The Newtown bee., 1891-03-06

households throughout the land. For ii
years, he journeyed through the North,
writing and speaking for the down trod-
den slave and calling upon the American
people to throw off from him the yoke OF
bondage. The Quakers, as sect, were
the first religious body in the world to
remove the pollution of slavery from
their midst. Seeing the wickedness of
slave holding. they not only emancipated
their slaves, but remunerated them for
their past services and, in 1854, had en-
tirely succeeded in Kidding their denomi-
nation of the wrong. But, being eau
tious, peace loving sect, they could not
see the good side of the Abolition. move
ment and, being satisfied with having
cleared their own skirts of the wrong,
they denied the use of their meeting
houses for anti-slavery purposes. AL
though this attitude of the Friends griev-
ed Whittier deeply, he did not,o that ac-
count, break with the denomination or
abandon the religion of his fathers. He
says:
81 protested against that decision, when it
was made, but was given to understand pretty
distinctly that there was no weight in my
words. Abolitionisrs holding office were very
generally dropped out and the ark OF the
church staggered on with no profane anti
slavery hands upon it,
After the sacking and burning of the
office of the Pennsylvania Freeman, of
which he was the editor in 1888, he re-
turned to Haverhill. His father having
died in 1881, he sold the old farm and, in
1910, removed with his old mother to
Amesbury, nine miles nearer the sea. A
short distance from the house stands the
Friends meeting house, where the poet
has been an attendant nearly all his life.
The poet, in fine humorous poem pub
lished in 1881, alludes to this old meet
ing house:
"On calm and fair First Days
Ratified down our one-horse chaise
Through the blOssomed apple boughs
To the old, brown meeting house"
In 1876, he changed his residence to
Danvers, but one hours ride from Ames-
bury and Oak Knoll is the Winter resi-
dence of the venerable poet. The SHOWS
his brow, but his heart is young as ever
and his unfailing kindness to those who
desire his advice or help is something ad-
mirable and no one knows how to win
in American literature which exceeds the
moral Indignation of Whitter's poems on
slavery and they must ever hold a place
alongside Garrison's editorials and Har-
riett Beecher Stoves "Uucle Toms Cab
i'm for having keyed up the minds of the
people to the point required for action
against it. Read ''The Hunters of Men, y
"Clerical Oppressors," "The Yankee
Girl" ga Sabbath Scene" and you will
find sentences that cut like a two-edged
sword. When the war cloud broke over
our land, his hand touched the old war
Tyre and his war poems stirred the life
blood of the nation.
In January, 1861, when the nation was
of fratricidal war break out, his first
counsels were that disunion be allowed.
He wrote:
"Pity, forgive, but urge them back no more,
Who, drunk with passion, fiaunt disunion's
rag,
With it's vile reptile bIazon. Let us press
The golden cluster on our brave old flag
In closer union and, if numbering less,
Brighter shall shine the stars which still re
main"
Later poems showed that he afterward
became panied but sadly approving
spectator of the inevitable conflict, wind
ing up with the poem "Laus Deo,'' tri
umphant shout of joy, on hearing the
bells ring when the constitutional amend
ment abolishing slavery was passed. II
is great blessing that the poet should
have been spared to give to posterity the
later productions of well matured min6
and, among them all, there are none thai
will hold higher place in American lit
erature than "Snow Bound,' which was
published in 1860 and was written, MI
Whittier has said, ''to beguile the weari
ness of a sick chamber" 1t is no dead
description that he gives us in this poem
but he shows his characters in action, ex.
tending his story over three days and two
nights, while the whole time mentioned
in the poem is week.
To get an idea of the genial, mellow
harmoniousness in his nature, one needs
only to read such poems as demon OF
the Study 1.-THE Pumpkin and ''To my
old schoolmaster." In "rhe meeting
Whittier gives us a defence of his relig-
ious habits. He says that he is accus
toned to meet with the Friends twice a
week in the little Meeting at Ames
bury, chiefly for two reasons: First, be
cause in the silent, unadorned house
with spine laid floor" his religious com.
munings are not distracted by outward
things, as they would be if he worship.
ped always amid the solitudes of Nature
and, secondly, he finds in 'sThe Meeting
a heart-solace in the memories of dear
ones passed away, who once sat by his
side there. Is any in religious doubt
about the culture state?'' Let him read
the poem "Follen," written when he had
been wandering in doubt, over which at
last, as was always his case, faith rises
triumphant. 1t is to be hoped. that these
few thoughts and suggestions may be
the means of turning the attention of low
ers of the beautiful to the careful reading
of Whittier's poems.-[E. i. johnson.
No man of principle, no man of COM
mon decency ought to permit the publi-
cation Of Objectionable advertisements in