Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-02-03

walt Whitman" by Isaac Hull Plat
Cloth. 3%x5% in; 147 PIP. Cloth
rs cents. Lambkin 81. Small.
Maynard & Co., Boston.
The Bulletin Bookman remembers
distinctly the last time he looked into
window Of the "Old Corner Book
store" in Boston. He was in q hurry.
too, but the display photographed itself
upon his memory-"The Scarlet Let
ter" up In one corner. Leaves OF
Grass" in the other. THE Man With
out a Country" "Prue and l." THE
Sketch Book" and "Hiawatba" In the
| center; a little below, Emerson's "Es-
says" 1.-The Autocrat OF the Break.
fast Table" and Lowells Poems" then
at the very bottom was small volume
In outward appearance like the one un'
der review. Like this, 1t was OF the
series Of Beacon Biographies" the life
Of James Russell Lowell, by Il. e.
Hale, think. This series, by the way,
includes many titles, among them:
Agassiz, Audubon, Edwin Booth. Phil.
lips Brooks, Burr, Emerson, Haw.
thorne, Webster, Whittier, Grant. Mr..
Nj. A. De Wolf Howe is the editor.
"The aim of this series Is to furnish
brief. readable and authentic accounts
Of the lives OF those Americans whose
personalities have impressed them
selves most deeply on the character
/ and history of their country. Each
volume is equipped with frontispiecs
portrait, a calendar of important dates.
a brief photography for further read
ing. Finally, the volumes are pritned
In form convenient for reading and
for carrying handily in the pocket"
The frontispiece Of Walt Whitman u
from a photograph taken by Sarony In
1879. At this time whitman had re-
covered from his paralysis Of 1878, and
was In good physical condition.
There are gray hair and beard.
wrinkles In the forehead, and what
DR.. Holmes called the "parentheses."
but still there is strength in the lines
and a clearness Of eye very attractive.
Mr.. Platt's chronology is complete
and shows the poets varied career
from infancy to death. The recogni-
ton Of his genius was a long time IN
coming. Emerson pure in mind as the
driven snow. was the first to welcome
Leaves OF Grass" II remained for
James Harlan. a Cabinet minister, to
dismiss Whitman from the clerkship
he held in his department, for having
written an immoral hook"
| BY this narrow. lop-sided official
with the advocacy Of free love-" and
the meddlesome Society for the Sup
preston OF Vice took the pains to find
In Leaves Of Grass" what they con-
sidered obscene passages"
We are getting now SO that man
can have his own opinions Of the rela-
tons of men and women, marriage.
sex, and SO on, and express them with.
out being injured or having his re-
spectability contested. And this Is be-
cau&se there are more intelligent peo-
pie In the world and public opinion
forces the rest to keep quiet. The
rest" are scattered about, however.
a mentally unclean, unpurifed set.
They are the class Of sanctified SEN
sualists who see evil in reproductions
OF the nude human figure but who In.
consistently let the animals go naked:
who hunt for salacity in the writings
Of authors they are mentally unable
to comprehend but who publish lewd
Biblical quotations for their Sunday
School classes, who, In fine, strain at
gnat and swallow camel"
Such persons have free love" in
tehri dreams. sniff the clear morning
air for smells, and go down to their
graves darkening the Valley Of the
Shadow Of Death with their sooty
minds.
Mr.. Platt's little book will give the
reader Of the Good Gray Poet better
insight into his loveable, unselfish
character, and inform some for the first
time perhaps, Of the extraordinary pu-
rity OF his thought and life. Indeed,
1t has been the rule that the purest
minded men and women have spoken
most plainly about questions long OBJ
scured by cant and hypocrisy, and have
laid themselves open to the charge Of
lax moral ideas by the weak minded.
Sex will not be put aside" said Whit
man.
"The recent successful production of
a luxurious subscription edition OF the
Writings of Walt Whitman in ten
volumes demonstrates certain kind
OF success, to say nothing Of the fact
that in that edition yS pages are de-
voted entirely to photography.
"Slurs on Whitman now emenate
from only a few hack writer's for news
papers and few college professors Of
a very crude type. whose knowledge
of life and the world is bounded by
their narrow field OF academic studies. :"
= = =
I Miss Gwendolen Overton, the author
Of Captains Of the World" has come