Page:Frederick V. Holman An Appriciation.djvu/4

228 estate and matters which find their way into probate courts. Before he had reached middle age, his judgment on procedure within the branches of law on which he had concentrated his intellect was quite as sound as that of able lawyers who had grown gray in practice.

Holman was born for leadership. He was under fifty years of age when contemporaneously he served as president of the Oregon Pioneer society, the Oregon Bar association and the Oregon Historical society. It is worth recording that he also had been president of the University club, the Arlington club, the Portland Rose society and the Lang Syne society. Some types of men in high positions are merely ornamental. Holman had distinct talent and the desire and the will to perform pertinent duties efficiently. He was an omnivorous reader of good literature, prose and poetry. His private library is among the finest in Portland, and he knew the contents of every volume. His collection of books bearing on Oregon history is probably the most comprehensive of any collection in the state.



Like Roosevelt, Frederick Holman worked hard and played hard. He could and did cast silk lines up trout streams as far as any companion was able to, and his bags of feathered game were equal to the other partners' in the preserve, but his chief play was roses. Before he began to cultivate the queen of flowers, he made a study of it. He wanted a solid foundation, the same as he laid for law and history. He could not depart from his studious habit, so he bought and learned by heart Dean Hole's book, the standard forty years ago, for amateur rosarians in England. He bought the best plants produced by world famed florists on Irish and French soil. Soon he grew far more beautiful blooms than had ever been dreamed of in Portland.

He did not conceal the methods by which he achieved success. On the contrary, he gave them wide-spread publicity. He taught individuals and groups all that he knew. He lectured to assemblages of men and women, and wrote instructive articles which were published by the daily press.