Source: https://www.kshs.org/p/walt-whitman-in-kansas/12865
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:41:40+00:00

Document:
"On your way to the Kansas celebration, are you not?"
"Yes, Col. Forney asked me to accompany him, and I embraced the opportunity of briefly visiting my brother [Water Commissioner Thos. J. Whitman] and his family here. Go to Kansas on conditions, however," and Mr. Whitman smiled quaintly.
"I agreed to go, provided I was not asked to speak nor eat any public dinners. I am only to show myself. I call myself a half paralytic, and yet I am not so feeble after all, nor so old as I look, for that matter. I was born in 1819. After the Kansas celebration, if I feel as well as now, I shall go out to Denver before I return to pay my brother a more extended visit."
"What do you expect to do in Kansas?"
"As I told you, I shall not make speeches or eat public dinners, but the people will have an opportunity to see this big, saucy red rooster, whom they might otherwise think would speak." .
Whitman spent September 17 in Topeka. He and Colonel Forney and party resided at the Tefft House, where, according to the Topeka Commonwealth, the poet passed most of his time conversing with men in the lobby.  The same paper reported that he also visited the state house.  Since he at one time was employed by the Interior Department and was interested in Indian affairs, Whitman accompanied a group of officials to see some Indian prisoners at Topeka, who refused to recognize any of the government men, but who extended their hands to the poet and greeted him with "How."  That evening Whitman was expected to be present at a lecture given by Colonel Forney on "Some of the Men of America I Have Known," but newspapers the next day did not report that he attended.
Whitman returned by way of the Santa Fe railroad to Kansas City, and from there went back to St. Louis, where he spent almost three months with his brother.
ROBERT R. HUBACH is an assistant instructor in the Department of English at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
1. The Kansas Magazine (The Kansas Magazine Publishing Co., Topeka, 1872), pp. 113, 114 and 219 (January-June, 1872).
2. Kansas City (Mo.) Mail, September 16, 1879.
3. For a full account of the old settlers' reunion, see Chas. S. Gleed (ed.), The Kansas Memorial, A Report of the Old Settlers' Meeting...: Bismarck Grove, Kansas, September 15th and 16th, 1879) (Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, Kansas City, Mo., 1880). The Kansas and Missouri newspapers also contain many informative notices.
4. Richard M. Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel (eds.), Complete Writings of Walt Whitman (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1902). "Prose," v. I, pp. 252-264.
6. Rollo G. Silver, "Walt Whitman Interviews Himself," American Literature, v. X, p. 87 (March, 1938). This article contains 'Whitman's own account of his experiences in the West and his impressions of Denver.
7. St. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Democrat, September 13, 1879. 7. Lawrence Daily Journal, September 14, 1879.
9. Topeka Daily Capital, September 16, 1879.
10. Bucke, et at (eds.), op.cit., p. 254.
11. Colin O. Alexander has printed a post card which Whitman sent to John Usher, Jr., on January 14, 1880. See "A Note on Walt Whitman," American Literature, v. IX, pp. 242, 243 (May, 1937).
12. Gleed (ed.), op.cit., p. 153. See, also, Lawrence Tribune, September 17. 1879.
13; Bucke, et al. (eds.), op.cit., pp. 255, 256.
14. The Commonwealth, Topeka, September 18, 1879.
16. Emory Honoway, Whitman, An Interpretation in Narrative (Alfred A. Knopf, New York and London, 1926), p. 223.
17. Topeka Daily Blade, September 18, 1879.
18. The Commonwealth, Topeka, September 19, 1879.
19. Emory Holloway (ed.), The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman (Doubleday, Page, New York, 1921), v. I, p. 29.
20. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Poetry," op.cit., v. II, p. 29.
21. Gleed (ed.), op.cit., p. 4.
22. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Prose," op.cit., p. 270. For the letter to Peter Doyle, see Bucke, op.cit., v. V, pp. 163-166.
23. Rice County Gazette, Sterling, September 25, 1879.
24. Bucke, et al. (eds.), op.cit., v. I, pp. 275-277. 25. Ibid., pp. 255, 256.
26. Newton Arvin, Whitman (Macmillan, New York, 1988), pp. 99-101, feels, however, that Whitman's joy in the apparent prosperity of the West and his immense optimism indicated a lack of consciousness on the poet's part of the American farmer's poverty-stricken condition at the time.
27. Bucke, et al. (eds.), "Poetry," op.cit., v. II, p. 177.

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