The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-10-27

Judge Preston SeAmauds DAVIS an
nounced book Of songs with the above
title.
When these nervous OklahOmans
ceased chasing the elusive bootlegger
long enough to give the poems a read
ing they were not so shocked after all.
There was much OF country life in
them and not so very many hymns to
corn likker" or any other kind Of
waited oblivion" II seems that the
poets mind went skipping back to his
boyhood days in "old Kaintuck" to
Judge from these few verses that give
rhythmic voice to the Complaints OF
Boyhood
Wunder why at boys like me
Has to be so mannerly?
Pears like God ist raises switches
To dance upon my coat an britches.
can't see no use Nv foolin'
Alters bout this thing Nv schoolin'
My sakes, but it makes me mad
Fer folks to say I'm alters bad
And at my manners need repairin',
Guess they're bout as good as their'n
I've known boys at took to cussin'
Cause their folks wuz alters fussin'
Sairy Jane Is aggravatin'
When boys wants ter go a-skatin';
Alters says they's good ter fetch
An long winded hens to ketch
She'll find sumpin ter be done
Thatll spoil my sport an fun
Blame that air ole dasher churn,
It's the tiresomest concern
AT ever human Idly
Forced upon boys soci'ty.
Ruther eat my bread unbuttered
Than ter be all milk-besputtered
Wish't at folks would pen their hogs
Or else we had q thousan' dogs
Ur else some mighty Providence
I'd stop the creeks In our yard fence.
Seems at steps into a cellar
Wuz made ter salervate a feller.
Ef had my way about 1t
(Don't you never stop to doubt it),
Little bitsey tinesy boys
Could romp an play an make a noise
An they'd never have ter wait
Ner eat out NV a dirty plate
IT. is the country all right that
breathes in this song from the little
Brown Jug" Whitcomb Riley might
lave written II in his younger and more
exutant days, Latterly he has been
more philosophic and less the poet of
The back townships In this song that
comes up out of Oklahoma the boy
has his say, and why should he not?
He has hard enough time Of it, any
way, with all the things that a boy is
expected to do and not to do, There
are "long-winded hens, old veterans
N dusty yellow that can outrun a year
ing colt, and that are crafter than
dog Any boy who was
raised IN the country still has chill
when he thinks of that "air old dasher
ehurn the eyerpresent bugbear that
stood between him and the humble's
nest or the fishing pole.
When these nervous Oklahoma
friends of the jurist ceased auttering
Up and down over the mention of a
brown jug they agreed that it was
pretty good poetry but they moved
unanimously that it be given another
hame The brown iug" is pretty much
political issue down in the new
ltate.
Oklahoma has had other poets
There was a writer, drowned untimely
n freshet of the Cimmaron river a
3ear or so ago. who wrote of Indian
life as 1t really is and not as the ro-
hanticists would have us believe. 1t
vas a weird dialect that he used, the
iongue of the full-bloods and the half
astes of the old Territory, and it was
hopeless mixture of English and
omething else Just as he was be-
Inning to achieve something more
han statewide fame he was drowned.
In these everyday Songs of the Terri
1ory the Indian is not whooping,
tamping. scalping savage. He is a