was one that helped others by all that he did, and
said, and was, and the circle of his use was as wide
as his fame. There are other great men, plenty
of them, common great men, whom we know as names and
powers, and whom we willingly let the ages have when
they die, for, living or dead, they are alike remote
from us. They have never been with us where we
live; but this great man was the neighbor, the contemporary,
and the friend of all who read him or heard him; and
even in the swift forgetting of this electrical age
the stamp of his personality will not be effaced from
their minds or hearts.
Of those evenings at the Taylors’ in New York,
I can recall best the one which was most significant
for me, and even fatefully significant. Mr. and
Mrs. Fields were there, from Boston, and I renewed
all the pleasure of my earlier meetings with them.
At the end Fields said, mockingly, “Don’t
despise Boston!” and I answered, as we shook
hands, “Few are worthy to live in Boston.”
It was New-Year’s eve, and that night it came
on to snow so heavily that my horse-car could hardly
plough its way up to Forty-seventh Street through
the drifts. The next day, and the next, I wrote
at home, because it was so hard to get down-town.
The third day I reached the office and found a letter
on my desk from Fields, asking how I should like to
come to Boston and be his assistant on the ’Atlantic
Monthly’. I submitted the matter at once
to my chief on the ‘Nation’, and with
his frank goodwill I talked it over with Mr. Osgood,
of Ticknor & Fields, who was to see me further about
it if I wished, when he came to New York; and then
I went to Boston to see Mr. Fields concerning details.
I was to sift all the manuscripts and correspond with
contributors; I was to do the literary proof-reading
of the magazine; and I was to write the four or five
pages of book-notices, which were then printed at the
end of the periodical in finer type; and I was to
have forty dollars a week. I said that I was
getting that already for less work, and then Mr. Fields
offered me ten dollars more. Upon these terms
we closed, and on the 1st of March, which was my twenty-ninth
birthday, I went to Boston and began my work.
I had not decided to accept the place without advising
with Lowell; he counselled the step, and gave me some
shrewd and useful suggestions. The whole affair
was conducted by Fields with his unfailing tact and
kindness, but it could not be kept from me that the
qualification I had as practical printer for the work
was most valued, if not the most valued, and that
as proof-reader I was expected to make it avail on
the side of economy. Somewhere in life’s
feast the course of humble-pie must always come in;
and if I did not wholly relish this, bit of it, I
dare say it was good for me, and I digested it perfectly.
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