AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
| And we shall spread. No pow'r can stop |
| The movement that is under way |
| To land old Pittsburgh right on top. |
| No pow'r on earth can e'er gainsay |
| Our fitness thus to rise and shine |
| And 'mid the first hang out our sign. |
| For we have riches, we have force, |
| And brains and enterprise and grit. |
| And once there's naught to block our course |
| We'll surely make a bigger hit |
| Than here or on a foreign shore |
| A town has ever made before. |
| Your hand, Sam. Pennypacker, you |
| Have been to us a friend in need. |
| Our plans seemed destined to fall through |
| When to the front you came to plead |
| Our cause. The legislature heard, |
| And to its inmost heart was stirr'd. |
| Hence comes that great, that priceless boon. |
| The famous Greater Pittsburgh bill, |
| Which means our exaltation soon. |
| Which means that we shall soon fulfil |
| Our destiny in royal style, |
| And be the topmost of the pile. |
| Sing out, then, ye brazen bands! |
| Ye drums and trumpets rend the air! |
| The message send throughout all lands |
| That Greater Pittsburgh is all there. |
| And will be yet—so please the fates— |
| King bee in these United States. |
| Whoop! |
Even John H. Fow, a member of the house, could not resist the impulse to write some verse. Fow was a character quite unusual. The son of a German butcher, born in Kensington, and much in the rough, he read law. Because of his huge voice he held the soubriquet of “Fog Horn” Fow.
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