The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 81
672 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
reader evaluate it for himself. To the writer, it has appealed since
he first saw it, and increasingly so, through the years. When
Palmer died on February 25, 1962, I made up my mind, if pos-
sible, to share it with other Texans, as it seems to me that every
Texan, so far as possible, really should have a chance to see it.
TEXAS
Oh, a thirsty land of dust and sand
Is the Panhandle Plains of Texas
Where the coyotes howl and the panthers prowl
And the rattlesnakes strike and vex usl
And the people are strange who ride the range-
For they went to the legislature
And voted the towns all "dry" by law
Tho the rivers were dry by nature.
Oh, the wonderful size of the enterprise
Of the State and the folks of Texas;
Tho how they contrive to live and thrive
On the desert may perplex usl
For little they raise but milo maize
And cattle and cain and sand;
But when the grass is dry and the cows all die
They live by selling the land.
The land sharks bask in dusty pools
Where the lambs come down to the slaughter;
And they tell 'em the cows dried up on the range
Were drowned in the last high water.
'Tis the breeding place of a strong fit race
For the strenuous life that waits them
With their long-horned steers thru the long dry years
And the "dry" long-whiskered statesmen.
For the winds are strong and the years are long
In the land of the Texas Ranger,
Where the prairie dogs sit on the hot dry hills
And bark at the passing stranger.
And it seldom rains in the Big-Staked plains-
But they went to the legislature
And voted the country "dry" by law,
Tho 'twas devilish dry by nature.
It is evidently the work of an artist in poetry and at the time
it was published (I think in the St. Louis Post Dispatch) it was
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/101/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.