Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-31
DECADENCE OF SENTIMENT
Prof. William P. Stewart Of New York
Before Dubuque, Ia, Summer School,
DELIVERS A MOST INTERESTING ADDRESS
LongfclIow His Ideal Poet-An Elo-
quent Talk Commanding the Clos
est Attention of II Large and
Intelligent Audience.
DELIVERS A MOST INTERESTING ADDRESS
Dubuque Daily Times.

the most interesting OF all the interesting
and instructive sessions of the entire series,
and this may be truly said without in the
least detracting from anything that had
taken place before. The special attraction
of the hour was an address delivered at
the request of friends and educators by
Prof. William p. Stewart of New York City,
who had come to Dubuque on business OF
an entirely different nature a day or two
previous. This matter of addressing pub
lie assemblages, however, was no new thing
to him, as during the last twenty-five years
he had frequently appeared before appre-
ciative audiences in various parts or the
world, speaking on q variety of subjects
as the occasion demanded. At this time, on
account of the literary tastes of his hear
ers, most of whom were teachers from the
public schools of Iowa and other states Of
the northwest he took as his subject De
cadence of Sentiment" which i'll itself was
enough to arouse ones poetic thoughts, II
he had any. From his opening sentence to
the last the professor commanded the closest
attention from every listener.
Prof Stewart was introduced by Prof.
Horchem, one of the managers of the sum
mer school, in a few well chosen remarks,
expressive of the pleasure they were ex-
pecting to derive from his forthcoming ad-
dress. Ascending the platform the pro-
fessor was received by an applause which
showed how well prepared the aduience was
to enjoy the promised treat. The pro-
fessor's manner of delivery was graceful,
easy and attractive as from the first. He
spoke for three quarters of an hour with
out reference to a single note and with
rapidity, huency and point that carried the
audience as with the suspension or time.
In fact, one lady teacher remarked to the
reporter that it had made her angry to dis
cover, all of sudden, that the professor
had ceased The effect upon the audience
was so unusual and profound, so at once
satisfying and yet unsatisfying, that at the
conclusion of his address the professor was
prevailed upon by the almost unanimous re-
quest of the teachers and visitors present
to give them another opportunity for the
still larger amplfcation of the subject
treated by him, and especially that he would
then favor them with specimen readings
from his own compositions, and with the
reading of a certain poem of his own which
had been referred to by him in the circum-
stantial treatment of his discourse of the
morning.
1t Is safe to aver that the professor is
sure Of q delighted audience whenever he
may be called to speak. 1t is practically
impossible to render the full address OF
the professor, particularly his many quo
tations from contemporary poets, but We
print below the professors introduction and
the more salient portions of his argu-
ment:
Managers, Teachers and Visitors: Night
before last l arrived here on personal
mission, after three days OF the hottest
travel l have, seemingly, ever experienced,
and l have been in some very hot coun-
tries in my time. Yesterday morning / was
captured by the fascinating suggestion that
should make an impromptu address be-
fore the summer school of the teachers OF
Iowa and their visiting coadjutors from
other states Naturally, l had objections to
such q sudden imprsssment of my speech
making ability, but those were overruled
by the friends who! We're urging me TO the
step. On consideration of the subject
should take as the thesis of my discourse
was told that / was not TO address you
upon the matter of my own profession, as
that of course, would mean empty seats;
nor was / to address you on any Of those
general lines of instruction with which you
yourselves have been engaged and with
which your minds might be supposed to
be already sufficiently weary. Summing up
this general caution, concluded that l was
not to talk to you aupon the subject with
which ! was most familiar, nor upon any
subject of which you might be supposed
to have familiar understanding.
Uaughter.)
81 said l was captured by the fascinating
suggestion of having to make a talk to the
teachers of Iowa, because the opportunity
to see the mind builders of the state that
boasts that it has within its borders no
illterate child would be the realization OF
always one of my most gratifying desires
the coming into inspirauonal touch with
that professional life which regard as the
most exalted. Surely, if l have ever been
inspired to say aught that would JUSTIFY
the fiattering Introductory, encomium Of the
press of Dubuque, 1t should be on this occa-
sion, when l am confronted by SO many
wise heads and pretty faces.
"In an off hand way l said my subject
would be the Decadence of Sentiment
do not mean you to understand that l be-
lieye there is really a decadence OF senti-
ment but I have taken the title thus un-
qualifiedly, because there is widespread
and growing popular belief that such is
the fact; which belief is injuriously react
ing upon itself and, il unwarranted, is
species of mischief which the true teacher
would only too gladly counteract. AS view
the case, there Is no real decadence OF senti-
ment-as of humanity, but there is or some
of its wonted modes OF expression. inns
is especially true Of poetry-its hitherto re-
parded high priest You and l know, as
of our own experience, that we now rarely
indulge in the reading Of poetry except as
1t Is found as part or our curriculum oi
study. The daily papers are 1uli OF Jokes
at the expense of the poet. The style OF
1ocularity at his expense would appear TO
rate him with the daft and incomplete.
For one in the more serious concerns OF
life to be charged with the frallty or rhyme
making is really to single him out Tor
sort of amazement, If not for q lessenlng
of regard. For the woman W WliIc PoSSS
is simply to manifest the otherwise charm
ing and condonable weaknesses of her sex
In this respect it is not the 'Jekyll slde
of your nature that you are to conceal, put
that of the Mr.. Hyde
at is felt by the better minds that thls
passing away of the old time reverence 1or
poetry is to be lamented, and that 1t should
be organized against through the schools
and a reyivification of the bard ana MS
songs established. Hence, we have the
present interest in the poets and their
poetry manifested by the teachers gener-
ally throughout the English speaking world
AS YOU know there is in this dehnlteiy
concerted action and by its means the nope
and expectation of restoring to the world.
in it's present growing generation, lts ora
time veneration for things splrltual ana
sacred. But If poetry, considered as sehtl-
ment is decadent as Of nature and humanity
or decadent as of the more complex re-
lations into which life is socially develop
ing, must we not ask, is the reVltallZlng
of poetry as heretofore constructed 10 De
the cure?' The up-coming generation must
see things from the standpoint of ourselves
AS we have thus grown TO be literal, not
withstanding our own training as of decades
ago and in the very lap Of old time sehti,
ment, will not the new generations anu
still the newer, grow up TO be stlli the more
literal, and the more averse 10 rhymes as
having still the more literal conclusions ot
life TO govern them? But II sentiment ls
not decadent, and il it is poetry alone con-
sidered as one of its modes or expression
merely, then the problem what contronts