The Dead Mens Song

A free download from www.dertz.in

Project Gutenberg's The Dead Men's Song, by Champion Ingraham
Hitchcock
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Dead Men's Song
Being the Story of a Poem and a Reminiscent Sketch of its Author
Young Ewing Allison
Author: Champion Ingraham Hitchcock
Release Date: September 17, 2006 [EBook #19273]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEAD
MEN'S SONG ***
Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, David Newman and
the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
OF THIS LITTLE VOLUME TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY
COPIES HAVE BEEN MADE
YOUNG EWING ALLISON
--_A REMINISCENCE_
[Illustration: _Photograph By Cusick._
Young Ewing Allison]

"The man who wrote such a poem should not be unknelled, unhonored
and unsung."
--_Walt Mason._
THE DEAD MEN'S SONG:
BEING THE
STORY OF A POEM AND A REMINISCENT
SKETCH
OF ITS AUTHOR
YOUNG EWING ALLISON
TOGETHER WITH A BROWSE THROUGH OTHER
GEMS
OF HIS AND RECOLLECTIONS
OF OLDER DAYS
BY
HIS FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE
CHAMPION INGRAHAM HITCHCOCK
_Incorporated with which are Facsimiles
of Certain Interesting
Manuscripts_
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
1914
COPYRIGHT BY CHAMPION INGRAHAM HITCHCOCK
1914
IN THESE PAGES
A WORD SAID BEFOREHAND
Explaining How a Certain "Chap" Lost His Temper and Found It Again
Very Quickly.

DERELICT, By Young Ewing Allison
A Reminiscence of Stevenson's "Treasure Island" Based On the
Quatrain of Captain Billy Bones.
PICTURING THE INDIVIDUAL
With Some Observations About A Man Whom I Have the Honor to
Call Friend.
MAN AND NEWSPAPER MAN
A Peep Into Personal Records of the Past With Some Comments of a
Current Nature.
JUST BROWSING AROUND
Excursions Into the "Higher Altitudes" With Something About the
Books Up There.
IN THE OPERATIC FIELD
Being a Look Behind the Scenes With Some Glimpses of a Pursuing
Jinx.
BALLAD OF DEAD MEN
The Same Being Mostly About Able Pirates And the Very Able
Descendant of a Pirate.
IF THERE IS CONTROVERSY!
Just a Few Bits From the Olden Days With Some Comment On a
Certain Critic.
SOME CLIPPINGS--AND A LETTER
Which Tells How One Who Did Not Know Set Himself Up As a
"Chanty" Authority.

YO-HO-HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM
Discussed As a Chanty Entertainingly By a Mariner and With a
Deep-Sea Flavor.
SUPPLEMENTING _the_ TEXT
YOUNG EWING ALLISON (By Cusick) _Frontispiece._
A "Sitting" for Which Photograph Forms A Story Known Only to This
Writer.
DERELICT _Illuminating the Poem_
Facsimiles of the Original Illustrations in _Rubric_ (Vol. 1, No. 1, 1901)
to Which Certain Piratical Tints Have Been Added.
"A TEMPTING BAUBLE"
Said "Bauble" Being a Check (to Cover the Cost of a Certain Book)
Which Allison Returned in a Frame With a Few Comments of His
Own.
YOUNG E. ALLISON (By Wyncie King)
_Louisville Herald_ Demon Caricaturist's Conception of a Pirate's Poet,
With a Cigarette Replacing the Customary "Stogie."
THE INFALLIBLE (By Charles Dana Gibson)
A "Type" in Every Old Daily Newspaper Office, Reproduced from
_Century_ (October, 1889), Illustrating "The Longworth Mystery."
BOOK OF "THE OGALLALLAS"
Being a Facsimile (Slightly Reduced) of the Cover of Allison's First
Opera Pursued and Captured By a Jinx.
FROM THE OLD "PROMPT" BOOK

Page (slightly reduced) From "The Mouse and the Garter," Showing
Allison's Characteristic Penciled Notations.
"A PIRATICAL BALLAD" (Words and Music)
Facsimile in Miniature of the First Printed Verses of "Derelict"
Published and Copyrighted by William A. Pond & Co., 1891.

Together With Certain Letters and Memoranda, Proofs, Mss., etc.,
About "Fifteen Dead Men," in Facsimile of Young E. Allison's
Characteristic Handwriting, which are to be Found in a "Pocket" in the
Inside Back Cover of This Volume.
A WORD SAID BEFOREHAND
If a careless and uninformed writer in _The New York Times Book
Review_ had not hazarded the speculation in his columns that it was
very doubtful if Young Ewing Allison wrote the famous poem "Fifteen
Men on the Dead Man's Chest," the creation and perfection of which
took him through a period of about six years, the idea of undertaking a
sketch of him and the stuff he has done might never have occurred to
me. While not exactly thankful to the New York editor, I have
abandoned a blood-thirsty raid on his sanctum and a righteous
indignation has been dissipated in the serene pleasure I have found in
expressing an appreciation of Allison's genius in this private volume for
our friends. God bless the Old Scout! In all of our intimate years there
has been such a complete understanding between us that spoken words
have been largely unnecessary, and so the opportunity of saying
publicly what has ever been in my heart, is a rare