Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1886-02-19
A TALK WITH DIR. HOLMES.
HIS REcoLLecTIoNs OF SOME OF HIS
CONTEMPORARIES.
Agassix, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mar
garet Fuller-Memories OF Emerson's
Visit to the Doctor at Home-Early Lee
turing Tours-Pestered by Admirers.

Visit to the Doctor at Home-Early Lec-
turing Tours-Pestered by Admirers.
1t was at reception at Boston, that
first met DIR. Oliver Wendell liolmes-a
small spare man Of 80 years, with a genial,
mobile face, lips seldom at r.Jt, kind eyes,
quick and penetrating. l told him that
instead of allowing him to come out to see
me had been about TO pay my respects
to him. well" said he, Il don't go out
much this weather. suppose about my
time of life one may expect TO sit at home
and be visited like Chinese god; but ]
have come out to see YOU Oliver
Wendell Holmes talks just MS he writes,
and is just what he seems to be. He is
always the autocrat, or the professor, or
the poet of the breakfast table. The
sound of our own voice he once said To
me, lis sweet; we all love il.
REcoLLECTIoNs or THE PAST.
His mind is naturally prone TO 90 back
to that brilliant circle-Emerson, Long
fellow, Agassiz, Hawthorne, Margaret
Fuller. Bryant, Whittier, James Russell
Lowell-of which he himself was so subtle
an ornament; but he never loses sympathy
with the present AFTER life like mine
one may well live as pigs are said TO do,
on ones own fat. We certainly were a
good circle in the old days. What pres
ence was Agassiz, with his flashing eyes
so full of life and genius and insight and
eloquence! As for llawthorne-such a
contrast for him-he was SO shy and re-
firing, like blushing schoolgirl OF II,
For a whole evening you could hardly get
a word out Of him in company; but then
Margaret Fuller-rather dull as think IN
her books-was rare talker; oyer-rateL
though he added. do you know
think was always little Jealous Of her
Perhaps never did her quite justice. II
began when we were children. We used
to 90 to school together and she got ahead
of me. Once she wrote an essay begin
ming. "Trite as maybe the remark etc.
She read il 10 me. Idiln't know what
"trite' meant. She evidently did. j fell
quite piqucd and disliked her for her lofty
superiority. Is il not absurd the trivial
little things that warp the minds and i'm
press young children and old ones, too?
Holmes always stood little outside the
Emerson clique. "Oh, as TO Emerson" he
iN NtN an phic anu
sunny: but the stuff talked in his name
about transcendentalism was insuIIerable:
il has infected Boston ever since. The
brainless literateurs and charlatans that
lived on his pecularities and mimicked his
makes one sick to think of
them-to him his style was native, il was
clear. pure inspiration. We are too in
dulgent here in Boston To mere littera-
teurs: we do not see things in right pro-
portion: we hardly know first rate quality
from second rate and after a pause he
added: NO nor fifth rate He was very
fond of Emerson, aud gather was much
with him toward the close Of his life, when
his mind had entirely given away and he
could recolect nothing "IIis beautiful
spirit" he said, remained quite unclouded
aud serene" although his memory was
gone; latterly he would read book with
out turning over the page, for by the time
he had got to the bottom of IL he had for
gotten what he had been reading, and
could begin all over ogain.
after Longfellow's DEATH" said
Holmes, A" as he lay in the chapel, before
the coffin lid was shut down, went in
with Emerson TO take last look at our
poor friend. Emerson stood gazing at the
quiet face for some moments. Then turn
ing to me he said: That is the face of a
very amiable gentleman, but ! do not
know who he is All his sensibility, his
fine Judgment and taste remained unim-
paired-only his memory was gone. Of all
men that nave ever known, he was the
most serene and angelic down 10 the very
end
VISITING THE DOCTOR At HOME
One afternoon we went in To see him.
He lives in Beacon street, and the back Of
his house commands view Of the sea
and the sunset. His study table was
strewn with letters. lie began to de-
scribe with inimitable humor the way he
was pestered by admirers. Yet | think
he would miss them, He tossed me a
letter asking for his autograph; he opened
another requesting sentiment; and a
third wanting his opinion on some verses.
II live he said. ION interruptions, but
what am to do with the books people
send me and urge me to reads" told him
what Stanley, the late dean Of Westmin-
ster, did with such presents; he wrote off
a postcard with Dear Sir: Twill not wait
to open your book, but best thanks.-A.
p. S" Holmes thanked me for the hint.
/ delight to hear him talk about himself,
his poems, and his varied experience of
admirers. He seemed to me about the
most contented martyr to popularity
ever saw. He would complain Of being
made butt of by every one who wanted
lift In art, literature or lecturing, but
could see that few applied TO him in vain.
At times he would check himself lightly
with Dear me. am talking Of nothing
but myself, like a garrulous old man that
am. you will never grow old, ;" said (:
"the yigor and freshness of your soul will
keep you young forever" ayr said he,
"young with a second childhood, through
which, suppose, we all must pass till we
get washed clean, as hope we all shall be
when we wake up by and by.
One night he entertained us all with ac-
counts of his early lecturing tours, when
the managers of forlorn institutions tried
to beat him down to few dollars, when
he had to walk miles over plowed fields to
reach some remote town, and then send
his agent out into the highways and
hedges TO beat up an audience. @Ay,n
said he, "things are changed now. You
gentlemen come over here with your re-
putations made and literary public pro-
missing you fixed fees; in my young days
no one had heard of me, and few people
knew what a lecture was. There was no
literary public; we had to create the TASTE,
and uphill work II was I can tell you; but
IL had its adventure and its sweetness
II - A. -. -. A.