The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-01
TWO LITTLE "BusTED" SHOES.

The Orleans Club at Jimtown, Colorado 49,
Was joint where you could play all games
from a split up to q blue,
And the gang that hung around the club, I'll
say 'twixt you and me,
Would hardly cut fgger at a Methodist ''pink
tea"
There were "B;g Ed Burns" and "Crazy Horse"
slim Sanford" "windy Dick"
Tom Cody, the shell juggler, Joe Palmer. pretty
slick,
Joe Simmons, who can deal the bank and never
lose check.
Pete Burns, Jim Bolen and "Soapy 6mith"-eu
high cards IN the deck.
1t was in the gray of morning and the hetero-
geneous gang
Sat worrying the barkceper with nonsense,
AL "kidding," chatting. "guying" in q smooth,
good-natured way,
About the incidental bosh that happened yes
terday.
Sometimes in easy tilted chair one Of them'd try
to snooze
And then anotherd sqoosen up and order up the
BOOZE"
Some "bresk-of day-b boy" would como in and
give the bar-boy "guff
And learn without politeness that he'd have to
have the "stuff."
Then one of them would tell the tramp to 60
and "soak his head
And say, if he drank water, he'd be found some
morning dead;
They'd ask him why he didn't send to papa tor
check
30 he could purchase "barbed wire BOOZE to
lubricate his neck.
And after they had ''kidded" him until he
couldn't talk,
They'd fill him up with ''red eye" and tell him.
stake a walk"
Not by any means bad fellows. but they loved q
little lark
And they'd give up to the needy quicker than .
gospel shark"
I happened in one morning to investigate my
trunk
had left it in the barroom, for 1 slept up in .
bunk,
For sleeping berths were limited, and 1 could
name few
Who stood up in a corner in Jimtown In 90
Pete Burns remarked, sect onto him-since he
stopped getting drunk,
He's saved up all his money for . Saratoga
trunk
And they gathered around me-each OF them
with laughter. "iosh" and "kid,"
To investigate my wardrobe when 1 opened up
the lid.
1t happened now that Jersey (you see Jersey is
my wife,
And no man ever had a better partner in his
life)-
| But Jersey, when she packed the trunk, before
she closed the lid,
Had just thrown in a souvenir to remind me
OF the kid.
And, as each follow craned his neck. the first
thing that he views,
Is two tiny little stockings and two "busted"
little shoes.
Right there on top they rested and in fancy
seemed to say:
"Now, papa, dou't forget US, when you're
wand ring far away"
Not single word was uttered by the gang that
stood around,
And knew that the secret to each rough ones
heart had found;
know that each was thinking, in the early
morning gray,
OF his wife ana little darings that were praying
far away
Praying for the great rough fellows. each OF
whom would give his life
That those wives and little children could be
spared all pain and strife
Might never know adversely, or what Il was to
lose
"busted" shoes.
knew their thoughts in retrospect few DER the
Western plain,
To their patient wives and little ones they might
never see again;
And l knew the violet splendor Of the hill
wherein they roam
Was mingling with the unshed tears for little
ones at home.
Not single Jest was ventured; not word was
spoken loud.
Could an old and master painter have touched
his pallettes varied hues,
He'd have gathered inspiration from those little
"busted" shoes.
said they were not bad men, and mean jus;
what say,
And hope that may meet them all upon some
future day
May meet them where no memories can coaiure
up the "b.ues'-
With their little ones around them, wearing lit
tie ''bustei" shoes.
closed the lid and locked it, hardly knowing
what did,
But each seemed to breathe the freer when those
little shoes were hid
And some one said. "Let's irrigate;' each to the
bar drew near,
And seemingly each hand went up to dash
away tear.
The glasses clinked, adown the bar the bottle
psssed along,
And big Ed Burns" proposed that We should
have tOss; o. song;
But alter each had hlled his glass with "old
McBraysr booze
We drank 10 wives and children and those little
busted shoes --Wiaiam Deere
CREEpR, Col. April. 1892
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