The Old
Blue Shirt
By an old Blue
Shirter
Harry L. Burgess, S.W.V. & V.F.W.
Corporal Co. "F" 1st Ills.
Volunteer Infantry
Dedicated
to the comrades of the Illinois Branch,
Society of the Army of Santiago de Cuba,
Forty-Second Annual Reunion, April 27,
1940
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The principal virtue of the old blue
shirt
Was not so much in its hiding the dirt;
The principal thing for its use it
seemed,
T'was a shirt that never need to be
cleaned.
All it needed was the sun's bright rays
To rejuvenate it in the various ways;
T'was disinfected by the sunny spell;
And DISINSECTED by those means as well.
Another virtue the old blue shirt had
And one we found was not half bad,
T'was made without regard to size,
This was something we learned to prize.
Within the limits of its ample folds
What a lot of loot those shirts would
hold,
With hidden stuff your chest would swell,
Alas, what tales those shirts could tell.
The old blue shirt has played its part,
It has covered many a sad aching heart;
And beneath its ample folds of dark blue,
Has covered many an empty stomach too.
The boys who hiked ‘neath the old
blue shirt
Were not afraid of death, cooties, nor
dirt
They did their part in the WAR WITH SPAIN
Find better soldiers? You'll search in
vain.
Their term of service is now nearly done,
They are falling out, Comrades, one by
one.
It would be a crime should our Nation
desert
The boys of '98 who wore THE OLD BLUE
SHIRT.
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Ray Morris,
American Legion Post #365
Senior Vice Commander talking of
patriotism.
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