The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-28

old man in his latter years and always
had a pretty good stock of temper on
hand for instant use, DR.. Hale is man
of infinite patience and rarely. if ever,
breaks forth into expIetive. He has Of
ten expressed himself-in print-aS
going to do this and that to the fools"
who come to interview him and deprive
him of sleep or opportunity for work,
but he never carries out his threats
Work and sleep. by the way. are his
hobbies, and he has made them very
useful in his long life. Give one plenty
of sleep, he says, and the disposition to
do work, and there will always be some
thing for that one to do. Nine or ten
hours devoted to sleep, three or four to
continuous literary work in his hand
some old home in Roxbury, the rest of
the day and evening to the varied ac-
tivities incident to his life, such as his
torical research, lecturing and of yore
preaching or pastoral calls-these, with
a generous allowance for meals make
up the sum of his days allotment.
If there is a lesson to be learned from
his life, it is that work may be made
into play by alternating one form with
another; that a prodigious quantity of
work may be performed by doing a lit
tie at time and keeping at it; that the
buster life is the happier it is, all 9TH
er things being equal: that human sym
pathy evokes a corresponding feeling in
others; that ones religion requires no
other preachment than a life useful to
others; and, above all else, that it
pays" to be patriotic and inculcate a
love of country.
In fact as a preacher of Americanism
pure and simple no other man has
equaled Edward Everett Hale. He be-
gan early in his long life, and he has
continued at it late. No one can read
his Man Without Country without
a tug at his heartstrings or moisture in
his eyes and by deduction taking home
the moral of the story. And it was pure
fiction, all of it. There was no Philip
Nolan, there was no man without
country until the master wove his fic-
ton and put forth his cloth of gold.
Then, the verisimilitude was so perfect
the diction so simple and beguiling, that
all who read the work declared it true.
Well, it might have been true, and there
is where the moral comes in: That our
country is great and grand. worth low
ing. worth fighting for and worth living
ina truth that DIR. Hale has forged
from his inner consciousness and ham
mered out on the anvil of his discern
ment. 1t is a truth that cannot be too
often sent home either, and it is the
recognition of this truth and the awak-
ened admiration for the man who has
enunciated it year in and year out for
more than a generation past that give
to Edward Everett Hale his national
reputation. He cannot travel anywhere
In this land, be it north east, south or
west, without encountering some spon-
taneous outburst, some heartfelt tribute
of affection from people, particularly
/ folks VIZ az RI
him through his works.
| AS already said, Dr. Hale has been
identified with almost every forward
movement that has shaken America.
| His earliest companions were Wendell
Phillips. William Lloyd Garrison and
men of their stamp. He lived through
the "transcendentaP' movement when
Dana, Hawthorne, Alcott and many
others sought a way of living that
might lead direct to a blissful state but
he did not divergel from the path he
himself saw so clearly before him. He
was a friend of Emerson, Webster,
Holmes, Lowell, Longfellow, Sumner,
Whittier, Freeman Clarke, Phillips
Brooks and all the intellectual lights of
New England, the chosen companion of
many and the peer of them all. Yet he
never sought fame or fellowship; both
came to him unsought
DR.. Hale, despite the fact that he is
! almost the ''last leaf on the tree" of
that great New England coterie, is re-
markedly vigorous and is today a ia
miliar figure on Boston's streets. He
has outlived nearly all his famous con-
| temporaries, one of the last to go being
/ DR.. Holmes over whom he read the
burial service in 1894. Only two years
previously, at the banquet and recep-
ton rendered by friends on DR.. Hales
seventeen birthday, the witty author
of THE One Hoss Shay and other
gems, himself then in his eighty third
year, contributed a poem, in which
with his peculiar style, he hit off his
venerable friends characteristics. II
was entitled
THE LIVING DYNAMO.
Be ours to heed its lessons while we may
Look up for light to guide our devious
way;
Look forward bravely, look not weakly
back;
The past is done with; mind the coming
track.
Look in with searching eye and courage
But when temptation comes. look out
look Quit
Heaven grant all blessings time and earth
give
To him whose life has taught us how to
Till on the golden dial of the spheres
The twentieth century counts its gather
ing years,
While many a birthday tells its cheerful
tale.
And the round hundredth shouts: "Al
hail. All hail,'
The witty DOCTOR" the ruling passion
strong to the last. could not stay his
pen from perpetrating pun; but. this
defect aside. the poem is an eloquent
tribute to the professor of American
ISM" and all will echo the wish that he
may yet celebrate his round hun
dredth" birthday. and more-beat al
existing records for longevity.
rrRTTNAN T. ELTON