Horace L. Traubel And

DOCUMENT IRESUME

ED 096 678 CS 201 570 AUTHOR Bussel, Alan TITLF In Defense of Freedom: Horace L. Traubel and the "Conservator." PUB DATE Aug 74 NOTE 23p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism (57th, San Diego, August 18-21, 1974)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.75 HC-$1.50 PLUS POSTAGE DESMIPTORS Academic Freedom; Civil Rights; *Freedom of Speech; Higher Education; *Journalism; *Newspapers; Periodicals; *Press Opinion; *Publishing Industry; Social Values IDBSTIFIERS Conservator; *Traubel (Horace L) ABSTRACT Philadelphia poet and journalist Horace L. Traubel's work as biographer of Walt Whitman has overshadowed his roleas crusading editor. Traubel (1858-1919) devoted 30years to publishing the "Conservator,' a monthly newspaper that reflected its editor's idiosyncratic philosophy and crusaded persistently for libertarian principles. He made the "Conservator" a champion of academic and artistic freedom and attacked those who sought to constrain liberties. Although the "Conservator" hada limited circulation, its readers--and Traubells followers--included a number of noteworthy individuals. Among them were Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs,soap magnate and reformer Joseph Fels, iconoclastic lecturer Robert G. Ingersoll, and William E. Walling, the reformer who helped foundthe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.Traubel and the "Conservator" deserve recognition for their contributionsto the tradition of dissent in America. (Author/RB) U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION A WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ieDUCATION TNIS DOCUMENT NAS BEEN REPRO DUCED ExACTL Y AS RECEIvED &ROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATING IT POINTS O& v 1E* OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL iNSTiTUTE EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

In Defenseof Freedoms Horace L. Traubeland the Conservator,

By Alan euseel,Clark College

Presented tothe History Division,Association for in Journalism,August 19, 1974, Education San Diego StateUniversity Obscurity seemed to be the fateassigned Phila- delphia editorHorace L. Traubel, and Traubel himselfap- peared resignedto it. In June, 1918,fifteen monthsbe- fore hedied, Traubel looked backover his career but could find little noteworthyin his life. He realized that hisreputation stemmed mainly from hisassociation with WaltWhitman and from his authorshipof With Walt Whitman inCamden, a Boswellian recordingof the poet's lastyears. As to Traubel's own writing, he knewthe followers ofhis monthly paper, Conservator, numbered but a smellcoterie faithful to the journal'sdual advocacy of Whitmanand socialistic idealism. Referring to himself in thethird person, Treubel wrote, "His own writing iseither totally ignored or whollydespised. No magazine inAmerica would print anythingthat he writes." And Traubel sensed that hewas something ofa puzzle. "Traubel." he admitted, "getsme all tangledup and con- fused. I can't make anything out ofhim. I should be prejudiced inhis favor. But ha oftenprovokes me to 1 the profoundestcontempt."

Traubel was notthe only one provoked byTraubel. William S.Kennedy, a biographer andintimate of Whitman and sometime contributor tothe Conservator,came to find the editor'sradical notions disturbing andintimated theirappearance in the Conservator haddamaged Whitman's reputation byassociation. Kennedy thoughtTraubel "lacking [in]tests andsense" and grumbleds "1 glance atthe Conservator and throw it in the wastebasket--never 2 read Traubel'slunatic screeds."

What stirred Kennedy'swrath was the heterodox tone of the Conservator, thepaper Traubel had founded in March, 1890, in an effortto provide anorgan for the Ethical Culture movement. From its beginningthe publication had also served asa vigorous proponent ofWhitman, and it is for this advocacy ofthe poet thatthe Conger- 3 vator is usually remembered. Yet it strived tobe more than that. A close analysis of its editor'scolumns during the journal's first decadereveals that itwee also the vehicle for Traubel'sown persistent crusadefor freedom andjustice in many areas of Americanlife. The Conservator, far from being simplyan exponent of Whitman, was also a consistent and committed voiceof dissent in fin de siacleAmerica.

The future editorof this unusualpaper was born December 19, 1858, in Camden, N.J. He was the fifth of seven children born to Maurice andKatherine Grunder Traubel. His father was a German-Jewishimmigrant, his mother aPhiladelphia girl of Christianbackground. As a youngster Treubel was diffident andstudious. He re- portedly had read Cmrrson, Spencer,Carlyle, Ruskin,and Whitman by histeens. At theage of 12 he leftschool and worked atvarious jobs. He gravitated toprinting, his father's trade, and became,in turn,a printer's dev- il, a compositor for a Camdennewspaper, and eventually a proofreader, reporter, andeditorial writer. He also worked as a factory paymasterand as a clerk 4 for a Phil- 'dolphin bank. 3

In March of 1888, exactly twoyears before he started the Conservator, Traubelbegan recordinghis daily conversations with his friend WaltWhitman.From those talks grew Traubel'sbest-known work,the five-volume With Walt Whitman in Camden,a minute accountof the poet's lastdays. When Whitmandied in 1892,Traubel was at his bedside, 5 his hand holdingthat of the pest's. Early issues of Traubel's Conservatorvxto:L Id Whitman andEthical Culture and appearedinnocuous ,snougn not to offendanyone. There were inklings,however, that Traubel intendedto use his paper to discusspertinent issues of theday. Intimations of thiscame in the Con- servator'ssecond number, when Traubelgathered several items on thework of ethical societies underthe heading of the "Collect." This columnwas to becomea regular feature and themost important outlet for Traubel'sde- mands for freedom. At first theCollects consistedof short, unrelated paragraphas asTraubel becamesurer of himself, theCollects grew longer,more pointed, anlmore topical. In his first Collect Traubelindicated his in- terest in society's problems by chargingthat reform sentiment hadnot yet gone far enough tomeet reel needs. "The presentrage for civil service andother minor remedies forsocial evils attest [sic]more for our in- stincts than for any welldirectedgrasp of the situe- 6 tionom Traubelwrote.

Gradually Traubel used the Collectto introduce controversialideas. He had, for example, strongfeelings BEST COPYAVAILABLE about the roles of thesexes. "Map restrict the life of

women," Traubel declaredin 1892. "They do so in the in-

terest of the children. But how can you expecta slave

mother to produceor raise Free children?" Suffrage, he w rote in 1894, would providetestimony to women's growing status, but votingwas not the ultimate solution to making

w omen free. "The ballot may bea key," Traubel thought. "It is not the dooror the temple."

Traubel's columnsbegan to rankle some of his

fellow ethicists,who apparently found his dualemphases on social problems andWhitmanesque thought somewhat dis- tasteful. Howard B. Radest,a historian of the ethical

movement, suggests thatTraubel's advocacy of some of

Whitman's philosophy,including the idea of freelove, 8 may have turned the ethicistsagainst the Conservator.

A study of the paper'sfirst years, however, providesno evidence that Traubelever advocated free love in the pages of the Conservator,though the paper didcarry a number of articlesand book reviews on therelationships between men andwomen. What displeased the ethicists, more likely, was Traubel'sindependence and his inability to satisfy variousfactions of the EthicalSociety. Some members apparently feltTraubel was obliged to printwhat ever they sent him, and whenhe began exercising his editor's prerogative and rejected their contributions,dis- satisfaction resulted. Further, Traubel'sown opinion about the ethicistsgradually shifted duringthe first years of the Conservator'spublication. He came to BEST COPYAVAILABLE feel that the Ethical Culturemovement had betrayedits original promise of unorthodoxyand was becomingas staid and smug as thevarious churches fromwhich the organization hadsprung. David Karsnerhas characterizedsome members of the Philadelphia societyas dilettantes willing to discuss reform but not to act. Traubel, according to Karsner, wanted tofollow more closelythan his fellow

ethicists FelixAdler's ideal ofdeed instead of creed end to put reform into action not onlyin religion but also 9 in everydaylife. The gulf between Traubel and the ethicistswidened. Finally, in 1892, the Society tried,according to Karsner, to "muzzle" the editor. Traubel reacted bywithdrawing from the Philadelphia Societyand, with twentyfollowers, 10 forming his own ethical organization. The split from Ethical Culture left Traubel freeto pursue tisown ideals. Although the Conservator continuedto carrynews of ethical organizations, Traubel's Collects increasinglyreflected his own eclectic philosophy of socialism,libertarianism, and idiosyncratic idealism. Above all, Traubelshowed vital concern about freedom. For him freedom meantthe right to teach, the right tospeak, the right toartistic expression, and the right ocworkers toa better life. Of themany subjects Traubel touched upon in hiscolumns, nearly all sharedthe commontheme of freedom.

One sector wherefreedom facedthreats in the 1890'swas the university. Among the majorchallenges were the trial ofUniversity of Wisconsin economistRichard 8 ES3 COPYMAW

T. Ely (1894), the persecution of Ely'sstudent Edward W. Bemis at the University of Chicago (1895),and the attacks

on President E. Benjamin Andrews ofBrown University 11 (1897). Traubel commented on all threecases.

The Conservator editor, whowas deeply suspicious

of the ties of capitaliststo the universities, found hope in Ely's exonerationon charges of economic and social

homy. The outcome at Madison, Traubelwrote, indicated the possibility thatsome institutions might permit academic freedom, and hefelt it vital that the liberty to

teach be protected. "Education is comparison," Traubel

said. "If comparison is under baneducation barely es- 12 capes with its life."

If Traubel foundsome encouragement in the ac-

quittal of Ely, the editor'shope was dashed in less than

a year. The University of Chicigo'a dismissalof Edward

W. Bemis for advocating anti-monopolyviews evoked dismay from Traubel. He devoted most of his October, 1895,

Collect to the Bemiscase and characterized the affair as a representative incursionupon the freedom to teach. He saw in Bemis' removalevidence of "how hopelessly all colleges and universitiesare tangled up with invested interests" and thoughthe discerned the influence ofJohn D. Rockefeller behind theprofessor's firing. In a further comment on Bemis'case, Traubel suggested that if million- aires were needed tosupport universities, thanperhaps 13 it might be better tohave no universities at all. 7

Opinions favorable to freesilver got President

E. Benjamin Andrews ofBrown University into trouble in

1897 and led eventuallyto his resignation. The incident did not surprise Traubel. An unfashionable economic tenet can no more expecthostelry in a conservative uni-

versity than it couldexpect an invitation to theparlors of the four hundred,"Traubel declared. The Andrews case strengthened the editor'sconviction that the university

was the creature of the wealthyclass and was dedicated

to preserving privilege. Traubel doubted there couldbe genuine academic freedomunless the universitywere open 14 to all ideas and toall classes.

The editor wasas devoted to artistic libertyas he was to academicfreedom. As early as the sixth issue of the Conservator Treubel attacked those whowould limit the right to read.What prompted his remarkswas the decision by postalofficials thatpassages of Tolstoy's

Kreutz.r Sonatawere obscene and that apaper which had

been serializing thestory ought to be prohibitedfrom

mailing the offensiveportions. Books, Traubel commented,

ware vital to freedom, andliterature ought not besup- 15 pressed. In a similar incident in1897 the Philadelphia

Board of Education questionedthe suitability of Hugo's

Les Miserablesas a text for the girlshigh school.

Traubel viewed thecase as a challenge to thestudents. He wrotes "If there isa girl to whom Les Mieerables is

not familiar whodoes not nowstraightway get the book and more diligently apply herself to itthan to any text BEST COPY AVAILABLE book whosevirtue her guardians couldapprove, then girls are not what they have been andwhat they mustbe to be wholesome endbrava, thenthe Edenic 16 apple was eatenin vain

Traubel also scorned those whotried tocensor paintings andthe study of art. When a group ofwomen objected in 1891to nude subjects ina PennsylvaniaAcad- emy of Designexhibition, Traubel said thatChristian culture had"robed in filth that which ofright should 17 stand cleanand free in any eye or thought." Several years later,when artist-photographerThomas Eakinswas dismissed fromthe Drexel Institute forposing a nude male model,Traubel came to his defense.The editor had met theartist when Eakins hadvisited Camdento paint and photographWhitman, so tbaubel probablyfelt some personalinvolvement in Eakins'case. As he had inhis defense of theAcademy show, Traubel interpretedthe shocked reaction to Eakins'nude modelas the unhealthy symptom ofa culture that had despoiledthe sacrednessof the body. "The fact that any youth of eithersex should be prepared for sucha demonstration of horror,"Traubel wrote, "onlyshows the depth and degradationat whichcur sophisticatedcurrent morals have kept theteaching of the schools." Art, Traubel declared, couldbe valuable only when itwas linked with nature, and thehuman body was part ofnature. Some day, Traubel predicted,Eakins' method ofteaching art through naturewould becomethe BEST COPYAVAILABLI 18

h joucnast radical leenings, Traubel felt

;Jartic,Jlarly sensitive to threatsagainst the press. When Michigan Ccngressmah Thcmas A. E. Weadock proposedleg- ilaticn to rest:alpress criticism, Traubel chided

cs...er-zoatouti Isgislator"and plinted to the dangers 19 inherent in a societywhere free expression is regulated. the yellow press, which ve rea 4A :'rear the :. more traditional journals.

Lnile P:41 :encode° that toe sensationalnewspapers had their ?t..11ings, he felttneir devotion to freedom and

c.:Itewpt r:;t.prIva;.iege more than justifiedtheir exist- 2,1 e'ce. 1: Ja;u1,:y, 1699, Traubelfocused his entire

1/4 14,..isaper lino,in particular, on the yellow

r!,; epitome of American journalism. The yellow res- said, combined both the bestand the worst

iC oft.en uisLorted eventsor told outright

privacy, succumbed tovulgarity, and blew

;;:op7..rtion. It published misinformedor eciturials, itwas sometimes brutal, and its

es1 led to errors. Despite tnese smortcomings, thepress in general aid the yellowpress in particular were vital tC 33C p: areas, Traubal felt. He lauded contem- perary ,c,;:rialisrn. for its attemptsto give the important

o*." day a,, fo its avoidance of didacticism. HO ti:,litional journalismwith the ve;.low jc..rnalism orthe Jays "The old journalismtreats withtric prJ,01G L.nndesceni:inly,superciliously, sayings 10 BEST COPYAVAILABLE

Let me teach. The new journalism confrontsthe people on 21 the ground, sayings Let us learn."

Free speechwas arother ideal Traubelchampioned. Although the editor's friend, iconoclasticlecturer Robert C. Ingersoll,had warned Traubel in1893 against printing reflections about Ingersoll in the Conservatorfor fear the paper would get into trouble,two years later Traubel felt compelled to come to Ingeruoll'sdefense when agroup of Hoboken ministers tried toforestall Ingersoll from speaking in their town. Arguing in broad termsfor free speech, the editor pleaded for open forumsthat would bring differences between adversaries intothe open. "Nothing sacred was ever really defended bythe sacrilege 22 of oppression,"Traubel said

Traubel's socialismis reflected in hiscomments on the industrial turmoil of the 1890's. He pictured the strugglebetween laborand capital in sharply polarized terms, visualizing the oppressedpeople of the earth battlingfor their freedomagainst the "interests" Of the corporations and the landowners. An unquenchable optimism pervaded Traubel's thoughts,for he was convinced that the workers would eventuallytriumph. Even the failure of the Homestead strike of 1892did not shake his faith in the ultimateoutcome of thestruggle. Homestead, Traubelthought, was nota loss because it had mademany more peopleaware of the problems workers faced. Even a losingstrike, he suggested,could serve the workers by kindling new strengthand resolution 11 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

23 to continue the campaign for industrial justice.

Serious labor violence erupted in Pennsylvania in

1897, when sheriff's officers firedinto a group of striking

miners near Hazelton,killing more than twenty and wounding forty. Traubel, reflecting on the bloodshed, felt the

deaths of the miners indicatedthat men's lives were less highly regarded thanproperty. The editor reported the

strikers had not beenarmed, had offered no resistance to the officers, and thatmany had been shot in the back

while attempting to flee. "If murder has meaning here

w as murder," Traubel thundered. "If lawlessness ever w ent forth in daylight it flashed from the barrels of 24 these rifles."

Professional patriots and the jingoism of the

1890's worriedTraubel. He questioned America's ability

to bring freedom to other countrieswhen oppression of wo.kers and attempts tocensor artists and intellectuals

suggested to him that Americansought first to secure domestic liberties. United States saber rattling during the Venezuelan boundarydispute of 1895-96 impelled Traubel

to make patriotism the subjectof una of his Collects. A person's nationality, he wrote,was an accident, and some- one's place of birth shouldnot mean that an individual owed more toa particular bit of ground than to international harmony and goodwill. If allegiance to a nation meant violence, thensome individuals, Traubel suggested, would nrafer not to bebound to nationalism. Man owed more feality to the universalthan to any particular state, Traubel contended. He said that professional patriots 12 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

had a limited, mole-like view of the worldan that, for 25 himself, he preferreda broader vision.

Commenting in February, 1898, on the sinking of

the battleship Maine, Traubel celledthe deed "foul and treacherous" and said the Cubanswere entitled to freedom.

While he endorsed Cuban liberation,Traubel hoped that

America would not forget herdomestic problems. Oppression

was not yet vanquished in the United States andwould

remain even after Cuba had been freed,Traubel wrote.

"It is easy to evoke sympathy forthe alien wrong and

hard to gat it for the domestictransgression," Traubel said. Later he reiterated thata Cube freed from Spain

would still be enslaved to thesame industrialism that shackled the United States. Nevertheless, if one had to choose betwern governance by Spainand by the United

States, there was little doubtas to which Traubel would select. He saw in Spain "a drift into medievalism,"while the United States, atany rate, seemed headed into the 26 future.

Traubel posed much thesame kinds of questions about the United States'presence in the Philippines as he had about America's rolein Cuba. He felt the Phil- ippines, like Cuba, wouldfare better under American rule than under that of Spain,but he ,as troubled about the prospect of American colonialism. He wondered whether America would bring freedomto the Philippines or would merely take over where Spainhad left off and impela subject people to revolution. Traubel continued to question America's right ofstewardship over other peoples. 13 BEST COPYAVAILABLE

He repeated the argument that America had not been successful

in insuring domestic freedom and that this failurecreated

serious doubts about the imposition of Americanrule overseas. The quick success of thewar against Spain had

surprised the American people, Traubelwrote, and they had not been consulted about thecourse the nation should

take in regard to the liberated territories. President McKinley, Traubel felt, seemedmore interested in heeding

the wishes of politicians than inlistening to the people.

The editor kept stressing hiscontention that America's

domestic record ill-fitted the countryfor the governance of others. He pointed particularly to the mistreatment

of Indians and Negroes, sayingthat superior men would

not break treatiesor lynch people. Colonial powers such as America, Traubel said, were too busy pillaging inferior races overseas and not enough concerned about insuring 27 domestic freedom. Finally, Traubel intimated that

United States hegemony in the Philippinesmight portend the destruction ofa vital part of the American dream.

"Imperialism's flag is black," Traubel wrote. "It has all the panoplia Lsic] of piracy. We may win the Philippines.

So far we have been licked. But, winning the Philippines, 28 must we lose America?"

Threats to civil rights at home and theimperi- alistic thrust abroadwere not the only dangers Traubel sensed. He had a special contempt for traditional religion and liked to callattention to the way churches tended to support the statusquo. To Traubel churches seemed to 14 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

emphasize materialism and to promote hypocrisy. "The

frequenters of churches are the owners of tenements, the

monopolizers of land, the accumulators of unearned in- 29 crements," Traubel charged.

Traubel was not always insensitive to the criticism

his notions provoked. In 1896 he decided to answer charges

that his iconoclasm was aimed at breaking down traditional culture. He maintained that he was not against culture

in general but felt that America's culture was lacking because of its emphasis on the trappings of education and

its avoidance of the real world of social problems. He voiced suspicion of the limitations that academic 30 scholarship tried to impose on culture. Just how broad Traubel's conception of freedom was may be seen in his remarks on compulsory vaccination.

While oe admitted that vaccination seemed Justified on inimical grounds, he questioned it on libertarian ones.

He felt compulsory vaccination provided evidence of the w ay in which law had become superior to man. "On the w hole liberty is more important than vaccination," Traubel eellered. "I believe in liberty first and vaccination afterwards, or liberty first and vaccination 31 not at all."

During the first ten years of the Conservator

Traubel found mors to criticize than to commend. Yet w hen he wee positive, it was in keeping with his libertarian persuasion. He applauded events that seemed to increase freedom and to widen horizons. In 1897 he thrilled at reports of the Klondike gold rush and the BEST COPYAVAILABLE

ill-fated attempt of Swedish explorer Salomon A. Andres

to reach the North Pole by balloon. Such adventures

convinced Traubel there was hope for humanity. "With men still ready when the inspiration is sufficient to

give all for success, for freedom, for outlets of appetite and opportunity, anything is possible," Traubel main- 32 tained.

If Traubel found little to applmud, he offered even 'less in the way of solutions to the problems of which

he wrote. While he was eager to attack the excesses of

industrialism, jingoism, and censorship, Traubelwas not programmatic. He did advocate social security on grounds that it was both logical and "sentimentally fine." He realized that many would oppose his suggestion of pensions for the masses but argued that the rich provided themselves with pensions and endowments, and he called for sucha system to be extended to all. A program of universal social security would, Traubel predicted, level society and increase democracy. Pensions for the masses would, he declared, "endow every child with immense opportunity 33 and continue opportunity to the oldest age." Traubel did not, however, explain how sucha plan was to be financed and administered.

By the turn of the century Traubel's Conservator had established its style. It continued its dual advocacy of Whitman and freedom. In World War I the paper urged pacifism. The Conservator probablynever made much money, and its circulation hovered at arounda thousand. Shortly before'its editor's death thepaper was running 1.5 BOOralacksa

a deficit large enough to cause Traubel to appeal to sub- 34 scribers for halo in sumtailingthe publication.

Though Traubel addressao onlya limited audience through his Conservator.there were some notables among

his adherents. Besides Robert Ingersoll, therewas Joseph Fele, the Philadelphiasoap magnate and social reformer,

who supported Trout:141'vpaper with consistent ads throughout its first decade. Another friond was Socialist leader

Eugene V. Debs, who once raFarredto Traubel as "deer,

beautiful, aonderful He william E. Walling, the reformer and one of the foundersof the National Association

for the Advancement cfColored People, also admired Traubel. Like others in the smallgroup who praised Traubel's work,

Welling acknow7edged Whi:man'sinfluence on Traubel but

argued that '.he editor hadsurpassed the poet. Not only did Traubel share Whitman'ssuspicion of institutions and sy..tems, but Traubelwas also wary of ideals and ideas.

Yet Walling could alsoargue that Traubel's writingsprang 36 wholly from socialism. Ths seeming contradiction in

Walling's analysis becomesunderstandable given Traubel's

own catholic viewpoint. Traubel was certainlya socialist, a Whitmanite, and an ethicist ---butTraubel was mostly

himlelf, an individual ofeclectic disposition whose

greatest allegiancewas always to fr:?edome

Personally, Traubelwas a snort man whose chief features werea shock of unruly write hair anda brushy mustache. He had largs blueeyes and is reported to have had an "alive[,l mobileface." In a photograph made three 17 Z.c.. t1/4110 BES1

years before his death Traubel pears a striking resemblance

to Albert Einstein. Traubel is reported to have been

something of a practical joker, but hismajor attribute

was a warm and vibrant concern for people. He was a sports

fan and especially enjoyed baseball,football, and boxing. 3? He did not smoke, ant he preferred buttermilk to whiskey.

It was Traubel's habit to leave hishome in Camden and to take the ferry across the DelawareRiver to Philadelphia

each day around noon. He would arrive at the Conservator

office about 1p.m. There, in the cluttered garret ofa

fourstory building at 1631 Chestnut Street,Traubel clipped exchanges preparedcopy, and often, when he

lacked money for a compositor, set hisown type. Traubel ordinarily workld late at his office. He would then take another ferry back to Larnden, where he wouldoften read until 5 or 6 a.m. He usually arose again around 10 a.m. 3b to Jegin another working day.

After the turn of the century Traubel found time to produce the first volumes of With WaltWhitman in Camden and several other books. In 1900 he edited The

Dollar or the Man?, a collection of cartoons byHomer C. Davenport. In 1904 Treubel's Chants Communal, comprised of prose poems written originally forThe Worker, a New

York Socialist paper, appeared. It was followed in 1910 by Optimos, a book ofpoems, and in 1915 by a gathering of his Collect columns. 5ome of the titles from pptimos indicate the book's generaltheme; "The bread line trails its clouded way intomy sunny heart," "Come, 0 you pinched 18 RIMIAPAI BES1COPY

starved outcasts," and "I hear the laugh of the unfed 39 children."

A serious bout of rheumatic fever damaged Traubel's

heart in 1914. In June, 1917, he suffered a heart attack that left him chronically ill for the remainder of his

life, though he contiwiedto publish the Conservator

until nearly the and. in 61Ety, 1Y19, Traubel and his wife,

Anne Montgomerie movi$o to the New York home of

Traubel's friend ano biograpner, DavidKarsner, who lived not far from the nome of the Traubels1 onlysurviving child, Mrs. Certruda rraubsi Aalholm (the Traubels'son,

Wallace, died in 1,38 at theage of 4). On a trip to a resort at Bon Echot Ontario, Traubel died September 8,

1919, at the age of 61. He was buried in Harleigh 40 Cemetery in Camden.

Perhaps J. F. Bozard came closest to capturing the essence of tne man when he describedTraubel as a reformer whose urge for social change found its inspiration in Whitman's crew) of equality, fraternity, and democracy. And 8oza:d also suggested the measure of

Traubella courage when he noted that the editorhad championed socialism in an era when sucha course meant 41 almost sure pariandom.

But being an outcast seemed to hold no terror for the editor of the Conservator. His life and his journalism exemplified an almost studied contemptfor what others thought. Ha once told David Kareneri "To be anything at alla man's got to be an ass in the 19

popular esteem. I've always been for the asses of the human race. You'll see. Wait till I'm gone. If I'm talked about at all it will be with a shrug of the 42 shoulder, or a solemn shake of the head . 4. . ."

Traubel's prediction has turned out to be highly accurate. If remembered at all, it is for his association with Whitman and seldom on his own account. History may have shrugged off Horace Traubel because his eccentric outlook makes the man difficult to fit into a neat category. Although Traubel would probably have resisted any attempt to place him in a particular context, perhaps he would object least to being called a libertarian. He and his paper always stood ready to defend those threatened by censorship or by industrialism's excesses.For their zealous devotion to freedom Traubel and his Conservator deserve rescue from the shadows of obscurity to which they have formerly been consigned. 20

NOTES

1. Treubel's self-assessmentappears in the intro- duction he prepared for David Karsner'sHorace Traubels His Life and Work (NewYorks Egmont Aren37717g77177- TO,

2. Kennedy to H. S. Saunders, November 25,1912, quoted in J. F. Bozard, "HoraceTreubel's Socialistic Interpretation of Whitman," Bulletinof Furman University 20 (January 1938); 35-45.

3. Sara A. Pollock, "The Conservator. The Exponent of Whitman" (unpublishedMaster's thesis, University of Chicago, 1919).

4. Dictionary of American Biovaphx [hereafter DAB], (1936),s.v. "Traubel, Horace L.,1' by Gworge H. tirmmets Kumamotopp. 44-46.

5. Gay W. Allen, The Solitar Sin ers A Critical Bioorapht of Walt Whitman,rev as e New Yor $ New Yoric UniversityPress, 1167), p. 541.

6. Conservator, April, 1890.

7. /bid.. August, 18921 June, 1894.

8. Howard B. Raciest, Toward CommonGrounds The Star of the Ethical SocietiesIn the UniteStates (Riw or a re er c 'nger u s ng o., , pp. 00. 9. Pollock, p. 61 Karsner,pp. 51, 54.

10. Kersner, p. 511 Pollock,p. 6. For another account of the schism,see Arthur P. Dudden, Jose h Fels and the Single-Tax Movement(Philadelphia; Tempe University Press, 11.7f)",pp. 31-33. Joseph Fels and his wifeware among those who followed Traubel.

11. Outlines of thesecases may be found in Richard Hofstadter and Walter P.Metzger, The Development ofAca- demic Freedom in the UnitedStates (New Yorks Columbia University Press, 1955),pp. 425-36 (Ely and Bernie), p. 421 (Andrews).

12. Conservator, September, 1894.

13. Ibid., October, November, 1895.

14, Ibid., June, July,September, 1897. 15, Ibid., August, 1890.

16. Ibid., October,1897. 21

SIO 17, Ibid., March, 1891,

18. Lloyd Goodrich, Thomas Eakins' His Life and Work (New Yorke Whitney Museum of AmericanArt, 11735),pp. 172773; Gordon Hendricks, ThePhoto ra he of Thomas Eakins (New Yorks Grossman Publishers. I P. 1 Conservator, March, 1895.

19. Conservator, :anuary, 1895.

20. Ibid., March, 1898.

21. Ibid., January, 1899.

22. Ingersoll to Traubel, March 25, 1893, quoted in Eva I. Wakefield, ed., TheLetters of Robert G. Ingersoll (New Yorks Philoi35grarlaFFE777;1377p. 379s Conservator, March, 1895.

23. Conservator, November, 1892.

24. Ibid., September, 1897.

25. Ibid., April, 1896.

26. Ibid., February, April, 1898.

27. Ibid., December, 18981 March, May, 1899. 28. Ibid., August, 1899.

29. Ibid., June, 1895.

30. Ibid., March, 1896.

31, Ibid., March, 1895.

32. Ibid., July, 1897.

33. Ibid., February, 1899. 34. Pollock, pp. 10-111 DAB.

35. Dabs to David Keraner, May29, 1919, quoted in Karener, Dabs, His AuthorizedLife and Letters from Woodstock Prison to Atlanta (NewYorks Boni and Liveright, 1919), p. 244.

36. William E. Walling, Whitman andTraubel (New Yorks Haskell House Publishers, 1919La reprint of the 1916edition]),pp. 40, 140-41.

37. Mildred Bain, HoraceTraubel (New York. Albert and CharlesBoni, 1913),pp. 14-17. is the frontispiece The photograph for Karsner'sHorace Traubel. 22

38. Karsner, Horace Traubel, pp. 85-89.

39. DABS Bain, p. 501 Traubel, pptimo (New Yorks 8. W. HNEach, 1910).

40. Karener, Horace Traubel, pp. 16-27,34-391 Conservator, February, 1898.

41. Bozard, p. 39.

42. Karsner, Horace Traubel, p. 30.