Longfellow And Emerson

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe recentl read a paper before the Nineteenth Century club at New York. It was in part as follows: Longfellow moved aniong the great minds in literature with the ability of an equal. He wrote with case, but did notvyrite easily. He had a true ap preciation of the past, but was keenly alive to the needs of the present. At the time when it was the custom both North and South to turn sick at the idea of the ernancipation of the negroes, he joined the little army in defense of the slave, to which Channing, Bryant, í miijj.-s vjrarrisuii anu üiinerson aiready belonged. Mr. Longfeliow was a lover oí Europe, but he loved and wrote about his native land. His wrilings are pure, and white sliould be the marble which is used to commemorate him. At his funeral was a friend who was much moved as lie looked for the last timo on the face of his brother poet. In speaking of Mr. Emerson, we must go back to the period preeeeding his celebrit}', for I remembcr when he was much laughed at. I made his acquaintanee forty or more years ago. when we were travellers together in a cold New-England railvvay station, as wc crowded around a liard-wood iire. We were introduced by a mutual friend and Mr. Kmnrsnn tnllrprl xuitïi mn rf lln.,Tn„i Fuller and the work which she was doing among the women of Boston. I was at that time a zealous Calvinist, and had much to say about the power of Satan on the earth. Mr. Emerson miled and said that an angel would ïave mueh more influence on earth than a demon. But my young man of twenty summers could not be so easily turned from my early teaching, There was a novelty in Mr. Emerson's early lcctures that first attracted public attention - the noveltv of the careful use of language. He did not coinnewwords, but it seemed to me as if he took our old New-England sixpences and sniflings of language and restamped them by his vigorous thought. A feature of his life was his high esteem of truth. He was so truthloving that he could not teil an uutruth, and none knew the secondhand devinr-R nf tho wnrMWiurfliQM hn It is not probable tliat so great a genius will repeat itself in our day One of the qualities in his life, which is imitable, is that of genuineness. "Knowthyself," said the Greeks. "Be thyself," said Emerson. Mr. Emerson was a believer in absolute perfection, and no rudeness of reform satisfied him. He touched falsity in its weak spot, and falsity, instead of tumbling over in an unsightly mass, made a deferential bow and departed. He uttered his divine music, and those who heard could listen if they chose, but he forced his sonar on no one. Still his was not the isolation of indiflerence. After President Lincoln issued his famous proclamation, there was a public meeting held in Boston, at which Emerson spoke. I was there also and recall his mannerandmuch that he said. His anger at those who held human uuiuas in uoimage was me anger 01 an angel. He was fond of the poorer classes, and was loved by the mstics of his neighborhood. Longfellow and Emerson each lost a childand each made kis sorrow the subject of a poem. I recall a pleasant evening spent in a parlor in Beacon st., where I was invited to hear Mr. Emerson read from his owq poems. . He would preface some of them by saying: "My daughter Ellen likes this," or "My wiïe is fond of this," or, once in a vvhile, "This is one of my favorites.'" It was a great picasure to listen to him. It soemed like a prayer without the amen. My ear wouldsometimes rebel at his reading. I wanted the other word fiist in some of the lines, but Í thought thon of the desire I had when I iirst beheld the Venetian palaces to attack them with a scrubbing-brush. I could by cbanging tho order of somo of Mr. Emerson's words have made the poetry more conservative. perhaps, but loss impressible. Unlike many literary men, Mr. Emerson took greater enjoyment in his reading the literatura of tho past ages than in his writing. I would not lose a single sentence that he ever wrote. What a gem is his remark that "To-day is a king in disguise." The two great men have gone, but with the words of one of them we may conclude our paper: Lives of great men all remind us, We may makc our lives sublime. -m" Miss Malvina Rurnley has just started out with hor beau for a walk when her little brother Johnny calis to her from the fenco; "I say, Malviny, don't you bring that Mier back here to tea with you. Mamma says there ain't morn'n enough biscuits to go around as it Is." The editor of the Oinaha Herald now goes barefooted. He hunor up his stockings Christmas Eve, and hasn't seen them since. It is thought that perhaps Santa Claus needed som new horse blankets - Omaha Republican. The first Union flag was unfurled ou tho firat of January, 1776, over the camp at Cambridge. It had thirteen striDes of white and red, and rttained . the Engiish croaa in one corner.