The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-09-03

tinctively. In some, and often in many
ways, they come in touch with the more
material activities of life and are able TO do
other things than to polish sonnet or to
round a graceful period.
A number of names suggest themselves
as examples of this purely occidental versa
tility. E. G. Stedman is a broker as well
as a poet. Edgar Allan Poe, Charles King
and Mayne Reid were in the regular army.
Fitz Greene Halleek lived on his salary as
a clerk in the Office of John Jacob Astor.
The Abbotts were clergymen, and the
Adamses have stamped their individuality
on public affairs since the days of the col
onies. Thomas Bailey Aldrich began life
as clerk in New York counting house
George Bancroft, the elder Hawthorne,
Bayard Taylor, W. w Astor and Bret
Harte figured in political affairs. Andrew
Carnegie was an ironmaster ere he was an
author. Samuel L. Clemens was printer,
a river pilot and several other things be-
fore he became Mark Twain and wrote
''The Innocents Abroad" Holmes is a
physician, and Bellamy is lawyer.
The last might be extended almost in
definitely, but enough instances are set
down to sustain the proposition that versa
tility is an American characteristic and
that those who shine as literary stars of
the first magnitude have capabilities be-
yond the realms of phrase turning and
bookmeking. Lowell thoroughly recog-
nized this, and was himself one of the best
of modern examples He started out in
life with certain views that experience and
a widened horizon induced him to modify
An1r oh h.. ~ I-kT1
dent he wrote his first poem and devoted
many of its lines TO satire of the aboli-
tionists. Later ON these abolitionists-
Emerson, Giddings, and so on-became his
closest friends, and in his verses he exalted
those whom he had formerly debased.
Then, too, as a graduate of leading
university, he was wont to have small re-
gard for the lesser educational institu-
tons. But as the years went by this preju-
dice was supplanted by other convictions,
as witness the following extract from an
address delivered by him not many years
ago at the opening of a new college for
girls at Bryn MaWF, near Philadelphia:
81 once had Il strong prejudice against
the building Of small colleges, but am re-
minded that they are of great use as semi
naries of culture. We-are too apt in Ameri-
ca to take credit for education. l have
been taken to task for saying hard things
about the culture of America. l don't
know what good man is to his country
unless he tells the truth about it. don't
know what good a country is to man if
he can't bear to have the truth told about
it. Once / said universities were places
where nothing useful was taught, but
have qualified that. Some say that their
use is to help man as a breadwinner. but
don't believe that. Ny opinion is that
what he learns there is not that which
makes him any the better or worse as
breadwinner, but it will act as a sweetener
of what bread he gets"
Mr. Lowell began his manhood life I'M
der fortunate conditions. He possessed
money, brains and ambition. So when he
felt that he had made mistake III choos-
ing the law as a profession he was able to
abandon rather meager practice without
any fear as to the bread and butter conse-
quences. Freed from all financial cares,
he did two very natural things-took to
writing and fell in love- The lady of his
choice had decided views on public ques-
tions, and perhaps it was owing to her in
fuence that Lowell for the remainder of
his life was in constant conflict with him