The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-11-08


Marie"
The sun had just gone down behind
the hoary hills flooding the June
twilight with its gold and glory.
Having finished my dinner, | had
strolled out to take a turn beneath the
maple trees tha, line the walk about
the court house. Honey laden, home
ward bound, belated bees droned in
the trees, and all the world seemed
filled with the sound and scent Of
summer.
Here would walk and watch out
the dying day, and breathe the pure
air fresh from the snowields of the
North. Here, too, | hoped to win
good night smile, for down this way
she was to pass to the theater-with
another man. was turning the corner
when she came. Face to face we met,
and such a smile! there was world
of tenderness in it, and with a mans
conceit, fancied there was something
back of it.
| wondered, too, if she had guessed
my secret and while the sound Of her
carriage wheels were still in my ears |
said, half aloud:
I've secret in my heart,
Sweet Marie,
A tale would impart,
I. Love to thee.
And then as man having been
drunk with wine imagines that every
body knows it. felt that my secret
was out, and l had gone less than a
dozen yards when | finished the half
stanZa:
Every daisy in the dell
Knows my Secret-knOWS 1t we'll.
And yet dare not tell,
Sweet Marie.
Then the whole song came rushing
upon me like mountain stream after
a cloud bust. Like a CLEAN of glory
in COB of gloom it came fast and
flooded my soul and filled me with
lustless joy. On walked-sang my
new song and gloried in it as happy
mother glores in the first faint smile
| of a new born babe.
When more people and the stars
came out, and there was no longer
room for the wide wings OF my muse,
| | boarde;. a cable car and went out to
the very shadows of the hill. Then
the white moon came up from the
plains, making one of those matchless
moonlit nights that invariably follow
perfect day in Denver. The tired
lawn mower that had struggled all day
against a vigorous brass band at last
laid down and the mellow notes of the
tuba came faint and far away.
Far into the night l sat there saying
it DER and DER till every line was
registered in my memory.
The following summer | gave the
poem TO General David S. Stanley he
submitted it to Mr.. Dana 1t was ac
cepted, and on the following Sunday
received some editorial mention, and |
rejoiced anew.
think it was ex-Ccngressman Bel
ford, the "red headed rooster of the
Rockies" as he was known in the
House, who first advised me to have
the verses set to music.
| Rayman Moore was in Denver at
the time, and l persuaded him to call
at my office. When read the song
to him he snapped his fngers-tears o
enthusiasm stood in his eyes as he
declared that it would make :" the
sweetest song ever sung"
Out of the third stanza, which begun
originally:
Not the sun-glints in your hair,
Sweet Marie,
Nor because your face is fair,
Love, to see,
made a chorus, had my steno
tgrapher copy 1t, then holding The
revised copy in his hand he began tc
hum. Something sweet and slow,
he said. :. like this and then he sang
exactly as million mouths have sunt
since:
Come to me- Sweet Marie,
Sweet Marie, come to me.
repeated and remembered the note
he sang, and when a year later VII
+. Carlton came to the tootllghtS 4
the Broadway theater and sang th'
song, was glad to note that Mr.
Moore had no, varied shadow from
his first inspiration.
1t happened that about the time tn
first faint echoes of the song reached
, the Rocky Mountains we started Eas'
and listened with eager ears 10 hear b