The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-23
THOREAU'S "DEHGHTFUL BIT"

TH0REAU'S "DEMGHTFUL BIT"
| To the Editor of the INDIANAPOLIS journal:
| Thanks for the delightful Bit from - pen
! Of Thoreau in Sundays journal, even vas
born into the world of print through the m, ,rly
aid of the Concord school, 1t stands the one gem
on the editorial page in spite of the attempt to
clothe it with ridicule and contumely and lug it
| into the fool editors column. The extract is
| certainly one of the truest and most sympathetic
| pictures of the spring rain in English
| prose. Of course it does not appeal to
| one who has grown within walls whose
| staff is a rye straw cane, shoes patent
| leather. hat Of silk and dry weather
| suitings. But it is the most vital and pungent
item on the page it adorns, and to-day it goes
into hundred scrap books in Indiana, and if
| Myron Reed were in the city he would probably
work the best part of it into his morning sermon.
| Lten to it. "a rain serene as fair weather
| You could hug the clouds that defle you: you
feel the facilitating influence of the in your
| mind You discover evidence of Immortality
| not known to divines. You cease to die. You
derive some buds and sprouts of life. You sit
still in the rain, you glide along the distant wood
| side full of JOY and expectation, seeing nothing
but beauty hearing nothing but music, as free as
| the fox-colored sparrow" Thoreau speaks Of the
| foxsparrow- strong, shapely and vivacious yet
| gentle and slver-tongued, clad tastefully in the
richest of warm brown-because it is the earliest
Of sparrows to migrate in New England and
comes III early spring when the foot sinks deep
into the thawing earth, gladly breaking through
| the gray, rotting ice"
| Nor was Thoreau one of the t'high priests of
characterization. He was in no sense an
| opposite of the Newness," was not blown
hither and thither, nor drifted into homogeneous
| actions and relationships. He established no
Brook farm, Frutlands or other kind of earthly
| paradise where everything to be common
except common sense Thoreau was not under
the influence of German mysticism" "Platonic
| philosophy" or English idealism" He was not
| saturated" by anybody writing, system or
| school, and if he had lived long enough to take
a hand in the discussions of the thingness of the
here with the rest Of the cold masters" he
would have turned his back on the
school 'and gone a huckleberrying.
He was not even under the influence of Mr.
Emerson, although l know it is a waste of time
to quote E. here, for your Photographer would
only say, "he's another" Thoreau was a
Frencnman, maker of the first paste lead pencil
a graduate of Harvard. a good land surveyor,
and made his living by days work. He was not
the Hermit of Walden Pond, or of any other
place He lived life of converse with books,
with nature and choice friends for two years, on
rented farm, in decent house, he made him
self, and his total expenses for year, Including
cost of house, rent of farm of eleven acres, food
| clothing and oil Sol. 99a.
II left the woods" he said "for as good a
| reason as | went there. L had several lives to
live, and could spare no more time for this one ="
| He was true protestant, sympathetic with
nature and man, self-contained, and under his
| outer garment of stoicism was a true and tender
| heart Stoics and hermits do not expose their
lives in the interests of the downtrodden and
| oppressed. When" said Thoreau, Il helped
runaway slave toward the north
| star it stirred finer thrill
in me than the reading of Homer Tho
reau went to Walden a youth goes to college,
or as Darwin travelled in the wilds Of the world.
| He left society for time that he might find his
| right relation to it, and make his return possible
| and profitable to his fellow-men.
| His was the first voice in Massachusetts. after
Browns arrest at Harpers Ferry, in vindication
of his action, and in his plea for Captain John
| Brown" read to the citizens of Concord, Sun
letter read at North Elba, at Browns grave, July
| 4, 1860, The Last Days of John Brown"-are to
| be found the finest tribute TO Browns character
| and purpose of all his eulogists. And, earlier,
| in 1871. when Anthony Burns, a runaway slave,
| was returned FROM Massachusetts to South
| Corolina, Thoreau then twenty four years DID,
was not so much of stole but that he made
| speech denOuncing his native State and the fugi-
| tive slave law. 'All property" he said. lis now
insecure Seed corn is worth less this year; all
benefcent harvests fail as you approach the EN-
| pire of hell 1t is not of repose. If we
would save our lives we must fight for them
| These essays, with half dozen other of his
anti-slavery and reform papers, including the
essay Life Without Principle" are hidden
| in his yankee in Canada" which Rev Myron
| keed-another of the spring rain and mud lovers
and MISUNDERSTANDING took care to
characterize the best of all Thoreau's volumes.
| Mr.. Reed found it one morning in a northern
| Wisconsin country town book store. He sat
! down and read it through without food or weari-
ness uptil twilight admonished him to purchase
| it and 90 home with ''ennobled view and en-
| larged horizon"
But it is useless to continue; only it is still a
| pleasure to contend once in while that the old
/ AbolitionstS were not crankS. nor yet those
| ture lovers who, like Madame Sand and Thoreau
| saw in the country, in primitive life and people,
! in foggy and cold March days things
above the artists touch the para
crapher's appreciation, but still treasures
| of immense and hitherto unknown
application. las a'vast power of healing and de-
| light FOR all" think John Burroughs, who, as
we'll as he can. mas hitched his wagon to
Thoreau's star, is probably more read than