Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1919 — BACK TO THE [ARTICLE]

BACK TO THE

John Angus McWhitty lived in a big city • And had ever since he was born. He longed for the spil and bucolic toil ’Mid the hay and the oats and the corn. He sighed to thrash pumpkins along with the bumpkins And pick the potatoes so brown. He’d tired of the strife of monotonous life, The kind that he lived In the town. So he traded his house and his lot in the city For a ten-acre farm, did John Angus McWhitty. Hank Hawkins was born ’mid the tall waving corn, Where he worked from sun-up to sun-down. It was his ambition to change his condition And live in the zippy old town. He longed for the Jazz and the shimmy, whereas, The quiet life gave him the creeps. Up said: “I will sluff this drab bucolic stuff And move to the city for keeps.” Sa he traded his farm for a house and a lot In the city and moved while the impulse was hot. A year had passed by when a real estate guy Got two urgent orders one day. Both parties were flurried and very much worried And wanted his ear right away. One wanted a trade a small farm of high grade For a house and a lot In the town. The other had got a fine house and lot To trade for a farm—nothing down. Thus Mr. McJVhitty got hack to the city And sniffed with delight its grim strife, While Hawkins got back to the old rural shack And says he is anchored for life. So when you grow weary of farm or of city, Remember Hank Hawkins and Angus McWhitty.