Show z POET WHITTIER ills own account of his lifo a HOMO family lna work new lork times mr john 0 whittler wrote the following sketch of his life a few years ago at the of fir t bends 1 I was born on tile of dat cember 1807 in easterly par of haverhill abass in tho bouee built by my first american once ter years ago my futher will a farmer in moderate cincu a man of good natural ability and sound judgment for a great many years he was one of the se of the town and vas often called upon to act as arbitrator in matters at issue between neighbors my mother was abigail hussey of rollinsford Rol linsford N 11 A bachelor uncle and a maiden both of whom I 1 remember with much at faction fec tion lived in the family the farm was not a profitable one it WAS bordered bOr deDed with debt nod we bad no mone but with strict economy we ved L and respectably both my parents veto members of the society of friends I 1 bad and two aisters ei was somewhat lonely half bidden in oak woods with no house in eight aad we had few cam age and few occa 6 ions of recreation on ly for twelve weeks in a ye ar in the depth of winter and half a mile distant at an early age I 1 WAS set at work on the farm and doing errands for tay mother who in addition to her ardi nar y house duties was b nay in g and weaving the linen and woolen cloth needed ili the family on first D ja so father and mother and so ill e times one of the child reli rode da friends meeting house in amesbury eight miles distant I 1 think I 1 rather enjoyed staying at home and wandering in the woods or climbing job s hill which rose abruptly from the brook which rippled down at the foot of our barden F rom the top of the bill I 1 could see the blue outline of the dierfield mountains in new hampshire and the solitary peak of aga metticus men on the coast oklaine A curving line of morning mist marked the course of the Aler and great away from the foot of the bill toward the village of haverhill hidden from bight by hills and woods but which sent to us the sound of its two church bells we had only about 20 volumes of books most of them the journals jou of n ministers in our society ml r only annual vas tin alvanize alm aniZe I 1 was barly fund of reading and now and then heard of a book of biography or travel and walked miles to borrow it when I 1 wai 14 years old my first schoolmaster joshua able eccentric historian of new bury brought with him to our bm SH mellba erdt from lie read greatly to my delight I 1 begged him to leave the book with me and set myself at once to the task of the glossary of the scottish dialect at its close this was about the first poetry I 1 had ever read with the axce tion of that of the bible of I 1 had been a close student and it bad a lasting influence upon me I 1 began to make rhymes myself and to imagine stories nod ad ventures in fact I 1 lived a sort of dual life and in a world of fancy as well as in the world of plain mat ter of fact about me my father always had a weekly newspaper and when young garrison start ed at Newburyport be took it in the place of the haverhill gazelle my si iter vibo was two years older than myself sent oue of in y poetical attempts to the editor some weeks the news carrier along on horseback anti threw the paper out from his saddlebags siddle bags my uncle and I 1 were mending fences I 1 took tip the sheet and was surprised and over joyed to see my lines in the corner I 1 stood gazing at them in wonder and my uncle bad to call me several times to m a k before I 1 could recover myse 17 eon after garrison asime to our farmhouse and I 1 wits called in from be in i 11 the cornfield to see him ma e cou raged me and urged my father to sand me to school I 1 gouged for education but the means to procure it were wanting luckily the young man who worked for us on the farm in summer eked out his small income by taking i shoes and slippers in the winter and I 1 learned enough of him to earn a bum sufficient to carry me through a term of eai months in the haverhill academy lext gvinter I 1 ventur c d upon another expedient for tal 9 money an d kept district ell 0 0 I 1 in the a ing town of amesbury thereby ell abling me to lave another academy term the next winter I 1 spent in boston writing for a paper ate turning in the spring while at work n the farm I 1 was surprised at an invitation to tako charge of the hartford conn review in the place of the famous george D prentice who bad removed to ken tu c ky I 1 bad sent him a of my 8 cheol compositions wh ich he bad received favorably 1 was unwilling to lose the chance of doing more in accordance with in y taste and though I 1 felt my un fitness for the place I 1 accepted it and rema tied nearly two I 1 was called home by the illness of my father who died soon after I 1 then took charge of the farm and worked hard to make both ends rod aided by my mothers and aisters gi thrift and in some measure succeeded As a member of the society of frie nd I 1 had been educated to r e gard slavery as a great and dangerous evil and my sympathies were wrongly enlisted for tile oppressed laves ly my intimate acquaint pee with william lloyd garrison when the litter started h is paper in vermont in 1828 1 wrote him a letter commending big views i upon slave ry in I 1 am arance erance and war anti ut he was destined ANZ to d C reat things in 1833 I 1 wasa delegate to the first national and 1 a t I 1 I 1 14 0 Y I 1 1 re r e slavery in philadel phia was one of the secretaries of the convention and signed its declaration in 1835 1 was in the massachusetts legislature I 1 was mobbed in concord N II 11 in com with george thompson Thom peon after ward member of the bithell parlia went nod narrowly nari ca called from great danger I 1 kept Tho nippon chose life was hunted for concealed couce aled lit our lonely farmhouse for two weeks I 1 was in boston do rill the great mob in NV ashington st reet soon after and was threatened with personal per nonal violence in 1837 1 was in new york in caf action with henry B stanton anbu 1 D aveld in the office of the amar 1 i can anti avery society il a tient year I 1 took of the ll 11 ri eyan an organ vf tile antislavery anti slavery society my of lice was sacked and burned by a jtb soon after but I 1 continued in y t aper until my health failed when returned to massachusetts the form in haverhill had in the inc I 1 n time been sol and toy mother aun taud sister had moved to amesbury noar the meetinghouse and I 1 took up my residence with them all this time I 1 had beon actively engaged in writing for the anti slavery caun in 1833 I 1 printed at my own oz pease an edition of my farat pamphlet Justice and expediency with tile exception of a few dollars from the democratic and buck agazine ga zine I 1 received 1106 thing for my poems and liter a ry articles T ray pronounced cei views on slavery made my name too unpopular for A publishers uses I 1 edited in 1844 the bifid standard and afterward became associate of the A atio nall era ut I 1 early SAW the necessity of separate political action on the part of abolitionists and wass one of the the liberty party the germ of the pr besent republican party 0 in 1857 an edition of my cam poems up to that time was published by ticknor in war time followed in 1864 and in snow bound in 1860 I 1 was chosen a member of the electoral college of and also in 1864 I 1 have been a member of the board of overseers a of brown university but while feeling jiuing to meet all the re of citizenship and deeply interested in questions ions which concern ake welfare and honor of the country I 1 bave as a rule de overtures for it of public stations I 1 have always taken an active part in elect ions but have not been w 1 illine to adl my own example to the greed of office 1 I have been a member of tb 0 society of friends by birthright and by a settled conviction of the truth at its principles and the importance of its testimonies while at the same time I 1 have a kindly feeling toward RII those who tire seeking in ent ways from mine to serve god and benefit their fellow men neither tal ml of aa i lq every way died in 1839 ilia brother franklin kittier Mit tier died in 1882 health was never robust I 1 inherited from both my parents a sensitive nervous temperament and one of my earliest recollections recollect ious 1 is of pain in m y head from which I 1 have r ed all my life for runny yeara I 1 have not been able tar read or write for more than balfan hour at a time often not a 0 long of late i my hearing has been defective but in many ways I 1 have been blessett bless etl far beyond my deser and grateful to the divine providence I 1 tranquilly await the close of a life which has been and on the whole happier than I 1 had reason to expect 1 although altho far daffier ent from that which I 1 had dreamed of in youth my experience confirms tile words kofold time th a t lit Is not in man who walseth ta direct his steps claiming no exemption from the sins and folly of our com man humanity I 1 dare not complain of their inevitable penalties I 1 have bad to lea tn renunciation nd aub mission and 11 knowing that providence its care Is choing in the withdrawal as in the bestowing scarcely I 1 dare for more or less to pray 11 GOOD listeners LiST exERS nowhere will x find a better sister than martha eipl h watches over the domestic of her brother with the truest devotion ilia gloves are always in choir place his coat always brushed nor ig he ever exposed to tile mortification of putting on 9 clean shirt and fi i adin too late that it has a button lacking in one et only does martha come short of the ideal sister would you like me to read something aloud to you says coming into tile room where adartha sits by the fire knitting me winter socks 1 I have just got the now number of the with my article about the vowel sounds in sanskrit in it delightful cries martha thus encouraged I 1 begins to read giving every word i lla due weight a only authors do presently he Is aware of a low undercurrent ol 01 sound ile pauses and catches the mystic syllables knit one purl ono knit two tomother tom ther 11 1 I am afraid you find it a lichtle dry be suggests wistfully martha that though she is counting her stitches she is listening all the ahil 0 and enjoying it ian densely men sely B lit th 0 readers ceasr 0 is gone 31 artlia Is an a woman why does she not listen chambers Jour I 1 I 1 I 1 A dont chew Landin you the fictive omni cocktail or chew alio amplo todd if oil will but ow bysted shou if 1 I be mutilated as little as IK 1 ble vever chew a raw oyster if you love it A man of true politeness Poli tenes S I 1 alifi coln journal there is a restaurant rant waiter in coin who deser to bo honorade A patron said to him await r I 1 n 0 those molasses aad he ried 1 1 l re low many L |