Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet Philosopher — John Shaqi
Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet PhilosopherMason, Walt
General
Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet Philosopher
Mason, Walt
Poetry
It is wise to save the pennies when the pennies come your way, for
you're more than apt to need them when arrives the rainy day; and when
Famine comes a-whooping with the cross-bones on her vest, then the
fellow with the bundle has the edge on all the rest. I admire the man
who's saving, if he doesn't save too hard, if he doesn't think a dollar
bigger than the courthouse yard; and I like to see him salting down the
riches that he's struck, if he always has a quarter for the guy that's
out of luck. When the winter comes upon us, yelling like a baseball fan,
then it's nice to have some boodle in an old tomato can; when there's
sickness in the wigwam, and we have to call the doc, then it's nice to
have a package hidden in the eight-day clock; when Old Age, the hoary
rascal, comes a-butting in at last, then it's nice to have some rubles
that you cornered in the past; and the man who saves the pennies is a
dandy and a duck--if he always has a quarter for the guy that's out of
luck.
_Home Life_
Now the nights are growing longer, and the frost is in the air, and it's
nice to hug the fireside in your trusty rocking chair, with the good
wife there beside you, feeding cookies to the cat, while the energetic
children play the dickens with your hat. O, it's nice to look around
you, and to feel that you're a king, that your coming home at evening
makes your joyous subjects sing! So you read some twenty chapters of old
Gibbon's dope on Rome, and you know what human bliss is in your humble
little home! There is really nothing better in the way of earthly bliss,
than to toddle home at evening, and to get a welcome kiss, and to know
the kids who greet you at the pea-green garden gate, have been wailing,
broken-hearted, that you were two minutes late! There is nothing much
more soothing than a loving woman's smile, when she sees your bow-legs
climbing o'er the bargain counter stile! If you don't appreciate it,
then the bats are in your dome, for the greatest king a-living is the
monarch of a home!
_Eagles and Hens_
The eagle ought to have a place among the false alarms; we place its
picture on our coins, and on our coat of arms; but what did eagles ever
do but frolic in the sun? They'd be in jail for larceny if justice
should be done. They are not half so good to eat as mallard duck or
grouse; they'd surely cause a panic in a section boarding house; and
never in this weary world was farmer seen to go, to trade a pail of
eagle eggs for nails or calico. The humble hen, on t'other hand, still
helps the world along; she lifts the farmer's mortgage as she trills her
morning song; she yields the fragrant omelet, and when reduced to pie,
she makes the boarder feel that he at last is fit to die. The eagle does
not stir the souls of earnest, thoughtful men; and so let's take him
from the shield and substitute the hen.
_The Sunday Paper_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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