Bijou Heron’s First Poem —
NEW YORK, February 17.—Just as I had snugly settled myself in my dainty little den, to hold my usual chat with you, a young gentleman, a rising actor came in, his fine brown eyes dancing with humor, to show me a literary curiosity, and with considerable pomp laid on the table before me a half-quire of foolscap paper, on the first page of which was scrawled in a child’s hieroglyphics, the following rigmarole:
POETERITY.
I am no great Poet
so you might as well know it,
but I’ll try and do my best
to write with a deal of zest
the foweling few short lines.
I was once a naught girl you bet
and a just scolding I did get
wich well I deserved
as it made me feel more reserved
in the presence of my dear mamma.
Entered into act of congress in the year 1875 by Bijou Heron as a penance of being naughty.
If you could see the child—a perfect child—frisking like a kitten with the rest of our little ones here, from hall and room to room, you would understand why her mamma sometimes finds it necessary to give the “just scolding.” But it was inimitably funny to hear Mr. Alliger tell how often Madame Heron had administered the reproof (which Bijou took like a good Catholic as she is) and had fallen asleep on the sofa. Bijou went softly to her mother’s table, whereon lay a number of manuscripts and the aforesaid foolscap; and after examining one or two printed plays, and watching her small head demurely set to work and concocted her first poem, placed it in a conspicuous place amongst her mother’s paper, and stole out of the room. It was the first ting Madame Heron saw when she awoke, and, of course, became a source of amusement to us all, as the child is the pet of our household. I have given it verbatim et literatim et punctuatim. The funniest part is its business-like closing paragraph.
The Memphis Daily Appeal 2/24/1875. Print.