New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-07
THE HOMER CRAZE.
CHICAGO is AROUSED.
,ene Field in The Chicago News.

Eugene Field in The Chicago News.
The GOOD work begun by Professor A. ]. Fishbadder
y, now IL viii be remembered that the professor
here and taught best society how 10 oeEve lSeIL
private instruction given in the art OF entering
drawing room, eating with knife, uslng the hauaheI-
Fishbadder will always be held in grateful remembrance
by community His teachings now serve as tile IN,
snperstructure Of and intricate social fab
c is reared Having ean e not 6 TO d hayg e o
the art of eating without their knives, our people nave
yearned after the enloyment 81 those Gdn Sr pe
Fqslbladdcr was the pioneer; he ret the ball 10 rols
and It has oee nd %e are e now Wild
civilization. We have even ceased 10 regret that We
used TO live in trees and in leaves; we are highly
cuitused people
one Of our latest fads is Homer school. Homer
was poet who lived good many centuries ago. Chi
cago society is particular about its poetry as it Is
about its pork teDderOins. 1t has no use for fresh,
saRs d ns N the SsfS long, up long SssS
rejected. Shakespeare and Dante were our iavortes
he East and told us that Homer poetry thunder
ing long time before either Shakespeare Dante was
born At first we didn't believe it; thought it was
!oko-didnt see how it could be true But Professor
Swing said it. was 50 and that he had known It MI the
Swing is orthodox in everything except his orthodoxy,
and that Is heterodox; ,.u :. 49,. -,
Homer. II was hald on shakspeaTe and DAME, but
4 couldn't be helped was not Chcago's fault but
born soon enough. The demand for Homer: il
was universal. extending from the stock yards to the
ship. Even Rudyard kipllng had to make way for
our our eminent publishers, Rand & McNaiy, suspended
work on their railway MAPS and guides and set about
lated In meter Ivy Professor Phlebottom, Of Evans
ton, and adorned with number OF beautiful cuts which
Ami. Two hundred thousand Of these superb volumes
have already been issued 70 the eager public and the
The streets in the horse ears, in the family circle
every where and at all tines are our people to be
tnct genius. The epidemic has obtained wider and
flrner hold upon the community than Ia grippe itself
before il Quinne is simply nothingA
Responding to the Macedonian opportunities of those
who pine to know more Of Homer. an army Of pro
Some have via slow freight; Others have walked.
They dlsIlevced, unkenlpt, hungry looking lot.
each end by means Of tenpcnny nails secondhand
safety They mpecunious but scholarly They
trospect they do not pay cash Their ewes are abaze
With inspiration; their bowels filed with afiatus
With pOlysyllablc bellowings.
They telling all about Homer We are battered
and delghted they are making pay Three square
filling; IL does not butter hapjacks nor gam rump
steaks unless Pee c the philosopher happens to
There are now eighty-seven Homer clubs in this city
dropped from sixtyf to eleven. The Homer boom IS
killing oil eyerythng else before il. We understand
have gone East to buy first edition of the old mans
book II they find one. Mr.. Ellsworth Is reported
to have said that he woud pay S25 900 for one If
necessary, He wants TO exhibit ii in the Art Society
along with his Gutenberg bible
At the CITY registrars Office arc told that this
Homeric infatuation is panesting Itself in the curious
names being bestowed upon infants at baptism
In March 10 per cent of the male children born in
Chicago were named Homer, per cent Ajax, per
cent Achilles per cent Hector per cent Ulysses
per cent Nest0r and one infant has been named
Thersites
In the music circle it is rumorcd that Mcssrs
Reginald de Koven and Harry +. Smith engaged on
comic opera founded upon tbs described In the
Had j. Raphael Fogg. president OF the West Side
Art Association has painted life-sized portrait Of
Homer which Is now being exhibited In the wellknown
meatshop OF Cleaver & Co.. In Milwaulee-ave. and Is
for sale or will be exchanged for improved North Side
real estate
A petition signed by 10000 citizens goes 10 the
Worlds Fair Commission to-day asking that Homer
bureau DO established Of the departments OF the
Columbian Exposition. For chief of this bureau
Jismnth Jonei, an unhinchng Republican. is being
urged. The Great Eclectic Tea Company asks ms 10
state that beginning next Monday and for week there
after a handsome chrome portrait of Homer I'm five
coiors. with fac-simile autograph in blue ink will be
given away with every pound Of tea.