The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-28

And life to our kind is worth while
| We are here for the good OF creation:
,.y were women. not clothes signs or birds;
| were working for human salvation.
Oh, yes. we have heard that you pity
such badly gowned creatures as 1.
| I'm dressed for the plains and the sky!
| Times
| First Aid to Poets.
| To bring the poets and the lovers of
poetry together, to stimulate the public
appreciation of that neglected art,
these and other things make I'D the
purposes of the Poetry Society of
America. which, suggested nearly a
year ago at a salon held in the apart
ment of Isaac L. Rice, at the Ansonia,
has been gradually and quietly-al-
most stealthily, in fact-organizing
and taking form ever since.
/ with Oscar Wilde, 1 say the best
government for artists is no govern
ment at ALL George Sylvester Viereck
explained. Mr.. Viereck is associate edi-
tor of Current Literature. but on the
side he is secretary pro tenn. of the
Poetry society-pro tenn. because he
intends to resign before long, lacking,
ne confesses, "the secretarial mind
| According to Mr.. Viereck, there will
De an inner circle of poets, a rather
more intimate grouping of the crafts
men themselves, and then an outer
inevitable that the chief activity will
arise from the inner group, but the
whole plan is so perfectly flexible that
everybody can do pretty much as he or
she wants.
/ Mr. Viereck is rather afraid that
some will insist on having gatherings
for the reading of poetry aloud. Now
poems bore him, he confesses. and long
ones would be terrible. Still, it has
lbeen proposed that the poems be read
anonymously, that they might have
the more impartial criticism, and there
has been one suggestion that they try
the reading of verse in darkened
lrooms. This it would seem, has been
tried abroad. and is said to be lots of
fun.
Another plan for activity on the part
of the organization is the institution
of committee to pass on poems sub
mitted to the society. either by its
members or by the uninitiated. Those
really worth while. it is suggested,
shall be offered to certain newspapers
for free publication. In this way, ac-
lcording to Edward J. Wheeler, the
chairman pro tenn, the society hopes
to find an immediate audience for poets
who have something vital to say, and
who do not care to wait from six
months to six years to see it published
in a magazine. The society would
worth to become known, to be heard
and to enlarge the circle of apprecia-
tive readers of poetry and bring it
perhaps, a little closer to the active life
of the present and its themes"
Suppose that a maid servant in q
West Newton, Mass, household should
write an"
lode to the Nightingale?" suggested
Mr.. Viereck. 'fWe1l, probably, we'd
find way to have her become a mem
Der of the society. But we don't want
cranks, we don't want doggerel, an6
we don't want too much organization
Groups of poets in Indiana and Ten
nessee have written asking eagerly fol
, permission to establish branches, but
we say that the society is national, anC
, that wherever a few of the member:
f gather for intellectual and artistic
communion, that is the Poetry Society
of America in meeting assembled, ant
such a gathering would be an aspect
of it's activity. New York Times.
I Strike of the Ermine.
2 A new chapter appears about to be
added to the chronicle of the influence
of animals upon human history. 1t is
, a long chronicle, for it may be said tc
= have begun in the Garden of Eden
whence it's recognition by mankind II
history, sacred and profane, can be
! traced in innumerable legends of an
tiquity and the middle ages Perhaps
2 the best known animals that have de.
cided the course of history are the Ro
c man geese which awakened the sleep
: ing defenders of the capitol in tht
} drowsy hours Of the night. Their cacklt
l was a voice whose echo was ultimately
carried by the Roman legions to tn;
7 ends of the world.
1t was pet dog that preserved tho
l life of William the Silent to the Low
e Il In he
struggle for liberty, when their meet
of him was greatest. On the othel
hand, it was a mole whose hill trippet
the horse that threw William III am
+ broke his collar-bone with fatal effec
at a critical moment in the history D
Europe The influence of the beavel
: upon the history this country in 1t!
:. early days is too well known to neet
= pointing out. New York at least pay
just tribute to it's service by charging
its image on it's municipal coat-of
arms.
And now the ermine seems to hav'
: decided to add an u1tra-modern chap
e ter to this phase of history The sym
@ boil among furs of royalty and rank l
= threatens to upset part of the impress
9 sive ceremonial of King Georges coro
e nation by refusing to be trapped in tn
Ii Canadian wilderness. It declines t.
n play its traditional and exalted part
= it has gone on strike. An appeal to IT
= loyalty to the crown VIII De vain, anu
= of course, its Siberian brother canno
: be expected to have heard as yet Of tn
= | Anglo Russian entente. At any rate
:. its first duty is toward its own thron
n and court.
This abdication by the Canadian
d ermine of an honor that involves
q duty affects also the British bench
. peerage.-and officialdom. Will England
q SO tenacious of traditions, substitute
# the appearance for the substance. an
d content itself with 'ermelette" o
Is some such near-fur that will look a
e well and wear perhaps even better
This strike of the ernline has so ultra
a modern a significance that We wonde
W what will happen when its act of ina
II | oOrnaS fo tn