New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-04
THE BREAKF1sT TO DR.. HOLMES.

The SEVENTEEN birthday of 1.-THE AutOcrat
{" Of the Breakfast Table " was celebrated yes
terday most appropriately and most happily.
MANY of the most distinguished men and
women in American literature to-day gathered
to do him honor and bid him godspeed
in all that remains of his lifc's journey, so
bright and fruitful thus tar 1t was but nat
nral, all things remembered, that these friendly
tributes shoud, for the most part, take Il
tender and thoughtful tone. There were wit
and sportiveness, too, III their season, but the
contemplation OF seventy years of life
must always excite to deep reflection,
and all the more when these years have been
so happy and so useful as IN this instance.
Our news columns contain q generous report
of much that was said and done by this rare
company, and give, with some notable poet
zeal tributes TO DR.. Holmes, his own reply in
grateful verse.
But tho occasion was something more than
"A pleasant gathering OF the poets, scholars,
journalists and clever men OF letters o
America around the genial humorist and
subtle thinker who has so long occupied
the position to them all OF social Autocrat
1t was but one of many such fetes and ex-
Incidents which Boston has discovered to
do honor TO her sons. There is no city in
the Union in which literary merit meets
rs quick, hospitable recognition. We are
a hospitable folk enough in this metropo-
Titan city; we like TO dine and to find
excuse for dining; hence few strangers, or
even citizens, who have justified their title
TO recognition, escape cordial applause from
us. hearty though transitOry. In Philadelphia,
III.
know not, recognition OF merit IN fellow
citizen is given with coy and grudging cour-
tesy that is not shown to outsiders But III
Boston the policy has always been so
markedly different as to call forth amuSe-
ment and even rdicule from the
rest of the country. How many stale Jokes
have the atlantic Mutual Admiration So
"cietyr and the Clubs of the HUB calmly
borne in their day We all have heard the
old story of the New-Yorker who, In the zeal
of the war, hoisted liberty pole on his
premises to dizzy height. His neghbors
nudgcd each Others elbows: Seen Jones's pole 2
Rotten wood got it half price looks like
L" Haman's damaged gallOwsn A Bostonlan
erected pole. All Beacon-st. ran together
TO shake hands the city thrilled with exul-
tation "Seen our pole No such stick of wood
lin the countryi Higher than the Tower of
Babel now, and another story going on,
L" immediatelyw
But they laugh who VIM If Boston and
Virginia have made much of their favorite
SONS, they have consequently found such
SONS increase in number. There is no
reason why the ways of literary men
should trend to Boston as pious Mahometans
to Mecca. except for the fact that they are
sure to meet there welcome aud apprecia-
ton wanting elsewhere for their feeblest as well
as finest thought. There may nave been some what
too much of this enthusiasm of admiration
Very small poets, lame thinkers and watery
philosophers have come out to the world
from Boston wearing the wreath of
immortal bays. But, on the other
hand, We doubt if Lowell, Hawthorne.
Emerson or Holmes would ever have yielded
to the world such enduring fruit if 1t
had not been slowly and thoroughly