The sun., 1919-09-21
In Memory as in
Life He Is Ever
Likely to Walk in
the Shadow of His
Idols Fame. AL
though Some Crit
icsWill AcceptNo
Secondary Pla &c
for Him
By ARTHUR B. MAURICE.

r T is "a disparagement of the late
Horace Traubel to say that in
memory he is ever likely to walk.
as he walked in the life, in the shadow
OF one of greater and more robust
stature. Consistently he himself
could hardly have wished It otherwise.
After all there is something worth
while in the title, walt whitman's
spiritual son." and probably 1t is bet
ter to be remembered on account of
an association with some one else
than to run the risk Of being forgotten
entirely. The inferiority that such
fame implies Is merely relative.
Though most people have forgotten
the fact, James Boswell was a very
definite person In himself. So were
John Forster and Lockhart and
Theodore Watts-Dunton. Yet 1t is
unlikely that the legend Of any one
Of them would have endured without
the linking with the concedediy
greater names of Johnson and Dickens
In the matter of Horace Traubel
there probably will be good many
persons inclined to take exception. To
them his radicalism was so extreme,
and therefore 30 pleasantly in har-
mony with their own intense views,
that they will accept no secondary
place for their prophet. Also al
though as a matter Of course they re-
fer to the good. gray poet" they have
probably entirely forgotten whitman
and his significance, or else really
never understood him at all. 1t was
less critical estimate than the mouth
ing Of q cause that moved Eugene "
Debs to say. Horace Traubel has the
dfstinctest personality Of any man OF
letters now before the American peo-
pie. He can be likened to no other
author or writer. living or dead. AL
though a loyal disciple and devotee
of Walt Whitman, from whom he IN
doubleday caught his earliest and
deepest inspiration, he goes far be-
yond his revered master. He not
only brings the old Prophet of De-
mocracy up to date but he traverses
untrodden fields and explores new
realms IN quest of the truth. Horace
Traubel has the clear vision Of a
prophet, the analytical mind of a phi
losopher, the daring imagination of a
poet, the heroic soul of a martyr,
and the unpolluted heart of a child"
BosweIIing Whitman in Camden.
William English walling has called
Hf-nN hall 10 oil a.
Camden" the most remarkable and
valuable human document since Bos-
wells Johnson. That is a matter OF
opinion. That the work is one OF
prime Importance is beyond dispute
To Camden. N. j., whitman went In
1873, and there he remained for the
last nineteen years OF his life. TIL
Sun once described Camden as thu
refuge Of those who were In doubt
debt or despair. Whitman was neither
in doubt or despair, and for some
years had been drawing $1,000 a year
as a Treasury clerk in Washington
His first Camden home was in Steven.
street, and while there he held hi.
clerkship by securing a substitute t
perform his duties. That of cours'
fall back upon his savings and thu
earnings from his books. He wal
81 when he went to Camden in 1873
and ten years later. feeling the IN
ertia OF old age. he decided, despite 9
number Of invitations to live elsewhere
to "lay up" in Camden.
So In 1884 he bought the house II
Mickle street, near Fourth. which 1
SO intimately associated with his las
years. 1t was two story. fran
structure, with five windows LOOKING
out upon an unprepossessing thor
oughfare-a thoroughfare in the Phil
adelphia style, down at the heels
Nearby was a railroad crossing. ant
trains roared and tangled noisily. TIL
house was hot in summer and Their
was no furnace to warm it in tn
winter But Whitman did not care
He had a lilac bush in the back yart
and in the household a canary,
black cat, spotted dog and a parrot
Hundreds OF persons made pilgrimage
there to see him, many of them carry
ing gifts of fruit or coffee or wine
which he shared with the sick an
poor of the rather Sudden neighbor
hood. Substantially the Camden c
TraubsPs Boswelling means tn
Mickle street house.
As n hoy Loved Whitman.
Traubel was one of the group {
guardsmen who gathered about Whit
man in the early eighties, grou
that included William Sloane Ker
needy. Talcott williams, Harriso
Morris. Francis Howard William
Thomas Donaldson and r. Pearsa
Smith. He was the most intimate {
all these new friends. He had falle
hinder the Whitman spell at the time {
the poets first arrival in Camdel
Then Traubel, himself O native of III
town. was mere boy. He was In h
twenties when the close associatio
began. He was tireless in his a
tendance upon his idol; for years b
kept a note book in which he put dow
everything that fell from Whitman
lips. He founded the Walt Whitma
Club. and afterward the Walt Viii
man Fellowship, as we'll as II
Conservator, a Journal devoted to Il
Whitman propaganda He was Oh