Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-03-29
ANECDOTES OF ALDRICH.
This Poet Made One Fortune and a
Friend Left Him Another.


Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who died
MaEch 10 at his home in Boston, was
poet singularly blessed with the good
things of life. Early i'll his career he
spent three years in 81 counting house,
where he learned business methods.
Before he reached middle life he had
acquired Il beautiful home in Boston
and a country residence through his
own efforts, and then Il 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
all his work was artistic.
While working as II 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 Babe Bell" has
related that when Aldrich's uncle, who
objected to his young assistant vast
ing valuable time over rhymes"
learned that James 7. Fields had paid
the lad SO for poem he was dunn
founded and naively exclaimed, why
don't you send one to the laundering
fool every day."
In 1870. when he was nineteen and
was still working for his uncle. lie
brought ont his first vOlume-a thin
duodccimO-cntitle1 THE Bells-A Col
lection of Chimes" Like all young au
thOrS, Aldrich was proud of his first
book. and he himself has told how
when the first copy came from the
binders he dispatched it to the author
| of The AutocraS at the Breakfast
Table" as if DIR. Holmes had been i'm
patiently waiting for it.
In return" said MI Aldrich. 81 re-
Ceived the kindeSt letter ever written
| by Il celebrity 10 an obscurity. 1t
| virtually told me not to make any
| more verses unless I could make bet
| ter ones. 1t t2ld me this. but with
| such delicate frankness of phrase that
| it seemed to me as If the writer had
| laid his hand in tender rcprOof upon
| my shoulder. as an elder brother might
| have done"
| The advice thus kindly given and ap-
| preCiatively taken had its 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 BHbie RcH and
| Other Poems" was well received.
Mr.. AlGrich was brilliant i'll CONVEX
satiOn. Mark Twain once said:
| "AldriCh can't help being witty. He
| is fire opal set round with rose dia-
mOndS. When he is not speaking. you
know that his dainty fancies are twin
| king and giimmering within him.
! When he speaks the diamonds flash
| lie was always brilliant"
\ man not given to miscellaneous
friendships, he was not ashamed of
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 we'll and to care
! for fOudly. Mr.. Aldrich was always at
! the thcater 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 i'll
spired by the Sargent portrait of Mr..
Booth that hangs in the main reading
| York. 1t was, in fact. to Mr.. AldriCh's
Inspiration that the club founded by
| Booth owes its name.