The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-27
THE POET WHITTIER.
An Englishman's Visit to His Old Fashioned
New England Home.

An Englisllman's Visit to His Old Fashioned
New England Home.
London Pail Mall Gazette.
Amesbury is little town on the northern
edge of the State of Massachusetts, distant two
hours by rail from Boston. On winters day
the journeyis a dreary one, through Salem,
whose Custom-house once distanced Boston in
its record Of trade to and from all parts of the
world, but is now almost deserted and remem-
bered oftenest only because Nathaniel Haw-
thorne was it's collector; past tracts of so-called
farming land, which recall Emersons saying that
the inhabitants had to plant their seeds in the
crevices of the rocks while holding on the bushes
for fear they should be translated, so righteous
were they; whore every frost brings up new
crop of stones to the surface, and where the
diminutive haystacks, prepped up scaffolding
to keep them from tho frozen floods of winter,
are passed at about the rate of one to the square
mile 1t is a journey which throws much light
on the painful genesis of the New England
character. and as such it is an excellent prepare.
ton for visit to Mr.. Whittier, who is. both as
man and poet, the most typical New Highlander
of America. The streets of Amesbury differ
only in name, and as one of them is called
Friends street, it is naturally there that the
visitor looks for the home of the Quaker poet.
Forty four years ago, when Mr. Whittier came
to Amesbury, because his mother wished to
be near the Friends Meeting house there, which
Is the Oldest IN America. the place was little
village difficult of access, and his home, which
is now one In row. stood by itself In the
country. LII Is an oDlong mouse, with 8 WINDOW
on each side of small doorway, built Of wood.
like all the other houses in the town, and like
them painted white. except the wooden blinds to
each window, which are bright green 1t is en-
trely destitute of decoration, and this is the
only respect in which it differs materially from
its more modern neighbours
Unlike the homes of his compeers in American
literature. Longfellow, Emerson ana Lowell,
who lived among books and pictures and memoir
ials of fellow workers in many lands. there is
moth IN in tn ct1e,O faea
and the man of letters. The small parlor into
which the visitor is shown is furnished with the
dreary and prim commonplace of horse
hair upholstery and the old-fashioned
ventional ornaments under glass shades.
1t might be a dissenting minister's front-room
in some provincial English town, like Leicester
or Northampton, not yet reached by the icono-
clasn of modern @stheticism Whittiers kindly
greeting of How do thee do! / am glad to see
thee, dspelS al. surprise. by recalling the fact
that he is not only New Highlander, which
means simple living from necessity, but also
Quaker, which means simple living from choice
"a coincidence sufficient to explain even an
asceticism in which horsehair should play much
more obtrusive part He is man of slight build
| and medium height, with thin. gray hair, and
white beard around his shaven lips. but with
scarcely any other of the common signs of great
age. Although he is on the eve Of his seventy
eighth birthday his step is almost quick and his
grasp as firm as they were half century ago,
and the soft. dark eyes for which his family has
been noted for generations are still undimmed,
and fash with the old fire when he tells of the
stirring times in which his chief work was done.
Mr. Whittiers study is small, square room at