The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-14
SAYS BOSTON rs FULL.
Became % About A. ID. 1873 ND Now
Il Can't Unload.

IL Can't Unload.
I shall remember Boston, writes II. q.
Wells in Karpsrs Weekly, a. something Q
little withdrawn, a. a place standing aside
from the throbbing interchange OF East
and Wegt.
At the mention Of Boston I think Of auto
typee, and then OF plaster casts. I do not
think I shall ever see an autotype again
without thinking Of Boston. To % casual
and adventurous person a. myself, Boz
ton presents a terrible, q terrifying un-
animity Of Ssthetic discrimination.
Boston has in her symphony concerts the
best music In America, and here again her
tastes are severely orthodox and classic.
I heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony ex-
traordinarily well done, the familiar PIN
nacled Fifth Symphony, and now, when
ever I grind that out upon the convenient
mechanism beside my desk at homo, mem
tally shall be transferred to Boston again,
b hear Its magnificent aggressive
~thumpings TRANSPORTED into exquisite or
ohestration. and sit again among hat audi
enoeo Of pleased and pleasant ladies In chaste,
high necked, expensive dresses, and re-
fined. attentive, a~pprecative bald or iron
gray men.
- ASNAS ~ OLAA ~ oh0 WILT
pany Of q number Of Boston gentlemen
who constituted a book collecting club.
They had dined and they were listening TO
q paper on Bibles printed In America.
IL was Q scholarly, valuable and exhaus-
dive piece Of research. The surviving copies
OF each edition were traced, and when some
rare specimen was mentioned a. the prop
erty Of any member Of the club there was
deoorously warm applause.
I had been seeing Boston, drinking In the
Boston atmosphere all day. I
know IL will seem an ungraoious and
grateful thing to confess. but a. I sat At the
large and beautifully ordered table with
these fine. rioh men about me, and listened
to the steady progress OF the readers even.
unrhetorical sentences and tho little bursts
Of approval, IL cAme 70 me with q horrible
quality Of conviction that the mind OF the
world was dead, and that this was the
reading OF tho villa distribution Of
ouvenin.
Indeed. 90 strongly did this grip mo that
PRESENT. y, upon some slight occasion, I
excused myself and went out into the night.
I wandered about Boston for some hours
trying TO shake Oh this unfortunate idea,
I felt that all the boo Ks had been written,
all the pictures painted, all tho thoughts
sailor at least hat nobody would ever
believe this wasn't 90. / felt il was dread
full nonsense to 60 on writing books. Nothing
remained but to collect them
Somewhere about midnight / came to
Messrs. Houghton Il Mi6iin's window
and stood in the dim moonlight peerinR
enviously at piled copies Of Izaak Walton
and Omar Khayyam and all the happy
immortals who got In before the gates
were shut. And quite in one corner I dis
covered a thin, small book.
) For 4 time I could scarcely believe NV
eyes. I lit q match to be the surer. And
Il was "A Modern Symposium by Loves
Dickinson, beyond all dlsputing. Whether
they do not know the man 10 alive I can't
be certain, but It was. And IL oomforted
me to SEQ 10 there. enjoYod looking at
it for a little while and then I was able 10
60 in to bed, and after a time TO sleep.
That was just one nights mood. do
not wish TO accuse Boston Of any wilful,
deliberate Reputation OF the present ahd
the future. But l think that Boston
when ! say Boston lot the reader always
understand ! mean intellectual and spiritual
Boston-I think, l say, that Boston tries
TO remainder too much, to treasure too
much q has refined and studied and COL
lected herself into a state Of hopeless In
tellectual and aesthetic repletion in con-
sequence.
In these matters there arc limits. The
capacity OF Boston, IL would seem, was
just 9 m lent, but no more han sufficient,
70 comprehend the whole achievement OF
the human intellect up let us cay. 70 tho
Boston nllsd up: It 70 the peculianty Of
unload again