Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1904-09-21
Books, Bookish People and Things
We get good by being ungenerou to book.
E. B. Browning

Lieutenant Bilse, whose book we re.
ferred to some time ago, has been re.
leased from prison by order of the EN-.
peror. Upon investigation II was
found that all the charges made by
Bilso against German officers of the
army were true. They were charged
with fragrant dishonesty, the grossest
unkindness, selfishness,
domineering ofIiciousness, brutality.
and some of the details were so plain
ly stated In the original that the trans.
lator did not dare to give them In his
English edition. Perhaps some of the
ex.German officers who came to New
York and set up superior" persons
will not now have the prestige they
had.
or August goth, ninety.flve years
ago, DR.. o. w. Holmes wrote:
81 remember that week well, for
something happened to me once at
that time, namely, was born. 4.
Looking over pile of old almanacs be-
longing to my father, took up that
for the year 1S09,-opposite a certain
date was an asterisk and a note below
consisting OF four letters, thus:-
August ~
%
- 29s
son b.
4. 4 4
How inconsistent the best of us are.
I heard a great admirer of Ruskin say
that she didn't like Holmes because
he was so vain, so conceited'. OF
course, II has been the fashion for
those who knew little OF the man, his
environment or writings; who got
their opinions OF him from occasional
critics. to call him vain. Ruskin was
assertive, dogmatic, and his egoism,
II not egotism, ran over into all he
said, while Holmes, whose human
sympathy called for praise, was mod.
est as to himself and his abilities.
Possibly, too, a person without the
necessary amount of humor might fail
to understand the well-seasoned doc.
tor.
Mr. Morse says Of Holmes: "Dr.
Holmes personality poured through
his books like stream In floodtime
through meadows, soaking and satur.
ating them. The man who can do
this thing well can do the most pop.
ular writing in literature. He must be
an egotist; but he must be precisely
the right kind OF egotist. Now
DR.. Holmes certainly was an egotist;
not, however, in the offensive sense OF
the word. IL may be admitted that
egotism and vanity found in DR..
Holmes nature a soil sufficiently con.
genial to nourish them to tolerably
fair growth in his declining years; but
II there be grain of truth in this, at
least 1t is also true that the traits ap.
peared in their amiable and attractive
forms, and that he was SO simple,
frank, honest In his enjoyment of the
good opinion Of others, that every one
was cordially glad to give the kind old
man the harmless qualification Of
praise"
Col. Lee said Of him: "He has been
called vain, by himself and others; but
II was vanity of an amiable and child.
like kind,-confessed and SO apollo
gized for; not denied or disguised or
justified. II was not made offensive
by superciliousness, nor contemplate
by unmanliness, nor malignant by en-.
Wy. Had he visited Rotten Row, and
gazed at the well.born, well-dressed.
well-mounted equestrians, he would
have exulted over their array, and not
have growled out, as Carlyle did.
There Is not one OF them can do what
can do"
+ 4 +
Some persons who affect indiffer,
ence to genealogical matters, and, as
a man said of his great.grandfather
II don't care whether he was preacher
or a penitentiary bird" may have rea.
son to despise their ancestry, prob.
ably are annoyed by DR.. Holmes half
playful phrase, the Brahmin caste.
The fact is, DR.. Holmes did not waste
any time in looking up his ancestry.
but he was always interested In his
forefathers, and what he has said
about them will meet with the hearty