CUSTER’S DEATH.

Did I hear the news from Custer? 
  Well, I reckon I did, old pard;
It came like a streak of lightnin’,
  And, you bet, it hit me hard. 
I ain’t no hand to blubber,
  And the briny ain’t run for years;
But chalk me down for a lubber,
  If I didn’t shed regular tears.

What for?  Now look you here, Bill,
  You’re a bully boy, that’s true;
As good as e’er wore buckskin,
  Or fought with the boys in blue;
But I’ll bet my bottom dollar
  Ye had no trouble to muster
A tear, or perhaps a hundred,
  At the news of the death of Custer.

He always thought well of you, pard,
  And had it been heaven’s will,
In a few more days you’d met him,
  And he’d welcome his old scout Bill. 
For if ye remember at Hat Creek,
  I met ye with General Carr;
We talked of the brave young Custer,
  And recounted his deeds of war.

But little we knew even then, pard,
  (And that’s just two weeks ago),
How little we dreamed of disaster,
  Or that he had met the foe—­
That the fearless, reckless hero,
  So loved by the whole frontier,
Had died on the field of battle
  In this, our centennial year.

I served with him in the army,
  In the darkest days of the war: 
And I reckon ye know his record,
  For he was our guiding star;
And the boys who gathered round him
  To charge in the early morn,
War just like the brave who perished
  With him on the Little Horn.

And where is the satisfaction,
  And how will the boys get square? 
By giving the reds more rifles? 
  Invite them to take more hair? 
We want no scouts, no trappers,
  Nor men who know the frontier;
Phil, old boy, you’re mistaken,
  We must have the volunteer.

Never mind that two hundred thousand
  But give us a hundred instead;
Send five thousand men towards Reno,
  And soon we won’t leave a red. 
It will save Uncle Sam lots of money,
  In fortress we need not invest,
Jest wollup the devils this summer,
  And the miners will do all the rest.

The Black Hills are filled with miners,
  The Big Horn will soon be as full,
And which will show the most danger
  To Crazy Horse and old Sitting Bull
A band of ten thousand frontier men,
  Or a couple of forts with a few
Of the boys in the East now enlisting—­
  Friend Cody, I leave it with you.

They talk of peace with these demons
  By feeding and clothing them well: 
I’d as soon think an angel from Heaven
  Would reign with contentment in H—­l

And one day the Quakers will answer
  Before the great Judge of us all,
For the death of daring young Custer
  And the boys who round him did fall.

Perhaps I am judging them harshly,
  But I mean what I’m telling ye, pard;
I’m letting them down mighty easy,
  Perhaps they may think it is hard. 
But I tell you the day is approaching—­
  The boys are beginning to muster—­
That day of the great retribution,
  The day of revenge for our Custer.