Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-22
Henry b. ThOreau.


 A Graphic Story Of His Hermit Life-Told
 at the Concord School of Philosophy by
 One of His Familiar Friends.
 At the Concord School of Philosophy last
 week. after the paper upon The Philosophy
 of the State, read by Dr. Elisha Mulford and
 during the subsequent discussion, Mir. A.
 Bronson Alcott gave lively sketch of Henry
 D. Thoreau's hermit life. Thoreau had
 peculiar philosophy about the relation of men
 in society, and MT. Alcott was perfectly fa-
 miliar with it and with all of the events he
 spoke of It was the morality of using
 things which immoral men have share in
 making which was MT. Alcott's theme, and
 he mentioned even the impossibility of get
 ting ''moral' potato, because some injus-
 tice or wrong to somebody is certain to be
 involved in some process of raising 1t. This
 opened the way to Thoreau's potato expert
 ment and his whole hermit life.
 "There was once man in this very town"
 said Mir. Alcott to the Concord philosophers,
 s'and you all know him so well that may as
 well name him-Henry D. Thoreau-who
 believed that he ought not to eat potatoes
 which were raised by the oppression of the
 laborer He believed that he should supply
 all his own wants, get as nearly as possible
 to a state of nature, and not be dependent
 upon men for anything. So he set out to
 raise his own potatoes. But he had no land
 and no means of getting 1t. So he seemed likely to fail at the start. But very excel
 lent man, toward whom I am now pointing
 Stretching his hand toward the bust of
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, said to him: Hen ry'-we all call him Henry here-1 have some lands on the shore of blue-eyed Wal den. It is pretty sandy and is covered with brush and is not very good for potatoes
 But if you want to go there and try living alone you are welcome to the use Of the land. I will not charge you any rent So
 IT. l..o 111k hoa do h ing without an ax. 'Well,' said he, I must borrow an ax' So he borrowed the ax and this was the very house where he got it Tthe Orchard House, where Mir. AIcott lived thenl He went back into the
 woods and cut trees to make him-a shanty. shall I call it? no--a hermitage. But he could not get it up alone, so he had to ask some of us, his friends, to come over and help him. Of course he did not pay us
 That would have been contrary to his princi- ples, but he had to compromise there again with society, and we were glad to help him. Neither did he have anything strong to offer us We behaved like gentlemen, and the raising was conducted on temperance prlncl- pIes But he would take no further help from us after he got his frame up. Next he wanted some boards. It so happened that an Irishman near him had built new house and had no further use for his old one. So Henry went to him and made a bargain for some of the old boards. But he was able to get them without help, for the Irishman wanted some surveying done, and Henry was a good surveyor. So he did the surveying for the boards, for he believed that barter of that sort was right So he made his hut. He went to the shore of the lake and brought up stones for chimney, and he made the mortar and laid the stones with his own hands He dug potato hole in the floor of his hut and covered it with trap door, that L: iyI,t ha T,rOtoofnd and near him. Thus he was provided with food and shelter (Mr. Alcott forgot to state where Thoreau got his seed potatoes), but, said he, I must have clothes. I cannot make them myself It is against my principles to get them where any wrong is involved in making woman will get her to make them; but they shall all be homespun. Well," contin ued Mr. Alcott, laughing to himself as the picture of Thoreau in that homespun suit came up to his memory, ''she made the and they were aretty much like the nature of the man-pretty large all around"
 ssThoreau lived in that place for eighteen months, Ton another occasion-at the Con- cord school last year-Mr. Alcott told how Thoreau's philosophy was helped along by provisions from home, and how glad he was to taste his mothers pie He withdrew al most wholly from human companlonsh1p He said I was born among men, of course I could not help myself: had no choice about that I like my friends, but cannot. be part of society where so much wrong is done Here. is our government stealing Texas and trying to steal half of Mexico | Here is African slavery. l will not live Tn the society which tolerates such things will live with the animals and birds. They l shall be my companions. They are chaste and affeetionate and do no moral wrong But shall take my fowling piece and bring l down the bird which sits on the bough? No, | that is not bird which lies on the ground at l my feet. It is mere body. That is the bird which is all palpitating with life So Henry studied the birds as he saw them; he learned their habits and wrote their blograph- ies They came to know him, and would fly to him at his call The squirrels would come and sit on his hand, and he would study their dentistry while they were cracking nuts So he lived among his pets, and sometimes visitors went to see him.
 sAt last, however, one day there came man who said: Henry, want you should head Why should pay tax on my head ? said Henry. T have nothing to do with so- ciety. To be sure, was born in Concord, but I could not help that. stay here be- cause it is pleasant here, and like to be with my friends. But have nothing to do with you live in the town and you must pay your poll-tax' But I haven't any dollar and half,' said Henry T haven't any money, and I wouldn't pay you if had Very we'll, said the man, do you know what we shall do with you if you don't pay?' Why, there are some stone walls over there, and presume you will put me inside them That was exactly what they did. They shut him up in prison be- cause he would not pay his poll tax. Well. he said;,..i seems I cannot do as I wish, but society steps in. I was born here without any choice of my own, and now society shuts shuts me up because I refuse to do wrong, and here am among lot of men it has shut up because they have done wrong. This looks like good missionary ground, and will talk and work among these men!' So he became intimate with the prisoners, and talked among them great deal. One day very distinguished visitor CRalph Waldo Emerson) came to see hinf and asked, { enry, why are you here?' Waldo, why are you not here?' was the retort. After Thoreau had been in prison some weeks, the jailer came and said that he could go, that friend of his (Emerson) had paid his tax But did not ask him to pay my tax, said Thoreau T didn't give him any authority to do it. Besides, I don't want to go out. l am doing good work among these prisoners and would rather stay. You took away my liberty by. putting me in here against my will, and now you take away my liberty by send ing me out against my will. '"
 Mir. AIcott dropped the Thoreau biogra- phy at this point, returned to his leading thought of the uselessness of running away from society to escape the evil in the world, and asserted the supremacy of the State over all individual lives.