The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-11
POET RILEY'S NEW book
"a CHILD-woRLD" TO COME FROM
THE PRESS TOMORROW.
A Continuous Narrative I'm Verse. Re-
freshinEly "Reminiscences ON
the Old National Road.
Copyright. 1896. by G. L. Payne,


ellis made recently this public utterance:
without the poetry of James Whitcomb
Riley our literature would be SO much the
poorer that It seems idle to state the fact.
He has more perfectly mastered his instrh-
ment than any writer Of dialect verse since
Lowell, and do not know why one should
not frankly place him with Lowell as
equally master in that kind
And it was notable that at about the
same time DIR. Oliver Wendell Holmes was
giving his estimate, in which he said
James Whitcomb Riley is nothing short
of born poet and q veritabe genius. /
think he is a later Hosea Biglow quite as
original as the latter and more versatile in
certain respects I own a good deal of en-
thusiasm for this later product of Indiana
SOIL this delineator of lowly humanity who
sings with SO much fervor, pathoS, humOr
and grace"
The above estimates seem also to be the
verdict of the reading public, as over sixty
thousand of his volumes were sold last
year, and the publication of a new book
from him has grown. therefore, to be a lit
erary event both In England and America.
A great man never puts away the sim
plicity of his childhood, so runs the Chinese
proverb, and if this latest work of Mr..
Rileys is measured &C cordingly, it is
titled to a pre-eminent rank in American
literature.
The new book will be issued simultane-
ously in England and this country by pub
fishers tomorrow, with the title of "a
Child-World,' and Is entirely new material.
1t is not, as his other volumes. collection
of poems, but a new departure, being a con-
tinuous narrative in verse. of chid-lore,
old-home delights and happenings in the
early life of the author.
Last week the writer found the poet crit
ically inspecting the first copy of this new
volume, turning the pages and glancing at
them in that peculiar way he has, as if he
might expect the printed words to bid him
some CHEEKY goodbye before they went out
to his innumerable friends over the coun-
try. His thumb rested on the frontispiece,
the old Riley homestead on the National
road, at Greenfield, just as it was in THE
Child World"-at its loveliest to him. when
the caravans of canvas-topped wagons
went past the house over the great ma
tienal highway that led ''away out West. -
1T was a great highway to me in those
day" said he, lifting up his eyeglasses for
moment and peering retrospectively out
the window. ITO children it was the
highway that led to all the wonderful
places on the inhabitable globe. Our child
ish imagination didn't carry us much
further than the reaches of that old road;
it was the main artery of the whole living
world Children nowadays-and even the
grown folks-know but little of the part
that the old National road played in MAX
ing our mighty West. You know it was
constructed by the government. from
Cumberland, Md, and in the early days the
settlers traversed it-overland to The Hill
noiy' and the Territories still beyond. AS
late as the days when ] was a boy the
wagon trains went by and what wonderful
sights they We're to u.s. My fathers house
faced the road to the south. The artist has
the old house pictured just as it was then"
The opening lines in the volume thus de-
scribe the old homestead:
Set Just one side the center of small
But very hopeful Indiana town
The upper story looking squarely down
Upon the main street and the main nigh
From East to West-historic in its day,
known as the National road-old- timers,
who linger yet will happily recall
1t as the scheme and handiwork, as well
AS property of Uncle sam, and tell
Railroads wuz ever dreamp of!H-hurther-
The reminiscent first inhabitants
Will make that old road blossom with ro-
nance
OF snowy caravans in long parade
OF covered vehicles. of every grade
From ox-cart of most primitive design,
TO Conestoga wagons, with their fine
Deep-cheSted, Six-horse teams in heavy
High names and Ginning bels-to childish
And eye enhancing as the glittering train
OF some sun-ssmitten. pageant of old Spain.
Yet close above the roof an apple-tree
Known THE Princes Harvest''-Magic
That was a boys own tree, in many ways
Its girth and height meet both for the
OF his bare legs and his ambitiousness:
And then it's apples, humoring his whim,
San d 9nS ne 10 IasPy neray b hpe ior nm
They dropped to meet him, half way up the
tree.
And Q their bruised sweet faces where they
And no! the lips that feigned to kiss them
welli''
Mr. Riley since he became renowned
bought back this house from the strangers
into whose hands it had passed, and the
improvements made by them have taken
from it much of its early quaint appear
ance. 1t has been remodeled. but not re-
stored-only as the artist has restored it in
the frontispiece. Not a great distance away
is the 'Old Swimmin' Hole and other
scenes almost as familiar to the reading
public as to the poet himself. At this old
homestead Mr.. Riley introduces the reader
to "a Child-World' and the deliciousness
of
The liquid. dripping songs of orchard
birds
The wee bass of the BEES
With lucent deeps of silence afterwards:
The gay. clandestine whisperings of the
breeze
And glad leaves of the trees.
The ehild-rhymes with which Mr.. Riley
has charmed his readers in earlier books do
not furnish such clearly outlined charac-
tiers as this new book wherein dwells dear
old-fashioned people that the man in Maine
as well as the man in Hoosierdom knows
Characters that children worship idola-
trously. And they are not characters made
like composite types, so that all the world
may give them passing recognition: they
are not Invented people, but living verities
from Almon Aeefer the boy who knew
every nook of the woods. and whose best
virtue was his love of books. with skill as
well in reading them aloud up to Uncle
Mart" who was to be a printer and whose
romantic soul drew poetry and inspiration
from the old Type Foundry Specimen
Book
So likewise when. with lordly air and grace
He strobe to dinner. with a tragic face
With ink-spots on ii from the office. he
Would APPLY quote more Specimen
Perchance like .Labor's bread is sweet to