Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-12-15

Ibflity of preserving American institu-
lions. The world is better for her
sixty years of activity. Her last vol
ume, 'Sonnets of Sorrow, was writ
4 ten after Mr.. Wilcox died. One of the
sonnets ends thus:
/ AS in Nightmare, we unheed-
ing hear
That which awake would fill us
with alright
The woes of earth fail doubly on
my ear
Nor am moved by its appalling
plight,
For all these things seem trivial
| beside
This monstrous fact One night
in May you died.
IONA Gales Art
| have left a discussion of IONA
Gales art to the last, for several
reasons. | believe she is likely to
become one of the worlds great poets
and dramatists if her life is spared;
she is only forty-seven-a has the
best part of her life ahead of her still
Another reason for giving her the
place of honor in paper before
woman's club is because in her writ
ing you no longer feel that it is iona
Gale that is writing but woman, hui
manity In 1915 she said about her
work, This sense, not of me working,
but of the people working, / believe
to be the lamp to light all work, SEN
timentality and propaganda, so evil
dent in Ella Wheeler Wilcox, are
gone in iona Gale. Her short stories
remind you of o. Henry, but there
is deeper appeal in them. Her
Friendship Village stories anticipat-
ed Main Street, and put it to shame
Zona Gale is not only the most widely
read of our writers of snort fiction,
but she has also obtained the highest
price ever paid in New York for her
short stories. The Nation says, no
other American dramatist has sue
ceeded in so fully and richly trans
forming to the stage the exact moral
atmosphere of a class, section, and
a period as has Miss Gale in Lulu
Bett". There is finish, an individu-
atty, about her work that reminds you
of a lapidary.'
Like Edna Ferber, she worked on
the Milwaukee Journal and is said to
have proved herself one of the most
rapid writer's and the best newspaper
interviewers in the country. From the
Journal she went to the New York
World, but now makes her home with
her parents in Portage. AS you all
know, her Lulu Bett,' dramatized, re-
ceived first prize as the pest Amerf-
can play of 1920. Very shortly there
is to be published volume of poetry
by iona Gale which / believe will be
as kindly received as her prose has
been. | should like to read few of
her poems that you judge for your
self. (Mr. Mathie then read Women
published in 1913, and To-day" one
of Zona Gales more recent poems.)
1t would be an interesting study to
compare the writings Of these two
women, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and
iona Gale, one seconG class the
other a first class poet, to see how
differently they approach the same
theme, the former writes ror the gen.
eral public, the latter for the more
discriminating. The former, out of a
personal sense of duty, the latter as
the voice of woman, of the race strug-
Cling upward toward God.
May | be pardoned If / bring this
long paper to a'close by reading two
poems, one after the manner of Ella
Wheeler Wilcox and the other after
the manner of Zona Gale, both treat
ing the same theme. | have tried to
initiate the style Of both poets faith
fully, but it is evident that it is cas-
Ter to follow an ordinary poet than a
great one.
| have entitled the first poem, THE
Strength Divine" theme that grew
upon Ella Wheeler Wilcox with adj
vancing years. You know at once
what the lesson of the poem is to be-
The Strength Divine
When the world has tossed you over
And success has slipped your grasp;
When your health has turned a rover
And your heartsick soul does gasp;
When your friends look at you coldly
And your loved ones leave your side,
You take up your burdens boldly
And you fight in stubborn pride
But the burden seems to pin you
Down and drive you to despair
And you find no strength within you
Till you go to God in prayer.
Asking Him for help in trouble.
And then to your great surprise
He gives you ten times double
OF the faith that makes you wise.