davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

American literature, with the un-
clouded assurance that Leaves Of
Grass" was an "illustration" of what
that literature in the future would be.
WAS ore Of the most uncommon gest-
ures ever made by an unknown genius
in the history of letters.
This article was but one of three
that Whitman wrote and printed in
launching his Leaves of Grass" upon
the literary seas of America In the
middle Of the last century, when the
stately and full-blown sails of Long
fellows, Whittier's, Bryant's, Holiness
and Emerson's art were there to take
the wind and blanket this strange new
craft with the nondescript canvas.
Looking back now upon this piece of
exposition it seems much less a
case of audacious egotism than practi-
cal SELF preservation, bold and shrewd
declaration Of the poets aims and in
tentions to a world which he asked and
desired to take him on his own terms
and judge him by the results of his
achievement. Thus he writes:
"To give judgment on real poems,
one needs an account of the poet him
self Very devilish to some, and very
divine to some, will appear the poet
of these new poems, the Leaves of
Grass; an attempt. as they are, Of a
naive, masculine, affectionate, contem-
plative, sensual, imperious person to
cast into literature not only his own
grit and arrogance, but his own flesh
and form, undraped, regardless of mod
els, regardless Of modesty or law and
ignorant or silently scornful, as at first
appears, OF all except his own pres
ence and experience, and all outside
the fercely loved land of his birth
and the birth of his parents and their
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
Home of
The First HighbaH

To those who soon will see the pass
Ing of the last highball the fact that
the first Of these gloom dispellers ever
mixed IN America was served in the
upper story OF Frauncess Tavern no
doubt will prove Of interest.
In the Long Room" on the second
floor ESQ called because it had been
built in imitation Of the long Indian
lodges used for tribal gatherings was
held the first meeting of the New York
Chamber OF Commerce, in April, 1868.
Here also General George Washington.
ON December 4, 1883, took his farewell
OF the forty-four officers who had cam
paigned with him during tho eight
years Of bitter struggle for American
independence.
Having viewed this historic old
cdifcc, which Is open to the public
daily, our peripatetic observer now
would be forced TO board sonne convey
anec and ride TO 1e0th Street, near AM
aterdam Avenue, before another build
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

parents for several generations before
him. Politeness this man has none,
and regulation he has none. A rude
child of the peoplc!-no imitation
no foreigner-but growth and idom
of America. No disconnected democrat
"a careless SLOUGH, enjoying TODAY
No dilettante democrat-a man who
is art and part with commonalty and
with immediate life-loves the streets,
loves the docks, loves the free rasp-
ing talk of men, likes to be called by
his given name, and nobody at all need
Mr.. him-can laugh with laughers, like
the ungenteel ways of laborers-is NOT
prejudiced one mite against the Irish
talks readily with them-talks read
lily with niggers-does not make q
stand on being a gentleman nor on
learning or manners-eats cheap fare.
likes the strong favored coffee of the
coffee stands in the market, at sun
r1se-likes a supper of oysters fresh
from the oyster smack-likes to make
one at the crowded table among sail
ors and work people-would leave Sc
lect soiree of elegant people any time
to go with tumultuous men, roughs,
receive their caresses and welcome. lis
ten to their noise, oaths, smut, fuency.
laughter, repartee-and can preserve
his presence perfectly among these and
the like Of these. The effects he pro-
duces in his poems are no effects Of
artists or the arts, but effects of the
: original eye or arm, or the actual
atmosphere or tree or bird. You NAV
feel the unconscious teaching of a
fine brute, but will never feel the arti-
fetal teaching Of a fine writer or
speaker.
"Other pocts," he goes on TO say,
celebrate great events, personages.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
Where Poe
DWeIf

From the Dyckman house cres'
town car would carry our traFe'"'
to Kingsbridge Road and the Oo1'
course, where stands the little co''sg'
occupied by Edgar Allan Poe ana ~
wife from 1916 to 1919. Here, man
times without sufficient funds WIN
which to purchase the bare necess'''.'
of life, dwelt one Of Americas gress
est poets; here he wrote VbuFeAS
"Ulalume," "Annahel Lee" and man.
other of his famous masteaf'e''s'
here also, in a tiny bedroom, seaf's.'
larger than a prison cell, diea' :
January, 1S47, little Virginia f'''
child wife.
The cottage contains. among oFa,
Poe possessions, the original '''s-.
in which he sat when composing -
stories and poems, as well as ths ~
family Bible.
And now a short ride across TO nf0e'
way again and up 10 the enc %
city-Van Cortlandt Park-and =
traveller has fully covered his asss
ment. Here, at the lower end O
park, stands the Van cosl'Asg
mansion, erected in l74s by freo<''.
Van Cortlandt, son OF Jscopus 49,
Cortlandt, a distinguished New l0.sa,
and Mayor of the city from NV =
1910.
The building is in charge o. ~
Colonial Danes of the State o. s,
York and contains, in addition =
Dutch, Colonisl and Revolau0,s. s,
relics, tho original four.posses
stead slept in by George Washinsss'1'
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
New York as an Owner of Antiques-and Where They A

sightseer would no doubt start IN
along Broadway-that world-famous
thoroughfare, known as "The Great
Blight Way at Wall Street, "The
Great White Way" at Thirty-fourth
Street, 1.-THE Great Night Way" at
Forty-second Street, and "The Great
Sight Way" beyond. Continuing alono
this avenue for few blocks. he soon
would como to Beaver Street. A mo-
ment's walk in the new direction would
bring him to Broad Street, which, fol-
lowed in turn, would lead to Pearl
Street and the location of Frauncess
Tavern.
This building, situated at Broad and
Pearl streets, was erected in 1719 by
Etienne De Lancey, son-in-law Of Colo
mel Stephanus Van Cortlandt. one Of
the Dutch magnates of that period.
The building was used as a residence
until 1852, at which time 1t was opened
as tavern by Sam Fraunces.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

achievement, he puts his hand to, and
lets imputations take their time to
die"
After some further description of
himself as of pure American breed,
large and lusty," who never dressed
in black, always dressed freely and
clean in strong clothes-neck open,
shirtcolar fiat and broad countenancc
tawny transparent, red beard we'll
notified with white, hair like hay after
it has been moved in the field and
lies tossed and streaked," he tells of
his habits and associates is one who
never sits" on platforms amid the
crowds of clergymen, or professors, or
aldermen, or OngresSmen-rat her
down in the bay with pilots in their
pilot boat-or off on cruise with
fishers in fishing smack-or riding on
Broadway omnibus, side by side with
the driver--or with band of loungers
over the open grounds of the country
fond of New York and Brooklyn
fond Of the life of the great ferries
one whom, if you should meet, you
need not expect to meet an extraordi-
nary person-one in whom you will see
the ngularity-which consists in no
ngularity- contact Is no dazzle
or fascination, nor requires any defer
ence, but has the easy fascination of
what is homely and accustomed Of
something you knew before, and were
waiting for. There" he said, "you
have Walt Whitman, the begetter Of a
new offspring out of literature, taking
with easy nonchalance the chances Of
its present reception, and, through all
misunderstanding and distrusts, the
chances of its future reception-pre-
ferring always to speak for himself
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

American poet appeared he would come
in the for.nless and unconventional
manner of the Leaves of Grass" had
much less to do with the immediate
admiration of writer's like G. H. Lewes,
W. NJ. Rossetti, Edward Dowden Swim
burne ard John Addington Symonds
than the intrinsic substance and sin
cerity of the poems. There is a Curl
Gus commentary in the fact that even
SO pronounced and arrogant an aristo-
crat in art as Tennyson should see in
the "Leaves of Grass" profundity
of embodiment and utterance that
neither Longfellow nor Lowell would
SO much as recognize.
If in the early years of his career
Whitman lacked even so much as a
nodding acquaintance with literary
authority in Amer RIGA he was not with
cut his passionate disciples and ad-
mirers among some literary men then
unknown to fame. These men, among
whom John Burroughs and w. D..
O'Connor were the most prominent,
were the spring from which gushed
that stream of prophecy on which
Whitman's genius f1oated through time
to immortality. The young men of the
time of the earlier editions of the
Leaves of Grass" became the author
ity of the next generation, and it was
to them that Whitman owed the growth
of his fame. O'Connor's pamphlet on
the Good Gray Poet" In defence of
Whitman against his dismissal by
James Harlan (Secretary Of the In
terior) from his clerkship because he
had written an Immoral book" is
youths championship of a maligned
prophet That championship had
passed to another generation in the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
The Slow
En7ergenCe

After all, that is a rather remark
able document. It's immediate effect
was nothing like as important or as
impressive as Emerson's address on
"The American Scholar" but it has
come to have in time significance
equally historic. 1t appeared in Sep
TENDER, 1855, two months after the
publication of the first edition of the
Leaves of Grass" and from that date
Whitman's career may be said to have
run in two parallel streams. Recog-
milton came to him slowly, and came
mainly from two sources. Emerson
welcomed the new poet in a famous
letter from which Whitman, with what
has been censured as a lack of pro-
priety, extracted a sentence of pro-
phetic praise to print on the cover of
the second edition Of the "Leaves Of
Grass" This was practically the only
authoritative approval Whitman re-
ccived from his contemporaries. Little
as it affected Whitman's general posi-
ton at the time, it was worth all that
the rest of literary America could have
said, and while 1t did not stop the
savage attacks on the book it at least
made the critics aware that their
target was armored.
The recognition Of Whtman's genius
was much more immediate in England
than in America among his peers. The
explanation often given that this was
due to'the expectation among the Eng
lish critics that when an original
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

purchased by the City Of New York
and in 1907 opened as a public mu-
scum.
To those who follow the rise Of real
estate values in New York the facts that
Stephen Jumel in 1910 paid for the
house and thirty-six acres of ground
surrounding it the sum Of S9,927.50;
that the property was sold for $780,
600 in 1887, and that it cost the city
S235,000 to get possession Of the house
in 1903 may prove of interest.
The next step our bold wayfarer
would make in the course of his Jour.
ney would be at 207th Street and
Broadway, where he would find stand
ing the only real example to be found
in New York (both as to exterior and
interior appearance) Of an eighteenth
century farmhouse.
This structure was erected in 1888
by William Dyckman and remained in
the hands Of the Dyckman family un-
til about forty years ago. The build
ing having become shabby" through
long neglect, plans were recently made
TO dcmolish the structure and erect
Iii its stead a modern apartment house.
To prevent this, two of the descendants
OF the original builder purchased the
property, restored everything in the
house as nearly as possible to its orig
lnal condition and in 1918 presented
the building to the City of New York
to be used as a public park and mu-
scum.
On the grounds there has also been
reconstructed, out of materials taken
from an actual hut unearthed in the
vicinity, an English officers shack.
used during the Revolution at the time
when the British were camped at
Kingsbridge. after the fall of Fort
Washington.
The interior of the Dyckman house
has been arranged with great care. and
much pains have been taken to bring
each room back as near as possible
to it's original appearance in the DAYS
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

romances, wars, loves, passions, the
victories and power of their country,
or some real or imagined incident
and polish their work and come to
conclusions, and satisfy the reader.
This poet celebrates natural propensi-
ties in himself; and that is the wav
he celebrates all. He comes to no con-
clusions, and does not satisfy the
reader. He certainly leaves him what
the serpent left the woman and the
man, the taste of the Paradisaic tree
OF the knowledge of good and evil,
never to be erased again."
The next paragraph In a broad
generality contains the essence Of
Whitman's artistic creed with its
underlying impulse so startlingly
hymned in the famous "One's-Self |
Sing" "What good is it," he asks,
ITO argue about egotism? There can
be no two thoughts on Walt Whitman's
egotism. That Is avowedly what he
steps out Of the crowd and turns and
faces them for. Mark, critics! Other
wise is not used for you the key that
leads to the use Of the other keys to
this well-enveloped man. His whole
work, his life, manners, friendships,
writings, all have among their leading
purposes an evident purpose to stamp
new type Of character, namely, his
own, and indelibly fix it and publish
1t, not for model but an Illustration.
tor the present and future of American
letters and American young men, for
the south the same as the north, and
for the Pacific and Mississippi country.
and Wisconsin and Texas and Kansas
and Canada and Havana and Nicaragua,
Just as much as New York and Boston.
Whatever is needed toward this
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
Whifman'S View
OF Whitman

No one has set forth so forcibly
or markedly as Whitman himself what
he was and what he strove to be in
life and art. We go back to the orig
inal appearance of Leaves of Grass
in 1855, ard find him reviewing his own
book in "The Brooklyn Times" for
September 90, 1855. What he did in
exploiting his own work to gain the
attention of public to which he was
strange newcomer in literature and
to blunt the literary censure of an ex-
pected critical hostility was not I'M
common in the annals of authorship
but the confession of personality and
hshi.s, the unrcserved conviction of the
vital Importance and value of his art
as the beginning of a new and needed
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

The current rushing 80 sariftly
and swimming NTH me far
a1Udy,
The others that are to follo10 me.
the ties betaUeen me and
them,
The certainty of others, the life,
love, sight, hearing of
others.
Others acul enter the gates of the
ferry and cross from shore
to shore,
Others 1UiU acotch the run of tho
food-tide,
Others aoiU see the shipping Of
Manhattan north and aUest,
and the heights of Brooklyn
to the south and east,
Others avill see the islands large
and small;
I! " UtufS UtHC0 OtNCTS jU}lL sec
them as they cross, the sun
half an hour high;
A hundred gears hence, or ever so
many hundred gears hence,
others aUiU see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring
in of the food-tide, the foM-
ing-back to the sea of the
ebb-tide.
These and all else 1Uere to mo the
same as they are to you,
1 loved aOeU those cities, loved 1veu
the stately and rapid river,
The men and 1Vomen I saev qvere
all near TO me,
Others the sam,e-others auho
look back on me because I
looked fo11card to them.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
----~..--

TLOOD-TIDE below me! I
~ see you face to facet
~ Clouds of the qUest-sun
there half an hour high
Il see you also face to
face.
Crowds of men and avon,en attircd
in the usual costumes, hon
curious you are to met
On the ferryboats the hundreds
and hundreds that cross, re-
turning home, are more
curious to me than you
suppose,
And you that shall cross from
shore to shore gears hence
are more to me, and more 10
mig meditations, than you
might suppose.
The impalpable sustenance of NOR
from all things at all hours
Of the day.
The simple, compact, aOel- join'd
scheme, myself disimte-
grated, every one disin-
tegrated and get part Of
the scheme,
The sinsihtudes of the past and
those Of the future,
The glories strung like beads on
mig smallest sights and
hearings, on the aUalk In tho
street and the passage over
the 9-iuer,
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

as the most critical and i'm
- partial American biographer
Of Whitman, Bliss Perry
closes his account Of the Good Gray
Foet by declaring that plumbers
count for nothing, when one is reckon
ing the audience Of poet, and Whit
mans audience will, for natural rea-
sons, be limited to those who have the
intellectual and moral generosity to
understand him, and will take pains to
do so. But no American poet now
seems more sure to be read, by the fit
persons, after one hundred or FIVE
hundred years"
These words, written nearly fifteen
years ago, have scarcely lost any sig
nihcance in regard to the poets posi-
tion or influence to-day in the search
ing examination being applied to his
work in consideration of the centenary
of his birth. Two indisputable facts
must be accepted about Whitman, and
all other facts must remain subsidiary
in comparison with them. He is the
national poet of American democracy
"These States," the curious blend Of
the mystical and romantic which has
been woven into the texture of Amer
lean idealism, but as the national poet
there has been practically no reaction
by the people of "These States" to his
works. 1t has been proven in his case
perhaps more than in the case Of any
other major poet of modern times that
Numbers count for nothing, when one
is reckoning the audience of poet;
and that in spite of the reputation by
the masses of his countrymen for whom
and through whom his Homeric ut
terances were made, his supremacy
was gained and continues to flourish
by those limited few who have the
"intellectual and moral generosity to
understand him, and will take the
pains to do So"
For those who recognized his genius
in the beginning, who rescued the
Leaves Of Grass" from neglect, in
terpreted and preached their message
to reluctantly sympathizing au-
dience here and there in the literary
world, Whitman did not write; yet
they alone had the intellect to under
stand him. and the moral generosity
TO sympathizc with the tremendous
purpose he had in view The people"
the divine average" of humanity, took
their cue from his earliest critics and
regarded his book as immoral and the
man himself as trough" They could
not understand it because he was
violator of precedents and conventions
In art as we'll as in life; and they
could little guess that in the essential
spirit of his work he was following
rather than leading them in the funda-
mental characteristic OF their ma
tional ideals and life.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

Burn high your fires, foundry
chimneys! Cast black shod-
o1cs at nightfaU! Cast red
and yelloU light ouer the
tops of the houses!
Appearances, noto or henceforth,
indicate what you are,
You necessary film, continue to
enuelop the soul,
About my body for me, and your
body for yoa,, be hung our
divinest dromas;
Thrive, cities, bring your freight,
bring yott1 sholUs, ample
and sufficient rivers,
Expand, being than ,ohich none
else is perhaps more spirit
uol,
Keep yoatr places, objects than
achich none else is more
lasting.
You haze acaited, yom always wait,
you dumb, beautiful min
listers,
We receive you Nth free sense at
last and are insatiute hence
foraUdrd,
Not you any more shall be able
to foil as, or aUithhold your-
selues from us,
We use you, and do not cast you
aside; aoe plant you per-
manently Within as.
We fathom you 1ot-1Ue love you
there is perfection IN you
also,
You furnish yow parts toward
eternity,
Great on small, you furnish your
parts toward the soul.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

THE time will come, though I
stop here to-day and to-
night)
What is 1t, then, betWeen us?
What Is the count of the scores or
hundreds of years bet1Uccn
Whatever, 1t is it auails mot-dis-
lance avails not, and place
aualls not;
I, too, Hved-Brooklym of ample
hills acos mine;
I, too, walh'd the streets of Man,
haitian Island, and bathed
IN the 2Catcrs around it;
I, too, felt the curious ABRUPT
questioning stir acithdn me.
IN the day among croacds Of peo-
pie sometimes they come
upon me-
IN my 1oalhs home late at might or
as I lag IN mig bed then
came upon me.
I, too, had been struch; from tho
float forever held IN solu-
ton;
I, too, had received identity By NM
body,
That | a0ns | kne1U tUos of mn
body, and What I should be
| hme1O | should be of mn
BODY
All, 1uhdt can cuer be more state
IL and admirable to me
than mast-hcmm'd Man,
haitian?
River and sunset and sca11op-
edg'd aoducs Of flood tide?
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25
The Dyckrnan House, 2O7th Street and
Broadway

Ing Of historic significance would meets
his sight.
At this location he would find tho
Jumel Mansion, originally known as
the Roger Morris House, and built by
lieutenant Colonel Roger Morris for
his wife, Mary Philipsc, in tho year
1853. Morris was an officer in the
British army and. before the war for
American independence started,
warm friend Of George Washington;
having, In fact, fought by his side dur
ing tho French and Indian wars.
General George Washington issued
his first orders from this house on
September l6, 177s. and occupied the
mansion as his military headquarters
for period Of about Ave weeks there
after.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

Suspend here and everywhere
eternal float of solution!
Gaze, Ioving and Musting eyes,
IN the house or street or
public assembly!
Sound ont, Ooices of young men!
Loudly and mausically call
me By my highest name!
Live, old life! Play the part that
looks back on the actor or
actress!
Play the old role, the role thot is
great or small according as
one makes it!
Consider, you 1Oho peruse me,
a0hether / may not IN IN
knoavn avoy be looking upon
you;
Be firm, rail over the river, to
support those 1oho lean idly,
yet haste 1ujth the hdsting
current.
Fly on, sea birds! Fly Sideways,
or aUheel IN large circles
high IN the an;
Receive the summer sky, you water,
and faithfulIy hold 1T till
all doa0ncost eyes hare time
to take it from you!
Diuerge. fine spokes of light, from
the shape of my head, or
ony ones head, IN the sun
lit 1cdteY!
Come on, ships from the 1osUer bay!
Pass up or do1Un, White-
sailed schooners, sIoops,
lighters!
Flount oaUoy, flags of oil nations!
Be duly lowered at satnse!
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-05-25

The sea-guNs oscHlotmg their
bodies, the huy-boot in the
ti0iHght, and the belatcd
lighter?
What gods can exceed these that
clasp me BY the hand, and
1plth Uoices / love call me
promptly and Loudly By 7ny
highest name as | approach?
What is more subtle than this
sUhich ties me to the aUomon
or man that looks IN my
face?
Which fuses me into you no1c,
and poatrs my meaning into
you?
We understand then, 90 lce not?
What promised Uithout men,
tioning 1t, haze you not
accepted?
What the study could not teach
-achat the preaching could
not accomplish IS accom-
plished, is it not?
Floap on, riper! foav Nth the food
tide and ebb Nth the cbb-
tide!
Frolc on, crested and scoIlop-
odg'd 1Ooues!
Gorgeous clouds Of the sunset,
d,emch acith yo1o sp1endor
me, or the men and aUomen
generations after me!
Cross from shore to shore, COMMIT
less cro:0ds Of passengers!
Stand up, tall masts Of Mamma
hotta! Stand up, beautiful
hills Of Brooklyn!
Throb, baf7ed and curious bruinl
Throa0 out questions and
ANSWERS!