Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1910 — Amusing Visitors. [ARTICLE]

Amusing Visitors.

It is not every poet who possesses the sense of ht)mor. Longfellow had It In unusual degree, writes William Winter In “Old Friends." Nothing absurd escaped him. Among the relics that he especially treasured was an Inkstand, once the property of Coleridge. One day, showing that relic to a stranger who had called on him, he said, "Perhaps ‘The Ancient Mariner* waa written from this." "Yes,” said his visitor; "and ‘The Old Oaken Bucket,’ who done that?” As ndsnirer of Longfellow’s once wrote him, saying, "Please send your autograph in your own handwriting." He haß recorded a characteristic dialogue with a strange lady, who accosted him one summer morning at his house door. "Is this the house where Longfellow was born?" "No, he was not born here.” “Did he die here?" "No, he la not dead.” "Are you Longfellow?” "I am." "I thought you died two years ago. ’ That recalls the intelligent remark made to Walter Savage L&ndor by a lady who rushed to compliment him on his “Perlclea and Aspasla.” "Mr. Landor,” she said, “I haven’t had time-to-read your 'Periwinkle# and Asparagus,' but I hear it is very good.”