A Cordova Anthology
The bright, sunshiny days with which this section of Alaska recently has been blessed
suggest thoughts of spring, and spring in the average newspaper office is contemporary with
poetry. As there is no poet on the staff of the Daily Times we are compelled to rely on our
contributors. The following verses have been sent in from time to time, and taking advan
tage of the fact that the cable is down and the mails late, we give them publicity.
Long association with the poetic temperament has taught that to endeavor to correct
or alter the work of a poet is dangerous business, and they are therefore given verbatim et
11 fora i rim
Pride in the Northland’s share in
the great war is expressed in the fol
lowing, and the poet is pardonable
when he suggests that three Alaskans
are as good as three Huns in battle.
Darkness and Dawn
By L. Prank Davis
The long winter nights are upon us,
The sun barely says hello,
But the early dawn soon will be com
ing,
Then we’ll send our quota below.
The world is now in its darkest hour,
o’ershadowed by the Imperial Vul
ture.
Soon we’ll be helping break the power
Of kaiser and his kultur.
We are not so many in numbers,
But mighty in faith are we.
And the Hun may count us threefold
When we’re fighting for Liberty.
Then the world will know that Alaska,
With all its brain and brawn,
Is helping dispel the Darkness,
Helpinig bring forth the Dawn.
In the “Song of the Sammies” some
thing of the real spirit of war times is
brought out.
The Song of the Sammies
By Daguercoy
They’ve called us from the factory,
they’ve called us from the mill;
They’ve called us from the forest
and the mine.
They’ve turned ush into soldiers,
they’ve put us through our drill,
And we eagerly await the call of
time.
Cheer, boys, cheer for Uncle Sam’s
army;
Cheer, boys, cheer, the emblem of the
free.
Cheer, boys, cheer the boys who cross
the ocean—
Cheer, boys, cheer the cause of Lib
erty.
When you’re sitting by the camp fire,
when you’re chatting by the
stove,
When you’re sizing up the losses and
the gains,
When our limbs are being shattered
and our bodies crushed to pulp,
Remember us and help us through our
pains.
Cheer, boys, cheer, etc.
Then don’t forget your soldiers, then
don’t forget your boys;
Then don’t forget that they’ll be sorely
tried;
And don’t forget the far-off graves that
lie somewhere in France,
And don’t forget the cause for which
they died.
Cheer, boys, cheer, etc.
A sense of civic pride will no doubt
be aroused in the hearts of all Cor
dovans by the knowledge that their
fair city has furnished inspiration for
a poem in its praise.
Cordova
By H. O. E.
Cordova, ah Cordova,
How I miss your friendly ways
As I mush oe’r this vast country
Day by day.
I seem to see you in my visions,
And they dinger till the last,
Those smiles that each one gave me
As they past.
Cordova! How I miss thee!
And my heart is filled with pain—
With the thots that Thou gave me
Never to return again.
With old Friends I will linger,
Consoled unto the last,
That I have seen, and loved thee,
In that golden past.
By the same author is one that tells
in rather lugubrious manner the dis
content of the wanderer.
The Wanderer
By H. O. E.
Friendless ever Friendless,
Wanderinig o’er Land and Sea,
Your days are ever endless,
Content you’ll never be.
(
Of course you gain knoledge
Ordered by experience pen
But you’re shuned by those
That know you Fellow men.
Without a home, a country,
You wander year by year,
Without Dear Ones to Save you
No one to Shed Lovinig Tears.
You are poor in Earthly riches
But in knowledge holod full sway
But you'll wander ever wander
Till the Judgment day.
When your life is over
And your, spirit called home,
Will you be content to stay there
Or will you ever after roam.
Our Soldiers
By Lu Ella St. Clair
We shall meet, but we shall miss
them, .
There will be many a vacant chair,
We shall linger to pay homage
When we breathe our evening
prayer.
When a year ago they gathered,
Joy was in their dear blue eyes;
But a golden cord is severed
And some hopes in ruin lie.
I
At our fireside often will our bosoms
swell
At remembrance of the story
How our brave and noble soldiers
fell—
How they strove to bear our banner
Thru the thickest of the fight,
Uphold our couontry’s honor
In the strength of manhood’s might.
Our Flag
By Lu Elia St. Clair
God bless the dear old flag,
The nation's hope and pride,
And long as there shall beat
A heart, to freedom true and tried,
This flag shall not divide.
The discontent of the patriotic sol
dier who enlisted to fight the boche
and instead was detailed to guard
bridges and docks from the enemy at
borne is voiced in the following from
one of them who is too modest to give
his name:
A Patriot Appeal
By a Regular Soldier
We are doing guard on a railroad tis
Patriot too,
But we’d rather be with our Com
rads fighting for our Red—White
and Blue.
We are willing to stop a bullet and
we make this last appeal
To put all of Uncle Sam’s trained sol
diers upon the battlefield.
It is easy enough for us in Alaska but
we are willing to take one chance j
To die fighting for Our Country in the
noble land of France.
Just think of the peoms that Service
wrote,
Have they forgotten us in Alaska?
Think of the hell and the spell of
Alaska—
Mow wouldn’t that get your goat?
We’re nothing but Regular Soldiers
stationed a.lone- the line.
We’d rather face the “boches” than
the wind at 49,
With Rivers, Mountians and Glaciers
and skies that are sometime blue,
It don’t appeal to a fighting man but
it might appeal to you. ,
We would rather be with Gen. Per
shing over there in no man’s land.
Right along beside our Comrades with
our Springfield in our hand,
For we are Yankee fighters as you
can plainly see,
For we want to get Into this Great
Battle to keep Our Country free.
3o let’s all get together a:id join this
happy throng,
And we will sure win this battle for
we’re five million strong.
We’d like to leave Alaska—to the
western front in Prance,
ro do our bit in the trenches and give
the married men a chance
To leave their wives and families we
know it will, be hard.
So put us young men In the trenches
let the married men do our guard.
We are drilled and well disciplined
and equipped with pack and gun,
And we want to join our allies to help
to whip the Hun.
In the following, while crude, the
germ of true poetry is found in the
expression about the "curtains of
heaven” being “pinned by a star."
Life’s Checkerboard
By Nella Enuj
Some time friend in youor musings re
lating to this old earth
Have you ever wondered and pondered
about my material or spiritual
worth—
Did you believe that i helped some one
along lifes rocky way
Or saddest of all I knew not my part
when the time came to play.
You hoped that I knew the meaning
of pleasure and was not marred
by demon sin—
Well I do but in lifes checkerboard
there is an odd number and I
dont quite fit in.
Would you have me to tell you the
great everlasting secret of sucess
I have found
That claims love wealth friends hap
piness and untold renown
IP i tried anything and went at it
with a will
If i am tired of trying or that i am en
deavorinig still
Am i fickle restless and having no kith
or kin—
Well i only know one answer that 1
don't fit in.
When i arrive at lifes station in the
great somewheres
Should I grow weary of public opion
and say why should i care
NO I will not some where theres
surely a place I can fill
There is no one on earth only God
knows i am trying and always will.
And i am thinking when i hear the
last call and the curtains of
heaven are pinned by a star,
If by the way side I’ll fall or be passed
by the judgment bar
If he shall make up for that what
might have been or say with a
Sad pityiing smile you don’t fit in.
The high cost of living is again the
subject, and the memory of the good
things of other days is regretfully re
called.
By Jim Wilson
We pay for fuel and water and also
for lights and rent
And this with the cost of living is
causing discontent.
We live in a small City you could
scarcely call it large
Unless you figured by the way the
greedy merchants charge.
My wife is verry careful a verry care
ful buyer
But every single blessed thing seems
allways geting higher.
Well do I remember when a ten
dollar bill
Expended for vegetables our cellar
used to fill.
But now a small and weakly child can
very easily tote
All of the truck that thay hand out
for a Ten Dollar note.
Our carvinig knife and heavy fork
has long been layed a way.
And well do I remember when I used
it every day.
No chickens on our plater now no
quail or canvas duck
If we get Sausage once a day we
figure we r in luck.
My little wife with cook book is hunt
ing all the time
Hunting for a plain recipe so she can
save a dime.
We are livinig mighty tough we are
living mighty plain
Our children have grown and left us
thars only just us tow
If we had more mouths to feed I dont
know what we’d do.
Thay say that everything is scarce and
everything is high.
But I hear no explanation and I often
wonder why.
The problems confronting the man
agement of a household in war times
are tragically portrayed in the fol
lowing :
High Cost of Living
Poem. By Mrs. De’Late Cook
Well boys the war is over.
Thank God its came at last.
For im tired of paylnig a dollar per
doz for eggs that seen a past.
When sugar comes our way again
111 use my share you bet.
For it seemes a long time sweet thing
since you and i first met.
The hams they look you in the face
And say Pal have a care.
They tip the scales at five or six big
dollars.
Its a .scare.
Now you talk about youor pork and
beans
Without a slice of bread.
Call It living if you want.
But the layout kills me dead.
I hope high cost of living will slowly
fade away
For it keepes me grindinig at the
weale
As prices are today.
My Wife shes always kicking,
And says shes nearley starved.
When it keeps me broke most all the
time.
Now wouldnt you feel jarred.
For breakfast she eats buckwheat
cakes
Sausage on the side.
A pound of butter melted sofe.
Four eggs boiled hard or fried.
And still she kicks.
Cries Oh my John
Im really growinig ill.
She’ll dowon a whole flank steak, fried
brown,
Then hollar at the bill.
Im all swell up from eating prunes
Of course there rather cheap.
But to down them without sugar.
Its sertainly got me beat.
Now the butcher he can grin and
smile
And thinik it is a joke.
But the way he soaks us for the meat
Its surley got my Goat.
And the price of creamery butter
Runs for all its might.
I simply take a glairing glance
And then a fond Good night.
My wages they are five per day.
Still that is not enough.
For wife wants this and wife wants
that.
And gets them with her bluff.
Christmas time is coming
And wife will want some fun.
Shell blow herself galoor
And land me on the bum.
Gee wis im growing tired being a mar
ried man.
She either greats you with a fond em
brace
Or a sharp ax in her hand.
Well such is life when we are wed.
What joy and Oh what bliss.
Wifes there with the big glad hand
And askinig for a lift.
Now Christmas time you bet ill have
the one grand touching feed.
A turkey big and great.
Ill eat the head ill eat the bones.
And then ill lick my plate.
Now wife she wants to make a pie.
But at the price of lard
Forget the crust
But eat the fruit.
The price wont be so hard.
I have corn meal oat meal barley
Rye flour on the side
Enough to last me for a year.
All sustutjgp ive tried.
But now the war is over
And things will come our way.
ill live a little cheaper
And try and stretch my pay.
Wifes calling me to diinner
So i guess that i will close,
ill bet you cant guess what weve got—
Why Beans Beans Beans
Here Goes.
And here is a tale of human frailty
in prose verse by the same author:
Untrue
By Mrs. De'Late Cook
She gave me her hands to hold She
gave me her lips to kiss. And all
the time my heart grew bold as we
talked of that or this when her boosom
rose and . swell with sighs that
breathed sweetsin* the end of it all
was hard to tell when her husband
wandered in. Alas fair one I’ve
caught you. Come tell me who is
this that you allow to court you and
humble to his kiss. Begone from me
forever ne’re look at me again you’ve
i-i irntlP foUlvfiill nwvrnlan o!da Aic
grased my name, my home is yours
no longer go with your lover therre
for you are false at heart as well as
you are fair. And when that one for
sakes you go seek another one for
remember my fair Lady your day will
surley come. I have been most faith
full1 always kind to you and never for
a moment yet have I been untrue but
now I know your faitlness I’ll play the
self same game and open up my heart
to an .other little dame, she’s round
she’s plump she’s fair and sweet as
she can be. We’ll see who’ll be the
happiest you two or we. No. No.
Your pleads are fruitless I’ve caught
you dead to right so leave my door
for ever yes now this very night.
And when your beauity fails you and
you are broken down an out cast in
the wildernes an out cast on the town
your thoughts may sometime wander
to a husband who was true and faced
the Battles of storm and strife and
did it all for you. So fair thee well
tor ever false heart down to the core
your beauity will soon wither and he’ll
care for you no more.
•As these two words were run to
gether without spacing the compositor
was uncertain as to whether it was
Intended for “sweet sin” or “sweets
In,” and bo allowed it to stand as in
the copy.—Ed.
-»
Fresh shipment of Brookfield sane
age arrived on this host Blum,
O'Neill Co.
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: PROFESSIONAL !
;....•
Dr. Chas. Daggett
Northern Hotel Building
Cordova
DENTISTRY
Hours 9 a. m. to 9 p. m.
Special attention to
Prophylaxis and Pyorrhea
PHONE 200
DR. W. D’ARCY CHACE
Physician and Surgeon
WINDSOR HOTEL
Hours:
1 p. m. to 3 p. m. and 7 p. m. to 8 p. m.
DR. W. H. CHASE
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
»
Office over Cordova Drug Store.
Calls May Be Left at Cordova
Drug Store
Residence, Alaskan Hotel
DONALD C. FAIRMAN
Will accept a limited number of
pupils for piano instruction
STUDIO EMPRESS BLDG.
Phone 29-2
FRANK H. FOSTER
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW
ROOM 1 OSTRANDER BLDG.
F. F. MEDLEY
ATTORNEY AND COUNSELLOR
AT LAW
Room 1, Adams Block
CORDOVA, ALA8KA
DR. W. W. COUNCIL
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
Office and Residence, Cordova
General Hospital (Ostrander
Building).
Phones—Residence, 115; Office, 132
Mrs. T. N. Hubbert
Teacher of Voice and Plano
RESIDENCE
Street Leading to Dock
DIMON NICKOLOFF
Shoe Repairing
RED CABIN OCEAN DOCK
_
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:j:j est prices. Over 2,000 Alaska jjij
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•X *••• |
I NEW NEEDLE ART SHOP
All kinda of Stamped Em
broidery Goods, Fancy Knitting
Yarns. Sweaters and Socks
knit to order.
Lessons Given in
EMBROIDERY, KNITTING
AND CROCHET WORK
IDA DOWALDER
C St., Adams Bldg.
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• Help to keep it so by using a !
i Garbage Can. Plenty o£ them at !
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SHEET METAL WORKS Z
•> Phone 143 Z
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FOR SALE
FOR 8ALE:
Choice business and resi
dence property.
FOR RENT
Furnished and unfurnished
apartments and cottages.
INSURANCE
Fire and marine, life and ac
cident.
BONDS
Fidelity and surety.
CORDOVA ABSTRACT and
REALTY COMPANY
ROOM 1, ADAM8 BUILDING.
FOR SALE
New Boat Hulls
Fish and Clam Power Boat
Hulls now ready at shop on Sec
ond street, next to jail building.
E. D. LACY
Alaska
Barber
Shop
Has been removed to Kenny
Holden’s pool room, where the
best of service will be given.
Two chairs, with Frank Cun
ningham and Ben Sherman,
formerly of Fairbanks, always
on the job.
Auntie Keating’s
Wee
Shop
has outgrown its original
location, and has removed
into the
WILLIAMS BUILDING
Flret Street
with a complete line of
Men’e, Women’s and Chil
dren’s Goode.
Come In and look my
stock over.
Windsor Hotel
L. Wain, Prop.
Where You Get
Comfort and Service
And the Bates Axe Bight
Cordova Alaska