Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1901 — THE DYING CADET. [ARTICLE]

THE DYING CADET.

A youth, a would-be soldier, lay wounded at West Point, His chin was badly shattered, his nose was out of joint; His breath catne hard and jerky, at times bunched into sighs, And darksome was the color that hung about bis eyes, A kneeling comrade asked him what message he should take Unto bis distant kinsfolk, and thus the victim spake: "Go break it to them gently that when he died their Bob Was thinking of old Podunk, old Podunk on the Wab. ‘‘Tell them in tender manner I died a soldier’s death, The fumes of hot tobasco entangled with my breath, My nose clear off its bearing, my eyes as big as moons. My hair shampooed with mustard, my stomach stuffed with prunes. They fed me on hot olives served in cold axle grease, And when I made wry faces they hissed like hortid geese. And during the proceedings they laughed to hear me sob, And wish r.-.yself in Podunk, in Podunk on the Wab. They fed me plaster paris, I think almost a peck. Then made me drink hot water till full up to the neck. And my digestive organs, though always prompt and pat, Were not prepared to handle a contract such as that. And then, they said, to teach me to bear the ills of war, They forced between my pale lips a Christmastime cigar; Then well I knew the sequel—l’d jump my earthly job And find a grave at Podunk. at Podunk on the Wab. "I laughed at their approaches with scorn when they began To make of me an officer and army gentleman. I polished ub the rifles, swept out the stumps and quids And blacked the army brogana of Uncle Sammy's kids; But when I reached the hardships of war I had to squeal, My body was not armored with Carnegie's famed steel,' And, comrades, please express me, when my heart has ceased to throb, With military honors to Podunk, to Podunk on the Wab. —Denver Post.