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[Pencil note on journal page indicates Wednesday Aug. 8, 1883]

THE FUNNY MAN'S BABY.
I.
The funny man went to his desk to write.
He had watched all day, he would write all night
And finish his work, so he trimmed the light.

II.
In the room adjoining his baby lay,
And they said she was slowly passing away
And would die ere the light of another day.

III.
So he wrote, with his heart in the other room.
And thought of the babe going out in the gloom
To the shadowy land beyond the tomb.

IV.
It was hard to write with death so nigh,
But he ground out jokes as the hours went by,
And closed each page with a grief-born sigh.

V.
It was hard to write, but the world must laugh,
So he penned the rhyme and the paragraph,
and even a humorous epitaph!

VI.
His pen flew fast and the hours went on
Till the night of toil was almost gone,
And the east showed the first faint streaks of dawn.

VII.
Then he dropped his pen and raised his head;
"Now the column is finished," the funny main said,
And the nurse, coming in, said, "The baby is dead."

―Boston Courier.
[Pencil note on journal page indicates Wednesday Aug. 8, 1883]

THE FUNNY MAN'S BABY.
I.
The funny man went to his desk to write.
He had watched all day, he would write all night
And finish his work, so he trimmed the light.

II.
In the room ajdoining his baby lay,
And they said she was slowly passing away
And woujlld die ere the light of another day.

III.
So he wrote, with his heart in the other room.
And thought of the babe ging out in the gloom
To the shadowy land beyond the tomb.

IV.
It was hard towrite withdeath so nighm
But he ground out jokes as the hours went by,
And closed each page with a grief-born sigh.

V.
It was hard to write, but the world must laugh,
So he penned the rhyme and the paragraph,
and even a humorous epitaph!

VI.
His pen flew fast and the hours went on
Till thenight of toil was almost gone,
And the east showed the first faint streaks of dawn.

VII.
Then he dropped hispen and raised his head;
"Now the column is finished," the funny main said,
And the nurse, coming in, said, "The baby is dead."

―Boston Courier.