J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, ’42.
[Continued from 7th page. |
“Now,” said Professor Gray to my
brother, “if you will prepare such a
paper, I will go to Toronto and read it
for you. If I should write on the sub-
ject in my own name, I should feel that
I was strutting in borrowed plumage,
for I’ve learned from you the most that
I know about this thing.” My brother
did not write the paper, but he re-
ceived this credit for his helpfulness
from a man who was better known to
the general public because he labored
in one line rather than in many.
Again there came a letter from Pro-
fessor Spencer F. Baird, of the Smith-
sonian Institute, the United States fish
commissioner, saying that he had been
asked by the committee of navigation
in the United States Senate to furnish
needed facts concerning the history of
whale fishing and of seal fishing on the
northwest coast of America. “As you
know a great deal more about this sub-
ject than I do, I come to you for in-
formation,” said Professor Baird. My
brother wrote him fully in reply, and
that letter was sent to Senator Anthony,
of the Senate, by Professor Baird, with
these accompanying words, as I recall
them: “‘Your request for information
about the whale and seal fisheries on
our northwest coast has been referred
to that marvel of erudition, Dr. J. Ham-
mond Trumbull of Connecticut, and I
send you his letter herewith.”
One day I met Dr. Horace Bushnell
on Main street, Hartford. He said:
“Tye got to write a sermon for the
dedication of the Park Church, and I’m
going down to have a talk with your
brother before I begin it. I have to
depend on him for the facts in a good
many lines when I’m working along
them.” That sermon is known as
“Building Eras,’ in the volume that
bears that name among the posthumous
papers of Dr. Bushnell. When Profes-
sor Calvin E. Stowe was leading a
Congregational Bible class in Hartford,
I met him hurrying down toward the
Watkinson Library one Saturday after-
noon. “I’m hoping to catch your
brother before he leaves for home,” he
said. ‘I never feel quite ready for my
Bible class till I’ve talked the subject
over with him.” -It was this way with
many a man of whom the world knows
much, as well as with many more of
those who were little known. He had
help for all who needed help and he
was glad to give it out to those who
sought it honestly, even though he had
little patience with those who ques-
tioned for mere curiosity, or as triflers.
It has been often said of him, as if
that were his best claim to distinction,
that he was best known as the one man
living who could read Eliot’s Indian
Bible. This was a little annoying to
him, and it came about in an amusing
way. It is true that he was widely
known as a scholar in the Indian lan-
guages, and that he could read Eliot's
Indian Bible, but, as will be seen from
such facts as those I have mentioned, it
was not merely for this that he was
valued by American scholars. Twenty
years ago, or more, a copy of Eliot’s
Indian Bible was old at auction in New
York for eight or nine hundred dollars.
The “New York Tribune,’ in mention-
ing the fact, said that whereas John
Eliot, the missionary, gave the chief
portion of his life to translating the
Bible nto the Algonquin language.
then. spoken by a people extending
from Labrador to North Carolina, and
from Newfoundland to the Rocky
Mountains, there was now only one
man living who could read that book,
and that was Dr. J..Hammond Trum-
bull of Hartford.
This was something concrete and tan-
gible. The public could grasp it. It was
just what a great many had been ask-
ing for, as the key of Dr. J. Hammond
Trumbull’s claim to special scholarship.
The newspapers took it up as a good
item; it passed from one paper to an-
other. It was repeated at every.sale of
an Eliot Indian Bible, or at every men-
tion of that work. Its freauent appear-
ance, as the years went on, became an-
noying to its subject. His friends
knew this. The poet, Edmund C. Sted-
man, said to me a while ago that he
enjoyed asking my brother from time
to time, if it was a fact that he could
read Eliot’s Indian Bible. One editor
remarked that it was now said that Dr.
J. Hammond Trumbull not only could
read Eliot’s Indian Bible, but that he.
‘conducted family prayers from it. So
much was said on the subject in the
public prints that a confused young
man in Philadelphia said to me a while
ago, in honest wonder, “I see, Dr.
AAG ATP eee
Trumbull, that there’s been a Bible
published in New York that only your
brother can read. I don’t quite see
what was the use of nubiushing such a
DOR And it did look a little singu-
At.
Fifty years ago I would have said
that my brother’s chief prominence
would be as a conchologist. He began
by taking an interest in the shells on
the seacoast by which we lived, and in
those which were brought from foreign
parts by whalers and sealers sailing out
from that port. He studied these care-
fully, and became familiar with the
shells of salt water and fresh, and of
theland. His classified collection came
to be one of the largestin America. He
was in correspondence with the promi-
nent naturalists of the United States,
and enlarged his collection by valuable
exchanges and by purchase. But when,
a few years later, this collection was
packed and boxed for removal from his
native place, he had become much’ in-
terested in other branches of study to
reopen it, and it has, I think, never
been unpacked.
Many would still say that he was best
known. as a bibliographer. Certainly
it was as the first librarian of the state
library of Connecticut, and afterwards
as the organizer and purchaser and
librarian of the Watkinson Library of
Hartford, that he did an important
work for future generations. In the
department of “Americana” he had no
peer. Heaided his friend, George Brin-
ley, in the gathering of his great
library in that field, and he was Mr.
Brinley’s literary successor in catalog-
ing and disposing of that library. Be-
cause of his recognized superiority in
this sphere it was sometimes difficult
for him to purchase a book which he
wanted. at an auction. lf he was
known to want it, that was reason
enough why others should. On one
occasion he was at a New York book
auction when other collectors were
present. As he glanced at one small
book among those on the counter, he
saw that it was one he wanted, but he
was too keen to say so. He waited in
the rear of the crowd until it was put
up. No one gave a bid. After several
calls for an offer, the auctioneer said:
“But I must sell absolutely. You can
have this -at.your own price. Say
something.” “I'll give you fifty cents
for it,” said my brother carelessly, and
it was his. George’ H. Moore, the h-
brarian of the Lenox Library, who had
looked at the book on the counter, and
seen nothing desirable in it, came to my
brother and said, ““Trumbull, just what
is that book?” My brother opened the
book and pointed to.a sentence in the
preface. At this Mr. Moore started.
“Tll give you a hundred dollars for
that, « Be-Said. <-;), den.t cate. 40.sen,
said my brother, and he came away
with his purchase.
From boyhood I was accustomed to
go to my brother for information in
any familiar or unfamiliar line of
knowledge, and I never went in vain.
His memory seemed unfailing, and to
be stored with whatever was called for.
Before I had been to the East, or had
become interested in Oriental research
on my own account, I went, one morn-
ing, across the street to his home, di-
rectly opposite mine, and said: “James,
I’m wanting to know something about
an Eastern custom, and I don’t know
where to find it.’ Then I stated the
case. He lifted his head from his writ-
ing and said, after a few seconds of
thought, ‘Look in Southey’s poems
for | “Fhalaba::the’’ Destroyer: .- In the
Notes, at the end of such a book of
that poem, are references to that cus-
tom. I don’t know where you can find
it easier than there.’ And there I
found what I wanted. ;
It is true that my brother did not
write many books, but he helped many
men who did. For myself, I often said
to him that his brain was like a bonded
warehouse, where the contents were
stored in their original packages, ready
for delivery for use or export to one
who could prove a right to them;
whereas my brain was like a peddler’s
pack, simply filled in for the next round
among my customers—a large share of
its contents drawn from that ware-
house, without the payment of impost
duties. It is a sincere pleasure now to
confess my indebtedness to this brother
in all these years, and my gratitude for
myself, and for many others, that he
was so long a helper to so many in so
many spheres.
——_+4—___—_
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