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
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