American literature -- Humor; American wit and humor
How goes the Money?--Nay,
Don't everybody know the way?
It goes for bonnets, coats and capes,
Silks, satins, muslins, velvets, crapes,
Shawls, ribbons, furs, and furbelows,--
And that's the way the Money goes!
How goes the Money?--Sure,
I wish the ways were something fewer;
It goes for wages, taxes, debts;
It goes for presents, goes for bets,
For paint, _pommade_, and _eau de rose_,--
And that's the way the Money goes!
How goes the Money?--Now,
I've scarce begun to mention how;
It goes for laces, feathers, rings,
Toys, dolls--and other baby-things,
Whips, whistles, candies, bells and bows,--
And that's the way the Money goes!
How goes the Money?--Come,
I know it doesn't go for rum;
It goes for schools and sabbath chimes,
It goes for charity--sometimes;
For missions, and such things as those,--
And that's the way the Money goes!
How goes the Money?--There!
I'm out of patience, I declare;
It goes for plays, and diamond pins,
For public alms, and private sins,
For hollow shams, and silly shows,--
And that's the way the Money goes!
A CAVALIER'S VALENTINE
(1644)
BY CLINTON SCOLLARD
The sky was like a mountain mere,
The lilac buds were brown,
What time a war-worn cavalier
Rode into Taunton-town.
He sighed and shook his head forlorn;
"A sorry lot is mine,"
He said, "who have this merry morn
Pale Want for Valentine."
His eyes, like heather-bells at dawn,
Were blue and brave and bold;
Against his cheeks, now wan and drawn,
His love-locks tossed their gold.
And as he rode, beyond a wall
With ivy overrun,
His glance upon a maid did fall,
A-sewing in the sun.
As sweet was she as wilding thyme,
A boon, a bliss, a grace:
It made the heart blood beat in rhyme
To look upon her face.
He bowed him low in courtesy,
To her deep marvelling;
"Fair Mistress Puritan," said he,
"It is forward spring."
As when the sea-shell flush of morn
Throws night in rose eclipse,
So sunshine smiles, that instant born,
Brought brightness to her lips;
Her voice was modest, yet, forsooth,
It had a roguish ring;
"_You_, sir, of all should know that truth--
It _is_ a forward spring!"
A GREAT CELEBRATOR
BY BILL NYE
Being at large in Virginia, along in the latter part of last season, I
visited Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, also his grave.
Monticello is about an hour's ride from Charlottesville, by diligence.
One rides over a road constructed of rip-raps and broken stone. It is
called a macadamized road, and twenty miles of it will make the pelvis
of a long-waisted man chafe against his ears. I have decided that the
site for my grave shall be at the end of a trunk line somewhere, and I
will endow a droska to carry passengers to and from said grave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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