Appreciations of Richard Harding Davis | Page 8

of our needs, and this power of enlightening and pleasuring his reader,
sprang from seeds native in him. They were, as we say, gifts; for he
always had them but did not make them. He was a national figure at
twenty-three. He KNEW HOW, before he began.
Youth called to youth: all ages read him, but the young men and young
women have turned to him ever since his precocious fame made him
their idol. They got many things from him, but above all they live with
a happier bravery because of him. Reading the man beneath the print,
they found their prophet and gladly perceived that a prophet is not
always cowled and bearded, but may be a gallant young gentleman.
This one called merrily to them in his manly voice; and they followed
him. He bade them see that pain is negligible, that fear is a joke, and
that the world is poignantly interesting, joyously lovable.
They will always follow him.

THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF DAVIS BY CHARLES DANA GIBSON
Dick was twenty-four years old when he came into the smoking- room
of the Victoria Hotel, in London, after midnight one July night--he was
dressed as a Thames boatman.
He had been rowing up and down the river since sundown, looking for
color. He had evidently peopled every dark corner with a pirate, and
every floating object had meant something to him. He had adventure
written all over him. It was the first time I had ever seen him, and I had
never heard of him. I can't now recall another figure in that
smoke-filled room. I don't remember who introduced us--over
twenty-seven years have passed since that night. But I can see Dick
now dressed in a rough brown suit, a soft hat, with a handkerchief
about his neck, a splendid, healthy, clean-minded, gifted boy at play.
And so he always remained.
His going out of this world seemed like a boy interrupted in a game he
loved. And how well and fairly he played it! Surely no one deserved
success more than Dick. And it is a consolation to know he had more

than fifty years of just what he wanted. He had health, a great talent,
and personal charm. There never was a more loyal or unselfish friend.
There wasn't an atom of envy in him. He had unbounded mental and
physical courage, and with it all he was sensitive and sometimes shy.
He often tried to conceal these last two qualities, but never succeeded
in doing so from those of us who were privileged really to know and
love him.
His life was filled with just the sort of adventure he liked the best. No
one ever saw more wars in so many different places or got more out of
them. And it took the largest war in all history to wear out that stout
heart.
We shall miss him.

BY E. L. BURLINGAME

One of the most attractive and inspiring things about Richard Harding
Davis was the simple, almost matter-of-course way in which he put into
practice his views of life--in which he acted, and in fact WAS, what he
believed. With most of us, to have opinions as to what is the right thing
to do is at the best to worry a good deal as to whether we are doing it;
at the worst to be conscious of doubts as to whether it is a sufficient
code, or perhaps whether it isn't beyond us. Davis seemed to have
neither of these wasters of strength. He had certain simple, clean,
manly convictions as to how a man should act; apparently quite without
self-consciousness in this respect, whatever little mannerisms or points
of pride he may have had in others--fewer than most men of his success
and fastidiousness--he went ahead and did accordingly, untormented by
any alternatives or casuistries, which for him did not seem to exist. He
was so genuinely straightforward that he could not sophisticate even
himself, as almost every man occasionally does under temptation. He,
at least, never needed to be told
"Go put your creed into your deed Nor speak with double tongue."
It is so impossible not to think first of the man, as the testimony of
every one who knew him shows, that those who have long had
occasion to watch and follow his work, not merely with enjoyment but
somewhat critically, may well look upon any detailed discussion of it
as something to be kept till later. But there is more to be said than to

recall the unfailing zest of it, the extraordinary freshness of eye, the
indomitable youthfulness and health of spirit--all the qualities that we
associate with Davis himself. It was serious work in a sense that only
the more thoughtful of