Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/565



Take Him to the Dye Shop

"Red" Trask is proprietor of the Hotel Pendleton barber shop. The other day a man brought his little son into the shop and, speaking to the proprietor, said, "Cut his hair Red." Said Mr. Trask, "We cut hair in all shapes and fashions but we can't cut in colors."

Monday, April 3, 1916.

6

"Nescius Nitts of Punkindorf Station"

In the Oregonian, 1911-1914

By Dean Collins

Dean Collins, now a member of the editorial staff of the Oregon Journal, is widely known in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest as a journalist, dramatist, versifying columnist and poet. A biographi- cal sketch of him is given in the chapter "Contemporary Poets." He was graduated from the University of Oregon in June, 1910, and the next year, while employed as a reporter on the Oregonian, he gave for the first time to a large public "Nescius Nitts", a tobacco- chewing character that is now famous in Northwest America. For a while Mr. Collins wrote a poem a day for the Oregonian, and at times in 1911 "Nescius Nitts" would appear that often, in an amazing variety of introductory stanzas, though always in an ex- pectorating role. He still sometimes comes to life in the columns of the Oregon Journal but his real years were from 1911 to 1914. Apparently there have been no fastidious prejudices against "Nescius Nitts." He was a spokesman in topical verse that always began with a tobacco-chewing situation and always connected him up with Punkindorf Station. Mr. Collins showed an astonishing deft- ness with rhymes in the change after change he gave to these clever openings, but even more, by means of these resourceful iterations, he added and ever added, without a false stroke or inconsistency in the portrayal, to the reader's unified impressions.

A fair test is to see eight of the introductory stanzas together as given below. They are supplemented with one reader's impression of "Nescius Nitts" in imitative rhyme and with a complete poem on reactions to New Year's resolutions in perfect harmony with the old seer's character.

N. Nitts on Game Birds

Nescius Nitts, sage, scholar and wit, Of Punkindorf Station, a fresh mouthful b