New-York tribune., 1903-05-26
IN HONOR OF EMERSON'
Concord Celebrates HIS IO0tb
4npiUersaTg.
inv TELEGRAPH TO THE rsIBuSE.I

TBY TELEGRAPH THE rRr5rSEi
Concord Mass MAY 25-The citizens OF TINS
ouiet town of battle memories. the home OF EN-
erson and the scene OF his literary life. still sur
rounded by a thousand associations with the
man and his work to-day did honor to his mem
ory Emerson, not the poet nor the seer Dol 'ii0
nefghbor was the keynote OF the celebration AS
sneakers the local committee had invited rto
fessor Charles Eliot Norton, OF Harvard; Coiohei
Thomas w. Higginson, Senator George r hoaI
and Professor William James. The addresses Oh
these men dealing with the greatness OF Emer
son in the world at large created. however less
genuine feeling than the remark OF a contempt
rarv fellow townsman of Emerson. who said;
.'Je was a. good neighbor. and he kept MS
fences up" The celebration took place III tne
village meeting house" where Emerson kept d
new for many years. and where at least five of
the earlier preachers had been relatives OF ms
Tn a former church on this site the first Contl-
mental Congress met, and the soclal circle uh1et
whosa auspices the celebration was conducteo
&c the direct descendant of the old Committee oi
Safety which prepared the warm reception thaI
1reeted the British soldiers on April IT, 1850.
The intimate personal note OF the celeoi0 "a
was marked pleasantly by the fact tnat the NAN
was decorated with the flowers that emerson 81
frequently sang in his poetry, and gathered iroin
the field about his old home. The whoie oecola-
ton was surmounted by splendid branches OF
rbodora The address of Professor Charles Eliot
Marion was the most significant OF the day.
Prefacing his remarks by reference 10 the Par
ticular fitness of the celebration in the race VI
the growing materialisrn OF the present age lhe
speaker said:
'If were to give my impressions OF EiiieIs'h
in a single phrase I would say, OF all the men l
have met In nv life he made the strongest I'M
pression of consistent loftiness Of character.
recall a conversation I had with him on snip
month.
discussing the courage of the ancient navtgators
and some one asked, How in the world was
Columbus ever able to get there lie hao HIS
compass said Emerson; TO such spirit 'i'e
guide was enough. l always like to carry iit-
tie compass in my pocket he continued plo
ducing one from his pocket. I like to hoid the
god In my hand. The last time saw MIN aI
his house, as left to go, his daughter VINO was
to accompany me to the railroad station asked
him to come with US. No. said he; my sood
friend here whose name L cannot RECALL mas "aN
enough OF me for to-day
."rhen he added, as If apologize for forget
ting my name, Strange, is it not that the hlho
heavens still keep up on earth arter theF nave
severed all our connections with It Emerson 3
fame is secure: the years will slit his WORK ne
was not for his generation alone; he was hot
the founder of school, he did not seek disciples.
It is not the founders of schools who are iaos'
10 sting, but the teachers OF SHhPle A04A '
in the spiritual world. Just as now after seven
teen centuries, draw strength from the
words of Marcus Aurelius so In the future. men
searching to develop their souls will turn TO
Emerson His special function is in leading the
spirit out of the darkness OF captivity ana Hl'o
the light of the children Of God
Colonel Higginson, who followed. SPOKE OF
trrnarson The reformer. Professor William
lanes discussed the Emerson of the generation
which had not known the man. OF Emerson's
oDtin,isn he said 1T had none or that IN
discriminate beseeching for the universe that
Walt Whitman has made us famiiiar with
senator George Frsbie Hoar. the last speaker,
1yae most cordially received. and the audience
followed him with the keenest interest In the
course Of his speech he SAID:
I do not know how others feel. but
would not be without that sweet and tender
nv ear-''nestling," as Lowell says, in the ear
because of their music. and in the heart because
of their nleaning"-to have heard Denosthenes
speak from the Bema, or Plato in the Academy
To cite the tributes Of eminent authorities to
the great place of Mr. Emerson In literature.
and his trustworthiness as an intellectual ana
spiritual guide, would occupy not only the day
but the wear. We cannot undertake to do that
But we ought to be certain that we are not in
duced by love for our delightful friend and
townsman to confound our own narrow held or
vision with that of all mankind-especially with
that of posterity. Yet that must be a fixed star
of the first ma gntude, of whom observers. whose
stations are apart by the distance OF the whole
heavens, concur in so reporting. When the jew,
and the Catholic, and the Unitarian and the
Anglican, and the Calvinist. and the Sceptici
when the Russian and the German, and the
Scotsman concur with his countrymen In
their estimate of religious teacher, we may
fairly believe that we have got the verdict not
of the year or of the generation only. but of the
centuries
The programme closed with Psalm lxxvfn,
by the congregation.
H