152 Naturalist at Large 



Justice Holmes was fond of the ladies and he made no 

 bones about it. I remember once walking with him past 

 a war-bond poster by Howard Chandler Christy. It was 

 pasted up on a billboard in Washington. The Justice hesi- 

 tated before the extraordinarily lovely feminine figure and 

 then remarked, "Gad, if we could only see her without 

 those clothes!" 



I came to know him well because my mother-in-law 

 was not only a relation of his but a great favorite — she 

 was a person of the most stunning beauty. As years passed 

 he transferred his affection to my wife, saying to me on 

 more than one occasion, after Cousin Fanny's death, that 

 he loved Rosamond better than anyone in the world. He 

 tolerated me, liked to go walking with me, and talked to 

 me for hours at a time on innumerable occasions. In the 

 first place we were next-door neighbors at Beverly Farms, 

 and in the second place I represented a point of view and 

 a vocation with which he had little familiarity. His intel- 

 lectual curiosity being what it was, I think he was inter- 

 ested in knowing why anyone should do the odd tilings 

 that I constantly did. 



I often felt that it was a strange thing that Mr. Holmes 

 was disinclined to admit the extraordinary excellence 

 which was personified by Robert E. Lee. The mere fact 

 that Lee was a "Rebel" damned him completely. Mrs. 

 Theodore Roosevelt once had her secretary call up Mrs. 

 Holmes, asking her to come to a tea which she was giving 

 on short notice to meet General Stonewall Jackson's 

 widow, who happened to be in Washington. Mrs. Holmes 

 declined the invitation and gave her reason. The secretary 



