Morning journal and courier., 1891-11-13
POETRY COLLECTOR.
A Merchants Compilation OF Verse
and It's Reception by the Public.

Prom the Chlcsgo tribune
Some years ago wealthy shoe-merchant
in fiourishing city of central Illinois re-
tired from business, and having invested
hif funds in brick blocks and tenement
houses, he had nothing to do but collect
his rents and increase his bank account,
and time began to hang heavily on his
hands. To relieve the tedium of the drag
ging hours he took to hunting through
newspapers for poems, original and other
wise, and copying them in q smooth,
round hand into a large blank-bOOk pur-
chased especially for the purpose. In or
der to be free from interruption while en-
gsged in this sort of literary labor he fit
ted up a room in the third story of one of
his business blocks, and thither it became
his custom to repair on coming down town
in the morning. With a severely poetic
and melancholy look on his face he was
wont to climb the long flight of stairs,
lock himself in, look through the daily
and weekly papers of the city and vicinity
for their original and selected poems, and
struck his fancy.
Whenever he saw an opportunity to i'm
prove any of these poetic gems by making
changes in the rhyme. rhythm or santi-
ment, emitting stanzas or adding entirely
new ones of his own production, he did
not hesitate, but made the necessary i'm
provement From time to time, as the
affistus descended upon him, he evolved
whole poems from his own exuberant fam
cy, and they went into the blsnk-book
with the others. The collection grew
Nd Iatl act sha fuI TJa
got another one. In course of time he
filled that also, but he had not yet worked
all the poetry out of his system, and he
kept on till he had a collection of several
Thousand poems and scraps of poems,
grave, gay, sombre. terrible and unique.
Such an aggregation of verse had never
been Scrsped together sincce the founda-
ton of the world, and probably never viii
be again. He looked at the results of his
lsbors with q pride that swelled and
swellcd until the idea of publishing them
came to his relief. 1t was an inspiration.
To think was to act. He took the entire
grist to a printing and publishing house,
asked for estimates on an edition of about
five thousand copies of a book a trife
smaller than a quarto in size, containing
from seven hundred and fifty to one thou,
sand pages, to be printed and bound in
| firstcls style, with red line around
each page and portrait of the author and
compiler as a frontispiece. The negotia,
tions resulted in his giving an order for g
large edition.
The books were printed regardless of ex-
penss, according to instructions, and then
the gifted poet and collator rested from
his lsbors. A price of five dollars, if we
mistake not, was fixed upon as about the
proper figure, all things considered, and
the book in all its gorgeousness and beau
ty was turned on the market. 1t seems
incredible, but a dull, sodden, insensste
public, with no poetry in its soul, neglect
ed this marvellous work, spoke coldly and
sliihtingly of it, and for the most part re-
fused to buy it, and one day the author in
his righteous wrath loaded the priceless
volumes on a huge truck wagon, had them
shipped to Chicago, sold them to the SEQ
ond-hand book stores for the niserabl.
sum of twenty cents copy, and went out
of the poetry business for ever. What
encouragement has a native bard to tune
his soul to flights of lofty song in this
prosaic country and in this barbarous agei