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ktNETT-ONE bushels of tomatoes were canned)
Nl this year by an Illinois Institution tna( turns
I out twenty-flve wives a year who know every
I detail of perfect housekeeping.
The otner day a nis cunning nnusH uuwn
the state telegraphed the Illinois Training
School for Girls, located at Geneva, asking
how many cans of vegetables It would need
for the coming year.
' We won't want any from you or any one else outside
of our home; we raise, preserve, and eat the product of our
own farm." This was the answer Mrs. Ophelia Amlgh wired
back to the concern that expected to make a big sale to the
state. In learning how to do this and other kinds of house-
old work, hundreds of Illinois girls have fitted themselves
to become perfect housekeeping wives. The girl who leaves
this Institution has been trained to cook, bake. sew. wash,
Iron, and to trim up a house that will be the pride of any
appreciative husband in the land.
h Trained for Life's Battle.
Today scores of girls who have been found without the
' home they ought to have, have been sheltered In this noble
Institution and trained how to successfully meet the battles
of life. One hundred and twenty-five are now employed In
lucrative positions. Colored girls wtio were picked off the
streets of Chicago are now teaching school In Oklahoma.
Others have found places In other callings, but. better than
all, scores have found honest husbands who today are proud
of the, wives and the homes that are now presided over by
these well trained young women.
The girls who have married have largely become the
wives of farmers and are now In homes that the husband
owns. A large number o( railroad, engineers have wives who
were trained In this school. Every now and then a proud
young mother visits the hospitable roof. She brings from
one to (hree bright faced, children, wlio, Supt. Amlgh says,
are the best dressed and best behaved children that today
are growing toward American citizenship.
Within the last two years a dressmaking department has
been a,dded to the Institution. No girl who has not a natural
ability In that line Is admitted to the department, but there
are many who readily take to the work. The girls in this
department are making most of the clothes now worn by
the young women who have left the Institution and, are
working for their living. The employed girls pay for the
work out of their earnings. The forty or more attendants
In the Institution also patronize the clever apprentices, who
are steadily acquiring a valuable knowledge of a paying
business.
Divided Into Ten Big Families. .
There are ten families of girls In this big training school.
Each family has from twenty-five to thirty girls under the
direction of a managing matron, a housekeeper, and a
laundry matron. A girl Is put In the kitchen for a period of
Ml.!
three months, and there, under the direction of practical
teachers, she learns every detail of kitchen work, Including
cooking, baking, scrubbing, washing, and pres. rving. There
are girls who work in the morning and others In the after
noon so as to give all an opportunity to attend school. One
after another other departments of housekeeping are thor
oughly taught and learned. While this Instruction Is being
Imparted each child Is being carried through the eight gradts
of Instruction employed In city and country schools so that
they may enter a high school from this Institution. Draw
ing and music are taught and' the walls of the Institution are .
decorated with the products of pen and pencil wielded by the
students of different classes.
Girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years of age are com
mitted to the school, which Is given the care and custody
of the ward until the age of 21 is nttalned. They are com
mitted by Juvenile courts and by courts of record from all
of the counties of the state. After a child has been In the
school for a period of not less than one year she may be
assigned to a home, the environments of which are inves
tigated before she Is allowed to take up her abode thre. The
girl must make a periodical r.eport until she arrives at the
age of 21 unless she marries.' Her earnings are sent to tho
Institution and banked and held In trust for her, necessary
expenses being deducted. Every child of the school is pro
vided with a bank book for this purpose. Some of the girls
have accounts that run over $100, and In the aggregate the
Institution Is now holding a large sum of money In trust.
The demand for girls by good families is active and ma:iy
have found good homes.
Call Institution Iheir Home.
A visitor Is employed by the Institution to cull on the glr's
who are out at work or In homes, but many mike frequent
calls at the Institution of their own free will. The superin
tendent talks to several of them over the telephone every
day. It Is a common occurrence for a girl who Is at work
or on a farm to call up the home and ask for advice con
cerning a matter of which she Is In doubt. Some of the girls
have come home to be married and the ceremony takes placo
In the cozy parlors of the administration buildim;. On a
recent occasion one of the girls died at the home and tho
funeral services were held there. On this sad occasion ipilta
a company of the girls who had been In the bcIioo! camo
long distances to attend the funeral.
The other day It was necessary for the superintend i.t to
refuse admittance to two Chicago girls. The caw- v;i.
from the lack of room. The capacity of the school Is "II. Inn
there are now 201 In the institution. A largo room in ih
attic of one of the bulldjigs is utilized as a dormitory. The
state is expected to furnish another cottage soon.
Connect, d with the school Is a farm of ninety-one acres,
and It is expected that this will be Increased. The products
of this farm go a long ways toward feeding the big family.
All of the work Is done under the direction of a farmer whose
wife was one of the girls of the Institution,
csssssssssssssssss
Jtan WAo 7(as Written 5,000 &
oerns.
W. D. NESBITS ANNUAL OUTPUT IS 700 PIECES OE VERSE.
i O have written 8.000 poems and Still to be a
0 B I young man are things suggesting a record In
I I the newspaper side of literature.
A I In all these thousands of Iambics, ana-
pestles, trochalcs, and dactylics not to have
one love poem goes further and smashes all
records In all times.
Then, out of these thousands of poems to
have taken only eighty-six to represent his first venture Into
the world of books
And the rtader has several lines upon the personality and
character of Wilbur V. Nesbit, who for ten years has been
writing GOO poems a year for newspapers, and who at the
present time Is keeping the pace for the week day and Sun
day Issues of The Chicago Tribune, as ho has done for two
years past.
The person who realizes what It might be to write BOO
betters a year In hltchy prose will p excused for a spirit ot
doubt In these figures. He wllj be allowed to speculate upon
corps of W. D. Nesblts, who are Interchangeable on Trfa
Tribune staff. But to th,ose who know Wilbur D. Nesbit In
person there will be no questioning ot the fact that there Is
-only one.
ffar4 fpr Some to Believe. '
But doubtless some explanations will be necessary In these
figures and (hese statements. Mr. Nesbit admits It. Several
years ago he received a sharp reminder of the possibility.
He had gone to his native Xenla, O.,' on a visit and Inci
dentally had called upon a local liveryman in passing the
stables. Sitting In the ofllce from which the proprietor had
excused himself a moment one of the drivers with
friend stepped into the harness room, one thin partition
away from the visitor.
" Who was that fellow you spoke to Just now?" queried
the stableman's friend.
-"It's Bill Nesbit, a young fellow who used to live here,"
A the reply. "He- lives' east somewhere now,"
" What does he do?"
"He writes poetry .for a newspaper."
"The he does? Say, is that a fact?"
Sure and they pay him for it."
" Weil," came the comment, together with a sigh, " don't
It bet what some people will do for a llvln'?"
Perhaps the chance versifier would change the query to
how a man "can" make a living that way? For newspaper
' verse has been Nesbit's living and more for several years, as
It promises to be his living indefinitely, lie Is one of a handv
tvl In the whole country who are making a living In rhymes,
solely, unmixed with the prosaic side of newspaper work.
Most of the newspaper poets write more prose than verse In
thw oourae of the day's work; with Nesbit his day's stunt Is
rhyme, and if It la not forthcoming there Is a bole in the
editorial page where it ought to have been.
First Effort In Advertising.
Once, not to have written the day's rhymes would have
rteant a hole In an advertising page. For Mr. Nesbit's first
poem was dedicated to tome stylish straw hats in the front
windows of an Indianapolis dry goods house, and the basis
bf the rhymed rhapsodies was Riley's " The South Wind and
the Sun." As the advertising man for the house, Mr. NcsbK'a,
proas had not been effectual. He was already facing (he,
oideal called in the vernacular "firing" when, this parody
on Riley was turned o the glorlflca'ton of (ha straw hat.
"Who wrote that stuff?" demanded .he proprietor of, (be
manager at the sight of the morning's proofs.
- Er Nesbit I told him I didn't thln' l w "
M Tell him to go ahead and write some more of the kind,"
broke in the proprietor, and thus out of a, Rooster dry tools,
tore a poet was. md. ' v
Newspaper Wo.rk Wins Uknowledgment.
. The Indianapolis newspapers .oofc him, up for the editorial
columns, and he was with ht Journal Indianapolis from,
istto to IK'S, when he was called, to the Baltimore American.
From the American, where he W the "Josh Wink" of
that paper, devoted to rhyming wit and humor, be came to
TiisvThiuu, where btf critic concede be ''has found him
self." " The Trail to Boyland " s the ftrBt acknowledgment
of it In the book world, from the presses of the Bobbs-Mer-t
lit company. In Tub Tribune his friends first saw more
than the " Josh Wink " n him when he took up his " Ser
mons In Song " as the Monday morning feature of Thb
Tribune's editorial page. Nesbit himself perhaps would say
that he has cut deeper In this feature than in any other
Then why did they not constitute the first book? For
the reason that these eighty-six published poems subtracted
from 6,000 leave 4, 011 still in his scrapbooks at his home In
Evanston, and among these thousands, even his " Sermons
in Song," are not overwhelmingly prominent in the scores
of other topics treated. And then they are added to, steadily,
at an average of two a day)
Plays on the Heart Strings.
But writing two poems a day is not all that may ruffle
the serenity of a congenita, good nature. The readers' com
ments may have a good deal to do with it For instance, one
will read something and say, "How like Riley 1" and per
paps nod suggestively. Another sees Field in his work, and
still another suggests Stanton. But if Riley figures In Nes
bit's work it Is through Riley's philosophy, preached to the
younger poet a few years ago when Riley Impressed upon
him to avoid writing at the heads of scholars, and instead
" write at the hearts of men."
This is the Nesbit Idea today. And to the extent tba
Nesbit goes at the hearts of men through the dialects of the
boy, and of the negro, and the farmer he must accept the
dialects as they are and be likened to those who wrote be
fore him. For Instance in Nesbit's "Sh-h-h!!" where he
strikes so truly the boy nature, he has only the boy dialect
of Riley and Field and of everybody else for Its expression:
" My ma she's upstairs In bed,
And ITS there wlf her.
ITS all bundled up an' red
Can't nobody stir;
Can't nobody say a word
Since IT come to us.
Only thing 'at I have heard,
Ceptln all ITS fuss,
Is '811-11-111'
" I goed In to see my ma.
Nen dumb on the bed.
Was she glad to see me? Pshaw!
, 8H-H-H!' afs what she said!
Nen IT blinked an tried to see
Ntrt I runned away
Out to my old apple tree
Where no one could say
SH-a-UI
" Nen laid down on th' ground, v.
An' say 'at I jest wish,
, was big! 'An' there's a sound
'At old tree says SH-H-H!'
Nen, I cry an" cry an' cry
Till my pa, he hears
An' come here an' wiped mj.eye
An' mP up the tears
Nen says ' SII-H-H!'
" I'm go' tell my ma 'at she, -v
Don't suit me one bit '
Why d they all say ' SH-H-H!' to toe
An' no say SH-H-H!' to ITT'
' "Her Christina,. Prayer" His Favorite.
It the child tide of the mother be clear to him, so la the
mother side of the ctlld. as Indicated in "Her Christmas
Piayer," which the author has read oftener to himself than
almost anything he ever wrote:
Mary Mother, be good to him;
Be kind to him that day
Twill be the only Christmas time
That he has been away.
I promised him a world of toys
IX he would only stay
Pure, heaven's full of little beys
That sing and laugh and play.
But you would know the smile of him
Among a. thousand more;
His smile will make all else seem dim
i When you call hlra " Asthore."
Sure, you will know him by his eyes,
That are so sweet and blue,
And deep, and clear, and very wise
They read the heart of you.
His hair Is golden as the sun; ' ,
His curls they are so quaint
They mind you of the halo on
An angel or a saint
I promised him a splendid tree,
With candles all aglow.
O, Mary Mother, you can see
'Twas me that loved him so.
And surely, surely, you will see
My boy so sweet nnd slim
His eyes are hungering for me
As my eyes are for him.
Mary Mother, be good to him;
He kind to him that day.
'Twill bo the only Christmas time
That he has been away.
His Ideal of an Environment.
Most of Mr. Nesbit's poems are written at his home In
Evanston. Such revision as they get is when he copies them
on a typewriter In his desk In The Tribune office.' In these
compositions he denies that environment cuts, any particular
fl gure. Some days .the work Is easier thai) it (s on. others; .
some days it is a great deal harder, lint for the year around
he insists that a writing room about thirty-five feet square,
high In proportion, with trees at the windows on all sides, and
o great writing table exactly In the center of, 1' would be a
physical inspiration beyond measure. .
Such system as is in his work Ues in the small notebook
In which he puts down every possible (heme for a bit of
poetry and in the determination, n,ot to Jqok. upon tla work
( a'l more than the "fork of a day winch exacts, its unvarying
quantity of, rhyme. Ho feels (hat1 If be should, consider the
next six months, as, a whole, i which 2Q0, poems must be forth-cornjnj-f
from h,)tn, be would go to piece a, i (he coi)(emp)a(lon.
Poems on, Hand.
NesbH says that be never permits himself a think o(
more than the work he must do for tbe one day, and yet when
that day' work Is off bis hands, If be la (n (he mood be will
keep, rtfc'h( on, "laying up against' a dry spell." Tbese extra
poems are cretully deposited In a drawer ot bis desk, that be
calls hi " lea box," pl are ptojy used when there pomes a
day when nothing suggests a poem and bis brain seems, as
he describes t, Uke a "cold pancake." The verses, "Her
Christmas Prayer," for Instance, quoted above, were written
almost two years before they were printed, apd, had, beep
entirely forgotten until one da when a, hurraed, search for
" something to use " brought them to light.
One characteristic ot Mr. Nesbit's verse that has been
commented upon generally Is its consistent cheerfulness and
lu avoidance of either subjects or mode of treatment of sub
jects that would wound the feelings of any reader. Tet, with
all this, be tries to avoid mawklshness of sentiment or that
overdone gentleness which is usually termed "soft" That
the publlo wants and appreciates virile, ringing verse, wheth
er it touch upon the " common run of things " or the " heart
interest " Xeatures ot existence, is becoming more and more
evident
Serious Poems Are Popular.
Serious verse, as exemplified In his " Sermons In Song,"
Is taking Its rightful place in the recognition of the general
public Simply because a man does verses for a newspaper
should not be regarded a making It necessary for him to
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confine himself to the farcical Jingle or the broadly humorous
verse. The lighter matter, though ephemeral and. often In
consequential, holds its own for the day (t Is printed, but the
poems which in a common, natural, whole hearted way touch
upon prases of Hfe or of sentiment which, are familiar to all,
are the ones that go into the scrap book and preserve not
only the name ot the man who writes them but of the paper
that publishes them.
It is Mr. Nesbit's opinion that the newspaper taste for
verse has undergone a change In the last ten years. For
merly all verse In the newspaper was expected to be in light
vein, appropriate to tbe Joker' column. Twenty years ago
it could not be too rough In horseplay or too Irreverent when
the writer undertook; to make parodies.
Today, as the exchange, man on the newspaper estimates
the verse writer's work, It in the serious side, of rhyme that
uppeuls to the public. The " 8ermons In Song " have had a
recognition from the man with the shears such as even Nes
bit did not anticipate. This unexpected recognition has been
' ono of the strongest pointers directing the writer away
from bis first Idea of" mere jingles. Somu of thesu sermons
have fuund place in the "Trail to Boyland."
