The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-01
1.-THE MORE YOU SAY THE LESS PEOPLE
REMEMBER" ONE WORD WITH YOU,
: 4 POL %

vited to become associate editor of the
Chicago publication. In such surround
ings as the sweat shop life forces upon all
thus employed he wrote his first poems
but nothing approaching literary success
came to him until Prof. Leo Wiener, of
Harvard, accidentally got hold of some
of his work in the original Yiddish. Prof
Wiener was so impressed with it's merit
that he wrote to Resented asking him to
come to Cambridge and see him. The re-
suit of this interview was an arrange
ment for an English translation of the
best of the poems, and these were after
wards published by Copeland & Day
Later an enlarged edition was put upon
the market by Small, Maynard & Co..
and HOW they have been translated into
French, German Polish and Danish, while
an Italian edition is at present being pre-
pared. Pretty fair for the son of fish
erman, is it not?
Since leaving the sweat shop Rosenfeld
has supported himself and his family by
his literary work He has lectured and
given readings, and a number of his
poems have been set to music by Miss
Helen Bingham. Three months ago he
reclted at the University of Chicago, and
later gave some readings in Sinai Tenn
pie. Then came the rendition of his song,
with music by Miss Smith, before the
Arts and Handicrafts association, and
the invitation to appear before the Con-
sumers League followed. The sensation
created there served to call gen
eral attention to him and now.
as the author of ''The Sweat
Shop" he is widely known and his pro-
auctions are in demand. From this it
should not be inferred that he had ac-
quired no particular reputation before, for
that is not the case. His first volume Of
translated poems attracted the attention
Of ia h rs t1Q Grifi nd 10
Booknian, but 1t is 1.-THE Sweat Shop
that has accumulated his success and
made him known to- the general public
as the poet of the loWly.
OF his literary compatriot. Isaac Rein
gold, almost the same story can be told
Reingold has not achieved quite the same
measure of fame-he has not yet broken
away from the sweat shop, but he is al
ready known as the Poet of the Chicago
Ghetto. He lives amid the squalor and
the poverty of that district, but he has
produced many poems, some of which
have been set to music by G. Mendels-
sohn, Jewish composer, formerly of
New York, and now of Greensborough,
Pa. His first volume has been published
only recently, but it has enjoyed a large
measure of popularity among the people
of his class; and arrangements are now
being made with Alexander HarkaVy, of
New York, associate editor of the Jewish
Encyclopedia, for the publication in Eng
lisn of some of the best that he has writ
ten.
Reingold was born in Russia, but, UNI
like Rosenfeld, his parents were wealthy.
They suffered financial reverses, how
ever, and he finally came to America to
seek his fortune. So far as music and
literature were concerned his education
had been neglected, and this makes his
recent success the more remarkable. The
first opera he ever heard was in Balti-
more nine years ago, and that appealed
to him so strongly that he was seized
with a desire to express his own emo
tions in song He began the following
day, and his first poem was one of re-
volt at having to put in a wearisome
day at the machine. Like Resented he
sang of toll, and suffering, and poverty,
of the life that SO many thousands are
compelled to lead and his songs appeal
ed to those who knew what that life
was Like Resented, also, his ambition
led him to improve his mind in. every
possible way. He knew nothing of the
art of poetry so he studied it. He had
the ideas, and he sought TO learn how
to express them, procuring for this pur-
pose all the Yiddish songs and poems
that he could The natural result of this
was, that his work improved; it began
to show the polish as well as the soul of
true poetry, and he Furthermore had the
advantage of working in a field in which
songs of the lowly, but such as he wrote
had his experience. Imagination alone