The Progress. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1886-1889, 1889-05-04
DOWN TO THE CAPITAL.

DOWN TO THE CAPITAL.
I ben down to the Capital at washington,
DC,
Where Congress meets and passes on the pen
sions ort to be
Allowed to old one-legged chaps, like me, AT
sence the war
Don't wear their pants in pairs at all-and yit
how proud we areI
Old Flukens, from our deestrick, ies turned in
and tuck and made
Me stay with him while was there; and long
err at staid
The more KEEP a-wantin' jes to kind o. git
away,
And yit a-feelin' sociabler with Flukens ever
day.
You see, I'd got the idy-and guess most
folks agrees
AT men as rich as him, you know, kin do jes'
what they please:
man worth stacks o. money, and a Congress-
And livin' in buildin' bigger an Masonic
Hall
Now mind I'm not a-faultin' Fluke-he made
his money square.
We both was Forty miners, and both busted
gittin' there;
weakened and onwindlessed, and he stuck
and staid and made
dlS mllllOnS: DON Il know what I'm worth an.
tel my PENSIONS paid.
But was goin' to tell you-er ruther goin' to
try
To tell you how he's livin' now; gas burnin'
mighty nigh
In ever room about the house; and all the
night, about.
Some blame reception goin' on, and money go
in out.
onr1a hnro frnr o11<
ever kind at lives,
Injuns and ALL and Senators, and REPRESENTA-
tives;
And girls. you know, jes dressed in gauze and
roses, I declare,
And even old men shamblin' round and waltz
in with em thereI
And bands a-tootin' circus tunes, way in some
other room,
Jes chokin' full o. dollhouse plants and pinies
and perfume;
And fountains. squirtn stiddy all the time;
and statutes, made
Out o puore marble, 'peared like, sneakin'
round there in the shade.
And Fluke he coaxed and begged and plead
with me to take a hand
And sashay in amongst 'em-crutch and all
you understand;
But when SAID how tired was and made fer
open air,
He follered and tel five O'Clock we set a.tallsin,
there.
My God!' says he, Fluke says to me, ssI'm
tireder N you:
Don't put up yer tobacker tel you give man a
chew.
Set back a leetle furder in the shadder; that,u
do:
I'm tireder' n you, old man; m tireder n your
"You see that-air old dome,'' says he
bumped up ag'inst the sky;
It's grand, first time you see it, but it changes,
by and by,
And then it stays jes thataway-jes anchored
high and dry
Betwixt the sky up yender and the achin' of
yer eye.
"Night's purity; not so purity, though, as what
it ust to be
When my first wife was livin'. You remember
her?' says he.
I nodded like, and Fluke went on, II wonder
now eft she
Knows where am-and what am-and what
Lust to be?
Is That band IN x1ere!-I ust to thiak AT music
couldn't wear
Teller out the way it does; but that amt
music there
That's jes a. Imitation, and like ever thing, I
Ihear. er see, er fetch, er TASTE er tackle any
TITS all jes ARTIFICIAL this ERE higk-priced life
OF ours.
The theory, it's sweet enough tel it saps down
and sours.
They's no home left, ner ties O. home about it.
By the powers
The whole things artifcialer N artificial
fowersl
And all want, and could lay down and sob
fer, is to know
The homely things Of homely life; fer instance
jes to go 5#
And get down BY the kitchen stoye-Lordl
that nd rest me So
Jes set there, like ust to do, and laugh and
joke, you know.
"Jes set there, like ust to do" says Fluke,
a startin' in,
'Peared like, to say the whole thing over to
,hissef gin;
Then stopped and turned, and kind O. coughed,
and stopped and fumbled fer
S0mepin er mother In the grass-I guess his
handkerchief.
Well, sence I'm back from Washington, where
I left Fluke a-still
Aleggn fer me. heart and soul, on that-air
Pension bill,
I've halfway struck the notion, when think
o. wealth and SIGH,
There's nothin' much patheticker IAN ies
a-bein' richl q
james Whitcomb Riley, IN Century
s.ssa3E
BURYING THEIR DEAD.
Strange Funeral Customs Of the
North American Indians.