Document text
Me SWenSUli 7—
701127
LIVING POLEMIC
OUTLINE:
TRAMP POET
I. alp's Glamour
1. Boyhood Recollections
a. First meeting with a tramp
2. Adolescense
a. The Byron Period
b. Cabin boy on the "Castle"
3. Cattleman on the "South Sea King"
a. "Shin's Glamour"
II. Riding the Rail
1. The "juhgles"
a. A Hobo Cook
2. The "Sallys"
b. Jerry MbConley
3. In jail for "burglary"
a. Cocaine songs
b. Bible ballads
4. "Perfection City"
5. In the Lion's Den
6. Stowaway to Europe
7. The Girl that married another Man.
TRAMP POET -2-
III. dine Cellar
1. 7igration to the Village
2. Tony and the Vine Cellar
3. Radic'l Movements in Bohenie
a. Ode to a 7i htinp.ale on the 5 -Year Plan
4. harry Kemp today
a. SuTnery Tr -nn nlus Poet
TRAMP POET
1. SHIP'S GLAMOUR
"There's one thim ear to boul, traflps and poets
and that's freedom," harry Kemp said. 1ith long -armed
gest res, he ranped about the large room as if it were a
stage. ,7,18 lounging robe and carpet slinT)ers gave him the
look of a rather youthful Sophocles in a toga. i loop of
straid4-colored hair fell into his eyes-- (his eyes are a
distant blue, scuinting slightly as if accustomed to strong
sunlight.)
"-s a boy, I always envied traps their fr edom---
1;ever :And the ashtray-- just flick it on the floor," he
interrupte, hi -self,-- "floor gets swept once in awhile..
-ere, wait a minute:" (striding tc shelf over th:, corner
sink) "I'll me ice us sore tca.' i-ic filled a ;(,:tzle i.ith water
and set it on an electric burner on the floor.
Kemp's studio at 64 :,ashihL!ton 3q. So. is a 1,,rge bare
two
4.c)11„..0
place like a deserted ballroom, the archway at one end,
boarded up between two pillars; two high windows, also
boarded up, at the other end, converted into bookshelves;
in one corner, an army cot behind a screen i Some boards
resting on trestles serve as a work table, which is heaped
with papers, files and writing materials-- the evidence of
a novel-- his latest work in progress. The floor is bare,
ANKimagoliftk as are the high, white -washed walls. The front
windows face the Square, a patch of green that is solace to
the eye, though decked with scrawny city trees. A poet, who
is also a men of action, must have space, and light, and
room enough to stride in, even When constrained to indoors....
"Freedom is the one iod I worship," Harry Kemp pro claimedt
kneeling beside the tea-pot. "Oh, I'm afraid I've let too much'
tea fail in---" A half-pacKage of tea had slipped into the pot,
while 4arry talked. "Never mind, we like it strong-- yes?*,
Virhile it's steeping, here's a ballade of mine-- something
I wrote the other day:
three
RECOLLECTION
...A BALLADE OF FORMER TRAMP -DAYS
THE CARS LAY ON A SIDING THROUGH THE NIGHT;
THE SCATTEREO YARD LAMPS WINKED IN GREEN AND RED;
I SLEPT UPON BARE BOARDS WITH SMALL DELIGHT,
MY PILLOW, MY TWO SHOES BENEATH MY HEAD;
AS HARD AS MY OWN CONSCIENCE WAS MY BED;
I LAY AND LISTENED TO MY OWN BLOOD FLOW;
OUTSIDE, I HEARD THE THUNDER COME AND GO
AND GLIMPSED THE GOLDEN SQUARES OF PASSING TRAINS,
OR FELT THE CUMBROUS FREIGHT TRAIN RUMBLING SLOW;
AND YET THAT LIFE WAS SWEET FOR ALL ITS PAINS.
AGAINST THE TRAMP THE LAWS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT,
SO OFTEN IN A CELL I BROKE MY BREAD
WHERE BAR ON BAR WENT BLACK ACROSS MY SIGHT;
ON COUNTY ROAD OR ROCKPILE ILL I SPED
LEG -CHAINED TO LEG LIKE MAN TO WOMAN WED,
MY WAGE FOR DAILY TOIL AN OATH, A BLOW;
I CURSED MY DAYS THAT THEY WERE ORDERED SO;
I DAMNED MY VAGRANT HEART AND DREAMING BRAINS
THAT THRUST ME DOWN AMONG THE MEAN AND LOW...
AND YET THAT LIFE WAS SWEET FOR ALL ITS PAINS('
I CREPT'EITH LICE THAT STAYED AND STAYED FOR SPITE;
I FROZE IN 'JUNGLES' MORE THAN CAN BE SAID;
DOES TORE MY CLOTHES, AND IN A WOEFUL PLIGHT
AT MANY A BACK DOOR FOR MY FOOD I PLED
UNTIL I WISHED TO GOD THAT I WAS DEAD....
MY SHOES BROKE THROUGH AND SHOWED AN OUTBURST TOE;
ON EVERY SIDE THE WORLD WAS ALL MY FOE,
THREATENING ME WITH JIBE AND JEER AND CHAINS,
HARD BENCHES, CELLS, AND WOE ON ENDLESS WOE
AND YET THAT LIFE WAS SWEET FOR ALL ITS PAINS.
BRIGHTER, IN FINE, THAN ANYTHING I KNOW
LIKE SUNSET ON A DISTANT SEA A -GLOW
MY CURIOUS MEMORY ALONE MAINTAINS
THE RICHER WORTH BENEATH THE WRETCHED SHOW
OF VAGRANT LIFE STILL SWEET FOR ALL ITS PAINS.
four
The tea was poured into two cracked mugs. Harry sippe
it appreciatively, and went on talking.
on _adyeiatur-e-}
"Books/gave me my first glimpse of the delights of
freedom. By the time I was eight —Am -my family lived in
at
Youngstown, Ohio,/that time-- I had read Stanley's "Adventure:3
in Africa" three times in succession, "Polar Explorations"
by Kane-- and I was especially fascinated by a book called,
"Savage 'aces of the World"— I ve forgotten the author's
name. I revelled and tolled in these books like a colt
let out to first pasture.
"Mother was a wonderfully impracticable woman-- and she
let me do as I pleased. It was really her doing that
ti
accounted for my early contagion, the wanderlust. One day,
I came home from school, to find a dirty old yellow-tiaired
tramp established in the ground floor of our house. He had
in the first place come to our backdoor to beg a handbut.
And sitting on the doorstep and eating, he had persuaded my
mother that if she nmata.would give him a place to locate
on credit, he knew a way to clear a whole lot of money.
His prospect for making money was the .selling of homemade k
five
hominy to the restaurants up in town.
"I found him squatted on the bare floor, with no furniture
in the room. He had a couple of dingy washboilers, Which he
had picked up fro rL the big garbage dump near the race tracks.
Day in and day out I spent my time with this tramp, listening
to his stories of pleasures and adventures of tramp life.
You know, I can see him still, wiping his nose on his ragged
coat sleeve as he vociferates.... When, one day, he disappeared,
leaving boilers, hominy and all behind, I missed his yarns
as much as mother missed the unpaid rent!
As I grew to love reading, I used to take my books into
the fields, into the hills, or if it was raining, into the
haymow-- anywhere out-of-doors. I'd read, while walking-- and
I liked walking on grass, or on dirt roads, rather than pave-
ments. I'd lie belly -down in grassy ditches, reading Jack
London, or Stevenson, or Scott-- or I'd lie on the side of
a hill in the sun, until I'd be baked a rusty brown-- the
sun pouring down on the dog-eared pages. While mother kept
me in school, I couldn't actually,become a 'Kit' or -a 'Treasure
Island Jim,— so I began imagining myself as such characters--
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and the next step was writing about them-- a sort of
wish fulfillment in the face of lack of real adventure.
When I was fourteen, I had written two "novels"-- both
thrillers and in first person-- I was the hero of both, of
course-- and some buccaneer ballads. "Buccaneer Days" was
‘141
a ballad written When I was about
THERE WERE A HOST OF GALLEONS IN THE WILD
SEA DAYS OF YORE
WHOSE SPACIOUS HOLDS WERE HEAVY -WOMBED WITH
TONS OF SUNNY ORE.
THEIR ADMIRALS, PRIMAL -HEARTED MEN, WHO CUT
MEN'S THROATS WITH TEARS,
WORE RAINBOW SASHES ROUND THEIR LOINS AND GOLD
RINGS IN THEIR EARS,
AND FOR THE ENGLISH BUCCANEERS THEY KEPT A
WEATHER EYE
AS THE GAUNT AND SAVAGE WOLF HOLDS WATCH FOR
THE EAGLE FROM THE SKY.
OH BRAVE SIR WALTER RALEIGH, HE WHO CRUSHED
THE §PANISH POWER,
THE 'GREAT _QUEEN KISSED HIM AT THE COURT AND
KILLED HIlv IN THE TOWER,
THE CAPTAINS AND THS AMOWASMIRALS, SOME STRANGLED
'NEATH THE FOAM,
AND SOME WERE BURIED WITH ACCLAIM AND ELEGY AT
HOME.
ABOVE THEIR FINAL DWELLING PLACE A VISORED FIGURE
LIES
WITH PIOUS JLATIN EPITAPH AND HANDS CROSSED
CHRISTIANWISE.
THE FLEET SHIPS, HAVING KNOWN THEIR TIMES,
ROTTED IN BIGHT AND BAY, 0
OR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA-- AND NAUGHT
REMAINS TODAY
OF THE FIRST GREAT YOUTH OF ENGLAND AND THE
HAUGHTY PRIME OF SPAIN BUT THE BROKEN BOLT, A BLUNDERBUSS, AND A GRIN-
NING SKULL OR TWAIN,
seven
"I don't know just when the transition occured, but
suddenly, tamitasuizalmittpiangtaantaiaalkisamettrx I discovered I'd
had my fill of boy -adventure stuff; instead of Kipling and
Stevenson, I was reading 3yron, Shelley and Keats. ijome-
Where, I got hold of a copy of Byron's "Hours of Idleness"
and it made a changed man of me. I remember the fronts
piece to the book was a portrait of Ansii the young Byron,
with flowing tie and open shirt. Much as a devout Catholic
wears a gold cross around his neck to signify his belief,
so with like devoutness,. I took to wearing my shirt open at
the neck and a loose flowing black tie. And I ruffled my
hair in the Byronic style. My writing began to take on a
more delecate lyrical Aim= tinge, such as:
Young Man's Song
0 Time has lightning in its wing
And pleasure is a fragile thing
That breaks in clutching; beauty's face
Carries a skull behind its grace:
Then where's a better reason why
I should love beauty ere it die,
Lift brighter torches in the night
And seize on joy in time's despite?
eight
The poet grew up with the tramp, and the tramp with
the poet... When Harry Kemp was sixteen, he ran away to sea,
shipping as cabin boy on the German ship, "Castle", bound for
Australia. A ballad of his, "The Endless Lure" celebrates
this first real adventure:
THE ENDLESS LURE
WHEN I WAS A LAD, I WENT TO SEA
AND THEY MADE A CABIN BOY OF ME.
/YO HO, HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES/
WE'D HARDLY PUT OUT FROM THE BAY
WHEN MY KNEES SAGGED IN AND MY FACE TURNED
GREY;
SO I WENT TO THE CAPTAIN AND I EMPLCRED
THAT HE'D LET THE PILOT TAKE ME ABOARD,
AND FETCH ME BACK TO THE LAND AGAIN
WHERE THE EARTH WAS SURE FOR THE FEET OF MEN...
BUT THE CAPTAIN, HE LAUGHED OUT STRONG, AND
SAID,
'YOU'LL FOLLCW THE SEA, LAD, TILL YOU'RE DEAD;
FOR IT GETS US ALL-- THE SKY AND THE FOAM
AND THE WAVES AND THE WIND,-- TILL A SHIP SEEMS
HOME.'
WHEN I SHIPPED AS AN A. B. BEFORE THE MAST
I SWORE EACH VOYAGE WOULD BE MY LAST...
WAS ALWAYS VOWING, AND MEANT IT TOO,
THAT I'D NEVER SIGN WITH ANOTHER CREW..,
YOU TELL ME 'THE CASTLE' IS OUTWARD BOUND,
AN OLD SKY -SAILOR, FOR FUGET SOUND?
'TGO OLD:'... BUT I KNOW THE SEA LIKE A
BOOK...
WELL, I'VE HEARD THAT YOUR 'OLD MAN' NEEDS A
COOK1...
YES, I COULD RUSTLE FOR TWENTY MEN..,
SO, GOD BE PRAISED, YOU CAN USE ME, THEN?...
OH, THERE'S ONLY A FEW YEARS LEFT FOR ME,
AND I WANT TO DIE, AND BE BURIED AT-- 8E041
nine
"When I had any spare time, washing pots, and
mopping decks," Harry relates, "I used to lie in the net
under the bowsprit and read. From there I could look back
on the entire ship, as ailed ahead, every sail spread.'
a magnificent sight.
"One day, while I lay in the sun reading Virgil, there
came a great surge of water heaving into the net, drenching
me to the skin. I leaped up, bouncing like a circus acrobat
in the net, and the book fell out of my hand into the sea.
I looked up and saw fully one half the crew grinning down at
me. The first mate stood over a bucket which still dripped
water-- that showed me where the 'wave' had come from.
'That in hell d'ye think yer doin?" he snarled at me.
'I'm-- I'm thinking,'I stammered. 'Thinkin'll never make a
sailor out c'yerte the mate grwoled. 'Get below decks and
clean up the hold!" And, of course, I 'got'.
"But out of the way of the first mate's boot, I still
found time, between peeling spuds and waiting on the captain's
table, to experiment with some sea chantey. Some of these
ten
if/
have been published inlvolume called "Chanteys and Ballads"
The following are typical:
Going Down in Ships
Going down to sea in ships
Is a glorious thing,
Where up and over the rolling waves
The seabirds wing;
Oh, there's nothing more to my heart's desire
Than a ship that goes
head-on through marching seas
With streaming bows;
Would you hear the song of the viewless winds
As they walk the sky?
Come down to sea when the storm is on
And the men stand by.
Would you see the sun as it walked abroad
On God's First Day?
Then come where dawn makes sea and sky
A gold causeway.
Oh, it's bend the sails on the black cross -yards
For the day dies far
And up a windless space of dusk
Climbs the evening star...
llow there's gulf on foaming gulf of stars
That lean so clear
That it seems the bastions of heaven
Are bright and near
And that, any moment, the topmost sky
May froth and swim
With an icredible bivouac
Of seraphim...
0 wide -flung dawn, 0 mighty day
And set of sun:
0 all you climbing stars of God,
0 lead me on:
Oh, it's heave the anchor, walk and walk
The capstan 'round
Far out I hear the giant seals
World -murmuring sound%
eleven
The Chantey of the Cook
Dithyramb of a Discontented Crew
The Devil take the cook, that old, greybearded fellow,
Yo ho, haul away'.
Who feeds us odds and ends and biscuits whiskered yellow.
(And the home port's a thousand miles away.)
The Devil take the cook, that dirty old duffer,
Yo ho, haul away!
'ac day he makes the captain fatter and bluffer,
(But we'll have to eat hardtack for many a day.)
The ohip-biscuit's mouldy and the spuds we get are rotten,
Yo ho, haul away:
41d the tinned goods that's dished up is seven years forgotten
Yo ho, haul away!
And each, in his heart, has marked the cook for slaughter,
(And it won't do him any good to pray).
For the coffee's only chickery half -soaked in luke-warm water,
Yo ho, haul away!
It's cut on your best ilims duds and join the delegation;
Yo ho, haul away:
We're aft to ask the captain for a decent ration,
(And to drop the cook at Botany Bay...)
Look.here, you cabin boy, what has set you laughin'?
Yo ho, haul away:
Don't tell us no lies or we'll clout your ears for dhaffin'
For we're not a lot of horses that can live on hay.
What's this you're tellin't Is it plum duff and puddin'?
Yo ho, haul away'.
Why not make it roast beef End let it be a good 'un?
For plum duff and rum's not a feast for every day.
Oh, it ain't the cok's fault that we eat one day in seven.
Yo ho, haul awayt
It's the owners of the ship-- may they never set to heaven
(No matter how hard they pray.)
Its the owners of the ship that give us met that's yellow,
Yo ho, haul away'.
And after all the cook's a mighty decent fellow
(Though we'll have to eat rotten grub for many a day.)
0 Lord up in heaven, when their souls and bodies sever,
Yo ho, haul away:
May the owners squat in hell gnawing at salt -horse forever
And the-Willit that they give us every day....
L.
twelve
Excepting for one thing, 0 Lord God in heaven,
Yo ho, haul awayt
Don't let them hpve no plum duff one day in seven,
(All together with great vigor)
But forever and forever and unto eternity the
truck that we're fed on every day, Amen:
A Sailor's Life
Oh, a sailor hasn't much to brag
An oilskin suit and a dunhae bag.
But, howsoever humble he be,.
Tly the Living God, he has the seat
The long,. White leagues and the foam of it,
And the heart to make a home of it,
On a ship that kicks up waves behind
Through the blazing days and tempests blind.
Oh, a sailor hasn't much to love--
3ut he has the huge, blue sky above,
The everlasting waves around,
That wash with an eternal sound.
So bury me, when I come to die,
Where the full -sailed, heeling clipers ply;
Give up the last cold body of me
To the only home that I have-- the seat
In his introduction to the book, "Chanteys and Ballads"
Harry Kemp wrote:
"It was in my youth, before my twenties, at a time when
I was thoroughly mad for life and whetted keen in every nerve
for picaresque adventure and a man's romance at sea, that
I went through the varied experiences from which finally
sprang these songs and ballads....
"And still the Shine and Heave of the sea itself
overpowers me the same as of old-- the beloved ocean pouring
thirteen
in tremendously from all its sour horizons. Again I feel
the way seamen feel and act. Again there comes to me the
breathing night full of gulfs of over -leaning st4rs... those
wide dawns and sunsets with no land in sight, that are a spirit-
ual experience in themselves.., again there comes to me richly
the strange, inarticulate growth of soul and heart and mind
that intiLate experience of sea and sky brings to them who
learn and love the life of those who go down to sea in ships..0
again i find the immortal meaning of it all...."
The Australian voyage over, Kemp joined the crew of
a cattle ship, "South Sea King", bound for China. The ship
plied thEough Southern waters, and for one thole summer,
the weather was sullen and stiffling hot; the *hole craft
heN..
stank from the pent cattle in/tii hold, and the crew sweated
and fought against the onslaught of vermin; work was heovy
and grub was scarce-- but out of the whole voyag e, Kemp
remembers best an incident of cool beauty, such as the sea,
with all its relentless hardships, can never fail to invoke:
"It was one unforgettable summer dawn, we were rounding
the Cape of Good Hopespetattkintitammemitill It was
just before daylight, and foggy. I was on deck, and it looked
like that prow was cutting its way like a steel knife through
fourteen
a loaf of cheese, the fog was so dense. Then like a miracle
the mists began to lift, veil after veil, and let the sky througi.
And the sky was a delicate coral color from the rising sun
it was gorgeous-- it was like music m7de visible. We sighted
the flag ship "Shaftsbury", an English. vessel, off starboard;
nd through the slowly dispersing fog, came the faint tinkle
of her warning bell. The "South 3ea King" answered on a deep
toned dignified note. There was something so poignant and
beautiful about the sound, that, standing alone, bundled in
my oilskins, on the vacant deck strera.hed with brine and shining
in the sun, I thrilled to the wonder -nu the infinite mysticism
of the sea.
gilt Ten years later, on a winter night in Provincetown,
I was sitting alone in my shack there, reading by kerosene
lamp. The windows were sighing against a strong wind. The
wind must 12,7ve touched a row of riots hung on the rough log
wall outside, and clinked them together, because out of that
dark cold night was born an c -;,:t incrnatiofl of hie sound of
faintly shi2s -)ells, invoking for me the identical mood
of that brilliant summer dawn at sea off Good Hope.
fifteen
I picked up a pencil and wrote4*ShiT's Glamour". The first
version never needed revision."
Ship' s Glamour
Mien there wakes any wind to shake this place,
This wave -hemmed atom of land on Which I dell,
My fancy conquers time, condition, space,—
trivinl sound begets a miracles
night there walked a wind, and, through chink,
It 1:icte one pan upon another clink
Ziere each hung close together on a nail
Then fantasy put forth her fullest sail;
A dawn that never dies came back to me:
I heard two silio's bells echoinj, far at seat
As perfect as a poet dreams a star,
It was a full-rigged ship bore down the wind,
Piled upward with white -crowding spar on spar:
The wonder of it never leaves my mind.
We passed her moving proudly far at sea;
ITiEAt was not vile yet gone, nor day begun;
She stood, a phantom of sheer loveliness,
Against he first flush of an ocean dawn;
Then t the elevation of the sun,
Her ship's bell faintly sounded the event,
While ours with a responding tinkle went.
The beauty life evokes, outlasting man,
It fills my world from sea to sky again;
it opens on me like mk a shining scroll
The ghost of God that ever haunts the soul'.
TRAMP POET
RIDING THE RAILS
I'VE DECKED THE TOPS OF FLYING CARS
THAT LEAPED ACROSS THE NIGHT;
THE L(NG AND LEVEL COACHES SKIMMED
LOW, LIKE A SWALLOW'S FLIGHT.
CLOSE TO THE SLEET -BIT BLINDS I'VE CLUNG
ROCKING ON AND ON;
ALL NIGHT I'VE CROUCHED IN EMPTY CARS
THAT RODE INTO THE DAWN,
SEEING THE RAVELLED EDGE OF LIFE
IN JAILS, ON ROLLING FREIGHTS
AND LEARNING ROUGH AND READY WAYS
FROM ROUGH AND READY MATES.
Home from China, Harry Kemp paid a visit to his home,
--Aammigammx4m4mmm his family having moved, in the meantime,
to Kansas. Retanistng He agreed, after much persuasion by
his father, to take a turn at High 3chool, hut aftet two
fe'irs the lure of the wanderer claimed him again. He made
a trniup on foot through the ,.Ienessee Valley, a copy of
Christina liossetti-- his latest love-- in his pocket. -ihen
fall came, Harry took to riding the rails, and his career
as S the Hobo Poet beganjitneams***4.
"1 ally bA0dy, a short thick -set Scandinavian, were
both "gaycats"-- that is tramps, not above doing occasional
work while in transit on the read -41141j4otned the_tara-heutdx-
during haying time, or picke a week or two of bed and board
in return for harvesting the fall crop of fruit. Together,
weJIMMIR drifted along the seacoast South to San Diego, back
again to Santa Barbara, then sauntered over to San Bernardin0--
San Berdu, as the tramps call it.
"Chuck Hanson advised me not to worry about lice. 'You'll
get used to 'em, not feel 'em biting at all.' All you have to
DO IS 'BOIL UP' ONCE IN A WHILE'-- THAT IS TAKE OFF YOUR
CLOTHES AND BOIL THEM, A PIECE AT A TIizE, TO KILL THE VERMIN: ---Al
THESE AND OTHER PERSONAL CHORES THE wELL-GROOMED TRAMP RIMMAX
MORE OR LESS REGULARLY PERFORMS, WERE USUALLY ATTENDED TO 11-14*
STOP-OVERS IN CAMPS AND JUNGLES. IT WAS HERE I LEARNED TO
SHAVE WITH THE AID OF A BROKEN BIT OF WHISKEY GLASS. THE
TOUGHEST METHOD OF SHAVING I EVER SAw,THoUGH, WAS WI -/EN ONE
OLD VETERAN OF THE ROAD RUBBED ANOTHER'S FACE WITH THE ROUGH
SIDE OF HALO BRICKJ
US
"TRAVELING ALONG WITH PS444,4** THAT SECOND SUMMER, WAS
A FAT RUDDY -FACED ALCOHOLIC EX -COOK-- THE PRESIDING GENIUS OF
THE GANG. HE SIMPLY LOVED TO COOK. ON DAYS WE WERE IN JUNGLE,
HE WOULD JUMBLE UP ALL THE MIXABLE PORTIONS OF FOOD WE HAD
BEGGED OR STOLEN INTO A BIG TIN WASHBOILER, WHICH HE HAD RESCUED
FROM THE DUMP OUTSIDE OF TOWN. HE STEWED UP QUITE A PALATABLE
MESS WHICH HE CALLED 'SLUM' OR 'SLUMGULLION.' FOR PLATES WE
USED OLD TOMATO CANS HAMMERED FLAT; FOR KNIVES AND FORKS, OUR
FINGERS, POCKET KNIVES, OR CHIPS OF WOOD.
'ONE AFTERNOON, OUR LEADER AND COOK MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED,
AND RETURNED xadislawas ROLLING A WHOLE BARREL OF BEER INT
CAMP, WHICH HE HAD STOLEN DURING THE PREVIOUS NIGHT FROM T
BACK CF A SALOON AND HIDDEN IN THE NEARBY BUSHES. NEEDLESS
To SAY, THERE PiAS A ROARING GOOD TIME THAT NIGHT, AND SEVERAL
FIGHTS.... 'SLOPPING UP' /6 THE TRAMP TERM FOR GETTING DRUNK.
'SUMMER TIME IS NO CINCH FOR THE BINDLESTIFF, BUT WHEN
COME ALONG
THE COLD DAYS OF AUTUMN RIALIAXIA44AJWI*, THEN HIS TROUBLES
REALLY BEGIN, ON CHILLY NIGHTS WE PUT Up AT THE FREIGHT YARDS,
CRAWLING INTO SOME EMPTY BOX CARS, THE MORE Oh ONE CAR4 THE
BETTER, FOR THE ANIMAL HEAT OF OUR BODIES SERVED TO ALLAY THE
COLD.
ALL OF US ONCE IN AND BEDDED, THE INTERIOR OF THAT
BOX CAR WOULD SOUND LIKE), SCOTCH BAGPIPES ADRONE WITH SNORING,
GRUNTING, MUTTERING SLEEPERS, THE AIR OF COURSE4SICKENINGLY
THICK, BUT TO OPEN A SIDE &OAF MEANT TO LET IN THE COLD.
II REMEMBER ONE NIGHT, CHUCK AND I, HAVING BEEN UP IN
TOWN, ARRIVED AT OUR FREIGHTYARD HOTEL VERY LATE. THE GANG
WAS ASLEEP TO THE LAST MAN. WE QUIETLY CRAWLED IN, DREW OFF
OUR SHOES AND PUT THEM UNDER OUR HEADS TO SERVE As PILLOWS,
AND AT THE SAME TIME TO KEEp THEM FROM BEING STOLEN. ki,vE MET
—T-Phillthwe--PrilreW-ertosAr
NINETEEN
TRAMPS WITH SUCH DEFT FINGERS THAT THEY COULD UNTIE A MAN'S
SHOES FROM OFF HIS FEET, WITHOUT WAKING HIM-- AND MAKE OFF
WITH THEM./ WELL, CHUCK AND I WRAPPED OUR FEET IN NEWSPAPERS,
REMOVED OUR COATS AND WRAPPED THEM AROUND US.
WE HAD
STRING OF,
JUST DOZED OFF, WHEN THE SIDE DOOR ChASHED BACK, AND A/CURSES
SHOT INTO OUR SLEEPY EARS. A.HALF DOZEN FLAT FEET STUCK THEIR
HEADS IN: A SHOT -GUN MUZZLE SPROUTING BESIDE EVERY HEAD.
ISITOO COLD OUT HERE,' ONE BIG BUY SHOUTED. 'WE GOT A NICE
WARM CALABOOSE WAITIN FOR YE--- COME ON-- OUT OF IT.'' SLEEPY
AND SULLEN,WE HAD TO CATCH UP OUR BUNDLES AND FOLLOw THE DICKS
TO THE STATION, TO BE BOOKED ON A CHARGE OF VAGRANCY, AND TOLD
TO &E,0* -190 BY DAWN.
AMAIMMXXXXIIIN IN MY DUFFLE BAG, BESIDE MY EXTRA PAIR
OR SOCKS AND A PAPER Jr SACK OF BREAD AND CHEESE OR OTHER TIDBIT,
ALWAYS CARRIED A SMALL VOLUME OR Two-- USUALLY SHAKESPEARE'S
PLAYS. ONCE OR TWICE, SHERIFFS WHO WERE. BENT ON ARREST/Lc ME
BECAUSE I HAD NO VISIBLE MEANS OF SUPPORT, LET ME GO BECAUSE IT
AWED THEM To FIND A TRAMP READING SHAKESPEARE. 'SHAME A CLEVER
LAD LIKE YOU BE/N' A BUM...THEY'D 6AY0
TWENTY
THE THING THEY DIDN'T REALIZE-- AND THAT MANY HAVE
FAILED TO REALIZE ABOUT ME-- IS THAT WHAT CLEVERNESS I HAD
AND HAVE, vkAS ACQUIRED BY JUST SUCH MEANS: wr ON ROLLING FREIGHTS,
ON
IN JAILS, MOW SHIPS AT SEA, FROM JUNGLE BUDDIES, AND ROUGH
FO'C'SLE COMPANIONS-- AND THAT I AM GLADDER FOR THESE THINGS
THAN FOR ALL THAT I HAVE SINCE LEARNED FROM CLASSROOMS AND FROM
/IN THE GLORY OF THE LONG ROAD WINDING, OR THE SILVER
RAILS GLEAMING, I FOUND MUCH OF THE SAME GLORY THAT HAD ENTHRALLED
ME WHEN AT SEA. I FOUND AMPLE TIME, WHILE SWINGING MY LEGS
RI ON A PILE OF STRAW,"
ABOVE THE HURTLING WHEELS, O OUNGING/OAINST THE WALL OF AN
'EMPTY', TO FASHION BALLADS OF THE RAILS. MANY OF THESE, HOWEVER,
GOT LOST WHILE IN PERILOUS TRANSIT FROM ONE JUNGLE TO ANOTHER,
TWENTY-ONE
AND ON SOME OCCASIONS, BEING SHORT OF NEWSPAPERS, I HAD TO
USE MY SCRIBBLED MANUSCRIPTS FOR FOOT -WRAPPINGS DURING THE
COLD SEASON.
HERE ARE TWO SONGS WRITTEN WHILE RIDING THE
RAILS, WHICH SOMEHOW WERE PRESERVED:
SONG OF THE FREIGHT CARS
THE SONG OF THE FREIGHT -CARS
RINGING AND SINGING ALC,NG THE RAIL
SINGING THE SONG OF THEIR TRAFFIC
AS THEY RIDE LIKE SHIPS IV A GALE;
MO, SHIPS IN THE WIND LIFT MUSIC
OF A SONG THAT IS ALL THEIR OWN
AND, CHANTING DOWN GROOVES OF METAL,
TO A MODERN SYMPHONY GROWN,
THE RHYTHMIC CARS HAVE VOICES 114441,41,WWWWWW
THAT THE MAN WHO RIDES THEM KNOWS,
WHILE THE TELEGRAPH POLES TO THEIR MUSIC
GO DANCING IN DERVISH ROWS...
'WE FORM CARAVANS NEVER -CEASING
THAT SHIFT ACROSS THE LANDS
•GRE4TER THAN BABYLON, BAALBEC,
AND FURTHER THAN SAMARKAND.
'THE CITIES WE LINK TOGETHER;
MORE VALUED THE FREIGHT WE LADE
THAN ALL THAT CAMELS CARRIED
FROM ANCIENT CITIES OF TRADE:*
THE SONG OF THE FREIGHT CARS RINGING
AND SINGING ALONG THE RAIL
'WE GRAPPLE UP SLEET-BL1ND SUMMITS
IN THE RUSH OF THE MONSTROUS GALE;
'WE SLOPE DOWN VISTAED VALLEYS,
SWEEP CHANTING FROM TOWN TO TOWN,
*BRINGING LARGER WEALTH THAN THE INDIES
TO WHICH POETS LENT RENOWN...
GREATER THAN KINGDOMS THE CITIES
WE SERVE WITH THE GOODS THEY NEED;
AND POPULATIONS SURPASSING WHOLE EMPIRES
OF OLD, WE FEED.
*WE COULD TUCK AWAY IN OUR CORNERS ALL THAT
BYGONE MERCHANTS BOUGHT
'YES, THERE'S SOMETHING IN JUST BIGNESS,
THOUGH THE ENVIOUS SAY THERE'S NOT:
ELSE THE FRET OF THE SEETHING ANT -HILLS
THAT THE STRAY HEEL PUTS TO ROUT
WOULD EQUAL THE STILL, GREAT RANGES
THAT THE SUNSET SITS ABOUT...
TWENTY-TWO
THE TRAINMEN RUNNING ALONG US
WITH THE THREE -WARD OATH FOR THEIR FEET,
AND THE TRAMPS THAT HID IN OUR EMPTIES
KNOW THE MELODIES WE REPEAT,
AND THE FOLK THAT WAKE AT MIDNIGHT
TO HARK AS WE RUMBLE BY
KEN OUR DIAPASONS OF TRAFFIC
THAT ROLL GRANDLY THROUGH THE SKY:.
THE SONG OF THE FREIGHT -CARS RINGING
8ND SINGING A WORD OF THEIR OWN
THAT THUNDERS DOWN GROOVES OF METAL,
TO A MODERN SYMPHONY GROWN:
FREIGHT -TRAIN FANTASY
THE TRAMP DIDN'T CARE WHICH NAY HE WENT
SO LONG AS HE WENT ALONG:
HE SAT ON THE TOP OF A ROLLING CAR;
THE WHEELS GROUND THEIR RHYTHMIC SONG;
FROM EAST TO WEST THE DAY WAS BRIGHT;
THE LITTLE TOWNS WERE FAIR;
THE GRASS AND THE TREES WAVED IN THE SUN;
THE HILLS WALKED, LARGE IN THE AIR;
AND THE ENGINE UNW UND, AS SOFT AS WOOL,
HER WIND -BILLOW SMOKE, LIRE HAIR:
THE HERDS OF CATTLt MOVED IN THE FIELD,
THE WORLD LOOKED GREAT AND KIND.
LIKE A SKIPPING CALF, THE LITTLE RED CABOOSE
BOUNDED ON BEHIND.
'OH, WHAT IS THAT BOV1A-DOIN' THERE, RIDING
SO FREE AND HIGH,
AS PLAIN TO SIGHT AS A MONUMENT
THAT STANDS UP IN THE SKY?
'GO KICK HIM OFF:' THE HEAD SHACK BADE,
'HIS NERVE HAS GONE TOO FARS'
THE ENGINE WHISTLED AROUND A BEND;
IT WAS SHINING LIKE A STAR.
'0, WHERE ARE YOU COIN' YOU NERVY BUM?'
THE JOCOSE BRAKIE CRIED
AND THE ANSWER THAT THAT HOBO GAVE
CAUSED THE CREW TO LET HIM RIDE...
THE BRAKIE DANCED BACK OVER THE BOARDS
BECAUSE THE DAY WAS FINE.
HE WATCHED THE RAILS GO SHINING BACK
LIKE GOLD LAID DOWN IN A LINE.
HE STOPPED AND IRIED A 4.EEL 'iui HI 110K,
oJJ')I ,0 H4 r17 TO Lo.
THE HEAD SHACK L(OKED FROM THE CUPOLA;
HE LAUGHED AND SAID TO THE CREW:
ti GUESS THAT BUM IS A CRAZY MAN;
AND 'JOE'S GONE CRAZY, TOO:
TWENTY...THREE
'COME IN HERE, AN' TELL THE GANG
WHAT THAT HOB SAIC TO YOU.'
'OH,' HE ANSWERED, 'I DON'T KNOW WHERE BOUND
OR WHERE I WANT TO GO
'BUT, PLEASE, MR. BRAKEMAN, DON'T KICK ME OFF
I'M ENJOYING THE LANDSCAPE SOS'
AMONG OTHER THINGS, HARRY TELLS US, IN HIS CAREER AS
A TRAMP -POET, HE BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH THE 'SALLYS0--
SALVATION ARMY STATIONS,' IN MOST OF THE PRINCIPLE; CITIES
OF THE UNITED STATES. HERE, AS IN THE JUNGLES, HE MET MANY
PICARESQUE CHARACTERS-- KNIGHTS OF THE OPEN ROAD...
c*AA111,014)
‘,JERRY MC CONLEY WAS A PROFESSIONAL BUM. HE USED TO
COACH THE NOV ICES THE ART
THE SHREWD USE OF PROFFERED
HOSPITALITY. THE SALVATION ARMY STATIONS WERE HIS MAIN
SCANeENGER HAUNTS, AND HE WAS WELL-KNOWN AT ALL OF THEM,
HE WOULD TAKE A BUNCH OF YOUNG PUNKS AND PARK THEM ON THE
'GOSPEL BENCH', PASSING THEM OFF AS HIS CONVERTS. THEY WERE
INSTRUCTED TO SIT FOR TWO OR MORE HOURS AND LISTEN TO THE DRONE
OF THE PREACHER, BEFORE THEY WOULD BE AWARDED A BED AND SUPPER,
FOR HIS VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES IA SOUL -SAVING, JERRY WOULD GET
A SUPPLEMENTARY PRIZE OF A PAIR OF SHOES, A SECOND-HAND OVERCOAT,
TWENTY -POUR
OR A SACK OF GROCERIES TO TAKE WITH HIM ON THE ROAD.
SO AMBITIOUS, AND HIS LITTLE RACKET THRIVED SO WELL THAT HE
FINALLY ACCUMULATED MANY EXTRA PAIRS OF OLD SHOES, COATS, SUITS,
SOCKS AND UNDERWEAR IN VARIOUS STAGES OF DETERIORATION*
THESE
HE KEPT IN HIS 'STOREHOUSE'-- A TIN -SHEETED HUT ON THE WATERFRONT,
OR UNDER THE RAILWAY EMBANKMENT. AND WHEN A PAL NEEDED A NEW
SOUP -AND -FISH, JERRY WOULD SUPPLY HIM IN RETURN FOR A FEW COINS,
A PINT OF ROT -GUT, A PARTNERSHIP IN A SWEEPSTAKE TICKET, OR THE
LOAN OF A WOMAN FOR THE NIGHT,
1AWHEN FINDING NO IMMEDIATE USE FOR HIS BOOTY, HE WOULD FAWN
IT, BUY WOW* LIAUOR, AND THEN THERE'D BE A BIG TIME WITH THE
BOYS 1N THE %JUNGLES. JERRY WAS A LITTLE TOO FOND OF THE BOTTLE*
I REMEMBER HIM DURING THE WINTER OF 1919, WHEN EVEN THE MISSIONS
WERE TOUGH PLACES TO GET A HANdbUT. HE WAS STRANDED IN MICHIGAN;
IT WAS NEAR CHRISTMAS; AND THIS TIME HE REALLY NEEDED A PAIR OF
SHOES. WELL, HE GOT HOLD OF THEM SOMEHOW, BUT HE PAWNER THEM. FOR
BOOZE, AND LATER THAT NIGHT, TURNED UP AT ANOTHER MISSION, DEAD
DRUNK, AND IN HIS STOCKING FEET. HE WEPT AT THE FEET OF THE
NICKED STATUE OF JESUS IN THE GOSPEL ROOM, REPENTED HIS SINS,
TWENTY-FIVE /22
AND COLLECTED ANOTHER PAIR OF SHOES--- AND WOULD YOU BELIE
IT, THE GUY HOBBLED IN AROUND DAYLIGHT, HIS FEET WRAPPED I
BURLAP, AND HE WAS SHIVERING WITH FEVER AND BUNG. -EYED WITH
THE DOT7S, HE SO FAR FORGOT HIMSELF AS TO 'CURSE HEAVEN AND
CALL THE HOLY GHOST A FEW UNCOMPLIMENTARY NAMES. THE MEN OF
GOD WHO RAN THE SALLY WERE SHOCKED AND INDIGNANT, THEY CALLED
THE COPS AND JERRY SPENT CHRISTMAS IN A CELL'” THEY BOOKED HIM
FOR DISORDERLY CONDUCT,
HE HAD DOUBLE PNEUMONIA AND NEARLY
DIED. WELL, JERRY GOT HELL SCARED INTO HIM THAT TIME, HE
REALLY TURNED A NEW LEAF, WE'D GO IN TO SEE HIM, AND HE'D BE
KNEELING ON THE CEMENT SAYING THE PRAYERS HE HAD LISTENED TO FOR
TWENTY YEARS IN THE SALLYS-- PRAYING IN EARNEST, MIND YOU,
.04,'GOD, IF ONLY YOU'LL GET MR OUT OF THIS, I'LL SERVE YOu THE
REST OF MY SINFUL LIFE. GOD, LET ME BE YOUR JOHN THE BAPTIST
_
FOR THE BUMS.
WHO'S To TAKE CARE OF THE POOR BUMS, GOD? I'LL
TAKE CARE OF I'LL SAVE EVERY LAST SON—OF—A—BITCHIN. ONE
OF ONLY GET ME OUT OF THIS. LISTEN TO JERRY, GOD.., I
MEAN IT, HONEST TO JESUS, I MEAN IT THIS TIME, GOD•so"
AND YOU KNOW, JERRY KEPT HIS WORD, HE SETTLED IN NEW YORK
ritmrr-st-
AND SET UP A MISSION OF HIS OWN IN THE BOWERY. HE'S STILL THERE
HE MAKES THE ROUNDS OF THE BACK DOORS ON THE AVENUES AND COLLEC
CLOTHES AND FOOD.“. HE KEEPS A SOUP KITCHEN, AND PAYS THE RENT ON
LOFT, WHERE TRANSIENTS CAN FLOP FOR TEN CENTS A NIGHT, OR IF THEY
HAVEN'T THE PRICE, THEY CAN FLOP FOR NOTHING, BY CONFESSING JESUS*
')SOMEHOW THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB MUST HAVE SEEPED INTO HIS VEIN'S
DURING ALL THOSE YEARS OF OUTSMARTING THE GOSPEL MONGERS, FOR WITH
EACH HANDOUT OF GRUB OR BED OR OLD CLOTHES, HE GIVES A GENEROUS
HANDOUT OF RELIGION... 'JESUS NEEDS FELLERS LIKE YOU,' HE'LL TELL
THE BOYS EARNESTLY. 'JOIN THE RANKS OF JESUS... LOOK AT ME 1 JESUS
SAVED ME.., I'M A LIVING SIGN FOR JESUS.• GLORY HALLELUJAH1..iimelt
A RATHER FLAGRANT INCIDENT IN TEXAS FUT A TEMPORARY END TO
HARRY KEMP'S TRAMPING.., HE WAS THROWN IN JAIL FOR BURGLARY. THE
CHARGE WAS A MISTAKEN ONE, BUT THAT DID NOT DETER THE LAW FROM
KEEPING HIM AND TWO OTHER HAPPY...60...LUCKIES IN A MOLDY, RAT —INFESTED
CELL FOR THREE MONTHS. THE BOYS HAD CREPT INTO A SEEMINGLY DESERTED
WAREHOUSE ONE CHILLY SPRING NIGHT, AND CUT OPEN SOME iim4wHzg OF GRAIN
TO USE THEIR CONTENTS AS A AOMMATRES8 FOR WEARY BONES. THE WATCHMAN
(1.440
Tiffiliar-.SEYEN
)4UV
WERE BUSY HANDLING THE eiff*rD, TOOK THEM FOR ROBBERS, AND THE OW
HAD THEM ARRESTED. THE TRIO WERE FINALLY FREED BY VIRTUE OF A
HEARTRENDING PLEA, t#454AXIXASICALSAALIZAANAAJUAIXAMMX WRITTEN BY
HARRY KEMP TO THE OWNER OF THE WAREHOUSE, ASKING HIM TO WITHDRAW
PROSECUTION PROCEEDINGS. IMPRESSED BY THE SURPRISING"' ERUDITENESS
OF THE YOUNG 'THIEF', VORIPAIMI AND ESPECIALLY SINCE THERE WAS INSUFFIC-
IENT EWIDENCE OF THEFT, THE MAN DID WITHDRAW HIS CHARGE.
WHILE IN JAIL, HARRY SAYS, THE THREE OF THEM DREW MODERNISTIC
MURALS mom ON THEIR WALLS AND CEILINGS, AND PAINTED THEM WITH
BEET JUICE, BLUE INK, AND YELLOW DIE OBTAINED FROM SOAKING ONION
SKINS. HE ALSO BEGAN COLLECTING JAIL AND GOCAINEA6ONGS ROM HIS
Wil7Mcr- Li
"Serriga=a351,66,0160.446E CELL -MA TES--. SONGS THEY HAD COMPOSED AND
=,111P
WOULD SING TO ONE ANOTHER FOR THEIllSOMBER AMUSEMENT. H//1E THEM
ON PIECES OF WRAPPING PAPER WITH WHICH THE %JAILOR OCOAS/IONALLY COVERED
THE FOOD BASKET IN LIEU OF NEWSPAPER. 'MOST OF THESE JAIL SONGS AND
BALLADS COULD ONLY BE PRINTED IN ASTER181f81-1111111110 HARRY EXPLAINS,
BUT HERE ARE TWO THAT ARE QUOTABLE:
OH, COCO.sMARIE, AND COCO....MARAI
I'SE GONTA SNIFF COCIAINE
T1WILL I DIE
HO.' (SNIFF) HO.' i6NIFF-P
BABY, TAKE A WHIFF OF ME:
(THE SNIFFING SOUND INDICATES THE SNUFFING UP INTO THE NOSTRIL OF
THE 'SNOW' OR 'HAPPY DUST' AS COC,AINE IS CALLED IN THE UNDERWORLD/
SONG ABOU, LICEooso
THERE'S A LICE IN JAIL
AS BIG AS.A RAIL
WHEN YOU LIE DOWN
THEY1LL TICKLE YOUR TAIL
HARD TIMES IN JAIL, POOR BOY...
ALONG COME THE JAILOR
ABOUT 'LEVEN O'CLOCK
BUNCH KEYS IN HIS RIGHT HAND
THE JAILHOUSE DOOR WAS LOCKID
'CHEER UP, YOU PRIS'NERS,'
I HEARD THAT JAILOR SAY /be,
'YOU GOT TO GO TO THE CANE7B44E*ItS
FOH NINETY YEAHS TO STAY'.'
WHEN HARRY WALKED OUT OF THE BIG HOUSE, AGAIN A FREE BUM,
HE CARRIED A BIG SCROLL OF WRAPPING PAPER WITH THE SONGS OF THE
CONFICTS
A
Itl SAT DOWN °NANO RAILROAD TIE AND TENDERLY TOOK A BROWN
PACKAGE OUT CF AN INSIDE POCKET... THE BROWN PAPER ON WHICH I HAD
INSCRIBED THE CURIOUS SONGS OF JAIL, COdiAINE, CRIMINAL AND PROSTITUTE
LIFE WHICH I HAD HEARD DURING THREE MONTHS SOJOURN BEHIND BARS.
A RAIN mr STORM BLEW UP .o. A HEAVY WIND MIXED WITH DRIVING WETo
TRENTr..MINE
THE FAST FREIGHT I WAS WAITING FOR CAME ROCKING ALONG,
I MADE A
RUN FOR IT IN THE RAPIDLY GATHERING DUSK. I GRABBED AR THE BAR ON
0 4
ONE SIDE AND MADE A LEAP FOR THE STEP, BUT MISSED WITH ONE FOOT,
LUCKILY CAUGHT ON WITH THE OTHER, OR MIGHT HAVE FALLEN UNDERNEATH..,
AND WAS ABOARD, MY ARMS ALMOST WRENCHED FROM THEIR SOCKETS.
NOT TILL
I HAD CLIMBED IN BETWEEN THE CARS ONTO THE BUMPERS, DID I REALIZE
THAT MY COAT HAD BEEN TORN OPEN BY THE WIND, AND MY MUCH VALUED
SONGS JOSTLED OUT....
AS FOR THE CREATIVE WRITING, KEMP DID WHILE HELD PRISONER
AS ALWAYS, HIS SUBJECT MATTER WAS INFLUENCED BY HIS READING, AND
THE ONLY BOOK HE COULD OBTAIN IN JAIL WAS THE BIBLE, SO HE READ THAT0
SUBSEQUENTLY OUT OF HIS FORCED INTIMATE STUDY OF OLD TESTAMENT
CHARACTERS AND ADVENTURES, HE WROTE A SERIES OF HALF-HUMOUROUS BIBLE
BALLADS. THE FOLLOWING TWO ARE TYPICAL:
THE CHANTEY OF NOAH AND HIS ARK
OLD FATHER NOAH, HE BUILT HIM AN ARK...
ROOFED IT OVER WITH HICKORY BARK.:
-OLD SCHOOL SONG
OH, NOAH WENT UP TO THE HILLS, A JUST MAN
AND A GOOD,
IY0 HO, LADS, THE RAIN MUST FALL),
HE BUILT AN ARK, THE GOOD BOOK SAYS, OF PITCH
AND GOPHER WOOD;
LAND THE WATER, IT TUMBLES OVER ALL/.
THE CHILDREN DANCED BEFORE HIM, AND THE GROWNUPS
LAUGHED BEHIND;
THEY THOUGHT THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG
WITH GOODMANVIOAH'S MIND...
AND WHEN THEY MET HIM COMING BACK FOR
NEEDMENTS AND SUPPLIES,
THE DANCING GIRLS AND DANCING MEN LEERED,
MOCKING, IN HIS EYES,
AND AS HE LEFT THE TOWN ONCE MORE AND SOUGHT
THE HILLWARD TRACK,
THE BOYS SENT SHOUTS AND WHISTLES SHRILL BEHIND
THE OLD MAN'S BACK.
OH, NOAH TOOK THE ANIMALS AND SAVED THEM, TWO
BY TWO;
THE ELEPHANT, THE LEOPARD, AND THE ZEBRA, AND
THE GNU,
THE GOOSE, THE OX, THE LION, AND THE STATELY UNICORN
THAT BREASTED UP THE GANGWAY WITH HIS SINGLE,
*JAUNTY HORN,
THE HIPPOGRIFF, THE ORYX,-- ALL CREATED THINGS, IN FINE,
TILL THE DIM PROCESSION STRAt,GLED FROM THE FAR
HORIZON LINE.
THERE WAS NEIGHING, SQUEALING, BARKING, THERE
WAS MANY A SNORT AND SQUEAK,
EVERY SOUND THAT GOD GIVES ANIMALS BECAUSE
THEY CANNOT SPEAK;
AND THEY WADDLED AND THEY STRADDLED, AND THEY
AMBLED, AND THEY RAN,
AND THEY CRAWLED AND TRAIPSED NVD SIDLED, EACH
ONE AFTER NATURE'S PLAN.
THERE WAS PATTERING OF HOOVES AND TOES AND LIFT
OF HAIRY KNEES
OH, IT WAS THE GREATEST CATTLEBOAT THAT EVER
SAILED THE SEAS,
THERE WAS NEVER ANY SHOWMAN EVER GAVE SUCH
A PARADE
AS THOSE BEASTS, THATVAINCO WENDED ARKWARD, FOR THE
GAPING PEOPLE MADE;
THU:Tr-ONE
NOAH AND HIS ARK 2
AND NOAH'S TOWNSMEN WISHED HIM WELL WHO
ONCE HAD WISHED HIM ILL
FOR THEY HOPED HE PLANNED A CIRCOS ON HIS
SOLITARY HILL
WHERE HE'D CHARGE SO MUCH ADMISSION AT THE
ARK'S RED-POSTERED DOOR
OFFERING SUCH A SHOW AS MANKIND NEVER SET EYES
ON BEFORE0.,
BUT THE SKY GREW DARK WITH THUNDER THROBBING
LIKE AN ANGRY DRUM
AND THE GAZERS SAW WITH TERROR THAT THE THING
THEY'D MOCKED HAD COME,
AND THAT WHAT HAD SEEMED A CIRCUS MARCHING
SLOWLY IN PARADE
WAS THE END OF ALL CREATION AND THE WORLD'S
LAST CAVALCADE,
OH, THE LIGHTNING DANGLED NEARER LIKE A MADMAN'S
RATTLING CHAIN...
AS AN ARMY MOVES TO BATTLE CAME THE GROWING
SOUND OF WAIN:
AND IT RAINED... AND RAINED.0. AND RAINED
AND RAINED... AS WE DO UNDERSTAND,
TILL THE EARTH riAS FILLED WITH WATER AND THERE
WASN'T ANY LAND:
OH, NOAH WAS A JUST MAN, A JUST MAN AND A
GOOD...
(Y0 HO, LADS, THE RAIN MUST FALL).
HE BUILT THE ARK, THE GOOD BOOK SAYS, OF
PITCH AND GOPHER WOOD,
(AND THE WATER, IT TUMBLED OVER ALL).
THIRTY...TWO
THE RHYME OF THE PRODIGAL
YOU'VE YOUTH AND A GIRL AND PLENTY OF GOLD,
WHAT MORE CAN YOUR HEART DESIRE?"
DID IT EVER CONTENT THE HEART OF YOUTH TO SIT
AT HOME BY THE FIRE?
I AM LEAVING HALF MY LAND TO YOU AND HALF OF MY
FLOCKS AND HERDS
AND I'D RATHER SHEPHERD ALIEN SHEEP AND LIVE
ON WHEY AND CURDS.
DON'T GO, DON'T GO, MY OWN LITTLE SON, AND
LEAVE ME ALL ALONE
WILL YOU NEVER REMEMBER L'M NOT A CHILD BUT A
YOUTH THAT'S NIGHT MAN -GROWN?
THINK OF YOUR BROTHER, YOUR ELDER BROTHER,
WOULD YOU LEAVE HIM ALL TO BEAR?
HE'S ONLY A BROTHER OF MINE BY BIRTH WHO
SELDOM SPEAKS ME FAIR,
AND I'VE HAD A DREAM, A WONDERFUL DREAM OF
BROTHERS THAT WAIT FOR ME,
MEN MADE BRETHREN BY PERILS BORNE TOGETHER ON
LAND AND SEA.
THINK OF YOUR MOTHER, YOUR OWN DEAR MOTHER,
AND PONDER WHAT IS BEST.
WOULD YOU TIE ME FAST TO AN APRON -STRING AND
MAKE ME A VILLAGE JEST?
YOUR PALLET IS FINE AND SOFT WITH WOOL AND YOU
SLEEP IN THE UPPER
AND i'D LIEFER BE IN A FO'C'SLE HOLD WHERE ONE
LAMP SWINGS IN THE GLOOM,
IN THE FO'C'SLE HOLD OF A GREAT -SAILED SHIP THAT
SUNDERS THE PURPLE SEA.
MY SON, MY SON, WILL YOU BREAK MY HEART TO
HAVE YOUR JEST WITH ME?-...
FATHER HAVING NO JEST WITH YOU, BUT I'M
EARNEST TO GO AWAY;
THERE'S SOMETHING THAT'S GRIPPING THE SOUL OF ME
THAT WILL NOT BIDE DELAY;
I HAVE DREAMED AND DREAMED FOR NIGHTS OF SEAS
THAT BREAK IN ALIEN FOAM
AND OF MAGIC CITIES THAT CLIMB AND CLIMB WITH
DOME ON GOLDEN D
AND I'D RATHER BE A GGAR THAT CRAWLS ALONG
SOME STRANGE, FAR STREET
THAN LIVING HERE WHERE I RISE EACH DAY TO SIT IN
THE SELFSAME SEAT,
TO L.OK IN THE FACE THAT IS ALWAYS THE SAME AT
THE STALE, FAMILIAR BOARD,
WHAT THOUGH THE GRANARIES BURST WITH CORN AND
THE WINE -.JAR BRIMS TO BE POURED:
THIRTY-THREE
RHYME OF THE pRODI;AL
_
MY LAD, I SEE THAT YOU WON'T BE MOVED, SO HERE
IS YOUR FATHER'S HAND,
AND WHENEVER YOU TIRE OF SHIPS AND PORTS AND
YEARN FOR THE GOOD HOME -LAND,
WEARIED TO DEATH OF THE WAVES THAT TOSS FOREVER
AND EVER ABOUT,
DOME HOME, SO RAGGED THE DOGS FORGET,-- AND
YOU'LL FIND THE LATCHSTRING OUT.,
2
AFTER STAY IN JAIL, KEMPFELT LIKE EXPERIENCING
THE LUXURY OF A FOUR-POSTER WITH CRISP WHITE SHEETS, AND A BATH WITH
PLENTY OF HOT WATER AND SOAP... SO HE LIT OUT FOR THE HOME ROOST.
FATHER
HIS ..1111111111~ WELCOMED HIM A BIT DUBIOUSLY, FOR THE NEWS OF HIS
DEGENERAITION HAD PRECEDED HIM, BUT HIS MOTHER, WHO MUST HAVE HAD
A STRAIN OF GYPSY BLOOD HERSELF, TOOK HIM BACK TO HER HEART WITH
TEARS. ON HIS WAY HOME, VIA RAIL, HARRY COMPOSED THE FOLLOWING
DESCRIPTIVE BALLAD OF HIS TRIP:
'Plmmmloommism
TNIRTYFOMR
THE RETURN
I HID BEHIND A SIDE. -TRACKED CAR UNTIL THERE
ECHOED CLEAR
AS A SIGNAL OF THE STARTING, TWO SHARP WHISTLES
ON MY EAR,
THEN, WITH A LONG, LABORIOUS GROAN THE FREIGHT
GOT UNDER WAY
AND PONDEROUS CARS WENT HULKING BY LIKE ELE—
PHANTS AT PLAY.
I GRIPPED AN IRON RUNG AND SWUNG ABOARD WITH
FLAPPING COAT.
THE ENGINE SENT A WAILING DIRGE FROM ITS DEEP
IRON THROAT
AND VANISHED IN A CUT WHICH GAPED, A BROWN
GASH, NEW AND RAW;
ONli EITHER SIDE THE 'JAGGED ROCKS, LIKE THE BROKEN
TEETH OF A SAW
LEAPED UP AND DOWN WITH NAKED POLES AND
RACING STRANDS OF WIRE...
THEN, FLASH: THE ENGINE REACHED THE PLAIN AS A
CANNON BELCHES FIRE,
WRAPPED IN A CLOUD OF ROLLING SMOKE. AS ON AND
ON WE FLEW
THE PANORAMA OF THE FIELDS WENT SHIFTING OUT OF VIEW.
A SCARED THRUSH SHOT UP FROM A BUSH AND SOUGHT
THE OPEN SKY;
A HERD OF CATTLE RAISED THEIR HEADS AND STARED
REBUKINGLY;
ABOVE A MARCHING CLUMP OF TREES A WIND —#ILL
SPUN ITS SHEEL,
AND FROM A BANK OF TOPPLING CLOUD THERE CRASHED
A THUNDER —PEAL.
THE SUN WENT DOWN, THE STARS CAME OUT, I
CRASHED UPON THE COAL
FEELING AS IF I HAD BEEN MADE A LONE, UNBODIED
SOUL:
CHANCE WITH GREAT HANDS MIGHT CRUMPLE ME LIKE
ANY GOSSAMER THING,
MIGHT O'ER THE RAMPARTS OF THE FLESH NY STARTLED
SPIRIT FLING
WHERE A SCATTERED SILVER DUST OF WORLDS STREAM
DOWN THROUGH ENDLESS NIGHT
AS SUN —MOTES IN A DARKENED ROOM DANCE DOWN
A SHAFT OF LIGHT...,
NOW, LIKE GIGANTIC FIREFLIES CLUSTERED ON A MALAY TREE,
THE LAMPS OF THE DIVISION —END ACROSS THE DARVI SEE...
DIM BOXCARS HUDDLE EVERYWHERE.. L LAUGH AS I ALIGHT,
FOR, SAFE AND SOUND IN LIFE AND LIMB, I'M HOME AGAIN TONIGHT:
THIRTY -FOE
AGAIN A HARRY, NOW IN HIS EARLY TWENTIES, MADE AN ATTEMPT
AT ADOPTING A MORE DECOROUS LIFE-- HE ENROLLED AT MOUNT HERMON
PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN MASSACHUSETTS, AFTERWARDS TRAMPING TO LAWRENC
KANSAS, WHERE HE ANNENSFSTAYED SOME TIME, TAKING COURSES At THE STATE
UNIVERSITY. TWO FORCES BEGAN THEIR WORK AN HIM WHILE AT COLLEGE:
ICA SWIFTLY GROWING LOVE FOR CLASSIC LITERATURE--, AND ATHLETICS'-- THE
SPIRIT AND THE BODY YIEING FOR SUPREMACY. HE STUDIED GREEK, AND
BECAME AN ACCOMPLISHED LATINIST; READING EVERYTHING THERE WAS TO BE
READ, AND ESPECIALLY PLUNGING WITH PASSIONATE ABSORPTION INTO THE
STUDY OF THE GREAT ENGLISH POETS. HIS WRITING UNDERWENT A CHANGE
TOWAA0 4i0ONSERIOUS AND POLISHED VERSE, AND GRADUALLY ENTERED THE
TRADITION OF THE CLASSIC, ENGLISH SONG. RICHARD LE GALLIA"; WRITING
r-
,0
THE INTRODUCTION TO54111 FIRST VOLUME OF LYRICS, 'THE PASSING GOD',
LYRICS
DEFINED HIS SERIOUS POETRY THUS; 'THEY ALL (THEA ROMS) COMBINE A
FIRM SIMPLICIITY OF CONTOUR WITH A THRILL OF APPARENTLY UNSOUGHT BEAUTY4
SOMETIMES TOO, THEY RECALL THE SEEMINGLY FLOWER-LIKE CARELESSNESS OF
THE RESTORATION LYRISTS....'
AND MORE MATLIO
ONE POEM OF THIS PERIOD WILL SIFFICE TO SHOW HIS NEW/TREND OF
THOUGHT;
THIRTY-SIX
2)
THE CRY OF MAN
THERE IS A CRYING IN MY HEART
THAT NEVER WILL BE STILL,
LIKE THE VOICE OF A LONELY BIRD
BEHIND A STARRY HILL;
THERE IS A CRYING IN MY HEART
FOR WHAT I MAY NOT KNOW
AN INFINITE CRYING OF DESIRE
BECAUSE MY FEET ARE SLOW...
MY FEET ARE SLOW MY EYES ARE BLIND,
MY HANDS ARE WEAK TO HOLD:
IT IS THE UNIVERSE I SEEK,
ALL LIFE I MOULD ENFOLD.'
AFTER YEARS OF LIVING IN THE OPEN, AND HARDENING HIS MUSCLES
WITH CHINNING HIMSELF ON TRAIN TENDERS, HARRY KEMP HAD AN EASY TIME
OF IT TO BECOME A STAR ATHLETE WHILE AT COLLEGE, 0117;11.111111111 TOO
SPARE AND WIRY OF FRAME TO MAKE A GOOD FOOTBALL MAN, HE FOUND HIS
PLACE ON THE TRACK TEAM, AND BECAME A VERY PRODIGY OF A RUNNER.
COME SUMMER, AND THE SCHOOL TERM OVER, HE AGAIN TOOK TO THE
ROAD, THIS TIME FOR A SHORT JAUNT INTO THE PINE WOODS OF NEW .JERSEY
TO VISIT Iffil41-114,XILAWar.iximil ELBERT HUBBARD'S ROYCROFT SHOP-- AT
THAT TIME A MUCH TALKED -OF ENTERPRISE. ELBERT HUBBARD WAS A MAN
POSSESSED WITH THE DREAM OF MAKING MEN AND WOMEN PHYSICALLY AND
SPIRITUALLY PERFECT-- A HARKING BACK TO THE OLD GREEKS, WITH THEIR
WORSHIP OF BEAUTY AND PHYSICAL PERFECTION.
THIRTY-.SEYEN
2_
(OR
EVERY H4,
/I
THE IDEA wAS TO WORK IN A COMMUNAL WAY AT TASKS HE HIMSELF
CHOSE TO PERFORM, TO WORK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THE OPEN, TH
ENSURING BODILY VIGOR, AND INCIDENTALLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE GAO
AND UPKEEP OF 'PERFECTION CITY'. IIMMWTHE COLONISTS LIVED IN TENTS
OR SELF -CONSTRUCTED SHELTERS AMONG THE FRAGRANT PINE WOODS, AND WORE
AS FEW CLOTHES AS THEY DARED.
0EACH HAD A SPECIAL METHOD OF EXCERCISING, BENDING OR STANDING,'!
KEMp RELATES. kTHOSE WHO BROUGHT CHILDREN ALLOWED THEM To RUN NAKED.
0/
WE oca ONES WENT NAKED, WHEN WE REACHED SECLUDED PLACES IN THE WOODS.
THE NEIGHBORING TOWNSPEOPLE AND OTHER COUNTRY FOLK USED TO COME FOR
MILES ABOUT ON SUNDAYS TO WATCH US SWIM AND EXCERCISE.. EVERYBODY
R H
ENJOYED A FAD OF HIS 0 THERE WAS A LITTLE BROWN SHRIVELED WOMAN
WHO BELIEVED THAT YOU SHOULD Ih.BIBE NO FLUID OTHER THAN THAT FOUND
IN FRUITS. WHEN SHE WANTED A DRINK, SHE NEVER WENT TO THE PITCHER,
BUCKET OR WELL-- INSTEAD SHE SUCKED ORANGES OR ATE wATERMELLON.
iTHERE WAS A MAN FROM PHILADELMHIA WHO ATE NOTHING BUT RAN MEAT.
HE HAD EtUpTIONS ALL OVER HIS BODY FROM THE DIET, BUT STILL PERSISTED
IN IT. SEVERAL YOUNG ITALIANS ATE NOTHING BUT VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
RAW, THEY INSISTED THAT ALLA ILLS 19‘c6-01W00,0481ACAME WITH COOKING FOOD--
THAT THE SUN WAS ENOUGH OF A CHEF.***
11
THIRTf..EISMT
TIRED AFTER A FEW MONTHS OF EATING SPINACH AND CAPERING ABO
THE WOODS IN A BaSTRING, KEMP WENT BACK TO THE MIDDLE WEST TO CONTINUE
HIS STUDIES* HE FOUND THAT, DUE TO THE PUBLICATION OF SOME OF HIS
TRAMP DITTIES, HE ALREADY HAD A REPUTATION AS THE 'VAGABOND POET' AND
'THE BOXCAR BARD', WITH EVERYONE KNOWING HIS NAME AND FAME, AND
WANTING TO SHAKE HIS HAND, HARRY BEGAN TO FEEL A CONSTRAINT UPON MIS
LIBERTY, AND HE LEFT SCHOOL* BEFORE THIS, HOWEVER, HE HAD MET, AND
FALLEN IN LOVE (FOR THE FIRST TIME) WITH A YOUNG cgko. HIS.MERO
CONSCIOUS HEART LONGED TO IMPRESS HER, AND TO WIN HER THROUGH AN ACT
OF BRAVERY*
A TRAVELING CIRCUMFURNISHED HIM WITH THE MEANS TO DO SO*
THE CIRCUS, THOUGH SMALL, BOASTED SIX NUBIAN LIONS, THE LARGEST
AND FIERCEST OF THEIR KIND, AND THE MANAGEMENT, FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES,
OFFERED A GOLD MEDAL TO ANYONE WHO WOULD GO IN AMONG THE LIONS ALONE,
AND MAKE A SPEECH TO THE AUDIENCE FROM INSIDE THE CAGE.***
NEGOTIATED WITH THE MANAGER, AND ASKED FOR THE MEDAL'S EQUIVALENT
IN MONEY-... SINCE I WAS BROKE--, HE OFFERED ME $25 IF I WOULD GO IN THE
CAGE AND REPEAT MY SPEECH THREE NIGHTS IN SUCCESSION* I BCUCIiT THREE
TICKETS, AND PRESENTED THEM TO VANNA, SO AS TO BE SURE THAT SHE WOULD
THIRTY-NINE
ATTEND ALL THREE PERFORMANCES.
ItTO CLINCH MY LAGGING RESOLUTION, 1 ALL6WED.A REPORTER
TAKE AN ANN CEMENT OF MY INTENTIONS FOR THE LOCAL PAPERS... THE
RESULTANT STORY WAS HEADED THUS:
HARRY KEMP TIRED OF LIFE
KANSAS POET TO TALK AMONG LIONS.'
ilf THE GREAT .i;OMENT ARRIVED. AFTER SEATING HIS LIONS IN A HALFMOON
ON THEIR TUBS, THE TRAINER SHUNTED ME INTO THE CAGE... 'QUICK, STEP IN,
WE'LL BE ON THE OUTSIDE WITH HOT IRONS IN CASE ANYTHING GOES WRONG...
BUT DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN OR ABRUPT MOVEMENTS..,' THE DOOR OF THE
IRON CAGE CLANGED BEHIND ME.
VI STEPPED INTO THE CENTER, AND RAMBLED THROUGH THE SPEECH. THE
LIONS YAWNED. I FINISHED CONFIDENTLY, AND THE AUDIENCE APPLAUDED. THE
PAPERS AGAIN CARRIED THE STORY.
\THE SECOND NIGHT I WAS RATHER BLASE, AND SHOOK MY FINGER PLAYFULLY
IN THE FACE OF ONE SEATED LION. HE REPLIED WITH A YELLOW -FANGED SNARL.
I STEPPED BACK QUICKLY; THE OTHER ANIMALS MOVED RESTLESSLY
PULLED MYSELF TOGETHER, TURNED MY BACK ON THEM, AND SAID IN A NOT QUITE
STEADY VOICE, .4811110WOOWNWWW1 'SO YOU SEE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THAT A
FORTY
LION IS AFTER ALL A MUCH MISREPRESENTED, GENTLE BEAST...AI
\AFTER THE SHOW, THE TRAINER CAME TO ME AND BARKED: 'DO
XitAtf
THEMALIONS ARE HARMLESS AND GENTLE: IF YOU DO THAT TOMORROW, I'LL SEE
THAT YOU GET A MEDAL INSTEAD OF MONEY.'
A
THE THIRD NIGHT, I DELIVERED A CONSTRAINED DISCOURSE, AND ONLY
BREATHED FREELY WHEN SAFELY OUTSIDE THE CAGE. WELL, AT LEAST, NOW
I COULD HUNT UP VANNA, AND EXPECT THE FAVORS OF A LADY DUE HER KNIGHT
WHO HAD BEEN VICTORIOUS AT THE JOUSTS.... NOT FINDING HER IN THE
AUDIENCE, I TELEPHONED HER HOME.
THREE DAYS AGO FOR MAINE:
OITO MAKE MY CHAGRIN THE WORSE, A FEW WEEKS LATER, MY UNIQUE
,AS A 12ANLE‘,
AND SINGLE GLORYAWAS SNATCHED FROM ME. THE SHOW MOVED TO SALINA,
AND A BARBER IN THAT TOWN SHAVED THE KEEPER IN THE CAGE, WHILE THE
11
LIONS SAT AROUND....
HER MOTHER TOLD ME VANNA HAD LEFT
HARRY KEMP THEREUPON DECIDED 7-04matii VISIT EUROPE.AS A POET
THIS TIME, INSTEAD OF A TRAMP. LACKING THE MONEY FOR A PASSAGE,
HE NONCHALANTLY STOWED *NAY,ON A VESSEL SAILING TO ENGLAND. WHEN
A DAY OR TWO OUT AT SEA HE WAS BROUGHT UP BEFORE THE CAPTAIN, AFTER
TRUE STOWAWAY NOONOWW PROCEDURE, HE GAVE THE UNIQUE EXCUSE FOR HIS
MISDEMEANOR THAT HE WAS A POET, ANXIOUS TO VISIT THE SHRINES OF
ENGLISH POETS DEAD AND GONE,' BUT TOO POOR TO PAY THE PASSAGE FOR SUC
,111.
PILGRIMAGE. THE VERY ORIGINALITY OF HIS PLEA SEEMS TO HAVE WON HIM
UNACCUSTOMED CONSIDERATION, AND, AS HE WAS A STALWART MAN OF HIS HANDS,
THERE WAS NO DIFFICULTY IN MAKING HIM A USEFUL MEMBER OF THE CREW. FOR
HIM TO 'WORK HIS PASSAGE' WAS MERE CHILD'S PLAY, JUST AN ADDITIONAL PART
OF THE FUN.
HIS PLUCK WON SOWATHY FOR HIS PLIGHT, AND THOUGH, ON
LANDING) IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAVE HlivSELF FROM A WEEK OR TWO IN AN
ENGLISH GAOL TO HIM MERELY ANOTHER AMUSING DETAIL), THE SPIRIT OF HIS All
ADVENTURE MagrAPPEALED TO THE ENGLISH MAGISTRACY, AND HE WAS EVEN-
TUALLY ALLCWED TO GO HIS WAY100'AND FULFILL HIS BOYHOOD'S DREAM OF VISITING
WESTMINSTER ABBEY, STRATFORD-ON-AVON, THE BOAR'S HEAD IN EAST -CHEAP,
THE 'CHESHIRE CHEESE', AND OTHER SUCH PLACE6.11.400101.41~N*Vallenffin=r-
BACK FROM HIS EUROPEAN ADVENTURE, AND HAVING MADE THE ACQUAINTANCE
OF SOME FELLOW WRITERS OF FAME, HARRY KEMP CAME HOME TO FIND HIMSELF
ESTABLISHED AS THE 'TRAMP -POET OF THE MIDDLE WEST'.7f1r WAS PERHAPS
UNFORTUNATE THAT HIS GROWING FAME, HIS GROWING CONSCIOUSNESS or
FORTNTWO
THE OPPOSITE SEX, AND HIS MEETING WITH UPTON SINCLAIR, THEN ,TOO
BEGINNING TO ATTRACT FAVORABLE NOTICE FROM THE CRITICS, SHOULD H
COINCIDED IN TIME.
HARRY FELL IN LOVE WITH SINCLAIR'S WIFE, AND
ELOPED WITH HER TO THE BACKWOODS OF NEW UERSEYj
HIS LOVE OF/ FREEDOM,
SUITE LOGICALLY PERHAPS, TOOK THE FORM OF 'FREE LOVE'.
SINCLAIR NATURALLY TURNED FROM BEING HIS FRIEND, AND BECAME
KEMPS ENEMY AND RIVAL, EVEN THOUGH, AS HE EXPLAINS,4'SINCLAIR DIDN'T
DISCOVER THAT HE LOVED HIS WIFE, TILL I TRIED TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM
ONE DAY, THE YOUNG COUPLE WERE SURPRISED IN THEIR SYLVAN RETREAT
BY THE UNEXPECTED ENTRANCE OF THE HUSBAND..weWHOOESPITE RUMOURiSTILL
HAD NO TANGIBLE EVIDENCE OF ACTUAL WIFELY INFIDtLITY ON THE PART OF
HIS TEee.pet
1WE WERE LOUNGING IN THE CABIN,' HARRY TELLS IT, 'AND I WAS
BRUSHING HER IT WAS THE COLOR OF BURNISHED BRASS--- WHEN
WE HEARD A STEP ON THE PORCH... LIKE A FLASH I GRABBED UP A COPY OF
KEATS, AND GOT MYSELF SETTLED IN A CHAIR AT THE OTHER END OF THE
ROOM BY THE TIME UPTON STOMPED IN.
AGNES EYES AH BITTER CHILL IT WAS,
THE -OWL FOR ALL HIS FEATHERS WAS A'COCOwt
I READ STERTORIOUSLY, UPTON WAS NOT TO BE HOODWINKED* HE ACCUSED
1
US OF LIVING TOGETHE AS MAN AND WIFE, IT WAS MAMIE SAVED THE SITUATION
FORTY-THREE
GOD, WHAT A WOMAN! SHE WAS SPLENDID... SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN
ACTRESS. SHE SAT UP IN BED, AND DELIVERED A SPEECH, THAT FR IT
TOUCHING fROCLAMATIONS OF FIDELITY, wOULD HAVE MELTED THE HEART 0
A STONE-- AND UPTON, DESPITE COPIOUS EVIDLNCE TO THE CONTRARY,
BELIEVED HER.... I SHOULD HAVE LEARNED A LESSON FROM THAT INCIDENT
A WOMAN WHO CAN FOOL ONE MAN, CAN FOOL ANOTHER....
tA FEW WEEKS LATER SHE LEFT ME TO TAKE A SHORT 'TRIP' TO THE
CITY. AFTER A MONTH OF ABSENCE, IN WHICH I NEARLY WENT FRANTIC,
SHE SENT AE A BULKY ENVELOPE CONTAIVING MY LETTERS WRITTEN TO HER...
TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF ANNOUNCEMENT OF HER ENGAGEMENT TO ANOTHER MAN.4f(
FURTHERMORE, KEMPS REPUTATION SUFFERED BY THIS INCIDENT, FOR
HIS EDITORS, wITH THE AISTAKEN IDEA OF PUNISHING HIM FOR HIS INDISCRET-
IONS, REFUSED TO PUBLISH HIS VERSE, THOUGH IS WRITING, DOUBTLESS
DUE TO THE STIMULATION OF PASSION, WAS AT THAT TIME BETTER THAN EVER
BEFORE.
AN IMPUDENT COLUMNIST OtAAWCARACATURED THE INCIDENT BY PRINTING
THIS VERSE IN ,rhie GLOEI:
KEMP: I AM THE HOBO POET
I -EAD A MERRY LIFE
ONE DAY I WOO THE MUSE
THE NEXT
ANOTHER FELLOW'S kVIFEI
FORTY-FOUR
KEMP, SALVED HIS WOUND WITH WRITING, AND ONE POEM .COMPOSED
IN THE FORA) OF A SEA -CHANTEY, STATED THE SITUATION ON A VERY A
AND JAUNTY NOTE:
THE GIRL THAT MARRIED ANOTHER MAN
OH, IT'S EASY COME AND IT'S EASY GO
./17.1-1 MOST OF THE LITTLE GIRLS I KNOW,
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES;
AND WHEN YOU COME, AND ,'diEN YOU PART,
THEY NEVER TAKE IT DEEP TO HEART,
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES.
OH, THERE WAS MARTHA, AT LIVERPOOL,
SHE NEVER f;EARD OF THE GOLDEN RULE,
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES;
AND THERE WAS GULLA, THE TEMPLE GHL,
AND MINNIE, AND MARIE, AND PEARL,
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES,
IN ROTTERDAM, MARSEILLES, ORLEANS,
AND EACH OF THEM TAUGHT ME WHAT LCkE MEANS;
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES. a.
BUT THERE 16 A GIRL THAT STANDS APART,
I CAN NEVER GET HER OUT Of MY HEART,
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES;
OH, I TRY TO FORGET, BUT I VEVER CAN,
THE GIRL THAT MARRIED ANOTHER MAN
HAUL AWAY, MY BULLIES:
Po -g±
fivi-"e7r
get })AAst,
HARRY KEMP MIGRATED TO NEW YORK'S GREENWICH VILLAGE-- AND THERE HE
HAS PRETTY MUCH REMAINED EVER SINCE.
ri
AtTHE *VILLAGE OF 19t1 WAS FULL OF LONG HAIRED MEN AND SHORT HAIRED
C-14"4j,,t4„L/f
WOMEN../THE WOMEN WENT ABOUT IN PS HE GOWNS AND SANDALS-- THE MEN
VARIOUS
AFFECTED THE BYRONIC STYLE. THE/ARTISTS AND LITERATI TUMBLED OVER
EACH OTHER IN A HEROIC ATTEMPT TO MAKE() OYERTY A SPLEkDID BRIDE
WHEREAS I, FOR ONE, WON FOUND Obi SHE'S REALLY A VERY SORDID
M !STRESS. a
EARLY
KEMP DESCRIBED HIS/VILLAGE QUARTERS THIS WAY:
A POET'S ROOM
GREENWICH VILLAGE 1912
I HAVE A TABLE, cor AND CHAIR
AND NOTHING MORE. .THE WALLS ARE BARE
YET I CONFESS THAT IN MY ROOM
LIE SYRIAN RUGS RICH FROM THE LoOM,
STAND STATUES POISED ON FLYING TOE,
HANG TAPESTRIES WITH FOLK A -FLOW
AS THE WIND TAKES THEM TOO AND FRO.
AND WORKMAN FANCY HAS INLAID
MY WALLS WITH IVORY AND %JADE.
THOUGH OPENING ON A NEW YORK STREET
FULL OF CRIES AND HURRYING FEET
MY WINDOW IS A FAERY SPACE
THAT GIVES ON EACH IMAGINED PLACE;
OLD RUINS LOST IN DESERT PEACE;
THE BROKEN FANES AND SHRINES OF GREECE;
AEGEAN ISLANDS FRINGED WITH FOAM;
THE EVERLASTING TOPS OF,TOME;
TROY FLOWING RED WITH SKYWARD FLAME,
AND EVERY SPOT OF HALLOWED FAME.
OUTSIDE MY WINDOW I CAN SEE
THE SWEET BLUE LAKE OF GALILEE,
AND CARMEL'S PURPLE-REGIONED HEIGHT
AND SINAI CLOTHED WITH STARS AND NIGHT.
BUT THIS IS TO!.0 IN CONFIDENCE,
SO NOT A WORD OMEN YOU GO HENCE,
FOR IF MY LANDLORD ONCE BUT NNE*
MY ATTIC FETCHED BO LARGE A Fairs
THE CHURL MOULD NEVER areir CONTENT
TILL HE HAD RAIlED THE MONTHLY RENTX
FORTY**EIGHT
IT WAS UPON ENTERING THE BOHEMIAN LIFE, THAT KEMP FIRST BEG
4.1b,
TO CHANT OF THE LUSTY SWEETNESS OF THE VINE... OJOY IS LIKE TH
PURPLE GRAPE" HE SANG ONCE IN ONE OF HIS POEMS, AND IN PROHIBITION
TIMES, THIS AXIOM DOUBTLESS BECAME DOUBLY TRUE.
HE HAS MANY FASCIN-
ATING STORIES TO TELL ABOUT VILLAGE CHARACTERS AND VILLAGE ADVENTURES,
BUT HIS GREAT FAVOURITE AMONG VILLAGE CRONIES IS TONY OF THE WINE
CELLAR....
ITHE MAIN HANGOUT OF OUR CROWD WAS THE WINE CELLAR AT MCDOUGAL.
AND THIRD.
TONY, A BIG STRAPPING ITALIAN, WORKED IN THE PLACE,
MAMMA ROSA WAS THERE TOO. SHE WAS A GREAT BIG WOMAN WITH AVENORMOUS
HAUNCHES LIKE A RUBENS PAINTING. .444400,1111!MM!"990940.410141460*
r-vetporer.
4110
kf
v4irmompy THE WINE CELLAR WAS JUST A DOG -OUT-- IT LOOKED LIKE THE
CATACOMBS-- A SERIES OF CAVES LEADING INTO EACH OTHER. 4111MWMWW6WWWW
igiliptionismow....overammixoftentram.141.46**1104****TON000001PENPURN'arrr.. IT WAS JUST
A HOLE; UNEVEN'STONE STEPS LEADING DOWN TO A SAWDUST FLOOR; RUDE BOARD
TABLES, A FAT -BELLIED STOVE NEAR THE CENTER. IN THE BACK THERE WAS A
CAVE -LIKE PLACE WHERE THE WINE WAS STORED-- RIGHT UP AGAINST THE CITY
SEWER VIPESe
lk
FORTY -WINE
TONY KEPT A BIG BRUTE OF A DOG CHAINED UNDER THE STEPS, A
HE HAD IT TRAINED TO BARK LIKE HELL AT THE SIGHT OF A BLUE COAT
A DOUBLE ROW OF BRASS BUTTONS... THAT PUP NEVER FAILED TO LP
t
'JIGGERS' WHEN A COP SNOOPED AROUND, AND ZZZST: WOULD GO THE BOTTLES
INTO THE STOREROOM IN THE BACK, SOO WHEN THEY WALKED IN, THERE WAS A
NICE RESPECTABLE SPAGHETTI JOINT. 54NowiefraiN00404#1w4PPITIVometrrly,P1M4004#41fariblike.
I‘A CROWD OF US USED TO GO IN THERE, AND WE GOT TO LIKE TONY AND
MAMMA, MAINLY BECAUSE THEY TREATED US WITH NO RESPECT WHATSOEVER.
WE'D DROP IN AFTERNOONS TO HAVE A GLASS OF WINE, COME DINNER TIME,
MAMMA WOULD WADDLE OUT WITH A BIG WOODEN PLATTER PILED WITH RAW
ONIONS, RADISHES, AND FRESH —BAKED ITALIAN BREAD, LONG AS BASEBALL--;
BATS. WE'D ABSENTLY40101., BREAD AND ONIONS WHICH WOULD MAKE US THIRSTY
FOR MORE WINE, AND DRINKING MORE WINE MADE US HUNGRY AGAIN-- SO OUR
WIVES, IF WE HAD ANY, NEVER SAW US HOME TO DINNER, AND Lc -NQ AND SHORT
OF IT WAS, WE STAYED AT nmyes ALL AFTERNOON AND ALL NIGHT. MAMMA ROSA
KNEW HER'ONIONSst IN THOSE DAYS TONY'S WAS BOOMING WITH TRADE,
TONY WAS ROUGH ON MIS CUSTOMERS-- AND THEY LIED IT, WHEN HE
FIGURED YOU'D HAD ENOUGH, HE'D REFUSE TO BRING ANOTHER GLASS.
ory•I•Mr
FIFTY
DOIN'--YOU HAD 'NOUG4 HE'D GROWL, AND IF YOU ARG
WITH HIM, HE'D SLAM HIS FIST ON THE TABLE SO'S THE BOTTLES WOULD
BUST AND TELL YOU TO GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. 1.0.416.164001m4rAmmorm
8444414111.4":
I'VE SEEN TONY THROW PLENTY OF BIG MEN OUTlithillaillims.
SINGLE-HANDED. HE HAD A PAIR OF HUGE BEAM -LIKE ARMS THAT COULD TEAR
A GUY APART. HE'D SWEAR AND CALL US 'SONS OF BEETCHES'... SO 4E
BECAME THEIEL1-217BEETCHES cLuat
FOR
The place was patronized by both literary men and bums
there was no discrimination-- in fact you could rarely tell
the bums and the elits' apart. 'Course some of us, though poets,
looked more like bums-- and others of us managed to looks like
poets although we were little better than-- well...
''Anyway, the ultra -Ritz from Pawk Avenoo went crazy about
the 'atmosphere' at Tony's. I remember one afternoon a party
of them came twittering in, and proceeded to get gay on Ton yis
excellent Italian brew. One fellow climbed unsteadily onto
a table and began shouting a toast. Up came Tony waving a
towel as if it were a horsewhip. "You shut up-- you get out!"
Thoqe_sRats-and-9aTle_§.Austsapp
he pationix growled.,'"Bi4 paia6n7w-the man siid. II said, Get
outt Tony said, and he meant it. They actually begged him for
permission to buy another round of drinks, but Tony wouldn't
hustle
them wet out of there. slisciakistbsickgstifiLitimmilsan
do it-- H
4monemioiwa.ape4rm=4~4Wre-.
Tony was rough on the Village crowd too, but he had a soft
spot for us just the same. ...-ftwi.fielloisoMMTVItenwrimdtramisPPointwor
lii
euligt when VverviatIVT
pak4044.1
Rosa h
kitchen
a 0,fieghte
er ski
Well, Tony fell in love with her. "Oi, what a gels he'd whisper
and put on a broad wink. We'd see him through the open kitchen
door smack her on the behind as he went past. She'd giggle
and hit him back-- deive49*-9riterNtrimp•s+gairrermwerwribitn He
courted her one whole winter like that, and she kept hitting
him back, so he knew she felt the same way about it. In the
spring they got married, and on the wedding night Tony let all
of us get as drunk as we wanted for orL?". What a nightt
A bunch.of us looked ourselves in the wine cellar under the
pipes and were swigging it pretty hard. I moot got the idea
I was waiting for a fast freight out of Omaha-- I started swing-
ing from the sewer pipes and pretty soon we were all swinging
from pipe to pipe likeArchimpanzees. Our feet bumped against
the bottles and knocked them down. We made a terriple racket.
..Na sound of splinter-
ing wood, and the most terrible cursing. Then we saw an axe
blade crash through the door. Tony burst in. We were gory
from the spilled wine, and huddlihg in a corner. Tony thought
yelled to Len
somebody had been murdered, and an ambu ance.
She phoned the fire department nstead--- God a time-- we
all landed in jail and Tony too. After that he wouldn't let us
in the place for a week-- but he al -ways softened up. He really
couldn't resist us for long.
Well, Tony was a great guy-- he's dead now-- but I'll come
to that later. He was a great guy... Mama Rpsa went back
to Italy and left Tony and Lena the care of the Celler. For
awhile everything was Jake. Then Tony and Lena decided to take a
holiday and visit the old country. They closed the place down.
over his customer The more cringing and obsequous he became,
the less they oming to his place-- and trade dropped
off to almost nothing. Tony was frantic.
grmer
nomp-poSikaelowisspoirigeorniretriOr". He tried all sorts of ways to
win his way back-- redecorated the place, pled out the par-
titions and clumsily attempted to modernize it-- lutieres
adz stuck in papep.mache props, and hung phony grapes around
he made a mess of it-- and his place soon looked like all the
rest of the lover class cafe's-- m446..c._ osAkimmoubmmwimimrim
samieffrrimErT It was all no good. We all felt sorry for him,
but in the end, our crowd deserted him too. For years I let
Tony slip completelyut of my mind.
One day4!)I was wgking along sixth avenue, and saw a commot-
ion in the street. Come to find out it was Tony, keeping a
crowd of sneering onlookers
was unbelievably gaunt and
black-- "I keel you: he was
at bay with a baseball bat. He
trembling, MIS but his eyes burned
shreiking. I went up to him and
when he recognized me, he let me lead him inside. The plac
was empty, and the floor hadn't had a scrubbing for Amaiii-e-7-
Lena had died. There was no one there but a little red-haired
She and
Tony looked like they were both starving. I got some of the
waitress,
guys, and we tried to persuade Tony to sell the place,
settle down at something else. But he wouldn't do it.
couldn't believe that he was finished. He dragged out
of wine, poured us drinks, and started talking abou
and
He just
a bottle
time
"Have more-- more--" he said, Ithen we'd finished our glasses.
I remembered and it gave me an actual pain to remember it
Tony waving a towel and shouting "You don't get more-- that's
nuff, boys, no more:" And we all looked at Tony now, saying
"Have more, boys--" and holding up an empty bottle.
Well, It was not so long ago, they held Tony's funeral
and the black cars heaped with flowers filed along through
Bleaker street. It was a sunny day-- all the pushcart peddlers
in Bleaker 4..%% stood along the curb holding their hats while
the slow black cars went by. His Italian friends gave him a
swell funeral-- there were limousines with chauffeurs in the
procession. It turned up Third and then into McDougal, and
Tony's hearse slid elegantly by the place where the Wine Cellar
had been..•
A SONG CALLED 'WINE CELLAR' BECAME KEMP'S momENro TO TONY'S
MEMORY:
Wine Cellar
•••••••/111.01~.41111.0.10••••11...
The owner of our cellar, great-girthed, young,
Presides* the Rhadamanthus of each glass:
Before his blank, slow, expert eyes must pass
Each applicant for solace of the vine.
At tables of rude board, ring -stained with wine,
We group* both brief, and voluble of tongue,
To boast of what has been, or never was.
For what we were, or never yet have been,
Breaks into easy wonder, as we will:
We scale the heights without laborious dkill
Yet is it nothing ta) cast forth distrust
And resurrect oompanionship from dust?
If wine abet each boson in its sins
These ars the vlrtuo5 tlact odlur: it still.
When sedates pledge us facts that never fall,
When codes pr,wiae us half this cellar's bliss,
When decalogues prove richer than the kils
Of life, at sudden lips: then '11 hallows
That men and women who hate, love, laugh, grIMMIsi
Through laws may gain the spirit's ultimate grail
And gain in heaven what earth brings amiss...
Full easily to accompanied bells merge feet
Of folk; though each heart, seperate and stark,
MUst ache alone, with none but God to musk
(God did this not Sainte say- the Devil did!),
And doubly luring lurks nimml what laws forbids
Pram blaring noises of the City street
Mess stairs rairit. ittlfeDodallidetiLAZA to this book.
t()
Winen Cellar
SSflSfls. OS
Yet, somehow, heaven sit3 inside each hell,
And hell, inside each heaven! and here men ',mew
Amxamodlymorwsorizilf woe, an anodyne relief from woe..
That touch of c.:leo that walzel the barren rod
Whose buds attest 010, Bacchus still
While, up there, teeming horns of traffic swell,
And hvrriefl feA of frightened moderns gem
,17.riVen by the thrust of amall affalre,
To my regret, or to my whole (1clight,
aarin,-; the (lay, t'A- down the [7.21fs of n=1.ght,
Zn-,;re iht lurked, rank, to bring a !_,qwa losz rmet
Gloryin7 brokenly in y r1J.fe,rAs
How often have I fene ar-71 stnrr) otairq,
11,:,1 often, si;inr;, tu.blod their 4eint!
Anirt.P.--.,2rj eiviap
r rl'OA Tien
Fron many cup l of ,soe or ecstacy:
viith sweet frult of Zhe New Forbilden Tree
2 /va free 4 heart .7, littic, frcn the wrone;
The self does to the self with a luick song
Porten to bring joy to my fellow men
When better wine for younger lips shall bet
r7,r..-"oarTivi
(ALGA
THE PICTURESQUE APPEAL OF THE YILLAG eadiftriCCAPTURED AWRIF
A
IMAGINATION4
MANYp0LOFUL BALLADS, CELEBRATING
BOHEMIAN/SM. THERE IS ROOM TO QUOTE BUT A FEW OF THESE.
PuSh-CFarts, on aiiikar Street
Rolling with dawn, they came to fill the bare
Street, with an ancient Mediterranean air;
Pre cellars where they 'd herded, waiting light,
.111.
The push -carts swayed —each to its destined site...
There, hinting cornucopias, they shmedd forth
Colours not consopant with this bleak North;
Or if Sight, of the senses most divine
Next hearing, could be said to have its wine,
Like Taste —she broached a vintage opulent
From shape and cc our, to the eyes' content!
Those hard pomegranates, bursting -red with seeds
Bespoke the ftre vine -sloped Vesuvius breeds;
And fruits like shellfish,marked with fuzzy spores,
Seemed brought from rocky isles with drip of oars.
(Ah, ghosts of triremes just off Sicily,
With Commerce the forced bride of Piracy I)
Ordered bananas, flecked with black and gold,
Lay next to oranges in still heaps rolled,
And green, fresh figs, by russet yam, bunched grape,
Brothered on squash and gourd of grotesque shape
Like clowns from playa by Plautus. Ar.bicker with mirth
Or crepitant with scorn, before one cent came forth,
Digits all action, eyebrows, shoulders raised,
In quick Italian, folk appraised, dispraised...
Tnen there were fruits not many miles from hoae
That shared the shape and touch or ancient Rome:
amsrOidloS &Plass Jostling ruddiqr sues,
FORTY-SEVEN
RADICAL MOVEMENTS IN GREENWICH VILLAGE DURING THE PRE-wAR
YEARS, TOUCHED HARRY ONLY INDIRECTLY-- THEIR TOUCH AS BOTH
AMUSING, ENTERTAINING, AND SLIGHTLY IRRITATING-- LI,E THE TICKLING
OF A STRAW-- ,S721001000111W BUT CLASS -CONSCIOUSNESS NEVER PROFOU,DLY
AFFECTED HIM ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
HIS SATYRICAL 'ANAVA "TO A NIGHTINGALE, ON THE FIVE YEAR PLAN',
SERVED TO IRK SOME OF HIS COMMUNIST FRIENDS, BUT CONVICTION CLOTHED
/N JEST :IS A SLIPPERY THING TO ARGUE WITH.,.,
TO A NIGHTINGALE, ON THE FIVE YEAR PLAN.
MY HEART QUAKES, AND A DREADFUL DUMBNESS PAINS
MY SENSE, A$ THOUGH OF VODKA I HAD DRUNK,
OR EMPTIED SOME FIVE YEAR PLAN TO THE DRAINS,
FOR POETRY, AND LETHE-WARDS HAD SUNK:
MY BIRD, THOU MUST FOREGO THY HAPPY
AND, IN THIS TIME OF PROLETARIAN STRE6
SHUN SUCH MELODIOUS PLOT:
THOU MUST CONSTRICT THY THROAT, AND MAKE SONG LESS...
THE WORD GOES FORTH-- 'RHYME KE wANT, BUT NOT THESE:'
SOME LITERARY WOULD-BE, WHO HAS BEEN
PUT UP IN POWER, LIE Q0D, ABOVE THE EARTH,
MUST HENCEFORTH TELL THEE HO;' TO SING, WHEN GREEN
SPRING, RIOTOUS, COMES, TO FIRE ALL LIVED WITH MIRTH.
BRING TAPES AND RULERS FORTH J FROM NORTH TO SOUTH,
WRITERS MUST FIT THE PLAN-- NO HIPPOCRENE
SHALL POUR1 'NOW WHAT THE HELL /5 HIPPOCRENE?'
NIGHTINGALE, MOULD THY SONG TO HUMOUR NV:
IF NOT WITH HEART, WITH MOUTH,
OR UNfiEARC THOU W/ LT EL 45 iELL
FAL:./NG AVAY, TH FAME FOREVER DIM,
THUD HEAT h/.VE EEL FORCED, FR: FURY PALL
TC DISCIFLINE HIS SC:GING NIGHTINGALE:
IASTLAO OF (.)NG "hE FAA,E “-ILL ML-i:ER CEASE
OF HIM-- 4 FIVE YEARS MASTERPIECE,:
FIFTY -,EIGHT
HARPY KEMP TODAY, LIVING ALONE IN HIS LARGE BARN-L1KE) GREENWICH
moo
VILLAGE STUDIO, HAS THE LOOK OF A MAN WHO HAS ACHIEVED THAT
RARE TRANSMUTATION, THE FUSION OF SPIRIT WITH FLESH... HE IS M
OF ACTION, AND MAN OF IMAGINATION: THE TRAMP AND THE POET.
IN AN INTRODUCTION TO ONE OF HIS BOOKS ---(HE HAS WRITTEN A
)TOTAL OF FIFTEEN, NOVELS AND VERSE__ )HE HIMSELF STATES THE V&
TWO- IN -ONE QUALITY OF A POET'S DISPOSITION;
)4 EARLY SET APART FROM THE USUAL RUN OF FOLK, THE POET WILL
SEjk 14ITH OTHER EYES, HEAR i/v/ T1 -I OTHER EARS. HE WILL KNOW TWO WORLDS,
INSTEAD OF ONE, CONTINUALLY TO COPE WITH-- THE i0RLD OF IIV,AGINATION,
PAIRED it/1TH THE WORLD OF IR REFRAGABLE FACT...
BUT TRAMP -POETRY ONE MIGHT NOT UNNATURALLY EXPECT TO BE THE UNKEMPT
RHYM I NGS, PROBABLY IN VERS LIBRE OF SOME HALF-EDUCATED PRETENDER, WITH
FAR MORE TRAMP IN IT THAN POETRY, SiNg, CURIOUSLY ENOUGH, THE EXACT
REVERSE IS TRUE; FOR HARRY KEMP'S SERIOUS WORK IS HIGHLY WROUGHT
AND POLISHED, AND IN THE DIRECT TRADITION OF THE NOBLEST, CLASSIC
ENGL ISH SONG,
IN HIS SONG, liFAREWELL II, HE AGAIN REITERATES THE WEDDING OF
LIFE AND ART WHICH HAS
IS PERSONALITY:
FIFTY-NINE
FAREWELL
TELL.THEM, 0 SKY-BORD, ;/,HEN I CIE
i:11TH HIGH ROMANCE TO IFE,
THAT I WENT OUT AS I HAD LIVED,
DRUNK WITH THE JOY OF LIFE.
YEA, SAY THAT I 4LNT DOWN TO DEATH
SERENE AND UNAfRAiD,
..TILL LOVING 'OONG, Mei LOVING STILL
LIFE, OF WHICH SONG IS MADE:
M. Swenson
701127
LIVING FOLKLORE
/4c7
Supplement to Kemp Artiole-- Insert Part III
THE POETRY TAE
The love of action which made a glorified tramp of Harry
Kemp the poet, found aother avenues of expression in the writing
and acting of poetic drama. He spent a year as a member of the
Provincetown Players in the company of Eugene O'Neil, Clifford
Odets and other soon -famous young playwrights who had their first
tryouts in Provincetown, before returning to Greenwich Village
Where he established a one -act theatre of his own in 1921.
The idea was to produce only poetic plays, for, as Harry
says, "the most vital expression through drama is attained when
the visual or material action is coupled with imagistic or mental
interplay-- the mind and the emotions being simultaneously stim-
ulated"-- and this demands a wedding of poetry with drama.
Looking for a suitable home for his high -flung venture,
g
Kemp decided the Minettas, then an undeveloped neighborhood and
shunned as the badlands of the Village', was the ideal location
dramas, including "The White Hawk*, "Don Juan the Gardner",
"The Game Called Kiss" and "Solomon's Sdng." He also did some
very successful adaptations of famous poems, which lent themselves
to 40dramatic portrayal. One of the earliest adaptations was
of Robert Frost' poem "Home Burial". At that time the famous
In
Pantan. Murder ScandaniBrooklyn filled the New York papers.
Among other sympathizers with young Pantanor who had been condemned
to
AM the chair, was Theodore Dreiser. Kemp used a newspaper trans-
cri,Rt of Drieper's interview with the murderer as the basis for
a realistic poetic -drama, and himself became instrumental in
protesting the execution of Pantane.
ramilw-lakwitiaLtaximammied
...."ONE DAY', HARRY TELLS US,
"JACK GOULD, THE SON OF OLD JAY
ft
GOULD, WALKED IN DURING A DRESS REHEARSAL OF CALYPSO, A NEW PLAY OF
MINE, AND HE BROUGHT WITH HIM A VERY LOVELY YOUNG GIRL, WITH A
GREAT HEAP OF CORN -COLORED HAIR, PILED HIGH ON HER HEAD. SHE WAS
ABOUT NINETEEN BUT LOOKED EVEN YOUNGER. JACK WANTED ME TO GIVE HER
)414 A TRYOUT Y NEXT LEADING LADY. SHE WAS NOT TALL, BUT SLENDER,
AND HAD BEAUTIFUL HANDS, EXCEPT THAT THE THUMBS WERE A PAIR OF
UNUOINTED STUBS-,-. SHE HAS TO BUILD THEM OUT, YOU KNOW, FOR THE
MOVIES.. WELL, I HAD HER READ FOR ME, AND SHE WAS PERFECT...HAD
WELLENT STAGE PRESENSE ALTHOUGH SHE'D HAD NO EXPERIENCE. I ASKED
HER WHAT HER NAME WAS. SHE SAID, ANN HARDING. I TOLD %JACK TO TAKE
HER UP TO PROVINCETOWN, AND THEY BILLED HER THERE IMMEDIATLY AS THE
LEAD IN SUSAN GLASPEL'S 'THE INHERITORS'. ANN DIDN'T STAY THERE
LONG, I'M TOLD. DAVID BELASCO SAW HER,AND SHIPPED HER OFF TO HOLLYWOOD..
ts
"WELL, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT FINALLY MADE ME LEAVE THE MINETTAS..,
IT WAS GETTING MIXED UP WITH THOSE TOUGHS THERE.., THEY WERE GOOD
GUYS, NEVER HARMED ANY OF US, BUT TURNED OUT TO BE A NUISANCE. AS i
SAID, I BECAME A MEMBER OF THEIR GANG4A WiE 606 atITFIT" NAMED AFTER
5
A DRINK THEY BREWED THEMSELVES.
AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME, THE DOWNING
STREET GANG, WITH WHICH THE 606 HAD REGULAR FEUDS, SENT WORD THEY
WERE GOING TO RAID MY PLACE--. BURN THE STAGE AND FURNISHINGS, AND
/z',
CONFISCATE THE ACTRESSES... I TOOK THE OCAZ!lpN TO PLAN A CHRISTMAS
PARTY FOR MY FRIENDS, AND JOKINGLY ADVISED THEM TO BRING THEIR GUNS.
atj-41V
A PISTOL AND A PINT OF LIQOUR ON EITHER HIP,
AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T TAKE THE SITUATION SERIOUSLY. SO
I WAS CONSIDERABLY SURPRISED AND FRIGHTENED WHEN ABOUT MIDNIGHT THERE
WAS A HEAVY POUNDING ON THE DOOR, AND VOICES YELLING 'OPEN UPI'
THE BOYS GOT TO THEIR FEET, AND REACHED FOR THEIR BELTS, BUT I STRUCK
A CESARIAN POSE AND COMMANDED THEM TO LET ME HANDLE THE INTRUDERS.
I FIGURED I'D TALK TURKEY TO THE MARAUDERS, OFFER THEM A DR/NI, AND
MAYBE COAX THEM OUT OF A KILLING MOOD.
I FLUNG THE DOOR OPEN, YELLING
MERRY CHRISTMAS, THERE STOOD TWO MEN FROM THE
MOW PRECINCT STATION!
'WELL, KEMP,' WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE? WE HAD A REPORT THERE'S SOME
ROUGH HOUSE STUFF GOIN' ON HERE* WHOSE PLACE IS THIS?' 'MINE', I
SAID, IN A SMALL VOICE....
'WELL, I HAD SOME EXPLAINING TO DO AT NIGHT COURT... AND THE UPSHOT
WAS I TOOK THE LAW'S ADVICE AND DECIDED TO MOVE mr POETRY THEATRE TO
6
A MORE PLACID NEIGHBORHOOD...."
KEMP GOT IN TOUGH WITH AN OLD FRIEND, DR. GUTHRIE, WHO OWNED
THE ABANDONED ST. MARKS CHAPEL THEN STANDING ON IOTA STREET AT
AVENUE A. OR. GUTHRIE GAVE SOIREES FOR OLD WOMEN WHICH HE DIG-
NIFIED BY CALLING 'POETRY RECITALS.° HE HAD LIQNG BEEN AFTER KEMP
-fi n
bAtCLAA„/
ro RECITE AT ONE OF THESE.
NOW KEMP GOT TO PROMISE HIM THE
USE OF THE CHURCH BASEMENT FOR HIS THEATRE, IN EXCHANGE FOR APPEARING
REGULARLY AT GUTHRIE'S SOIREES.
THE PLACE WAS LARGE, BUT RATHER DARK, AND BADLY HEATED.
MOWEOVER THERE WAS NO FURNITURE. THE ACTORS RENTED A SET OF FUNERAL
CHAIRS FOR THE AUDIENCE, AND BUILT A STAGE OUT OF THE MINISTER'S
ROSTRUM. KEMP CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF PRODUCING A SERIES OF AUTHENTIC
INDIAN MIMES-- RELIGIOUS AND TRIBAL RITUALS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN
INDIAN. HE INSERTED AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE WORLD: 'REAL INDIANS'
&ANTED:' THEAMMIG CHURCH BASEMENT BECAME THE MECCA*OF A CARAVAN
OF FEATHERED AND PAINTED INDIANS, REAL AND OTHERWISE. THE BROADWAY
REDSKINS WERE WILLING TO ACT THE MIMES, BUT KNEW NOTHING ABOUT -TRIBAL
RITUAL; WHILE THE REAL INDIANS, BELONGING TO THE FIVE JVATIONS, WHO
CAME DOWN FROM UPSTATE, WERE WELL GROUIDED'IN THEIR OWN LORE, BUT
7
REFUSED To DISPLAY WHAT TO THEM wERs SACRED TRIBAL RITUALS BEFORE
THE wHITE MEN. THE INDIAN MIMES, KEMP TELLS US, WERE FINALLY
ACTED BY SOME COLLEGE BOYS FROM THE BRONX, IN THE Bo,-.RowED COSTUMES
OF THE FIVE NATIONS, AND CLIFFORD ODETTS TOOK THE LEAD IN THE (NE
ACT DRAMA.
BROADWAY PRODUCERS ARRIVED THE THIRD NIGHT TO SAT UNCOM-
FORTABLY ON THE FUNERAL CHAIRS, BUT TO APPLAUD HEARTILY WHEN THE
CURTAIN CAME DOWN.
HEYWOOD aRailivf, ALEXeWOOLCOTT, DAVID SOLASCO, AND
WILLIAM BRADY APPEARED IN THE AUDIENCE, AND THEREAFTER THE CRITICS
BEGAN TO WATCH THE PROGRESS OF KEMP'S POETRY THEATRE WITH INTEREST,
ASKED WHAT IT WAS THAT FINALLY BROKE UP THE MOVEMENT, KEMP
ADMITS THAT DESPITE THE GROWING SUCCESS, OF HIS POETRY THEATRE, HE
COULD NOT GIVE IT HIS UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. WHY? ''WELL, WHILE
I LIVED IN MINETTA LANE, I HAD THE Top ATTIC FIXED UP AS A RENDEYOUS...
AT THAT TIME I WAS IN LOVE WITH A YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN, WHO HAD A
WEALTHY PIG OF A HUSBAND... SHE USED TO COME To ME THERE... WoULD
DRIVE DOWN IN A TAXI. THE 606 BOYS, WHO HUNG AROUND THE PLACE, WOULD
FIGHT AMONG THEMSELVES AS TO WHO SHOULD OPEN THE DOOR AND ASSIST HER
LADYSHIP FROM THE CAB, THEY'D STAND AROUND LIAE PEASANT BOYS WITH THEIR
CAPS OFF, GRINNING AND CHEWING ON THEIR QUIDS. SHE WAS A LOVELY THING,
J
14111\-."
AND THE GANG WAS IN 4np
HER°
8
''LATER WHEN I MOVED TO AVENUE A, WE GOT AN APARTMENT TOGETHER.
WELL, WHAT STARTED ALL THE RUMPUS AND FINALLY RESULTED IN THE BREAKDOWN
OF THE POETRY THEATRE, WAS THAT HER HUSBAND STARTED A STORY IN AMW
A BOSTON PAPER TO THE EFFECT THAT I, HARRY KEMP, HAD LEFT A WIFE AND
FOUR BRATS SOMEWHERE IN THE WEST AND WAS NOW LIVING /N THE VILLAGE
WITH ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE,
THE THING WAS ABSURD, AND MY LAWYER UNCOVERED
THE FACT THAT THERE WAS A MAN BY THE NAME OF 'HARRY KEMPI-- A LABORER
WHO WAS REPORTED FOR DESERTION BY HIS WIFE DOWN IN ARKANSAS OR SOME-
WHERE--- AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIM, MY LAWYER'S NAME WAS CROCKER.
I HAD HIM FILE A SUIT FOR $5000 FOR LIBEL AGAINST THE 'BOSTON AMERICAN'.
NOTHING SEEMED TO COME OF IT, AND THAT AS SOON FOUND OUT, WAS BECAUSE
CROOKER WAS AS CROOKED AS HIS NAME, HE ACCEPTED MY FEES AND JUST LET
THE THING RIDE. SO I DECIDED TO TAKE IT ON MYSELF. *KffrAlt********X---
INFANAZIPX1121~WAWIRSTXIANUXIN******72ArtirAMMX- I TOOK A TRAIN DOWN
TO BOSTON, AND CALLED ON THE EDITOR OF THE 'AMERICAN A HEARST SHEET,
TOLD HIM IT WAS MY TURN TO uIVE HIM SOME PUBLICITY. I SAID, I'M
INVITED TO A PRESS BANQUET AT WHICH WILLY HEARST IS THE QUEST OF HONOR,
AND IF I DON'T SEE $5000 HIT ME THROUGH THE MAIL BEFORE ThEN,
GOING TO PULL WILLY'S PANTS DOWN, LAY HIM OVER A TABLE AND GIVE HIM
9
THE SPANKING OF HIS LIFE... AND I'LL SEE THAT ass EVERY PAPER IN
AMERICA CARRIES THE STORY AND FULL PARTICULARS AS TO THE GRUDGE I
BEAR THE BOSTON AMERICAN. I WOULD HAVE DONE IT TOO. BUT 1,EXT DAY
I GOT A CHECK FOR THE $5000.
SOMEHOi, ThE AFFAIR LEFT A BAD TASTE
IN DOTh OUR MOUTHS... I SPLIT THE MONEY TH MY GIRL, AND E SHOCK
HANDS, AUF IEDERSE14,6*... SHE SAILED FOR PARIS WITH HER PIG OF A
HUSBAND.
'THE THEATRE BEGAN TO PALL ON ME... I GUESS I YAS GETTING OLD.
I DECIDED TO SETTLE DOPM AND DO SOME WRITING... MY CAPE AND SWORD
00,
DAYS WERE OVER.''