The Washington herald., 1910-07-31
LOUISA ALCOTT'S
HOME CRUMBLING
Residence Familiar to Read
erS Of Little Women"

The best beloved house IN America 10
every girl and 70 some boys. is falling
to ruin, says the Boston Herald
If the shades of Meg. 10, Beth. and
Amy, in their best poplins and with clean
pocket 'hankics" should stray back TO
the quiet. shady town OF Concord, where
they spent their girlhood. they would
see not so many changes as almost half
a hundred gears might be expected TO
make The Did elms have grown state
licr. and the place has changed from real
country 20 country-town. The electric
cars have come within half a mile Of
their old home. but the old street on
which they lived shows little change
ALAS. poor ghosts" who loved 70 quote
from Shakespeare and impersonate Ham
let There at their own gateway they
would notice the greatest change OF all
The old brown house. set far back in a
tangle Of weeds and neglected shrubbery.
is fecked with The shadows from noble
but untri9ned hemlocks, whose close
locked boughs admit hardly a ray OF sun
light Dildocks and plantains grow in
great Clumps on the font lawn; weeds
iill the driveway. The gate says on it's
hinges, and the windows Of the attic
where Meg and 10 dramatized Dickens
novels in the days when Dickens was IN
his prime. is now barred with mslghtIy
wooden Stats. such as no self-respecting
house would endure
The thousands OF children who even
now spend most OF their time playing in
the attic with the adorable Laurie. that
essence OF everything a fourteen-yesr-
/ old girl hopes some day 10 meet. in the
/ kitchen, watching 10 burn the toast. in
the parlor, listening 10 Beth maglcally
bring melody ont of the old plano. or y
! the orchard with Amy. riding Ellen Tree.
would be dismayed at the unhomelike
aspect Of the little house which has been
a second home to half the girls in the
world.
The house is locked. but by making
ones way through the tangle, and avoid
| Ing the threatening branches Of low
/ hanging hemlOcks one can see into the
/ hopelessly bare rooms Of the old house.
Not much TO see, after all; hardly worth
| the short walk from the shabby old front
gate. Unsightly, uneven boards for the
/ floor. tattered scraps of wall paper hang
/ ing on the walls the ceilings cracked and
| ready 10 fall, reward the pilgrimage of
/ those who In imagination spent many
hours OF their childhood somewhere about
this forlorn old house.
Pictures of the old house used to be
I printed and probably still are. in the
frontisp. zee Of every copy Of Little
Women Two stories and a hospitable
/ gable. set in the attic just over the front
/ door, gives all the description needed OF
: the architecture. Somehow. the picture
/ Of that simple. plain house used TO make
! the scene of all the little comedies and
! tragedies of those four remarkable March
/ girls very vivid to the childish readers OF
| the never-old tale. II was the conclu-
slve and definite proof that. after all
the story was true. and not made up out
/ of the authors head There was tbs
house, and there must have been the
J good people and the good times which
! sounded until one looked at the photo
/ graph. almost 700 good TO be true. Chill
dren who still want to keep the image
undisturbed of all the fun that went or
in those MODEST four brown walls had
better never make a pilgrimage to Con
cord.
Dismantled houses. inhabited only by
memories are always pathetic. II is
truism TO say so. But a house, literally
| falling to decay, which was the snul
retreat of all the girls in America anC
half Of those in Europe for the last tire,
decades is too sad altogether to contem
plate. Let it be torn down and join tn,
ghosts of other chid-houses where child
hood was always entertained and mad,
welcome-the House that Jack Built,
and the little green one in the woods
where the wandering Beauty" met tn,
Beast" and the palace where slant
eyed Aladdin took his bride In tn,
realm Of imagination, at least, It's door
will never sag nor its timbers rot.
Concord has plenty of landmarks with
out this, which, anyway. only children
of some thirty years standing, and down
ward, would care about. There is tn
Minute Man" and the bridge that span
the flood. and any number Of house
where far more important authors thar
10 lived and wrote. But. If every cir
who longed once to have the chance a
Laurie, that 10 so heartlessly gave az
should send a 1-cent postage stamp 10
ward a repair fund, il there were one
there would be enough to put the hous
and grounds in apple pie order" as tn
Little Women" used 10 say, and pa,
return postage on the manuscripts OF au
thors who think they could write as goo
a>story as Louisa May Alcott once wrote
for the next 200 years
She Knew.
From the Catholic STANDARD.