Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-12-21

THE POET AT HOME
mingled with the pathos of the dying
grasshopper sufferer, which has even
won the approval of English bards and
wrung with sympathetic anguish the
sluggish pulse of their tough old
bri>kcts.
Yet Mr.. Peacock Mt times rebels at
fate aid says that u slow and niggardly
public will one day hate itself for not
helping him pay his rent, and that when
his wild thrush song Is still in death
many a tarly reader of his Looping verse
will come to shed the scalding and the
unavaiiing over the wind swept grave
of the silent bard. or in uncomfortable
rclnorso to kick loose the moss agateS
that border the lowly mound.
PCrchanco he is right. Publics arc I'M
grateful. Out of $50 admirers who have
come TO gaze on me ut my country homo
and stay TO dinner this summer only
eight had read my new history of tho
United States, and of that number six
had borrowed the book of other people.
One admircr tied his horse to a Japanese
maple, which Cnst me 80, and the beast
ate the bark all off, not having been fed
since Lent.
Mr. Peacock Is a self made poet and
compO>,S better with the window open
and his tongue out u little way on the
| left hand side. He likes the breeze to
blow against his hot temples, and a Jug
of not water Mt his feet. with which he
mikes little reddish liquor from the
| drug stores of Kansas. Then the warm
| Peruvian bark blood will mantle in his
check and the long, graceful verses come
! boiling ont like the graceful links of
rosy sausage ut Mi Armour's great
ahattOirs i'll Chicago.
! admire Thomas Brewer Peacock be-
cause he does not yet irritated over my
free criticisms. He comes to me with
the old warm grasp of the honest hand
;nd the old twinkle i'll his eye. no mat
ter how untrammclod my remarks on
his verse may be. That shows sweet,
disposition not usual with the average
poet.
This leads me- to refer to James Whit
comb Riley, my old partner and comrade
i'll the show business | notice that some
warm admirer gives Riley the place left
vacant by DIR. Holmes. This is surely
unqualified praise, yet we must pause to
think how different the two men were.
While the HoOSicr poet may easily COM
pare the size of their audiences, DIR.
Holmes humor was of different and
more strictly Massachusetts character.
He did not care so much for practical
humor rs Riley does. He would be con-
tent with pun or u conundrum. while
Riley enjoys practical humor.
For instance. l remember one night
: when our manager thought that any
thing in the line of ale, wine or most
any kind of alcoholic or malt liquors
would cast u gloom over the performance
on the following day, so he spoke to tho
hotel people about it, and a convention
Of bell boys and barkeepers was instruct
ed to send nothing but clean shirts and
farinaCeOus food to No. 1S2.
Mr.. Riley has n keen sense of humor.
and finding that his room communicated
with $50. and that the man who had
$50 had gone ont to make n night of il,
Mr.. Riley stepped in there and at odd
times used the bell of $50 with great
skill, thereby irritating the manager so
that he returned TO New York on the
following day.
Holmes had none of this dry, crisp
humor, hut cared more for n subtle and
delicate play upon words than q play
upon a lecture manager or hotel pro-
rrietOr.
. Yesterday l met an old citizen of
Hudson. Wis, who asked mo all about
Mr.. Riley. He seemed to feel great in
tcrcst in both of Us, so l asked him if
he read our books.
No" he said Il never read much
after erry one of We, but / saw We when
Riley visited We here ut Hudson for a
few weeks. and both of We was out on
lst, l.. .stI.
plug hat, playin two old cat with a
yarn ball i'll pourin rain, and says to
myself surely Hudson is n favored spot,
for | never saw two such id fools
i'll one Enclosure, and no charge for adj
mission.
But we were then less than 10 years
of age We are more serious now.
y Still RilCv IL different from Holmes.
Once OH the state fair grounds ut In
dianapolis an elderly Hoosier came u
to our manager and said:
Excuse me, but amt that littl
bench leg Teller over there the Hoosi,
poet:''
Yes" says Mr. Walker, but
can't hear much of anything in one en-
}. and the other is plum gone On TIN
side he hasn't heard his own loude
thoughts for years If you speak to hin
You must let your voice ont.
So the man with the coppcras Ina
and solferino whiskers stole up to hi
and in a wild bleat shot this remark i
to Riley's ear:
IN us this Mr.. Riley?''
~ The poet offered him tho other ca
at the same time looking at him wi
large blue. wondering, childlike eye
People stepped back out of range to 81
the man with the voice IL chance, and
repeated the query in way that sho
the blue ribbon of the large iron CT
Rosa Bonheur stallion across the plaz
as this Mr.. Riley.''
The poet said softly rs no squirm
up little closer, II can't hear wi
ye say"
- About 800 people ware now arou
there waiting to see what would happC
and the man with tho pounding n
chime, for telling how much SlJs
poor tired farmer can strikn willis &c