El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-22
A MUTILATED POET.
He Was Cut Up Almost as Badly as
His Alleged Bit of Genuine
Verse,

he WdS'Cut up ALMOST as baoly as
His Alleged Bit of Genuine
Verse.
When Western editor was sitting
in his Office one day, a man whose brow
was clothed with thunder entered.
Fiercely selling a chair, he slammed
brella on the floor, and sat down.
care YOU the editor?'' he asked.
eyes"
"Can you read writing?"
"Of course"
"Read that, then" he sale, thrusting
at the Colonel an envelope, with an in
scription upon it.
"B-," said the Colonel, trying to
spell it.
That's not B. It's an So said the
man.
SIS; oh yes: see! We'll it looks like
Salt for dinner or Souls of sinners, "
eaid the Colonel.
mo, sir" replied the man; "nothine
of:the kind! That's my name-Samuel
81. Drummer. I knew you couldn't read ::
1 called to see you about the poem OF
mine you printed the other day, on the
"Surcease of Sorrow"
II don't remember it," said the COL
onel.
"Of course you don't, because it went
into the paper under the infamous title
of 'Smearcase Tomorrow
ga blunder of the compositor's, L
suppose"
Ives, cir, and that's what 1 want to
see you about. The way in which that
poem was mutilated was simply scan-
dalous. I haven't slept q night since.
It exposed me to derision. People think
that l am an ass. Let me show you.
The first line, when 1 wrote it, read in
this way:
Lying by weeping willow. underneath a
gentle slope.
That is beautiful, poetic, affecting.
Now, how did your vile sheet present
it to the public?
Lying to a weeping widow to induce her to
elope.
Weeping widow, mind You! A widow.
Oh, thunder and lightning! That is too
much! But look a-here at the fourth
verse. That's worse yet:
Cast thy pearls before the swine and lose
them in the dirt.
He sets it up in this fastOn:
Cart thy pills, before the sunrise and love
them If they hurt.
Now, isn't that coal-blooded outrage
on mans feelings? I'll leave it to
you if it isn't"
"It's hard, that's a fact" said the
Colonel.
"And then take the fifth verse. In
the original manuscript 1t said, plain
as daylight:
Take away the jingling money; it is only
glittering drOss.
In its printed from you made me say:
Take away the tingling honey; put some
flies in for the boss.
By George, 1 felt like Draining you
with freshovel! 1 was never so cut
up in my life. There, for instance, was
the sixth verse. / wrote:
1 am weary of the tossing Of the ocean as it
1t is a lovely line, too: But imagine
my horror and the anguish of my fam
lily when 1 opened your paper and saw
the line transformed into:
L am wearing out my trousers till they're
open at the knees.
That Is little too much. That seems
to me like carrying the thing an inch
or two too far. 1 think I have con-
stitutionsl right to murder that COM
pOsitor; don't you?"
81 think you have"
Let me read you one more verse, 1
wrote:
swell the .,f flying echoes as they roam among
And feel my soul awakening to the ecstasy
that thrills.
Now what do you s'pose your miser-
able outcast turned that into? Why,
into this:
L smell the frying shoes as they coast along
the bulls,
And feel my sole mistaken in the erctary
that whfrlS.
must Stay that man. Where is hep"
"He Is out just now" said the COL
Onel. "Come in tomorrow"
Il will, ;" said the poet; land 1 will
come armed ."-Exchange.
Pillsbury's, Best Flour Is the best in
the world, at Ell PasO Grocery Co.