CHAPTER IX 



REPUTATION IN 1 857 



Although in his Walks and Talks the public had ample 

 evidence of Mr. Olmsted's taste in scenery, he was known 

 principally as a literary man, a writer on agriculture, and a 

 student of our social and economic conditions. His reasoned 

 observations had been widely circulated through his letters 

 in the New York Times and the books subsequently made 

 up from these, ' which are still considered to give the truest 

 picture of the South before the war. Mr. Raymond of the 

 Times is quoted in 1854 as thinking "highly of his powers of 

 observation and detailed reporting, giving just the facts 

 that people want." 



Among his intimates he was known as an enthusiast and 

 keen analyst in debate. It is pleasant to quote two refer- 

 ences to these quahties in letters, which were prophetic, in 

 spirit if not in exact detail : 



Boston, May 8, 1847. 



(From F. J. Kingsbury to J. H. Olmsted.) 



"It is pretty much all true what you say about Fred. 

 But living and growing and experience will have to answer 

 for him instead of college discipline. He is an enthusiast by 

 nature though, and all the Greek and Latin in the world 

 wouldn't have driven that out of him. Well the world 

 needs such men, and one thing is curious, disappointments 

 never seem to trouble them. They must in the nature of 

 things meet with them often and yet they go right on in the 

 same old way just as if it had not happened. They never 

 get disheartened. I think Fred will be one of that sort. 

 Many of his favorite schemes will go to naught but he'll 

 throw it aside and try another and spoil that and forget them 



' Seaboard Slave States, Journey in Texas, and Back Country. 



117 



