The evening world., 1889-05-31

gan's Hall, at which more than two hundred
persons are expected to be present, and dele
cations of the poets friends and admirers are
arriving from all parts of the country.
The good gray ~ poet is now a venerable
parsonage, and his growing feebleness in
consequence Of his last illness will not per-
nit him TO take an active part in the fes-
tivities.
For months past he has been confined to
his room in the modest little cottage which
he occupies in one of the by-streets of the
say neutrality-suspicious. he has been waiting
patiently for the end, for he never expects
again to recover his physical powers.
The little parlor which he occupies is fur
floor, which was once Uttered with his books
and papers when he was still able to move
around and devote himself to his literary
work, are now kept spruce and tidy, and the
few hooks which he can now read. although
they are handy to his char, are kept in good
order by his housekeeper.
He is accustomed to sit in his chair, wrapped
in blankets, although on the mild Spring days
Then the wide open shirt collar which is so
familiar to all those who know him falls aside
and lays bare the brown, hairy throat and
upper chest.
f~ull-proportioned, with it's halo of silvery,
silken hair falling in long. soft locks from the
high, rounded %coronal. instict with life and
thought, that most impresses the visitor,
The white beard so singularly clear, and
pure and silken in aspect and texture makes
nobly, venerable the strongly masculine
moulded features. The arched eyebrows
are also white like bows of driven snow, and
beneath them shoulder the wondrous gray
eyes.
Although in his present enfeebled and
crippled condition he can do but little work,
he cannot completely abandon his habits OF
industry, and when he is feeling brighter
than usual he will sometimes take up the old
tasks. He feels, however that his working
days are over, and as he himself pathetically
says
do?"
Walt Whitman was born at West Hills, Suf-
folk County. l.. l., May 81. 1919: During
his boyhood he attended the public schools
IN Brooklyn and New York. and there OBJ.
tanned his education.
At an early age he learned the printers
trade and worked at this during the Summer,
while he taught school every Winter. In the
years of 1847 and ls48 he made a very extern.
Rive tour through the United States and Can.
way acquired a vast amount OF information
and experience, which he afterwards utilized
in editing newspapers in New Orleans and
Huntington, l.. /.
He tired Of this, however. although he was
always writing. aud devoted himself to the
carpenters trade in Brooklyn. In 1855 he
published the first edition of Leaves OF
Grass" which created such a sensation il
literary circles.
Five editions of this work have been pub.
lished. TO each Of which numerous addition
were made by the poet. His barbara
yawp,," as 1t was called at frst. excited only
ridicule. but he afterwards found q host Of
friends and admirers among the shining lights
of the literary world.
He claimed to iDaugurate ian original
modern style, ~ and announced himself al
| tha ,,NaN Of thn nan,nnranv III MUG - w.
must found our own imaginative literature
and poetry. and nothing merely copied from
and following.the feudal world will do. ! dis.
miss without ceremony all the orthodox accou.
trements, rropes, haberda.hery OF words, fee
measures that form the entire stock in trade
of the rhyme talking heroes and heroines. My
metro is loose and free. the lines are of irrog
ular length. apparently lawless at frs
lind that there is regularity. like the occur
ance, for example, of the lesser and larger
waves on the seaBhore. rolling in withou
intermission, and htfully raising and fall
From 1862 to 1865 Walt Whitman was
volunteer nurse in the military camps o
Washington and Virginia. He filled a govern
ment clerkship in Washington from 1865 Il
1874, and while he was q Department clerk h
lived in the attic chamber OF an old-faShioneC
house opposite the Treasury, where tn,
Corcoran Art Gallery now stands. He was
taken there when hrst stricken with paralysis
in 1873. . r
Since 1874 he has lived here in the plat,
little frame cottage on Mickle street, and TO
years the children have been familiar will
the big armchair OF the poet and his pic
turesaue, kindly face in It's framework O
flowing white hair at the front window.
During the last year his absences have beer
numerous, illness confining him to his be-
for long intervals; but nov during the warn
LAYS Of the approaching Summer he is seel
more regularly at his familiar post,
a. crYnyn