Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-02-20
For the EAGLR.
ALEcEND OF THE ARKANsAW.

ALEoEND OF THE ARxANsAW.
By n. W. LEWIS "a 9-YEAR-oLp srLEDsLINo.)
sing Of . day that has long since gone BY;
or land that was fairest beneath the blue
sky;
With its broad sweeping prairies, like an
| emerald sea,
And climate as sunny as fair Italy.
Slowly winding it, tortuous way to the sea
Der its: broad bed Of sand, through wood
land and lea,
swept the Great Arkansaw-a silvery band
Like the belt Of Orion bedecking The land.
In the midst of valley more fertile and fair
Than Danubian wales Of Roumanie are
Crept, stealthy and soft, as bride to her
lord,
The Little Arkansas. and silently poured
The wealth of her waters-by natures sweet
Upon the broad bosom of Great Arkansaw.
And here, like gem in its setting, so grand.
Did the city, so ancient, of Wichita stand.
That city was peopled by pigmies, It's said
Sixteen thousand or more-as their news
papers read
But out where the calm Little River then
flowed
A terrible giant in those days abode.
His visage was covered with bristles all
DER,
And his head was shaped much like large
figure 4!
Trees trembled and shook by the force Of
And his name was called Commodore Talk
em-to-death.
How Talk-em-to-death gained his high ma
val rank,
Is matter of doubt; but some people think,
When the giant came down 10 this region
sublunar,
He came in command of small "prairie
schooner I"
Most giants that lived in those ages remote,
With club, like saw-log, their poor vic
tins smote =
To these mammoth clubs those giants e'er
chung
But this giants weapon Of war was his
tongue!
Not only his tongue, but his pen was
And mightier far than sword, when in
error
Enlisted. 'Twere far harder endured
His "dam nuisance pen, than Damocles
sword!
When Talk-em-to-death got up ION his ear
The whole city trembled with horror and
The whole sixteen thousand of aedglings and
Stood mute and aghast, at his frightful
enigmas!
Some pignies were struck with such terrible
dread
They never recovered their reason, It's said
While Others SO frightened they never took
breath
And scores were the victims of Talk-em-to-
death.
Not far from the castle, where the giant
abode,
The small cottage home of an African stood;
IT'S said that the giant induced him one day
To stand for an hour, and be talked to, for
pay!
Next morning, stark dead, on the floor he
was found,
With his pieces of silver all scattered around;
His tympanum bursted, his lungs without
breath,
His skull all cracked open, by Talk-em-to-
death!
All ihoeclie CORONER summoned jury, |
But their verdict awakened the old giants |
fury;
For they found the disease was " conclusion |
of BRAIN"
And Talk-em-to-death then arose to explain. |
He talked of "malaria," of ''mill- dams" and |
mills"
He talked much of "fevers," prescriptions"
and "pills;"
OF "equatic brass-moss," of nutritious foun-
dation,"
And threw the whole city in wild consterna-
ton!
A master was he of language polemic;
He talked of bad weter, of dire epidemic
Contagious diseases, OF rule Democratic,
OF cholera threatened-the dreadful Ash
attic
OF stock jobbing" council, of "hydrau-
lie -four"
And of "wart ridden fossils" to be shorn of
their power
He fred his siege guns, he fired his mortars.
He fired his Krupp guns. he shot from all
quarters,
He fred from stem, he fired from larboard!
He fred from stern, from hold. deck, and
starboard!
Double shotted his guns with loud inter-
jections-
Verbs, adjectives, pronouns-that missed
their connections,
And fell on the ear with a death-dealing
stroke,
And buried the city in sulphurous smoke.
Not sadder fate has Pompeii revealed,
Than Wichita's doom, which on that day
was sealed;
Nor more fatal to life was Vesuvius' breath.
Than this terrible charge of Talk-em-to-
DEATH
When the great deed was done, and his vic
Tins all dead,
He hied to his castle and betook him to bed.
But next morn he arose and strobe over the
town,
And at length, on the top of the stand-pipe,
sat down.
And there, sitting modify, pondered, and
thought
Of the havoc he'd made, and the ruin he'd
wrought;
Till, touched with remorse, and ashamed of
himself,
He gathered his grip-sack and fed to the
Gulf.
The giant and pigmies have all passed
away,
But people who live in this city to-day,
VIII point to the castle, with long-bated
breath,
Where lived giant Commodore Talk-em-to-
death!