The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-23
LOWELL EULOGIZED
AS REAL REFORMER
Several Nations Represented
at Final Session of
Celebration.
LEAGUE PLAN REVIEWED
characteristics and Aims Of
Great New Highlander
Told in Tribute.

Told in Tribute.
The last session Of the James Russell
Lowell centenary celebration was held
yesterday at the Ritz-Carlton. 1t was
a noon meeting, arranged by the Ameri-
can Academy Of Arts and Letters. and
brought n notable company together in
the big ball room. As an irreverent
young limb of bell boy observed, all
the highbrows In creation was there,
Not only from New York city did they
come, but from Lowell's own New Eng
land; also from Great Britain. from
Canada, from Australia. from France
and sat In on the platform as we'll as
in the front rows below. gazed at by
the lesser lights who had been no for
tunate as to obtain tickets.
John Galsworthy was there-at least
his perfectly sroomed body sat through
the programme, and II his eye betrayed
that his spirit was taking flight now
and then what else could be expected
Of q novelist who probably has several
romances aborning in his brain3 BY
his side was Alfred Noyes. c. B. E.
Lit D., looking. with his rebelllous ir'
regular face, lot more like maker
Of advanced love stories than Gals.
worthy does
Our own Augustus Thomas sat or
the platform, though he got a bit fldgety
toward the end, when some Bolshevih
fish that was cooking somewhere below
sent It's vulgar but tantalizing smell ur
through the artistic scholarly aura sur.
rounding the Lowell meeting, mutely an
nouncing that the luncheon hour drew
near. William Milligan Sloane. chan
cellor of the Academy. acted as chair.
man and Stephen Butler Leacock o.
Canada, Samuel McChord Crotheu and
Masters didn't speak he read an origina
poem.
Tributes From England.
From England there came as repre-
sentatives besides 4alsworthy and Noye'
Sir Henry Darlington Smith, X c. b,
acting High Commissioner from thai
country to the United States. and c
Lewis Hind and Robert Nichols. From
Canada there was James Cappon. F. r
s. c., LII. D.: Pelham Edgar F. R S. c.
Phi. D.; Sir Robert Alexander Falconer
X. C. NJ. c., LII. D.; Maurice Hutton
Ill. D.. Archibald M'Kellar MaoMechan
F. r s. c., and Duncan Campbell Scott
r. r S. C. Henry Yule Braddon, N. L
c.. was one Of the delegates from Aus
tralia.
Elihu Root was there but didn't speak
4. n~x- al
Murray Butler of Columbia University
Prof Ashley Thorndike. Brander Mat
| thews. Hamlin Garland. Cass Gilbert
Edwin II. Biashfield. George De Fores
| Brush Clayton Hamilton. Robert Under
wood Johnson and many others But l
was rather a gloomy platform, with IL
rows and rows OF men. Suffrage has no
struck the American Academy Of Art
and letters yet.
! Prof. Barrett wendelrs speech wa.
scholarly. lighted up with little anec
dotes OF the man Lowell. which Shove,
! him to be what he once wrote that Loui
Agassiz was:
His magic was not far to seek
He was so human.
/ Tho professor pictured Lowell teach
I ing in the college classroom as he re
membered him many years ago-suav
but teasing; serious but with the flu
always bubbling near the surface. 18th
abundance OF his intermingled mustach
and beard, which at frst looked like a.
innocently fantastic affectation, takin
another aspect when you reflected tina
nothing could moro effectually have pro
tected lips perhaps irrepressible in thel
| tendency to twitch and CULVER"
Not only Lowell, but the world h
knew-victorian they call 1t nowadays
is a matter OF the irrevocable past" tn
/ speaker added. And We thinning fe,
whose pious gratitude still keeps tn
blood TO give their filmy and vaporou
shades some little semblsnce OF renewe
solidity must do our Odyssean tas
soon. That is why I TREMENDOUSLY hav
felt imperative an unexpected call TO sa
what l can In memory OF one who's
presence can never quite fade 80 long a
any who knew 1t cast their shadows 1
the sunshine"
Lowell Type vanishes.
Prof. Wendell traced with great de
tail Lowelrs ancestry and heritage an
the surroundings that made him the tru
American he was. Toward the end h
voiced a fear that the Lowell type c
reformer. balanced and reverent G
what is good in the past as we'll a
forward looking, is disappearing frol
the America OF to-day.
Already the relentless years begin I
mako him see a thing OF the past" h
said. Just now, to go no further, III
spirit of reform seems at least for tn
while recklessly impatient Of such ba
ancing sense OF tradition as kept him,
life long reformer, loyal to that whic
is precious in the past: the spirit {
letters seems vulgarized. sensualize,
brutalized; the spirit of democracy I
longer seems quite consonant with this
? of freedaG, and American pationalit
seems to have forgotten that there ha
ever been or that there can ever be sue
thing as traditional America
nativity"
Samuel Butler Leacock OF Canada
a brisk impromptu speech gave a stror
boost TO the League OF Nations ide
] declaring the two great Anglo-Saxo
nations especially, England and u
United States, had made too much
their political differences and not enous
OF their essential unity in spirit,
language and In aims"
Our contest of a century ago WASH
q war" he explained. 1T was Just
difference OF opinion. which we settled
the only way that Englishmen al
. Americans can. You came over he
and formed what Is to be the gre
mother OF republics, forerunner even
the imperial democracy England HI
, made"
The League of Nations, he declare
must be founded ION the bedrock
| the unity that already exists betwe,
the nations OF the Allies. It must star
on the firm basis Of the facts that ha'
become Claar through tha War ana