The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-01-09
poetrp.
GOING THROUGH THE PAPER.

GOING THROUGH THE PAPER
Open your paper, Joshua. and draw your arm chat
nigh'r,
And read me all the news while Isit knitting by thu
fire;
There's not a paper like that one, no matter wher
you roam,
And cannot do without it, because it's printed n
home.
know it's not 50 large they print in eitie
great,
The telegraph don't flash to it the news from o'e
the state:
1t gives no chrome premium; it is never bought mol
sold,
YET thai there paper Joshua is worth its weight in
gold,
Ineyer gets minutes rest until it has been read
Il tells us who is married. it tells us who is dead
And who hes moved away of late and who come to
town.
II whistles when the markets up and grumbles
when it's down.
What's that about Joe sommerbell and Hezekiah
Spears?
lawsuit? Why, they've been at law for nigh on
forty years!
Their children grew up quarrelin', which made the
lawyers smile,
For well they knew that in the end they'd get the
biggest pile.
why Aaron Potts is married :" What Aaron did
you say?
1t must mean Henry or Thomas. for Aaron went
away
The year we sold the heifer calf to jeremiah
Black,
And took the note he never paid. So Aaron did
come back?
Who did he find to have him. Read on aud let me
know,
He was always rather shinless, and, once or twice
my beau;
What does the paper really say he married Hester
Mast?
She waited thirty more and took to Potts at
last!
Any more weddin's of folks we know? Look the
paper over clean,
Aaron and Hester! nobody else? What do they
mean?
I'll bet the editor smiled when he called Hester a
blushing bride;
Now look a little lower down and tell me who has
died.
Died AT his home, last Saturday, the Reverend
Jason Brice,
Aged eighty-one"-There! Joshua stop; he mar
ried you and me;
holy man and true he was; drop for him a tear;
five had half his lovin grace we'd read our titles
clear.
Who else is dead? Job Harrison? Some people die
so slow:
For all the good he did he might have left the earth
long ago;
Tho rich, he gave a cent TO needed charities
But he'll try to enter heaven meath the wing OF
Jasen Brice
was bridesmaid at the wedding, you recolleet the
day;
The church was crowded, and the girls all envied
Alice Gray.
Ere long she slept a broken heart beneath the
churchyard mold,
For the love he promised her he gave unto his
fathers gold.
What breach-o-promise suit was that? No! Ho.
Alice Brown.
With Henry May, defendant? There is gossip for
the town.
1t is the fashion, .a-days go to law for love
We didn't have TO, Joshua, for our match was made
a spellin' bee at Hatchers Run? All! that recalls
old times,
When oft we wrestled with the words pronounced
by Master Grimes!
What grand old spellin bees had! what long
rides thro' the snow
To meet and fight DER Webster" that was years
ago.
Our foe Clear Spring district and ii was giant
too:
1t used to be their boast that they could spell the
whole book thro';
How proud was that winter night when you in
suit of brown,
Stood up before a crowded house and spelled the
bOaster down.
A big donation party. did you say for Reverend
George?
He came there since we left, and is new men at
the forge;
wonder on which gospel rock his church of Zion
is built?
And does it say the sisters gave his wife crazy
quilt?
suppose it serves its purpose, but it wasn't our
way;
The crazy quilts notion and an idea of today.
We had donation parties then, and Joshua you
know
The crazy quilt had no part in them forty years
ago.
We'd meet along bout butchering time and talk the
matter DER
sometimes there'd be a Dozen sometimes but three
or four
But numbers made no difference that meeting was
complete,
And the parson and the household always had their
meat
All me what changes time has made! That paper
marks them all
How many friends have passed away since that re-
membered Fall
ola in ,-nur Sut and | in
rustic gown
Looked lingerin back from mountain top upon the
olden town.
Well never see the spot again, thousand miles
must lie
Between it and welded graves beneath the
western sky;
And, as contented we have lived, with neither
show nor fuss,
Perhaps the editor would speak kindly word for
us.
I've half mind to send our son back to the dear
old place
Perhaps they'd like to see in him his fathers form
and face;
He's manly, fair and honest like his father, Joshua
Blake,
And there are some know who'd kiss the boy for
mothers sake!
You may fold the paper, Joshua, it has told all
the news;
Were to choose for all my friends it is the I'd
choose:
1t seems to me that while it comes l never will
grow old,
And that there paper. Joshua dear, is worth it's
weight in gold.
Our Olio.