Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-05-16
DOWN TO THE CAPITAL.
By JAMES wHITcoMB mtEy.

Oh JANIS NSfftcAb
ben down to the Capital at Washington, D. c.,
Where Congress meets and passes on the pen
Allowed to old one-leesed chaps like me. at
Don't wear our pants in pairs at all-and yit
how proud we arei
Old Flukens, from our deestrick, jes' turned In
and tuck and made
Me stay with him while was there; and longer
The more KEEP a-wnntin Jes' to kind get
away, .,
And yet a feelin sociabier Win fiuAens e'e1
day.
You see I'd got the idy-and guess most folks
AT men as rich as him. you know. kin do jes'
what they please;
A man worth stacks O. money. and a Congress-
And Hyin' in buildin' bigger an Masonic Hall.
Now mind, I'm not a-faultin' Fluke-he made
his money square,
We both were Forty-niners, and both busted
gitin' there;
weakened and onwindlessed, and he stuck and
His millions; don't know what I'm worth until
my pensions paid
But was goin' to tell you-or ruther gsin' TO
To tell you how he's Twin now; gas burnin
mighty nigh
In ever room about the house; and all the
Some blame reception goin' on, and money soin'
out.
Tbey's people there from all the world-jes
ever kind at lives,
injuns and all! and Senators, end Representa-
tiyes;
And girls, you know. ies' dressed in gauze and
roses declare.
And even old men shamblin' round and waltzin
with EN- there,
And bands a-tootin circus tunes. way in some
other room
Jes' chokin' full o. hot-house plants and pinies
and perfume;
And fountains squirtin' Study all the time;
and statues. made
Out o. puore marble, 'peared like sneakin' round
there ii the shade.
And Fluke he coaxed and begged and plead with
me to take hand
And sashay in amongst en-crutch and all, you
But when said how tired 1 was, and made fer
He follered, and tel s O'Clock we sat a-talkin'
there.
My God" says he. F1uke says TO me, I'm
Don't put up yer tobacker tel you give a man a
chew.
Set back a leetle furder III the shadder: thatn
I'm tireder n you. old man; I'm tireder than
you!
You see that air old DOME" seys he, bumped
mp ag'inst the sky;
It's grand. first time you see it. but it changes
by and by,
And then it stays ies thataway-jes anchored
high and dry
Betxixt the sky up yender and the achin' of
yer eye.
it used to be
When my first wife was Twin. You remember
her?" says he.
nodded like and Fuke went on, Il wonder now
eff she
Knows where am-and what am-and what
ust to be?
THAT band in thcre,-I ust to think at music
couldn' wear
A Teller out the way it does; but that amt mu-
That's jes a imitation and like everything, 1
Ibear, er see, or fetch, er taste, err tackle any
where!
Its all jes artificial, this ere highpriced life
of ours
The theory. it's sweet enough tel it saps down
and sours.
They's no home left, nor ties O. home about it.
By the powers,
The whole things artifcialern artificial flowers
And all want, and could lay down and sob fer.
is to know
The homely things of homely life; fer instance,
And set down by the kitchen stove-Lord. 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" said Fluke, a
startin in
Feared like, to say the whole thing over to his
self agin;
Then stopped and turned and kind o coughed,
and stopped and fumbled fer
Somepin or mother in the grass-I guess his
handkerchief.
Well sense I'm back from Washington, where
left Fluke a-stiH
A-leggin fer me, heart and soul. on that-air pen
sion bill,
I've half way struck the notion, when think O
wealth and sich,
They's nothin much pathetickcr an ies a-bein'
rich,