The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-07-21
The Tramp's Story.
BY WILL CARLETON.

If experience has gold in 1t las discerning folks
agree)
Then there's quite a little fortune slowed away
somewhere in me-
And | deal it out regardless of a regular stated
price,
In rough-done up prize packages of common sense
The people, they can take it, or run round it, as
they please,
But the best thing they'll find in it is some words
like unto these
Worm beetle, dronght tempest, Il farmers
tttd may fdH
Bat to f1~tclaSs ratnattoa, trust mortgage gatnst
them dU
On my weddin day my father touched me kindly
the arm,
And handed me the papers for an eighty acre farm,
With the stock an tools an buildin's for an indie
pendent start,
Saying, Heres wedding present from my muscle
and my heart;
And except the admonitioDs you have taken from
my tongue,
And the reasonable lickin's that YOU had when you
was young,
And your food and clothes and schoolin' mot so
much as | could wish,
For | had number eatin from someat scanty
dsh)
And the honest love you captured when you first
sat on my knee,
This is all have to give you-so expect no more
from me.
People d said couldn't marry the sweet girl
tried to court
Till we smilingly submitted minority report
Then they laid their theories over with quick
ness 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
bors had to say,
But ran our little heaven in our own peculiar way
We started off quite jolly, wondrous full Of health
and cheer
And general understanding that the way was
pretty clear
So we lived and toiled and prospered and the lit
tie 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
INST have known
How to lay my road down solid, and let well enough
alone
But soon commenced kicking in the traces
confess
There was too much land that Joined me that
didn't yet possess.
When once he gets land hungry, strange how raw
enous be
'rwasnt long before | wanted all the ground that
| could see.
SO | bought another eighty mot foreboding any
harm)
And for that and some down money put NOR.
gage ON my farm.
Then ! bought another forty hired some cash to
TX up new
And to buy covered carriage and of course the
mortgage grew
Now my wife was square against this It's but right
that you should know.
jThough m very far from saying that think it's
UictgS SO y
But she went in hearty with me working hard
from day to day,
For knew that life was business now We had
that debt to pay.
We worked through spring and winter through
summer and through fall,
Bat that mortgage worked the hardest and the
steadiest Of us all
1t worked on nights and Sundays it worked each
holiday;
1t settled down among Us, and never went away
Whatever kept from it seemed Almost as bad
theft:
1t watched us every minute, and it ruled rs right
and left
The rust and blight were with us sometimes and
sometimes not;
That dark browed, scowling mortgage was forever
on the spot.
The Weevll and the cut worm, they went as well
came
The mortgage staid forever. eating hearty all the
1t nailed up every window, stood guard at every
door
And happiness and sunshine made their home with
us no more.
I'LL with failing crops and sickness We got stalled
upon the grade,
And there came a dark day on us when the inter
est wasn't paid
And there came a sharp foreclosure and kind o
lost my hold,
Aud grew weary and discouraged, and the farm
was cheaply sold
The children left and scattered when they hardly
yet were grown;
My wife she pinned an persisted, an found my self
alone
But I knew she died of M. tJag.-iust as well s
wanted to.
Ii to trace hidden sorrow were within the doe
tors art,
Theyd ha found mort gage lying on that woman's
broken heart.
Two different kinds of people the devil most as
sails;
One is the man who conquers; the other he who
But still / think the last kind are the 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 EN- most
When once had discovered that the debt could
not pay,
tried to hquidate It IN rather common way;
used to meet i'll private fellow tinancer,
And we would drink ourselves worth ten thousand
dollars clear
As easy way to prosper as ever has been found
Bat ones heap sight poorer when he gets back
to the ground.
OF course ought to ha braced up, an worked on
amt atryin to shirk out cover up from blame
Bat still think men Often it safely may be said,
Are ht"" to temptations in place of being led
And II that tyrant mortgage hadn't cracked its
whip at me,
shouldn't have constituted the ruin that you see
For though We never stolen or defaulted please
to know,
Yet, socially considered, I'm pretty mddlin low
am helpless an torsaken | am childless an
alone:
haven't single dollar that its air to call my
My old age knows no comfort my heart is scant
Ghe children they from me as soon as | come
near;
The women shrink and trembe aims are
fear bestowed:
The dogs howl curses at me- and hunt me down
the road;
My home is where night finds me my friends are
few and cold;
y little is there i'll this world for one who's poor
and old;
But I'm wealthy in experience, all put in good al
70 take not take it, with no difference in the
price,
You may have it, an thrive Oh it, or run round it,
you please,
Bat | generally give it wrapped up in some such
words as these:
'Fo~' ~, Deetle d,o"yAt Of teml,est On q ta,"e,'S
haed may tdH,
BIT, tot d,@tclesx ,ai,,atio, tst mortgage y.tna
them aH From Farm Festivals "
\ Chicago rag dealer estimates that
each of the 50,OC0,O0O people of the
United States discards an average of
five pounds of clothing yearly, which
makes 250,000,O0 pounds for the whole.
Then, he says, there are the tailoring
establishments, big and little, whose cut
tings are not much less in quantity, in the
aggregate, than the loft clothes of the
nation at larrp while their una litu q g ra nc