[Boston—Friday, 22 March 1872]
Friday March 22. Went to North St. school for a short visit in the afternoon. Mrs Elisha Atkins had called in the morning with a heart full of enthousiasm for a Holly Tree Coffee Room at South Boston. Her husband is a large ship owner it seems and all his ships come in to a government dock over there where there is much drinking among the men.
The previous evening I had received a strange visit from a Mr. Baker of Grover & Baker celebrity. He is a man of wealth but his brain is teeming with such endless plans for the amelioration of the human race that I seemed to feel myself standing on the brink of a precipice with him. An utter chaos of the human brain opened before me into which this poor man is likely to plunge if he cannot stop in time. After raving on in the most amazing fashion and offering me $10,000 if I would start a public laundry he actually took a cheque out of his pocket and gave me $150 for another coffee room. I had never seen Mr. Baker before and he not only gave me this visible proof of his confidence but he furthermore told me of his previous failure in attempting to start a Romford factory for delivering cheap food to the poor. He sunk $50,000 in this scheme.
My new accession to Coffee Room funds led Mrs Atkins to think we might again join forces and so I hope we very soon may do again.
I had scarcely returned from the North End and was busily arranging some flowers dear Jamie sent me when Celia Thaxter arrived. She was blooming and happy in spite of the cold March weather which appeared relentless beyond the usual temper of this unhappy month. She said she was a trifle tired for she had scrubbed up the kitchen floor in the morning before getting breakfast and her mother was visiting her just now—but she was as merry as a lark notwithstanding. We were soon dressed & ready for the evening. Mr. Emerson arrived from Concord. He said he thought I should be occupied just then and he could find a moment to work over his papers. So I begged him to go to his small study and keep quiet there as long as he chose. So Celia & I sat down together in the clear yellow sunset and she told me how her husband’s family had all died of ossification of the heart and how she saw death slowly approaching him she feared in the same mysterious way. The thought gave me a cold shiver. He [sic] heart has been undergoing a real ossification toward his wife for many many years and now to find this external correspondence to the past gave me a feeling of awe.
She told me too of her eldest boy, a man now, so strong, so huge, so ungoverned, loving nobody, obedient to nobody but herself and utterly inseparable from her loving care. His senses half awakened, his mind wavering. There is insanity in Mr. Thaxter’s family also and I fear her boy can never be like others. That is the great weight on her life and of this she seldom speaks. I never knew her to speak of him before to any one. It was most touching. Her sorrow was so deep down, so tender.
I told her in return, after she had quite ended & it was time to turn to other things, of Mrs Hawthorne, of her love to me, & of her beautiful letters and I read her those written after Mr. Hawthorne’s death. They gave her great delight although we both marvelled over the inconsistencies of such a character. One formed of the highest delicacy and yet capable of printing Hawthorne’s private journal containing the entire history of Mr. Thaxter and herself, names given in full as if they no longer inhabited this planet.
Presently Emerson came down to tea, the curtains were drawn & a few guests arrived. We sat about the little tea table and Mr. E. told us of his son’s life in Berlin, where through the kindness of Mr. & Mrs Herman Grimm, Mr & Mrs Bancroft and one other family he named, a very pleasant social circle had been opened for him. The story of the marriage of Jacob Grimm is strange enough, Mr. E. went on to say. He and his brother William grew up side by side, entirely absorbed in their scientific studies. Marriage they had neither of them contemplated, until one day their father said the race must not be suffered to die out with them and one of them must take a wife. They were neither of them interested in the matter and at length they drew lots as to which should give up his career for the time and seek a wife. The lot fell upon William and the present Madame Grimm, the daughter of Bettina von Arnim, was the person chosen. She was of course immediately presented to the brother of her intended husband and before either of them were aware, Jacob was in love with his brother’s chosen bride. An explanation ensued, William was not in love and was only carrying out the contract he had formed, so Jacob took the lady and as the novels say, they lived happy ever after. [Note: Herman Grimm (1828–1901), son of William Grimm (1786–1859), married Gisela von Arnim, in 1859. Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) never married.]
Mr. Emerson told us also of Mr. Lowell, his classmate (Miss Nina Lowell’s father) a man of fine noble character who lost his property during the war but has happily recovered it since.
More guests came and the sage left the tea-table and I lost his talk for a time—except for a graceful retort I recall which he made me when I said I was very sorry to be out when Ellen came to see me especially as it was on a day of terrible wind and rough weather. “How came you to be out at such wind and rough weather, I should like to know” he pleasantly rejoined, in his courtiesly way.
We made an audience of nearly 40 persons to listen to Amita, an extraordinary picture of a strange stoical noble character whom he had not only known but valued as a kinswoman. A humble lot, a great soul, fearlessness towards the world, fear only of the Lord, all these characteristics he brought out into fullest relief. The company enjoyed it to the full—afterward Dixie played—making dream music as Aldrich said and after, we talked and were jolly until nearly midnight. Dr. Holmes was here—Robert Collyer—John Weiss among the rest.
