With blackthorn sticks their foes to hit, And filled to the brim with Irish wit. Their Irish brogue in joke and song Made the children laugh both loud and long.
The last part of the show that day Was sleight of hand, the programs say, But why it failed to work out well The man who tried it couldn’t tell.
A trunk was brought, a solid mass, With iron locks and bound in brass. The Bears were asked to get inside; The trunk was locked and with rope was tied And the man announced that at his command He’d slide a curtain and there would stand The Roosevelt Bears outside and free With the trunk unlocked by any key.
But it didn’t work; the Bears weren’t there, And it gave the man a little scare
To find he couldn’t do the trick, And the trunk was unlocked pretty quick
For fear they’d smother for want of air, But the Bears had gone no one knows where.
The trunk was empty; not as they feared; The Roosevelt Bears had disappeared. The Bears had gone, but no one knew Just where to look or what to do.
Detectives hunted high and low And questioned folks who ought to know, And listened for the slightest sound And hunted rooms beneath the ground, And through the halls walked round and round, But not a trace of the Bears they found.
At supper-time at home that night The boys and girls told of their flight; And the jokes they cracked and tricks they played And the jolliest kind of fun they made. And how they saw them locked and tied So tight and fast that children cried.
Some little girls and wee boys too Wouldn’t go to bed until they knew How TEDDY-B and TEDDY-G Got out of the trunk without a key;
But their papas told them not to mind, That some one the Bears that night would find And the papers sure the following day Would explain in full how they got away.
The Roosevelt Bears spend a day at ATLANTIC CITY
How the Bears got out of the box that day Was never known, the children say; But that afternoon, about half-past four, They engaged fine rooms on the seventh floor,
About half-way up and half-way down, Of the best hotel there was in town; And there they stayed, enjoying a rest
And eating things the very best, And seeing reporters and playing pool And learning things not taught in school.
“_There they stayed enjoying a rest, and eating things the very best._” ]