Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-09
AROUND OLD CONCORD.
A Look at Famous Town and Its Historic
Graves.

The past has taken possession of the
beautiful town. EMBODIED it. preserved it
as Pompeii is preserved in it's own ashes.
The slightest wind stirs them, they blind
your eyes, they choke your words; so
many people of tremendous individuality
have lived here that the air you breathe
is pregnant with previous impressions.
The serenity of the place is not of the
sky nor of the tranquil river nor of the
level meadows but of the completed lives
once lived here. Concord is SO exactly
what you expected it to be that it is as
impossible to see it for the first time as
it is impossible to see Gettysburg with
difference. Gettysburg is a thriving lit
tie mart. frugally living on the money
value of its associations. but / don't
think there is tourists hotel in Con-
cord. and the pilgrim can locate every
shrine for himself by the hospitable
greeting, set in a conspicuous place or
board four feet long on which is in
scribed in black letters:
Private Grounds. No Visitors Allowed"
1t takes more time to write about Con-
cord than to see it. It's ghosts are Haw-
thorne. Emerson. Thoreau, Margaret
latter's ugly, yellow, piazzaless house.
set down in a sort of hollow at the foot
of the hill; Louisa AlcOtt's characterless,
embarrassing frame one. where she wrote
Little Men and where Thoreau died;
Margaret Fullers little plain cottage near
it have only the interest of association
and the effect of exciting the wholesome
comment that environment has little to
do with the growth of genius and if one
has an author in the family one need not
necessarily coddle him. Wayside has
some pretensions to beauty, but it is
built on the shoulder of the hill. the lawn
a steep semi-circle in the center of which
is the large irregular house with a tower
chamber where Hawthorne wrote. (reacil-
ing it by trap door on which he sat to
keep out visitors), but it is too close to
the road and the rocks which overhang
it and the dense spruce pines and arbor
vitae which darken the windows give it
Il somber and restricted look. and one
would transport it to some height or fair
open plain. But Hawthorne had his own
theory about WaySide. He said such Il
scene, neither quite tame nor wholly adj
mirable. assisted meditation far more
than the open landscape at Lenox which
demanded so much attention he could not
control his thoughts. Our driver told us
that on his way back from Lexington he
used to draw his reinS to let his passen-
gers get a glimpse of Hawthorne's dark
figure and bowed head pacing slowly up
and down the path through the pines. If
he CHANGED to look up suddenly and
caught the gaze of curious eyes, as swift
as a bird he disappeared behind some
boulder. But he was much respected"
he FASTENED to explain, lest We imagine
Hawthorne had his own reasons for get
ting out of the way.
If Margaret Fullers and Miss Alcotts
houses are colorless, as they ought not
to be. since the theory is that the mis-
tress makes the home and stamps her in
dividuality upon it, Wayside has Il hint
of Hawthorne's melancholy and lonely
genius. while EmersOns is the fit habi-
tation of his spirit. large, clean, ample
house. New England in pattern and
structure in the midst of fruitful mead
ows in which the sweet smelling hay lay
in stacks. House and grounds speak OF
security, simplicity, a fire on the hearth
in winter. a book in summer (Seneca and
Jacques Amyot0 fresh water flowers and
fruit. Our kind guide allowed faint
smile of qualification to pass over his
countenance when, as we drove slowly
past. her good angel prompted the mis-
tress of the house to emerge. New Eng
land country people have Quaker like
respect for their hats, SO he did not lift
his but contented himself with Il bow and
Good morning, Ellen" to her neighborly
greeting.
You don't often have a chance to see
her; she amt no gad-about," he re-
marked with a glimner of approval.
But she's well liked, all the Emersons
well liked" And when one of the party
rather tactlessly enquired whether Mr..