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diff --git a/old/aprhd10.txt b/old/aprhd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dd3094 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/aprhd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1851 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext "Appreciations of Richard Harding Davis" + +*[For fans of Peter Pan, I suggested a search for "Peter Pan"]* +#6 in our Richard Harding Davis series. + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + +APPRECIATIONS + +Gouverneur Morris +Booth Tarkington +Charles Dana Gibson +E. L. Burlingame +Augustus Thomas +Theodore Roosevelt +Irvin S. Cobb +John Fox, Jr +Finley Peter Dunne +Winston Churchill +Leonard Wood +John T. McCutcheon + + + +R. H. D. + +BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS + +"And they rise to their feet as He passes by, gentlemen unafraid." + + +He was almost too good to be true. In addition, the +gods loved him, and so he had to die young. Some people think +that a man of fifty-two is middle-aged. But if R. H. D. had +lived to be a hundred, he would never have grown old. It is +not generally known that the name of his other brother was Peter Pan. + +Within the year we have played at pirates together, at the +taking of sperm whales; and we have ransacked the Westchester +Hills for gunsites against the Mexican invasion. And we have +made lists of guns, and medicines, and tinned things, in case +we should ever happen to go elephant-shooting in Africa. But +we weren't going to hurt the elephants. Once R. H. D. shot a +hippopotamus and he was always ashamed and sorry. I think he +never killed anything else. He wasn't that kind of a +sportsman. Of hunting, as of many other things, he has said +the last word. Do you remember the Happy Hunting Ground in +"The Bar Sinister"?--"where nobody hunts us, and there is +nothing to hunt." + +Experienced persons tell us that a manhunt is the most +exciting of all sports. R. H. D. hunted men in Cuba. He +hunted for wounded men who were out in front of the trenches +and still under fire, and found some of them and brought them +in. The Rough Riders didn't make him an honorary member of +their regiment just because he was charming and a faithful +friend, but largely because they were a lot of daredevils and +he was another. + +To hear him talk you wouldn't have thought that he had ever +done a brave thing in his life. He talked a great deal, and +he talked even better than he wrote (at his best he wrote like +an angel), but I have dusted every corner of my memory and +cannot recall any story of his in which he played a heroic or +successful part. Always he was running at top speed, or +hiding behind a tree, or lying face down in a foot of water +(for hours!) so as not to be seen. Always he was getting the +worst of it. But about the other fellows he told the whole +truth with lightning flashes of wit and character building and +admiration or contempt. Until the invention of moving +pictures the world had nothing in the least like his talk. +His eye had photographed, his mind had developed and prepared +the slides, his words sent the light through them, and lo and +behold, they were reproduced on the screen of your own mind, +exact in drawing and color. With the written word or the +spoken word he was the greatest recorder and reporter of +things that he had seen of any man, perhaps, that ever lived. +The history of the last thirty years, its manners and customs +and its leading events and inventions, cannot be written +truthfully without reference to the records which he has left, +to his special articles and to his letters. Read over again +the Queen's Jubilee, the Czar's Coronation, the March of the +Germans through Brussels, and see for yourself if I speak too +zealously, even for a friend, to whom, now that R. H. D. is +dead, the world can never be the same again. + +But I did not set out to estimate his genius. That matter +will come in due time before the unerring tribunal of +posterity. + +One secret of Mr. Roosevelt's hold upon those who come into +contact with him is his energy. Retaining enough for his own +use (he uses a good deal, because every day he does the work +of five or six men), he distributes the inexhaustible +remainder among those who most need it. Men go to him tired +and discouraged, he sends them away glad to be alive, still +gladder that he is alive, and ready to fight the devil himself +in a good cause. Upon his friends R. H. D. had the same +effect. And it was not only in proximity that he could +distribute energy, but from afar, by letter and cable. He had +some intuitive way of knowing just when you were slipping into +a slough of laziness and discouragement. And at such times he +either appeared suddenly upon the scene, or there came a boy +on a bicycle, with a yellow envelope and a book to sign, or +the postman in his buggy, or the telephone rang and from the +receiver there poured into you affection and encouragement. + +But the great times, of course, were when be came in person, +and the temperature of the house, which a moment before had +been too hot or too cold, became just right, and a sense of +cheerfulness and well-being invaded the hearts of the master +and the mistress and of the servants in the house and in the +yard. And the older daughter ran to him, and the baby, who +had been fretting because nobody would give her a double- +barrelled shotgun, climbed upon his knee and forgot all about +the disappointments of this uncompromising world. + +He was touchingly sweet with children. I think he was a +little afraid of them. He was afraid perhaps that they +wouldn't find out how much be loved them. But when they +showed him that they trusted him, and, unsolicited, climbed +upon him and laid their cheeks against his, then the loveliest +expression came over his face, and you knew that the great +heart, which the other day ceased to beat, throbbed with an +exquisite bliss, akin to anguish. + +One of the happiest days I remember was when I and mine +received a telegram saying that he had a baby of his own. And +I thank God that little Miss Hope is too young to know what an +appalling loss she has suffered. . . . + +Perhaps he stayed to dine. Then perhaps the older daughter +was allowed to sit up an extra half-hour so that she could +wait on the table (and though I say it, that shouldn't, she +could do this beautifully, with dignity and without giggling), +and perhaps the dinner was good, or R. H. D. thought it was, +and in that event he must abandon his place and storm the +kitchen to tell the cook all about it. Perhaps the gardener +was taking life easy on the kitchen porch. He, too, came in +for praise. R. H. D. had never seen our Japanese iris so +beautiful; as for his, they wouldn't grow at all. It wasn't +the iris, it was the man behind the iris. And then back he +would come to us, with a wonderful story of his adventures in +the pantry on his way to the kitchen, and leaving behind him a +cook to whom there had been issued a new lease of life, and a +gardener who blushed and smiled in the darkness under the +Actinidia vines. + +It was in our little house at Aiken, in South Carolina, that +he was with us most and we learned to know him best, and that +he and I became dependent upon each other in many ways. + +Events, into which I shall not go, had made his life very +difficult and complicated. And he who had given so much +friendship to so many people needed a little friendship in +return, and perhaps, too, he needed for a time to live in a +house whose master and mistress loved each other, and where +there were children. Before he came that first year our house +had no name. Now it is called "Let's Pretend." + +Now the chimney in the living-room draws, but in those first +days of the built-over house it didn't. At least, it didn't +draw all the time, but we pretended that it did, and with much +pretense came faith. From the fireplace that smoked to the +serious things of life we extended our pretendings, until real +troubles went down before them--down and out. + +It was one of Aiken's very best winters, and the earliest +spring I ever lived anywhere. R. H. D. came shortly after +Christmas. The spiraeas were in bloom, and the monthly roses; +you could always find a sweet violet or two somewhere in the +yard; here and there splotches of deep pink against gray cabin +walls proved that precocious peach-trees were in bloom. It +never rained. At night it was cold enough for fires. In the +middle of the day it was hot. The wind never blew, and every +morning we had a four for tennis and every afternoon we rode +in the woods. And every night we sat in front of the fire +(that didn't smoke because of pretending) and talked until the +next morning. He was one of those rarely gifted men who find +their chiefest pleasure not in looking backward or forward, +but in what is going on at the moment. Weeks did not have to +pass before it was forced upon his knowledge that Tuesday, the +fourteenth (let us say), had been a good Tuesday. He knew it +the moment he waked at 7 A. M. and perceived the Tuesday +sunshine making patterns of bright light upon the floor. The +sunshine rejoiced him and the knowledge that even before +breakfast there was vouchsafed to him a whole hour of life. +That day began with attentions to his physical well-being. +There were exercises, conducted with great vigor and +rejoicing, followed by a tub, artesian cold, and a loud and +joyous singing of ballads. + +At fifty R. H. D. might have posed to some Praxiteles and, +copied in marble, gone down the ages as "statue of a young +athlete." He stood six feet and over, straight as a Sioux +chief, a noble and leonine head carried by a splendid torso. +His skin was as fine and clean as a child's. He weighed +nearly two hundred pounds and had no fat on him. He was the +weight-throwing rather than the running type of athlete, but +so tenaciously had he clung to the suppleness of his +adolescent days that he could stand stiff-legged and lay his +hands flat upon the floor. + +The singing over, silence reigned. But if you had listened at +his door you must have heard a pen going, swiftly and boldly. +He was hard at work, doing unto others what others had done +unto him. You were a stranger to him; some magazine had +accepted a story that you had written and published it. R. H. +D. had found something to like and admire in that story (very +little perhaps), and it was his duty and pleasure to tell you +so. If he had liked the story very much he would send you +instead of a note a telegram. Or it might be that you had +drawn a picture, or, as a cub reporter, had shown golden +promise in a half-column of unsigned print; R. H. D. would +find you out, and find time to praise you and help you. So it +was that when he emerged from his room at sharp eight o'clock, +he was wide-awake and happy and hungry, and whistled and +double-shuffled with his feet, out of excessive energy, and +carried in his hands a whole sheaf of notes and letters and +telegrams. + +Breakfast with him was not the usual American breakfast, a +sullen, dyspeptic gathering of persons who only the night +before had rejoiced in each other's society. With him it was +the time when the mind is, or ought to be, at its best, the +body at its freshest and hungriest. Discussions of the latest +plays and novels, the doings and undoings of statesmen, +laughter and sentiment--to him, at breakfast, these things +were as important as sausages and thick cream. + +Breakfast over, there was no dawdling and putting off of the +day's work (else how, at eleven sharp, could tennis be played +with a free conscience?). Loving, as he did, everything +connected with a newspaper, he would now pass by those on the +hall-table with never so much as a wistful glance, and hurry +to his workroom. + +He wrote sitting down. He wrote standing up. And, almost +you may say, he wrote walking up and down. Some people, +accustomed to the delicious ease and clarity of his style, +imagine that he wrote very easily. He did and he didn't. +Letters, easy, clear, to the point, and gorgeously human, +flowed from him without let or hindrance. That masterpiece +of corresponding, "The German March through Brussels," was +probably written almost as fast as he could talk (next to +Phillips Brooks he was the fastest talker I ever heard), but +when it came to fiction he had no facility at all. Perhaps I +should say that he held in contempt any facility that he may +have had. It was owing to his incomparable energy and Joblike +patience that he ever gave us any fiction at all. Every +phrase in his fiction was, of all the myriad phrases he could +think of, the fittest in his relentless judgment to survive. +Phrases, paragraphs, pages, whole stories even, were written +over and over again. He worked upon a principle of +elimination. If he wished to describe an automobile turning +in at a gate, he made first a long and elaborate description +from which there was omitted no detail which the most +observant pair of eyes in Christendom had ever noted with +reference to just such a turning. Thereupon he would begin a +process of omitting one by one those details which he had been +at such pains to recall; and after each omission he would ask +himself: "Does the picture remain?" If it did not, he +restored the detail which he had just omitted, and +experimented with the sacrifice of some other, and so on, and +so on, until after Herculean labor there remained for the +reader one of those, swiftly flashed, ice-clear pictures +(complete in every detail) with which his tales and romances +are so delightfully and continuously adorned. + +But it is quarter to eleven, and, this being a time of +holiday, R. H. D. emerges from his workroom happy to think +that he has placed one hundred and seven words between himself +and the wolf who hangs about every writer's door. He isn't +satisfied with those hundred and seven words. He never was in +the least satisfied with anything that he wrote, but he has +searched his mind and his conscience and he believes that +under the circumstances they are the very best that he can do. +Anyway, they can stand in their present order until--after +lunch. + +A sign of his youth was the fact that to the day of his death +he had denied himself the luxury and slothfulness of habits. +I have never seen him smoke automatically as most men do. He +had too much respect for his own powers of enjoyment and for +the sensibilities, perhaps, of the best Havana tobacco. At a +time of his own deliberate choosing, often after many hours of +hankering and renunciation, he smoked his cigar. He smoked it +with delight, with a sense of being rewarded, and he used all +the smoke there was in it. + +He dearly loved the best food, the best champagne, and +the best Scotch whiskey. But these things were friends to +him, and not enemies. He had toward food and drink the +Continental attitude; namely, that quality is far more +important than quantity; and he got his exhilaration from the +fact that he was drinking champagne and not from the +champagne. Perhaps I shall do well to say that on questions +of right and wrong he had a will of iron. All his life he +moved resolutely in whichever direction his conscience +pointed; and, although that ever present and never obtrusive +conscience of his made mistakes of judgment now and then, as +must all consciences, I think it can never once have tricked +him into any action that was impure or unclean. Some critics +maintain that the heroes and heroines of his books are +impossibly pure and innocent young people. R. H. D. never +called upon his characters for any trait of virtue, or +renunciation, or self-mastery of which his own life could not +furnish examples. + +Fortunately, he did not have for his friends the same +conscience that he had for himself. His great gift of +eyesight and observation failed him in his judgments upon his +friends. If only you loved him, you could get your biggest +failures of conduct somewhat more than forgiven, without any +trouble at all. And of your molehill virtues he made splendid +mountains. He only interfered with you when he was afraid +that you were going to hurt some one else whom he also loved. +Once I had a telegram from him which urged me for heaven's +sake not to forget that the next day was my wife's birthday. +Whether I had forgotten it or not is my own private affair. +And when I declared that I had read a story which I liked +very, very much and was going to write to the author to tell +him so, he always kept at me till the letter was written. + +Have I said that he had no habits? Every day, when he was +away from her, he wrote a letter to his mother, and no swift +scrawl at that, for, no matter how crowded and eventful the +day, he wrote her the best letter that he could write. That +was the only habit he had. He was a slave to it. + +Once I saw R. H. D. greet his old mother after an absence. +They threw their arms about each other and rocked to and fro +for a long time. And it hadn't been a long absence at that. +No ocean had been between them; her heart had not been in her +mouth with the thought that he was under fire, or about to +become a victim of jungle fever. He had only been away upon a +little expedition, a mere matter of digging for buried +treasure. We had found the treasure, part of it a chipmunk's +skull and a broken arrowhead, and R. H. D. had been absent +from his mother for nearly two hours and a half. + + +I set about this article with the knowledge that I must fail +to give more than a few hints of what he was like. There +isn't much more space at my command, and there were so many +sides to him that to touch upon them all would fill a volume. +There were the patriotism and the Americanism, as much a part +of him as the marrow of his bones, and from which sprang all +those brilliant headlong letters to the newspapers: those +trenchant assaults upon evil-doers in public office, those +quixotic efforts to redress wrongs, and those simple and +dexterous exposures of this and that, from an absolutely +unexpected point of view. He was a quickener of the public +conscience. That people are beginning to think tolerantly of +preparedness, that a nation which at one time looked yellow as +a dandelion is beginning to turn Red, White, and Blue is owing +in some measure to him. + + R. H. D. thought that war was unspeakably terrible. He +thought that peace at the price which our country has been +forced to pay for it was infinitely worse. And he was one of +those who have gradually taught this country to see the matter +in the same way. + +I must come to a close now, and I have hardly scratched the +surface of my subject. And that is a failure which I feel +keenly but which was inevitable. As R. H. D. himself used to +say of those deplorable "personal interviews" which appear in +the newspapers, and in which the important person interviewed +is made by the cub reporter to say things which he never said, +or thought, or dreamed of--"You can't expect a fifteen-dollar- +a-week brain to describe a thousand-dollar-a-week brain." + +There is, however, one question which I should attempt to +answer. No two men are alike. In what one salient thing did +R. H. D. differ from other men--differ in his personal +character and in the character of his work? And that question +I can answer off-hand, without taking thought, and be sure +that I am right. + +An analysis of his works, a study of that book which the +Recording Angel keeps will show one dominant characteristic to +which even his brilliancy, his clarity of style, his excellent +mechanism as a writer are subordinate; and to which, as a man, +even his sense of duty, his powers of affection, of +forgiveness, of loving-kindness are subordinate, too; and that +characteristic is cleanliness. The biggest force for +cleanliness that was in the world has gone out of the +world--gone to that Happy Hunting Ground where "Nobody hunts +us and there is nothing to hunt." + + + +BY BOOTH TARKINGTON + + +To the college boy of the early nineties Richard Harding Davis +was the "beau ideal of jeunesse doree," a sophisticated +heart of gold. He was of that college boy's own age, but +already an editor--already publishing books! His stalwart +good looks were as familiar to us as were those of our own +football captain; we knew his face as we knew the face of the +President of the United States, but we infinitely preferred +Davis's. When the Waldorf was wondrously completed, and we +cut an exam. in Cuneiform Inscriptions for an excursion to see +the world at lunch in its new magnificence, and Richard +Harding Davis came into the Palm Room--then, oh, then, our day +was radiant! That was the top of our fortune: we could never +have hoped for so much. Of all the great people of every +continent, this was the one we most desired to see. + +The boys of those days left college to work, to raise +families, to grow grizzled; but the glamour remained about +Davis; HE never grew grizzled. Youth was his great quality. + +All his writing has the liveliness of springtime; it stirs +with an unsuppressible gayety, and it has the attraction which +companionship with him had: there is never enough. He could +be sharp; he could write angrily and witheringly; but even +when he was fiercest he was buoyant, and when his words were +hot they were not scalding but rather of a dry, clean +indignation with things which he believed could, if they +would, be better. He never saw evil but as temporary. + +Following him through his books, whether he wrote of home or +carried his kind, stout heart far, far afield, we see an +American writing to Americans. He often told us about things +abroad in terms of New York; and we have all been to New York, +so he made for us the pictures he wished us to see. And when +he did not thus use New York for his colors he found other +means as familiar to us and as suggestive; he always made us +SEE. What claims our thanks in equal measure, he knew our +kind of curiosity so well that he never failed to make us see +what we were most anxious to see. He knew where our dark +spots were, cleared up the field of vision, and left us +unconfused. This discernment of our needs, and this power of +enlightening and pleasuring his reader, sprang from seeds +native in him. They were, as we say, gifts; for he always had +them but did not make them. He was a national figure at +twenty-three. He KNEW HOW, before he began. + +Youth called to youth: all ages read him, but the young men +and young women have turned to him ever since his precocious +fame made him their idol. They got many things from him, but +above all they live with a happier bravery because of him. +Reading the man beneath the print, they found their prophet +and gladly perceived that a prophet is not always cowled and +bearded, but may be a gallant young gentleman. This one +called merrily to them in his manly voice; and they followed +him. He bade them see that pain is negligible, that fear is a +joke, and that the world is poignantly interesting, joyously +lovable. + +They will always follow him. + + + + + +THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF DAVIS +BY CHARLES DANA GIBSON + + + Dick was twenty-four years old when he came into the smoking- +room of the Victoria Hotel, in London, after midnight one July +night--he was dressed as a Thames boatman. + +He had been rowing up and down the river since sundown, +looking for color. He had evidently peopled every dark corner +with a pirate, and every floating object had meant something +to him. He had adventure written all over him. It was the +first time I had ever seen him, and I had never heard of him. +I can't now recall another figure in that smoke-filled room. +I don't remember who introduced us--over twenty-seven years +have passed since that night. But I can see Dick now dressed +in a rough brown suit, a soft hat, with a handkerchief about +his neck, a splendid, healthy, clean-minded, gifted boy at +play. And so he always remained. + +His going out of this world seemed like a boy interrupted in a +game he loved. And how well and fairly he played it! Surely +no one deserved success more than Dick. And it is a +consolation to know he had more than fifty years of just what +he wanted. He had health, a great talent, and personal charm. +There never was a more loyal or unselfish friend. There +wasn't an atom of envy in him. He had unbounded mental and +physical courage, and with it all he was sensitive and +sometimes shy. He often tried to conceal these last two +qualities, but never succeeded in doing so from those of us +who were privileged really to know and love him. + +His life was filled with just the sort of adventure he liked +the best. No one ever saw more wars in so many different +places or got more out of them. And it took the largest war +in all history to wear out that stout heart. + +We shall miss him. + + + + +BY E. L. BURLINGAME + + + + +One of the most attractive and inspiring things about Richard +Harding Davis was the simple, almost matter-of-course way in +which he put into practice his views of life--in which he +acted, and in fact WAS, what he believed. With most of us, +to have opinions as to what is the right thing to do is at the +best to worry a good deal as to whether we are doing it; at +the worst to be conscious of doubts as to whether it is a +sufficient code, or perhaps whether it isn't beyond us. Davis +seemed to have neither of these wasters of strength. He had +certain simple, clean, manly convictions as to how a man +should act; apparently quite without self-consciousness in +this respect, whatever little mannerisms or points of pride he +may have had in others--fewer than most men of his success and +fastidiousness--he went ahead and did accordingly, untormented +by any alternatives or casuistries, which for him did not seem +to exist. He was so genuinely straightforward that he could +not sophisticate even himself, as almost every man occasionally +does under temptation. He, at least, never needed to be told + +"Go put your creed into your deed +Nor speak with double tongue." + + +It is so impossible not to think first of the man, as the +testimony of every one who knew him shows, that those who have +long had occasion to watch and follow his work, not merely +with enjoyment but somewhat critically, may well look upon any +detailed discussion of it as something to be kept till later. +But there is more to be said than to recall the unfailing zest +of it, the extraordinary freshness of eye, the indomitable +youthfulness and health of spirit--all the qualities that we +associate with Davis himself. It was serious work in a sense +that only the more thoughtful of its critics had begun of late +to comprehend. It had not inspired a body of disciples like +Kipling's, but it had helped to clear the air and to give a +new proof of the vitality of certain ideals--even of a few of +the simpler ones now outmoded in current masterpieces; and it +was at its best far truer in an artistic sense than it was the +fashion of its easy critics to allow. Whether Davis could or +would have written a novel of the higher rank is a useless +question now; he himself, who was a critic of his own work +without illusions or affectation, used to say that he could +not; but it is certain that in the early part of "Captain +Macklin" he displayed a power really Thackerayan in kind. + +Of his descriptive writing there need be no fear of speaking +with extravagance; he had made himself, especially in his +later work, through long practice and his inborn instinct for +the significant and the fresh aspect, quite the best of all +contemporary correspondents and reporters; and his rivals in +the past could be easily numbered. + + + + +BY AUGUSTUS THOMAS + + + One spring afternoon in 1889 a member brought into the Lambs +Club house--then on Twenty-sixth Street--as a guest Mr. +Richard Harding Davis. I had not clearly caught the careless +introduction, and, answering my question, Mr. Davis repeated +the surname. He did not pronounce it as would a Middle +Westerner like myself, but more as a citizen of London might. +To spell his pronunciation Dyvis is to burlesque it slightly, +but that is as near as it can be given phonetically. Several +other words containing _a_ long a were sounded by him in the +same way, and to my ear the rest of his speech had a related +eccentricity. I am told that other men educated in certain +Philadelphia schools have a similar diction, but at that time +many of Mr. Davis's new acquaintances thought the manner was +an affectation. I mention the peculiarity, which after years +convinced me was as native to him as was the color of his +eyes, because I am sure that it was a barrier between him and +some persons who met him only casually. + +At that time he was a reporter on a Philadelphia newspaper, +and in appearance was what he continued to be until his death, +an unassertive but self-respecting, level-eyed, clean-toothed, +and wholesome athlete. + +The reporter developed rapidly into the more serious workman, +and amongst the graver business was that of war correspondent. + +I have known fraternally several war correspondents--Dick +Davis, Fred Remington, John Fox, Caspar Whitney, and +others--and it seems to me that, while differing one from +another as average men differ, they had in common a kind of +veteran superiority to trivial surprise, a tolerant world +wisdom that mere newspaper work in other departments does not +bring. At any rate, and however acquired, Dick Davis had the +quality. And with that seasoned calm he kept and cultivated +the reporter sense. He had insight--the faculty of going back +of appearances. He saw the potential salients in occurrences +and easily separated them from the commonplace--and the +commonplace itself when it was informed by a spirit that made +it helpful did not mislead him by its plainness. + +That is another war-correspondent quality. He saw when +adherence to duty approached the heroic. He knew the degree +of pressure that gave it test conditions and he had an +unadulterated, plain, bread-and-water appreciation of it. + +I think that fact shows in his stories. He liked +enthusiastically to write of men doing men's work and doing it +man fashion with full-blooded optimism. + +At his very best he was in heart and mind a boy grown tall. +He had a boy's undisciplined indifference to great personages +not inconsistent with his admiration of their medals. By +temperament he was impulsive and partisan, and if he was your +friend you were right until you were obviously very wrong. +But he liked "good form," and had adopted the Englishman's +code of "things no fellow could do"--therefore his +impulsiveness was without offense and his partisanship was +not quarrelsome. + +In the circumstance of this story of "Soldiers of Fortune" he +could himself have been either Clay or Stuart and he had the +humor of MacWilliams. + +In the clash between Clay and Stuart, when Clay asks the +younger man if the poster smirching Stuart's relation to +Madame Alvarez is true, it is Davis talking through both men, +and when, standing alone, Clay lifts his hat and addresses the +statue of General Bolivar, it is Davis at his best. + +Modern criticism has driven the soliloquy from the theatre, +but modern criticism in that respect is immature and wrong. +The soliloquy exists. Any one observing the number of +business men who, talking aloud to themselves, walk Fifth +Avenue any evening may prove it. For Davis the soliloquy was +not courageous; it was simply true. And that was a place for +it. + +When "Soldiers of Fortune" was printed it had a quick and a +deserved popularity. It was cheerily North American in its +viewpoint of the sub-tropical republics and was very up to +date. The outdoor American girl was not so established at +that time, and the Davis report of her was refreshing. Robert +Clay was unconsciously Dick Davis himself as he would have +tried to do--Captain Stuart was the English officer that Davis +had met the world over, or, closer still, he was the better +side of such men which the attractive wholesomeness of Davis +would draw out. Alice and King were the half-spoiled New +Yorkers as he knew them at the dinner-parties. + +At a manager's suggestion Dick made a play of the book. It +was his first attempt for the theatre and lacked somewhat the +skill that he developed later in his admirable "Dictator." I +was called in by the manager as an older carpenter and +craftsman to make another dramatic version. Dick and I were +already friends and he already liked plays that I had done, +but that alone could not account for the heartiness with which +he turned over to me his material and eliminated himself. +Only his unspoiled simplicity and utter absence of envy could +do that. Only native modesty could explain the absence of the +usual author pride and sensitiveness. The play was +immediately successful. It would have been a dull hack, +indeed, who could have spoiled such excellent stage material +as the novel furnished, but his generosity saw genius in the +dramatic extension of the types he had furnished and in the +welding of additions. Even after enthusiasm had had time +enough to cool, he sent me a first copy of the Playgoers' +edition of the novel, printed in 1902, with the inscription: + + +TO AUGUSTUS THOMAS: + +Gratefully, Admiringly, Sincerely. + +RICHARD HARDING DAVIS. + + +And then, as if feeling the formality of the names, he wrote below: + +DEAR GUS, + +If you liked this book only one-fifth as much as I like your play, +I would be content to rest on that and spare the public any others. +So for the sake of the public try to like it. + +DICK. + + +In 1914 a motion-picture company arranged to make a feature +film of the, play, and Dick and I went with their outfit to +Santiago de Cuba, where, twenty years earlier, he had found +the inspiration for his story and out of which city and its +environs he had fashioned his supposititious republic of +Olancho. On that trip he was the idol of the company. With +the men in the smoking-room of the steamer there were the +numberless playful stories, in the rough, of the experiences +on all five continents and seven seas that were the +backgrounds of his published tales. + +At Santiago, if an official was to be persuaded to consent to +some unprecedented seizure of the streets, or a diplomat +invoked for the assistance of the Army or the Navy, it was the +experience and good judgment of Dick Davis that controlled the +task. In the field there were his helpful suggestions of work +and make-up to the actors, and on the boat and train and in +hotel and camp the lady members met in him an easy courtesy +and understanding at once fraternal and impersonal. + +That picture enterprise he has described in an article, +entitled "Breaking into the Movies," which was printed in +Scribner's Magazine. + +The element that he could not put into the account, and which +is particularly pertinent to this page, is the author of +"Soldiers of Fortune" as he revealed himself to me both with +intention and unconsciously in the presence of the familiar +scenes. + +For three weeks, with the exception of one or two occasions +when some local dignitary captured the revisiting lion, he and +I spent our evenings together at a cafe table over looking +"the great square," which he sketches so deftly in its +atmosphere when Clay and the Langhams and Stuart dine there: +"At one end of the plaza the President's band was playing +native waltzes that came throbbing through the trees and +beating softly above the rustling skirts and clinking spurs of +the senoritas and officers sweeping by in two opposite circles +around the edges of the tessellated pavements. Above the +palms around the square arose the dim, white facade of the +Cathedral, with the bronze statue of Anduella the liberator of +Olancho, who answered with his upraised arm and cocked hat the +cheers of an imaginary populace." + +Twenty years had gone by since Dick had received the +impression that wrote those lines, and now sometimes after +dinner half a long cigar would burn out as he mused over the +picture and the dreams that had gone between. From one long +silence he said: "I think I'll come back here this winter and +bring Mrs. Davis with me--stay a couple of months." What a +fine compliment to a wife to have the thought of her and that +plan emerge from that deep and romantic background! + +And again, later, apropos of nothing but what one guessed from +the dreamer's expressive face, he said: "I had remembered it +as so much larger"--indicating the square--"until I saw it +again when we came down with the army." A tolerant smile--he +might have explained that it is always so on revisiting scenes +that have impressed us deeply in our earlier days, but he let +the smile do that. One of his charms as companion was that +restful ability not to talk if you knew it, too. + +The picture people began their film with a showing of the +"mountains which jutted out into the ocean and suggested +roughly the five knuckles of a giant's hand clenched and lying +flat upon the surface of the water." That formation of the +sea wall is just outside of Santiago. "The waves tunnelled +their way easily enough until they ran up against those five +mountains and then they had to fall back." How natural for +one of us to be unimpressed by such a feature of the +landscape, and yet how characteristic of Dick Davis to see the +elemental fight that it recorded and get the hint for the +whole of the engineering struggle that is so much of his book! + +We went over those mountains together, where two decades +before he had planted his banner of romance. We visited the +mines and the railroads, and everywhere found some +superintendent or foreman or engineer who remembered Davis. +He had guessed at nothing. Everywhere he had overlaid the +facts with adventure and with beauty, but he had been on sure +footing all the time. His prototype of MacWilliams was dead. +Together we visited the wooden cross with which the miners had +marked his grave. + +One is tempted to go choosing through his book again and rob +its surprises by reminiscence--but I refrain. Yet it is only +justice to point out that for "Soldiers of Fortune," as for +the "Men of Zanzibar," "Three Gringos in Venezuela," "The +King's Jackal," "Ranson's Folly," and his other books, he got +his structure and his color at first hand. He was a writer +and not a rewriter. And another thing we must note in his +writing is his cleanliness. It is safe stuff to give to a +young fellow who likes to take off his hat and dilate his +nostrils and feel the wind in his face. Like water at the +source, it is undefiled. + + + + + +DAVIS AND THE ROUGH RIDERS + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + +I knew Richard Harding Davis for many years, and I was among +the number who were immediately drawn to him by the power and +originality of "Gallegher," the story which first made his reputation. + +My intimate association with him, however, was while he was +with my regiment in Cuba, He joined us immediately after +landing, and was not merely present at but took part in the +fighting. For example, at the Guasimas fight it was he, I +think, with his field-glasses, who first placed the trench +from which the Spaniards were firing at the right wing of the +regiment, which right wing I, at that time, commanded. We +were then able to make out the trench, opened fire on it, and +drove out the Spaniards. + +He was indomitably cheerful under hardships and difficulties +and entirely indifferent to his own personal safety or +comfort. He so won the esteem and regard of the regiment that +he was one of the three men we made honorary members of the +regiment's association. We gave him the same medal worn by +our own members. + +He was as good an American as ever lived and his heart flamed +against cruelty and injustice. His writings form a text-book +of Americanism which all our people would do well to read at +the present time. + + + +BY IRVIN S. COBB + + +Almost the first letter I received after I undertook to make a +living by writing for magazines was signed with the name of +Richard Harding Davis. I barely knew him; practically we were +strangers; but if he had been my own brother he could not have +written more generously or more kindly than he did write in +that letter. He, a famous writer, had gone out of his way to +speak words of encouragement to me, an unknown writer; had +taken the time and the pains out of a busy life to cheer a +beginner in the field where he had had so great a measure of +success. + +When I came to know him better, I found out that such acts as +these were characteristic of Richard Harding Davis. The world +knew him as one of the most vivid and versatile and +picturesque writers that our country has produced in the last +half-century, but his friends knew him as one of the kindest +and gentlest and most honest and most unselfish of men--a real +human being, firm in his convictions, steadfast in his +affections, loyal to the ideals by which he held, but tolerant +always in his estimates of others. + +He may or may not have been a born writer; sometimes I doubt +whether there is such a thing as a born writer. But this much +I do know--he was a born gentleman if ever there was one. + +As a writer his place is assured. But always I shall think of +him as he was in his private life--a typical American, a +lovable companion, and a man to the tips of his fingers. + + + + + +BY JOHN FOX, JR. + + +During the twenty years that I knew him Richard Harding Davis +was always going to some far-off land. He was just back from +a trip somewhere when I first saw him in his rooms in New +York, rifle in hand, in his sock feet and with his traps in +confusion about him. He was youth incarnate--ruddy, joyous, +vigorous, adventurous, self-confident youth--and, in all the +years since, that first picture of him has suffered no change +with me. He was so intensely alive that I cannot think of him +as dead--and I do not. He is just away on another of those +trips and it really seems queer that I shall not hear him tell +about it. + +We were together as correspondents in the Spanish War and in +the Russo-Japanese War we were together again; and so there is +hardly any angle from which I have not had the chance to know +him. No man was ever more misunderstood by those who did not +know him or better understood by those who knew him well, for +he carried nothing in the back of his head--no card that was +not face up on the table. Every thought, idea, purpose, +principle within him was for the world to read and to those +who could not know how rigidly he matched his inner and outer +life he was almost unbelievable. He was exacting in +friendship because his standard was high and because he gave +what he asked; and if he told you of a fault he told you first +of a virtue that made the fault seem small indeed. But he +told you and expected you to tell him. + +Naturally, the indirection of the Japanese was +incomprehensible to him. He was not good at picking up +strange tongues, and the Japanese equivalent for the Saxon +monosyllable for what the Japanese was to him he never +learned. For only one other word did he have more use and I +believe it was the only one he knew, "hyaku--hurry!" Over +there I was in constant fear for him because of his knight- +errantry and his candor. Once he came near being involved in +a duel because of his quixotic championship of a woman whom he +barely knew, and disliked, and whose absent husband he did not +know at all. And more than once I looked for a Japanese to +draw his two-handed ancestral sword when Dick bluntly demanded +a reconciliation of his yea of yesterday with his nay of to- +day. Nine months passed and we never heard the whistle of +bullet or shell. Dick called himself a "cherry-blossom +correspondent," and when our ship left those shores each knew +that the other went to his state-room and in bitter chagrin +and disappointment wept quite childishly. + +Of course, he was courageous--absurdly so--and, in spite of +his high-strung temperament, always calm and cool. At El Paso +hill, the day after the fight, the rest of us scurried for +tree-trunks when a few bullets whistled near; but Dick stalked +out in the open and with his field-glasses searched for the +supposed sharpshooters in the trees. Lying under a bomb-proof +when the Fourth of July bombardment started, I saw Dick going +unhurriedly down the hill for his glasses, which he had left +in Colonel Roosevelt's tent, and unhurriedly going back up to +the trenches again. Under the circumstances I should have +been content with my naked eye. A bullet thudded close to +where Dick lay with a soldier. + +"That hit you?" asked Dick. The soldier grunted "No," looked +sidewise at Dick, and muttered an oath of surprise. Dick had +not taken his glasses from his eyes. I saw him writhing on +the ground with sciatica during that campaign, like a snake, +but pulling his twisted figure straight and his tortured face +into a smile if a soldier or stranger passed. + +He was easily the first reporter of his time--perhaps of all +time. Out of any incident or situation he could pick the most +details that would interest the most people and put them in a +way that was pleasing to the most people; and always, it +seemed, he had the extraordinary good judgment or the +extraordinary good luck to be just where the most interesting +thing was taking place. Gouverneur Morris has written the +last word about Richard Harding Davis, and he, as every one +must, laid final stress on the clean body, clean heart, and +clean mind of the man. R. H. D. never wrote a line that +cannot be given to his little daughter when she is old enough +to read, and I never heard a word pass his lips that his own +mother could not hear. There are many women in the world like +the women in his books. There are a few men like the men, and +of these Dick himself was one. + + + + +BY FINLEY PETER DUNNE + + +In the articles about Mr. Davis that have appeared since his +death, the personality of the man seems to overshadow the +merit of the author. In dealing with the individual the +writers overlook the fact that we have lost one of the best of +our story-tellers. This is but natural. He was a very vivid +kind of person. He had thousands of friends in all parts of +the world, and a properly proportionate number of enemies, and +those who knew him were less interested in the books than in +the man himself--the generous, romantic, sensitive individual +whose character and characteristics made him a conspicuous +figure everywhere he went--and he went everywhere. His books +were sold in great numbers, but it might be said in terms of +the trade that his personality had a larger circulation than +his literature. He probably knew more waiters, generals, +actors, and princes than any man who ever lived, and the +people he knew best are not the people who read books. They +write them or are a part of them. Besides, if you knew +Richard Davis you knew his books. He translated himself +literally, and no expurgation was needed to make the +translation suitable for the most innocent eyes. He was the +identical chivalrous young American or Englishman who strides +through his pages in battalions to romantic death or romantic +marriage. Every one speaks of the extraordinary youthfulness +of his mind, which was still fresh at an age when most men +find avarice or golf a substitute for former pastimes. He not +only refused to grow old himself, he refused to write about +old age. There are a few elderly people in his books, but +they are vague and shadowy. They serve to emphasize the +brightness of youth, and are quickly blown away when the time +for action arrives. But if he numbered his friends and +acquaintances by the thousands there are other thousands in +this country who have read his books, and they know, even +better than those who were acquainted with him personally, how +good a friend they have lost. I happened to read again the +other day the little collection of stories--his first, I +think--which commences with "Gallegher" and includes "The +Other Woman" and one or more of the Van Bibber tales. His +first stories were not his best. He increased in skill and +was stronger at the finish than at the start. But "Gallegher" +is a fine story, and is written in that eager, breathless +manner which was all his own, and which always reminds me of a +boy who has hurried home to tell of some wonderful thing he +has seen. Of course it is improbable. Most good stories are +and practically all readable books of history. No old +newspaper man can believe that there ever existed such a "copy +boy" as Gallegher, or that a murderer with a finger missing +from one hand could escape detection even in a remote country +village. Greed would have urged the constable to haul to the +calaboose every stranger who wore gloves. But he managed to +attach so many accurate details of description to the romance +that it leaves as definite an impression of realism as any of +Mr. Howells's purposely realistic stories. The scene in the +newspaper office, the picture of the prize-fight, the mixture +of toughs and swells, the spectators in their short gray +overcoats with pearl buttons (like most good story-tellers he +was strong on the tailoring touch), the talk of cabmen and +policemen, the swiftness of the way the story is told, as if +he were in a hurry to let his reader know something he had +actually seen--create such an impression of truth that when +the reader finishes he finds himself picturing Gallegher on +the witness-stand at the murder trial receiving the thanks of +the judge. And he wonders what became of this precocious +infant, and whether he was rewarded in time by receiving the +hand of the sister of the sporting editor in marriage. + +To give the appearance of truth to the truth is the despair of +writers, but Mr. Davis had the faculty of giving the appearance +of the truth to situations that in human experience could +hardly exist. The same quality that showed in his tales made +him the most readable of war correspondents. He went to all +the wars of his youth and middle age filled with visions of +glorious action. Where other correspondents saw and reported +evil-smelling camps, ghastly wounds, unthinkable suffering, +blunders, good luck and bad luck, or treated the subject with +a mathematical precision that would have given Clausewitz a +headache, Davis saw and reported it first of all as a romance, +and then filled in the story with human details, so that the +reader came away with an impression that all these heroic +deeds were performed by people just like the reader himself, +which was exactly the truth. + +It is a pity that the brutality of the German staff officers +and the stupidity of the French and English prevented him from +seeing the actual fighting in Flanders and Picardy. The scene +is an ugly one, a wallow of blood and mire. But so probably +were Agincourt and Crecy when you come to think of it, and +Davis, you may be sure, would have illuminated the foul +battle-field with a reflection of the glory which must exist +in the breasts of the soldiers. + +The fact is, he was the owner of a most enviable pair of eyes, +which reported to him only what was pleasant and encouraging. +A man is blessed or cursed by what his eyes see. To some +people the world of men is a confused and undecipherable +puzzle. To Mr. Davis it was a simple and pleasant +pattern--good and bad, honest and dishonest, kind and cruel, +with the good, the honest, and the kind rewarded; the bad, the +dishonest, and the cruel punished; where the heroes are +modest, the brave generous, the women lovely, the bus-drivers +humorous; where the Prodigal returns to dine in a borrowed +dinner-jacket at Delmonico's with his father, and where always +the Young Man marries the Girl. And this is the world as much +as Balzac's is the world, if it is the world as you see it. + + + + +BY WINSTON CHURCHHILL + + +On that day when I read of Mr. Davis's sudden death there came +back to me a vivid memory of another day, some eighteen years +ago, when I first met him, shortly after the publication of my +first novel. I was paying an over-Sunday visit to Marion, +that quaint waterside resort where Mr. Davis lived for many +years, and with which his name is associated. On the Monday +morning, as the stage started out for the station, a young man +came running after it, caught it, and sat down in the only +empty place--beside me. He was Richard Harding Davis. I +recognized him, nor shall I forget that peculiar thrill I +experienced at finding myself in actual, physical contact with +an author. And that this author should be none other than the +creator of Gallegher, prepossessing, vigorous, rather than a +dry and elderly recluse, made my excitement the keener. It +happened also, after entering the smoking-car, that the +remaining vacant seat was at my side, and here Mr. Davis +established himself. He looked at me, he asked if my name was +Winston Churchill, he said he had read my book. How he +guessed my identity I did not discover. But the recollection +of our talk, the strong impression I then received of Mr. +Davis's vitality and personality, the liking I conceived for +him--these have neither changed nor faded with the years, and +I recall with gratitude to-day the kindliness, the sense of +fellowship always so strong in him that impelled him to speak +as he did. A month before he died, when I met him on the +train going to Mt. Kisco, he had not changed. His +enthusiasms, his vigor, his fine passions, his fondness for +his friends, these, nor the joy he found in the pursuit of his +profession, had not faded. And there come to me now, as I +think of him filled with life, flashes from his writings that +have moved me, and move me indescribably still. "Le Style," +as Rolland remarks, "c'est l'ame." It was so in Mr. Davis's +case. He had the rare faculty of stirring by a phrase the +imaginations of men, of including in a phrase a picture, an +event--a cataclysm. Such a phrase was that in which he +described the entry of German hosts into Brussels. He was not +a man, when enlisted in a cause, to count the cost to himself. +Many causes will miss him, and many friends, and many admirers, +yet his personality remains with us forever, in his work. + + + +BY LEONARD WOOD + + +The death of Richard Harding Davis was a real loss to the +movement for preparedness. Mr. Davis had an extensive +experience as a military observer, and thoroughly appreciated +the need of a general training system like that of Australia +or Switzerland and of thorough organization of our industrial +resources in order to establish a condition of reasonable +preparedness in this country. A few days before his death he +came to Governor's Island for the purpose of ascertaining in +what line of work he could be most useful in building up sound +public opinion in favor of such preparedness as would give us +a real peace-insurance. His mind was bent on devoting his +energies and abilities to the work of public education on this +vitally important subject, and few men were better qualified +to do so, for he had served as a military observer in many +campaigns. + +Throughout the Cuban campaign he was attached to the +headquarters of my regiment in Cuba as a military observer. +He was with the advanced party at the opening of the fight at +Las Guasimas, and was distinguished throughout the fight by +coolness and good conduct. He also participated in the battle +of San Juan and the siege of Santiago, and as an observer was +always where duty called him. He was a delightful companion, +cheerful, resourceful, and thoughtful of the interests and +wishes of others. His reports of the campaign were valuable +and among the best and most accurate. + +The Plattsburg movement took very strong hold of him. He saw +in this a great instrument for building up a sound knowledge +concerning our military history and policy, also a very +practical way of training men for the duties of junior +officers. He realized fully that we should need in case of +war tens of thousands of officers with our newly raised +troops, and that it would be utterly impossible to prepare +them in the hurry and confusion of the onrush of modern war. +His heart was filled with a desire to serve his country to the +best of his ability. His recent experience in Europe pointed +out to him the absolute madness of longer disregarding the +need of doing those things which reasonable preparedness +dictates, the things which cannot be accomplished after +trouble is upon us. He had in mind at the time of his death a +series of articles to be written especially to build up +interest in universal military training through conveying to +our people an understanding of what organization as it exists +to-day means, and how vitally important it is for our people +to do in time of peace those things which modern war does not +permit done once it is under way. + +Davis was a loyal friend, a thoroughgoing American devoted to +the best interests of his country, courageous, sympathetic, +and true. His loss has been a very real one to all of us who +knew and appreciated him, and in his death the cause of +preparedness has lost an able worker and the country a devoted +and loyal citizen. + + + +WITH DAVIS IN VERA CRUZ, BRUSSELS, AND SALONIKA + +BY JOHN T. McCRUTCHEON + + + +In common with many others who have been with Richard Harding +Davis as correspondents, I find it difficult to realize that +he has covered his last story and that he will not be seen +again with the men who follow the war game, rushing to distant +places upon which the spotlight of news interest suddenly +centres. + +It seems a sort of bitter irony that he who had covered so +many big events of world importance in the past twenty years +should be abruptly torn away in the midst of the greatest +event of them all, while the story is still unfinished and its +outcome undetermined. If there is a compensating thought, it +ties in the reflection that he had a life of almost +unparalleled fulness, crowded to the brim, up to the last +moment, with those experiences and achievements which he +particularly aspired to have. He left while the tide was at +its flood, and while he still held supreme his place as the +best reporter in his country. He escaped the bitterness of +seeing the ebb set in, when the youth to which he clung had +slipped away, and when he would have to sit impatient in the +audience, while younger men were in the thick of great, world- +stirring dramas on the stage. + +This would have been a real tragedy in "Dick" Davis's case, +for, while his body would have aged, it is doubtful if his +spirit ever would have lost its youthful freshness or boyish +enthusiasm. + +It was my privilege to see a good deal of Davis in the last +two years. + +He arrived in Vera Cruz among the first of the sixty or +seventy correspondents who flocked to that news centre when +the situation was so full of sensational possibilities. It +was a time when the American newspaper-reading public was +eager for thrills, and the ingenuity and resourcefulness of +the correspondents in Vera Cruz were tried to the uttermost to +supply the demand. + +In the face of the fiercest competition it fell to Davis's lot +to land the biggest story of those days of marking time. The +story "broke" when it became known that Davis, Medill +McCormick, and Frederick Palmer had gone through the Mexican +lines in an effort to reach Mexico City. Davis and McCormick, +with letters to the Brazilian and British ministers, got +through and reached the capital on the strength of those +letters, but Palmer, having only an American passport, was +turned back. + +After an ominous silence, which furnished American newspapers +with a lively period of suspense, the two men returned safely +with wonderful stories of their experiences while under arrest +in the hands of the Mexican authorities. McCormick, in +recently speaking of Davis at that time, said that, "as a +correspondent in difficult and dangerous situations, he was +incomparable--cheerful, ingenious, and undiscouraged. When +the time came to choose between safety and leaving his +companion he stuck by his fellow captive even though, as they +both said, a firing-squad and a blank wall were by no means a +remote possibility." This Mexico City adventure was a +spectacular achievement which gave Davis and McCormick a +distinction which no other correspondents of all the ambitious +and able corps had managed to attain. + +Davis usually "hunted" alone. He depended entirely upon his +own ingenuity and wonderful instinct for news situations. He +had the energy and enthusiasm of a beginner, with the +experience and training of a veteran. His interest in things +remained as keen as though he had not been years at a game +which often leaves a man jaded and blase. His +acquaintanceship in the American army and navy was wide, and +for this reason, as well as for the prestige which his fame +and position as a national character gave him, he found it +easy to establish valuable connections in the channels from +which news emanates. And yet, in spite of the fact that he +was "on his own" instead of having a working partnership with +other men, he was generous in helping at times when he was +able to do so. Davis was a conspicuous figure in Vera Cruz, +as he inevitably had been in all such situations. Wherever he +went he was pointed out. His distinction of appearance, +together with a distinction in dress, which, whether from +habit or policy, was a valuable asset in his work, made him a +marked man. He dressed and looked the "war correspondent," +such a one as he would describe in one of his stories. He +fulfilled the popular ideal of what a member of that +fascinating profession should look like. His code of life and +habits was as fixed as that of the Briton who takes his habits +and customs and games and tea wherever he goes, no matter how +benighted or remote the spot may be. + +He was just as loyal to his code as is the Briton. He carried +his bath-tub, his immaculate linen, his evening clothes, his +war equipment--in which he had the pride of a +connoisseur--wherever he went, and, what is more, he had the +courage to use the evening clothes at times when their use was +conspicuous. He was the only man who wore a dinner coat in +Vera Cruz, and each night, at his particular table in the +crowded "Portales," at the Hotel Diligencia, he was to be +seen, as fresh and clean as though he were in a New York or +London restaurant. + +Each day he was up early to take the train out to the "gap," +across which came arrivals from Mexico City. Sometimes a good +"story" would come down, as when the long-heralded and long- +expected arrival of Consul Silliman gave a first-page +"feature" to all the American papers. + +In the afternoon he would play water polo over at the navy +aviation camp, and always at a certain time of the day his +"striker" would bring him his horse and for an hour or more he +would ride out along the beach roads within the American +lines. + +After the first few days it was difficult to extract real +thrills from the Vera Cruz situation, but we used to ride out +to El Tejar with the cavalry patrol and imagine that we might +be fired on at some point in the long ride through unoccupied +territory; or else go out to the "front," at Legarto, where a +little American force occupied a sun-baked row of freight- +cars, surrounded by malarial swamps. From the top of the +railroad water-tank we could look across to the Mexican +outposts a mile or so away. It was not very exciting, and +what thrills we got lay chiefly in our imagination. + +Before my acquaintanceship with Davis at Vera Cruz I had not +known him well. Our trails didn't cross while I was in Japan +in the Japanese-Russian War, and in the Transvaal I missed him +by a few days, but in Vera Cruz I had many enjoyable +opportunities of becoming well acquainted with him. + +The privilege was a pleasant one, for it served to dispel a +preconceived and not an entirely favorable impression of his +character. For years I had heard stories about Richard +Harding Davis--stories which emphasized an egotism and self- +assertiveness which, if they ever existed, had happily ceased +to be obtrusive by the time I got to know him. + +He was a different Davis from the Davis whom I had expected to +find; and I can imagine no more charming and delightful +companion than he was in Vera Cruz. There was no evidence of +those qualities which I feared to find, and his attitude was +one of unfailing kindness, considerateness, and generosity. + +In the many talks I had with him I was always struck by his +evident devotion to a fixed code of personal conduct. In his +writings he was the interpreter of chivalrous, well-bred +youth, and his heroes were young, clean-thinking college men, +heroic big-game hunters, war correspondents, and idealized men +about town, who always did the noble thing, disdaining the +unworthy in act or motive. It seemed to me that he was +modelling his own life, perhaps unconsciously, after the +favored types which his imagination had created for his +stories. In a certain sense he was living a life of make +believe, wherein he was the hero of the story, and in which he +was bound by his ideals always to act as he would have the +hero of his story act. It was a quality which only one could +have who had preserved a fresh youthfulness of outlook in +spite of the hardening processes of maturity. + +His power of observation was extraordinarily keen, and he not +only had the rare gift of sensing the vital elements of a +situation, but also had, to an unrivalled degree, the ability +to describe them vividly. I don't know how many of those men +at Vera Cruz tried to describe the kaleidoscopic life of the +city during the American occupation, but I know that Davis's +story was far and away the most faithful and satisfying +picture. The story was photographic, even to the sounds and +smells. + +The last I saw of him in Vera Cruz was when, on the Utah, he +steamed past the flagship Wyoming, upon which I was +quartered, and started for New York. The Battenberg cup race +had just been rowed, and the Utah and Florida crews had +tied. As the Utah was sailing immediately after the race, +there was no time in which to row off the tie. So it was +decided that the names of both ships should be engraved on the +cup, and that the Florida crew should defend the title +against a challenging crew from the British Admiral Craddock's +flagship. + +By the end of June, the public interest in Vera Cruz had +waned, and the corps of correspondents dwindled until there +were only a few left. + +Frederick Palmer and I went up to join Carranza and Villa, and +on the 26th of July we were in Monterey waiting to start with +the triumphal march of Carranza's army toward Mexico City. +There was no sign of serious trouble, abroad. That night +ominous telegrams came, and at ten o'clock on the following +morning we were on a train headed for the States. + +Palmer and Davis caught the Lusitania, sailing August 4 from +New York, and I followed on the Saint Paul, leaving three +days later. On the 17th of August I reached Brussels, and it +seemed the most natural thing in the world to find Davis +already there. He was at the Palace Hotel, where a number of +American and English correspondents were quartered. + +Things moved quickly. On the 19th Irvin Cobb, Will Irwin, +Arno Dosch, and I were caught between the Belgian and German +lines in Louvain; our retreat to Brussels was cut, and for +three days, while the vast German army moved through the city, +we were detained. Then, the army having passed, we were +allowed to go back to the capital. + +In the meantime Davis was in Brussels. The Germans reached +the outskirts of the city on the morning of the 20th, and the +correspondents who had remained in Brussels were feverishly +writing despatches describing the imminent fall of the city. +One of them, Harry Hansen, of the Chicago Daily News, tells +the following story, which I give in his words: "While we +were writing," says Hansen, "Richard Harding Davis walked into +the writing-room of the Palace Hotel with a bunch of +manuscript in his hand. With an amused expression he surveyed +the three correspondents filling white paper. + +"`I say, men,' said Davis, `do you know when the next train +leaves?' + +"`There is one at three o'clock,' said a correspondent, +looking up. + +"`That looks like our only chance to get a story out,' said +Davis. `Well, we'll trust to that.' + +"The story was the German invasion of Brussels, and the train +mentioned was considered the forlorn hope of the correspondents +to connect with the outside world--that is, every +correspondent thought it to be the OTHER man's hope. +Secretly each had prepared to outwit the other, and secretly +Davis had already sent his story to Ostend. He meant to +emulate Archibald Forbes, who despatched a courier with his +real manuscript, and next day publicly dropped a bulky package +in the mail-bag. "Davis had sensed the news in the occupation +of Brussels long before it happened. With dawn he went out to +the Louvain road, where the German army stood, prepared to +smash the capital if negotiations failed. His observant eye +took in all the details. Before noon he had written a +comprehensive sketch of the occupation, and when word was +received that it was under way, he trusted his copy to an old +Flemish woman, who spoke not a word of English, and saw her +safely on board the train that pulled out under Belgian +auspices for Ostend." + +With passes which the German commandant in Brussels gave us +the correspondents immediately started out to see how far +those passes would carry us. A number of us left on the +afternoon of August 23 for Waterloo, where it was expected +that the great clash between the German and the Anglo-French +forces would occur. We had planned to be back the same +evening, and went prepared only for an afternoon's drive in a +couple of hired street carriages. It was seven weeks before +we again saw Brussels. On the following day (August 24) Davis +started for Mons. He wore the khaki uniform which he had worn +in many campaigns. Across his breast was a narrow bar of silk +ribbon indicating the campaigns in which he had served as a +correspondent. He so much resembled a British officer that he +was arrested as a British derelict and was informed that he +would be shot at once. + +He escaped only by offering to walk to Brand Whitlock, in +Brussels, reporting to each officer he met on the way. His +plan was approved, and as a hostage on parole he appeared +before the American minister, who quickly established his +identity as an American of good standing, to the satisfaction +of the Germans. + +In the following few months our trails were widely separated. +I read of his arrest by German officers on the road to Mons; +later I read the story of his departure from Brussels by train +to Holland--a trip which carried him through Louvain while the +town still was burning; and still later I read that he was +with the few lucky men who were in Rheims during one of the +early bombardments that damaged the cathedral. By amazing +luck, combined with a natural news sense which drew him +instinctively to critical places at the psychological moment, +he had been a witness of the two most widely featured stories +of the early weeks of the war. + +Arrested by the Germans in Belgium, and later by the French in +France, he was convinced that the restrictions on correspondents +were too great to permit of good work. + +So he left the European war zone with the widely quoted +remark: "The day of the war correspondent is over." + +And yet I was not surprised when, one evening, late in +November of last year, he suddenly walked into the room in +Salonika where William G. Shepherd, of the United Press, +"Jimmy Hare," the veteran war photographer, and I had +established ourselves several weeks before. + +The hotel was jammed, and the city, with a normal capacity of +about one hundred and seventy-five thousand, was struggling to +accommodate at least a hundred thousand more. There was not a +room to be had in any of the better hotels, and for several +days we lodged Davis in our room, a vast chamber which +formerly had been the main dining-room of the establishment, +and which now was converted into a bedroom. There was room +for a dozen men, if necessary, and whenever stranded Americans +arrived and could find no hotel accommodations we simply +rigged up emergency cots for their temporary use. + +The weather in Salonika at this time, late November, was +penetratingly cold. In the mornings the steam coils struggled +feebly to dispel the chill in the room. + +Early in the morning after Davis had arrived, we were aroused +by the sound of violent splashing, accompanied by shuddering +gasps, and we looked out from the snug warmth of our beds to +see Davis standing in his portable bath-tub and drenching +himself with ice-cold water. As an exhibition of courageous +devotion to an established custom of life it was admirable, +but I'm not sure that it was prudent. + +For some reason, perhaps a defective circulation or a weakened +heart, his system failed to react from these cold-water baths. +All through the days he complained of feeling chilled. He +never seemed to get thoroughly warmed, and of us all he was +the one who suffered most keenly from the cold. It was all +the more surprising, for his appearance was always that of a +man in the pink of athletic fitness--ruddy-faced, clear-eyed, +and full of tireless energy. + +On one occasion we returned from the French front in Serbia to +Salonika in a box car lighted only by candles, bitterly cold, +and frightfully exhausting. We were seven hours in travelling +fifty-five miles, and we arrived at our destination at three +o'clock in the morning. Several of the men contracted +desperate colds, which clung to them for weeks. Davis was +chilled through, and said that of all the cold he had ever +experienced that which swept across the Maeedonian plain from +the Balkan highlands was the most penetrating. Even his heavy +clothing could not afford him adequate protection. + +When he was settled in his own room in our hotel he installed +an oil-stove which burned beside him as he sat at his desk and +wrote his stories. The room was like an oven, but even then +he still complained of the cold. + +When he left he gave us the stove, and when we left, some time +later, it was presented to one of our doctor friends out in a +British hospital, where I'm sure it is doing its best to thaw +the Balkan chill out of sick and wounded soldiers. + +Davis was always up early, and his energy and interest were as +keen as a boy's. We had our meals together, sometimes in the +crowded and rather smart Bastasini's, but more often in the +maelstrom of humanity that nightly packed the Olympos Palace +restaurant. Davis, Shepherd, Hare, and I, with sometimes Mr. +and Mrs. John Bass, made up these parties, which, for a period +of about two weeks or so, were the most enjoyable daily events +of our lives. + +Under the glaring lights of the restaurant, and surrounded by +British, French, Greek, and Serbian officers, German, +Austrian, and Bulgarian civilians, with a sprinkling of +American, English, and Scotch nurses and doctors, packed so +solidly in the huge, high-ceilinged room that the waiters +could barely pick their way among the tables, we hung for +hours over our dinners, and left only when the landlord and +his Austrian wife counted the day's receipts and paid the +waiters at the end of the evening. + +One could not imagine a more charming and delightful companion +than Davis during these days. While he always asserted that +he could not make a speech, and was terrified at the thought +of standing up at a banquet-table, yet, sitting at a dinner- +table with a few friends who were only too eager to listen +rather than to talk, his stories, covering personal +experiences in all parts of the world, were intensely vivid, +with that remarkable "holding" quality of description which +characterizes his writings. + +He brought his own bread--a coarse, brown sort, which he +preferred to the better white bread--and with it he ate great +quantities of butter. As we sat down at the table his first +demand was for "Mastika," a peculiar Greek drink distilled +from mastic gum, and his second demand invariably was "Du +beurre!" with the "r's" as silent as the stars; and if it +failed to come at once the waiter was made to feel the +enormity of his tardiness. + +The reminiscences ranged from his early newspaper days in +Philadelphia, and skipping from Manchuria to Cuba and Central +America, to his early Sun days under Arthur Brisbane; they +ranged through an endless variety of personal experiences +which very nearly covered the whole course of American history +in the past twenty years. + +Perhaps to him it was pleasant to go over his remarkable +adventures, but it could not have been half as pleasant as it +was to hear them, told as they were with a keenness of +description and brilliancy of humorous comment that made them +gems of narrative. + +At times, in our work, we all tried our hands at describing +the Salonika of those early days of the Allied occupation, for +it was really what one widely travelled British officer called +it--"the most amazingly interesting situation I've ever +seen"--but Davis's description was far and away the best, just +as his description of Vera Cruz was the best, and his +wonderful story of the entry of the German army into Brussels +was matchless as one of the great pieces of reporting in the +present war. + +In thinking of Davis, I shall always remember him for the +delightful qualities which he showed in Salonika. He was +unfailingly considerate and thoughtful. Through his +narratives one could see the pride which he took in the width +and breadth of his personal relation to the great events of +the past twenty years. His vast scope of experiences and +equally wide acquaintanceship with the big figures of our +time, were amazing, and it was equally amazing that one of +such a rich and interesting history could tell his stories in +such a simple way that the personal element was never obtrusive. + +When he left Salonika he endeavored to obtain permission from +the British staff to visit Moudros, but, failing in this, he +booked his passage on a crowded little Greek steamer, where +the only obtainable accommodation was a lounge in the dining- +saloon. We gave him a farewell dinner, at which the American +consul and his family, with all the other Americans then in +Salonika, were present, and after the dinner we rowed out to +his ship and saw him very uncomfortably installed for his voyage. + +He came down the sea ladder and waved his hand as we rowed away. +That was the last I saw of Richard Harding Davis. + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext "Appreciations of Richard Harding Davis" + diff --git a/old/aprhd10.zip b/old/aprhd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de38dbc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/aprhd10.zip |