The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1881-02-03
'sDR. HOLMES. y
How the Old Gentieman's Poetry was Reuod
eied by n Law Reporter.

| "hOuid you be kind enough to direct me {,
the editor r. asked a grave and venerable gen
tleman, with kindly face aud pleasant smile
Hes OUT responded the law reporter al
there anything | can dor
Il am DIR. Holiness responded the gentleman
where's your Office, doctor' Come to SC,
about the diphtheriai / can do as well as tn,
editor. What is it " and the law reporter brac
| ed himself
''Dr. Oliver Wendell Holiness replied the gen
tleman, his handsome face beaming with goot
nature. II have little poem would like Il
/ submit. Shall leave it with youf,
The law reporter took it and read it aloud.
..fou call it winter Day on the Prairie
said he. "Hm; yes"
a binding glare silver sky,
sea Of snow, with frozen spray;
The foaming pillows swelling high,
| Updashed against the icy day.
White laden northern whifiwinds blow
| Aeross the pale sea $ heavy breast
And I'LL the creamy ebb and How
With stormy terror and unrest
The storm birds fly athwart the main,
Like nddefless, bewildered ships
The stranded winds breathe sobs of pain
And frosty fr1th from pallid lip.
The seething milky waves, in swift,
Harsh struggle with the fate that binds
Break into fruzen riffs, and drift
Against the wrecked and siraining winds.
A sea Of loneliness and death
Whose waves are ghosts whose wales graves
Whose inspiration is the breath
That Turks in northern winter caves.
snowy gloom, whose icy shade
Whose silver sombreness is laid
glaring pail acruss his breast
"Just so, just So" continued the law reporter
"Did you want this published as it is'n
u had Thought something Of giving it public
ity,n replied the doctor
you'll have TO get the advertising clerk to
register IT, then,' retortcd the law reporter az
wouldn't take the responsibility of sending it in
as it stands now"
"What seems to be the matter with it ~ in
quired the doctor.
81 don't think it is natural. Now here; YOU
take snow storm on the prairie and make il a
sea. Then You freeze il all up, and make il
dash around You've either got to tlaw it out
or quit dashing it. We may be able to alter it
so i will do, if you'll leave it."
"What alterations would You suggest n ask
ed the doctor.
sid fix that verse so rs to be in accordance
with the facts; make it 'sequential,' as we say
IN law. Instead of having the binding and the
silver, and the foaming pillows, and the white
laden winds, and the creamy ebb, and all that,
I'd put it in this way:
In township thirty range twenty-nine
Described in the deed prairie land
1t sometimes SHOWS in the winter time.
This alledged snow falls on a level
Its said, several feet or more
And when the wind blows like the devil
1t drifts from where it was before.
"1n that way" continued the law reporter.
''yOu get the facts before the public without
poem, any man who cOuld prove that you were
talking about his land could bring libel suit,
and the measure of damages would be what he
could have sold it for if you hadn't written it up
as sea-"
''Will the other verses do ~ asked the doctor.
81 am afraid not, )" replied the law reporter
This business about the storm bird without n
rudder, and trandeI winds and milky waves.
don't prove anything. They wouldn't be admit
ted in evidence anywhere. / suppose Won want
hut ha
good. Why don't you say:
In the place aforesaid when the said winds blor
The tenants thereof don / go about
And such birds as find they can in the snow
Look as though they had their tails pulled out
And when the said snow and said winds are gone
For though you can't farm much when the winter on
The property don't fall a cent acre.
There You get your desolation and your birds
like rudderless ships, and at the same time You
throw IN clause which lets You ont of the libel
by showing that the snow don't affect the value
OF the ground. The way you had it would have
brought all the western settlements down on u.s.
Been poet longi"
"I-I-that is, begin to think not" gasped
the unhappy doctor. But can't you do some
thing with the last verse n
1--WE might leave out that altogether, or We
might substitute something for il. The last
verse is a contradiction of terms. It's nonse-
quitur, rs we say in law, and could have no stat
us IN court III the event of an action. You can't
say snowy gloom, or white shade, and rs for a
glaring pail, presume you mean the white vel
vet one they use for infants | couldn't pass
that in, but might change it for you. How
would this do:
II is rumored that while the snow
Is On the land before described
1t looks as though one couldn't
Seed TO advantage, though this is denied.
Some people hold that il empties the pouch
10 buy land IN the winter in the north;
For this unsupported statement We do not voueh
But give the story for what it is worth.
''This, you see, gives all sides of the question,
without making the paper responsible for any
thing. j call that a superior article of poetry"
continued the law reporter reading the three
stanzas over in an admiTing tone.
"But there isn't any poetry in it," stammered
the doctor.
whats the reason there isn't - demanded
the law reporter, indignantly. Don't it tell
everything you did, and don't it rhyme in some
placesi Don't it get out all the facts, and don't
it let people know what's going on r.
''0f course il does,' chiined in the police re-
porter. "That's what call good item of poet
ry. think you might add, startling develop
ments may be expected, and that the police have
got n clue to the perpetrator.'r
THAT isn't necessary" replied the law report
er, loftily. 1--WE poets always leave something
to the readers Imagination"
II believe I'll go, murmured the DOCTOR
'All right, sir. Come round any time when
you'y got some poetry you want fixed up:- and
the law reporter bowed the visitor out.