The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-28
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the Brook Farm experiment as a thing
which had a great and good influence on
American life 1t seems. in fact, that no
intense desire for the uplifting of hui
mainly, however crude and imperfect its
application. can ever be quite lost. This
is the salt which gives life its SAVIOR. 1t
Is not good to taste in the lump, and to
do its work it must gradually lose its
concentration and be distributed through
the whole mass. But if this intense NOR
al purpose does not appear now and then,
there seems to be nothing else which will
quite suffice to do its work. If the salt
loses its SAVIOR, there is nothing by which
the world can be sailed. and it goes rot
ten. Something like this seems TO have
been Curtis conclusion, and so wise and
bioad-n1inded and kindly an observer was
net likely TO be kind to mere fanaticism.
The narrow-minded ranter is the one be-
ing not tolerable TO your man of the
world.
Curtis, in his life at Brook Farm, seems
10 have been one of those who We're not
too busy to impart a sort of lubricant
of courtesy and kindness 10 the we'll
meaning but very mixed crowd of peo-
pie. In the organization of the house
hold economy nobody was at first asked
to serve a waiter, and in the process
ice much confusion came to pass. No
ticing this. Charles A. Dana took 1t up
on himself to organize a squad of wait
ers, with himself at the head and one
of these was Curtis. Here We have in
embryo the same state of things arrang-
ed by Beliamy In Looking Backward"
when he made up his waiter class from
the young men who had not yet learned
their profession. 1t seems to have work
ed remarkably well at Brook Farm. A
lady who was one of the family says
that it seemed very much as if they
were all acting play. The walters were
afterward served with dinner, which had
been kept warm for them, and received
just as good service as they had given
This was only one of the numerous odd
incidents al Brook Farm But the main
part of the book Is not given 10 these
but TO the various delightful people who
lived in and about Boston at the time.
Hawthorne is described as looking 'tas
Webster might have looked had he been
a poet and there are one or two charm
ing glimpses of this man, who was so
silent, shy and reserved that in learning of
his life one feels as if a-curtain were
lifted for an instant before some shrine
There are stories of Emerson. of whom
Curtis says that he does not doubt that
the Lotus grew on the banks of the
Concord behind his house. And there is
a most demurely comcal account of some
Monday Evenings" in Mr.. Emerson's Ii
brary. where intellectual giants gather
ed to munich russell apples and enjoy
sweet converse. The trouble seemed to
be that there was no way to start the
sweet converse. They were as mute as
lot of barrels of hard cider with no.
body to knock out the bung
oil. l,fr
The correspondence of Curtis himself
comes later. although the introduction Is
besprinkled with extracts from his writ
ings. The epistles are very much Ike the
essays which all the world knew later IN
Hampers. Those were 1.-THE days when
people wrote letters. Nowadays the
world moves too fast for that amuse-
ment. or else the letters have all been
written by our grandfathers.
There is much talk of music and mu-
sicians in this book. as was natural, since
Curtis correspondent Dwight was for
years the musical autocrat of Boston.
Perhaps the most notable musical event
of which it speaks Is the coming of Ole
Bull. In letter dated Saturday night,
November %, '4S" Curtis writes as fol-
lows:
am Just from hearing Ole Bull, who this
evening made his first appearance in America.
/ now, while the new vision of beauty that he
caused to sweep by still fingers? Yet itself
shall inspire me- The presence Of so noble man
alures to light whatever nobility lies in US.
He came forward TO house crowded in every
part, with the calm simplicity of Genius There
was no grimace, no graces, but fine grace that
adorned his presence and assured one that moth
ing could disappoint-that the simplicity OF the
man the seal and crown of his genius.
fair-haired robust, inely-formed man, the full
bloom of health shining his face, he appeared
as the master Of the great instrument, the
successor, in point of time, of the world-famous
Paganini. Yet one confident that here was
imitator, but pupil who had sat thought
fully at the masters feet and felt that beneath
the depth of his expression there was yet
lower depth, who knew himself conseerated by
will grander than his will 10 the service OF an
art so divine and so loved. In him there was
that sure prophecy OF latent power which
rounds genius, and assures US that the thing done
is an echo only and shadow OF the possible per-
Torrance.
The playing followed this simple, majestic APP
pearance 1t was full OF music, irregular, wild.
yearning. trembling His violin hay upon his
arm tenderly as living thing; and such rich,
mellow, silver, shining tones followed his mo-
ton that one seemed to catch echoes of that
eternal melody whereof music itself is but the
shadow and presentment The adagios reminded
me Of Beethoven, not as they were initiated, but
as all the great ones, in their appearing, sum
rnoning all the rest The mechanical execution
was faultless / detected thick note. 1t
smooth as the sea of summer embosomng only
deep cloud shadows and the full sunlight but
lesser thing Then he came, and he withdrew;
and my heart followed him.
The influence of Emerson is plainly
visible in some of these letters, but not
even Transcendentalfsm can explain one
peculiar statement which appears in the
midst of some reflections on the reform
of the world The thing becomes less
however. when one sees that
1t is not George William Curtis, but the
printer who is to blame. Possibly, If
this book had been printed in classic
Cambridge. the printer would not have
ton; but as it is one paragraph reads:
A nobleman uses the pen with which. lust
now, the coal scrawled his bill, and turns
off epic with the fife that in the band so
sadly pierced He moves our trudging
lives to the beauties of golden measures.
Take that period away from its pres
ent position and place it after "epic," be-
ginning the next sentence with the fife
and you are spared the puzzling assertion
that even a nobleman can turn off an
epic with that instrument of music Cur
tbs was transcendental, but not so crazy
as that. (New York: Harper & Bros)
sfThe Land of Manana.v
Tales From the Land of Manana" Is
a little book in q brilliant red cover,
written by G. Cunyngham-Cunnin
That is the order in which it's salient
points strike the prospective reader First,