On March 15, 1893, W. F. McCaughey wrote a letter of introduction for Paul Laurence Dunbar. McCaughey was the secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of Richmond, Indiana.
This will introduce you to Mr. Paul L. Dunbar, of Dayton, Ohio, poet and reader. Mr. Dunbar gave an entertainment in our rooms last night that was most pleasing and satisfactory. Indeed he displayed ease, grace of manner and talent that would do credit to men of greater reputation and experience. His dialect stories are true to life. We take pleasure in introducing him to any who have use for his services.
Letter of reference from W. F. McCaughey, March 15, 1893 (quoted in an unidentified newspaper clipping). Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 4).
Paul was 20 years old and living with his mother Matilda in Dayton. In his hometown, Paul worked a low-paying job as an elevator operator, but in Richmond he was treated like a celebrity.
Last evening a nice company met in the lecture room of the beautiful new A. M. E. Church to listen to the reading of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the gifted poet and reader. Mr. Dunbar never read better and his selections were fine. He has won a warm place in the hearts of the people of Richmond. Mr. McCaughey, secretary of the Y. M. C. A. says: "I have paid as much as eighty dollars for a person to entertain an audience who did not equal Paul Dunbar." Mr. Dunbar is appreciated for his gentle and refined nature as well as for his poetic gifts. An extraordinary spontaneity, bordering upon improvisation, marks the poetry of the new bard.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar." Unidentified newspaper clipping [Richmond, Indiana]. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 4).
Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar gave one of his select readings at Bethel A. M. E. Church last evening. Mr. Dunbar is a young man, being only 20 years old, and his poems are equal to the poems of James Whitcomb Riley. Mr. Dunbar read "The Rivals" (a poem he wrote on Hoosier life since coming to the city). A large audience greeted the distinguished poet.
"Paul Dunbar." Unidentified newspaper clipping [Richmond, Indiana]. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 4).
The parlors of the Y. M. C. A. building were nicely filled last evening with a cultured audience to listen to the gifted colored poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. He entertained those present very nicely for an hour with recitations and readings of his own poems. His manner was perfectly natural, delivery good, and his interpretation was fine. His entire program was good and he certainly merits recognition as a poet of considerable genius, with a bright future before him. "The Rivals" is one that he composed yesterday especially for last evening. The two rival characters are supposed to be Hoosier boys in love with the same girl and a fight ensues. It was good and captured the audience.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar." Unidentified newspaper clipping [Richmond, Indiana]. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 4).
Paul's lengthy poem "The Rivals" uses Midwestern dialect to describe a confrontation between two young men courting the same girl.
'Twas three an' thirty year ago,
When I was ruther young, you know,
I had my last an' only fight
About a gal one summer night.
'Twas me an' Zekel Johnson; Zeke
'N' me 'd be'n spattin' 'bout a week,
Each of us tryin' his best to show
That he was Liza Jones's beau.
We couldn't neither prove the thing,
Fur she was fur too sharp to fling
One over fur the other one
An' by so doin' stop the fun
That we chaps didn't have the sense
To see she got at our expense,
But that's the way a feller does,
Fur boys is fools an' allus was.
An' when they's females in the game
I reckon men's about the same.
Excerpt from "The Rivals," by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in Majors and Minors (1895).
Later in 1893, Paul wrote favorably about the city of Richmond and its talented poets, newspaper writers and editors.
Though the Muses are supposed to be bucolic in their nature and to prefer dwelling within sight and sound of wood and stream, yet one does not expect in a small Western town of say 20,000 inhabitants to find anything like an intense literary atmosphere. Then, too, the idea that literature does not flourish in the West has been so constantly dinned into our ears that we cannot but give expression to our honest surprise at stumbling upon a small town where the literary spirit is so plainly in evidence as it is in Richmond, Ind.
"A Literary Colony," by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois). December 6, 1893. Page 7.