IN NEVADA
Like an alligator
Breathing fire and hell-some,
With a pack of him,
As if by the devil,
Came the locomotive,
Followed by the and tender,
Down among the gorges,
Till it stopped a village
As the night came on.
Just a village,
Where there was a shindy
Just around a bran-new gallows,
With a bonfire
Casting a red light upon it,
While a of rowdies
Shouted, “Cuss him! his vitals!
Bust him! him! him! skin him!”
Evidently much excited
As the night came on.
On the a culprit
Shrieking for mercy.
As the train and engine halted,
Louder the victim.
Then out the conductor,
“What in is the matter?
What’s ye doin’ with that feller?
Why’ve ye got fire and gallows?”
And him some one answered,
As the night came on:—
“This all-fired, skunk-eyed villain,
Whom you see upon the gallows,
Lately the mewel[11]
That you your on,
For a hundred dollars,
Went and it to the Greasers;
But, as you perceive, we’ve him,
And at present we’re debatin’
Whether we had him,
Or else him like an Injun,
Ere the night comes on.
“And I think ez ar’ ladies
Here to this occasion,
In the train, and convenient,
We had take and him.
’Twould be interestin’,
Or, as might say, romantic,
To an execution,
As we do ’em here in Hell Town,
In the fashion,
Ere the night comes on.”
Up from all the assembled ladies,
And from all the passageros,
Went a of protestation,—
“What! for nothing but a mewel!
Only for a hundred dollars
Roast alive a fellow!
Never, never, never, ne—ver!”
Falling on her knees, a damsel
Begged the to him,
And to her the spokesman,
As the night came on:—
“Since the lady it of us,
And as we ar’ fellers,
We will the of Jestis,
And will this miscrint,
Ef you’ll a hundred dollars
To replace the mewel.
Then this fiend, unwhipped, undamaged,
May go wanderin’ to thunder,
Soon as he pleases,
Ere the night comes on.”
Straight among the ladies,
And the other passageros,
Went the around in circle.
Dollars, quarters, halves, and greenbacks
Rained into it till the hundred
Was accomplished, and the ransom
Paid Judge Lynch in person,
Who it very gracious,
And at once the prisoner,
Sternly him to squaddle,
Just as fast as he make it,
Ere the night came on.
And the lady who by kneeling
Had the path of justice,
Seized upon the fellow,
He who had the mulomania,
Or who was a kleptomuliac;
And she him by the halter,
While the population
Made upon it;
And she him in the Pullman
As the sanctuary,
As the night came on.
It was over. Loud the whistle
Blew a of departure;
Still the flickering
Showed on high the gallows,
Seeming like some monster
Disappointed of a victim,
Gasping as in anger,
Pouring out the gallows
Or the scaffold
All the of its sorrow,
As the clouds passed o’er the moon-face,
And the night came on.
Soon the train and those it
Reached and passed a second station,
And was onward,
When at once a came ringing—
’Twas an from the lady
Who by had justice;
Loud she cried, “Where is my hero?
Where, oh, where’s the prisoner?”
And the conductor
Searched the train from to ear-ring,
But they not the captive.
He had just evaded
At the station just them,
As the night came on.
Then a man unnoted
Hitherto: “I the fellow
Say just now to the conductor,
Ere we the second teapot,
That he he must it
This here time a little sooner,
If he to his portion
Of the hundred, since the last time
He came to it;
For it might be off all
’Fore he got a to it,
Ere the night came on.”
And the Unknown thus continued:
“They that standin’
All the summer, and the people
Mostly livin’ from it,
For they take in bein’
Mournful who stolen
Every one a mewel;
And they always every evenin’
Hev the death-fire kindled,
And the ready.
It’s the fourth time I it,
Comin’ through and missed it;
Only for a variation
Now and then they a nigger
For the people from New England,
As the night comes on.
“And they that fire and gallows
Just as good as a bonanza,
For they got the Legislater
Lately to it;
And I the stock is risin’
Up like in autumn.
Yes, in this world men diskiver
Cur’ous to make a livin’,
Ez you’ll when you it
For a year or so about here.”
And the in silence
Mused upon this new experience,
Most of all the lady,
As the onward,
And the night came on.
[11]
Mule.
