The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-11-28
Mr. EMERSON AT HOME.
Senator Hoar Reveals Views of
the Philosopher.
WAS THOROUGHLY HUMAN
To His Nelghbors He Was Invariably Full of
Sympaihy-Freud of Daniel Webster
Compared With Thoreau.

! From the New York Tribune.
! A copy of an article upon Ralph Wall
do Emerson, clipped from the Journal
| ef Education, a periodical published IN
Boston and Chicago, Oct. IA. has besn
sent 70 me.
Mr. Emerson once said OF a sketch of
| him by pretty we'll known writer, who
attempted to give the detail of his life
and family that he should think the ar
| ticle had been written by some cook
who had Istsnsd at the keyh5le That
production, however, was at least good
natured. But for this recent one IT is
hard to find terms ADEQUATE to describe
! its Ignorance and absurddty. The wraer
says:
From 1871 to 1882 were the shiftlsss
years of EmeTsons life. He drifted and
| was out of his element in thought and
action. Lafayette VISITED the country in
1924 and all the land was ablaze with
enthusiasm but Emerson was unmoved
by it. Adams, Clay and Jackson made
heroic efforts to become president of the
| United States. but he did not .eare. Web
ster made the great speeches of his life
in these years, but they affected him not
| Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died
on The Fourth of July, but he molTned
| not.
HE STUDIED NATURE.
| The writer goes on to say that few
writers have known so little of nature
as he. He never wandered into field or
forest, never plucked flower or twig, new
| er woTshipsd ait the shrine of any thing
in nature. The emily interest he ever had
i'm The soil or its products was in mort
cages at good interest on scores of farms
He farmed by proxy, and took his inter-
est regardless of drcuth or insect pests
And SO on.
Emerson is almost as we'll known to his
| countryme n as Washington, and it would
be as true to say that Washing on was
unpatriotic, was a coward, took no i'm
terest in the cid war with France and
was an undutiful son and a selfish
g1asping creditor wLicEe soul was in his
money bags, as to say what this writer
has said i1f Emerson.
If this journal is 10 retain the respect
of any decent people, the article will be
Gsayowed and It's ISLANDERS corftradicted
Emerson was, think, as learned a ma
turalitt as we mad in Massachusetts in
his time. He took his daily rambles
in the extensive woods about Concord
most of Them alone, thugh rarely some.
special favorite was admitted to his COM
partnership. as, for instance, James Rus
sell Lowell N enc walk to the cliffs,
which he describes
COMPARED WITH THOREAU.
He knew the NAMES, habits and haunts
of all cur birds, ond was familiar with
all our plants, not only as an observer eff
their growth, but with greac scientific
precision. ] think he was a much bet
ter naturalist, SO far as scientific knowl-
edge is, concerned, than Thoreau. As
was his fashion with all his varied
knowledge, he used what he needed for
the purposes eff his poetry or his phil
osophy, and made no further display.
To say that Weeks er's speeches affected
him not Isl specially absurd. They war;
on tsrms of very cordial friendship. Mr..
Webster was a guest at his house on one
occasion, which I remember very dis
tinctly, in my b9yhood. Mr.. Webster
had great regard for him. I renem-
Der that in my oh iihood Mr. Webster
Isn't Emerson his autobiography in his
own handwriting, which in turn Mr..
Emerson lent to my sister, who brought
1T and read it aloud to my fathers house
held. Emerson's ba'othsr, Charles,
studied law with Webster, who was
exceedingly fond of him, predicted q
great SUCCESS for him, and sad, when
he was consulted as to where Charles
should settle, that it made no difference
if he went TO the backwoods of Maine til
client1 would throng after him.
ADMIRATION FOR WEBSTER.
Certainly the writer never read the
iH@hDlt IdSSdsSe dDOuN NtDSl6f 1ul
sons Phi Bsta poem of 1884:
One portrait-fact or fancy-we may draw
A form which Nature cast in the heroic
mold
| OF them who rescued liberty of old;
He, when the rising storm of party roared
Brought his great forehead to the council
There while hotheads perplexed with fear
the state,
Calm as the morn the manly patriot safe
Seemed, when at last his clarion accents
broke,
As if the conscience of the country spoke.
Not on its base Monadnoc surer stood,
Than he to common sense and common
good.
He surely never read the terrible In
dictment, or rather the terrible judg-
ment which Emerson rendered after the
7th of March speech.
The writer says that Lafayette's visit
inspired no enthusiasm in Emerson. Has
he forgotten the exquisite verse in the
hymn entitled BOSTON,"
o bounteous seas that never fail
ONay remembered yet;
o happy port that spied the sail
Which waited Lafayette.
The writer says that twenty-five years
earlier Emerson would have been worse
than a failure. and that he was no great
er success in the pulpit than in the school
room. He was a famous and noble
preacher when he left the pulpit. 1 my
self remember. though was burt child
the str in the congre CARTON when he
tones of his voice as ne delivered the
impressive Sermon from the text, GLOW
old art thou?"
NO MONEY TO LEND.
Emsrrnn was already becoming ONE of
the famous preachers of his time when
he left the pulpit for wider audience,
and the WIRING of sermons for a pro-
founder philosophy AMI deeper
thought.
J The story of his lending money at in
terest IS as absurd as if It had been told
about DIR. Charming, rr Florence Nightin-
gale, or Clara Barton. He was the most
loving, kin1-hearted, charitable and sym
pathetic of nsfghbcrs and friends
| do nof tefeve, though of that / know
nothing, that Emerson was ever lender
Of money er that he had any to lend
certainly not before the last dozen years
| of his life, when his fitsrary property
began TO be valuable / believe there
was newer an election IN which Emerson
| did not take a deep intsre1', as became
| a good citizen. He delivered an ad-