The Writings of Robert J. Shores

New Brooms, Robert J. Shores. [1993.111.0037]

Robert J. Shores had a gift for words. He found his passion for writing in high school. At 16, he was editor and chief of Great Falls High School’s first school paper “The Dynamo”. He also started a magazine called “The Patriot” which was devoted to news of interest to boys’ orders. He soon had poems published in the Great Falls Tribune. The first was in the January 26, 1899, issue:

The Difference

Robert J. Shores submits the following:

It appears to me that, while the senatorial election is a question of some importance, it is really a very simple conundrum. The only difference between a Conrad man and a Clark man is that the Conrad man upholds his candidate, while the Clark man holds up his candidate.

He submitted more and the people of Great Falls seemed to enjoy them. There were several printed over the summer of 1899. Here are a couple more:

Lake M’Donald

A vast expanse of water stretching out, a rippling, shining sheet of water clear,
Hemmed in by snow-clad mountains high.
The simple touch of nature greets us here.
The lake itself, like some huge, shining gem,
Encircled by a setting made of gold.
Its setting is the setting of the sun, its luster is that of the water cold.

Self-Knowledge

Should all our characters be bared,
Our natures be made known,
There’s scarce a man upon the earth
Would recognize his own.

Defeated

To the ones who are defeated,
Drink a toast;
For the ones who are defeated ----
Do not boast.
Fill your glass up to the brim,
Drink a flagon down to him,
Who, all-silently and grim,
Takes his roast.

From his high school days of poetry writing, Shores moved to work for the Butte Inter Mountain Newspaper. In 1902, Mary MacLane wrote a biography “The Story of Mary MacLane.” Shores seized upon an idea and wrote a satire on MacLane’s biography. He called it “Damn: the story of Willie Complain.” It was a hit with the Butte locals, and he gained celebrity status.

“Damn! The Story of Willie Complain” book cover, Butte-Silver Bow Public Library. To view the full book: https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/5807

He also had the glorious honor of wearing the first pair of golf knickerbockers in the state. According to the Western News,

“The Irish miners and the gamblers of the camp were quite impressed by Bob’s Cosutme. He had seven fights in a block and a half and claimed he won three of them. One of the latter was a policeman of Celtic decent who appeared to be under the impression that Bob’s golf “pants” constituted a breach of the peace. A Butte sporting editor referred to the incident the following morning under the heading “Breeches a Breach of Peace.”

He did make a slight mistake, however, when he printed some of the backstairs gossip of the Big Copper society. The Butte elite did not find it as funny as he did, and he was soon canned from the paper.

From Butte, he went to work for newspapers all over, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Des Moines, St. Paul and Minneapolis, San Francisco and New York. He began publishing his own magazine called “The Idler” as what he hoped to be a rival to “The New Yorker.”

In December 1909, he published his first book of poems, “At Molokai.” Molokai is an island in the Pacific where the lepers of Hawaii are banished and live out their miserable existence. The book contained nearly two dozen poems.

At Molokai

God’s sun was yellow in the sky,
God’s grass was green as yesterday,
A writhing lizard laized by,
And brushed against my feet at play,
And I - what sort of Thing was I
To push the crawling beast away? 

Across the sea, the azure sea,
Bathed in a kindly Heaven’s light,
Bearing my Brothers out to me,
Companions in an endless Night,
A ship was rounding the Koko Head
Bound for the Island of the Dead.

 How blue the surf that broke upon
Oahu’s shining coral strand,
How gently in the rosy dawn,
The palm-tree by the sea-breeze fanned,
In nodding friendliness was drawn
To greet the softly smiling land.

 Far out across the rail they leaned,
To bid goodbye to Life and Love,
To mothers and to babes unweaned;
And high, the Punch Bowl’s rim above,
A summer beglit the swell
That bore my Brothers out to Hell.

 No tie of Kindred is so stout,
But bursts asunder with the Shame,
And no devotion so devout,
When fairest face and fairest fame
Are by one tainted breath blown out
As lightly as a candle’s flame.

 The floral wreath that bound my brow,
The soft “Aloha!” from the shore,
The last farewell, where are they now,
And shall I never know them more?
Ah, God! In this, Thy vast Demesne,
Hast Thou two Hells for the Unclean?

After “At Molokai, he put out two other books, “Gay Gods and Merry Mortals” and “New Brooms.” Shores then began a publishing company in 1916 and was rather successful with it. For some reason, however, in 1921 Shores turned to ministry and in 1927 he was ordained with the Episcopal Church. It probably had something to do with getting married in 1919 and their baby girl.

The New York Times June 2, 1918

The New York Times, September 8, 1918

The Evening Star June 30, 1934

Writing never left his heart though and his passion passed to his daughter Marie Medora Shores. In 1935, she published her first book, “Patty McGill Investigator,” about a girl newspaper reporter. She was 16 at the time. She went on to publish poems in several magazines and a few mystery novels.

Reverand Robert J. Shores passed in 1950 at his apartment in the Shoreham Hotel, New York City. He had been a supply minister for several churches on the east coast. His works are still around, and some are available online to read:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/52780

-Megan Sanford, Archives Administrator