The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-03-06
HOLMES KEPT
FIRE OF YOUTH
TO VERY END
Great Liberal JuriSt Won
Love and Affection of
Countrymen.
BY RUTH FINNEY
Times Special Writer

WASHIN GTON, March g.
"Wreak yourself upon life" Mr..
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said
once. IF you want to hit bird
on the wing you must have all your
will in a focus Every achieve
ment is a bird on the wing"
Mr.. Holmes friends find it hard
to believe that death has taken the
spirit that blazed so fiercely for
SO years.
Just three years ago the legal
world commemorated that triumph
by paying tribute to Justice Holmes
at the beginning of his ninety-first
year of life, his fiftieth year on the
bench. Men of all beliefs voiced
their admiration and respect and
love- At the end the man who had
beaten old age and known almost
a century of youthful living spoke
for a moment over the radio, and
millions of people heard his strong,
vibrant voice. That moment of
contact with home who has been
called the most romantic of con-
temporary Americans thrilled mil
lions of his countrymen.
Veteran of Civil War
This life began in Boston, In
1841, in the home presided over by
the "Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table"
From childhood this second Oliver
Wendell Holmes heard the CONVEX
sation of brilliant men, Emerson
among them, and it is little wonder
that his attainment as a philoso-
pher is only less than his attain
ment as a jurist.
At 20 young Holmes graduated
from Harvard just in time to enlist
for the first year of the Civil War,
and be commissioned as an officer in
the goth Massachusetts, Volunteers.
He fought at Balls Bluff where
the army in blue was driven down
the Virginia cliff and into the
Potomac to die, except the few who
were rescued in frail boats. Justice
Holmes was one of these. With
wound in the breast that threatened
to prove fatal he was laid in a boat
with dying men and ferried through
the darkness. He lived to fight at
Antietam and to fall again, wound
ed through the neck.
Decides on Law
It was after this battle, when he
was lost to his family for days, that
his father wrote MY Hunt for the
Captain" making immortal the
emotion of that dreadful time.
When the war was over young
Holmes went back to New England
and tried to decide whether he
should devote his life to literature,
to philosophy, or to law. He chose
law, but never forgot these others
and through him the law became
philosophical, and enriched with
literature.
There are many fragments of let
tiers and other writings of Mr..
Holmes, from the days when he
was in his early twenties, and they
are as we'll worth reading as the
wiser writings of his later years. 1t
was in his youth that he said mo
man has earned the right to intel
lectual ambition until he has
learned to lay his course by a star
which he has never seen-to dig by
the divining rod for springs which
he may never reach"
Hewed Out Own Philosophy
So he hewed out a philosophy of
life, ambitions and principles on
which he constantly based his
course. One Of these was, Don't
be content to be a lawyer. Be
lawyer in the grand manner"
Accordingly he gave himself to
the utmost, "wreaked himself" upon
the law. First he became editor of
the American Law Review. A few
years later he completed his i'm
portant edition of "Kent'S Com
mentaries," then came his Common
Law" one of the foundations of his
enduring fame.
A year after this work was pub
lished, Mr.. Holmes was appointed
to the Massachusetts Supreme
Court. He served there for 20
years, and was its Chief Justice
when the appointment to the
United States Supreme Bench was
given, in 1902. He resigned because
of i'll health 30 years later, in 1882.