The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-12-05

birth month of the beloved Hoosier
poet, James Whitcomb Riley, to tell
the story of how he happened to
write Little Orphant Annie,'' his
famous poem of child life.
Little Orphant Annie" was a real
person. Her right name was Mary
Alice Smith, and she was little or
phan girl who lived with the Rileys
at Greenfield, Ind, when the poet was
a boy. She grew up and disappeared
from Riley's ken, and it was not I'M
til shortly before his death that Riley
discovered that she was living at Phi
ladelphia, Ind. He died without
seeing her.
"Orphant Anne" who now is Mrs.
John w. Gray, is alive and well today,
although over 20 years of age. De-
scribing her as he remembered her
when she came to the Riley home as
a child, Riley said:
'She was 10 or IL years old, glee-
full and surprising, slender wisp of
a girl was IL or IA, and worthless
and freckled as restaurant cracker.
She was our lady of the broom-she
liked to work.
"She drifted to us from the town
of Tailholt, or somewhere over there
in a country settlement on Little
Swan creek. 1t was cold day late
in autumn / see her now, little,
blue-lipped, blue-eyed waif leaping to
the ground from a muddy wagon
wheel. / remember how the children
gathered round her in her coy chair
by the blazing fire, and how mother
united her little summer hat. | re-
member its trimmings and the dis
NAL, little green veil she wore. She
had thin, mysterious voice, and a
prankish mystery of manner. We
called her Alice Smith. The little
gypsy did not like it; she insisted on
her full name. She lived with US that
winter and the next spring"
At last an inquiry in daily paper
for Mary Alice Smith was answered
by her daughter. She lived on q
little four-acre farm near Philadelphia
Ind.
81 did not know said Mrs. Gray
shat the poet had printed poem
about me. Many years my grand
children had listened to the poem
often their mother had read it to then
by our cabin fire, but did not know
that / was 'Orphant ANNIE the Alice
Smith that worked in the Riley home
/ used to see the poet pass my dool
on his way to court his sweetheart
down here in the country, but he did
MT know me-"
Although she lives in a log house
her existence is not dismal, naples.
one. She still has the merry twin
kle in her laughter. She would have
all her visitors know that her "coun
/ try seat" is just beyond the village
and that she is careless of Fortune
smile or frown. She wishes to pas
the rest of her days in private life
She still has fancies and prankisl
ways.
"Orphnt Annie was born Sept. rs
1 1850, on farm near Liberty, Ind
Her parents "quarreled," as she ex
pressed it, when she was A years old
and then she went to live with he
grandmother, who soon moved t.
Reedville on the old Brookville road
the village Riley celebrates in hi
Little Town o. Tailholt." There sh
/ learned to read in log school house
No style about Tailholt, just grave
paths for sidewalks, said she, guotins
the poet:
"You kin talk about yer 'theaters
and all you've got to see,
But the little Town o Talbot WI
show enough fer me-
SLo l;,,oI 4Loro 4;n ,ho ss,,,oa4 =
sweep the kitchen" and tell storie
in the Riley home. After that sh
worked in a tavern on the old Planl
road, west of the Wood bridge on Su
gar creek" She married at IS.
"There were four Riley children,
said she, "three brothers and on
sister. | made 'em walk the chalk
there was no wigging; if thing hal
1 to be done, saw it was done. Some
times told mysteries by the big opeI
! fire, but mostly / told 'em in tn
! kitchen to keep the children there
/ didn't like to work alone. At nigh
II put the children to bed upstairs an
| then came downstairs to Sleep"
"And what can you say of the Rile.
boy?" asked a friend.
Riley pretended to make fun of m,
| tales, but he hung around all tn
time while / told 'em. He was lazy
Him an work fell out when he wa
born. He was a harum- scarum lad
could never hear any good of him
He had darling mother, but he did
MT help her much. He read stor.
books and made pictures. He wa
the biggest torment l ever knew
but l was a match for him."
About twilight, echoes of a nurser.
rhyme began to jingle through tn,
kitchen, Hink, Mink or something Xix,
it:
The old witch winksh,
The fat begins to fry.
Then "Orphant Annie" was at he
best.
Then the little sorceress began to tel
her witch tales.
81 did not learn them from books,
she explained; "they there in the air
Prairie schooners peddled 'em on the
Plank road. Every little smoky fire
side had a story of its own. They
were the charm of our old times
Everybody told tales; told 'em ano
when needed more, / made up new
ones to suit my fancy"
The region from which Compliant
Annie" came was, for the poet, 3
land of fable, the most romantic sec
ton of his native country. Zone day