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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1916)
RED CLOUD, NEBRASKA, CHIEF ii tS'.dSSBWT'W DISJOINTED SNAKE COLLECTS ITSELF mat $v fci? VltwHftMW Poet Reattv Like V. if z f Men Tvbo knew James Whit comb Riley and his work in timately tell something about the great HoosierMo played upon the heartstrings of a nation ith his songs of common joiR ana manner m I TrrMi 5 OW'ADAYS ii poetic genius doesn't i K(Vi ft inlftil imikns 1 it tit to lie ii business tint ii or n Inw.ViT or n preacher or tt photographer. Not since tin) time tf IMgur Allim I'oo have real poets worn their luilr long us In tlit comic picturesor ufTccted wffifrX tlit soulful c.ircsslon. Nowadays lc.ttWtea when it iiiiiii wenrs Ills Imlr llko Smtilsli moss on n Honda oak Itu Is suspected of being lutnl tip. And If he e.lillilts what Is supposed to he his soul hy ccrtuln shifting nud stiirlng of Ids eyes he is pitied its otiu whoso mental geitrlng has siiud In It. Illlss (,'iirniiin, former editor of the Independent unit a poet of note, was one of .Inmes Wliltcoinh lltlley's closest friends. After thu Indlnnti Rongstor's denth on July 2.'!. Ciirninn told much inhnut Ulley to Mr. Joyce Kilmer of the New York 'Times Magazine and Mr. Kilmer In turn told it 'to (hit pulillc. Some 510 years ngo Citrmitu wits Introduced to the already famous llonsler. Itlley's keen bird- llko eyes surveyed tho tall fritnio of thu new nud young nci'ualntnnce: "Gosh, you're n stalwart, uln't yo?" ho remarked, grinning. "I guess your parents must have trained you on n trellis." Then, tin reported by Mr. Kilmer, Carman went on to say: "Tho next time I snw Riley was In I'htladelphlti. 1 wont to rend before tho Drowning society, and 1 don't mind tolling you that I wns Hcared to death. When I got out nil nlnuo on tho stogo nnd saw a thousiind people staring up nt me I felt more like running nway than doing nuythlug else. nut when I saw Ulley down In tho audience, looking nt mo In his quaint, friendly way, then 1 felt nil right. 1 wasn't afraid to rend my poetry to Ulley. "After tho rending was over Itlloy tucked mo Kinder his arm nnd said: 'Now, let's get around 'to tho hotel nud we'll tnko off our shoes nnd Jget n chew of tobacco nud he comfortable.' "You know, such remarks as this were nil tho imore piquant because Ulley wus ho very punc tilious and scrupulous in nil his personal habits. He nlwnys wns Inminculntely dressed. 1 never knew hint even to make so much of n concos Hlon to comfort ns to put on a smoking Jacket or a lounge coat Hut ho liked to go to his room und stretch himself on his bed nud talk. And .tie never talked about anything but literature, chiefly poetry. . "Ulley hud n great fund of knowledge, of .poetry nnd knew lots of out-of-the-wny homely verso, lie delighted particularly In ridiculously, tind newspaper verse. "Ulley liked to rend poetry nloud. When I went to his house of nn evening, he generally wns wait ing for me with some favorite hook, reudy to rend nloud." "Whut sort of poetry did he prefer?" "Ills tustes covered n wldo range. Two poets to whom he wits especially devoted were Long follow nnd Swinburne. "Ulley liked Ixmgfollow's dlrnctnoss nud sim plicity. The things that pleased him In Swin burne's work were the music and tho deft crafts 'ntanshlp. "After Ulley hnd received his degrees from Boine of the colleges, ho seemed to feel that ho ought to bo known us a poet, rather than us n humorist nnd writer of dialect verse. He tried iburd to live tip to thu name of poet, and wanted ihls noiiHenso rhymes of his vngithondage forgot ten. Yet bis vermicular verse, or, ns he culled It, Ids dialect verse, was bis chief contribution to literature. "Ulley wus Just u poet. That wus nil be ever .cured to he. lie was not Interested In nuythlug ,hut poetry. He knew nothing of politics ho hail .not voted for HO years. And as for philosophy, 'he had nothing but contempt for tho modern thlnkorH. "Them wns something very pathetic and charm 'lug nbout Itlley's tenacity In holding the serious poet pose. His nonsense wns Just one of bis ways of writing which happened to prove popular; when he got n chnnee to write In another way how engerly he seized It, nnd how persistently ho clung to It I "His lust yenrs were tho happiest of his life. I think. lie hnd his own enr nnd rodo uround IndlttnnpollH nnd Its suburbs every day, generally hiking with hi in some friend. Ho wns honored and loved, nnd I think be felt thut life hud been good to him. "Itlley's father wns a lawyer. Ills grandfather came to Indlnnn from Pennsylvania. Ills grand mother on IiIh mother's side was Pennsylvnnln Dutch. Ills father wns Irish. "Ulley hnd many prejudices. He disliked Poo very much, He dMIked Poo's character bo much thut ho could hardly rend bis poetry. Of course, ho must have liked Poo's music nnd splendid metrical effects. "Of course, you know tho story of Itlley's fa mous Imitation of Poo? He hnd taken n position on the stun.' of nn Anderson, Ind., pnper, nnd tho editor of a rival pnper kept ridiculing bttn. Ulley 13 1 iLiHi ML T'2r 'tr'fSm tf&Tafc'1 V'BBSsKHSffifcl ' Jm -kJJ2mMm ilW WaW X' ,;'4aW8iHliil JBHmmm Wmm Wmpwm l VPfAit- mMS t urn " ' t MValBiaH U iCli TnIHMt Jq i SrvMr i f t i ri' !f''P''"Mli i7 ytfw w t Head Whistles and Other Parts Come Back and Link Themselves. Lttrned, Kan. I'noch Chase hnd i peetillur experience while talcing the logs out of the old dugout on Mel Hick's south eighty. He run ucross a Joint snuke down between the logs and lilt It with his spade. Of course every Joint Hew tipurt nnd stttrted to wiggle off. Hunch. Just for n Joke, picked up one of the Joints undent It In it bucket unit then slipped hid id the logs and walled to see whut would happen. In nbout ten minutes be heard a sort nf low whistle nnd then a rustling. Thu NfMUAlA.7 --a . .1J2! . '. '&.$$ P IT1H. ftLM&lXyKM &ZZY& lAjrpopijcApp&mjYa wnnted to get oven with him, so ho wrote his imitation of Poo, and had It published In a pnper In another pnrt of the state with nn elaborate story about the discovery of the mnnuserlpt. "At once It made a great sensation all over tho country. It made so great a sensation that Ulley was terrified, nud feared that he would bo accused of literary forgery. Meanwhile tho edi tor of the rival pnper wrote: 'No doubt our young friend Ulley will belittle this poem nnd sny It Is not the work of Poo. Hut It Is Poo, anil Poo's best manner.' The sensntlon grew to such pro portions Hint Ulley had to confess thnt ho hud written tho poem. And then the editor of tho pnper discharged Ulley because ho hnd not pub lished It In his pnper. "Then tho Indianapolis Journal gave him n Job, which he bold for yenrs. lie wrote renins of nonsense verse, nnd wrote up In verso tho shops of the merchants who advertised In the Journal. "Itlley's first book was called 'The Old Swim tnln' Hole nnd 'Leven More Poems.' Ho pub lished It himself. It sold so well thut It wus soon taken over by u publisher, nnd passed through ninny editions. "Itlley's exquisite penmanship showed tho care with which he wrote. Orlglnnlly ho wrote n cure less and rather Illegible script, but he had so much difficulty In getting tho printers to rend his writing, and printing his dialect verse correctly, that ho took up tho study of penmanship. Ho wns cnreful nlwnys to get the dlnlect of one pnrt of Indiana ns distinct from the dialect of tiny other pnrt. " 'Any man's character,' he snld, 'Is best re membered, I suppose, by some of his habitual gestures tt ltd expressions.' I remember Ulley ns very deliberate In bis motions, especially In Ids Inst years. Smooth shaven, ruddy, well groomed, ho looked like n benign old ICngllsh bishop moro than anything else." Mr. Don Marquis of tho New York Sun aptly considers Ulley and his poetry from nn entirely different angle. "James Whltcnmh Ulley," snys he, "wns the compnnlon of fairies In Arendy; for tho Hoosler belongs to a race npnrt. And while some tiro captured and broken to trade, the gentle poof escaped nnd kept nlwnys the vision of hidden things." With these prefatory remarks the writer goes on with his essay: "There are two sorts of Indlanan the ordinary Indlnnnn, who Is not so very different from tho Ohlonti or the Illlnolsan, nnd tho Hoosler. "The Hoosler belong not merely to n race npnrt, hut to n separate species. Ho Is huninn. hut with a difference; he Is nwuro of the kinship between huinnnlty nnd tho so-called lower ani mals (nnd even the plants and streams) on tho one side, and nn the other side of tho kinship of huinnnlty with the elves. "When the moon turns tho mists to silver nnd tho owls wnll nnd the frogs wnko up along tho creeks nnd hikes and the fairies saddle nnd bridle tho fireflies and mount them nnd go whirring nnd flushing ofT In search of nlry ndventures tho Hooslers steal out of tho farmhouses nnd ham lets nntl creep down to the bottom lands and dance nnd Mug nnd envort under tho summer stnrs. They do so secretly, dodging tho mere hu ninns, for secrecy Is tho essonco of their midnight, whimsical revels. "Tn the daytime they pretend they nro Just ordinary Indlnunns; their own brothers nnd mothers may not renllzo Hint they nro Hooslers. "Hut In Indiana, us elsewhere, there Is business nnd tho need to attend to It. There must have been even lit Arendy somebody owned tho flocks nnd herds of Arendy nnd turned them Into butcher's meat anil leather, nnd tho shepherds only piped on. tho sufferance of their commercial- minded mnsters. These Hooslers, these wild bards nnd prancing, long-legged lovers of tho moon, are often captured and broken and tamed to trade and Industry by the more sordid citizenry. They ure yoked to tho handle end of the plow, chained to the desk; by the hundreds and thou sands they become clerks nnd salesmen and rail road presidents and novelists and business men of all sorts. "James Whltcomb Ulley wns a Hoosler who happily escaped; he wns never captured, never ensluved; the things hidden from the rest of us, or revealed only In flushes, remembered but vaguely from the duys of our own happy lloosler doin, he continued to see steadily; ho lived among them familiarly to the end. nud until tho end wus their Interpreter to us. " 'Hud coino hero to your undo n spell,' says Ulley In effect, 'nud I'll show you not only a fairy, hut a fairy who bus for the moment chosen to o Just us much of n Hoosler as tho Itnggedy Man, or Orphnnt Annie, or Old Klugry, or tho folks nt Orlggsby Station.' "The critics nnd the learned doctors of liter ature tiro already debating us to whether Ulley hud Imagination or only fancy. (It would bo n terrible calamity to some of them If they said It was Imagination nnd It wus officially declared later to ho merely fancy; thut Is tho sort of mistake thnt damns n critic nnd makes tho sons and grandsons of critics meek, hncked, apolo getic young men.) And doubtless the point Is ex ceedingly linportnnt. For If n poet has Imagi nation they sny his work Is significant. And If he tins only fancy his work Is not significant. "The chief merit of Itlley's dlnlect verse which Is the most popular part of bis production nud the part with which the critics chiefly con cern themselves Is Its effectiveness ns a medium for character portrayal Whimsical, lovable, homely, racy, quaint, salty, pathetic, humorous, tender are his dialect poems; essentially, ho tins shown ns life ns a superior writer of prose sketches might do, adding the chnrm of his lyri cism. "Hut, personally, we never llko him so well as when he Is writing sheer moonlight nnd music. Probably no poet who ever wrote Rngllsh cer tnlnly no American poet got more luscious lan guage than Ulley. A sweetness thnt Is not so sugary that It cloys, having nlwnys a winy tung. Tor Instance, from 'The Flying Islands of the Night:' '. . . In lost hours of lute and song, When he wns but u prince I hut n mouth For ti 1 111 to lift up slpplngly nntl drain To his mon ultlmnte of stammering sobs And mnudlln wanderings of blinded breath ' "There Is no better evidence of the genuine ness of Itlley's sentiment, particularly In tho dia lect poems, thiin tho discretion with which he touches the pathetic chord when ho touches It nt all. One of the most popular poems ho ever wrote wns 'Old-Fashioned Hoses,' nnd ono word too much, one pressure the lenst bit too Insistent would have made tho thing as offensive ns a vaudeville ballad. The taste which told him to be simple nntl the sincerity which begat the taste save the verses from tho reproach. "Ills verses for children and about children Made a Peculiar Whistle. head of the Joint snake came nut of tho woods nntl looked uround. It then made n peculiar whistle uiitl another Joint bucked up and fastened on to the hend. Tho head wltlstlod twice and Joint No. '1 cumo out, nnd so on, so ninny whistles for each point, until it cumo time for the one Enoch hnd In tho bucket. At its cull the thing thrashed around In the bucket like all possessed, but couldn't get out. Of course, with out the Joint that fit, the snake couldn't get together. Enoch snld the last he saw of it the head had taken charge of one-half and tho tall tho rest uud had gone off In different directions to hunt up tho missing Joint. Enoch got utmost home with his Joint when an automobile tooted down the rond. This either scared tho Joint or it wns its coupling 011 signal, for Enoch says It managed to flop out of the bucket und get uwuy In the tall grass. YELLOWBACKS LIGHT CIGARS Mysterious Individual In New York Hotel Excites Wonder of Bellhops. New York. "One of your best cigars," said an elderly man In n silk suit, gray silk gloves, gray socks and tho same colored suede shoes. The girl behind the cigar counter In nn uptown hotel looked at this person and brought forth n cedar box with an aroma that reached for yards. The symphony In gray selected n f0 cent perfecto, took out n pi)tirl-hundled knlfo from n gray suede case, cut off tho end of tho clgnr nnd then placed It In his mouth. Ho then took out n roll of bills, handed the cigar counter girl one with a "V" on it, and then to her surprise plucked a yellowback from tho roll nnd applied It to the gas light er. ITc was slow about lighting the clgnr. His change wns on the counter. How ever, ho llnnlly picked it up, threw the burned bill Into n sand vase and walked nway. Four bellboys, who hnd watched tlte proceeding, sprang to the vase. ' The paper still was burning nnd all that was left wus tho part murked with two X's. "Sure," snld 0110 of the bellhops, "he does thut nil thu time. Somebody told mo that It's a moving picture uctor, but anyway If this paper can bo redeemed by Undo Stun I'm for him." DcmJWashliieOldWay Auk your jrroccr for a 263 Ixix of MjirIc WuHhlnir Htlek enough for 15 wnntalnRsj slice ono section of one stlclc with a bur ot so.ip ami loll tn n Nat ion of water; add Hits to the clothes In n bolter ot hot WHtrr; boll 80 minutes, Bttr ring often J rlnfin anil lianff out to dry. Not n rub In tho whole Job la tioeJed. Money refund ed If It falls. Isn't that worth trying Good Kroccrs bcII tt. IL P. LAU COMPANY DIHTHlllUTOIlS LINCOLN, NEBRASKA IK. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA M LOOK TO FOURTH GENERATION Writer Sees Little to Praise In the First Three Generations of Mod ern Americans. The Noith American child Is too often merely thsv-prnducl of inur rluge. It serves its n outlet for that pride which Its parents cannot nlwnys rensottuhly take In themselves. It Is petted, cajoled, pumperetl, overdre-etl ttitil iintlerdlsclpllneil, till there Is evolved it strange pigmy for whom the world soon grows banal, who Is desti tute of the petitionary appeal of child hood nud who surveys nn tilreuily tin ilclpiitcd und thoroughly uuuly.ed fu ture with the cold eyes of tiiiuiiturtil knowledge, Ainu Sullivan writes In Harper's Mngn.ine for August. Tho world Is its football. It Is smart be yond description. Hut there Is in tho forced garden of Its life no sheltered bed where may bloom the flowers of grnciotisness or pence. Of such will be the new aristocracy, and Its rndl .tlons will he of grandfathers who, y virtue of that flue native American longhondodnoss, delivered the goods of their period nntl were promptly und suitably rewarded. Hut there will be few traditions of courtliness, scant reminders that noblesse oblige, and but scattered memories of Inherited re sponsibilities. The .sempiternal tlollur will still dominate. One generation was too busy collecting and the other will he too busy spending. Tho sec ond generation offers no promise and the third but Jlttle. The fourth will probubly open n new and finer cycle. Was His Humor Conscious? A young woman In Pittsburgh was recently looking at material In one of that city's leading dry goods stores In an attempt to select what would muko an attractive skirt for the seashore. The clerk rather strenuously suggested the availability of several patterns. "Hut," said the young woman, "they nro rather loud, don't you think?" Without n glimmer of a smile, and In n perfectly correct tone for a salesman to assume, he replied : "Too loud for awnings Just right for skirts." I The Difference. "Politician, Isn't he?" "Oh, no, he's a statesman." "Well, what's the difference?" "A statesmnn, my dear chap, is ono who Is In politics because he has money. A politician Is one who has money because lie is in politics." Tin vmi iinrii n llvlni? von don't iret or do you get u living you don't eurn? The word dollar was first thaler. REAL BABES IN THE WOODS Brother and Sister, Aged Nine and Eight, Lost Five Days In City Park. Waterbury, Conn. The fairy title of "Rubes In the Wood" bus been dupli cated in tho woods near Lakewood park, by Andrew Yankauskas, nine tycurs old, un.l his sister, Mary, uged eight. Tho children left home one morning to go fishing. Losing their tirntr ntlfl tinnntlllni' lintvllflfixjwl tlinti could only have been written by a man whoso j ren,ncd hldden In the woods five Imm " ' , T n, "V , IT T' ""?' I0! W vlg on wild berr.es und sleep- ........ .,...... ,., ...tivt nun I;niuiuit7 IlllJ tlllllg of tho sort thnt Is 'pumped up' for effect, nnd they contributed enormously to tho general feeling of affection for hint. Tho regnrd of the children wns In a way a testimonial to his per sisting youthf illness of spirit; ho was still their plnymntp; perhaps It Is nn earnest of Immor tality, If Immortality can be. Certainly lovo en dures longer than anything else, nnd this mon with tho childlike sweetness In his soul goes from us loved ns few men have been." ,lng under trees. Their parents had 'given up hope, believing tho children hnd been drowned, but tho pair finally wero located by a policeman. Re-Wed After 33 Years. New York. Mrs. D. Hutler, sixty four yenrs old, and Peter J. Dobbs, sixty-eight, who wero divorced 33 years go, havo Just re-wed. Hoth had takes other mates, who havo since died. Two Fellows are trying to get ahead. It's easy to see who'll win. If you have any doubt about coffee holding some people back in fact many leave the hesitating class, stop coffee ten days, and use POSTUM This delicious pure food drink, made of wheat, roasted with a bit of wholesome mo lasses, has a delightful, snappy flavor. It is free from the drugs in coffee and all harm ful ingredients. Pottum is good for olcfJ and young, and makes for' health and efficiency. "There's a Reason" i
