The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-08
sEArrLE. THURSDAY. SEP. 8.
WHITTIER.


Had Whittier lived until the 18th Of De-
cember next he would have completed his
e5th year. After LongfeiIow, Whittier is
the most popular Of American poets; he
IL distinctively the poet of New England;
and his best work treats of rural life and
oil that il finest in the life of both man
and nature in America. The homely
scenes. incidents and episodes relating to
American life and history are the themes
Of the vast majority of Whittier's poems.
He came of Quaker stock, was a member
Of the Society of Friends, and yet he was
20 tolerant that he once wrote, "The
longer / live the less l care about creeds;
my chief trust is in the goodness
and mercy of God" He was
trained to the craft of shoe
maker. and here Garrison found him
in 1928 when he printed Whittier's FIRST
poetical effort that attracted attention in
The Newburyport Press. The books that
the young poet fed on were few, but they
included the Bible and Burns. The In
Auence of Burns over Whittier's mind is
apparent in all his work. He taught
school until he was twenty years of age;
he drifted into journalism, and edited a
protectionist paper which was friendly to
Henry Clay: he worked on his fathers
farm until 1880: then he succeeded George
d. Prentice as editor of the Weekly Reriew
ct Hartford, Conn.,; then he went back to
Haverhill, Mass, and here in 1888 his
great life work began in earnest. He
1oined the Garrisonian abolitionists.
At an anti-slavery meeting in Haverhill
In 1884 he was mobbed; the principal
speaker. Samuel May, narrowly escaped
death and Whittier's sister was severely
bruised. Whittier devoted his poetic
genius from this time forward to tho cause
Of the slave. His poems during the anti
slavery period were written for purpose,
they are of unequal merit, but their sim
cerity, vigor and terrible earnestness give
them an exalted and assured position in
the literature Of America. His "Ichabod,"
solemn lament over what he deemed tho
moral fall Of Webster. when he advocated
the Fugitive Slave law in 1850, Is q mag
nificent bit Of work, Miltonio In its austere
grandeur and soiemnity Of thought and
expression. Emerson deemed it one of
the few great poems in our American
literature. With tho coming of the war
Whittier's genius had . freer sweep and
wider range and he produced much noble
work, like Barbara Frietchie," Laus
Deo."
After the war came Whittier's best
~s-.k
BY moral indignation against slavery to
sharp. aggressive verse, but his muse nat
urally vented itself in the sweet. pastoral
vein or In that of religious devotion. He
had the soul and speech Of q great He
brew prophet in the days of slavery and
war, but when the war was over the
prophet became the poet of humble rustic
life, the worshiper of nature, the writer Of
hymns In praise of the benevolence and
wisdom of God who had made nature
beautiful. and made her beauty Joy to
the hearts of men Of good will.
Not scholars poet, Whittier is sure of
longer Immortality than Longfelow, for
he Is the peoples poet in the same high
sense that Burns will always be the peo-
pies poet, while Longfeilow is only the
popular poet in the same comparatiyelv
light sense that the writer OF fiction for
the hour is popular novelist. In Whit
tiers masterpiece, "Snow bound" We have
apicture Of a Northern winter that will
be ever fair and fresh and new to every
genuine American of robust feeling and
healthy Imagination when Longfellow will
And few readers outside of sentimental
women and ehIogotic Sunday school
teachers.
There IS something slngularly fine and
true In the life work of this man. whose
name for ten years past has on his birth
day been on the lips of thousands of school
children from ocean to ocean. Every
"barefooted boy" " no could read felt that
Whittier Was a fine, Ioyahle old man.
every school girl who read his lines "ro
My Sister" knew that Whittier had
heart IS gentle and tender ana true a. the
best OF women. This fine Old man never
made speech, never went TO the theater
N his HE. never attended lecture. never
preached. never Was q brilliant figure in
society, and yet this man tina. neither
eoarts, nor politics. nor war, nor the pub
pit. nor the bar. nor the business Of peare
Stained for its own. goes down to his grave
o. nearly @wi.h troops of friends. In more
universal public honor with old and young,
sich and poor than any man in America
I'm our Judgment Whittier deserves all
shis ropalsr honor both as rhiianthro-
pist and as a poet. lie is our greatest
<r'<rscas poet, aud II We except Lowell's
eiaieet poems he Is cur only genuine
American poet Longfellow had FAR more
so-caised culture. hut he was q scholar
rather than a man OF deep. soulful nature,
snd his best work reads ike the effort Of a
Enc musician. who played brilliant vari-
alton Of great composers work rather
than any great music of his own.
Whittier's music is ali his own. He
loved thu beautiful In nature. and could
write "Sanset on the Bear Camp" he
hated oppression. and could write "I.aus
Dec" lie Was OF the aevont religious
sfiFiiwe hna in the verses Of Montgomery
Cospef. Cardinal Newman and Faher. ana
could write My Psalm" aud "gterna,