RUSSELL LOWELL PERSONALIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 246, 16 October 1891, Page 4

RUSSELL LOWELL PERSONALIA.

Ur Honghton, the principal memhet ol the American publishing. firm of Houghton, Mifflin, end 00., and an intimata frumd of the late Jamea BuSßell Lowell, was latertiewed in London by a Poll Mall Gazette representative. The following are notes of fcome of the conversation :— ... . r- "I have never ceased to be brought into a "more or less close oonneotion with Mr Lowell Binoo 1860, bnt I did not oommenoe to publish for him until 1878. But that did not alter our friendly relatione, and I was as intimate with him during the laßt 10 years as I was when I waa merely the manufacturer of Wb books." Mr Houghton then gave an ■ aooonnt of a gathering whioh he organised a year ago last February, at whioh all the work people of hia firm -some 600 in number— wete present, and at whioh Mr Russell Lowe and Dr. Wendell Holmes spoke. "Mr Lowell -waß not expected to make a Bpeeoh,' remarked Mr Houghton; "on the oontrory, he attended on the distinct understanding thit he ■was not to be called upon to fifty anything, But when the time oame he did not hesitate fo give expresflion to hie views upon literature, printing, and Pushing He referred to hia early connection with our press, and repeated some touohing incidents S our walkß^in the days of long ago One story in particular I remember As far back as 1850 he and I used to walk along the side of the Charles river together. There was a dyke there, concerning the beauty of which Lowell was never tired of speaking. One day as he was ooming to the press he saw a blind man sitting on this dyke, gazing, as it eeemed, upon the prospect whioh lay before him. Lowell asked what he waß looking at. •Ihave been told,' replied the blind man, •tbat this is a very beautiful place, and I have oome here to enfoy the prospect. This, said Mr Lowell, not only taught him a les--0»n in humility, bnt also showed him how muoh enjoyment there was in the world, even for those whoße means of amusing themselves were exceptionally limited.^ " That was an interesting occasion,- con-, tinned Mr Houghton. "Mr Lowell captivated everybody. 'You printers, he remarked in his jocular way, 'are apt to be full of your own importance ; but you forget how difficult it would be for you to get on without us fellows who write. He , won all hearts by enquiring after a boy whose father had been employed by him many years previously, and whom ho was anxious to see Indeed, he was perfectly at ease among the people' he met, and the occasion was thoroughly enjoyed by all. . « Yet I have heard it said that Mr Lowell waß really a cold and distant man 5 « that your experience, Mr Houghton? "-Distinctly not. The truth is he was not under- , Btood by everybody. He was too broad and toomany-Bided for many of the people with whom he came into contact. Hew uan example. An author and man of letters who came hero last evening told me that he did not like Lowell -that he thought him cold and haughty. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 1 knew him 40 years j I met him under all sortß of conditions ; and I oan truthfully say that he was never con_ Boiously cold or haughty to any man. 1 have Been him rude to people ; but his rudeness was always unconscious- the 1 result, that is, of mere abstraction, or of thoughtlessness. Personally, I have found him one of the most oharming and lovable men that 1 have ever met. I ought, perhaps, to exclude Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes; but I scarcely think I even need do that." . «• Holmes and Lowell were great friends, I take it 1 "-" indeed they were. They have met often at my offioe and at my house. They were like boya together on all these oboaeiona . They called eaoh other by their Christian names— Holmeß was 'Wendell and Lowell 'James'— and generally conducted themselves as if they were fresh from sohool." ..--,, " Six weeks before we left Amerioa," oontinued Mr Houghton, "my daughter and I called upon Loweil, wheh, ill though he was, he entertained her in the most delightful manner. He repeated stories with all the skill of an experienced raconteur; he discussed literature and literary subjects—in a word, he did everything that a host could do in order to put hia guest at perfect ease. I remember in rartioular his saying that he had Hved 70 years without knowing that he had a Btomaob, and that it was rather hard uqon him to have to consider it at the end of all those yeara. He talked to roy daughter about Soott, all of whose works he had reread. • And whioh of them do you like beßt ' ? Bhe asked. Mr Lowell replied that « The Bride of Lammermoor' Beemed to him the most peifeot, but that they all came baok with great ireßhnesß, and that all retained their old faßoination for him. These are probably the last thingß that he ever read. The laßt time that I ever saw him waß when I visited him with Mr Marston. He greeted us moßt cordially, Baying, 'I Bee you have your brother with you. I know he ia your brother by his resemblance to you.' We ta'ked about the xobina that were hopping about bis lawn; and although he seemed subdued and quiet, he, chatted pleasantly iu the old familiar way. Dr Holmes, who had oalled, said he waa a great deal better, and bad heard eiruilar good newa from MiBB Sarah Orme Jewett, Otherwise I should not have ventured to intrude upon him iu company wiih my friend Mr Marston. It was not until Mr Lowell attempted to rise from his chair tbat I realised how ill he really was. I had to put out my hand to prevent him from falling over. • Oh, I'm all right,' he ex claimed cheerily, ' when lam once upon my pins.' But I felt very strongly that he was not all right, and I left him with the im* pression that I should never Bee him again. The change whioh had taken place in his appearance in the course of a few weeks— my daughter and I saw him less than a month previous to the visit of which I speak— was remarkable. He seemed all at once to have beoome an old man." "He died in the hou3e in whioh he was born, I believe?"— "Yea; he died at Elmwood. When he first returned from England in 1885 he said he could not live in the house again. . I remember meeting him iu the street one Sunday afternoon soon after hia return. He came up and greeted me and my daughter— cordially as was ever his wont— and I asked him if he was going to Elmwood. 'No,' he replied, 'there are too many ghosts there; I cannot live in the house again.' He had just loßt his second wife, and one of hia daughters hes buried in a cemetery near the house." " What, upon the whole, are your impressions of Mr Russell Lowell as a man ? "— " He waß, in the first plaoe, a most natural man,. a man in perfect sympathy with everyx body about bim. Mr Lowell was really a boy during the whole of his life— a boy of genius, of 00 urse." " Yet he does not appear to have been liked by everybody, Mr Houghton ?"— • No ; and the reason that some people disliked him was that they did not understand him. He was a man of large sympathies; but he would allow no man to impose upon him or upon hiß good nature, Onoe, it is said, a representative of one of the wealthiest f ami! ies of the United States approached him with a view to getting an introduction to tbe Queen, The anawer whioh the plutoorat got from the American Minister startled him not a little. Eussell Lowell knew as well as any man how to preserve the dignity of his position. Yet at the same time the humblest of God's creatures had a share of his attention, A Scotsman, a friend of ours, was onoe presented to the poet at a reoeption. ' I am a Bcotohman,' he Baid. ' You oannot be a true one,' replied Mr ; 'if you were you Would have said Scotsman.' This, bb our friend admitted,- wbb perfeotly ttue, and he eould only excuse himself on the ground that i he had lived bo long in Amerioa that he bad forgotten the dialeot of bis native land. The stoiy is interesting as showing how remarkably acute waß the sense of hearing which Mr Lowell possessed." "To sum up," said Mr Houghton, in oon« elusion, " I think I may safely say that Rusaell Lowell waß by long odds the greatest literary man we have ever heard. Of oourse ho had the weaknesses of a great man as well as bis strong points, but he was unquestionably a man who will grow in the estimation of the publio as time goes on. To me hiß name will always suggest true friendship, delightful intercourse, and perfeot literary worth. And my opinion is that of a man "who has known him intimately for more than 40 years."