The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-04-22
WARE AND OTHERS.
New York Sun Prints Some Interest
ing Observations.

The New York Sun, evidently through
Franklin Matthews, in discussing some Of
the more conspicuous poems Of Eugene F.
Ware, thus refers to his present environs +:
The first duty that the visitor to Tope-
pelsa, Kan, must perform, to win the
hearts of his hosts, is 10 get acquainted
with Eugene F. Ware, the man President
Roosevelt has selected for pension com
missioner There are about twelve men
in Kansas whose presence the stranger be
gins to feel almost. before he gets inside
the state. One is Ware. of course. Every
body knows him and is proud of him.
Another fellow who is spread all over
the state and far beyond is VIII White
OF Emporia, the Whats-tfle- matter-With-
Kansas man; ana the slash5ng political zeal
Mail and Breeze, whose fables make
Aesop's ioOk-well, different. And then
wrote the novel about life in a country
something about the rights of the user
being paramount to those of the owner, IS
another man. John W. Breidenthal. bank
er,Populist, political dreamer ana pnIaloSs s-
old gray mare is another institution
and so the list might go on not omit
ting the new United States senator, Bur
ton, a typical Kansas political hustler, and
it might include orators, poets, cranks and
a lot of other folk who make up the most
active minded people in the United States,
always interesting free born citizens of
'Bleedin' Kansas There's mighty little
dead wood in Kansas.
And Topeka is not like other cities. It
is not a large place, but it is electrical A
walk along the beautiful wide main street,
with the capitol casting a slanting shadow
at it when the farmers are in town and
the fashion of the place-and there's a
good deal of it's out driving, is like con-
centrating all of Kansas into a small area.
It sets one up. And then, when night
comes, and the visitor is drawn down to
the Topeka club by one Of the Mulvane
family with Judge Dillon's son and Judge
Smith to add sparkle to the evening and
one or two of the newspaper boys of KAN
sas City come in, and some Of the clever
politicians of the state arr1ye--Why, II s
morning before the visitor knows il.
But of all the joys Of Topeka. the chief
is to get Gene Ware on from the crowd
in some friends house, and, after he has
warmed up to let him ramble on Ware
is what might be called a truly cultivated
'sOf course, he knows literature and that
part of it called poetry. They call him
the Kansas poet. .IrOnquiN.' He knows
Latin and Greek. He knows politics and
living at it. Moreover. he is tail and
handsome. He has a presence and man
rrer that make others keep still when he
has the floor or shows signs of wanting TO
talk and his wit is wholesome and bub-
bling. He is an intense patriot, and, next,
he is a Kansan
HE would call himself a mere versifier.
Some of his verses are mighty good and
sonne-are not so good. Few Of them are
what would be called bad. They ring true.
even if occasionally, as the writings of
The sNasherwoman's Song has brought
more fame to Ware than anything he has
written It's a good piece. but. his friends
Ike atb her things has done lust as we'll