Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-31
WHERE HAWTHORNE LIVED.
Salem With Its Moss Covered
Relies of Early Days.
The House of Roger Williams. in
Which Women We're Tried for
Witchcraft.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Birthplace
The House of the Seven Cables"

BOsToN-Wasn' it Theodore Parker.
who when he was asked if he expected to
be born again, replied that he did not
need to be, as he was born in Boston?
This appreciative consciousness still exists.
not only In the intellectual and transcen-
dental exclusiveness of the inner circles.
but among the plain everyday people
whose cult is simplicity, and whose creed
has been voiced by apoet of the people:
"God bless me, and my wife,
My son John and his wife,
Nomore''
But the -four" includes generations,
and Boston chald who prays goes back at
least two centuries to remember the great
great grandmother of the ancestral spin
ming wheel, as a part of its petition This
reverence family traditions was illustrated
at Salem few days ago when [ was in
troduced to Rebecca Nourse who
TnOge fgar witch had been aa
rather remarkable that her namesake and
ineal descendant should herself show with
family pride the pins which had pierced
the tender flesh of that other Rebecca by
order of the authorities. These pins are
the ordinary brass headed pound pins
of the time and are now black with age.
They are shown at the Salem Court House
with a volume of great size, which contains
the ancient documents, the death warrants
of Rebecca NOurse and others who were
hanged by the legal luminaries of those
days, the testimony and correspondence.
Our ancestors did not know how to ''spel''
any better than did Josh Billings. In their
testimony they speak of ''aparrishuns"
and of a child who was afflicted" with
fits; said child caused the death of an
innocent woman by these same fits. > be-
ing ''generouslie afflicted. The doctor
could not help the child who died in con-
vulsions after five hour of great suffering.
from being bewitched by an evil eye.
The spirit of witchcraft still seems to
brood over Salem. 1t is mildewy with
age and its roofs are green with moss and
hchens grow on its walls. 1t is said that
the oldest church in Massachusetts, can be
seen here. 1t is old enough, certainly, for
its great beams are cru1nbling to powder.
1t is a small building set back between the
Essex Institute and another building We
obtained the key-it was an immense bit
of wrought iron with log of wood attach
ed to it by a chain-and went in. 1t
was like entering a vault. The first
Puritan church ir1 America was certainly
very small, modest building. One ancient
room with widowed wall and an ancient
movable pew was where the lasses of 1884
knelt in worship. The back seat was four
feet high, and as stiffiy upright as the
backs OF our dear, bigoted ancestors. 1t
was afterward used as ''skoole house.
The object In it of most interest to me was
an old wooden desk, which Nathaniel
Hawthorne used in the Salem custom
house. 1t had his name cut in the wood
by his own hand and it was covered with
rude arabesques of unwritten thought,
caprices of imagery. when the cunning
hand revolted against figures and invoices,
and cut deep into the sensitive wood, MAX
ing idle marks that the future pilgrim
should read and interpret
From this point we went up to the
witch house, the house of Roger Will
Jams, with its great white chimney and
dark trail room where those miserable
women sat and actually helped to read
their own doom by asserting to every
charge made against them. Must and
mildew covered everything and there was
a dampness as of death. Not even the hot
fire in the "a P. 0. T. H. E. K A. r. Y"
shop, In the corner of the old building.
could warm up its old bones
went to the ''House of the Seven
Gables, because it is really not the house,
but Hawthorne lived and wrote there |
sat on the old wooden settee and looked
out on the water with its feet of white
winged ships, and tried to feel the inspira-
ton that should have come to me, but a
great black dog with most uncanny ex-
preston few out from kennel that | had
overlooked, and | ANONYMOUSLY fed It
was lovely retreat, however, for that
brooding soul The family thriftily
charge twenty-five cents head for admis-
sion to the house This is announced on
a placard attached to tree at the gate
Salem is a Hawthorne town. The house
in which he was born is located there.
The custom house is only of interest from
its associations with him. They have a
bit of that scarlet embroidered letter which
he found there and on which and some old
documents be founded his weird and
pathetic tale of THE Scarlet Letter
We were not sorry to leave Salem. |
was rather glad to shake the dust of ages
from my feet and feel the centuries lifted
from my shoulders. / had a two-fold
reason for being glad. / was going into
the sunlight and JOY of communion with
nature among the autumn-clad New
England hills and to visit the dear
Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.
One last look at Salem harbor with its
lobster buoys dotting the water, and its
white pleasure craft seeking, like the late
butterflies, for day S outing, and we were
speeding away to Danvers.
Mrs NJ T, KAyNE