The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1956-05-04
just Among Ourselves


Have you noticed in your travels,--n
your travels are sometimes by railroad,-the
legend that spreads itself diagonaly across the
boxcars of the Lackawanna line? If so you may
have wondered about its meaning. 1t reads, The
Route of the Phoebe Snow"
Phoebe Snow. We pondered that en-
route. And when iOurneyng was done, and
we're again in reach Of books, we PACED through
the great volumes of quotations: Bartlett Ben
ham Hoyt, the Oxford Not sign OF Phoebe
Snow, or indeed of any Phoebe. We found Phoe-
bus of course and were reminded that he gins
arise But that was nothing to the purpose
Memory, insisted on recalling that old favor
lie Of the bygone school entertainment "The
Green Mountain Justice" poem by the Reverend
Henry Reeves You know it surely; it begins
The snow is deep, the Justice said, there's mighty
mischief overhead" There was Phoebe in that
poem But alas, she was not Phoebe Snow but
Phoebe Hall She was only associated with snow
in the verses; Snow was not her name.
Our difficulty was mentioned 10 an enterpris-
ing friend. He had ideas, and he took steps
He knew where to inquire and he inquired Re
suit of findings: Phoebe Snow was fctional
figure IN series Of iingles that popular
about 1900 She was the personficaton Of shin
ing cleanliness of the old-time New England
housewife. Some of the PS. ngles may be found
in that fine anthology called "A Treasury of the
Familiar" And the Lackawanna, inviting attention
to the splck-andspan cleanliness and neatness
of its passenger-coaches, has named itself "The
Route Of the Phoebe Snow"
While at the quotation books. we had an eve
out for another piece or SO that kept teasing
memory. One Of these was the following broken
bit:
The shafts Of my passion al random | flung,
And dashing headl0ng into petuant rhyme
] recked neither where nor how fiercely
Stung.
The hothead poet who thus explains himself
was first encountered If memory can he trusted
at all, in long footnOte in fine print in an old
copy (prned over fifty years ago) of Barnes's
General History II is not recalled what the poets
name was, or indeed whether the name was men.
toned in the footnoe which quotes his lines
Still another bit of verse author unknown
comes back out of the deeps of memory II was
learned away back yonder in Eighth Grade days
-Miocene period, so to speak II was we'll learned
then; one cannot be quite sure of each word now
But most of the words are here:
The busy world shoves angrily aside
The man who stands with arms akimbo set
Until the occasion tells him what to do.
And he who waits to have his task marked out
VIII die and leave his errand unfulfled
There is, as Dickens writes of the savings
and dongs Of the Crachits nothing of high
mark IN this II is certainly no great matter
to know the name of the lad who grew petuant
and threw his shafts about nor does il signify
who the earnest person Qorbear, no doubt
of those worldly-wse fellows who write "inspir
atonal stuff for the digests) that stood forth as
spokesman for the busy world These things are
not important, but they do plque curiosity,
BY the bye, consider that word curiosity. Ii
is rooted in the Latin c'rra which means care or
caretutneSS, They would take from u.s." says an
otdtlme writer, that which with so much cur
lostty we would preserve" But the word curiosity
has fallen into low estate; currently il means
sort OF prying of the mind. often prying into
matters that are proper concern of the cur
ous person, Vet the word is honorable enough
IN ITS further meaning, which is an alertness
and an eagerness TO know to be informed We
intend to employ the term in its honorable sense
in our present trifling inquiries.
And in this sense We are curious about the
authorship of the verses quoted above AS we
were once curious about Phoebe Snow of the
Laekawanna. We'd just like To know. We have
no admiration for either poet The chap who
mrabe, even II he he master Of petulant
rhyme. Nor is there anything admirable in "the
busy world"
America has been fed for generations on the
dubious pabulum of virtue and value in mere
activity, in buSyneSs in the spirit of gogeterism
Let us then be up and doing cries Fl. W. Long
fellow. But H.W.L. was himself scholarly man
who valued his leisure. man who travelled ex-
tensivey, and browSed among books, and lee
tured before quiet university classes on sub.
jects cultural and nonconroverSial No man
who has time to grow luxuriant whlskers is full
Of The dash, vim, pep, 90, zest, and zing OF the
gogettsr. Look for the co.geter among the lean
iawed lads. If whiskers are demanded by con.
temporary fashion they may be present in the
man admired by the busy world" tVanderbtS.
Goulds, Carnegies, Fricks. ct all but they arc
never of such glorious presence those Of a
Longfeow or Bryant or even Whitman
whose go-getterism was merely vocal for Walt
loved to 'loafe and invite his soul"
And what do the go-getters go-get? Usually
million dollars for themselves. And when they
come TO dir do they leave their essential errand