The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-22
GAvE HIS [FE
FOR his VERSES
TragicaI Life of Ambitious
Youth in Civ.
WOMAN IN THE CASE
Journal of His Suffering Pub
IiShed at His Death.

New York, Feb. 1.-THE New York
World says:
Stirling-By suicide in the Hudson river.
poet and man of genius. in the 22nd year
of his age, only son of Richard 7. and
Grace Sterling, deceased, of Chicago.
This death notice OF Arthur Stirling is
IN its tragic way the adver tisement Of
the most mysterious literary Offering Of
the year-'the Journal Of Arthur StirI-
ing" Just published by d. Appleton * Co,
New York
1t is given to the world in q romantic
setting. rarely equalled. 1t comprehends
The tragedy Of an ambition which Is said
TO have found its sequel in the self-de-
struction Of the author. 1t represents the
black despair of youth-Stirling himself
says he is nothing more than a boy-in
the defeat OF an ideal. chung to through
the most sickening odds. II echoes a be-
lief in his own genius little less than sub
lime. But the cry from the battlefield
OF Grief street. where high hope and
lofty purpose afe pitted against the in
sincerities and commercialisms of literary
dictators. viii reach more than the SEN
sation-lovers.
Stirling. who according to his journal
lived and died for the drama in blank
verse that al publishers rejected, first
came into notice when an account OF his
suicide was published last June.
The note OF his death was inserted in
the New York morning papers by a ste
nographer named Marvin, who claims TO
have obeyed the request of the poet, con
veyed in letter which stated that Stirl-
ing was about 10 take his life.
Strings body was never found. nor
has any one come forward to vouch for
the circumstances of his curiously NOR
bid career.
On June 2, the day after Strings sup
posed death this friend. who edited mis-
journal and signs himself IS" announces
that he received q package by mail in
closing the drama The Captive. and
the manuscript Of the journal. together
with a letter from Stirling. The letter
runs in part:
when you read this letter I shall be
dead. Il is simply that I was born TO be
an artist. and that as anything else
cannot live. l have told the whole story
of it in this book-I have kept myself
alive for months. sick and weeping with
agony III order that I might tear it out
OF my heart and get it written. 1t has .
been my last prayer that the struggle I
nv life has been may somehow not be |
useless
I am writing this on Thursday night.
and l am almost dead. I mean To get I
some money tomorrow. and then to buy
a ticket for as far up the Hudson as ] can
60.
In the evening 7 mean to find a steep /
bank, and. with a heavy dumb-bell I have /
bought and a strong rope. 1 think l can
find the place have been seeking
Remember my last cry-remember the !
young artist, There is no other fight so /
worth fighting-take it upon you-shout it
day and night at them-what things they /
do with their young artists.
God bless you. dear friend. Yours.
ARTHUR"
s. who says that he and his wife
were the only persons whom Stirling call
ed his friends thus describes him:
'Arthus Stirling was in appearance a .
tall. dark haired boyle was really only
a boy-with a singularly beautiful face.
and a strange. wistful expression of the (
eyes that I think VIII haunt me a. long
"a I live. I made him. somewhat ex-
ternally and feebly. I fear. one Of the
characters il a recently published novel.
That he was a lonely spirit viii be plain
enough from his writings; he lived among
the poverty-haunted thousands Of this
city. without so he once told me- ever
speaking to a living soul for a week. He
taught himself TO read five languages.
and at the time when 1 saw him last.
-
any man OF letters that have ever met.
In the PREDATORY note 10 the reader this
remarkable youth foreshadows his SUI
ferings. lie says:
Il do not know If The Valley Of the
Shadaw' means To YOU what il means
TO me: I Go not know If it means anything
al ali TO you. But I have sought long
and far for these words. To utter an all
but unutterable thought
When YOU walk in the forest You do
not count the lives that you tread into
nothingness. When you rejoice with the
springtime YOU do not hear the cries Of
the young things that are choked and
beaten down and dying. When YOU watch
the Wild thing in your snare YOU do not
know the meaning of the torn limbs. and
the throhbing heart and the awful silence
OF the creature trapped. When YOU 90
where the poor live. and see thin faces
and hungry eyes and c-ouching limbs.
you do not think OF these things, either.
But l. reader-I dwell in the Valley
OF the shadow.
April 6. 1871, is the date Stirling gives
the first entry in his journal Il is the
DAY on which he began his book. The
Captive" he writes.
Yesterday I was cable-car conductor.
and today I am poet,
7 know Of some immortal poems that
were written by a druggist clerk. and
some by q SAUCER. Of liquid barrels. but
none By a cable-car conductor II sounds
interesting; tell US about it" says the
reader. I shall but not today.
To-day I begin the book.
A cable-car conductor and a poet, I
think that it VIII be a story worth tell
ing
y have tried many and various occu-
patons but have not found one so fav-
cradle TO the study Of poetry as my
last"
As waiter dishwasher in 4 restaur-
ant and as snow-shoveIler this self-con-
vfcted genius toiled FOR the money which
should win him leisure for the book
Or Apr Is he wrote:
Il am trying 70 be n artist. but have
never been able 10 study style. BE-
neve that the style OF this great writer
came from what he had to say You