Uncle Walt [Walt Mason].
by Walt Mason.
A Poet of the People
Walt Mason"s Prose Rhymes are read daily by approximately ten million readers.
A newspaper service sells these rhymes to two hundred newspapers with a combined daily circulation of nearly five million, and a.s.suming that five people read each newspaper--which is the number agreed upon by publicity experts--it may be called a fair guess to say that two out of every five readers of newspapers read Mr. Mason"s poems.
So the ten million daily readers is a reasonably accurate estimate. No other American verse-maker has such a daily audience.
Walt Mason is, therefore, the Poet Laureate of the American Democracy.
He is the voice of the people.
Put to a vote, Walt would be elected to the Laureate"s job, if he got a vote for each reader. And, generally speaking, men would vote as they read.
The reason Walt Mason has such a large number of readers is because he says what the average man is thinking so that the average man can understand it.
The philosophy of Walt Mason is the philosophy of America. Briefly it is this: The fiddler must be paid; if you don"t care to pay, don"t dance.
In the meantime--grin and bear it, because you"ve got to bear it, and you might as well grin. But don"t try to lie out of it. The Lord hates a cheerful liar.
This is what the American likes to hear. For that is the American idea about the way the world is put together. So he reads Walt Mason night and morning and smiles and takes his knife and cuts out the piece and carries it in his vest pocket, or her handbag.
It will interest the ten million readers of Walt Mason"s rhymes to know that they are written in Emporia, Kansas, in the office of the Emporia Gazette, after Mr. Mason has done a day"s work as editorial writer and telegraph editor of an afternoon paper. The rhymes are written on a typewriter as rapidly as he would write if he were turning out prose.
Day after day, year after year, the fountain flows. There is no poison in it. And sometimes real poetry comes welling up from this Pierian spring at 517 Merchant street, Emporia, Kansas, U. S. A.
In the meantime we do not claim its medicinal properties will cure everything. But it is good for sore eyes; it cures the blues; it sweetens the temper, cleanses the head, and aids the digestion. In cases of heart trouble it has been known to unite torn ligaments and encourage large families.
And a gentleman over there takes a bottle! Step up quickly; remember we are merely introducing this great natural remedy. Our supply is limited.
In a moment the music will begin.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Signature]
[Ill.u.s.tration: To JAMES C. MASON
For the happy, youthful days That long since had an end; For the distant trodden ways That we no more may wend; For the dreams of woven gold And the memories of old, These little tales are told, My brother and my friend.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: "_I to swing the shining axe, you to take a few swift whacks._"]
_A Glance at History_
Charles the First, with stately walk, made the journey to the block. As he paced the street along, silence fell upon the throng; from that throng there burst a sigh, for a king was come to die! Charles upon the scaffold stood, in his veins no craven blood; calm, serene, he viewed the crowd, while the headsman said, aloud: "Cheer up, Charlie! Smile and sing! Death"s a most delightful thing! I will cure your hacking cough, when I chop your headpiece off! Headache, toothache--they"re a bore! You will never have them more! Cheer up, Charlie, dance and yell! Here"s the axe, and all is well! I, though but a humble dub, represent the Sunshine Club, and our motto is worth while: "Do Not Worry--Sing and Smile!"
Therefore let us both be gay, as we do our stunt today; I to swing the shining axe, you to take a few swift whacks. Lumpty-doodle, lumpty-ding, do not worry, smile and sing!"
_Longfellow_
Singer of the kindly song, minstrel of the gentle lay, when the night is dark and long, and beset with thorns the way--in the poignant hour of pain, in this weary worldly war, there is comfort in thy strain, courage in "Excelsior." When the city bends us down, with its weight of bricks and tiles, lead us, poet, from the town, to the fragrant forest aisles, where the hemlocks ever moan, like old Druids clad in green, as they sighed, when all alone, wandered sad Evangeline. Writer of the cleanly page, teacher of the golden truth; still I love thee in my age, as I loved thee in my youth. In some b.r.e.a.s.t.s a fiercer fire flamed, than ever thou hast known; but no mortal minstrel"s lyre ever gave a purer tone.
Singer of the kindly song, minstrel of the gentle lay, time is swift and art is long, and thy fame will last alway.
_In Politics_
His days were joyous and serene, his life was pure, his record clean; folks named their children after him, and he was in the social swim; ambitious lads would say: "I plan to be just such a worthy man!" But in the fullness of his years, the tempter whispered in his ears, and begged that he would make the race for county judge, or some such place. And so he yielded to his fate, and came forth as a candidate. The night before election day they found him lying, cold and gray, the deadest man in all the land, this message in his icy hand: "The papers that opposed my race have brought me into deep disgrace; I find that I"m a fiend unloosed; I robbed a widow"s chicken roost, and stole an orphan"s Easter egg, and swiped a soldier"s wooden leg. I bilked a heathen of his joss, and later kidnapped Charlie Ross; I learn, with something like alarm, that I designed the Gunness farm, and also, with excessive grief, that Black Hand cohorts call me chief. I thought myself a decent man, whose record all the world might scan; but now, alas, too late! I see that all the depths of infamy have soiled me with their reeking shame, and so it"s time to quit the game."
_The Human Head_
The greatest gift the G.o.ds bestowed on mortal was his dome of thought; it sometimes seems a useless load, when one is tired, and worn and hot; it sometimes seems a trifling thing, less useful than one"s lungs or slats; a mere excuse, it seems, to bring us duns from men who deal in hats. Some men appreciate their heads, and use them wisely every day, and every pa.s.sing minute sheds new splendor on their upward way; while some regard their heads as junk, mere idle k.n.o.bs upon their necks; such men are nearly always sunk in failure, and are gloomy wrecks. I know a clerk who"s served his time in one old store for twenty-years; he"s marked his fellows climb, and climb--and marked with jealousy and tears; he"s labored there since he was young; he"ll labor there till he is dead; he never rose a single rung, because he never used his head. I know a poorhouse in the vale, where fifty-seven paupers stay; they paw the air and weep and wail, and cuss each other all the day; and there they"ll loll while life endures, and there they"ll die in pauper beds; their chances were as good as yours--but then they never used their heads. O human head! Majestic box! O wondrous can, from labels free! If man is craving fame or rocks, he"ll get them if he uses thee!
_The Universal Help_
My cow"s gone dry, my hens won"t lay, my horse has got the croup; the hot winds spoiled my budding hay, and I am in the soup. And while my life is sad and sore, and earthly joys are few, I"ll write a note to Theodore; he"ll tell me what to do. I wasn"t home when Fortune called, my feet had strayed afar; I fear that I am going bald, and I have got catarrh. The wolf is howling at my door, I"ve naught to smoke or chew; but I shall write to Theodore--he"ll tell me what to do. My Sunday suit is old and sere, I"m wearing last year"s lids; my aunt is coming for a year, to visit, with her kids. They will not trust me at the store, and I am feeling blue, so I shall write to Theodore--he"ll tell me what to do. When we are weary and distraught, from worldly strife and care, and we"re denied the balm we sought, and given black despair, ah, then, my friends, there is one ch.o.r.e devolves on me and you; we"ll simply write to Theodore--he"ll tell us what to do.
_Little Sunbeam_
She was sweet and soft and clinging, and he always found her singing, when he came home from his labors as the night was closing in; she was languishing and slender, and her eyes were deep and tender, and he simply couldn"t tell her that her coffee was a sin. Golden hair her head was crowning; she was fond of quoting Browning, and she knew a hundred legends of the olden, golden time; and her heart was full of yearning for the Rosicrucian learning, and he simply couldn"t tell her that the beefsteak was a crime. She was posted on Pendennis, and she knew the songs of Venice, and he listened to her prattle with an effort to look pleased; and she liked the wit of Weller--and he simply couldn"t tell her that the eggs he had for breakfast had been laid by hens diseased.
So she filled his home with beauty, and she did her wifely duty, did it as she understood it, and her conscience didn"t hurt, when dyspepsia boldly sought him, and the s.e.xton came and got him, and his tortured frame was buried "neath a wagon-load of dirt. O, those marriageable misses, thinking life all love and kisses, mist and moonshine, glint and glamour, stardust borrowed from the skies! Man"s a gross and sordid lummix--men are largely made of stomachs, and the songs of all the sirens will not take the place of pies!
_The Flag_