NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
11 
RANDOM THOUGHTS 
BY D. F. LAMSON. 
No. XLVIII. 
Criticism is an art, and may become a 
fine art, but in the hands of some it be- 
comes hyper-criticism, or mere fault- 
finding, which, if it can be called an art, 
is an art of a very low order, mean and 
degrading to the critic. To criticise 
well requires as much genius as to write 
well. Pope says, 
“Ten censure wrong for one who writes 
amiss, ”” 
and then adds, 
** Let such teach others who themselves excel, 
And censure freely who have written well.’ 
W w 
**The world is too much with us soon 
and late,” Wordsworth said a century 
ago; but with its constant insistence, it 
is hardto see how we can prevent its 
having us in its grip unless we have it in 
ours. Howto use the “‘world,’’ and 
not Jet it use us, is the problem which 
only the Master of all knowledge can 
help us to solve. 
wo ow 
It would do some people good to see 
themselves sometimes as others see them; 
as Burns has it, it would free them from 
many a foolish notion; when the vision 
comes to them, when they see as they 
are seen, it must be an astonishing re- 
velation. It was good advice of the old 
Greek oracle, “‘ Know thyself;’’ for 
self-knowledge is one of the rarest of at- 
tainments; self-consciousness is another 
thing altogether. 
ww 
Great positiveness is sometimes mis- 
taken for great wisdom; if you can only 
say something with sufficient assurance 
many will take it as an end of all contro- 
versy. The dictaof a Samuel Johnson 
or a Carlyle are to not a fewas the word 
Omniscience itself. 
wow 
The trouble often is, that some evils 
seem so trivial to many, that they do not 
interest themselves in them enough to 
resist and abolish them; while other 
evils appear so great, that they are dis- 
mayed even at the idea of trying to over- 
‘come them. 
wow 
It is true, it is well to have some sense 
of proportion, and not train a battery to 
bombard a snow-fort, or spend as much 
energy on street-cleaning asthe eradica- 
tion of tuberculosis or the suppression of 
the white-slave trade. 
uw 
What a pity it is that it is oftenso hard 
to awaken public interest in some needed 
and great reform, while multitudes are 
roused to tremendous enthusiasm over 
some wholly unimportant matter; com- 
munities going wild over some contest 
TO RESTORE WARD HOUSE IN SALEM. 
Essex Institute Plans to Move Famous Structure Built in 1684 and to Re- 
model it as it Was at that Time. 
Will be Surrounded by Old- 
Fashioned Garden. 
The Essex Institute is to restore the 
famous John Ward house in Salem. 
The building will be moved from its 
present location on St. Peter street, near 
the county jail, to a vacant lot in the. 
store of Dr. Webb, for so many years a 
celebrated apothecary of Salem. The 
other will be a shop, such as Hepzibah 
kept, with astock of gibraltars, Jim Crow 
gingerbread, wood toys and other things 
THE JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM, BUILT 1684. 
rear of the Essex Institute on Brown 
street. An old-fashioned garden will 
surround it. The house, both exterior 
and interior, will be made to look just 
as it was along in 1700. It was built in 
1684. 
The house had originally four large 
rooms. As the Ward family increased 
a lean-to was built on the house. An 
examination of the frame will be made 
to discover the exact location of the par- 
tition walls of each room, and the parti- 
tions will be built as they were in the 17th 
century. The modern plastering wil 
be torn out and ancient appearance of 
the walls will be restored and the colonial 
windows put in. 
In connection with the house there 
will be fitted up two old-fashioned stores, 
which will be both unique and interest- 
ing. One will be a reproduction of the 
that Hawthorne described in ‘‘ The 
House of the Seven Gables.’? The 
stores will not be active commercial es- 
tablishments, eager to capture the coin 
of the visitor, but reproductions of the 
old-fashioned stores of Salem, to show 
visitors how trade was carried on in oth- 
er days. 
The removal of the Ward house will 
be started at once. The house was left 
to the Essex Institute, and the city has 
given its permission to move the structure 
through the streets. It is expected that 
it will be completed this summer. 
Lovers of things historic, and especial- 
ly such members of our summer colony 
as make trips to Salem in the summer 
season for the purpose of viewing some 
of these old historic spots, will be inter- 
ested in this move by the Instituie. 
on the baseball field or the golf-links, 
who are utterly oblivious to questions of 
vast moral and political, national on in- 
ternational moment. 
wow 
It is not very strange that after the 
general silence for a generation concern- 
ing the final results of sin, we should 
now hear much of a general decline in 
public and private morals. But it is a 
little noticeable that one of the foremost 
leaders of the left wing of orthodoxy 
should now be one of the most vigorous 
denouncers of present-day conditions in 
the church and social life. Can he not 
see that they are the natural result of. his 
own teaching? When the foundations 
are destroyed, a general collapse is likely 
to follow. 
Champion Wrestling at Salem. 
At the Salem Y. M. C. A. gymnasium 
next Monday evening, Jan. 17, at 8 
o'clock there will be an exhibition in 
wrestling. Edward Anderson, New 
England champion, will be matched 
against R. Page of Harvard, and Carl 
Anderson, . ex- American champion, 
against amember of the Harvard team. 
There will be other attractions, such as 
tumbling, electric clubs, gymnastic feats, 
relay races, and mass drills. 
