IN OLD NEWBURYPORT 125 



fire of his verses from the keen sea winds that 

 blow on the top of the ridge where High Street is 

 lined with the noble, square, stately old houses of 

 the one-time magnates of the place. It is not a 

 far cry from the shacks of Joppa and the clutter 

 shops of the lower regions to this atmosphere 

 of worth and dignity along the higher levels of 

 Newburyport. I have an idea that more than one 

 youth who climbed first to reef topsails later 

 climbed to a master's berth and an owner's fi- 

 nancial security, his abode climbing with him from 

 the jumbled, characterless houses of the lower re- 

 gions to one of these mansions in the skies. It 

 may be that there is equal opportunity now, but it 

 is not so easy to see. Seafaring and shipbuilding 

 could not make men, but it did train them to wide 

 outlooks and large experience in self-control and 

 self-reliance; larger, I believe, than do the shoe 

 factories and other industries that have taken 

 their places in this town that the sea once made 

 its own. 



Newburyport does not grow in population, but 

 it holds its own with a peaceful dignity and a quiet 

 beauty that seem to belong to it as much as do its 



