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 | FIRST PLAYS Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis |  |
PHILADELPHIA.
March 5th.
[DEAR CHAS:]
I am getting rapidly better owing to regular hours and light literature and home comforts. I am not blue as I was and my morbidness has gone and I only get depressed at times. I am still however feeling
135
DICK.
TAKE ME BACK TO BROADWAY, WHERE
THE ORCHIDS GROW
WITH APOLOGIES TO THE WESTERN DIALECT POETS
"I have wandered up and down somewhat in many different lands
I have been to Fort Worth, Texas, and I've tramped through Jersey sands,
I have seen Pike's Peak by Moonlight, and I've visited the Fair
And to save enumeration I've been nearly everywhere.
But no matter where I rested and no matter where I'd go,
I have longed to be on Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow.
Some people love the lilies fair that hide in mossy dells
Some folks are fond of new mown hay, before the rainy spells
But give to me the orchids rare that hang in Thorley's store,
And in Fleischman's at the Hoffman, and in half a dozen more
And when I see them far from home they make my heart's blood glow
For they take me back to Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow.
Some folks are fond of new mown hay, before the rainy spells
But give to me the orchids rare that hang in Thorley's store,
And in Fleischman's at the Hoffman, and in half a dozen more
And when I see them far from home they make my heart's blood glow
136
Where
the
Orchids
Grow.
Let Paris boast of boulevards where one can sit and drink
There is no such chance on Broadway, at the Brower House, `I don't think.'
And where else are there fair soubrettes in pipe clayed tennis shoes,
And boys in silken sashes promenading by in twos
Oh you can boast of any street of which you're proud to know
But give me sleepy Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow.
There is no such chance on Broadway, at the Brower House, `I don't think.'
And where else are there fair soubrettes in pipe clayed tennis shoes,
And boys in silken sashes promenading by in twos
Oh you can boast of any street of which you're proud to know
But give me sleepy Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow.
Let poets sing of chiming bells and gently lowing kine
I like the clanging cable cars like fire engines in line
And I never miss the sunset and for moonlight never sigh
When `Swept by Ocean Breezes.' flashes out against the sky.
And when the Tenderloin awakes, and open theatres glow
I want to be on Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow."
I like the clanging cable cars like fire engines in line
And I never miss the sunset and for moonlight never sigh
When `Swept by Ocean Breezes.' flashes out against the sky.
And when the Tenderloin awakes, and open theatres glow
I want to be on Broadway
Where
the
Orchids
Grow."
A VOUS, JOHN DREW
"John Drew, I am your debtorFor a very pleasant letter
And a lot of cabinet photos
Of the `Butterflies' and you
And I think it very kind
That you kept me so in mind
And pitied me in exile
So I do, John Drew.
137
2
John Drew, 'twixt you and mePrecious little I can see
Of that good there is in Solitude
That poets say they view.
For I hate to be in bed
With a candle at my head
Sitting vis a vis with Conscience.
So would you, John Drew.
3
John Drew, then promise meThat as soon as I am free
I may sit in the first entrance
As Lamb always lets me do.
And watch you fume and fret
While the innocent soubrette
Takes the centre of the stage a —
Way from you, John Drew."
R. H. D.
In the summer of 1894 Richard went to London for a purely social visit, but while he was there President Carnot was assassinated, and he went to Paris to write the "story" of the funeral and of the election of the new President.
| FIRST PLAYS Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis | |