The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-09-08

minded masters. These HOLSTERS. these Wild bards
and prancing. long-legged lovers of the moon, are
often captured and broken and tanned to trade
and industry by the more sordid citZenry They
are yohed TO the handle end of tho pillow.
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.
James Whltcomb Riley was Iooser who
happily escaped; he was never captured, never
enslaved; the things hidden from the rest OF us,
revealed only in flashes, remembered but
vaguely from the days of our own happy HOosier-
dom. he continued to see steadily he lived among
them Familiarity TO the end, and until the
was their Interpreter to us.
Bud come here to your uncle a spell says
Riley in effect and I'll show you not only a fairy
but fairy who has for the moment chosen to be
just as much of Hoosier the Raggcdy Man.
or Orphant Annie, or Old Kingry, the folks at
Griggsby Station
THE critics and the learned doctors of liter
allure are already debating to whether Riley
had imagination or only fancy. cit would be a
terrible calamity to some of them If they said
IL was imagination and it officially declared
later to be merely fancy that Is the sort of
mistake that damns critic ard makes the sons
and grandSons Of critics meek hacked apollo
getic young menu And doubtless the point is ex-
ceedingy important. For if II poet has imagi-
nation they say his work is significant And III
he has only fancy his work is not significant
The chief merit of Kileys dialect verse
which Is the most popular part Of his production,
and the part with which the critics chiefly con-
Germ themseves-is its effectiveness as n medium
for character portrayal. Whimsical lovable
homely. racy. quaint salty, pathetic humorous
tender are his dialect poems; essentially no has
shown us life as a superior writer of prose
sketches might do, adding the charm of his lyri-
ciSm.
"But. personally. never like him so we'll no
when he Is writing sheer moonlight and nusic
Probably no poet who ever wrote Enrlisb-cer.
tainly no American poet-got more luscous on
giage than Riley sweetness that is not So
sugary that it clogs, having always n winv tono
For instance, from The Flying Islands of the
Night ~
:. {. in lost hours OF lutte and song
when he was hut q prince hut month
For him to lift up slppngly and drain
TO his most ultimate of stammerinr sohs
And maudln wanderings of blinded breath
There is no better evidence of the ponu,no
ness Of Riley's sentiment. particularly in tho di
lect poems, than the discretion with which ba
touches the pathetic chord when he tou.bes -
ut all. one OF the most popular poems he evor
wrote was 'old-fhshioned Roses and one vort,
too much. one pressure the least bit foo insistrt
would have made the thing as ofrob,i,.o m
vaudeville ballad. The taste which told him 20
De simple ana the sincerity which berat the
taste save the verses from the reproocb
His verses for children and about Children
couiu oluy naVe peen written by man whose
love and understanding of children was ra,, o.,
children are quick TO detect and repudiote ony.
tning OF the sort that Is pumped up for effect
ana they contributed enormously to the yenoro,
feeling of affection for him. The regard 90 49,,
children was In way testimonial TO his nor.
sisting youthfulness of spirit he was stiII ,ha,r
playmate; perhaps IL Is an earnest NJ ion,o.
taIity' u Immortality can be. Certainly love ON.
cures longer than anything else and tbis mar
WIN the chlldike sweetness in his souI zoo.
from Us loved as few men have been"