Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1864-12-07

L
the daily paper fastened in machine lest it
should run away remarked
Twenty years old, if she's day ~
I gave my order, and then listened to the
song until it was finished, as a respectable au-
dience should, not interrupting to applaud,
then I said, 'Bra7e Pollyl" .7.
The parrot turned her head, and looking at
me sharply, said, rapidly: a 81.
whats your name? What do you want?
Can you whistler
"Whats your p I replied in Yam
kee fashion, answering one question or three
with another.
Pretty Poll, pretty Poll, poor Poll, Polly
wants crackerI Polly Brown, Polly Brown
Captain John Browns bird, ship midas -
Bought of a nigger king Ou the Gold Coast
for pair Of red breeehes and roasting-pig.
Brought to Philadelphia in eighteen hundred
and forty. Don't you knew the devils dead2
ChOked to death with QuaEer's head. Cap
tain Browns bird. Captain Browns Wing
wears a clean shirt.
This sent the parrots associations to sea,
and she proceeded to heave anchor with
will, changing merrilY to sailor songs till an
imaginary storm came on. Then she gave
orders through aspeaking trumpet, proving
that she had been forgotten and left on the
deck in. squall and that she had not been so
much frightened as to interrupt the progress
of her education. When the storm was over
she took to the pump, and sang with ten
derness and fair-weather-after-a storm sweet
ness:
Rock and roll me over, one more day,
One more day, my darling,
One more day;
o, rock and roll me over,
One more day. ...f-
The parrots usual sharp barking in human
ity of voice was not present in this specimen.
She spoke and sang like a music-loving negro
of intelligence and European training.
Doubtless her first lessons had been given by
such master. am sorry to be obliged to
record, that presently Captain Browns bird
began running fire of very naughty words.
As the Yankees say, ''it would not be pretty"
to repeat this portion of the birds perform
ance. Like good artist, she did not allow
her audience to tire from the length Of any
part Of her entertainment She came by sud
den transition to the rehearsal of fpoli:icalcon-
tents. She elected General Harrison to the
Presidency Of the United States with great
eclat, singing:
Have you heard the great commOtion
Motion, motion,
The country through?
1t is the ball a rolling on,
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too,
And with them wen beat little Van,
Van, Van, is a used mp man.
The English reader may need to be inform
ed that General Harrison, then candidate for
the Presidency Of the then United States, had
once upon time fought with some Indians
at a place called Tippecanoe. A hero was
wanted as condidate for the Presidency. The
Hero of Tippecanoe" was selected, and duly
"Old Tip" and was sung into Of
fee. "Tyler, too" became Vice President,
because a President involves the sequitor of
Vice President. "Little Van, Van, who was
a ''usep up man, was President Van Buren
at the time of his election, III the fourth year
of his reign over the great Republic The
songs in this campaign, which were all faith
fully remembered by the parrot had great
family resemblance, and were not too rever-
ent to be inconsistent with universal suffrage
and the Sovereignty of the people" One Of
them sang to the tune of 10, Susanna" allu-
ded to the residence of Mr.. Van Buren, and
the product of his kitchen-garden, in the cul-
ture OF which he was supposed to have much
satisfaction;
I had dream the other night,
When everything was still,
dreamt l saw Old KinderhOok
A comm down the hill;
A cabbage stump was in his mouth,
A tear was IN his eye,
Says he, were beaten North and South,
But Johnny, don't you cry,
Johnny was President Van Buren's only
son, and a celebrated Democratic ''stump Or
ator." The family residence was at Kinder
hook.
The next presidential campaign" rehears-
ed by the bird was that in which Mr.. Henry
CLAW failed to be elected. The refrain of one
of the songs was sung to the tune of "OId
Dan Tucker"
Get out of the way, you're all unlucky,
Clear the track for old Kentucky!
Millions of men, North, South, East, and |
West, had sung the same doggerel to the
same negro music, with the same host OF
professions and tar-barrel bone
fires that the parrot was now singing in the
soft sunshine of early spring, in the metropo-
lis of the great Republic.
Captain Browns bird was a living history
of much that had not found record elsewhere.
When at last she ceased to sing, 1 turned to
the table, to find melted ice cream and an
iced sherry cobbler awaiting my leisure. I
paid proper attention to the legitimate fluid,
and was paying my score, when young girl,
as pretty as young American girls often are,
brushed past me, and past her faded and at
.enuated mother, who sat at the receipt of
cash, evidently going to school; for she had
book and a porcelain slate in her hand. The
parrot cried out briskly, maggie, have you
got your Geography 2 She replied, "Yes,
have, and vent her way. The feminine !
Sos. F- @ t