The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1868-04-24
4fliseellaneons Selections.
rFrom Boston Ccrreapondencs Toledo Commercial
The Literati of Boston.

The Lfterati OF Boston.
Longfellow has been present at the
readings almost every night, and ap-
plauded as heartily as the humblest of
US. On the first night of DR.. Mari
gold he went in to congratulate Dick
ems during the intermission. His gray
hairs, and his long, flowing white
beard, and his benignant face are al
ways au interesting-and l was going
to write, plsintive-sight, when one
remembers that the stoop in his COM
manding figure came only since his
last domestic bereavement. He spent
the afternoon of last Sunday with
James Russell Lowell, near Mount Au-
burn, and, refusing carriage or horse
car, walked through the inclement
weather back to his house in Cam
bridge. Those who know him well
believe the author of "Evangeline "
to be as near a saint as a man can be
in this world. From one who has
been his associate for over twenty
years, 1 have it that Longfellow has
never been guilty of shade of mean
ness, none of the petty faults and jeal-
ousies Of authors.
James Russell Lowell, to whom the
Boston literary people ascribe the most
genius of ali living American poets, is
the jolliest sort of a person. He aud
Professor Norton edit the North
American Review. Lowell is proverbi-
ally lazy, and the Professor is not; so
James Russell does not do most of the
writing for the quarterly. The hand
of the master is sometimes detected,
however, as in the last years article of
Leasing, which has certainly never
been equalled in America, and never
been surpassed on the other side of
the Atlantic.
Oliver Wenedell Holmes is "pretti-
er :" than his picture, which gives you
no idea of his merry langh, and the
magnificent teeth there invariably dis
played. He is wonderfully popular in
society, and is wonderfully successful
as diner out. 1t is thought that the
t" Guardian Angel" would have been
a much better book if the autocrat "
had not been engaged at so many din
ner tables during the month in which
it was written.
w. d. Howells, assistant editor of
the Atlantic, is an Ohioan, and proba-
bly, writes the most exquisite English of
any living American. This is a great
deal to say, but those who have read
Venetian Life" and .Italiau Jour-
neys," or even the English reviews on
the subject of these books, will see my
grounds for the statement. 1t is graft
flying to see that Ohio is learning to be
proud of this promising young writer.
The whole country, however, ought to
be grateful to him, for he has proven
to it, by the success of his travel pic
lures, that words elegantly grouped are
saleable. He has given to the Ameri-
ican people chance to vindicate their
own tastes. With "veuitian Life y
running through with its editions, the
Braddons and Southworths must be on
the wane.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the poet,l
edits Every Saturday. He is just such
genial, warm-souled young man as
his poems would make him. His little
house is furnished in exquisite taste,
and his "wee wife" is pretty enough
10 compensate for the loss he laments
in his "Flight of the Goddess"
"Gsil Hamilton alias Miss Dodge,
one Of the editorial corps of Our
Young Folks, does not show her age,
if she has any to boast of. She is
not bad looking either. "A casual OBJ
server might say that she has the
merest tendency to squint, but her
face is really intellectusl-and that
means, always, good looking.
E. P. Whipple, the critic, scholar,
and lecturer, is as simple as a child.
1t is queer sensation to stand before
the people you have read 80 much
about and SO much Of You are
rather disappointed to find them SO
mildly-maunered and so kind hearted.
If L had been personally assailed once
or twice for intruding on them, as the
reader may also think l deserved, the
early dream wonld have had at least
more dramatic realization. e
Ralph Waldo Emerson shows his age
less than almost any one / ever saw.
He lives in Concord, as you all know.
When he is in Boston he is generally
the guest of Mr. James Fields, the
publisher-poet. On. such occasions
there happens into the favored man
sion, on Charles street, just by chance,
sometimes Lopgfellow, Lowell. Holmes,
Agassiz, and ten or dozen others of
that ilk. 1t is a meeting OF the Titans,
and it is remarkable how much is said
in so short a time.