The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-12-26

Mr. EDWIN MARKHAM OF CilllOrnla, VINO
wrote Ave stanzas in blank verse about
MILLRT's Man with the Hoe" is now tast-
| ing the sweets OF easy fame. 1t came to
| him as liberty came to VIRGIL's shepherd,
| somewhat late In life but 1t came easily. The
| illustration made the fortune OF the poem
at the first. Then it won its way by its
own rhetoric and by its appeal to the sent!-
mental mind OF the supposed wrongs of
labor. Suppose Dollar Dinner address OF
Col. JOHN BRIsBES WALKERS, put into Eng
lish and versiied by clever rhetorician;
or suppose Prof. GEORGE d. HEBRON OF Iowa
uttering his sociological oracles in blank
verse. and you have about the measure OF
Mr.. MARkHAM's poem. He has, indeed. a
finer taste and Imagination than his brother
sociologists, but his psychology and his
political economy are as false as theirs, and
make his poem no true poetry, but essen-
TALLY bit OF heated rhetoric
Tonight" said the Minneapolis Tribune
last week. "Minneapolitans will hear the
greatest poem OF the decade discussed by
the man who wrote it. Mr.. MARKHAM
did read the said greatest poem OF the
decade to the Minneapolitans and was
much affected by it; and 80, we dare
say. We're they. In time, perhaps, they
will substitute "nine days wonder"
for greatest poem" and pass to new
literary diversions. II was a taking
text TO picture. but what is the value OF
the text? The most poetical lines in II, it
seems to US are these:
what gulfs between him and the seraphim!
Slave OF the wheel of labor. what to him
Are PLATO and the swing OF Pleiades?
What the long reaches OF the peaks OF song
The rist OF dawn. the reddening of the rose;"
1t is conceivable that there is u consider
able gulf even between Col. BRYAN and the
Seraph!m. What are PLATO and the swing
OF Pleiades and the long reaches OF tho
peaks of song to most Of the world? Are
We to pity every man who has a delicate
literary cultivation. a high imagination, n
knowledge OF astronomy and n feeling for
landscape? Most OF US are slaves OF the
wheel OF labor Most Of US lack nearly all,
and many lack all, those gifts the absence
OF which in French peasant moves Mr..
MARKHAM to a burst Of verse and indig-
nation against " masters, lords and rulera
in all lands"
Mr.. MARKHAM has been schoolmaster
noble calling, but perhaps he exaggeratcs
the deslrability Of learning. Mighty little
OF the real work OF the world is done by
incoming on the peaks OF song The
French peasant has an education ade-
quate to his needs There is no immense
gap between his desires and his capaci-
ties. He is not confused by multiplicity
OF motive. He has strength if not fneness.
His power OF action is not paralyzod bv
dawdling among neurasthenic sensibllities
and sham emotions, He cats when no is
hungry, drinks when he is dry and sleeps
like log. Brother to the OK? We'll. LII, |
OK Is highly respectable. useful, strong,
and sensible animal, much better than an
ass or an nsthete, for example The French !
peasant knows his business. Not being
n socoog!st he doesn't bother his bend
about that of other people He works !
hard, to better himself and his children. In |
his heart II you could see into IL through J
his impcnetrable face, you would find. prob- |
ably deep desire for land, more land. II
this is wicked, Mr., MARKHAM should build .
Il rhyme Of pity for the Aston family.
Who made him dead TO rapture and despair
Athing that srieves not and that never hopesr"
Nj. MARKHAM not COP. Tho French
peasant, any French peasant, can grloyo
and hope reasonably. Rapture and despair
are little beyond him. He is not poet
but shrewd, leve-heuded peasant. Iii,
place in his family and his power over his
family are greater than those OF an Amer.
can father. He is really the head OF Il small
clan. Dc may not he excessively sympu-
thetic' Hard in money matters. probably.
But he is laborlng for an object and there
are some holidays and gay little festivals
on the way Life is not all black bread to
him. He may be hazy, as to the Pleiades,
but he has not studied the sky for nothing.
He has acquaintance among the stars and
he knows the weather.
In short, he is "A sufficiently accomplished
out-of-door philosopher. Probably his Lit.