JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY. In the pretty town of Greenfield, Indiana, in the year 1852, James Whitcomb Riley, the "Hoosier Poet" was born. What his boyhood was like, we must learn from his poems, for Mr. Riley is not much given to talking about himself. However, we feel sure that as a boy he spent much of his time out of door, and that he was then, as now, very fond of children. Nature gave him a warm, sympathetic heart, an unusually strong sense of humor, and the rare power to find beauty in the smallest, commonest things of life. With eye and ear thus made doubly keen, he literally absorbed forms, colors, sounds, and incidents; also, the moods and traits of character of those he came in contact with. He seemed to catch even the perfume of flowers, the clearness of the dewdrop, the filmy texture of the cobweb, the laugh and the sob of childhood. All these things lodged in his heart, to be brought tenderly forth, at last, to grace the pages of his books. From "The South Wind and the Sun," and numerous other poems, we see that Mr. Riley knows nature intimately and affectionately. But, as a rule, his nature pictures, fine as they are, are used but as a beautiful background for some simple picture of homely, everyday life, in which we are pretty sure to find The Raggedy Man," "Granny," "Orphant Annie," or some other of "their kith and kin," as the central figure. Like Robert Louis Stevenson and Eugene Field, James Whitcomb Riley has chosen to write much for children, and like these two, he has the power to charm old and young alike. But he writes of children somewhat older than those of whom Stevenson and Field wrote, and his small heroes and heroines are chosen from life of the commonest, humblest sort. No child is too poor or too ugly for his pen to transform into beauty. Under the freckled features, the rude speech, and the homely attire he either finds a bright, joyous spirit that fills his lines brimful of fun, or he discovers a yearning little soul that brings the tears to our eyes by its honest outburst, "And O I wanted so To be felt sorry for!" But Mr. Riley does not dwell too long upon the pathetic side. His thought and his poems seem full of joyous, unchanging, hopeful youth; and he always finds some happy trait of character or some hidden nobility of soul to glorify and preserve. What he writes is always from the heart, and so it reaches the hearts of his readers. His child poems are so true to unspoiled childhood, so natural, so little overdrawn, so overflowingly full of tenderness and mirth, of sympathy and hope and trust, that they are "the next best thing to a child," and each new one is hailed with delight. All in all, it is safe to say that no other living poet has so strong a hold upon the hearts of his readers. Mr. Riley writes much in dialect. To his life sketches of common people, the quaint speech they use seems as necessary as the quaint garb they wear. Hoosier dialect, negro dialect, German dialect, and child dialect he is a master of all. And yet, no author knows how to use pure, refined English with more ease and grace than he. Few have a larger vocabulary, and no one chooses words and phrases with more skill. In his poems we find the broad prairies and the fertile cornlands of the open country. We see the quiet streets of peaceful country villages. We hear groups of country people expressing quaint fancies in a still quainter speech. A little, untaught, country child takes us by the hand and wins our hearts with one look from its trustful, honest eyes. Burdens roll off our spirits in this neighborly atmosphere. We become a child among children. We are glad to be alive. Among "the Hoosier Poet's" best known and most popular poems are "Old Glory," "Orphant Annie," "The Old Swimmin' Hole," "A Life Lesson," and When the Green Comes Back to the Trees." In these, and in a hundred others, there is a refreshing union of youthfulness, sympathy, courage, and trust, with no hint of dullness. His books make us long to visit his home in Indianapolis, to take the poet by the hand and thank him for his gospel of cheerfulness. They also make us heartily echo the words of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who called Mr. Riley," a born poet who gets down into the heart of a man in a most telling way." LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE.* Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay, An' wash the cups and saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away, An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep, An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep; An' all us other children, when the supper things is done, We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun Ef you Don't Watch Out! Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers, An' when he went to bed at night, away up stairs, His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl, An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all! *See preface. |