Chapter 119
silver jack collected by john lomax read for livervox dot org by phil schempf i was on the drive in eighty working under silver jack which the same is now in jackson and ain't soon expected back and there was a fellow amongst us by the name of robert wait kind of cute and smart and tonguey guess he was a graduate he could talk on any subject from the bible down to hoyle and his words flowed out so easy just as smooth and slick as oil he was what they call a skeptic and he loved to sit and weave highfalutin words together tellin what he didn't believe one day we were all sittin round to smoke a niggerhead tobacco and hearing bob expound hell he said was all a humbug and he made it plain as day that the bible was a fable and we loud it looked that way miracles and such-like were too rank for him to stand and as for him they called the savior he was just a common man you're a liar someone shouted and you gotta take it back then everybody started twas the words of silver jack and he cracked his fists together and he stacked his duds and cried
twas in that dar religion that my mother lived and died and though i haven't always used the lord exactly right yet when i hear a chump abuse him he's gotta eat his words or fight Now, this Bob, he weren't no coward, and he answered bold and free, Stack your duds and cut your capers, for there ain't no flies on me. And they fit for forty minutes, and the crowd would whoop and cheer when Jack spit up a tooth or two, or when Bobby lost an ear.
But at last Jack got him under, and he slugged him once or twice, and straightway Bob admitted the divinity of Christ. But Jack kept reasoning with him, till the poor cuss gave a yell, and loud he'd been mistaken in his views concerning hell. Then the fierce encounter ended, and they ris up from the ground, and someone brought a bottle out and kindly passed it round. And we drank to Bob's religion
in a cheerful sort of way. But the spread of infidelity was checked in camp that day. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
