The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-19


From places where the wild waves
draw them down..
could SHOW no wreck than
this Broadway
II was this N~iagara-1ike thunder that
50 distressed Mrs. Boner and most
Nj. Bonoer also that they
longed for something like their old
nome among the hills of Carolina.
1hey sighed for the trees, the grass,
tne plrds, the katydids and the song of
the cricket on the hearth.
1t was through the practical sug-
Sestlon Of DR.. Benjamin, at that time
DoIef co-Worker on the editorial
staff of the Standard Dictionary. that
our poet built his home on Staten
island. He called it "Cricket Lodge"
and In his poem dedicated to DR.. Ben
Jamln he describes it as:
but a lodge indeed,
Two end-gables, one end freed
rom rigidity by sweep
OF a dormer-windowed deep
Roof tree-such where pigeons preen
And the shingles stained moss-green."
Here he hoped to pass
"life's declining years
Happier than the past had been"
When the Standard Dictionary was
completed, the publishers placed
Boner on the editorial staff Of their
publication, The Literary Digest. DR..
Benjamin says: The improved char
acter of that journal, due to Boner's
critical judgment and excellent taste,
soon became apparent and has since
maintained"
In 1888, Boner was elected to mem
bership in the Authors Club in New
FORK, a recognition Of him as a ma
Of letters and IAN honor, DR.. BenJa-
min says, well deserved and gladly
conferred"
Like too many high-strung men and
women OF genius, Boner was a man
of temper and of stubborn will. He
differed with the publishers Of the
Digest about a matter Of small import
ance and rather than yield, he resign
cd his position. Then it was that
the wolf sought his dwelling where
poverty had entered. That Boner
heard this sniff, sniff, shifting at his
door makes with the white plague
the pathos of his life. The
following poem appeared in the Cen
fury Magazine for January, 1901:
1.-The Wolff
The wolf came shifting at my door,
But the wolf had prOwled on my track
before,
And his sniff. sniff. sniff at my lodge
dOOr-Sill,
Only made me laugh at his deVlllsh
will.
4 stirred my fire and read my book,
And ioyed my soul at my i~ngle-nook,
His sniff and his snarl We're always
there,
But my heart was not the heart Of a
hare.
Il cursed the beast and drove him
But he came with the fall Of night
each day,
And his sniff, sniff, sniff the whole
night through
/ could hear between the winds ' t
blew.
And the time came when l laughed
no more,
But glanced with fear at my fraii
lodge door.
For now I knew hat the wolf at bay
Sooner or later would have his way.
The Fates were three and / was one,
my life a net was spun;
My soul grew faint in the deadly snare,
And the shrewd wolf knew my hearts
despair.
"A CfaSIl- ana my OoOI ne" opSh NioS,
NV strength was not as the beast at
my side.
That night on my h~earthstone colo
and bare
He licked his paw and made his lair"
Broken in health and weakened IN
spirit, he received the aid of his liter
ary friends to secure again his old po-
sition in the government printing
office. Needless to say, these men
gladly and lovingly served him. they
enlisted the influence of Senator De-
pew and Boner went back to Work
his former colleagues. They
warmly welcomed and tenderly consld-
cred him-for tenderness is found by
the sorrow laden, even in a govern
wont offce AS far as possible, his