HAWTHORNE 



2726 



HAY 



new genius; on the contrary, it was almost neg- 

 lected, despite Longfellow's enthusiastic praise. 

 Since it, with his other literary ventures, did 

 not bring in enough to support him, he served 

 for two years (1839-1841) as weigher in the 

 Boston customhouse. To readers of to-day 

 there is something incongruous, almost sacri- 

 legious, in the thought of the author of The 

 Scarlet Letter weighing out coal and grain; 

 but those about him seem to have accepted it 

 as a matter of course. 



Growing Reputation. For a year Hawthorne 

 lived at Brook Farm (which see), but he loved 

 solitude too well to find communistic life at- 

 tractive, and it was with real happiness that he 

 settled down in 1842 in the "Old Manse" at 

 Concord with his wife, Sophia Peabody. The 

 returns from his books, which by this time in- 

 cluded Grandfather's Chair and Mosses from an 

 Old Manse, in addition to the Tales, were still 

 small, and in 1846 he accepted the post of sur- 

 veyor in the customhouse of Salem. 



During the three years he held that office 

 he wrote almost nothing, but his mind was 

 busy, so when a change in political parties re- 

 moved him from office he was ready to begin 

 at once on The Scarlet Letter, a tale of austere 

 colonial times in New England. Its publica- 

 tion made him famous not only in his own 

 country but in Europe, and he needed to seek 

 no more customhouse positions. All his works 



"THE OLD MANSE" 



that followed The House of the Seven Gables, 

 The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun 

 and others were eagerly read, and he was 

 far more sought after than he desired to be. 

 The last-named book, a curious, weird study 

 of life in the American artist colony at Rome, 

 was the outgrowth of his European experience; 

 for in 1853 he was sent by his former college 

 mate, President Pierce, as consul to Liverpool, 

 and after five years of residence there he went 



for a year and a half to Italy. After his return 

 to the United States he brought out but one 

 book, which, under the title of Our Old Home, 

 gave his impressions of England. The Dolliver 

 Romance, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret and Sep- 

 timius Felton were left unfinished at his death, 

 which occurred on May 18, 1864, at Plymouth, 

 N. H., while he was traveling with Ex-President 

 Pierce. 



Despite his shyness and what he called his 

 "cursed habit of solitude" he had made many 

 friends, for his handsome face and manly bear- 

 ing attracted all who met him, while his mod- 

 esty and the strength that was evident through 

 his gentleness won him lasting admiration and 

 respect. As for his works, their reputation has 

 grown with the years, for his mastery of the 

 intricacies of human nature is no more remark- 

 able than is his style, which is easy, delicate 

 and exquisitely pure. 



Julian Hawthorne (1846- ), the son of 

 Nathaniel, is also a novelist, but while his 

 works show a certain strength and facility they 

 are not productions of genius like those of his 

 father. He was born in Boston, studied at 

 Harvard, and then took up civil engineering,, 

 for which, however, his liking was slight. After 

 1871 he gave up all his time to literature, pub- 

 lishing the. novels Bressant, Sebastian Strome, 

 A Fool of Nature and Noble Blood, and a life 

 of his father and mother. In 1913 Hawthorne, 

 with others, was tried for alleged misuse of the 

 mails in promoting mining ventures, and while 

 it was recognized that he had been drawn into 

 the transactions by others, he was found guilty 

 and sent to the Federal prison at Atlanta. Of 

 his experiences there he wrote in The Subter- 

 ranean Brotherhood. A.MC c. 



Consult Hawthorne and His Circle, by his son ; 

 Brownell's American Prose Masters; Woodberry's 

 Nathaniel Hawthorne. 



HAY, a name given to a number of crops 

 dried for use as food for cattle and horses. The 

 chief plants cultivated for this purpose are tim- 

 othy and other grasses, alfalfa, clover, rye, bar- 

 ley and oats. Buffalo and prairie grasses are 

 cut and cured in many localities. In all cases 

 hay should be cut before the seed is completely 

 ripened, as the food value is then greatest. 

 The crop, when cut, is allowed to lie on the 

 ground until sufficiently dry to store. The time 

 taken for drying depends on the climate; 

 where heavy dews fall or rain is expected the 

 hay is collected each evening into mounds or 

 haycocks. If it is very damp it may be spread 



