The New York herald., 1921-02-27
He Wanted Our Young Academy
To Undertake an American Dictionary

often. at "the movies" l have nwardly ex-
claimed: o History what crimes are COM
mitted in thy name!"
Well, to see William Dean Howells in the
flesh in 1S99 at dinner and to chat with
him across the table, something like forty
years after a first interview with him in
his books, was my joyful experience.
In the infant days of the National Insti-
tute of Arts and Letters we used to meet
in the hall of the Aldine Club on Fifth ave-
nue.. There were present usually dozen
or two OF US, instead of the hundred or
more now. Among them were President
Woodrow Wilson of Princeton, Mark Twain
of Hartford. Brander Matthew'S: the genial
editor, Hamilton w. Mabie; the delightful
Southern novelist. Hop Smith and others
This was even before the days of the forIna-
ton, by choice Of the members Of the insti-
tute, of the academy. OF the seven original
Neutrality-suspicious. of noble fellowship now
numbering flfty-Howells was one and per-
haps the first. At any rate, he was imme-
diately made president
Now. on March IL, 1901. when first saw
and met the man soon to be saluted 'The
Dean of American Letters had double
consciousness. I saw, sitting In the chair,
presiding officer whose identity was not at
first recognized. On my initial glance
thought that the gentleman with white hair
and mustache, incarnation of grace, dignity,
tact and grandfatherly benevolence, as he
was-to say nothing of his manifest perfec-
tion as master of parliamentary law-must
be some French count invited a guest.
Yes to be chldlike and bland in my confess
sion of ignorance and innocence, could al
most have taken oath that here was the
avatar of some entiore nobleman of 1893. 1t
might even be a stray aide of Rochambeau
or Lafayette, about whom my Valley Forge
ancestors used to tell me. But even before
i asked my seatmate, Woodrow Wilson. who
the presiding officer might be had made up
my mind that he was a man of high culture
and fine breeding. He had been born and
lived In an atmosphere OF books and intel
lectual and social refinement. Evidently,
also, he was the outcome of a long line OF
ancestors who loved the humanities. Even
after seven years of social hospitality in
Boston, among both literary moths and i'm
mortals, | had never received such i'm
preston of personality as that first view of
Howells in Aldine Hall.
But in less than an hour afterward still
playing the impresario, 1 had another
psychological thrill. Most frivolously I be-
gan to think of my Indian contemporary
Mr.. Young Man Afraid Of His Horses"
And why?
No one could know Howells in his per-
son, in his mind, in his easy manner. or in
his books. without being aware OF his In
tense realism He knew the American and
what was in him. whether at home abroad,
on the frontier. or in the city. as well as in
every age. from Plymouth Rock TO Mr..
Bryan, and on every rung OF the social ladder.
The National Institute, then mere cloud,
was liable to take as many shapes as
Poonius OF old could discern Howes, hav-
ing entered its still nebulous haze. feared.
like Moses Of old The institute had. for a
baby, a colossal name but II had yet
done nothing to justify or even adorn that
name. Meanwhile, the world was waiting
Would the mountain bring forth ridiculus
musr What II the funny man should get
hold OF II and, terrier a mouse, shake
and toss away? Here was "a fearful RESPONSE
bility." What II some Washington Irving
should arise to transix 1t with a goose quill
and make OF 1t O caricature as gross and as
laughter provoking az Diedrich Knicker-
bocker's History of the Dutch Dynasty?
What II the gods should hold both their
sides as they jested over Yankee republic
incubating an institute TO say nothing OF
an Academy OF Arts and Letters? Was this
n case OF sef-made immortals aping Paris
and eternal France7 Would America be-
come "the vassal of Europe? Would frog
try 10 puff itself into the dimensions OF an
ox7 Howells himself expressed such fears.
Hold within decade the French Acad-
emy did actually commission and send.
writing new page of history, a delegate
to the meeting at the Ritz In New
York. The scholar and critic Brieux. in his
civic embroidered olive green uniform and