Wichita eagle., 1889-10-27

THE MOTHER GOOSE STATESMAN.
by his fellow members of the house because
he had nearly all the time on bis desk hand
Eomely illustrated copy of Mother Goose's
Nursery Rhymes and Jingles." While other
statesmen were deep in the mysteries of the
tariff question, the happy member from
Georgia was porting in delight over the well
known pages of Mother Goosen
He was very fond, too, Of embellishing his
private conversation, and occasionally his
public speeches, with quotations from his IA
vorite volume One day last winter the ship
ping laws were under discussion. If Mr..
Norwood has another speciality than Mother
Goose, it is the shipping laws. He represents
the Savannah district and is naturally much
interested in the prosperity of the merchant
marine. A member from the interior had
made speech in which be reminded the
coast men that the nations welfare did not
depend entirely upon the shipping interests.
Congressman Norwood retorted with this apt
quotation from Mother Goose:
The man in the wilderness asked of me-
How many Strawberries grew in the sea,
answered him as / thought good.
As many red herrings as grew in the wood
On another occasion a prosaic statesman
declared with much earnestness that if the
government gave away all its lands to rail-
roads 1t would not have any left for settlers,
whereupon Mr.. Norwood promptly quoted:
As Tommy Shocks and Bessy Brooks
Were walking out one Sunday,
Says Tommy Shocks to Bessy Brooks,
Tomorrow will be Monday"
Of still another orator, one who had the
unfortunate habit of saying his say over and
over again, the Georgia litterateur says:
Cock Roidn got up early,
At the break of day,
And went to Jennie'S window
To sing roundelay.
He sang Cock Robins love
To the pretty Jenny Wren,
And when he got unto the end,
Then he began again.
T Thus Mr. Norwood was always ready with
teproof or satire drawn from the pages of
Mother Goose. He was not long in earning
The sobriquet of ''Pappy Goose" and one of
the roguish members drew picture of the
Georgian as
Old Pappy Goose, when
He wanted 10 wander,
Would ride through the air
On very fine gander
But those of Mr.. Norwood's colleagues who
thought him approaching childishness must
now acknowledge their error II his devotion
10 MOlneT bOOSe Is uldulleSS us madness
with pretty good method in it. After two
Or three years of research and labor, Mr.. Nor
wood is about to give to the world large
volume i'll which he makes historical, ana
lvtical and critical review of the world fa-
nous melodies and jingles. In preparing this
work the author has consulted the books of
dozen large libraries both in this country and
Europe.
He finds that the melodies had their roots
In the child lore of all peoples Littl~Jack
Horner, for instance, was the mischievous
son of a noble Roman about :, coo years be-
fore he sat in the corner of an English coun-
try house The little Tommy Green who put
pussy IN the we'll
What naughty boy was that
To try and drown poor pussy cat,
Who never did him any harm.
But killed the mice in his fathers barn
Has lived good many centuries and in a
good many countries. Babies of all colors
and chimes, from Greenlands icy mountains
to India's coral strands have had their wee
toes pulled to the tune of the pig that went
to market and the pig that staid at home,
while the 'oue-erv, two-ery, Ziccary-Zan,n
and 'intery, mintery, entery-comn methods
of counting out III chiid's games are as old as
China, MIR Norwood has discovered