Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-07-25
was almost wholly Dutch, but his

picture was as much too grOtesque
as Hawthorne's was too grim.
There is no open minded student
of the records of either New Eng
land or New York in colonial days
who believes that all the New Eng
landers were either strait. laced or
superstitious, or that all the progeni-
tors of those who proudly proclaimed
themselves of Knickerbocker stock
were as comic-operatically "thick"
in their headpieces as "Diedrich
Knickerbocker" proclaims them.
HAWTHORNE A STRANGE MAN.
Hawthorne was as singular as he
was gifted. He was reserved to the
point of ultra.shyness, even with
those whom he knew to be the kind
est of men. John G. Whittier, who
was supposed to have known Haw-
thorne better than most, said not
long before hiy death:
"Hawthorne was strange puzzle.
! never felt quite sure whether
knew him or not. He never seemed
to be doing anything, and yet he
never liked to be disturbed at it,"
Hawthorne's closest friend during
all the latter years of his life was
Horace Ingersoll, of Salem. They
first met at New Haven, Conn, in
1928, and until Hawthorne's death,
in 1864, were close friends and never
separted for long.
In his old age MIR. Ingersoll, who
lived to be nearly ninety and died
only fifteen or sixteen years ago,
used to like to talk about his old
friend Hawthorne. Ingersoll was
subject to frightful fits of temper,
which led to occasional periods of
coldness between them. Their great
est falling out was over Hawthorne's
loss of the plot of "Evangeline," !"
which Longfellow used in his poem
of that name.
lngersoll heard the story from a
Mrs. Halliburton, of Boston. Not
being writer himself he retold it to
Hawthorne, who said he would write
novel based upon it. Six years
passed, and Ingersoll, who knew
Longfellow, told the story to him.
Longfellow, either recognizing it's
value more than Hawthorne had, or
being more industrious, lost no time
in embalming its details in his haunt
ing verse.
In his later years Ingersoll used to
show with pride the presentation
autographed copy, which the poet
sent to him, recalling with amuse-
ment that he attempted, when tell
ing the story to Longfellow to indi-
cate how it should be written.
Lor gfellow did not follow instruc-
tions very closely; still Ingersoll
said he had no cause to complain.
"You should have heard Haw-
thorne rave, after the book came
OUT" said Ingersoll to a friend. "EIe
was 80 mad with himself and with
me, because he had not written the
novel, that he did not get over it for
some time. l don't think he ever
fully forgave me for telling the story
to Longfellow."
HAwTHoRNE's PERSONAL ROMANCE.
Many of his friends knew of
Hawthorne's personal romance-that
though he married Sophia Peabody,
he was engaged to her older sister,
Elizabeth, before he ever met the
younger one. A chronicler, writing
after Hawthorne's death, wrote thus
of the change in Hawthorne's affec-
tions:
".He was instantly attracted to
Sophia Peabody, and, though the
young people strove against their
mutual attraction, it came to the
knowledge of the elder sister, who
told them at once that her heart had
room for them together as we'll as
separately, and she proved it by her
life and by her devotion to them"
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