Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-10-12
Death of "The Autocrat."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, the beloved
"Autocrat of the breakfast table" died at
his Beacon street home in Boston Sunday,
Oct 7, at a quarter past y o'clock. His
illness was of short duration. During the
last days of September he removed from
Beverly Farms, his summer home, to his res
idence in Boston. The change aggravated
the asthma, to which he had long been
subject, and the attack of this malady
left him in a weakened condition. from
which he did not rally.
DIR. Holmes was born in Cambridge, Au-
gust 20, 1909. He was the son of Rev.
Abe Holmes, descendant of an early
Puritan immigrant from England. lie
prepared for college at Phillips Andover,
and graduated from Harvard in 1879.
During his college days he contributed over
a score of poems to one of the college pa
pers, "The Collegian,' some of which
rank among his best productions. He de-
livered the poem at his class commence
ment, and was one of the Is members of
his class admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa
society. 1t was just after his graduation
that he wrote cold Ironsides," a poem
which saved the frigate constitution from
destruction, and made Holmes known.
After leaving college Holmes studied law
for a year, and then turned his attention to
the study of medicine. He went abroad
in 1888, continuing the study of medicine.
He returned in 1880 and received the de-
gree of NJ. ID. in 1896. 1t was in this year
that he published his first volume of
poems. Three years later he was chosen
professor of anatomy and physiology at
Dartmouth college. He married in 1910
the daughter of Judge Charles jackson of
the supreme court, and resigned his lecture
ship to practice his profession in Boston.
He became, in 1877, professor of anatomy
and physiology in the Harvard medical
school, resigning in 1882 to devote himself
to literary pursuits.
In the death OF DR.. Holmes the last rep
resentative of the Golden age" of Amer
lean literature passes away. With Emer-
son, Whittier, Longfellow and Lowell, his
work is done, and it is only in his writings
that he still speaks. \ 5 poet he has been
called the happiest and freest of our sing
ers. Verse was his native expression and
the expression was always that of the man
of culture.
As wit and humorist he was unrivaled
in the field of American letters. j. G..
Wbittiar opco u.roto of him. t.Tf nv road I.
er needs amusement and the wholesome
alternative of hearty laugh, we commend
him not to DR.. Holmes, the physician, but
to DR.. Holmes, the scholar, the wit and
the humorist; not to the scientific medical
professors barbarous Latin, but to his
poetical prescriptions given in choice old
SAXON
Holiness connection, as contributor, with
the Atlantic Monthly began in the first
number of the first volume and continued
until very recently. 1t was in this maga
zine that 1.-THE Autociat of the breakfast
table" first appeared in 1857. This, witt
the Professor and the Poet and cover the
Teacups,' is among the classics of English
literature.
While it was IN the field of letters that
DR.. Holmes was most widely known, he
was always a conscientious student in tn,
science of his chosen profession. He
gained three Boylston prizes for medica
dissertations, and his other scientific work:
have given him a deserved reputation il
the medical profession.