The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-09-10
THE POET WHITTIER DEAD.
Last Of the w .r-Time singers Gone I
His Rest.

Wnlttler uleu DIT f.ou I'LL
morning. He was conscious to the last
.Amesbury is a saddened town today
The news of the death of John G. Whit
tier, poet, friend, and citizen. brough
grief to every heart. The last few day
were full of anxiety, but hope had eve
held sway with the people here that the.
might once again see the beloved form
on the street of Amesbury. But tha'
has passed away and the tolling bell.
echo the great grief in many hearts.
Yesterday morning the report of his
condition was such as to give some hope
that the stricken poet might recover, but
later in the day he began to fail and
soon became unconscious. His last con
scious utterance was one Of recognition
of his niece. Mrs. Samuel L. Pickard
who lived with him for some years
previous to her marriage. Mrs
Pichard asked him during the afternoon
IL he knew her. He replied: "Yes.
have known you all the time" and i'm
mediately lapsed into Inconsistencies,
in which state he remained until 4:3O
this morning, when he passed away.
His end vas peaceful and apparently
painless. His body has been brought to
his home in A.mesbury. and the funeral
will be held at $50 Saturday afternoon
from his late residence.
John Greenleaf Whittier. poet, born
IN Haverhill. Mass, Dec. 18th. 1907. His
parents were members of the Society Of
Friends. and to the principles and prac-
tees of this sect he always remained
faithful, conforming even to its peculiar
tiles of speech and garb in a community
where such observance, by being singu-
lar, must often have been trying to a
temperament so shy and sensitive as his.
Born on a farm. Whittier's first occupa
tons were those of a farmers boy, driv-
ing the kline to the farm pasture, riding
to mill, fetching in wood for the INDY
ing kitchen fire, and helping in
the lighter labors of haying and
harvest. His schooling IN other
respects must have been scanty
enough. since his only opportunity dur
ing boyhood would be the nearest dis
trict school-taught commonly by a col
lege student younger than some of his
rustic ~puplls-where he got such train
ing in the simpler rudiments OF knowl-
edge as was possible under the condi-
tions then existing. And this training,
as usual in the country, was limited to
the winter months, when farming was
necessarily suspended. He has recorded
his Indebtedness during boyhoOd to DR..
Ellis Weld of Haverhill. who gave him
the freedom Of his library. The literary
impulse in him must have been strong,
for yet while in his nineteenth year he
anonymous verse to the
poets corner of the Free Press, a journal
edited by William Lloyd Garrison in
Newport. and enjoyed the furtive bliss of
print. Garrison saw signs of promise in
these immature experiments. sought out
the author. and gave him the precious
encouragement of praise and sym
This led to a lasting friendship,
and, with the traditions of his sect, may
have had some influence IN preparing
Whittier to inlist in the anti slavery cru
SADIE which began with the establish
of the Liberator 10 1881, and after
ward caught so much of its inspiration
from his fervid lyrics. The ambition to
become a poet was awakened in him
appropriately enough by a copy of
Burns poems, which fell into his
hands in his fourteenth year. or all
American poets, with the single excep-
ton of Longfellow. Whittier has been
the most popular, and in his case more
in any other the popularity has
,nnH .,r,,ol tLrNpl nth ,Hn,t:a.
This has been due in part to the noble,
character Of the man. transparent
his verse. in part to the fact that
mis- poetry. concerning itself chiefly with
the obvious aspects of life and specula-
lion, has kept close to the highest level
the average thought and sentiment.
His themes have been mainly chosen
his own time and c~ountry-from
his own neighborhood even-he deals
with simple motives and with expert
ences common to all, and accordingly
scenery whether of the outward
or the inward eye) is domestic
ally welcome to all his countrymen.
He is never complex in thought nor OBJ
scure in expression, and if sometimes his
LECTION might gain in quality by a more
deliberate choice, yet the pellucid sim
of his phrase and the instant apt
less Of his epithet as often secure a
more winning felicity through his frank
less of confidence in the %vernacular. His
,rovincialism Of word or accent have an
,ndearing property to the native ear,
ever that will consent to a few of
lis more licentious rhymes. Onef feels that
t is a neighbor who is speaking. Whit
Ter, as many of his poems show, and as,
indeed, would be inevitable. has had his
moments of doubt and trust, but never
If despair. He has encountered every.
where the moral of his inscription on a
convinced that there's light
lbove me by the shade below" He, like
,thers, has found it hard to reconcile the
held by inheritance with the sub
lie logic OF more modern modes of
As he himself has said:
HE rccOnciled as best he could
Old faith and fancies new"
But his days have been ''bound each
o each with natural piety'; he has chung
asst to what has been the wholesome and
kernel Of all creeds; he has