The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-03-17
[san Francisco Chronicle, 2Sth ult.l
The Poet Longfellow.

While Longfellow lived he was superla-
lively the poet of the people; now that he is
dead the people are DESTROYS of perpetuating
the memory of the poet. AS the best, if not
the most original way of doing this, the
Longfellow Memorial Association has been
formed, with The avowed intention of pur-
chasing the house in which the author of
"Hiawatha' lived and of preserving it, as
the English have done the home of Shake
speare, as Mecca for all whose "hearts are
open to the touch Of poesie." The head
quarters of the parent Association are at
Cambridge, Mass, and branch Associations
have been established in various American
cities, among them being San Francisco.
The local Association has been informally
organized, with the Rev. Dr. Stebbins as
President, R. III. Mcdonald Jr. as Secretary
and Treasurer and Archbishop Aemany,
Bishop Kip, Judge Sawyer, Professor lie
Conte, the past and the present Governor
and Mayor, FL. II Bancroft, Horace Davis,
the ministers of the various denominations
and the editors of the different papers as
Vice-Presidents.
The first public meeting of the California
branch was held last night at the First Con-
niversary of the poets birth. The exercises
were musical and literary, the tuneful illus
trations being furnished by the Loring Club,
in several chorally-set songs of the poet
whose memory was being honored
In his opening address DR.. Stebbins ex-
planned the objects of the Association, the
substance, If not the manner, of which has
been conveyed in the first paragraph of this
necessarily condensed article. Without es-
fahlighinU parfianlar cnIAio0f fots1
remarks, the speaker gradually settled down
to an interesting expatiation on the necessi-
ty of poetry as an assuager of the cares of
too practical life.
Rev. Robert Mackenzie, choosing another
phase of the relations between people and
poet, aimed to show that Nature, more spar
ing in her gifts now than erstwhile, when
each family had its bard, gave at present
but one to each generation and country. To
the group of inspired singers who had sung
to the hearts of past peoples and through
them to us Mr.. Mackenzie added Longfel-
low, CHASING him with the brightest poets
the world has ever listened to.
Frederick b. Perkins of the Free Public
Library on the other hand, did not try to
FURNISH anew the inscription already on
Longfellow's tablet, but sought to carve an
other line by considering him as a prose
writer. In short speech, replete with rich
SObNCAb db0 luli VI dHcCuOtdl WCdI1ht hO IL
viewed his lesser known works and claimed
for Longfellow an equality, as a prose ro-
mancer, with Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Horace Davis spoke less OF the man than
OF the place which he has helped to make
historical, and as an old Harvard pupil de-
scriDed the classic village of Cambridge. the
Longfellow mansion and the college across
whose quadrangle the poetical professor was
wont TO walk with sweet dignity that was
in itself collegiate instruction.
There was no collection, no appeal to the
pockets of the people, nothing approaching
the practical except an intimation that
the Secretary would be pleased to hear from
those who we're disposed to aid in the eleva.
ton of manse into monument, and moth
ing to disturb the pleasantness Of an hour
spent with the memory of Henry Wads-
worth Longfel!ow.