The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-28

WHIrTIER's HOME IN AMEsBURY, MASS
opens from the porch into Mr.. Whittier
study. Here he keeps his small store o
books, and here he has written tn,
greater part of his latter year poetry
Sometimes he has sat under the trees
back of the house and thought out hi.
verses. Frequently he has stood at thu
glass door looking out, but seeing moth
ing save the pictures that were forming
in his imagination.
But his bed is his best work bench
He is light sleeper, and if you should
sit by his door and listen you would be
likely in the still of the night to heal
him reciting and changing and repeat
ing verses which on the morrow would
be put on paper for the generations tc
read Often, too, when he is not com.
posing new verses he recites his old ones
aloud in bed.
He did not offer any explanation OF
this to me, but he did say in response
to question that none Of his poems is
his favorite, because none Of them is
W IidU IL w, anu LIZ Sdl Ilduu III
terposed the significant remark that in
each new edition Of Mr.. Whittier's
works almost every poem is altered in
some manner, though no preface by the
author ever mentions this.
Another of the poets homes is at
Danvers. spacious, old-fashioned
house, set On hill, in broad grounds,
amply shaded by many trees and in
closed by a low, rough stone wall. This
is Oak Knoll, about which enough has
been written to warrant me now in
passing hurriedly by it. Mr.. Whittier
spends some of his time here with an
elderly maiden niece and her elderly
maiden companion.
Still another of his homes is on High
street, in Newburyport. This is the
home, too, of DIR. Garland, and you
would never know from him whether
he or Mr.. Whittier owns it. Nor does
it matter. Both are equally at home
there.
Mr. Whittier and DR.. Garland havo
been bosom friends ever since they
were boys, and nothing could be more
beautiful than the tender, more than
brotherly regard these two old men
show for one another. DR.. Garland,
being the younger, seems to hold the
dear old poet as his special charge, and
the tact that he and his good wife en-
ploy in ascertaining and in gratifying
Mr.. Whittier's every within is charm
ing lesson in self-effacement. They
stand between the old poet and the
curious and prying world from which
he strives so earnestly to hide himself
and if he were not guarded by some
good friends, we outsiders would doubt
less poster him beyond endurance For
we are a perverse lot. we humans.
There are hundreds of struggling young
poets standing around under foot, pray
ing that somebody will see them and
talk about them, but we run from them
and leave them forlorn, while we pursue
some dear old man who has done his
work and earned our love and asks only,
n the name of mercy, to be left alone
% enjoy in quietude the peaceful twi-
light of a long and useful life.
Therefore, here / am, at Hampton
Falls, \. H.. little place five or six
niles from Amesburg. away from rail-
'oads, cut off from the .world-a place
o which Mr.. Whittier and Dr. and Mrs.
Jartland fled in the middle of July,
that here they would be out
If reach of the rest of us. But. don't
-ou know, some aspiring journalist re-
emily set afioat the startling rumor
hat Mr.. Whittier is very fond of pie,
md, don't you know, those important
minors must be verified or exploded
fou may imagine, then, with what
treat expectations I came here, and
With what pride | now assure. on au-
hority. that Mr. Whittier is not very
ond of pie-not very. He merely some
lines digs out the in ards of it and eats
hat, and there is nobody to pass strict
Tres upon this extravaganza and warn
nm. as our good mothers used to warn
IS that the day may come when he will
wish he had the crust he now rejects
1t was at Dr. Cartland's home that
ir. Whittier passed his last birthday
nd received 50 many OF his old friends. |
I was there, toe. that he was soon at |
erwards attacked by the grip SO ma |
that for long time j. was |,
bought he could not recover. Since /
hat time last winter he has aged very /
apidly, He is still very straight. and /
is mird is as keen as ever, but his /
,ep is uncertain, and his ears are not /
uick to catch words. his eyes, although /
oh and ata.-
me who likes to read as much rs he /
locs, and he has to be guarded all the /
ime against fatigue. 4 very little /
mental eSertion provokes headache, so 1
)r. Garland. who IS always faithfully /
n guard. implores all visitors not to /
ak much To the poet and not TO excite /
.iul 70 talk much
In his time Mr. Whittier has written
many private" poems These are
learly all humorous II he attended a
'icnic or had any kind of outing with
ongenial spirits he was pretty sure 20
write poem about it playing on the
humorous aspect OF the incidents and
the names and peculiarities
4 ali the persons of the party. Many
UGH poems are in existence row scat
cred about among his intiuaies, tnt
Ieither love nor money could buy one
{ them for publication.
Until his illness last winter Mr. Whit
Ter carried on all his own correspon-
ence. but now he uses his pen very lit
le- Ee has no private secretary. but
Dung friends here and there do most
+ his writing. He enjoys the society Of
Dung people and always manages 20
ave soma of than ahoat hins