XVIII

Henry Mills Alden, the Nestor of magazine editors, has been identified with our House close on half a century. His dignified presence, with his noble head adorned with a chaplet of silver hair, inclines the timid author to hesitate as he takes his seat for the first time beside the desk in his diminutive sanctum. But after one look into his deep-set, expressive eyes, which are so reassuring, and, at the sound of his voice, so gentle and impressive, all feeling of diffidence passes away, and the visitor soon realizes the quiet power and diversified experience of the veteran editor of Harper's Magazine. If the writers he has so cheerfully assisted and encouraged in his long occupancy of his editorial throne could stand forth and testify, what a host would call him blessed! A lovable man is Alden, and may he long be spared to the House which he has so faithfully and ably served.

Alden's first association with Harper & Brothers dates from August 16, 1863—he remembers the exact day because it was the anniversary of the battle of Bennington— when, on the advice of Charles Nordhoff, he was asked by Fletcher Harper to collaborate with Dr. Alfred H. Guernsey, in the writing of Harper's Pictorial History of the Rebellion, and also to assist him in his editorial work on the Magazine.

Alden was born in Mount Tabor, Vermont, November ii, 1836. On his father's side he was eighth in regular descent from John Alden, the successful rival of Miles Standish for the hand of "the Puritan maiden" Priscilla Mulleins. His mother was Elizabeth Packard Moore, a niece of Zephaniah Moore, the second president of Williams and the first president of Amherst College. Her home was in Wilmington, Vermont, just over the mountain from Danby, whither she was taken by her husband, Ira Alden, a young farmer, to share his humble fortunes in the new mountain clearing.

"It was a typical American community," says Alden, "abounding in those provincial features which the storywriter of to-day zealously seeks but seldom finds. The children of families living far apart went to school during the summer through woods where bears were caught. When sometimes a honey-tree was found it seemed that it was in just such a wilderness that John the Baptist fed on locusts and wild honey. The stream where, after a religious revival, the rite of baptism was frequently performed was usually translated into the sacred Jordan. The fear of bears gave new zest to the story of the prophet Elisha and the railing children."

In his early boyhood Alden's family left Vermont, having been induced by an elder brother, who had gone out into the world, to take up their residence in Hoosick Falls, New York. This was a manufacturing town just over the Vermont border-line on what was then known as the Troy Road. "As we," says Alden, "with all our worldly goods, entered at nightfall the town where our journey was to end, the sight of brightly lighted streets and tall buildings made it seem as if we had come to our new home by some royal highway."

The chief industry of Hoosick Palls centered in the cotton-mills established on both sides of the Hoosick River. The elder brother was at work in one of them, and Alden's maternal uncle was a boss weaver. He was himself forthwith installed as a "bobbin boy," and from that time until he was fourteen he was, in various capacities, a factory hand. There were bright intervals of schooling, but the greater part of his time was spent in the factory. The hours were long, beginning before breakfast, for which half an hour was allowed, and after another break—the half-hour nooning—stretching on to eight o'clock at night. The conditions, apart from the confinement, were most unattractive, but the society, being American for the most part, with a very interesting complement of Scotch workers, was on a much higher level than it was even a few years later, when the increasing tide of immigration quite excluded the American element.

Continuing his train of recollections, Alden tells me that "at this period—in the early forties—there was nothing clearly marking any class distinction, such, for example, as existed in an English factory town. There was nothing characterizing the worker that degraded labor; every one worked, unless physically disabled, and those who worked with their hands were more respected than those of daintier occupations—such as the clerks in stores, who were contemptuously styled 'counter-jumpers.'"

Young Alden did almost everything that could be done in a cotton factory except weaving. The routine of mechanical work was an advantage in that the automatism of manual processes freed his mind for speculative employment. The superintendent of the factory he worked in was also superintendent of the Sunday-school, which, with the Bible class he conducted, for adults as well as young people, was one of Alden's most interesting mental diversions. It was his mother's wish that he should enter the ministry, and he had himself a strong leaning that way. But his mental curiosity proved more imperative than his religious sentiment.

At the age of fourteen he left the factory to prepare for college. That, at least, was the goal of a dream he cherished, though with no visible means for its realization. An old Scotchman who had toiled for many years in the machine-shop grasped his hand as he was passing out of the factory yard for the last time and said, "Yell make yer way, laddie, but dinna ye forget us."

He worked out his tuition at Ball Seminary sweeping the rooms and, in the winter, building the fires. In two years he was fitted for college, but steadfast as was his own resolution, he might have hesitated and faltered but for the helpful and inspiring stimulation of Charles J. Hill, the principal of the seminary during his second year. Hill had himself just been graduated from Williams in the class of 1852. He insisted upon Alden going right on, and Hill's confidence in his future made him believe in it himself. So he entered Williams in 1853, armed with letters from Hill to college professors and to student friends, still undergraduates. Alden had only a few dollars, earned by surveying; but by teaching in neighboring district schools during three months in the winter and engaging in various occupations during the long summer vacations he went through the college course, at the end leaving behind him a considerable indebtedness to the college for tuition.

Alden was fortunate in being at Williams while President Mark Hopkins was in his prime. That in itself was a liberal education. Among his fellow-students, though in other classes, were James A. Garfield, afterward President of the United States; John J. Ingalls, the future Senator from Kansas; J. Gilfillan, later United States Treasurer; Horace E. Scudder, and George Washington Gladden. Ingalls showed great poetic ability. Garfield was the champion debater. He especially distinguished himself and gave a prophetic indication of his future distinction in a speech made at a meeting of the college professors and students just after Brooks's assault on Sumner in the Senate Chamber. His dignity was all the more impressive because the occasion was one naturally arousing violent indignation.

Alden's winter experience as teacher in the schools of his districts in Vermont and New York, and "boarding around," brought him into contact with rural people in their homes, which was very valuable to him, who was habitually so introspective as to be dubbed * 'Metaphysics'' by his classmates. When Garfield came to New York just after his nomination for the Presidency, Alden called upon him at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where he was busily occupied with journalists and politicians. As he came in Garfield was talking with Whitelaw Reid, and he drew Alden aside and ushered him into a little room at his right. As soon as he had a moment at his command he joined him. They had not met for twenty years, but Garfield greeted him with the old familiar epithet, "How's Metaphysics?"

Chester Arthur, who succeeded Garfield as President, was Alden's fellow-townsman in Hoosick Falls. He was present at the graduation exercises of Ball Seminary, in