Class _K-4^ Book_SV^ Copyright^? COEHRIGHT D£POSm □? ^.^^ ^ =" ^ a: c I « o < 9 S D"^ o-l t-F CO. ^ C Is SCO {o r > z o >. ;/'sr 2 " O Q ^ 03 o ;i r \ pa < O r ^ Is OS >r ROWFANTIA An Occasional Publication of The Rowfant Club Number IX November 1921 f'. J»^-T J^^V" -.>^'». ■^J^ The Early Years of The Saturday Club One hundred and twenty-five copies of this ninth number of Rowfantia printed on American Vellum paper in the month of November, ig2i. This is number// 1, ^l1^g»>J^.^ .!>- o» I- THOMAS LYNN JOHNSON The Early Years of The Saturday Club by Thomas Lynn Johnson Cleveland The Rowfant Club 1921 r?3 •I Copyright, 1922, by THE ROWFANT CLUB H- uAa 3( 1922 The Early Years of The Saturday Club WHEN a lad I became greatly- interested in the poems of James Russell Lowell and I had great pleasure in reading the "Vision of Sir Launfal", "Under the Willows", The "Commemoration Ode", "Biglow Papers", and others. It was through Lowell's poems that I first learned of The Saturday Club. In his poem on Agassiz : / see in vision the warm lighted hall The living and the dead I see again, 7 8 The Early Years of And, but my chair is empty, 'mid them all 'Tis I that seem the dead; they all remain Immortal, changeless creatures of the brain. This poem was dated February, 1874, sent to Charles Eliot Norton and published in the Atlantic some months later. Thus I heard of The Saturday Club and learned that Agassiz, Emerson, Lowell and other distinguished men were members. The information I could later secure was very meager and uncertain, but I always had a deep interest in this unusual group. In 191 8 a splendid volume "The Early Years of The Saturday Club" was issued under the editorship of Mr. Edward Emerson and I gladly became the owner of a copy. My interest thus early awakened and re- The Saturday Club 9 cently stimulated is responsible for this paper. In the summer of 1855 eleven men of distinguished ability and each occupying a prominent place in the life of Boston agreed to meet for monthly dinners. As early as the thirties there were casual meetings for interchange of opinions and acquaintance and in 1844 Emerson wrote in his journal "Wouldn't it be a good cipher for the seal, etc., two porcupines meeting with all their spines erect and the motto 'We con- verse at the quill's end.' " Some attempts were made prior to 1855 to inaugurate a dinner club and Mr. Horatio Woodman, a lawyer, who liked the society of cultivated men and possessing a skill in getting people together, became the father of the club. During the summer of 1855, Francis H. Underwood, then a young man of thirty, was busily en- lO The Early Years of gaged in trying to start a magazine and desired to interest the literary men of Boston, and he competed a bit with Woodman in attempting to get the club established. What Underwood desired was to have it back of the New Atlantic. Mr. Holmes, later, writing of The Satur- day Club, "The magazine and the club have often been thought to have some organic connection and The Atlantic Club has been spoken of as if there was or had been such an institution, but it never existed." The fact seems to be that for a few years so many of the contributors to the Atlantic were members of the "Saturday" that Emerson's journal expressed the situation: "We had a story one day of the meeting of The Atlantic Club when the copies of the new number of the monthly were J brought in. Everyone rose eagerly to get a copy and then each sat down The Saturday Club ii and read his own article." In 1856 these friends, under the guiding hand of Woodman, passed from the for- mative period into a club, but yet without a name. The members were Agassiz, Richard H. Dana Jr., John Sullivan Dwight, Ralph Waldo Emer- son, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, James Russell Lowell, John Lathrop Motley, Benjamin Peirce, Samuel G. Ward, Edwin P. Whipple, and Horatio Woodman, the eleven. Long- fellow's name does not appear. In March 1857 he wrote ^'Dined with Agassiz at his club which he wishes me to join and I think I shall." He did almost immediately, for in May he writes "We have formed a dinner club once a month at Parker's . . . we sit from three o'clock until nine generally, which proves it to be pleasant." Felton and Holmes had also come in and the membership had grown to fourteen, a very dis- 12 The Early Years of tinguished company upon whom Harvey D. Parker looked down from his gilt frame, four poets, one essay- ist, one biologist and geologist, a mathematician, one classical scholar, one musical critic, an historian, one judge, two lawyers, and a banker. Mr. Woodman assumed the burden of the business arrangements and managed the feasts. He seemed to know how to do this acceptably and evidently possessed an intimate acquaintance with the culinary ex- cellence of the Parker House. The charges were divided among the members, each member paying for his guest. If the members forgot to come and failed to notify Woodman the charge was sometimes large, since those present paid for those absent. The editor tells us of one time when only three came and the bill was seven dollars apiece. A real dinner was eaten, seven courses at least, The Saturday Club 13 with sherry, sauterne, and claret. All the members lived nearby except those coming from Concord. Mr. Ward, one of the early mem- bers, writes : ''Agassiz always sat at the head of the table by native right of his large good fellowship and in- tense enjoyment of the scene, his plasticity of mind and sympathy . . . I well remember, amongst other things, how the club would settle itself to listen when Dana had a story to tell. Not a word was missed, and those who were absent were told at the next club what they had lost. Emerson smoked his cigar and was supremely happy and laughed under protest when the point of the story was reached." Referring to this same period Holmes wrote "At that time you could have seen Longfellow invari- ably at one end — the east end — of the long table, and Agassiz at the other. 14 The Early Years of Emerson was commonly near the Longfellow end, on his left. There was no regularity, however, in the place of the members. I myself commonly sat on the right hand side of Longfellow so as to have my back to the windows. I think Dana was more apt to be on the other side. The members present might vary from a dozen to twenty or more. Conversa- tion was rarely general — there were two principal groups at the ends of the table. "The most jovial man at the table was Agassiz. His laugh was that of a big giant. There was no speechify- ing, no fuss of any kind with consti- tution and bylaws and other such encumbrances. I do not remember more than two infractions of the general rule of quiet and decorum. These were when Longfellow wrote a short poem on one of Agassiz' birthdays, and the other was when I The Saturday Club 15 wrote a poem in honor of Motley, who was just leaving for Europe." Again, concerning one of the early meetings. Longfellow had resigned his professorship and Lowell was to take his place and was starting to Europe for a year's study. Norton writes "Longfellow was at the head of the table and Felton opposite him. Lowell was at Longfellow's right and Emerson at his left, and the rest of the party was made up of Holmes and Appleton and Parsons and Agassiz and Peirce and eight or ten others, all clever men. Longfellow proposed Lowell's health in such a happy and appropriate way as to strike a true keynote of the feeling of the time. Then Holmes read a little poem of farewell that he had written, and then, after an interval filled up with conversation, he produced two letters addressed to Lowell, one from Rev. Homer Wilbur and the other 1 6 The Early Years of from Hosea Biglow. They were very cleverly done, full of humor and fun, and made great shouts of laugh- ter which continued on through the evening to roll up in great waves from the end of the table where Felton and the best laughers generally were seated. It was really a delightful, genial, youthful time, and had Lowell just come back instead of being just about to go off, nothing would have been wanting." Now, a word of biography. Agas- siz was born in French Switzerland and through the influence of Sir Charles Lyell had been asked to de- liver a course of lectures in Lowell Institute. *'His great enthusiasm and the charm of taking for granted popular interest in a remote subject, his genial face, his interesting foreign accent and facile blackboard drawing won the game completely." All audiences fell under his spell and the The Saturday Club 17 following year he was appointed pro- fessor in Harvard and became her most conspicuous teacher. Here he remained until his death and his Museum is his monument. Richard H. Dana Jr., born in Cambridge 1 8 1 5. On account of bad eyes he was sent around the Horn in his junior year in college on a trad- ing vessel and wrote that classic ''Two Years before the Mast." He be- came an admiralty lawyer, but he devoted much time to looking after that bedeviled chap lost in the city, the common sailor. He espoused the cause of the free soilers; championing with rare earnestness the cause of the slave ; lashing with his invective the rich conservative element of Boston. Dr. Charles Eliot said of Mr. Dana "He was In- terested in anything pertaining to the w^ell being of the human race." John Sullivan Dwight, one of The Early Years of the original members, survived with Holmes, Lowell, and Judge Hoar "to become one of the incorporators of the club in 1886. He was the only member of the club who represented primarily the art of music." Mr. Howells says of him "John Dwight, the musical critic and a nature most musically sweet, was always smilingly present," and Lowell in his "Fable for Critics" coupled Hawthorne and Dwight. In making Hawthorne the fates had used some womanlike material. The success of her scheme gave her so much delight That she tried it out again shortly after in Dwight. He was born in Boston in 18 13, a son of Dr. John Dwight. He died in 1893. There, too, the face half rustic, half divine, The Saturday Club 19 Self poised, sagacious, freaked with humor fine — sat Emer- son. Listening with eyes averse I see him sit Pricked with the cider of the Judges wit. The club was a source of great de- light to Emerson where he could meet his old friends and make new ones. During the winter months he was away a large part of the time earning his living, lecturing. He was not given to much talk and it is reported that he never laughed aloud. At an unexpected shot of wit his face was likely to break up almost painfully "although he could control the sound entirely." He was the oldest mem- ber of the club, having been born in 1803. Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was born in Concord 18 16, graduated at 20 The Early Years of Harvard in 1835, giving the English oration at commencement. Then a year's teaching at Pittsburg; after- ward becoming a very successful lawyer. When a member of the Massachusetts Senate some manu- facturers deprecated certain resolu- tions passed against slavery and Hoar replied "I think, Mr. President, that it is quite desirable that the legislature of Massachusetts should represent its conscience as its cotton." He was a member of the joint high commis- sion for settlement of differences between the United States and Eng- land. He was attorney general in Grant's cabinet and later appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1869, but he was rejected by the Senate. Mr. Emerson says that none of the original members of the club are more closely identified with it in the memory and imagination of the pre- The Saturday Club 21 sent members than the author of the "Biglow Papers." Of himself he writes in The Fable for Critics: There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb With a whole bale of Isms tied together with rhyiue, His lyre has some chords that would ring pretty well, But he'd rather by half make a drum of the shell, And rattle away till he's old as Methusalem As head of a march to the last New Jerusalem. At the organization of the club Lowell was not quite forty, yet he had produced much of his poetry, won a distinctive place as a prose writer and lecturer on literary topics and was the natural choice as editor of the Atlan- tic at its founding in 1857. Lowell 22 The Early Years of and Holmes were the brilliant talkers and no member of the club was more loved than Lowell. Let me give you part of the vision coming to him there in Italy when he wrote his poem on Agassiz : The garrulous memories Gather again from all their far- flown nooks, Singly at first, and then by twos and threes, Then in a throng innumerable, as the rooks Thicken their twilight files Toward Tintern's gray repose of roofless aisles; Once more I see him at the tablets head When Saturday her monthly ban- quet spread To scholars, poets, wits, All choice, some famous, loving things, not names. The Saturday Club 23 And so without a twinge at others fames; Such company as wisest moods befits f Yet with no pedant blindness to the worth Of undeliberate mirth, Natures benignly mixed of air and earth, Now with the stars, now with equal zest Tracing the eccentric orbit of a jest. Concerning Motley let me quote Holmes: "I saw him, the beautiful bright eyed boy with dark waving hair, the youthful scholar, first at Harvard and then at Gottingen and Berlin, the friend and companion of Bismarck, the young author making a dash for renown as a novelist and showing elements which made his failures the promise of success in a 24 The Early Years of larger field of literary labor, the delv- ing historian burying his fresh young manhood in the dusty alcoves of silent libraries to come forth in the face of Europe and America as one of the leading historians of the time; the diplomatist, accomplished, of capti- vating presence and manners, an ardent American, and in due time an impassioned and eloquent advocate of the cause of freedom, reaching at last the summit of his ambition as minister at the Court of St. James." Benjamin Peirce was born in Salem in 1809 and during his career as pro- fessor in Harvard was, like Agassiz, the first man in America in his field, mathematics. One of his students tells of seeing a memorial tablet in Paris the year after the great Exposi- tion whereon were inscribed the names of the great mathematicians of the earth for two thousand years; Archimedes is head of the list and The Saturday Club 25 Peirce closes it, the only American. Speaking of the denunciation of science by clergymen Peirce said "I cannot conceive a more monstrous absurdity. How can there be a more faithless species of infidelity than to believe that the Deity has written his word on the material universe and a contradiction of it in the gospel." Samuel Gray Ward, a special friend of Emerson, was born in Boston in 18 17. After graduating at Harvard he accompanied Mr. George Ticknor to Europe for a year of study. Returning he became a farmer at Lenox, but later, as stated by his wife, "He found a hole in his pocket that could be mended in no other way than giving up the farm." Joining his father Thomas Wren Ward, who was a representa- tive of the Barings in America, he became a banker. Mr. Ward 26 The Early Years of effected the purchase of Alaska for the United States, but early in the War of Secession moved his office from Boston to New York, where he continued to represent the great London house. In 1870 Mr. Ward withdrew from active business and resided in Europe for some years. He lived until 1907, having been a member of the club for fifty years, surviving all of the original members. Edwin Percy Whipple, essayist, born at Gloucester in 18 19, began as a bank clerk. At twenty-two he wrote a review of the first series of Emerson's essays and at twenty-four he made his general reputation by a brilliant article on Macaulay in the North American Review. He be- came librarian of the Merchants' Exchange Library at its founding. On the organization of The Saturday Club he had a sure place as one of the "representative men possessing The Saturday Club 27 genial qualities." Apropos of his book in 1876 "American Literature" Whittier wrote "With the possible exception of Lowell and Mathew Arnold, the ablest critical essayist of our time." I mention two of his good sayings from Emerson's journal. Whipple said of the author of "Leaves of Grass" "That he had every leaf but the fig leaf." Doctor Bartol in the funeral discourse quotes another, "I know, said one to him, your idea of a public library; if you had a million dollars" -"If I had the million," Whipple answered, "I should not have the idea." He passed out of fashion, as it were, and withdrew more and more from notice and died in 1886. Horatio Woodman, founder, born in Buxton, Maine, 1821, taught in a country school, but came to Boston to study and practice law. Dr. Gould, the mathematician, denomi- 2 8 The Early Years of nated Woodman as a "genius broker" and says Charles Francis Adams "The definition was a happy one be- cause he had a craving for the acquaintance and society of men of reputation and, indeed, lacked only the industry to have been a sort of a Boswell . . . The great achieve- ment of his life, in his own mind, was the founding of The Saturday Club and his connection with that club which could only have come about through being its founder, was the thing on which he most prided him- self." Woodman had unusual dietetic dexterity and at one of the dinners arranged prior to 1855 he was cook- ing some mushrooms at the table. Some doubt was expressed as to the advisability of eating them and Dwight was deputed to taste and re- port. He bravely experimented and Emerson writes, mildly declared "It tastes like the roof of a house." The Saturday Club 29 Woodman became seriously involved in business matters in 1879 ^^^ ^^" came greatly depressed. During this year he was lost from a Sound steamer during a trip to New York. This is a hurried mention of the original members of the club prior to 1857. This was an important year in literary Boston for the new mag- azine was launched and christened by Holmes "The Atlantic." Another important event was founding the Adirondack Club, the crystallization of a sort of a crusade in nature's be- half carried on by William J. Still- man. Stillman was born in New York and came to Boston crude and unlettered, possessed by a noble en- thusiasm for preserving the forest home in the Adirondacks. The Club acquired a large tract of some twenty- five thousand acres, including Amper- sand Pond, and the following summer the Club went to look at their wooded 30 The Early Years of empire. An interesting item in Mr. Emerson's book is a photograph of the painting of the "Adirondack Club" by Stillman. In 1857 Longfellow, Holmes, and Felton became members of the club. On May 28, 1857, they celebrated Agassiz' 50th birthday. Longfellow had a poem and Lowell and Holmes read humorous lines. In 1858 William H. Prescott, the histor- ian, was elected to membership, and he was the first member the club lost In death. Whittier was also elected this year. "Although Whittier wrote poems about several members of The Satur- day Club,- — Sumner, Fields, Lowell, Agassiz; and although the last poem he ever composed was addressed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, it remains true he never came into very close personal relations with any of them, unless an exception be made of The Saturday Club 31 Whipple and Fields. He was re- spected and admired by the club group, but had to fight his own battles single handed in youth, and in his old age he remained a man apart from confidential intimacy with other men." Whittier's publishers gave a dinner on his 70th birthday, December 17, 1877. He disliked going and said to an old kinswoman "I think I will not go as I will have to buy a new pair of pants," but he finally accepted the invitation and "gravely endured the ordeal." At this dinner Mark Twain achieved such signal ill success and offended the guests and all New England with his story of three frontier tramps trying to pass them- selves off to a lonely miner as Long- fellow, Emerson, and Holmes. Mr. Paine, his biographer, tells us that later Mark Twain came to believe his speech was humorous although he wrote letters of apology to the 32 The Early Years of three, but felt he could not approach Whittier. Whittier died September 7, 1892, a few days before having written his last poem for Dr. Holmes' 83rd birthday. The last stanza of Holmes memo- rial poem: Lift from the quarried ledge a flawless stone; Smooth the green turf, and hid the tablet rise, And on the snow white surface carve alone These words — he needs no more HERE WHITTIER LIES. In January, 1859, the club cele- brated the centennial birthday of Burns, and Whittier's poem in remem- brance was submitted : In smiles and tears, in sun and showers. The Saturday Club 33 The minstrel and the heather The deathless singer and the flowers He sang of live together. Holmes and Lowell also brought tributes and Emerson "spoke in a marvelous fashion." On February 22, Lowell's 40th birthday was cele- brated, Holmes and Emerson bring- ing poems. It was during this year that Nathaniel Hawthorne became a member of the club. Of Haw- thorne, Lowell writes in his Fable for Critics : When nature created him clay was not granted For making a full sized man as she wanted So, to fill out her model, a little she spared Of some finer grained stuff for a woman prepared 34 The Early Years of And she could not have hit a more excellent plan For making him fully and per- fectly man. Hawthorne was probably not a fre- quent visitor at the club ; shy, reserved, and silent, and his death came in May, 1864. In 1868 Lowell wrote to Fields "Pray who wrote the article on Hawthorne in the last Atlantic? ... I found it very interesting and on the whole the most adequate thing about Hawthorne. . . I don't think people have any kind of true notion yet what a master he was. God rest his soul ! Shakespeare I am sure was glad to see him on the other side." This year of 1859 Tom Appleton came into the club, brother-in-law of Longfellow, a wit, an amateur artist, writer of verses, and traveler. John Murray Forbes was also elected to membership this year; merchant, The Saturday Club 35 banker, and railroad builder, and for many years president of the great Chicago, Burlington and Quincy rail- road system. In i860 Charles Eliot Norton was the only person invited to member- ship. Norton was intimate with more distinguished personages, per- haps, than any man of his times, and in the "Lives and Letters" of the dis- tinguished persons you are always finding letters to Norton. He was a quiet, scholarly gentleman, with an unusual gift for friendship. In 1 861 the conflagration of the great war came and the entire mem- bership of the club was profoundly aroused. Holmes wrote "Brother Jonathan's Lament:" Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, We can never forget our hearts have been one. 2^ The Early Years of Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty's name, From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame. Oh, Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, There are battles with Fate that can never be won! The star flowering banner must never be furled For its blessings of light are the hope of the world. Go then our rash sister! afar and aloof, Run rash in the sunshine away from our roof; But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore Remember the pathway that leads to our door! Woodman, lifted out of himself by The Saturday Club 37 the blossoming of the flag in every town and village after Sumter wrote his fine poem: Old Greece was young and Homer true And Dante's burning page Flamed in the red along our flag And kindled holy rage. God's gospel cheered the sacred cause In stern prophetic strain Which makes his right our covenant His psalms our deep refrain. A little earlier Lowell had written ^'Jonathan to John:" It don't seem hardly right, John, When both my hands was full To stump me to a fight, John, 38 The Early Years of Your cousin, tu, John Bull. Who made the law that hurts, John, Heads I win— ditto tails? J. B. was on his shirts, John, Unless my memory fails. And In the dark autumn of 1861 Lowell wrote his "The Washers of the Shroud"- God give us peace! not such as lulls to sleep. But sword on thigh and brow with purpose knit. And let our Ship of State to har- bor sweep. Her ports all up, her battle lanterns lit, And her leashed thunders gathering for their leap. Mr. Emerson says of this year four new members came in. One was The Saturday Club 39 a quiet scholar, James Elliot Cabot, and Emerson's biographer. "One a patriot of widest scope, a reformer not by speeches, but by great and difficult deeds, genially done," Sam- uel Gridley Howe. "The third a Unitarian minister of influence, a pro- fessor at Harvard and a noble meta- physician," Frederick Henry Hedge. "The fourth a physician by educa- tion, but attracted from the pro- fession towards promoting modern public enterprises," Estes Howe. In 1862 Cornelius Felton, "our hearty Grecian of Homeric ways", the president of Harvard died, Feb- ruary 27th. During this dreadful year, with its long list of dead and wounded following the Peninsula Campaign, Holmes made his stirring appeal "Never or Now:" From the hot plains where they outnumbered perish 40 The Early Years of Furrowed and ridged by the battlefield' s plow Comes the loud summons. Too long you have slumbered, Hear the last Angel Trump, Never or Now. Charles Sumner was the only member chosen for the club this year, 1862. In a letter from Judge Hoar to Emerson, *'Sumner Is dead as the telegraph will have told you ... I held his hand when he died. His last words were 'Judge, tell Emerson how much I love and revere him.* And in answer, I replied 'He said of you once that he never knew so white a soul.' " In 1863 came the Emancipation Proclamation and a great jubilee was held in the Boston music hall under the direction of John Sullivan Dwight and Emerson's poem afterwards called "The Boston Hymn" was read: The Saturday Club 41 The word of the Lord by Night To the watching Pilgrims came. This year Norton and Lowell took charge of the North American Re- view and Lowell also published his second series of ''Biglow Papers," and Whittier, Quaker as he was, wrote his "In War Time", showing that he was in a measure reconciled to the sacrifice of human life. This year the distinguished father of two sons, each of whom achieved even greater distinction, was the only member elected, Henry James, Sr. In 1864 the club celebrated the 300th anniversary of the birth of Shakspeare, "It was a quiet and happy evening filled with good speeches from Agasslz, Dr. Frotheringham, Winthrop, Palfrey, White, Curtis, Hedge, Lowell, Hilliard, Clarke, Governor Andrew, Hoar, and Weiss, and a fine poem by Holmes read so 42 The Early Years of admirably well I could not tell whether In itself it was one of his best or not. The company broke up at II 130," so wrote Emerson. On May 24th this year Hawthorne was laid under a group of pines in Concord and Longfellow returning from the funeral wrote : Ah, who shall lift that wand of magic power And the lost clew regain? The unfinished window in Alad- din's tower Unfinished must remain. This year John Albion Andrew, al- ways spoken of as Governor Andrew, was elected to the club, and chosen with him was Martin Brimmer, a cultivated gentleman. James T. Fields, the editor and later publisher, and Samuel Worcester Rowse, a portrait painter, were likewise elected. The Saturday Club 43 In 1865 Agasslz planned a trip of exploration to Brazil and the Ama- zons together with Mrs. Agasslz and a party of naturalists. The club gave him a dinner on March 23rd and Dr. Holmes read with affection and pleasure a farewell to Agassiz: God bless the great Professor And the Madam, too, God bless her Bless him and all his band. July of this year brought Har- vard's commemoration of her dead sons lost in the Civil War and Lowell read his great "Commemoration Ode,"— this his portrait of Lincoln: How beautiful to see Once more a shepherd of man- kind indeed Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead; 44 The Early Years of One whose meek flock the people joyed to be Not lured by any cheat of birth But by his clear grained human worth And brave old wisdom of sin- cerity. They knew that outward grace is dust They could not choose but trust In that sure footed mind^s un- faltering skill And supple tempered will That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. The country^s earnest, brave, far-seeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, New birth of our new soil, the first American. The Saturday Club 45 Judge Hoar wrote Lowell "What an occasion that Commemoration was. My, it was the whole war con- centrated and you have embalmed its essence and flavor forever." No new members were chosen in the year 1865. In the year 1866 Agassiz came home from Brazil. Robert CoUyer, who was Emerson's guest, writes "When Agassiz came into the room they joined hands, made a ring and danced about him like a lot of boys, while Emerson stood apart, his face radiant." Dur- ing this year Dr. Jeffries Wyman was elected to membership. Of Wyman Holmes wrote: "So he went on working . . . quietly, happily, not stimulated by loud applause, not striking the public eye with any glitter to be seen afar off, but with a mild halo about him which was as real to those with whom he had his daily walk and conversation as the 46 The Early Years of nimbus around a saint's head in an altar piece." Lowell wrote : He widened knowledge and escaped the praise; He wisely taught because more wise to learn; He toiled for science, not to draw men's gaze. But for her love of self denial stern. That such a man could spring from our decays Fans the soul's noble faith until it hum. On February 27th came Long- fellow's 60th birthday and Lowell brought his beautiful tribute: With loving breath of all the winds his name Is blown about the world, but to his friends The Saturday Club 47 A sweeter secret hides behind his fame, And love steals shyly through the loud acclaim To murmur a God bless You! and there ends. * * * Surely if the skill in song the shears may stay And of its purpose cheat the charmed abyss. If our poor life be lengthened by a lay, He shall not go, although his presence may. And the next age in praise shall double this. In May of this year Mr. Dana was appointed counsel for the United States, assisting Mr. WilHam M. Evarts in the trial of Jefferson Davis. In October Governor Andrew died. 48 The Early Years of The only member elected this year was E. W. Gurney of Harvard. 1868. On May 23rd, the club met at the house of Fields at a farewell dinner to Longfellow. "There was much pleasant talk, a poem by O. W. H., and the farewells" writes Mrs. Fields. His reception in England was most cordial and enthusiastic. He writes "I swooped down to Cam- bridge and there had a scarlet gown put on me and the students shouted 'Three cheers for the red man of the west.' " Lowell writes him "Of course we follow your triumphal progress in England with pride and sympathy. They share the triumph and willing not to partake of the gale, which, I should think, must endanger your hat now and then. Still it must be de- lightful on the whole and I am glad you went over to gather your laurels.'* No new member was chosen this year The Saturday Club 49 1 869-1 870. Grant had been elected President in 1868 and chose Judge Hoar a member of his cabinet, attor- ney general, and later appointed Mot- ley as minister to the Court of St. James. Judge Hoar had so antagonized the Senate and was unsympathetic with the policy of the administration, that President Grant asked for his resignation, which was promptly fur- nished, and in July Secretary Fish requested Motley's return as minister. He refused to resign and was later recalled. Governor Jacob D. Cox wrote the story of why Judge Hoar ceased to be attorney general, which was published in the "Atlantic" for August, 1895. "I was invited with General Sherman to dinner by The Saturday Club. Emerson, Long- fellow, Lowell, and Holmes were all there, and I need not say it was an occasion to remember. It only con- 50 The Early Years of cerns my present story to tell what occured just before we parted. Mr. Longfellow was presiding and unex- pectedly I found that he was speaking to me in the name of the club. He said they had been disturbed, much disturbed by rumors then current that Motley was to be recalled from Eng- land on account of Senator Sumner's opposition to the San Domingo Treaty. They would be very far from seeking to influence any action of the president which was based on Mr. Motley's conduct in his diplomatic duties, of which they knew little and could not judge, but they thought the President ought to know, if the rumor was well founded, he would in their opinion offend all the educated men of New England; it could not be right to make a disagreement with Mr. Sum- ner prejudice Mr. Motley by reason of the friendship between the two. I could only answer that no body of The Saturday Club 51 men had a better right to speak for American men of letters and I would faithfully convey their message." As stated above, Motley would not resign and was recalled. Longfellow writes December 31st, 1870, "The year ends with a club dinner, Agassiz is not well enough to be there, but Emerson and Holmes of the older set were and so I was not quite alone." William Morris Hunt was chosen a member in 1869. The editor adds "Two new mem- bers were chosen during this year (1870) Charles Francis Adams, up- right, strong, clearheaded statesman, who through years of anxiety and peril served his country bravely and well," and Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University. During these years the club had as visitors many distinguished people and from letters and reminiscences 52 The Early Years of we learn an invitation was much appreciated and a visit highly cher- ished. When Dickens came on his second visit to America in 1867 much atten- tion was shown him in Boston and several dinners given in his honor. A member records this episode at his visit to the club. Charles Dickens dined with us during his second visit in 1867. He compounded a jug or pitcher, we call it, of gin punch for which his father was famous. No witch at her incantations could be more rapt in her task than Dickens was in his as he stooped over the drink he was mixing." The English poet Arthur Hugh Clough lived for some time in Cam- bridge and his great gifts were fully recognized by the club and he was on several occasions a welcome guest. Of Clough, Lowell writes in his Vision: The Saturday Club 53 Young head time tonsured smoother than a friars, Boy face, but grave with answer- less desires, Poet in all that poets have of best. But foiled with riddles dark and cloudy aims, Who hath now found sure rest, Not by still I sis or historic Thames, Nor by the Charles he tried to love with me. But, not misplaced, by Amos hallowed brim Nor scorned by Santa Croces neighboring fanes, Happy, not mindless, whereso- ever he be, Of violets that today I scattered over him. Dr. Marion Howe of Columbia University, son of Samuel Gridley 54 J^he Early Years of Howe, writes the editor of having been taken by his father when a boy of fifteen to one of the meetings, "Tom Appleton was presiding and ex- ploited the virtues of Kentucky mut- ton" and Dr. Holmes likened the various phases of Christianity as hypothetical magnets drawing the particular kind of people they had an affinity for. After listening for a time to the talk and having looked at the celebrities his father asked him to withdraw before the dinner came on. At the Shakespeare dinner in 1864 it was planned to invite as many guests as members and in this way each member would have the privilege of paying for one guest. Fifteen guests were invited, Governor An- drew, W. C. Bryant, George Ban- croft, G. C. Verplanck, Richard Grant White, Edward Everett, George Ticknor, Dr. Asa Gray, John G. Whittier, John Neal, Edwin Booth, The Saturday Club 55 Professor Child, George W. Curtis, James T. Fields, and R. H. Dana Sr. Several of these did not come as shown by Mrs. Fields' list. You will recall I quoted from Emerson's journal concerning this meeting where good speeches were made by Agassiz, White, Lowell, Clarke and others and Emerson was called on. "He arose, looked about him tranquilly for a moment or two, serene and unabashed, unable to say a word "upon a subject so familiar from his boyhood." It is possible that Emerson had forgotten the manuscript of "Shakespeare" printed in his collected works and was thus unable to speak. Upon the manu- script was a note that it was prepared for this occasion. Thoreau the sage from Walden had been asked and went a few times. In a letter to an English friend, Cholmondely, who asked if there S6 The Early Years of were no clubs in Boston he writes: *'I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can imagine the outside world also to be peopled. Yet some of my acquain- tance would fain hustle me into the almshouse for 'the sake of society' as if I were pining for that diet, when I seem to myself a most befriended man, and find constant employment. However, they do not believe a word I say. They have got a Club, the handle of which is in the Parker House at Boston, and with this they beat me from time to time, expecting to make me tender or minced meat, so fit for a club to dine off. Hercules with his club The Dragon did drub; But More of More Hall With nothing at all, He slew the Dragon of Wantley, The Saturday Club 57 Ah! that More of More Hall knew what fair play was. Charming, who wrote me about it once, brandishing the club vigorously (being set on by another, probably) , says now, serious- ly, that he is sorry to find by my letters that I am ^absorbed in politics/ and adds, begging my pardon for his plainness, 'Beware of an extraneous life !' and so he does his duty and washes his hands of me. I tell him that it is as if he should say to the sloth, that fellow that creeps so slowly along a tree, and cries from time to time, 'Beware of dancing!* ''The doctors are all agreed that I am suffering for want of society. Was never a case like it? First, I did not know that I was suffering at all. Secondly, as an Irishman might say, I had thought it was indigestion of the society I got. "As for the Parker House, I went there once, when the Club was away, 58 The Early Years of but I found it hard to see through the cigar smoke, and men were deposited about in chairs over the marble floor, as thick as legs of bacon in a smoke- house. It was all smoke, and no salt, attic or other. The only room in Boston which I visit with alacrity is the Gentlemen's Room at the Fitch- burg Depot, where I wait for the cars, sometimes for two hours, in order to get out of town. It is a paradise to the Parker House, for no smoking is allowed, and there is more retirement. A large respectable club of us hire it (Town-and-Country Club), and I am pretty sure to find some one there whose face is set the same way as my own.'' Here is a picture from one of Lowell's letters dated September 20, 1861. "I dined the other day with Anthony Trollope, a big, red-faced, rather underbred Englishman of the The Saturday Club 59 bald-with-spectacles type. A good, roaring, positive fellow who deafened me (sitting on his right) till I thought of Dante's Cerberus. He says he goes to work on a novel 'just like a shoemaker on a shoe, only taking care to make honest stitches.' Gets up at ^Yt every day, does all his writing be- fore breakfast, and always writes just so many pages a day. He and Dr. Holmes were very entertaining. The Autocrat started one or two hobbies, and charged, paradox in rest — but it was pelting a rhinoceros with seed-pearl — "Doctor. You don't know what Madeira is in England. "Trollope. I'm not so sure it's worth knowing. "Doctor. Connoisseurship in it with us is a fine art. There are men who will tell you a dozen kinds, as Dr. Waagen would know a Carlo Dolci from a Guido. 6o The Early Years of "Trollope. They might be bet- ter employed! "Doctor. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. 'Trollope. Ay, but that's beg- ging the whole question. I don't admit it's Worse doing at all. If they earn their bread by it, it may be worse doing (Roaring). "Doctor. But you may be as- sured— "Trollope. No, but I mayn't be asshored. I won't be asshored. I don't intend to be asshored (Roaring Louder) ! "And so they went it. It was very funny. Trollope wouldn't give him any chance. Meanwhile, Emer- son and I, who sat between them, crouched down out of range and had some very good talk, the shot hurt- ling overhead. I had one little passage at arms with T. a propos of English peaches. T. ended by roar- The Saturday Club 6i ing that England was the only country where such a thing as a peach or a grape was known. I appealed to Hawthorne, who sat opposite. His face mantled and trembled for a moment with some droll fancy, as one sees bubbles rise and send off rings in still water when a turtle stirs at the bottom, and then he said, 'I asked an Englishman once who was praising their peaches to describe to me what he meant by a peach, and he described something very like a cucumber.' I rather liked Trollope." Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Samuel Gray Ward, and other patriotic citizens, founded the Union Club, which had its home in the Lawrence and Lowell houses on Park Street. For many years The Saturday Club has held its monthly dinners at the Union Club. About the time the Club reached the Fiftieth Anniversary of its found- 62 The Early Years of ing, a commission was given Mr. Edward Emerson to prepare a his- tory of its founding and the early- years. Mr. Norton, last survivor of the early fellowship, who was Presi- dent at that time, wrote Mr. Emer- son the wish of the Club that he serve as historian. "The Club is about fifty years old, and it occurred to me that it would be well if a history of it were written before its story became faint and before more legends of dubious validity gathered around it. ... I spoke of this a day or two since to President Eliot and found that he was quite of my mind. When he asked me who could do the work, I told him that I hoped you might be willing to undertake it, and this sugges- tion he received. ... I hope The Saturday Club 63 you will entertain it readily, and even that it may allure you. The subject seems to have many attractions, for it admits of studies of the character of many of the most remarkable men in our community during the last half century." Mr. Emerson urged Mr. Norton to write the history, as he was one of the early group, but he said he was too old, but would aid in every way by giving his recollections. Getting information from Mr. Norton, who survived for only a little time, and persons of an older generation, and a painstaking study of the books written by the members, and their letters, journals, and poems, he has done a remarkable piece of work — we can really visualize the table at ''Parkers" and enjoy the wit and wisdom of that famous, unique group 64 The Saturday Club of men each holding first place in his particular line of endeavor, the names of whom we place on our Roll of Honor as Americans. The Saturday Club Members Elected Since 1 857 William H. Prescott * 1858 John G. Whittier * 1858 Nathaniel Hawthorne * 1859 Thomas G. Appleton * 1859 John M. Forbes * 1859 Charles E. Norton * i860 J. Elliot Cabot * 1861 Samuel G. Howe * 1861 Frederic H. Hedge * 1861 Estes Howe * 1861 Charles Sumner * 1862 Henry James * 1863 Martin Brimmer * 1864 James T. Fields * 1864 6s 66 The Early Years of S. W. Rowse * 1864 John A. Andrew * 1864 Jeffries Wyman * 1866 E. Whitman Gurney * 1867 William M. Hunt * 1869 Charles F. Adams * 1870 Charles W. Eliot 1870 Charles C. Perkins * 1871 Francis Parkman * 1873 Alexander Agassiz * 1873 Richard H. Dana Sr.* 1873 Wolcott Gibbs * 1873 Horace Gray * 1873 Walbridge A. Field * 1891 Henry L. Higginson 1893 Edward W. Hooper * 1893 Henry P. Walcott 1893 W. Sturgis Bigelow 1894 Moorfield Storey 1894 John Fiske * 1896 Samuel Hoar * 1896 Charles S. Sargent 1896 Joseph B. Warner 1896 Charles F. Adams, 2nd. 1898 The Saturday Club 67 Charles R. Codman * 1898 James M. Crafts * 1898 William G. Farlow 1898 Roger Wolcott * 1898 William T. Sampson * 1900 William T. Councilman 1900 Robert Grant 1900 William Lawrence 1900 William C. Loring 1900 Francis C. Lowell * 1900 Henry S. Pritchett 1902 Edward N. Perkins * 1873 Asa Gray * 1874 William D. Howells * 1874 Edmund Quincy * 1875 Edwin L. Godkin * 1875 William B. Rogers * 1877 William Amory * 1877 James Freeman Clarke * 1877 Phillips Brooks * 1877 William W. Story * 1877 George F. Hoar * 1877 John Lowell * 1880 0. Wendell Holmes Jr. 1880 68 The Early Years of Theodore Lyman * 1881 William James * 1881 Francis A. Walker * 1882 Charles F. Adams Jr.* 1882 Frederick L. Olmsted * 1883 Raphael Pumpelly 1883 Henry H. Richardson * 1883 William Endicott Jr.* 1883 William C. Endicott * 1885 William W. Goodwin * 1885 John C. Gray * 1887 Edward C. Pickering * 1887 Thomas B. Aldrich * 1888 Edward W. Emerson 1889 A. Lawrence Lowell 1903 Bliss Perry 1903 Samuel W. McCall 1904 James Ford Rhodes 1904 Henry P. Bowditch * 1904 George F. Moore 1905 Samuel M. Crothers 1906 William Everett * 1906 Edv/ard W. Forbes 1908 Robert S. Peabody * 1909 The Saturday Club 69 Richard C. Maclaurin 19 10 Ellery Sedgwick 1 9 1 1 George A. Gordon 191 1 Henry James * 191 1 Charles H. Haskins 191 1 WiUiam R. Thayer 19 12 Theodore W. Richards 191 2 Gardiner M. Lane '^ 19 12 Harvey Gushing 19 14 M. A. DeWolfe Howe 19 14 W. Cameron Forbes 19 14 * Deceased Prepared for publication and pri- vately printed for The Rowf ant Club, on American Vellum paper, by The Arthur H. Clark Company Cleveland, mcmxxi r:::-^^^ i-ff%22 I