humorous-story form, it takes ten minutes, and is about the
funniest thing I have ever listened to--as James Whitcomb Riley
tells it.

"The simplicity and innocence and sincerity and unconsciousness
of Riley's old farmer are perfectly simulated, and the result is
a performance which is thoroughly charming and delicious. This
is art--and fine and beautiful, and only a master can compass
it."

It was in that The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More
Poems first appeared in volume form. Four years afterward, Riley
made his initial appearance before a New York City audience. The
entertainment was given in aid of an international copyright law,
and the country's most distinguished men of letters took part in
the program. It is probably true that no one appearing at that
time was less known to the vast audience in Chickering Hall than
James Whitcomb Riley, but so great and so spontaneous was the
enthusiasm when he left the stage after his contribution to the
first day's program, that the management immediately announced a
place would be made for Mr. Riley on the second and last day's
program. It was then that James Russell Lowell introduced him in
the following words:

"Ladies and gentlemen: I have very great pleasure in presenting
to you the next reader of this afternoon, Mr. James Whitcomb
Riley, of Indiana. I confess, with no little chagrin and sense
of my own loss, that when yesterday afternoon, from this
platform, I presented him to a similar assemblage, I was almost
completely a stranger to his poems. But since that time I have