The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-09-24

way, the harvesters gathering their
crops were just as his eyes had seen
them, until roofs of the gay watering
places showed above the 5and-dUnes
and YerduTe OF merry Southport
, Here the wrath ! had followed from
Ormskirk seemed obscured for little
in the mojurn brightness Of tho pref y
and yOpu.Ous resort once E.'Nl.
during the year, when lettering al
Southport, the former presence of the
man had seemed to Involuntary
crowd into every picture of the place
which came through eyes and heart
to the pencil for shaping. Under its
friendly influence at that time
wrote: Perhaps it is largely q
fancitul association of person
and place, but somehow with
Hawthorne in ones mind, the lovely
leafy city as it is today, takes on the
garb of our own delicious Salem. The
trim, pretty yards recall it. The long
elm shaded avenues, with CLINT and
simmer of the sea through their mar
rowing vistas, bring it lovingly to the
memory. The wide, clean, sunshine
dappled yards, backed by prim, pre-
else houses, hint of it. Hundreds OF
Clipped" roofs, quaint gables and
ivy haunted dOrmers reproduce its
sweet old hooks.
But by dint of patient hunting
among the old, old folk, kindly recep-
tions which came to naught, suspi-
cious rebuffs comprising strong init
nations of the powers of the cOnstab-
ulary, and coaXings together of vag-
rant waite of others memory. this
one, that one and another one, had
many pleasant little things to say
worth treasuring:-Of Brunswick
Terrace, where the Hawthornes lived,
from September 1856 to April 1857,
still standing near the glorious South
port foreshore, prim, pretentiOus and
faded, and still the resort of respect
able dodgers" desperate enough to
love any place away from LIVERPOOL;
of the perky but faithful maid, Fanny,
always a sort of back door out of
every domestic difficulty to the Haw-
thornes in England; of the pale but
CHEEKY wife and mother who seemed
to difluse tender sunshine wherever
she went; of the three lovely children,
Una, the boy Julian NOW the novel
list and lacking but seven years
of his fathers then age) and
baby Rosa, upon whom all
smiled greeting as they passed; and
finally, Of the plain, dark, quiet man
who came from the Liverpool station
so promptly each afternoon and
walked straight to Brunswick Ter
race, speaking to no one, turning not |
to the right or the left, looking almost |
sad in his absorption; but who sud-
denly reappeared with his joyous
tiny brood-the most boyish man that |
ever strolled long miles with children
on this endless, level, golden beach, or
played hide-and-seek with them
among the outlying dreary dunes of
sand.
No one here had ever known
him personally. The near
est, was one venerable pen
3ioner, an old time myrmidon of the
aw, who had aided in bringing to
Justice two STRIPPING burglars that
mad ransacked the Hawthorne apart
ments, and being disturbed had got
ten away with few articles of no
great value, including Hawthorne's |
boots and top coat; said pensioner re-
garding the novelist as "proper soft"
for his evident secret desire that the
should escape punish
ment. But all of these kindly old
voices had a broken bar or two to sing
for the man whose mere retired few !
presence had left more re-
sponsive chords than could all of some |
great and vigorous mems lives. |
This and much else made me inn
patient to arrive at the American con- |
sulate, at 26 Chapel street, Liverpool.
Here, surmised, would be found a
store of Renaissance. From |
this one could reach out in all direc- !
tions and gather feast and enjoy.
1t is very fine and stately place,
our Liverpool consulate, as BELTS
the agency of our government in one
of the greatest of foreign ports. 1t
has in profusion plate glass, ground
glass and stained glass, nickel bur-
nishing, brass knobs, soft toned
silver cali bells, fine old
furniture, wise faces, frilled
shirts, gray hairs, aid an unc-
tlOus cathedral air of cautious and
trained repose, about it. One instinc-
lively removes his hat and clears his
throat well before attempting penetra-
tive efforts; and speaks in low tone
Of voice and steps softly, on being
ushered into the wide, high, pleasant
apartments of our consul. He is glad,
too, he has done all this, when he has
met that official; for no Difference is
too great when a real gentleman is at
the objective end of it.
The transcendent luster of Haw-
thorne's personal Identification with
the Liverpool consulate, must be
sought either in books, or outside
Liverpool in the hearts of men.
Consul Sherman is sure he adj
mires the genius of Hawthorne
as much as anybody. Sometimes
when he is not too busy he is
going to look up something about the
man. After ones first shock, this in
terest and enthusiasm are gratifying
Moncure ID. Conway, when preparing
his pleasant and wonderful analytic
book, "Hawthorne," just published in
the English "Great Writers'n series,
had written to the consulate for Haw-
thorne "reminiscences, which Conway,
like myself, had innocently believed