d White," "The Pall Mall Gazette," "The Daily
Express," and "Canada," all of London, England; "The Review of
Reviews," Paris, France; "Harper's Weekly," "New York Independent,"
"Outing," "The Smart Set," "Boston Transcript," "The Buffalo
Express," "Detroit Free Press," "The Boys' World" (David C. Cook
Publishing Co., Elgin, Illinois), "The Mothers' Magazine" (David
C. Cook Publishing Co.), "The Canadian Magazine," "Toronto Saturday
Night," and "The Province," Vancouver, B.C.

In 1892 the opportunity of a lifetime came to this young versifier,
when Frank Yeigh, the president of the Young Liberals' Club, of
Toronto, conceived the idea of having an evening of Canadian
literature, at which all available Canadian authors should be
guests and read from their own works.

Among the authors present on this occasion was Pauline Johnson, who
contributed to the programme one of her compositions, entitled "A
Cry from an Indian Wife"; and when she recited without text this
much-discussed poem, which shows the Indian's side of the North-West
Rebellion, she was greeted with tremendous applause from an audience
which represented the best of Toronto's art, literature and culture.
She was the only one on the programme who received an encore, and to
this she replied with one of her favourite canoeing poems.

The following morning the entire press of Toronto asked why this
young writer was not on the platform as a professional reader;
while two of the dailies even contained editorials on the subject,
inquiring why she had never published a volume of her poems, and
insisted so strongly that the public should hear more of her,
that Mr. Frank Yeigh arranged for her to give an entire evening
in Association Hall within two weeks from the date of her first
appearance. It was for this first recital that she wrote the poem
by which she is best known, "The Song my Paddle Sings."

On this eventful occasion, owing to the natural nervousness which
besets a beginner, and to the fact that she had scarcely had time
to memorize her new poem, she became confused in this particular
member, and forgot her lines. With true Indian impassiveness,
however, she never lost her self-control, but smilingly passed over
the difficulty by substituting something else; and completely won
the hearts of her audience by her coolness and self-possession. The
one thought uppermost in her mind, she afterwards said, was that she
should not leave the platform and thereby ack