The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-09

''kith and kim" They knew "Jim," they
appreciated his big soul. and they looked
to his coming with great interest, and his
going with much regret
Whenever Jim wanted to take a drive
1t was invariably out to 'tOld Aunt
Mary's.' where the best in the larder
was always set before him, and where
both visitor and visited always felt more
refreshed on account of his appearance.
Any visitor to the home of "Old Aunt
Mary to-day will find, although the good
dame has long since been laid in the
quiet little churchyard near her home
all the atmosphere of pasture, wood
gray snag." woodpeckers, buzzards, and
all Just as Riley describes them in his
poem. stlll a part Of the drowsy. old
Hoosier farm.
OF course, time has made some changes
in Riley's land. 1t could not be other
wise, for Kokomo has grown to a town
of 5000, and autos are speeding I'D and
down the pike. At Kokomo they make
rubber tires and monster quantities of
plate glass, and there are even two sep
arate brass works. But the country is
that of Riley's poems. Miles and miles
of open. rolling country lands. with the
huge stacks of straw piled over a series
of shelter pens for stock, behind the
barns. Not far away Is Greenfield, which
was also place of much interest to the
poet, and near by is also Pickard, the
Too-hote' of the poems. And in an
other direction is Nashville, in the only
Indiana county without a railroad
The whole country round about seems
to impress the visitor exactly as it did
the poet but no one but Riley is able to
relate his Impressions with such distinct
charm. If you ever have the privilege of
visiting this section made famous by
Riley, it is with much regret that you
will be forced to leave it. Somehow you
feel as if you must linger there and read
Riley. You are sure to see some Little
Orphant Annie" lolling about, musing
And on all those farms there is still
''raggedy man who works for pa" as the
poet says. And there is not one thing
about the whole neighborhood but will
remind you of Riley and his many poetic
efforts located in the neighborhood.
The Nearest approach of Riley to any
other great poet of his character of writ
ing is to Burns, and his friends lovingly
style him THE American Burns" The
similarity is easily discernibIe. for they
both wrote of the fields, the woods and
the people of their own acquaintance II
went among the people, Riley was wont
to say. land learned their needs, their
sufferings, their joys, and 1 put them in
rhyme" This is all he claimed-what
could be more?
All. poet true. there are city boys by
the hundreds. who have traversed miles
of metropolitan pavement out to another
odd Aunt Marys." as full OF love and
faith in getting ''the jelly. the jam, and
the marmalade' at the end of the way as
ever you did.
Riley has reached the evening of his
life, and unless fortune should show him
particular favor. it is question whether
he is not fast approaching the bar of
which Tennyson has beautifully told Of
its crossing. His poems will live forever,
and wherever the heart beats and throbs
for the simple life. there Riley's poems
will be a classic by the fireside, and
none will make a stronger appeal than
his out to Old Aunt Mary's"