ss was largely due to his
ability to present homely phases of life in the
Hoosier dialect. "The Raggedy Man" is a good
illustration of this skill. In his prime Mr.
Riley was an excellent oral interpreter of his
own work, and his personifications of the
Hoosier types in his poems in recitals all over
the country had much to do with giving him an
understanding body of readers. He had much of
the power in which Stevenson was so
supreme--that power of remembering accurately
and giving full expression to the points of
view of childhood. The perennial fascination of
the circus as in "The Circus Day Parade"
illustrates this particularly well. "The
Treasures of the Wise Man" represents another
class of Mr. Riley's poems in which he
moralizes in a fashion that makes people
willing to be preached at. It may be said very
truly that most of his poems have their chief
attraction in enabling older readers to recall
the almost vanished thrilling delights of
youth, but poems that do that are generally
found to interest children also.

THE TREASURES OF THE WISE MAN[1]

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

O the night was dark and the night was late,
And the robbers came to rob him;
And they picked the locks of his palace gate,
The robbers that came to rob him--
They picked the locks of his palace gate,
Seized his jewels and gems of state,
His coffers of gold and his priceless plate--
The robbers that came to rob him.

But loud laughed he in the morning red!--
For of what had the robbers robbed him?--
Ho! hidden safe, as he slept in bed,
When the robbers came to rob him,--
They robbed him not of a golden shred
Of the childish dreams in his wise old head--
"And they're welcome to all things else," he said,
When the robbers came to rob him.

304

THE CIRCUS-DAY PARADE[1]

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Oh, the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!
And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes, and neighed,
As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time
Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!

How the grand band-wagon shone with a splendor all its own,
And glittered w