A Spray of Kentucky Pine

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Title: A Spray of Kentucky Pine
Author: George Douglass Sherley
Release Date: January 28, 2005 [eBook #14821]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A
SPRAY OF KENTUCKY PINE***
E-text prepared by David Garcia and the Project Gutenberg Online
Distributed Proofreading Team from digital images generously made
available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library
Note: Images of the original pages can be seen online at the
Kentuckiana Digital Library (http://kdl.kyvl.org/
)
A SPRAY OF KENTUCKY PINE
--Placed At The Feet Of The Dead Poet--
--James Whitcomb Riley--
By The Hand
Of the Man From
Down On The Farm--
--George
Douglass Sherley

--On The Banks
Of Wolf Run--
--1916--
Second Edition
From Ye Olden Printe Shope--
--James M. Byrnes, Esquire--
On Ye
Long Highway
Called Shorte in Ye Goodly
Towne Of Lexington
Kentucky
The Inscription Two-fold
To The Dead:
Reverently Inscribed
--To the Indiana-Born
World-Wide Poet--
--James Whitcomb Riley--
--This Spray Of Kentucky Pine--
To The Living:
Also Lovingly Inscribed
By The Man From Down

On The Farm To The
Dear Lady Here On The
Banks Of Wolf Run
--His Mother--
On Grateful Commemoration
Of Her Eighty-Fifth Birthday
August 20, 1916
The Prelude
--A Note Explanatory--
With James Whitcomb Riley,
some years ago. This Man From Down
On The Farm,
made a Reading Tour, of--in Population--more than

one-half of this Imperial Republic, including
the Cream of the
Canadian Provinces.
Of that Tour, at some other time, in some more

leisurely hour, he desires, if able, to make
a full and faithful
Record.
This, is but a humble Spray of Kentucky Pine,
placed at the

feet of the Dead Poet!
According to a long established Custom,
the Man, in some way, in
private print--
--for the Relative, for the Friend, for the Stranger too--
quietly Celebrates the various Red-Letter Days, of the
Dear Lady
Here, On the Banks of Wolf Run--his Mother!
Her full Restoration,
to her usual Good Health,
is a Source of much Joy, and the cause of
much Gratitude. The many Prayers made for her Recovery must have
been of
much avail before the Great White Throne, of Infinite Mercy!
He is also deeply grateful, that the nearness of her
Eighty-Fifth
Birthday, makes it possible for him,
to make an Inscription Two-fold,
for the Dead,
for the Living--for the Dear Poet, for the Beloved
Mother! The linking of their names together, under this Spray of

Kentucky Pine--culled by a hand most loving--is like
unto finding the
other half of a broken Chord, in some
Prelude Elusive: for James
Whitcomb Riley, deeply
endeared himself, to the Dear Lady Here,
while he and
her son were a long while away, on their Reading Tour.

Out of sheer Kindliness, out of Goodness of Heart, he often wrote to
her, delightful Letters of Good Cheer, filled with a charming detail,
with more than a trifle of over-Praise; all of which, is most acceptable,
to the heart of a too fond mother. Recently, from his Winter Home in
the South-land, he sent to her, in response to one of these Farm Bubbles,
a little
Bit of unpublished Verse, written before his hand had
failed
him, reproduced for her--and others--in fac-simile.
Pray deem it not, all too presumptuous, this humble
Spray of
Kentucky Pine!
It serves as a Reverent Tribute to the One!
As a
Loving Commemoration to the Other!
The Interlude
--Holding Two Telegrams And A Plea--
I.

When the word came that
James Whitcomb Riley was Dead
this
Telegram was sent to a near
Relative an astute Man of Affairs
who
with the Head of a Great Publishing
House--a Prime Favorite from

his early Boyhood of the Poet--held
his well-placed Confidence in all

matters concerning the necessary
material Things of Life.
The mightiest Monarch of the Indiana Forest
lies prone upon his
Native Soil!
This Man From Down On The Farm,
Reverently,
sends this humble Spray of Kentucky Pine,
as a Symbol, ever-green,
of his Lasting Love, for the Dead Poet: as a Symbol, made manifest, of
his deep Sympathy,
for You, for Yours.
II.
This Message was wired to a most
Gentle Lady who had meant
so
much in so many ways to
James Whitcomb Riley
appealing as she
did to the Best
to