The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-12
A GREAT GENIUS
SIr. Clusston Is Visited by a Poet and
Profits Greatly Thereby.

| 1r. Cluaston Is visited by a Poet and
Profits Greatly Thereby.
"What would this be worth to you2" in
| quired a tall, slender man, with large
and mobile mouth, a retreating chin and a
thin fringe of whisker on the angle of
either jaw, as he walked into the office OF
The Doodleville Yelper and laid bundle
of manuscript on the EDITORS table.
Editor Clugston picked it up leisurely
I and looked it over.
"H'm This is poetry, is it not?" he said.
Eyes; poem on Immortality.
| 81 thought / noticed that most of the
lines seemed to begin with capital. What
was the inquiry you made about it?''
"What is it worth to you;"
"What is your idea of its value:"
"Well, it took me four hours to write it.
burned midnight oil over that poem"
81 have done the same thing over tariff
editorial many time" unused Mr. Clug-
ston.
"And it seems to me it ought to be
worth SO"
care you aware, Mr.. -
'My name is Isnoggles-Perry Isnoggles.
Accent on the T."
''Thank you. Are you aware, Mr.. Isnog-
giles, that } ohm Milton sold Paradise Lost
for only $72-one-third cash and the rest
on timer"
"Why"-
care you aware that Robert Burns once
tried to sell Tam O'Shanter' for a suit of
clothes worth about S6.50?"
"No. never heard"-
Ibid you know, Mr.. Isnoggles," said
Editor Clugston, with increasing severity,
hot
two stickfuls long for a glass of ale and
three links of sausage, and that Homer re-
fused an offer of a sheepskin for his Had
because he thought it was worth two
sheepskins?"
''I'll take IS for the poem, Mr.. Clugs-
ton"
Perhaps you have never heard, Mr..
Isnoggles," pursued the editor, that
Plautus the Roman poet, would grind out
a rondeau at any time for a half pint of
shrimps?"
''Say $780," suggested the visitor
"And you did not know, possibly, that
Tasso, the Italian poet, hawked four
page poem about the streets of Sorrento
for six shillings, and couldn't sell it at
that"
would s1.50 be too much for this?"
"a dollar and a half for five pages Of
manuscript that Dryden would have sold,
even when he was 30 years old, for half
crownW
"You can have it for nothing, Mr.. Clugs-
ton"
HIN! This will take up-let me see
in loaded long primer at least half a col
umn, Mr.. Isnoggles."
"I'd like to have it go in. l wouldn't
er-mind paying you, say so cents, Mr..
Clugston, if you can make room for it,"
"At regular rates, Mr.. Isnoggles," re-
piled the editor, this would come TO about
$50, but believe in encouraging home
poets as much as can. You are a home
poet, are you not"
81 was raised out here on the Billy
farm"
And on that account, resumed the ed
itor making a few figures on a sheet of
paper before him, Il will come down to an
even s. bill"
Thank you, Mr. Clugston. 1t isn't ex-
actly what had expected, but p
Cash in advance, of course"
ar. lsnoggles drew out a rather lean
wallet, extracted the money therefrom and
handed it over.
please say nothing about this" said
Mr.. Clugston grandly, as he put the money
in pocketbook ten times leaner than his
visitors. Il wouldn't do it for every
body"
Mr.. Isnoggles expressed his gratitude
and walked out.
Darn newspaper man that can't de-
wise some way TO meet a wash bill"' solilo-
Quized Editor Clugston as be leaned back
in his chair and looked at himself in the
SlGSs.-ChiSagc Tribune