Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-26

realized that his home was In some vague
way connected with a mysterious person
whose memory occasionally attracts inquirers
to the house.
DEHIND the parlor is a dark little bedroom.
- and then the kitchen. In a corner of
the backyard is a curious thing a large
stone or terra Gotta bust of a bearded man.
very much like Whitman himself. but the face
is battered and the nose broken so it would
be hard to assert this definitely. One, of
the boys told me that it was in the yard
when they moved in a year or so ago. The
house is d little dark, standing between two
taller brick neighbors. At the head of the
stairs ! noticed a window with colored panes,
which let's in spots of red, blue and yellow
light. / imagine that this patch of vivid
color was a keen satisfaction to Waits acute
senses. Such is the simple cottage that one
associates with Americas literary declaration
of independence.
THE other Whitman shrine in Camden is
i the tomb in Harleigh Cemetery. reached
by the Haddonfield trolley. Built into a quiet
hillside in that beautiful cemetery, of enor-
nous slabs of rough-hewn granite with a vast
stone door standing symbolically ajar, 1t
seemed to me grotesque, but greatly impress
sive. 1t is a weird pagan cromlech, with a
huge triangular boulder above the door bear
ing only the words WALT WHITMAN. Palms
and rubber plants grow in pots on the little
curved path leading up to the tomb above
it is an uncombed hillside and trees Pickering
in the air. At this tomb. designed Git is
said) by whitman himself, was held that re-
markable funeral ceremony on March 80.
1892, when a circus tent was not large
enough to roof the crowd, and peanut vendors
did business on the outskirts of the gather
ing. Perhaps it is not amiss to recall what
Bob Ingersoll said on that occasion:
He walked among verbal varnishers and
veneerers, among literary milliners and
tailors, with the unconscious dignity Of an
antique god. He was the poet of that
divine democracy that gives equal rights
to all the sons and daughters of men. He
uttered the great American voice.
And though one finds in the words of the
naive Ingersoll the squeaking timber of the
soapbox, yet even a soapbox does lift a man
a few inches above the level of the clay.
WELL, the Whitman battle is not over
w yet. nor ever will be. Though neither
Philadelphia nor Camden has recognized
$50 Mickle street as one of the authentic
shrines of our history (Lord, how trinity
digit it would be II it were in New Eng
land y, Camden has made a certain amend in
putting Walt into the gay mosaic that adorns
the portico of the new public library In
Cooper Park. There, absurdly represented in
an aaustere black cassock, he stands in the
following frieze of great figures: Dante,
Whitman. Moliere, Gutenberg. Tyndale,
washington, Penn. Columbus, Moses,
Raphael, Michael Angelo, Shakespeare, Long,
fellow and Palestrina. I believe that there
was some rumpus as to whether Walt should
be included but, anyway, there he Is.
VOU will make a great mistake If you
don't ramble over to Camden some day
and fleet the golden hours in an observant
stroll. Himself the prince Of ~loafers, Walt
taught the town to loaf. When they built
the new postoffice over there they put round
it a ledge for philosophic lounging. one of the
most delightful architectural features I have
ever seen. And on Third street. just around
the corner from $50 Mickle street. is the
oldest plumbers shop in the world. Mr..
George f. a Civil War veteran,
who knew whitman and also Lincoln, came
to Camden in 80. In 1888 he determined to
build a shop that would be different from any
thing on earth, and well he succeeded. Per-
haps 1t is symbolic of the shy and harassed
soul of the plumber, fleeing from the unrea-
sonable demands of his customers. for 1t is
a kind of Gothic fortress. Loaded windows,
gargoyles, masculine medusa heads. a sally
port, loopholes and a little spire. I stopped
in to talk to Mr.. Hammond and he greeted
me graciously. He says that people have
come all the way from California to see his
shop, and l can believe it. 1t Is the work
of a delightful and original spirit who does
not care to live in a demure hutch like all
the rest OF US, and has really had some fun
out of his whimsical little castle. He says
he would rather live in Camden than In
Philad'/ ,hia, and ! daresay he's right.