Way Down East

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'Way Down East

The Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Way Down East, by Joseph R. Grismer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: 'Way Down East A Romance of New England Life
Author: Joseph R. Grismer
Release Date: October 28, 2005 [EBook #16959]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'WAY DOWN EAST ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Miss Lillian Gish as Anna Moore. D. W. Griffith's Production. 'Way Down East.]

'WAY DOWN EAST
A ROMANCE OF NEW ENGLAND LIFE

BY
JOSEPH R. GRISMER

Founded on the Very Successful Play of the
Same Title by
LOTTIE BLAIR PARKER

ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM D. W. GRIFFITH'S MAGNIFICENT MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL STORY AND STAGE PLAY

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS -------------- NEW YORK

_Copyright, 1900_
_By Joseph R. Grismer_
_'Way Down East_

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I.
All Hail to the Conquering Hero.
II. The Conquering Hero is Disposed to be Human.
III. Containing Some Reflections and the Entrance of Mephistopheles.
IV. The Mock Marriage.
V. A Little Glimpse of the Garden of Eden.
VI. The Ways of Desolation.
VII. Mother and Daughter.
VIII. In Days of Waiting.
IX. On the Threshold of Shelter.
X. Anna and Sanderson Again Meet.
XI. Rustic Hospitality.
XII. Kate Brewster Holds Sanderson's Attention.
XIII. The Quality of Mercy.
XIV. The Village Gossip Sniffs Scandal.
XV. David Confesses his Love.
XVI. Alone in the Snow.
XVII. The Night in the Snowstorm.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Miss Lillian Gish as Anna Moore. . . . Frontispiece Martha Perkins and Maria Poole.
Martha Perkins tells the story of Anna Moore's past life.
Lillian Gish and Burr McIntosh.

WAY DOWN EAST

CHAPTER I.
ALL HAIL TO THE CONQUERING HERO.
Methinks I feel this youth's perfections, With an invisible and subtle stealth, To creep in at mine eyes.--Shakespeare.
It had come at last, the day of days, for the two great American universities; Harvard and Yale were going to play their annual game of football and the railroad station of Springfield, Mass., momentarily became more and more thronged with eager partisans of both sides of the great athletic contest.
All the morning trains from New York, New Haven, Boston and the smaller towns had been pouring their loads into Springfield. Hampden Park was a sea of eager faces. The weather was fine and the waiting for the football game only added to the enjoyment--the appetizer before the feast.
The north side of the park was a crimson dotted mass full ten thousand strong; the south side showed the same goodly number blue-bespeckled, and equally confident. Little ripples of applause woke along the banks as the familiar faces of old "grads" loomed up, then melted into the vast throng. These, too, were men of international reputation who had won their spurs in the great battles of life, and yet, who came back year after year, to assist by applause in these mimic battles of their Alma Mater.
But the real inspiration to the contestants, were the softer, sweeter faces scattered among the more rugged ones like flowers growing among the grain--the smiles, the mantling glow of round young cheeks, the clapping of little hands--these were the things that made broken collarbones, scratched faces, and bruised limbs but so many honors to be contended for, votive offerings to be laid at the little feet of these fair ones.
Mrs. Standish Tremont's party occupied, as usual, a prominent place on the Harvard side. She was so great a factor in the social life at Cambridge that no function could have been a complete success without the stimulus of her presence. Personally, Mrs. Standish Tremont was one of those women who never grow old; one would no more have thought of hazarding a guess about her age than one would have made a similar calculation about the Goddess of Liberty. She was perennially young, perennially good-looking, and her entertainments were above reproach. Some sour old "Grannies" in Boston, who had neither her wit, nor her health, called her Venus Anno Domino, but they were jealous and cynical and their testimony cannot be taken as reliable.
What if she had been splitting gloves applauding college games since the fathers of to-day's contestants had fought and struggled for similar honors in this very field. She applauded with such vim, and she gave such delightful dinners afterward, that for the glory of old Harvard it is to be hoped she will continue to applaud and entertain the grandsons of to-day's victors, even as she had their sires.
It was said by the uncharitable that the secret of the lady's youth was the fact that she always surrounded herself with young people, their pleasure, interests, entertainments were hers; she never permitted herself to be identified with older people.
To-day, besides several young men who had been out of college for a year or two, she had her husband's two nieces, the Misses Tremont, young