The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-02-03
THE HOME OF PAYNE.
DWELLING PLACE OF THE AUTHOR OF
THE MOST FAMOUS BALLAD.

Lucy Cleveland Writes FccIingIy About
the Last Place That John Howard Payne
Ever Knew His "Homc, Sweet Homo.-
You ought to SEQ it, lady!"
My quaint Amagansett charioteer
pointed with his whip in tho direction
Of an antique mansion half hidden in
the shadows that the elm trees threw
across its portal.
had driven over to old East Hamp-
ton for an autumn afternoon pleasur-
ing along its ohm uncovered street of
100 years. Stretching from one antiou.
windmill to another, each the somber
guardian of graves. each tho warden of
the old village cemeteries, this grand
old Main street Of East Hampton un-
rolls its green ribbon Of verdure tho
length of the little town and tempts the
tourist to lazy, lovely lettering in the
sherry colored sunset III the sangnine
air Of seas. Affair the boom of the in
finite ocean called. Tho arms of the old
windmllls tipped with the last tapestry
of day, yearning aloft above the little
graveyards, suggested tho forever be-
You'd tho scattered white line of frozen
sorrow far below
Yes, You ought to sec it, numb
And, mum" consuming, my charioteer
stopped at the antique threshold of the
East Hampton dwelling 1t was the
house whore John Howard Payne, au
thor of the ballad that has sung itself
into the heart Of the world, passed his
boyhood.
1t is a modest two story dwelling.
standing q littlo way back from the
village street, Of frame, shinglea and
gable rooted. Though it has received,
from time to time, some smart adorn-
inent, the old house keeps it's ancient,
soothing spell rs you face it from the
main street. know Of nothing so quaint
out of old New England. On one side of
tho doorway board placard, weather
beaten by time, mellowed by tho years,
fingered by the masses and pecked at by
the little birds flying ont for aye from
their home, sweet home beneath the old
gray caves. The quaint placard tells you
that within arc
The town clerk,
The Bank Of East Hampton,
The village notary,
and, MS 1 learned afterward,
The undertaken
and
The furniture dealer
all in one piece, or in one person-thc
genial owner today Of the old house by
tho wayside.
Step in--but you won't go far afleld
<nf 10 Il -, 4
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
the upstairs now! The house IL q double
house, rs we say. But then all tho old
dwellings of long ago We're "double."
Did you ever think Of that? ''Home,
sweet homes" and married loves and
hearthsides. Not apartments, like pi-
amos, on the inStallment system; not
skyscrapers attempting that old plain
of Shinar's tall ambitions mot "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
from menus and messes But it is down
stairs i'll the kitchen that tho most
charming bit is found. This kitchen
seems older than the Revolution. Ii il
Cinderellan. In one moment, az you
step across its threshold, you are trans
ported with a fairy watt and fairy
wand into the days and the ways that
arc older than that dear Mother Goose
into the days OF Mother Wise. Mother
Wise made al the fairy stories i'll the
beginning. do you know? And Mother
Wise lived i'll Egypt 5000 years before