The Washington times., 1902-01-26

obscure Smithville journalist to all that
| section.
A comparatively long time, however,
elapsed before any of the big dailies of
the country, or any of the magazines
recognized the value of the lines that
made up Just from Georgia." but one of
! them finally did-and thereupon the name
and fame of the writer started to spread
| Paper after paper then, when the worth
OF the STUFF" was discovered, so to speak,
! began to reproduce his poems, and con-
| tinued to do so with more and more lib
erality as the column kept appearing day
| by day, and in time thereby brought the
| genius of the poet into that wide fame
! which it now enjoys
Stanton, like James Whitcomb Riley
Stanton's bosom friends a poet whose
poetry, while ringing true to human ma
ture everywhere, is a breath from or bit
of the section whence it comes and there
is by reason of that fact marked re-
semblance and at the same time strik-
ing contrast between the productions of
the two men-one crowds into type what
are real bits of the Middle West, and the
other crowds into type what are real bits
OF the South, and their respective
productions resemble and contrast ex-
actly as their respective sections do-and
Stanton's worldwide fame, is of course,
based upon his colorful Songs Of the
Soil.' and it is as a poet that the world
knows him.
Stantca's Other Genius.
Yet great and rauarEabIa os e. HE
genius for song. he possesses, as matter
of fact, still more remarkable genius for
character delineation. and while the world
at large thinks of him only as a poet, in
his own South, he is thought of chiefly as
philosopher, an exquisite humorist, and
maker of wonderful character sketches.
This greatest and generally unknown
genius of his manifests itself. not in his
longer songs. but in the quips and coup
lets sprinkled through his column, but
as the manifestation is merely some Won
drously characteristic turn of word, it
is too subtly expressed for those who are
not entirely familiar with the South and
its people to catch. and for that reason
has not been and probably never will be
recognized by the world at large
The years that have passed since Grady
found him have wrought many changes
in Stantons surroundings. but the Stanton
Of today is almost exactly the Stanton OF
yore. Grady. of course, is dead-the SON
of Evan Howell now occupies the place
the Captain used to ill-and Joel Chand-
Ter Harris. Uncle Remus," has aban-
doned the sanctum and retired to his
West End cottage. and the old fun-mak-
ing quartette is consequently no more.
Same Sturdy Figure Today.
But Stanton still goes down to the
office each morning as he did OF yore, and
visits while in "Billville'' and comes
back and makes ready for work as he
did on the day he first came to town; and
today. as on that. fancies, as bright as
those first, came tumbling down his arm
from his head to the paper like they did
in that long gone time, and he views the
performance with the selfsame stern dis
approval that he views the original
one
And today he is the same sturdily-set-
up and powerful-faced man who walked
into Grady's office fifteen years or SO ago,
and by his physical appearance upset all
OF Grady's conceptions of what a poet
should be.