because of his success in the midwest, the circuit leaders invited him to make an east coast tour, starting in boston at the tremont temple in february 1882. riley agreed, signing a ten-year agreement and granting half his receipts to his agent. before his performance, he traveled to longfellow's home in massachusetts and convinced him to agree to a meeting. their brief meeting was one of riley's fondest memories, and he wrote a lengthy article about it after longfellow's death only a month later. longfellow encouraged riley to focus on poetry and gave him advice for his upcoming performance where riley was well received. his poems were greeted with laughter and praised in the city's newspaper reviews. boston was the literary center of the united states at the time, and the impression riley made on the city's literary community finally encouraged prestigious periodicals to publish his work. "the century magazine" was the first to do so, running "in swimming-time" in its september 1883 issue. until the 1890s, it remained the only major literary magazine to publish riley's work. knowing the high standards of the magazine, riley reserved his best work each year to submit to it, including one of his favorites, "the old man and jim" in 1887.