Omaha daily bee., 1893-10-01

L found very many old, old folks whose par
ents were his youthful. companions, or his
parents ''neebors," and who, on account of
Carlyle's subsequent fame, left clear testi-
mony with their children, from their stand
point of view, of his home surroundings and
boyhood life. 1t is all a grim, gray picture
set in f~orbidding Shadows, with but one
bright, clear ray streaming through it-a
brave, loyal mothers endless care and love;
OF Il home so little and mean that no room in
it permitted the family meals to be eaten by
all its members at once, which forced young
Carlyle to carry forth his food of bread
crumbs boiled IN milk to be eaten on the
coping of the wall" while the lad gazed at
the distant mountains; of a father irascible
as honest, unreasonable as sJury, miserly as
pious in the dim old steely way; of a mother,
with all her great virtue, a pestilence of fire
and sword against all intellectual unfolding
not in accord with her own almost savagely
e~Xacting creed and of social and intellectual
environment in which there were more mel
ancholy, hopeless seriousness, petty caviling,
downright hatred and far less brightness
and sentiment than about the olden camp
fires OF the American Chippewas or Sioux.
Disliked by Jealous Neighbors.
1t is plain that the Carlyles were not only
not beloved, but that they were disliked
with that brutal sort of rancor common in
ignorant neigborhoods. The father was the
best workman of the community. Had he
not possessed u furious temper and a hard
hist he would have been driven from The
hamlet. lie was feared, rather than liked
or respected. The mother was held by her
guidwife ~neighbors to be o'ersaintly and
'o'er-asperans, T." or pompous in manner and
language, as well as "muckle auld-mou'd,"
or sagacious and crafty in discourse. The
imperious obstinacy of the father, so marked
a characteristic of the son, rather than just
pride IN intelligence for Its own sake, deter
mined him on making the boy a scholar, and
this again widcned the breach between
the stonemason's family and the carping vii
layers. The latter stood in awe of his fists,
but stung the brave wife's spirit wofully
with their crafty gossip and raillery. The
hurt was double upon the boys defenseless
head. The parents, in their prayers, illus
trated to the lad what a debt of gratitude
was being piled up against him by the
Almighty that he was permitted to live, and
by themselves that they had sustained con-
tuinely and sacrifice to give him those mighty
advantages; while through his play
fellows, on account of the disposition of
their parents, he was made the victim of
every conceivable Species of savagery and
contempt.
From these old tales it is easy to learn
that as a babe Thomas Carlyle drew in the
very milk of unhappiness and rancor from
his mothers breast. He was q weazened.
thin, uncanny BARN, sniffle-snafling in in
iancyi mournful, moaning and huddering
through the '~cutty-gear period; not into
kits before he had learned the unspeakable
- - - CNtI1 OIIItI
child about him showed only the face of
harrassing ogre; In childhood a lamentable
lpairn set upon and soourged by bullying
brats; and all his youth-tide the quarry of
every ill-natured little human beast of
the Ecclefechan cutters or by-lane
cabin. Why, 1t seems to me that right
here is found the true key TO mis-
whole aftertime nature. Tn royal pro
tests, the often almost imbecile cavilings,
the Titanic outbursts, that rumble and
grumble and thunder throughout his mighty
work were, after all, largely an endless il
unconscious cry OF the mans heart against
the oarblrities of his own childhood
Carlyie's Home al Uninviting Place.
In the little stone cottage where they
llYed there Is but one room below stairs. In
the upper story there is a room the same
size as that on the first floor. This is re-
tanned as sort of showroom, and is well
enough filled TO be interesting with Carlyle
relics, ~incluting his famous cofeepot, in
winch he was wont TO brew his own coffee,
and his equally famous tobacco cutter
landmarks of the Cheyne Row, Chelsea. in
SEPARATION and inseparable companions of his
Feasibility and dyspepsia. on this little