Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet PhilosopherMason, Walt
General
Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet Philosopher
Mason, Walt
Poetry
He had journeyed, sore and weary, over deserts wide and dreary; through
the snows of far Sibery he had dragged his frozen form; he had searched
the site of Eden, been through Kansas, wild and bleedin'; in the far-off
hills of Sweden he had faced the winter storm. In the vain pursuit of
glory, hoping he would live in story, he had hoofed it to Empory, from
Toronto on the lake; he had heard land agents rattle through the suburbs
of Seattle, he had seen the Creek of Battle, where they live on sawdust
cake. Fate was kind, and just to prove her he had journeyed to
Vancouver, where the emigrant and mover pitch their tents upon the
street; he had roamed the broad Savannah, he had voted in Montana;
hunting with the mighty Bwana, Afric's jungles knew his feet. He had
sung the boomer's ditty down in Oklahoma City, thinking it a blooming
pity that the town had such a name; he had mined in cold Alaska, farmed
with Bryan in Nebraska, and was never known to ask a least advantage in
the game. To his native town returning, all reporters there were
yearning to receive a statement burning, from this calm intrepid soul;
not of fights or sieges gory was the hero's simple story; "I have but
one claim to glory--I have never found the Pole!"
_Saturday Night_
Saturday night, and the week's work done, and the Old Man home with a
bunch of mon'! You see him sit on the cottage porch, and he puffs away
at a five-cent torch, while the good wife sings at her evening chores,
and the children gambol around outdoors. The Old Man sits on his
work-day hat, and he doesn't envy the plutocrat; his debts are paid and
he owns his place, and he'll look a king in the blooming face; his hands
are hard with the brick and loam, but his heart is soft with the love of
home! Saturday night, and it's time for bed! And the kids come in with a
buoyant tread; and they hush their noise at the mother's look, as she
slowly opens a heavy book, and reads the tale of the stormy sea, and the
voice that quieted Galilee. Then away to bed and the calm repose that
only honesty ever knows. Saturday night, and the world is still, and
it's only the erring who finds things ill; there is sweet content and a
sweeter rest, where a good heart beats in a brave man's breast.
_Lady Nicotine_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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