Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-12-23
The very tip-top Of the sharp north

He pushed and logged. and he pried
! and lugged
I, And yelled "Gee-haw!" to his rein
| deer bold,
With many hoist, till his brow was
| moist
With perspiration. In spite Of the
cold;
And he groaned and wept, as the truth
| was born
That the sun was rising, in rays for
Ger an Arctic-circular Christmas
morn!
II.
Now what would you say of Christ
| mas day
/ With never a jolly
Old sprinkle Of holly,
And never q present to make life gay?
Without a toy for girl or boy,
From Bowling Green to Botany Bay :?
Empty and limp and ashamed Of them
selves,
The stockings hung on the chimney
1 shelves
Where the children found them when
they awoke.
First they thought it practical joke;
And then a sigh,
And then cry
And a sob and a yell In chorus broke
Such a bedlam of bawls and sniffles
and squallsl
Till the sun stood still on the brow OF
the hill
And the town clock stopped in the big
/ church steeple,
And kings and counsellors, priests and
/ people
Grew excited, alarmed, afraid,
And ran away In grief and tears,
i Or plugged glass shoppers into their
/ ears,
For the terrible noise that the children
made.
Sobs In Germany, screams in France
4 Howls in England and walls in
i Wales,
Then over Americas broad expanse.
Where Young Americas will pre-
| A terrible noise;
1--WE want our toys!"
| where's that doll was going to
get 2"
Where's my wooden automobile?"
my rocking horse? my soldier
And whistles blew,
And the bells rang too,
To try to drown the hullabaloo.
Till folks in vain cried, please keep
/ quiet!'
And congress met to suppress the riot
4 III.
Poor Santa Claus, In that awful pause
| On the icy peak of the polar region
| Sat looking glun, as he sighed, Hum
hum!
| II only had carrier pigeon!
But there you are-and here I am
4 But stay! I have 1t! the fates I'll
4 fam =. & ss4s
BY sending a wireless telegram"
So he wrote this down:
ITO Willie Brown,
Grand Rapids. Mich
/ I am totally wrecked
Bring all the children you can collect
And come at once to the rescue
please"
So he sent this telegram overseas,
i Obliginglv borne by a boreal breeze.
W.
| Now Willie Brown was a willing boy
Dire disappointed, like all the rest:
So he read the message and cried
with joy,
Its a difficult task, but I'll do my
best
And he worked for all that a boy is
worth
To send the tidings over the earth,
/
some whooping,
Armies and armies came merrily
| trooping;
Children, light and brown and white,
Children, black and yellow and pink,
Portuguese and Cingalese,
Many tiny, pig-tailed Chink,
! Spanish, Danish, Scottish and Jap,
Russian. Prussian, Persian and Lapp
And just few
| (Say one or two)
Cannibal babes from the Isle Of zap.
So line on line they started forth
| Merrily for the frozen north,
Some afoot and some awheel,
Clothes horse, hobby horse, automo-
Go-cart, goat-cart, dog-cart, sleigh,
Street-car, hand-car, ice-wagon, dray.
Chattering, pattering, gathering down
Straight through the town,
With soldierly tread;
| And at their head
Marched the handsome general, Willie
Brown.
And the first they knew
They had gone straight through
| The northern capes and the Arctic
shawls,
Where the whale pipes high
And the penguinS cry,
And the gentleman walrus groans and
| bawls,
Through Behring straits, where the
| gnomes of Nome
Cried: MY! those children are far
from home!"
But they trudged away through the
winters day,
And never a word Of complaint
spoke they;
For they couldn't rest and they
couldn't pause
Weren't they searching for Santa
Claus?
Till, pole in the ohing!" some one
yelled,