The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-19
LIFE AND LETTERS OF OLIVER
WENDELL HOLMES.
BY HATTIE TYING GRIswoLD.

can't have one when you wish you
could (as for instance, when your
bore is in his third hour and having
it all his own way), and you can't help
having it when it comes itself. If it
had so happened that lyric attack
had seized me just at the moment I
received your letter, be sure that you
should have had copy of verses such
as one finds written out and lying be-
fore him on his desk after the spasm
has gone OFF,
To another friend who asked him
to do something of the same nature
he wrote, in 1861: "There is as much
electricity in me as there is in tor
pedo after he is made into chowder.
l don't want to do anything except
keep still and be let alone. Don't
think l am offended at being asked
to do anything; 1 am asked all the
time to do everything" Still again:
"My hand aches with answering all
sorts of invitations to do all sorts of
things. If l do not look out I shall
have to write, instead OF the Song of
the Shirt, the Song of the Sheet (of
paper and draw tears from the eyes
of everybody by my picture:-
"With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A scribbler holding-a used-up pen
Sat racking his used-up head"
In the chapter on The Fiction of
Correspondents, we. find these ex-
tracts. and there are enough more
given to show us what tax the mere
answering of invitations must have
been to him in his later years, when he
was known to the whole English
speaking world. To such men the
impertinence of unknown cores
pondents becomes a cruelty, and if
they conscientiously try to answer
letters, as DIR. Holmes did, a labor
which is not only distasteful but dan
gerous. Edward Everett Hale has
written upon this subject of late, and
cites several instances where the pres
sure undoubtedly caused an early
break down. Phillips Brooks, the
dearly beloved, was one of these VIC
Tins.
Gifts also poured in upon the fa-
vored Autocrat, and must be acknow-
lodged, which he always did in
charming fashion, as thus to a
lady who had sent him an ivy: SIT
is but very little while ago that
was saying, Il must have some living
thing in this room-a plant-a plant
is what I want-a live thing without
nerves, that knows nothing of original
sin and its penalties-of headaches
or heartaches, an innocent, delight
fully idiotic being that is not troubled
with any of our poor human weak
nesses and irritabilities. A Scotch
gentleman who sent him book
called Burns and the Kirk, had from
him note of thanks in which he
said: 81 find it full of interest for it
treats of question which has long
puzzled me: how strait-laced Scot
land could clasp her national poet to
her bosom without breaking her
stays" A gentleman of the Jewish
faith one day sent to him some wine
from Jerusalem. The note of thanks
was: Swine received, strong as Sam
son, sweet as Delilah.
To those who think that daily
succession of notes and letters of
even this light kind was not a hard
ship. he would have replied as he did
to one lady who suggested the ease
with which he could do her favor:
'It costs sweat; it costs nerve-fat; it
costs phosphorus to do anything
worth doing" Mr.. Aldrich, in an
Atlantic breakfast speech once stated
that, "Within the last twenty-five
years it is safe to say that no fewer
than five thousand young American
poets have handsomely availed them
selves of DR.. Homles's amiability,
and sent him copies of their first
book" And II honestly believe" he
added, shat DIR. Holmes has written
to each of these immortals note
full of the keenest appreciation and
the wisest counsel" Mr.. Aldrich
owned to being one of the five thou
sand having sent him the first copy
of his own poems that came from the
press, "as if ne had been waiting for
it," and receiving in reply the kind
est letter ever written by celebrity
to an obscurity, though virtually
telling the youth mot to make any
more verses unless he could make
better ones" That Aldrich could
make better ones he has abundantly
testified, but the earlier ones we're
very charming things, nevertheless.
And if the mantle of the masters has