New Britain herald., 1916-07-25
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
Or, If Given Enough Rope Poetry of
 the Old School Will Hang Itself.
(New York Sun).

(New York Sun).
 Joseph Dean, a poor but young man living on Long Island, had literary ambitions. Against the wishes of his friends he wrote poetry which he sold in irregular lengths to the principal magazines. Once a week he graded his output by subjects and an agent of the Poetry Perennial took his verses on serious themes; the rest were disposed of in mixed Tots. Only once had the youth had to hold a public auction of his unsold poems And yet, in spite of a growing fame and a fair income, Joseph Dean was dissa tisfied.
 He believed with the arIor of a convert that the future of his art lay In the direction of free verse, or vers fibre as he preferred to calI% it.
 Jennie 'DOane, whom he wished to marry, secuted this theory. s
 At length she said that if her lover found a theme that could successfully be treated only in free verse she would admit that he was right and would give him her hand. The test of the matter was to consist in the acceptance of the bit of vers fibre by the Roetry Perennial, which custom
 
 poems of grim, sardonic humor.
 Joseph Deans faith in the future of free verse was so great. that he en- braced these conditions, including Jennie Doane, joyfully.
 Strolling down the street that very afternoon he noticed that thS Long Island railroad had painted gorgeous stripes around the pole which guard ed a.nea rby grade crossing He conversed with the gateman for a few minutes and then hastened back to his study, filled with entlfhsiastic purpose.
 There he wrote his first composition in vers fibre. To be absolutely fair he also wrote 8 poem on precisely the same subject in the old style, with rhymes, scansion and caesurae. Then he submitted both to the Poetry Perennial, which accepted the vers fibre without the slightest hesitation. Bearing the rejected poem, Joseph Dean went to Jennie Doane's house and told her that she had lost her bet. As soon as the next issue of the Poetry Perennial came out Jennie read the vers fibre, which ran as fol- lows:
 THE JEST ''Ha, han' cried the gateman at the
 NissequOgue avenue crossing of
 the Long Island Railroad in
 Roncapequa, L. l.,
 That was a good 'un that little bar
 Der DomenicO Salvaggioni got
 off this morning,
 Wasn't it, eh?
 What-ain't you heard about it? Well, Domenico has just set up his ra zor shop down the street a And he's looking for a barber pole. He come up here and said he thought
 he'd steal my gate pole Now that it was all striped over. I told him he'd better not; I needed it.
 Then
 He grins and says: oh, yes; I for That you offer close slaves too "FIa, hal" laughed the gateman at the
 Nissequogue avenue crossing of
 the Long Island Railroad in
 Doncapequa, T.. l., "I thought that was a pretty good
 'un."
 When Jennie had read this she came to her lover with tears in her eyes. She told him that now she saw her mistake; she realized that the subject was one which could have been dealt with adequately only in free verse. There could be no great CT tribute to it's worth than that. Ifs faith had been justified. So they be- came engaged and lived happily ever after.