WHICH ROAD TAKES ME THERE?

Otto:, Max Carl

Which Road Takes Me There? Adventures in Locating Famous Historic Shrines in Which Many People Take Little Interest By FRED L. HOLMES (Managing Editor La FoHette's Magazine) HE Boston Tea Party...

...Why, I never heard of such a place," the Boston operator who handled a telegram for me answered...
...Each viewpoint reveals some new characteristic—serenity, firmness and wisdom...
...I have been going through this park almost daily for seven years...
...One community differs from another...
...The accounts of tie heroic battle of New Orleans, at the close of the war of 1812, had never been brought to his attention—at least he never remembered it...
...Could you tell me where the Lincoln monu anent is in this park," I asked...
...16, 177:5...
...The lamp at its head is shaded and in the stillness of the room one listens to hear again that voice reading aloud his favorite pieces...
...Poets and authors suffer a similar fate...
...For instinctively he wrote the language of childhood...
...Just then a telegraph messenger entered and solved the mystery...
...As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed That night in Boston Harbor.' " The search for the tea party site is not un-asual...
...I confirmed the report...
...Apparently most of the neighbors had not read the story on its face...
...Sometimes the pursuit of these trails has brought me only hours of keen disappointment...
...One morning, not long ago, I went to Lincoln park, Chicago, in search of the famous St...
...He hesitated a moment and looked about...
...Is the answer to be found in our own methods of settlement...
...Don't you mean the tea wharf...
...Americans have been restless...
...Cable as the writer of southern stories, he told me of a building standing in the city which had been planned for use by Napoleon, when the great French emperor once considered a flight to America...
...But New Orleans is also interesting," I argued...
...The place was about five blocks away on Lockerbie ¦sf.reet Home of Riley THERE I found Kate Kendall, who had been a housekeeper for Mr...
...From a guide book I learned that the vault was close to the Illinois Central tracks and not far from the University of Chicago...
...Naturally my inquiries drifted first to Cable and then to the Evangeline country...
...All of these northern commonwealths have their market of visitors from beyond the home borders...
...He was shown the business district, with its wealth of millions...
...There was the Douglas shaft as the central figure of stone and masonry in the little state park, which bears his name...
...Their nomadic spirit is still unconquered...
...The Acadians settled not far out of this city when expelled from Canada in 1765...
...Typical of other families, Lincoln's started in Kentucky, crossed into Indiana and finished the course in Illinois...
...And the more they write, the more will the romantic elements of our nature be contented to become less innocent of the beauties and life around home...
...Thrills From Answers ALSO, there is a novelty in conversing with people ahout some nearby sacred spot of which many have only a vague knowledge...
...Through all of these years Americans have been reading the literature of other countries...
...on in the Place De Armes square in the old French section of the city...
...To de< feat King George's trivial but tyrannical tax of three pence a pound, about ninety < citizens of Boston, partly disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, threw the cargoes, three hundred forty-two chests in ail, into the sea, and made the world ring wtii the patriotic exploit of the ' BOSTON TEA PARTY u No, ne'er was mingled such a draught ( In palace, hall, or arbor...
...When in New Orleans some years ago, about the time that the novels of George W. Cable were at their height in popular attention, I had dinner with one of the mo3t prosperous business men...
...People of Indianapolis seldom call unless they have some truest from away who is anxious to make a visit to the home...
...But the historic shrine is more often than not elusive...
...Well, maybe because I live here I do not find things so exciting...
...Nothing...
...More often they put on a haughty air aa if it were only a silly pastime to stir the dust of the past...
...After roaming about the streets in the immediate vicinity for a while, making a score of inquiries, I entered a grocery store...
...It that what you're looking for...
...She was able to gauge the measure of inattention...
...The most unpretentious loiterer can direct you along these routes...
...The new organization adopted the alumni of the older institution, located it.* buildings still farther south and placed a bronze bust of Douglas in one of the university buildings...
...The disappointments which follow add zest to the chase and awe when the place is at last found...
...American singers and historians are capturing- the spirit of a new, expanding, throbbing nation...
...the parks with all their natural wonders, and the pretentious educational institutions...
...The foreign touch in this interesting old city bad limited his perspective...
...They have been like a tidal wave moving forward over new sands...
...You don't suppose that the big circular shaft ope block nearer the Lake Michigan shore could be tl e Douglas monument," he finally remarked...
...It must be in some of the other parks...
...One explanation is possible...
...I don't know, but I will follow your directions," I replied...
...Those who are too poor in Wealth to go far, probably know more, about the interesting things of the next hamlet than they do about their home town...
...And in the meantime what, did you go to see in the United States...
...Now there must be a reason for all of this , wandering away...
...Throughout he had remained silent —n.^t a word of comment...
...It later developed that he knew much about French history, but could give no information as to why there should be a statue of General Andrew Jack...
...They informed me that he was dead...
...In after years, following a troubled financial existence, the titl« passed to the present University of Chicago, wbhh was later liberally endowed by Mr...
...I found the monument within a block of where the interview was held...
...A few days prior to that ejpeperience I had gone in search of the tomb of Stephen A. Douglas, who was Lincoln's presidential opponent and his antagonist in the famous debates which bear their names...
...Many are prone to ofTer advice on some other country...
...It had been marked by a large tablet prominently placed on the 3ide of an imposing building on Pearl street...
...Within the confines of the two-acre Dougla* state park, beside the tracks of the Michigan Central's main lines into Chicago, rises a tall granite tower and on its top is a bronze statue of the "Little Giant" as he appeared in life...
...The proprietor was pleasant...
...Most of them are people from outside of the state...
...Why Lack of Home Interest WHY should the average American like to wander...
...When the city began to expand southward he far-sightedly gave ten acres at Tnirty-fourth street and Chicago avenue for the beginning of the University of Chicago...
...Yet with all this solicitude for preserving this shrine in the form as Riley himself maintained it, few of his townspeople seem to know much of it...
...was asked...
...Suddenly the motorcar swung curvingiy in front of the .St...
...They concluded that the poet had lived in the city some years before, but they could give no directions...
...There is a crypt in the base where rests within view his marble sarcophagus deeply engraved with his final and solemn admonition: "Tell my children to obey the law-* and uphold the constitution...
...Some residents along the way are anxious to give information...
...Out on the narrow lawn in front of the two-story, red brick residence, the children would gather on his birthday and on other festive occasions to honor him...
...No doubt it is possible to obtain authentic directions from organized city bureaus or railraad information booths...
...Evenings, lying in bed, he would read them aloud in tones as musical as when he repeated them from the platform, and revise until after midnight...
...But the compensations of searching out these obscure places, for they are seldom to be found along the main highways, and the thrills which come from dissipating the picture phantasies painted in youth, are not to be dampened by a little opposition...
...Even the efforts of mankind to hold aloft the torch of their achievements often are futile...
...Historic places may shine m the glory of literature, but to find them one travels many a devious pathway, often leading to humorous endings, before a mecca is revealed...
...Others there are whose visions of youth have fixed thf- compass of their longings...
...Inscription in Bronze '""lpHE inscription beneath the model of the tea ship concisely relates the history of the event: "Here Formerly Stood GRIFFIN'S WHARF \ at which lay moored on Dec...
...The Puritan followed the northern trail into Ohio and southern Wisconsin...
...You'll find something interesting there...
...He knew nothing of either...
...Riley for about twenty-five years, in charge of" the memorial residence...
...Douglas a Chicago Benefactor ALL of the land in the immediate park neighborhood had once been the property of Mr...
...He had been in business in the neighborhood for ten years...
...Adventures in Locating Famous Historic Shrines in Which Many People Take Little Interest By FRED L. HOLMES (Managing Editor La FoHette's Magazine) HE Boston Tea Party tablet...
...Automobile campers from Indiana, Ohio, New York and many other states crowd the trunk line highways into Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota in midsummer...
...The bed in which he slept, wrote and revised his poems, is ready to be turned back...
...This was his home...
...An hour later I found the place...
...Scenes in New Orleans TO THE credit of the merchant, who had never heard of Mr...
...A lawyer recently returned from Europe told me that he had been planning and dreaming of such a trip since a young man...
...I like to go to other places...
...Some years ago, the Five Towns author was taking a tour about Chicago...
...Gaudens' monument to the Great Emancipator, For hours I watched long streams of automobile*, ami pedestrians hurrying to their work in the loop district...
...And many of our own authors have until recently caught inspiration in foreign subjects...
...Know of Far Away Places THERE is an endless fund of incidents associated with these excursions of historic homes and shrines...
...A conference was held between several persons...
...Out of the crowd I picked a smartly dressed, vivacious-appearing business man...
...For a time he was a trustee aad later president of the board...
...While in Indianapolis, I went to the information desk of a large nationally advertised establishment and asked direction to the old home of James Whitcomb Riley, whose Hoosicr dialect poetry had helped to put Indiana on the literary map...
...It is much more exciting, however, to attempt to pick it up from the people along the way...
...So I went to the tea wharf, crowded with its boat3 in the harbor and its people along the landing...
...Saunterings in a score of cities have added to my repertoire of experiences...
...Slowly in the last few decades, however, American authors have discovered their themes in community life...
...On these events the strtets in his neighborhood were a riot of colors...
...Now, there is expression," he said...
...One would think that with the vanishing of ;he frontier, the lure of the beyond would be engulfed in the desire to look about...
...We have about 3.000 visitors a year," Kate Kendall said...
...Sometimes they feel chagrined that no better direction can be given than they apologetically offer...
...He conversed intelligently about the" Lincoln-Douglas debates, but he was sure that "Senator Douglas was not buried around here...
...many of them are school teachers from within the state...
...Absolutely nothing, outside of the regular business trips...
...Rockefeller...
...repeated the owner of one of the little stores on the dock...
...Political leaders and the scenes of their endeavors are quickly forgotten...
...Scenic epots are well known and well advertised...
...For twenty years I have spent my vacations searching out the bright landmarks of history...
...For Douglas had honored Chicago...
...Many Of their old customs are kept up...
...During the last years of his life he reclassified his writings in the form he desired them to go to posterity...
...Gaudene' Lincoln and Bennett was up in a second...
...I don't believe there is any such monument here...
...Douglas...
...Others aeem a little bored by the questioning...
...Lincoln Monument in Path FURTHER conversation brought the information that he was a prominent dentist in Chicago...
...Standing in front of a curule chair the sad face of the president is an ever changing story in art...
...Little wonder that Arnold Bennett of Five Towns should be startled to a bolt upright position when it first broke upon his view...
...the place of achievements for others than the nation's political leaders is often forgotten...
...There is more to be seen in the Tech country, where Evangeline lived, than in New Orleans," a citizen of French descent told me at New Orleans...
...The chairs in the rot.wis are in order, as if he were about t»> i-R'.cr nnii entertain <unn' <>t bis distinguished literary visitors...
...Little wonder that many of the students of Lincoln should praise it as the best of all of the many statues reared to his memory...
...Every effort is made to maintain the Riley home as it was during his lifetime...
...Truthfully has the poet written: "'Before the solemn bronze Saint Gaudens made ' ' To thrill the heedless passer's heart with awe.** But in this lack of hero worship by the average man, Abraham Lincoln is not alone...
...What a consolation was the discovery for all the trials of the search...
...But not so...
...Our ancestors climbed the mountain slopes along the seaboard and broke into the Mississippi valley...
...I walked in the direction he indicated...
...But always the flavor of different people gives picture and color to the queits...
...Boston Tea Party tablet...
...The son of Alexander Hamilton , the national financier after the Revolutionary war, wandered into die lead mine region of southern Wisconsin and then off to California...
...Only a few blocks from his store I later found the notorious "Haunted House," around which Cable had woven one of his charming stories...
...Perhaps many of my difficulties are self-inflicted...
...thres British ships with cargoes of tea...
...He got the old world wanderlust from reading Hawthorne's "Marble Faw-n," and every year he gathered more information of the things he would see, until finally an opportunity came...
...There is a tea restaurant upstairs...
...I guess the places at home look better after you have been away...

Vol. 19 • June 1927 • No. 6


 
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