The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-08-16
BRYANT's BIRTHDAY,
Exercises in tho POETS Memory at
His Massachusetts Rirthplace,-

CUMMINGToN, Mass, Aug. 16, 1884,
Pleasant skies and the presence of dis
tinguished speakers and poets, together with
the. desire to do honor to the memory OF
William Cullen Bryant, have drawn hum
dreds of visitors to this little town today,
and the centennial observance of the birth
of the great poet has been a complete sue
cess For this the towns people are pro-
foundly grateful, for they have been prepar-
ing for the event since last March.
The exercises today were held in beauti-
full grove few rods beyond the Bryant
homestead. 1t was at this homestead that
Bryant passed the last twelve summers of
his life, and here that he spent the days of
his youth and young manhood. 1t was in
these woods that ''Thanatopsis" was written,
and the rivulet of which he wrote still goes
murmuring to the larger stream as it did in
the DAYS of his boyhood.
In the grove where the exercises took
place the visitor today can see the traces of
the initials cut into the trees by the Bryant
boys The grove is situated alongside the
roadside between the upper and the lower
Bryant places, SO called because one was the
homestead of the Bryant family and the up
per one was the home of Bryant's mother,
whose maiden name was Smell, and both
were repurchased by Mr.. Bryant in the
evening of his life.
Inc exercises GOUay CO1SlSUBU OF all du-
dress of welcome by Lorenzo H. Tower, the
Librarian of the Bryant Library, on behalf
of the townspeople, and then Parke Goodwin
of New York, who was associated with Mr..
Bryant for many years, and who married
his eldest daughter, was made the presiding
officer.
Mr.. Goodwin, in taking the chair, delivered
a brief address, and then introduced Edwin
B. Brown, of Elmwood, ILL.,, a native OF
Cummington, and the orator OF the day.
Mr. Brown spoke eloquently and his address
occupied something over an hour in delivery.
John Howard Bryant, now eighty seven
years old, the only surviving brother of the
poet and himself q poet of recognized abil-
ity, read his brothers poem of The Rivulet," :"
and followed it with two compositions of his
own. the first being "a Monody.n written
in 1878, just after the death Of William Cul-
len Bryant, and the second ''At Eighty
Seven" written for the occasion.
After singing some of the old familiar
tunes under the direction of Mrs. Julia
Shaw, including Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's
sBattle Hymn Of the Republic" an adjourn
ment was taken for dinner.
After lunch, which for the uninvited
guests was in the form of basket picnic,
the people were called to order again. and
number of addresses were given by disting
uished men and women. Among them and
in this order were Prof. Charles Eliot Nor
ton of Harvard University, Charles Dudley
Warner, President G.. Stanley Hall, Rev.
John W. Chadwick of Brooklyn. George w.
Cable and H S. Gore, the veteran editor
of the Hampshire Gazette, /" in which paper
Bryant's first poem was published, when he
was ten years old.
Mrs Julia Ward Howe was present and
read poem written for the sixtieth birth
day of the poet and first read at the Century
Club in New York. To this Mrs. Howe had
added several stanzas appropriate to the
present occasion.
John w. Hutchinson, the only surviving
member of the famous family Of singers
whose starring songs created SO much en-
present by invitation, and sung 'Old Friends
Are the Truest"