Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/419

 396 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS These casual meetings were usually punctuated with hilar- ious laughter that caused passershy to look in with wonder. One of the means of entertainment was the writing of rhymes. Some one — tradition has it Mr. Riley himself — arranged a reel with a roll of paper on which attendants at the "dub** jotted down verses from time to time, as the spirit moved them, and these were read at the meetings — poetry by the yard — to the accompaniment of great applause. Mr. Riley's first venture on the platform was a three months' experimental tour through Indiana under the direc- tion of George C. Hitt, a member of the Journal's publishing staff and now a prominent business man of Indianapolis. Mr. Hitt's faith in the future of the poet helped to give the lat- ter 's confidence in himself a needed stimulus, for he was dis- posed to be doubtful of his own powers. The tour established the fact that as an interpreter of the conmaon heart, not only as writer but as speaker, he was a genius. From that time his fame grew and he was in demand outside of his state, delight- ing his audiences and establishing a reputation as poet and character delineator that speedily became nation-wide. His few ventures into prose show that he might have excelled in fiction or essay writing, but he found such work irksome and soon abandoned it. His recognition in the Eastern states came more slowly than elsewhere, but when finally given it was generous and enthusi- astic. He became a great favorite in Boston and always drew large audiences from the most exclusive intellectual circles. His first appearance in New York City was at an authors' reading given for some special cause. Many distinguished writers, including William Dean Ho wells, Thomas Bailey Aid- rich, and Richard Watson Gilder were on the program. An authors ' reading is usually a dull aflfair, writers seldom being good speakers, and the great audience grew restless and weary. Riley was last on the program, he was unknown and people were indiflferent and impatient to be gone. But he proved to be the star of the occasion. Quickly it was seen that here was something new and original, that here was an.