When life I shall resign.
“But when I leave my life—have left
My every present care—
I’ll find a home of care bereft;
My friends are living there.
The New Orleans Times, in speaking of Irwin Russell, after his death, said of him: “He was employed occasionally on this paper, and while so, wrote many a pretty little poem, and many a little catch which reveal an inner life, which hard lines hid from the view of the world. His fund of humor showed itself best in dialect writing, and some things he has written have already found permanent resting places in the compiled editions of American humorous verse.”
For several years Irwin Russell was an interesting and valued contributor to Scribner’s Monthly, and some of his poems have appeared since his death, in The Century. The productions were mostly of the negro dialect order, and occasionally they consisted of Irish sketches in verse. About the last thing published was an Irish dialect poem, entitled Larry’s on the Force, which appeared in The Century. The poem tells in the fourth verse of Larry’s appearance as a policeman:
“He shtips that proud and shtately-loike, you’d think he owned the town,
And houlds his shtick convenient to be tappin’ some wan down—
Aich blissed day, I watch to see him comin’ up the sthrate,