Goin’ Down

Says Hiram Hicks to Rastus Green down in Bill Jones’s store,

Where they hev sot day after day fur twenty year or more,

“It ain’t no use to talk uv keers a-comin’ through this taown,

This place hain’t never comin’ up it’s allus goin’ down.

It ain’t no use to talk about a-buildin’ big hotels

Or santinaryums an’ sech fur bringin’ in the swells;

They hain’t no one ‘ith enterprise in this durn sleepy taown;

This place instid uv comin’ up is just a-goin’ down.”

Says Rustus Green to Hiram Hicks, “I swaw, Hi, yew are right;

I never seen a taown like this sence I fust saw the light.

Hain’t nothin’ doin’ anywhere, jest git up ev’ry day,

An’ eat an’ go to bed ag’in in jist the same old way.

I talked on takin’ boarders once and someone says, ‘Yew, yew,

Yew couldn’t board a ferry boat, much less a city crew’

An’ so I gin it up right there. No, Hi, this durn town –

Yew spoke the truth, ‘tain’t comin’ up, it’ jist a-goin’ down.”

Says ol’ Bill Jones, the grocer’ man, who allus spoke right out,

In meetin’ an’ ‘ithout regard fur anyone about,

“Yew fellers air a durn good pair to talk about this taown

Not hevin’ any enterprise, an’ things a-running down;

Why, durn my skin, you’ve squatted here fur more than twenty years,

An’ waited fur the train to come an’ move yew from your cheers;

You’ve sot right here with idle hands, an’ let yeour ol’ tongues wag;

Yew can’t build up a taown, by gum, while holdin’ down a kag!”

Jan. 28, ‘05