398 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS to theirs. He gives his own philosophy when he says in homely language : '^It haint no use to gmmble and complain — It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice : When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, Wy rain's my choice/' And he speaks with sincerity when he writes:
- * No depth of agony but feels
Some fragment of abiding trust — Whatever death unlocks or seals. The mute Beyond is just. ' ' It is a religious soul that speaks in the farewell to a friend who has passed to the * * Onward Trail that leads beyond our earthly hail":
- * So, never parting word nor cry :
We feel, with him, that by and by Our onward trails will meet, and then Merge and be ever one again. ' ' This is not the place for an estimate of Mr. Biley's verse, but whatever verdict the future may place on it, it will re- main true that he spoke for the inarticulate and put into words their hopes and dreams, their aspirations, their longings and their beliefs — that he is the poet of the people. BIBLIOGRAPHY PERIODICALS American Poets of To-Day. By F. M. Hopkins. Current Literature 24:208. Estimate of James Whitcomb Riley. By J. MacArthur. Harper's Weekly 48 :1099. James Whitcomb Riley's Complete Works. Bookman 38 (1913) : 163. James Whitcomb Riley. By Hamlm Oarland. McClure's 2 :219. James Whitcomb Riley. By Henry Van Dyke. Book News 25 :429. James Whitcomb Riley. By Joe M. Chappie. National Magazine 9 :322.
