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 GREENACRE 
 ON THE 
 PISCATAQUA. 
 
 X 
 
 ANNA JOSEPHINE INGERSOLL. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 THE ALLIANCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 "LIFE" BUILDING. 
 
 1 
 
87857 
 
 Library of Conqrose 
 
 Twti Copies Received 
 DEC 13 1900 
 
 Copynght entry 
 
 No 
 
 SECOND COPY 
 
 Odiv«red to 
 
 OHD£R DIVISION 
 DEC 171900 
 
 Copyright, 1900, 
 
 by 
 
 Anna Josephink Ingersoll. 
 
 

 A GLIMPSE OF GREENACRE. 
 
GREENACRE ON THE PISCATAQUA. 
 
 TO the traveler speeding tlirough 
 New England on the Eastern 
 Division of the Boston & Maine 
 Railroad there is no hint of any 
 special attraction at the plain lit- 
 tle station of Eliot. A drive of 
 three miles takes you past thrifty 
 homes, with meadows reaching to 
 the broad, swift Piscataqua, and 
 through stretches of dense woods 
 down to the river bank, wrhere al- 
 most at the entrance to Long Reach 
 Bay stands the Greenacre Inn. It 
 is a quiet spot, with gently sloping 
 banks, and off to the west lies a long 
 meadow with its fringe of apple trees 
 and birches reflected in the waters of 
 the bay. There is a sense of space and 
 distance, a limitless expanse of sky, 
 a broad sweep of river and bay with 
 
the distant low-lying banks, and far 
 beyond, ever changing in hue against 
 the sunset sky, range the foothills 
 of the White Mountains. With the 
 going down of the sun a golden 
 bridge spans the waters glowing and 
 radiant at our feet. 
 
 Once there was a desperate strug- 
 gle here; men fought for their lives, 
 while women and children hurried for 
 shelter over the fields to the garrison 
 house with its high stockade. There 
 are yet signs to be seen of this old 
 house, and in the fields about the 
 plough has turned up many an ar- 
 row-head. As late as 1747 the men 
 of this district carried firearms to 
 church. 
 
 Down in the hollow below the Inn 
 where the apple trees and locusts 
 bloom, there was a large ship-yard 
 in the fifties, where the keel of many 
 a good ship was laid. The fleetest 
 sailing vessel of her day. The Night- 
 ingale, built to carry Jenny Lind 
 
Goldsmith back to Sweden, floated 
 out on the tide from these cool, green 
 shores. She never fulfilled her pur- 
 pose, and years after was captured 
 by the government with a cargo of 
 wretched human beings bound for the 
 slave market. 
 
 The EHot of to-day is a quiet farm- 
 ing town of 1,500 inhabitants, lying 
 for six miles along the banks of the 
 beautiful Piscataqua, just over the 
 Maine border line, four miles from 
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There 
 are three or four churches, a grocery 
 store or two, and one hotel. Green- 
 acre Inn, built ten years ago by a 
 company of enterprising Eliot peo- 
 ple. The Inn, a small house holding 
 about one hundred people, was for a 
 few years a resort for Bostonians. 
 Here John Greenleaf Whittier came, 
 drawing about him a circle of friends. 
 
 In 1893, that wonderful year, 
 when, through the World's Parlia- 
 ment of Religions, men were brought 
 
 5 
 
to a recognition of the fundamental 
 points of contact in the religions of 
 the world, Miss Sarah J. Farmer, 
 only daughter of Moses G. Farmer, 
 the inventor, conceived the idea of 
 continuing at Eliot, Maine, her birth- 
 place, the movement inaugurated at 
 Chicago . She determined to form a cen- 
 tre at the Greenacre Inn, where think- 
 ing men and women, reaching out 
 to help their fellows through means 
 tried and untried, might find an audi- 
 ence recognizing not alone revealed 
 truth, but truth in the process of 
 revelation. It was believed that 
 for those of different faiths, different 
 nationalities, different training, the 
 points of contact might be found, 
 the great underlying principles — the 
 oneness of truth, the brotherhood of 
 man ; that to the individual this spot 
 might mean the opening door to free- 
 dom, the tearing down of walls of 
 prejudice and superstition. The teach- 
 ers and lecturers on this broad plat- 
 6 
 
THE GREAT TENT. 
 
form were to give their services with- 
 out remuneration. There was no en- 
 dowment fund, and the expense of 
 their transportation and entertain- 
 ment was met through voluntary 
 contributions. Where else in the 
 world's history do we find such an- 
 other cornerstone? 
 
 In July, 1894, Greenacre Inn was 
 opened to guests under Miss Farmer's 
 management. Less expensive accom- 
 modations were to be had in the farm 
 houses about. An encampment of 
 tents pitched on the river bank, over 
 in the meadow where the old garrison 
 house stood, gave those desiring it 
 the freedom of open-air life. Although 
 six miles from the sea, the tide rises 
 high at Eliot, and the opportunities 
 for salt-water bathing are fine. 
 
 The great lecture tent seating three 
 hundred was raised just beyond the 
 stone wall of the meadow. The after- 
 noon of the third day of July had 
 been appointed for the opening exer- 
 
cises of the Greenacre Lecture Course, 
 and only a few had gathered. Mrs. 
 Ole Bull, of Cambridge, delivered the 
 address of welcome. At the close of 
 the exercises we stood with heads un- 
 covered to raise the stars and stripes. 
 For days the sky had been dark and 
 lowering, but as we sang ''The Bat- 
 tle Hymn of the Republic," the clouds 
 parted a little and a flood of sunshine 
 illuminated the scene. It was with 
 every man's hand to the rope that 
 the flag of our country went up, and 
 under it there floated for the first 
 time over these green fields a white 
 flag with the legend *' Peace " upon it. 
 The first year brought such men 
 as Henry Wood, Frank B. Sanborn, 
 Edward Everett Hale, O. C. Dolbear, 
 Lewis G. Janes, Ralph Waldo Trine, 
 Vivekananda, W. J. Colville and oth- 
 ers, and they have continued to come ; 
 such women as Ursula Gestefeld, 
 Helen Van-Anderson, Josephine Locke, 
 Abby Morton Diaz. The programs 
 8 
 
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 EDWARD EVERETT HALE and SARAH J. FARMER. 
 
of the succeeding years have added 
 many names of value— J. Vance Che- 
 ney, John Angus MacYannel, William 
 Norman Guthrie, John S. Clark, S. T. 
 Rorer, Edna D. Cheney, William Ord- 
 way Partridge, Samuel Walter Foss, 
 Carroll D. Wright, Samuel Richard 
 Fuller, MaryA.LivermorejEmily Per- 
 kins Stetson, Elizabeth Boynton Har- 
 bert, Edwin Elwell, Lucia Ames Mead, 
 Helen M. Cole, Kate Tannett Woods, 
 Edwin Markham, George D. Herron, 
 Julia Osgood, Edward S. Morse, Wil- 
 liam Lloyd Garrison, W. T. Harris, 
 H. W. Stetson, Lyman C. Newell, 
 Egbert Morse Chesley, Sara G. Far- 
 well, Thomas Ryan, Mary Lowe Dick- 
 erson, John J. Enneking, Frederick 
 Reed, Filmore Moore, Mary Proctor, 
 Mitchell Tyng, Ellen Crosby, Helen 
 Weil, Josiah Strong, Henry Hoyt 
 Moore, W. H. Tolman, Thomas Van 
 Ness, T. Yanaguchi, Ethel Puffer, 
 Rachel Foster Avery, John Bowles, 
 Benjamin F. Trueblood, Neal Dow, 
 9 
 
J. T. Trowbridge, Alfred Norton, El- 
 len A. Richardson, Arthur Dow, Ly- 
 sander Dickerman, Sadie American, 
 Lilian Whiting, Ernest F. Fenollosa, 
 Theodore F. Wright, C. A. L. Tot- 
 ten, Caroline H. Hindobro, Amanda 
 Deyo. 
 
 A wonderful sifting process has 
 been going on through these years, 
 working silently for the most part, 
 eliminating the man with the per- 
 sonal ''ism," the ''fad," the so-called 
 crank, and sometimes finding, in the 
 abundance of what the world calls 
 chaff, the kernel of wheat. 
 
 Since the first season the order of 
 the day has been much the same. At 
 nine o'clock devotional exercises in 
 the lecture tent, and then the leisurely 
 trooping up over the hills to the 
 Lysekloster pines, where, in pleasant 
 weather, the platform of the morning 
 is a carpet of pine needles under a 
 great pine tree. On rainy days, the 
 morning lectures are given under a 
 
i 
 
SWAMI'S PINE. 
 
tent in the pines, and the afternoon 
 lectures during the last few years 
 have been given in the new lecture 
 hall, The Eirenion; but on bright 
 days ^sre listen to music and the lec- 
 ture of the day in the great tent, with 
 its sides ^de open to the river, and 
 with all the life and freedom of the 
 summer about. At sunset there is a 
 quiet hour in the tent, and once or 
 twice a v^eek a musical program. The 
 music school, under the direction of 
 Miss Mary H. Burnham, has been 
 an important factor in the Greenacre 
 work. 
 
 In 1896 the general lecture course 
 was divided into conferences begin- 
 ning Sunday afternoon and continu- 
 ing one week, and a Nature School 
 out in the woods and fields was 
 formed for the children, under Daniel 
 Batchellor and Melvin G. Dodge. In 
 this same year, a school of com- 
 parative religions was founded un- 
 der the directorship of Doctor Lewis 
 
G. Janes, director of the Cambridge 
 Conferences. 
 
 This school has been one of the 
 strongest features of the Greenacre 
 Lecture Course. The sessions have 
 been held during August under the 
 pines. The motive has been compara- 
 tive study and never propagation of 
 doctrine. During the four years Lewis 
 G. Janes, director of the school, has 
 given a number of valuable lectures 
 upon various subjects. This last 
 summer's work held nothing more 
 broadly helpful and suggestive than 
 Dr. Janes's course upon social science 
 and applied religion. The Swamis 
 Yivekananda, Saradananda and Ab- 
 hedananda have in turn expounded 
 the profound philosophy of the Ve- 
 danta. 
 
 The history, ethics and theology 
 of the Talmud were presented by 
 Rabbi Joseph Silverman; the teach- 
 ing of Jesus by Jean du Buy, and the 
 religion and philosophy of the Jains 
 
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 Mr. GANDHI, Dr. JANES, and SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
by Virchand R. Gandhi; Nathaniel 
 Schmidt of Cornell University gave 
 this year an exceptionally interesting 
 course on ancient Hebrew philoso- 
 phers. A brilliantly dramatic pre- 
 sentation of the sacred and religious 
 customs in Mohammedan countries 
 was given by the Syrian Shehadi 
 Abd-Allah Shehadi. From the stand- 
 point of the Christianized Hindu, T. 
 B. Pandian described the social condi- 
 tions and missionary work in India. 
 Lack of space alone forbids the men- 
 tion of many other valuable contribu- 
 tions to this program. The discus- 
 sions after the lectures are carried on 
 with a calm, judicial temper, a cour- 
 tesy, a respect for the opinions of 
 others, an evident desire for ^' Truth 
 and not for victory," that cannot fail 
 to make them educational. 
 
 As we glance over the programs of 
 
 the years Ave find Edward Griggs on 
 
 ''The Art of Living," Smith Baker's 
 
 morning classes on developmental 
 
 13 
 
psychology with their wonderful les- 
 sons in life, W. S. Tomlin's talks on 
 music, E. P. Powell on *'The Evolu- 
 tion of a Home," Hezekiah Butter- 
 worth on **The Art of Story Tell- 
 ing." Francis B. Hornbrook talks on 
 Browning, B. O. Flower on Marcus 
 Aurelius and Epictetus,W. D.Howells 
 reads his *'Etruria," Annie Besant 
 lectures on ''Immortality," C. H. A. 
 Bjerregaard on ''The Mystic Life," 
 John Fiske on " The Cosmic Roots of 
 Self-sacrifice," Lester A. Ward on 
 "The Real Moral Evolution," Joseph 
 LeConte on ' ' The Relation of Biology 
 to Philosophy," Henry Wood on 
 "Thinking as a Fine Art," Bolton 
 Hall on "Single Tax," Frederick Spier 
 on "The Eight Hour Law," Eltweed 
 Pomeroy on "Direct Legislation," 
 Henry Blackwell on "Woman Suf- 
 frage," J. H. Hyslop on "Problems of 
 Physiology," Booker T. Washington 
 on "Tuskegee," Elihu Thomson on 
 " Electricity of the Future," Cyrus F. 
 14 
 
Brackett on '' The Past and the Pres- 
 ent Outlook of Electrical Science," 
 Jacob Riis on ^*How the Other Half 
 Lives." 
 
 Rare opportunities for help have 
 been given along metaphysical lines 
 by Charles Brodie Patterson, Horatio 
 Dresser, Paul Tyner, Ellen M. Dyer, 
 Emma Louise Nickerson, Helen Yan- 
 Anderson and others. 
 
 Who can forget Emerson Day in 
 the Cathedral Pines ! Frank B. San- 
 born, the presiding officer, v^as the 
 last resident member of the Con- 
 cord School of Philosophy, and the 
 friend and companion of Emerson 
 and Thoreau. We sit about under 
 the trees and listen to tender intimate 
 touches from Emerson's life and expe- 
 rience. We hold his letters, written 
 seventy years ago, in our hands. 
 Then Charles Malloy gives a series of 
 Emerson readings, with lines and in- 
 terlines of interpretation, the wealth 
 of a lifetime of study. The great tent 
 15 
 
is crowded Sunday afternoon with 
 the people of the countryside to hear 
 Edward Everett Hale. He gives us a 
 mighty summing up of the reasons 
 for peace, from the spiritual as well 
 as from the historical standpoint. 
 For three summers under a tree in 
 the Lysekloster pines we have spent 
 a morning ^th Joseph Jefferson in 
 informal discussion . In the afternoon 
 the tent is again crowded to hear him 
 on ''The Possibilities of the Drama," 
 from the standpoint of a great 
 actor. 
 
 One summer under these same pines 
 Dharmapala, the Buddhist, pitched 
 his tent; sometimes teaching from 
 the platform, but more often from 
 the door of his tent, a striking fig- 
 ure in his orange robe. Seventeen 
 different faiths were represented that 
 year at Greenacre. How times have 
 changed since the good people — not 
 many miles distant — heard in the 
 dead of night the click of the horses' 
 
 i6 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON. 
 
hoofs carrying their minister forty 
 miles to Salem to be tried for witch- 
 craft ! 
 
 The Parliament of Religions, Sun- 
 day, August 30, 1897, was a notable 
 occasion. The tent was crowded to 
 OYerflowing, the sides wide open to 
 the river and the fields. A platform 
 beautifully decorated with pines was 
 occupied by a remarkable group of 
 persons : Miss Farmer, in the centre ; 
 Lewis G. Janes, presiding; Yirchand 
 R. Gandhi, representative of the Jains, 
 in native violet dress and yellow tur- 
 ban ; Charles Brodie Patterson of the 
 broad school of mental science ; Sara- 
 dananda, the Vedantist, in the flame- 
 colored robe and turban of his order, 
 and by his side the Quaker, Edward 
 Rawson; C. B. Young, Boston, and 
 William A. Key, London, of the 
 Unitarian church; Horatio Dresser, 
 editor of the Journal of Practical 
 Metaphysics; K. S. Guthrie of the 
 Episcopal church; Paul Carus, edi- 
 17 
 
tor of the Monist and Open Court, 
 of Chicago ; Jehanghier Cola in the 
 -white dress of the Parsee, represent- 
 ing Zoroastrianism ; Mrs. Ole Bull, 
 founder of the Cambridge Confer- 
 ences; Alfred Martin, pastor of the 
 free church of Tacoma, Washington, 
 and Rabbis Fleischer and Berkowitz, 
 of Philadelphia. The brilliant assem- 
 bly, the picturesque colors, the scent 
 of pine, the setting of river and mead- 
 ow, the earnest, listening company, 
 the few simple words of the speakers 
 showing the essential unity of religion 
 — all served to make an occasion not 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 Although many charming circles 
 have been formed in the farmhouses, 
 the social life centers naturally about 
 the Inn, where most of the lecturers 
 have been entertained. There is sim- 
 plicity of life, a charming absence 
 of conventionality, an almost invari- 
 able recognition of the man apart 
 from circumstances. Small circles 
 i8 
 
meet on the piazza, along the river 
 bank or in the meadows, discussing 
 questions with the recognized leaders 
 of thought. ''And the people speak 
 from their character, not from their 
 tongue." When else could you hear, 
 without surprise, in the momentary 
 lull of a hotel dining-room? — *'I do 
 not know whether the spirits return 
 to this earth, but I do know that 
 progress is the law of the soul." 
 
 There are opportunities day after 
 day for the individual to take his 
 problem to the one best fitted to help 
 him, and the personal contact has 
 proved as great a factor in develop- 
 ment as any words from the plat- 
 form. Many a life of inaction has 
 been awakened here into service. *' In 
 the light of greater lives we see the 
 vision of our own." 
 
 In the fact that thousands have 
 
 come to Greenacre, and thousands 
 
 have been turned away for lack of 
 
 accommodations, in the virility and 
 
 19 
 
force of the minds gathered here, in 
 the questions discussed from the plat- 
 form that affect the moral welfare 
 and therefore the rational progress of 
 the world — in the renewing of the 
 individual, who, touched by the spirit, 
 is born into a larger love for pushing 
 starving humanity — in all this is de- 
 monstrated the need for such a centre 
 in the social organism. 
 
 In a word, Greenacre can best be 
 characterized as a centre. It is not 
 an organization ; it is not an institu- 
 tion, "the lengthened shadow of one 
 man," but a great spiritual, formative 
 centre, the trend of thought broaden- 
 ing with the need of the times. 
 
 The crucial test is therefore not a 
 test of the value and purity of the 
 ideal, but a test of methods and their 
 practical application. Can a move- 
 ment depending only upon voluntary 
 aid live in the world to-day? Only 
 last year a man died in London, who, 
 during the last sixty years, has taken 
 
care of thousands of orphans. The 
 money necessary to support this 
 immense work was given unsolic- 
 ited and used according to the strict- 
 est business principles. So far as 
 Greenacre amalgamates with the 
 highest ethical standards of the busi- 
 ness world, the truth it stands for, 
 just so far, ''armed with the Sword 
 of the Spirit," will it penetrate into 
 the heart of the grossest materiaHsm, 
 and bring forth the willing tribute of 
 an awakening spirit-loving service. 
 Greenacre, August, 1899. 
 
 This year, 1900, marks the sev- 
 enth season of the Greenacre Lecture 
 Course. It was decided to make of 
 it a Sabbatical year, a year of quiet 
 rest, one in which to review the past 
 and consider the future. Although no 
 programs have been issued, there has 
 been an average of three lectures a 
 week, with a daily morning devo- 
 
 21 
 
tional, and an attendance of nearly 
 nine hundred persons. Edward Ev- 
 erett Hale, Charles Brodie Patter- 
 son, Samuel Richard Fuller, Ralph 
 Waldo Trine, Edward Cummings, 
 Paul Tyner, Helen M. Cole, Lyman 
 C. Newell, Ellen M. Dyer, R. C. Doug- 
 las, Swami Abhedananda, Fillmore 
 Moore, Florence Richardson, Richard 
 Ingalese, Jean du Buy, and Charles 
 Malloy have spoken from the plat- 
 form. A much needed rest has made 
 necessary Miss Farmer's absence the 
 last season. 
 
 1901 will undoubtedly mark a new 
 era in the development of this move- 
 ment : a movement which stands, let 
 it be remembered, not for personality 
 or place, but for life, for progress. 
 
 Anna Josephine Ingersoll. 
 
 Greenacre, September, 1900. 
 
 22 
 
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