The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-15

The Noted HOOsier Poet Warmly Well
coined by "a Boston Audience.
Boston Post.

Boston Post.
1t was magnificent audience that greeted
James Whitcomb Riley. the Hoosier poet,
pie was occupied by decidedly brilliant and
representative Boston gathering. 1t was a
glowing tribute to the popularity of the man
who used to paint advertising signs along
the country roads of his native State. but
whose mind and heart were more absorbed
by the beauties of nature than by his then
unique method of making living.
AS Mrs Julia Ward Howe. leaning on the
arm of Mr. Riley, slowly mounted the plat
form, the audience burst into applause.
winch continued until all the artists were
ReS sa Mrs n6 IN Win M
an Introduction, a duty which is as welcome
as 1t Is responsible" Referring to the prof.
ect of the Woman's Corporation. the aged
authoress said: Solomon in his Proverbs
has said, "a wise woman buildeth her house.,
and that is what the Boston women ara
about to do. 1t will be house in which a
good man shall not be contraband Qaugh-
teri, but as welcome as in his own home.
The programme this evening is tttingly one
OF music and poetry. and may it be that this
house will be temple of the best harmony"
Mrs Howe then introduced Mr.. Riley as
the poet of the evening. amid hearty APP
plause. The poet, as he stood beside the
writer of The Battle Hymn of the Repub-
lic' was positively pale. Was Mr.. Riley
temporarily embarrassed by that immense
Boston audience? If he was, he soon over
came any nervousness. his pale cheeks be-
came flushed and the reader and the audi
ence were thoroughly at one with each
other.
Howe Mr. Riley said: In the incident OF
ordinary travel it is a novel experience and
delight Tor a Westerner 70 Visit TINS hisIoItc
fact coming into this stored city is so
memorable an advent as to touch his Amer
lean spirit with still newer sense of ma
tional pride and reverence and obligation,
Judge, then, the beWildered, emotional state
of the present visitor, brought face to face
with distinctive a people ana presented
for their gracious tolerance by citizen so
distinguished as to have uttered forth an
inspired song for our Republic that snail
not die while patriot hearts are fired with
patriot love-" (ALplause.l
After the reading an informal dinner was
served at the Parker House, at which Mr..
Riley RECALLED the invited few with new sto-
ries told in his inimitable manner.
The Westerner talks much as he writes.
There is nasal twang, a sort of provincial
drawl in his speaking, that almost uncon-
sciously the listener couples with MS writ
for having heard them lin the original.
Riley speaks as he believes. He believes
with his audience in the quaint fashion or
the people he portrays. He does not le-
cite, but from the heart aims at the heart:
He is a sort of Evolutionary athlete. and
leaps from pathos to humor and back again
with amazing agility. One moment his au-
dience is almost beside itself with laughter,
the next feels some subtle Juggling at the
heart strings, and knows that the eyes are
more moist than is wont.
Riley is a plain man on the platform, ana
never seems to attempt any great ort.torlca1
heights. He is not the graduate OF schooI
or Oratory but the product OF nature TUT
ton. His initial reading last night was from
his Annals of the Poor.
His introductions are as clever as the
poems themselves. He chattingly relat ties
the incidents that suggested the poem. and
blends it so artistically into the reading
that one scarcely realizes where the Pre- face
ends and subject begins. The manrerisms
of the Western farmer are no less ably de-
picted than is their dialect, and one does
not long wonder that Mr.. Riley formerly
entertained thoughts of things theatrical.
He is good actor
Perhaps the one thing above all others
that characteriZes Mr.. Riley's work, both
as a writer and reader, is his endeavor to
reach the heart. No matter how humorous
he becomes. he rarely leaves poem with
out somewhere directing a shaft at the seat
of the affections Critics have said that
MIR. Riley is not serious, but his Boston
audience of 1898 is certainly not thus inn
pressed There We're moments when the
drop of pin could have been heard in the
big building, and when the speakers quaint
home thrGSts were made there was many
a heart that beat in ready accord.