What can I say? I love poems that rhyme and tell a story.
-Sheila Tolley-

The Shooting of Dan McGrew

By: Robert W. Service

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A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.

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When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,

There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.

He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,

Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.

There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;

But we drank to health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.

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There’s men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;

And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;

With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,

As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.

Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he’d do,

And I turned my head — and there watching him was the lady that’s known as Lou.

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His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,

Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.

The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,

So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands — my God! but that man could play.

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Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,

And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;

With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,

A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;

While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North Lights swept in bars? —

Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant. . . hunger and night and the stars.

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And hunger not of the belly kind, that’s banished with bacon and beans,

But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;

For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman’s love —

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true —

(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, — the lady that’s known as Lou.)

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Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;

But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;

That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil’s lie;

That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.

‘Twas the crowning cry of a heart’s despair, and it thrilled you through and through —

“I guess I’ll make it a spread misere”, said Dangerous Dan McGrew.

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The music almost died away … then it burst like a pent-up flood;

And it seemed to say, “Repay, repay,” and my eyes were blind with blood.

The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,

And the lust awoke to kill, to kill … then the music stopped with a crash,

And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,

And “Boys,” says he, “you don’t know me, and none of you care a damn;

But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I’ll bet my poke they’re true,

That one of you is a hound of hell. . .and that one is Dan McGrew.”

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Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark,

And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.

Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,

While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that’s known as Lou.

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These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.

They say that the stranger was crazed with “hooch,” and I’m not denying it’s so.

I’m not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two —

The woman that kissed him and — pinched his poke — was the lady that’s known as Lou.

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I am beholden to the readers of Tolley’s Topics. I have received so many emails of concern since the tornadic winds danced through my county and neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. I was terrified. 

I have often heard people who survive tornadoes speak of it as “sounding like a train.” That was not my experience. I felt as if I were in a war zone. The debris that hit my house sounded like gunshots. My husband watched through the window as trees fell. I was scared and hiding in the hallway as I heard him say “there goes another one.” The siding that was torn from the house was continually slapping against the house as it was blown back and forth by the strong winds.

Joe Biden needs to turn off his ridiculous windmills…..Mother Nature does not need any help.

We lost our electricity and internet service during the storm. Both were down in my area from Thursday evening until Sunday evening.

I am very grateful for Lois Lion, the author of The Sphinx. If for some reason you do not get daily posts from my Distribution List, always check tolleystopics.com.

Lois Lion lives in another county. She has kept Tolley’s Topics going for ten years. She took me through my many surgeries, and even three days down time from a tornado, as of this past week.

If Lois Lion ever leaves me, I will be forced to resort to smoke signals….

AND WE DO NOT WANT THAT!

THIS MEME NEEDS TO BE ON TEE SHIRTS, BILLBOARDS, COFFEE MUGS, BUMPER STICKERS, REPUBLICAN LAPEL PINS, HATS, FLAGS, THE GOODYEAR BLIMP, YARD SIGNS, ETC.
–SHEILA TOLLEY–

With the tagline–”Happiness starts with a smile”– their new ad aims to bring a bit of joy to everyone’s day. Just watch and try to keep a straight face.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1veWbLpGa78

“If you want to know how old a woman is then ask her sister-in-law.” – Edgar Howe

“Old age comes at a bad time.” – San Banducci

“Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.” – Jennifer Yane

“Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it.” – Golda Meir

“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. – Mark Twain

“I’m at that age where my back goes out more than I do.” – Phyllis Diller

“Nice to be here? At my age it’s nice to be anywhere.” – George Burns

“First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down.” – Leo Rosenberg

“You spend 90 percent of your adult life hoping for a long rest and the last 10 percent trying to convince the Lord that you’re actually not that tired.” – Robert Brault

“Old people shouldn’t eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get.” – Robert Orben

“At my age, flowers scare me.” – George Burns

“It’s like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirit.” – Elizabeth Lesser

“The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.” – T.S. Elliot

“At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” – Ann Landers

“When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties, I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I’m labeled senile.” – GB

“The important thing to remember is that I’m probably going to forget.” – Unknown

“We don’t grow older, we grow riper.” – Pablo Picasso

“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” – Andy Rooney

“The older I get, the better I used to be.” – Lee Trevino

“I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam.”- George Carlin

“Everything slows down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips.” – John Wagnerf

“Grandchildren don’t make a man feel old, it’s the knowledge that he’s married to a grandmother that does.” – J. Norman Collie

1910 Ford

Check out all the statistics under the photo.

This has only been 112 years ago…Amazing!!!

Show this to your friends, children and/or grandchildren!

The year is 1910, over one hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the Year 1910:

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The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !

The average US wage in 1910 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,

A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year,

And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

Instead, they attended so-called medical schools,

Many of which were condemned in the press AND by the government as ‘substandard.’

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

There was no such thing as under arm deodorant or tooth paste.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

The five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza

2. Tuberculosis

3. Diarrhea

4. Heart disease

5. Stroke

The American flag had 46 stars.

The population of Las Vegas Nevada was only 30!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !

(yes, people have changed)

I am now going to forward this to someone else without typing it myself.

From there, it will be sent to others all over the WORLD…all in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

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