The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-12-20

tits a wee bit of verse; he said,
as he pulled a crumpled paper from the
pocket Of his coat. IT wrote it after
milking time last night and walked all
the way from Somers today to bring it
in to you. Maybe you'd like to use
it. Tt ism It Miltonic--I can't write
them like that any more-but it IS pat
riotic and musical and that IS what peo-
pie always want in wartime poetry. -
His clothes were hopelessly shabby
and his shoes were covered with mud
And yet there was wisdom in his
words and a something in his speech
that told Enthusiastically Of better days
days among musty books with vellum
bindings - days among black-robed
students who pondered the fourth di-
mension and talked sagely of Homer,
Vergil, and Euclid-days whose nights
meant moments of happiness and not
hours of loneliness in the Darkroom of
a farm house far from the haunts of a
better and a brighter youth.
Impressed with the man I read his
poem carefully. Here, too, was intel
lect. Lines were rhythmic, cleverly
phrased, and polished with a subtle
skill found only in an artist. The
thought was old but newly put and in a
style at once simple and alluring.
Persuaded that the stranger was
neither tramp nor fool I ventured hope
fully: IT like your poem. 1t has a
ring to it that's martial and quite a
bit above the average rhyme submitted
for our use. The words are we'll
chosen and different, you know, as if
someone who understood had thought
them out before he wrote word
I've a bunch some way that you're a
college man. Am I right?"
eyes, you are'', he answered with
little flush. "It's a long, long, way
back there but I went to Cambridge
once in the good old days before the
war took all the boys to the front.
graduated in 1897 and since that time
well I've seen little more of life
than one would think to look at me
Farmland out in Somers.'
A Visitor from Vagabondia.
"I'm a sort of a vagabond',' he
continued, a strolling scholar or
something like that. -Four years ago
was head-master of the Birmingham
grammar school and a daily contributor
to Arthur Netting's Graphic. And
now?-well, I IN working outdoors in,
zero weather to get little something
to eat and bed to sleep in when the
days work is done.
"It's all right though. I'm not
complaining. m glad to be alive
when so many men are dying and dying
like heroes I might have been one of
them if things hadn t gone as they did. !"
What do you mean?O-I asked
when I saw he was willing to talk.
How do you graduate of Cambridge
University and former head-master
of the Birmingham Grammar school
happen to be working as farmland
somewhere in Wisconsin,"
"Trouble'', he said, "trouble. I
had wife and four Riddles over there.
I was head-master of the school and
doing splendidly Then one day she
took sick and died almost before we
knew that she was aili1 at ALL |
couldn't get over it some way had
nervous breakdown and had to give
up my work. The doctors said I
needed an ocean voyage-so set out
for America and here / am.
cit hasn't been very nice. People
misunderstood me and think me foolish
when I say things in a proper way. I
can't use Yankee slang and they laugh
at my Cambridge speech ant rather
classic words. I'm used to it now but
at first it hurt Then, too, / was al
ways the master over there and /
can't accustom myself to taking com
mands from most any one I meet. /"
"It was different back home.
Everyone knew his or her place and
kept it beautifully, There was re-
straint- conservatism - culture. There
was ceremony, ordained to separate
wise men from fools and I liked it.
"Of course there were other things
that weren't exactly pleasant. The
class system was rather marked and
made some people very wretched. No
bles are rather arrogant at times and
even Commoners forget that they have
risen from the people. Then, too, there
was something that you do not have
up here-poverty. In the larger cities
it was awful and since the war; has
come they say it's even worse.
ct worry dreadfully about the
children / send them all / can but I
sometimes think it can't be quite
enough. There were four then but
there are only three now. Ny little
girl was killed in Zeppelin raid. That Is
the reason I hate the Germans and plead
for Freedom for all forever'''
Learning to FORGE