Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1910-02-01
Bailey Willard on Edwin Markham.

paper, which was largely MADE up OIL extracts
from magazine articles by Mr.. Millard, has
occasioned much pleasant comment that
we reproduce portions OF 1T IN the following
columns. Nearly all the Palisadians who have
met Poet Markham assured of his genius
and the grandeur of his nature, and we feel
that they will be interested in these ex-
tracts:
Markham is none of your sickly poets. He
is large-framed, bighanded, with handsome,
white leonine head, gray-bearded face and
eyes you could light a candle at. Those
blazing eyes of his, once seen, can never be
forgotten. In conversation they twinkle like
the twin stars of Falero. He loves to hear
and tell good story, his deep, hearty, con
tagious laugh ringing out at the end OF 1t IN
a way to make the glasses t1nkle on the side
board. Mrs Markham, the touch of whose
fine spirit is seen in nearly all his work, IS
not only his wife, but his constant COM
panion; and this sweet, rare couple are living
more nearly the ideal life than any other we'd
ded pair / know. Although Markham is So
years old, he has been married only eleven
years, and has lived in the East only nine
years. Both he and Mrs. Markham were
born the Pacific Coast, where they taught
Man with the Hoe burst upon the world and
commanded such immediate attention and
was followed by. so many golden offers from
publishers that the Markhams decided to take
up life on the Atlantic side of the con-
Markham is the most natural of men, and
lives the most natural life of any writer |
know. During the entire summer and often
from the first of May to the middle of Octo-
Der he eats, sleeps and writes out OF doors.
This he does on the broad veranda of his New
Jersey summer cottage overlooking Lake
Hopatcong. ! have him walking bare
footed in the dewy grass or working in the
garden. He loves the out-of- doors and would
be constantly in it if he could.
This man, who is considered by the best
critics to be our foremost living poet has a
fund of humor that is simply inexhaustble.
ton first and the serious side afterward. In
this you can never catch him mapping.
'+Once when we sleeping some
couches on the porch of his Hopatcong cot
tage belated foot-traveer Gathering
up the steps in the moonlight arous1ng US
out of our slumbers at two in the morning.
'Hullor shouted the stranger within few
feet of the poets head. Can you tell me the
way to Fairy SPRING. ~
rising in his couch, this isn't fairy-land
The traveller was taken aback, but insisted
that he be given some sort Of direction
q Well. said the poet, you'd better 60
down to that house across the road There's
man there who knows everything.
The stranger thanked him and went away,
and Markham lay back and went to sleep:
when Edwin Markham laughs, his black
eyes dance like boys This youthful poet
of fifty-six laughed when | asked him the
other day what he thought of the dictum OF
Maxim Gorky that villa life was 'insufferably
.Durs' he replied Bless you, no. 1t
could never be dull, unless one lacked agree
able neighbours but my neighbors are all agree
''Bareheaded in the breeze stood the poet
on his sunny veranda at Westerleigh Staten
Island his long white hair blowing upon his
brow, and his eyes twinkling. they always
twinkle when he talks about things that he
likes.
q Nearly all my life l have been a subur-
banite,' he went In California, ! lived
for years in Oakland, just across the bay
from San Francisco, and, coming to the
East. | remained but a short time in New
York, merely resting my wings while ! cast
my eye about for a home where life would
be life and not noise and bad smells At
last / found WesterleiQh Park, where there
IS no noise; and as for smells, why, just
smell them!
'.The breath Of lilacs 7oated up TO me from
the front yard, mingled with the strange, sweet
scents Of some unfamiliar Towering vine.
The glistening leaves Of the brches lifted
and futtered in the bright spring sunlight
robin piped from a maple, one Of a long
row Of trees that down the clean, quiet
street and blurred into the distance. 1t was
green and grateful perspective. and no
wonder that, with this before him day by day,
Edwin Markham has found the earth such
a pleasant planet. and could laugh and sing
such inspiring Songs, even though he has had
peep into the dark places, and has seen
such sights as went TO the making Of the
Man with the Hoe.