The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-27
A MODERN CONCORD SAGE.
TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS SERIES
BY EDGAR l. WAKEMAN.
,copyrlgbt sa 1y EdeariI wakeman All rights resorvedl
TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS

who live our obscure llNeS remote from
theancient hamlet of Concord. renowned
in the memories of men as the former
home of sages. the name Invariably comes
rustling into the consciousness with a
dim. underlined yet certain sense of large
ness and loftiness.
The place possesses neither. 1t IS a
quiet town of struggling homes, set round
the edge of a gentle, pine-crowned ridge
and its olden habitations here and there
creep ont into luXuriant meadows, as if
tempted couutryward by the very sweet
ness of the pleasant ways beyond.
No sound of toll is heard in Concord.
No token of the tremendous activities
which ordinarily crowd from cities into
near villages can be seen. Not even a
rugged bit of scenery can be found within
its placid environments II IS but a
peaceful hamlet, set behind the city and
the sea in a lovely valley trimmed by ten
der hills.
IL has gardens lush and beautiful. It
blends into clOse-h uddled farm homes of
marvellous New England thrift and
plenty 1t has orchards wide and vine
wards rare. But nobody is ever seen com
ing to it or going away. It's thirty or
forty hundred souls putter and pother
about its square old mansions, as If effort
were done and eternal siesta had come.
1t has age. II has riches. 1t once had
intellect. These are enough. It rests in
its happy valley like dreaming age asleep
with smile-lit face upon the warm bosom
of ample content
In its slumbering silence, that which
stirred the souls of all its departed inter
preting sages is here. Here flows the
gentle Concord stream on its onward, sea
ward way. Here stretch the fair mead
ows. Here circle the tender hills. Here
stand the pines as in primitive days.
Here still are the low-rOofed homes with
gables old, where life was meted out to
homely souls in three simple parts
bilth the toll, the rest
Ancient burial-spots with their brown
and leaning headstones, like Congrega-
tions of hooded Capuchins at prayer, hud-
die with loving guardianship between
rare old mansions of the living. Out there
stretches the smooth highway to old Sud
bury town, where is still standing Long
fellows ''Wayside Inn Yonder winds
the winsome way past Hawthorne's 'Old
Manse as messy and sweet as ever to-
day, to the sacred battle-ground glebe.
The historic Lexington highway trails
past two centuries old inn. From the
very spot Pitcairn forgivably registered
and boosted, YOU see, as in dream, the
wraiths of British soldery as they came
and went and through the ghostly am
bush smoke of yoemen's rifles which made
pitiless their retreat, appear the former
homes of Emerson, AlcOtt and Haw-
thorne, the fancy for an instant gliding
to Thoreau's lifeful Walden Pond be-
yond.
The first one is large and white and
prim, like later roadside hostel with
babbling Mill Brook almost touching its
meadowward, sloping grounds; the second
opposite and beyond, is gabled and gloomy
behind two noble elms, the little School
of Philosophy structure, implanted and
drear as some mountain-side chapel be-
side it, and the third is Hawthornes be-
loved ''Wayside,' but a stones throw
beyond, brooding beneath the shadows of
the pines which sob and sough as if
planting for the lost wizard hand that
wrought within it. r on
Then, up in the Sleepy Hollow Gene
terry among the pines are found, for the
pilgrims reverential contemplation. the
grave of the gentle Thoreau, the tomb of
Emerson, unmarked by name, epltaph or
sign, save one uncut massive block of
granite at its head, and finally the level
grave of Hawthorne; apostle of nature,
revealer of spiritual calm, creator of
deathless imageries-tr trinity of mortal
lmmortals-lying in the last sweet peace
together.
To pilgrim worshippers at the shrine
of these dead yet ever living transcen-
dentalists, nothing seems more certain
than that the race of sages in ancient
Concord is forever. extinct; Just as it is
thought that the Hudson can never know
another Irving, New England another
OngfellOw, Tweeddale another Scott.
Ayr and Dumfries another Burns or
Stratford and the Avon another Shakes
peare
This is because their reverential
thought is concentrated exclusively upon
single species of the sage; those of the
species who begin the profession of The
sage at so early an age that enough PEG
pie in the world hear of their vocation as
n original discovery, to insist that all
other folk shall agree with them in their
Classification.
Now Uncle Jimmy Biggs. ofConcord,
had possessed no such advantage Hav-
ing started out in life as a stone-cutter
nothing could have been more absurd
than for him to have exchanged his voca-
tion for that Of sage; because, in that
event, he would also have had to write
book. deliver lectures, or establish a
school of philosophy.
While either or all Of these things were
no DOUBT within the scope of his genius
Uncle Jimmy often remarked to his sweet
little old vile, as well as to the few who
bad by accident OF inclination come to
bask within the sunshine of his equable
temper and drink at the fountain of his
pure philosophy; Sech things is mighty
onsartin, an moro worritin';" which
level Of wisdom, falling before the eyes
of perception, was alone sufficient to SET
the seal Of richness, depth and profundity
upon its source
Besides Uncle Jimmy would often
remark to his most trusted disciples with
an lnetfable smile of philosophic calm, II
know'd EN- all"
This with a gentle gesture of his NAL
let toward Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
and the great who were lying asleep
within it,
81 cut all their headstuns. footstuns.
cOrner-stuns and copin's know'd EN-
afore cuttin tn stuns I've seed EN-
comm an goin, an t'hum. I've seed
folk from ev'ry pint tn compass, comm
an goin t git a look at EN-. But ! never
seed one on EN-, in fifty year, with a
happy face ,er happy face around EN-.
All on EN- had dispepsy. neuralgy or
rheumatics Don't believe tn Lord talks
through a sour stomach. Don't b'lieve
right rev ldshuns come through a
head as is twistin an within from nu-
ralgy. Don't blieve sound filos'fv
trickles through rheumatics B'lieve
KNOWN how I be great. is KNOWN how
70 be small-keepin' ekal like yerself. an
keeplu folk aroun We ekal an easy, while
YOU re "A dOiU' of il ="