TO JOE SWEENEY APPOMATTOX COUNTY, VA., BEFO'-THE-WAR MAKER AND MASTER OF A FAMOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. ITs ter-rumpity, umpity, umpi-tum tum, A tune from the banjo Your soles will go pat to the plunkity strum; Your toes, too, you'll ply, As over the boards you go humpity hum. It will whoop up the crowd Make 'em glad they are livin' and kickin', by gum. EDWIN A. HERNDON. Lynchburg. VIRGINIA To fair Virginia's purple peaks, Her Sons of past and present fame, But deeper still we drink the toast OUR MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS, SWEETHEARTS, WIVES! LILY TYLER. East Radford, Virginia. TO THE OLD BLACK MAMMY WHEN we came into the mysteries of life she took us in her arms, coddled and cared for our every need, and through years of alternity day and night, with a self-effacement and docile, loyal love the world will never know again, she helped her “little lambs" to grow familiar with the bonds and walls and limitations of a life. She endured our flashes of temper with the fidelity with which a dog creeps back to lick the master's boot, and so in sun and shade through all the changes of our earthly life, she served and worshipped, swathed us for life, and shrouded for the tomb, THE FIRST AT THE CRADLE, THE LAST TO LEAVE THE GRAVE. God bless her! East Radford, Virginia. LILY PATTON KEARSLEY. |