The Raymer enterprise., 1916-09-07

minded masters. These Hoosiers. these wild bards
and pranclng. long-legged lovers Of the moon are
often captured and broken and tanned to trade
and Industry by the more sordid ctizenry. They
are yoked TO the handle end OF the plow.
chained to the desk; by the hundreds and thou
sands they become clerks and statesmen and rail-
road presidents and noyelists and business men
Of all sorts.
james Whitcomb Riley was Hoosler who
happily escaped; he was never captured never
ensaved: the things hidden from the rest Of us.
or revealed only In flashes remembered but
vaguely from the days of our own happy Hooser-
dom, he continued to see steadily. he lived among
them famarly to the end and until the end
was their interpreter to us.
bud come here to your uncle a SPELL says
Riley In effect and I'll show you not only fairy,
but fairy who has for the moment chosen to be
Just as much OF Hoosier as the Raggedy Man.
or orphant Annie or Old Kingry. or the folks at
Grggsby Station
The critics and the learned doctors Of liter.
ature are already debating as TO whether Riley
had Imagination or only fancy. lit would be
terrible calamity TO some of them II they said
II was imagination and 1t was officially declared
later TO be merely fancy; that is the sort Of
mistake that damns critic and makes the sons
and grandsons Of critics meek hacked. apollo
getic young men, And doubtless the point Is ex-
ceedingly important. For II poet has imagi.
nation they say his work is significant And II
he has only fancy his work Is not significant.
The chief merit of Riley's dialect verse
which Is the most popular part of his production
ana the part with which the critics chiefly con.
eern themselves-is Its effectiveness as a medium
Tor character portrayal. Whimsical loyahle.
homely. racy. quaint, salty. pathetic. humorous.
tender are his dialect poems essentially he has
shown US life as a superior writer Of prose
sketches might do. adding the charm of his lyr,.
clsn.
But personally. We never like him so well as
when he Is writing sheer moonlight and music.
Probably no poet who ever wrote English-ccr.
tainly no American poet-got more luscious Ian.
guage than Riley. A sweetness that Is not so
sugnry that It clogs. having always a winy tang.
For Instance, from The Flying Islands of the
Night
In lost hours of lutte and song
When he was but prince-I but a mouth
FOR him to lift up slppingly and drain
10 his most ultimate Of stammering sobs
And maudlin wanderings of blinded BREATH. :.
There Is no better evidence of the genuine
ness OF hiley's sentiment particularly In the dia.
lect poems than the discretion with which he
tOuc1p9 IN
at all. One OF the most popular poems he ever
wrote was Old-Fashioned Roses and one word
too much one pressure the least bit too Insistent
would have made the thing as offensive as a
vaudeville ballad. The taste which told him to
be simple and the sincerity which begat the
taste save the verses from the reproach
His verses for children and about children
could only have been written by a man whose
love and understanding of children was ro.i -.
children are quick to detect and repudnte any.
thing OF the sort that Is pumped up for effect
and they contributed enormously to the general
feeling OF affection for him. The regard OF the
children wns in way a testimonial to his per.
ssting youfhfulness Of spirit; he was stilI their
playmate; perhaps It is an earnest Of immor.
tality. Il Immortality can be- Certainly love IN.
dures longer than anything else. and this man
win the cnlldiike sweetness In his soul sso
from u loved a. few men hsvs 49,