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Oklahoma Sunshine
Oklahoma Sunshine
Oklahoma Sunshine
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Oklahoma Sunshine

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    Oklahoma Sunshine - Freeman E. (Freeman Edwin) Miller

    The Project Gutenberg eBook, Oklahoma Sunshine, by Freeman E. (Freeman Edwin) Miller

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: Oklahoma Sunshine

    Author: Freeman E. (Freeman Edwin) Miller

    Release Date: May 6, 2009 [eBook #28706]

    Language: English

    Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

    ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OKLAHOMA SUNSHINE***

    E-text prepared by David Starner, Carla Foust, Suzanne Lybarger,

    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

    (http://www.pgdp.net)

    Transcriber's note

    Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Printer's errors have been corrected, and the changes are indicated with a mouse-hover

    and listed at the end of this book. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been retained.


    Oklahoma

    Sunshine.

    By Freeman E. Miller,

    Author of Oklahoma and other Poems,

    "Songs from the South-West

    Country," etc.

    Stillwater, Oklahoma.

    The Advance Printing Company.

    1905.


    Copyright, 1905,

    By

    Freeman E. Miller.

    All Rights Reserved.


    The Gospel of Sunshine is the one Supreme Evangel, the Religion of Love is Mankind's most Universal Creed. They hold in their divine Baptisms the Winning of the Heart to Happiness, the Wooing of the Soul to Heaven.

    The Author.


    Beginning with June 9, 1904, there was a column of verse and prose published in The Stillwater Advance under the caption Oklahoma Sunshine. These were written in the moments of a busy life, amid the crowding of sterner things, and many of them found a wide circulation in the fugitive publications of the day. So many persons have offered expressions of being pleased and helped by them that they are here presented in a more permanent form. The following comprise the year from June, 1904, to June, 1905.


    CONTENTS.

    VERSES.

    PROSE.


    What Think Ye, Masters, of These Things?

    (A Poem read on Oklahoma Day, September 6, 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.)

    O, ye who frame the sovereign law,

    And heal the hurts of ocean isles

    Till hid are savage tooth and claw

    And Peace above the battle smiles,—

    If Justice reigns and Mercy clings,

    What think ye, Masters, of these things?

    The Father of the Waters greets

    Imperial sisters proud and great,

    And nation mighty nation meets

    At festal boards of lordly state:

    But one—one only,—maketh moan:

    Denied the Star, she weeps alone!

    The cycles fly on eagled wings:

    A hundred years have run their quest

    Since he who bought and sold with kings

    An empire added to the West:

    And all his regions rulers are

    Save her alone who mourns the Star.

    The wildness in a moment died;

    A garden bloomed and fruited full

    Across the plains and valleys wide

    At touch of hands invincible;

    But mute she stands where deserts were:

    The banner holds no Star for her!

    The race heaps high its conquered spoil;

    The braggart heirs of all men do

    Assemble where the Triumphs toil

    In marshaled columns for review;

    And she, the Starless, at your call

    Brings trophies that surpass them all!

    Are not her laurels rich and rare?

    Her apt attainments great with grace?

    You crown her here and everywhere

    Save where she pleads for power and place;

    The world amazed her praises rings:

    What think ye, Masters, of these things?

    She wonders wrought with wondrous hands:

    Her cities crowd the teeming plains,

    And church and school exalt the lands

    With all of mankind's greater gains;—

    The last of all the waste, she brings

    The triumphs of her million kings!

    A million white and black and red

    Whose treble toils misunderstood

    Build happy homes and fondly wed

    The desert place with joyous good,

    And at your feet, uncrowned, unblest

    Kneel for the knighthood of their quest!

    Thralled in her chains, this fairest one

    Of all the realms that greatly found

    Rich largess on the barrens dun

    Pleads from her fetters, vassal-bound;

    And still the Star before her swings:

    What think ye, Masters, of these things?


    Oklahoma Sunshine


    Dreams.

    I.

    Day-dreams and play-dreams! From the rosy morn

    Till the ashy eventide and the stars new-born,

    Ever bringing life and heart aweary with their load

    Promises of hope and cheer while tramping down the road.

    II.

    Night dreams and bright dreams! In the house of sleep

    With their happy faces full and their gazes deep,

    World on world so beautiful there they brightly bring,

    Till the heart is happy in the songs they sing.

    III.

    Day-dreams and Night-dreams,—all the dreams you will,—

    Beckon up the rocky slope and summon o'er the hill,—

    Summon us to do and dare all the deeds of yore

    Till the battle ceases, and we strive no more!


    My Philosophy.

    I've made up my mind

    In spite of the cranks,

    'Tis a pretty good world

    And we ought to give thanks;

    And whether it came

    From the God or the grime,

    The fellow that runs it

    Don't lose any time.

    I've made up my mind

    In spite of the tears.

    That the world clambers up

    With the roll of the years;

    And whether it gropes

    Or is led on and on,

    It will come by and by

    To the meadows of dawn.

    In spite of the sin

    And the folly around,

    'Tis a much better place

    Than the fore-fathers found;

    And in spite of the fools

    And the devils that grieve

    I'm sure in no hurry

    To pull up and leave.

    So shut up your mouth

    And don't grumble nor croak;

    Go put your poor head

    And your poor heart in soak;

    Lay all of your sorrows

    And sins on the shelf,

    For the world is all right

    If you're all right yourself!


    Caught on the Fly.

    If the girl with a white muslin dress and a picture hat has any troubles in this world she has a wonderful skill in hiding her real feelings.

    Somehow, those men who are all the time telling how well money talks, never get well enough acquainted with it to speak with authority.

    De worst objection to de wortersmillion in Oklahomy, said a Mississippi black man, is de fact dat it gits ripe too late fer de wheat harvest an' too yarly fer de cotton-pickin.

    The average man grieves more when he runs out of chewing tobacco and the nearest neighbor who uses the filthy weed is three miles away, than he does when the mortgage takes the farm. Upon what little things doth happiness depend!


    A Busy Family.

    Mam's at a function where you hold your breath;

    Liz has got a feller, an' she's talkin' him to death;

    Andy has the measles, Susie's nussin' Bill,

    Pap is out fer office an' he's runnin' fit to kill;

    Pont an' me are fishin', all the signs are right,

    Fer the crick is up a-boomin' an' the big fish bite!


    The Kingbolt Philosopher.

    Ive heerd tell, said Uncle Ezra Mudge, "thet every dog has his day. But I'm jest as sartin thet he don't know he's a havin' of it when he has it.

    Now, thar was Bill Smith. Bill was a high-up chap, made money, had a rubber-tired buggy, four girls, and chawed terbacker thet cost a dollar a pound. But he never knowed he was a havin' of his day ontell he went busted on the Board of Trade. But now Bill knows it, and has knowed it ever sence he went busted.


    Don't Grumble.

    What's the use to grumble, what's the use to fret,

    'Cause the cotton's weedy and the days go wet?

    'Tis the Lord that sorts the weather and the sun and rain to you,

    And you needn't kick and holler 'cause he don't explain to you!

    When it rains, don't get to mopin!

    There's more sunny skies than clouds,

    And if sorrows drop in singly, why, the pleasures come in crowds;

    Black day or bright day, don't you fume and fret,

    When the cotton's weedy and the days go wet!


    A Troublesome Set.

    Dese hyar white folks am a troublesome set, said a Guthrie coon. "We hab a great majority ob de

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