Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1918 — COUSIN JASPER’S TEXAS FRIEND [ARTICLE]

COUSIN JASPER’S TEXAS FRIEND

Little Cousin Jasper he Haint got nothin’ ’tall on me; Cause he lives in* Rensselaer, An* I live ’way in Texas here. Our state’s big as Germany is; An’ he can’t say that ’bout his. W’y Kelly Field is purt nigh near Twice as big as Rensselaer. In Rensselaer they may be lakes An’ wil’ ducks, an’ rattle-snakes, But he can’t hear no airplanes roar Like we can here, ner Signal Corps. I bet if Cousin Jasper went An’ camped here in a army tent, He’d see things here ’at makes his eyes Bulge out purt nigh twice their size. An’ when a norther comes down here An’ they come fifty times a year, You can’t see nothing hardly ’tall, ’Cause the dust prevents it all. W’y you can swim the whole year through ’Cept northers makes it too cold to An’ it haint snowed but wunst this years, Ner. hardly rained sense I been -here. An Kelly Field has got a band ’At’s better’n all in this here land; An they march down th’ road an’ Play Purt nigh nearly every day. An’ we got palm tree here, 1-jings, An’ arm’ dillas an’ lots o’ things; An’ keyots an’ broncs an* Teaxs steers, An’ jack-rabbits an’ some wil’deers. I bet if Cousin Jasper had A chance to live here, he’d be glad; ’Cause he haint got no meskeet there Ner cactus plants in Rensselaer.

Wisk’t I could go to Rensselaer An’ 'nen bring Cousin Jasper here; An’ show him how good our state is Nen he’d wish ’at it was his. The above poem should be of interest to Rensselaer people. It was' written by Lieutenant James H. Shaffer, of Newburg, West Virginia. Mr. Shaffer received his commission in the second officer training camp at Fort Harrison, Indianapolis, Ind., and is now stationed at Kelly Field, South San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Shaffer was an admirer of the writings of James Whitcomb Riley, and wrote these verses as a Texas lad’s answer to Riley’s poem “Little Cousin Jasper.”