The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1920-01-05
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

SUNNI may nave tHOuBHL II httAc
strange, and for this reason I will now
give my reasons for feeling a personal
loss in his passing away.
A few years back 1 ran across vol
ume entitled, IAN Alabama Student, and
other Biographical Essays" by Will
liam .osler, and being interested in any
thing along biographical lines. bought
it without having any real appetite for
it, but more to add to my collection,
thinking that some day I might be in
mood to read it.
1t lay on my shelves for quite awhile.
and then one night its flaming red back
and the name Alabama Student" ar
rested my attention. and I took it down
and in turning the pages soon discov-
cred that / had made rare find, both
from the standpoint of biography and
literature. for I saw by the flexible
prose that the author was a master of
the literary craft and also had a keen
insigh into human nature and knew
how to value the acts of men.
.
1t used to be said in Europe before
Germany got into bad odor that the
| red backed Baedeker guides were holy
writ to American tourists, and that they
chung to them much more tenaciously
than to the Bible itself in their peregri-
nations. have packed many a one and
seen the whole tribe Of Baederkerites
as they tramped the streets of the cap
itols, walked through the picture gal
leries, 1ounged in the hotel lobbies,
strolled in the parks or 1olled in the
| trains.
Now the two red books which occupy
a similar place in every editors sane
| tum are the American and the British
Who's Who" along with the states
man Year Books" (a1so red as to color,
but unread save in emergencies). The
American who's Who" gives line on
the men of the time in this country,
while the other volume by the same
name gives tip on the Britishers. to-
gether with their titles, their clubs,
1 tHclT duQTeSSeS ana ILcl1 lCCl
| It's the last which knitted me to Sir
William, for he gave as his recreation,
photography"
This fact made him at once a COM
rade in spirit and I was willing to walk
his way in the path of literature. I did
| not know that any one else had used
biography as a diversion, and so / was
pleased to find in the preface to AN
Alabama Student" Osler saying: ITO
a lifelong interest in biography as a
recreation, I have added a strong con-
| so it has happened for an occasional
address (and he was often called upon)
| a biographical subject was often chosen.
| 1t is reported by those who knew him
that he carried the charm of manner
of his writings on to the platform.
-
In the volume before me more than
half of the biographies deal with as
poets of the life of physicians in the
United States DR.. Osler had purpose
| in thus featuring the men who had
made name for themselves in Amer
| lea, for he wished to show forth his
i gratitude for kindnesses showered upon
him by his brethren in the profession
during the 81 years experience in his
adopted land. He wanted also to get
his students to take as their models the
great men of the medical profession of
their own country. He bore witness in
l. H., Il =.
no land have the Hippocratic ideals
been more fully realized than in the
| lives portrayed by him.
At this time when he who wrote the
appreciation of Oliver Wendell Holmes
| is being prepared for his last resting
place, 1 naturally turn to his introduce
ton Of the beloved New Highlander,
who has SO often been called the Amer
lean Goldsmith. Every fitting is it that
he who had lived to be the last leaf
upon the tree should have fallen peace
fully in the autumn which he loved so
well. Delightful. too, to think that al
though he had, to use the expression OF
BENJAMIN Franklin, intruded himself
these many years into the company OF
posterity, the freshness and pliancyI Of
his mind had not for a moment failed"
gave this citation on purpose as an
answer to the foolish. canard about Os-
ler's advising the choloformng of men
at the age of 60 because their useful
ness had ended.
DIR. Osler then goes on to say about
oliver Wendell Holmes not a practi-
TONER, who yet retained for the greater
part in his life the most intimate con-
nection with the profession, and as pro-
fessor of anatomy at Harvard uni
versity kept in touch with it for nearly
40 years. Like his own wonderful
'One-Hoss Shay (get the poem and read
it over), the end was a sudden break
down, and though he would have con-
fessed no doubt, to a general flavor of
decay there was nothing local. and his
friends had been spared that most dis
tressing of all human spectacles. those
cold gradations of decay. in which a
man takes nearly as long to die as he
does to grow up, and lives sort of
life in death.
1 challenge you to find anywhere in
all literature just such a pen picture of
the tragedy of life being swallowed up
in death It's the opinion of the trained
physician who had for two score years
watched at bedsides where men were
going through the valley and the shad-
ow set out in the restrained style of
an artist used to the value and mean
ing OF words. / said that he was lit
taken at random out of one of the
lives.
I said he was a thinker and offer this
in proof: There are two great types of
leaders: one the great reformer the