man was foreign to the
main idea which he attempted to carry out just as he believed
Stevenson might have done. There was no woman on Treasure Island
yet she passes here without question.

Shortly after the sixth verse had been added, the editors of the
_Rubric_--a Chicago magazine venture of the late 90's[14]--asked
Mr. Allison for permission to publish the five verses which had
fallen into their hands, and in granting the request he furnished
the later revision in six verses. This was published on eight pages
of the _Rubric_ in two colors, very happily illustrated, I thought,
and was captioned "On Board the Derelict."

[14] Vol. I No. 1, 1901.

It is the fine adjustment, the extreme delicacy, the very
artfulness of the whole poem, I might say, which has led you into
believing it "a rough, unstudied sailor's jingle" and in stating
editorially, "it is not likely however that he [Mr. Allison] wrote
the famous old chanty." Were it not that you hazarded this
speculation I would not feel called upon to recite this history, in
justice to Mr. Allison, who is one of the most honorable, modest
and original men of letters and who would scorn to enter the lists
in an effort to prove that what he had created was his own. Among
those who know him like Henry Watterson, Madison Cawein, James H.
Mulligan, (who was one of Stevenson's friends, present in Samoa
when he died), James Whitcomb Riley, and a host of others he needs
no defense.

Mr. Mason's comment in your issue of October 4, 1914, is a very
fine tribute to the work of a stranger to him and testifies to his
artistic judgment, for a study of this "old chanty" will prove it
to be a work of art, not only for the tremendous lines of which Mr.
Mason speaks, but because it creates the impression of antiquity
while being entirely modern by every rule of versification.

If you take the pains to scan the lines you must soon admit how
subtle and delicate are the alternating measures, prepared
purposely to create the very idea of age and coarseness and
succeeding with every almost matchless line and selected word.

Just a word more. Of course I cannot pretend to say how the version
published in your issue of September 20, 1914, got copied into the
"Old Scrap Book" to which "W. L." refers, but violence to the text
and the meter-