Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-03-06
A POet.CObbler.

tIdNcA UllC OttillC
A POet.CObbler.
Oatmeal has been Endorsed by the
medical faculty as excellent brain food.
Scotland, where it is eaten by all classes,
might be cited to authenticate the state
ment. In fact, many of her poets, ge-
ologists, essayists and historians could
truthfully have used the motto which
Sydney Smith proposed for the Edin-
burgh Review" We cultivate literature
on little oatmeal"
But whether it is due to an oatmeal
diet, or to her churches and schools, or
to her magnificent scenery, SO replete
with poetic associations, the fact is that
Scotland has produced an astonishing
number of poets from her brawny peas
ants. Plowmen, shepherds, weavers
and cobblers have been enrolled in the
guild, while the best writer of descrip-
tive geology, Hugh Miller, whose prose
is poetry, was stone-mason.
One of the poet-cobblers was John
Younger, who kept little shop at st.
Boswell, small village not far from
Edinburgh. John was also an ardent
angler, and had been, from the time he
could handle ''a rowan tree-sapling, q
thread and bent preen." At his work
shop one would be sure to meet the an
glers of the district, anxious to get
hint as to the best trout-pool or salmon
water.
But when John was seen to throw
down the shoes he was cobbling and
spread sheet Of paper upon the lap
stone, his visitors kept quiet. They
knew that then he was neither cobbler
nor fisherman, but ''rapt, inspired
poet. When the inspiration had passed
into written lines, Johns visitors had
treat awaiting them if they would but
listen to the poet.
Such was Johns reputation as fish
erman and writer, that the editor OF
Bzackwood's Magazine secured from
him an article on "Salmon Fishing"
and for long time it was the textbook
to which anglers referred.
When Prince Albert offered three
prizes for the best essays on the tenn
poral advantages of the Sabbath to the
laboring classes, Johns friends, after
much persuasion, induced him to be-
come a competitor.
He had anly forty eight hours to write
the essay, for the announcement had ar
rived late in the village, and much time
had been spent in overcoming the cob
bler's diffdence.
But his essay won the second prize.
As soon as the news of Johns success
reached st. Boswell, bonfres blazed and
the church-bell rang.
John was but poor man, and hadn't
a decent suit of clothes. But his neigh
bors were determined that he should go
to London and receive the prize in per-
son in Exeter Hall. So they rugged him
out in their "Sunday best" and the
Scottish cobbler stood before Prince Al
bert.
The poet-cobbler, as was BETTING a
brother of the angle" wasa calm, quiet,
considerate, gentle man. His wife, Nan
ME, of whom he wrote,
Mid a. the thoughts that trouble me-
The saddest thought Of ony,
Is wha may close the others e'e-
May it be me or Mamie?
became blind from cataract on both
eyes.
Often when seated on his workbench,
dllu VIS1GOIS WcIC UloCuSSluS Aou1uS VI
politics, for John was as ardent politi-
clan as an angler, he would steal away
to the adjoining room.
Here, in q chair by the ingle-menk
[freside corner] sat the poor, helpless,
blind wife, always listening for the
sound of the step that told Of the COM
Ing of the one man she loved.
Taking her hand, the old man would
whisper tender word, and, bending
down, kiss her. Wiping away tear,
John would return to his lapstone, while
she would count the minutes till he came
again.
That was the poetry of the heart,
which, when it passed from tender caress
into rhyme, said:
Though teeth are fed and locks grown gray,
She's yet so kind and cannie,
Love that outlasts young lfe's heyday
Is the love bear my Mamie,
John did not leave his Mamie lonely,
he closed her Gee" for she departed
four years before he left the body.