WHITTIER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 31

WHITTIER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

John Greenleaf Whittier has, says the St. James' Gazette, written an autobiographical chapter at the desire of a friend, in which he says : "My father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. A bachelor uncle and a maiden aunt lived in the family. The farm was not a profitable one ; it was burdened with debt. Our home was somewhat lonely, half-hidden in oak woods, with no house in sight, and we had few companions of our age and few occasions of recreation. Our school was only for 12 weeks in a year — in the depth of winter and half a mile distant. At a early age I was set to work on the farm and doing errands for my mother, who, in addition to her ordinary household duties, was busy in spinning and weaving the linen and woollen cloths needed for the family. We had only about 20 volumes of books, most of them the journals of pioneer ministers in our society. Our only annual was an almanac. J was early fond of reading, and now and then heard of a book of biography or travel' and walked miles to boirow it." The turning-point of young Whitier's life was due to a mere accident. He says : 11 When I was 14 years old my first schoolmaster, Joshua Collin, brought with him to our house a volume of Burns' poems, from which he read, greatly to my delight. I begged him to leave the book with me. He did. I set myself at once to the task of mastering the glossary of the Scottish dialect at its close. This was about the first poetry I had ever read, with the exception of that of the Bible. I began to make rhymes myself, and to imagine stories and adventures. In fact, I lived a sort of dual life and in a world of fancy as well as in the world of plain matter-of-fact about me." It is interesting to note the poet's early struggles and first snecesses as a.poet, Whittier says: " My father always had a weekly paper, and when young Garrison started his Free Press at Newburyport he took it in place of the Haverhill Gazette. My sister, who was two I years older than myself, sent one of my ! poetical attempts to the editor. Some weeks after the news-carrier came along on horseback and threw the paper out of his saddlebags. My uncle and I were mending fences, j I took up the sheet, and was surprised and overjoyed to see my lines in the "Poet's Corner." I stood gazing at them in wonder, and my uncle had to call me several times to my work before I could recover myself. . . . I longed for education. But the means to pro-

cure it were wanting. Luckily the young man who worked for us on the farm in ,tW summer eked out his small Income by making ladies' shoes and slippers in the winter ; and I learned enough of him to earn a sum sufficient to carry me through a term of six months in Haverhill Academy. The next winter I ventured upon another expedient for raising money; I kept a district school in the adjoining town. The winter following I spent in Boston writing for a paper. . . . With the exception of a few dollars from the • Democratic Eeview' and ' Buckingham's Magazine,' for upwards of 30 years I received nothing for my poems and literary articles."