The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1897-01-08
THE HOME OF PAYNE.
DWELLING PLACE OF TIE AUTHOR OF
THE MOST FAMOUS BALLAD.

Lacy Cleveland writcs Foolinsiy About
the Last Place That John Howard Payne
Ever Knew ~ Ills "uome, Sweet Home"
"You ought to see it, ladyl"
My quaint AmHgansett oharioteer
pointed with his whip In the direction
Of an antique mansion half hidden in
the shadows that the elm trees threw
across it's portal.
had driven over to old East Hamp-
ton for an autumn afternoons pleasur.
ing along its elm cmbowored street Of
100 years. Stretching from one antique
windmill to another, each the somber
guardian Of graves, each the warden Of
tho old village cemeteries, this grand
old Main street of East Hampton un-
rolls its green ribbon of verdure the
length Of the little town and tempts the
tourist to n lazy, lovely lettering in the
sherry colored sunset in tho sanguine
air Of seas. Afar the boom Of the in
finite ocean called The arms Of the old
windmills tipped with the last tapestry
of day, yearning aloft above the little
graveyards, suggested the forever be-
yond the scattered white line of frozen
sorrow far below.
eyes, you ought to SEQ it, NUMB
And, mum" consenting, my charioteer
stopped at the antique threshold Of the
East Hampton dwelling. 1t was the
house where John Howard Payne, au-
thor of tho ballad that has sung itself
into tho heart of the world, pissed his
boyhood.
1t is O modest two story dwelling,
standing little way back from the
village street, of frame, shingled and
gable rooted. Though it has received,
from time to time, somo smart adorn-
ment, tho old house keeps it's ancient,
soothing spell as You face it from the
main street. know of nothing so quaint
out Of old New England. On one side of
the doorway board placard, weather
beaten by time, mellowed by the years,
fingered by tho masses and pecked at by
the little birds flying ont for aye from
their horne, sweet home beneath the old
gray caves. The quaint plaoard tells you
that within nro
Jho town clerk,
Tho Bank Of East Hampton,
The village notary, 4
and, as / learned afterward,
The pndortal.er
and
The furniture dealer,
all in one piece, or in one person-the
genial owner today of the old house by
the wayside
Stop in-but You won't 60 far afeld
or afoot for the old staircase blocks the
way 1t winds and beckons up. 1t is
thoroughly Revolutionary. 1t winds up
so that you wonder it doesn't go off at
once and play tune. All, you are in
tho upstairs now! Tho house is double
house, as 10 say. But then all the old
dwellings Of long ago were "double. "
Did you ever think of that? "Home,
sweet homes" and married loves and
hearthsides. Not apartments, like pi
amos, on the instDlment system; not
skyscrapers attempting that old plain
Of Shinar's tall ambitions not homes
whence you sailed to get your very din
ner and when you got back thanked
God up 10 flights that you didn't die
stairs iii the kitchen that the most
charming bit is found. This kitchen
seems older than the Revolution. 1t is
Cinderellnn. In one moment, as you
step across its threshold, you are trans
ported with fairy watt and fairy
wand into tho days and the ways that
are older than that dear Mother Goose
into the days Of Mother Wise. Mother
Wise made ell the fairy stories in the
beginning, do you know? And Mother
, Wise lived in Egypt 6,000 years before
we opened our wise oyelids. And Mother
Wise knew Cinderella by heart and by
head and wrote down all about her dear
little slipper in the vocabulary Of the
Pharaohs, older than the great pyramid
AS you step into the antique kitchen
in the house CT Johu Howard Payne
you almost expect to see all ancient
Egyptian stalk around tho corner and
Oheops' sacred pussy cat i'll Il hioro-
glyphic attitude on the hearth. How
quaint-how quaint it is! Didn't hear
little Cindcrella's laugh and see those
dear littlo plump hands olapped together
with joy? And is that glow flooding
window and wall tho silver ether that
Goats around the fairy and dissolves,
slowly, in revolving, radiant rainbow,
into oolors that the fairy takes and stars
in tho blue Of her eyes and the frank,
fresh cherry Of her lips?
Really it ia all so unreal that it frets
you 10 be told that that is Revolution
airy muskot hanging over the old, old
fireplace. You mistook it for clubthn
those grand old Bible fellows brandished
when they went down into Egypt and
had fight How pert and now 1776 isl
1t is sorrowful to think that, after he
closed the latch Of his old sweet home
and heard for the last time the olink of
the closing door and went ont to face
the world, John Howard Payne had 10
home. Lucy Cleveland in New York
Home Journal.
a Strong Room.