Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1902 — THE MAN BEHIND THE PICK. [ARTICLE]

THE MAN BEHIND THE PICK.

There has been all sorts of stash about the man 'Who is “behind”— And the man behind the cannon has been toasted, wined and dined. There's the man behind the musket and the man behind—the feDce: And the man behind his whiskers and the man behind his rents; And the man behind the plow beam and the 1 man behind the hoe. And the man behind the ballot and the man behind the dough, And the man behind the counter and the man behind the bill, And the man behind the pestle and the man behind the pill. And the man behind the jimmy and the man behind the bars. And the Johnny who goes snooping on the stage behind the stars, And the man behind the kisser and the man behind the fist. And the girl behind the man behind the gun is on the list, And the man behind the bottle, and when they were short of men There was some small rhymster warbled off the man behind the pen; But they missed one honest fellow, and I'm raising of a kick That they don't make a mention of the man behind the pick.

Up the rugged mountain side a thousand feet he takes his way, Or as far into the darkness from the cheering light of day He is shut out from the sunlight, in the glimmer of the lamps; lie is cut off from the sweet air in the sickly fumes and damps. He must toil in cramped positions, he must take his life in hand, For he works in deadly peril that but few can understand; But he does it all in silence, and he seldom makes a kick, Which is why I sing the praises of the man beind the pick.

He unlocks the bolted portals of the mountains to the stores Hid in nature's vast exchequer in her treasure house of ores; He applies a key of dynamite and the gates are backward rolled, And the ancient rocks are riven to their secret heart of gold. Things of comfort and of beauty and of usefulness are mined By this brave and quiet worker—he’s a friend of humankind, Who, though trampled down and underpaid, toils on without a kick. So I lift my hat in honor of the man behind the pick. —Denver News.