^ .<^ ^. *'' ^^ -im \^/ ^'^\ ^'-0^ .-1°^ O' c ""^ „ ^ A »■ *- a « O "<^. ^ >■ ^>. '>^i A}^ -d>. ^=«o^ ^^ 0' '^^ ■^ ".^^ ,o^^X#^^^/^% ^^^.^ qO ■^' ^ ■* ''^' '^ .i'^ ■^^ •^ .;%_ V \^ h." m ::M»: ^4 q^ ..^" ^ THE SALEM PILGRIM HIS BOOK U Ci^ rr-y^ DANIEL "LO^N C^ CO SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 19 3 THE LIBRARY OF |! CONGHESS. I Two Copies Receivfec f^ lUl H t903 n Copyright tntfy CUSS ct- XXc. No. ^ t y w^ _„S£n- B. Copyright, 1903, by- Daniel Low & Co. Irving K. Annable, Boston and Salem. THE BEGINNINGS OF SALEM. IF the pilgrim to Salem wishes to stand at the focus and centre of Puritan New England, on the spot where was planted one of the twin shoots of American Democracy, and from which there went forth not a few of the great forces that have shaped American history, let him go to Town House Square. If there is sacred soil in America, it is here. To be sure, one must have the historic imagination, or he will see nothing in the busy, bustling modern square to remind him of antiquity. But if he has power to realize the past let him stand here a moment and picture the scene as it was in the years immediately following the arrival of Endicott and the Puritans in 1628. The modern blocks and stone pavements vanish. The clang of electric cars dies away. The hurrying throngs of moderns disappear. He stands on virgin soil, in the midst of a forest clearing, on a pleasant elevation between two winding crystal streams, with fresh fountains near at hand and the cry of bird and animal alone breaking the silence of the encompassing wilderness. Yet signs of human occupancy are not wanting; for this spot is the chosen sight for the upspringing of a new and vast civiliza- tion. Already a few rude buildings have been erected, be- ginning with the houses of Boger Conant and his little fishing colony who had removed here from the abandoned settlement on Cape Ann in 1626. On what is now the southeast corner of the Square once stood the rudely-constructed Meeting-house, built in 1634 and enlarged in 1639, in which Samuel Skelton, Roger Wil- liams and Hugh Peter preached the sermons that rekin- dled the faith of the struggling colonists and kept them true to their great and toilsome enterprise. Later, in 1718, there was erected, three rods west of the church, the Court House where the General Court was convened in 1728 and '29 and in which the last General Assembly of the Province (3) THE SALEM PILGBIM: HIS BOOK of Massachusetts Bay met, in 1774. The site of this first Meeting'-house is now divided as were the minds of the settlers, between the interests of business and religion. The First Church of Salem, with its tv/o hundred and seventy-four years of continuous existence, has the upper floor as its place of worship, while the street floor is occu- pied by the widely-known Jewelers and Silversmiths, Daniel Low^ & Co. Adjoining the church toward South River, in the early days, was the house of the amiable and lamented first teacher of the church, Erancis Higginson. On the opposite corner stood the house belonging to th > stirring Hugh Peter. Later this was the site of the old gabled Piatt's Tavern. Not more than thirty rods northward, on what is now Washington Street, stood th^ ^'fayre house" of Governor Endicott, removed from Cape Ann and rebuilt for the Governor's use. A short distance to the west, on the highest point of land in ths vicinity, near the corner of Lynde and Sewall Streets, was the fort. The other houses were ranged along these two rough thoroughfares, now Washington and Essex Streets. Such was the early scene. What are some of th^ shaping forces and events associated with this spot? It was here in the first place, that the form of church government, r^nd to a large extent of civil government, of the new world was determined. When Erancis Higginson and Samuel Skelton, the two first ministers, arrived in the ''Talbot," June 29, 1639, the g-reat and pressing question arose: What sort of a church shall be established on these new shores? The Massachusetts Bay Colonists were not, like the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Separatists. As Higginson himself said in his famous farewell: "We do not go to New England as Separatists from the Church of England, though we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it; but we go to practise the positive part of church reforma- tion, and propagate the gospel in America." (4) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK Both Hig-g-inson and Skelton were ordained ministers of the Church of England. Many of the colonists were com- municants. But instead of proceeding as if this were simply a part of the mother church transplanted to new soil, what was done? On the 20th of July, 1629, at the summons of Governor Endicott, the people assembled, ^'for the choyce of a pastor and teacher." ''Their choice was after this manner, — every fit member wrote in a note his name whom the Lord moved him to think was fit for a pastor and so likewise whom they would have for a teacher; so the most voice was for Mr. Skelton to be pastor and Mr. I-Iig-ginson to be teacher; and they accepting the choice, Mr. Higginson, with three or four m.ore of the gravest members of the church, laid their hands on Mr. Skelton, using prayers therewith. This being done, then there was imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson." ^ This was not only the first ordination in America, but the origin of the ballot in Massachusetts Bay, if not in the Western world. - On the 6th of August the organization was completed, and the covenant, famous for its breadth and sweetness, drawn up by Higginson, adopted. This covenant is still in use in the First Church. At this service, too, the principle of church fellowship received its first expression in America, for Governor Bradford arrived from Plymouth in time to give the sister church the right hand of fellowship. Just where these two memorable services took place is not known. They may have been held in Governor Endi- cott's house or in the "unfinished building" used for a church, mentioned by Dr. Bentley. But it is more probable ^Letter of Deacon Gott to Governor Bradford. See Felt's Annals, p. 27. -"The earliest use of the ballot on this side of the Atlan- tic was made in the election of the officers of the First Church in Salem in the seventeenth century." (5) r3z SAXzx pixGsrM:: his boos Lmdeir tlie o^pen sky. upczi cr near -his --— c'lsj noderTi square. ISoT is this zhe only inieres- arxaciLing co tiiis spor. I- ^sras iiere that HawtiLome. wirL. srran^ probability in "nis favor, located the famans incident of tlie f.ery Endicott cTXttTTTg tne cross from tlie EnglisiL fias. ISeax the Meeting- hanse srcod the stocks and pillory: and not far away tiie mrsu sentry-cosL Here. too. in later years, tlie town ptmip was located- The Tisi-or may cross the Square to the City Hall and see the old parchment, with its curions In- dian hieroslypiiic si^matnres. dated 16S8. pnrporting to conTey all the lani in the town from tne heirs of Xane- pasnemet tt the ttwn of Salem for the stim of twenty pcnnds. Tne best way tc ret into the atmosphere of the early days is to visit some of the oldest houses, tn:- Soger Williams Hcnse. on the comer cf Essex and 25"Grth ThEpLD^ Str-ets (1634). the -Biouse of TOW.M Se-en Gables" at the foot of T-iir- « PUiMP lier Street, or the Old Bakery. 2.3 Washington Str et (1663). The E.cser Williams ho-'jise, supposed =- to have been thr one from which '.rcr-er.icT jiicisl'ifzy ^^^ famous exile ned in 1636. is ' dsa jczicr.tc irii- probably the oldest house in Salem. laC£223tc:3e7QlIi:?CJip!" '^^^ exterior has undergone many cnanges. but the interior is much as it tsras ^»-hen J'lstice Corwin of witchcraft fame occupied it. Tne title -The Witch House.** is due to a tradition that in it ^srer-- held some of the lorelim- inary hearings in the Witchcraft trials. In th.es€ low ccnSning roctns. the overhead beams he^ctt. tvi-th the axs. the uneven Scors laid with boards cf enormous width, the narrow windows with their tiny panes, the great open Sre- (6) convejing tie E±r of T-inVr-ng tiie "best on* of liniiLed r=- sc-zr-::eE. — cue eiiii ea.£ijj iTnp,. g-iTP hiniself back izi tiie olc r-zmgglizLg tjui lieroie days of the l»eg±Emings of ICe-c ZT:g- lazid. TTirCHCZATT AirX; TKE IfLASTTS'S CSG^STS". Tliere are certain. f£.cT3 -vrMci siiotild be —ell diiiei in iniiid before one cazi xisit ti.:- scenes of Wit^icraft delu- sion "sritli any jnst ttt-, n ^ T- g; '; c-.-. r^i-^ c* of tiiis strang'e diiapter cf 5"e-5r Englazid Msrory. 1. Witeiicraft in Salem "sras only ti.e fa^-end cf a greai snpei-siiticn tiiat liad spread its dJgTr.a.l folds on the -erorld for eenrcries, nnznbering its -ricrin-s by imndreds of tboii- sands and aceeTted by the greatest scbolars and jurists. — nen like Tbcmas Cranmer and Joiin Wesley. Sir Jtartiievr Hale. "William Bla.ckstone and Jonn WintbrDp. There -srere — rther eotintry alone. 2. The en-rircnment and ecnditicns of the colonists in the year 1691 "crere snch as t.o fost-er delnsinn. The dying cnt of the first nrss of enthtisia^m. isola.tion. la.ch of rei.ding and amnsements^ the confines of the sct^bre forests filled "vrith "cild beasts and sa-rag-^ all t.ended xo beg^t tineasi- ness and superstition. Kcreover in the parish cf B^x, San:inel Farris of Salem Vills.g'e (nov T^an-rers Centr=). "crhere the cntcreah :»ccnrred, jealonsy and strife -^rere a"rr: : :" (7) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 3. The Witchcraft delusion v/as a form of social insanity, community madness, in which all classes were involved. — ministers, physicians, magistrates and common people alike. The witches were heroes and heroines, the bewitched were the real witches and the judges were the ones most deluded. The originators of the Salem frenzy, and the chief actors throughout the persecution, consisted of a group of girls The "Witch" or Roger Williams House. and young women of Salem Village, among them Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the minister, nine years of age, Anne Putnam, daughter of the parish clerk, twelve, and Abigail Williams, a niece of Mr. Parris, eleven. These with seven others, aided by an old Indian servant in the Parris family, Tituba by name, sought to enliven the winter of 1691-2 by the practice of palmistry, magic and kindred arts. Not (8) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK content with less harmful practices, they began to perform singular antics which attracted the attention of tha minis- ter and of the neighbors, making startling outcries, creep- ing under chairs and falling insensible to the floor, '^self- hypnotized," perhaps, as Barret Wendell suggests. The vil- lage physician, Doctor Griggs, was called in and pronounced them bewitched. The ministers of the vicinity were sum- moned and confirmed this judgment. If bewitched, v/ho had bewitched them? The "aflaicted children," as they began to be called, were pressed for an answer. At first they were silent, but at length they took a fatal step and called out ''Good," "Osburn," "Tituba." Two of these, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, were harm- less old women of not the best repute, and the third was the Indian servant of Mr. Parris. Accusation having been followed by arrest, a trial was next in order, and on the first day of March, 1692, the two chief magistrates of Salem, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, with aids and constables, came riding into Salem Village, took their places in the Meeting-house and summoned the parties to trial. Sarah Good was first examined. She was asked with what evil spirit she had familiarity, and answered, none. She was asked why she tormented these children, and re- plied that she did not torment them. But they, being present, were seized with agonies and cried out that she was tormenting them. Sarah Osburn was next examined. Then came Tituba. Her testimony was wild and alarming. She said that she had seen the Devil in the shape of a black dog and that he had offered her a red cat and a black cat if she v/ould serve him. She conjured up all sorts of ugly images. She stated that once, induced by her fellow pris- oners, she had tormented these children, but would not do so again. Such testimony was very damaging, and the three women were found guilty and committed to jail in Boston. The mischief was now well afoot and traveled fast. The (9) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK scheming and successful girls had the audacity to ''cry out" next upon Martha Corey, wife of Giles Corey, one of the most respected women of the community who had, from the first, declared that the girls were deceiving and the magistrates blinded. Mrs. Corey bore herself at her trial with firmness and patience, but she was helpless. "When she bit her lips the afllicted pretended to be bitten. When her hands were free they were in torments, when they were tied the girls were quiet. The result was that she, too, was found guilty and committed to jail. The next vic- tim was the aged and devout Rebecca Nourse, whose neigh- bors testified valiantly to her innocence, but without avail. After her came a little child of four, the daughter of Sarah Good. The girls showed tht; m.arks of her little teeth on their arms and produced the pins with which they ac- cused her of pricking them. To jail, therefore, the poor little child was sent. Like wildfire the horror spread, until the whole community was crazed. No one was safe. Ac- cusation followed accusation. Old and young, rich and poor, fell before the awful inquisition. As yet no one had been put to death. A special court was now appointed. William Stoughton of Dorchester was made chief justice and with him were six associates. The Court began its sessions in June, 1692, in the Court House, then standing in the middle of Washington Street, Salem, opposite the present City Hall. Here, before the end of September, twenty persons were condemned to death for Witchcraft. The unhappy victims were hanged upon Gal- lows Hill, with the exception of old Giles Corey, the iron- hearted, who for refusing to plead, was pressed to death under heavy weights in the neighborhood of Howard Street Cemetery. The fierceness of this vengeance worked a reaction. The firm and forgiving conduct of the executed, the exalted character of the persons later accused, especially of Mrs. Hale, the wife of the pastor of the First Church of Beverly, (10) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK the growing belief that the whole thing was a delusion, all combined to waken the community from the terrible night- mare. The trials grew infrequent and at length ceased, and in May, 1693, all confined for Witchcraft, to the num- ber of one hundred and fifty, were released. Belief in Witchcraft gradually passed away, never to return. With this outline sketch in mind, let the visitor who is interested in Witchcraft go from Town House Square to the Essex County Court House, — stopping to read tha bronze tablet (on the left side of Washington Street) which locates the site of the old Court House. In the clerk's room of the Court House he may see the original verbatim records of the trials and some of the pins produced by the afflicted. Now let him turn his steps down Federal Street until he comes to the site of the jail on the corner of Federal and St. Peter Streets where the Witchcraft victims were con- fined. The older part of the dwelling now standing here is said to contain timbers of the old jail. Thence let him go through St. Peter Street (at that time Prison Lane), turn to the right and follow Essex Street along the route over which those wronged men and women were taken, amid cries of scorn and derision, to Gallows Hill. As he stands upon that bleak hill-top, looking in vain for the monument which ought long ago to have been placed there in memory of these consecrated heroes, he may feel that he stands upon one of the sacred spots of earth, hallowed by heroic men and women, who, rather than confess a lie, gave their lives for truth and humanity. THE HAUNTS OF HAWTHORNE. THE street and house in which Hawthorne was born, July 4, 1804, are as little suggestive of his refined and poetic spirit as was his ancestry. The old dwell- ing (27 Union Street) built prior to 1692, with its hip roof (11) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK and hug-e chimney, stands on a side street leading from Essex Street to Salem Harbor. Hawthorne's father, a descendant of Major William Haw- thorne who came over in the ^'Arabella'' with Winthrop, and of John Hawthorne, one of the two unhappy Witchcraft judges, was a sea captain and died at Surinam in 1808 while in command of a Salem vessel. The family there- upon removed to the house nearly opposite the birthplace, on Herbert Street, which was owned by Mrs. Hawthorne's r^t /P ._ rtri^^ father. Here they lived in singular seclusion, Hawthorne's mother taking her meals by herself and hardly giving her children a chance to become acquainted with her, and his sisters, Elizabeth and Louise, seldom leaving the house. Hawthorne's room in this "Castle Dismal" was in the southwest corner of the third floor. A pane of g-lass upon which the author's name is scratched, together with many other relics of his boyhood days (among them copies of The Spectator, a racy little journal published by Haw- thorne with pen and ink, the constitution of the Pin Society (12) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK and other interesting' memorials), recalling this room, are in the possession of Mr. Richard Manning- of Salem. It was in this chamber, as Hawthorne playfully records in "American Notes," that he dreamed his dreams of fame and wrote those early sketches in which (now) one may see so clearly the budding of his genius. In this secluded home lived this gifted boy, "nourishing a youth sublime" under the tutelage of nature, books and thoughts (assisted by the instruction of the famous lexi- cographer, Joseph E. Worcester, whose private school he attended), until he entered Bowdoin College in 1821. One blissful year of this period he spent in the freedom of country life in Raymond, Maine. The privilege of a col- lege course he owed to his uncle, Mr. Robert Manning. After graduation he returned to Salem and, with the excep- tion of brief absences, gave himself up to literature and solitude. Hawthorne's solitude was at first rich and resourceful, but he was in imminent danger not only of becoming a recluse, but of burying his ten talents in oblivion, when he met for the first time in 1838, Sophia Peabody, who lived hardly more than a stone's throw from him in the old Peabody house in Charter Street, and at once knew that they were foreordained for one another. "We have met in eternity," Hawthorne writes her, "and there our inti- macy was formed." This new and absorbing passion roused Hawthorne's whole nature. He began to bestir himself to secure a home. In 1839 he obtained the office of weigher and ganger in the Boston Custom House. Losing this posi- tion upon the change of administration in 1841, he at once threw himself and his fortunes in with the Brook Farm experiment, hoping, no doubt, that his investment would bring him sufficient income to marry. Brook Farm failed, but Hawthorne married in 1842, taking his bride to the "Old Manse" in Concord. Here all was Paradise until the financial question became ominous. (13) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK The appointment of Surveyor of the Port of Salem, se- cured for him by his friend President Pierce, brought Haw- thorne and his family back to Salem in 1845, and again the old town became the home of its talented son. But the re- lationship was not as cordial as it might have been. Haw- thorne was silent and reserved and would not go into Salem society. He preferred the old salts about the wharves and selected his friends for himself. Salem naturally was piqued at this and failed to appreciate the hidden gem of his genius. When a change in the administration came Hawthorne had no political friends to uphold him. The result was that in 1849 he was removed from office and ten months later, in April, 1850, departed from Salem, never to return. Time is effecting a warmer feeling on the part of Salem toward Hawthorne, and she has now come to honor her talented son almost as much as the rest of the world honors him. The houses in Salem which most vividly suggest Haw- thorne are the house of the Scarlet Letter, 14 Mall Street, and the Grimshawe House, 53 Charter Street. The Mall Street house is one of the old Salem three-story rectangular houses, end to the street,with great angular rooms, into which the sun ''blazes without stint," as Mrs. Hawthorne wrote. It has a bit of yard protected by the regulation Salem high board fence and shaded with fruit trees, in which the pro- totype of the Snow Image was fashioned by the Hawthorne children. It was to this house — as the now familiar story runs — that Hawthorne returned from the Custom House on that June morning in 1849, telling his wife that ''he had left his head behind him." "Oh, then," she exclaimed, "you can write your book!" And upon his inquiring where the "bread and rice were to come from," she went to a drawer and brought forth a little pile of gold, one hundred and fifty dollars, that she had been secretly saving against a rainy day. Here, then, the wonderful story was begun and finished, so thrilling, so touching, so human, that when (14) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK Mrs. Hawthorne heard it from the lips of her husband, she sank from her chair to the floor in tears, overcome with emotion. To this home on Mall Street, too, came James T. Fields to inveigle the manuscript from the modest author, returning in high excitement to assure Hawthorne that its publication would make him a famous man. The Grimshawe House, — standing next the old Charter Street Burying Ground (where Hawthorne's ancestors to- gether with many other famous Salem men lie) — is gloomily suggestive at first only of the grim old Doctor of Haw- thorne's fancy and his pet spiders. But when one remem- bers that this was the home of the Peabodys and that here, in this grey old house, occurred one of tha immortal court- ships of literature, it becomes transfigured. The pilgrim will wish to see also the Custom House on Derby Street, the description of which is contained in the famous introduction to the Scarlet Letter. As for the ''House of Seven Gables," it is well worth a visit for its quaintness and also for the charming view it affords of Salem Harbor. But let the stranger know that although it was a favorite haunt of Hawthorne, it was only one of several similar houses out of which the imagination of the romancer constructed the home of Hepzibah and Clifford. (15) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK Indeed all Salem is Hawthorne's and Hawthorne is Salem's. One cannot tread its quaint streets without a vision of the heaven-anointed youth striding through them at night, when he loved best to stroll, and finding upon everything the touch of Hawthorne's genius. The encompassing hills and shores, too, are all hallowed by his footsteps. Salem and Hawthorne cannot be understood ai^art. AN ITINERARY. THE best itinerary of Salem for the pilgrim v/ho wishes to see the most in the least time (although we cannot commend his policy), is a.s follows: Starting from Town House Square let the visitor go up Essex Street (i. e. west), passing on the left the birthplace (265 Essex Street) of Ambassador Joseph Choate, and on the right the handsome building, which stands upon the site of the house in which Professor A. Graham Bell per- fected the telephone. On the corner of North Street, behind a protruding drug store, stands the oldest house in Salem, the Roger Williams or ^'Witch House," which deserves inspection. Turning to the left and going through Summer Street to Broad Street, a little beyond the High School buildings and upon the opposite side, one comes upon the most picturesque of the early Salem houses, the Pickering House, built before 1660. It is after the Dutch style, and with its ample grounds, makes a very comely picture. In this house was born the Revolutionary soldier and statesman, Timothy Pickering, Washington's Secretary of State. The old house is still in the Pickering family. Turn the corner to the right and go through Pickering Street to Chestnut Street. Here one should pause for a glance up and down the most stately and dignified street (16) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK of New England, bordered by its great elms and its princely- colonial houses. Turning down Chestnut Street (right) the exquisite spire of the South Church catches the eye. This church, built by Salem-s noted architect and wood- carver Samuel Mclntire in 1804, after Wren, is one of the noblest of the old meeting-houses of New England. On the opposite corner is Hamilton Hall, a chaste colonial assembly hall where Lafayette was received in 1824. Turn- ing to the left and going through Cambridge Street one comes out again upon Essex Street a little above the old North Church, — a fine old stone structure after the style of the English Parish Church, — and after passing the house where the author of The Lamplighter was born (No. 314), and the house where Nathaniel Bowditch, the great astron- omer, translated the Mechaniqua Celeste (No. 312), he is again at the Roger Williams House. Next take North Street for the old North Bridge. On the v/ay thither may be seen the old house on the corner of Lynde Street from which Lieutenant EenjarAin West marched to Bunker Hill to give his life for his country. It will well repay one to turn aside and v/alk a few rods up the next street (Federal) for a sight of the Nichols man- sion, built in 1798, perhaps the finest of the old houses of the commercial period in Salem, with its charming porch and its great corner pilasters. At North Bridge the monu- ment will tell the story of the famous bloodless repulse of the British which occurred here February 26, 1775, — before Lexington and Concord. Turning back through Bridge Street, as one approaches the Court Houses from the rear he may see, on the opposite side of Washington Street, the Old Bakery, built about 1663. Beneath may be seen the rough bricks, the clap- boarding showing the ancient construction. In the Court House (corner Federal and Washington) the records of the Witchcraft trials and tlie witch pins will reward a careful inspection. The parlors of the Tabernacle Church, opposite, (17) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK contain the settee upon which sat the first missionaries of the American Board the day of their ordination, Febru- ary 6, 1812, and other interesting historical relics. Taking his staff let the pilgrim go dov/n Federal Street to the jail, in which the witches were confined. The old and favorite hymn-tune, Federal Street, written by General Henry K. Oliver, was named for this street. The site of the Old Jail is at the end of the street on the left. In the venerable stone edifice of St. Peter's Church on St. Peter's Street is a tablet to John and Samuel Brown, whom Sndi- cott sent back so summarily to England for holding ser- vices with the English prayer-book. Emerging upon Es- sex Street again, one faces the East India Museum Building (open daily), a very mine of treasures, gathered about the nucleus of the collections of the old East India Marine So- ciety, the members of which must all have rounded either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. The rich IsTatural History collection in the outer room of the Museum is tempting, but the inner room contains the more unique and characteristic exhibit. Here are life-sized figures of In- dian merchants, whose heads and hands were carved by the old Salem ship carvers, a very rich and valuable collec- tion representing old Japan, an interesting exhibit of arti- cles from the South Sea Islands, the relics of the East India Marine Society, oil portraits of many of the old Salem mer- chants and ship-masters, and models and paintings of the trim little Salem vessels, pioneers in many ports of the world. Here also hangs the original tiller of the yacht '' America," used when she crossed the ocean in 1851. The average number of visitors to the Museum is 50,000 annually. A short distance below the East India Marine Museum and on the opposite side of the street is the Armory of the Salem Cadets, once the home of Colonel Francis Peabody, where Prince Arthur of England was entertained, and con- taining a handsome Gothic banquet hall beautifully carved (18) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK in oak. Next below, standing upon the site of the house in which the historian, William H. Prescott was born, is Plummer Hall, the Library of the Salem Athenaeum, a subscription library of 24,000 volumes. A few steps fur- ther bring one to that Mecca of the pilgrim, the Essex In- stitute (open daily), where one may come into closer contact with the manner of life of early New England than any- where else perhaps in the land. Here are to be found col- lections of the garments which our forefathers wore, the utensils with which they cooked, the footstoves and warm- ing-pans with which they tried to keep warm, the china from which they ate, the harpsichords with which they made music, the books which they read, the implements with which they toiled. Here are portraits of John Endi- cott and Simon Bradstreet and Alexander Hamilton and old Dr. Bentley and grandiose William Pepperell in scarlet uniform, and scores of others, among them many Copleys. Here are Governor Endicott's sun-dial. Governor Bradford's baptismal shirt and mits, the canes used by old George Jacobs, the witch martyr, the original flag ''Old Glory,'' and numerous other interesting relics, beside a library of over a hundred thousand volumes, rich in historical lore and rare editions — ^a veritable El Dorado for the antiquarian. But the pilgrim must not linger here too long if he would complete the itinerary we have laid out for him. There are the Hawthorne houses and other points of interest still to be seen. Among other things Salem is noted for its comely porches and doorways. Opposite the Institute is the graceful swell-front porch on the house of the Father Mathew Society, with its slender Grecian pillars. The Pingree House, next below the Institute on the same side, the scene of the famous White murder, in the trial of which Webster made his famous "suicide-is-confession" argument, has a beautiful porch and doorway. Turning the next corner to the left, one is charmed by the porch of the Andrew House, one of the noblest dwellings in Salem. From the Andrew (19) THE SALEM PILGHIM: HIS BOOK House may be seen queenly Salem Common, surrounded by its majestic, hospitable mansions, built, most of them, in the period of Salem's commercial grandeur and eloquent of her success. To find the house where the ^'Scarlet Letter" vras written take the left hand path across the Common, and go down Mall Street to 'No. 14. H-eturning, go down Essex Street to Union, down Union to the Hav/thorne Birth- place, Wo. 27, then on to Derby Street (turn to the left), which runs parallel with Essex Street along the shore of Salem Harbor. While wondering at the quaintness of this queer old street the visitor will find himself in front of the far- '- U "^uui„14»— - famed Salem Custom House. After viewing it without and (if he chooses) within, let him go out to ths end of the pier opposite and take a look at Salem Harbor with its ancient decaying wharves, once so full of the bustle of trade. He who wishes to visit the "House of Seven Gablrs" can do so by a walk of less than quarter of a mile from the Custom House, going down Derby Street to Turner Street, near the (20) THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK end of which on the right he will find tlie house that has won that title. Or, if his courage begins to flag or train- time approaches, let him retrace his steps through Derby- Street to Charter Street in search of the old Charter Street Burying Ground, Next the Custom House is the fine old Crowninshield House, now the Horn 3 for Aged Women. This was once occupied for several days by President Mon- roe upon his tour of the North in 1817. From 1825 to 1849 it was the home of General James Miller, the hero of Lundy's Lane. In the days before the opposite side of Derby Street was built up these stately old mansions on the slope commanded a fine view of the Harbor. Passing from Derby Street into Charter Street one coni:s to the Salem Hospital, another fine old Salem residence transferred to public uses. With its new outlying wards, the hospital is one of the finest in New England. A little beyond is the Charter Street Burying Ground, the oldest burying ground in the city, overlooked on the further side by the Grimshawe House. The quiet enclosure is worthy of more than a momentary glance, for here lie Governor Bradstreet, Rev. John Higginson, Justice Hathorne, Justice Lynde and many another of Salem's past v/orthies. Singularly enough the only authenticated grave of any Mayfiower passenger is in this cemetery and not in Plymouth: It is that of Captain Thomas Moore, who came over in the Mayflower as a bound boy. The oldest stone is that of ''Doraty, wife to Philip Cromwell, 1673." At the end of the street, in a small square, stands the only statue in Salem. It is not that of any Salem hero, but of an alien, though a worthy one, Pather Theobald Matthew, the temperance orator. It is not an unfitting spot for such a statue, inasmuch as a spring much used by the settlers once bubbled here, while but a few rods away on Front Street in later years was the famous '^Deacon Giles Distillery." From this point the pilgrim, may return, through Front (21) '^i 14 1903 THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK Street, to the station, or, if he is wiser, he will decide to go up Central Street to the Essex House and spend a night in the city of peace, in order to visit in the morning the points of interest which he has not yet seen, — Gallows Hill, the old Assembly House on Federal Street, where "Washing- ton was entertained, the public Library and the Endicott House just below it, Salem Neck and the Willows at the opposite end of the city, or the handsome new Normal School at the extremity of beautiful Lafayette Street, Then there are the surrounding cities and town, with their in- teresting objects, which can best be visited from Salem, — quaint old Marblehead, Danvers with its Witchcraft and Revolutionary relics, and the Endicott pear-tree, and Beverly, with its beautiful wooded shore. We have endeavored to give, in a brief and sketchy way, a hint of what Salem possesses in the way of historical, architectural and literary interest and to help the visitor a little to find his way about. If he wishes more adequate guidance he should secure one of Salem's two intelligent and courteous guides, Mr. Arvedson and Mr. Hayward. For fuller information the Guide Book, published by the Essex Institute, will be found of great service. Nothing makes history so real as a visit to the spots where it was made, and few places in America are richer in historical interest and inspiration than ancient and hon- ored Salem. Leu >■<;■ 0" O M ( •P<^ V, °Mm: J"^- A o <^ V V. ^' .-MM- %.^^* ^ ^. ^s-' ^ ^ ^ *" n N .^' v^ \^ -^ ^.\---/.^^.\---->5^.\--;/..-- .Rs*< : ■^ %■ »t/ '^^ i) /v "<_ ^. <=^, ^0' $^^\^ s- ^: ^, ■3^ ^; A'' .CO .^' 'i^^ '^: a ^ x^ -^ o • * A i^^ %.^ "7. :mm^^'i\ % wjW'" ^'^'■ DOBBS BROS. LIBRARY BINDING b ST. AUGUSTINE ^^. /^S^ FLA. ■:ij^^ • » . s ' °.^ .:. ^^^m:^ '"y^f' -1 32084 LIBF^ARY OF CONGRESS