Ghost Towns lyrics

Now they're only ghost towns swaying in the wind Memories of bright and better days When the cities slowly grew from the wagons rolling through, When the school bell woke and tolled and the hurdy-gurdy rolled From a canyon in Wyoming, a gulch in Idaho, Now they're only ghost towns far from the broad highway. Diamond dust and marble, crystal chandeliers, Purple curtained carriages are gone, As the tar and paper shack built beside the railroad track, Just a temporary mode 'til he hit the mother lode, Then he'd holler up the town with his pockets hanging down, Forty Rod and Redeye to greet the miner's dawn. So fleet the work of mortals, back to earth again, Ancient thing will fade like a dream, You and I will come and go, share the joy and feel the woe, Of too brief midsummer days and too many winter ways, And no matter how we try, we can never find the why. Never find the reason, never find the scheme.