In the year 1912 there went forth from Springfield this same lad. Into
the West he went—through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and into New
Mexico. He went preaching a gospel,—his own “Gospel of Beauty.” His
sustenance he earned by reciting his own rhymes to those who were
willing, in exchange, to give him bread. Thus did he make us
uncomfortably imagine him a new John the Baptist, François Villon, or
even Saint Francis of Assisi.... In the year 1914 his account of this
adventure was published. Three rhymes, he claims, contained his “theory
of American civilization.” This is from one of them:
O you who lose the art of hope,
. . . . . .
Turn to the little prairie towns,
Your high hope shall yet begin.
On every side awaits you there
Some gate where glory enters in.
And “At the end of the Road”—by faith and a study of the signs—he
proclaimed the New Jerusalem for America, particularly for his
home-village.... Now, there is a peculiar value attached to this
journey—the influence on the poet, not the preacher’s influence on the
people. It was after this trip that we got _The Santa Fé Trail_, _The
Fireman’s Ball_, written in a style in which were later written _The
Chinese Nightingale_ and _The Congo_. And, because of the relation of
its style to these, we even judge _I heard Emmanuel Singing_ a good
thing. This, then, is Lindsay’s importance among us; his contribution of
this style of vaudeville chanting. This is the poet. He does not count
when writing _Galahad_, _Knight Who Perished_, _King Arthur’s Men Have
Come Again_, _Incense_, _Springfield Magical_, or declaring “by faith
and a study of the signs.”