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diff --git a/42281-0.txt b/42281-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f3dcf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/42281-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4836 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42281 *** + + WALT WHITMAN + IN MICKLE STREET + + "_There's this little street and this little house_" + EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY + + + [Illustration: 328 MICKLE STREET + FROM A PAINTING [1908] BY MARSDEN HARTLEY] + + + + + WALT WHITMAN + IN MICKLE STREET + + ELIZABETH LEAVITT KELLER + + + NEW YORK + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + MCMXXI + + + COPYRIGHT 1921 BY + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES + J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK + + + + +EDITOR'S NOTE + + +Elizabeth Leavitt Keller was born at Buffalo, N. Y., on November 3, +1839. Both her parents were descended from the first settlers of this +country, and each in turn came to Buffalo in its early days, her mother, +Sarah Ellis, by private conveyance in 1825, and her father, James S. +Leavitt, by way of the newly opened Erie Canal in 1834. + +Elizabeth was the second daughter. In the spring of 1841 she was taken +to Niagara Falls, and all her childhood recollections are clustered +around that place. Returning to Buffalo in 1846, her father opened a +book-bindery, and later added a printing office and stationery store. + +At nineteen years of age Elizabeth Leavitt was married to William +Wallace Keller, of Little Falls, N. Y. Seven years later she became a +widow. + +Her natural instinct for nursing was developed during the Civil War and +the years that followed, but the time and opportunity for professional +training did not come until 1876, when, her two children being provided +for, she was free to apply for admission to the school for nurses +connected with the Women's Hospital in Philadelphia--one of the three +small training schools then existing in the United States. + +Before her course was finished her younger sister died. Mrs. Keller left +the hospital to take care of the five motherless children, and it was +not until ten years later that she was free to resume her training. When +she graduated she was a grandmother--the only one, it need scarcely be +said, in the class. + +While nursing her patient, Walt Whitman, during his last illness, she +learnt much about his personality and home life, and much also about his +unselfish friend and housekeeper, Mrs. Davis. The desire to tell the +truth about the whole case--so often misunderstood or distorted--grew +stronger with the passing years, and finally Mrs. Keller entered an old +ladies' home in her own city, where she would have leisure to carry out +her design. Here the book was commenced and completed. "After numerous +struggles and disappointments," she writes, "my second great desire--to +set Mrs. Davis in her true light--has been fulfilled--this time by a +great-grandmother!" + +It is not often that a great-grandmother, after a long life of service +to others, sees her first book published on her eighty-second birthday. + +Mrs. Keller uses her pen as if she were twenty or thirty years younger. +Her letters are simple but cheery, her outlook on life contented but in +no way obscured. Not deliberately, but through a natural gift, she +conveys vivid impressions of the world as it now appears to her, just as +she conveys so unpretentiously but unforgettably in her book the whole +atmosphere of Walt Whitman's world, when it had been narrowed to the +little frame house in Mickle Street, and finally to a bed of suffering +in one room of that little house. + +Whatever else her book may be, it is an extraordinary instance of +revelation through simplicity; the picture stands out with all its +details, not as a work of conscious art, but assuredly as a work that +the artist, the student of life and of human nature, will be glad to +have. + + CHARLES VALE + + + + +PREFACE + + +Had it ever occurred to me that the time might come when I should feel +impelled to write something in regard to my late patient, Walt Whitman, +I should have taken care to be better prepared in anticipation; would +have kept a personal account, jotted down notes for my own use, observed +his visitors more closely, preserved all my correspondence with Dr. +Bucke, and recorded items of more or less interest that fade from memory +as the years go by. Still, I have my diary, fortunately, and can be true +to dates. + +After I had been interviewed a number of times, and had answered various +questions to the best of my knowledge and belief, I was surprised to see +several high-flown articles published, all based on the meagre +information I had furnished, and all imperfect and unsatisfactory. + +Interviewers seemed to look for something beyond me; to wait expectantly +in the hope that I could recall some unusual thing in Mr. Whitman's +eccentricities that I alone had observed; words that I alone had heard +him speak; opinions and beliefs I alone had heard him express; anything +remarkable, not before given to the public. They wanted the sensational +and exclusive, if possible. I suppose that was natural. + +But it set me thinking that if my knowledge was of any value or interest +to others, why not write a truthful story myself, instead of having my +words enlarged upon, changed and perverted? Simple facts are surely +better than hasty exaggerations. + +I have done what I could. One gentleman (_Mr. James M. Johnston, of +Buffalo_), who has read the manuscript, and for whose opinion I have the +greatest regard, remarked as he returned it: "It appears to me that your +main view in writing this was to exonerate Mrs. Davis." + +He had discovered a fact I then recognized to be the truth. + +My greatest fear is that I may have handled the whole truth too +freely--without gloves. + + E. L. K. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I MARY OAKES DAVIS 1 + + II WALT WHITMAN'S HOME 8 + + III THE MICKLE STREET HOUSE 18 + + IV THE NEW RÉGIME 27 + + V CURIOUS NEIGHBORS 37 + + VI MR. WHITMAN DRIVES 47 + + VII BROOMS, BILLS AND MENTAL CHLOROFORM 55 + + VIII VISITING AND VISITORS 67 + + IX A BUST AND A PAINTING 73 + + X REST--AND ROUTINE 87 + + XI A SHOCK, AND SOME CHANGES 100 + + XII ANCHORED 113 + + XIII WARREN FRITZINGER 119 + + XIV FRIENDS, MONEY, AND A MAUSOLEUM 133 + + XV THE LAST BIRTHDAY PARTY 142 + + XVI THE NEW NURSE 150 + + XVII "SHIFT, WARRY" 167 + +XVIII WINDING UP 176 + + XIX THE TRIAL 182 + + XX CONCLUSION 187 + + WALT WHITMAN'S MONUMENTS, BY GUIDO BRUNO 195 + + WALT WHITMAN SPEAKS 207 + + INDEX 225 + + + + +WALT WHITMAN + +IN MICKLE STREET + + + + + _I write this book + in loving memory of + three of the most kind-hearted, + unselfish and capable people I ever knew + I Dedicate It + to + ALEX. McALISTER, M.D._ + + + + +HALCYON DAYS + + + Not from successful love alone, + Nor wealth, nor honored middle-age, + Nor victories of politics or war; + But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm, + As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky, + As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame like fresher, balmier + air, + As the days take on a mellower light, + And the apple at last hangs really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the + tree, + Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all, + The brooding and blissful halcyon days! + + WALT WHITMAN + + + + +WALT WHITMAN IN MICKLE STREET + + + + +I + +MARY OAKES DAVIS + + "_She hath wrought a good work on me.... This also that she hath done + shall be spoken of for a memorial of her._"--ST. MARK XIV: 6, 9. + + "_Whitman with the pen was one man--Whitman in private life was another + man._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + +Someone has said: "A veil of silence, even mystery, seems to have shut +out from view the later home life of Walt Whitman." + +There is no reason for this, but if it be really so, the veil cannot be +lifted without revealing in a true light the good woman--Mary Oakes +Davis--so closely connected with the poet's later years, and of whom he +often spoke as "my housekeeper, nurse and friend." + +Mrs. Davis's life from the cradle to the grave was one of self-sacrifice +and devotion to others. Her first clear recollection was of a blind old +woman to whom her parents had given a home. In speaking of this she +said: "I never had a childhood, nor did I realize that I had the right +to play like other children, for at six years of age 'Blind Auntie' was +my especial charge. On waking in the morning my first thought was of +her, and then I felt I must not lie in bed another minute. I arose +quickly, made my own toilet and hastened to her." She continued with a +detailed account of the attention daily given to "Auntie," how she put +on her stockings and shoes, and handed her each article of clothing as +it was needed; how she brought fresh water for her ablutions, combed her +hair and made her presentable for the table; how at all meals she sat by +her side to wait upon her, and how, after helping her mother with the +dishes, she walked up and down the sidewalk until schooltime to give +"Auntie" her exercise, the walks being repeated when school was over. + +It seems strange that parents could permit such sacrifice for an +outsider, however helpless, unmindful of their injustice toward the +little daughter who so willingly and unconsciously yielded up her young +life. No wonder this lesson of utter devotion to another, so early +implanted in the tender heart of the child, should in after years become +part and parcel of the woman. + +When Mary was twelve years of age "Blind Auntie" died. Then came two +more years of schooling, after which the girl voluntarily assumed +another burden--the care of a melancholy, selfish invalid, a distant +relative living in the country, of whom she had heard much from time to +time. With her she stayed for six years, being in turn nurse, companion, +housekeeper or general servant, as need required. + +Poor child, she failed in brightening the invalid's life--which was her +only hope in going there. All her efforts were unappreciated and +misunderstood, and it was a hard task to follow out what she conceived +to be her duty. During the first four years her sole remuneration was a +small sum of money on rare occasions, or a few articles of clothing; +during the last two, a modest monthly salary. The entire period was one +of unremitting care and self-abnegation, and at the age of twenty, +utterly disheartened, she summoned up resolution to leave. + +She had long contemplated paying a visit to an old schoolmate and dear +friend, Mrs. Fritzinger, the wife of a sea-captain, whose home was in +Camden, New Jersey, and to this city she now went. Arriving, to her +great sorrow she found her friend in a serious physical condition, and +remained to nurse her through a protracted illness, which ended fatally. +On her deathbed Mrs. Fritzinger confided her two young sons to Mary's +care, and from this time on they called her mother. + +Captain Fritzinger soon became blind and had to give up the sea. He +still however retained marine interests in Philadelphia, to and from +which city Mary led him daily. Then came a long illness. The Captain +appointed Mary co-guardian to his two sons, and at his death divided his +property equally between the three. + +Captain Davis, a friend of the Fritzingers, had met Mary during Mrs. +Fritzinger's lifetime. He was much attracted to her, proposed marriage +and was accepted on condition that the wedding should not take place as +long as her friends had need of her. But time slipped by; it may be +Captain Davis thought their need of her would never end; so, meeting her +in Philadelphia one morning, he insisted upon their going to a +minister's and becoming man and wife. Mary, thus forcefully pressed, +consented, but exacted the promise that he would not tell the +Fritzingers until his return from the trip he was on the eve of taking. + +In a few days he left Camden. His vessel was wrecked off the coast of +Maine, and he was buried where he washed ashore. + +His hasty marriage and unlooked-for death prevented him from making the +intended provision for his wife, and as she shrank from any contest with +his family, all that was left to her was his name and the cherished +memory of her one brief love. + +During Captain Fritzinger's nine years of blindness, and through all his +long sickness, Mary's ingrained habit of devotion to one person made her +somewhat forgetful of others; and dearly as she loved the boys who +called her mother, their happiness was too often sacrificed to their +father's infirmities. Strange--and yet not strange, perhaps--that one +whose childhood had been an unbroken martyrdom, should now be not always +conscious of the needs of a new generation. + +The house in which they lived, in a little street running at right +angles to Stevens Street, was closed at dusk. Then, when she had read +the daily papers, Mary would extinguish the lights, feeling that to read +to herself, or for the boys to play games, would be selfish, as the sick +man was deprived of such enjoyments. It didn't occur to her that these +wide-awake youngsters had nothing of her own childhood spirit of +resignation, or that the noise and laughter of other boys frolicking in +the streets could have any attraction for them. They were sent early to +bed, but time and again made their escape through the window, creeping +along the shed, and so to the fence and the street. + +Both boys had an innate love for the sea, and at the age of fourteen and +sixteen respectively had become so restless and urgent for a change, +that their father yielded to their wishes and procured berths for them +aboard the same ship. In two years they returned to find him dead, and +in a short time they embarked again in separate vessels and for longer +voyages. + +During their first absence, Captain Fritzinger had invited another +ex-captain--an old shipmate and intimate friend--to come to his house to +board, and for mutual companionship. The new guest was in poor health +and extremely crotchety, and immediately upon his host's demise he took +possession of the bed left empty. Then ensued for Mrs. Davis two more +years of fidelity and constant care, until the one old shipmate went the +way of the other. + +But even now the long-tried woman was not left without someone to +minister to, for shortly before a young orphan girl had been entrusted +to her. It was certainly her destiny to find full scope for the spirit +of self-sacrifice so early implanted, and so persistently called upon. +But it was almost inevitable for such a nature to be unconscious of the +vein of irony in human affairs, of the element of the grotesque in the +sublime. She went quietly on her accustomed way. It was her vocation to +be victimized, and her daily business to be a blessing to others. + +Such was the woman who entered so closely into Walt Whitman's life +during the seven years spent in Mickle Street. She meant more to him +than he was perhaps aware of; more, certainly, than he ever cared to +admit. If she was incapable of realizing the fulness of his genius, he +seemed unable to measure the fulness of hers. But he was glad to profit +by it. + + + + +II + +WALT WHITMAN'S HOME + + "_And whether I come into my own to-day or in ten thousand or in ten + million years, + I can cheerfully take it now or with equal cheerfulness I + can wait._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + "_I only thought if I didn't go, who would?_"--MARY O. DAVIS. + + +After physical disability had incapacitated him for duty, Walt Whitman +went to Camden, the New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia, and there the +remaining years of his life were spent, at first in his brother's house +in Stevens Street and later in a little frame cottage, No. 328 Mickle +Street, "where he lived alone with a single attendant," as a magazine +writer phrased it. This attendant was Mary Oakes Davis. + +With but one exception (_Thomas Donaldson, in "Walt Whitman the Man"_), +all writers who have touched upon Whitman's domestic life seem to have +failed to mention the interval between his two Camden homes. Fortunately +it was of short duration, but in it came the great turning point in his +career. + +Of his early habits something may be learned from his brother George, +who says: "Wait was always a trying person to live with." ("_In Re Walt +Whitman._") Then he goes on to relate some of the poet's peculiarities, +irregularities and eccentricities. "He had an idea that money was of no +consequence.... He would lie abed late, would write a few hours if he +took the notion, perhaps would go off for the rest of the day. If we had +dinner at one, like as not he would come at three; always late. Just as +we were fixing things on the table he would get up and go around the +block. He was always so. + +"He would come to breakfast when he got ready. If he wished to go out, +he would go, go where he was a mind to, and come back in his own time." + +It cannot be denied that a person with these traits of character would +be an uncomfortable inmate to have in any home, and with Mr. Whitman +this disregard for the convenience of others grew more marked as he +advanced in years and deteriorated in body. Notwithstanding this, when +his good brother and his most excellent sister-in-law retired to their +farm in Burlington, New Jersey, they urged him to accompany them. + +Their kind offer of a home Mr. Whitman thought best to decline, for +although at this time he had but a restricted popularity as an author, +he had some staunch friends in his own city, in New York, Philadelphia +and abroad, and after twelve years' residence in one locality he thought +it unwise to change. + +No doubt he did not take into consideration the difficulties he would +have to encounter alone, nor realize how unfitted he was to cope with +them; but as usual he overruled all opposition and followed his own +inclination. + +Or he may have had a premonition of the popularity just at hand. + +First he rented a room, taking his meals at odd times and in odd places. +This he soon found to be a miserable mode of existence, for he was +crippled financially as well as physically, and even to this late day, +"his medium of circulating his views to the world was through very +limited editions, which he himself usually paid for, or which failed to +circulate at all." (_Thomas Donaldson._) + +The old man with his basket of literature upon his arm, plodding his way +through the streets of Camden and Philadelphia, had long been a familiar +sight, and now with slow sales and lack of former comforts it was doubly +hard on him. But at this time his life had settled down to one great +desire, that of rewriting his book, _Leaves of Grass_, and living to see +it put before the world in a full, improved and complete form. + +He believed it was to be, and this was his principal object in remaining +in a city where he had already suffered the delays and disappointments +that make the heart sick and wear out the body. Yet dark as was the +outlook, this hope buoyed him up, and after the struggles of half a +century his courage had not forsaken him. + +"In the period named, he was hungry, cold and neglected," says +Donaldson; and again: "Whitman was extremely poor in Camden after his +brother moved away, and up to about 1884. His change of luck began about +then. He had previously, to use a sailor's phrase, 'been scudding under +bare poles.' He had several runs of luck after 1884." + +Walt Whitman and Mrs. Davis were not personally acquainted. To be sure, +he had seen her innumerable times leading Captain Fritzinger past his +brother's house, but he had never spoken to her. As for her, the poor +old man had long been a secret pensioner upon her tender heart, drawing +a full bounty of pity therefrom. + +Their first interview took place on one cold frosty morning, when in +deepest dejection he came a suppliant to her door. Surprised as she was +to find him there, she warmly invited him in, and a good breakfast soon +followed the kind reception. + +With his writings she was totally unacquainted, and she naturally shared +the universal opinion of her neighbors, that he was "a little off." +Nevertheless, when from the grateful warmth and good cheer he grew +loquacious, and dilated upon his work and aired his lofty hopes, she +listened attentively, that he might not suspect that to her all this +seemed but an empty dream and delusion. + +She talked encouragingly, and on his rising to go cordially invited him +to repeat his visit. He did so, and thenceforward this compassionate +woman's homely kitchen became his one haven of rest. He knew that a hot +meal and many thoughtful attentions always awaited him there; attentions +such as lacing his shoes, washing and mending his clothing, and not +infrequently superintending a refreshing foot-bath. "Being an invalid he +felt his helplessness, so attentions were doubly dear to him." (_Thomas +Donaldson._) + +As the fall advanced and the weather grew severe, his bachelor quarters +became more and more unsuitable, and he was indeed fortunate in the +friendship he had so auspiciously formed. He developed into a daily +visitor, and each morning might have been seen scuffing along in his +unclasped antiquated arctics, cane in hand, and his long white hair and +beard blowing in the wind. + +Mrs. Davis said that the very sight of those ungainly old arctics always +brought tears to her eyes. + +During this winter (1884-5), through the generosity of a Philadelphian +(Mr. George W. Childs), and from the sale of his book, Mr. Whitman was +in a way to arrange for a payment upon a small house. He was not the man +to ask advice, and the selection he made was not a wise one. "It was a +coop at best," as Thomas Donaldson says, and a much more comfortable +home in a far more suitable location could have been secured for less +than the price he had agreed to pay. However, it promised him a regular +abiding place. + +The house being occupied when he became the owner, he made an +arrangement with the tenants: they were to remain, and he would come +there to live with them, his board to offset the rent. But the scheme +did not work, and at the expiration of the first month he was left +solitary and alone with his personal household goods, consisting of a +scantily furnished bedstead, a home-made table, a rickety chair and a +large packing box. The table served as writing desk and the packing box +as kitchen and dining table. "Upon it was a small coal oil stove, where +he would cook a bite at the risk of his life." (_Thomas Donaldson._) + +His daily visits to Mrs. Davis were resumed. Her back door would slowly +open and he would appear saying in a pathetic voice: "Pity the sorrows +of a poor old man, whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door." +He was always welcomed and former relations were renewed. + +This continued for awhile, but light housekeeping being so great a tax +upon him, and his house being so "forlorn, dirty and untenantable," +(_Thomas Donaldson_), Mrs. Davis went there with him in his perplexity. + +How could the place be anything but cold when it was heated only by the +occasional flame of an oil lamp? Worse still, the back door was held +partly open by an accumulation of ice resulting from a ruptured water +pipe. + +Seeing how matters stood, Mrs. Davis, at that time a "strong, +rosy-cheeked Jersey woman" (_Thomas Donaldson_), went to work with a +will, and the ice was rapidly dispersed by her vigorously wielded axe. +With the door closed things soon assumed a more cheerful aspect, and at +her suggestion Mr. Whitman purchased a small second-hand cooking stove, +which, unassisted, she set up and got into running order. She carpeted +his sleeping room, gave him a mattress and bedding, and in many other +ways helped to make "the coop," as Whitman himself called it, more +habitable and homelike. Then, unmindful of the distance--several +blocks--she came each evening to attend to the fire, cook the food, run +the invalid's errands and wait upon him generally. + +In speaking of this time she said: "When the poor old man was not in +sight, he was so much upon my mind I could not pass one peaceful hour." +Suffice it to say, Walt Whitman had become the next object of her +solicitude. + +He has been called a prophet. Was it prophetical when, some years +before, he wrote: "Though poor now even to penury, I have not been +deprived of any physical thing I need or wish for whatever, and I feel +confident I shall not in the future"? + +Some have considered him a cunning man; all agree that he was a +remarkable judge of character. Understanding this woman as he did,--as +he must have done,--had he resolved to have her devote herself to him? +This question can never be truthfully answered, but whether with +premeditation or not, he certainly had gained a great influence over +her. + +Although comparatively comfortable in his new home now, he did not +discontinue his accustomed morning visits, and as he persisted in his +old delinquencies he completely upset the routine of Mrs. Davis's daily +life and work. + +Things ran on in this way until one morning late in February, while he +was sipping his coffee, he told her he had a proposition to make. He +said: "I have a house while you pay rent; you have furniture while my +rooms are bare; I propose that you come and live with me, bringing your +furniture for the use of both." A suggestion of this kind was so +unlooked for that she refused to give it a moment's consideration. He +said no more at the time, but a few days later again broached the +subject. And this he continued to do daily until Mrs. Davis, who +remained firm for awhile, at last began to waver. + +The young orphan girl strongly opposed such a step, but Mr. Whitman's +persistence prevailed, for Mrs. Davis at last gave a reluctant consent. +The advantage was all on the poet's side, as he must have seen, but +recent events had raised his hopes and he made promises of adequate and +more than adequate returns for all that had been done or might be done +for him. + +As his money was "only in sight," to use his own words, the expenses of +moving were paid by Mrs. Davis; as he was disabled, the work and worry +were hers as well; but finally all was accomplished, her goods were +transferred to his house and put in their new places, and the seven +years of their domestic life together commenced. In this way did the +"good gray poet" retire with his "single attendant" to the little frame +cottage, No. 328 Mickle Street, Camden, New Jersey. + + + + +III + +THE MICKLE STREET HOUSE + + "_The tide turned when he entered the Mickle Street house._"--THOMAS + DONALDSON. + + "_Whitman had great satisfaction in the managing skill of his + housekeeper._"--SIDNEY MORSE. + + +Added to "managing skill," Mrs. Davis had patience, perseverance, +determination, courage and health; furthermore--having accompanied the +Fritzinger family upon a number of ocean trips, undertaken in the hope +of benefiting Mrs. Fritzinger--she had shipboard experience which +enabled her to make available every inch of space in a house smaller +than the one she had left. It was an unpretentious brown frame +structure, sadly out of repair, and decidedly the poorest tenement in +the block. On the right was a brick house whose strong walls seemed to +be holding it up, while on the left was an alley--scarcely more than a +gutter--closed from the street by a wooden door. + +This narrow passage, filled with ice and snow in the winter, often damp +and slippery even in warm weather, was unfit for general use; and as the +house was not properly drained, the cellar through its one little window +was often flooded from dripping eaves. + +Three wooden steps without a banister led from the sidewalk to the front +door, which had to be closed to allow those who entered to ascend the +stairs. This narrow staircase, an equally narrow hall and two connecting +rooms called "the parlors" comprised the first floor of the main +building. Between the parlors were folding doors, and each room had an +exit into the hall. There were two windows in the front parlor and a +single one in the back. Between and under the front windows was an +entrance to the cellar, with old-fashioned slanting doors. + +The rear and smaller portion of the house was divided into but two +apartments, the kitchen below and a sleeping room above. At the back of +the kitchen was a small shed, and quite a large yard. Some people +believed that this yard, with its pear tree and grape vine, had been the +main attraction of the place for Mr. Whitman. + +On ascending the staircase, a small landing and the back sleeping room +were reached; then, turning about, came more stairs, with a larger +landing, part of which had been made into a clothespress. Apart from +this landing and a little den, sometimes known as "the anteroom," the +upper portion of the main building had only one room. But the two doors +in it, and a deep rugged scar across the low ceiling, testified to its +having formerly been divided by a partition. As one of the doors was +permanently fastened, the only access was through the den, anteroom, or +"adjoining apartment," as it was also occasionally called. + +In the larger room was a fireplace with a mantel shelf above. There were +two windows corresponding with the windows below, while the smaller room +or den, reduced to one-half its proper width by some pine shelves and an +outjutting chimney, had like the room below but one. The outlook from +this window, into which the sun made but a few annual peeps, was the +brick wall on one side, the back roof on the other, and a glimpse of the +sky. + +The situation of the house was anything but inviting, and the locality +was one that few would choose to live in. It was near both depot and +ferry, and as the tracks were but a block away, or scarcely that, being +laid in what would have been the centre of the next street, there was +an uninterrupted racket day and night. The noise of the passenger and +excursion trains--for the excursions to the coast went by way of +Camden--was only a minor circumstance compared with that of the freight +trains as they thundered by, or passed and re-passed in making up. + +Close at hand was a church with a sharp-toned bell, and a "choir of most +nerve-unsettling singers" (_Thomas Donaldson_); and as if this were not +enough, there was at times a most disagreeable odor from a guano factory +on the Philadelphia side of the Delaware. + +Such was the house to which Mary Davis had now come, and where through +the strange, busy days of the next seven years she was destined to be +Walt Whitman's indispensable "housekeeper, nurse and friend"--or, from +the outsider's point of view, his "single attendant." + +The spring of 1885 was far advanced before things were fairly in running +order, for from the first there had been no intermission in the poet's +erratic mode of living, and Mrs. Davis had been obliged to devote much +time to his personal wants. Somehow he had a way of demanding attention +which she found it impossible to resist. + +Truly she had been hampered on all sides, this faithful Martha-Mary; so +many things to be seen to, so many things to handle and rehandle and +change about before an established place for them could be found; the +strenuous cleaning, for the former tenants had left the place extremely +dirty; and the pondering over repairs, and deciding which were +absolutely essential and unpostponable, and which could be put off for a +little while longer. + +She first carpeted, furnished and settled the parlors, intending the +back one as the sleeping room for her young charge, until her marriage +in the fall, when it could be used as a spare room. But Mr. Whitman had +different intentions, for he at once appropriated both rooms, and would +not allow the doors separating them to be closed. + +One of the front windows became his favorite sitting place, and here he +wrote, read his papers and sat while entertaining his friends. He was +delighted with these rooms, and in them he enjoyed himself to his +heart's content: first in getting things into disorder at once, and then +in keeping them so. + +The back room, which became kitchen, dining room and sitting room +combined, was so compactly filled that many people remarked its close +resemblance to the cabin of a ship, in the way of convenience as +compared with space. It was lighted by one window, and over the ingrain +carpet a strip of stair carpeting made a pathway from the hall to the +outer door. + +On the sitting room side were a lounge, sewing machine, two rocking +chairs, a stand and some small pieces of furniture; on the other was a +dining table against the wall, one leaf extended and always set, with +the dining chairs pushed under it when not in use; the range--a +veritable giant--standing in place of the dwarf it had ousted; a sink +with cubby-hole below, crowded to overflowing with pots and kettles, and +shelves above loaded with dishes while their enclosing doors were +closely hung with kitchen utensils. As the lower shelf only could be +reached by hand, a stool (a chair that had lost its back) was kept under +a projection of the range. + +The shed, where Mr. Whitman's stove was set up, was packed with +household goods and chattels, classified and stored ready for momentary +use, and around the walls were suspended the extra chairs. + +A shelf in the inside cellarway off the hall was the only pantry, and +the sides of the cellarway the only tin-cupboard; then for want of a +place for the flour barrel, it was left standing opposite the cellar +door in the hall. In this part of the house people went by feeling, not +by sight, and strangers as a rule always collided with the barrel before +entering the kitchen. + +The little passage between the back part of the house and the wall of +the one adjoining it--simply a pathway to the back entrance of the +cellar--Mrs. Davis canopied with old sails and utilized as a laundry. +Here she kept her washing bench, tubs and pails, and here she washed and +ironed when the weather permitted. This furnished the view from the back +parlor window. + +The cellar and its hanging shelf had their share of plunder, and here +the firewood was sawed and split. + +As for pictures, there were more than enough for all the rooms, and +between them wall pockets, paper racks and brackets abounded. + +Her family of birds--a robin she had rescued from a cat, a pair of +turtle doves and a canary--she attached to the kitchen ceiling. She made +a little place in the shed for her cat's bed, and found a shelter for a +few hens in the small outhouse. Her dog, more aristocratic, slept on the +lounge. + +On a shelf over the dining table were a clock, some china vases, and a +stuffed parrakeet. No wonder that upon entering the house the first +thing observed was the over-filled appearance of each small room. + +Upon a bracket in the front parlor she placed a model of a ship that had +been given to Captain Fritzinger by the maker. This pleased Mr. Whitman +exceedingly, for he had often noticed and admired it. He said that the +first time he had desired to write anything was when he saw a ship in +full sail. He tried to describe it exactly and failed; had often since +studied ships in the vain hope of getting the whole beautiful story into +words, but had never been able to do so. + +The mantels of both parlors Mrs. Davis heaped with shells and +curiosities from distant parts of the world. Some of them were rare and +valuable. + +Such was the inside of the house after it had passed through Mary's +transforming hands. There were many things in it that might have been +better elsewhere, perhaps. But where? It was only a little house, and +Mary had come to it from a larger one, with all her possessions. She +had nowhere else to put them now, without losing them. If Mr. Whitman +had any sense of being over-crowded, it was his own fault. She had come +at his urging--and he had taken the two large parlors on the first +floor, and the large front chamber with the anteroom above, entirely for +his own use, thus leaving for the two women the kitchen (which he shared +with them in its aspect of dining room) and the only remaining room in +the house--the little back chamber on the second floor. Into this, they +condensed and squeezed their more personal belongings. + + + + +IV + +THE NEW RÉGIME + + "_I know an old story. It goes back to 1826, when a monument to + Bellman, the Swedish poet, was unveiled in Stockholm. The King and + Queen were there, and Bellman's old wife. And the King spoke of the + dead poet, and praised him in a flight of purple phrases; but the old + wife said, 'Oh yes, but if your Majesty only knew what a nuisance he + was about the house....' But frankly, wouldn't you like to know what + kind of a nuisance the poet was at home?_"--VANCE THOMPSON. + + +Discovering so quickly that her new charge was decidedly a self-centered +person, and seeing that waiting upon him promised to be her chief +occupation, Mrs. Davis planned her work accordingly, and being an early +riser was able to devote the untrammelled morning hours to preparations +for the day. + +Mr. Whitman usually arose at nine o'clock, but in this, as in all +things, he consulted his own wishes alone. His breakfast hour was any +time during the forenoon; and no doubt he did not understand how or why +this could discommode his new housekeeper. + +When the signal came--one that Mrs. Davis soon learned, three or four +loud peremptory raps upon the floor above--she dropped whatever she +might be doing and hastened upstairs. + +Since Mr. Whitman's first stroke of paralysis, nearly twenty years +before, he had become so disabled that he required much assistance while +dressing, and for this he was not at all diffident in asking. Besides, +he was "very curiously deliberate." + +There being no water on the second floor, Mrs. Davis carried up and down +all that he needed for his baths,--and he used water freely. Then when +fully dressed he consulted his own feelings in regard to coming +downstairs. + +In his mother's house in Long Island, and in his brother's in Camden, +Walt had seldom taken his meals with the family. While living in +Brooklyn, New Orleans and Washington, his meal times were of no +importance to anyone except himself, and he could not see why this rule +should not apply to his own house, or any house where he might be +staying. To him regular meals were a bondage he could not endure. + +Going up and down stairs was a difficult task, and after coming to the +Mickle Street house he seldom did so unaided, so the old signal was +repeated when he was ready to descend, and again Mrs. Davis hastened to +him. + +As he never would tell what he wanted until he was seated at the table, +she always kept a supply of special things on hand; nothing +elaborate,--maybe steak, chops, oysters or eggs. He never found fault +with his food, and although he did not often commend it he must have +been fully appreciative, for all through his letters and conversations, +as given in the various books about him, are allusions to Mary's good +cooking. + +Occasionally, to suit her own convenience, she would have his breakfast +prepared; but if she mentioned this fact while helping him to dress he +would invariably say, "Ah! I will not eat anything for awhile." When the +dishes had been set aside to be kept warm, and Mary was again busily +engaged,--the wash perhaps partly hung on the line, or her deft hands in +the dough,--the peremptory signal would come, and on being helped down +and seated at the table he would coolly demand something entirely +different from what she had provided. + +He commenced housekeeping by inviting company--lord or beggar--to dine +with him, and would keep these guests at the table for hours; even +"when he was eating off a dry goods box for a table, and drinking milk +warmed over a coal oil lamp, and a few crackers with it, he would ask +you to dine, with the dignity of a prince, and never apologize or +mention the food." (_Thomas Donaldson._) + +A biographer (_Horace Traubel_) says, "He was very simple in his tastes, +taking only two meals in a day." True; but the day was nearly consumed +in getting and serving these two meals, with the after work that +followed. To Mrs. Davis's surprise he did not hesitate to entertain +visitors in his sleeping room if they arrived while he was there, and +many of them would remain until "the wee sma' hours." There was a charm +in fellowship with him, and ill and lethargic as he had grown, it was +said: "Walt Whitman's friends rarely visited him without having a good +laugh over something or other"; and "gifted with a clear resonant voice, +the poet often gratifies his friends as he sits by a blazing wood +fire--which is his delight--singing old-fashioned songs." + +It was this irregularity that had worn upon his sister-in-law, for +during the years in which she had endured Walt's thoughtlessness, she +had had the care of Edward, the irresponsible, feeble-minded brother; +and when, by the doctor's advice, she left Camden for the country, the +home was tendered to Walt with this option: he was to conform to their +way of living and cease turning night into day. + +He did indeed have "runs of luck" after 1884, and who can deny that the +greatest of these was in securing the undivided attention of a +warm-hearted, unselfish woman, and in her making it possible for him to +live untrammelled, in his own home? Surely the tide turned when this +good woman ceased to be an independent being and became the strong prop +on which he leaned; a shield between him and all annoyances. + +While perplexed with settling the house, and having no time to go over +the same ground twice, although the condition of the parlors troubled +her, Mrs. Davis had let them go, awaiting a favorable time to clean and +regulate them thoroughly. This opportunity came in the summer, during +the first of Mr. Whitman's temporary absences. + +Since he had been in his own house, old friends had occasionally called +to take him to spend the day with them. This time he was asked to remain +a week. He gladly availed himself of the change, and his housekeeper +was no less pleased to have a week to herself. In it she did her best to +restore order, and when she had finished was really proud of the +improvement she had effected. + +Mr. Whitman returned. He at once discovered what had taken place during +his absence, and his consternation knew no bounds! He said that he had +left _everything exactly_ as he wished it to remain; where he could find +it; now the very things he needed most were gone; in fact he could find +nothing he wanted, and in the future he forbade _anyone_ to meddle with +his private property; he desired and expected to find--at all times and +upon all occasions--his personal matters unmolested, undisturbed, left +entirely alone. + +Mrs. Davis mildly replied that she had only taken from the room some +useless papers, scraps of letters, old envelopes, bits of twine and +wrapping paper. + +He declared that these were the very things he needed most; the ones he +specially missed. + +She remonstrated, but to no purpose; he silenced her; just how, she +could not comprehend. + +To Walt Whitman's credit be it said, he never spoke an unkind word to +Mrs. Davis; never was arrogant or overbearing to her; never belittled +her or put her down before others; always treated her as an equal; +relied upon her judgment and often sought her advice;--but he would have +his own way, and she with her yielding nature soon gave in; the struggle +was only a short one; before winter commenced, confusion once more +reigned. + +In due time piles of periodicals were stacked on the table and on +chairs; newspapers, letters, envelopes and bundles of manuscript were in +the corners; and as he had immediately set about the work he had so +greatly at heart, cuttings, rejected scraps of paper and general litter +soon covered the floor, the confusion gradually making its way into the +next room and threatening to invade the hall. + +The front parlor became a veritable editor's sanctum; nothing but the +smell of printer's ink and the sound of the press were wanting. + +Some of his poems he altered and revised again and again, and in a short +time the large waste basket Mary had placed in the room was filled to +overflowing. As he would not allow her to remove or empty the basket, +it became the foundation of a hillock of débris. Sometimes when he +seemed off-guard she would surreptitiously remove a few dust pans full, +but he was not deceived, and even this she had to discontinue. + +The first summer and fall in his own house were decidedly pleasant and +beneficial to Mr. Whitman. He worked as he felt able or inclined; was +encouraged with the progress he was making, and gratified with the +prospect before him. He believed, and must have seen, that situated so +advantageously the one desire of his life was to be consummated, and +that even though it were to be accomplished in a slow way, he would live +to see his book completed and in a form to meet his most sanguine +wishes. + +Visitors retarded his work, but this was no real detriment, nor did he +feel the time lost that he spent in returning visits. Making over the +old material and adding to it the poems he had composed since the issue +of the last edition, was something he could lay down and take up at any +time. And he certainly did enjoy agreeable company, delighting +whole-heartedly in their companionship as he dispensed the hospitality +of his own board. + +By degrees Mrs. Davis accustomed herself to her new surroundings and +was no longer astonished at any of Walt's remarkable ways or +unreasonable requests; besides, she remembered that the step she had +taken was after all self-imposed, that all her friends had protested, +and that it was now irrevocable; so with good sense and in good time she +became, if not fully reconciled, at least resigned. She didn't exactly +regret coming to Mickle Street, but she could judge from the few months +she had passed there what the years to come might bring; yet even with +this outlook she resolved not to shrink from but bravely to face the +future, whatever might betide; and so unconsciously she transferred to +Walt Whitman the devotion she had given to others. + +She seldom left the house when he was there alone, for with that +enigmatical instinct chronic patients develop he knew, and always wanted +something, whenever she was busiest or on a momentary absence. Therefore +after awhile she put all other considerations aside, and gave her full +energies to the work she had undertaken; individual wishes were +surrendered as she strove to adjust her ways to the erratic ones of the +old man; familiar customs were discarded and former friends neglected. +She seemed almost to lose her personality and to become a part of the +house and the peculiar life lived there. + +She was never obtrusive, and did all things in a quiet manner. If +company lingered until midnight she remained up to assist her charge to +bed; she humored his vagaries, and always had a smile and a pleasant +word for him. When he was inclined to be despondent, she cheered him; +when he was in pain, she had some simple remedy at hand; when he was in +danger of overtaxing his strength, she gently cautioned him; and if the +disorder of his rooms troubled her, she did not let him guess how much. + +At first she supposed he was not in a position to purchase new clothing, +and did her best to make him presentable in what he had, while she +patiently awaited the time when the expected money should come in; and +through her efficiency in washing, darning, patching and mending he soon +presented a much improved appearance, often commented on. + +His brother, his good sister-in-law, his other relatives and all his +friends rested in peace. They knew the hands he was in, the shoulders +upon which the burden had fallen. + + + + +V + +CURIOUS NEIGHBORS + + "_Mr. Whitman and his housekeeper were closely watched by some curious + people who had never lived near a poet before. In addition they minded + their own business. That Camden should contain two such people in one + street was enough to create wonder._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + +The inhabitants not only of Mickle Street, but of contiguous ones, were +deeply interested in the strange couple who had come to live among them, +and kept a close watch upon every movement. Their vigilance troubled +Mrs. Davis, for she could see no reason why anyone should be curious +about them. It was different with Mr. Whitman, who never saw anything he +did not choose to. "I don't think a man ever existed so entirely +indifferent to criticism and slander." (_Sidney Morse._) + +If Mrs. Davis chanced to go to her front door, half a dozen women would +appear at theirs; if she swept her sidewalk, her broom seemed to set in +motion half a dozen others. If she left her house for five minutes or +remained away for hours, she would find sentinels awaiting her return. +Sometimes as she was approaching home she would hear a shrill childish +voice call out: "Mama! Mama! here she comes!" Or she would see a young +urchin--presumably on guard--scamper into the house to give the alarm. + +"They seemed always upon the alert, and saw to it that whatever went +into Mr. Whitman's house should have an eye escort in and an eye escort +out." (_Thomas Donaldson._) + +From behind curtains, shutters and blinds Mrs. Davis could see and +instinctively feel eyes fastened upon her, and what appeared especially +remarkable was that this intrusive neighborly interest failed to die out +or lessen with time. It was a matter of genuine personal curiosity, keen +and continuing, and not of the transient attention any newcomer might +awaken. + +Unquestionably there was an atmosphere of perplexity and perhaps +suspicion in the locality. For one thing, extravagant and impossible as +it may seem, it had been rumored about that some people who entered "The +Poet's" house never came out again. A frequent caller during Mr. +Whitman's first years of housekeeping says: + +"Opposite, as I slid into the house one day, sat a bundle of dirt with +bread and sugar upon it, on watch. As I hurried in I heard it yell, +'Hurry, Mama! A fat man at Whitman's door!' and presently a female +watcher of two hundred and fifty pounds pattered to the door, wiping her +fat arms on a checked apron. I heard her say as she retreated, 'Jimmie, +watch if he comes out!' This confirmed the suspicion I had long had, +that someone in the vicinity held that persons entered but didn't leave +the Whitman house, and that they mysteriously disappeared." (_Thomas +Donaldson._) + +This is no doubt curiously exaggerated; the woman probably only wished +to get another glimpse of the "fat man" as he came out; but it is +interesting as showing the feeling of a visitor. The effect of such +conditions upon a woman like Mrs. Davis, living in the house itself and +constantly exposed to the oppressive surveillance, might well have been +serious. But she had a placid disposition and took things quietly. She +was not at all disturbed because none of the older watchers made +overtures towards an acquaintance. + +It was different with the young people, however, for after their awe had +somewhat subsided they began to be venturesome--to show their hardihood +perhaps--and soon became quite familiar, making the cellar doors +(old-fashioned slanting ones) their regular rendezvous. Here they would +come to "mind babies," to hold mimic school and singing classes, to play +games, keep house, take lunch and eat taffy purchased at a little corner +store. Undoubtedly one inducement for their constant visits was the +chance of getting one of the pennies that rolled occasionally out of the +window above. Before summer had ended they had grown decidedly sociable, +and in one of their favorite pastimes--running up and sliding down the +cellar doors--each would pause for a moment at the top and peek in at +the "good gray poet" as he sat anchored in his great chair, and ask, +"How do you do to-day, Mr. Whitman?" + +The poet's original style of dressing was probably one reason why he +attracted so much notice. He wore gray clothes, large of make and +uncertain of fit, with an open vest, over which was turned the broad +collar of his shirt. The latter, during his entire sojourn in Camden, +was invariably made of a good quality of unbleached cotton. He preferred +this to any other material, and he could not tolerate a separate collar, +starched bosom or necktie. He despised an ordinary pocket-handkerchief, +and carried instead a generous piece of soft cotton or cheesecloth. His +wide-brimmed hat, always looking the worse for wear, was usually turned +up in front. + +All this, with his size and long white hair and beard, made him a +picturesque individual, and it was only natural that he should be +recognized at once as a decidedly uncommon person. + +Walt was an invalid and infirm, nevertheless when he was equipped and +started he could go unaccompanied to Philadelphia and other nearby +places. This enabled him to call upon friends, transact matters of +business and keep in touch with the world generally. Sometimes he would +take an extended ride on a street car, but the greatest source of +enjoyment to him was a trip back and forth on the Delaware River. From +the ferry boat he could feast his eyes upon ships--"those floating +poems" (_his own words_)--either in the distance or passing close at +hand. And here he was sure to meet some old acquaintance or to make a +new one, and so feel himself still a factor in the busy bustling life +around him. + +Pleasant as were these rides to him, each one brought more or less +tribulation to Mrs. Davis, for governed as he apparently was by the +impulse of the moment, she was never given warning of his intentions or +allowed time for preparations. His excursions therefore were a trial she +had not counted upon. He would not mention the ferry, or hint of going +there, until he was seated at the table, or more likely had finished his +breakfast. This made much extra running up and down for Mary, who could +have simplified matters by having him dressed to begin with for the +weather and the occasion. + +This did not seem to occur to him. Crippled, slow, and requiring so much +assistance, and feeling that neither his own time nor that of anyone +else was of much account, it was often past noon before he was ready for +the start. Then Mrs. Davis, who always saw him safely on the street car, +would hurriedly don her outer garments, for Mr. Whitman had little +patience with delay in other people. The housekeeper helping the poet +down the front steps was a sight none of the neighbors would willingly +lose, therefore the couple always sallied forth under the musketry of +glances shot out at them from every direction. + +When walking in the street Mr. Whitman carried his cane in one hand, +and with the other he clung tightly to the arm of his companion. His +size and weight (even now, in spite of his invalidism, he weighed two +hundred pounds) would have made a fall a serious matter. + +The street cars--horse cars, running at fifteen minute intervals--on +their way to the ferry crossed Mickle Street at the first corner above. +If unfortunately one was missed, it seemed a long and tedious wait for +the next. To Mrs. Davis this was both tiresome and embarrassing; +embarrassing because of the lookers-on, and tiresome because during the +delay Mr. Whitman depended mainly upon her arm for support. + +All the conductors knew the picturesque old man, and were obliging and +attentive to him. When he was entrusted to their care Mrs. Davis had +nothing to fear; she was also confident that he would find a helping +hand wherever he might go, so quickly doing her buying and errands she +would hasten home, where a myriad of duties awaited her. + +Mr. Whitman never gave a clue to his calculations--if he happened to +have any--and consequently there could be no certainty as to the length +of time he might be away. However, in the case of a ferry ride a few +hours might be counted upon. Of these Mary would make full use; then as +the afternoon lengthened and dinner time approached, she would grow +restless and commence going to meet the cars. The return route was two +blocks away, but the distance could be shortened by way of the back +gate. + +If Mr. Whitman was not in the first car met, she would hurry back, +accomplish what she could in the next quarter of an hour, and then go +again. Frequently when the car was not on time, some domestic calamity +would occur; the fire would go out, or something burn, or a pot boil or +stew over. In this case she would make what reparation she could in the +limited time allotted her, then go again. This order of things would be +kept up until Mr. Whitman's arrival; then would come the slow walk home, +and the equally slow removing of wrappings, over-shoes and so on. + +He always returned hilarious, braced up by the good time he had enjoyed, +and totally unconscious that his housekeeper had had any extra work +whatever, or a minute of anxiety on his account. The rides were indeed +trying to her, and in pleasant weather he would go no less than three +or four times a week. + +Following the ferry ordeals, there came another unlooked-for tax, that +of getting him ready for winter engagements and taking him wherever he +had to go. There would have been less trouble in this if he had +possessed a suitable outfit, but as he had made but few additions to his +scanty wardrobe, the threadbare garments needed constant renovation. He +had sufficient shirts, however, now; for soon after getting into his own +house he had given her money for material, and she had made him six new +ones. He himself superintended the cutting out and putting together, as +they were to be fashioned with exactitude after the old pattern. With +one of them he was particularly pleased, for around the collar and cuffs +Mrs. Davis had sewed some lace edging of her own. This shirt he kept for +special occasions, and never put it on without making some pleasant +remark in regard to the trimming. + +But of the two, Mrs. Davis had much the more pride in his appearance, +for she had learned that he was often invited to meet distinguished +people. She accompanied him on his way to all social gatherings, and +unless other escort was assured, called for him. This, however, was of +rare occurrence, as guests began to vie with each other in seeing him +home. She also went with him to places of business in Camden and +Philadelphia, at which times he depended upon her alone, both going and +coming back. The task of walking with him was doubly burdensome when the +roads were rough and uneven, or slippery with snow and ice, which caused +him to cling to her arm with a grip of iron. He had lost strength in his +lower limbs, but gained it in the upper, as Mary often realized, though +Mr. Whitman was unaware of the severity of the pressure. + +As he could not carry his cane in his left hand, the entire strain came +upon her right arm, and as he became more and more dependent upon her, +these walks grew almost unendurable; especially so when, for some +purpose or other, or upon meeting a friend, he would thoughtlessly stand +to talk, never releasing his grip. + + + + +VI + +MR. WHITMAN DRIVES + + "_I swear I will never again mention love or death inside a house, and + I swear I will never translate myself at all, only to him or her who + privately stays with me in the open air._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + "_For such a lover of nature not to be able to get out of doors, was a + calamity than which no greater was known._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + +The first winter over, spring came and was passed in about the same +daily routine; but before the summer was far advanced Mrs. Davis was +convinced that the old man's walking days were rapidly drawing to a +complete close. This troubled her greatly, and during one of Mr. Thomas +Donaldson's frequent evening visits she talked earnestly with him about +it. + +Mr. Donaldson, the poet's intimate and constant friend, was a practical +man; one ready to listen to the suggestions of others, and to assist in +forwarding their plans. Between him and Mrs. Davis there was a mutual +understanding; each knew the other's worth. He had always shown +consideration for her; had sought her out in her own house, and stood +manfully by her side in her ministrations to the invalid. + +She told him she was certain, from the number of letters Mr. Whitman +received, his many visitors from other cities and abroad, his increasing +list of invitations and requests for personal interviews, that he must +be a man in whom others were deeply interested. + +She said that for some time she had had a plan in her mind. It was this: +that he should write to Mr. Whitman's friends--as he knew just who they +were--and solicit a subscription of ten dollars from each of them, the +fund to be appropriated to the purchase of a horse and carriage for the +poet's use. + +Mr. Donaldson fell in with the scheme, and thirty-one of the thirty-five +letters written by him received prompt replies, and in each was the sum +asked for. As the gift was to be a surprise, only a few friends were let +into the secret. A comfortable buggy was ordered and a gentle pony +selected, as it was supposed the drives would be quiet ones, in suburban +places. + +On the fifteenth of September all was completed, and Mr. Donaldson came +over in the afternoon, ostensibly to make a call. He found his friend +on a lounge in the front room, and seating himself commenced to chat +with him upon the topics of the times. This he continued to do until he +heard the gift carriage drive up to the door. His young son Blaine sat +by the driver's side. + +Mr. Donaldson went to the window, and Mr. Whitman hobbled after him to +see who had arrived. "Bless me," he said, "what a fine turnout! And +there is Blaine! Well, well, how the lad does seem to fit it; how +comfortable it does look! What does it all mean?" + +"It certainly does look comfortable," Mr. Donaldson replied, "and Walt, +it's yours." This statement he repeated twice before his astonished +friend could believe he had heard aright, and even then he did not +appear to take in or comprehend the full meaning of such an +announcement. While still dazed and hardly himself--impassive as was his +natural demeanor--his friend handed him a letter containing the names of +the contributors, in an envelope with $135.40 enclosed. Mr. Whitman read +the letter and was completely overcome; tears trickled down his cheeks, +and he was unable to articulate a word. + +When he was somewhat composed, Mrs. Davis, who had been slyly watching +the scene, came in with his coat and hat, and proposed that he should at +once--and for the first time--take a drive in a turnout of his own. It +proved to be a long drive, as it was late in the afternoon when he +returned. + +Mrs. Davis was delighted; the gift surpassed her highest expectations, +was much nicer and more expensive than she had thought it was to be; and +she rejoiced to see the poor old man, who not two years before had +shuffled to her door, now riding in a carriage of his own!--and one +provided, too, by those friends he had told her of, friends she had +believed to be but myths conjured up in his own lonesome mind. + +Mr. Whitman deeply appreciated the compliment paid him. He said: "I have +before now been made to feel in many touching ways how kind and +thoughtful my loving friends are, but this present is so handsome and +valuable, and comes so opportunely, and is so thoroughly a surprise, +that I can hardly realize it. My paralysis has made me so lame lately +that I have had to give up my walks. Oh! I shall have a famous time this +fall!" + +Previous to the presentation an arrangement had been made at a nearby +stable for the care of the horse, the running expense of which was to be +met by a number of friends; a young man was also engaged to harness the +horse and drive the rig to the door. But who was to summon it? That part +being unprovided for, it fell to Mrs. Davis, and Mr. Whitman became as +erratic with his horse as he was with all other things. Some mornings it +would be: "I must give up my ride to-day, the weather is so uncertain"; +soon after: "It looks like clearing up, I will go"; then on Mrs. Davis's +return from the stable: "I have made up my mind to defer my ride." Again +would come the determination to go, followed with the afterthought of +remaining at home, until ordering the carriage and countermanding the +order would keep the obliging messenger running to and from the stable +until dark. + +Riding was so great an enjoyment to Mr. Whitman that when once in his +carriage he was loth to leave it. "Only one thing seemed to have the +power of forcing from him an occasional lament, and that was prolonged +stormy weather when bad health kept him indoors for days and weeks." + +Poor Frank, the pony, had not been selected for speed or endurance, and +in an amazingly short time he succumbed to over-driving. At the +expiration of only two months, Mr. Donaldson says, "the pony showed the +effects of Mr. Whitman's fast driving, and had a shake in the +forelegs--or rather tremble--that gave the impression that he was +getting ready to lie down.... Some weeks after this I was again in +Camden, and while on the main street I saw a cloud of dust rising from a +fast-approaching vehicle. In a moment a splendid bay horse attached to a +buggy came into view. He was coming in a mile in three minutes' gait, +and to my amazement, in the buggy was Walt Whitman holding on to the +lines with one hand for dear life. When he observed me, he drew up with +great difficulty and called out, 'Hello, Tom, ain't he splendid?' My +breath was about gone. I managed to speak. 'Mr. Whitman, in the name of +common sense what has come over you? Where is Frank?' 'Sold; I sold him. +He was groggy in the knees and too slow. This horse is a goer, and +delights me with his motion.'" + +The ready sale of Frank was a great mortification to Mrs. Davis, and she +felt it keenly; the more so as the pony had been, in a measure, the +outcome of her suggestion. + +Although the horse and carriage were "a source of infinite joy and +satisfaction to Mr. Whitman, and aided him to pass three years of his +invalid life in comparative ease, giving him touches of life and air and +scenery otherwise impossible," they were a constant expense and vexation +to others. + +He seldom went for a drive alone, and as a rule chose as his companion +one of the many young men of his acquaintance. He always wished to hold +the lines himself. Although Mrs. Davis was the usual messenger to and +from the stable, although she got her charge ready for his drives, +assisted him to the carriage and almost lifted him in and out of it, +neither he nor anyone else ever proposed that she should have the +pleasure of a drive, or suggested that an occasional airing might do her +good. + +While owning the horse Mr. Whitman did not wholly discontinue his ferry +rides, but he no longer "haunted the Delaware River front" as formerly. + +What a change two years had made in his surroundings!--and what a change +in those of Mary Davis! He had come more prominently before the great +world; she had nearly passed out of her own limited sphere. The tide +which turned when they entered the Mickle Street house was now in full +flood for him. But what for her? + +His book had had a good sale; private contributions were sent to him, +amounting to many hundreds of dollars; and from this time on he did +little with his pen, though he got occasional lifts from periodicals for +both old and new work, and the New York _Herald_ paid him a regular +salary as one of its editorial staff. But he resigned this position the +following year. + + + + +VII + +BROOMS, BILLS AND MENTAL CHLOROFORM + + "_He detested a broom. He considered it almost a sin to sweep, and + always made a great fuss when it was done._"--EDDIE WILKINS. + + "_The tremendous firmness of Walt Whitman's nature grew more + inflexible with advancing years._"--HORACE TRAUBEL. + + +The second winter in Mickle Street passed much like the previous one. To +Mr. Whitman it brought heavier mail, an increase of complimentary notes +and invitations, more numerous requests for autographs, steady progress +with revision-work, a little new and profitable composition, the +delightful companionship of old friends, the pleasure of making new +ones, and the comfortable assurance that come what might, there was a +capable captain at the helm, who would on all occasions guide the ship +of affairs smoothly along. To Mrs. Davis it brought the same old round +of work. + +The next spring and part of the summer were charming seasons to the +poet. In them he revelled in his turnout; was sought after, eulogized +and lauded. His day-star was truly in the ascendant. + +This acknowledged popularity was a revelation to Mrs. Davis, who often +asked herself, "Where were these friends--the ones in particular who +have always lived in Camden--when a short time ago poor old Mr. Whitman, +homeless and uncared for, so much needed their help?" + +But as his popularity increased and grew more marked, as letters and +invitations came pouring in, and as at certain gatherings she knew him +to be the honored guest, it began to dawn upon her that his poetry--the +poetry she had so often heard derided--might mean something after all, +and she set herself assiduously to studying it. Finding so much that was +beyond her comprehension, she sometimes sought elucidation from the +author. This he never vouchsafed, and gave but one reply to all her +questions: "Come, you tell me what it means." Unable to comply, she soon +laid the book aside and gave her time and attention to other matters. +Thus, failing to understand anything of his "soul flights," she no doubt +was the better prepared to minister to his mundane needs. A domestic +angel in the house she certainly could be. An intellectual angel might +have worried Mr. Whitman. + +Yes, his day-star was truly shining. It was no will-o'-the-wisp he was +chasing the day he came hungry and cold, weary and desolate to a good +woman's door. Evidently he might have done better with his "little +money" at that time, even if it was "only in sight," as "driblets were +occasionally coming in." With these driblets he might have kept himself +more presentable, seemed less of a derelict. But he had one preëminent +need: he needed Mary Davis, and he got her. + +She had not peered into the future with his prophetic insight, and in +helping to open the way for the good times to come--times he had told +her so much about--she had been governed by her kind heart alone. Her +associates had never spoken of her protégé in any too flattering terms, +and weighing all poets by his local standard, had congratulated +themselves that not one of them was in danger of ever degenerating into +such genius. + +By midsummer Mr. Whitman had visited in and near Camden, and had made +two or three trips to Atlantic City and New York. Everyone was kind and +considerate to him, wherever he might be, and as a reliable person +always accompanied him on these expeditions, Mrs. Davis was never uneasy +on his account, and his absences were her opportunities for resting up +and putting the house to rights. Nor did she altogether skip the +parlors, for she had somewhat lost her confidence in Mr. Whitman's gift +of missing the very thing that was gone. Another Mary--an unfortunate +woman; but who ever attached themselves to Mrs. Davis who were not in +some trouble or other?--used to come in to assist when extra help was +required. Her field of action ended at the kitchen door when the master +was at home, for she stood in great awe of him and knew better than to +appear in his presence with any order-restoring implement in her hands, +especially a broom. But how she exulted when he was at a distance; when +she could pass the old boundary unchallenged, and could rub and polish +to her heart's desire, and according to her own ideas of cleanliness. +She was often heard to remark that Mr. Whitman was the most "unthrifty" +man she had ever met. + +Mr. Whitman might be able to control the use of brooms about his own +premises, but his authority did not extend beyond. How the women of the +locality learned of his antipathy to sweeping, either in or out of +doors, is not known. Probably in some unguarded moment he had condemned +it in their hearing. "He was extremely annoyed by the habit the women of +his neighborhood had of coming out two or three times a day with their +brooms, and stirring up the water in the gutter. He thought it caused +malaria. If they would only let it alone!" (_Thomas Donaldson._) + +It may be that the women made their brooms an excuse for tantalizing +"The Poet." He was no less opposed to their sweeping in dry weather, and +one morning when six or seven appeared simultaneously and set to +sweeping with a will, he knew that it was nothing less than a concerted +plan, and this he would not endure. Irritated beyond self-control, he +let his indignation fly out of the window in passionate and pointed +sentences, which the sweepers totally ignored. + +In 1867, about four years after his general breakdown, he had commenced +to give occasional lectures. This spring (1886) he delivered two, the +first on March 1, in Morton Hall, Camden, the second on the afternoon of +April 15, in the Chestnut Street Opera House, Philadelphia. Both +lectures were upon the same subject, his favorite theme: Abraham +Lincoln. + +He was not an orator, and his audiences were at all times made up of +people more curious perhaps to see than to hear him. This second +lecture--his last appearance but one as a speaker in the "Quaker +City"--was a greater strain than he had calculated upon, although the +arrangements had been made for him by his friends, and he was conveyed +from his own house direct to the back door of the theatre. + +He always remained in his carriage while crossing the river. + +Few people attended this lecture, and out of the $692 it netted him, +only $78.25 was received at the door. The rest was made up by +appreciative admirers. Two gentlemen gave each $100, four gave $50 each, +eight gave $10, two $5, and a society--The Acharon--gave $45. The money +was handed to Mr. Whitman in a large white envelope as he left the +stage. It was not removed from the envelope until the next forenoon, +when it was deposited unbroken in the bank. + +During the summer Mr. Whitman sustained a sunstroke, fortunately not a +serious one, but while suffering from the effects of it he was obliged +to give up his jaunts and remain indoors. However, on pleasant evenings +he could sit in a chair on the sidewalk, under his one cherished shade +tree, into the bark of which he soon wore a hole with the restless +movement of his right foot. Of the passers-by there were few who did not +know him; many would pause for a moment's speech, others would +occasionally get a chair and remain for an hour's chat. He soon +recovered, but if the similar stroke he had suffered a few years before +had served "to lower his fund of strength, weaken the springs of his +constitution and almost wholly destroy his walking powers," (_Thomas +Donaldson_), there was certainly little encouragement in store for him. + +His housekeeper, too, had her physical troubles. She had visibly +changed; how could it be otherwise? The back part of the house was +gloomy, at times damp and unwholesome, and she had grappled with so many +difficulties that she had lost strength and flesh, felt run down and +nervous, while the "rosy cheeks" had faded forever. + +This sickness not only made Mr. Whitman even more dependent upon her +than usual, but it caused her great anxiety in another way. She +realized the great risk she had taken and was taking, for on coming into +the house she had relied upon verbal promises alone; no written contract +or agreement had been entered into. + +Now month had followed month and she had waited in vain for the old man +to allude to living expenses or inquire as to her ability to meet them +longer. Strange as it may seem, since being settled in his own house +Walt had never mentioned money, or in any way broached the subject of +his financial standing. + +During the first year she had not been at all disturbed in mind; she had +confidence in his integrity, and believed he had no means of meeting +present embarrassments. The next summer she saw that money was coming in +from a number of sources, but had no way of learning the amounts +received or in what way they were disbursed. This sunstroke and the +consequences that might have resulted from it were enough to arouse her +thoroughly. Not that she had lost confidence in Mr. Whitman, but it came +home to her that should he die she would be in no way secured. Before +long the bequest left her by Captain Fritzinger would be following her +own savings, which were rapidly dwindling away. + +After thinking the matter over seriously, she resolved that as soon as +the sick man had somewhat recuperated she would make an effort to have +things put on a new and safer basis. She knew that from private +donations, sale of books, government pension, receipts from lectures and +so on, he had opened a bank account. She also knew he was paying +one-half the expenses of Edward at a sanitarium and was sending a weekly +remittance to his sister in Vermont,--and knowing all this, she felt +that she was being treated with injustice. She had already spoken to +Mrs. Whitman and to one or two others, and they had assured her that +Walt was abundantly able to meet all household expenses, and would +without doubt do so in his own good time. + +She had never solicited his confidence, and yet while they were +strangers, or comparative strangers,--long before she had entertained +the slightest thought that she should one day exchange her home for +his,--he had talked freely, even confidentially, to her; had voluntarily +spoken of his money matters, his past disappointments and future +expectations. But since she had come into the Mickle Street house he +had never renewed these subjects, and his way of passing them over was +inexplicable to her. + +When the first repairs had been made in the house, she had taken the +bill to him for approval and payment. He had simply glanced at it, and +returned it with the words: "I think it must be all right." She had +remained standing in the doorway until, silent, seemingly absorbed in +his reading and oblivious of her presence, he had made her feel so +uncomfortable that she had quietly glided away to pay the carpenter out +of her own purse. This happened so early in their housekeeping together +that she, so charitable by nature, had excused him on the ground that, +having no money, he had disliked to talk further about the bill. But a +year had passed, she understood his position better, and she could not +excuse him again on this plea. She had mentioned the urgent need of +further repairs (and when were they not needed in this little rookery?) +and he had promptly replied: "Have it done; certainly, certainly; have +everything done that is required." The result was still the same; +although ordering the work, he was just as indifferent as before in +regard to settling for it. + +And so it had gone on in all cases where money had been needed, until +Mrs. Davis, who was neither dull nor obtuse, saw that it was merely a +matter of choice with him whether he paid for things promptly or not. +The receipted bills she had carefully filed away, but what proof had she +that they had been met with her own money? + +At the expiration of the second year, Mr. Whitman at his own expense had +the water carried upstairs and a bathtub put in. This was a blessing to +both of them, and Mrs. Davis ungrudgingly saw a portion of her own +room--the one little back chamber--sacrificed that it might be made +possible. + +Up to the time of the sunstroke she had made a number of futile attempts +to introduce the subject of finances, but he had simply uttered "Ah!" +(what a world of meaning he could put into that monosyllable!) and had +silenced her with a look. + +An observer says: "I found Whitman sitting on the front stoop talking +with a negative pugnacious reformer. The poet entertained his ideas +without a trace of impatience or severity of judgment, and yet he was +capable of quietly chloroforming him if he became too disagreeable." +Another writes: "This leading trait of his character lasted until life +glimmered faintly." It was this "leading trait" that prevented Mrs. +Davis from introducing any subject not pleasing to him. Again: "He has +his stern as well as sad moods; in the former there is a look of power +in his face that almost makes one tremble." Mrs. Davis had no fear of +Mr. Whitman; he never gave her cause to tremble, but he quietly +chloroformed her times without number. + +The expenses of the house were not light; amongst other things, two coal +fires in winter, and a wood fire much of the time. Wood was a luxury to +him, but it was an expensive item to his housekeeper, and the little +stove in his sleeping room devoured it like an insatiate monster. "He +enjoyed a wood fire." Then she supplied his table and entertained his +guests--his many guests. She never bothered him; was always on hand and +ready to help him to mature his plans, however inexpedient or +impracticable they might appear to her. + + + + +VIII + +VISITING AND VISITORS + + "_His haunt on 'Timber Creek' is one of the loveliest spots + imaginable; no element lacking to make it an ideal ground for a poet, + or study place for a lover of nature._"--WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY. + + "_April 11, 1887. I expect to go to New York to speak my 'Death of + Lincoln' piece Thursday afternoon next. Probably the shake up will do + me good...._ + + "_Stood it well in New York. It was a good break from my monotonous + days here, but if I had stayed longer, I should have been killed with + kindness and attentions._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + +It was decided that Mr. Whitman should make one of his delightful visits +to his friends, the Staffords, in their beautiful country home, "Timber +Creek," just as soon as he was sufficiently recovered to take the trip, +and Mrs. Davis thought best to defer talking with him or considering any +definite step regarding home matters until he returned. She took pains +to get him ready, and, as she had done before, persuaded him to purchase +some new clothing and look his best. This visit, like previous ones, was +charming to the poet, and he came home much benefited. While he was away +Mrs. Davis rested and paid a short visit to the aged parents of Mrs. +Fritzinger in Doylstown, Pennsylvania. In this breathing spell she had +thought home matters over and had planned her mode of procedure; but +alas! when the poet appeared upon the spot and she had welcomed him, the +courage she had summoned up when he was out of sight deserted her. She +threw out hints, then made attempts to speak, but to no avail; an +understanding was not brought about and things went on in the old +fashion. + +Much as Mr. Whitman enjoyed his visits and jaunts, coming back to his +own home was the one great joy of his life, and meeting his housekeeper +after even a brief absence was always a pleasure to him. + +It was quite late in the fall when he returned. He resumed his work at +once, and the winter was not an unpleasant one to him; only somewhat +tedious, because he was so closely confined to the house. In other ways +it was made cheerful with social events and agreeable company, and it +was brightened with anticipations of the delightful drives to be enjoyed +in the spring. (It was about this time that Horace Traubel commenced to +come to the house.) + +Each season had added to his popularity, until he had attained the +zenith of his most sanguine imaginations; his most potent daydreams had +truly materialized; he was fully on the crest of the wave! His +housekeeping had surpassed his fondest expectations, for to him his home +was ideal. Deprivation was a thing of the past; there was no lack of +means, as private contributions were sent to him amounting to many +hundreds of dollars. That he was poor and needy, and "was supported in +his final infirmities by the kind interest of his friends, who +subscribed each his mite that the little old frame house in Camden might +shelter the snowy head of the bard to the end," was the universal +belief, and a kindly feeling was manifested towards him in his own home +and in England. It is to be regretted that he was not better fitted +physically to enjoy all his later blessings. + +Out-of-doors life seemed essential to him, and after a number of outings +he was able, as early as April 6, 1887, to read his Lincoln lecture--the +last he gave in his own city. It was well attended, and listened to with +deep attention. On the 12th of the same month he went to New York for +the purpose of reading his lecture there. He was accompanied by William +Duckett, a young friend who acted as valet and nurse, and it was on his +arm the old man leaned as he came forward on the stage and stood a few +minutes to acknowledge the applause of the audience. When the tumult had +subsided, the poet sat down beside a stand, laid his cane on the floor, +put on his glasses and proceeded to read from a little book, upon whose +pages the manuscript and printed fragments were pasted. + +"The lecturer was dressed in a dark sack coat, with dark gray waistcoat +and trousers, low shoes, and gray woollen socks. The spotless linen of +his ample cuffs and rolling collar was trimmed with a narrow band of +edging, and the cuffs were turned up over the ends of his sleeves." Thus +says the New York _Tribune_ of the next day, and it cannot be denied +that his appearance did credit to his housekeeper's attention at this +time, as it did on all other public occasions. The "spotless linen," +however, was unbleached cotton, one of the six new shirts Mrs. Davis had +made for him. + +The lecture was very successful. At the close, a little girl, Laura +Stedman, the five year old granddaughter of the "banker poet," walked +out upon the stage and presented Mr. Whitman with a basket of lilac +blossoms. The New York _Times_ had this account of the event the next +morning: + + "Forth on the stage came a beautiful basket of lilac blossoms, and + behind it was a little bit of a maiden in a white Normandy cap and a + little suit of Quaker gray, her eyes beaming, and her face deeply + impressed with the gravity of the occasion. She walked to where he sat + and held out her gift without a word. He started, took it and then + took her. + + "It was December frost and May-time blossom at their prettiest + contrast, as the little pink cheek shone against the snow-white beard, + for the old man told his appreciation mutely by kissing her and + kissing her again, the audience meanwhile applauding sympathetically." + +Mr. Whitman then recited his poem "O Captain!" and the curtain +fell--fell to shut him from the sight of a New York audience forever. + +Mrs. Davis always dreaded Mr. Whitman's New York visits, and this +episode caused her extra anxiety. She knew that his many and influential +friends would give him a warm welcome and a great reception, and she +also knew how prone the poet was to go beyond the bounds of prudence. He +could stand only a little fatigue and excitement now. He returned in +good condition, however, and she flattered herself that a quiet summer +was before them. He had told her that this lecture (which increased his +bank account by six hundred dollars) was to be his last public function, +but she had no knowledge of something else he had in near view; +something he had already arranged for. + + + + +IX + +A BUST AND A PAINTING + + "_Sidney Morse has made a second big head (bust), an improvement, if I + dare to say so, on the first. The second is the Modern Spirit Awake + and Alert as well as Calm--contrasted with the antique and Egyptian + calmness of the first._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + "_Oh, that awful summer of 1887!_"--MARY DAVIS. + + +Early in the summer, when he had fully recovered from his exertions in +New York, Mr. Whitman received a letter from a sculptor, Mr. Sidney +Morse, requesting the privilege of coming to Camden at once, to make a +plaster bust of him. The promise had been given to Mr. Morse for the +summer, but the actual date had not been fixed upon. + +Eleven years before this artist had made a very unsatisfactory bust of +Walt, one he had always wished to improve upon. On the first occasion +Walt had not entertained the thought of such an undertaking in his +brother's house, but had gone to Philadelphia for the sittings. This +time, as before, the choice of location had been left to him; and it +seemed almost incredible that he, who had been initiated in this line of +art, should have imposed upon his housekeeper to the extent of giving +his own stuffy little house the preference over a more suitable place. + +He had answered Mr. Morse's letter, telling him he would cheerfully put +himself at his disposal; the summer was before them, and nothing else +impending. In short, he would engage himself to him for the summer, and +he was confident the result would be better this time. + +About two weeks elapsed, and nothing had been said to Mrs. Davis on the +subject when one morning to her surprise the artist arrived, prepared to +go to work without delay. Had she been consulted, she could have made +preliminary preparations; had she been better informed she would have +persuaded Mr. Whitman to select a different place, and had she been +fully enlightened she would have insisted upon it. + +Mr. Morse writes: "I found Mr. Whitman more crippled and quieter in +manner than when we met before. Eleven years had wrought their changes. +He was however in a less perturbed frame of mind." + +Naturally so; in his own home, contradicted in nothing, with his own +carriage, and a devoted woman to wait upon him,--one who never intimated +that there existed such exigencies as living expenses or household +entanglements. It was left to the artist to tell Mrs. Davis the purpose +for which he had come. He said that he was desirous of beginning his +work as soon as was compatible with Mr. Whitman's convenience, and the +poet seeing no obstacle in the way of an immediate commencement, it was +decided that the first sitting should take place the following +afternoon. Mrs. Davis was somewhat enlightened as to what the making of +a bust implied when a load of mysterious and cumbersome articles drove +up to the door in the morning. Puzzled both as to their use and where +they could be housed, she had them delivered at the back gate and piled +up in the yard. + +Mr. Morse kept his appointment with promptitude, and after a few +minutes' conversation with his subject, he summoned the housekeeper, and +then, "the litter of everything under heaven was poked aside" to make a +clearing by the window. Mrs. Davis assisted him in bringing some of the +articles from the yard, such as boards and boxes upon which to fashion +the clay; then when the necessity came for something in which to mix +it, her wash tubs were at once appropriated, and as smaller vessels were +from time to time required, many of her dishes and kitchen utensils were +one by one pressed into service. + +During the first afternoon the work was put well in progress, and what a +time was thus inaugurated! Before the week ended there was clay and +plaster on all sides. The two men, interested in the bust alone, were +oblivious to everything else, and passed the time chatting in a lively +strain. The artist was satisfied with his work and delighted with the +prospect of being undisturbed until its completion. He writes: "My deep +satisfaction overflowed to the housekeeper, who admonished me that there +was an element of uncertainty in Mr. Whitman's programme nowadays"--and +sooner than he had counted upon, her words were verified, for on the +morning following her mild warning a telegram came and "the damper +fell," as Mr. Morse says. This was the telegram: "Am in New York and may +arrive in Camden at any moment. Herbert Gilchrist." + +"He's coming to paint me," said Mr. Whitman on reading the message; "I +had forgotten about him. We will put him over there somewhere; I don't +see what I can do to stop it; he has come all the way from England--from +England, Sidney, to paint me. Make the best of it, share the crust with +him." "The damper fell" for Mrs. Davis as well, when Mr. Whitman in his +usual off-hand manner announced the news to her. Another artist coming! +a portrait painter! And Mr. Whitman who had known of this for an +indefinite time had given her no warning, had taken her unaware. She was +completely overcome, and not a little indignant. Had he really forgotten +it, or had he thought it a matter of too little importance to mention? +It was not often that Mrs. Davis shed tears in self-pity, but now they +were her only relief. It was not the extra work and expense that +troubled her most; it was Mr. Whitman's indifference towards her. + +Mr. Morse was also touched, and confesses that in his disappointment he +was half inclined to pack his traps and go. For a moment the +housekeeper's mind tended in the same direction. "But," continues Mr. +Morse, "when the young man appeared on the scene in person, I was calm +once more and ready to be pacified." Mrs. Davis also calmed herself +and, as was her disposition, concealed her feelings and roused herself +to meet the emergency. "The litter of everything under heaven" was poked +still further aside, the stove was taken down and put into the cellar, +things heaped and packed higher in the corners or carried out of the +room, and a place made for the newcomer. + +Mr. Gilchrist proved to be an agreeable, enthusiastic young man, and one +never to get into another's way. Mr. Morse could keep his place at the +window, and Mr. Gilchrist could place his easel a little way back, so +that the sitter didn't need to change his position to be in a good light +for both. But what of Mrs. Davis when paint and oil were added to +plaster and the other refuse pervading the parlors? Had the confusion +been confined to these rooms alone it could have been held in check, but +for lack of room the kitchen soon became an auxiliary to the improvised +studio. Again quoting Mr. Morse: "For a week we kept it up, working +some, talking more, Mr. Whitman's wistful eye on us both." + +This favorable state of affairs was, however, of short duration, for +after the first week the progress of the artists was unsatisfactory; +they were hindered by constant interruptions, and as company began to +pour in upon them, some days would pass and find little accomplished by +either. It seemed a fatality that so many people should have chosen this +very time to make their visits, especially people from abroad. Before +long the strain of it told visibly on Mr. Whitman. Mr. Morse observed +not only this, but the anxious look on Mrs. Davis's face as well, and on +consulting her found she was much alarmed, and feared that their subject +would give out unless some change could be made. The change was made +when early the next morning the sculptor betook himself with his effects +to the yard. This arrangement not merely gave additional space in the +parlors where two or three spectators could sit or stand, but it also +removed from them their chief attraction. + +Some of Mr. Whitman's friends called daily, several twice or even three +times in a single day. + +Mr. Morse was satisfied with the new order of things and says: "In the +cool shadow of the house, under a propitious sky (when it was +propitious), with high boarded fence, and a grape vine wreathing itself +into a pear tree for a background, my work proceeded. Occasional +excursions to the studio in front for memory sketches seemed to be +serving me all right." + +Up to this time Mrs. Davis had had undisputed possession of the yard, +and this constant running back and forth was almost unendurable to her. +For the excursions were not confined to the sculptor; all comers, casual +or constant visitors, old friends and strangers, even ordinary +passers-by--following the lead of others--deliberately took the right of +way through the hall and kitchen, until it might as well have been a +public passage from street to yard. Then in unfavorable weather, when +the work could not go on, came another complication, as the unwieldy +appurtenances had to be brought into the little canvas-covered alcove, +shed and kitchen, obstructing everything. It was worse still in case of +a sudden shower, when the things had to be hustled in anywhere and +anyhow. But the front of the house! It was vacation time, and the +"plaster man" and "painter man" at Whitman's were the great source of +entertainment in the neighborhood. Children thronged the cellar doors +from early morning until late at night; babies were held up to look in, +and there was a general scramble for the best point of view. +Pedestrians, market people and others passing the house were attracted +by this manifest excitement, and there was scarcely one of them who did +not pause to satisfy his or her inquisitiveness with a peep. From a +distance it was difficult to discern what could be taking place at the +poet's, and everybody, old and young, even the halt and the lame, seemed +to have time to walk an extra block or two to ascertain. However, as +there was no alternative, Mrs. Davis was willing to bear it all +patiently for a few weeks at most, as she supposed. + +Mr. Morse, pressed by his host, fell into the habit of remaining to +lunch; Mr. Gilchrist often joined them; and as in the course of +conversation interesting subjects would come up, the day's work for both +frequently ended at noon. Should incidental visitors arrive during meal +time, they were invited without ceremony or apology to the kitchen, and +Mr. Whitman always pressed them to eat something, regardless of the time +of day or what might be upon the table. His talk was animated and +arresting. He would usually begin with current events, then run into +discussions on various themes, often intricate, and the two artists +felt themselves extremely fortunate to be the privileged recipients of +some of his most striking thoughts and phrases. + +It was at this juncture that one day an English gentleman accompanied by +two ladies rang at the open door. Mr. Whitman had never met them, but +seeing them from his seat at the table he welcomed them with these +words: "Oh, darlings, come right this way, come right this way." On +their complying he continued: "Herbert, Sidney, move a little. Mary, lay +the plates and bring the chairs." (The extra ones hanging in the shed.) +Then came a hitching and shuffling of chairs, and a crowding together. +At first the party looked a little annoyed, but when they were fairly +seated they soon became so absorbed in the poet's talk and in his +associates that, unconsciously to everyone except the housekeeper, lunch +merged into dinner. But this was no unusual occurrence. Indeed there +were days when Mr. Whitman would remain at the table from lunch until a +very late hour, company coming and leaving in relays. This summer, and +for some time previous, he had dispensed with the regular breakfast, +taking an early cup of coffee and a piece of toast in his own room. But +the other meals certainly involved plenty of work and patience. Well +might he say: "Mrs. Davis has a knack of anticipating what I want, and +in case of emergency at the dinner table knows right well how to make +the best of it. She has rare intelligence and her tact is great." She +indeed had tact. "Jolly dinners you have here," quoth one distinguished +visitor, notwithstanding they were served in the little heated kitchen. + +Mrs. Davis always waited upon the guests in a pleasant genial manner, +and few knew to whom it was due that the "jolly dinners" ran so +agreeably along. Her watchful eye detected when any article of food was +getting low, either for present company or when their places were about +to be taken by newcomers. A thousand times she slipped out quietly to +the little side gutter and ran (she always ran) to procure a loaf of +bread, an extra supply of butter, crackers or cheese. The home-made +supplies rarely gave out, as she provided bountifully for all. Mr. +Whitman had good reason for going on to say, as he did: "I am well +pleased with my housekeeper. She does better for me than a whole retinue +of pompous bothering waiters. I detest the critters; bowing and +watching"--and probably expecting their just remuneration--for to +complete his appreciation of her virtues he could have added: "And she +furnishes the means." + +Yes; the lingering lunches and "jolly dinners" were paid for out of her +fast decreasing bank account, as was everything else. It was doubtful if +Mr. Whitman realized in how many ways he was indebted to her, or if the +idea ever occurred to him that he could ask too much of her. So +confident was he of her always making "the best of it" that nothing +agitated or worried him. Yet this entertaining anyone and everyone in +the kitchen often placed her in unpleasant and embarrassing +predicaments. Of these he seemed to have no knowledge, as he never made +an attempt to extricate her from one. Visitors were often more +observing, and no doubt most of them saw under what disadvantages she +was placed. Some of them kindly helped her over difficulties, and others +just as kindly passed awkward little occurrences by apparently +unnoticed. + +Although Mr. Whitman did not mind what people said or thought about him, +Mrs. Davis was sensitive and criticism hurt her feelings. She knew full +well that she was sometimes blamed, by visitors who did not understand +the conditions, for things for which she was not at all responsible. She +knew that to her charge was laid the air of negligence that pervaded the +house, and even Mr. Whitman's bluntness towards certain people. + +"There were grim and repellent traits in Walt Whitman. He was naked of +manners and suave apologies as the scarred crag of the Matterhorn of +verdure." + +That physical suffering was many times the key to the old man's +roughness Mrs. Davis understood, and she had a mild way of smoothing it +over and putting other people at ease. She always spoke highly of both +the artists, and in many ways they were more considerate of her than was +their host. With things going on as they did, both were retarded in +their work, and each in turn became discouraged. Mr. Whitman would +sometimes be out of humor for sitting, or so worn out and ill that he +could not come downstairs until late in the day; or again, when all +looked promising he would order his carriage, drive off and leave them +in the lurch. + +Consequently each work of art required more time for its completion than +had been calculated. Mrs. Davis did her best to encourage both the +sculptor and the painter, and in every way she could devise, endeavored +to forward their work. She removed obstacles; she influenced their +sitter, and persuaded him to be quieter, to avoid over-exertion and +excitement, to see less company and to lie down during the heat of the +day. + +At length both bust and picture were finished. Each proved to be highly +satisfactory, and by many they are thought to be the most lifelike +representations of the original. Of the bust Mr. Whitman himself said: +"I am quite clear _this_ is the typical one; modern, reaching out, +looking ahead, democratic, more touch of animation, unsettledness, etc., +etc. Not intended to be polished off, left purposely a little in the +rough." + + + + +X + +REST--AND ROUTINE + + "_Heat, heat, heat, day and night!... I am still getting along through + the hot season--have things pretty favorable here in my shanty, with + ventilation (night and day), frequent bathing, light meals, all of + which makes it better for me in my shattered helpless condition to tug + it out here in Mickle Street, than to transfer myself somewhere, to + seashore or mountains. It is not for a long time, anyway._"--WALT + WHITMAN. + + +Mr. Whitman had reached the limit of endurance when the artists bid him +and Camden adieu, while Mrs. Davis, with the constant demands upon her +time and strength, the condition of the house, unlimited entertaining +and lengthened working hours, had completely succumbed. Another thing +that had been to their disadvantage was the extreme heat, for it had +been and still was an extremely hot summer--a Jersey summer. Each was +prostrated, and for awhile rest and relaxation alone could be thought +of. A short lull that followed the recent turmoil, however, and +succeeding cool weather, did much towards their recuperation; but +unfortunately sick-headaches, which had been occasional with Mrs. +Davis, now became persistent; her vitality was gone, and her courage was +on the wane. In fact she never fully recovered, nor did she ever forget +"that awful summer of 1887." + +But while she was so miserable and ill she was not forgotten by her old +friends, who rallied at once to her assistance, and it was through their +thoughtfulness and kind attentions that a general and final collapse was +avoided. None of them had been willing to give her up altogether when +she moved into the Mickle Street house. She for her part had never +willingly neglected them; one or another, understanding this, had run in +the back way at odd times, and if by chance they had found the kitchen +in her undisputed possession, had gladly remained to lend her a helping +hand. + +Nor with her multiplicity of new duties and in her new surroundings had +she been unmindful of her habit of protectiveness, and this house +became, as her own had been, the temporary shelter for some orphan girl +or boy, some friendless woman or stranded young man. Crowded as it was, +the little Whitman home could make room for an emergency case. + +As the owner was just now confined for some weeks to his sleeping +apartment, Mrs. Davis could lie upon the kitchen lounge when the kind +ministrations of her friends relieved her of immediate household duties; +then in turn rouse herself, drag herself upstairs and attend to the +wants of the sick man there. Her helpers were glad to prove their +friendship for her, but it didn't reach the extent of waiting upon the +disabled poet; this rested with her alone. Not that they were afraid of +him, or that he had ever been rude or impolite to them, but not one of +them was exactly at ease in his presence. + +By good fortune, at this opportune time a gentleman and his wife invited +Mrs. Davis to accompany them upon an excursion to Southern California. +At first she declined the invitation; the distance seemed so great, and +Mr. Whitman was so poorly, there was no telling what might happen during +her absence. But she was still pressed to go, and unknown to her the +project was broached to Mr. Whitman, who highly approved of it. Finally +she accepted the proffered kindness; her friends assisted her in her +preparations, and she set off with pleasurable anticipations. This +journey was the one great delight of her life, and she returned much +benefited. But how about the good little woman who had strongly urged +her going, who had added her earnest persuasions to those of the others, +and who had offered her own and her daughter's services in place of +hers? Poor little woman, she did her best willingly and uncomplainingly; +but she did openly avow at the expiration of the three weeks that had +Mary stayed another day, she would have gone insane. + +During his housekeeper's brief absence, Mr. Whitman had found how truly +his home was not home without her. He frankly told her this, and +acknowledged to her that no one living could fill her place to him; that +others around him irritated him--unconsciously, he knew--while she +instinctively soothed and quieted him, overwrought and impatient as he +might sometimes feel. Furthermore, he presented her with a nice gold +ring. + +Soon after her return, Walt, who was quite himself once more, paid +another visit to the Staffords, and getting him ready for this trip was +her first work on reaching home. "Timber Creek" was his favorite resort, +a haunt he so thoroughly enjoyed that it flashed across the mind of a +friend while sauntering about with him there, that it would be a capital +idea to raise a "Walt Whitman Cottage Fund," and build him a little +summer home there. On cautiously sounding Walt upon the subject, he +eagerly responded: "Oh, how often I have thought of it!" + +So it was decided to build a cottage here, or by the seaside somewhere, +where he could spend part of the year with nature and away from the +noise and turmoil of the city. Eight hundred dollars were quickly raised +towards the fund; the site for building, tiles for the chimney and plan +by the architect were donated; but alas, it was seen that it was too +late in his life for the scheme to be feasible, and the money was +cheerfully given to him by the contributors to be used as he thought +best. + +On this particular occasion Mrs. Davis was more than glad to be alone. +The parlors were much as the artists had left them, and a general +housecleaning was instituted. And such a cleaning! Everything had to be +handled and looked over, discarded or packed away. It was a +disheartening task. Dried paint and plaster were on every side and +resisted all attempts at removal, as though they had learned the lesson +of persistency from the late sitter; besides, some repairs had to be +made against the coming winter, and the stove had rusted in the cellar. + +In good time all was accomplished and order again restored. Mr. Whitman +returned refreshed, and oh, so glad to get back to his own home once +more. But as a matter of course he acted as though beside himself for +awhile, and the old act of hunting for lost or missing articles was +repeated. Mrs. Davis, however, who had taken more than one lesson from +him, passed his perturbation by without apparent notice. She knew the +time was not far in the future when rapidly failing health would +altogether prevent his leaving home; he would probably be confined to +the upper part of the house, perhaps to his bed; and she thought it wise +to be in readiness for whatever was in store. + +Although he had been situated so auspiciously for his comfort, and in a +way to attain the great object he desired, Mr. Whitman's past four years +had not been all sunshine. He had had spells of deep depression, days +when he felt no inclination to come downstairs, or even to speak; and +during the winter of this year the dark cloud hovered more persistently +above him than ever before. For one thing, there were weeks when +extremely cold or stormy weather prevented his going out of doors. Mrs. +Davis had much sympathy for him while the dreary mood lasted, and in +many ways endeavored to dispel it. During the inclement weather she +found in her cheery canary bird a valued assistant, and knowing the old +man's fondness for the little fellow, she would at times stealthily +place the cage in his room, "and let the sun shine out for a moment, +this bird would flood the room with trills of melody." (The canary +outlived Mr. Whitman, and through his long sickness, lasting from the +summer of 1888 to the spring of 1892, it was always a welcome visitor in +his room.) This would act as an inspiration, and Mr. Whitman would often +take this time to write to some friend, always mentioning the singing of +the bird and the shining of the sun. + +"Pleasant weather as I write seated here by the window, my little canary +singing like mad." + +"Sunny and summery weather here, and my canary is singing like a house +on fire." + +"Dull weather, the ground covered with snow, but my little bird is +singing as I write." + +Good cheer may have been another comforting agent, for he writes: "We +have (Mrs. Davis has) just had a baking. Oh! how I do wish I could send +the dear frau one of our nice pumpkin pies, a very little ginger, no +other spice." + +"A cold freezing day. Have had my dinner of rare stewed oysters, some +toasted Graham bread, and a cup of tea." + +"Have had a bad spell of illness again, but am better to-day. Have just +eaten a bit of dinner for the first time in over a week--stewed rabbit +with a piece of splendid home-made bread, covered with stew-gravy." + +"Have just had my dinner--a great piece of toasted Graham bread, salted +and well buttered with fresh country butter, and then a lot of panned +oysters dumped over it, with hot broth; then a nice cup custard, and a +cup of coffee. So if you see in the paper that I am starving (as I saw +the other day), understand how." + +In speaking of Mrs. Davis in a letter of the previous summer, he writes: +"Very hot weather here continued. I am feeling badly, yet not so badly +as you might fancy. I am careful and Mrs. Davis is very good and cute." + +"Am idle and monotonous enough in my weeks and life here; but on the +whole am thankful it is no worse. My buying this shanty and settling +down here on half, or one-fourth pay, and getting Mrs. Davis to cook for +me, might have been bettered by my disposing some other way, but I am +satisfied it is all as well as it is." + +Through the winter Mr. Whitman plodded on with his literary work, and by +spring the parlors were once more transformed into a regular printing +and mailing establishment. To these over-filled rooms he had added an +oil portrait of an ancestor, a life-size bust of Elias Hicks, and a +seated statuette of himself. He was very careful of the two latter works +of art, and to protect them from dust kept them partially encased in +newspapers. When a caller once slyly lifted the paper from the +statuette, he found a colony of ants had made the lap of it their home. +The bust of Hicks was very conspicuous, and looked spectral in its paper +headgear. Mrs. Davis would occasionally remove the yellow and time-worn +papers, and replace them with clean ones. The owner no doubt noticed +this, but he had ceased to be too observant of some things, and had +become more lenient where "Mary" was the offender. And Mary had learned +just how far she could go with impunity. In a way their lives had merged +together. + +It was a custom with Mr. Whitman to have his manuscripts set up in type +before sending them away--even his "little bits" of newspaper +contributions. This was done in a "quaint little printing office" in +town, the proprietor of which was "an old fellow acquaintance" of +Walt's. In this matter, as in all others, he was very impatient, for the +moment anything was ready for the press he would summon Mrs. Davis, +regardless of time, weather or her own occupations, saying: "Take this +to the printer's, Mary, and tell him I want it _immediately_"; and +although most of this work was done gratuitously, the "old fellow +acquaintance" was decidedly accommodating to his honored patron, and +often laid other jobs aside for his "odd bits." He was as well always +courteous to Mrs. Davis. It may be that he could not withstand her +appeals for haste, and was willing to incommode himself to save her from +fruitless trips to the office; for he knew that in an unreasonably short +time the poet would demand his printed bit. In fact, so impatient would +the writer often become, that to pacify him his good housekeeper would +make half a dozen trips to the office. Frequently he would correct the +proof and return it for a second, perhaps a third or fourth printing, +and frequently he would say: "Don't come back without it, Mary; wait for +it." + +It would have been inconsistent with Mrs. Davis's natural activity for +her to remain sitting in a printing office for an unlimited time, +therefore she usually took advantage of these opportunities to do a +little shopping, make a friendly call, or even a hasty run to +Philadelphia. The corrected copies were never destroyed, but, like +everything else, were dropped on the floor. It was no wonder that "to +some Walt Whitman's house was a sort of conglomerated dime museum." +Strangers who called drew their own inferences and reported accordingly, +and in this way contradictory stories were told and sent out into the +world. Much that was false was believed, until the prevailing impression +was that "he was living in poverty and neglect." + +He was extremely non-committal, and his housekeeper never intruded her +knowledge upon anyone, so it was natural that errors as to his home life +should creep in. It was certainly difficult to credit that from sheer +preference any human being could live in and enjoy the state of +disorder that was found in the Whitman house, thanks to the poet's +peculiarities. But this manner of living suited him, and in it he found +true comfort. It must be confessed that things were outwardly so +indicative of neglect that mistakes were bound to be made, while little +of the actual life was known or understood, except by intimate friends. +"The junk shop jumble of those lonesome rooms," writes one; and again: +"I found the venerable poet in his garret, living in neglect and want, +cooking soup in a yellow bowl on a sheet-iron stove nearby." (_S. T. +Packard in a magazine article._) (The bowl merely contained clean water +for the purpose of moistening the overheated atmosphere of the room.) +Still further he writes: "Whenever his strength permitted he rose from +his armchair with the rough bear-robe thrown over the back." It was +really a white wolf-skin robe, a present to Mr. Whitman and of great +service to him. + +In truth the elucidation, explanation and straightening out of the +various stories concerning the life of Walt Whitman in Mickle Street +would require a volume in itself. No fancifulness, however, on the part +of more or less observant visitors could rival that of their subject, +for "His imagination could and did convert the narrow walls of the house +in Camden into boundaries of nations, seas, oceans, mountain-chains, +vistas of Eden, forests, cities, palaces, landscapes, hovels, homes of +the rich, and art galleries, so that Whitman was thus of the great world +while out of it." + +"A peculiar feature of Walt Whitman's rooms, those I mean which his +housekeeper is not allowed to put into order, is the chaos and confusion +in which his papers are coiled. The bump of order does not exist in his +cranium." (_William Sloane Kennedy._) + +But visitors were left to their own impressions, and these were too +often unjust to the woman who always did her best to prevent the +confusion from growing still worse confounded. + + + + +XI + +A SHOCK, AND SOME CHANGES + + "_You have a good housekeeper._"--E. L. KELLER. + + "_Yes, good, square--tip-top--devoted to me. Behind all she has spunk, + very sensitive, the least word sets her off. A good woman._"--WALT + WHITMAN. + + "_Sunsets and sunrises to his soul were almost equal to food for his + body._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + +At last the long tedious winter ended, and never was a spring more +welcome to Mr. Whitman, for his acme of enjoyment was still to be out of +doors. During the months when he was so closely confined to the house he +had become even more dependent upon his housekeeper, had more often +sought her companionship, had been more confidential towards her, and +had repeatedly expressed his thankfulness that he was in his own +domicile, and was so fortunate as to have her efficient services. He +would saunter more frequently into the kitchen for a social chat, and +preferred to take his meals there whenever he felt equal to it. +Altogether, he was much more domesticated. Still, he had been able to +go out sometimes, had taken part in a number of social gatherings, where +he had enjoyed the pleasure of congenial company, had even had "some +jolly dinners" in his own house; but nothing could compete with the +delight he experienced when he was under the blue sky. His drives were +absolutely joyful to him, and the first one set all his recuperative +forces in action. His rapid gain was distinctly perceptible, and +everything looked hopeful and promising. + +On May 31, 1888--his sixty-ninth birthday--a lawyer, one of his later +friends (_Mr. Thomas B. Harned, Horace Traubel's brother-in-law_), and +one at whose hospitable board he was often found, gave a reception and +supper in his honor. It was a most enjoyable affair. + +But four days later, after a lengthened drive Mr. Whitman was tempted to +visit the river bank to contemplate the setting sun. He imprudently +prolonged his stay until the evening dampness caused him to feel a +sensation of chilliness, which increased momentarily until upon his +reaching home it terminated in a real chill, followed by still more +serious consequences, for from it resulted a paralytic shock. It was not +a heavy shock, but was quite violent enough to cause alarm. At the +first symptom Mrs. Davis summoned a physician, and did everything in her +own power to alleviate his sufferings. He was seriously ill throughout +the night, and next day had two recurrences of the shock, one in the +morning and the other at noon. After the third it was believed, even by +his physicians, that the termination of all was near at hand. For hours +he was speechless, and to every appearance in a comatose condition. + +His friend Dr. R. M. Bucke of Canada--who had come to Camden to attend +the birthday celebration--had not yet returned home, and hurried at once +to the bedside, where he was unremitting in his care and attention. Dr. +Bucke was a skilful physician and a man of great executive ability, and +his timely presence was a great blessing to all. His appreciation of Mr. +Whitman as a writer, and his personal friendship for him, were of long +standing. + +To the surprise and relief of everybody, an unlooked-for reaction took +place, and the sick man's first words on recovering his speech were: "It +will soon pass over, and if it does not it will be all right." He was +carried to his sleeping apartment, and from this time to his death he +used the front parlor only as a sitting room. + +Dr. Bucke and Mr. Donaldson had talked much while their old friend was +lying in the comatose state, and both were troubled that things were so +complicated, and that no one in particular seemed to have the least +supervision over him or his personal belongings. Both were surprised +when they learned that he had never made a will, and had never offered a +suggestion or given any directions in regard to his literary affairs. +They were anxious as well, because they knew that in case of death, +which seemed so close at hand, his papers and manuscripts would be +scattered and lost. As to home matters, Dr. Bucke said that Mrs. Davis +was worn out and a permanent nurse must be provided. This point Mr. +Donaldson cordially endorsed. Of Mr. Whitman's pecuniary standing the +Doctor had no knowledge, but Mr. Donaldson was better informed in regard +to the sums he had received, and after consultation both fully agreed +that the time had come when someone must take charge of affairs and no +longer allow them to run on in the old haphazard way. + +They decided to talk with Mrs. Davis, and upon their doing this she +gave them a correct, full and truthful statement of the facts of the +case. She could well enlighten them on the subject of outgoings, and +both men were genuinely astonished to learn that Walt Whitman had never +contributed one farthing towards the maintenance of the house,--for +repairs, supplies, furniture or fuel. She told them that while so many +had been solicitous of Mr. Whitman's comfort and interests, she felt +aggrieved that no one had ever exhibited the least consideration for +her; that she had spoken to Mr. and Mrs. George Whitman a number of +times, and they had assured her that Walt was in a position to meet all +expenses of the house, and to the best of her belief they both supposed +that he was doing this, though neither had made any inquiries of her. +She said that in addition to her giving her time as general servant to +all, her funds were rapidly diminishing, her goods going to rack and +ruin, her health failing; and she felt that she could bear the burden no +longer. She mentioned the promises Walt had made, and added that she did +not doubt that in his way of thinking, and of doing things, he still +intended to deal honestly and honorably by her; that she had endeavored +to talk with him and come to a satisfactory understanding, until she +was convinced that he avoided the subject purposely. She felt that in no +way was she secured, and it was a positive fact that two years more +would bankrupt her. What she asked was a settlement on the spot, and +that someone might be found to take her place. + +_Take her place!_ Was there a woman upon earth who could or would do +this? It was a proposition that neither of her auditors would consider; +up to this time the thought of her leaving had never entered their +minds; indeed, no one had ever stopped to think that she might in time +wear out and be obliged to give up, or perhaps get discouraged and go of +her own free will. They urged her to abandon such an idea. What would +the Mickle Street house be without her? The mere suggestion was the +extreme of cruelty, for the sick man, although a little better at +present, was too low for any change, especially one that would touch him +so closely. Dr. Bucke gave her his word that he would be personally +responsible for all she had spent, and for proper payment for her +services as housekeeper both in the past and the future; he told her +that her work would be lightened immeasurably, as a regular nurse was +to be engaged; and that in case Mr. Whitman should die before matters +were settled, her interests should be carefully looked after. Relying on +this promise, she remained. + +In a few days Mr. Whitman's friends spoke to him and proposed that out +of his bank account, which had grown to some thousands of dollars, he +should hereafter purchase his own wood, pay for one-half the other fuel, +keep the house in repair, and settle his private expenditures, to all of +which he gave a ready and willing assent. Next day they advised his +making a will, which he did, and it is known that in this he made some +provision for Mrs. Davis, but its full contents were never disclosed, as +he wrote it himself. On learning that according to Jersey law a woman +could be the executor of an estate, he said it was his wish and desire +that his esteemed sister-in-law, Louise Whitman, should close his. (This +will was replaced by one made in December, 1891, during his last +sickness.) + +In regard to his literary matters, it was thought best that they should +be placed in the hands of three executors, Dr. Bucke being one. + +When it was made known that in future Mr. Whitman was to have a regular +nurse, some of his young admirers volunteered to solicit a monthly +contribution from his numerous friends to meet this expense. The patient +made some inquiries regarding the nurse fund, and on being told that it +was all right and attended to, never alluded to the subject again. The +task of keeping the fund up fell to Horace Traubel; for when it was +first started people subscribed under the impression that it was a +temporary matter, that Mr. Whitman's life hung on a thread, and that +they would only be called upon once or twice; so all ran smoothly for a +while. But as months merged into years some donors became tired of +giving, while others found themselves unable to continue. Mr. Traubel +was indefatigable in his endeavors to serve his friend. As one +subscriber after another fell out, he called upon people or wrote to +them in order to fill the vacant places. Besides this matter, in the +four years in which he was connected with the poet he did much writing +and corresponding for him, and was of great service to him. + +The sick man improved slowly, and when there were no longer any +indications of a relapse and everything had been satisfactorily +arranged, Dr. Bucke returned to his home; not however until he had again +talked with Mrs. Davis and had once more assured her that full justice +should be done, and that she need no longer feel uncertain as to her own +well-being. + +While Mr. Whitman was so very ill, there was no difficulty in securing a +professional nurse. The first, a gentlemanly middle-aged man named +Musgrove, left when the patient had in a measure regained his normal +condition. Other nurses were in turn engaged, but the place was so +undesirable, the duties so varied and uncongenial, accommodations so +lacking and the remuneration so small, that after a short trial each one +left, all of them testifying to the housekeeper's goodness to them, and +to her unselfish surrender of herself to their patient. + +After Mr. Musgrove's first few weeks there was not much regular nursing, +and at Mr. Whitman's request Mrs. Davis did most of this; but there +remained the heavy lifting and hard work. The wood was bought in cord +lengths and thrown through the slanting door into the cellar, where it +was sawed and split. The cellar was not only cold and damp, but the wood +was often wet and clumsy to handle. Besides sawing, splitting and +carrying the wood up two flights of stairs, the nurse was expected to do +sufficient carpentering to keep the house in repair, shovel snow in +winter, run errands for his patient, and later wheel him about the +streets in an invalid chair. This chair was purchased from the proceeds +of a birthday dinner given for the poet in his own city, May 31, 1889. +One hundred and twenty-five dollars were donated on the occasion, and as +Mr. Whitman had now become too decrepit to use his carriage, that and +the horse were disposed of, and the wheel-chair substituted. + +There was so much trouble in getting a nurse who cared to remain, that +late in the fall following the shock Dr. Bucke sent a young Canadian to +fill the place. This young man, who desired to study medicine, had +accepted the position with that object in view, and coming through +personal interests alone he was naturally much engrossed in his own +affairs, and never lost sight of his own advantages. He saw that by +embracing this opportunity he could attain the necessary knowledge, keep +a roof over his head (one that generally leaked, but this did not dampen +his ardor), earn his board and clothing, and have besides the great +benefit of attending lectures in Philadelphia. + +During the five months between the shock and the advent of the student +nurse, Mr. Whitman had resumed his writing, and his bedchamber became +his sanctum. Before his illness Mrs. Davis had managed to keep the upper +portion of the house in passable order. Now it was gradually assuming +the late appearance of the parlors, for here at least Mr. Whitman had +full control, and would brook no interference whatever. When the nurse +found that his best endeavors to bring about a change in this merely +meant wasted time, he quietly went his own way and left his patient to +do the same. He confessed that he thought him "the most singular mortal" +he had ever met, and said: "When I was first employed he would chat ten +minutes at a time with me; now we pass about twenty words a day. Keeps +his own business to himself, and talks but little even with his +intimates." + +The young man's application to his studies appeared so commendable to +Mrs. Davis that she at once set about trying to forward his efforts. The +only method she saw was to do his washing, ironing and mending, that the +small weekly sum thus saved might go towards purchasing books he needed +and could not afford to buy. He was delighted to own the volumes so +obtained, and would pore over them for hours at a time, totally +unmindful of the fact that the real donor was performing many duties +that should justly have fallen to him. Having no room of his own, the +kitchen was necessarily his study, and in a letter he writes: "Mr. +Whitman calls me by knocking on the floor, I usually being in the room +below." + +Mrs. Davis always prepared the invalid's meals, carried them to him, and +if possible sat with him when he partook of them. These were their times +for exchanging confidences and chatting on home topics. "More than +anyone else was she his confidant, and deserved to be." (_Thomas +Donaldson._) + +He was interested in simple things, and little home talks never wearied +him. He used few, plain and ordinary words in conversation, and his +manner was simplicity itself. Mrs. Davis never spoke of anything +unpleasant to him, and was always on guard lest others might do so; she +was a good listener, not a loquacious talker, and her voice, naturally +soft, had a soothing effect. + +His literary matters were well looked after, and he seldom called his +nurse except for some actual need. Such comments, however, as the +following are misleading: "He treats his household as by a holy law, +Mrs. Davis his housekeeper never finds him indifferent, condescending or +morose. His spirit ignores all petty household worries...." ("_In Re +Walt Whitman._") + +Mrs. Davis also sat with the sick man, or within call, whether his nurse +had gone on an errand for him, or to Philadelphia on his own account. +And yet the student-nurse made no sign of reciprocating her many +kindnesses to him; took everything she did for him as his just due; +accepted any and every service she might render him, but most +emphatically refused to give one in return. He left Camden the last of +October, 1889, and returned to Canada. He parted both with Mr. Whitman +and Mrs. Davis on the most friendly terms, saying that much as he +disliked to leave them, his own worldly future depended upon other work +than nursing. + +[Illustration: "_A time-worn look and scent of oak attach both to the +chair and the person occupying it_" (_Letter from Walt Whitman_)] + + + + +XII + +ANCHORED + + "_Am anchored helpless here all day, but get along fairly. Fortunately + have a placid, quiet, even, solitary thread quite strong in weft of my + disposition._"--WALT WHITMAN (Aug. 22, 1890). + + "_Whitman's stalwart form itself luxuriates in a curious great + cane-seat chair, with posts and rungs like a ship's spars; altogether + the most imposing heavy-timbered, broad-armed and broad-bottomed + edifice of the kind possible. It was the gift of the young son and + daughter of Thomas Donaldson of Philadelphia, and was made especially + for the poet._"--WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY. + + +The long confinement to his room covering more than half of '88, and +extending into the next year, had forced Mr. Whitman to relinquish his +summer and autumn drives. This was the one thing to which he could not +be reconciled; the one thing to which he had looked forward so wistfully +all the previous winter and spring. Alas! the fatal river drive was his +last. As already explained the horse and carriage, now useless to him, +were disposed of, and the wheel-chair took their place. This chair was +indeed a boon to him, and he appreciated the thoughtful kindness of his +friends in the appropriate gift. + +As soon as his strength would permit, which was some months after his +attack, he had resumed his writing. He had also read his papers and +periodicals, and thus managed to wear the long days through. The cheery +canary had done his part in helping to beguile the irksome hours, and +Watch, the coach dog, sure of a friendly greeting had made a daily call. +Towards spring the time had been less tedious, and in March the invalid +had become sufficiently strong to be assisted downstairs. At this he was +highly encouraged, for he realized the advancement he had made. + +While he had been so low in the past summer, Mrs. Davis had once more +instituted a regular cleaning and renovating of the parlors. This he +must have noticed, but he made no remarks in regard to it. He was led +now to his favorite window, where stood his armchair with the white +wolf-skin thrown over the back; in this he was placed, and day after day +sat contentedly anchored. It was a sad disappointment to him when +ailments occasionally prevented his coming downstairs; here he preferred +taking his evening meal and meeting his friends. Writing materials were +always at hand on a small shelf under the window sill, but these he used +only to jot down passing thoughts or to indite a friendly line. + +Soon he could come into the kitchen, where he often chose to dine. +Sometimes his friends would join him in a "jolly dinner" in the dear old +place; but things had changed--were but a semblance of what had +been--and his desire to remain undisturbed and with his housekeeper +alone during meal times grew upon him. + +During the summer and fall he had incidental outings with his nurse +(Eddie Wilkins, the student). The first few were necessarily of short +duration and slow of motion, then as his strength returned they were +lengthened, and he realized the pleasure in store for him should his +life be prolonged another year. + +After each ride Mrs. Davis met him with some light refreshment, after +which all he desired was rest--a long rest, sometimes of several days. + +It was impossible to receive one-half of the people who called upon +him--indeed, this would have been a tax upon a strong man. Mrs. Davis +always answered the door bell; and it was no uncommon thing for him to +tell her that as he wanted to have a day of unbroken tranquillity, no +one was to be admitted to his room--excepting always a number of dear +old friends, and his ever-welcome brother and good sister-in-law. + +Strange that these were often the days when visitors would flock there, +the great majority of whom would leave deeply disappointed, and for this +cause the inoffensive housekeeper--she who had to bear the brunt of +everything--incurred the displeasure, even the enmity, of some people. +So little was known to the world at large of the poet's private life and +of his state of health, that strangers would sometimes go to certain +persons in Philadelphia to inquire how they might have an audience with +him. This condition of things did not develop until after the illness of +the previous year, and much trouble resulted from it, as visitors would +show their cards or letters of introduction and insist upon going to his +room. Friends living either in Philadelphia or in Camden, especially +those who saw much of the poet, should have been mindful that so sick a +man might not at all times feel inclined to talk with strange people, or +might not be equal to it if he were so inclined. But his wishes or +needs were not conformed with, and in some cases the protestations of +Mrs. Davis were wholly disregarded. + +She invariably met each individual pleasantly and never spoke hastily or +abruptly to anyone; she always gave civil answers to their questions; +often went to Mr. Whitman to intercede for them; and it was through her +influence alone that many were admitted to his presence. But if he was +not disposed to yield, her best efforts would be in vain, and the only +alternative left her was to offend others instead of him. + +During the seven years she was with him she had numberless strange or +even unique experiences, but having quick perception she was seldom +deceived. Some people would haughtily demand an audience with the poet; +others would compromise by interviewing her, while the more determined +would force their way in uninvited and positively refuse to leave the +house until they had spoken with the owner. Many brought gifts which +they wished to present in person; and veterans came asking that they +might only clasp the hand that had ministered to them so tenderly at +some time during the civil war. Nor were souvenir fiends wanting, and +many trinkets, ornaments and keepsakes belonging to Mrs. Davis were +surreptitiously carried off. + +A few people spoke slightingly of the housekeeper, but never in Mr. +Whitman's presence, for "Mary" was "Mary" to him at all times and in all +places. + +A number who had rendered him services--those in particular who within +the last year or two had given money towards his support (as was +supposed)--were indignant that Mrs. Davis should presume to speak so +decidedly to them, believing that were their names only taken to Walt he +would be delighted to see them. And yet a visit to the poet in his own +house was to some people a decided disappointment, even when they were +able to see and talk with him. They did not find what they had been +looking for, something based on idle rumor and curious expectation, +something extraordinary or even outlandish. + +One of the most noticeable things about him, says one, was "an absence +of all effort to make a good impression, or of posing." Instead of +finding a gruff old fossil, or bearding a lion in his den, they found an +everyday, quiet, dignified man. + + + + +XIII + +WARREN FRITZINGER + + "_He (Mr. Wilkins) left Mr. Whitman in October, 1889, and was + succeeded as nurse by Warren Fritzinger, a young man of twenty-five, + and a son of Mary O. Davis, his housekeeper and friend. Mr. Fritzinger + (Warry) remained with Mr. Whitman until his death, a faithful, earnest + man._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + "_I get along well, am comfortable, have a fair appetite, and keep a + good oak fire._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + +While the question of getting another nurse was pending, Harry and +Warren Fritzinger returned to Camden. It was a mutual surprise, for the +brothers had lost trace of each other and came from different parts of +the world. It was indeed a joyful reunion, and though seven years had +elapsed since they had seen their foster-mother, their love had not +abated and each brought her a substantial gift in money. Coming from +California, Warren's gift was in gold--double eagles. + +They remembered Walt Whitman as a man, but neither of them had read his +poetry, and although their mother had mentioned the change at the time +it was made, they knew nothing of the way in which she was living, and +both were much alarmed at her altered appearance. Not at all satisfied, +they urged her to resign her position; to move into a more fitting +place, and let them take care of her. + +But believing, as did others, that Mr. Whitman's life was drawing to a +close, she pleaded that she could not reconcile her mind to deserting +him in his helplessness. She enlightened them in regard to financial +matters, saying that she thought it wiser to wait quietly where she was +until things were adjusted. Again, the house practically contained her +possessions only, and these she could not think of moving at a time like +the present; the sick man could not abide the confusion. She furthermore +said that the house had become homelike to her, that all of Mr. +Whitman's friends were kind to her, especially his sister-in-law, who +made weekly visits, always bringing something with her; that she had +implicit confidence in Mrs. Whitman, and knew that should any +controversy arise in the settling of affairs, this upright and capable +woman would be on her side. Again, she had pledged her word to stay; it +was expected of her; and yet the strongest argument came from her own +kind heart--the old man needed her. + +In her many talks with Warren she told him how she dreaded the coming of +another strange nurse, even though his term of service was likely to be +so short; and as she could not see how a few months, at most, could make +any material difference to him, she did wish that he would make up his +mind to apply for the position. Mr. Whitman's friends and literary +executors at once caught at this, and all brought their influence to +bear, pressing the place upon him and promising that, should he remain +until Mr. Whitman's demise, they would stand by him and see him placed +in some good way of earning a livelihood. + +The situation had no inducements for him; it was in fact decidedly +distasteful; but feeling assured that it couldn't really affect his +worldly career, he consented. He was not one to do things by halves, and +from the day he undertook this work until the last hour of his patient's +life, he performed his manifold duties in a cheerful, willing and most +capable manner. + +He loved the sea, with its broad spaces, and soon the narrow limits of +the little house became intolerable to him. This he did not betray, and +being naturally light-hearted and always appearing happy, few who met +him realized the trial he was undergoing. He was honest and +straightforward, and believed everyone to be the same. + +Mr. Whitman, who had taken to him at once, was delighted when he was +told that this bright "sailor boy" was to be his next attendant. Warren +was indeed a blessing, not only to the patient, but to his mother, for +he was always ready to assist her and to help out in times of need. But, +better than all, he soon acquired a way of quietly managing the "good +gray poet" that no other living mortal ever attained. When it was +decided that massage would benefit Mr. Whitman, he took a course in a +Philadelphia hospital and became a professional masseur, as well as +wood-sawyer and amateur carpenter. + +Good places were offered him, but he was bound, and could accept none of +them. One excellent position was kept open for months and he was advised +by his friends not to let so good an opportunity go by, but Mr. Whitman +lingered on, and the place was filled. In going to sea as a boy, Warren +was at a disadvantage on land. This he realized, and in the situation +thus surrendered he had seen a way in which he could retrieve his lost +time. + +Walt's literary attainments and associations were pleasant enough to +encounter, but they were of no material benefit to him, and the +remuneration was much smaller than he had ever before received. This was +a great drawback, for having met a young lady whom he hoped to marry, he +felt inclined and perfectly able to better himself. + +As his predecessor's prediction, that Mr. Whitman would not outlive the +year, was not verified, and New Year's Day, 1890, not only found him +alive but in a much improved condition, with no indications of immediate +danger, it came home to Warren that he had unfortunately tied himself to +an uncertainty, and that his term of service might be years instead of +weeks. There seemed no present help, however, so he philosophically +accepted the conditions and stuck to his work with manly courage. + +Warren's engagement commenced so late in the season that Mr. Whitman had +but a few outings before another winter shut him in. He had however two +or three trips to the river bank, which he enjoyed greatly; all the more +because they led to conversations on ships and ocean life. Warren was a +fluent and interesting talker, which made him an enviable companion for +anyone who, like the poet, was an ardent lover of freedom and the +boundless deep. He often referred to Warren as his "sailor boy," and +said that he was of much service to him when he was at a loss about the +names of different parts of a ship. The young "sailor boy" had a vein of +poetry in his own composition, and although he might not be qualified to +weigh the bard's words and their import in the same scale with some +others, he got a clear insight into their meaning. + +The sick man had his ups and downs during this winter, but was seldom +confined to his bed more than a week at a time. When he was at all able, +he was helped downstairs to sit by the window. He spent more time in the +kitchen with Mrs. Davis, and took a lively interest in anything she +might be doing; he talked to the birds, made a playmate of the cat, had +fellowship with the dog--in short his home life resembled that of any +old man in his own home and with his own kin. He would read and write a +little at a time, or glance over his papers, but there was a perceptible +falling off in all ways, and his domestic life became more and more +dear to him; it had no jars, ran smoothly along, and was to him his +world. + +He was still just as inflexible about having his own way. However, it +had so long been a part of his housekeeper's life to yield to this, that +he seldom had to insist upon anything. He would usually retire early +now, though this was not a stated rule. He might be in bed by eight +o'clock, or up until midnight, and he was as ingenious as ever in making +work for other people. As his massage was to be the last thing before +sleep, Warren could not calculate upon his own doings for a single +evening. He might go out before dark, make a call or do an errand, then +hasten home to wait up two or three hours or even longer; or on going +out and remaining but a little beyond eight, would on his return find +his patient in bed groaning, and saying that he had been suffering +severely for his rubbing, or "pummelling," as he called it. Suffice it +to say he was as exacting with his willing nurse as he had always been +with his faithful housekeeper. During the two and a half years that +Warren was with him, he had but a single untrammelled evening, for Mr. +Whitman wanted him always near, even when no service was required. And +so things jogged on satisfactorily to friends and admirers, but +tediously indeed to the young marine. + +Horace Traubel writes: "Warren Fritzinger, who attends upon Mr. Whitman +and is provided for through a fund steadily replenished by a group of +Walt's lovers--and who finds his services a delight--attests that +whatsoever the hour or necessity, Whitman's most intimate humor is to +the last degree composed and hopeful." ("_In Re Walt Whitman._") Others +have written of this period as one of grave neglect; a time when the +aged man was deprived of the care and comfort so essential to one in his +condition. They underrated both his means and the attention lavished +upon him. + +"He is old and poor," says one, "and were it not for small contributions +from time to time from friends who sympathize with him in his poverty, +age and helplessness, would actually suffer for the bare necessaries of +life. For many years his income from all sources has not exceeded an +average of two hundred dollars, which to a person in his helpless +condition goes but a little way even in supplying the roughest and +commonest of food and care." And again: "His wants are not many, for he +lives simply from necessity and choice; but in his old age and +constantly failing health, he needs that comfort and attendance which +he has not the means to procure." + +The poet himself was neither discontented nor dull. As his infirmities +brought new privations, he bowed to the inevitable. He missed the +outdoor life keenly, but was grateful for such trips as he could get +under Warren's care. As for indoors, conversations if protracted wore +upon him, and he could no longer take part in them with anything of his +old enthusiasm and vim. But there was no fundamental infirmity of mind, +no childishness of senility; he was essentially young in his habits, +thought and manner, and remained so until his death. Sometimes, indeed, +the flame of mental energy rose high again; and it was never +extinguished. + +"The body was fading; the vital parts seemed reluctant to die even in +their own exhaustion. The soul, the mind, the man were there, and at +times in full vigor, while the case was wrecked. Grandly and clearly his +mentality stood above the slowly straining and wasting body." (_Thomas +Donaldson._) + +But others suffered with and through him. Warren had relinquished hope +after hope, had on several occasions abandoned his resolve to better +himself and get married; his mother's entreaties and the reiterated +promises and solicitations of Mr. Whitman's friends, especially his +literary executors, were more than he could combat. But with all outward +signs of contentment, the confinement soon left visible marks upon him; +a second pair of rosy cheeks faded, and from handling the icy wood in +the cellar a lasting cold was contracted. + +He purchased a writing desk--one that fitted the niche between the +chimney and the window in the anteroom--and here he wrote, studied and +read when not actively employed; always busy, always within call. When +the monotony and confinement became too pressing, he purchased a violin +and took music lessons. He declared that this saved him from fits of +desperation. + +Mr. Whitman himself was not the only old person dependent for comfort +upon Mrs. Davis and her sons, for the maternal grandparents of the +latter, living in Beardstown, Pennsylvania, octogenarians and both +amazingly jealous of the poet, had to be visited, looked after and +consoled. + +One great annoyance to Warren was Mr. Whitman's aversion to prompt +payment. The old man had signified his willingness to purchase his own +wood, but he was so delinquent about settling for it that the +proprietor of the woodyard, a man whose heart had never been warmed by +the poet's effusions, saw no reason why he should warm his body gratis, +and so sent him bill after bill, until at length he refused to deliver a +load until the previous one was paid for. Be it understood, Mr. Whitman +intended to pay for his wood, but he intended to pay in his own time, +and not be dictated to; consequently there was a controversy when each +load was delivered. "His pride was adamant to anything that seemed +concession." (_John T. Trowbridge._) + +Warren knew that the old man had money, that right was on the +wood-dealer's side, and he would not follow his mother's way of putting +people off--telling them that Mr. Whitman was too miserable to be +troubled, asking for an extension of time, etc., then paying the bill +herself and lacking the courage to present the receipt. No, "Warry" +would approach the subject in such an original fashion and hand the bill +to his patient in such an offhand way that it would appeal to him +directly, and as a rule the money was counted out with a quiet chuckle. +Eddie Wilkins wrote: "Mr. Whitman is stubborn and self-willed. You can +only get along with him by letting him have his own way." Warren would +meet the stubbornness and self-will with just as persistent good-nature, +and would usually gain his point. He was the only person Walt Whitman +never chloroformed with one of his "Ahs!" + +Early in April, 1890, the poet was asked to read his Lincoln lecture at +the Art Club rooms in Philadelphia, and he agreed. He was just +recovering from a bad spell, and Mrs. Davis did her best to dissuade him +from such an undertaking, but without avail; he summoned up his +resolution once more and had his own way. With the assistance of Warren +and others, he dressed and painfully dragged himself to the place of +destination, and there, before a gay and crowded assembly, he appeared +for the last time in public as a speaker. But the effort was too great, +and when the reading was ended and the congratulations over, he was +taken home in a suffering and nearly unconscious condition and carried +to his bed, where, exhausted and worn out, he was for some days obliged +to remain. However, on May 31 he was sufficiently recovered to attend a +birthday dinner at Reiser's in Philadelphia. When the guests were +assembled--some fifty or sixty in number--Warren wheeled him into the +room, where without leaving his chair he joined in the convivialities of +the occasion. He did not fear to dissipate a little at events like this, +nor did he always pause at the point of prudence, for he knew that in +whatsoever state he might reach home the best of after-care awaited him +there. + +During the spring and summer the chair rides were resumed whenever he +was at his best, and he entered into the enjoyment with zest and +appreciation. When feeling particularly well he would make up for lost +time, until the rolling chair with its distinguished occupant and +handsome boyish-looking propeller was often seen by the hour as it +passed through the streets of Camden and adjacent suburbs. This chair +stimulated the interest of the neighbors and whenever it was carried to +the sidewalk the news spread quickly, so that by the time Mrs. Davis +appeared with Warren, helping the old man down the stoop, they had a +good-sized and extremely attentive audience. No doubt they had long +since ceased to look upon Mr. Whitman as a mysterious personage, but +they comprehended that he was not one of them, and everything new +connected with him still excited their curiosity. + +Warren's advent at a season when he was so needed was indeed a blessing +to his mother. Now she could count upon her time and arrange for her +work, could go out with no anxiety as to home matters, and could have +the kitchen to herself when she wished. + +The heat of this summer debilitated the invalid more than that of the +previous one, or even of the famous (or dreadful) one of 1887, devoted +so exhaustingly to art. For days the old man would now be too overcome +for any outing, and would be glad instead to sit on the sidewalk, as of +old, in the shade of his cherished tree. He spent some evenings with +friends, and occasionally went out to a Sunday dinner or to meet certain +people; but this became too strenuous, and the after-effects too +serious. + +The chair rides, though so often interrupted, were continued until late +in the fall. + +"Was out in wheel-chair yesterday, November 8, from twelve to +two-thirty." + +He made a few visits to the river, and seated in his chair took his last +boat rides across it. In October he visited Philadelphia for the last +time. + + + + +XIV + +FRIENDS, MONEY, AND A MAUSOLEUM + + "_Christmas Day, 1890, was spent by Walt Whitman in giving himself and + all his family a Christmas present for all eternity. He went out to + Harleigh Cemetery, a suburb of Camden, to select a site for a + tomb._"--WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY. + + +On the evening of October 21, Colonel Robert Ingersoll gave a lecture in +Horticulture Hall, Philadelphia, for the benefit of Mr. Whitman. The +subject was "Liberty in Literature." + +This form of assistance to the poet was suggested to Colonel Ingersoll +by Mr. Johnston of New York, one of Walt's oldest and most valued +friends, who came to Camden to talk the matter over and make the +necessary arrangements. Mr. Whitman took unusual interest in the project +and was desirous of being present. Mr. Johnston, who had great +confidence in Mrs. Davis and much regard for her opinion, consulted her +upon the subject. She said that recent cool weather had done much for +the old man, and barring unlooked-for accidents, she believed that he +could be counted upon. Mr. Whitman himself, who was well aware that his +later appearances in public had proved a great tax upon his strength, +declared his intention of husbanding the little that remained for the +event. This he did; the evening arrived, the weather was favorable, and +all was well. + +Every possible exertion had been spared him, and he started off in high +spirits. An easy carriage had been secured, and he reached the hall +without fatigue; even in better condition than had been anticipated. He +was accompanied by a friend, and by Warren and Mrs. Davis, for both Mr. +Johnston and Colonel Ingersoll had insisted upon her being one of the +party. On alighting from the carriage and entering the hall, Mrs. Davis +was given a seat in the audience not far from the stage, and Mr. Whitman +and Warren were taken behind the scenes, where the lecturer and some +gentlemen awaited them. An armchair had been placed for the poet by the +speaker's stand. A few moments before the lecture began, he came upon +the stage and seated himself. He was greeted with enthusiasm by the +overflowing house, and when the eloquent speaker had closed his fine +address, he arose, came forward and spoke a few words. This was his last +appearance in public. + +Colonel Ingersoll had engaged a room in a nearby hotel, where at the +close of the lecture a small company were invited to partake of a +collation and pass an informal, social hour. When all were seated at the +table, the Colonel handed Mr. Whitman $870 as his share of the proceeds, +and upon doing so remarked to Mrs. Davis: "That sum will keep you all in +comfort this winter." But like all other sums received by Mr. Whitman, +it was deposited unbroken in the bank. + +Mr. Whitman stood this exertion well, but the reaction came later; the +borrowed strength gave out, and the winter found him much the worse for +wear. He came downstairs a number of times in October and November, and +had occasional outings, but he passed the time chiefly in his own room, +and the big chair which Warren and his mother had carried up and down +stairs, to the place where it was needed for the time being, was never +again taken below. He sat up much less, however, and would lie upon his +back for hours, with his eyes partially closed and his hands crossed +upon his breast. + +Letters came with kind wishes and friendly words; these he appreciated, +though he could seldom answer them. Yet he still read and wrote a +little, still looked over his newspapers and periodicals, and the +accumulating litter therefore received its weekly contributions; but at +his mother's earnest request Warren did not interfere. When little +things were carried upstairs, the old man would often ask that they +might be left. If any article were taken up he would usually say, "Leave +it a while longer; I may want it by and by." This accounts for the +soiled dishes frequently seen in his room. + +Old friends and new ones were constant, and seemed to devise ways in +which they could shower attentions upon the sick man. The oysterman in +the next street sent word that he was at all times welcome to a free +share of his stock in trade, and there was no time when oysters were not +kept unopened in the cellar; but Mr. Whitman beyond doubt overstepped +the bounds of the donor's generous intentions when he treated his +company so lavishly to stews and half-shells, also when he ordered +supplies for his young men friends in return for services they rendered +him. Mrs. Davis and Warren did not approve of this, and each was ashamed +to visit the little place so many times; they without money, and the +oysters without price. + +Did Mr. Whitman, in truth, have an accurate or an undeveloped knowledge +of the cost of living? + +Eddie Wilkins writes: "Oh, he knows the value of money, and is very +careful with his own." + +His benevolence to the sick and wounded soldiers during a great part of +the civil war is an old and often repeated story, but in this he was to +a great extent the almoner of others. His self-sacrificing labors as a +volunteer visiting nurse were his own free-will offering, and from them +came his long years of suffering, for his early paralysis was the result +of these exhaustive and unremitted efforts. + +"His devotion surpassed the devotion of woman." (_John Swinton, in a +letter to the New York Herald_, April 1, 1876.) + +Most of the time while he was living in Washington he occupied a small +room up three flights of stairs. He had but little furniture and no +dishes; he ate out of paper bags and subsisted upon a very meagre sum +of money. This sufficed for that period of his life, when he was in "his +splendid prime." (_John Swinton._) He had health, strength and only +himself to think of; and taking a house of his own in after +years--humble as was the one in Mickle Street--did not seem to mature in +him any realizing sense of the intrinsic value of money, or reveal to +him his own pecuniary obligations. He never seemed to question what +housekeeping involved, never seemed to pause and think that certain +responsibilities rested upon him alone, or feel that he might be +wronging others, especially those whose services he accepted and whose +embarrassments he never inquired into, never offered to relieve. But +Mrs. Davis, conservative, conscientious, and true to him, did not +disclose his domestic failures or discuss them with others. His +financial standing was not revealed to his English friends, and remained +quite a secret until the Christmas season of this year, when he was +given a site for a grave in Harleigh Cemetery. + +It is not unreasonable to believe that he had special designs in putting +money so quietly aside, one of which--and the greatest, perhaps--was to +build a family vault. It has been said that it was for this very +purpose he accumulated money; hoarded, accepted and saved in the most +minute of things. Thomas Bailey Aldrich often told the delightful story +of a certain $9.00 which Whitman borrowed from him--magnificently, but +also irrevocably--in Pfoff's restaurant on Broadway. + +After he had accepted and secured the site, he spoke freely of his +wishes and intentions regarding the tomb. He specified that certain +members of his family should be placed in it, and requested in +particular that his parents should be brought from Long Island to sleep +with them there. + +It was to be of granite, massive and commodious; and on a projection +above the door was to be a granite statue of himself, standing. His +ideas were excessive, and the expense far beyond his means; still, he +may have thought that the proceeds accruing from his book would warrant +an extravagance for death that he never vouchsafed to life. The tomb was +begun according to his orders, but was finished on a much smaller +scale--as it now stands--and just in time to lay him therein. + +When it became known that preparations had been made to erect this +costly mausoleum, it dawned upon some of his friends that he had a way +of keeping things to himself. It certainly did seem strange that some of +them should pay a monthly tax for his support when he had means of his +own, and could contemplate such an expenditure as this. In truth people +were getting tired of the constant drain upon their purses, and many had +long questioned why they should so frequently be called upon, and +wondered what _could_ become of the money that flowed in large and small +streams into the Whitman exchequer. A few even suspected Mrs. Davis of +appropriating it, and of this--unknown to her--she was accused. She was +also charged with wastefulness, neglect of the invalid, and gross +incompetence. + +The poet still kept his affairs to himself, and "it may be he thought +that what he received from his admirers was but a portion of the debt +they owed him." (_William Sloane Kennedy._) + +January and February of this winter were hard months to the sick man. He +suffered with severe headaches, lassitude and inertia, added to which he +had long and obstinate spells of indigestion. He remarked to some old +friends that he suffered somewhat from want of persons to cheer him up; +most visitors came to him to confess their own weakness and failures, +and to disburden themselves of their sorrows. It was just the opposite +disposition in his two constant attendants that made their companionship +so agreeable to him. Warren's witty and playful sallies always provoked +a quiet smile, and his mother's "inventive thoughtfulness" was rewarded +with an appreciative, approving look. + +During March he made some gain, but it was not until April 15 that he +got out of doors to enjoy the sunshine and invigorating air. With his +rides new courage came to him, and in May he was able to be taken to the +cemetery to witness the progress made on the tomb. But in the last ten +months of his life he was so worn by pain, and had so aged, that his +restful, reliable home comforts were the dearest of all earthly things +to him. + + + + +XV + +THE LAST BIRTHDAY PARTY + + "_There was one more birthday dinner celebrated with his friends in + the Mickle Street house on May 31, 1891. Whitman was seventy-two. That + privacy, which is the normal privilege of old age, was one of the + kinds of happiness which he didn't experience._"--BLISS PERRY. + + "_Munching a little bread dipped in champagne and talking about Death. + He had never been more picturesque._"--BLISS PERRY. + + +On May 31, when Mr. Whitman had reached the age of seventy-two, his last +birthday (as it proved) was celebrated by a dinner given in his own +home. This arrangement was adopted as the only means of ensuring his +presence, and the gathering was the final social event in that little +house. + +The managing committee was composed of young men, most of whom knew +nothing of the limited dimensions of the place, and had not reflected +upon the incongruity of their undertaking; nor, until the plans were all +made, arrangements nearly completed and the invitations issued, was Mrs. +Davis told what was to take place. When the youngest of the three +literary executors, who had devised and was at the head of the scheme, +finally informed her, she said she feared that such a thing as seating +thirty-six people in the parlors was impracticable; however, she would +do her best in helping them to carry out their wishes. + +It was by good luck that the arrangements were in the hands of +inexperienced, enthusiastic and hopeful young people, for the +difficulties to be overcome would have discouraged older and more +experienced folk at the outset. It was better still for them that they +found a well-balanced mind, willing hands and managing skill in their +home agent, as this alone saved them from ignoble failure. First the +parlor doors, double and single, together with the hall and kitchen +doors, secured with old-fashioned six-screw hinges, were removed and +carried into the yard; the spare bed put up since Mr. Whitman's last +stroke was taken down, together with the stove, and with the entire +furniture likewise removed. This was literally turning the parlors +inside out. + +Mrs. Davis, as usual, succeeded in making a place for everything. Warren +did most of the hard work and lifting, while his mother swept the rooms, +cleaned the windows, put up fresh curtains and made the place so +presentable that the young men of the committee, who took kindly to her +encouraging words and wise suggestions, acknowledged that they did not +see how they could have managed without her ready and efficient +coöperation. On the morning of the birthday she was of equal service to +the waiters who, when the tables, chairs and dishes arrived, discovered +many drawbacks in such an unlooked-for banquet hall. + +The head table was placed across the front parlor, in a line with the +windows, the other, the length of the back parlor, forming a T with it; +and these, with the small chairs, so completely filled the rooms that +only just sufficient space was left for the waiters to serve the guests +through the two doorways. Most of the viands came ready cooked, and the +caterer had done full justice to them; the coffee was made on the +kitchen stove, which, with the little one in the shed, was brought into +requisition for heating purposes. Mrs. Davis was usefulness itself in +getting things in readiness, advising with the caterer and helping him +out of quandaries. When the dinner had been decided upon she had been +told that it should put her to no extra work; and when she made the +matter really possible she was told that she had done her part, which +should end there, as the committee would attend to putting things to +rights afterwards. + +Getting Mr. Whitman ready, and seeing that he was in no way overtaxed, +was of much importance, and it was carefully looked after. At the +appointed hour, seven P. M., the guests assembled, and there being no +reception room, each took his or her assigned place at the table; then, +when all were seated, the venerable host was brought down. He was met +with congratulations, and led to the head of the table. There were +twenty-seven men and five women present, and not until the greetings +were over did he and his old friends observe that Mrs. Davis had been +left out. Room at the table was not wanting, as three chairs were vacant +through the non-arrival of the expected occupants; besides, two of the +ladies were strangers to the poet. Mrs. Davis felt the slight, although +she could not very well have formed one of the company in any event, her +presence being indispensable elsewhere. + +It was a good dinner and well served, all things considered. The day was +insufferably hot, and the windows and the front door were left wide +open. Many noticed and remarked that during the dinner no loungers were +about the front of the house, "no boys looking in, yelling or throwing +stones or mud--no curiosity gazers. Respect for Mr. Whitman possibly +prevented this." (_Thomas Donaldson._) Respect for Mr. Whitman in part, +no doubt, but a greater respect for a contract made beforehand; Mrs. +Davis had bought them off; something good for each one of them for good +conduct. She was not so successful in securing the same considerate +behavior from Watch, her coach dog, for to her great mortification, just +as one gentleman commenced to read "O Captain! my Captain!" he came into +the parlor doorway, "put his nose up in the air and uttered a series of +the most ungodly howls ever listened to." (_Thomas Donaldson._) He +continued to howl until the reading ceased, then abruptly left the room. + +The dinner lasted until ten o'clock--three hours. A stenographer took +down the toasts, responses, scraps of conversation, etc. But while these +were at their height, one compliment, one little speech, was not +recorded. Mr. Whitman looked around the table as if seeking something, +and on being asked, "Is there anything you want, Walt?" replied, "Yes, I +want a piece of _Mary's bread_." It was brought to him. Mr. Whitman, no +doubt, feeling that Mary had been slighted, took this peculiar way of +his own to show his regard for her. + +The next day the tables and chairs were taken away, but the committee's +promises of assistance were probably forgotten, for regardless of the +poor days Mr. Whitman passed in consequence of the dinner, and his need +of extra care, no help whatever was proffered and Mrs. Davis and Warren +were left to right the house by degrees, working as they could. + +The summer following the invalid was glad to pass quietly in his room. +The heat overcame him, for he had lost all his resistant power, and +truly needed the attention and care that it was his good fortune to +receive. Part of the time he was up and dressed, but he seldom felt +equal to more than this. His outings were few in number, the reading +fell off, and the writing was nearly discontinued. However, this did not +prevent the litter in his room from mysteriously increasing in the same +slow, sure, steady ratio. As this did not bother him, and he was +inclined to be tranquil and satisfied, no one disturbed him, or +interfered in any way with his idiosyncrasies. + +His world had become contracted to still smaller dimensions; the four +walls of his own room enclosed it. He had relinquished his hold upon +outside life with its bustle and excitement, and more than ever wished +to be left alone, left to himself. He was his own best company, +apparently, for he often evinced disapprobation on being roused from one +of his long reveries. At intervals he would seem to be the old-time man, +would rouse up and talk, even jest, after which would follow spells of +depression or dreaded indigestion. In the latter case, day would succeed +day when his only nourishment would be a light cup-custard or a small +glass of iced buttermilk. + +The fall did little for him, and there was an unmistakable and steady +decline until December 17, when after a number of miserable days he was +seized with a chill, the precursor of pneumonia. For a week his life +hung in the balance; friends and relatives were summoned, and the best +medical advice was procured. Each hour the final call seemed at hand; +then came a pause, and the issue was uncertain; next there was a slight +improvement. + +The burden of all this fell mainly upon Warren, who was only relieved +temporarily day or night by his no less worn-out mother. Believing that +each day would be the last, each had held up and gone on, until on the +28th the limit of endurance was reached, and they asked for assistance. +As the patient's symptoms were tending toward a protracted illness +rather than a speedy death, his friends saw that this was imperative, +and Dr. Bucke, who had recently arrived in Camden, went to Philadelphia +to engage a professional nurse. + + + + +XVI + +THE NEW NURSE + + "_Well, I told you doctors when I was so very bad, 'let me go; let me + die.' I felt you would not listen to a word ... you would not think of + it for a moment, and here I am._ + + "_I chose to go. I may pull through it and have it all to go through + again; it looks more so to-day than for a fortnight. You are all + making a strong pull for me, I can see that._"--WALT WHITMAN. + + +The requirements in the nurse were maturity, experience in the care of +sick men, and the ability to take notes and keep a careful record. Dr. +Bucke engaged a suitable person, and talked freely and unreservedly to +her about the patient, his physical condition and his eccentric habits. +He said it was his firm belief that his life could not last more than a +few days longer, and that he was confident that another such room as the +one he was in, littered and uncared for, did not exist upon the face of +the earth. He further said that his poor old friend had been in wretched +health for some years past, that he was in no way able to look out for +himself, and that he was in the hands and at the mercy of a designing +and unprincipled woman,--the unrefined and ignorant widow of a +sailor,--who as a housekeeper was unreliable and dishonest, and who +alone was responsible for the condition in which the sick room was to be +found. He added that it had been arranged that the nurse should go out +to all her meals at the expense of the patient's friends; that she was +to have nothing whatever to do with the housekeeper, _and above all +things she was not to allow her to enter the sick man's room_. To put +the matter to her concisely, she was, during the entire engagement, long +or short as it might prove, to speak to but three persons, these being +the two literary executors living in Camden, Mr. Harned and Mr. Traubel, +and her own colleague, Warren Fritzinger. He told her that the first +things he desired her to do were to get the sick room into order, and to +begin recording the daily transactions; she must be careful to note all +Mr. Whitman's words as they were uttered, and to write them down +faithfully. Dr. Bucke spoke as one having full authority, and the nurse +had no reason for disbelieving anything he had said. (And ever after +believed that Mrs. Davis had been cruelly maligned (but by whom?) and +that Dr. Bucke, who lived at a distance and saw little of his friend's +home life, had been deceived and misled.) He assured her that _money in +abundance_ would be supplied for all the sick man's needs, and that it +was the wish of his friends that he should have every comfort possible +until the end. + +By a second appointment Dr. Bucke met the nurse at the ferry, and they +set out together for the dying poet's home, the Doctor, while crossing +the Delaware, repeating and dwelling upon what he had previously said. + +The ring at the door was answered by a pleasant, ladylike woman, between +whom and the Doctor there was a show of mutual good feeling. The back +parlor was given to the nurse as her room, and when she had laid her +wraps aside Dr. Bucke led the way upstairs. To the relief of all Mr. +Whitman had made no objections to a lady as nurse, and when she entered +his room he extended his hand. A number of gentlemen were present, among +them his brother George and the two literary executors, who had remained +to take leave of Dr. Bucke. An artist who had just completed some +etchings of the poet had sent him six complimentary copies, one of which +he presented to his departing friend, at whose request he was raised up +to autograph it. This, it was supposed, would be his last signature. + +The prospect being that he would not only survive the night, but would +pass it in comparative comfort, his friends and relatives left, +excepting only his niece, Miss Jessie Whitman, the daughter of his +brother Jefferson. + +Poor Warren was overjoyed at the idea of going to bed, for in the last +four days and nights he had had no rest, and since the chill, ten days +before, had not found time to change or remove his clothing. While +giving the nurse her instructions he confessed that he was completely +done up, that such a siege as he had just passed through was worse than +a storm at sea; nevertheless he wished and expected to be called at any +moment if his services were required. + +Mrs. Davis, totally unconscious of any ill feeling toward her and +disposed to show every courtesy to the nurse, prepared a nice supper to +which she invited her to come. What could the nurse do? No way had been +opened for her to go outside to her meals--at least for the present--and +no one except Dr. Bucke had mentioned such a thing; it was dark, she was +in a strange city and ravenously hungry. She could not make up her mind +to refuse and run off at once to seek a restaurant, especially at a time +like this; could not risk leaving a patient so dangerously ill, even for +a minute; nor could she desert the two weary people who were looking to +her for relaxation and relief. No; she would sooner fast for the night. +But fasting was not necessary; so descending the stairs, passing through +the hall and running headlong into the flour barrel, she entered the +little cabin-like kitchen. + +Mrs. Davis was so worn out for sleep that even while standing her +eyelids would close. She apologized, saying that she had been awake so +many hours she was not at all herself. The nurse begged her to lie down +at once, believing this weary, sad-looking woman must be a relative of +her patient's, or a dear friend who had come there to bridge over the +present crisis. Dr. Bucke had not mentioned the housekeeper's name, and +the kindly, hospitable person who had been introduced as Mrs. Davis +belied in every way the description of the sailor's unrefined widow. +Besides, Warren called her mother. + +The sick man required but few attentions during the night, and was so +painfully still the nurse went to his bedside a number of times to +assure herself that he was breathing. Warren came in twice to +reconnoitre and turn him over, and when morning peeped into the window +of the dull little anteroom and he found that no new complications had +developed and that Mr. Whitman had not suffered from the change, he was +jubilant over it. + +After preparing breakfast, Mrs. Davis, as was her custom, went upstairs +to sit with the patient while the others were below. She entered his +room, and he--who up to this time had lain with downcast eyes, +speechless, almost immovable--looked up, smiled, and exclaimed in a +pleased voice, "Ah, Mary!" There was no mistaking the friendly relation +between these two people, and before noon the nurse learned that the +coarse housekeeper, the _dreaded_ housekeeper, was no other than this +pleasant, tired-out woman, whose kindness she appreciated because she +had at once made her feel so much at home. What did the nurse think! + +When Mr. Whitman was supposed to be dying, Mrs. Davis had in a way +managed to meet the emergencies of the occasion; when a rubber sheet was +called for, and no one offered to procure or order one, she gave her +own oilcloth table cover to supply the need. When extra sheets were in +demand and were not forthcoming from any quarter, she bought a piece of +cloth, tore off the lengths, and was obliged to use them unlaundered and +unhemmed, for even in this trying time only one person, besides her +personal friends, had offered her the least assistance or inquired as to +the straits to which she was put. This single exception was Mr. +Whitman's sister-in-law, who had left a sick bed to come to Camden and +do what she could. + +When with the coming of the nurse, and cessation from immediate anxiety, +Mrs. Davis found time to look around, she discovered more than an +abundance of work. An enormous wash had accumulated, her boiler had +given out, and damp and cloudy weather necessitated drying everything +within doors. Then as the eaves trough had fallen down, and the kitchen +ceiling leaked, Warren's skill in carpentering was in instant demand. + +They found the nurse willing to assist in any way, and the housekeeper +was delighted that she was plain spoken and matter-of-fact, and knew +almost nothing of her patient as a writer; that she regarded him only as +a sick and helpless old man, needing personal care, and not the +adulation with which he was surfeited. Mr. Whitman himself took kindly +to her, for like Mrs. Davis she never questioned him, and if she spoke +at all, always touched upon the most simple, commonplace subjects. + +On one occasion she ventured to say to him: "I suppose you would be +disgusted with me if I told you that I had never heard of _Leaves of +Grass_ until I came here?" He laughed a little and replied: "I guess +there are plenty of people in the world who can say the same. _Leaves of +Grass_ was the aim of my life. In these days and nights it is different: +my mutton broth--my brandy--to be turned promptly and kept clean--are +much more to me and appeal to me more deeply." + +Little by little, much was accomplished; the sheets were hemmed, and the +nurse with part of the small and only sum of money given to her soon had +a new boiler on the stove; then when the table cover, which had become +stiff, wrinkled and ruined, was replaced with a smooth rubber sheet, and +a rubber ring purchased, which gave the patient great relief, and a few +trifling articles secured, the money was exhausted. Mrs. George Whitman +added some things to the supply, after which it fell to Mrs. Davis to +resort to her own means as of old, and one by one the gold +pieces--Warren's gift--melted away. + +In the course of a couple of weeks the nurse learned that she was +boarding at the expense of the housekeeper, and finding that no +arrangements had been made to this effect she wrote to Dr. Bucke, laying +the matter before him, as it had been agreed that she should write to +him semi-weekly and in full confidence. In her next letter she told him +of her own belief in Mrs. Davis as a most excellent woman; she enlarged +upon her devotion to Mr. Whitman and his fondness for her, and expressed +her great astonishment that a man of his experience could be so mistaken +in anyone. In reply he wrote that he was pleased to know that he had +been misled. + +Mrs. Davis was much distressed in regard to the cleaning of the sick +room. She feared it would make Mr. Whitman unhappy, and she felt that as +his life was to end in so short a time, further indulgence might be +granted him. But he was found to be not at all disposed to make +objections; indeed, he was passive in the extreme, and when the nurse in +any doubt or difficulty would occasionally appeal to him, he had but +one reply: "Ask Mary." + +To the surprise of everyone he lingered on, improving instead of growing +worse, and by the end of the month had regained something of his former +condition. He even wrote a few short letters, autographed the five +remaining etchings, and a photograph for the nurse. + +When the ominous symptoms had disappeared and he was not only out of +danger, but quite comfortable, and Mrs. Davis had got the most pressing +work well in hand, things assumed an almost unbroken routine. Warren +took the night work, as reporters often came to the house at late hours +and he was accustomed to meeting them; even friends would come thus +unseasonably to inquire for the poet and perhaps beg for admittance to +his room. + +Yet there were many nights during the long sickness--lasting to March +26--when following a number of good days he would sink into a state of +collapse, and then both nurses would remain up together. + +As Warren did his home work in the forenoon, which was also his mother's +busiest time, the nurse prepared the patient's breakfast and gave it to +him; but seeing that he really preferred Mary's presence to her own, +she often exchanged work with her, and the only actual difference was +that Walt had three nurses instead of two. + +Getting the sick room into order was a tedious task. The nurse was +directed to leave every scrap of paper with writing upon it in the room, +to remove only the newspapers, magazines, circulars, bound books, +wrapping papers and so on. Then there were days when it was evident that +Mr. Whitman wished to be alone, other days when he was very low and +could not be disturbed, still other days when he had long visits from +friends; and the work would have to be postponed for the time being. + +All the newspapers and magazines were stacked upon the landing outside +the anteroom door; the books--usually dropped anywhere, open--were +placed upon the pine shelves; the manuscripts were piled upon one side +of the sick room, and the old envelopes, wrapping paper and odds and +ends of string alone were thrown away. + +Warren's desk came in nicely, and seated at this the nurse wrote her +record, going into the details and minutiæ of the case, as she had been +instructed. In this Warren took his part, and as he knew most of the +people who called, his information and night notes were a valuable +addition. A cot under the shelves in the anteroom, which had served as a +bed for the nurses at night and a settee by day, was taken out and a +comfortable lounge substituted, which had been hidden from view under +the débris in the other room. This gave both rooms a better appearance, +besides providing a more comfortable seat and sleeping place. + +Mr. Whitman did not take medicine with regularity; only when some acute +pain or persistent discomfort rendered it essential. His temperature was +never taken, his pulse and respiration but seldom; and in no way was he +roused up, except for an unavoidable cause, or perhaps to meet company. +He fully understood his own condition, and pleaded for but one thing: +rest. + +When he had his poor days--when it seemed that he could not again +rally--he saw no one, and in the last two months he wished to see few +beside his nurses, his two doctors (Dr. Alex. McAlister of Camden, and +Dr. Longaker of Philadelphia), and his faithful Mary. He said that +others tired him, and yet many saw him and held conversations with him, +even at this late stage in his life. Colonel Ingersoll came twice, and +sent him a basket of champagne, of which he took sparingly from time to +time. + +It was not so lonesome for Warren when there was someone associated with +him in his work, and the nurse listened with interest to the stories he +told of his early escapades, and of his subsequent adventures in strange +countries and at sea. He could boast of having saved two fellow +creatures from drowning, that is, if he were at all inclined to boast, +which he was not. After awhile he confided the disappointments of his +love affair, saying he thought it hard that after being engaged for over +two and a half years, he had not, since he had assumed the care of Mr. +Whitman, had the opportunity and pleasure of inviting and escorting his +fiancée to an evening entertainment. The nurse thought so too; she +sympathized with him; and his one untrammelled evening was when, unknown +to his mother, she slipped over to Philadelphia, bought tickets and +secured seats that he might have the gratification of taking "Coddie" to +the theatre. This plot was several days in maturing, and when the secret +was disclosed Mrs. Davis was terribly exercised, fearing that something +dreadful might come up just at that particular time. She tried to +dissuade Warren from going, but it was two against one, and he went. +Nothing eventful occurred; Mr. Whitman was at his best, and when he +asked for "Warry," and was told where he had gone, he was perfectly +satisfied. + +But day by day the patient steadily declined, and as one of his lungs +was nearly useless, it affected his breathing to such an extent that his +only relief was in change of position--"shifting," as he called it when +he was being turned from one side to the other. He could eat while lying +down, but could drink only when his head was raised with the pillow to +support it. Often when Mrs. Davis went into the room to turn him, or to +take him some little home-made delicacy, she came out in tears. What was +said when the two were alone--if they spoke at all--was never repeated, +never reported. + +Mr. Whitman did not know that the nurse kept an account of his words, or +wrote anything whatever regarding him; for of all things he disliked, +the worst was to feel that there was someone at hand or just out of +sight with pencil and paper in readiness for instant use. + +One day Warren told him that his brother Harry's Christmas present was a +little boy that he had named for him: Walt Whitman Fritzinger. This +pleased the sick man, and he expressed a wish to see his little +namesake. The child was kept in readiness for a week; then early one +evening, when Mr. Whitman was feeling better than usual, he was sent +for. His nurse brought him over, carried him into the sick room and laid +him in the arms of the old man, who kissed the little fellow, held him a +few minutes and repeated a number of times: "Well, well, Little Walt +Whitman, Little Walt Whitman." There were present the child's mother and +nurse, Mrs. Davis, Warren, and Mrs. Keller, Mr. Whitman's nurse. He +never saw the child again, but often inquired after him, and added a +codicil to his will bequeathing him two hundred dollars. (My name is on +the codicil as witness to the signature.--E. L. K.) + +The invalid had never bought himself a new mattress, and the one given +him by Mrs. Davis seven years before--too wide for the bedstead and +extending several inches beyond it at the back--had from long and +constant usage become hollow in the centre, making it difficult to turn +him from one side to the other, for he would often slip back into the +hollow place. Warren once said: "When I come on this side of the bed +you slip away from me." "Ah, Warry," he replied, "one of these fine +mornings I shall slip away from you forever." + +One evening a member of the editorial staff of the New York _Evening +Telegram_ visited him. Mr. Whitman knew that he was coming, and had made +up a little roll of his writings to give him. (Mr. Traubel always made +these engagements, met the parties and accompanied them to the house.) +Upon leaving, the gentleman said that the paper had raised a fund +wherewith to purchase flowers for the poet's room. Afterwards learning +that the defective lung made the fragrance of flowers stifling to him, +the paper requested that the money be applied in some other way. Mrs. +Davis suggested a longer bed and a firm, level mattress. This was agreed +to, the money came duly to hand, and the two nurses went together to +select the bed. The one decided upon was a single one, made of oak and +standing at least three inches higher than the old one; the mattress was +of sea-grass. When the useful gift, which was a surprise to Mr. Whitman, +arrived and was being set up--February 22, 1892--Walt was seated for the +last time in his big chair. + +Warren said it would be a pity to have this bedstead battered up as the +old one had been--for the old man still kept his cane within reach and +often pounded upon the footboard; so he rigged up a bell in the +anteroom, and carried the wire over the door and into the sick room, +where a drop string came down to the bed. Mr. Whitman found this an +easier way of summoning aid; it was the "quaint bell" mentioned by two +or three writers. + +When the patient was settled on the new bed, he looked at Mrs. Davis and +said: "You can have the old one, Mary." + +The _Evening Telegram_ gift was a great acquisition, and it is to be +regretted, for the sake both of the invalid and those who waited upon +him, that it did not come in some way years before. + + + + +XVII + +"SHIFT, WARRY" + + "_Come, lovely and soothing death, + Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, + In the day, in the night, to all, to each, + Sooner or later, delicate death._" + --WALT WHITMAN. + + "_She was his loyal friend and nurse. She stood by him in life, and + closed his eyes in death._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. + + +In January, when Mr. Whitman first rallied, wrote the few short letters +and autographed the pictures, his friends were much encouraged; but +subsequent sinking spells destroyed their hopes, and his extremely low +condition led them to believe that he would wield his pen no more. In +his poor days scarcely a word was spoken in the house, and his three +nurses worked silently, almost mechanically, about him. Then with +another temporary reaction, hopes were again renewed and a change in +everything was manifest; even the dull little anteroom seemed brighter. + +On February 5, he had so far regained his strength as to request writing +materials. His old way of writing in bed was to be firmly propped up, +with a pillow before him on which to rest a light smooth-covered book. +Now he was too weak to hold the book, and although well supported at the +back he found it an almost insurmountable task to indite even a few +words. Mrs. Davis believed he could do much better were something +devised on which the paper before him could rest firmly. She was equal +to the occasion, for going to a young artist and teacher of painting (a +young lady named Miss Button) next door she procured a drawing board, to +which she had legs attached,--two short stationary ones in front, and +two longer at the back, fastened with hinges--thus making it adjustable +to almost any angle. The invention worked well, and the next day, when +he again requested pen and ink, it was placed before him. He was +surprised and pleased, and all he could say was, "Just the thing; just +the thing"; then looking at the nurse he added: "_That's Mary_; that's +Mary; just the right thing at the right time." Not Mary the efficient +housekeeper or capable manager, but just the right woman in the right +place. + +It was on this board that Walt Whitman's last words were inscribed. + +His book, which had been completed, was out of the press, and a few +copies had been hurried through that he might see the work as it would +go out into the world. Mr. D. McKay, his publisher, brought them over +one evening, and the dying poet expressed to him the great satisfaction +he felt at the manner in which the edition had been produced. He asked +to have fifty copies bound at once in Manila paper covers, that he might +give or send them to certain friends. This was done; he designated the +people who were to receive them, and Mr. Traubel attended to the +inscriptions. The last thing Walt wrote for printing was a notice in +regard to this edition. His writing board was of the greatest service to +him in accomplishing this task; without it, not only this notice, but +his last written words to his friends at large, his farewell Greeting or +Salutation, would never have been written. + +When he had completed the notice, making numerous alterations until he +seemed satisfied, he called for Mrs. Davis, who on coming into the room +held a secret "confab" with him, after which she got ready and left the +house. The following afternoon she again left the house and on her +return handed Walt a printed proof. In this, as of old, he made some +corrections, and it was again taken out and again called for. These were +Mary's last visits to the "quaint little printing office," and the "old +fellow acquaintance's" last acts of kindness to his dying patron. + +In the two days intervening between the writing of this notice and its +ultimate approval, Walt wrote his last words to all--the final Greeting +just mentioned to his friends at large. He wrote it himself on post +office paper, and when he had covered one piece, he called for mucilage +with which to add a second. He had measured the little printed slip, and +had left a space for it. He worked intently until the task was +completed. His tendency to recline backward made it difficult for him to +use the pen properly, therefore Mrs. Davis or the nurse usually sat +behind him, and by leaning forward and holding him in her arms supported +him in a more comfortable and convenient position. While one assisted +him in this way, the other held the inkstand near him, as he could no +longer reach it from its accustomed place, the chair beside his bed. + +When the Greeting was finished, the printed notice was pasted in its +place. The original writing was sent to Mr. Bolton of England, with the +request that he would have it facsimiled and distributed amongst all +Walt's friends. Here is the letter Horace Traubel wrote conveying the +poet's wishes. + + CAMDEN, N. J., February 8th, 1892 + + "W. asked me this ev'g to give you this counsel.--'If entirely + convenient, facsimile the letter of February 6th, and send it + copiously to European and American friends and friends + anywhere,'--letting us have copies here as well. It was a great + struggle to get this letter written and he wishes it to go out as his + general salutation of friends to whom his strength will not permit him + specially to write. It was framed with that end in view." + +The request was promptly complied with and an exact reproduction was +made, even to the use of two pieces of paper pasted together, as in the +original. The desired copies arrived before Walt's death, and he gave or +sent them to his friends, as he had done with the author's copies of his +book. He evinced much interest in doing this, and kindly presented his +nurses with both a facsimile and a book. + +As may be supposed, everyone was on the alert to secure his last +signature, and the nurse, who had the advantage of being on the spot +when he was able to write, had this honor. Selecting one of the numerous +photographs with which his room abounded--she subsequently learned that +this was his own favorite ("_Mr. Whitman was not vain as to pictures of +himself. He seemed to like best the photograph showing him sitting in a +chair with a butterfly in his hand._"--_Thomas Donaldson_)--she kept it +near his bed, and when the watched-for opportunity came, one morning +after he had signed some papers and had written a kindly word to his +sister (Mrs. Heyde of Burlington, Vt.), while she sat behind him as a +support, she reached for it, telling him that she would like to own it, +and hoped if he were not too fatigued he would autograph it for her. He +willingly complied, saying: "Yes, for you; but I would do it for no one +else." (I gave this picture, with feelings of gratitude for kindness +shown me, to Dr. Lucien Howe, of Buffalo, New York.--E. L. K.) The +signature was written with a blue pencil, as he had now discarded ink. +Only once again did he sign his name in full, and this was in a business +document. He used simply his initials in his last effort to write to +his sister. + +Unhappily, a change of care was in prospect, for Mrs. Keller was to +leave him the second week in March, in consequence of an engagement +previously made. She had mentioned this to Dr. Bucke, who had assured +her that it could not possibly conflict with his friend's case. But when +the sick man lingered until late in February, it was seen that some +steps must be taken. And yet his span of life was so uncertain, that +even at this late day it was deemed wiser not to mention the subject to +him until it could no longer be postponed. The matter was talked over +between his executors, his sister-in-law and the doctors, and all agreed +that under the circumstances a stranger in the house would not be +desirable. Mrs. Davis in particular dreaded it, and had made provision +against it. The friend who had before kept house for her, while she made +her trip to Southern California, was to come again to do the housework, +so that her own undivided time and attention might be given to the dying +man. + +The nurse left on March 8. From this time on Mr. Whitman grew more and +more uneasy in bed, and as he could now lie upon his left side but a +few moments at a time, he required almost constant turning; and for +eighteen days and nights his two faithful attendants did this. A water +bed was bought for him; he only had the comfort of it for a single +night. + +"March 25, 1.15 A. M., 1892.--We put him on the water bed at twelve +o'clock. I have turned him twice since, and I can assure you from +present indications if it does the old man no good, it will us. He turns +just as easy again; can turn him with one hand, and then it does away +with the ring. He was turned sixty-three times in the last twenty-four +hours; how is that for business? Kind of beats when you were here.... +Mama has one of her old headaches, has had it since yesterday, but hopes +to be clear of it by morning.... We had a run of visitors to-day, and +the old gent had four letters in the morning mail, of which three were +applications for autographs." (_Extracts from Warren's letter to Mrs. +Keller._) + +His last days were a repetition of the preceding ones; a flaring up of +the torch, and a dying down; a fainter flare, and a gentle going out. + +On the evening of March 26 a little card was printed and widely +circulated. + + Camden, N. J., March 26, '92. + + Whitman began sinking at 4.30 P. M. He continued to grow worse and + died at 6.43 P. M. The end came peacefully. He was conscious until the + last. + + There were present at the bedside when he died--Mrs. Davis, Warren + Fritzinger, Thos. B. Harned, Horace L. Trauble and myself. + + Alex. McAlister, M. D. + +This young physician saw much of Mr. Whitman during the last three +months of his life, and his faithful services were given without price. + +The evening previous to his death Mr. Whitman requested to see Mr. +Donaldson, the trusted friend who had done so much to make his home life +a success. He came at once, and they had a long last interview. Mrs. +Davis promised to notify him if the patient grew worse, and the next day +at three P. M. she wrote for him to come, saying that Mr. Whitman was +surely "slipping away" from them. He died before his friend reached the +house. His last words were addressed to his faithful "sailor boy": +"Shift, Warry." It was the time for the final turn, from life into +death. Mrs. Davis closed his eyes. + + + + +XVIII + +WINDING UP + + "_... the grand old man whose kindly face we never shall + forget._"--DR. ALEX. MCALISTER (_In a letter to Mrs. Keller_). + + "_These promises are fair, the parties sure._" + + --SHAKESPEARE (_I King Henry IV_). + + +On the morrow the little parlors were again cleared--this time to make +room for a coffin--and Walt Whitman, at last free from pain, was brought +downstairs. An artist was in waiting to take a cast of his face, and +later a post-mortem was held. Mrs. Davis thought the latter something +dreadful, believing as she did that it was either prompted by curiosity +or was done simply for the sake of a newspaper article. When all +preliminaries were over, the poet, clothed in his accustomed style, was +laid in his coffin. This, of heavy oak, was placed in the centre of one +room, and all through the afternoon friends and acquaintances came to +see him. The following day the public was admitted, and thousands +thronged in to look at the familiar form and face: that placid face, +telling that the long sought-for rest was at last attained. People +entered through one parlor door, then passing around the coffin left by +the other. + +During the morning Mrs. Davis made a hurried run to Philadelphia to +procure some needful things for the funeral, and on her return was +surprised and horrified to find that during her absence a load of empty +barrels had arrived, and that into these the literary executors--Dr. +Bucke having arrived the night before--were hastily packing all the +movable contents of the two upper rooms. This, to her, heartless +expediency was more than she could bear, and going upstairs she asked +why Mr. Whitman's things might not remain undisturbed until after he was +buried. Dr. Bucke told her curtly that his own time was limited, and it +was not convenient for _him_. Overcome with grief, she sought her own +room. She knew that Mr. Whitman's literary effects belonged legally to +his executors, but she felt that his home was sacred to him while he +remained in it. The barrels containing his writings and some articles +coming under the head of personal property, such as books, pictures, his +knapsack, the inkstand Mrs. Davis had bought for him while on her +journey, and by him returned to her, etc., were taken from the house +while he, the owner, lay there sleeping in his coffin. + +Of Walt Whitman's funeral much has been said and written. It was +arranged and conducted by friends, and was attended by many celebrated +people. Warren was sick and worn out, but kept up bravely and was at +everybody's bid and "on deck" throughout all; then he was obliged to +yield to a heavy cold and utter exhaustion. Mrs. Davis was little better +off, but was able to be around. + +It has been said that in Mr. Whitman's will he provided generously for +his housekeeper. He left her one thousand dollars; not one-fourth of the +sum she had expended for him, without taking into consideration her +seven years of unpaid service--and such service! The only additional +bequest to her was the free rentage of the house for the term of one +year. + +In a few months Mrs. Louise Whitman followed her brother-in-law, and the +will went into other hands. Still a few months later Edward Whitman died +in the asylum and was buried from the undertaker's, with no services +whatever. But three people followed him to the grave: his brother +George, Mrs. Davis, and Warren Fritzinger. + +When the professional nurse left Camden, Mrs. Whitman, to simplify +matters, settled with her from her own private bank account. This she +did in anticipation of the winding-up of the estate at the expiration of +one year after the death of her brother-in-law. She had talked with Mrs. +Davis on this subject and had instructed her to put in her claim at the +proper time. The year expired, but Mrs. Davis on presenting the claim +was told that it was thought that in all ways full justice had been done +her, and that no demands whatever of hers would be recognized; +furthermore, that it was the wish of the executors that she should +vacate the premises _at once_. + +This was an unexpected blow, and although her regard for Dr. Bucke +personally was lessened, her confidence in his integrity remained +unshaken, and she immediately wrote to him. Unmindful of his promises +that all should be well for her, and that he would be personally +responsible, he coolly refused to take any part in the matter, saying +that it was something which did not in the least concern him; she must +settle it with those at hand. She saw no way of redress, and was given +barely time in which to find another house. What an exit! + +Watch, the dog, showed more resistance, and was determined to remain in +his old quarters. He absolutely refused to leave, and as a last resort +was carried away in a securely locked cab. + +Warren was no better dealt with than his mother. Sadly changed from the +once robust sailor boy, he tramped the streets of Camden and +Philadelphia in search of work. _Any_ work this time; any work but +nursing! He applied to those who had been Mr. Whitman's most active +friends when anything of note was going on, but no encouragement was +given him; some went so far as to tell him that his services to his late +patient had about incapacitated him for many kinds of employment. He +solicited and applied, but no helping hand was held out to him. He took +soap orders, then accepted the only thing that presented itself, the +position of night watchman in a Camden bank. After awhile a tea +merchant--one of the most kind-hearted of men and a friend of both his +mother and Mr. Whitman--offered him a clerkship in his store. He would +have preferred outside work, but had no choice and gladly accepted. In a +year he married, and notwithstanding disappointments and +discouragements, was the same bright cheerful Warry to the end of his +short life. He died after a few days' sickness in October, 1899, aged +thirty-three years. + + + + +XIX + +THE TRIAL + + "_'Tis called ungrateful + With dull unwillingness to repay a debt._" + + --SHAKESPEARE (_Richard III_). + + "_Proceed in justice, which shall have due course._" + + --(_The Winter's Tale_). + + +But to go back. Mrs. Davis's friends, many of Mr. Whitman's, and a +number of outsiders were disgusted and indignant at the treatment she +had received and united in urging her to sue the estate and take her +case into court. She was loath to do this, and hesitated for a long +while; but in 1894 the unsolicited offer of an eminent judge to +represent her without a fee (he said she was the worst used woman he had +ever met) and the continued persuasions of her friends roused her at +last to stand up for herself, and for once to take her own part. The +loss of her money did not trouble her so much as the thought of what +might be (and had been) said against her. She was confident that had +Mrs. Whitman lived all would have been different. But Mrs. Whitman had +not lived, and she had to face a problem that perplexed and saddened +her, darkening her view of human nature, and throwing a shadow over the +past and the future. The whole thing seemed so impossible, so hopelessly +unfair. + +The trial came off in the county court house, Camden, in April, 1894. +Mrs. Davis's witnesses came voluntarily to her aid--the tea merchant +only, and at his own request, being subpoenaed. There was the former +orphan girl, now a wife and mother, who told the story of the poet's +coming to the widow's door; of her many kind offices to him, and his +appreciation; of his repeated promises to repay her if she would come to +live with him, and his urgent appeals to her to do so. She gave the +particulars of the transfer into the Mickle Street house, and much that +followed after; the purchases Mrs. Davis had made, and the expense she +had been put to. The first professional nurse, Mr. Musgrove, came +forward that he might speak his good word for the late housekeeper, and +the second and last trained nurse (Mrs. Keller) was glad to testify in +public to the plaintiff's devotion to her distinguished patient, and his +great regard for her. Warren told the plain and convincing story of Mr. +Whitman's intentions, as expressed to himself, of repaying his mother +for the money she had spent. When asked how he knew that she had spent +her own money, he answered that he had recognized at least the new gold +pieces he had given her--the double eagles--which had gone one by one +during the last two years. Then when the defendant's lawyer asked, in a +very insinuating manner, what had become of the champagne left in the +cellar at the time of Mr. Whitman's death, the young artist who lived +next door told how some boys had made their way into the cellar one day, +had drunk the wine and become hopelessly intoxicated. + +The friend who had kept house on the two special occasions, and who had +been a constant visitor there for seven years; neighbors who had seen +Mrs. Davis helping the old man in and out of his carriage and rolling +chair, and carefully covering and protecting him while he was sitting +out of doors; and others who knew of her unremitting attentions, all +spoke for her, while quite a number of citizens told her that her case +was so strong they would not volunteer as witnesses, but were with her +heart and soul. Among these was the young doctor. + +On the opposite side were the two literary executors, George Whitman, +and a few others. The oyster man was there to tell of the quantity of +oysters he had taken or sent to the house--more than one man, a sick man +at that, could possibly consume; the object was to accuse Mrs. Davis by +suggestion of getting them for herself in a dishonorable manner; but +when on the stand the man could not speak, and after the trial went to +her and begged her pardon. + +Much interest was manifested in the case, which lasted two days; the +court room was crowded at each session, and it was not difficult to tell +on which side lay the sympathy. Her opponents could bring no charge +against her; they could only try to slur her and belittle what she had +done. + +The testimony taken, Mrs. Davis's counsel called his client forward, +placed a chair for her in the sight of all, and then in touching, +eloquent words summed up the case, saying that many among those present +had seen Walt Whitman going about the streets of Camden, alone, cold and +neglected, that it was a well-remembered sight, just as it was a +well-known fact that this good woman's heart and home alone had been +opened to him. + +As was expected, Mrs. Davis won her case; she received a fair sum of +money, and the congratulations, spoken or written, of all who knew her +sterling worth and the true story of her years of service. + + + + +XX + +CONCLUSION + + "_Which makes her story true, even to the point of her + death._"--SHAKESPEARE (_All's Well That Ends Well_). + + "_A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion._"--(_Richard III_). + + +If, profiting from past experience, Mrs. Davis had learned to realize +that into all lives there comes a time when self has the right of +consideration, she could have avoided further complications. But the +early precepts were too deeply implanted, and before she had left the +Mickle Street house a selfish uninteresting woman had in some insidious +way fastened upon her. This burden she carried to the end. + +Nor were money troubles wanting, grave and crippling, and due of course +to the same fatal habit of helping others at her own expense. One day +there came to her in great agitation an admirer of her late friend and +patient, saying that he was threatened with financial ruin, even +defamation of character, unless a certain sum of money was at once +forthcoming; simply a loan for a few months; it would be faithfully +repaid. Mrs. Davis had long contemplated purchasing a small home; she +had the means of doing so, and this money was at once offered and +accepted, but never returned. Warren's death followed, and her one +strong prop was gone. + +Mrs. Davis was not much of a correspondent; but notwithstanding this, +she and the nurse, Mrs. Keller, occasionally exchanged letters, and the +most friendly relations existed between them. After there had been a +longer silence than usual, Mrs. Keller wrote to Dr. McAlister, asking +him if their friend still lived in Berkley Street (the house she went to +from Mickle Street, and the only one she lived in after that), and if +so, requesting him to call and learn why she did not write. He did so, +and replied that he had found Mrs. Davis about as usual, that she had +sent much love and the promise of writing soon. Another long interval of +silence followed, and finally came this letter--the last communication +that passed between them. + + "434 Berkley Street, CAMDEN, N. J. + October 16, 1908. + + "DEAR MRS. KELLER, + + I am just in receipt of your letter. Yes, Dr. McAlister did call last + spring and I told him I would write you in a few days, which I fully + intended to do, but it so turned out that I went to France with a + friend, where I spent the summer; I have been home about three weeks. + My going away was entirely unexpected, and I had but a few hours to + get in readiness; left everything at loose ends, and one vexatious + oversight was I forgot my address book. I thought about you many + times, and would have written to you from over there had I had your + address. I was delighted to hear from you--will write to you in a few + days. I am wrestling with a bad cold. Hope you are well. + + "Lovingly, + "M. O. DAVIS." + +Mrs. Davis had always wished to see Niagara Falls, and Mrs. Keller, +whose home was near that city, hoped that the long looked-for and +talked-of visit was at last near at hand; would take place in the +following summer. Instead, at the expiration of a month she received a +black-edged envelope, the contents reading: + + "Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of + Mary O. Davis on Monday, November 23, at 3 P. M., from the son's + residence--H. M. Fritzinger, 810 State Street, Camden, N. J. Interment + at Evergreen Cemetery." + +On November 20, 1908, the following notice appeared in several papers. + + WHITMAN'S LAST NURSE DEAD + + Woman Who Cared for Poet Succumbs Too. + + Mrs. Mary L. Davis, who nursed Walt Whitman, the "Good Gray Poet," + during his last illness, and was with him at his death, at No. 328 + Mickle street, Camden, died last night in Cooper Hospital of + intestinal troubles. She was the widow of Levin J. Davis. + + After the death of Whitman Mrs. Davis resided for a short time at No. + 432 Clinton street, Camden, and then she went to live with a wealthy + family in New York City. About a year ago she developed intestinal + troubles. The family she was living with took her to Paris for + treatment by eminent specialists. She returned a month ago and went to + Camden to visit Henry M. Fritzinger, of No. 810 State street. There + Mrs. Davis was taken ill with the affliction from which she suffered + so much, and was removed to Cooper Hospital. + +The nurse who had cared for him in his last illness!--not his "faithful +housekeeper, nurse and friend." But the brief report, it will be seen, +had more than one error. + +Perhaps the best way of giving a clear picture of the concluding stages +will be to quote a letter from her son--as he was always called; +Warren's brother Harry. It is a very human document. + + "DEAR FRIEND, + + I am convinced that you think this letter should have been written + long before, but on account of how things have gone I can assure you + that I was taxed to the utmost. Mother died on the 18th of November; + buried on the 23rd. You would be surprised how people who were her + friends through money have changed.... + + "When Mother moved from Mickle Street to 434 Berkley Street she lived + there until she died, although I tried for years to get her to come + and live with me, as she would have been company for my wife when I + was away. She had a party living with her by the name of Mrs. H----, a + big lazy impostor. She waited on her, carried coal and water upstairs, + ashes and slops downstairs, until she worked herself into the + condition which she died from. + + "About eighteen months or two years ago, there was a family by the + name of Mr. and Mrs. Mailloux, and Dr. Bell of New York, admirers of + Walt Whitman, who came on and got acquainted with Mother. They took a + great liking to her and offered her a home with them, but she still + stayed on in Berkley Street. Mother paid them several visits, and at + last was persuaded to accompany Mrs. Mailloux to Paris on their + regular trip, as a companion. She left America feeling as well as + ever. My wife and I saw her aboard the train at Broad Street, and she + was met in Jersey City by her friends. + + "While she was in Paris, this woman who was living with her started + the devil going, when I was compelled to go down and take charge of + the house. It warmed up until I was compelled to write to Mother and + ask her to send me authority to protect her interests. This spoiled + her visit; she returned to America before the rest of the party. When + she arrived she came directly to my house; was suffering with a severe + cold. She was with us about six weeks. In the meantime my wife had her + fixed up in fairly good shape. She told me that she was going to break + up and come to live with us, but could not do it in a day or two. + + "After she was home about a week she was sick. She fooled along until + I became dissatisfied and sent my doctor down to her. He attended her + two days, and ordered her to the hospital, as an operation was the + only thing to save her. After she was opened they found the bowels + separated, also a cancerous tumor. She lived five days after the + operation. + + "All this trouble was not felt until two weeks before she died. Where + the report came from about her ill health and going to Paris for aid I + do not know, but you always find newspaper reports wrong. + + "Well, there is one thing that I feel thankful for: that she died + before I did. If such had not been the case, she would have been + buried in a pauper's grave, or gone to the dissecting table. + + "Mother has been a friend to many; they have handled what money she + had, amounting to hundreds of dollars. When she died all debts were + cancelled as far as they were concerned, and not one would say: 'Here + is five cents towards putting a good and faithful servant away.' But + Mother was laid away as fine as anybody...." + +Little more need be said. Mrs. Davis was comparatively a young woman at +the time of Walt Whitman's death,--being then in her fifty-fifth +year,--and in the sixteen years that followed, his friends passed away +one by one, and she almost passed out of the memory of his life, as +though she had never taken part in it. But the part she did take +deserves remembrance. + +Harry Fritzinger's letter speaks for itself, and I have tried, poorly as +I may have done so, to speak for one whom I valued and value as a good +woman and a loving friend. + + + + +WALT WHITMAN'S MONUMENTS + +A LETTER WRITTEN IN CAMDEN ON THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS +DEATH + +BY GUIDO BRUNO + + +DEAR WALT WHITMAN: + +To-day is the 27th anniversary of your death. I came here to worship at +your shrine. I am a European, you must know, and reverence of our great +writers and artists is bred in us, is part of our early training. We +love to visit the houses where genius lived, to see with our own eyes +the places our great men loved. Camden hasn't changed much since you +left. The people among whom you lived are to-day the same as they were +then: petty, mean, vain, unforgiving. Your friends are few just as in +the olden days. Let me tell you about it. + +It never entered my mind to make sure of the street number of your old +residence. "Any child on the street will direct me," I thought, "to +Whitman's house." Getting off the ferry, the same ferry on which you +loved to ride back and forth, in spring and autumn, I asked a policeman +how to get to your house. "The Whitman House?" he repeated; "it's +somewhere out of the way, I'm sure. You had better stop in the Ridgely +House. That's the best place in town." He knew nothing of you and +thought I was looking for a hotel. A druggist at the nearby corner knew +about you. "William Kettler used to be a great friend of his," he told +me. "He'll tell you all about him." And he gave me Mr. Kettler's +address. Mr. Kettler still lives on North Street, and has become chief +city librarian lately. He's very deaf, but extremely kind and friendly. +He was in the midst of moving. Mrs. Kettler is ill, you must know, and +they will live on the shore for the rest of the season. + +"This Whitman cult makes me sick," he commenced. "Who was Whitman +anyway? A poet? I dare say that there are hundreds of magazine writers +to-day as there were during his lifetime, who write just as good verse +as he did. And his prose is abominable. His writings are not fit to be +read in a respectable home. They corrupt the mind and are dangerous to +the morals. We knew him well, we saw him daily and his disgraceful way +of living was open town talk. + +"I was a newspaper man and associated with the old Camden _Post_ at the +time of Bonsall, when Whitman used to come to see us almost daily. +Bonsall used to be a friend of his and did him a great many good turns. +But Whitman was an ingrate. + +"Shall I tell you what we respectable citizens of Camden think of him? I +don't mean the young generation, but the people who actually knew him. +It doesn't sound nice to speak badly about dead people. But we knew him +as an incorrigible beggar who lived very immorally ... an old loafer. + +"Why, only a few months ago, one of the most prominent citizens of our +town, John J. Russ, the great real estate dealer, objected to Whitman's +name on the Honor Tablet of our new library. Judge Howard Carrot of +Merchantville could tell you how that old scoundrel got people into +trouble, and if the case had come into court, the scandal would have +been so great, that the Judge decided to dispose of it privately. + +"I remember, several years after the Civil War, Whitman's last visit to +the Camden _Post_. Mr. Bonsall, the chief editor, myself and Whitman +were chatting in the office. There was a very young reporter in the +room. Mr. Whitman insisted on telling us one of his filthy stories. He +knew many of them and would tell them without discriminating who was +present. Filth seemed to be always on his mind. Mr. Bonsall was shocked. +And I remember distinctly what he told him, before turning him out of +the office. 'Look here, Whitman,' he said, 'why don't you become a +useful citizen, like every one of us? You never did anything decent and +worthy of an American citizen. While we took up our guns and went out to +fight the enemy, you stalked about hospitals, posing as a +philanthropist. Later on, we returned to civilian life, hunting jobs and +pensions, trying to earn a livelihood, while you were preaching +Humanitarian principles and talking against the cruelties of warfare on +Union Square. _Now_, while we are chained to our jobs, you are writing +pornographic pieces that no self-respecting publisher would print, and +loaf about most of the time, corrupting our young folk. I will not +tolerate loose talk in these offices, therefore, get out and never let +me see you again.'" + +"But haven't you said," I interjected, "that Mr. Bonsall was a friend of +Whitman?" + +"They used to be friends," cried Mr. Kettler, "until that treacherous +business of the poem came up. Whitman was getting up a little book of +poems. Mr. Bonsall, who, in my estimation, was not only an excellent man +and writer, but also a poet of no mean ability, sent in a contribution. +This particular poem was very beautiful. It was the only one that +Whitman did not print. Ever since Mr. Bonsall and myself had not much +use for Whitman, who stabbed his friends in the back at the first +opportunity." + +"Hurt vanity," I thought. How small this man Kettler seemed to me with +his petty grievances. Forty years have passed and he couldn't forget +your refusal of a poem. + +"But what is the worst," Mr. Kettler continued, "Whitman has spoiled the +life of Horace Traubel. What an excellent young man he used to be, the +son of an honored, upright citizen. Traubel got obsessed with Whitman's +greatness. He devoted his whole life to Whitman. He took Whitman's +morals for his own standard." And Mr. Kettler proceeded to tell about +Traubel's private life. Some stories a policeman's wife, Traubel's next +door neighbor, had told him. + +Does all this amuse you, Walt Whitman? + +The frame-house where you lived is in a dreadful condition. An Italian +family is living there. A taxi driver, Thomas Skymer. He has three +children and four boarders. The boarders have children, too. A litter of +young ones are playing in your back yard, around the broken well. Your +front room, where you used to sit near the window and entertain your +visitors, is a living and dining room combined. Not even a picture of +yours is in this room. Over the mantel hangs a cheap chromo of the +Italian King. One of the little boys knew your name. "Do you want to see +where the old guy died?" he asked, and led me into the back room on the +same floor. There was a big bed there. I never saw a bigger one in my +life. "We all sleep in it," said the boy. + +I know, Walt Whitman, you are shrugging your shoulders, smiling +indifferently. What does it matter to you who is sleeping now in the +room where you died, who is living now in the house where you lived, +loved and sang? But my heart cramped and ached. The poverty, the bad +odor, the utter irreverence! This Italian pays $10 a month rent. The +neighborhood is run down, and the property could be easily bought for a +few thousand dollars. Is this how the greatest nation honors its +greatest literary genius? + +Your enthusiastic young physician, Dr. Alexander McAlister, has grown a +bit old, but not in spirit. He took me up to his library and here, as +well as in his heart, you have found your sanctuary. + +"I loved Walt Whitman," Dr. McAlister said, "ever since I was a student +in the medical school, and met the old gentleman regularly on the +street. We talked occasionally; once he asked me to his house, later on, +after my graduation, I had occasion to render him professional services, +and for all the years, until Whitman's death, I called on him at least +once a day. He was the most clean-minded and kind man I have ever met. I +never heard him utter an obscene word. The magnificent personality of +Walt Whitman and his general comradeship, inspired by his ingrained +feelings and intuitive beliefs concerning the destiny of America, must +certainly have impressed all who met him long before he was known as a +poet. He lived a life so broad and noble that it will be more studied +and emulated, and will sink deeper and deeper into the heart. The +social, human world, through his aid, will reach a level hitherto +unattained. The new life which he preached has not been even dreamed of +yet, has not become yet an object of aspiration to us Americans. He has +set the spark to the prepared fuel, the living glow has crept deeply +into the dormant mass; even now tongues of flame begin to shoot forth. +The longer Whitman is dead the better he will be known. He seems to me +the typical American, the typical modern, the source and centre of a +new, spiritual aspiration, saner and manlier than any heretofore. +Whitman thought that man has within him the element of the Divine, and +that this element was capable of indefinite growth and expansion. + +"He was the most democratic man that ever lived. Everybody was welcome +to his house, everybody his equal, he was everybody's friend. He had +many enemies, but also many friends. He thought Ingersoll his best +friend. Dr. Longaker and Horace Traubel were almost always present, +especially during the last years of his life. Once in a while they got +on his nerves because they continually carried paper and pencil, writing +down every word he said. Let me tell you a few incidents of his last +illness. They all expected him to die. Traubel and Dr. Longaker were +constantly in the hall outside of the sick room, eager to catch every +one of Whitman's words. Warren Fritzinger, his nurse, was with him. + +"'Are those damn fools out there this afternoon?' he remarked when his +condition became very weak and the rustling of papers in the hall seemed +to annoy him. + +"The day before he died I came in the morning and asked him, 'How do you +feel?' + +"'Well, Doctor,' he answered, 'I am tired of this dreadful monotony of +waiting. I am tired of the sword of Damocles suspended over my head.'" + +Would it interest you, Walt Whitman, to know about your last minutes on +earth, when you lay unconscious in a coma? Dr. McAlister described them +to me. "His end was peaceful. He died at 6:43 P. M. At 4:30 he called +Mrs. Davis and requested to be shifted from the position he was lying +in. The nurse was sent for, and later on they sent me a message. When I +reached his bedside, he was lying on his right side, his pulse was very +weak and his respiration correspondingly so. I asked him if he suffered +pain and if I could do anything for him. He smiled kindly and murmured +low. He lay quietly for some time with closed eyes. A little after 5 his +eyes opened for a moment, his lips moved slightly, and he succeeded in +whispering: '_Warry, Shift._' Warry was his nurse, and these were the +last words of Whitman. Then the end came. I bent over him to detect the +last sign of the fleeting life. His heart continued to pulsate for fully +fifty minutes after he ceased breathing." + +Dr. McAlister was a great friend of yours, Walt Whitman, and I feel that +you are with him every minute of his life. He showed me letters from +your old nurse, Mrs. Keller, who wrote a few articles about you. He +treasures the books you inscribed for him, your pictures hang on his +walls and he especially loves the little plaster cast you gave him. + +Of course, you know that an autopsy was performed shortly after your +death. May I tell you about your brain, which is at present in the +possession of the Anthropometric Society? I believe it is an honor to +have one's brains placed in this society's museum, because this society +has been organized for the express purpose of studying high-type brains. +The cause of your death was pleurisy of your left side and consumption +of the right lung. You had a fatty liver, and a large gall stone in the +gall bladder. The good doctors marvelled that you could have carried on +respiration for so long a time with the limited amount of useful lung +tissue. They ascribed it largely to that indomitable energy "which was +so characteristic of everything pertaining to the life of Walt Whitman." +They said in their official report that any other man would have died +much earlier with one-half of the pathological changes which existed in +your body. + +In the late afternoon while the sun was setting over an ideal spring +day, I walked out to the Harleigh Cemetery, where you built for yourself +that magnificent tomb. How wise you were, Walt Whitman, to supervise the +cutting of the stones, to watch the workmen while they were preparing +your grave. What a beautiful spot you chose for your last resting place. +The lake lay still in the warm evening air, the willows swayed gently as +if patted by unseen hands. An old working-man, about to leave the +cemetery, showed me the spot where you used to sit and watch them work. +He told me how you wrote "pieces" on scraps of paper that you borrowed +here and there, and how you read them to the stonecutters, who were +building your tomb. I asked for the key. They keep it locked lately. I +opened the heavy granite door, and stood for quite a while in the +semi-darkness of your little house. I thought of you lying there on +your bier, peaceful, indifferent, kind. Then I thought of the other +monument you had built in words, a temple not made with hands, builded +for eternity. + +Always self-sufficing, walking your own path towards your own goal. No +legend tells of you, of your life or achievement. You live in the hearts +of thousands of Americans. Soon, very soon, perhaps, your name and +America will be synonymous. Walt Whitman, we here on earth are awakening +to your ideals of America. + + Affectionately yours, + GUIDO BRUNO + + + + +WALT WHITMAN SPEAKS + + + + + Ever upon this stage + Is acted God's calm annual drama, + Gorgeous processions, songs of birds, + Sunrise that fullest feeds and freshens most the soul, + The heaving sea, the waves upon the shore, the musical, strong waves, + The woods, the stalwart trees, the slender, tapering trees, + The liliput countless armies of the grass, + The heat, the showers, the measureless pasturages, + The scenery of the snows, the winds' free orchestra, + The stretching light-hung roof of clouds, the clear cerulean and the + silvery fringes, + The high dilating stars, the placid beckoning stars, + The moving flocks and herds, the plains and emerald meadows, + The shows of all the varied lands and all the growths and products. + + [_The Return of the Heroes_] + + + + + Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver, emerald, fawn, + The earth's whole amplitude and Nature's multiform power consign'd for + once to colors; + The light, the general air possess'd by them--colors till now unknown, + No limit, confine--not the Western sky alone--the high meridian-- + North, South, all, + Pure luminous color fighting the silent shadows to the last. + + [_A Prairie Sunset_] + + + + + Ever the undiscouraged, resolute, struggling soul of man; + (Have former armies fail'd? then we send fresh armies--and fresh + again); + Ever the grappled mysteries of all earth's ages old or new; + Ever the eager eyes, hurrahs, the welcome-clapping hands, the loud + applause; + Ever the soul dissatisfied, curious, unconvinced at last, + Struggling to-day the same--battling the same. + + [_Life_] + + + + + Spirit that form'd this scene, + These tumbled rock-piles grim and red, + These reckless heaven-ambitious peaks, + These gorges, turbulent-clear streams, this naked freshness, + These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own, + I know thee, savage spirit--we have communed together, + Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of their own; + Was't charged against my chants they had forgotten art? + To fuse within themselves its rules precise and delicatesse? + The lyrist's measur'd beat, the wrought-out temple's grace--column and + polish'd arch forgot? + But thou that revellest here--spirit that form'd this scene, + They have remember'd thee. + + [_Spirit That Formed This Scene_] + + + + + Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither, + Your schemes, politics, fail, lines give way, substances mock and + elude me, + Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes + not, + One's-Self must never give way--that is the final substance--that out + of all is sure, + Out of politics, triumphs, battles, life, what at last finally + remains? + When shows break up what but One's-Self is sure? + + [_Quicksand Years_] + + + + + O living always, always dying! + O the burials of me past and present, + O me while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever; + O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content); + O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and look + at where I cast them, + To pass on (O living! always living!) and leave the corpses behind. + + [_O Living Always, Always Dying_] + + + + + This is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, + Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, + Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou + lovest best, + Night, sleep, death and the stars. + + [_A Clear Midnight_] + + + + + I was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day + exhibited, + I was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless + around me myriads of other globes. + + Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will + measure myself by them, + And now touch'd with the lives of other globes arrived as far along as + those of the earth, + Or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth, + I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life, + Or the lives of the earth arrived as far as mine, or waiting to + arrive. + + O I see now that life cannot exhibit all to me, as the day cannot, + I see that I am to wait for what will be exhibited by death. + + [_Night on the Prairies_] + + + + + Now the great organ sounds, + Tremulous, while underneath (as the hid footholds of the earth, + On which arising rest, and leaping forth depend, + All shapes of beauty, grace and strength, all hues we know, + Green blades of grass and warbling birds, children that gambol and + play, the clouds of heaven above) + The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not, + Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest, maternity of all the rest, + And with it every instrument in multitudes, + The players playing, all the world's musicians, + The solemn hymns and masses rousing adoration, + All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals, + The measureless sweet vocalists of ages, + And for their solvent setting earth's own diapason, + Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves, + A new composite orchestra, binder of years and climes, ten-fold + renewer, + As of the far-back days the poets tell, the Paradiso, + The straying thence, the separation long, but now the wandering done, + The journey done, the journeyman come home, + And man and art with Nature fused again. + + [_Proud Music of the Storm_] + + + + + Now trumpeter for thy close, + Vouchsafe a higher strain than any yet, + Sing to my soul, renew its languishing faith and hope, + Rouse up my slow belief, give me some vision of the future, + Give me for once its prophecy and joy. + + O glad, exulting, culminating song! + A vigor more than earth's is in thy notes, + Marches of victory--man disenthral'd--the conqueror at last, + Hymns to the universal God from universal man--all joy! + A reborn race appears--a perfect world, all joy! + Women and men in wisdom, innocence and health--all joy! + Riotous laughing bacchanals fill'd with joy! + War, sorrow, suffering gone--the rank earth purged--nothing but joy + left! + The ocean fill'd with joy--the atmosphere all joy! + Joy! joy! in freedom, worship, love! joy in the ecstasy of life! + Enough to merely be! enough to breathe! + Joy! joy! all over joy! + + [_The Mystic Trumpeter_] + + + + + The touch of flame--the illuminating fire--the loftiest look at last, + O'er city, passion, sea--o'er prairie, mountain, wood--the earth + itself; + The airy, different, changing hues of all, in falling twilight, + Objects and groups, bearings, faces, reminiscences; + The calmer sight--the golden setting, clear and broad: + So much i' the atmosphere, the points of view, the situation whence + we scan, + Brought out by them alone--so much (perhaps the best) unreck'd before; + The lights indeed from them--old age's lambent peaks. + + [_Old Age's Lambent Peaks_] + + + + + Thanks in old age--thanks ere I go, + For health, the midday sun, the impalpable air--for life, mere life, + For precious ever-lingering memories, (of you, my mother dear--you, + father--you, brothers, sisters, friends), + For all my days--not those of peace alone--the days of war the same, + For gentle words, caresses, gifts from foreign lands, + For shelter, wine and meat--for sweet appreciation, + (You distant, dim unknown--or young or old--countless, unspecified, + readers belov'd, + We never met, and ne'er shall meet--and yet our souls embrace, long, + close and long); + For beings, groups, love, deeds, words, books--for colors, forms, + For all the brave strong men--devoted, hardy men--who've forward + sprung in freedom's help, all years, all lands, + For braver, stronger, more devoted men--(a special laurel ere I go, + to life's war's chosen ones, + The cannoneers of song and thought--the great artillerists--the + foremost leaders, captains of the soul): + As soldier from an ended war return'd--as traveller out of myriads, + to the long procession retrospective, + Thanks--joyful thanks!--a soldier's, traveller's thanks. + + [_Thanks in Old Age_] + + + + + _Prais'd be the fathomless universe, + For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious, + And for love, sweet love--but praise! praise! praise! + For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death._ + + [_When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd_] + + + + +INDEX + + +Acharon Society, 60 + +Aldrich, T. B., 139 + +Anthropometric Society, 204 + +"Auntie, Blind," 1, 2, 3 + + +Bell, Dr., 192 + +"Blind Auntie," 1, 2, 3 + +Bolton, Mr., 171 + +Bonsall, Mr., 197 + +Bruno, Guido, 195, 206 + +Bucke, Dr. R. M., IX, 102, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 149, 150, 151, 152, + 153, 154, 158, 173, 177 + +Button, Miss, 168 + + +Camden _Post_, 197 + +Carrot, Judge Howard, 197 + +Childs, George W., 13 + +"Coddie," 162 + +Cooper Hospital, 190 + + +Davis, Capt. L. J., 4, 190 + +Davis, Mary O., _passim_ + +Donaldson, Blaine, 49 + +Donaldson, Thomas, 1, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21, 30, 37, 38, 39, 47, + 48, 49, 52, 61, 100, 103, 111, 113, 119, 127, 146, 172, 175 + +Duckett, Wm., 69 + + +Ellis, Sarah, V + + +Fritzinger, Capt., 4, 5, 11, 25, 62 + +Fritzinger, Henry M., 119, 163, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194 + +Fritzinger, Mrs., 3, 18, 68 + +Fritzinger, Walt Whitman, 164 + +Fritzinger, Warren, 119 _sqq._, 203, 204 + + +Gilchrist, Herbert, 76 _sqq._ + + +Harleigh Cemetery, 133, 138, 205 + +Harned, Thomas B., 101, 151 + +Heyde, Mrs., 172 + +Hicks, Elias, 95 + +Howe, Dr. Lucien, 172 + + +Ingersoll, Col. Robt., 133, 134, 135, 161, 202 + +_In Re Walt Whitman_, 9, 112, 126 + + +Johnston, Jas., X + +Johnston, Mr. (N. Y.), 133, 134 + + +Keller, Mrs. E. L., V, VI, VII, 164, 172, 173, 174, 176, 183, 188, 204 + +Keller, Wm. Wallace, V + +Kennedy, Wm. Sloane, 67, 99, 113, 133, 140, 189 + +Kettler, Wm., 196, 198, 199 + +Kettler, Mrs. W., 196 + + +_Leaves of Grass_, 157 + +Leavitt, Jas. S., V + +Lincoln lecture, 60, 69, 130 + +Longaker, Dr., 161, 202 + + +McAlister, Dr. Alex., 161, 175, 176, 188, 189, 201, 203, 204 + +McKay, D., 169 + +Mailloux, Mr., 192 + +Mailloux, Mrs., 192 + +Mary, 58 + +Morse, Sidney, 18, 37, 73 _sqq._ + +Musgrove, Mr., 108, 183 + + +N. Y. _Evening Telegram_, 165, 166 + +N. Y. _Herald_, 54, 137 + +N. Y. _Times_, 71 + +N. Y. _Tribune_, 70 + + +Packard, S. T., 98 + +Perry, Bliss, 142 + + +Russ, J. J., 167 + + +St. Mark (quoted), 1 + +Shakespeare (quoted), 176, 182, 187 + +Skymer, Thomas, 200 + +Stafford family, 67 + +Stedman, Laura, 70 + +Swinton, John, 137, 138 + + +Thompson, Vance, 27 + +"Timber Creek," 67, 90 + +Traubel, Horace, 30, 55, 68, 101, 107, 126, 151, 165, 171, 199, 202 + +Trowbridge, John T., 129 + + +_Walt Whitman the Man_, 8 + +Whitman, Edward, 31, 63, 178 + +Whitman, George, 9, 104, 153, 179, 185 + +Whitman, Jefferson, 153 + +Whitman, Miss Jessie, 153 + +Whitman, Mrs. G., 63, 104, 106, 156, 158, 178, 182 + +Wilkins, E., 55, 115, 119, 129, 137 + +Women's Hospital, Phila., VI + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Walt Whitman in Mickle Street, by +Elizabeth Leavitt Keller + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42281 *** |