<h2>BANTY TIM</h2>
<h3>REMARKS OF SERGEANT TILMON JOY TO THE WHITE MAN'S COMMITTEE OF SPUNKY POINT, ILLINOIS</h3>
<h3>BY JOHN HAY</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">I reckon I git your drift, gents,—<br/></span>
<span class="i2">You 'low the boy sha'n't stay;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">This is a white man's country;<br/></span>
<span class="i2">You're Dimocrats, you say;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And whereas, and seein', and wherefore,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">The times bein' all out o' j'int,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The nigger has got to mosey<br/></span>
<span class="i2">From the limits o' Spunky P'int!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Le's reason the thing a minute:<br/></span>
<span class="i2">I'm an old-fashioned Dimocrat too,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Though I laid my politics out o' the way<br/></span>
<span class="i2">For to keep till the war was through.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">But I come back here, allowin'<br/></span>
<span class="i2">To vote as I used to do,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Though it gravels me like the devil to train<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Along o' sich fools as you.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Now dog my cats ef I kin see,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">In all the light of the day,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">What you've got to do with the question<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Ef Tim shill go or stay.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And furder than that I give notice,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Ef one of you tetches the boy,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">He kin check his trunks to a warmer clime<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Than he'll find in Illanoy.</span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1174" id="Page_1174"></SPAN></span><br/></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Why, blame your hearts, jest hear me!<br/></span>
<span class="i2">You know that ungodly day<br/></span>
<span class="i0">When our left struck Vicksburg Heights, how ripped<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And torn and tattered we lay.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">When the rest retreated I stayed behind,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Fur reasons sufficient <i>to</i> me,—<br/></span>
<span class="i0">With a rib caved in, and a leg on a strike,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">I sprawled on that cursed glacee.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Lord! how the hot sun went for us,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And br'iled and blistered and burned!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">How the Rebel bullets whizzed round us<br/></span>
<span class="i2">When a cuss in his death-grip turned!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Till along toward dusk I seen a thing<br/></span>
<span class="i2">I couldn't believe for a spell:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">That nigger—that Tim—was a crawlin' to me<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Through that fire-proof, gilt-edged hell!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">The Rebels seen him as quick as me,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And the bullets buzzed like bees;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">But he jumped for me, and shouldered me,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Though a shot brought him once to his knees;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">But he staggered up, and packed me off,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">With a dozen stumbles and falls,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Till safe in our lines he drapped us both,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">His black hide riddled with balls.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">So, my gentle gazelles, thar's my answer,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And here stays Banty Tim:<br/></span>
<span class="i0">He trumped Death's ace for me that day,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And I'm not goin' back on him!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">You may rezoloot till the cows come home,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">But ef one of you tetches the boy,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">He'll wrastle his hash to-night in hell,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Or my name's not Tilmon Joy!<br/></span>
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1175" id="Page_1175"></SPAN></span></div>
</div>
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