The times., 1899-10-01
Our western Poets.


tice.
Our Western Poets.
Among the books of last season was one |
which depicted the queer people who at
tended certain department of the Har-
ward Summer School. One of them was a /
youth from Peru, Ohio, who had poetical |
proclivities and wrote verses about !
banner that shall never sag" If anybody
in the Middle West was inclined to resent
that as a caricature, he is respectfully re-
ferred to a collection of Dewey poems pub
lished by the Chicago Times-Herald. .
The poetical fever seems to have hit the
Mississippi Valley very hard.
There are poems from six different
States, and they are all beautiful. The
first is from a sweet singer of Iowa, and
describes the battle of Manila in a truly
original and moving style. 1t is probable
that in all the sea poems in the history
of literature, from Homer to Rudyard
Kipling, there was never just such figure
of rhetoric as that evolved by this inspired
Iowan. He says that the battle continued
Until the last ship bit the dust,
And sank all battered up and mussed,
Or cried aloud for pity.
Ships have done a number of things in
literature but they never bit the dust be-
| fore, so far as heard from.
There is another remarkable piece of
rhetoric in poem from Ohio. In this is
TO be found the statement that Dewey
whipped the Spanish fleet before he would
Iat hi ,,
The reader is allowed to straighten out the
metre TO suit his own ideas. third poet
this time from Iliinois-informs us that
Caesar crossed the Rubicon and never wet
his feet'-sublime suggestion-but init
mates that he would rather be Dewey than
Caesar Charlemagne, Napoleon, Frederick
the Great, and Wellington all put together
This poet suffers a little from congestion
of ideas, but his heart is in the right place.
The really remarkable element in these
poems, however is their magnificent disre-
gard of the principles laid down by the late
lamented Lindley Murray In the trans
ports of gratified affection and pride the
poets, one and all, smash the rules of Eng
| lish grammar as grsndly and thoroughly
L
that they can do in the way of emulation,
! and as they would say, they done it thor
ough." The refrain of one merry ballad
informs US that
The world would ali be gloomy
With Dewey took away.
The same poet who halls from Bloom
ington, ILL.,. proudly remarks-for it is of
no use to quote his noble work in crumbs
or in chunks:
Through all the smoke of battle
He proudly stood up there,
Defying all the bullets
That passed him in the air.
And when the fight was over,
And everything done
He didn't do boastng
About the deed he done.
o, glory to the hero,
Who done his work so weli
Whose footsteps never faltered,
Whose flag has never fell
After this, if anyone says that no poetry
/ has been written in honor of the Admiral's
homecoming, let him go to Bloomington
and say tiff he darel The poet laureate
| of the Illinois wheat fields will remove his
/ il-hardened hands from the vicinity of
! the threshing machine, and proceed to sift
+ his aceuser as wheat, by the simpler
/ agency of an ld-fashioned fail. Bullets
4 that pass one in the air are nothing TO a
1 fail in the hands of an energetic and pa
triotic farm hand who writes poetry. There
is nothing like being able to handle the
Muse and the critics with equal power and
violence.
! There is another battle piece-this time
| by lady. Perhaps the turn which her
poetic genius takes is inspired by exper-
! ience with The lords of creation in the early
morning hours. At any rate, she begins
| her Manila epic after this manner:
Upon the first of May,
| He swept the Spanish feet away
Before his breakfast he had ate
No wonder she thinks the Admiral is
about ready for his heavenly home. If she
has cooked breakfast for several hungry
farmers, in winters cold and summers
heat, the value of that meal is probably
| impressed upon her mind man who
could do job of work before he had ate
his breakfast must seem to her almost
superhuman. At any rate, she congraru-
lates him, in the last verse upon having
come home.
To smmber in an honored grave
Upon his natal shore.
Altogether, the wreck of the English
language presented in these six or seven
poems is quite as impressive as anything
that could have been seen in Manila Bay
after Dewey's arrival. Perhaps 1t is a
good thing that the Admiral does not come
home every day, or the inhabitants of the
Middle West might be reduced to the com
munication of ideas by the means of mon
| key talk.
For some reason or other the Navigation
Bureau influence appears TO have been
weak in connection with the land parade in
! New York. Rear Admiral Schley stood by
| Admiral Dewey as the latter received the
gold loving cup presented TO him by the
| city of New York and the victor of Manila
introduced the victor of Santiago to a
| number of the officials present as his dear
| old comrade." By this we Judge that the
persecution may be in the way of getting a
blue eye.
We are beginning to suspecf that the