The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-24
Last of the WhItmans.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
 A few days ago there was consigned to rest in the cemetery near Camden the last surviving member of the family or Walt Whitman. It is little surprising that the event should have caused so much comment in all parts of the coun- try except in this neighborhood, where the death of the aged woman who had lived a blameless life was taken as a matter of course. But the event has been made the inspiration of whole flood of Whitman "reminiscences and ex- ploitation In way that beWilders the ordinary man. We are suddenly asked to believe that in a few years since Whitman died he has grown to be the greatest of the worlds apostles and is now accepted as the high priest of ethics the world oyer
 This is a fine exhibition of what a finely conducted press agency can ac- complish. The things which ordinarily seem to make a pseudo-prophet famous are poverty, atheism, criticism, and most of all, inscrutable and utterly un- readable writings. We do not in this respect refer to the alleged fact that Whitman's works have an immoral ten dency. All we have to say Is that they are not poetry, as we understand the term They may be philosophy and they may have some meaning, but it takes more time than most men have at theil command to find out what 1t is all about Mystery appeals to many, but to some persons it is a drawback. We read in ''The Conservator,' the organ of the Whtmanites the following from the greatest apostle of Whitman:
 "This Is a sacred hour. I feel the sol emn glad impetus of the spirit invading me. Possessing me with abundant joy. Transfusng me with abounding convic- ton. You fragments, you pieces of God. you, my comrades, my brothers, here, now, on this spot, submit you to your heritage. You are the beneficiaries of the earth and of more than the earth. You are the interiors of yourselves. Take what belongs to you Take your selves. You have long wandered dispos- sessed. Now I declare you full owners. Owners of your bodies. Owners of your souls. You have denied yourself life. You have sat upon throne and refused your own appeals. You have turned deaf ears to your own voices. Blind eyes to your own visions. You have re- jected your own dreams. Now I am go- ing to see for you Yes; hear for you. Yes; talk for you. I am going to dive deeper into you than you yourselves have fathomed and bring up treasure which you yourselves have not foretold. I am going to get at you in the root. I am going to render an unequivocal ac- count"
 This is pure Whitmanism It may mean something to those who have reached the inner circles of the cult, but to the normal mind it is balderdash What is this interpreter talking about We don't know after reading four col umns of the same sort of "chant com munal" that is involved in the above.
 There is mo doubt that Walt Whitman had the poetic instinct although he could not often write poetry. He was a pagan philosopher, born either two thou sand years too late or much too soon. Whitman was better than his alleged prophets make him, in spite of his the- atrical word-slinging. He had good In him, but he loved to pose in way that ought to make George Bernard Shaw chirk up bit and do better.