Wichita Eagle (June 20, 1925), referred to as "the Lure":

On a very fine day in the month of May,
A burly bum came hiking.
He stretched out free ‘neath a big green tree
Which was just to his liking.

On that vera me day n the month of May
A farmer boy come piking.
Says the bum to the son, “If you’ll only come,
I’ll show you things to your liking.

I’ll show you the bees, the cigarette trees,
And the soda water fountains;
The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
And the big Rock Candy Mountains.

On the Gum-drop Heights they give away kites
And marbles made of crystal.
You can join the band of Dead Shot Dan
And wear a sword and pistol.

So he sang this song and the kid went along;
For six months they did travel.
Then the kid came bac on the very same track,
This tale he did unravel.

I saw no bees, no cigarette trees,
No soda water fountains;
No lemonade springs where the bluebird sings,
No big Rock Candy Mountains.

No Gum-drop Heights where they give away kites,
No marbles made of crystal;
And there’s no such man as Dead Shot Dan,
And I wore no sword and pistol.

He put me on the stem, and made me beg,
He said he was my jocker.
If I didn’t give him pie he blacked my eye,
And called me an apple-knocker.

So I’ve come back home no more to roam,
I’ll save my junkerino.
You can bet your lid the four track kid
Is nobody’s chumperino.

"on the stem" = on the street (to beg)
"jocker" = tramp "owner" of boy
"apple-knocker" = ignorant rustic
"junk" = money
"-erino" (nonsense suffix)


Quad-City Times (Davenport, Ia.) (March 8, 1925), p. 4, no title, and clearly fragmentary:

                  CELL-HOUSE SONNETS

Near the lemonade spring
Where the blubeirds sing
In the big, rock-candy mountain.
There are birds, and bees, and cigarette trees,
In the big, rock-candy mountain.
A bo went strolling by
And I asked him was he dry,
Then you oughta heard the Hoosier holler,
“To hell with you, and your lemonade too,
In the big, rock-candy mountain.

"Hoosier" = usually a native of Indiana, but among hobos an ignorant rustic.

"It is believed that the fantastic verse about the big, rock-candy mountain, written on the wall of one of the cell [sic] was penciled there by a wanderer moved to strange thoughts while under the influence of a drug. It is safe to assume that a 'snowbird' or a 'hophead' in a moment of delusion and ecstacy [sic] caused by a drug habit might have composed this verse."