A Long, Lank Countryman

He was a long, lank countryman,
  And he stoppeth one of two.
“I'm not acquaint in these yeere parts,
  An' I'm a lookin' fur Dan'l Drew.”

“I'm a stranger in the vineyard,
  An' my callin' I pursoo
At the institoot at Madison,
  That was built by Dan'l Drew.”

“I'm a stranger in the vineyard,
  An' my 'arthly wants are few;
But I want sum p'ints on them yer sheares
  An' I'm a lookin' fur Dan'l Drew.”

Again I saw that laborer,
  Corner of Wall and New;
lie was looking for a ferry boat,
  And not for Daniel Drew.

Upon his back he bore a sack,
  Inscribed “Preferred Q. U.”
Some Canton scrip was in his grip,
  A little Wabash, too.

At the ferry gate I saw him late,
  With his white hat askew,
Paying his fare with a registered share
  Of that “Preferred Q. U.”

And these words came back from the “Hackensack”
  “Ef yew want ter gamble a few,
Jest git in yer paw at a game o' draw,
  But don't take a 'and with Drew.”

This untitled verse appeared in Henry Clews' 1887 book Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street. Clews says it was “published in the New York Tribune, about fifteen years ago.”

A Long, Lank Countryman, Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street by Henry Clews, 1887, page 120.
(See also Independent attitude by Chetan Parikh, March 2, 2007..)

It also appears in Bouck White's spurious autobiography of Drew published in 1910.

A Long, Lank Countryman, The Book of Daniel Drew, pages 360-361.