail might have +been better rendered. I add a fourth thing that a person wants to +improve upon no matter who is handling it. If my splendid teacher were +again instructing me out of a book showing the difference between memory +and recollection I would have to bite my tongue to compel it to silence. +I should indeed of all men be the most miserable unless I could bear +testimony. You say the miracle of memory has been the theme of your +study. That for a summer was mine. It is common for scholars, taking +what they call a palimpsest, an ancient manuscript and applying chemical +process to so renovate it as to enable them to plainly read it. The +effusions of later profane poets and the recent chronicles of monks have +been over-spread upon the precious parchments. The orations of Cicero +and precious versions of the New Testament have been over-laid and were +regarded as lost. The early inscriptions were supposed to be effaced +from our own memories. + + +_Books Written by Ourselves_ + +But a magician, in an instant, seemed to touch, with a sponge, the whole +surface of the memory, and things that had been invisible were found to +be well embalmed and made immortal. All that had become dim was found to +be stereotyped forever. Thus every stage of one's existence leaves him +some memorial of its presence in the life of today. I did not know what +large deposits I had once been making in the bank of memory. This is +occasioned by the fact that a boy lives his first years more keenly +alive, to the things about him, than does a man. Even our food does not +later have its earlier relish. If a man thinks, that what he recalls of +a thing, when absent from it, is the whole of his memory of it, he very +much underestimates the fact. It is the glow of youth, the freshness of +heart, that give us those bright memories by which we save the past from +the extinguishing stroke of oblivion, + + "Like to some dear, familiar strain, + For which we ask and ask again, + Ever, in its melodious store, + Finding a spell unheard before." + +The flaming sword which once guarded the gates of our youthful paradise +is not turned against us preventing, as in the case of our first +parents, our return to our early homes, as many persons, by keeping at a +distance, appear to believe. One can approach this Eden boldly. The +password at the gate is Welcome. Any pilgrim like myself will have his +astonishment divided between the disclosure made of his own power of +recollection and of the unforeseen suggestiveness of the place, when +memory faithful to her task unties her budget. + +It was a blessing to me to be well born, yet I was born with neither a +gold nor a silver spoon in my mouth. My warfare has been at my own +charges. While my classmates and associates were enjoying a winter +vacation, I taught a country school. There is a choice spot to me. To +revisit the earth without viewing that scene and unclasping, there, the +book of memory would be like quitting London before one has stood within +the shadowed aisles of Westminster or coming back from Italy without +entering the gates of the Eternal City. + + +_A Hard Road to Travel_ + +I thought I had seen mud before but slow progress to the rural +school-house gave me a deep experience of it. Any evidence of road +making could not be found. There was a track, we could not lose it, yet +you could not make much headway in it. The condition of the road +conditioned the opening of the school. The roads were three rods wide +and often three feet deep, particularly when the frost was coming out of +the ground. They then became yeasty, which heaves the sub-soil, and +stirs and mixes the surface loam, in preparation for seed sowing in the +spring. It was not a time to be abroad. Traveling was then a very +different act from that which it has now become. The conditions were +beyond conception and utterance. As memory is the recognizing faculty, +it identified, on the way, the same old farmhouse hastening indeed to +its ruin, the same old fire which glows upon the ample hearth, the same +old well thumbed Bible which lies, as ever, upon the altar, the same +"old oaken bucket" which hangs in the well. My heart made me so familiar +with the neighborhood that I could have mapped it, from recollection, +without other aid. The vividness of everything touched me. It was like +an experience of reading snowbound in Whittier's old home. It is like +standing in the presence of the Lion of Lucerne after being indebted +only to memory for a conception of a strange reality. No words can +possibly describe the impression. All the men that lived hereabouts were +so well known to me that were my imagination strong enough I might +almost have seen their ghosts. Many of those I knew in active life had +passed the summit and were going down the hill; indeed some have already +gone out of sight. The names and works of some of them are now nearly +stranded on the stream of time. But they once exercised a powerful +influence on the local life of their day. We plodded our way to school +and all carried our dinners. At noon-tide we were brought into a fine +intimacy. + + +_Teaching and Learning_ + +I never had such close association with boys and girls. Some of the +warm-hearted little creatures would exchange portions of their dinner +with each other, not for variety only but as an expression of kindly +feeling. The generosity of the little people was a very real and fine +thing. They give what they want. They love to bestow. It is to them a +pleasure and a luxury. When they met on the first day of school it was +pathetic to see the intensity of their pleasure on being again with each +other. They lived on scattered farms, miles apart, and were gladder to +see one another than anybody should be. No one ought to feel so isolated +and detached, or, on the other hand, so yoked up with adults as if on +the principle of breaking in a colt with a cart-horse. They love to be +with those of their own age and kind. They return to the original +meaning of fellowship, fellow in the same ship. Many of their interests +are the same. Their destination is identical. A young man's social +nature craves the companionship of his mates. He is susceptible most of +all to the influences of good or evil from young persons of his own age +and tastes and ambitions in life. We are told distinctly what "the +fellowship of kindred minds" is like. + + +_Transported Back to the Past_ + +In one hand, I hold, as I write, that marvel of creative volumes +Webster's spelling book, of which more than a million copies are still +sold annually. "The boy that stole the apples," as in "Fable First," is +still in a composed attitude in the tree just where he placed himself +long years ago waiting for "The old man to try what virtue there was in +stones." It is remarkable that every individual in school recited from +Webster's spelling-book. If I could choose a picture of myself it would +be at the time when I sat in a country school-house and had a little +Abecedarian that hung down her head and kept one thumb in her mouth, +stand at my knee learning letters beginning with the "perpendicular +reading" on the alphabetical page and coming later, in an eventful day, +to "horizontal reading" beginning, of course, with the monosyllabic and +well-remembered words, "Go on." The wonder that abides with me is how +those tiny scholars that had only set foot on the first step of +learning's ladder, were kept in school after being taught only in three +or four brief intervals during the day to know their letters, by sight, +and as some one expressed it also by name, for six wearisome hours with +nothing doing to enable them to beguile their time. The Kindergarten was +yet to be. The scheme of public transportation by which all scholars are +assembled at one central point in a township and graded and given +instruction by methods adapted to their years had never then come to the +attention of the people not even in their dreams. With no slates, no +stationery, no desks in front of them, no attention from anyone, their +natures as playful as kittens, accustomed to the sweep of the fields, +full of animal spirits and frolic, packed for the day in a box-like room +when, to use their expression "school's up," out they would rush +tumultuously to enjoy God's great and good out-of-doors. To "keep +school" my implements of learning were a ruler, a bell, and a Bible. The +"district" supplied a water-pail and tin dipper. About midway to recess +after "school's in," as a reward for fine behavior, one envied scholar +was designated to pass the water. In this common sacrament we all +partook, in beautiful communion of spirit, day after day from the same +rusty dipper, microbe, baccilli, and other like organisms not being then +invented. + + +_A Boy a "Feeble Beginning of a Mighty End"_ + +As soon as the school was established civilization was safe. Many of the +scholars were almost men and women in size, but they were not as old as +their stature indicated. A real responsibility fell upon the teacher, +for all the training that some young citizens ever had, was obtained in +one of these little crowded school-houses that dot the farming +communities of the state. Many began an active useful life without +troubling any other school, college, or academy. At their freedom year, +came to many of them a point where their education stopped and their +adult life began. It gave to my work a peculiar interest, as I tried +like John Adams, when teaching in Worcester, to regard the school as the +world in miniature, that before me were the country's future jury-men, +judges, tradesmen, capitalists, law-makers and office-holders. One only +had to imagine, what might prove true, that a certain boy was to go upon +the bench of the Superior Court, as proved to be the case in one of my +classes, that another was to be a titled clergyman, as came true, that +others were to be honored in the high administration of executive +offices, it turned out to be a fact, in order to stimulate a teacher to +that course of effort, without which youth fitted for those respective +offices would be lost. What government we had was never called +government. I never happened to find any bad boys. A thorough search in +the gallery of memory has been made in vain to discover them. Anyway +they did not exist to me. I taught branches that I had never myself +taken in school. My mind was let out to its limit to keep one day ahead +of my classes. + + +_Human Nature Unchanged_ + +Life was full orbed in that little "knowledge box" as it was sometimes +used for meeting by the Society of Friends and so on "fourth day," for a +little space of time, school gave way to a Quaker wedding. The very +profound and continued silence that preceded the ceremony made it +extremely impressive. I shut my eyes and it all comes before me. The +beauty of the bride, and the maxim accords with truth, she that is born +of beauty is half married, she needs to borrow nothing of her sisters, +gave her that attractiveness which conferred an immediate power over +others. This beau ideal of a young Quakeress, her simple, modest, +consistent apparel, which was chiefly drab, relieved by the use of dark +olive colored material, enlisted everyone's attention. Without the aid +of priest or magistrate, without prayer or music, after a fitting quiet +interval, they took each other by the hand and in the presence of +witnesses, among them all the school, including the teacher, solemnly +and calmly promised to take each other for husband and wife, to live +together in the fear of God, faithfully, so long as they should live. A +record was then produced for signatures. It was signed by the happy +company, the bride using her new name. After the relatives had signed, +good feeling so prevailed that the scholars down to those of few years +added their signatures, which detracted nothing from the legality of the +document. + + "O! not in the halls of the noble and proud, + Where fashion assembles her glittering crowd; + Where all is in beauty and splendor arrayed, + Were the nuptials perform'd of the meek Quaker maid. + + 'Twas there, all unveil'd, save by modesty, stood + The Quakeress bride, in her pure satin hood; + Her charms unadorned by garland or gem, + Yet fair as the lily just pluck'd from its stem. + + The building was humble, yet sacred to Him + Before whom the pomp of religion is dim; + Whose presence is not to the temple confined, + But dwells with the contrite and lowly of mind." + +Here I formed my strange liking, to which I have to plead guilty, for +country boys. These sturdy little men did not complain of their lot +though at times it was hard. They had the ring of the genuine coin. With +entire naturalness they assumed that they had their own way to make. +Their calculations were not based upon a legacy. A young man in need of +money who has expectation from an unmarried aunt looks upon toil in a +different way from what he would if she had nothing to bestow. "What is +the matter with Kansas?" When this question was raised it was found that +she had been helped, and by that act she was done for. + + +_The Coronation of Labor_ + +Here is the secret of country boys when they go up to the city. They are +not done for. The reflex influence of this is often a hindrance. It is +not self help. It overlooks economy, enterprise, personal initiative, +and intense application. The young man with money usually takes a young +partner from the country to get the practical ability and energy. The +country home is like a bee-hive for industry in every profitable way. +Farm life looks toward more productiveness. Eight or ten hour limits are +not observed in days that are from morn to dusk. The country boy does a +lot of unrequited labor. He hitches up, breaks out the road, and takes +the whole bunch to the evening singing school. He takes off the wagon +body, puts it upon runners, and stows it so full of mortal souls that +they had to be cautioned, by their parents, as the sons of Jacob were by +their father, "not to fall out by the way." Lay a plank on the ground, +someone has truly said, and a million people can walk it without thought +of losing balance. Lift it twenty-five feet and only one in a thousand +will dare to walk it. Lift it one hundred feet and not more than one in +a million will venture upon it. Country boys keep their balance near the +ground. As persons grow stilted they lose their poise. If they have a +disposition to rise higher it is by the old way of climbing, step by +step, making each rise count one. They are not at first familiar with +the elevator to carry them up and so suppose that their chance is by the +stair-case. "One thing I must observe," says an Englishman, writing from +Andover, "that I think wants rectifying, and that is their pluming pride +when adjoined to apparent poverty." John G. Brady had not only "apparent +poverty," but the real thing when deserted by his father, when he was +made a ward of a Children's Aid Society. He became governor of Alaska. +Some such boys were ravenous for knowledge. They were awkward and +uncouth but possessed minds that were bright, vigorous, susceptible, and +retentive. It was a joy to teach them. + + +_Not Criticism, Just Description_ + +"You're a colt," said a farmer, "bye and bye you will grow to be a staid +old horse. Till you do steady down and lose your coltish tricks I will +enter with you into the spirit of your colthood, for I know you're not +vicious. There is not a streak of evil in your nature." I saw a fine +picture at one of the world's fairs of the School of Charlemagne, at the +moment that Alcuin is informing the emperor that the poor boys have +surpassed the rich in scholarship. It is a symbol of the way that things +level up in every country. Country boys learn to feel their way, which +is the healthiest method, and I have had frequent painful occasions to +contrast it with the plunging method that we are frequently called to +witness. At no other point, at the same exposition to which I have +referred, were gathered so dense a crowd as about the model school for +the blind. A poor girl without sight was reading about some boys that +came upon a hive of wild bees and honey. When a word seemed difficult to +her, she would instinctively apply both hands to the pages. Men coming +from all quarters into this presence would unconsciously uncover their +head. Feeling one's way excites sympathy. The poor have the gospel +preached to them. Have any of the rulers believed on Him? No, no, no, it +was the common people that heard Him gladly. City merchants advertising +for a clerk often say, "One from the country preferred." I used to see +the boys studying the map of the future and laying out work for manhood +and age. Their longings were to be men. They were panting to have a part +in the great drama of life and would rush in as soon as any door was +open. It did not occur to them that the world already owed them a +living, that they were to be fed by the raven. The man who calls upon +Jupiter was to put his own shoulder to the wheel. + + +_To Go to the Top, First Go to the Bottom_ + +It is a riddle that persons, like the Lawrences, coming from the +country, Groton, into the city out-step the natives and become their +masters. Country life and country education are at least practical and +invigorating to body and mind and hence those who are thus qualified +triumph in the race of life. Country training and experience serve as a +foothold for progress. Amos Lawrence, the initial genius in Boston in +that line of merchant princes that founded Lawrence and the mills in +Lowell and Ipswich (when one of the mills of Ipswich was losing one +hundred dollars a day, one of the Lawrences was sick and the only +comment was "too much Ipswich,") when a clerk in a dry-goods store sold +a parcel of goods, promising to have them delivered in Charlestown by +twelve o'clock M.,--the porter, who was to take them over, failed to +return as soon as was expected,--loaded the goods on a wheelbarrow and +trundled them over the long bridge, through the streets thronged with +ladies and gentlemen, and had them there on time. It was a natural act +of the country boy. A city young man would have felt an inclination to +wait. Andrew Carnegie came over from Scotland with only a sovereign in +his pocket but with sovereignty in his soul and fired a stationary +engine at two dollars and a half a week. + + +_The Renewal of the Face of the World_ + +Jeremiah says, "Pharaoh King of Egypt" is but a noise. He agitates the +atmosphere. He is a clamorous self advertiser. On the other hand a +country boy reaching the city is often obliged to raise the simple bread +and butter question. Give us this day our daily bread. I used to find +these boys extremely capable and very warmly affectionate. City boys +gave their mothers what money would buy, while the country boys gave +their mothers what money could not buy, and no one was happier than the +country mother with a letter from her boy telling her that there was so +much love in his letter that he would have trouble in getting it into +the envelope. She thought she saw that he was winning a widening way +into recognition from his employer, also from his associates. Such a man +is likeliest to realize in life all the promise he gave in boyhood. If a +country boy lost a step he felt that he must make it up. I could stand +before that boy, hat in hand, and pay him honor and respect. He is not +top heavy. He is solid. The corner stones of character are laid in +place and well laid. Splendid specimens of boyhood, first work hard to +supply their needs and then go on to make money to supply their wants. +By all the rules of the business world they have earned all that they +have gained. + + +_Cables Binding to Safe Moorings_ + +On "first day" there being no school I worshiped with Quakers and never +to this hour have departed from their heaven-born doctrines. When George +Fox prayed, the spirit bearing witness with his spirit, men trembled, +and so were called Quakers because they thus quaked. The wonder is not +that they were agitated, but that people do not quake where they sit in +profound silence until the spirit moves. When a person rises one's first +thought is, There, that's the motion of the spirit, the inner witness. +It is the responsive factor in us that makes the Quaker doctrine take +hold. They have an Inward Light which lighteth every man that cometh +into the world. A friend, a lady with a serene, intelligent, illumined +face, fluent and correct in expression, with most engaging modesty, +moved by the spirit, arose and spoke, with a power stronger than human +genius, her understanding being opened, her heart enlarged, in a manner +wonderful to herself exhorting us to take heed to the light within us. +That was reasonable. Who could say nay to such entreaty assuming that +there is in us that which of itself responds to it, "as face answers to +face in a glass?" In the intense quiet, in the solemn silence, all being +retired into the presence chamber of God, the attitude being that of +Samuel when he said, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth" when an angel +voice speaks to us who would not follow whithersoever it leads the way? +"Go feel what I have felt" and you will know by experience how Quakers +get their name. It is a respectful doctrine; it only urges recognition +of what hath shined into our hearts to give us light. + +Revisiting the earth I say now, on the site where I taught school, what +I felt then, that Quaker doctrines are as honeycomb, sweet to the soul, +and health to the bones. Even the men's manners are gentle and winsome +and kindly, and kindly enough to proceed from the spirit. When +conducting social affairs I have in uncounted cases asked that we might +imitate the Quakers who before leaving their positions, beginning in the +high seats, shake hands with those on the right and left who are next to +them, it means we are on a level and on good terms, we must be social. + + +_A Fashion that is Wearing Away_ + +When men were clad in short clothes, wearing knee buckles, laces, and +ruffles, and frills, and fringes, and finery, and frippery, the Quakers +took strong ground for plain, unaffected simplicity in male attire and +they carried the day. Honor to whom honor is due, I am with them as +usual. The weather worn, long used, hard used little one room, one story +school-house without an entry, is now in declining condition and +exceedingly infirm. It seems broken, decrepit, wears a look of great +age, seems inclined to melancholy and its dissolution is near. The dear +old seminary of letters was not young when I was introduced to it. +Change and decay have passed rapidly upon it. There is no making life +stand still. I went back to it with my heart in my eyes. Its well worn +old threshold and its battered entrance spoke of hospitality to vigorous +youngsters who had reached their freedom year, when education stopped, +and their adult life began. It was assumed that the door, exposed to the +weather, would bind a little at the bottom, and so simultaneously with +putting their hands to the latch the children would strike the door at +the bottom with one of their heavily shod feet. The act was so +unconscious and so natural that no impression was made except on the +door. + + +_Time Can Obliterate as Well as Create_ + +The floor of that little edifice wore sundry patches of new white pine +boards which were nailed over the crevices and flaws which gave the +appearance of new cloth in an old garment. This rickety fabric has +ceased forever from the name and form of a seat of learning, but it is +tight full of memories and of public favor. A child when going through a +museum said he liked the sculpture better than a painting because he +could walk around the sculpture. With that feeling of regard for sacred +places and times and things which we felt in our childhood, I viewed +that building and went round about it, that I might tell it to the +generation following. If anyone shall say, + + "A bare old house with windows dim, + A bare old house is still to him, + And it is nothing more," + +I shall still look upon it with reverence. It has performed its office +and its pictured form will bring up facts and throng my vacant hours +with beautiful visions. Lord Jeffrey speaks fondly of that "dear retired +adored little window" where he labored and prepared himself for the +arrival of that brighter day which is almost sure to come to those who +are careful to fit themselves for the duties that accompany it. + + +_A Table of Priorities_ + +The progress of the allied forces in the German war seemed at first very +slow, partly because of the colossal number of men engaged, but chiefly +because Germany derived a great advantage at the start. It is a +difficult matter to make up for a bad beginning. On revisiting the earth +we seemed to be set down upon a commanding eminence, having a panoramic +view of occurences which showed distinctly the path we had trodden. If +we noticed the milestones, we observed a succession, that was unbroken, +that led directly to the place where, with different ways opened to us, +we made life's vocational adventure. In the light of that first move we +see the way to every subsequent position. Years rise up like the steps +of the Pyramids and more and more extensive becomes the review of life. +How different a landscape looks when we have simply reversed our steps +and are faced the other way. I must always remember it as one of the +pleasures of life, that all the invisible lines that connect every later +service and place of residence were set vibrating from the desk where I +taught my first term of country school when I was seventeen. + +[Illustration: A SEAT OF LEARNING FULL OF MEMORIES] + + +_Tremendous Trifles_ + +Taking deliberately one's position, here, that point in life, of which +everyone's personal history has so many examples, the peak Teneriffe, +the effect of volcanic action, after much slumbering, fills all the +foreground. From such a mount of vision "see thy way in the valley." + + "There's a chain of causes + Linked to effects," + +that seemed trifles, that, on a review of life, have a new significance. +It can be seen at a glance that all subsequent events are a lengthened +chain from this early landmark, at which, hat in hand, I stood. The +connection is direct, the links are distinctly interlocked. As in the +growth of a stalk of corn, each section makes a close jointure with the +next below it as well as with the next above it, so is it in any +individual career. The same school, the second winter, was needed to +give publicity to a situation, which resulted in an invitation to take +the school at the community center, an elevation which had not even in +dreams and reveries entered my mind. Out of this came an appointment to +teach in a college town and so to this hour every stage has brought +about the next step which the last one made inevitable. In that first +school was struck the medial key-note. It is the C, and the whole melody +of life rests upon it. Some people remark upon fruit and flower, as if +detached and independent of their seed. Not by God's mercy! Personal +history has its teachings, a golden thread runs through it, on which are +strung, a series of events in a logical succession, represented in +pictures unrivalled for their distinctness, delineated by time's own +hand and lifted out into powerful relief. The more widely I looked for +connected events the more I saw. It pleased the Father to command the +light to shine out of darkness. Dull and unimaginative as I am, even I +felt the divinity stir within me, and I found it difficult to suppose +otherwise than that, while the public takes no cognizance of such +things, yet a look into one's personal biography exhibits a moving +picture of Providence. To feel that we are tethered to a place of +beginning, though we live on the other side of the world, is not to say +that we would like to go back there to reside. We are viewing it only as +a factor in our past life. It was like the experience once of reading +Whittier's Hampton Beach when there. It made past history realistic. It +was like standing in the presence of the Lion of Lucerne after being +indebted only to memory for your conception of its vivid character. No +words can possibly describe the impression, of thus revisiting the earth +and doing our own thinking instead of sending some neighbor to do it for +us. + + +_Critical Periods_ + +Instead of seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, how much +more self-respecting for each of us to himself stand in the actual +presence of these silent talkers and perceive the guide marks to all the +paths which led us through the tangle of life. Above all else one lesson +blazes out in letters of living light. How careful Providence is about +beginnings. It is only in looking down upon the battle field that we +can clearly discern the maneuvers that lead to victory. We must place +ourselves at a given point, not too remote from the causes, that make +our history, to justly estimate them, if we could begin again, that +tragic wish having been conceded to us, all our activity would be best +used at these clearly discerned centers. To gain greater effectiveness +opportunity here makes his call upon us and comes unawares and his +approach is invariably disguised in humble garb. + + "Master of human destinies am I. + Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait; + Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate + Deserts and seas remote, and passing by + Hovel, and mart, and palace, soon or late + I knock unbidden once at every gate. + Those who doubt or hesitate, + Condemned to failure, penury, and woe, + Seek me in vain and uselessly implore; + I answer not, and I return no more." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WHERE A VISITANT SEES MORE THAN A RESIDENT + + +When in the company of a citizen, I am reviewing my place of early +residence, while he obviously knows the town well, yet I see all that he +does and recollection faithful to its office supplies me with an image +of the past which he does not perceive. He gets no glimpse of the +panorama that is passing in review before me. In looking over an +illustrated volume of the place there are two pictures on each page. +There is the one I now see, and to my inner sight there is just above it +the one I remember. It is a case of what philosophers call Compound +Perception. The absence of the object is contrasted with its presence. +You imagine it gone, and perceive the blank it would leave. You observe +the object, you also consider it as a negative quantity, for a moment +thinking it away. There is the depot. I do not need to have it pointed +out. Beside this building I instantly see the picture of another station +unobserved by the present generation, which was connected with a +different route. Before the Rock Island and before the Central of Iowa, +we had the underground R. R. In Grinnell that came first. It did a good +business. It had a through line. Its chief station still exists. The +glamor of the past is upon it. I knew the station master. I am on +intimate terms with one of its conductors. When its train was made up +any one could compute its horse-power. The place had public spirit +enough for a half dozen average towns. There is the church where the +college diplomas were awarded. How plainly I also saw the church where I +was, at its completion, an habitual hearer of the Word, that stood on +the same noble corner. I never could understand how any mortal could be +hired to tear down the earlier sacred edifice. It must have been done by +aliens. No one could have bribed me to do it. There isn't money enough. +I would as soon have lifted my hand against her who gave me being. The +fate of Uzza, whom the Lord smote for a smaller impiety, would have +given me alarm. + + +_A Sort of Homesickness_ + +All religious annals will be searched in vain for a better example of +the community church. Everybody attended it. All our pleasures were +connected with it. Anyone could get the key to hold a meeting. There was +always something doing. It had a part in everything that interested the +people. When in the Civil War there were victories, the farmers came +in, and there sang Praise God, etc., and when we had reverses there was +a meeting to appoint a fast. Far away down the gallery of memory hangs a +picture. It is a church scene. The figures are the deacons and others, +in colors that are fresh and glowing to this hour. The artist that could +portray them on canvas would be immortalized in that one act. Extremely +fastidious critics would call them old fashioned, but they have at least +this merit, they are life-like. It would be becoming in us to honor them +as they, in their day, honored the community. I recollect nearly every +family that sat under the benign ministry of that church, and could come +near to designating each pew they occupied. There was a kind of +exaltation about the place, which held the fire, in the old days, on +God's altars, and the quaint bare building became as the temple on Mount +Zion. Never in the splendid temples, seen in after life, where the +wealth of princes had been lavished, to decorate the world famous +cathedrals, where stained windows shed an impressive light over the +solemn courts, and where the ponderous organ rolls its deep thunders on +the ear, have I seemed to be so near the Holy of Holies, as on one or +two occasions when my heart was lifted up in that unadorned place of +worship. Once the clergyman had pronounced the blessing and the +congregation were dispersing when I lingered behind to make a single +vow. Tear down that church! I could not have stood it to be present. To +some meeting houses they attach a card giving, in plain letters, the +church's name and age. + + +_Recollections of Other Years_ + +If, as a boy, I had been asked to prepare a tablet to place on that +heaven-blessed house of prayer, I should have put up the sign, "The Lord +lives here." There was a solemnity, in its very simplicity, and an +impressiveness not artificial, which to a religious fanatic might easily +seem supernatural. + +The large plain room was pervaded, in the evening, by a dim religious +light that proceeded from a few reeking kerosene lamps. Any kind of a +meeting was opened with prayer and much decorum and orderliness were +observed by the citizens, old and young. The church took everything hard +that concerned its own folks. The building was our cradle of liberty. +Both men and boys rocked that cradle. A large sweetly toned bell, +joyously rung by lads at day break on Independence Day, was finer music +to our juvenile ears than would be the combined bands of the world. In +the capitol at Richmond, a painting is exhibited, representing the Earl +of Chatham pointing to a little flame on the altar of liberty. At that +flame how many torches have been lighted. Some have held that the church +must be opened only to old age, but that was not the view then and +there held. I loved the church. I never saw it surpassed. All its ideals +are mine today. I have labored and sacrificed to exhibit them and +realize them in other places. If the older present resident members were +to visit the people that once had their church home with them there, +they would find no trouble in recognizing the leaven which had been +carried away from that sanctuary. Temperaments were different, all were +unlike and individual, with unequal education, with diverse talents, not +able to see with each other's spectacles, yet all learned from each +other and all united on the big things. I feel myself indebted to those +with whom I associated there, some of whom afterward obtained high and +merited distinction. Some of them, God has made princes in the earth. +There is the place where they grew up and there they had their vision of +service. My warmest prayers have always been for their success. A throng +of recollections which I can not repress starts from every corner of the +old church and attends my walks about the streets. + + +_Through Tears of Memory_ + +There is no other such dark day as when a boy parts with his home and +his native state for good, to find a home God only knows where, and the +old life that meant so much to him is over. There were our friends, +there was our home, and there are our graves, my father having given +commandment concerning his bones. Pardon me, gentle reader, if for the +moment I speak with a personal accent. An individual cannot inherit his +experience. It is my feeling that it is well to know some part of the +world thoroughly. "He who is everywhere is nowhere." Neither a +globe-trotter, running like a wandering Jew all over the world, nor a +tramp knows the countries he travels over. Here in my early day was a +place without amusements. + +The hoe, the hod, the plough, the scythe, the shovel, the woodsaw, and +the axe, these are all old friends of mine. It is possible that as +things are now viewed our sphere had in it a trifle too much of +constraint, that the soul had hardly free play enough to unbend and +recreate the mind, that we settled down too early, like well broken +horses, to the work of life. A little shadow passes over my mind as I +think of the analogy to bitting a horse. But when at sunset all nature +rings the Angelus, we all say in our hearts, God bless the town and all +its people. + + +_Unterrified Visitors_ + +"It would be no unprofitable thing," said Increase Mather, "for you to +pass over the several streets and call to mind those who lived here so +many years ago." On my approach, the homes of my day, that now survive, +seemed to come right out to meet me. The old citizens appeared to start +forth from their portrait frames. "They come like shadows and so +depart." The old time town was revivified. The dry bones were stirred +and made to live. The gates opened their arms widely finding us early +residents and bold enough to enter. The same bordered walk led up to the +front door. Houses, Say on. You want to speak. Utter your voices. Tell +your story. I know its truth. You will not startle me. Many appeared to +answer me as I stood, with my greetings, before them. Our old relations +are all in my heart. In my day, everybody knew his neighbor and his +neighbor was everybody. As is known of ancient Athens, at its best, +quoting from an oration writer, "It is impossible for a man in this city +to be of good repute or otherwise without all of us knowing it." + +Even the most beautiful scenery needs absence to gain its hold upon us, +and to unite a new and an old revaluation into something better than +either. There is an old proverb, What is ever seen, is never seen. What +is always heard, is never heard. The sound of Niagara becomes inaudible +to the waiters at the hotels. "To feel the same thing always and not to +feel at all, come to the same thing." A man casts his shadow over "A +land where all things always seem the same." + + +_When the World was Young_ + +As a boy goes zig-zagging along, dilatorily, of a May morning to school, +in and out, among and around the byways, where anything unusual is +proceeding, he actually knows a town better than many a man who has +lived in it longer, and I would not barter the pleasant memories of my +early home for treasures of gold. I would not exchange even the +impressions made indelibly on my mind for a gift of public office. There +is nothing that I care to take in exchange for my soul. Upon the side of +Mt. Blanc is a little patch of verdure called Le Jardin. It is always +green. In the deserts are oases. In the ocean wastes we find islands of +tropical beauty, so here with nature's extreme fertility we have, +enameled with flowers, what they call in Evangeline's land a Grand Pre, +extending to the horizon's out-most rim. + + +_You Can't Paint the Sunrise_ + +In boyhood's happy days, in the jocund season of youth, the grass grew +quietly in the highways of the town, and bleating sheep and frolicsome +calves sported about on the verdant savannas. In the days of which I am +writing, cattle and horses were lawful commoners, and roamed at will +over much of the town plat. On rising early a boy would find a group of +small cattle just in the act of making up its mind that day was +breaking. Some would be rising from their hard beds, some had risen and +commenced to graze, others were still lying as they had reposed all +night, the dew glistening on their hair. Mists were floating over the +low grounds in the swales of the prairies, but the reddening east was +waking all nature into newness of life, and presently, the ever-punctual +sun rose up to do his circuit of the earth. It was a healthy boy's walk +amid the fields of morning and he was enraptured with the delightful +vision. The day began earlier then. It was long, and like a clothes-line +being so extended, required a prop in the middle, hence dinner could not +be deferred then until an evening hour. Noon is now becoming as extinct +as the mastodon. It faded out. It seems unreal, and belongs to the past. +Boys did not carry watches and became quite expert in using a north and +south fence for a divider in finding that medial line that cuts the day +in halves. We still have the expressions A. M. and P. M. but we make +little use of the M. We have God's time, and man's time, for the sake of +daylight saving, but my memory testifies that we used the daylight for +about all it was worth, anyway up to our limit, at both ends of the day. +People then were much more expressive than they are now. If they felt +refreshed and exuberant they did not care who knew it. We used to feel +with Dickens, Give us, oh give us, the man who sings at his work! He +will do more in the same time, he will do it better. He will persevere +longer. + + "Amidst the storm the Pilgrims sang, + And the stars heard, and the sea, + And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang + To the anthems of the free." + +Children were very much more commonly sung to sleep with a mother's foot +upon the rocker of the cradle. If we could take out of our minds the +fact that the hymn most widely used was for children, we all would say, +How beautiful! Pious hymns and patriotic songs were the great leaders. +Down through the corridors of time I can still hear the voices of both +men and women who sang as they wrought. They who found that their wives +did not sing when employed about the house set themselves to find the +reason of the suspension and to remove it. This being done, +unconsciously the house was gladdened again by impromptu song. From the +fact that men worked more in solitary, quiet places, as contrasted with +factories, having heavy machinery, men used to whistle. Some became very +expert. When one man would say, Let's see how does that tune go? the +custom was for the other to take up a few bars by whistling. When +soldiers or parades or processions were passing, if the band should +stop, those marching would take up some patriotic or other air and all +would whistle it. This would spread to the boys on the side walk and +extend through the town, and be revived the next day. + + +_Another Relic of the Past_ + +Men worked more hours and had more chores to do, early and late, so +being physically weary, when they sat down to read there was a kind of +physical preparation for it. The eye did not drop on a newspaper +casually at any time. To begin to read required then a kind of personal +adjustment illustrated remotely by that of a person who sits down when +about to partake of a meal. Thus we used to see people take a book, and +get ready to read it as you often see a person now who is about to sing +in public, show what he is going to do by using a moment or two in +getting himself ready for it. + +It augurs well to discover more generally established what the French +call the Hotel of God. The Hospital used to be in the same class with +the Hospice. It was originally an outgrowth of the church, through the +element of charity, very much as we find it on missionary ground in +foreign lands. There was usually a chapel included in the construction. + +It seemed on review to be the strong and rugged that were struck down, +while the semi-invalids appeared to live to ripe old age. He who wins in +the first round, does not always seem to come out, in the final test, +as the best man. The battle is not to the strong. Like Romulus and Remus +placed in a trough, cast adrift on the Tiber, nourished in the marshes +by a wolf, some persons seem to be strengthened by the worst things to +which they are exposed, while others succumb at their approach. It is +hard to pass this same matter over as applied to the college without +setting down outstanding illustrations. Some who were distinctly strong, +like the pendulum of a dying clock soon passed away. + + +"_A Flood of Thoughts Comes O'er Me_" + +It became a great trial to me that our forbears never half believed one +of the most eloquent and profound statements of the inspired volume. +Recognizing, in faith, these beautiful words, what a mockery is +artificial light, and how unnecessary a watcher. "Surely the darkness +shall cover me, the night shall be light about me, the darkness and the +light are both alike." When a soul had left its body and is wearing a +crown, it was then the custom, when one of our neighbors had been +invited, to be a guest in heaven, for some one of us who felt tenderly +and neighborly to offer to serve as a watcher. It was then counted good +form for someone other than a member of the family to keep awake +throughout the night and that, in no remote part of the house out of +which the spiritual world had just received a tenant. It was then the +rule of my life never to resist my good impulses and to me it seemed to +fall to render this melancholy duty which struck into my soul with +terror. My fright, I suppose would have been less if I had lived a +better life. I noticed the rattling of the plastering over head. + +[Illustration: THE GROUNDS OF THE BELOVED COLLEGE] + +"Deep horror then my vitals froze." + +I did not know that a bureau with its closed drawers contained so much +creaking. It seemed a self-starter. A mid-night lunch had been made +ready. I was usually fond of the pleasures of the table, but this repast +was the least welcome of any I ever tasted. I needed no artificial aid +to keep awake. I was far removed from drowsiness. My eyes would not be +surprised at anything in that presence except sleep. This night seemed +as much too long as all other nights seemed to me too short, but I sat +it out alone till the day, to my inexpressible relief, dawned over the +distant fields. Soon after I reached my room some of my associates +called me to wake me for breakfast. "You didn't suppose I was asleep, +did you?" Lord Brougham pretended to die in order to read what was said +of him in the papers. At Athens, Alabama, a minister preached his own +funeral sermon for he said, "I know my own faults and my own good points +as nobody else knows and I am not going to have people after I am gone +talking of a thing they don't understand." The whole affair was arranged +as if it had been the real thing, with the minister's family in the pew +in deepest mourning. By very much of what I had been reading, and by +more, that all along I had been hearing, while my motives were well +enough in volunteering my services as a watcher, yet I was surprised to +find how ill-fitted I was for the office. The minds of ingenuous +childhood would not now be subjected to quite so much frightfulness. +There seems to be something in them when well stirred up, that responds +with fearful alacrity to that kind of address. It can be found any time +in children if one has the lamentable disposition to try to appeal to +it. By an unintended combination of circumstances I had been supplied +with uncommon numbers of ghost stories until I was afraid to be out +alone, particularly in some localities where it was extra dark. + +On leaving the neighbor's house for home I would induce someone to stand +in the door until I, after moving rapidly, should shout back that I was +safe. + + +_Stepping Into the Past_ + +The bogy-man in the cellar is not conjured with in governing children +now as much as formerly, still a child likes those plays best which give +a good deal of exercise to the imagination. So on the other hand the +ills we imagine afflict us most. The microscope magnifies the object +without altering it. How the thoughts of those troubled times of long +ago come trooping over the hills and valleys of memory after so many +years have been passed to our account in the book of the Recording +Angel. There are some sights that we can never forget. Some occurrences +are so scenic and suggestive that they come home unbidden to every man's +heart and are with him in the market and on the street. + + +_The College Empire_ + +When I first came on the campus the students' rooms were bare and +uninviting. No freshman's room was carpeted. A mat in front of his desk +and one in front of his bed, a very plain bureau, three or four chairs, +a wash-stand, pail, pitcher and bowl, and a few text-books made the +outfit. An apartment was featured best by what it did not have. We lived +the simple life. "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every +man did that which was right in his own eyes." The new president came in +the morning of an opening educational era, during which more +improvements have been made than occurred in long centuries before. With +great distinction he served his day and its sun sank before the horizon +in its evening splendor and that of his youthful, buoyant successor rose +in its morning glory. The initial steps or incidents in the election of +the present sovereign if ever known are now lost to history. The event +was so spontaneous and natural that we can only say in scriptural +language, Now it came to pass. The vote was only a memorandum. It was +what everyone wanted, everybody expected. + +In my day we all knew one another. A college may be good as an +institution of learning and still fall far short of supplying what we +feel this elite college did for us. The elective system has not been +wholly a blessing. If left to himself, a student might elect to follow +the line of the least resistance. In one of these institutions the whole +class never meets together after the first day for any academic purpose. +The class is no longer the social unit it once was. No two men take +exactly the same course. + + +_Just How it Feels_ + +A boy's relation to his home is changed the instant his feet betake +themselves to classic ways. His face is set toward an independent +career. It is a beginning of a detachment and the home is behind this +program and perhaps without quite recognizing all the results and +sacrifices that are involved. No family is ever again quite the same +after it has a son graduated from college. The plane of life is lifted +all around. The kind of atmosphere in which he must live and move and +have his being, for four years, will affect him. The traditions and the +predominant type of student character will give him a pull which it is +hoped is in the right direction. Where the majority of the students are +disposed to do right, and to make a serious use of their great +opportunities, the chances are that the graduate will feel his life long +that he paid his tuition to the college, when he was for a fact most +indebted to his associates. All testimony shows that students recite to +the faculty and learn from one another. We are well beyond the old +heresy that a boy goes to college for his mental training, enters +society for his social life, and the church for his religious +development. The college ideal, as stated, is to give a boy opportunity +to do for himself the best he can do, also to do for each student the +best that can be done for him and to give all possible advantage to the +poorest student. + + +_Just Plain Friends_ + +We all drank at the same fountain and felt the thrill of the same +spirit. There was no caste or social class. We may well doubt whether +higher life success would have attended us, if we launched from a +different port. An earnest endeavor was made to put a young man on an +equality with the demands of his time. It undertook to furnish a basis +from which it was possible for him to advance himself to that level of +usefulness, in his generation, to which his native gifts relegated him. +The college cannot undertake to supply brains. In the presence of +stupidity even the gods are powerless. I do not need to praise the +college. As Cromwell said of his government, "This is a thing that +speaks loudly for itself." Webster made, in the greatest address ever +delivered to a jury, much of the proverb, Murder will out, but this is +no peculiarity of murder. Character will out, mental discipline will +out, education will out, and the lack of education will out. Without +this item some vocations cannot be entered at all, and there is no +vocation in which the mental training would not be a fine additional +equipment. + + +_Rekindled Fires_ + +At my Alma Mater, on revisiting the earth, in conversation with friends +the inquiry was altogether natural, at Commencement, as to how I would +approach things, if I were to begin my studies again. I would try to +remember that it is the intensity of the work that does the good. A +horse needs, in practice, to be tested at his top speed. He must have +the occasional fast mile to fit him for a real occasion. The mind +requires to be tasked. The faculties ought then to be alert. The need is +of "sinewy thinking." Gird up the loins of the mind. Pull yourself +together. We read of One who, as he prayed, sweat. Study and have it +over. Dawdling over a newspaper is the arch enemy of all this. When one +reads he ought to read with attention. If, by this power, we throw our +whole minds upon an important subject, we make it a prompt and easy +matter of recollection. Genius is really intensity of thought, feeling, +emotion, activity. All the faculties are in earnest. "A man is not +educated, till he has the ability to summon, in case of emergency," said +Webster, "all his mental power in vigorous exercise to effect his +object." The great gain is in the undivided, intense mental power of +application. Be all there. Play hard. To spend two hours on a lesson +that could better be done in one is a suicidal process. The greatest +benefit of study is the trained power to concentrate the faculties. What +one sees, he ought to see strongly. The importance of this matter lies +in the fact, that the habits which a student acquires while pursuing his +studies, generally adhere to him through life. + +If I could begin again, I would give my chief attention to disciplinary +study. If a person has a fair library, as every man and woman should +have, he would acquire information, daily, his life long. While a +student, his aim should be discipline. It is a vice for him to spend so +much time over fugitive ephemeral literature which is like the grass, in +the morning it flourisheth, in the evening it withereth. After hard +work, skimming over such gossipy literature as one finds in the papers +may restore tone to the mind but it is not to be classed as reading, but +as recreation. Its effect dies with the day that gave it birth. + +Of all my studies, I have rejoiced most in the discipline acquired by +the study of Latin. If I could go back and acquire early a classical +enthusiasm I would make myself sure of the educational passion. + + +_Fortune Keeps Her Own Secrets_ + +There is a certain fluency of speech, fertility of expedient and power +of application which a student should cultivate for what Lord Coke +called the "occasion sudden." The appeal to students to aim at good +public speaking, while in college, and to awaken then and there, the +active powers of the soul, is based upon two observations: that Albert +Beveridge like recent orators showed his gait while still in his +university, and that such gifts are not ideal but practical and not +studied merely for their own sake but because of their connection with +our civil liberty. To attain an end so indispensable if, in my studies, +I was worked out to my limit, I would incline to the discussion of +questions that would not send me to the library but into the open air, +themes on which I could prepare myself during a stroll, subjects that I +could stick in the corner of a mirror to formulate while I shaved. + +Why did not the negroes do more to help secure their own emancipation? + +Can a man change his disposition? + +Why do ministers that do not believe in the inspiration of the Bible use +a text? A man will take a text and explain it away. Why did he choose +it? + +Is it the brain or the soul that does the thinking? Is our body the +agent or is it a living spirit that uses the organisms? Is it the +imagination whose wings uplift or am I at the center of the circle of my +faculties making use of them? + +Is there any causal relation between justice and victory in arms? + + +_Some Social Features_ + +This student life establishes certain relationships both with the +institution, also with individuals which are felt to be the choicest +holding of a man's whole later life. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not +equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Here is a strong +illustration of how deep and enduring are the attachments of an eager +hearted boy. They are more ardent perhaps than they should have been, +but there they are, and the college gains thus a token of attachment +and tender recollection of unreturnable youth. The most exquisite, the +most unforeseen, the most compensative feature of my life has been, my +personal friendship with the professors. Some of them I admired +extravagantly. Silhouetted upon my memory for all time is my first sight +of Professor Leonard F. Parker. I remember a particular day when we +gathered somewhat early for a Sabbath service. Some of us who were to be +his pupils had no acquaintance with him even by sight. Assuming that the +leading scholar of the place would attend the meeting it was for us a +question of identification. Soon there came a man in the succession not +a farmer, possibly a resident clergyman, and some of us thought it might +be he. But something within me said "Query." I tried to make it into the +professor. + +A good man doubtless, but I wanted to see something in this worshiper +that was not in him. He did not fill the picture. He did not make me +say, It is enough. Soon there came a man who needed no badge, no +signature, no guarantee. His face was an index of him. All of us joined +in a common feeling of relief. We felt his presence. We knew that this +was the man. The bearing of a professional man in those days was more +sedate than now, occasioned by what he thought to be due to his +professorship. He looked upon his office as a high and sacred calling, +and it met all the ends of his ambition if he could be, not teaching +students, but educating men and women. It is said of the Roman +conquerors that they were so used to victory that they carried on their +faces the secret of an imperial people who knew not defeat. + + +"_Fixing Up_" + +There was an obvious neatness about him and a perfection of dress, which +usually requires an absence of anything which draws attention to itself. +He excelled all men whom I have ever known in the teaching profession +for enkindling among his pupils an ardent zeal in their literary +pursuits. A great personal force was needed in those days to teach +disciplinary studies only, in an effective manner, and to dominate the +industrial spirit and the trade spirit by those classical enthusiasms +which were the joy and ornament of his youth. Mercantilism was unbridled +in the general community, yet it is an acknowledged fact, that at the +beginning the responsibility of the teacher has much to do with the +success of the school. No teaching is worth much without enthusiasm, and +enthusiasm is generated by concentrating interest at a focal point. One +cannot teach for more than he is. + +A little history is worth a great deal of opinion. By his unusual gifts, +by his out-reaching personal sympathies, by the individual impress of a +great teacher, many of his pupils became interested through him in the +classics. Let him be judged by his product. I never hear President Main +in one of those vigorous, fine-phrased, official statements, in language +impressive, copious and beautiful, the outward sign of an inward grace, +making a sort of an Iliad out of a routine college president's report, +without saying to myself and to others,--That power of statement, +discipline of mind, felicity of speech, the administration itself, if +you please, are the fruitage of patient discipline acquired in his early +and long study of Greek. Alexander of Macedon used to say that he owed +his life to his father, but to his teacher, Aristotle, a greater debt, +for it was that philosopher who taught him how to make the most of life. +While the ability to teach is a treasure committed to earthly vessels, +some are of finer clay than others. + + +_He Had no Pet Virtue_ + +The Professor was a natural leader, full of vision and initiative, whose +heart was in his work, and the old college impulse never left him, and +he represents a part of what has given a worthy name and character to +the college. A man gets to do what he is fitted to do. I do not believe +he will be allowed to come back from the other world to this but he will +hardly know what to do with himself when separated from those +interesting associations on which so much of his happiness depended. A +father or mother or both would come to town, wander about the place, +invariably in company with the object of their affection. These parents +are not first of all astronomical, or philosophical, or mathematical, +they are human, and they are not there to hear about the new water-works +or the freshly paved streets, or the perfect miracle of an artificial +lake. They are there because their treasure is, and a kind word spoken +to them about their young hopeful is like a spark of fire upon tinder. +These folks used to wait about the doors and walk the streets and hope +to throw themselves in the Professor's way, with the idea that he would +talk with them a little about their scion. I was once driving the +distance between two railroads and a dark night and a continuous +downpour of rain settled drearily upon me, and I was forced to stop at +random at a farm house, and beg for entertainment. Disposing of my case +in a few words, the family resumed its talk relative to a letter they +had received from the Professor about their descendant in whom were +centered great expectations. And when they had said everything that +could be said, someone, as if by accident, would pull a string and let +loose again the flood of talk about that letter. Someone, coming in, for +a moment, out of the storm, would divert the attention, and then they +would apply the flail again to that letter and thrash out some further +kernels of wheat that they had not at first noticed. The family, of +course, found out that I knew the Professor, and so, although I was to +start in the morning while it was still dark, the mother was +unexpectedly up, and had the table so spread, that she could at once sit +down, when I did, and talk over her happiness and the rewards of her +self-sacrifice in having a boy at college. She had hoped and believed +all that had been written, and yet it was a great comfort to have the +professor say it. + + +_A Disposition to Build Tabernacles_ + +He lived close to the people. When Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress, +found himself in the City of Destruction, he departed speedily out of +it, whereas our professor would consider if the situation was +remediless. I was present when he, having given the best of his life to +the college, under the weight of his years, resigned. It was touching, +as a great American author has pointed out, to see the new attitude that +the community had taken toward him, putting him into a new relationship +and into a new atmosphere, in which it was recognized that he was +undeniably and irresistibly older than he had been. People had hardly +thought that he was not a permanent feature. The evidences of +Christianity stand very much in facts. I point to the fact of his +consistent fruitful life and to the fact of his triumphant peaceful +death. They make a fresh volume on the evidences of Christianity. I have +heard of a man who had one foot in the grave, but here was a man who had +one foot in heaven. Dear friend, and my father's friend, friend of my +youth, and all my later years, teacher, counselor, encourager, model of +my student life, to whom my heart was knit in all the ardor of the first +enthusiasm over the idea of going to college, to whom my obligations are +beyond computation, Thou hast thyself gone to sit at the feet of the +Great Teacher. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHERE I MET MYSELF + + +I can thankfully say that I have been on earth twice, once walking on +air, when I graduated from college, and again when I, walking across the +College campus, with heart lifted up, tenderly recalling the past, saw +the jejune young hopeful that I used to be and sat down with him under a +birch, the queen of trees,--many savage nations worship trees,--and +debated for an hour with this young blonde, that I met, that I used to +be, this question, Which is better for the person graduating, the +opportunities which were lined up, reaching out their hands to us, that +we had, or the greater academic advantages which the students now enjoy. +I could not seem to make him see that the present advantages develop +opportunities which are quite as acceptable and fruitful as those that +in early days came to us ready-made. + + +_The Old and New_ + +Discussion over, this rather immature youngster, that I met, that I used +to be, rising up, I getting up, went down town, or perhaps more +properly, he went down town and I went with him. He found a man, I did +not so easily recognize, that was Sophomoric at about the same period +that he was and I experienced a bad quarter of an hour. The situation +had in it an uncomfortable pinch. I became self-conscious. I found +myself stammering and protesting the past. We had come upon a tall, +sparsely-haired, gray-bearded bent figure, with a smooth shiny head, +with furrows in his cheeks and forehead, having evidently, as Webster so +well said, come down to us from another generation. I knew that he was +of my age but I never dreamed that I was of his. This callow stripling +then started to show us around, and unlike Elihu, in the days of Job, +who apologized for showing his opinion, seeing he was so young, asserted +that once we were led by the clergy, then by lawyers, then by business +men, but that now everything pointed to a great revival of the college +and its influence in affairs. Then he stood right out apart and began to +plaster praise on his own institution. I thought that the young man +gestured too much, and I told him so, but he dramatically with open +mouthed vehemence of adoration told of her spirit, her fellowship. I +tried to use the soft pedal, suggesting that perhaps he had too many +exciting topics to discuss thus in public, and that we might later +adjourn to a restaurant where we could make an afternoon of it. But he +was in high spirits and made his talk like a young man who had the world +at an advantage. It was June in his personal history and the top tide of +his youthful happiness. That part of his existence was so satisfactory +to him that he liked to dwell upon it. + + +_Words Pale and Inadequate_ + +I kept noticing that I was much more interesting to this unripe young +sprig, who, I thought, had much to learn, and whose mind seemed like an +unweeded garden, than he was even to me, for I had seen him before, +while I had for him all the interest that is excited by a relic, +something designed by Providence to arrest attention, like those that +after a great convulsion of nature came out of their graves and went +into the city and appeared unto many. + +Then this sappy, beardless representative of the rising generation that +I met, that I used to be, with the Aurora-spirit, had the effrontery to +ask me how it happened that a man had but one youth and then came age +and infirmity, while a college, like a nation, seems under favorable +administration to have a re-birth and a renewal of the vitality of youth +twice or even thrice. I thought that the excess of his knowledge was too +much for him and that he was cross examining me, and so side-stepping +the main issue, I stammered out something about the excessive beauty of +the classic town with embowered streets and sunny gardens, a sort of a +metropolis of education, the very capital of a little republic of +letters. + +There seemed to be equality in all the competitions for the prizes of +student life, with no favors and yet no privilege denied. There was fair +play and all good feeling, with no caste of wealth, and no apology for +the laggard. Even when whipping up a little I flagged miserably in all +the conversation. This lad, in his leading strings, was an incomparable +gossip. I felt that he had a kind of genius for picking up news. Anyway +he used great liberality in the diffusion of it. He was I thought a +charitable reporter. While he had breathed the classic atmosphere of the +place, yet all the books he had to read had been dumped there, like a +sort of terminal moraine. For scholars today the whole stock would be +not only a curiosity, but a relic, being little else than folios on +serious subjects. They were books that must be reverenced, as members of +the eldest liturgical church would reverence the bones of the blessed +martyrs. I inquired, Do you participate in athletics? Yes, by dividing +cord wood into stove lengths, toying with the spade, coquetting with big +bundles of grain. Golf and basket ball were not in his day introduced +into the college curriculum. I thought he was flippant. I felt that +comparisons were odious, as some one must suffer when a comparison is +instituted. So I said with a good deal of voice, My Friend, hear me, I +am older than thou. Your question shows what your diploma cannot cover +nor absolve. Nobody thinks that you lack courage. I wish now that you +would try and be polite. + + +"_Far Away and Long Ago_" + +So far from gratifying this wish, in another connection he put it right +up to me, that I was looking around with complaisance, as though it was +a college of this present size and appearance that I graduated from, but +that such was not the historic fact. It did not seem nice in the +stripling to move right out in the direction of ocular demonstration, +and make particular inquiry of me about the library and chapel and +training field and gymnasium that I used in that college that I +graduated from. His very impudence made him interesting to me. But I +wished he would cultivate more repose and serenity. He had sense enough +to know better but his resources in that direction were not immediately +available. + +As we were looking around I observed that this young tyro was all the +time tipping his hat and bowing and scraping as often as a pretty face +came within the horizon, and so I knew that there was a way I could +divert his remarks from poor me, and that was to ask him outright about +the girls. I was astonished that I had not named them to the fledgling +before. I was amazed that I was capable of passing them by so long. He +said that there was nothing like them, that the air was favorable to +their elegance and charm, that there was no place of its size in that +state or in any other that could show fairer specimens of the various +kinds of feminine attractiveness. But in his talk on the comeliness of +the young ladies I noticed that he quoted from an actress who seems to +have said that three things are necessary for success on the stage, +vivacity, ability and beauty, and I told him that I could not be too +thankful that the stage of practical life did not insist on these rigid +requirements. + + +_Stepping Stones in Recent History_ + +It was a holiday within a holiday to traverse the town with this +lambkin. I came to the right place to squarely meet him. Here they +introduce people to themselves. This stripling that I used to be seemed +bent on hiring a horse and carriage to show me about. That was his only +idea of hospitality. On the best streets in town, he did not have far to +go, the livery stables were as convenient to the homes of the people as +the school-houses and churches. A very convenient location was near the +public library. His fear was that all the horses would be already taken +as there were a good many visitors in town. If the high steppers were +out we would find their keepers in more or less rickety arm chairs +tilted back against the side of a wall awaiting their return. + +There are two panels placed side by side in the old palace at Potsdam. +The left contains Napoleon refusing the queenly Louise favorable terms +of peace at Tilsit, the right contains the nephew of that Napoleon +receiving notoriously hard terms from the son of the beautiful Louise at +Sedan. Entire shifts in history are vividly seen in companion pictures. +On the left is a picture of the horse with the caption, The Greatest +Pleasure-giver to Man. On the right is the picture of a Ford. All that a +man hath will he give in exchange for an automobile. The left exhibits +what God made, the right, what man made. No one living in the city will +look at a horse. He now shows that he feels that he is something left +over. Survey the specimens that remain, low-headed, tail-switching, +creatures, with an indolent air, shuffling gait, abject, pitiable +objects with mis-shapen, stumbling legs in front. No one doubts but that +it takes all day to go anywhere and return with these antique, stunted, +gaunt-ribbed, swollen-jointed, knock-kneed, piteous-eyed creatures that +now survive. Knowing the pleasure that young people once had in horses +and ponies, it seems odd to find that the rising generation has +almost forgotten their existence. + +[Illustration: THE GREATEST PLEASURE GIVEN TO MAN] + + +_Worthy of Unstinted Praise_ + +But they had a fine history. Stonewall Jackson, the hero of the flank +movement, gained his great victories and his great reputation by the +celerity of his movements, made possible by the familiarity of +Southerners with horses. When pressed in battle the Russians could fall +back sullenly and the Japanese unfamiliar with horses could not strike +their flank nor cut off their retreat. The mastery of nations has +sometimes come from the possession of horses. The amazing spread of +Mohammedanism came from the same sort of ownership. The horse gave to +Paul Revere and to Phil Sheridan their place in history. He was in their +day the greatest factor in strategy and surprise. He is docile, +affectionate, and capable of a deep and lasting attachment. He has a +real craving for human notice. He dislikes to be left in a solitary +position. Essentially by his very nature he must love something. It +touches the heart to have a horse reach out his fore foot and begin to +paw until his master assures him that he recognizes him. This is what +the horse likes. I confess to a feeling of pride when, leaving him +untied at the door, I have gone into a house and have heard him whinny +for me to return when he might have gone off and left me. Although there +were other persons all about he would neigh at my approach and turn his +well-shaped head, full of character, with clear intelligent eyes of the +speaking kind, toward me. Such a warm-blooded sensitive horse will +always exhibit in ways of his own the friendly relations that exist +between us. + + +_Time Tries All Things_ + +On revisiting the earth it is found that the owner of a high-stepper, +threatened with speed, can now only lead a shame-faced kind of +existence. If out in the daylight he feels like apologizing to every one +he meets. This man used to electrify the street with his tallyho coach +crowded with gaily dressed guests accompanied by a footman and a +trumpeter, with a hitch of four noble grays showing by their arched +necks and high knee action that they felt pride in belonging to a rich +man. As in the case of the bicycle, the fashion changed abruptly. He had +to load a lot of portable property into the carriage to get some poor +relation to take the outfit for a gift. I find that a person can now buy +a discarded silver-mounted harness for the cost of a halter and that the +people today like an upholstered life. Gasoline spelled the doom of the +horse and it must be said now that Dobbin's future never looked so +uninviting. + +There are four new experiences for which no description ever adequately +prepares us, the view of a volcano in violent eruption, a visit to the +home of cliff dwellers (prehistoric peoples who left their homes just as +they used them), a walk on a moving glacier, and the first survey of the +Grand Canyon. I was lifted off my feet by discovering, when talking with +that college youngster and comparing things closely, that the five +senses--sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch--have had another added +to them. Each of those we named over uses a distinctive organ. The +surface of the whole body contributes to the sense of touch. These are +pointed out as the receiving agents of the mind which keeps her hidden +seat and receives communication from the distant provinces of her +empire. They put us in possession of just the information needed +concerning external things. On revisiting the earth it is awakening to +engage in controversy with the young scion of the college that I used to +be, touching learning's last word. He believed that we had all the +possible senses defined and numbered like the fingers on the hand and +now comes the new sense of balance having the exact function we have +been naming. I remember the moment and the place where I was made +conscious of this sixth sense. I did not learn it. I had it. I had +bought a bicycle. I had no teacher. I was sitting on it in the hall +giving the animal a little gentle exercise. "Keep your balance. Employ +what sense you have; you do not need to acquire it, use it." It is so +with aviators. We call them bird men. They were born, like birds, with a +certain innate sense of equilibrium. Birds find out when to go north and +to go south and how to build and line their own nests and where to find +their food and how to maintain themselves in the air. All this is in +them. Nature takes care of that. A small child, learning to walk, shows +that he has an instinctive faculty of adjustment and equipoise and tries +early to get his little legs to support his position. An untutored lad +when mounted thinks he is riding a horse, whereas the quadruped, knowing +at once that the boy does not know anything about his business, allows +him to simply balance himself while he gives him a ride. The boy voyages +like an unballasted ship. He does not acquire a new sense; he follows +his intuitions and all is well. A seed of grain would not differ from a +dust speck or tiny pebble except for what it is, but it is yet to +manifest by its inherent vitality. You would not know, looking at a boy, +that he has this instinct of balance, but he has and he will find it and +use it. As the pilgrim with his staff wends his way to Mecca, so I went +to that place to meet that particular stripling. He was the youngster +that was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. I wanted to +stay beside him much longer. His heart was young. He was fresh for his +work. + + +_The World a Wheel_ + +The skeleton of a horse is given in an automobile catalogue. He is +depicted as a fossil and the statement is made, These animals were used +until about the year 1900. Every man, woman, and child in the state of +South Dakota could be seated at one time in the automobiles owned by the +people of that one state. Eighty per cent of those cars have been bought +in the last two years. It seems like flying or ballooning after jolting +for years in a heavy farm wagon, and what miles they were! The Dutch are +economical of money, but have been very profuse of time. Their +conveyances by sea or land have been slow and "Dutch speed" has grown +into a proverb for tardiness, but now, with scarfs over their heads, +Dutch women loll in the back seats of a Pierce-Arrow with, not the +father, but a son, in the family to drive. While in my earlier life I +had never dodged an automobile and I have never been injured by one +except in my disposition, we are all unspeakably indebted to them for +getting people out-of-doors and for contributing more to the temperance +reformation than all the lectures in Christendom. The automobile +enforces the same abstinence upon the people that the railroads require +of engineers. Automobiles plainly show that the only place for saloons +is that place Rev. William A. Sunday so graphically describes, and while +our streets do not yet come up to the requirements of the boulevards of +the New Jerusalem as described by St. John, yet we are done with those +crossings at the street corners made up of granite stringers. Carriages +had worn down the softer material just before and just after the granite +crossings, so that if a person rode rapidly length-wise of the street he +would jolt and bite his tongue at every intersection. These depressions +in the road were called "Thank you, marms," because persons in passing +each corner would forcibly be made to bow their heads, as if in +expression of gratitude, to some imagined object. Another transformation +has overtaken the community, changing its general appearance in some +cases for the better, almost beyond recognition. + + +_Pigs is Pigs_ + +All barns in the towns are upon the market and dealers in lumber have +opened a second-hand department where they dispose of what is left of +the barns to farmers for the construction of granaries. Back to the farm +applies now even to lumber. The horse, the cow, and the pig once formed +a part of the family circle and how kindly and carefully were they +provided for. The execrable back alley was conducted on the pig-sty +basis. How slatternly the old back alley fence would look now that the +parking system is adopted by neighbors. In earlier days the sumptuous +houses were fenced or hedged always. After the old English idea the +grounds were private. It remains now to have fences removed among +denominations. They stand for the old time privacy and exclusiveness +that once prevailed in business. Down south they forced business out +into the open, requiring by ordinance that all employees shall be paid +in the public square. The parking system proceeds upon the principle +that a resident owes something to the town. The present ideal is to +induce people not to shut the blinds or draw the shades when the house +is lighted but to see in the evening how far each little candle can +throw its beams. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +RETRACING THE OLD PATHS + + +At the sight of the Eternal City, Luther prostrated himself and +exclaimed,--Holy Rome, I salute thee. A graduate of Andover, on +approaching the Sacred Hill, feels a disposition to manifest a like +deference. Before him rises the hallowed ground. Andover is not large +but there are those who love her. She was always a good mother to me. +Andover on the map you can cover with your thumb, but you cannot so +cover Andover. Its vital expansive influence has gone out through all +the world and its words to the end of it. In an outburst of passionate +eloquence, Mr. Webster once exclaimed, "What has America given to the +world? It has given to the world the character of Washington." What has +Andover given to the world? There is the East. There is India. There is +our Western coast, where rolls the Oregon. There are our colleges and +churches at home and over seas. In these she has given the world +immortal names that were not born to die. It is said that no man now +living can read even the alphabets of all the languages through which +her sons have sought to interpret the Word of God to the world. Think +the graduates of Andover out of it at that time, and sacred literature +and religious results would drop immeasurably below their actual +attainments. Andover, the very name is beautiful, especially when you +look at it in the light of the old days. Its memories are delightful. +There I sat at the feet of my own Gamaliel. + + +_The Land We Love_ + +It is impossible that any institution living or dead, in this country or +any other, ever gained a firmer hold on the affections of her alumni. If +love is the greatest thing in the world, Andover had it in a sort of +double measure. With some knowledge of the whole field I do not know of +any other place that so takes hold of its students on their affectional +side. To do this, all experience teaches that a place must not be too +large. A country home grows tendrils around a man's heart that a house +numbered with others, in a uniformly brick-faced block, fails to do. A +thoroughly cultivated or built-up country is much less beloved by its +people than an open one that is close to nature. A strictly fenced +locality where all surfaces are exclusively appropriated, leaving only +the dusty highways to the people, does not gain the attachment that we +all feel for Andover, beautiful for situation. When the Creator +prepared the Seminary grounds on that crowning elevation he left little +for the hand of man to do in the way of improvement. In my day, the oak +tree was still standing into which Dr. Pearson climbed to locate +buildings, trace the walks and indicate the settings for trees. Being +located in a county that has more people in it than the entire state of +Vermont and four times as much wealth, a county of cities, it has +afforded great opportunity for students to get experience in pulpit work +and the incidental wherewithal. It gave me no trouble or inconvenience +the last year of my studies to earn eight hundred dollars. Most students +on reaching Andover begin, I began like the rest, by occupying the +little Union Chapel on the slope of the Blue Hill in Readville, on the +edge of Hyde Park. The honorarium was five dollars, and the fares from +Boston. In that pulpit, that has meant so much to under-graduates, +Phillips Brooks preached his last sermon. Rev. Samuel F. Smith, author +of America, was on his way to preach there when death overtook him and +arrested his journey. + + +_Lines Cast in Pleasant Places_ + +When I sing America I think of Andover. She is what S. F. Smith thought +of, for in a nature stroke, writing the words in Andover, he sings, "I +love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills," just as +Whittier so simply depicts other delightful features of Essex County +which were indelibly impressed upon the sensitive plate of his brain. We +discern the scenery behind the words. This the Swiss heart does when it +is pathetically affected in hearing, in music, as if upon bells, "The +return of the Cows." There never has been a nation without patriotism. +There never has been a people without a God. The author of the hymn so +much used in our great revival of national feeling was in Andover to +study theology and produced our most common expression of patriotism. +Andover was well born. She has beauty in her own right. This is evident +since the first time she sat for her picture. My relations have been +such, that it falls to me at times, having visitors from a remote part +of the land, to entertain them and to show them the East. For typical +New England towns I have usually taken them to Plymouth, Concord and +Andover. These three. But in the matter of a large fairly well-trained +and useful progeny, the greatest of these is Andover. Dr. Henry M. +Storrs used to style the place, the mother of his mind. + + +_Andover is Different_ + +It is Acadian. In other residential localities it is their custom not to +point out any celebrities except millionaires. Everything in the +community is leveled to its cash basis and a habit of doing it is +ingrained, and unconsciously money slips into the conversation and out +of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks. But in Andover names do +not stand just for mere crude wealth. The homes of the professors were +never handled as a commercial proposition. Everything was not computed +in terms of bankable wealth. Prosperity was only one word, another was +welfare. That noun of all nouns, dollar, was not so often heard as the +name Andover. The teaching force is as uncommercialised as Agassiz, +Lafayette, or John Brown. Their wealth is their learning and their +character. "Now how much is he worth?" He is worth a lot to his pupils. +Here is a community which every member belongs to with a conscious +pleasure and pride. All the ideals bounded by the dollar are replaced. +She had an entirely different code of values, which were not pecuniary. + + +_Where Every Prospect Pleases_ + +I felt that I was exalted to heaven in point of privilege to be there at +all. Here I had my first view of acres of girls. At the end of the study +hours they would throng through the gates of the Abbott Female +Seminary--"The Fem Sem"--and spread out over the town, young, joyous, +carefree, fresh-faced, handsomely dressed. It was a delight to see them +about. + + "The hill of Zion yields + A thousand sacred sweets + Before we reach the Heavenly fields + Or walk the golden streets." + +So many of the books in the library with which I was most familiar, my +father's, were published at Warren F. Draper's in Andover that on +reaching the town, which my imagination had always placed in Class A, I +sent my baggage to the Mansion House that I might not deny myself two +things, to go on foot with much feeling up the long hill, also to get a +first preliminary glimpse of Draper's. Could so much that is good come +out of that Nazareth? It was a travesty on my expectation. I was looking +for a book store like Appletons' or Revell's, or Harpers'. When my +father graduated, there were thirty different parts on the Commencement +programme and I was looking for things on an immense scale like that. + + +_A World of Tender Memories_ + +Andover develops the "We" feeling. The students constitute a +brotherhood, while with the years the word grew greatly yet it never +outgrew its original manifestation. That little word We is the talisman +that awakes the consciousness that there must be sympathy, fellowship +and co-operation among students, among those in the same high calling +between pastor and people, as there must be for good results between +teacher and pupil, between physician and patient. The Seminary gave to +us that soul of kindred, which so few understand. It is an essence which +perfumes life. Its influence is nothing less to me than sacred, and the +benefit received is beyond any estimate I compute. In anticipation of a +recent particular visit to that shrine of the heart, for no other +purpose than to express my admiration amounting even to reverence, also +my indebtedness, to that far famed and justly distinguished seat of +learning, I arranged with that useful, unselfish, helpful resident, +Charles C. Carpenter, that we should canvass together the sacred +precincts. Among holy places none is holier than this. My errand there +was to see a great deal and to feel a great deal. I bow with deep +veneration at the remembrance of each one of the ornaments of the place. +We walked about among the friends whom we had known who were resting in +God's acre. The inscriptions made for us a book of remembrance. Some +personality lingered about the most far-away name. We lingered long +where sleep the great who made themselves a record among the mighties. +No other spot in the land, of equal space, contains the dust of so much +eminence. By one of the ironies of history those who differed most, +where the contention was so sharp between them, like Barnabas and Paul, +that they departed asunder, one from the other, come close together in +their burial. + + +_Andover's Crowning Glory_ + +When Oliver Alden Taylor, late of Manchester, was graduating from Union +College his biographer says:[1] "We find him deliberating where he +should resort for his theological education. His thoughts were turned +toward Andover, but he says, 'I am afraid of the dislike of elegant +speaking which is said to characterize the faculty.' He was reassured +however with very faint praise, for he writes, 'Dr. Nott tells me that +Andover is not opposed to good speaking, though the graduates are too +generally poor speakers.'" We wish that he could have heard Richard +Salter Storrs, father and son, Horace Hutchinson, Leonard Swain, George +Leon Walker, or either of the brothers, Walter M. or John Henry Barrows, +or as he was speaking of the faculty, Professor Park, or his very close +second, a very different man but highly distinguished for brilliant +uniform work, Austin Phelps. + +[Footnote 1: Page 104.] + + +_A Man of Noble Parts_ + +While in the Himalaya Mountains they have many exalted peaks, still +there is one that towers above the rest, Mt. Everest, the highest +ascertained point on the surface of the globe. So at Andover there was +a high general range of intellect, yet there existed one master mind +that dominated the whole sphere. The pulpit was his throne. I had never +seen a man take so high a position on the mount of God as Professor +Edwards A. Park, at the crest of his popularity and power, did as he +rose to his own high level in his masterpiece, the Judas sermon. I +remember my delight and wonder. He magnetized his audience. I was +greatly drawn to him. The heart of the congregation touches his. Deep +calleth unto deep. There are those who testify that he became the first +vigorous intellectual presence they ever encountered, and they gained +much from the relation to so great a man. Of larger than ordinary mould, +I suppose no real credit or desert fell to him for rising to his work +like a giant refreshed, any more than belonged to Goliath for wielding a +spear like a weaver's beam in his mighty hand instead of a weapon of +ordinary size. He was one of those rare men who are scarcely ever +duplicated. He was not classed with any one in his own or in previous or +in subsequent times. His appeal was such that one's own moral sense +confirmed all his teachings. The mark of talent is to do easily what is +difficult for others. His imposing almost majestic presence, his +powerful and brilliant intellect, his great learning, his genius, his +uncommon gift of eloquence, his fervor, I do not now describe, after my +memory of it, which shines to me like a star, but according to my idea +cf what now it will seem to a stranger. It is impossible to reproduce +his work in cold type. To attempt it is to spoil it. When we have seen +him reported verbatim--that was not his sermon, only its ghost, its +shade, its tenantless remains. The air about him became electric as he, +having located Judas for a time nearly in front of him, a little to the +right, dealt with him as one of the foes of the household. He considered +his case past praying for. After he had his picture well drawn he put on +more color and the moment he had him well blacked, with sudden great +dramatic effect he swung a perfectly knock-out gesture, saying, "Woe to +that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Good were it for that man +if he had never been born." It needs the Sinai voice to get the effect. + + +_A Soul Melted Into a Voice_ + +Passion, unabated emotion pervaded the great effort from the beginning +to the end of the masterpiece. Every sentence, every word had been +pruned of every ineffective syllable, like changing "penetrate" to the +word of one syllable, "pierce". Every idea went to its mark like a +bullet. There was not a cold or weak passage in it. In preparing his +direct discourse he did not stick a stake and cart material to it. His +great thoughts were not drawn from without but from his subject which +he fathomed. He had depth, as someone said, for elephants to swim in +and places for lambs to wade. He seemed from the first to be starting a +great offensive. I took occasionally great delight in a few moments of +his company and I always have congratulated myself that I lived for +three years in the same town, and at the same time with so illustrious a +person. + + * * * * * + +He is one of the stars, a planet I should say, in the firmament of the +pulpit. "Go and feel his power" I used to say; no one can describe it. +Everything seemed to conspire to make my life exceptionally happy and +fortunate at Andover, knowing him at the zenith of his glory. Professor +Park's work had the element of nicety about it. It was fascinating. We +were spell-bound, lost in admiration, even in amazement. His elegance in +diction would make one's sense of beauty ache. "Honor is the substance +of my story," said the imposing, uplifting man starting on his moving +recital, told in his unique, felicitous style, with utterance broken by +emotion, of the life and death of Miss McKeen of Abbott Academy, of +whose board of trustees he had been president for thirty years. That +trinity of qualities, wisdom, eloquence, and pathos, swept everything. +Rhetoric cannot be shut up in a book. Its play of words, even in a +sympathetic auditory, and among vibrant hearers, while it sparkles, +dies. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +GOING BACK TO MY PADAN-ARAM + + +Ernest Renan tells us of the vanished city Is, which, years ago, +disappeared below the waves. Up from those depths, fishermen say, that +on calm summer nights they can hear the bells chiming. In my heart is a +cherished Is. As the years rise and fall I love to hear the harmonies +that float to me from its past. Distance does not dissipate the gentle +sounds and they come to me like echoes from another life. At that +enchanted time I met my heart's ideal and have been wondering ever since +how it happened, that on seeing a certain face, it seems to you +distinctive, set apart from all others. Is it familiar, because you have +seen it before, or is it impressed on you, because it is an expression +of your intuitive sense of what suits you, and what you like and what +you want? The expression, love at first sight, would be intelligible +enough if it was only finished with the words, when one's dream comes +true. When it materializes it is of course all at once. A person busy +with his profession, going along happily and more or less prosperously, +meeting people, judging young folks, almost unconsciously forms an ideal +of face, figure, graciousness, type, temperament, intelligence. This is +the product of half a dozen years. The work of choosing, so far as he is +concerned, is all done. His mind is made up. His idea is clearly +defined. Jesse made Eliab pass before Samuel and the Lord said, "Look +not on his countenance nor on his stature." Then Jesse called Abinadab, +then Shammah, and seven passed in review, when David came along, who was +ruddy and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to, +"That's the one. This is he." First there is an image in the mind, and +when the counterpart appears, instantly, of course, one recognizes it. +Samuel did not shirk any real question nor did he make up his mind +before he had any mind to make up. There was a choice to be made and he +had come to a conclusion so far as he was concerned, and expressed +himself at the earliest moment, without being irresolute or vacillating, +which is an abomination when a social choice is to be made. + + +_First View of Intimate Friends_ + +There is in us a tendency to selection and preference of one human being +before all others. This action of the heart is forceful and even almost +irresistible to us and yet may not accord with other persons' ideas of +appropriateness. This strange preference, in its early stages, and in +its strength and duration, is nature's greatest sidelight upon our +individuality. It is entertaining to see what people pass right by and +then to see what they choose. It distinguishes itself most at the +further end of a long life and seems to have an unfading quality which +shows that it is nature itself. This tendency to selection affords +people the strongest argument against Dr. Johnson's position that all +marriages would be better made if they were arranged by the Lord +Chancellor. Also against that multitude of students, of the subject and +writers, who show that marriages seem best, last best, and are best for +a fact, when the parties themselves have little to do in bringing them +about, when all such matters are left to parents and others as in the +royal families who rest everything on the pure merits of the case. + +In waking hours, in reveries, and in dreams, pictures had been painted +on the fancy, and now the lenses were given, through which they could be +viewed. A vague and indistinct idea had now taken a form. It was very +unromantic, but it seemed the expression of an intuition. It was like an +acquaintance, accidentally met at the way-side. There seemed to be a +susceptibility hid away, hitherto kept dormant, that the slightest cause +seemed to magnetize. + + +_Cupid's Marksmanship_ + +However this may be, there is such instinctive insight in the human +heart, that we often form our opinion, almost instantaneously, and such +impressions seldom change and they are not often wrong. To notice +anything, so casual, sounds like an imprudence and yet it is almost a +revelation. It seems as if we were but renewing the relations of a +previous existence. Some one, from this, goes on to inquire, What will +the doubters of impressions do with a fact like this? Almost everyone +has experienced something similar. In this house, we often speak of our +instant meeting, our introduction, and the destinies which were made to +swing on such a chance acquaintance. It wanted not a word, not a hint, +for within was the consciousness of what was to be. The problem was +solved. My foreshadowing was realized. If a person is looking for a +lesson in Providence, here it is. I could plainly see how I had been led +along. "Come live with me." The irrevocable yoke of life was on us. The +mysteries of Providence are felt in the coincidence of two paths over +surfaces so widely apart. We are astounded at this miracle of meeting. A +breath, a lifting of the hand, an inconceivably small intervention would +have diverted the attention of either of us. There, too, is the miracle +of hinging so much of destiny and of happiness on so small an occasion, +that might easily have been no occasion at all. It is like taking +letters out of the alphabet. The art is in placing them side by side in +such a way as to make words. Use no skill of location and the +arrangement into which they have fallen is inappropriate and +unfortunate. Standing apart the letters are meaningless. Jumbled or +jarred together the chances are very much against their having any +significance, but when brought to their final position, by what they +spell together, they are read of all men with approbation. The first +time that Mr. Paul R. George of Concord, N. H., met the young lady that +became his wife he felt a little click in the neighborhood of his heart. +Now about this "click" to which so many persons bear witness. Men are +great imitators. They follow a crowd. But a hit duck flutters the water. +It is like the late selective draft: a man is touched; he attempts no +evasion; he knows he was selected and comes promptly forward and puts on +the uniform. The way the mind receives this impress, is noticeable in +the further fact that if Paul R. George had been abroad, and the meeting +had been so casual that he received no introduction, it would have been +permanent just the same. The heart never loses anything. Touch the right +string later and the impression is sure to be reproduced. All that is +peculiar about Mr. George's case is his confession. We know that +matrimony is either heaven-made or done in purgatory. The issue seems +too important to turn once for all on the original early choice of an +inexperienced person. An individual is not thus forced to choose once +for all in determining what college he will take. He may choose Williams +and change to Dartmouth. Nor is it an unchangeable choice on entering +business. He may begin with law and change to politics or he may incline +to manufacturing and take to banking. If, however, he enters the +matrimonial field, having put his hand to the plow, there is no turning +around nor looking back. + + +_Remember Lot's Wife_ + +There are, however, some good rules for an individual to follow. One, +for example, would be, to take a girl that was a favorite with other +girls. Another to be uninfluenced in your choice by dowry. The question +before the house is matrimony, not money making. Acquire lucre by +another process. Too much is at stake to be moved now by thirty pieces +of silver. The young man was worthy of all admiration who on his wedding +trip asked the bride how much of a dot she had left after paying for her +trousseau. She said, "Half a dollar." "Well," he said, "heave it over +into the canal and let us make an even start." I can better understand +how a girl could be induced to shy a silver coin into the canal than +how she could be reconciled to parting with such a name as she sometimes +must drop. Here is a girl just reported engaged to a soldier. Her name +was Priscilla Weymouth Alden, which tells not only her illustrious +descent but in just what locality, in the old colony, her branch of the +family made its distinguished nest. In this country the wife or maiden +invariably walks by the side of her male companion and never follows +after him in Indian file, like geese returning from pasture. It is +against nature for a man to say "my house" or my this or that. He should +be unable to pronounce the word. In this house our account at the bank +is open for either to check upon. Our exchequer, on the one hand, or our +politics on the other, are a joint affair. The family is the unit. When +Bunker Hill monument was still incomplete interest flagged. Money was +gone. Work came to a full period. An appeal was made to the women of the +land to hold a great fair to obtain the wherewithal so that the builder +should bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying Grace, +grace, unto it. Subscriptions and contributions hurried to its aid from +every section and it rose to "meet the sun in his coming," "to be the +last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore and the +first to gladden his who revisits it." It is not good for man to work +alone. The house in which a man is married seems to him odd. + + +_The Supply is Not Exhausted_ + +Bridgewater is a belle among residential communities. The best place in +this country or in any other to raise girls. The street is attractive. +The house fine, yet it seems distinct, different. I think most men feel +so about the house in which they were married. In all other shrines I +had made a home. Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan-Aram to +take a wife from thence, and God appeared unto Jacob again when he came +out of Padan-Aram and blessed him. Under similar conditions the Duke of +Buckingham dropped his purse so that the person finding it might feel +that nothing but good fortune attends the visit to a home like that. I +used to like to go there, yet I had to do, every day, the full work of +an adult at home, and so it became plain that I would get along better +if I could locate both of my interests in the same place. In speaking of +weddings much is said with truth about "the negligible groom." I could +not long live on angel cake and so I had to turn abruptly to face the +prosier plain bread and butter question; so when the bird was caught and +caged I took up the inquiries, What shall we eat and wherewithal shall +we be clothed? It is a merciful provision that this latter question +rests lightly upon the groom for the first decade, as some part of the +hat the bride wore to Washington (it being understood that a wedding +admits no variation but means either a trip to Washington or Niagara +Falls) will reappear as a feature of her headdress with much variation +of location during the next ten years. + +The place of the wedding is always a conspicuous shrine. On revisiting +the earth we were strolling around the streets, quite a number of +soldiers were about and were entertaining the girls at a soda fountain, +and one of the enlisted men told a pitiful story about swallowing a pin, +and when a vivacious young lady expressed alarm and sympathy, "Oh," he +said, "no harm could come of it; it was a safety pin." + + +_Heart Histories_ + +We go there often and sit on the stone steps of the old Unitarian church +just as we did when we were young and foolish. Times have changed +incredibly since the visit to Padan Aram or else a favorite and very +accomplished writer just at this writing is all dead wrong in throwing +the weight of his great influence against what he calls being "married +without capital." This would cut out the wedding of Dr. Joseph Parker of +the City Temple, London, the greatest expositor of scripture known to +us. "Improvident" is the word his biographer uses "certainly when tested +by the maxims of the world. He was twenty-two without having secured a +definite position." But marriages are to be judged by their history. Let +us hear the eloquent orator himself. He speaks of "Annie, the soul I +loved, the girl who saved me and made me a man." His estimate of her +varied from the opinion the editor we have quoted would have put upon +her. She was gentle, domesticated, cultivated, with a poetic turn of +mind, and like Mary of Bethany, religiously meditative. She read widely, +being now more assiduous than ever in her Bible studies. Her appetite in +this was twofold for her husband and herself. She asked God to bless him +and He blessed them both. He was strong, constituted for public life, +full of fire, and prepared to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. We +feel like questioning Cupid's sanity when he brings together persons of +such diverse natures, training, antecedents, and tendencies, but among +opposites, in disposition, Cupid displays his best achievements. They +took life together as they found it. To have "saved" one of the world's +greatest forces, to have "made him a man" was more than an equivalent +for living on short commons for some few weeks while they were getting +under way. Working out good fortune together is great happiness to many +young people who know each other well and without reservation believe in +each other and in their future. A young man graduating or entering a +business life must make his capital before he can share it. There is +much to be said in favor of what many healthy spirited girls achieve +when their affections are satisfied. Adam was asleep when he chose his +wife and this is one reason why things proved so out of joint. The +strong dissuasive to become "married without capital" would have borne +heavily upon Peter H. Burnett when a clerk in a country store on two +hundred dollars a year, less than four dollars a week beside his board. + + +_Women Not Gone to the Dogs_ + +He had met a beautiful girl and one day having dined with her family and +talked with the young lady herself after dinner he came out of the house +and was amazed to discover that the sun was gone from the sky. In a +confused manner I enquired of her father what had become of the sun. He +politely replied, "It has gone down." A new heaven and a new earth +surrounded him. They were married and lived happily ever after. It was +not Mrs. Burnett "and her lesser fraction." An humble home was paradise +to him with the right girl. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is +than a stalled ox without it. Sometimes I think that the rich face +greater problems in the matter of marriage than even the poor. Such a +wedding based on affection goes far toward nullifying the phrase +"lottery of marriage." An American girl can marry an English Duke if her +father has money enough. In this country the prevalent sanctity of +marriage can be attributed chiefly to the fact that among the rank and +file, husbands and wives have generally married each other for love. +Perhaps this statement would not apply to the smart set in some +commercial cities. This young man did his best. He became the president +of the Pacific Bank of San Francisco and the first Governor of +California. And as for a young woman she will become quite a heroine, in +hard outward conditions, if her affections are entirely satisfied. +Having spirit and courage and health she often becomes quite a prop to +the prosperity of the household. She does not need to be supported in +idleness by her husband. As between the two, it is often the case that +she can earn about as much as he can. A young lady has just become a +bride who had been receiving a larger salary than her own father ever +earned. In new countries, under pioneer conditions, that is true today, +which was distinctly a fact in early New England, that a marriage was a +partnership, which made for thrift. Of course affection works out her +sums by different rules. + + +_Shall the Union Survive_ + +Chinese wives are valued by their weight. French marriages have been +generally happier than the English owing to the comparative ascendency +which the French wives possess over their husbands, or better, the +equality we find that exists between them. + +There is a proverbial prejudice in an English establishment against the +interference of a woman in the husband's conduct of his private affairs. +This is that one matter in which any theorist can prove his position, +for in solving the problem it is natural to him to count the hits and +not the misses. He arrays unquestioned facts and depends on those who +follow his recital to jump at the conclusion he desires. It was +suggestive to notice that Governor Burnett, when presenting such a fine +specimen of feminine attractiveness, that while showing us that he was +overwhelmed by it, did not directly describe the girl, but made us infer +what the facts were by the situation and by the results she brought +about. To make you appreciate the Lady of the Lake, Scott alludes to her +in attitude and grace and lets the reader's mind supply the picture. + + +_Lights in Their Dwellings_ + +It is astonishing to notice what heroic young women have been doing in +meeting rather hard conditions occasioned in part by the high cost of +living. Give the girl all round confidence, imagine her susceptibilities +and energies to be happily employed, and she will undertake a temporary +encounter with poverty with bravery. The one she has chosen among men +has to meet it whether he will or no. In addressing themselves to that +problem, by united enterprise, some young people have passed their most +joyous years. We find here the magic spell which transforms a house into +a home. Musicians rarely give their best exhibition when singing or +performing in a hostile atmosphere. It is so with women. Happiness is +never an accident. There is no such thing as an accident. Everything has +a cause if we can find it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A NEW KNOCK AT AN OLD DOOR + + +Forty years were long enough to eliminate all the Israelites of one +generation. It appears that in that length of time all the adults of one +generation that had dwelt in Egypt were gone except two. Reckoning +things then on a scriptural basis and assuming that all who lived forty +years ago are gone, except two, a grave responsibility obviously rests +upon me, as I have seen more than a generation rise and wane, to let the +people of the present age or period in a definite locality know how +things look in that lifetime just preceding their own. I remember when +we had preaching services Sunday afternoon in all our churches at three +o'clock and by count in our church the attendance often differed only by +two, forenoon, afternoon and evening. I remember when Christmas and +Easter observances were introduced into Sabbath services, it having been +customary from Puritan days in New England to make, on Sunday, next to +no reference to them excepting in Catholic and Episcopal Churches. + + +_Lost Facts of Local History_ + +Unless one sticks a stake, at some definite point, say less than a +generation ago, he is not likely to remember that powerful electric +lights have not always been, like the images of the Israelites, on every +high hill and under every green tree. It is hard for me to realize that +at my table I burned the midnight oil in Lynn, particularly when the +next morning was Sunday, and my library during my ministry of twelve +years was never decorated with anything but a student lamp. The city was +in the kerosene oil period. The front hall lamp used to drip petroleum +upon the carpet on the stairs, and I was contributing my full share to +give John D. Rockefeller a start in his oil-refining business, a start +indeed that I hear he has not been slow to appreciate and improve. After +reaching the big hall down town, as the lights supplied to Professor +Churchill, the renowned elocutionist from Andover, seemed dim, I left +the hall and went out and bought a student lamp and had a wick put in +and filled it with kerosene, which if now brought into a blazing +auditorium in these enlightened days would be like holding a candle to +the sun. In a more significant way the city has turned from Darkness +into light. + + +_Publicity is Light_ + +We stood in relation to the gambling evil about where the country now +stands in relation to drunkeries, whose death warrant we have lived to +see signed. The hand-writing was written on the wall touching lotteries +but they were winked at when conducted only for sweet charity's sake +even after the death-knell had sounded. In a church fair a fine young +acquaintance got a pony for fifty cents as he held the lucky ticket. +Unless a person has felt it or witnessed it, he little conceives the +fury of the passion to which gambling appeals. When fired up, there are +men who would cross Sheol on a rotten pole to make money in a game of +chance. It starts an appetite that feeding does not satisfy. It seems to +rage by the fuel it feeds on. These lotteries, like the plague of frogs, +were everywhere. For constructing the earliest building of Williams +College, that is in particular the mother of missionaries, a lottery was +granted and $3500 were raised.[2] It goes with the blood in +Massachusetts, for when the State was hard up she used to spring a +lottery, in one of which Harvard College drew four tickets, and +clergymen seemed to have been particularly successful, and teachers for +purposes of publicity were likeliest of all to profit by the turn of +the wheel, till at length the whole gambling fabric suddenly, like the +walls of Jericho, fell down flat. + +[Footnote 2: See Harper's Cyclopedia, p. 390, and The Book of Berkshire, +p. 30.] + + +_Cupid All Smiling_ + +Here was purely and distinctively an American City. The people were +homogeneous in language, modes of thought and type of character. She had +the specific New England, or Yankee, cast of mind. For her factories, +forces were drawn from the hillsides, particularly of New Hampshire. +There were elderly people, as we shall see, but the prevailing type was +youthful, and the young lady contingent was attractive and had a good +deal of the quality which we call charm. I wrote a column for a local +paper, out of my experience on "Tying the Silken Knot," and Dr. Henry +Hinckley, referring to my contribution and using my title, went beyond +even my testimony, affirming that the City of Shoes furnished more +marriageable material to the square rod than any other city of its size, +and he seemed to attribute the fact, not merely to the incident that +they met here under pleasant auspices, but that they heard in churches +that marriage is honorable and that it is not good for man to be alone. + +A couple would come to the parsonage, and if the associate pastor went +to the door the young man would say, "Where's your foreman?" meaning +her husband. As the lady of the Manse was entirely supported by her +wedding fees and had money to lend, and as I married more people than +could be seated in my church, if they should come together at one time, +I have often deeply regretted that in the hurry and toil of removal, it +did not occur to me to invite them all to attend a special service to be +arranged for them, with specific hymns, and a practical address. I think +I can claim for the couples that I made happy, the banner low record in +the small percentage of divorces. + + +_The Royal Families_ + +The house of one parishioner was built in the century before the last, +while General Washington was alive and on the earth, and was rich in +history and tradition. A call upon the family was a lesson out of +Colonial Records, the paper on the wall like that at Mt. Vernon, being +of the same period. + + "And, from its station in the hall, + an ancient timepiece says to all, + 'Forever--never! + Never--forever!'" + + "Through days of sorrow and of mirth, + Through days of death and days of birth, + Through every swift vicissitude + Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, + And as if, like God, it all things saw, + It calmly repeats those words of awe + 'Forever--never! + Never--forever!'" + +It knew more than I did, and could point out the moon's changes, and the +seasons, and the seconds. + +What makes the place? Not any one man, nor any group of men, but the +inner spirit of the city, what I will call the genius of community life, +which gives that indefinable tone that marks the city from the town, and +that when amplified belongs only to an industrial assemblage of people. +I attributed her phenomenal individualism, first to her unpedestaled +idol, Rev. Parsons Cook, D.D., who made so much of individual work and +accountability, also to her antecedents and atmosphere in which men +working alone developed the contemplative habits of shoemakers. As they +kept thinking they kept having new ideas and they had them hard. +Families dwelt apart. Nothing is so revolutionary as the development of +apartment hotels, and particularly of a prodigious number of +restaurants. Her social, charitable and benefit associations must have +arisen in the years under review, from almost a negligible quantity to +well-nigh half a thousand. + + +_A Social Revolution_ + +In the self-evolving life of the place there has been a strong trend +toward associated life, which has reconditioned everything. It is +without a parallel in the entire history of the community. Cities are +themselves prominent waymarks in human history. Cincinnatus, when at his +plow, was summoned by voices from the city. The tendency toward +congregate life is witnessed by the enormous increase in the number of +play-houses and in the attendance upon them. In an earlier day one stood +for a time in solitary prominence and has become grandfather to a big +brood. There has been an astounding increase in what I will call the +department of service. If a person is on the street in the late +afternoon when the matinees are over, and the women's clubs, and as well +the errands and social visits, he will see another form of new, +associated life, in the descent by hundreds, upon all the new +delicatessen shops, and similar departments in stores where cooked and +nicely prepared foods are kept for evening tables. If anything has +seemed hungrier than these individuals, it has been the furnace during +severe weather. + + +_The Glory of the Commonplace_ + +Because of increasing wealth and education and refinement, people put +out their work more into laundries and bakeries and general mutual +business concerns. This, like mercy, blesses him that gives and him that +takes. If anything is to be inferred from the growth in co-operative +housekeeping in the last generation it will come to some real good, +complete result, surely, in the next decade. Speed the day. It is of +course the solution in part of the servant girl question. What was once +a luxury is now assumed to be a necessity. As things are going, men will +soon refuse a mansion in the skies, unless luxuries are promised that +our ancestors never heard of. We would expect great development in a +rural community that is in the knee-pant period. As Cicero said, +"Nothing is discovered and perfected at the same time." We do well, for +every reason, to make much of what is so delightfully historic. + +Even patriotism is grounded and rooted in the past. I like a certain +relish there is in the place. The soul of it, too, suits my fancy. +Things, there, were in some way pitched in the right key. It took New +York a hundred and seventy-five years to gain its first thirty-three +thousand inhabitants. While our industrial city has developed very much +more rapidly, the unlikeness ceases, when it comes to the matter of +crooked streets, which prevail also in Boston, but some one has said +that he does not include Boston when he speaks of the United States. In +the inspired volume we read of a street that was called Straight, but +that term would not be applied to Pearl St. in New York, which hits +Broadway twice. Mr. Ruskin tells us that there is not one straight line +in nature. + + +_The Missing Link_ + +Some newly revealed sources of wealth were uncovered, and the city +received her crown. More new men with high grade mechanical skill came +to be employed in the electric-light works than there were in Xenophon's +famous army. A rare opportunity came and she did that which is rarely +done. Some cities are famous for one thing. Kansas City for beef, +Chicago for modesty, Hartford for insurance, Milwaukee for beer, +Atlantic City for Board-walks, and Lynn for her new Boulevard to Nahant +and Swampscott. After a North-Easter, particularly on a high full tide, +when the spray is thrown over the tops of the telephone poles, the sight +is exhilarating. There is education in contact with affairs. The place +came to be the home of a capacious department-school of the mechanical +arts, and of the latest and most popular of all the sciences. Her +graduates filtered out into all the land. The situation was peculiar. +There were sounds in the air like the cracking of the ice, at the +incoming of spring, to prove to everybody that the Labor Movement was on +the way unlike the ice which forms at the bottom and rises to the top. +The Labor Movement was organized from the top downward, rather than from +the bottom up. The reformers felt a disposition to criticize existing +conditions. The custom prevailed of saying things derogatory to the +place. Then came a rather general practice of habitually decrying one's +town. Now there are two or three curious things about this habit of +disliking one's own town. One of them is that this vice seems to coexist +in human nature with even an intense degree of patriotism. Persons who +are second to none in love of country are among those who will permit +themselves to speak sneeringly of their particular town. Another amazing +fact about this evil habit is its prevalence. Max O'Rell has noted that +if you wish to hear some criticism of America you have only to go to +Boston. Persons, who have ever lived in the country, are sure that their +particular village is the worst place for gossip on the globe, and as if +this were not dispraise enough, they will refer to their native towns as +"dead and alive" places, or make some allusion to their having "gone to +seed," or prove to you that the best families have moved elsewhere, or +will apply the epithets "sleepy," "deserted," "God-forsaken," or else +they will sum up their villifications in a single expression and style, +for short, their native place as a "one-horse-town," and express +thankfulness that there are so many roads by which any one can leave it. +We all wish to be delivered from a man who so far from developing what I +will call place-pride, does not speak well of his own folks. I know of +a dog, that is said never to bark except at his own folks. The graduate +of a college, on entering politics is often deprived of his rightful +influence, by the popular feeling, that he feels called upon only to +criticise. But the further peculiarity of the habit of which I am +speaking is that it works on without discrimination. It involves some +places that are entitled to exception. + + +_Money in all Pockets_ + +I had heard that money talked, but in this place it walked. It went up +and down the streets. I used to be amazed at the amount of money that +was out of doors. The plenitude of money, especially among young people, +astonished me. I had seen money after harvest, "When the ship comes in," +but here the young men and women were paid every week, and seemed to +have their money right where they could lay their hands upon it. I had +come from a place where people were well clothed, but here, it was +different, they were well dressed. There were no slums, no streets of +squalor. No quarters given over to the submerged tenth, to the socially +non-elect. There were a few improvident, impoverished or really +unfortunate families. One philanthropist drew the line on helping any +family that showed intemperance or kept a dog. + +The Oratorio Society, the far-famed choirs, with a master of +assemblies, more than a captain, a host in himself developing enthusiasm +in vocal music in the public schools, privately employed to visit +Sunday-schools to get everybody to sing, not only had a great influence +in the city, they had too much. They were exclusive, they smothered the +lyceum, displaced the lecture, hushed elocution. + +I used to complain publicly that the other arts did not get their +hearing. + + +_The Wine of Sweet Remembrance_ + +As anyone who has lived in the past is expected to utter a wail that the +former days were better than these, I will be true to type and say +plainly that, nature being originally so profuse in her gifts, I greatly +miss the glorious gardens of an earlier day. Blossom Street and Vine +Street and Cherry Street tell, by their names, their own story: and the +tall ranks of the dahlias and the color of the azaleas, still sometimes +seen in miniature kindergartens, faintly indicate the early glories of +the place. + +In the good old times we had our sunken gardens. Their surface was often +lower than the grade of the streets, and this low rich soil of deep +alluvium had a perfect fury of productiveness. + +So, too, in constructing their earliest House of Prayer, the oldest +Congregational Church in the world[3] that stands on its original +ground, for warmth, not having stoves, they adopted the policy, like the +Germans, of digging themselves in, and laid the sills of their +meeting-house three feet under ground. As they advanced they were +children of fortune in the style and architecture of many of their +public buildings. + +[Footnote 3: See Cook's Centuries, p. 30.] + +The City Hall, in the period in which it was built, at the close of the +Civil War, was a gem. When I have seen some of the monstrosities worked +off on some of our cities and towns, made hideous under the guise of +architecture, with churches that in design seemed studied insults to the +Deity, I have repeatedly told the builders the exact amount of the fare +to this city where they could at least get their ideas up, obtain a +vision and gain a conception of what a building might become. + + +_Ancientness is Falling Off_ + +I have attributed a remarkable escape, speaking broadly, from such +deformities, such travesties on the grace of architecture, the least +developed of the arts, that with pain we are forced to contemplate, to +the fact that this city is conspicuously a place of the people and they +will not stand for cranky, crazy fads and obsessions. At any hour for +forty years, a stranger to fear, with absolute confidence I could point +to buildings that it would be well enough to call perfect of their +kind. Once it would have been tolerable at a great Public Fair to +exhibit inventions, wares, and products under a rough shed; but public +taste has so advanced that at a World's Fair nothing less than a palace +meets the general expectation. On revisiting the earth, one awakens to +the fact that business organizations have set out to have buildings that +are not only commodious and suitable but they must be attractive and +interesting. + +The same fact is apparent in the evolution of railway architecture when +buildings must be pleasing as well as useful. + + +"_Stray Historical Facts Corralled_" + +This city did not happen. She adopted the policy of faith, and made +others believe in her because she believed in herself. She has attended +strictly to business, and has come to hold twice as many people as the +fourth largest state in the Union. In point of population, she is as +much entitled to an exclusive Congressman and to two United States +Senators as a state that is larger than New York, Pennsylvania, +Delaware, and Maryland combined. Or to use a better measure, she exceeds +in population one of the states that would overlay all New England. For +my work, no better place could have been found beneath the all-beholding +sun than this fair, expansive city, on its crescent bay, with its shore +drive where the Indians once held their running matches, which has now +become one of the boulevards of the world. Like the apple trees in an +old New England orchard, the men were marked by individuality. They were +fruitful, needed, prized, each had a place, but they were so different +in the way they stood up. There were active men, gifted in speech, who +had the training that came out of the old Lyceum and the Silsbee Street +Debating Society. Oxford Street Chapel, the home of a sort of +free-for-all religion, became a general receiver for all these +organizations and for reformatory work generally and eloquence was +dog-cheap. I have no doubt that many of these men are dead, but they are +alive to me. I see them as of old. To me they live in the same houses +and have the same peculiarities, and carry, on them, the same years that +they then wore. + + +_The By-products of Development_ + +As I had been mixed up for some time with a professional set, I used to +sit in mute surprise to see such men, knowing the value of things, with +practised minds, devoting themselves to business life rather than the +old time professions, to the arts rather than to the sciences. Some of +these men had mental endowment enough to be physicians or Judges in +Court, but they devoted their fine minds to manufacturing. Some of them, +undoubtedly of great ability, did not deem themselves too good for +business or for the world. Men speak of conducting a business, but you +can not conduct a thing that is not moving, any more than a pilot can +steer a boat that is lying still, although I suppose it is possible to +conduct a vehicle when it is headed for the cemetery. They were just +suited to the times, and to the place, and to the task, and each one +seemed to contribute an individual part in making the city the world's +great shoe centre. Some men were strong at home, others were good +advertisers and solicitors and did work in the field from which all the +manufacturers benefited, whose manner of life need not be changed if the +Millennium had already come. For straight-forward, right-minded, +high-principled men, who keep their word, and keep the faith, I am bold +enough to invite the test, laid down in the inspired volume, which the +great patriarch met with such intense concern. First came the overture +that disaster should be averted from an imperiled city if fifty +creditable men should be found in it. He felt some misgiving about +finding fifty and entreated that the number be reduced to forty-five and +then that he be answerable for finding only forty, then thirty, then +twenty, then ten. I believe that if any one there were answering for +that place during the Golden Age, he could not only begin with the +smallest required number, ten, but that he could go up through the +schedule and find twenty, thirty, forty, forty-five, and fifty. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Revisiting the Earth, by James Langdon Hill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVISITING THE EARTH *** + +***** This file should be named 36697.txt or 36697.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/6/9/36697/ + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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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