STORIES OF EDWIN MARKHAM, THE AMERICAN POET

Evening Star, Issue 23686, 20 September 1940, Page 3

STORIES OF EDWIN MARKHAM, THE AMERICAN POET

He was fond of telling how he on» day entered a schoolroom and was delighted to see the American flag on the wall. Thinking it would be a fin» text for his talk, he asked the children 3 Why do you have this flag on the walk of your room? Up shot the hand ofi a little girl. “To cover the hole in the plastering,” she' said. Becoming tired of what seemed_ to him. to he a humdrum life, he decided torun away from home. Mounting his little buckskin bronco, he took to the hills to see the world. At that time h» was a little past 16, and had a boy’» keen zest for an outdoor life. H» camped in the woods, slept in oaves,and enjoyed the wild free life. One evening he met a (band of rougH men led by a giant named Bart, '"'fcey; told him.to “ come along,” and he snort found that he was a prisoner of Blacic Bart, one of California’s most famous bandits. Bart took a liking to this finelooking youth, and tried to persuadw him to join the bandits. One evening as they were sitting by, the camp fire Bart asked Markham what he would like to do in life if h»

had the choice, and Markham told him that the thing he most desired was an opportunity to get an education. Tiack Bart pretended to regard this ambition as a joke, hut a few days later told the hoy he was free to go home. Ho felt ashamed to return to his mother, and was about to take a job on a. ranch when his mother appeared, 'fter having trailed him for months in an old budkboard. She persuaded him to return home. Digging in the garden one day a tew weeks later he turned over a stone which apparently had been recently placed in such -a position that it might attract attention. Something was under the stone. Examination showed; a rusty tin can in which was a canvas bag. As he picked it up something fell out. It was a 20dol gold piece. The bag was full of gold coin. Trembling with excitement, he began to count, and found that there were 900dol. This opened the gateway to an education. “ I never knew,” said Markham, “ the real source of this wealth, huh I always think that Black Bart planted it there.”