Records Taken of Riley's Voice

              The Indianapolis Star Saturday Morning
July 6, 1912
RECORDS TAKEN OF RILEY'S VOICE
Poet Consents After Years to Read Choice Poems for
Talking Machine Company
IMPRESSED WITH RESULTS
Noted Writer of Verse Bears "Proofs" of
Selections With Manifest Interest
James Whitcomb Riley listened for the first time yesterday to his own poem from the proof plates of a talking machine. Mr. Riley leaned against a door frame at his home on Lockerbie street as the plates were  tried, his hands thrust carelessly into his trousers pockets and an
amused smile on his face.  He was interested immensely and was deeply
impressed with the weirdness of hearing himself read.
For several years the poet has been besought by talking machine
companies to make records of his poems, but it was only a few weeks ago
that he yielded.  First "proofs" have just reached him and have been
heard by only a few of his most intimate friends, among them being
Booth Tarkington, Dr. C. B. McCullock, Meridith Nicholson and Hewitt
H. Rowland
Among the poems chosen by Mr. Riley for recitation before this
new unseen audience are "Out to Old Aunt Mary's", "Good-by Jim", "The Happy Little Cripple", "When the Frost is on the Pumkin", "The Rain",
"An Old Sweetheart of Mine", "The Raggedy Man", and "On the Banks of