Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-09-14

loor with double. barrelled gun, more
impressed with sense of danger than at
any time in my experience he, on the
contrary, slept as quietly AS child.
He often practlced close economy in
order to give his sons a good education. .
The oneact of my lite which | remember
with unalloyed pride and pleasure occur .
red while | was at boarding school in
Vermont, preparing for college. learned
my mother that my father had
denied himself his daily newspaper; and
| knew well how much he would mss 1t. !
We burned wood in the large stone SEMI |
nary building Every autumn great banks
of hard maple were piled up, and students
who wished to earn n little money were
paid dollar q cord for saving 1t into
three lengths. | applied for nine cords,
and went at the undccustomed task alter
study hours. My back aches yet IA re-
call the experiences of subsequent weeks,
for the wood was heavy, thick, and hard
rs bone. eventually had the pleasure
of sending to my father subscription
price OF his paper for year. II boy
reads these lines, let me assure him that
he Will never know sweeter moment in
his life than when he receives the thanks
of his parents for some such effort in their
behalf. No investment can ever pay him
better"
In "Nature's Serial Story" Roe tells us,
his father and mother appear, slightly
idealiZ d
After graduating at Williams college
Roe entered the Auburn Theological
Seminary, and i'll the summer of 1862,
feeling he could no longer resist the call
for men in the army he obtained an APP
pointmenU as chaplain to the 2nd New
York cavalry. AT the close of the war he
took n small parish at Highland Falls on
the Hudson. OF the commencement OF
his literary life he gives the following &C
count:
Cup to the year 1871 had written little
for publication beyond occasional contri-
buttons to the Ne,D York EU1ngetiSt, nor
had | seriously contemplated literary
life. | had always been extremely fond
of fiction, and from boyhood had formed
a habit of beguiling the solitary hours in
weaving crude fancies around people who
for any reasons Interested me. i usually
had mental serial running, to which
returned when it was my mood; but l
had never written even short story. In
October, 1871, was asked to preach for
tar uptown congregation in New York,
with the possibility of a settlement in
view. On Monday following the services
of the Sabbath, the officers of the church
were kind enough to ask me to spend a
week vii them and visit among the peo-
pie. Meantime, the morning papers laid
before us the startling fact that the city
OF Chicago was burning and that its pop
ulation vas becoming homeless. The It'd
ings impressed me powerfully, waking
the deepest sympathy. l said to myself,
here is phase of life as remarkable as
any witnessed during the war; | obeyed
the impulse to be on the scene as soon as
possible, stated my purpose to my friends.
aud was soon among the smoking runs,
finding and abiding place with throngs Of
others in a partially finished hotel. For
days and nights | wandered where city
had been and among the eXtemporized
/ IF rat harhnrinO a rlaESp m
people. Late one night sat for long
time on the steps of Robert Collyer's
church and watched the full moon
through the roofess walls and shattered
steeple. There was not an evidence of
life where had been populous streets. |,
was there and then, as nearly as can re-
member, that TIE vague outlines of my
| first story Barriers Burned Away"
began to take form in nv mind. l soon
returned home and began to dream and
write. giving, during the following year,
such hours as could he Withdrawn from
many other duties to the construction OF
the story. | wrote when and where
could-on steam boats, in railway cars,
and At all odd hours Of leisure, often
with long breaks in the work of compost
| ton caused by the pressure of other af-
fairs, again getting up sort of white
| heat from necessarily dwelling upon
scenes and Incidents that had become reaI
to me. In brief. the story took possession
of my mind and grew As naturally as 6
plant or weed la my garden.
at will thus be obvious that at nearly
middle age, and in obedience to an i'm
pulse, l was launched as an author; tina,
! / had very slight literary training, and
that my appearance as novelist wa.
quite ~ great surprise to myself as tc
any of my friends. The writing Of ser
mons certainly does not prepare one fol-
the construction Of Il novel, and TO th
day certain critics contemptuously dismis
my books as 'preaching.' During nearl,
most young men are forming style ant
making the acquaintance of literature,
scarcely had chance to read at al. Th
subsequent years of the pastOrate wer
too active. except for an occasional di
into favorite author"
Here are some interesting lines abou
three Of his other novels.
"As rule, certainly stumble on m
stories, as we'll as tumble through them
, perhaps. Some incident or unexpecte
impulse is the beginning of their exist
|, encs. One October day / was walkn
, on country road and a chestnut burr la
in my path, and | said to myself, Their
, is book in that burr, If l could get
out With little volltion on my part, tn
story Opening Chestnut Burr too
! form and was written.
zone summer evening, when in til
} city, l went up to Thomas's Garden, nea
Central Park, to hear the delicious mus
he was educating US to appreciate. At
certain poiut in tina programme l notice
that the next piece would be Beethoven
: Fifth Symphony, and ! glanced aroun
with sort of congratulatory impulse, Il
much MS to say, Now we shall have
; treat Ny attention was instantly arres
, ed aud lXsd by young girl who with tn
) gentleman escorting her, was Sit ting nea
I by. Ny first impression Of her face va
. one OF marvellous beauty, followed by
l sense of dissatisfaction. Such was III
t distance tbSt | could not annoy her b
turtlve observation, and I soon discove
5 ed that she would regard n stare rs 4 tril
e ute Why WAS it that her face was s
Q beautiful, yet SO displessings Each fea
i ure Analysed seemed perfection, yet tf
a general effect was a hooking, ill-keI
= promise. The truth was soon apparen
n The expression was not evil, but fryolou
6 slily, unrcdeemed by any genuine woman
4 ly graca She gtggled and flrted throug
# the sublime symphony, till in exasperatio
i went out into the promenade under II
e open sky. In lees than an hoar had N
n story, "A Face Illumined.' imagined a
u artist seeing what bad seen and fee
/ ing stronger than vexation in the wouu'
j ing of his beautJ-lovpg nature; thu