Sayings of the Children" "What," asked the proud young mamma, "do you think of the baby's features?" Her brother looked down at the precious little innocent for a moment, and then asked: "Where are they?"* -"Come, children," said Mr. Widwer, introducing the second Mrs. Widwer, "come and kiss your new mamma." "Gracious!" exclaimed little Elsie, "if you took her for 'new' they stuck you, pa.' -Walter has just begun to attend Sundayschool and listened with great attention while his teacher explained about the creation. Then he said, "Miss Brooks, why didn't God make the world sooner than He did?"† -A toddler of five who, a short time before, had been allowed to select one kitten from old Tabby's litter, the others being drowned, was carried by his nurse into the dimly-lighted room to take his first peep at his triplet baby brothers. He looked them over critically, and turning to his mother, said: "Mamma, let's keep the blueeyed one."+ -Carl, aged four, has a German nurse who has taught him to say his prayers in German. One evening his friend Ralph, who is six, came to see him just as he was at prayers. Ralph listened open-mouthed for a minute, and then burst out with, "Oh, just listen to Carl! He thinks God's Dutch !"t One Marion Louise was only four years old, yet she was very precocious about not committing herself, and was rarely lost for an answer. day when out walking with her aunt they met a friend who, in trying to test Marion's knowledge, asked her, "Who made you?" "God," she answered very promptly, with evident self-satisfaction. "And where is God?" was the next query. This was quite beyond her, yet without a moment's hesitation she turned to her aunt with one of her bewitching smiles and said in a most encouraging tone, "Now, Auntie, you guess."+ -George (aged seven, after bumping his head severely on the sharp edge of the table and finding a lump on his head) Papa, when you bump yourself, why don't it make a dinge in instead of a dinge out?† -One day Aunt Louise said, "Dorothy, please take this letter upstairs to your mother." The little one was surrounded by her dolls, and *Compiled from Contemporaries. Contributed to Current Literature. too greatly interested in the needs of her family to desire to act as letter carrier, so she replied positively, "No, Auntie, she's alone wis' her God, an' I shall not 'sturb her."† -A little boy was in the habit of calling his father by his first name-John-as he always heard his mamma speak thus to his father. One day the little boy was up in the bathroom playing with the water; some way he lost control of the faucet and the water soaked through the ceiling. His father rushed upstairs to see the cause, and was about to give the boy a scolding when the boy said: "This is no time to talk, John; get a mop."t -Albert was four years old and I was reading to him the little poem about, "Where did you get your eyes of blue, Out of the sky as I came through." Now Albert's eyes are very dark brown, so after hearing that verse, he thought a moment, then said: “Mother, the sky must have been awful black as I came through."+ -When Bobby, aged five, knelt down one night to say his prayers he added of his own accord this poetic petition: "And oh, please God, when I die let all the flowers die too." On rising and being asked the reason for the request he answered: "Well, course I don't want the flowers to win." -A bright little lad of five years attended the performance of Maro the magician with his parents. The following Sunday he attended Sunday-school, and the lesson was on the raising of the widow's son. He came home very much interested in all the details of the lesson and gave a very graphic description of it in his childish way, finally, turning to his grandpa who was listening, amused at what he was telling, said: "Grandpa, do you know what I think of that? It looks to me very much like a sleight of hand performance."+ -My little nephew John has a great head. His mother, who is an enthusiastic Sundayschool worker, often invites her class to her home for an afternoon of recreation and refreshment. On one occasion she thought best to coach John a little in regard to three little fellows, children of poor parents. She told him he must be careful not to hurt their feelings in any way, as they were very proud. During the process of the afternoon play John was heard to remark (apropos of their stiff unsociability.) "You needn't be so stuck-up," he said, "I know some people lots poorer than you are."† Open Questions: Talks with Correspondents Correspondents are invited to make use of this page on all questions, which will be answered as far as we may be able. Answers an comments will be gladly received. A number of questions and answers are unavoidable held over till next month. 732. Ingall's Sonnet Opportunity: Fiease publish or mail me Jno. J. Ingall's Poem Opportunity.— M. F. Woodhouse, Bloomington, Wis. [Current Literature has printed this fine sonnet once before, in the text of an editorial article on Literary Larceny (see Current Literature, Editorial Comment, April, 1898), wherein a thievish offender against honesty, Mr. Ingalls, and the public was exposed. But the poem is so brief and so fine we reproduce it here with pleasure: Master of human destinies am I; Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait, If sleeping, wake: if feasting, rise before And they who follow me reach every state 733. The Cumberland Crew: Can any of Current Literature readers furnish me the words of the song. The Cumberland Crew, and a speech called, The New South, by Henry W. Grady, of the Atlanta Constitution?-A Wesley Armitage, Seymour, Wis. 734. Psychological Congress: In a recent issue of your able magazine under the caption Psychological Congress, a contributor, H. Cushman, gave a brief synopsis of the proceedings of the last International Psychological Congress at Paris. If this is not another name for a Spiritist gathering, I am interested and would like to know where and how I could procure the papers on the various topics presented at said meeting. Could you give me any information? If so, I would greatly appreciate it.-A. H. Gamble, Dixon, Ill. [Dr. Morton Prince, of the City Hospital, Boston, can probably supply this information. An article describing the work of the institute appeared in the April number of The Open Court, the current year.] 735. English translator of the Marseillaise: I would like to ask who wrote the English translation of the Marseillaise, Ye sons of freedom, wake to glory, etc.-M. C. Sharp. 736. The Siege of Belgrade: Will you kindly print, or reprint, a poem by Francis Mahoney, There's a legend that's told of a gypsy who dwelt In the lands where the pyramids be, And her robe was embroidered with stars, and her belt With devices right wondrous to see. I have never read any but this one stanza. Also one, the author of which I can not give, beginning: An Austrian army awfully arrayed, Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade. -P. D. Reinhart, Ruffsdale, Pa. [The Mahoney poem we do not know. For The Siege of Belgrade, see Open Questions for July of last year, where, in answer to query 618, we printed in full this alphabet-exhausting alliterative curiosity. Back numbers can be had at this office.] 740. Can you tell me what magazine, some time last year, contained an illustrated article on the scene of Janice Meredith? There were pictures of several houses, and mention of some of the events in history, such as the tar-and-feathering of the original of Squire Meredith, which are adopted in the book. Can some one also tell me something of the author, and send the words to Current Literature, of a little poem I read some fifteen years ago, in one of the cheap story papers. The title was "A Funeral March" (after Chopin). It began with short lines, longer lines in the middle, and then growing gradually shorter again, suggesting the idea of a procession passing. I thought it remarkably good, and worthy a better place than the Ended! now thanksgiving for her journey done; She brought flowers to deserts, and plenty to I greatly wish for the poem entire, and the lines correctly spaced and arranged, as printed.-Fannie Goodman, Outing, Cal. ANSWERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 700. Lasca: Enclosed find poem entitled Lasca, asked for by Miss Marion Smith (Open Questions, 700, March, 1901) copied from The Elocutionists' Annual No. 12. Can be had at nearly all booksellers or from The National School of Elocution and Oratory, 1124 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.—Mrs. J. W. Ferdon, Hazelhurst, Wis. [Copies of this poem are received also from Mary Clare Winkler, Woodward, Pa., and M. D. Link, Elizabethton, Tenn., who give the author's name as Frank Desprez. Mrs. W. J. Andrews, Cheshire, Conn.; W. J. Carmonuche, Shreveport, La.; Norma G. Reilly, Covington, Ky., and Miss Marian W. Wildman, Norwalk, Ohio, give the same information, and refer the inquirer to Shoemaker's Recitations No. 12; Braun's Iconoclast, the Blakely Co., Chicago, Ill.; and The Speaker's Library, edited by Daphne Dale, and published by Elliot & Beesley. The copies of Lasca are held for the correspondent who made the inquiry, with thanks to those who have so courteously answered her. The Fight of Paso Del Mar, another poem for which she made inquiry, is by Bayard Taylor, we have learned since publishing her question, and gladly reproduced it in our Treasure Trove department last month.] 704. Mr. John F. Luitich (No. 704, March number) will find those lines in The Kasidah of Hâjî Abdû el Yezdî, a remarkably fine poetical work by the late Sir Richard F. Burton. It was republished by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Me. They are the last lines of Canto IV., verse xxxiii., and this is the original text: Their fame hath filled the Seven Climes, they rose and reigned, they fought and fell, As swells and swoons across the wold, the tinkling of the camel's bell. Although the poem reminds you of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, it is deeper in philosophical thought.-Hugo Andriessen, Beaver, Pa. [This query is answered also by W. J. Carmouche, Shreveport, La. Thanks to both.] 706. Poem from The Wind of Destiny: I enclose a copy of the poem asked for by F. H., Pottsville, Pa. (No. 706 Current Literature for April). It is entitled Love, and may be found in a collection called For Love's Sweet Sake, edited by G. Hembert Westly, Boston; Lee & Shepard, 1899. The author's name is not given.-H. Zwing Morgan, Pine Bluff, Ark. 710. The author of the verses asked for by Katherine Clayton, Mexico, in Open Questions, is Coventry Patmore. The verses were not quoted correctly, so I give the version I have always met with below: Ah, wasteful woman!-she who may On her sweet self set her own price, How has she cheapened Paradise! Had made brutes men, and men divine! 715. Channing's My Symphony: No. 715 of the Open Questions asks for a poem entitled My Symphony, by Channing, in accordance with which I enclose a copy, but it has not the form of verse. I believe it was never written in the form of verse but has frequently been published in illuminated text as a wall-card. That might give the impression of its being a poem.-Angie E. Badger, Northfield, Vt. [Similar answers, giving the author as William Henry Channing, are received from Charles L. Hincke, Parker, Colo.; H. Z. Morgan, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Mrs. E. E. Money, Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Clare Hart Nichols, Yonkers, N. Y.; C. W. Beaumond, Jr., Denison, Tex.; May E. Searle, Stouchsburg, Pa.; Mrs. C. Stuart, New York City; Willard E. Weller, South Boston, Ind., and an anonymous correspondent, Nashville, Tenn. The enclosures are held for the correspondent who made the inquiry. Thanks to all these.] 716. German Watchman's Song: On page 639, Question 716, your correspondent asks for the German Watchman's Song beginning Hark ye neighbors, etc. I find the song in Favorite Poems from English and American Authors; edited by Elmo: Chicago and New York, 1885. More than fifty years ago this song was set to music in an early edition of the Christian Psalmist used by the Christian denomination, it being a favorite at the singing schools in what was then called the West. I send the song to you if you wish to publish it for your correspondent.-I. R. [We hold the poem for the one who asked for it, with thanks to this correspondent, and to Anna J. Grimshaw, Malvern, Pa., who also sends a copy, and to E. F. Joyce, M. D., Sonora, Cal., who offers to send one.] |