The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-04-05


name with the author Of Don Juan
+ pleased him. He was only % or a
! then, and his vanity was perhaps ex-
/ cuSable- a Few years later he clipped
/ the dark brown hair that made him
! look like Byron, and when Fred Read
I came TO Lawrence a few years later,
/ Reaif was wearing his hair after the
/ fashion OF the day. But he was full
/ of romantic posings.
He roomed over Fred Reeds store
/ with Cook and Kagi-of the John
Brown party-and instead OF sleeping
| upon beds. these enthusiastic young
scamps rolled up in their blankets be
side their guns upon the floor and main
| tanned the discipline OF the barracks
| in their civilian bedroom Realf was
/ not satisfied with this. but every morn
ing under his instruction. a small party
Realf. Halves {the local on the Her
aid OF FreedOm) and Cook. went out
near where Watkins bank now '-rears
ATS awful form" and spent an hour IN
pistol practice. Then they returned
TO the less heroic walks of life
From the first Reah seemse 20 have
! had the Kansas mans desire 20 be sec
Rotary of the convention His name
appears with that OF Plumb. Charles
Robinson. +. G. Elliott-the veteran
, editor, whose pen was q valiant sword
for freedom, who still lives in Law
renee. Dwight. Thatcher, the two
Farnswort, Kagi and Cook. and
, sixty others known to Kansas history.
signed the call urging the members of
the free state legislature To meet at
/ Topeka in June, 1891. In August OF
that year Realf with Robinson and
Joseph and John Speer at the head of
a radical free state crowd held the pro
slavery crowd that came to pack a
/ conservative free state convention"
at bay all day. 1t was a parliamentary
battle, and the intense excitement Of
the day made Realf very happy. \ few
days after in August, 1851. Realf and
James Redpath each handed a poem to
young HaWeS-nOw Colonel A c.
Hawes of San Francisco-then the
Item chaser on the Lawrence Herald of
Freedom 1t was poem full of the
struggle for free Kansas 1t was one
OF the young mans first pieces and in
a Few choice Lawrence SCRAP books il
may be found along with the pieces
that have followed. pieces by Thatch-
er, by Plumb, by John Speer, by kol-
loch, by Prentis, by Charley Gleed
| by Kicking Bird" by +. j. V. Skiff.
by Walt Whitman, by Carruth. by Can
neld. and by all the ten thousand who
nave contributed pieces TO the Law
renee papers in the past forty years
keaf was made secretary with O. E
Iearnard-now Colonel Learnard OF
the Lawrence Jounal-of free state
mass meeting that was held in Leconlp-
ton the day in October when the pro-
slavery constitutional convention reas-
semhled. Jim Lane was the chief
speaker and he pronounced the pro-
slavery crowd 50 vigorously that the
convention dared not sit for two days
1t was not until United States troops
were brought up from Lawrence that
the convention had the courage to
come together. 1t was in scenes like
this that young Realf got his ethics
ana his touch with life. One who saw
him says:
We We're all young then. but I
thlnk Realf was younger than any of
US. L saw him sitting there under the
hypnotic spell Of that strange human
nre, Jim Lane. l saw his cheeks
bIanch when Lane touched upon some
dlre atrocity. / saw them redden and
burn when Lane in his terrible pas
SaGeS stirred the passions of the crowd
heaH sat there as one under a spell.
l was near him and he turned his glow
ing black splendid eyes on me at one
point IN a climax and gripped my arm
with a clasp | can never forget. The
IRON was going into his soul Lane.
charlatan, perhaps he was, was a great
ARTIST And that boy there, who some
now put that great passionate orator.
cal outburst into his life-that boy was
breathing Lanes life into his soul"
This is but one of the many incidents
that shaped the boys career In such
a time. with such environment, such a
sensitive soul must have found an out
let in poetry or he would have gone
mad He SympathiZed with John
Brown and his cause by nature Fate
seems to have dragged him with the
great fanatic. kagi. Reaifs friend,
followed Brown TO death ReaIf was
only fired with the heroic spectacle.
lie dld not become part of it. Indeed
aItefWard, when he became cool with
years, he spoke and wrote of the folly
OF the insane deed at Harpers Ferry.
1hey say at Lawrence that ReaIf mar
RED a southern woman after leaving
Kansas and that this fact may have
contribute more or less to his calm. BE
this as ii may there was a time when
Kansas greatest poet and her popular
IDOL, were warm friends Perhape
poor. impractical. fanatical. each con
trbuted his fire TO the others nature
insanity and poetry come by contact
They are as epidemic as physical dis
orders.
During his life IN Kansas Realf re-
csived mis- inspiration. 1t was the Kan
sa spirit that spoke in his lines. They
We're printed in England, in New York,
where every year they appear in the
newspaper corners from time 10 time
even now. They are called in Kansas
classis. or his life in the south and in
California. little is known. lie was
very poor. and worked in the mint In
San Francisco and later upon the Chron
icle for few years before the end. Re
avoided his old Kansas friends-they
had grown rich and he could not con-
ceal his poverty. II was in ISIS. in Oc-
tOber. when this item appeared IN
San Francisco paper:
Mrs. Reaif. wife OF Colonel Richard
Realf. has arrived in this city from
Pittsburs. Pa"
The next day but one he killed him
self. The woman who followed him had
married him shortly after he had left
Kansas. Realf supposed he had been
divorced from her when ne went 20 the
Pacific coast. But she had appealed
the case and IL had been reversed. Realf
had married again. IL saw his predic-
ament and shrank from II. He was
the same vain boy he had been IN Kan
sas. irresponsible. romantic, fantastic, I
conscious. weak 10 the last. The
day before ne died he wrote e poem OF
Of which the following are two stanzss.
De mortuis iii nisi bonurn" When
For me the time has come and an
dead.
And little volubls. Gathering DAVIS OF men I
Peck al re curiously. let u then ~ said I
BY someone brave enough 10 speak the I
truth.
Here lies a great soul killed b. cruel !
wrong
Down ali the balmy days OF his fresh !
YOUTH.
To his bleak. desolate noon. with sword |
and song.
And speech that rushed Up hotiy fyom the |
heart.
lie wrought for Liberty. TIL his own !
wound,
QIe had been stabbed. concealed with |
Painful art.
Through wasting years. mastered him. /
and ne swoo1ed.
And sank tI.ere where you see him lying I