Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-12-15
THE lIGUMINATI.
Some PlcasaNt Gossip about Cone ord
Cclebritic., by VI. ID. Conway,

some plcaSaHt Gossip about Con ord
CcIebri'ic., by VI. ID. conway.
Somewhere bout the year 1916 George
w. Curtis found his way to Concord. He
was fresh from Cambridge, of high fam
lily and with fair fortune but thinking
he had not had sufficient contact with the
rough side of life, he, with his brother,
hired himself as farm laborer near Con-
cord. The whimsicalyo worked well
for fair wages and reserved enough leisure
to enjoy the society of the village notabil-
tiles. He gives some amusing pictures
of the Concord circle MS it was then.
Towards the end of the autumn" he
writes. Emerson suggested that they
should meet every Monday evenin through
the winter at his library, l went the first
Monday evening very much as Ixion may
have gone to his banquet. The philoso-
piers sat dignified and erect. There
was constrained but very amiable silence,
which had the impertinence of tacit
inquiry seeming to ask. who will now
proceed to say the finest thing that has
ever been said q 1t was quite involun
tnry and unavoidable, for the members
lacked that fluent social genius without
which a club is impossible. 1t was con-
gress of oracles on the one hand, and of
curious listeners on the other. vaguely
remember that the Orphic Alcott invaded
the desert of silence with a aolemn saying
to which after due pause. the honorable
member for blackberry pastures CTho-
rear, the naturalsD responded by some
keen and graphic observation, while the
Olympian host anxious thatss much
good material should be spun into some
thing, beamed smiling encouragement
upon all parties. But the conversation
became more and more staccato. Miles
Coverlale Nathaniel Hawthorne) statue
of Night and Silence, sat a little removed
under n portrait of Dante, gazing imper-
turbably upon the group. and as he was
in the shadow, his dark hair and eyes, and
suit disable made him in that society, the
black thread of mystery which he weaves
into his stories while the shifting pres
ence of the Brook Farmer (Mr. Pratt
played like heat lighting around the room.
| recall little else but grave eating of
russet applesl by the erectl philosophers
and solemn disappearance into night.
"rhe club struggled through three
Monday evenings Plato was perpetually
putting apples of gold in pictures of sill
ver for such was the rich ore of his
thought, and the deep melody of his
voice. Orson charmed us with the secrets
) won from his interviews with Pan in the
Walden Woods but still in vain; the ora
cular sayings were the unalloyed saccha-
; rine element, and every chemist knows
how much else goes to practical food, how
much coarse rough woody fibre is essen
tial. The club struggled valiantly, dis
coursing celestially, eating apples and dis
appearing into the dark, until the third
; evening it vanished altogether"
At the other end of the village from the
g, residence of Emerson stands the some
what historic house known as the Old
Masnc, about which We're gathered Haw-
thorne's ''NIosses from an Old Manse,"
: In this Old Manse came Nathaniel Haw-
thornc to dwell i'll those days when ms he
! afterwards wrote with certain grim sat
siaction, he " was the most unknown
Z author in America. As phantom he
! ! came and as phantom he dwelt there ;
= and, after several years, was still to the
, villagers a dark, sombre stranger. He
+. was silent looker.on, and noted down
I with the interest of an artist the move
:. ments which We're going on around him
, and entering with an artist interest, even
! the community of Brook Farm-out ofex-
: poriencc. grew hls "Blithedalc Romance.
i u IN which all the enthusiasts of that ex-
"A pertinent appear 1t was much the same
= with the life Of Hawthorne, in whose works
real events and characters are worked NJ
l' more than in those of any author witt
:, whom | am acquainted. Many will re-
v member the thrilling termination to the
1t story of Zenobia Margaret Fuller in the
= ''Blithedale Romance" The terrible de
q tails of the dragging for the corpse of the
N suicide We're made with n singular fidelity
from an actual event which cast deel
" shadow over the village. About Il mile
e from the residence OF Mr.. Hawthorne
:! lived n farmer of humble fortunes, whc
:, had much struggle to obtain competence
!. !. for his large family, Among these was
>. daughter OF precarious talent, who ha'
I! interested Emerson and others by her stu
dies and earnestucss. But as she got old
,, ;, er, the hard duties of life and povert.
"a q, wore upon her delicate organization, an'
~ she was not yet twenty years Of age when
rs she disappeared. Through the night sh
IT, was sought in every direction. At lengtl
onepflthe neighbors found some article o
her clothing upon the riverside and, a
Mr.. Hawthornc's was the nearest house
he went there To get II boat and some as
", sistance. 1t was after midnight, and Haw
= thorne went in hls boat with the other
~ together they sat in the moonlight, n mil
y. " from the city, and silently dragged 70
~ the corpse. At last it was drawn up
nf Silently Hawthorne went home to spen
y VI the rest of the night in writing tina
~ chapter, which for tragic power Is pei
~ haps unsurpassed III the literature of tn
i horrible.
IN Unhappily Hawthorne had been co
i'll lcge classmate of Franklin Pierce au
d. when the latter was nominated by tn
Democrats for the presidency, the move
ed ist wrote biography of Pierce. FC
DIS this, his most remarkable work of iictioi
~ he was. ON the election of Mr.. Pierce
he made consul at Liverpool. Upon entel
nd ing room where company had assen
ph bled, Hawthorne was very sure to max
ia for the darkest corner, and it would hay
m. taken more than n forty-dowager powt
ly. to draw him ont of it, AT an evenn
IT. company in Boston, at which ! was pre-
is ent aud where he was the chief guest, i
las was found to have disappeared at abol
On nine, aud being sought for by the hos
ng was discovered III II remote room OF til
ote house reading Defoe's "Ghost Stories
rk- One day tall, slender, blonde ai
ION white haired man was found busly el
ull gagged upon Mr.. Emerson's grounds, CO.
nv triving and building with n pile OF stick
crs which he mad henpcd together. fanta
to NC something Wnlcl might We caiieu u
in, Dor, or bower, OF summer mousse IL
the architect was A. Bronson Alcott, and tll
ur- the first and last house evolved from Il
nu- inner consciousness. Alcott is an ins
ell. tuition Of Concord and Transcendentalisi
lte- and no account of them would be col
NIL. plcte which did not include some sket
,er- of him. Since Wordsworth has celebi
eat ted the pedler in an epic, it may not
the thought disparaging to say that tins 81