Of all the great people of every
continent, this was the one we most desired to see.
The boys of those days left college to work, to raise
families, to grow grizzled; but the glamour remained about
Davis; HE never grew grizzled. Youth was his great quality.
All his writing has the liveliness of springtime; it stirs
with an unsuppressible gayety, and it has the attraction which
companionship with him had: there is never enough. He could
be sharp; he could write angrily and witheringly; but even
when he was fiercest he was buoyant, and when his words were
hot they were not scalding but rather of a dry, clean
indignation with things which he believed could, if they
would, be better. He never saw evil but as temporary.
Following him through his books, whether he wrote of home or
carried his kind, stout heart far, far afield, we see an
American writing to Americans. He often told us about things
abroad in terms of New York; and we have all been to New York,
so he made for us the pictures he wished us to see. And when
he did not thus use New York for his colors he found other
means as familiar to us and as suggestive; he always made us
SEE. What claims our thanks in equal measure, he knew our
kind of curiosity so well that he never failed to make us see
what we were most anxious to see.
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