Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-03

SageS with tributes both in prose and
verse Were read from literary celebri-
ties all over the English-speaking world.
President Taft, who shared with the
author the distinction of being born in
Ohio, hailed the guest as 1.-The greatest
living American writer and novelist and
mentioned him with Shakespeare. Burns
and Lincoln, as men without university
education who rose to fame in literature
by their own efforts.
Pictures American Life.
President Taft said in part:
Il have travelled from Washington
here to do honor to the greatest liv-
ing American writer and novelist. l
have done this because of the personal
debt 1 feel for the pleasure he has
given me in what he has written, in
the pictures of American life and So
ciety and character he has painted,
and with which l have had sufficient
familiarity to know the truth and the
delfcacy of his touch.
Neither the rhythm nor the emphasis
nor the shading of his meaning have
robbed his style of the lucidity and clear
ness that delight a common mind like
mine and his delightful and kindly
humor that leaves a flavor in ones
memory has created a feeling Of affection
for the author that prompts an express
sion like this.
Easily at the head of living literary
men of the nation, Mr.. Howells is enti-
tied. on the celebration Of his seventy
fifth birthday, to this tribute of respect.
Like Shakespeare, like Burns. like
Lincoln Mr.. Howells is not a university
, man, but he began his literary education
of himself upon country newspaper, at
time of life when others begin to pre-
pare for an academic training, and he
has continued that education to this pres-
ent period of youthful old age
Started at the Bottom.
.tBorn in Ohio. in boys town. upon
there an unusual ambition. to succeed as
q man of letters. and he began at the
very bottom rung OF the ladder by learn
ing to set type.
"Mr Howells is not a writer whose
periods of inspiration are htful and Oc-
casional. but he has educated and pre-
pared hAlself to do literary work, as
men work. in other professions. making
his mind and imagination resOund to
the regular demand OF duty. On the
other hand, unlike TroIlope. who worked
like a machine. finishing SO many pages
a day, and showing in his work the evil
dences of haste and mechanical striving.
all that has come from Mr.. Howells pen
is beautifully wrought out, with no Sug-
SeA - e~~S@
chine.
Mr.. Howells in his long and useful life
has been content to live in literature He
has attempted to play a part In no other
tion, by the genius of taking pains, he
finds himself now five years beyond the
age Of the psalmist, representing the best
and highest of American literature. Ev-
erything that he has written sustains the
highest standard of social purity and
90 nd onpQo "
and of wholesome ideals. and he has
added to American literature a treasure
OF literary excellence the enjoyment Of
which will make coming generations
grateful
Discusses Literature.
Mr.. Howells. who sat between his host
and the President, was enthusiastically
applauded for his address on literature
which was the principal speech OF the
evening.
Drawing from fund of "reminiscences
from writer's such as Hawthorne. Emer-
son. Walt Whitman. Longfellow, Holmes,
Whittier Lowell, Bryan, Bancroft, Mot
ley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward
Howe, Artemus Ward and Mark Twain,
Mr.. Howells spoke with reverence and
love Of old friends, but enthusiastically of
the present and future Of American liter
saw "a high or higher average-whfch
is the distinctive American thing"
He pointed out that American literature
had at last assumed national proportions
Nearly all the writer's l have been
naming were New Englanders,' he said,
"but now our writer's are of every sec
tiOnal origin, and constitute an American
authorship. They are of the west and OF
the south, as well as of the north and
east, and more and more their work
tastes of the soil that mothered them.
" .iters From All Sections.
"Once we had a New England litera-
ture. now we have an American litera-
ture and Indianapolis is, as Boston was.
the city in which books are held dear and
the art Of them is priced above any other.
The poets, the best of them. are Of or
from the west: our best historian is a
western man; our students of the human
mind in the past and the human SOIL In
the present-a very stellar grOup-are OF
the east; but QUIZ noveiists and our novel
ettists are from every part OF the coun-
try, and each is devoted Willingly or un-
Willingly to the representation of the
American that he knows best. because he
has lived 1t most.
Other speakers included Hamilton w.
Mabie. Winston Churchill, Basil King,
William Allen White, Augustus Thomas
and James Barnes.
Congratulatory. messages were re-
ceiyed from abroad from Thomas
Hardy. Lord Curzon Of Kedleston. An
drew Lang. Israel Zangwill. Anthony
Hope Hawkins, William ]. Locke, III.
G. Wells, Arnold Bennett. Mrs. Hum
phry Ward, Henry James, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, Alfred Parsons. Eden
Philpotts, Sir Arthur Pfnero, Theo-
dore- Watts Dunton, j. NJ. Barrie and
Sarah Grand.
Sees Timothy Woodruff.
boarded his train, which left at 1890
o'clock for Washington. Outside the din
ner the President had an informal chat