Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-29
THE GOWNSMAN
Why Waltz

would have celebrated his one hundredth
birthday. As he departed from the lttie
frame house in Mckle street and from tnis
life twenty seven years ago to enter the
stately granite tomb Of his own planning
in Harleigh Cemetery, il is for those in
whose memory the man and his work are
still green TO remember and to testify.
TT is said that as young man walter
l. Whitman truncated his name TO Walt
that he might be distinguished from the
other Walter, his father. The Gownsman
has always had another notion on the SUD
ject. In that complctest democracy OF pop
ular literature the world has ever seen, the
playwrights, pamphleteers and poets OF
Elizabeths London, the wtll-known men,
in the intimacy of their tight little island.
knocked off the handles to their names and
their digniied completeness, and in the
undress of delightfully."- intimate Bohc-
mian brotherhood were known us Kit Mar
lowe, Tom Decker. Ben Jonson, Frank
Beaumont, Jack Fletcher and the immortal
Will.
OUR Whitman was a practical - not
~ political much less n theoretical-demo-
crat, hence away with the Mr.. and the
unnecessary suffixes. He would have scorned
the fake emphasis on equality which causes
our Socialists to affect "Citizen Jones' or
"Comrade Robinson Real democracy does
not affect equality or assert it, or quarrel
about it; it lives on the level, looking up to
no man and looking down on none. Whit
,nan v,it ILL othor vnit. in tbo social
;s.I st =: n;. .,d =, 49,
croat .gcregato of which nonc cnn he more
than ono Indenepdent. dependent. Whit
man was tho most cpotistic of all the altru-
let's thc most altr,,istic of cyclists
-vrpypoDv L,o,ro oho,+ +h, .h,rh,r;,
n ,,
ShWp Oh wait Mhitmau.-or Ut ieasC
nc 'hiuhs hc uoes' "hlIhan iaike' VI
tranmeieu utterance' ms opilViousness W
conventions iather tt'ih ms "enance vi tnon,
ms Pert'nac'tS III s.lchlns os IN aoetiuL' l
prihcipie, Ill "hlch he was rlsht, Al.nousn
II cost MN an almost certain natiohai ac
ceptance III MS day-all 'hose tnlpes a.,
know VINO care 1or things IN the large' ana
Ee. no" 'he jest Oh US go as,rus oh even So
UNIV, uhlversal sd phenomenon as that ol s; esUtisli;
Marh i"ulh-pe MS ',,'n'ors e'eI hano"eu
.Il III 'oiu ., WV" Ill "aa 80, @
from h'msetr fr; wGen apeu % GO can so, aoas amaS
=; - 49,. a5;.;a.,aI. h.. o.,,
IN - r h:sIs - -, 80. -.
~ -. n.a,,;s.,aa aatod ~, go. g. ~.
-. 80. .I liz - Ill ~ -
@ ,ooS t,,, p" .,;n .rn .';n ,.;,, ;n.,t;.Lia
,"n iiolo ~ LIS .n"i .maL,a a.s"n. ~,
~ Wv
'so "''nii' '"'n on' VI U.S.
rr,r1E o,o of Wolf whitman ros nm oct;r.
s'......., .:-.. yr.:.
large man physically, and 1t takes big ego
W suppoft p,s 'i'an 'nueeu nv n,an'
,!i'i..:, me ouih' an W WI.
.,a.' .ssnl n;o' ~ An'
l'.an '"as cay Nv. ai aia,,.I.sI ~ .'
any mon u "a. sn:s "o
oontp'aseI az tL .a' .;n o. ms n,. ~ soy
ton,nIasion rs ,nith;n yVhttn,an hsionos il
on intano't;,a do,;ohtf,,, 80, of ,rr;+,rs
Il :tsi;no, .,''.i.,a .,I s
ar,, LIE .,,;o.s - - 80.
oHn Mn,tainno CoIi;Ii Rnmssoou Prron
Jeo 1,harios 1ar,h ~, a,d oooI ~ l. =, nav
uo,.i.a1;nol L;,,'solf o.d dro,, tharoont ,,,o,'
:ptuu.4 WIS -, 'N ~ ~ -
NJ. Gov t, ~
at:a. - - In,.. ~ - ~ '
-. ~ - ~ ~ OIL 'e'
''' 10 " '' "D'''D"'
WYATT was tbe most unaffected tho ,rost
w elemental of the egotists. As to him
sell, as to all else, he was unaffected and
unatrald. There was not rag OF conven-
tonailty about nm. wherefore those OF us
who mug our rags. whether Tor warmth, for
state or Tor prudery' are shocked by MS
verltaple nakedness at tunes, ana we trans
fer defect OF our own debilitated nerves
to some trait in this line elemental bar
barian to whom drapery is mere frippery.
WHlIMAN' ., rlghtiy UNDERSTOOD, was the
w egotism of large nature, not self f-cen-
tered, but expansive. He was alike an in
dividual unit and the epitome in himself of
manifold characteristics of democracy. And
it was the conviction of this which made
Whitman the self appointed spokesman of
the great. inarticulate masses, an ambition
only possible to the large altrusm which is
equally his. Whitman's love of his fellow
man is written in his books and in his life.
1t was not an abstract theory, it was not
sense of leadership. il was not the conde