Ogden Daily Standard | 1916-12-30 | Page 16 | Loss and Damage Told in Poetry

LOSS Al DAMAGE TOLD R POETRY Speaking reminiscently of the large number of loss and damage claims presented to the railroads, express companies and postofflce after the holiday season, -Deputy Sheriff Joseph G. Crompton, who. has had experience in that line of claim agent work, said today: "I'm reminded of an old farmer who was tod lazy to repair his fences and whose lean and lanky hogs wandered upon the railroad track and several of them wore killed. They were rav-orbacks, rav-orbacks, and so poor they could drink buttermilk out of a jug. For each one killed the old fellow put in an excessive exces-sive claim, but he never obtained any damages. In his younger days he considered con-sidered himself something ot a poet, so he decided to try poetry on the claim agent. He forwarded the following: fol-lowing: " 'Old Twenty-nine came down, tho lino A week ago today, My razor-back got on the track, She snuffed his light away. You can't blame me, the hog, you see, Crawled through the cattle-gate, So kindly pen a check for ten, This hog to liquidate.' "The claim agent replied by return mail: " 'Old Twenty-nine came down tne line A week ago, we know, And razor-backs on railroad tracks Are sure to come to woe. My dearest friend, I cannot pen The check for which you pine, So plant the dead, place o'er his head: Here lies a foolish swine.' " Needless to add, Mr. Crompton himself him-self is something of a poet and is suspected of having been the claim agent who replied so aptly to the farmer's far-mer's Byronic effort. j