The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-05-30
SUCCESSOR CT: Of EVANS
Stories Of Eugene Ware, Net.
Head Of Pension Bureau.

w 0SGS ASCS.
Head Of Pension Bureau.
BOTH A FIGHTER AND A WRIT.
some OF the Work That Gave prou.t-
nence 60 the Lawyer.Poet Of SIM.
sas-Hovv He Wrote His Cn
Verses on Dewey-The WaAl.ct.
woman's Song.
Eugene f. Ware Of Kansas, to he
United States commissioner Of per-
s~ions-such was the announcement Of
the appointment made by President
Roosevelt. Many who read it did not
know who the appointee was. says q
dispatch from Topeka to the st. Louis
Post Dispatch. Had the nom de plume
OF lronquill been used instead Of the
name it would have created more in
terest. for while the poet of the iron
pen has a volume Of verses to his cred
it which have gone through half a doz-
en- editions in England and as many in
this country he is the author of eight
lines which brought him into mere
prominence than all the rest Of the
more finished literary efforts.
On May 3. 1898. a Topeka lawyer
read of the wonderful victory of Amer
lean brains at Manila bay. He worked
awhile over briefs and cases, but his
thoughts We're of the. naval achieve.
ment. and something was on his mind.
1t was there all morning. during the
lunch hour and in the afternoon. He
was restless. He walked up street to
the Office of the afternoon
He wanted to write something. AS yet
it had not taken form. but he was in
the spirit Of inditing something. He
found the press of the afternoon paper
already whirring away. grinding out
the later news. He was too late for
that paper. The morning paper was
but a few steps away There he went
and walked mechanically to the city
editors desk and helped himself to a
bunch of copy paper and a pencil. He
dashed off a few lines and felt better. |
No one happened to be in the office, no
one noticed him go in or out. The eight |
lines lie wrote were unsigned. The city |
editor found them and guessed who |
had left them. Under them he wrote
"%Ironquill' and ran the two verses the
next morning at the top Of the editorial
page at the request of the managing
editor. Here are the verses:
Oh. Dewey was the morning
Upon the first of May,
Ant Dewey was the admiral
Down IN Manila bay.
And Dewey were the regents eyes,
Them" orbs of royal blue,
And Dewey feel discouraged?
Dew not think we Dew.
The president is said to be especially
partial to fighters and writer's. Gene
Ware is both. He is a veteran of the
civil war and a poet and rhymer Of
more than the ordinary run. Ware was
a harness maker. He followed that
calling in Kansas after the war. He
still says. despite the fact that he is q
lawyer and poet. that his real profess
sion is harness making and that he can
now make as good a set of coach or
plow harness as any man in the bust
ness. While Ware was making harness
in a small Kansas town a friend was
printing whatever came his way. He
started a, small news sheet of local
happenings to advertise his own bust
ness. He allowed Ware some space to
advertise his harnesses. The harness
maker tried his hand at rhyme when
he told the people of his names and
traces. He did so well that the printer
asked him to contribute a long verse.
Then Ware wrote his first poem. "Neu-
tralia." 1t ran through a dozen num-
bers of the little paper, and Ware and
his readers survived it. Since then
that was thirty years ago-he has writ
ten enough to fill as large a volume as
James Whitcomb Riley has written.
Yer wars kin riddle bone and flesh and
blow our brains and spill
Likelihood. but somepin' lives on. fresh as
Rhymes of lronquiA!
While Ware was making harness and
poetry he had a friend who was a JUS
tice of the peace and who knew little
about law. When he had Il cas- to try,
he took it under advisement and con-
suited Ware before making his de-
cision. Ware knew nothing about law,
but his advice was good. and the JUS
tice thought he had found a Portia.
Ware ent to the Indian country and
on Il ranch for q year or two.
While there he pored over Blackstone
in order to be able to help out his JUS
tice friend a little better when he got
back. He absorbed law so readily that
the first he knew he was admitted to
the bar without having attended a
law school or slept IN a law Office.
He is now a member Of one Of the
best known firms in the west. He has
been successful financially and other
wise and gave to Fort Scott, where he
first practiced law and at the same
time published a daily newspaper, q
free library which hears his name