His anxious eyes and weary feet
Hunted the houses in each street;
And like a New Year's fish-horn rung
The accents of that unknown tongue
"Furtheruptown!"
In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Beyond, the spectral street-lamp shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
"Furtheruptown!"
"Try not that street," the old man said;
"A tenement-house is just ahead—
A public school is by its side";
Then loud that clarion voice replied,
"Furtheruptown!"
"Oh, stay," the broker said, "and rest;
This brown-stone house will suit you best."
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
Sadly he said, "The rent's too high";
"Furtheruptown!"
"Beware of the livery-stable's smell,
Beware the engine-house as well!"
This was the agent's last good night—
A voice replied, far out of sight,
"Furtheruptown!"
At break of day, as heavenward
The Central Park policeman stared,
Watching the gathering sunbeams there,
A voice rang through the startled air,
"Furtheruptown!"
By following up the unusual sound,
A dying traveler they found,
Still grasping his no longer nice
Umbrella, with the strange device,
"Furtheruptown!"
There, in the Reservoir, they say,
"Drownded" but beautiful he lay,
While somewhere over Bloomingdale
A voice fell like a rocket's tail,
"Furtheruptown!"
1877. New York Evening Post.