[From The American Magazine (October, 1912)]
I neither praise nor blame thee, aged Scot,
In whose wide lap the shifting times have poured
The heavy burden of that golden hoard
That shines far off and shall not be forgot.
I only see thee carving far and wide
Thy name on many marbles through the land,
Or flashing splendid from the jeweler's hand
Where medaled heroes show thy face with pride.
Crœsus had not such royal halls as thou,
Nor Timon half as many friends as crowd
Thy porches when thy largesses are loud,
Learning and Peace are stars upon thy brow.
And still thy roaring mills their tribute bring
As unto Cæsar, and thy charities
Have borne thy swelling fame beyond the seas,
Where thou in many realms art all but king.
Yet when night lays her silence on thine ears
And thou art at thy window all alone,
Pondering thy place, dost thou not hear the groans
Of them that bear thy burdens through the years?
[CREDO HARRIS]
Credo Harris, novelist, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, January 8, 1874. He was educated in the schools of Louisville and finished at college in the East. He settled in New York as a newspaper man and the following ten years of his life were given to that work. In 1908 Mr. Harris abandoned daily journalism in order to devote himself to fiction. Only a few of his short-stories had gotten into the magazines when his first book, entitled Toby, a Novel of Kentucky (Boston, 1912), appeared. In spite of the fact that the author's literary models were, perhaps, too manifest, Toby was well liked by many readers. Mr. Harris's second story, Motor Rambles in Italy (New York, 1912), was cordially received by those very critics who assailed his first volume with vehemence. It is both a book of travels and a romance, the recital being in the form of love letters to his sweetheart, Polly, and also descriptive of the country from Baden-Baden to Rome seen from the tonneau of a big touring-car. Mr. Harris has a new story well under way, which will probably appear in 1913. He resides at Glenview, Kentucky, with his father, but his work on The Louisville Herald takes him into town almost every day.