The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-14
LAICAL FAIRY TALE.


maker. The chronicles of labor impress
one intensely with the painful apprentice
ship of artisans. but it is much more diff
cult nowadays to form good poet. To
catch quickly an aspect of nature or of the
mind; to find at once the words that shall
express it and plant these words in the
right places under the light; to imagine
novel and unexpected relationship between
rhymes that come and COO like two doves;
to create harmony at once more precise
and less brutal than that of music; to
make of the word a sculptor, a painter and
a delicate carver of arabesques; to imprison
the infinite and express the inexpressible-
such are the least objects of a poets work,
and surely one who does it is not lazy.
A young man of New Orleans whom his
father had sent to New York to learn hero
how to become a successful business man
was studying how to become a poet. He
knew nobody, had no desire to know any
body, but looked at the passersby and
read in their faces the events of their
minds. He looked also at the streets, the
buildings, the scenes on the rivers, and he
painted them in solid verses. He COM
posed poems, odes, sonnets, roundels, bal
lads and other works with marvellous f1del-
ity. He studied books also and newspa-
perS. He had no other ambition than the
true ambition, and cared for fame, celebrity
and glory no more than an elephant cares
for a violet. In New York, where the
miliionaires are so poor, a young man
rocked by the singing and dancing chorus
of illusions may live happily on $50 a
month.
This young man lived happily. One
morning that he was rewriting his ''Dou-
BILE Ballad of Girls Without a Dowry''
there was knock at his door. He said,
"Come in r. and there appeared a robust
old man, clean shaven, with thick white
l.
expressing joy and well being.
81 am,' he said, "Jose Miangolara, the
owner of this house,
"Have I forgotten to pay my rent?"
asked the young man, Offering a chair to
the visitor.
"On the contrary said the old man,
"ya1 ara only too punctua1, but I intend
that you snail have no rent to pay in fu-
ture. wish to offer this room to you in
exchange for a great service that you may
render to me, if you wish. I am the
atrical manager"
"There ara sillier trades" said the
young man conciliatingly.
Doubtless, said the old man, "but
there are less pleasant ones. I began life
as brigand in the Abruzzi. It was sweet
then to sleep in caverns OH the knees of a
copper colored woman, to be dressed in
picturesque costume and to arrest stage
coaches, but there are so few stagecoache5
now that my profession became a sinecure.
: had to look out for another situation.
am not kicking as Miss Winifred, my
star dancer-have you not heard of herr
says. In my hall, which is always
crowded, have already picked up mil
lions. Crowds are crushed at my DOORS
and the newspapers laud me to tho skies.
My children, whose mother is dead, are
married. 1 intend to marry a young
woman who is pretty, stupid, 'kiddish,
and who deoeiyes me with exemplary fdet-
ity. have carpets of Asia, rare furniture
of ali ages, and you may eat at my table
delicious meals. My cook is a scoundrel,
stepped in crime, but he knows how to
make sauce, I can satisfy any one of
my whims, and that is why I have called
on you. 1 should like to produce an oper-
eta as silly as all those that I have pro-
duced, but written in excellent verses.
What do you think of the ideaf' .e,
81 don't think of it at all,'' said the
young man. Il never go to a playhouse
and do not wish to go ever
Fright you are,'' said Miangolara, sfbut
the wise resolution may not prevent you
from fulfilling the object of my visit. I
have essential clements; a musician who
respects the poetry that he interprets and
has no objections to composing master
pieces; a hbretto, Queen Liliuokalani'
which is stupid, but which the public will
like, and conscienceless actors. The au-
thor of the libretto is a biped who writes
like tinker, but he has caught the pub
lies ear, and by the way that he martyr
ICES that ear everybody may know that he
has it. What want the only thing that
I lack, is poetry. know that you can
supply that y
the young man. ''Who told you that
could write any?''
1.-The janitor's daughter. She knows,
for she has read Tennyson, and she says
that you write adorably. Here is an anal
ysis of Queen Liliuokalani.' 1t is six
lines in length, and that is long enough.
You may readily understand that the en-
bassador and the queen, being in love with
each other, may say anything that they
like. When will your work be fnishe0?'
''You may come for it after dinner"
said the young man. At the appointed
hour the work was done. Weeks passed,
and the young man began to think that
ne had done very little work for so much
lodging. He continued to write roundels
and ballads, and never asked himself what
had become of his Miangolara verses.
He learned this one day that he met the
theatrical manager in the street. The
manager said to him, You must be salts
fed with your copyright"
pray what or who is Copyright?''
asked the young man.
Miangolara explained to him that he
had earned $500, 600. With this fortune
in certified checks the young man started
for New Orleans, but when the train stop
ped at Pass Christian he saw at the STA
ton q young girl and read in her eyes that
she was saying to herself, eff a man as
handsome as this wants me, he can havo
me- He stepped out of the train, asked
for her hand in marriage, got it and has
been preoccupied by nothing since except
the thought of making his wife happy.
If you do not believe this story, which
is a very faithful, unadorned recital of
facts, go to Pass Christian and ask any
child in the crowd that waits at the rail
way station for the arrival and departure
of trains to tell you the address of Pro