News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-01
POET WHITTIER AT HOME.
Details of a Pilgrimage to the Popular
New England Author.

Details of a Pilgrimage to the Popular
| New England Author.
Making Whittier pilgrimage is no
short task. 1t takes at least three days
to even begin to cover the ground,
while the pilgrim can protitably spend
as much more time as he can steal
from the cares and tribulations OF this
pushing age. The poet was born at
Haverhill-that takes a day; he lives
half the year at his own house in Ames-
bury-that is another day, and the
rest of the time he is with a cousin at
! Oak Knoll, in Danvers-that is q third
day Then there are Salem and Mar
blehead and Beverly and Newburyport
all the east shore, in fact, not to
speak of Boston, which are all full OF
interest to the Whittier pilgrim.
The house at Amesbury is modest
frame, two stories high, and standing
in street lined with maple trees. 1t
was the poets niece who received me,
and she told me had to wait because
she had been peeling apples for pie
And then came Whittier, an old man,
but erect and strong, his deep set
brown eyes sparkling with an undilnin-
ished brightness. The fires of youth
still burn in them, though the great
shaggy eyebrows are frosted with age.
The poet has a cordial, simple manner,
and the visitor is at once put at his
ease. There is nothing stiff or formal
about him He talks like man of the
people. He likes to use idioms.
l remember when my friend asked
to be permitted to take kodak pic
ture in the house. he replied, "All
right, shoot her off" One of the
pleasantest memories that l cherish is
of the half morning spent in his Ii
brary, but before | had seen his liter
airy workshop he led the way up the
narrow back stairs and showed me a
framed parchment hanging on the hall
wall. 1t was the declaration of the
antislavery convention of 1888, the
first held in America. Signed to it he
showed me the names of Garrison and
himself
| spoke of the difficulty of being
poet and good newspaper MAN at the
same time, and he referred to his first
journalistic work on the Hartford Re-
view, where he succeeded the famous
George D. Prentice as editor.
II was principally engaged at the
time" he said, ''in keeping people from
learning how little l knew"
Like the rest of the house, the library
is plain and unpretentious. 1t is
warmed by CRATE stove of some clever
Yankee pattern. The poets desk is no
mahogany affair, nor are his books
gorgeous with gilt and gold. Most
business men would be ashamed to
have such an ink despatched desk,
while the volumes on the shelves had
for all the world the appearance of
Sunday school library. There were
a picture of the old house at Haverhill,
a portrait of Emerson and a number of
photographs upon the walls.
Somehow the everydayness of the
workshop contrasted oddly with beauty
and the charm of what had been for
gotten there. Yet all was in keeping
with the poets life. By the side of the
desk hung a thermometer with pictures
of the tropics, the temperate zone and
the snowy arctic regions up and down
the tube.
Whittier was kind enough to write a
verse for me-the last stanza of MAUD
Muller. Cor. Cincinnati Commercial
Gazatta