. Our colonial homes. upon the hearts of men that can set every secret chord vibrating, couldevery year draw so many pilgrims merely to gaze upon the dull andsenseless wood of a very commonplace old house at East Hampton —the home of John Howard Payne ? In looking at it the words Be it ever so humble instantly sug-gest themselves. In looking at it we are again forcibly reminded otthat secret, that unexplained affinity existing between the houses menhave lived in and the men themselves — their lives and fortunes. It isas if some eternal law forbade putting the twain asunder. Do whatwe will we c
. Our colonial homes. upon the hearts of men that can set every secret chord vibrating, couldevery year draw so many pilgrims merely to gaze upon the dull andsenseless wood of a very commonplace old house at East Hampton —the home of John Howard Payne ? In looking at it the words Be it ever so humble instantly sug-gest themselves. In looking at it we are again forcibly reminded otthat secret, that unexplained affinity existing between the houses menhave lived in and the men themselves — their lives and fortunes. It isas if some eternal law forbade putting the twain asunder. Do whatwe will we can never rid ourselves of the notion that les absens sont EARLY HOME OF JOHX HOWARD PAYNE 177 /a. To some extent we do hold communion with their departedspirits. John Howard Payne was what the world calls a genius : he wasmore than this ; he was a most precocious genius. As inevitablyfollows, he was flattered, overpraised, caressed to that extent that amuch older and wiser head than his might have been turned. The. THE EARLY HOME OF JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. precocious flower faded before its full maturity. But of what he failedto achieve as actor, author, or critic —fame and fortune — fame at leastcame to him with the stroke of the pen that wrote Home, SweetHome ; and had he been as worldly wise as he was gifted, his for-tune would have been made also then and there. Is the world really any larger than a teacup? Does not the greatmaster wisely say, One touch of nature makes the whole world kin ? 178 OCR COLOXIAL HOMES \ Truly, we cannot choose but think so when we find all fashionableLondon, yes. and unfashionable too, applauding and singing words sug-gested by the thoughts of this homeliest of old houses, in an obscurespot of a distant land, that no one had ever heard of. Payne sang tothis, his own dear old home, as to something- most sacred to him. Hismind and heart had wandered back to old Loiiq- Islands yellow sands,to the village where he had played as a boy. Within a we
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectarchitecturedomestic
