Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-03-28
ANECDOTES or ALDRlcn.
This Poet Made One Fortune and a
: Friend Left Him Another, T.

z Friend Left Him Another.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich. who died
March 10 at his home in Boston, was a
poet singlilarly blessed with the good
things of life. Early III his career he
spent three years In a counting house,
where he learned business methods.
Before he reached middle life he had
acquired q beautiful home in Boston
and country residence through his
own efforts, and then a friend died and
left him 100000. Thus Mr.. Aldrich
was left free to write as he pleased
and what he pleased, not being de-
pendent upon his pen for his bread and
butter. The result was that practically
oil his work was artistic. 1as.
While working as clerk in his
uncle's counting house In his later
teens young ,Aldrich practiced poetry
on the SIDE Edmund Clarence Sted-
man, whose friendship with the poet
antedates the day Of 'Babie Bell" has
related that when Aldrich's uncle, who
objected to his young assistant vast
ing valuable time over rhymes"
learned that James T. Fields had paid
the lad SIS for a poem he was dunn
founded and naiveIy exclaimed, "Why
don't you send one to the laundering
fool every day?'' :.
In 1855, when he was nineteen and
was still working for his uncle, he
brought out his first volume-a thin
duodecimo-entitled 1.-THE Bells-A Col
lection of Chimes" Like all young au-
thors, Aldrieh was proud of his first
book, and he himself has told, how
when the first copy came from the
binders he dispatched 1t to the author
Of '"rhe Autocrat at the Breakfast
Table" as If DR.. Holmes had been Inn
patiently waiting for 1t. FL
'sIn return" said Mr.. Aldrich, IT re-
ceived the klndest letter ever written
by celebrity to an obscurity. 1t
virtually told me not to make any
more verses unless I could make bet
ter ones. It told me this, but with
such delicate frankness Of phrase that
1t seemed to me as IL the writer had
laid his hand In tender reproof upon
my shoulder. as an elder brother might
have DONE" E.
The advice thus kindly given and ap-
preciatively taken had it's due effect.
He proceeded, in fact. to show that he
could make better ones,' and he did.
In 1856, before he had reached his
majority, his ballad Of Babe Bell and
Other Poems" was well received.
~ Mr. A1drsfnh ~x,oc -I,,,iJl}or,% sx, no~ros
sation. Mark Twain once said i
Aldrich can't help being witty. He
10 q fire, opal set round with rose dia-
r1onds. When he Ii not speaking, you
know that his dainty fancies are twin
king and glimmering within him.
When he speaks the diamonds fash.
He was always brilliant .
a man not given to MISCELLANEOUS
friendships, he was not ashamed of
showing his affection for those he low
ed. He and Mr.. Howells, for instance,
always spoke OF each other as dear
dear Howells," dear Aldrich." Ed.
win Booth was another man whom Mr..
Aldrich came to know well and to care
for fondly. MIR. Aldrich was always at
the theater when Mr.. Booth played in
Boston, and IN the summers the actor
was often the poets guest at his coun-
try home in Lynn. One Of Mr.. Aid
rich's best known poems Is that in-
spired by the Sargent portrait Of Mr..
Booth that hangs in the main reading
room of the Players clubhouse in New
York. It was, in fact, to Mr.. Aldrich's
inspiration that the club founded by
Booth owes It's name. W