Sarah Binks

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83It is Sarah at her absolute best. Even the much quoted JUMP INTO A PLEATED SHIRT, does not quite equal it in its joyous abandon and vigor. In the latter she is more the observing and contemplative naturalist, and fails to reach the fine poetic frenzy which distinguishes THE DUCK HUNT.JUMP INTO A PLEATED SHIRT.Jump into a pleated shirt friend, And hurry with me away, We'll visit the halleluiah bird, That ushers in the day.I'll show you where she lives, friend, I'll show you what she eats, And what she lays, so hurry, friend. Jump into a shirt with pleats.Her tail feathers ore crimson, friend, Her face is red with glee. So into a pleated shirt, friend, And hurry away with me.I'll show you where she hides her young,And covers them with dirt,So hurry, hurry, hurry, friend,Jump into a pleated shirt.Professor Breather of St. Midgets, in his series of radio talks on the "Sex Life of the Domestic Duck," quotes this poem of Sarah*s in corroboration of some observations he himself has made in Tahiti.it is evident that Nature was taking Sarah by the hand. She wrote in quick succession, THE SPARROW, BY THE SYCAMORE. TREE and ODE TO THE SOUTH-WEST WIND, and a sonnet in Norwegian dialect, TO OLE. These works of nature she treats with a simplicity and sympathy which she has never excelled. It is as if her trip to Regina and her Darkest Africa which followed her had given her a new understanding. It is true, as Professor Marrowfat points out, that in the sonnet to Ole her knowledge
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84of the Norwegian dialect is faulty, and that it might he equally well applied to Steve Grizzlykick, who boasted that his grandmother on his mother's side had fought at the Battle of Bonnington Falls and was thus oyer half Doukabor, but it does not detract from the quality of Sarah's poesy. She was always weak in languages, as we have seen, but her poetry and her geology is sound. In THE SPARROW we find again that sweet simplicity, and that oneness with nature which is the breath and soul of Saskatchewan literature.THE SPARROW. A simple sparrow by the glen, Despised by the best of men, Kay help us greatly now end then, As we shall see.A sparrow wandered o'er the hill, O'er shingle, flat, and shiny rill, To find some food, and eat his fill, Of little bugs.He chanced upon a warty toad, who, toiling on the dusty road, Did sweat beneath his heavy load, And cursed aloud.The sparrow's face did beam with love. Like dew beneath or stars above, He got behind the toad and shoved, And moved the toad.The warty toad was moved to tears, Accustomed in declining years, To nothing else but kicks and sneers, He thanked the sparrow.What like unto this little song, Where one doth help the other along, Can make us great and keep us strong, I do not know.It is a poem which has always had a peculiar appeal toSarah Binks' feminine admirers, if any. Miss Rosalind Drooland Miss Diana Baby-Banting, from widely separated parts ofthe Empire, unite in describing it again as exquisite, exquisite!"
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With the sonnet TO OLE, Sarah seems to have exhausted nature for the time being. Having found herself again and intact, she returns to those deeply reflective and full of hope poems which have so endeared her to her public. She scoffs at her own previous trepidations in HOW PRONE IS MAN.HOW PRONE IS MAN.How prone is piebald man to mourn, And mare ado of nothing much, To strew his rosy path with thorn, And rusty nails, yea, plenty such.Anon to quit his downy bed, And greet the mom with drooping mush, To scan with cross-eyed gleam in head, The bubbling birdlet on the bush.With lowering brow he'll curse the cook, And bid begone the hired man, And gloomy thoughts are In his look, And strife is written on his pan.'Tis not for he the sparrow pipes, Nor blows the bull frog in the rill, Ah, not for he the heron wipes. His stately nose upon his quill.Sarah wrote these lines, as she confessed to Mathilda, to reassure herself, hut they might just as well have been dedicated to Jacob Binks. Certainly the Sarah who could write THE DUCK HUNT had no reason to have any misgivings as to her powers. That she did reassure herself is shown in that famous verse DESPOND NOT, which breathes hope in every line.
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86DESPOND NOT.Despond not, though times be hale, And baleful be,Though winds blow stout, a hurricale, What's that, what's that to you and me.Despond not, though frenzied fear, And pale-like hue, May whisper panic in the ear, What's that, what's that to me and you.Despond not, for shame such speak. Aloft! Aloft!Tut! Whistle low, with peakered beak, Soft, soft! Despond not!DESPOND NOT was published in Sarah's favorite organ) THE HORSE BREEDER'S GAZETTE. The reception accorded it was like that of SPRING. It appeared at the psychological moment when literature in Saskatchewan was at one of its low ebbs. It had been a drought year and edition after edition of THE HORSE BREEDER'S GAZETTE had appeared without a single line of poetry. The appearance of DESPOND NOT followed almost immediately by a heavy rain touched the almost forgotten chorda in the hearts of the people. "Despond not"! cried Sarah Binks, and "Despond not!" echoed Saskatchewan. She had arrived. Never again would Sarah have to sell subscriptions in order to have her works see the light of print. Henceforth the literary journals of Saskatchewan were thrown open to her free of charge."Despond not!" declared the Hon. A..E., Windheaver at the unveiling of Sarah's monument "Despond not! I give you the words of your own great poetess, than whom there is no greater in this great Province of which I have had the honor to be Minister of Grasshopper Control and Foreign Affairs. Despond not! Gome drought,
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87come rust, come high tariff and high freight rates and high cost of binder twine, I still say to you, as I have already said to the electors of quagmire and Pelvis, that a Province that can produce a poet like your Sarah Binks under the type of government ye have been having during the last four years, full of graft and maladministration and wasting the taxpayers' money, and what about the roads, I want to say, that a Province that can produce such a poet may be down but it's never out."
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88CHAPTER IX.RECOGNITION AND SUCCESS.Looking back over the years and comparing Sarah Binks early struggle for recognition with the fame that she was later to achieve, it is difficult to understand why she remained so long in comparative obscurity. It is true that if her voice had never reached beyond willows or if her message to the people of Saskatchewan had never extended beyondthe barbed wire surrounding the North East quarter of Section 37, Township 21, Range 9, West, she would still have written reams But one hates to think of that pellucid stream of poesy soaked into the arid soil of the Binks's homestead. That soil might have been enriched thereby, but Saskatchewan as a whole would be poorer. And it is to the undying credit of the people of Saskatchewan that her genius should have been recognized during its flowering, and that they should have conferred upon her during her brief life some tangible evidence of the high regard in which her work was held. It is the tragedy, the great, ironic tragedy of Sarah Binks's life that this first tangible evidence of her success, the horse thermometer, should also have been the instrument of her death, the fatal dagger which stilled her voice forever. But it is a splendidly fitting tragedy. Sarah would not have had it otherwise. The McCohen and Meyers Stock Conditioner Company may well say, "If we had known that the horse thermometer was going to
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89carry her off we would have given her instead a hypodermical needle of which we also carry a full line." But between a hypodermic needle and a horse thermometer, Sarah would have unhesitatingly chosen the horse thermometer. The will to live was strong in her, but the will to self-expression was greater. Always the poetess first, always conscious of her own great destiny, she realised that she would have to pay the price of greatness. Death loves a saining mark. The choice would have to be mode, and in making it there may lie the true explanation of her former depression, MissRosalind Drool notwithstanding. It is true that much, ifnot most of it may be attributed to Regina, but Sarah could never have reached that high resolve without passing through Darkest Africa. She realised that her powers might fail her and her courage falter:The finest flower I have known, The rarest blossom I have met, Has gone to seed, her beauty flown, Her day is done, her sun is set.This makes me scratch myself and ask, "When shall my powers fade?" It puts jae severely to the task. To face this fact undismayed."To face this fact undismayed!" Between a hypodermic needle and a horse thermometer, even if she had been aware of its fatal implications, Sarah would have chosen the horse thermometer.The greet literary contest sponsored by the McCohen and Meyers Stock Conditioner Company is history in the annals of the Quagmire Agricultural Society Pair. The exact conditions of the contest as originally outlined, have been pre-
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90served in the Einksian Collection whose trustees were fortunate enough to obtain a copy of SWINE AND KIKE, where the announcement first appeared. Sarah herself was not a subscriber to SWINE AND KINE, and Jacob Binks as a true dirt farmer, disdained it as a woman's magazine. "The dam' thing is all about pigs". But the self contained economics of the Schwant-zhacker menage was concerned with pigs and they regularly received a copy. Sarah was able to peruse it whenever the thirteen sisters had finished reading the advertisements and Mathilda was permitted to carry it across. The opportunity thus afforded the thirteen Schwantshacker sisters to express themselves for Sarah's benefit in marginal comments and drawings proved to be a greater literary opportunity for her than for them. She seized at once upon the McCohen and Meyers' announcement, and so great was her preoccupation that she forgot, for once, to cross the eyes of all the illustrations of pigs and their owners in SWINE AND KINE before returning it to the thirteen sisters.The epoch making contest of the McCohen an I Meyers Stock Conditioner Company was absolutely free. "Free!Free!Send no money! You too may win a prize!" must have been the words that first caught Sarah's attention. Saskatchewan owes much to the philanthropy of McCohen and Meyers. Their brilliant inspiration of improving both the stock and the literature of Saskatchewan in one contest, touching, as it does, both the soul and the material welfare of the people, has won them a place in every heart. In the preamble to the terms of the contest the merits of the stock conditioner are set forth, and the earnest needs of improving the stock as well as life on the farm in general
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is emphasised. The announcement of the award of a prize for the best poem dealing with some farm animal, together with the rules of the contest followed:1. Send no money! This contest is absolutely free.2. For the best poem dealing with stock or farm animals,a prize, together with a certificate, will be publicly awarded at the Quagmire Agricultural Pair, or any other Fair in the B Class which the successful candidate may elect.3. All poems must be written on one side of the paperonly.4. All poems must be in English.5. All poems must be the author's own work and must nothave been published before.6. Poems must not be too long. Remember merit counts.It is better to send a short good poem than a long bad one.7. important: Every entry must be accompanied by THREElabels from the packages of McCohen and Meyers Stock Conditioner, and must bear the signature and portrait of Adolf McCohen, the discoverer of this great farm and home remedy.8. You may submit more than one poem, in fact, it is advisable, because the more entries you make the greater your chances of winning a prize, but each poem must be accompanied by THREE labels from McCohen and Meyers Stock Conditioner, and must bear the signature and portrait of Adolf McCohen, the discoverer.9. in the event of a tie, or if two or more contestantssubmit the same poem, the award will be made on the basis of neatness and spelling.10. The award of the judges is final. This is positive.11. All entries must be in the hands of the contest Editorson or before the closing dates as announced.12. The successful candidates must pay their own expensesto and from the Pair grounds, but arrangements will be made to give them an exhibitor's badge which will entitle them to free entry into the grounds.Address all entries to McCohen an I Meyers Stock Conditioner and Supply Company, 1629i Coy Street, Regina, Saskatchewan.
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92Sarah's decision to enter this contest was immediate, but not without some misgivings. True, she could Qualify on most counts; she was willing to comply with the regulations as set forth, to submit only her own work, to write on one side of the paper, in English, to al:ide by the decision of the judges, and to send no money. But she was anxious to submit at least two of her poems in the confident expectation that they would be tied for first place and that one of them would naturally be declared the winner on the ground of neatness if not spelling. Her quick imagination even dwelt upon the idea of a third and fourth entry, although no prizes were to be awarded for the place and show positions. But here her imagination outstripped practicality, for although Jacob Binks used the McGohen and Meyers Stock Conditioner for his horses, to induce him to buy a full twelve packages at one time was more than Sarah could expect. She might possibly, with Mathilda*s assistance, persuade some of the more distant neighbors who might not themselves have literary aspirations, to buy the stock conditioner, and undoubtedly her grandfather, if it were suggested to him, would incorporate it into the formula and mash of a new tonic on which he was working at the time. A reasonable supply of discoverer McCohen's autographed portraits was thus assured, but the rr,te of consumption of the stock conditioner on the Binks's farm would have to be increased to balance the literary output which Sarah had in mind. She was too much the daughter of Jacob Binks not to realise that an unbalanced economy would result in waste, and she therefore issued orders to Ole that the horses were to receive double their rations of conation powders for the time being and � as an afterthought � that
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93he himself was to have some on his porridge every morning.Time was to show, of course, that Sarah's plan, far sighted as it was* was successful even beyond her expectations. Not only, as we now know, did Sarah win a much coveted prize at the Quagmire Agricultural Fair, but so also did the Binks horses Three seconds and one honourable mention stand to their credit, and the ribbons of Buttercup and Dairy i^ueen are today some of the most prized possessions in the collections of Binksiana. It was a big day for the Binks family. Old Sage,s Tonic and Hair Remover created surprise and delight when it was tested by the Judges and was placed in a special class. Even Ole, in splendid condition, won a box of cigars for repeatedly ringing^ and finally breaking, the bell with the twenty pound mallet.But t ese were events of the future. In the meantime Sarah devoted herself to the literary problem that lay before her, wnat poems to submit and what farm animals to choose. HORSE, CALF, THE GOOSE, STEEDS, and THE CURSED DUCK had already been published and were therefore not eligible poems. True, she could write again on the same themes but she felt that she had exhausted these subjects, or, an Jacob Binks expressed it, "You've already milked that dam' cow, Sarah." Her keen sense of literary values told her also that of all the manuscripts submitted in this competition, ninety five per cent would undoubtedly deal with horse or cow and she recognised the value of originality in a competition of this kind. For a while she considered the indigenous gopher as a fitting farm animal, but in the end abandoned it as too trivial. As a fur bearing animal it had some value in the tail, but its economic value had yet to be established. Mathilda's suggestion that the SONNET TO
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94OLE, of which she was very fond, he submitted, was also ruled out,Sarah pointed out that the judges might not regard Ole as strictlyspeaking a farm animal, moreover, the Norwegian dialect in which thesonnet was written might disqualify it as being not strictly speakingEnglish, and in any oase it was too long. There remained, apparently,only the pig and the sheep, and because the pigs she knew were thoseassociated with the Sohwantzhacker farm, she was, as she herselfconfessed, "unable to treat them sympathetically.* In fact, she hadalready expressed herself concerning them in one of her notes tothe Schwantzhacker sisters;Of all the farmer's bird and beast, I think I like the pig the least*She therefore turned her attention to sheep.*The complete manuscript of this hitherto unpublished poem has recently been discovered in the office files of SWINE AND KINE by Professor Nert, who has a nose for that sort of thing. It was sandwiched between two bundles marked "Rejected Manuscripts" and "Unpaid Subscriptions. It was also the place where the stenographer kept her lunch. This fortunate coincidence led Professor Nert to the discovery of the manuscript of PIGS, which had been given up for lost, but whose former existence had always been assumed.. The manuscript by this time presents the appearance of a papyrus, and is badly stained, but whether this is due to Sarahs or to the stenographer's lunch has yet to be determined. Professor Nert is continuing his investigations by a study of the stenographer's eating and other habits, and in the meantime has sent a photostatic copy of the priceless manuscript to Le Bureau Scientifique for chemical analysis. The poem itself, oan, however be deciphered. It evidently belongs to Sarah Binks's P.R. period.PIGSThe man who raises pigs for cash May leap for joy to give them mash, And laugh aloud to meditate The liver sausage on his plate, Transform the barley and the bean To strips of fat and strips of lean, And see all things, his barns and yard And wife and child in terms of lard.(footnote continued on next page)

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