The sun. (Wilmington, Del.) 1897-19??, 1901-02-01
BALLAD OF O. B. ORR.
by HOLMAN #. DAY.


1t tells how the critter he wouldn't lie
When Hoodoo had reckoned to do him
up brown
1t shows how Yankee alghts on his feet
When folks looking on have concluded he's
Now ozy had money and owned good
And matters were working all right to
charm,
When he went on some papers TO help
his son Bill
Who was all tangled up in dowel-stoek
mill.
Now Bill was gutter, and therefore one
day
Those notes became due and his dad had
to pay.
So he slapped on a mortgage and then
buckled down
To pay up the int'rest and keep off the
town.
Oh, that mortgage, it chung like sheeptick
i'll wool,
And the more she sagged back, harder Ozy
would pull;
But mortgage can tucker the lkeilest man,
And Ozy he found himself fiat on hard pan.
lie dumped in his stock and his grain and
his hay,
He scrimped and he skived and endeavored
to pay;
He sold off his hay and his grain and his
stock
Till the ricky.tick-tack Of the auctioneer's
knock
Kept up such rapping on 0zy's old farm
That the auctoneer nigh had Rink in his
arm
Til it happened at last, long o Christmas
time,
Old Ozy was stripped to his very last
dime.
And he said to his helpmeet; Poor mum
my, / van
l guess them ere critters have got all they
can.
For they've sued off the stock till the barns
are all bare,
'Cept the old turkey -gobbler, a.peckin' out
there;
They'd a lifted him, too, for those lawyers
! are rough
But they reckoned that gobbler was rather
too tough.
So they left us our dinner for Christmas
day;
just remember that, mummy, tonight when
you pray.
4 Now chirl up your appetite, for, with God S
grace,
| Well eat all at once all the stock on the
place"
But Ozy he was a cheerful man,
A goody man, a Cody man
He didn't repine at Heavens plan, but he
took things as they came;
And cheerfuly soon he whistled his tune
That he always whstied-'twas Old Zip
Coon,
And he whistled it all the afternoon with
never word Of blame.
While all unaware Of his owners care,
The goober pecked in the sunshine there,
With tip-toe, tp-toe Nancy air, and ruff
fled like dancing dame;
Till it seemed TO Ozy, whistling still
To the ripity-rap of the turkeys bill,
That the prim old gobbler was keeping
To the sweep and the swing OF the word
less rhyme:
With arrntlTg necr,
me turkey, strutted with bow and beck.
ana Yankee notion was thereby born
10 Ozy Orr ere another morn.
a practical fellow was Ozy b. Orr,
rs Keen an old Yankee as ever you saw.
A bit OF platform he made out Of tin,
with chance for kerosene lantern with.
in;
He took his old fiddle and rosined the bow
And took the old turkey--and there was
his show!
You don't understand? Well, III own IN
to you
The crowds that he gathered were mysti.
fed too.
For he advertised there on his banner I'm.
fured
"A Jig-Dancing Turkey-Sole One in the
World"
And the more the folks saw It. the moro
and the more
They flocked with their quarters, and
iammed at the door;
For it really did seem that precocious Old
bird
At sound Of the fiddle was wondrously
stirred.
In stateliest fashion the dance would com.
mence,
Then faster and faster, with fervor intense,
ontli, at one end, with shrek Of the
strings
And furious gobble and whirlwind Of
wings,
The turkey would side-step and two.sten ana
spin,
Then larrup with ardor that echoinp lin.
And widely renowned, and regarded with
was ne ne Great Dancing Turkey Of ozy B.
ana the mortgage was paid by the old
gobbler's legs
NOW ozy is heading up money In kegs.
lie would calmly tuck beneath his chin IN
The bulge OF his cracked old violin.
lie sawed while the turkey whacked ~.
| tin, the people they paid and cama.