The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1891-07-11
.o.co,s HOMER CRAZE.

! ps 1ss,sdder in Chicago some years
ICING continued by others now
ss BE- remembered that the he.I professor ode;sts
bTL ssrp and taught our best society
ans hebaye itself Public lectures
bow " s.,ivered upon etiquette, and pr.
sa' ;ustruction was given in the art OF
We U.S.. drawing room, eating with
ess s usiug the handkerchief ETC. This
nu', treat work, and Professor Fish,
vs. will always be held in grateful
nsuu nbrance by our community. Having
.,.-oed not to draw their boots as soon
s.ns; the art of eating without their
s onr people have yearned after
INV ;orment of those higher pleasures
Th,ch these preliminary teachings
WI glimpse. Fishbladder was
s ,sa u;oneer: he set the ball to rolling
u !. has oeen kept rolling ever since.
~ WOOL has dropped off and we are
I- nearer wild. barbarous c1v1lza-
Nv We have even ceased to regret
-. We used to live in trees and IN
- We are a highly cultured people.
~ If our latest fads is Homer
III Homer was a poet who lived a
- many centuries ago Chicago So
~ is as particular about its poetry as
-: .hout its pork tenderloins 1t has
- nse for fresh killed poetry; the poetry
s.hed ND for Chicago must have hung
: The ice house long. long time or it is
.s;scted Shakespeare and Dante were
~ f.vorites, until about six weeks ago
ling came somebody from the east and
.N rs that Homer wrote poetry thun-
srino long time before either Shake
.,e.ye or Dante was born. At first we
5anrbeteve it; thought it was joke
Sdnr gee how it could be true. But Pro
snaor Swing said it was so, and that he
h,dknown il all the time. Whatever Pro
tasr Swing says goes.
Then all at once Chicago began to
tske up with Homer. It was hard on
Shakespeare and Dante, but it couldn't
he helped; it was not Chicago's fault,
bat was simply their misfortune that
thew were not born soon enough. The
denand was for Homer; it was univer-
a. extending from the stock yards to
the water tower and from the lake front
to Cicero township Even Rudyard
Nping had to make way for the gentle
man from Greece Answering this de-
psnd our eminent publishers suspended
work on their railway maps and guides
and BET about issuing cheap paper edi-
Ton Of Homer's epics translated in gas
meter by Professor Phlebottom, of
Evanston, and adorned with a number
Of beautiful cuts which had been left
over from their popular edition Of BEL
Ami Two hundred thousand Of these
superb volumes have already been is
sued to the eager public, and the thir-
ieth edition is now in press In the
hrum, upon the streets, in the horse
ars, in the family circle-everywhere
and at all times are our people to be
seen porting over the immortal lucubra-
ton OF the extinct genius.
Responding to the Macedonian i'm
porturities of those who pine to know
more OF Homer, an army Of professors
and savants has focked hither from the
east Some have come via slow freight,
Others have walked They are a dis
neveted. unkempt, hungry looking lot
Tnelr suspenders, when they have any.
are secured at each end by means Of ten
penny nails or second hand safety pins.
They are impecunions but scholarly.
tney phllosophize and rhapsodize and
speculate and introspect; they do not
pay cash Their eyes are ablaze with
mspratlon; their bowels are filed with
Iuasus; their souls yearn and groan and
Ong and pine and hunger and thirst,
ma Their mouths overflow with polysyl-
hbic bellowings.
Chicago is the Mecca Of these erudite
Professors They are telling Us all about
no"er' We are dattered and delighted:
1y are making it pay. Three square
m1aS Gay is not to be sneezed at.
.mioeophy is not filing: it does not but
"a nap]acks nor grill rump steaks, un-
a. perchance. the philosopher happens
egoia
mere are now eighty-seven Homer
~uus In TINS city. Within a month the
s1moer OF Browning clubs has dropped
@ n1ty-fve to eleven. The Homer
I'm @ Is killing of everything before it.
a. No understand that j. w. Ellworth and
neV' Or. Gunsaulus have gone east
ouy inst edition of the old man;
A' II they can find one. Mr.. Ellworth
'ported to have said that he would
~ Ea'OOO for one if necessary. he
', SOS to exhibit it in the Art society
s with his Gutenberg Bible.
Al the city registers Office we are told
49, TINS Homeric infatuation is mani
lung itself in the curious names now
= IS bestowed upon infants at baptism.
march 10 per cent. of the male chill
Bo,n.. 0O y in Chicago were named
IsS9S Hr' per cent. Ajax, II per cent.
msS' per cent. Hector, 3 per cent.
A.. per cent. Nestor, and one in
uas been named Thersites.
tne music circle it ia rumored that
asa Aio De Koven and Harry B. Smith
rcu Engaged on a comic opera founded
l1e scenes described in the Qiad.
raphael Foro nro~ido,,+ 80 ~. W..