DISTANCE AND DISENCHANTMENT.

He was playing New York, and on Broadway at that;

I was playing in stock, in Chicago.

I heard that his Hamlet fell fearfully flat;

He heard I was fierce, as Iago.

Each looked to the other exceedingly small;

We were too far apart, that is all.

You, too, if your vision is ever reflective,

Have noticed your rival is small in perspective.

I heard him in Memphis ( a chance matinee );

He heard me ( one Sunday ) in Dallas.

His critics, I swore, never witnessed the play;

He vowed mine were prompted by malice.

A pleasanter fellow I cannot recall.

We were closer together; that's all.

And your rival, too, if you once see him clearly,

Is clever, or how could he rival you, nearly?

In Seattle they said he was greater than Booth,

( Or in Portland, perhaps; I've forgotten );

I said‘ twas ungracious to speak the plain truth,

But his work in the first act was rotten.

I had only intended to speak of the thrall

Of his wonderful fifth act; that's all.

But when a man's praised far ahead of his talents,

I guess you say something to even the balance.

In Atlanta I heard a remark that he made

And again in Mobile, Alabama;—

That he hardly thought Shakespeare was meant to be played

Like a ten-twenty-thirt’ melodrama.

Oh, well, there was one honey-drop in the gall;

The fellow was jealous; that's all.

And you, too, have found, when a friendship is broken,

That his words are worse than the ones you have spoken.