The Portland daily press., 1881-01-19
A FANCY ROAST.
Served Up by Francis H. Under
wood for George P. Lathrop.
CAUSTIC COMMENT ON THE LATTER'S
LITERARY AND SOCIAL BOSTON,"

An article entitled Literary and Social
Boston" from the pen of Mr.. George Parsons
Lathrop, in the current number of Harper's
Magazine has provoked favorable criticism
from many quarters. 1t is not wonderful that
itshould be commented upon unfavorably by
somebody. Such comment has been made by
no less distinguished man of letters than
Francis II. Underwood. Mr. Underwood has
addressed an open letter to Mr.. Lathrop, which
appeared on Sunday in the Boston Gazette.
Mr.. Underwood says:
year or two ago received letter from
an eminent anthor of this city, complaining
that IN published report of one of my lee
lures, devoted to his special department of lit
erature, there was no mention of his name. /
respected his motive and his manly way of
stating his feeling, and L wrote him that if he
mad done me the honor to hear me, instead of
depending upon newspaper report, he would
nave been better satisfied / enclosed copy
OF the pages in my lecture that referred to him
ana which the reporter had omitted to notice.
In similar spirit l must make few COM
ments on your recent article in Harper, which
L think should have been entitled 'Fashion-
able Boston," since it does not embrace any
literary work or workers of the city and v1cin-
lty except such as the fashionable world cares
Tor. Part of the shortcoming, as 1 view it, is
due to your not being acquainted with some
men and things, which though familiar to the
elders are not so fresh and vivid to littera-
teurs of 80. On the other hand, probably, part
OF my lack of appreciation of some parts of
your sketch is due to my belonging to ''for-
mer generation, whose worth in some in
stances you have imperfectly considered
Whether you are right in your judgment or
whether am right in mine, will by and by be
decided by men who care not a penny for Ell
ther of us. who are under no obligations to $50
ciety," who have no desire to propitate edi-
tors, or fiatter the leaders of literary fashion.
In short, my friend, these matters will one day
be settled, as the pretentions of kings aud gem
erals have been settled, after the actors are
dust You will infer that have personal
grievance, which is true. 1 shall, however,
note such things as occurred to me as / read,
in their order, or, perhaps, in no order.
may say here that the supposed Influence
OF salons upon letters in provincial city
like ours is rubbish. There was never a salon
here, nor, imagine, the materials for one.
The social conditions necessary are only to be
found in some ancient capital like Paris. That
people have met at Mr.. Ticknor's mansion or
in Mrs. Sargeant's hospitable parlors' II
quote from the newspapers), is of no conse-
quence to any but themselves. The Auto
craft needed no actual guests at his immortal
table; it was spread Sin thoughts interior
sphere" The great mathematician would
have continued his meditatons upon celestial
mechanics if the Radical club had never ex-
lsted. He did not wrestle with gigantic prob
lems for the sake of entertaining DIR. Bartol
and the wise women of Chestnut street. Your
mistakes, as l view them, begin with your
treatment of Ticknor. Some unsparing
chronicler will yet do him Justice. He was
rich man, tuft hunter, and a solemn snob, as
became the son of retired grocer. In his
time wealthy professor and dabbler in letters
In Boston was as rare as a dodo, and he was
made much of. His house was the resort of
literary men from the old world, and for
such OF the new world as fashion approved.
To an abolitionist, philosopher, or poor man
his doors were shut. When Richard HI. Dana
sided with Charles Sumner. the awful man.
date was issued that Dana was no more to
taste the Ticknor Madeira. Later, when truth
came to the top and Ticknor wanted Dana
back agsin, that sturdy Republican aristocrat
refused. Honor to him! You are in fault as to
your recollections of Mr.. Ticknor. He was
not tall nor prepoSseSSing, as you paint him.
He was rather below the medium height, and
his only fine features were his full brow and
his black and steadfast eyes, l used to think
he wore his dignity, putting it on and off, af-
ter the old custom in Boston, like Sunday
clothes. Tlcknor never made an acute obSer-
vation upon letters or art; he never showed
CLEAN Of wit or a scintilla of imagination and
his writing was devoid even of the most OBJ
vious graces Of style. 1 defy man to find
respectable quotable passage in his History of
Spanish Literature book no mortal ever
read except from compulsion. But while he
hobnobbed with the great he was shrewd
enough to keep diary, and his autobiography
ike cocoon, vas worth more than the body it
enshrouded; so that he really benefited the
world by dying. l am not unmindfnl Of his
handsome bequest to the public library. 1t is
for him lasting monument. 1t was far diff
ferent with the learned Bancroft, with the ele-
CANT Prescott and the fiery Motley, his con-
temporaries, all of whom wro enduring his
tory while living in Boston, in places well
remembered, and about whom you have little
or nothing to say. "The little finger" of either
ito use the simile of scripture) was "thicker
than the lons' of Ticknor. This is true, not
only in respect to literary work, but to person.
al character. Ticknor was self-seeking and
1droit, and have been informed that he made
overtures which showed that he would not
have been unwilling to have bought the right
to put his name as author upon the historical
work of another. Mr.. Theodore Parker's sar-
casm which you quote, had solid basis. 1t
was to me that Mr.. Parker told this story of an
Englshman not of Westerner as you have
it. If Boston were hell, Ticknor was surely
the head devil.
AS am mentioning historians, 1 will ven-
ture to express surprise at your inadequate
treatment OF Parkman, an able man, full of en-
ergy and fire, and worth dozens of some of the
hlagree writers you praise. Perhaps you are
not to be blamed for just mentioning Sumner
Everett. Winthrop, Palfrey, Choate and the
Adamses. They are mostly politicians, to be
sure, but each of them has written more real
literature than the members of the Papyrus
club perhaps. Winthrop is the first living or
ator, unless it be Wendell Phillips. And the
Adamses (who are not all of them the most
agreeable men) are probably as able as the SON.
net makers of the Atlantic. There can be no
desire to pluck leaf from the brow of Mr..
Fields, but it is proper to state that the Allan
tic did not change publishers until its distinc-
tive character had been established, and its
name become household word. You refer to
Mr.. Fields IN connection with "the second vol
ume." Two volumes of seven numbers each
were completed in December, 1858. The mag
azine was transferred to Messis. Ticknor &
Fields (as remember) in September following
-twenty-three numbers having been issued
under the name of Phillips & Sampson. I
must mention John Fiske, who has more brain
and more power of expression than any half
dozen OF the twaddlers of the Concord school
or of Mrs. Sargent's "show." You and know
that the only reason he is not professor at Har-
ward is because he holds to unpopular doctrines
of human development. Why you give him
the go-by l really cannot understand; for be-
lieve you are not affected with the odiune the
Otogicom, and hope you don't value men ac-
cording to the standards in vogue on Beacon
Hill. Rev. Il. E. Hale is able in various ways
but so are James Freeman Clarke and Phillips
Brooks, both bright and productive, whom U
believe) you ignore. John Weiss, rarest of
wits, is shown only in an execrable portrait
for which you are not responsibility, and there
is no view of Prof. Pierce, the ablest, simplest,
and most self-poised of the Radical" group.
The portrait of Mr.. Sargent among them was
perhaps necessary as part of the res geste'' (as
young attorneys say) but for no other reason.
l am willing, for my part, that you should
forget Joseph Cook; but you know he pro-
foundly stirred up our city ION its northeast
side) and made his sky parlor in the Bellevue
a kind of Pharos. One of the signal omissions
is the name of Trowbridge. 1t is true, you
name him, but that is ALL He is not only hon.
est, homely and sincere, he is Yankee Burns
or very near one. l don't mean that he is
light and fre-a lyrical wonder; but the soul