The Benson signal., 1916-09-09

minded masters. These HoOsiers, these wild bards
and prancng, long-legged lovers Of the moon. are
often captured and broken and tanned to trade
and industry by the more sordid citzenry. They
are yoked to the handle end Of the pow,
chained to the desk by the hundreds and thou
sands they become clerks and statesmen and rail-
road presidents and novelists and business men
of all sorts.
Games Whitcomb Riley a Hoosier who
happily escaped; he never captured. never
enslaved; the things hidden from the rest OF u.s.
or revealed only in haSheS remembered but
vaguely from the days Of our own happy Hooser-
dom, he continued to see steadily; he lived among
them Familiarity to the end, and until the end
their interpreter to US.
bud come here to your uncle SPELL says
Riley in effect and I'll show you not only fairy,
but a fairy who has for the moment chosen to be
just as much of Hoosier the Raggedy Man.
Orphant Annie or Old Kingry, or the folks at
Griggsby Station
"The critics and the learned doctors of liter
ature already debating to whether Riley
had imagination or only fancy. cit would be
terrible calamity to of them If they said
1t was imagination and it officially declared
later to be merely fancy; that is the sort of
mistake that damns a critic and makes the sons
and grandsons of critics meek, hacked, apollo
getic young men) And doubtless the point is ex-
ceedingly important For if a poet has magi-
nation they say his work is significant. And if
he has only fancy his work is not significant.
"The chief merit of Rileys dialect verse
which is the most popular part of his production
and the part with which the critics chiefly con-
themselves-is it's effectiveness as medium
for character portrayal. Whimsical lovable,
homely, racy quaint, salty, pathetic, humorous,
tender are his dialect poems; essentially, he has
shown life superior writer of prose
sketches might do, adding the charm of his lyri-
ciSm.
Tl1fp 11xy
when he is writing sheer moonlight and music.
Probably poet who ever wrote English-ccr-
tainly American poet-got luscious Ian.
guage than Riley. sweetness that is not so
sugary that it cloys having always a why tang
For instance from The Flying Islands of the
Night
Z. in lost hours of lutte and song,
When he but a prince-I but mouth
For him to lift up sippingly and drain
To his most ultimate of stammering sobs
And maudlin wanderngs of blinded breath >
"There is better evidence Of the genuine
ness of Riey's sentiment, particularly in the dia-
lect poems, than the discretion with which he
touches the pathetic chord when he touches it
at all. oOne of the most popular poems he ever
wrote '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
tdSte save tHe VERSES IIoIH the reprOacn.
His for children and about children
could only have been written by man whose
love and understanding of children was real for
children are quick to detect and repudiate 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 was in way testimonial to his per-
sisting youthfulness of spirit; he was still their
playmate; perhaps it is earnest of immor-
taty If Immortality be. Certainly love en-.
dures longer than anything else, and this man
with the chdike sweetness in his soul goes
from us loved as few men have hAan-"