Newspaper History presents media sourced from a United States newspaper dating back 108 years.

  • A Joy Ride for Kathleen

    From the Rock Island Argus, June 8, 1914. By Henry Howland.

    I’ll take you home again, Kathleen,
        We’ll have a wild, hair-raising ride;
    I’ve smuggled out the new machine,
        And it shall now be fully tried;
    The breeze shall fiercely fan your cheek,
        The waiting cops we will despise;
    We will ignore the words they speak,
        The dust we make shall fill their eyes;
    Oh, I will take you home, Kathleen;
        I hope that you may feel no pain;
    The car is all wiped nice and clean,
        We’ll have it spattered up again.

    I know you love me, Kathleen, dear,
        Because the car I run is new;
    I’ll speed it on the highest gear,
        And try to give new thrills to you;
    The things that get in front of me
        I’ll smash, and care but little how.
    Hold to your hat and you shall see
        Some mighty pretty scorching now.
    Oh, I will take you home, Kathleen,
        And if we give to others pain,
    We’ll blithely hurry from the scene
        And never drive that way again.