Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Waco Whorish Invasion of 1952 (Revisited): A Poetic Call to Protect Houston's Virtue

I liked this poem by Carl Victor Little so much, I had to transcribe it. An army of Jezebels marching across Texas to imperil Houston's virtue just tickles my fancy.
To clarify, my fancy isn't actually being tickled by an army of Jezebels. I'm not Charlie Sheen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Take in the sidewalks, slam the shutters
Civic leaders, mobilize!
From Waco’s sin strips and her gutters
Come sinful ladies, every size -
The stout and short, the tall and lean,
They come three hundred strong,
The blondes, brunettes and in-between:
Come ring the warning gong!

They’re fancy ladies from Old Waco,
Who flee the legislative wrath;
Three hundred damsels on the make-
A-treading down the primrose path.


Let‘s Search all landing stratoliners,
Come block the highways east and west;
Let's raid the Pullmans and the diners,
Let's show a little moral zest!
We want no sinful infiltration,
Three hundred gals are on the prowl,
They’re causing civic consternation,
Bringing forth a civic howl.

They're antisocial dames from Waco,
Now put to flight by state kefauvers,
Three hundred dames for goodness sake-O
Ole Satan o’er our city hovers


Up Captain Seber, also Buster!
Alert the city and the count!
All vigilantes let us muster-
Upon these heads let’s put a bounty
Call out Jim West, his Cadillacs,
We’ll have no sinners sinning here,
Halt all invaders in their tracks
For civic righteousness, let’s cheer.

They're fugitives from Baptist Waco
Converging on Houston, TX
Three hundred gals in Satan's shako
Who put much emphasis on sex


Let’s' warn all hotel house detectives,
Yea at the Shamrock and the Rice,
That all of Waco’s moral defectives
Are swooping on us, in a trice.
We want no flotsam and no jetsam,
No gals from Waco’s dens of vice,
Let’s hope Ole Nick comes forth and gets ‘em
Before they reach our Paradise!

Away! Away! Soiled Magdalenes!
You're got us in a civic hassle:
They'll welcome you in New Orleans.

Monday, May 02, 2011

Houston & Other Places in Gorgeous Sanborn Insurance Map Titles

Insurance map titles and the word "gorgeous,"not what one would think.  But feast your typography-appreciating eyes on the design beauty of Sanborn Insurance map title pages.








I've been kind of obsessed with these images since being introduced to them by BibliOdyssey's blog post on them.  A google of Houston and Sanborn lead to Sanborn Maps of Texas (which are the source of the above images) from the UT Library Online website.






Salt Lake City, Utah 1911, originally uploaded by peacay.