Norwich bulletin., 1909-01-29
town, as he had in the 200th annivcr-
sary, but it was not to be.
Donald Grant Mitchell.


sary, but it was not to be.
Donald Grant Mitchell.
| In the days of long ago, when it was
| quite the fashion for our best families
| to occupy seats in the galleries of the
old Second Congregational church of
| Norwich, l have a very distinct and
cherished recollection Of a young man
of striking and distinguished presence
who occupied one of those gallery
| seats to which we were beginning 70
| be driven by the crowded condition of
| the church at the time. He was a
man of rare manly beauty, with
| thoughtful, contemplative, refined fea-
| lures, a head which, it seemed to me.
might well serve as a model Tor some
great sculptor striving to give us a
Phoebus Apollo. A youthful fancy Tor
a great author surrounded that head
| with a halo which only such youthful
fancies can create. THE Reveries OF
Bachelor" and Dream Life" were
then household works among us. and
| Tx Marvel was to me, and to host
of others, a name to conJure with, as IL
still is and will be as long as such
true soul and true artist can touch the
chords of this life of ours as he has
touched them.
At the time 1 speak of he had
reached, perhaps, the age of 40, had
broken away from all expectation or
even dread Of hampering his genius by
a professional life. and had establish
ed his reputation and standing among
the literary lights of the day How
well this career united the rather stern
Calvinistic views of his father, Rev.
Alfred Mitchell. we shall never learn
from the son. If 1t was opposed, we
may surmise that opposition meant
encoura cement in his case, for there
were beautiful. lofty. ennobllng
| thoughts in that Apollo-like head that
had to be uttered. The mans own
benevolent love of his fellowuen could
not allow the world to be so much
| poorer as it would have been without
! the utterance His life stands in rather
marked contrast to the more stirring
lives of Stedman and Gilman, and yet
we would not have it otherwise.
Mr.. Trumbull briefly sketched Mr..
Mitchelrs life and mentioned the books
he had written. Continuing he said
In 1855 we find him settled for the
remainder of his long life on his farm
at E1gewood" where, free to carry
out his own delightful ideals of life,
he spends the rest of his days as farm
err landscape gardener, and, above
all, as man Of letters. On sending
through a third person, list Of books
| to learn of our library could boast of
all the books he had written. the au-
| thor replied in his own characteristic
way: Tell Mr.. Trumbull that his Ii
brary has all the books I have ever
been guilty Of"
To speak of these works after the
analytical manner Of the critic of the
present day is far beyond my sphere
today, and probably never will be
within my sphere. Various opinions
have been expressed by wise men re-
garding these works, as. for example,
that they are moulded upon the pat
tern Of Washington Irving, in the
main: that Battle Summer" on every
| page, however, echoes more or less
distinctly the voice of Carlyle" and
that it may be said of "F'resh Clean
ings" that ''its manner occasionally
suggests SIerne's Sentimental Jour
ney'" To all of which, and to a good
deal more of the same sort, It serves
my purpose to adopt Mitchell's own
laconic and liberal reply to the critics
Of Irving-"Well, perhaps go, perhaps
sol" But that reply would not be
tatiOn. but substituting the name of
Mitchell for Irving: But I love to
think and believe that our dear old
| Mr.. Mitchell was born just where he
would have been born, and wrote in q
way that is hardly worth our while to
try and mend for him"
If l were asked why I am charmed
ny LHe WI4b4uES u O0ildld " -i4ICAcll
it would be difficult for me to say. Is
it the exquisite imagery, the charming
descriptive power Of his language? Is
it the soul-moving pathos that here
and there touches the heart? Is It
the fulluess of true sentiment and the
utter absence OF false sentimen? Is
/ ha wonderful power Of placing
himself and his readers in he very att
mosphere and environment of the
times Of which he treats? Yes, it is
certainly all these. and yet I have not