s to the famous
shop of S. F. Hiram, the Dodoneaean Shoemaker he calls himself.
This wise coloured man has learned the advertising advantages of
the unusual. His placard reads:

Originator of that famous Dobrupolyi System of repairing.

When one enters and asks to know more about this system, he
points to another placard, which says:

It assumes the nature and character of an appellative noun, and
carries the article The System.

His shop contains odd curios as well as the usual traffic of a
cobbler. "The public loves to be hood-winked," he adds sagely.

HORACE TRAUBEL

We wait with particular interest to hear what Philadelphia will have to
say about the passing of Horace Traubel. Traubel was the official echo
of the Great Voice of Camden, and in his obituary one may discern the
vivacity of the Whitman tradition. This is a matter of no small concern
to the curators of the Whitman cult. The soul of Philadelphia cannot be
kept alive by conventions and statistics alone. Such men as Traubel have
helped.

There are two kinds of rebels. By their neckties you may know them. Walt
Whitman was of the kind that wears no necktie at all. Then there is the
lesser sort, of which Traubel was one--the rebel who wears a flowing
black bow tie with long trailers. Elbert Hubbard wore one of these. It
is a mild rebellion of which this is symbol. It often goes with shell
spectacles.

[Illustration]

We never knew Horace Traubel, though he was the man we most wanted to
meet when we came to Philadelphia. We have heard men of all conditions
speak of him with affection and respect. He was dedicated from boyhood
to the Whitman cause. From Walt himself he caught the habit of talking
about Walt, and he carried it on with as much gusto and happiness as
Walt did. Only recently he said in his little magazine _The
Conservator_:

When I was quite small I used to want to be a great man. But in
my observations of the old man's better than great way of meeting
the gifts as well as the reverses of fate I didn't want to be a
great man. I only wanted to stay unannexed to any institution as
he was. No college ever decorated him. For the best of reasons.
No college could. He could decorate them.

So Traubel remained unannexed. He was fired from a bank because he
happened to take issue in public with one of the bank's chief
depositors. He floated about happily, surrounded by young Whitman
discip