Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1916 — That Old Sweetheart of Riley’s. [ARTICLE]

That Old Sweetheart of Riley’s.

He wrote of her so lovin’ and so tenderly, you know. The sweetheart of his bosom in the golden long ago, And today I sit here thinkin’ may be now she’s meetin’ him In that land of rest and quiet where the shadows grow so dim. Oh, wouldn’t that be happy, if he'd got her back again After all these years of waitin’ while he sang a bit to men, And stayed here sendin’ sunshine all around him day by day— For the ones that still survive him and the ones that went away: She’ll know his footsteps yondtu when she hears ’em on the street, And won't the flowers be bloomin’ when they both look up and meet; And won’t her tears flow softly, and his gentle bosom swell, As they stand there in the glory of love's everlastin’ spell! The way he wrote about her makes us all so sure that he Had a sweetheart, really-truly, in the days that used to be; And that’s why I’m thinkin’ as I sit here—maybe they Have jined each other yonder, after many a weary day! I bet there weren’t no mornin’ in that land of heavenly light As glorious as the mornin’ when slid saw him come in sight. An’ she knew at last he'd slumbered and on wings of lovin’ care Had been borne by God's good angels to be given to her there! Oh, if 'ever sweethearts trembled in an ecstacy of joy It must have been when Riley and his old sweetheart again Were united by the angels, and

turned hack to girl and boy, Forgot in heaven’s goodness all the sorrowing years of men! For, Oh, she must have loved to have brought from him that song; And how he must have missed her, for she'd been away so long; And now tonight he’s got her, and they’re happy, and they’re fine In the memory of the story of an old sweetheart of mine! —Baltimore Sun.