The sun., 1916-10-14
MISS
ABOUT THE HOOSIER POET

THE large. gentlemanly. pearl gray
ass" he cried. He dreamed that fan
tasy on some dark. moonless night. and
he has told II So many times that he has
mad. himself believe IL. Why q man
couldn't paint with kid gloves on.
81 remember asking for illumination
about the pearl gray variety Of ass.
Don't know much about asses, do
YOU" he replied. l admitted that l
Well he said. n pearl gray ass Is
one that has been an ass n long. long
time
"lIe had a multitude OF such express
sions. ! recollect his saying a man
had hard boiled eyes and describing a
certain woman's mouth as like "A stab
IN the lark"
Mr.. Riley considered Mrs. Browning's
mind tho most exquisite tina; had ex-
pressed itself In poetry since Shake
spCdre, and one night he was reading
aloud from her poems to a group Of In
Inmates. They had been discussing how
much an artist must nave lived to ex-
press himself. First he read Blanca
Among the ~Nightingales," and then
THE Runaway Slave at Pilgrims
Point
You see" he said. Having plumbed
the d"ers IN one great emotional expe-
rience, that little bit II bedridden Eng
fish woman was equally capable OF COM
pretending the hot jealousy Of a passion
-. Italian girl raving FOR her falthless
lover, and the wild agony OF a black
mother torn from her child. Yet she had
never even seen "A black woman. Below
a certain depth all suffering Is sympa-
thetic."
Miss Laughlin tells about, Riley's en-
thuslasm for Stevenson.
ut was beautiful" she says. 81 can
remember his asking me with great visit
fulness II l thought Stevenson had ever
seen anything he Otiley) had written"
h also recalls his ardent champion
ship OF Longfellow, and his bitterness
against those who spoke contemptuously
Of Longfellow's flowing rhyme and
rhythm.
Nobody knows any better than ! do"
! Mr.. Riley aid to her. ''how hard It IL to
write such measures as The Pslam OF
LIFE"
Miss Laughlin pictures the poet as she
remembers him in many other moods
, when he wanted to play pretend" and
TRANSPORTED the whole assembly into
personages OF English society. And she
tells how once she asked him why he
didn't write more sonnets,
Because" he answered dryly, I
only people who read sonNetS expect
presentation copies"
To illustrate how Riley disl!ked being
Shown of" to strangers. she relates
what happened when a plot to introduce
a strange was staged"
THE gentleman on pilgrimage was In
troduced and then every one worked
nightly to start talk that might lure Mr..
Riley from his silence, Blu he was like
the Tar BABY. he KEEP on sayin' nothin'.'
II canno, remember how or why we
talked OF Hamlet. But ] know we were
: getting rather desperate.
I'D like some one said, to see
Hamlet" played by n fair haired Dane.
I'm tired OF brunette melancholy
"'Or by "A fat man another ~interposed.
Hamlet himself says he is fat and scant
of breath
and so on. 1t was all very forced
and foolish hut the Tar Baby had us
almost Historically self-conscious. FL
nally some one was emboldened to aban-
don strategy and lead n direct attack.
GLOW would you like to see Hamlet
played, Mr.. Riley?' he asked.
"Mr. Riley appeared to consider.
"Id like to see It played by a picked
nine he replied eravely.'