Thomas Wentworth Higginson; the story of his life

Preface

The preparation of a volume which should tell briefly and simply the story of Colonel Higginson's life, and as nearly as possible in his own words, has involved examining and sifting a great mass of manuscripts. Happily he shared with his contemporaries a reluctance, not felt by the present generation, to destroy letters, journals, or memoranda. To those who have assisted my difficult task by the loan of letters and the contribution of personal memories, cordial thanks are due ; and no less to the unknown friends who have written to signify their interest and say Godspeed. Let me also express warm gratitude to those literary friends of Colonel Higginson whose^ sympathy, advice, and criticism

have been invaluable.

M. T. H.

Contents

I. Inheritance i

II. An Old-Fashioned Home 10

III. The Boy Student 23

II

It is a curious fact, considering his vigorous manhood, that the infant Wentworth was at one time delicate, and according to family belief was kept alive by the juices of chicken bones. In after years, Mrs. Higginson wrote this letter, December 26, 1861: —

" Your birthday was remembered and honored by gratitude and praise, remembering as I did the poor half dead baby that I had for so long walked about in my arms and fed religiously according to direction every two hours, bearing hope in my heart when there seemed no hope, and even the most experienced doctors gave him up; how could I be but grateful and exultant when I think of my stalwart son, the Day Star of my Life! "

"Too many babies" is the concise label with which Wentworth, the man, indorsed a letter written by his Aunt Nancy in 1824, in which she says: —

"I believe I have not written you since the birth of our young Thomas Wentworth. I meant to have announced to you the arrival of the Stout Gentleman. . . . Our Wentworth grows such a mountain — that we think sometimes it would be well to ask Mr.

AN OLD-FASHIONED HOME n

Perkins to invent some kind of a steam-engine whereby to tend him this summer — for we have some misgivings concerning the strength of our arms. . . . Oh, dear! if this would only be the last blessing of the sort which was to fall to our happy lot. Surely we ought to be resigned — even if our hard fate should condemn us to count only eleven [living] children.' '

A quaint relic of those days survives in the shape of an old English mahogany washstand, containing a tiny concealed tub in which the Higginson babies were bathed. This extraordinary tub is drawn out by brass handles like a drawer, and with it come the supporting legs. All the children who grew up under the influence of their faithful Aunt Nancy did her credit. Francis became a physician, but was too generous and tender-hearted to make a worldly success. Stephen was a merchant, and the only one of the flock who had a large family of his own. He was in South America during most of Wentworth's childhood, but wrote charming letters addressed to " Bro. S.'s little man." Waldo, whom the irrepressible Thacher called a "thunderm* dandy/ ' was the soul of honor and chivalry, although his brave life was partially crippled by paralysis. Neither of the two sisters was married. Louisa, brilliant, accomplished, and considered the genius of the family, became — for a time — a Roman Catholic. Learning, however, that according to the belief of the Church her Protestant mother could not be ultimately " saved," she, to use her own words, "saw the door open and walked out." Anna, the self-effacing, domestic sister, outlived most of the others.

The pet of the Higginson family was — naturally — little Tommy as he was then called. Soon he was only known as Wentworth, and the S tor row was dropped. Our earliest glimpses of him are found in his mother's diary. They show how the child foreshadowed the man and also reveal the happy home in which he was reared. Indeed, we can almost breathe the atmosphere of that home when we read such sentences as these: "A large Damask rose bush sends its fragrance into one of our parlour windows and the yellow sweet briar waves its long wreaths into the other. . . . We read and work and walk and play and study German and laugh and talk and then there is nothing but smiles and sunshine to be seen."

When Wentworth was not quite four, he went to a Dame School kept by a Miss Jennison. He also went to dancing-school in a private house. His mother writes : —

"We . . . have been quietly seated at our work . . . only interrupted by little Wentworth's rampant spirits before he went to bed. He spells to me every night in sister's little book. Last night he read ' God Reigns/ He looked up at me and asked, 'What does God do with the reins ?'"

At bedtime, one night, he announced, "Now I am going to d'eam something proper funny." Thus early began his lifelong interest in dreams.

Again she writes : —

"A very quiet happy day though a storm, engaged in making my little boy's clothes all day, while he [has been] by my side, reading or playing ... he has been part of the time catching fish 'in 'ahant [Nahant].' . . . Between daylight and dark he plays Waldo is his Custard Pudding, and after beating and stuffing him, he roasts him in the oven; then after supper he takes his books. . . .

"We have been highly amused with Wentworth to-night ... he [said he] could draw the 'Possum up the gum tree' ... he made some marks on the paper and then showed them to me saying as he pointed, ' there 's the possum up the gum tree, there 's the raccoon in the hollow, there 's catch-him-up-myboy, there's give-him-half-a-dollar ' ; this indication of genius excited universal acclamation."

The maternal chronicle does not relate the story that Colonel Higginson enjoyed telling about one of his childhood's books which contained a rather too vivid description of a wolf's cave. The careful mamma had pasted strips of paper over the objectionable parts, but Master Wentworth succeeded in removing these precautions and the lurid words remained forever fixed in his memory.

One of his methodical habits was to make lists of his possessions, his friends, or his achievements. One cold winter night, when his brothers were wondering where an extra blanket could be found, one of them cried, "Ask Wentworth. He probably has a list of blankets in his pocket!"

The older brothers, Thacher and Waldo, went to a boy's school kept by William Wells, an Englishman, in an old colonial house, still to be seen on Brattle Street (then Tory Row), Cambridge. To this school Wentworth was promoted at the age of eight, and there he remained for five years, until he was fitted for college. His acquaintance with James Russell Lowell began here, the latter being one of the older pupils. There is an amusing letter from Lowell to Thacher Higginson which Colonel Higginson later framed and hung in his library.

"My dear Thach, —

"In the course of human events when the mind becomes indued with active spirit, with powerful imagination, with extensive enterprise, with noble designty — Then, my boy, Then! is the time to return to you this — Sallust.

"Yrs.

The first sight of " Jimmy Lowell " made a lifelong impression on the younger boy's mind as the former came galloping to school on a little white pony, although he lived only a few rods distant. Wentworth's own home was a mile away, and he often dined at the school. Afterward he recalled with amusement the fact that the old custom of serving pudding before meat lingered there. Athletic sports, as well as the humanities, were warmly encouraged by Mr. Wells, and the afternoons spent in cricket, football, and skating on Fresh Pond were always remembered with boyish glee. After leaving the school, his brother Waldo wrote thus to the younger boy about Mr. Wells: —

"There are few men that I like better, and I came to this state of feelings through some hard floggings, which I am glad your better behaved shoulders have escaped.' '

When Wentworth was nine, his mother recorded that he had read a great many books and was especially fond of natural history. A year later, she added that he had mastered the Latin grammar. The following summary of Wentworth's virtues from the same, perhaps not unbiased, source, may well bring the maternal records to an end: —

"He has genuine refinement and delicacy, with manliness and power of controlling himself and a sense of right, governing his thoughts and actions — which command my respect as much as if he was a grown man. ... I never [saw] one who was more thoughtful and considerate of others — though he has been the youngest and an object of uncommon interest."

The old habit of preserving family correspondence was never abandoned by Colonel Higginson. These little letters were written between the boy's tenth and thirteenth years in a round clear script: —

"Dear Aunt: —

" Henry [a cousin] left us today. The stage comes to Davenport's tavern [North Cambridge] ; so he had to go up there and meet it. . . .

"We had [to] wait a long time for the stage and at last it came, with 6 white horses. . . . Fast Day Henry and me went up to Prospect-Hill [Somerville]. Unluckily the mill was not going, but we ran round and saw lots of little fortifications, and found an old well nearly covered with a large stone which I have heard was made in the Revolution. I brought home two stones from it."

To his brother in Maryland he wrote when eleven years old : —

"I have got 5 more Waverley Novels since you have been gone: Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Pirates, and the 1st and 2nd Series of Chronicles of the Canongate, besides Peveril of the Peak which you left behind. Sunday School is in the Courthouse

STEPHEN HIGGINSON, I/7O-1834 now. ... I shall like to hear about a fox-hunt. Are there any slaves at Mr. Martini, and do they blow a conch in the morning to collect them? ... I read the Spectator a few days ago."

Aunt Nancy received the two following letters: —

"How are you? ... I am reading the Tales of a Grandfather and like them very much. ... I am learning the conjugation of the verb parler, to speak. ... I think that I shall go into Caesar, after the vacation, at school. ... I have seen some snowdrops already in Mrs. Carpenter's yard. I meant to ask her for some the other day, but she was not at home. I am learning to waltz now. Several days ago, there was a fire here. It was at the Lyceum. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I heard Henry saying 'Oh Tommy there is a fire. , I looked out of the window and saw a blaze. ... I asked Sister Anna, if we might [go] and she said we might if we would not go beyond the common fence. We went and; when we got there we found people in abundance. As we were going along, Thornton [Ware] caught up with us having in each hand one of his father's firebuckets. He seemed to be quite at home there. There were a great many blankets, &c, hanging on the fence. . . . Some burnt papers were found as far as Dr. Holmes's. There were a great many books thrown out of the window. ... I suppose I have not given you a very good description of the fire, but it is as good as I can give. I was glad to receive your knife, for I wanted it very much. Tell brother

Stephen that I took the schooner that I was making when he came here, to pieces. I am now making a sloop instead of it. I think this is a pretty long letter, so Goodbye. Love to all.

''Your affectionate nephew,

"Wentworth."

"Dear Aunt Nancy, —

"I have just been reading 'Pride and Prejudice* and ' Horse-Shoe Robinson,' a book by the author of 'Swallow Barn/ both which are very entertaining. I have also read Miss Burney's 'Cecelia.'"

To his mother he thus recounted his doings: —

" I will now tell you of our May party. We met on the 30th of April at 5 a.m. just down by Thornton's to choose a queen. . . . Afterwards we went to Mount Auburn and walked and played until 10 o'clock when we came home. ... I forgot to say that as [we] were going to Mount Auburn we stopped a little while at Mrs. Foster's and she gave us some cake. We found no flowers except half blown anemones."

" Dearly-Beloved Mother, —

' '"The miniature tigresses' (that is Aunt Nancy,

and Mrs. ) being absent, I sit down, away from

the discord of feminine voices, which there usually is when I write! What do you think of that? . . . Aunt Nancy will hardly ever show me any of your letters, for she says you always write sentiment to her, and sublunary things to the rest of us.

"I had a splendid time on the fourth of July. I went into Boston ... for the sake of seeing the fireworks in the evening. I walked in with Thornton, at about 10 A.M. . . . The children were delighted to see 'Tommy,' as they both called me. I played 'me hidey' with Lizzy for ever so long. We saw several companies go by. At last came the grand pageant. . . . After dinner we went down onto Long, Central, and India Wharves, on board of a great many vessels, and had fine fun."

And this is his comment on the fireworks: —

"Suffice it to say that I never in the whole course of my long life saw such a beautiful sight."

To his mother he again writes at the age of twelve: —

"The books that I have read lately have been the 1 Heiress ' and 'The Select British Poets,' a great

big book. . . . William has gone on a whaling

voyage for two years and a half, round Cape Horn. Aunt N. thinks this is very well for him."

The last paragraph is explained by a sentence in Higginson's "Old Cambridge" which says, "Cambridge boys were still sent to sea as a cure for naughtiness."

At about this time, in 1834, Wentworth's father died. Two years later Mrs. Higginson sold the Kirkland Street house and removed to a smaller one on Garden Street, which had been built by her son

Francis. This house is no longer standing, having been absorbed by Radcliffe College. Wentworth wrote this description of a visit to their former

home : —

April 13, 1836.

" I went to our [old] house to see the auction. Mr. Morse begun with the dining-room, then went to the back parlour and then to the study. The champagne bottles sold for 4! cents apiece; the clock for $3! ; and a little table in there for 1 cent. . . . There was an old curious chair, which Mr. Morse finding he could not sell, broke. I was much obliged to him for I got a nice bat by it."

Occasionally a bit of autobiography is found among the old letters, as this : —

" I vividly remember when I first swam above my depth in the Charles River. We boys had been learning to swim at a point in the river not far from the willows where we played and read Spenser's ' Faerie Queene.' The first time I swam across from one point to another in this river was perhaps the proudest moment of my life. I had no feeling of fear, but one of great confidence. All along Mt. Auburn St. on the side bordering the river were apple trees and no houses."

At the age of twelve the boy kept a diary of his own, from which it appears that one of his amusements was attending lectures on such subjects as these: The French Revolution, Ancient History, the poet Southey, and miscellaneous lectures by "Rev. Waldo Emerson.' '

The habit of omnivorous reading, which clung to him through his long life, can always be taken for granted. At this period he read "Philip Van Artevelde," always a favorite, for the third time. A little later he speaks of spending many half-days in bookstores.

During all these evidences of unusual maturity, compared with the slower juvenile development of to-day, the record shows a healthy interest in boyish amusements and activities. For instance : —

"Went to see Signor Blitz the juggler, Court House; produced 2 rabbits, guinea pig and cat from a tin."

He was fond of visiting the ruins of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, the burning of which had made a great impression on his youthful mind, and which seems to have first aroused his love for religious tolerance. He walked often to Boston and spent a good deal of time at Mount Auburn or ' ' Sweet Auburn." In his Decoration Day address at Sanders Theatre, in 1904, he thus alluded to the old playground : —

11 1 remember our great cemetery, Mount Auburn, when it was not yet a cemetery, but was called Sweet Auburn still; when no sacred associations made it sweeter, and when its trees looked down on no funerals but those of the bird and the bee."

In the boyish record of walks and games, girls of his acquaintance are often mentioned, and not always with deference, as when he lost a philopena to

Henrietta B and exclaimed, " Confound her!"

These girl friends seem to have been known by symbolic names, as he often speaks of meeting " Poetry," on the street, or walking with " Sensibility" or "Spinster." The boys also rejoiced in nicknames, for "Soap" and "Broadsides" are frequently mentioned, and it is stated that "no one danced with Sensibility except Broadsides."

These were happy, care-free days. But a new and thrilling experience was at hand. It was a proud day in Wentworth's life when, at the age of thirteen (1837), he began a student's life at Harvard, entering the freshman class which contained forty-five members, of whom he was the youngest.

Ill

In his college days, Wentworth Higginson was uncomfortably tall, shy, and reserved. He presented a curious combination of qualities — intellectual precocity with immaturity of character, and a marked love of study with great fondness for athletic sports. He was given to self-analysis, inclined to be somewhat sentimental, and, partly owing to his extreme youth, was not popular among his fellow-students. His only intimate friend in the freshman class was Francis E. Parker, who always held the place of first scholar, and who later became a prominent Boston lawyer. The two boys were rivals in rank and two years apart in age. Under date of May 22, 1839, Parker wrote of his young classmate, then a sophomore: "I like Wentworth rather, quite well. He is now young but a good scholar — tolerable looking, awkward.' '

There were other members of the class of 1841 who attained distinction in later life. Among them were the Boston physicians, Dr. Edward Clarke and Dr. Francis Minot. Two of the men took high rank as officers in the Union army; and the list of those who made their mark includes Henry F. Durant, the founder of Wellesley College. An intimate friend who entered college two years after Wentworth was Levi Thaxter, later the ardent student of Browning and FitzGerald. He did much to guide wisely young Higginson's literary tendencies.

The lifelong friendship between Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Edward Everett Hale also began while they were undergraduates. In some of the former's unpublished notes is this comparison: —

" There was a curious parallel in some respects between the life of Edward Everett Hale and my own. He is nearly two years older than myself, graduated at Harvard College two years before me (1839); each of us having the second rank in his class, a time when much more was thought of college rank than now. There were analogies also in physical matters between Hale and myself in some directions which had perhaps a bearing on the later problem of old age. Each of us was six feet tall; each of us combined the love of three studies which are rarely combined — Greek, mathematics, and natural history — and had on this last point the invaluable influence of Dr. Thaddeus William Harris, librarian, botanist, and entomologist. Each of us, therefore, was tempted out of doors, a very desirable temptation to naturally studious boys, and likely to strengthen their constitutions."

From the same notes the following reminiscences are taken: —

"When I entered Harvard College an * Abstract of Laws and Regulations ' of the University was given me. The one thing that now seems of peculiar interest in that circular is an item headed, ' Dress. On Sabbaths and Exhibition days, and on all public occasions, each student in public shall wear a black or blackmixed coat, with buttons of the same color/ What would a student think, today, of this regulation!

"While in college I took an active interest in all athletic exercises, kicked football assiduously in the autumn on the so-called Delta where Memorial Hall now stands. We also played cricket of the old-fashioned kind with large bats and heavy balls, an outfit now stowed away by gift of the class in some unseen closet of the Harvard Union. The few who could afford it rode on horseback; in winter Fresh Pond afforded relays of beautiful black ice [for skating] after each ice-cutting.

"I had invitations to join several of the college clubs, but declined membership in all but the I. O. H. which my elder brother, Waldo, helped organize and in which I was very much interested; and also the Institute of 1770 which was of elder date and of more permanent fame. Here the members had frequent debates."

Through the four years of college life Wentworth kept a minute account of all his doings in the form of a college journal. In these records are preserved, not only lists of books read, but of " books I want to read," "of pieces I can repeat"; of bouquets (always composed of wild flowers he had gathered), with dates of presentation to his friends; of calls he had made, of drives and walks he had taken ; and of the engagements and marriages of friends, as, " Dr. Howe and Julia Ward of New York"; "Mr. Longfellow and Fanny Apple ton." He was equally careful and minute about all his expenditures, the latter being a lifelong habit. At one time he seriously thought of making the law his profession, and with this end in view he made an inventory of all the lawyers in Boston, and of various law books.

He was always a great pedestrian, often walking nine or ten miles a day, and taking evening walks with Parker far into the "gloomy and desolate" country, after which he sometimes sat up reading into the small hours. His walks were varied by wanderings in old graveyards to study the quaint epitaphs. The daily rambles were, however, confined to no locality, as this note testifies: —

"Walked to Charlestown through Lechmere Point [East Cambridge] and thence to Bunker Hill. Charley stumped and we rushed up the monument with a lantern. A weary distance, but finally got to the top. Splendid view all around. Counted 24 inward-bound schooners in the harbour."

The boy's frequent walks between Boston and Cambridge were interrupted at the Port to refresh himself with cream-cakes, and he seems to have been unmolested by the "Portchucks" (the Cambridgeport boys) in spite of the rivalry existing between the youth of the latter place and that of Old Cambridge. The journal also mentions "a pleasant time" at a horse-race, frequently sailing round on a raft at Fresh Pond; playing leap-frog, hockey, "pirate," and rolling ninepins at the same place, winding up the report with "had first-rate fun." In his elation at having recited ninety-five lines of Latin without many corrections, he records that he kicked football by moonlight ; and he sometimes speaks of two hours spent in the water, once climbing a ten-foot fence to reach the wharf. In spite of his strenuous evenings, he usually rose at five to study. Living at home the first year, he found various ways to make himself useful. He chopped wood diligently, sometimes by candlelight; recorded transplanting clematis from the Norton place, and once gathering six dozen waterlilies at Fresh Pond. One day he was "engaged about J hour in driving a strange yellow cat out of the cellar," and in the afternoon making rat-traps. He took boxing-lessons, played chess and backgammon with his mother, recited poetry and read aloud. Another amusement was firing the cross-bow

28 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGOINSON

with his cousin Farley Storrow "at bottles in the closet. Broke 5." He also speaks of "shooting with same at a phrenological bust. Smashed /"

Later he wrote to a friend, —

"It is dreadful to me to see a woman kill an insect."

Although his strong aversion to giving pain kept him from joining shooting expeditions when older, he says in his youthful journal: —

"Went to shoot peeps with Thacher's gun. Something was the matter with the gun, however. It would not go. In the evening F. and I fired at a mark in a field, with pistols."

He was fond of visiting the Botanic Gardens (a habit he never abandoned) , and was president of the college Natural History Society. Such notes as these often occur in his journals: —

"Caught a little green snake and afterwards killed and preserved it.

"Skeletonizing a toad.

"Talking with Dr. Harris, I was seized with a larva-mania and hunted for them. Obtained a variety of ugly worms which I am going to keep through vacation till they turn to chrysalises. I feel more entomological than oratorical just now.

"Tried to draw some insects — particularly a beautiful Papilio Philenor Harris had given me. Succeeded quite well."

That he had a boy's healthy appetite we may judge from these statements made in his freshman year : —

" Thanksgiving Day. Dinner, walked into the turkey, ham, pudding and pie! " — "Eat 2 quarts of cherries with P. at noon, his treat." — " Eaten 12 ices in 3 days. Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursd : 4 each day." — " Home at XI & made half a pitcher of iced molasses & water — molasses, not very good — drank some, however — reading Ladies' Magazine, &c, until dinner."

Occasionally he went to an evening party. After one of these gatherings, he reports: "Played backgammon. Danced. Had a miserable time." Those who knew him only in later years find it hard to comprehend how great a social stumbling-block was the youth's early diffidence. Improvement soon began, as the next year he wrote, —

"Went at 9 p.m. to a party. Had a decent time. Splendid ice-cream."

The following extracts are taken from his freshman journal, showing what an intimate relation existed in those simple days between President and student: —

"President Quincy was present at our Livy recitation. Lucky. I never recited better." — "President Q. was present at our recitation in Herodotus. Got along decently." — "Went to President to get my marks. He wants me to behave well, so he says at least.* ' — " Deaded in Geometry for the first time." — "Cut both recitations for amusement. Spent some time in the library [a favorite place of refuge]."

On his fourteenth birthday, December 22, 1837, he found that he was the youngest undergraduate. Two months later his journal records some of the lively scenes then witnessed at prayer- time : —

" Many of the class having become slightly boozy, made somewhat of a noise in prayers."

And again: —

"What a sight the Chapel presented at prayers this morning! About 200 panes of glass blown up, the hands of the clock taken off, and the dial stove in. The front panels of the lower part of the pulpit removed, and all the damask between the pillars torn away, and ' A Bone for old Quin to pick ' written on the wall."

On another page he exclaims : —

" I have most indecorously omitted to mention one event . . . my receiving a Detur, Coleridge in 3 volumes, i2mo, college seal and all. 24 were given. Mine is pretty fair."

These volumes in the original handsome bindings are still on the shelves of the Higginson library.

In after years he often alluded with amusement to his youthful susceptibility, and wrote : —

" I don't believe there ever was a child in whom the sentimental was earlier developed than in me."

When a freshman, he records meeting an old friend, "now a fine-looking girl of sweet sixteen. I think I will fall in love with her in vacation! " Of another damsel, met when away from home, he says: —

"It is not exactly love I feel towards M. C. D. — it is rather a Platonic affection, if there is any such thing — or a connubial one."

When he was introduced to Mr. Papanti's "best scholar and very agreeable girl," he escorted her home from dancing-school and then wrote: —