A poem from the past

While looking through the newspapers on The Portal to Texas History site, I came across this poem written by my great-grandfather Percy Templeton, from Atlas, Texas. It was in a 1915 edition of a socialist newspaper called The Rebel, which seemed to have a lot to do with the farmers lament. Funny, they were talking about fake news even then. Here's the poem:

How the Farmer Gets Him

Come all you people if you want to know

How to us farmers milk and honey does flow

Made fifty bushels of smutty corn

Never had such luck since I was born

Work from morn till the close of day

Poor old Beck did not have a feed of hay

The cow went dry, the old sow died

The hens quit laying and seemed satisfied

The garden burned up when the weather got hot

So there was not anything to bile in the pot

The children’s hats, they had no crown

On top of all this the cotton went down

Everyone we owed he wanted to say

I sure must be first and get my pay

The Landlord said he sure must have his

For he needed it badly in his biz

The banks tell us what to plant and how to do

But will not say I’ll see you through

They say raise a living and stay out of debt

That is good advice all right you bet

But how will a fellow, till he makes a crop, go

Without something to eat? Is what I want to know

The wise Guys are ready with their advice

What to plant and how to work it, “oh, how nice!”

A certain hardware man tells us how

Nobody belongs to God but farmers now

That the old farmers are a favored lot

And will not have to go where it is very hot

Tells us how cheap everything is now

Such things as rakes, and hoes and plow

And what enormous prices we get for what we raise

Such as chicks, cattle, corn and maize

They say sell your cotton pay what you owe

Cut out such luxuries as candy and the show

Wear less, eat less, and be sure to work more

And get ready to meet Mr. Sanford on the Beautiful Shore