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A CENTURY OF BALLADS |
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there was no child in the case at all. I asked the writer of the letter for an appointment, but there was no appearance. Once only have I been accused of plagiarism. I wrote a song for Farkoa, which turned out useless for music, and a year later it appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, unsigned of course. Shortly after its appearance the editor received a letter from an American editor saying that the same poem had been submitted to him by a man named Walker. Walker, on being questioned, had claimed the authorship—it was not a case of coincidence. The poem was either mine or his. I told the two editors that I would supply them with conclusive proof that I was the author, but suggested that as Walker was the claimant, the onus lay on him to prove his case, and that he should be asked to prove the date of his poem. He fixed the date as November, 1907. The poem appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette in February, 1908. Further, he said he had met me in England, that I was a reciter (!), and that he had given me the poem for recitation. By a strange bit of luck, I had not destroyed the MS. book in which I wrote the poem. There was the poem from its earliest to its final stage. My letter-book and a typewriter's bill proved that I wrote my poem in August, 1906. I have heard no more of Walker. But where should I have been |
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