The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-25
BOOKS OF THE TIME.
The Scribner Edition of James Whit
comb RiIey's Poems.

1t is only when one takes up volume of
Mr.. Riley's poems that the extent to which
his writings have become woven into the
literature of the country is realized. Every
one knows by heart entire poems or stanZas
and knows them as Mr.. Riley's, but there
are many others, complete poems, broken
stanzas, single lines, perhaps, that are
equally familiar. that are quoted in news
papers and in common speech that have
become the property of all men, but are
ASSOCIATED with the name of the author
except in the minds of the few. This adop-
ton of his thoughts by the people is the
greatest tribute that can be paid to any
writer, and it is seldom that it occurs, as in
this case, during an authors lifetime.
Green Fields and Running Brooks" the
seventh volume in the Scribner edition, has
a number of these favorites that float
anonymously through the newspapers until
recognized and given due credit by some
editor better Informed than the one in whose
columns they started. Some of them get
this anonymous start in a certain paper the
Journal knows of which has department
for Shutting to which contributors send
verses cheerful, tender or gay that, having
given comfort to them, they copy from their
scrap books and pass on. In this list come
those quaint lines, "As My Uncle Ust to
Say"
"Whoever's Foreman of all things here,
AS my uncle ust to say,
He knows each job at we're best fit fer,
And our roundup night and day:
And a-siZin' His work, east and west,
And north and south, and worst and best.
l amt got nothin to suggest,
AS my uncle uSt to say.
The Chant of the Cross-bearng Child"
too, has become divorced in this way from
its author, and Reach Your Hand to Me-"
20 the present is too sweet
To go on forever thuSi
Round the corner of the street
Who can say what waits for us?-
Meeting-gr greeting, night and day,
Earring each the selfsame way
Still somewhere the path must end
Reach your hand to me, my friend
Another beginning Just to be good-this
tune of being cherished and quoted by those
who have not known the authors name.
Noting these and others of their kind. it is
and simple reVerent thought and religious
feeling. so numerous in his books. are the
because they express thoughts that all men
and women may call their own.
But there are poems in this volume that
appeal none the less to the popular taste,
though perhaps not quoted SO often-'How
John Quit the Farm, - THE Home-C Coming
by Any Other Name and "A Full Har-
the country does not follow his Country
Pathway with joy and know that every
IOOI Oh II Is real!
The eighth volume of this edition, Poems
Here at Home" now ready ALSO perhaps
contains more favorites both for the general
public and the more critical reader than any
other of the series. 1t has 'Nothin' to Say"
THE Absence Of Little Wesley" THE Old
Man and Jim, 1.-THE Old Band,'' The
Raggedy Man. "Fessler's Bees Glad
ness The Little Man In the Tin Shop"
"Tradin joe 'At the Literary Down to
the Capital and other classics in dialect.
1t has, too. the tender sonnet When She
Comes Home it has THE Used to Be-"
Song of the Bullet" the beautiful vision
of Summer and the exquisite "Bereaved."
If Mr.. Riley had written no other verses
than those contained in this volume his
reputation as poet would be secure. AS
he says of another book:
I'VE have read it on and on.
Till each character. in sooth,
BY the master-tOucheS drawn,
Is a living truth
The Scribners have made this complete
edition one that is alike a credit to them
selves and the author. The highest art of
the typographer has been used upon it. The
paper is made expressly for the edition,
every page of every book containing the
authors initials as a water-mark. The
binding is in golden brown with small and
simple design on the cover of ears of corn.
No illustrations are used except a frontis-
piece for each volume. The one drawn by
W. T. Smedley in Green Fields is a gem.
The work is sold only in sets and not in
separate volumes, and is handled by the
Rowen-M Merrill Company through whose
courtesy the Scribners were enabled to bring
it out