Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1898-03-01

/ NdlCACSes tuC BEus6-S grown LuOuuuS among,
In shortcut jacket and trousers faced
With patches where sometimes the birch wa
placed
But thou art fairer, to me, thou Ruin gray,
Than the squire's great mansion over the way
And fairer ween
The glossy sheen
OF thy MOSES and clinging vines
Than the Colonel's great house, q mile o
two of,
| With green Venetian blinds.
Full many tale would my grand dame tell,
In many by gone day:
Wonderous things which of old befell
In thee, old ruin gray
And an eager ear would lend,
And stare like frightened hare,
| While my grandsire's hair would have stood
on end
| Had not his crown been bare.
"one night, i've heard the good old lady say
''In the month of May"
Though cannot say,
At this distance of time the particular day.
But it was night, horrible night;
Folks ever afterwards said, with alright,
They never had seen such terrible sight,
The sun had gone down in fiery red,
And if that evening he had laid his head
In rheta's lap, beneath the seas,
He must have scalded the goddess knees.
He left behind him a Iurid track
of blood red light upon clouds SO black
That Pluto and Satan, and all of that crew,
Could scarcely have painted them darker in
hue.
Then came a shrill and whistling sound,
Above, beneath, beside and around,
Yet leaf ne'er moved on tree;
So some people thought Old Belzebnb must
Have been locked out of doors and blowing
the dust
From the tube of his front door key.
And then hollow moaning blast
Came. sounding more djsmally than the last;
The lightning flashed and the thunder growIed
And louder and louder the tempest howled,
And the rain came down in torrents, enough
To spoil the devils own strong box of snuff
But to my tale. without prolongation-
Before the old Ruins roof had tumbled
down
queer old cobbler took up his station
In ''Thc Last Shift"-a house just outside
the town.
His birth, parentage and education
know little OLA strange oddish clown;
And his general aspect nowise neater,
His name was Vardcc and he was christcned
Peter.
Pete had wife possessed of many u charm,
And of stern and positive persuasion;
But, in spite of her piety, her arm
,oi5
And, being of q temper somewhat warm,
Would now and then seize, upon small
occasion,
a stool or broom-emphasized with phrases
And waxed the cobler like "blue blazes."
''Theres time for all things" once said a
sage,
And 'gainst this maxim I've nought to say;
Within well-roped ring, or on the stage,
Boxing may be a very pretty Clancy"
When" Corbett, :" 'Fitz'' or"Sullivan" engage;
-'Tis not so well in Mary, Jane or Nancy.
To get well thrashed by any ones an evil,
But by woman-it is the very devil.
And so thought Peter, whose greatest trouble
Was Mrs. Vurdec's terrible propensity,
When from the "Red Dog" he'd rceliug hobble,
His senses lost in sublime immeusity
OF confusion, then he could not cobble;
Therefore his wife would try the density
OF his poor scull, and strike with all her
strength,
Coupled to cane or broomstick length.
Peter, meek soul, who ever hated strife
OF this striking kind, had morbed dread,
He hated it like poison-or his wife
A great antipathy but so he said;
And very often for quiet life,
ON these occasions he'd sneak off to bed;
Grope softly in, and soon as ut the door
He heard the madam, he'd pretend to snore.
Whilst yet rolled the storm. as through some
vaulted cavern,
Pete, with friend, another jovial crony,
Went to the town, 1 should have said the
tavern,
The cold Red Dog" kept at once by
Jumping" Tony
And his wife, who, twas said, did govern,
Not by blows, but wiles and piccadilloes
many
There, with many a roistering fellow,
Drank till he was full-or over mellow.
The theme that night was Ghosts, and Peter
heard
Their ways discussed. and all 'twas said
upon it,
How frequently the murdered man appeared.
And told,by wonderouS signs, who'd done it;
Or how old ''corbin's" ghost, with grimy
beard.
And pale. gaunt visage, meath an old gray
bonnet,
Oft was seen, guarding his buried treasure!
Just then the clock struck ten. in even
measure.
Pete sprang to his feet, doubling not a
lecture,
Or something worse, from his potential she;
Nor could he well to pardon him expect her.
For he had promised to be home to tea.
But having, luckily, the back-door key,
He fondly hoped that, unnotieed, he
Might creep up stairs again, pretend to doze.
And fool his wife with music of his nose.
Alas! alas! she heard the well-knowu tread;
She heard the key CRATE slowly in the door.
Peered through the gloom, observed, towards
the bed,
Pete creeping soft, as oft he had crept
before;
When bang-she threw something at his head
And Pete at once lay sprawling on the floor,
While she exclaimed, with fierce and trium-
phant glee,