Morning journal and courier., 1891-11-25
HAwTHORNE,s GLOOMY YOUTH,
Interesting "Reminiscences of Salem
 Friends.
From the Boston Transcript j

From the Boston Transcriptl
 A NIT. Pike, of Salem, who had been a school-fellow of Hawthorne, was his life long intimate friend, and one of the very few he ever visited socially, or to whom he communicated his hopes or fears. Pike described him naturally gloomy, living daily in the dread of some impending ca lsmity that would ruin him. Even when very young he entertained the idea that he would end his days in the poor-house. He greatly underrated his own talents, and when Franklin Pierce, over a glass of gin, a liquor they both loved, used to try to cheer him up, and tell him that he had in himself the making of a great man, he would smile sadly and reply, ''Yes. in the other world, but not in this. Here every thing is against me; I shall die 6 psuper" When removed from the Salem custom house he was the most wretched man alive and even contemplated suicide. His friend James Oakes, a Boston salt-mer- chant, offered to assist him with money, but he declined on the ground that he saw no prospect of repaying him. and he could not think of receiving aims. Although every one who knew him was his friend Che had no enemies), be felt that the whole human race was combined against him. It was this feeling which led him to write so unkindly of some of his associates in the custom-hou Every one of those whom he wrote unkindly of in The Scar let Letter would have gone out of his way to serve him, and Pike told him so. He said he was sorry, but a power greater than himself had influenced him, and he consoled himself with the reflection that in very few years nt furthest the book aud himself would be forgotten. He told Pike that in one of his dark moods his mother appeared to him, stroked his hair and told him 'not to despair for he would live to have more money than he would know what to do with" He distrusted the vision, thought it hallucination, the re- suit of his own morbid feelings, but the visit was so frequently repeated that at last he became firm believer in spiritual ism long before the advent of modern spiritualism.
 Hawthorne occasionally visited Boston, and was taken by his friend Mir. Oakes to Ma'am Dunlap's house in ''Theater Alley" 8 favorite recort of literary men, but Haw- thorne would never consent to be more than one of a party of three. The third man was usually Counsellor Gill, the fa- nous reporter of the Boston Post, then edited by Charles c. Greene, one of the most agreeable men alive, and, like Mir Oakes, man of the world. Hawthorne met him occasionally at Ma'am Dunlap's and in the Stackpole House, kept by Jim Ryan, but had very little to say to him. He wrote a little for the Post, but never received anything for what he wrote. MT. | Oakes was most anxious to ''bring him out" but he refused to be known outside of a very limited circle. He was intimate with Counsellor Gill, and would sip gin by | fha md Mr nat .rl al- his full share of the conversation, which was anything but literary.
 | When Hawthorne belonged to the Bos- ton custom-house he formed no intimacy with any of his brother officers, but kept himself apart from them when off duty waiting orders. Mir. Durivage, who was in the custom house at the time, described him as "a shy bird" that never turned up regularly except on payday. Frequently he would sit a whole day in the office of MT. Oskes' salt-store on Long Wharf and look at the sailors and tesmsters as they were at work. If any person entered the | office on business he would shrink into & 'corner out of sight and hearing. When he called upon Mir. Oakes, and he was ab- sent, Mrs. 0akes could never prevail on him to enter and wait. The servants used to call him ''the quiet gentleman" when they announced his arrival When Frank Pierce was nominated for president by the democrats, the spirit of one of his ances- tors visited him and told him that ''the long lane" had st last turned, and that the last of his like would be plain sailing" | And so it turned out, and he often referred to it in his social chats with OAkes and Pike.
 MT. Increase Hill, of Salem, we'll known in Boston as United States marine inspec- tor. had speaking acquaintance with Hawthorne, and described him as very handsome when young, and apparently fond of children, for he had often seen him watching them at play with his hat of. One day & gentleman who had re- l ceived a letter of introduction to him from Frank Pierce, and could not find him, though he knew he must be in Con- cord, met Mir Charles c. Hazewell, whom he knew, and asked him if he had seen Hawthorne, to which Mir. Hazewell replied that he had not, but advised him to look in the nearest graveyard, for he belonged more to the dead than to the living. To 1 his surprise he found him there seated on tombstone under the shade of a tree reading "Hervey's Meditations Among the Tombs."
 Hawthorne told his friend Mr. Oakes that in his last interview with Mr. Piercs, before he left for Liverpool to assume the duties of his consulate, Pierce said to him at parting, Don't be sheep any longer; l stand up in your boots and be a man; John Bull is good fellow, and will think more of you if you face him man-fashion." | Hawthorne said that he could not keep back the tears that dimmed his eyes ss he shook hands with his friend; he had taken from his back the burden of his life, the dread of poverty, and had made him | free man. When his term of office ex- | pired, and he returned from Europe, he | recalled to Pike his mothers prediction, that Che would live to have more money than he would known what to do with" which was literally fulfilled. He was rich far beyond his wants and enjoyed all that he possessed.
 Pike saw him occasionally after his re- turn from Europe, and found him more reconciled to life. But from the first he regarded life as @ burden to be borne; he saw so much evil in the world-not all the consequences of sin, as theologians assert ed. and which no human wisdom could overcome-that he often doubted whether the world was governed by benevolent . | TIe< <.1f 4l..ks L1