Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-10-14
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@r. :. 7. Pickard Supplies Charming Bio
graphical Chapter.


priceless biographical chapter which is
supplied by Mr.. Samuel T. Pickard in
the little book entitled "Hawthorne's
First Dairy" which comes soon from
the Riverside Press. From advance
pages we are enabled to offer a charming
glance into the mind and habits of the
young genius of romance in those for
native days of boyhood, which all
psychologists now recognize with in
creasing clearness as most delicately
and permanently important in the de-
velopment of human faculty. Imagi-
native literature about childhood has
been increasingly plentiful of late;
there has been a deepening apprecia-
ton OF beauty in the youth of the soul
in this body of mortal life.
Hawthorne lived during almost the
whole of the period of his teens" "in
little hamlet in a peculiarly isolated
| region in Maine, surrounded by
primeval forests and in lake country
then little known to the outside world.
He has himself said that he came to
the shore of Lake Sebago when only
| eight or nine years old. He certainly
had there a home, one of his homes.
until he was about twenty-one. His
| fitting for college necessitated his COM
| ing out Of this seclusiOn, and he prose-
cuted his preliminary studies for the
most part in Salem, his native city.
But during his vacations he came back
every year." says Mr.. Pickard, ITO his
home in the wilderness. He went back
| and forth between Salem and Ray
mond from 1913 to 1925. when he grad
uated at Bowdoin college"
Raymond the little wilderness ham
let where nature was "cherishing
mother of the boy Hawthorne. is in the
same Maine county with Bowdoin, his
other alma mater. He has himself told
of his delight in the woods in summer
or in winter, when he was accustomed
to skate all alone ION Sebago lake.
| with the deep shadows of icy hills on
| either hand, and when weary would
! sometimes take refuge in a log cabin
where half a tree would be burning on
| the broad hearth" There the boy
| Hawthorne would sit in the ample
chimney and look at the stars through
| flames went roaring up"
The First Diary of Hawthorne. de-
! scrbed in Mr.. Pickard's book. is the
| lost one which came into the possession
of William Symmes. the mullato play
mate of his boyhood who copied pages
| from it and sent them over his initials
| to Mr.. Pickard's paper, the Portland
| Transcript. Symmes's battling of the
| pursuit of information as to his identi-
! ty was kept up until he died. and led
many persons (among them the not al
ways too discriminating and penetra-
| tive son of Hawthorne) to believe the
whole affair an attempt to perpetrate
a literary hoax. The account of Sym
| mess detective service and his possess
sion of the early Hawthorne diary is
of very great interest.
Mr. Pickard's book must be read in all
precious Representatives. to understand
Symmes's story. All lovers of literature
and of personalla must hope for the re-
eovcry of the rest of the diary. One rea-
son for Symmes's jealous guarding of the
| original of the boy Hawthornes diary
was undoubtedly the great and lifelong
affection of the mulatto boy for the only
human being in the world except his
playmate William Pitt Fessenden. who
never by word or look offended him in the
| matter of his color. The muiatto was the
son of the Maine lawyer. William
SymmeS. and man of superior mind and
fair educa ton.
But infinitely greater than the curious
| interest in his personality is that which
Mr.. Pickard's book affords of the boy for
whom Mats Rock on Thomas pond
was named Here is an extract from the
diary. kept at the request of Hawthorne's
uncle, Robert Manning of Salem. who
paid for his education. After a day on
Sebago the boy wrote:
I'VE landed on one of the small islands
that Captain Dngley cleared for sheep
pasture when he first came to Raymond.
Mr.. Ring said he had to do it to keep his
sheep from bears and wolves. A growth
of trees has started on the island, and
makes Il grove so fine and pleasant that
| almost wish that our house was there.
On the way from the island to the Images
thieh pictured rocks painted by the In
dians) Mr.. Ring caught a black spotted
trout that was almost whale. and
weighed before it was cut open, after we
got back to Uncle Richards store 1872
pounds. The men said that if it had been
weighed as soon as it came out of the
water it would have been nineteen
pounds. This trout had a droll-looking
hooked nose, and they tried to make me
believe that If the line had been in my
hands l should have been obliged to let go
or have been pulled out of the boat. They
were men and had right to say so. I
am a boy and have Il right to think differ
emily. We landed at the Images. when |
crept into the cave and got a drink of
cool water. In coming home we sailed
over a place, not far from the Images,
where Mr.. White has at some time let
down a line four hundred feet without
finding bottom. This seems strange. for
he told us. too. that his boat. as it boated
was only ESQ feet higher than the boats in
Portland harbor. and that if the Great
Pond were pumped dry, a man standing
on its bottom just under where we then
were would be more than $50 feet lower
than the surface of the water at the
Portland wharves. Coming up the Ding
ley bay. we had a good view of Rattle
snake mountain, and it seemed to me
wonderfully beautiful. as the almost set
ting sun threw over it's western crags
streams of fiery light. If the Indians
We're very fond of this part of the coun-
try. 1t is easy to see why. Beavers. OF
tiers and the finest fish were abundant, |
and the hills and streams furnished con- |
slant variety. | should have made q good |
Indian If had been born in a wigwam."
Here is a charming sentence from an
other date: Il can from my chamber
window look across into Aunt Manning's |
garden this morning and see little Betsey
Tarbox fitting among the rose-bushes |
and in and out of the arbor like a tinv
WITCH There is nothing in a boys coun-
try play or glimpses of his first little
sweetheart (aged five. and unforgotten in
manhooO different from thousands of
other boys experiences. The charm is