Morris tribune., 1883-07-04
HOW WE KEPT THE DAY.

HOW WE KEPT THE DAY.
BY WILL CARLETON.
The great procession came up the street.
With clatter of hoofs and tramp of feet;
There was General Jones to guide the van,
And Corporal links, his right-hand man;
Aud ach was riding his high horse,
And each had epaulettes, of course;
| And each had a sash of the bloodfeSt red,
And each had a shake on his head;
And each had sword by his left =, side,
And each had his mustache newly dyed;
And that was the way
| We kept the day,
The great, the grand, the glorious day,
H,o4uy! H.nray, Ha1ay!
I with battle or two, the histories say,)
Our National Indep6 ndance.
| The great procession came up the street,
! With loud tia capo, and brazen repeat;
There was Hans, the leader, Teuton born,
4 a sharp who worried the II nat norm;
| And Baritone Jake, and Alto Mike,
Who never played anything twice alike;
| And Tenor Tom, of conservative m1nd,
Who always came out n note behind;
| And Dick whose tuba was seldom dumb,
And Bob, who punished the big bass drun;
| And when they stopped IL minute to rest,
| The martial band discoursed its best;
The ponderous drum, and the pointed fife
proceeded to roll ana Snrlek Iof me-
And BOnaparte crossed the Rhine, anon,
And The Girl Left Behind Me came on
And that is the way
The bands did play
On the loud, high-toned, harmonious DAY,
Ha Ha4ray! Hurray'
with some music of bullets, our s1res would
Our glorious Independence!
The great procession came up the street,
With a wagon of virgins, sour and sweet;
Each bearing the bloom Of recent % date
Each miSrepresenting a single state.
There was California, Plus and prlm,
And Louisiana, humming hymn;
The Texas lass was the smallest one
Rhode Island weighed the tenth of a ton;
The Empire state was pure rs pearl,
And Massachusetts, a modest girl;
Vermont was red as the blush OF a rose
And the goddess sported turn-up nose;
And looked, free sylph, where sne palhIully
sat,
The worlds she would give to be out of that
And in this way
The maidenS gay
Flashed up the street on the beautiful day,
Hurray! Hurry! Hurrey!
with some sacrifices, our mothers would
Our glorious Independence!
The great procession came up the street,
With firemen uniformed tiaShily neat;
There was Tubbs, the foreman, with voice
like five,
The happiest. proudest man alive;
With trumpet half as long as gun,
Which he used for the glory of .N lumber =;
There was Nubbs, who had climbed lad
der high,
There was Cubbs, who had dressed in black
and blue,
The eve of the foreman of Number2.
And each marched on with steady stride,
And each had a look of fiery pride;
And each glanced slyly round, with whim
That all of the girls were looking at him;
An that was the way,
With grand display,
They marched through the blaze of the giori-
GUS day,
That gave US
with some hot lighting our fathers would
Our glorious Independence!
V.
The eager orator took the stand,
In the cause of our great and happy land;
He aired his own political views,
He told us all OF the latest news:
Howthe Boston folks one night n TOOK tea
What a heap of Britons our fathers did kill,
At the little skirmish of Bunker Hill;
He put us all in anxious doubt
AS to how that matter was coming out;
And when at last he had fought US through
To the blOodleSs year of 81,
Twas the fervent hope of every one
That he, as well as the war, was done.
But he continued 10 painfully soar
For something less than century more;
Until at last he had fairly begun
The wars of eighteen sixty -One;
And never rested till meath the tree
That shadowed the glory or Robert Lee,
And then he inquired, with martial froWn,
q americans, must sce 90 DORM!
And as an answer from Heaven were sent,
The stand gave way, and down he went.
A singer or two beneath him did drop
big fat alderman fell atop;
And that was the way
Our orator lay,
Till we fished him out, on the eloquent day, |
That gave us
Hurray! Hurrag! Hurroy!
Our wordy Independence!
VI.
The marshal his hungry compatriots led,
Where Freedoms yiands were thlcRly spread,
with all that man or woman could eat,
From crisp to sticky-from sour to sweet.
There were chickens that scarce had learned |
And veteran roosters of long ago;
There was one old turkey, huge and fierce,
Tnat was Matched in the days of President |
OF which. at last, with an ominoas groan,
The parson essayed to swallow q hone;
And it took three sinners. plt:cky and stout, !
To grapple the eril.and bring it out.
And still the dinner went tnIerr1ly on,
And James and Lucy, and Hannah and John |
Kept winking their eyes and sniaeiing their |
!, nd passing the ea.aiIcs into eclipse.
4 nd that was he way
The grand array
OF victuals vanished on that 'iiy,
That gave Tsl-
Harr1y! B,.gYaBi ffHfTUy!
With some starvation. the records a;tSl
our Yeli-fed Independence.
VII.
The people went home through the suitry |
night,
I'm n In,Iriy mood am, a pitifai plight;
Not more had the rockets stick gone down, |
Than the spirits of them who had "been 10
town."
Not more did the fire balloon collapse,
Than the pride Of them who had known mis-
There We're feathers ruffied, and tempers
And several brand new dresses spoiled;
There were hearts that ached from envy's |
thorns,
And feet that twinged with trampled corns;
There were joys proved empty, through and
through,
And several purses empty, too;
And some reeled homeward, muddled and
late,
Who hadn't taken their glory straight;
And some were fated to lodge, that night,
In the city lookup, snug and tight.
And that was the way
The deuce was to pay,
AS 1t always Is, at the close of the day,
That gave us
Hurroy! Hmrray! Hurdg!
with some restrictions, the fault-fnders
That which, please God, we will keep for
Our National Independence!
At Blende City, Kasper county, Mo.
last Thursday, Lane Britton was ar
rested by A. N. Davis, the constable
rf Gra,,bxy oco;atod by a q Davis of