Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1896-03-26
A POETS AFFINITY.

to flow in luxurious profusion about his
shoulders. In point of fact he had no
luxurious profusion of hair to flow, being
considerably bald, in consequence of bad
habit he had contracted of wearing his hat
in his counting room.
Being country bred man, he sang
mostly Of rural scenes, of songs of birds,
the changing seasons, the wild flowers
beauty and kindred subjects, and coming
direct from the heart, as his verses did,
with their charming wild flavor and the
breeziness of hill and field breathing
through every line, no wonder they ap
pealed to the heart and touched it as more
studied and artificial poetry, be it ever so
fine, can never do.
At the age of 45, having amassed
comfortable fortune in the banking bust
ness, he retired and gave himself up to the
true enjoyment of life with his wife and
family, the latter consisting of two young
sons and daughter Of 19. About this
time he began a small volume, which he
called ''Rural Treasures, which he fin
ished in six months time, working only,
as has been said, when the muse inspired.
The little volume attained an instant pop
ularity, which surprised its publishers,
who could not understand how it had
caught the public's favor.
But many city man who had been
born and raised in the country knew and
understood the charm of the book and
wiped away the tears which started unbid-
den at the memories awakened by such
simple verses as 'Wading In the Stream,
"The Old Schoolhouse' and "Fhe Early
Violet"
After its publication Mr.. Elliot Browns
mail became SO heavy, between autograph
letters, factoring friends and begging
epistles, he laughingly declared he must
hire an amanuensis. To earn money for
a pet charity his daughter Emily eagerly
begged for the position and spent the early
morning hours attending to his CORE
spondence in her fathers handsome IL
brary.
During temporary absence OF his
young amanuensis Mr.. Brown again at
tended to his mail and one day found a
letter which particularly pleased him. He
was above plain, unadulterated tlattery,
but this letter, while fiattering, praised his
book in a subtle, delicately yelled manner
IN language as choice and elegant as II
borrowed-as perchance it was-from the
pages of an old manual Of polite CORE
spondence
As the writer, Miss Annabel Leigh,
gave her address in Boston and begged for
an autograph letter from him the poet
wrote short note thanking her for her
kind praise. In q few days he received
another letter from her, In which she con-
fessed that she, too had been scorched by
the flames of the divine fire of poetry and
begged him to pass Judgment upon some
lines inolosed. Tho lines were, to say the
least, excellent, and while they had a "a
miliar ring in Mr.. Browns mental ear, as
If he had read something like them in
some long forgotten volume, he could not
believe the gentle writer guilty Of plagia-
rism and wrote commencing her verses.
This called forth so immediate an an
swer, with more poems to be criticised.
that Mr.. Brown was startled, and yet, hav-
ing fallen into the correspondence, scarcely
knew how to extricate himself, SO at the
end of the month, the limit set for his
daughters visit, he had quite pocket of
letters from Miss Annabel.
Singularly enough, he had neglected
telling his wife Of the affair, but deter
mined to take Emily into his confidence,
especially rs he knew she would discover
the matter for herself. This determination
was strengthened by tho receipt of a
lengthy missive from Miss Annabel, IN
which, after declaring that her heart told
her that he was not only young and hand
some, but unmarried and waiting yearn-
ingly for his affinity, she boldly declared
hot Nh AVID ho1a hin, uyy tn
her arms.
Mr.. Brown had not expected any such
complication to arise and was truly alarm
cd. 1t was therefore with strong feeling
of relief that he shifted his burden on to
Miss Emily's shapely shoulders. She, be-
ing blessed with u keen sense Of humor,
saw only the ludicrous side of the affair,
blamed her father just as littlo as he do
served for falling into the net spread for
his unwary feet, and promised to help him
out.
"Dcal gently with her, dear, " ho begged.
''She is evidently young and romantic and
has given too FREQ reins to her fancy"
''Trust me not to be rude, my dear ia
ther,' replied Emily and betook herself to
her pleasant task, while Mr.. Brown, with
lightened heart, went down to Tiffany's
to buy an appropriate reward for her kind
services.
This is what she wrote:
MY DEAR Miss LEIGH-My father has asked
me to answer your last letter, as he is OH the
point of departing, against medical advice, fox
the country to witness the marriage of his ia
vorite grandchild. Being quite feeble and suf-
fering with a distressing form Of gout he will
therefore be unable now or Mt any future time