"OSTLER JOE."

NZ Truth, Issue 75, 24 November 1906, Page 8

"OSTLER JOE."

MRS. BROWN-POTTER CREATES A SENSATION.

G. R. Sims Writes " A Wife's Ordeal."

The Dacres Play it m Melbourne — Their Tragic End.

On the evening of February 10, .1886, Washington society assembled at the house of Mr Secretary Whitney. The occasion was a charitable entertainment. t -, Among the entertainers was a young society lady, Mrs James Brown Potter. Her contribution to the programme was a recitation, and she gave "Ostler Joe," one of the "Ballads of Babylon" that I had written at the request of my friend, Edmund Yates, for the "World," away back m the late seventies.

On the morning of February 11 I woke to find myself famous throughout the length and breadth of America. That is to say, I should have gone 'through that much-quoted experience had I been sleeping anywhere m the United States.

For Washington society, assembled at Mr Secretary Whitney's, had been petrified with' horror at the dreadful story the young_,society lady had told them, and the Washington, press was filled with sensational accounts of the shame and confusion with which the fair fashionables of the capital had been covered as with a garment. .• • •

The morning papers reported that Mrs Brown-Potter had shocked the company by reciting "a poem of Swinburne's called 'Hostler Joe,' " and the story, with additions and alterations, was repeated by the enstire press of America on the following day. By that time it had been discovered that the author was hot Swinburne but Sims.

' "Who is Sims?" was the question on everybody's lips. There was a great rush on the poems of Mr William Simms, an American bard, but, his collected words wero searched m vain. ■ . "Ostler Joe" was published m all the American papers, pirinted on handbills with advertisements on the other side, published by Brentano Bros., of New York, Washington, arid Chicago, as a 25-cent booklet, and then it was discovered that the "poem" was mine, and was included m "The Dagonet Ballads."

The boom of "Ostler Joe" had nothing; to do with its merits. It had shocked the ladies •of Washington assembled at Mr Secretary Whitney's, therefore, everybody was eager to know what there was m it that was so shocking. The press fanned the flames by being sharply divided on the question of its "taste." Column-long, articles were written about it. One party of critics found it pathetic and human; another denounced it as "vulgar, coarse, and immoral." ; In the meantime everybody who touched "Ostler Joe"— except the innocent author of his beings-was making money out of him. .

The poem was recited at the Grand Opera House, Baltimore, and packed the building. A clergyman announced that he would read.it from the pulpit, and the police had to be called m to turn the surplus congregation away. It was also introduced into the third act of Sardou's "Article 47" at the Standard Theatre, Chicago, by Miss Lilian Lewis, a young rising star. An interviewer waited upon Miss Lewis ; who played the part of Cora the Creole, and asked her what "Ostler Joe" had to do with Sardou's ."Article 47,", and why she had dropped it into the drama. "Why," said Miss Lewis, "because weople come to hear the recitation who wouldn't cross the street to see me play Cora. 'Lilian Lewis,' they would' say, 'who is she ?' 'She recites "Ostler Joe," my 'dear,' remarks the gentleman who is paying for the tickets. 'Oh, I should like to go above all things,' says the lady, and they come, and the house is packed, and- that's what it was intended to be when it was built.

The "Brooklyn Morning Leader" made an important announcement m big type :- , "Annie Morgan is the name of the Chicago lady who was the first to recite ■•> 'Ostler Joe' m this countiry. What we now want to know is the name of the first lady who quitted the room with a blush, upon her cheek after hearing it."