Holdin’ Up the Mail (A Protest from Gungawamp)

“Them college games, football an’ sech, an’ rowin’ races, too,

Are jest the right an’ proper thing fur them who’ve be’n all through

The bloomin’ things, fur them who go to college an’ the like,

But I’ve an idée it is time fur quiet folks to strike

Aga’nst the interference uv the traffic hereabout,

A-holdin’ up the local trains, an’ puttin’ people out

‘Cuz ev’ry time they hev a game our trains git in a state,

An’ we are inconvenienced ‘cuz the evenin’ mail is late.

Last year I know the rowin’ match ‘tween Harvard an’ ol’ Yale

Jest raised the very dickens with our usual evenin’ mail;

We waited at the Post Office say from six to nine o’clock,

Becuz the specials crowded all the locals in the block.

We stood an’ waited hour by hour becuz a score uv boys

Wuz rowin’ on the river midst a lot uv fuss an’ noise.

An’ things we said warn’t compliments to Harvard nor to Yale

Fur keepin’ us so late at night a-waitin’ fur the mail.

Perhaps we didn’t git no mail, no letters anyway,

But still we might hev had, an’ so you see we had to stay.

We don’t propose to have our mail a-layin’ overnight

Becuz a lot o’ college boys are startin’ up a fight!

Guess not! This year we’ve been to see Charles Mellin, president,

To ask to hev the specials held, an’ hev the locals sent;

We don’t propose year after year to set around the same

A-waitin’ fur our mail becuz they’ve hed a football game!

Nov. 12, ‘09

Charles S. Mellin was president of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.