Tribute to James Whitcomb Riley

Writers who have made us smile with fresh and simple pleasure have always a peculiar hold upon our tenderness and affection; but at periods when the world, too greatly troubled, forgets the way to smile, the return to such a writer is restorative as a draught of pristine purity from a virgin mountain spring. Our humorists are loved, if they be kind and gentle, for a beneficent influence which heals us of our tragedies, and the humor of James Whitcomb Riley, clothed in winning artistic form, has not only "added to the gayety of Nations," but has helped to keep a sad world sweet and sound and sane.