The Cecil Whig., 1881-06-18
SELECT POETRY.
TIE TRAMP'S STORY.

SELECT POETRY.
TIE TRAMP's STORY.
IF experience has gold in it Gas discerning
folks agyce),
| Then there's quite u little fortune slowed
away Sonew here in me,
| And deal it out regardless of y regular
! stated price,
! Ia rough-done-up prize packages of common
SENSE advice;
The people they can take it, OF run round
! il, rs they please,
| Eut the best thing the II find in il j. some
words like unto these:
| Warm o,. bciIo d,'ouyM o.. ten,i.st on q ,f"rL,-
u''$ i"Hd !laH.
But for .t,'<t-"io&S rijn"tj"H. trust " n,"fg0"'
| gutItSt Utcm oH.
On my weddin' day my father touched me
kindly on tn" arm.
-lnd handed me the papers irr al eighty
acre farm
With the stock an tools an buili!in's for an
independent start,
| Saying, " Here's Il wedding present from
my musclr and my heart:
and, except the admonitionS YOU have taken
Hey t'i-u',
And the reasonable lickin'> that you had
when You WAS young,
And your food and clothes and Schoin (nOt
much rs could wish,
For | had Il nUmhcr eat;n from Il some IL
>Canty ,tiSh)
tnd the honest love ynu captured when you
first sat on my knee.
This is all | have to give you--so expect no
more from me"
Pcopir'd said | couldn't marry the sweet
-rl | ri'ie,l to court,
TIL we slnilingiy submitted a minority re-
port:
Then they laid their theories over, with a
Iuickne$s queer to see,
And said they knew we'd marry, but We
never could agree:
But we did not frame and hang up all the
neigh horS had to say,
But ran our little heaven in our own pecll-
liar way;
We started off quite Jolly. wonderouS iuii of
health and cheer.
And Il general understanding that the road
was pretty clear.
So we lived and toilcd and prospered; and
the little family party
That came on from heaven TO visit us were
bright and hale and hearty:
| And to-day we might ha' been there had
only just have known
How to lay my road down solid, and let
we'll cnon-h alone.
But | soon commenced :l-kicking III the
traces, | confess:
There was too much that joined me that
di'ln yet POSSESS.
When once he gets iand-hunGrN, strange
how ravcn"uS one ci.a hr.
'Twa>n'i long before wanted ali the gCoun"
| could see.
SO bought another eighty (not frr@hoain=
amy harm).
And for that and somc down money put :,
mortgage on my farm.
| Then bought another forty, hired Solne
cash to fix up new,
| And To buy Il covered carria9c-and OF
COURSE the mortgage grew.
! Now my wife was square against this, It's
| but right that You should know
| (Though Pm very far from saying that
think it : always So);
| But she went in hearty with me, working
hard from day tn day,
| For We knew that life was business, noA we
had that debt to pay.
We worked through spring and winter,
through summer and through fall,
lsut that mortgage worked the hardest and
the Stcadicst of us all;
Ii worked on nights and sundays: it worked
each holiday:
1t settled down among Us. and II never
went away.
| Whatever we kept from Il seemed Il most is
bad as theft;
Ii watched IT'S every minute ami II rUicd MS
right and left.
The rust and blight We're with Us sometimes
and sometimes not:
The dtrlI-brOwrd, Sowing mortgage WAS
forever on the spot.
The weevil and the cut-worm they went Us
we'll rs came:
The mortgage >ttid forever, eating hearty
all the same.
/ nailed up every wind"w stood glar'! n;
every door,
And happiness and sunshine ma,i" ;!-rir
home with rs 10 more
Till with failing crops and sickness We cot
stalled upon .hc !grad",
And There came Il dark iHy IIS Wli.rr ti."
interest wasn't paid:
and There came y sharp foreclosure, and
kind a. lost iiIS hold,
And crew weary and discouraged, and the
farm WAS cheaply sold
Tie children left and scattered when they
hardly Vet We're grown:
NV wife she pined an perished, an tound
myself Il lone.
Nhat she died of was - Il mystery. an
the doctors never knew:
Bat | knew She died OF m"rtga.e--iuSt rs
well 5 | wanted IL.
II To trace hidden sorrow We're within the
doctors art,
They'd ha found Il mortgage lying on that
wonau'S broken heart.
Two different kinds of people the devil most
aSSaIlS;
one is the man who conquer>: thaothcr, whe
fails.
Bat still think the last kind are soonest to
give up,
And to hide their sorry faces behind the
shameful cup:
Like some old king or other, whose name
I've somehow lost,
They straightway tear their eyes out. just
when they need 'em most.
When once. had discovered that the debt |
could not pay,
tried 20 liquidate it in Il rather common
way:
used to meet in private Il fellow-tinanci"r
And we would drink ourselves worth ten
thousand dollars clear
As easy Il way to prosper rs ever has been
found,
But ones Il heap sight poorer when he gets
back to the ground.
OF course | ought TO ha braced up, an
worked on all the same
ain I tryiu' to Shrl out, or cover up from
blame:
But still think men often, it safely may be
said,
Are driven to temptations, in place Of being
led;
And if that tyr;nt mort gage hadnt cracked
its whip at me,
/ shouldn't have constituted the rum thai
yOU see.
For though I've never stolen OF deiaulted,
please to know,
Yet, socially considered, am pretty mid
dim low.
/ am helpless an lorsakcn; am childleSs
an alone,
haven't Il single dollar that il : fair i" call
my own:
My old age knows no comfort, my heart is
scaut O cheer:
The children they run from me as soon as
come hear:
The women shrink and tremblc-their aims
are fear bestowed:
The dogs howl curses ut me, and hunt me
down the road;
My home is where night finds me; my
friends are few and cold:
oh, little is there in this world for one "llo'<
poor and old,
Iiut I'm wealthy i'll experience, all put up
i'll good advice,
To take or not to take, with 40 difference i'll
the price:
You may have it, an thrive on it, or run
round il, as you please,
But generally give it wrapped i'll some
such words rs these:
UorD. or bectic, dI,"nyM ortc,apcst o"a .t"I1.,-
cr'S I""d n,"H .foH,
Ipi for fi,St-co$& iHinutiUD, trust q mortgage
'ydip&jh,"n, N.