Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-11-26
SOME OBITUARY VERSES.

The other day the champion dumb bell
litter of the Great East, Ned Brannan, passed
away to the other side of the shadowy river.
Then uprose the bard of Cherry Greek and
reproduce the first mournful verse:
he sleeps Deaths sleep at Cherry Creek,
Below the mountains lofty peak,
Tho eagles craggy's ne st;
And there amid Nevadas snow.
Its sage brush and its pines,
Its lichons the plains that grow
His noble heart recines
We have seen good deal worse poetry, in
our time, than this. The Fire Bell Poet of
Winnemucca and the Sweet Singer of Michi-
gan discount this Cherry Creeker for dread
fulness. But the fact is, all these poets are
mere plagiarists. They copy after the i'm
mortal bard who sang the requiem over the
body of Jeen,s Hambrick. Says Phoenix:
We buried him in a blanket good
For coffin we had not
We buried him u.s. where be stood
When accidentally shot
eve buried him. says al explanatory
note, con the banks of the Pecos River, just
where he stood when he was accidentally shot
by a large sized, old fashioned, brass mount
ed pepper box pistol, with no nub for the
cock to rest on, which went off when he was
of Heaven" Also it is to be said that this
same strain of poetic sentiment is traoeable
in the words of the bard who, describing the
burial of little boy, said:
In a beautiful hole in the ground,
the humble bees buzz and the woodpeckers peck
And the straddle bugs tumble around-etc.
Still, obituary poetry is success in
literary way-if we may judge by the re-
suits. Look at the prosperity attending
George Washington Childs, the grave yard
poet of America. 1t is almost unparalleled.
AN OLD-TIME HoAx.--The most glaring yet
successful of old time hoaxes was perpetrated
in 1749. The Duke of Montague wagered
that, let man advertise the most impossible
enough in London to fill play house to see
it and pay handsomely for the privilege
'"Surely," said Lord Chesterfield, ''if
should say he would jump into quart bottle
nobody would believe that" A wager was
made on this basis, and the following adyer-
tisement inserted in the papers -
cat the new theater in the Haymarket, on
Monday next, the 18th inst is to be seen a
person who performs the several, most sur
prisng things following: l. he takes COM
mon walking cane from any spectator, and
thereon plays the music of every instrument
now in use, and likewise sings to perfection.
2. He presents you with common wine bot
tie, which any one of the spectators may first
examine; the bottle is placed on table in the
middle of the stage, and he (without any
eqnivocation) goes Ill 1t i'll the sight OF all the
spectators, and sings in it; during his stay in
the bottle any person may handle it and see
that it does not exceed common tavern bot
tie. Those in the stage or in the boxes may
come in masked habits Gf agreeable to them)
and the performer, if desired, will inform
them who they are Stage, Is. Sd.
At the designated time the theater was
crammed from pit to dome. When the ap-
pointed hour passed and the con Juror did not
appear horrible uproar rose One person
in the audience proposed, if the lookers-o on
would pay half price, to crawl into a pint |
bottle. Finally some one threw lighted can |
die on the stage; within ten minutes the en-
tire building was Quilted, the benches con-
verified into large bonfire in front of the |
building and the drop curtain hoisted on
pole, presumably as banner to the triumph |
OF public gullbility. number of people |
were blamed for the hoax, notably Foot, the
actor, who was one of the lessees of the
theater, but the real author was the duke of
Montague