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Brick-dust: A Remedy for the Blues, and a Something for People to Talk About
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
290 pages, Hardcover
First published June 24, 1871
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February 20, 2026
Brick-Dust (1871)
CAT LYRICS.
CONFOUND the yowling cats!
Why don't they hunt for rats?
Or keep as still as bats
Or moles, out on the flats?
At dead of night
They yowl and fight—
Till one would think they were a match
For the father of cats- old scratch.
They steal all our cream!
They burst on our dream,
As with spitter and sputter
With yowl and with mutter
As out by the gate
One stops with his mate
To give us the devil - a cat serenade !
To waken us up when in bed we are laid.
What are they fit for, the noisy things?
How we wish they were drown-ded
Or into jell pounded
Or all of them turned into new fiddle-strings!
For the mice and the rats,
And some neighbor's brats
And the bricks in our hats
And the child scaring bats
Are not half the bother of night-yowling cats!
As with sca-t-t-tr-r and
y-e-ow!
They cause us to vow
If we get out of bed
Each cat will be dead
That has mounted the shed
And forced us to swear
At all the cats there!
But when the lamp it is lit and we start with a gun
We can't catch the devils, no matter if we run!
You may sing little ditties
To cats and their kitties,
May possibly be able with cats to agree:
But we prefer rats
To the best of your cats,
Be it a pet cat - a he or a she,
Their holes you can fill
The rats you can kill-
Bury all in a heap
Then quietly sleep,
But the devil's companions in numerous numbers
Have so often and oft woke us from our slumbers,
That we prefer brats,
Muskeeters or rats,
To your treacherous, yowling, sputtering cats,
That ought to be plunged in hot-water vats!
,,.... ...,,,,, .... ,,,, .... ,,... ,,.. ,.,,
CAT LYRICS.
CONFOUND the yowling cats!
Why don't they hunt for rats?
Or keep as still as bats
Or moles, out on the flats?
At dead of night
They yowl and fight—
Till one would think they were a match
For the father of cats- old scratch.
They steal all our cream!
They burst on our dream,
As with spitter and sputter
With yowl and with mutter
As out by the gate
One stops with his mate
To give us the devil - a cat serenade !
To waken us up when in bed we are laid.
What are they fit for, the noisy things?
How we wish they were drown-ded
Or into jell pounded
Or all of them turned into new fiddle-strings!
For the mice and the rats,
And some neighbor's brats
And the bricks in our hats
And the child scaring bats
Are not half the bother of night-yowling cats!
As with sca-t-t-tr-r and
y-e-ow!
They cause us to vow
If we get out of bed
Each cat will be dead
That has mounted the shed
And forced us to swear
At all the cats there!
But when the lamp it is lit and we start with a gun
We can't catch the devils, no matter if we run!
You may sing little ditties
To cats and their kitties,
May possibly be able with cats to agree:
But we prefer rats
To the best of your cats,
Be it a pet cat - a he or a she,
Their holes you can fill
The rats you can kill-
Bury all in a heap
Then quietly sleep,
But the devil's companions in numerous numbers
Have so often and oft woke us from our slumbers,
That we prefer brats,
Muskeeters or rats,
To your treacherous, yowling, sputtering cats,
That ought to be plunged in hot-water vats!
,,.... ...,,,,, .... ,,,, .... ,,... ,,.. ,.,,
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