The Lafayette gazette., 1893-04-01
A VISIT TO WHITTIER.
Some Effective Side-Liglats Thrown tho
Character OF the Poet.

A VISIT TO WHITTIER.
Some Effective Side-LigIts Thrown the
Character OF the Poet.
The memory of visit to Amesbury,
made once in Septem Der, vividly re-
mains with me. 1t was early in the
month, when the lingering heat of
summer seems sometimes to gather
fresh intensity from the fact that we
are so soon to hear the winds of au-
tumn.
Amesbury had greatly altered of late
years; 'large enou sh to be city, our
friend declared; but I am not fat
enough to be an alderman" To us 1t
was still a small village, though some
what dustier and less attractive than
when we first knew it.
As we approached the house we saw
him from a distance Enthusiastically
gazing down the roadef0r us, from his
front yard, and then at tho first glimpse
suddenly dfsap pe6ffng, to como forth
again to meet us, quite fresh and quiet,
from his front door. 1t had been a
very hot, dry summer, and everythin g
about that place, as about every other,
was parched and covered with dust
There had been no rain for weeks and
the village street was then quite inno-
cent Of watering carts. The fruit hung
and the soft thud of the pears and ap-
pies as they fell to the ground could be
heard on every side in the quiet house.
yards. The sun struggled fee bly,
through the mists during the noontide
hours, when a still heat pervaded rath-
err than struck the earth; and then in
the early afternoon and late into the
next morning a stirlcss cloud seemed to
cover the face of the world. These
mists were much increased by the burn
ing of peat and brush, and, alas! OF the
very woods themselves, in every direc-
tion. Altogether, Whittier said,
quantity, lit was very encouraging
weather for the Millerites"
His niece, who hears the name
of his beloved sister, was then
the mistress of his home, and
we were soon made heartily well
come inside the house, where every
thing was plain and neat, as became a
Friends household; but the village
had grown to DC Il stirring place, and
the house stood close upon the dusty
road, such charming neatncss must
sometimes have been Il difficult achieve
mcnt The MONDAY meal soon
served and soon ended. and then we sat
down behind the half-closed blinds.
looking out upon the garden, the faded
vines and almost leatiess trees 1t was
a cozy room, with its Fra anl>lin stove,
at this season surmount ted by bou-
quet, and a table be tween the windows,
where was largers bouquet which
Whittier himself had gathered that
morning in antici patton of our arr i, a.:
He had seemed brighter and better than
we had dared to hope and was in ex-
ccllent mood for talking. Refcrri n g
again to the Millcritcs who had been
SO reanimated by the mists, he said he
had been deeply impressed lately with
their deplorable doctrines ''Continu-
ally disappointed because VIC don't all
burn upon a sudden, they forget to be
Al, ~1rf.,
the dire fate they predict with SO much
complacency.
He had Just received proof of his
poem, 'N1iriam,''aAyith the introdu uction,
and he could not be content until they
had been read aloud to him. After the
reading they were duly commented up
and revised until he thought he
could do no more, yet twice before our
departure the proofs were taken out of
the handbag, where they were safely
slowed away, and again more less
altered.
Whittier's ever growing fame was d OF
taken by him a matter OF course. Il
can not think very we'll of my own
things" he used to say: ''and what is
mere fame worth when thee is at home
alone, and sick with headaches, una bl
either to read or to write?" Neverthe-
less he derived very great pleasure and
con ISOLATION from the letters and trib-
hearts he had touched or lives he had
quickened That l like" he would
say; that is worth having" But he
must often have known the dceps of
trou BILE in winte evenings when he
was too i'll to touch book pen, and
when he could do nothing during the
long hours but sit and think over the
fire.
We slept in Eliza beth's cham Der.
The portrait of their mother, fra med in
autumn leaves gathered in the last aut-
umn of her life, hung upon the wall
Here. too, as in bed room at Dick
ems, the diary of rcpys lay the
table. Dickens had read his copy faith
fully and written notes therein. OF
this copy the leaves had not been cut,
but with it lay the ''Prayers Of the
Age" and volumes of poems which had
all been we'll read and ''picllwicl<'' up
the top Annie Field, in 1Iarpcr's
Magazine