The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-12-18
THE lola REGISTER.
OYER LAND AND SEA.
LIVERPOOL. Arc. 81

IlN EhHOOlS, <AIG. OIL, u.
This day has been marked by the
worst luck and the best luck, the
most aggravating and at the same
time the most ludicrous mishaps, OF
any day on the calendar thus far. The
train which my friend, the Man from
Massachusetts, was obliged to take
I'm order to reach Liverpool in time,
left LearningtOn at l2:45, and we real
lied that there must be a little hurry
ing if we were to see Stratford nine
miles away and Warwick castle two
miles away during the forenoon. SO
we took an early train for StratfOrd-
On-AvOn. Arriving there we learned
that the train on which we must re-
turn to Warwick was due in an hour
and a quarter. 1t was scant time,
but enough, we thought, to see the
house where Shakespeare was born,
and the. church where he lies buried;
and there was nothing else in the
commonplace little town that we
cared to see. Hurrying down the
long street, past the beautiful fOun-
tain presented to the town by George
w. Childs, of Philadelphia, we soon
reached the house in Henley street
which has been the shrine of such
countless pilgrimages. 1t is rude
matched cottage, built of brick and
timber, low and mean looking. 1t
stands flush with the sidewalk in the
middle of "a block of similar houses,
and has three sharp gables with win
dOws filled with tiny panes of glass.
The door, which was black with
age and cut horizontally through the
middle so that either half might he
opened independently, was locked but
pull upon an iron bell cord which
hung near it brought a man who open
ed it and admitted us-On payment of
shilling apiece. The room we first
entered was small, possibly II feet
square, with big fire place, stone
floor much broken and very uneven,
and with black walls of timber and
plaster. This had been the living
room. Going upstairs we entered the
front room. 1t is smaller than the
one below and meaner and more
squalid. But Shakespeare was born
here. And so every year through all
the years the wise and great, no less
than the obscure and the lowly, come
here from all the earth, and enter the
poor room with reverent feet and uu-
covered head and speak in hushed
voices, as men enter and speak in holy
places. 1t is impossible, even if one
were so dead to all sentiment as to
wish to do so, to resist the spell of the
associations that gather about this
dark and empty room. My summers
pilgrimage has taken me to many
famous places and to many distant
shrines. But in none of them did /
experience the depth of emotion, the
fullness of feeling, that came over me
as / stood in this chamber, the shrine
of my highest intellectual worship.
No other thing can make place so
endlessly interesting asits association
with an immortal name. And for
this reason there is surely no other
spot on earth,-always excepting the
lonely village that stands "amOng
the haunted hollOws of the Syrian
hillsn-sO interesting as this rude
apartment which was the first shelter
of that Incompatible genius that flood
ed the world with an intellectual
light that was to shine mot for day
but for all time" The walls and the
ceiling of the room are black with the
penciled autographs and inscriptions
of visitors. Even the window panes
have not escaped, bat are covered
with names scratched upon the glass
with diamonds. And the old saw
about "Fools names, etc" does not ap-
ply here, for names that are hOnOred
wherever the English tongue is
known, may be found.
There is only one other room up
stairs, and in that is kept the famous
Stratford portrait of Shakespeare. 1t
fs very fine oil painting, represent
ing the poet in the dress worn in his
time by the Queens players. 1t is
from this portrait that most of the en-
cravings are taken, hence it seemed
quite familiar.
Returning down stairs we passed
through the living room into two
small rooms facing the street, former
ly occupied by Shakespeare's father
I'm his business as a wood dealer, but
now used as a museum and fitted up
with most interesting collection of
relics. There are the first, second and
third editions of Shakespeare's plays
which would bring several times
their weight in gold if put up at auc-
On,-Shakespeare's signet ring, a
sword said to have been his, deed to
his father of this house, his school
desk-at which he sat while learning
the "small Latino and less Greeke"
that made up his education, and
which is a sadly battered old affair
with the lid in the middle raised by
rude leather hinges, and the whole of
it hacked and cut in true schOol-bOy
style-and numerous articles of furn-
iture and antique bric-a-brac of var
iOus sorts dating from Shakespeare's