The sun., 1919-09-21


whitman's will, written in Washing
ton and dated May Is, 1879, read:
MY gold watch Is to go to my
mother. to be disposed Of or not as
she may think proper. 1t is a good
timepiece worth from $3.50 to $3.50.
If deceased the proceeds to go to my
! brother Edward My portrait Of
Walter Libbey is to go to my brother
JEFF" and after the poets death he
began to publish the conversations.
To those who read between the lines
there is significance in Bliss Perry's
comment: students of Whitman
will inevitably differ here and there
with his biographers upon questions
of proportion and of taste, but of Mr..
| Traubers loyal discipleship 1t Is i'm
possible to speak too highly"
For the flavor of these conversations
| glance at random through the note
book recording the talks Of 1888. when
| Whitman was in his SEVENTEEN year
and his Boswell in his thirty-flrst.
| Random Talks with "w."
April %, 1888. took w. a volume
Of Goethe Carlyle correspondence.
This Goethe-Carlyle business seems
to have been an affair of respect rather
than of love. 1t was not beautiful 10
me like Goethe's love for Schiller, like
Schiller's love for Goethe" said:
You never seem to enter into such
literary comprehensive" mo, 1 Go
not: they are hardly possible to
me: do not seek them. l do not
value literature as n profession. I
feel about literature what Grant did
about war. He hated war. 1 hate
! literature. 1 am not literary West
Pointer: 1 do not love a literary man
as literary man, as minister of
pulpit loves other ministers: II is a
n cans to an end: that Is all there IL
to ii. Even Goethe and Schiller-ex-
allied men. both, very, very-were a
little touched by the professional con-
seriousness" Then you do not accept
the notion of art for arts sake?" mot
bit of it-that would be absurd on
the face: the phrase seems to me to
mean nothing. Take Tolstoy; there
are things about him that do not at
. tract me-some that are even Often
sive-his asceticism, for instance-and
yet Tolstoy comes to about the right
/ HS Twins op " "a 'h6 "a h5 "a -
April 20, 1888. Some anarchist was
in to see w. to-day. Whitman did
not know his name. HE was a
, stranger to me-a Russian. l think:
|, clean, earnest, with a beautiful face
but too insistent: he would have me,
whether I would or not. say yes to
his political or revolutionary pro-
gramme. We had no QUARREL only
made 1t plain to him that I was not TO
be impressed into that sort of service,
Everybody comes here demanding in
! dorsements: indorse this: indorse that:
each man thinks am radical his way
but l am not radical his way alone
Socialists single tax men, communists
rebels of every sort and all sorts, come
here. 1 don't say that they shouldn't
. ccme-that it's unreasonable for them
to come: the Leaves is responsible
for them, and for more than them
But / am not economically informed
o do not see the fine-even the coarse
! points OF difference between the con
= testants. said to the Russian to-day
Don't as kme for too many defini
: lions. Be satisfied with my general
3 assurance. My heart is with all you
rebels-all of you, to-day, always
. wherever: your flag is my flag. Why
d should you want me to give yor
: more?' The fellow was sensible-sait
4 he had learned a thing or two-ant
Q went his way. l think Emerson was
sweeter with such men than>I am
was more patient, was more willing t.
wait their talk out"
4 May 8, 1888. w. said. my tast
: has been modelled on another theor,
p in the school Of Scott, Of Cooper
/ of some others of the older writer's
n How much 1 am indebted to Scott NJ
5. one can tell couldn't tell 1t my
II self-but 1t has permeated mi
4 through and through. If you coult
n reduce the Leaves to their elements
4 you would see Scott Enthusiastically nc
|. tive at the roots. I remember 'Th
70 Tales OF my Landlord Tvanhoe.' 'Th
Is Fortunes of Nigel-yes, and 'Kenil
n worth.-it's great pageantry thel
: there's The Heart of Midlothian
e which have read a dozen times an
n more. / might say just about tn
8 same thing about Cooper too. He ha
n written books which will survive INT
: the farthest future. Try to think Q
Ie literature. OF the world. Of boys. to
ie day, without 'Natty Bumpp6,' 'Th
. L n De-