Hoosier Lyrics

Of snaix that crawl, of beasts that yowl, of birds that flap and trill
In the wild egregious altitude of Penn-Yan Bill.

VIII

Why, over all these mountain peaks his honest feet have trod —
So high above the rest of us he seemed to walk with God;
He's breathed the breath of heaven, as it floated, pure and free,
From the everlasting snow-caps to the mighty western sea;
And he's heard that awful silence which thunders in the ear:
"There is a great Jehovah, and His biding place is here!"
These – these solemn voices and these the sights that thrill
In the far-away Montana of Penn-Yan Bill.

IX

Of course she had to love him, for it was her nature to;
And she'll wed him in the summer, if all we hear be true.
The blue grass will be waving in that cool Kentucky glade
Where the black-eyed Susans cluster in the pleasant walnut shade —
Where the doves make mournful music and the locust trills a song
To the brook that through the pasture scampers merrily along;
And speechless pride and rapture ineffable shall fill
The beatific bosom of Penn-Yan Bill!

ED

Ed was a man that played for keeps, 'nd when he tuk the notion,
You cudn't stop him any more'n a dam 'ud stop the ocean;
For when he tackled to a thing 'nd sot his mind plum to it,
You bet yer boots he done that thing though it broke the bank to do it!
So all us boys uz knowed him best allowed he wusn't jokin'
When on a Sunday he remarked uz how he'd gin up smokin'.
Now this remark, that Ed let fall, fell, ez I say, on Sunday —
Which is the reason we wuz shocked to see him sail in Monday
A-puffin' at a snipe that sizzled like a Chinese cracker
An' smelt fur all the world like rags instead uv like terbacker;
Recoverin' from our first surprise, us fellows fell to pokin'
A heap uv fun at "folks uz said how they had gin up smokin'."
But Ed – sez he: "I found my work cud not be done without it —
Jes' try the scheme yourself, my friends, ef any uv you doubt it!
It's hard, I know, upon one's health, but there's a certain beauty
In makin' sackerfices to the stern demand uv duty!
So, wholly in a sperrit uv denial 'nd concession
I mortify the flesh 'nd fur the sake uv my perfession!"

HOW SALTY WIN OUT

Used to think that luck wuz luck and nuthin' else but luck —

It made no diff'rence how or when or where or why it struck;

But sev'ral years ago I changt my mind and now proclaim

That luck's a kind uv science – same as any other game;

It happened out in Denver in the spring uv '80, when

Salty teched a humpback an' win out ten.

Salty wuz a printer in the good ol' Tribune days,

An', natural-like, he fell in love with the good ol' Tribune ways;

So, every Sunday evenin' he would sit into the game

Which in this crowd uv thoroughbreds I think I need not name;

An' there he'd sit until he rose, an', when he rose he wore

Invariably less wealth about his person than before.

But once there come a powerful change; one sollum Sunday night

Occurred the tidle wave what put ol' Salty out o' sight!

He win on deuce an' ace an' jack – he win on king an' queen —

Cliff Bill allowed the like uv how he win wuz never seen!

An' how he done it wuz revealed to all us fellers when

He said he teched a humpback to win out ten.

There must be somethin' in it for he never win afore,

An' when he tole the crowd about the humpback, how they swore!

For every sport allows it is a losin' game to buck

Agin the science of a man who's teched a hump f'r luck;

An' there is no denyin' luck was nowhere in it when

Salty teched a humpback an' win out ten.

I've had queer dreams an' seen queer things, an' allus tried to do

The thing that luck apparrently intended f'r me to;