all up, than to have blotted from its annals the name of William
Shakespeare. Nor is it true that the world is outgrowing 
the need of poetry. On the contrary, now more than 
ever before is its influence useful and desirable. Matthew Arnold 
truly says: "More and more mankind will discover that 
we have to turn to poetry, to interpret life for us, to console 
us, to sustain us." It may indeed be true that the times are 
not propitious for the production of high-grade poetry. The 
great poets who made the first half of the century illustrious 
are gone; Browning is gone; and the pert that wrote "In 
Memoriam" writes now no more. And yet, poetry will not 
die, nor the hunger for it go out of the human heart. The 
fashion of this world passeth away; but some things endure, 
because they are grounded in the very souls of men. We 
need not mourn a lost art, nor imagine that no more songs 
will be sung and no more poems be written because the 
world seems to be on its knees to Mammon. Let us be patient. 
Somewhere, perhaps even now, some finely-attuned 
spirit is waiting the hour, waiting the opportunity, to give assurance 
that the race of poet is not extinct. 
 
      Meanwhile, in keeping alive the holy fire, Kansas will do 
her share. She will be represented on Mount Parnassus as 
she is at the World's Fair by the voluntary contributions 
of her citizens. I dare say this little volume is not destined 
to immortality. But there is good poetry in it^__some very
good, and some that is, perhaps, more commendable for the 
spirit that prompted the author to write than for the manner 
in which the promptings of the spirit were executed. It is 
not for me to criticise, but to be thankful: that so good a collection 
of Kansas verses has been made. At a time when his 
neighbors in Topeka are giving so many anxious thoughts to 
the attainment of that long-felt want, a dam across the Kaw, 
Mr. Frost deserves thanks for perceiving that, whether its unstable 
waters are brought into subjection or not, the public