Omaha daily bee., 1919-05-23
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Walt Whitman Centenary.

| WIN W1utIIAH SCutEIldTys
| New York, May 22.-On the clos
ing day Of this month the literary
world will pay homage to the
memory Of Walt Whitman, on the
occasion of the Tooth anniversary
| of the birth Of THE Good Gray
Poet" The occasion is to be marked
| by anniversary exercises in the pub
lie schools and special meetings of
literary societies in all parts of the
country.
A special feature Of the centennial
| Is to be a pilgrimage to the old Whit
man homestead at West Hills, l.. L.,
where the poet first saw the light on
\ May 81, 1919. The poets father,
grandfather and great-grandfather
| were born In the same house. The
| early Whitmans owned a vast estate,
| with hundreds Of slaves, and were
| noted for their hospitality and fine
style of living. -.
But time had dealt hardly with
| the Whitmans, and in order to add
| to the support of his family, Waits
| rather had learned the carpenters
| trade. On his mothers side of the
FAMILY. nearly all the people were
| sailors.
In Walt Whitman's early life there
were no indications that the boy
and youth might one day become a
poet. He found it tax to read
Tennyson and he was never able to
read BroH ming.
In infancy he removed with his
parents to Brooklyn, where he at
tended the common schools until his
apprenticeship to tn e Long Island
Star at the age Of ~. In 1885 he
founded weekly paper in the town
OF Huntington, l.. l., which he him
self printed for about a year. He
subsequently taught school in the
summer and in the winter found en-
ployment at the printing trade. For
two years he held position as edi-
tor of one of the Brooklyn news
paper Then, about 1S48, he was
seized with the ''wanderlust," which
| in succeeding years was to take him
over a large part of the United
States and Canada. The early SOS
found him back again in Brooklyn,
this time as the proprietor Of a
small book store and printing shop.
| Later he engaged in carpentering
and building. but always spending his
spare time in scribbling verses which
found occasional publication.
Whitman made his struggle as a
poet with his Leaves of Grass"
which he himself assisted in setting
| up and printing and which was pub
lished in 1855. His work received
favorable criticism from Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and soon the first
edition was exhausted and others
were run off the press. A wide d.
versity Of opinion was Immediately
created, and the poet became an OBJ
ject of ridicule and Of praise, both
in Europe and in America. The So
called whitman cult" had it's origin
at this time and acquired an ever
widening coterie. Year by year
there has been a gradual change and
broadening of view in regard to the
Leaves Of Grass" that has finally
given the author a place for high
thought and poetic insight into life.
During the civil war Walt Whit
man devoted his days and nights to
the sick and dying in the army hos
pitfalls. He gave his services, and to
support himself wrote for the New
York newspapers. He had only odd
hours for this, hours that were sadly
needed for rest. When he held a
position in the office of the attorney
general at Washington, following the
close of the war, he sent half his sal
airy to his mother, and much of the
other half went to old soldiers still
sick and unfortunate. While hold
ing this office the poet was stricken
with paralysis-due to his labors in
the hospitals and his lack of proper
care and rest for himself. While he
partly recovered, he was never again
| a really well man. He passed away
at his home in Camden, N. j., March
26, 1892. When the news of his
death was told, there was mourning
all over the country-in homes
| where his name was held in tender
memory.
Throughout his life the poet spoke
| fearless words for liberty; for men
| and women in their life struggles;
for mothers and motherhood; for
| fathers, and for little children.