Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-12

EDGAR LEE MASTERS, author of the
u spoon River Anthology" has written
an ode in praise of William Marion Reedy,
of the st. Louis Mirror, which comes nearer
to real poetry than any one Of the sharp
etched Spoon River sketches which have
made him famous. So it should, for graft
tude is a splendid spur for Pegasus. Here
are some of the best lines:
He sits before you silent as Buddha
And then you say
This man is Rabelais
And while you wonder what his stock is,
English or Irish, you behold his eyes
As big and brown as those desirable crocRles
With which as boys we used to play
Just under the iris cooring,
Before which everything
Becomes as plain as day.
It's not 80 hard a thing to be wise
In the lore of books.
It's different thing to be all eyes
Like lighthouse which revolves and looks
over the land and out to sea;
And lighthouse is what he seems to me;
Sitting like Buddha spiritually cool,
Young the light of the is young,
And taking the even with the odd
As a matter of course, and the path he's trod
AS path that was good enough.
TIM MALFATTO stole the best servant
- girl we ever had. Her name was Luisa.
1t still is Luisa, for it was only her last
name she changed to Mafatto. All this was
half a dozen years ago, and we have long
since forgiven Jim We even gave him odd
jobs occasionally, and he always did them
well. He calls himself a plumber, but last
summer we discovered that he's much more
than that. 1t came about in this fashion: We
decided last August while the folks We're
away in the country to build an addition
to our small house, which was TO be a sur
prise TO them upon their return. No Ordi-
nary builder could be trusted with such Il
job--for several reasons. We had to know i'm
advance how much it was to cost, how to
finance it and just what day the job would
be finished. Jim told us to the penny and
the hour. So we told him to go ahead. "All
right, leave it to me; it's cinch" said he,
for Jim got his education school and street,
in this country, though he hasn't forgotten
his Italian. He called in to help him Tony,
the stonemason; Louie, whale of a
laborer ("that guy could pick your house up
and lay it down again." said Jim) and the
three of them did most of the work. Jim
started his day at a. m. and knocked off
at 10 p. m, until, for the sake of the slum-
bering neighbors we made him be reason
able. The neghbOrs, though got their fun
out Of 1t. 1t was interesting 10 hear Jim
giving his orders TO Louie in this fashion:
"Ascota, Luigi, ia il piacere di lasciare
quei mattoni sui muro orientale prima-and
then we're gona pull down the .dog-gone
scaffoldin's, get me%
Jim encountered unforeseen difficulties
every day and overcame them, kept books
with exact records of the least expenditure.
coaxed and bullied his helpers, fought with
supply men for discounts, finished his job
0ncludlng the inevitable extras) on the day
ppn oh rierbt
for his services. The neighbors have been
talking about italian efficiency ever since.
Jim's fame has gone abroad. Some day he'n
be a mighty big figure in the community, and
that's why we're recording here our boast
that we started him in the right direction.