The Stratford Family Paper Stand

**The Stratford Paper Stand** is the second song from The Great Moon Hoax sung by Matt Dahan as the Narrator, James Tolbert as Samuel Stratford and Mariah Rose Faith Casillas as Rose Stratford. It is the second track on the soundtrack album and was written by Matt Dahan.

## Lyrics

**Narrator:**

The Stratford Family paper stand

In New York's Printing House Square

Established eighteen-seventeen

You'll always find a Stratford there

Merchants of the written word

Every single kind of prose

The Stratford Family paper stand

Run by Samuel's sister

**Samuel, spoken:**

Rose!

**Rose, spoken:**

Samuel, look what I have: the latest Edinburgh Journal of Science!

**Samuel, spoken:**

Your favorite magazine... It smells like fish.

**Rose, spoken:**

It spent the last. two weeks sailing on a cargo ship from Europe. So, it doesn't smell like fish, it smells like knowledge and adventure.

**Samuel, spoken:**

Knowledge and adventure smell a lot like fish.

**Rose, spoken:**
So do you.

**Samuel, spoken:**

Did you read anything interesting?

**Rose:**

A man named Samuel Morse

Has left a code for us to crack

**Samuel, spoken:**

I like his name.

**Rose:**

Almost eighty years, and

Halley's Comet has come back

**Samuel, spoken:**

I'll keep an eye out.

**Rose:**

The Royal Astronomical Society

Is letting women in

**Samuel:** About time!

**Rose:**

And cell division is a thing

The proof is on page ten

But the most amazing part

Comes from the god of modern astronomy

**Samuel, spoken:**

Let me guess,

**Rose, Samuel:**

John Herschel

**Rose:**

The man that I adore

He's been in South Africa

Since eighteen-thirty,four

Probably the greatest mind

To come from England's shore

There's an illustration

I might hang it on the door

**(spoken)**

It makes him look older than he is, though. Not sure if I like it.

**Samuel, spoken:**

The printing press adds at least a decade.

**Rose, spoken:**

He's our age, and he's already accomplished so much...

**(sung)**

He owns a telescope so large

To pinpoint every point of light

Until they form a pattern

Four new moons on Jupiter and Saturn

Worlds that human eyes have never seen

Places that no living thing has ever been

Nebulae and comets that he gets to name

No one more deserving of fortune and fame

if I ever met him

I think that I would die

I'd have so many questions

`Bout his mapping of the sky...

**(spoken)**

Samuel - where's your notebook?

**Samuel, spoken:**

I... left it at work.

**Rose, spoken:**

Did Thomas like our story? Oh no, did you get nervous again?

**Samuel, spoken:**

No, no, I said something this time. Although I might have picked a bad day to finally speak up.

**(sung)**

There's a million ways to get your news

From trusted sources, older publications

**Rose:**

Unless you offer something new

**Rose, Samuel:**

A different style or point of view

**Samuel:**

 The Sun will go down

**Rose:**

Everybody knows it

**(spoken)**

It's basic astronomy.

**Samuel, spoken:**

Very clever.

**Rose:**

The earth revolves around the sun

And everybody knows it

**Samuel:**

Thomas doesn't know it

**(spoken)**

**He fired me today.**

**Rose, spoken:**

Really?

**Samuel:**

The office was attentive

As he dealt the final blow

He tore our words to pieces Rose,

I'd never felt so low

We can't get by on just the money From the Stratford Paper Stand

**Rose:**

Mom and dad did it for years

If they did, I'm sure we can

**Samuel, spoken:**

I feel like I let you down.

**Rose, spoken:**

Samuel, no

**Samuel, spoken:**

What are we gonna do?

**Rose, spoken:**

We keep going, baby brother,

**Samuel, spoken:**

We're twins, Rose\_

**Rose, spoken:**

I came out first, and as the elder Stratford,

I am telling you not to give up. We are more than this.

**Samuel, spoken:**

How do you know? What if this is it?

**Rose:**

This is my life but it isn't my fate

To be stuck in a booth

On the corner of Broadway

Selling periodicals

It can't be

And when it is calm

I can read all the stories

'Bout the folks that are doing

All the things that I want to do

You worked at a job

That drained you entirely

And made you feel

Like you can't be who you are

So I write, and you write

And we write together it's a gift, and it sits

On the corner of Broadway

And it's time to begin

To give in to imagination

See what's possible

## External Links

* The Stratford Family Paper Stand on iTunes
* The Stratford Family Paper Stand on Spotify