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. Once upos was little comntry town there was a poor. farmers boy who hasi! work very hard.'ta: get shie-daily bread. he was no ten years old aad learned all that he con] apt stodenk--and when he was only Tat at district achook..No doubt, his ood father and mother: thought that= was sufficien for a boy in his circumstances to know, sad Ree glad that he had learned enough to on the farm:in sulsible time. But, stray, eay, be try on to wished: ‘to get more for a bite of the sweet apple of learning, and so he said, What else is there to know ?: A friend offered to teach him the Latin’ to learn ‘had ‘no poor as he, had no money to give him to ba gage. He wanted it, but a grave objection arose. They lexicon, and “his friend, who was al one. Here ‘was an obstacle, indeed, and Theodore's: ‘little-head was soon at work to overcome it. We can now imagine how he revolved the diffeulty in hiamind. We know well {hat’a‘thought’of not’ getting it finally never entered into that determined brain of his. He had only ‘one way of making money to’ pick” whorilbberries and ‘gell them at three cets'a quart. “Off he ‘went to the pas ture, and, ‘after awhile, the dictionary, tha tat book he-owdend -wan-his,. Let us go to its last resting-place while he‘owned it, and see what’ company the book ‘found in its ld age: Oped the doore on which in the wooden door-plate, 30 familiar to manya of the house in Exeter Place, Botton, and go into what, ie saw famous ground. Up the Brat atair-cead catch:a glimpse of the tong:parlor, papered with rare volumes on a large part of one side + see the “old clock on the stairs” —it has tick ed out the lives of many of the family beside him ; then go up other flights, until you reach the upper story. Brush against the Queen's arm that his ancestor carried on Lex ington Green, April 18, 1775; and you stand in a room extending the whole length of the house—Theodore Parker's library. Here, by the back window, stands his desk ; on it a M manuscript partly in cipher, and partly is handwriting almost is illegible, and tre lit. No Pariati busts, one of Jesus, and the other of Spartacus. Here is the wooden inkstand, out of the blackness of which, at his master's touch, there sprang 30 many living, glowing images, Isis large and heavy enough to be the very same that Martin Luther threw at the Evil Ore. Today, we can of plainly sea where this ink stained the wall of bigoted prejudice, as the mark made by the old refor mer on the wall of the old room in Germany. Parker aged to have ‘a picture of Daniel Webster hanging, before him. but one day, in March of a certain year, he came in, almost in tears, and took it down, never to be re turned. But we forgot the dictionary—were it is! It is not lonely now; it as ouoy thousand companions, written in thirty dif ferent languages, all but two of which the owner could read. '. Essays, biographies, arts, sciences, poetry ; ballads of England, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and many oth er lands;: dictionaries, gazetteers, and encyclo pedias; maps of every clime from New Eng land to the region of the White Nile; musty ‘black-letter folios bound in vellum, and still fitted with the chains that’ suspended them to some medieval monkish cell, side by side with the spruce Washington issue of today ; of the floor and chairs, piled three orour deep on the shelves, on the walls and alcoves, a labyrinth of literature, of which he only held the thread to find the way through, ''o him they were not visitors, but all quti tate friends. .Now they are last in the sew of the Public Library, of the City of Boston. Poor unfortunates, when will they ever find such a fesent as he again? Most of them Must keep their sympathies pent up until they molder or are eaten by worms.would that the library had been left forever in its place a Mecca for scheluts to seek to pay each this devotion to the great mind that gathered them, for ‘the silent orgnt lowest chants ‘The mastery requium.” Once, when he was asked to preach one of his tender sermons, instead of the terribly in vective that was expected from him, is the town to which he was going, he said: “First cut down the great pmks and pines, avt then you can plant Indian corn.” Theodore Par ker was a pioneer in a rew world of thought. Alone he stood and saw towering far above him, the huge sins, errors and mistakes that prevented the gentle, fruitrees of humanity and religion from taking root. He said “This will never do.” So he ground his heavy axe to a keenness which many a trans gressor knew, and unshed in right and lef.— Perhaps, he might have left a few more trees for shade sod ornament than he did. It would have been more comfortable for ux peaceful settlers, who follow him far behind ; but then they will soon grow again. He was a brave old Puritan, His very warmth of heart and strength of goal led him to excesses in his denunciation of bigotry and lalsehood. Can we judge him,you and I? Can we ever see how fast he was?, No— Let us try to rear the fruita of Loveas faith fully,as he tore down the barriers of Fear.— He was a man, in the fullest sense of the Word—budian, not divine , He had great faults,overbalanced by great virtues He was infidel to overs, begins of error and ain, pact. Fanatic on eye port of freedom, jus _tice and truth. Widely as many: honestly differ from thin in this speculative theology, no one can deny him vast erudition, deep re ligiousness, faultless morality, and conscien tious Bidelity to great and true reforms and shorities. He would never leave any sin we re baked, allow a poor man or woman to want for bread, deny a tremblio,. fugitive the sup port of his brave heart an ‘earlane host, nor let'a_bright boy need the means to help him to an éducation.. America needs him now the most, ‘fearlessly to announce the truth— ‘to point the way, over his pulpit at the Ma ile Hall, for her statesmen and -generals to follow... in: Have we forgotten. him 7. Shall we for get him?” No, not while there is. lef ore of the many weary sense— ' . ‘An infant crying ie the night—, . _.. Who, groping blindly . for », better and better hie, has felt, in the darkness, his strong hand take. theirs, and. has heard his tender voice whispering, Fereed come up higher.” Oh, there has been a void in our hearts;and in the soul of our sation, ‘vnce: ‘Theodore Parker, 9 modern . Setson Agonistes, in the full laxaziance ‘of this match, sees intellect, summoning ‘all his unequaled ‘powers, clashed together the massive columna that upheld the temple of errror and.crime, and fearlessly bared. .himself in the pain— The Moxiter.’ ~ Sarr! Divnn: Hopem Dasencris—The Vicksburg Citizen of Mu tered.down and watterly. 28rd. mye, Tha Yandals have.come. off their bogie and bat ty x. ‘Gumingl Waa Spes. asked what save the rat step that leg him’ to rpin.‘—He answered : “Cheating 9 ° printer agi ‘of to ears’ subscription.”:' ‘The devil wan gure of yale that. :
Newspaper Details
Hartford Home League
Hartford, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Jun 21, 1862
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Dean G.
USA 12 Jun 2026
Other Publications Near Hartford, Wisconsin
Hartford Home League
Hartford Press
