The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-02-25


should not be encouraged while SC
Isimple an antidote for them Is at hand
II .---==--------==--==--====---=r----==.s--
WHO WROTE THE POEMf
Did Ella wheele. Wilcox write the
well-known verses beginning Laugh
and the world laughs with YOU" or die
4 Colonel John a. Joyce, of Louisville
KY? That is the question. 1t is {
/ fact that the verses are included II
Mrs. WilcoX's published works ant
probably most people have credited
them to her without question. From
| a recent issue of the San francisco
News Letter, however, 1t appears thai
her claim to them has long. been dis
puted. This paper prints letter from
Colonel Joyce in which the colonel
states that he wrote the poem in m
uary. 1863 c'while Ella doesn't claim
to have written 1t until lSs3"), that 1t
was published in the Louisville Journal
shortly after, and that he was often
heard to reclte 1t in 1872. or earlier.
The News Letter also prints state
of Missouri, substituting Joyce, and
declares that II mas !. ~.
newspaper of the sixties which con-
ltains the lines. ut rises" says the
News Letter "gaunt and yellow. to ac-
cuse in undying ink the plagiarism of
the Examiner slush writer"
The authorship of the Joyce Wilcox
poem is Of no special Importance. Only
one of them could have written 1t, and
the other in claiming 1t Is knowingly
eviating from the strict line of truth.
But why should there be any "long
controversy" about it? If Joyces YER
sion appeared in the public prints
twenty years before the lady's, why
did he not at once produce copy OF
a newspaper, or a photograph and af-
fidavit made from the files, and settle
the matter for all time?
(" This business OF stealing poetry is
very common Sometimes it is delib-
crate and barefaced, on the part Of
some one, as would appear to be the
case here. Sometimes 1t Is inadvertent.
or at least the lapse Of time has thrown
such reasonable doubt about the ques-
ton of authorship as to lend color TO
the statements of spurious claimants
or of their overzealous friends. Not
long ago the columns of The Times
Dispatch hummed with a discussion as
to who wrote "All Quiet Along the
Potomac Tonight" AT least three
authors were adduced and the claims
of each We're urged by many correspon-
dents with varying strength and
plausibility. Probably this question
will never be settled to the satisfac-
ton of everybody. Ordinarily there is
less room for reasonable doubt. When
Rider Haggard printed Ben Kings IF
1 Should Die Tonight" in Jess" APP
parently as his own, nobody had any
trouble in recognizing it as Kings. not
Haggard's. In quite the other direction
is the instance of the excellent verses
beginning Lay the jest about the jul ep
in the camphor balls at Iast." Few
poems have had their authorship
plunged into obscurity so promptly and
unfairly as this one, written and pub
lished within the last three or four
months. 1t is now being reprinted all
over the country anonymously, or
credited to various newspapers with
which it did not originate. 1t was
read at a Southern Society dinner in
New York the other night, according
to the reports, as an original poem by
one of the diners, and was published in
local contemporary without credit a
few days ago. This poem was written
by Mr.. Wilbur D. Nesbit, one of the old
est and ablest of the poets of the craft,
and first published in the journals TO
which he contributes Column"
The controversy as TO who wrote
Shakespeare's plays will Goubtless rage
as long as the world lasts and holds
artistic thinkers who have not got a
great deal TO do; but there is never
the fantest reason for doubts about
authorship as long as modern news
paper files exist to demonstrate the
facts.
1 .