The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1867-04-05
Gossip about Bryant.

MIR. Bryant will be II years old on
the End of November next. He bears
his age well. Frost lies white upon his
ample beard, but the fire of youth is in
his eye, and his heart still beats strongly
and steadily, and with vital force that
shows no sign of serious physical de-
cay. His mind, working alertly and
clearly, is as quick in PERCEPTION and as
logical in deduction as it was twenty
years ago. His slight and agile fig
ure, passing rapidly among the crowds
of the street, is that of man of thirty
years rather than the frame which men
usually associate with septuagena-
rian's weight of years He uses no glas-
ses to aid his vision. The nearest ap-
proach he was ever known to make to a
confession of imperfect sight was in my
hearing about year ago. Going 10 a
window to read newspaper, he NUT
tered a good natured remonstrance
against the 4fineness of the print, observ-
ing that he ''didn't intend to wear spec
tacles so long as he could help it, but
wished the papers would not use such
small type"
In the matter of dress, Mr.. Bryant is
neither Count D'Orsay nor Horace
Greeley, He greatly prefers cleanli-
ness TO style; is always tidy, but bliss
fully unconscious of the requirements of
fashion, and, like Dominic Sampson,
would be quite likely to attribute to the
,preservative qualities Of the atmosphere
the exceeding glossiness of any new
garment surrcptitiously introduced into
his apartment over night. Yet he is
orderly and precise in his Intellectual
life-almost to the extreme of fastidous-
ness and hypercritism-as if natures
principle of compensation were illustra-
ted in his case. He has a hearty con-
tempt for shams, snobs and Stiffness;
admires pluck, perseverance and indus
try adores nature, and works hard for
the love Of work, and readily recogni-
zes worker when he sees him, finds
his recreation in recondite studies, in
green fields, babbling brooks, aud the
study of natural forms-in digging
among the roots of language, in plant
ing trees, making newspapers, and OBJ
serving mankind-in the prattle ofchil-
dren and the wisdom of the schools
in short, in everything that the world
does and the men think,
He has pleasant ways. At odd mo-
ments he invites his friends to little
trials of gymnastic exercises. "Can
you do that 2" he said once to much
younger man, suiting the action to the
word, by lifting himself to the top of
the door by his hands, and swinging up
and down and sideways, varying the
sport by grasping the door casing and
repeating the feat in a more difficult po-
sition. The junior tried it, but failed; !;
he had not leaped so many high rail
fences in the country as Mr.. Bryant had
leaped and the brown beard could not
wag inthe air as the white one wagged.
Rarely, if a fence or gate is in the way
at Roslyn, does its owner stop to dodge
it or open it. He leaps it, If a horse
is not haruessed he,walks. If a storm
howls and valued friend is lonely in a
distant house, he trudges off, with an
umbrella in one hand and a boquet of
flowers in the other; Offering the latter
and his company, where he KIN ows that
both will be welcome -Eadminer and
CAfoacite. eo1