Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-11-03
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Ia NEW YORKER


||A NEW YORKER
| By o. HENRY.
copyright. 1906, by the 8. 8. Mcclure Co..
~ ESIDES many other things
Raggles was a poet. He was
called tramp. but that was
| only an elliptical way OF say
Ing that he was a philosopher. an art.
lst. a traveller. naturalist and dis
coverer. But, most Of all, he was q
poet In all his life he never wrote q
line Of verse. He lived his poetry. His
Odyssey would have been limerick
had 1t been written. But, to linger
with the primary proposition, Raggles
was poet.
Raggles' speciality had he been driv.
en- to ink and paper would have been
sonnets to the cities. He studied cities
as women study their reflections in
mirrors. as children study the glue and
sawdust Of q dislocated doll, as the
men who write about wild animals
study the cages In the ZOO. A city to
Raggles was not merely pile Of bricks
and mortar peopled by certain NUM-
| ber Of inhabitants. 1t was thing with
a soul characteristic and distinct, an
| individual conglomeration Of life, with
Its own peculiar essence. flavor and
feeling Two thousand miles to the
north and south. east and west Rag
giles wandered In poetic fervor, taking
the cities to his breast. He footed II
on dusty roads or sped magnlficently
in freight cars, counting time rs Of no
account. And when he had found the
heart of a city and listened to its Sc
cret confession he strayed on. restless.
to another. Fickle Raggles! But per.
haps he had not met the civic corpora
ton that could engage and hold his
critical fancy.
Through the ancient poets We have
learned that the cities are feminine.
So they were to Poet Raggles. and his
mind carried concrete and clear con-
ception of the figure that symbolized
and typified each one that he had
wooed.
Chicago seemed to swoop down upon
him with a breezy suggestion Of Mrs.
Partington, plumes and patchouli. and
to disturb his rest with soaring and
beautiful song of future promise. But
|, Raggles would awake to sense Of
shivering cold and haunting impress
sion Of ideals lost In a depressing aura
Of potato salad and fish.
Thus Chicago affected him. Per-
haps there are vagueness and mac
curacy in the description, but that is
Raggles' fault. He should have record
ed his sensations in magazine poems.
Pittsburg impressed him as the play
Of "Othello" performed In the Russian
language in a railroad station by Dock
staders minstrels. A royal and gen.
erous lady this Pittsburg, though.
hOmely, hearty. with flushed face,
washing the dishes in q silk dress and
white kid slippers and bidding Rag
giles sit before the roaring fireplace and
drink champagne with his pigs feet
| and fried potatoes.
New Orleans had simply gazed down
upon him from balcony. He could
see her pensive, starry eyes and catch
the fiutter of her fan. and that was all.
Only once he came face to face with
her. 1t was at dawn, when she was
| flushing the red bricks Of the ban
quette with a pail Of water. She
laughed and hummed chansonnette
and filled Raggles' shoes with Ice cold
water. Allons!
Boston construed herself to the poetic
Raggles In an erratic and singular
way. 1t seemed to him that he had
drunk cold tea and that the city was
a white, cold cloth that had been bound
tightly around his brow to spur him
to some unknown but tremendous men,
tai effort And, after all. he came to
shovel snow for livelihood, and the
cloth, becoming wet, tightened It's knots
and could not be removed.
Indefinite and unintelligible ideas.
you will say, but your disapprobation
should he tempered with gratitude, for
these are poets fancies-and suppose
you had come upon them In verse!
One day Raggles came and laid siege
to the heart of the great city OF Man
haitian. She was the greatest of all,
and he wanted to learn her note in the
scale, to taste and appraise and classi-
fy and solve and label her and ar
range her with the other cities that
had given him up the secret Of their
individuality. And here we cease to
be Raggles' translator and become bis
shronicer.
Raggles landed from ferryb0at one
morning and walked into the core Of
the town with the blase air of cos
mopolite. He was dressed with care
TO play the role Of I'm unidentified
man." No country. race, class. clique.
union. party. clan or bowling asso-
citation could have claimed him. His
clothing. which had been donated to
him piecemeal by citizens Of different
height, but same number Of inches
around the heart. was not yet as un-
comfortable to his figure as those speci.
mems of raiment. self measured. that
are railroaded to you by transcOnti-
mental tailors with suit case. suspend
ers. silk handkerchief and Pearl studs
as Il bonus Without money. as Il
poet should be. but with the ardor Of
an astronomer discovering new staf
in the chorus Of the Milky way or a
man who has seen ink suddenly flow
from his fountain pen. Raggles wan.
iered into the great city.
Late i'm the afternoon he drew out OF
the roar and commotion with look
of dumb terror on his courtenance.
He was defeated, puzzled, discamfited,
frightened Other cities had been to
him as long primer to read, as country
maidens quickly to fathom, as send
price Of subscription with answer re-
buses to solve, as oyster cocktails to
swallow, but here was one as cold.
glittering. serene, impossible as four
carat diamond In a window to lover
outside lingering damplv In his pocket
his ribbon counter salary.
The greetings Of the other cities he
had known-their homespun kindli'
ness, their human gamut of rough
charity. friendly curses. garrulous Gu
riosity and easily estimated credulity
or Indifference. This city of Manhat
tan gave him no clew. 1t was walled
oooinat him ikn n river Of aiomant