1909 January-February 22

1909 Edwin Manners Diary

(On page before entries)
Edwin Manners: His Journal
Personal Denotements

January 4, 1909
The papers still teem with accounts of the disastrous earthquake that occurred last week in Sicily and Calabria, Southern Italy. Messina and Reggio were practically destroyed. The loss of life and property is appalling. It is considered one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest of recorded calamities. It rivets one’s attention anew to the beauty, the history and absorbing interest of the scene. It brings back so vividly my passage last March of the Strait of Messina. With what fascination I viewed Mount Aetna and later Stromboli and Vesuvius, those ominous vents of Earth’s passion. Intermittingly lost to reality I became another Ulysses strapped to the mast and saw with subduing dread and pity six of my best sailors, who to avoid the whirling Charybdis, had steered too near the opposing rock, seized from their faithful tasks to the summit by the rapacious heads of Scylla, their helpless cries and struggles being soon smothered in the black cavern. The subtle charm of the sea and landscape so impressed me, imbued as it is with the magnetism of related age, history and legend, that I spontaneously exclaimed, O God, am I to see this actuated dream no more forever! I felt deep down in my soul the tears of travel, the mordant sorrow of evanescence.

January 7, 1909
Even Achilles has a vulnerable heel.

At the theatre last night; a spotty piece, “The Queen of the Moulin Rouge”; reminiscences of my Paris nights! – ha, ha, ha! The Red Mill has been clipped into familiar comic opera, but it’s tradition remains and is still practiced in Montmartre. The Bal Tabarin seemed to be the cheese when I was there.

January 8, 1909
No doubt modesty when properly modulated is a virtue, but it should be kept to its right accent and proportion. The other day I was reading a memoir that should have been an interesting memoir, but the author was so afraid of projecting himself that the result was positively lame and disappointing. It reminded me of Goethe’s saying, that merit and modesty had nothing in common between them excepting the initial letter. If you would autobiographing go, do not burden yourself with too many reserves or take too much reticence with you; then your hand will be freer to find self-expression and pick by the way the flowers of self-revealment.

January 11, 1909
When all are obstinate and disagreeable, the obstinacy of the better trained is apt to prevail. Where minds are open and agreeable wisdom is justified of her children.

January 12, 1909
The main matter is to cultivate yourself, and all the rest will be added unto you. Not only do you best serve yourself thereby, but the public too and most beneficially. Production and progress attend individualism.
A great obstacle to socialism is its restrictions of individual liberty. Moreover, it would seem to require a radical change in human nature. This may be modified and refined, to some degree regulated and adjusted to its environment, but it persists in remaining essentially human nature. To press out of it any more of its juice, flavor, vitality and distinction is to make a dull world and do worse for a doubtful advantage. I do not think the average man cares to have the lights turned down, and certes great spirits would hardly submit to be reduced to the muck at the hands of vulgarians. The higher the individual development is, the less need there is of law and government. Progressively we should tear down the custom houses and the court houses too; government should be reduced gradually to the vanishing point. The foolish attempt to statutize everything is bred of a distrust of the people and is an underbred reaction to narrowness and restraint – not social enlightenment, but exterior interference. The tendency is not authentic; it cheapens legislation, lessens respect for what may still be necessary in government and law and conflicts with a rational simplicity and the Divine order.

January 15, 1909
Paid the taxes.
Dined at “Little Hungary” – the Café Liberty.
Later I went to a reception at the “Columbia” and enjoyed a few fleeting hours.

Sport’s not a casual party fine,
But parties galore and plenty of wine,
With a girl who dances with grace divine,
And looks in your eye as though she were thine!

January 19, 1909
After luncheon I went up to the Bronx and visited Poe’s Fordham Cottage, where he lived for a while and composed some of his detached, haunting poems. This plain little house reflected the inadequacy of the poetic setting and the res augusta domi* that so often condition the birth or inspiration of genius. It gave an additional pang to the cruelly rendered story of his life, pathetic, misunderstood, and as Burns would say, shot – over by the awkward squad. But sad and glad the moods succeeded, for seeming only may be the aspect hard, while joy dwells in the creative heart. A more cheerful look in may better interpret and be more adequate. The particular suffering and strife in lives peculiarly lived are apt to produce fine results, save up-springings in their particular kind. The one and the other are interwoven, inseparable, yet the achievement should receive an independent judgment. A flower might grow out of an unsavory soil, perhaps by reason of that: it is beautiful nevertheless. – Pure indeed were the reaches of his spirit. – This is only to be lucid and discriminating – a simple, just process one should say, yet not commonly applied. Strangely, we erect monuments and shout fat praises to coarse men, especially of the soldier and statesman type, whose lives were far from unsullied, and condemn unsparingly one of finest quality because of some personal irregularity that had its aspects, a good and at worst harmed chiefly himself: the rest is speculation. Still Poe has a wide fame and a competent body of admirers, though I fancy it is not relatively very numerous. A bust of the poet was unveiled in the park directly opposite, this being the centenary of his birth.
Last spring I saw Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford at the time of the festival and was moved as at a solemn music. The master poets quarters were much quainter than the frail Poe’s, but scarcely less contracted and unequal – a rude timbered lodge for the emperor of the mind.
Later in the afternoon I attended the memorial meeting in the auditorium of New York University where appropriate words were spoken and recited. Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie’s address was especially excellent and delivered with a critical confidence.
Each man’s idiom is precious: why ask that it should be different or another. Poe’s output was not characterized by abounding vitality. The more ordinary human interests and meaty effects, such as some intellectual but materialistic critics would have. Slight as it was, it had a delicacy, a distinction of form and essence, and Elfin magic of its own and a genuine potency that may be traced in a numerous progeny of literary children and descendants, whose paternity or original ancestor is too often slight or unrecognized.
*

January 27, 1909
This afternoon in the lower tunnel between Jersey City and Manhattan the last link was made, the last separating obstruction broken through, giving a continuous passage-way between the two cities. It will be several months before the twin tubes are completed and opened for public traffic. The upper tunnels under-running the Hudson river have been in operation about a year. This has been a momentous undertaking and its successful completion will result in many important changes and conveniences of transit and in improved property values. Thus is brought about the land union of Manhattan with the great hinterlands.

January 29, 1909
If you are well educated and refined, particularly if you have a delicate ((diathesis)), it is well occasionally to seek the society of those whom Walt Whitman designated as “powerful uneducated persons”. They supply what you want or lack, and sometimes more than you want. Still it is wonderful how much good you may derive from them. If you are of their kind, reverse the conditions: find in cultivated circles some polish for your rough facets. Naturally in the existing state some repugnance must be (Jan30) overcome, and a comparatively high degree of moral and physical courage is required. But these things are adjusting themselves with the trend of democracy.

February 1, 1909
Return-day: Manners vs. Frankel,
“ “ McCarthy.
Appeared and took judgment in each case.

Leased the store, No. 75 Newark Avenue, for three years and a one month, the term beginning April 1, 1909, at $125 a month.

February 4, 1909
Bar Dinner at the Hotel Astor. Mr. Wall presided. Mr. John S. Wise, Chancellor Pitney, Justice Swayze, Mr. Sullivan (Mark A.), Judge Blair, Judge Carrick and Judge Carey made remarks of a rambling sort. Some of the youngest lawyers sang popular airs. Justice Swayze’s talk was perhaps most considered and appreciated, but Judge Blair’s less serious words came nearer the after dinner – art. One likes more and more what is not endeavored but the efflorescence of a seasoned spirit. Mr. Wise reflected this to some extent and happily.

February 5, 1909
Yesterday I subscribed for fifty shares of the Great Lakes Radio Telephone Company’s Stock, and paid for the same forthwith.

February 8, 1909
The current push of nature that overbears our fine calculations for its own ends, though perfectly natural, is looked askance at and little studied or understood. A frank and honest discussion of the whole matter, with its varied, implications, would give it direction and control, largely insure against frightful dangers and make potently for the health, perpetuity and advancing strength of the race. What pretenses and subterfuges we scuttle under where things the most vital are concerned! Why not let in the light of truth, come out in the open and ride full-panoplied on the plain?

February 12, 1909
The centenary of Lincoln’s birth is being celebrated today throughout the country. A number of men are chronicled to speak and will probably speak in the moderate way, after the fashion of the ((chonicle)) rather than in the voice of talent or the great utterance of genius. I see that Booker T. Washington is to say something. He will probably do as well as any, perhaps better, and it would be only poetic or compensating justice that he should. Father Abraham is entitled to good words from his children.

February 15, 1909
Paid the last instalment of my subscriptions for twenty-five shares of the preferred capital stock of the Colorado Slate Company.
I like to balance the tangible against the intangible in stock transactions; then with proper consideration one can not go far astray.

February 16, 1909
Dinner of the University Club at the Hotel Lafayette, Manhattan. Homer Davenport, the cartoonist, entertained us agreeably with pictures and incidents of his journey into the Arabian desert and of his Arabian horses – some fine specimens. He had with him a Bedouin boy in native costume. Mr. Wortendyke presided and made a few preliminary remarks. The dinner was well served and enjoyed. It was a dark, rainy night, and I took the under-river tubes going and coming back.
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February 18, 1909
Princeton Club, Gramercy Park – Club Night.
Mr. George W. Crickfield, of this city has recently brought out a work on Latin America, somewhat vaingloriously styled “American Supremacy”. Glancing over its pages, I got the impression that it took an unsympathetic and too disparaging view of Spanish America. I incline to agree with him on the inexpediency of the Monroe doctrine – a dog in the manger policy. He praises justly the statesmanlike qualities of President Diaz of Mexico and the late Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil. I recall distinctly the latter on his visit to this country – the centennial year. I attended a special meeting of the American Geographical Society, held I believe in Chickering Hall, to receive him. The late Chief Justice Daly presided with charming ease and urbanity, but otherwise the striking notes of the occasion were lapses and forgettings. Bayard Taylor loomed up ponderously in a set speech and after rolling along awhile forgot his piece and came to a sudden halt. I see the obfuscated figure standing with hand to forehead trying to remember. An unconscionably long period of silence seemed to ensue, almost as embarrassing to the audience as the speaker, before he could take the track again or shunt on a siding for refuge and slow down to a fitting stop. Dom Pedro had a broad placid face, brushily bewhiskered, and came forward with a bland smile. He directly began to fumble in his pockets for the manuscript of his address, but it could not be found. It had apparently been mislaid. Its failure to come forth caused a serious, perplexed look to succeed the pleasure of his ovation. I do not think, however, that he showed much concern or was over-much disturbed, but on the contrary enough self-possessed for an arranged part. He turned back and consulted an attendant, who in turn went out in search of the missing document, which was finally recovered and duly read by the emperor. He had a courtly presence and a refined scholarly air, which seemed disassociated from the exigencies of rulers and practical administration, especially in the turbulent countries to the south of us. With the fall of the Brazilian Empire I felt some recession of romance.

February 22, 1909
Colonial Reception at the Woman’s Club, East Orange. It was a Washington reception given to raise funds for a Lincoln memorial in the locality. Many of those present were in the Eighteenth century costumes, and at the march and salute to the flag the assembled effect was indeed attractive and striking. I had a brief talk with Elwell, the sculptor; he showed me a picture of a Lincoln statue he had designed. There were some fine people there, and others indifferent enough. Mrs. Merrill was captivating and gave me several dances. Her husband – John Lenord – is an agreeable fellow, if I may so predicate from a touch and go acquaintance. I found a piece of jewelry which a lady had dropped and handed it to Mr. Merrill to discover the owner. Some of the young girls favored me with dances, even the barn dance, which is now the popular rage, and they naturally diffused the return-to-fairyland atmosphere. Mrs. Donald McLean was one of the patronesses. While she is not so engaging at first glimpse, one becomes aware with her of an interesting personality and some force of character that has kept her well up in patriotic clubs and circles.