Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Banks of the Boneyard (Charles Kiler) [PAGE 9]

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1 Join a Literary Society

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nounced the approaching entertainment for us, and when the great night came the opera house was full. One of Riley's biographers refers to a telegram from the poet in which he tells of this sell-out in Champaign. Under the contract Riley and Nye were to be on the stage ready for the show at eight o'clock, but when that hour arrived they had not shown up. I doubt if anyone ever was as nervous as I was at that moment; I ran to the Doane House and Ed Jones, the night clerk, said they had left an hour before, accompanied by Colonel Niles. Oh, Oh, and several more of them. The Colonel owned the hotel, had been private secretary to Governor Richard Yates, the great Civil War Governor of Illinois, and was an entertainer de luxe. I started down the line and found them in the second tavern I entered. With their feet on the rail and their arms on the bar they were toasting each other and saying nice things about the whole cock-eyed world. Calling their attention to the time, I led the parade to the opera house only to find the stage door locked. I then took them down the center aisle, introduced Mr. Riley, and the show was on. A great actor, the Hoosier poet had the audience laughing and weeping in turn. No one could recite his poems like the author himself. I have heard many actors read Riley's poems but not a single one as good as James Whitcomb Riley could read them. Bill Nye got a laugh at once by stating that the audience had kept Mr. Riley working until he was tired "and now, by gum, I am going to keep on telling my stories until you all get tired!" The passing of more than half a century may cause me to think of this entertainment as the greatest thing of its kind, but I doubt if I can over-do in words the pleasure, tears, and laughter produced by these two great men. The Adelphic Literary Society was rich beyond all dreams; we not only paid for the piano but surprised all of our other creditors by paying them. If my memory is correct the success of this enterprise led to the formation of the Phil-Adelphic Lecture Course, which in '96 became the Star Lecture Course, In the meantime considerable dissatisfaction existed among the students because there was no place to sit down when watching an athletic contest and no place for the athletes to change their clothes or bathe after a game. The Athletic Association passed the hat around to raise money, and also put on a minstrel show for the same