The Dear Railroad Pass
The Dear Railroad Pass.
240.8
[No more railroad passes will be
issued after the 1st of January.]
How dear to my heart are the old railroad passes.
As fond recollection presents them to view:
The passes, which iifted me over the passes,
The “trips,” and the “round trips,” the “annuals,” too;
The B. & O. pass and the Union Pa- cific,
The passes I’ve had on the D. & R. G.,
The Santa Fe pass that with thoughts bentific
I gazed upon once, as ’twas handed to me!
Oh, beautiful passes, oh, dear railroad passes
Which noble officials once issued to me!
Those small strips of paper I always will treasure,
Although no conductor may honor them now,
Ah, once they were sources of ex- quisite pleasure.
And still they send happy thrills through me, somehow.
I’ve ridden on passes from ocean to ocean,
I’ve traveled in Puliman and parlor cars free;
Alas, why did Hepburn conceive the wild notion
Of taking my dear railroad passes from me?
Oh, beautiful passes, oh, passes, glorious
The passes that brought so much comfort to me!
They tell me ’tis useless to hope for a minute
That ways may be found for evad- ing the law;
There’s not the least sign of a loop- hole within it,
I drown and may not even clutch at a straw!
Behold me a victim of sad contempla- tion,
A future all dismal and passless I
The joys that accompany free trans- portation
They’ve ruthlessly taken forever from me!
Farewell to the passes, the dear rail- road passes
That never again may bring glad- ness to me!
-S. E. Kiser
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