Show joke on alie publishers poem imitating bret harte s style given wide circulation and notice sam davis of nevada once made a wager that he could successfully inn tate the style of any living or dead poet ond do it so thoroughly that the difference was not discernible and that the i the press and the crit acs ics would not detect the fraud As a result says success magazine he wrote binley and 46 to which he signed F bret harte s name the take was put out in a publication know as the open letter it de scribed an engineer aiho took his train through a snowstorm in the sierras dying at his post from the atlantic to the pacific the poem was copied binley and 46 was given a full page in an illustrated weekly with a portrait of bret harte and described as the best short poem of the decade it was many before mr harte denied its authorship the poem has since been incorporated in several books of popular recitations standing binley freezes to death be ide a roaring locomotive furnace anh poun of steam up and twe cords of wood within reach wai i |