Chapter I: Front Matter

OF THIS LITTLE VOLUME TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES HAVE BEEN MADE

YOUNG EWING ALLISON

--_A REMINISCENCE_

"The man who wrote such a poem should not be unknelled, unhonored
and unsung."

--_Walt Mason._

THE DEAD MEN'S SONG:

BEING THE STORY OF A POEM AND A REMINISCENT SKETCH OF ITS AUTHOR

YOUNG EWING ALLISON

TOGETHER WITH A BROWSE THROUGH OTHER GEMS OF HIS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF OLDER DAYS

BY

HIS FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE

CHAMPION INGRAHAM HITCHCOCK

_Incorporated with which are Facsimiles of Certain Interesting Manuscripts_

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

1914

COPYRIGHT BY CHAMPION INGRAHAM HITCHCOCK

1914

IN THESE PAGES

A WORD SAID BEFOREHAND

Explaining How a Certain "Chap" Lost His Temper and Found It Again
Very Quickly.

DERELICT, By Young Ewing Allison

A Reminiscence of Stevenson's "Treasure Island" Based On the
Quatrain of Captain Billy Bones.

PICTURING THE INDIVIDUAL

With Some Observations About A Man Whom I Have the Honor to Call
Friend.

MAN AND NEWSPAPER MAN

A Peep Into Personal Records of the Past With Some Comments of a
Current Nature.

JUST BROWSING AROUND

Excursions Into the "Higher Altitudes" With Something About the
Books Up There.

IN THE OPERATIC FIELD

Being a Look Behind the Scenes With Some Glimpses of a Pursuing
Jinx.

BALLAD OF DEAD MEN

The Same Being Mostly About Able Pirates And the Very Able
Descendant of a Pirate.

IF THERE IS CONTROVERSY!

Just a Few Bits From the Olden Days With Some Comment On a Certain
Critic.

SOME CLIPPINGS--AND A LETTER

Which Tells How One Who Did Not Know Set Himself Up As a "Chanty"
Authority.

YO-HO-HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM

Discussed As a Chanty Entertainingly By a Mariner and With a
Deep-Sea Flavor.

SUPPLEMENTING _the_ TEXT

YOUNG EWING ALLISON (By Cusick) _Frontispiece._

A "Sitting" for Which Photograph Forms A Story Known Only to This
Writer.

DERELICT _Illuminating the Poem_

Facsimiles of the Original Illustrations in _Rubric_ (Vol. 1,
No. 1, 1901) to Which Certain Piratical Tints Have Been Added.

"A TEMPTING BAUBLE"

Said "Bauble" Being a Check (to Cover the Cost of a Certain Book)
Which Allison Returned in a Frame With a Few Comments of His Own.

YOUNG E. ALLISON (By Wyncie King)

_Louisville Herald_ Demon Caricaturist's Conception of a Pirate's
Poet, With a Cigarette Replacing the Customary "Stogie."

THE INFALLIBLE (By Charles Dana Gibson)

A "Type" in Every Old Daily Newspaper Office, Reproduced from
_Century_ (October, 1889), Illustrating "The Longworth Mystery."

BOOK OF "THE OGALLALLAS"

Being a Facsimile (Slightly Reduced) of the Cover of Allison's
First Opera Pursued and Captured By a Jinx.

FROM THE OLD "PROMPT" BOOK

Page (slightly reduced) From "The Mouse and the Garter," Showing
Allison's Characteristic Penciled Notations.

"A PIRATICAL BALLAD" (Words and Music)

Facsimile in Miniature of the First Printed Verses of "Derelict"
Published and Copyrighted by William A. Pond & Co., 1891.

* * * * *

Together With Certain Letters and Memoranda, Proofs, Mss., etc.,
About "Fifteen Dead Men," in Facsimile of Young E. Allison's
Characteristic Handwriting, which are to be Found in a "Pocket" in
the Inside Back Cover of This Volume.

A WORD SAID BEFOREHAND

If a careless and uninformed writer in _The New York Times Book Review_ had not hazarded the speculation in his columns that it was very doubtful if Young Ewing Allison wrote the famous poem "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest," the creation and perfection of which took him through a period of about six years, the idea of undertaking a sketch of him and the stuff he has done might never have occurred to me. While not exactly thankful to the New York editor, I have abandoned a blood-thirsty raid on his sanctum and a righteous indignation has been dissipated in the serene pleasure I have found in expressing an appreciation of Allison's genius in this private volume for our friends. God bless the Old Scout! In all of our intimate years there has been such a complete understanding between us that spoken words have been largely unnecessary, and so the opportunity of saying publicly what has ever been in my heart, is a rare one, eagerly seized.