Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 180, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1935 — Page 5
OCT. 7, 1935_
OPEN DRIVE FOR $50,000 TO AID RILEY SHRINE Campaign to Restore Home Begins With Exercises at ''Greenfield. BY ARCH STFINEL Times Staff Writer. Th<* spider wrbs that hung on buildings at the old home of James Whitcomb Riley are to be restored. The wide board fence that ‘Jim" Rilov used to walk on his hands in arrobatic stunts may encircle his residence on W. Main-st in Greenfield. Today, on his birthday, as school children of Greenfield decorated his monument on the Courthouse lawn with flowers, the drive to raise $50,000 for the rehabilitation of the home pained momentum throughout the nation. Classes of school children, according to plans of the Riley Old Home Society of Hancock County, will donate the money to make it possible for the home, closed for four months to visitors, to be reopened. County Granted Option. As Greenfield celebrated Mr. Riley’s birthday with school recitations and programs, its citizenry, headed by Z. M. Smith, school superintendent and president of the Riley Society, and Mrs. Helen Gemmill, treasurer, planned even to restore the home’s old well, to take modern furnishings off the place, and bring back the days when Mr. Riley actually lived in it. Heirs of the Riley estate have given Hancock County residents and the Riley society the option to buy the property. It is the desire of the Riley heirs to keep the home from being commercialized and the 10-cent admission fee to be charged will be used merely for hiring of caretakers and the home's upkeep. Up to the spring of this year the home was under the care of Mrs. Julia Wilson Riley, widow of John Riley, the poet’s brother. She left to make her home in Long Beach, Cal., and the residence remained closed to tourists and passer.sby. Weeds High in Yard Weather-worn advertisements, circulars dried yellow after summer rains, cover the home's porch and give it a lonesome lassitude. Weeds are high in the back yard. But Hancock County citizens say all that will pass as soon as the home comes under their control. They plan to open it tentatively, pending the results of the nationwide drive this fall. Saturday night, William A. Huff, Greenfield, reader of Riley poems, and the Kiwanis Club quartet, gave a program over WLW in honor of j the poet’s birthday, beginning the i drive for funds. The National Parent-Teachers! Association is aiding in the cam- j paign. Senior memberships will be j sold at $1 and junior memberships j at 50 cents. The funds raised will! be placed in a foundation fund. A book, written by native Hoosier > authors who have gained fame, may I be published and sold as another j means of raising the funds. ENROLLMENT IN TECH HIGH SCHOOL OPEN (’lasses to Be Accepted for Two Weeks, Official Says. Enrollments in Technical High School night school classes will be accepted for the next two weeks, Edward E. Greene, vice principal in charge of evening classes, announced today. Mr. Greene stated that the purpose of the night school is to serve those persons who wish to continue their education and are unable to do so in day school. Approximately 200 students have already enrolled and classes will be formed in all subjects for which the registration is sufficient. 250 VACANCIES AT FORT Places Open in More Than Four Branches, Army Announces. There are vacancies for 250 men in the enlisted army at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in accordance with an act passed by the last session j of Congress, the enlisting officer ■ announced today. The act allowed an increase in Ft Harrison's enrollment of 930 men. The recruiting office is at 408 Federal Building. There are vacancies in more than four branches. Job's Daughters to Hold Ritual Ritualistic work of Bethel No. 9. Order of Job's Daughters, will be exemplified at 8 tonight in the Bright wood Masonic Temple. Bethel No 18 will meet at 8 tonight in the Irvington Masonic Temple.
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Riley Composed Verses ‘On the Spot’ to Express His Appreciation to Cook: for Preparation of Favorite Dishes
Ared Servants Unable to Recall Lines Composed as Tips for Them. James Whitcomb Riley sometimes showed his appreciation of preparation of favorite foods by a ‘'little piece of money." More often, however, he paid for them with a bit of his homespun verse, composed extemporaneously, and recited as the poet stood framed in the kitchen doer of the Lockerbie-st house. If Mrs. Nannie Ewing, aged Negro cook of the Holstein family, with whom Riley made his home, could recall those verses, she might add a delightful volume to the other well-known Riley collections. But all she recalls, as she reminisces at her home, 1255 N. West-st. is the laughter which the verses brought. “Mr. Riley always came to the kitchen door and thanked me when he had enjoyed a meal,” she says. "Sometimes it was for the entire meal, but he always thanked me when I had baked a sweet potato or a pumpkin pie. Those were his favorites. Recited Verses at Kitchen Doar “Sometimes he would slip a little piece of money in my hand. Most times, he woulld make up verses about the food and recite them to me as he stood in the doorway. They were funny ones, and he knew it. When I laughed at them he was satisfied, and would go up to his room, chuckling as he went." The Holstein household meals always were elaborate ones. Often they were centered around a main dish of wild game, the gift of Mr. Riley's sportsmen friends. “In the hunting season, there would lx? partridges and wild turkeys to cook," Mrs. Ewing recalls. "Mr. Riley was fond of them, and I took particular pains to prepare them in the way he liked them. He always was appreciative." Husband Poet s Personal Servant Both Mrs. Ewing and her husband, Dennis Ewing, saw service in the Holstein household, where Mr. Riley spent many years of his life. Her husband, stiil active at 71, was houseman, and in later years of Riley’s life, was personal servant to the poet. “One of my duties was the care of the family horse, which Mrs. Holstein usually drove,” Ewing says. “That horse surely loved sugar, and Mr. Riley knew it. He never failed to go into the kitchen and get lump sugar to feed him before the family started out for a drive.” Neither of the aged servants recall ever seeing the poet at his work. “He wrote his poetry at night, when the family had gone to bed. We always knew when he was writing. but never saw him working,” Ewing says. Among the Ewing's prized possessions, whic hinclude pictures of the Holstein family and their pets, is a volume of Riley's poems. But Mrs. Ewing admits that she would enjoy more than those published poems, the verses that the poet “made up out of his head” as he stcod in the kitchen door. Artillery Regiment Chooses Head Russell Watson, Kokomo, was elected president of the One hundred thirty-ninth Field Artillery as the reunion closed yesterday in the Lincoln. Heights W. C. T. U. to Meet The University Heeights W. C. T. U. will meet at 2 tomorrow in the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Mrs. Nannie Ewing . . . she cooked for Riley.
HOUSEKEEPER REGALLS POET Earlier Birthday Described by Former Servant in Riley Home. Miss Katie Kindall, for many years housekeeper in the Lockerbiest home of James Whitcomb Riley, has an addition to her household. The new member is a nondescript white mongrel, which Miss Kindall has christened “Lockerbie," the name of a white poodle belonging to the Holstein family, with whom Riley made his home many years. The original Lockerbie was a favorite with the poet. Hei namesake doesn't know that the Hoosier poet ever existed, although she is surrounded by furnishings which were familiar to Riley. A foundling, abandoned by a mother who left her to go on with a traveling dog show, she was adopted by Miss Kindall last summer. Miss Kindall now lives in a small house across the street from the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Home. To it she moved much of the furniture in the home, when she gave up her position as caretaker two years ago. Today, Miss Kindall is remembering the birthday celebrations in the Lockerbie-st home when the poet still was alive. “The rooms were filled with flowers, for every one knew Mr. Riley loved them,” she says. “I remember one of those birthday celebrations. We had filled the library with flowers, only leaving space for Mr. Riley to walk in to his chair, from which he was to greet guests. “Mr. Riley walked in and looked at the flowers. His eyes filled with tears, and he walked slowly to his chair. “ 'My God, am I worthy of all this?’ he said.” ‘ With memories like these, Miss Kindall lives quietly with her parrots and Lockerbie the Second. From her front window she can see across the street the home in which she was employed many years before and after the poet's death. Today means much to Miss Kindall. But to Lockerbie the Second it’s just another day.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
RILEY BIRTHDAY OBSERVED HERE Poet to Be Honored With Ceremonies Opening Hospital Pool. (Continued From Page One) The chorus of School 2 sang the “Prayer Perfect.” The James Whitcomb Riley school, J No. 43, 40th-st and Capitol-av, and I School No. 12, 733 S. West-st, were j two elementary schools giving spe- j cial Riley programs in honor of his j birthday. Civic clubs, city officials and numerous organizations participating in Riley Hospital work were expected to attend the dedicatory rites at the hospital at 3. Dr. Bryan Among Speakers The afternoon's ceremonies were to be held on the hospital lawn. Dr. William Lowe Bryan, president of Indiana University; Mr. Landon, Riley association head; Fred Hoke. William H. Book, executive vice president of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, were to be the speakers. The pool was constructed with the aid of FERA labor and its warmed and healing waters are adapted to treatment of cases of infantile and other forms of paralysis. The waters are said to have the same healing effects as those at the Warm Springs Foundation, sponsored by President Roosevelt. Built at Cost of $40,000 Funds of Indiana University, the Riley Memorial Association and FERA built the pool at an approximate cost of $40,000. Glass enclosed, the pool is under the direction of Miss Charlotte W. Andersen. Patients are. taken one at a time into the poof for treatments. Hospital officials as well as those in charge of the dedicatory rights say the general public are welcome to attend the ceremonies and visit the new pool.
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'AUNT MARY' OF POEM CALLED A COMPOSITE Riley’s Friend Believes She Represented Many Similar Women. “Aunt Mary,” heroine of the poem “Out to Old Aunt Mary’s" by James Whitcomb Riley, has had almost as many prototypes and lives almost as the proverbial back-fence cat. At least seven women in various parts of the country have claimed to be the original “Aunt Mary.” “One of them,” says William A. Huff, Greenfield attorney, former state tax board chairman and a friend of Riley’s reoonteur. "was even four or five years younger than Jim Riley.” Mr. Huff who has recited the Riley poems on the Chautauqua platform, believes the "Aunt Mary” of the poem is a composite picture of all “Aunt Marys” of the world who welcomed small boys with open cupboard and kindly advice. “The poem originally was written as a letter by Riley to his brother, John A. Riley, in Albuquerque, N. M. Jim Riley has told me that the poem was not intended to represent any one,” Mr. Huff said. Other Greenfield residents say that the person who comes closest to resembling the poem was an elderly woman and aunt of a printer on the Hancock County Democrat. “Jim and the printer were good friends,” says John F. Mitchell Jr., one of the owners of the Democrat, “and it is probable that he visited at the aunt's farm home and that the poem may have been written from reminiscences of his visits there.”
RADIO PERFORMER NAMES BEST POEMS ‘Old Sweetheart of Mine,’ ‘Tradin Joe’ Listed. After you’ve recited Riley’s poems over radio and stage platform for 30 years your preference for his lyrics may be given weight and William A. Huff, Greenfield, who lived in Riley's home, chooses “Tradin’ Joe" and “Old Sweetheart of Mine” as his favorites. Mr. Huff tells of the enlarging of “Old Sweetheart of Mine” by the addition of several stanzas and the printing of the poem with illustrations by Howard Chandler Christy. He says Riley’s criticism of the new edition and increase in the size of the poem was, “It’s like a beautiful woman with a large wart on her jaw.” Block's Open Fountain Room William H. Block Cos. announced today the opening of the James Whitcomb Riley Fountain room in its new store. The room is decorated by white and silver murals depicting Riley subjects, and is a place for lunch and refreshments.
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Pals of ‘Swimmin’ Hole’ Days Cherish Memories of Riley as Young Boy.
Aged Greenfield Men Proud of Early Friendship With Hoosier Poet. With his never-to-be-forgotten poems James Whitcomb Riley placed his stamp on the hearts of all America, but to two men who knew him in the days of the “Old Swimmin' Hole” he left the imprint of a nickname that still sticks and the memory of a few bits of doggeral that can never be published. Drop down on State-av in Greenfield and you may meet John E Davis, 86, and hear, as he walks rheumatically down the shady street, how he got the name "Durbin.” Or if you go north to Lincoln and Spring-sts you may meet another old crony, “Uncle” Billy Davis, 83, and hear him recite the ribald verse that “Jim" made up on the banks of the “Old Swimmin’ Hole.” Between movements of his tobacco quid, stubby “Durbin” Davis will tell you of a night when “Jim” Riley, himself, and “Uncle” Billy Davis—they're not related—were whooping it up on the town's streets. “We’d stopped at the Last Chance, but the place had already closed. Jftn Riley said he knew another place and he led us down the main street to a pump. “He grabbed hold of the pumphandle, clapped me on the back, and said. ‘I want you to meet Mr. Durbin. Now Mr. Durbin, I want the boys to have all they want. It’s on the house, boys.’ We drank water and pumped and drank again. “And ever since," the old man explained as he wiped his tobaccostained mouth, “they've called me after a kind of pump manufactured in those days known as the Durbin pump. “He always had a picketful of poems even when we swam down on the Brandywine. I've seen him tarn somersaults, recite a poem, and then jump clean over the muddy bank into the swimmin’ hole. He knowed all of Charles Dickens’ works by heart. “You know,” he added as if trying to recall the days, “I never could see how he got all his grammar, for he wasn't a hard worker in school.” In a home a few blocks away, “Uncle” Billy Davis adds to the “Swimmin’ Hole" stories the declaration that Riley was not an expert swimmer as a boy, but preferred to loiter in the shade on the pool’s banks. “We’d go in natural and many’s the time we’d tie each other’s clothes into knots and throw mud at each other,” says “Uncle” Billy. “He used to make up poems down there and recite them to us while we swam around. There were some dandies all right. There’s one of them I’ll never forget, I only wish it could be printed.” To the two aged men his poems, his fame, are not half as near to them as their memories of how the one got a nickname of a town-pump and the other learned his impromptu poetry.
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SALES HIGH ON RILEYVOLUMES Large Demand for Reprints of Poet's Books, Say Publishers. Nineteen years after his death the poems of James Whitcomb Riley still are in demand with substantial yearly sale reported by his ' publishers, Bobbs-Merrill Cos., Inj dianapolis. “Requests for reprints of editions j and right to use his poems come ! to our offices almost daily,” officials of the publishing company say. Royalty rights to his poems are ! held by his heirs. Edmund Eitel. Chi--1 cago. a nephew; Mrs. Harry Miesse, a niece, Indianapolis; Mrs. Mary Hayes, a niece. Long Beach, Cal., and Mr. Riley’s sister, Mrs. Mary Riley Payne, Indianapolis. Demand for school study, use in high school literature classes, and for recitations as well as general | reading results, according to Indianapolis Public- Library officials, in a never-ending reguest for Riley’s books of poems.
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RILEY PORTRAIT IS ON VIEW AT PUBLIC LIBRARY Painting Work of Wayman Adams. Another Famed Indiana Artist. Two merry, quizzical eyes, twinkling from behind cocked spectacles, peer out from an oil painting to catch the attention of all visitors to I the Indianapolis Public Library. The eyes are those of James Whitcomb Riley in the famous portrait by Wayman Adams, another illustrious Hoosier and one of America's best-known painters. Mr. Adams is particularly proud of that painting, but it also has brought him much regret—regret i that it is not in his own possession. , Property of City School Teacher Mr. Adams, who halves his time between a studio in New York and an art colony in New Mexico, has | been trying for years to recapture , the portrait from Miss Nora Scherj mg. 102 N. Arsenal-av, a teacher in ! the Indianapolis schools. "He has wanted to trade us the j oil for other work he has done.” j Miss Sobering explains, “but we’ve | kept it.” She says Mr. Adams painted the picture from memory following an j evening spent in Mr. Riley's Lock- ; erbie-st home. Poodle on Poet’s Lap Mr. Riley had his poodle-dog on his lap. He was in exceptionally good humor that night and Mr. | Adams, trying to catch that hu--1 morous twinkle behind the cocked j eye-glasse3, watched him closely as they talked. "If you have seen the picture you know his memory was perfect.” Miss Schering says. In addition to this painting the ! library has on display a notable collection of original Riley manuscripts. HOSPITAL STAFF ELECTS Dr. E. O. Asher New President of Methodist Society. Dr. E. O. Asher is the new president of the Methodist Hospital | Medical Staff Society, and Dr. ' Charles Thompson is vice president. Dr. John M. Whitehead, secrei tary-treasurer, and Dr. Roy V. I Myers, executive committeeman.
There will be a shelf of rare books, and a remarkable collection of important autograph letters and manuscripts that will tempt the most fastidious collector. A fine collection of rare first editions of James Whitcomb Riley s works will be on view. {J May T take this opportunity of expressing my sincere gratitude to the Readers and Book-lovers of Indianapolis for their generous support and encouragement, which aided me so materially in achieving this ideal. Cl welcome you to mv new shop which opens to-day.