) 526 
 
 2 
 
 M355 
 Copy 1 
 
 Politics Adjourned 
 
 ^* Since first this subject for heroic song 
 
 Pleased 
 
 me. 
 
POLITICS ADJOURNED 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD D. WARE 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MILTON 
 
 -$- 
 
 Amherst Publishing Company 
 
 amherst, n. h. 
 
 1920 
 
Copyright 1920 
 
 by 
 
 R. D. Ware 
 
 g)CU60l639 
 
 NOV 12 1920 
 
 
"Divided empire with Heaven's king I hold 
 By thee, and more that half perhaps will reign; 
 As man ere long, and this new World, shall know. 
 
 "Thy hope was to have reached 
 
 The height of thy aspiring unopposed." 
 
 "Among those friendly Powers who him received 
 With joy and acclamations loud." 
 
THE OCTOPUS 
 
 "What seemed his head 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on." 
 
 Deep in a cavernous recess 
 
 Within the coral columnate, 
 
 White as the palace of Democracy 
 
 Or tomb of Mogul queen, 
 
 In watchful waiting lurked 
 
 The Octopus. 
 
 No wider vision had the cold dead eyes 
 
 Than that of Self 
 
 And to itself to clutch in strangling tentacles 
 
 All that might yield of power and strength 
 
 Devoured and absorbed 
 
 Into itself. 
 
 Such was the fate of such as came too near 
 
 In trust and confidence. 
 
 When came an enemy 
 
 Out from the cavern swept a tide 
 
 Of fetid ink 
 
 And blinded him. 
 
 And when it cleared away 
 
 Still glowed the cold dead eyes 
 
 Within the darkened solitude where lurked 
 
 The Octopus. 
 
THE STAMPEDERS 
 
 "To graze the herb all leaving 
 Devoured each other; nor stood much in awe of man." 
 
 Now is the sixth long year 
 
 Since first the hungry kine 
 
 From out Potomac came 
 
 To graze upon the fatness 
 
 Of the Promised Land. 
 
 All hungers drive to leadership, 
 
 Of kine, or swine, 
 
 Or men, 
 
 And so it was there came 
 
 First splashing to the shore 
 
 A cross-bred Galloway 
 
 And locoed western steer 
 
 Nigh neck and neck 
 
 But Galloway as Leader of the Herd, 
 
 A Texan dogie making place for him. 
 
 Close at their heels 
 
 A band of Holsteins plunged 
 
 With loud Teutonic bellowings 
 
 At sight of fields to devastate and gorge. 
 
 Then with an interval 
 
 Between this leadership and them 
 
 Came stock of registry, 
 
 Of grade, 
 
 Ungraded, 
 
 And stray mavericks 
 
 Self-branded with the mystic 
 
 "D" 
 
 To give them brotherhood 
 
 And pasturage. 
 
 But all alike 
 
 In famined hungriness. 
 
 Come to the fields 
 
 They fed. 
 
 And as they made the fatness of thern 
 
 Theirs 
 
 It stuck on the thin ribs 
 
 Turned sleek 
 
And swelled them. 
 
 Till they saw themselves 
 
 Such kine as never were. 
 
 The Locoed One 
 
 Swelled fat too visibly 
 
 With meat and pride 
 
 Filling the eyes of Galloway and Texan 
 
 Far too full of his resplendency, 
 
 And so they horned him 
 
 Outcast 
 
 From the herd 
 
 To starve again. 
 
 This did he not, 
 
 But ranging wide 
 
 Crops close, 
 
 Roaring like caponned sucking dove 
 
 Of War 
 
 And waxes blubberous. 
 
 Then came the howls of wolves 
 
 In neighbor fields. 
 
 "Feed on," the Holsteins lowed. 
 
 "We are not here 
 
 In perpetuity." 
 
 And back into the lush the muzzles went. 
 
 Intent on further fattening. 
 
 Then howled the wolves again 
 
 And up, wild-eyed, the heads 
 
 Through all the herd. 
 
 "Feed on," the Holsteins echoed once agam. 
 
 "They are good wolves. We knew them 
 
 In the Fatherland." 
 
 To which the Galloway and Texan 
 
 Gave their nod 
 
 While Jerseys, Guernseys, and the sturdy Herefords 
 
 Shook their horned heads 
 
 And pawed the ground. 
 
 Once more the wolves ; 
 
 Once more the Holsteins echoed them ; 
 
 "They are three thousand miles away — " 
 
 But even as they spoke 
 
 One wandered from the herd 
 
 Lurched up to it 
 
And died, 
 
 Hot entrails hanging from the savage gash 
 
 That disemboweled it. 
 
 Then panic-stricken went the herd 
 
 And milled, 
 
 Running in circles 
 
 First this way, then that. 
 
 Until at length 
 
 The Galloway and Texan 
 
 Found their place of leadership 
 
 Behind the hindermost. 
 
 Then did the Herefords first make a stand, 
 
 The Jerseys and the Guernseys at their sides. 
 
 And to the Galloway — 
 
 "Now take you place as Head of Herd 
 
 In front. 
 
 We stand behind you." 
 
 "Nay>" the Holsteins voiced, 
 
 "But watch and wait. 
 
 And waiting 
 
 Feed again." 
 
 And at the Texan's silent nod 
 
 In seconding of this 
 
 His own perturbed and half dazed purposing 
 
 He stumbled to the front a pace or so 
 
 To watch 
 
 With eyes all visionless 
 
 And wait 
 
 On knocking knees. 
 
 This did not serve the purpose 
 
 Of the Channel Islanders 
 
 And Herefords. 
 
 "Out! out in front! 
 
 Prepare and marshal us !" 
 
 And goring back the Holsteir..' 
 
 As they blocked the path 
 
 Thrust out the Galloway, 
 
 Lank Texan by his side. 
 
 Into the open 
 
 That the world might see 
 
 The herd had leadership, 
 
 And then, with figurehead set up. 
 
 lo 
 
Turned to 
 
 And marshalled for themselves 
 
 The serried phalanx 
 
 Firm against the ravishers. 
 
 Nor did this serve the purpose 
 
 Of the Channel Islanders and Herefords 
 
 For long. 
 
 Though he who stands and waits 
 
 May serve 
 
 At times 
 
 He who waits watchfully 
 
 Proclaims he seeks 
 
 To serve no other purpose than his own. 
 
 That they well knew 
 
 And this beside, 
 
 That every marshalled phalanx is an incubus 
 
 Upon the land that feeds it and itself 
 
 Unless it moves ahead. 
 
 The northern herd with clashing horns 
 
 Went forth, an avalanche 
 
 To serve the mother herd from whence it sprung 
 
 More wanderers came in 
 
 Hamstrung and slashed, 
 
 Bringing the blood smell nearer to the nose, 
 
 And on the wind 
 
 The growing reek of it 
 
 And louder howls 
 
 And groans and strangled cries. 
 
 "Now lead us forth ! 
 
 It may not be 
 
 That we, the fattest and most favored kine 
 
 In all the world. 
 
 Shall stand apart 
 
 And watch the ravishment 
 
 Of all our mother herds. 
 
 We may not seek to still such cries 
 
 With full-mouthed bellowings. 
 
 So lead us with our hoofs and horns 
 
 Against the wolves-" 
 
 "I needs must have a body guard." 
 
 "Then choose." 
 
 And lo, 
 
 II 
 
The Holsteins were the chosen ones 
 
 To make the pace 
 
 In the adventuring. 
 
 And so the pace was slow 
 
 That still might be the given opportunity 
 
 Of bawling down the howling of the wolves, 
 
 To sit in bovine judgment on the world. 
 
 Nor did this serve the purpose 
 
 Of the Channel Islanders and Herefords, 
 
 And thrusting to one side, contemptuous, 
 
 The Galloway and Texan 
 
 And the Holsteiners, 
 
 Swept on 
 
 And left them in the rear, 
 
 But not ashamed. 
 
 And joined the mother herds 
 
 And those their milk had reared 
 
 Against the wolves. 
 
 Once joined they charged, 
 
 Goring and tossing, trampling under hoof 
 
 Until the horde was shattered into flight. 
 
 Still do the mother herds 
 
 And those reared on their milk 
 
 Pursue, 
 
 And with them at the front 
 
 The fattest and most favored kine 
 
 In all the world. 
 
 Less fat 
 
 In body and in mind 
 
 Than when the charge began. 
 
 And when the work is done 
 
 And they come back again 
 
 And find the Galloway 
 
 Distended with the pride and power 
 
 Of their deeds 
 
 To such a size 
 
 No frog would ever think 
 
 To swell to, — 
 
 The Texan still insatiate. 
 
 The Holsteins sleek and smug, 
 
 These things will serve no purpose 
 
 Of the Channel Islanders and Herefords. 
 
 12 
 
It well might seem there'd be 
 
 Another Leader of the Herd 
 
 Less fat with power and pride; 
 
 No Texan, 
 
 And that the Holsteiners would join 
 
 The Locoed One, 
 
 Though by presumption 
 
 Wax less blubberous. 
 
 13 
 
THE WHEEL 
 
 "Nine Days They Fell." 
 
 A people willed that it be free 
 
 Of human rule 
 
 By regal right divine 
 
 And built itself an engine 
 
 For its government. 
 
 No blueprint plan had they who fashioned it 
 
 As in these motor-driven days, 
 
 But standing at the forge 
 
 The engineers 
 
 Hand wrought the parts as they evolved 
 
 From stress and compromise 
 
 And then assembled them 
 
 Till stood their handiwork 
 
 Before the world. 
 
 Power they sought, 
 
 And mindful of the energy 
 
 Of vapors of high temperature 
 
 Suppressed. 
 
 Exampled by the clattering lid 
 
 Of tea kettle, 
 
 Built they two chambers, 
 
 Domed, cylindrical. 
 
 Wherein, 
 
 The while the people stoked below 
 
 With taxes and excise 
 
 The heated airs and gasses 'gendered there 
 
 Commingled each with each 
 
 Should rise 
 
 Translated into Law. 
 
 Then, lest they rise too soon 
 
 And too ungovernable 
 
 As sometimes blew the kettle's lid, 
 
 A group of weights was set with nicety 
 
 As safety valve. 
 
 Assuring Law instead of turbulence. 
 
 With power established thus 
 
 Then to distribute it. 
 
 For this 
 
 14 
 
A driving wheel was wrought 
 
 To take the power needful to the ends of Law 
 
 And pass it on 
 
 To its machinery. 
 
 At first 
 
 The engine groaned 
 
 And clanked, 
 
 Itself unfound, 
 
 But with some tinkering, 
 
 And added parts. 
 
 And lubricants, 
 
 It worked. 
 
 Then came a time 
 
 It groaned again, 
 
 And straining at the bedplate 
 
 On its bolts 
 
 It nigh upreared 
 
 To fall. 
 
 But with more tinkering. 
 
 And added parts, 
 
 And lubricants. 
 
 It worked again 
 
 More smoothly than before. 
 
 Then went the emperors, kings, peoples of the world 
 
 To War, 
 
 But not the engine, ^ 
 
 Till its people. 
 
 Shamed, 
 
 Laid hands upon its futile energies 
 
 That it should throb at last 
 
 With the hot beating of their hearts. 
 
 And turned the engine over 
 
 From its sluggishness. 
 
 Once turned 
 
 It raced. 
 
 In the domed cylinders 
 
 High pressure strained, 
 
 Jarring the nice adjustment of the weights 
 
 But passing on fresh power 
 
 To the wheel 
 
 To be distributed. 
 
 How high the guage 
 
 15 
 
It mattered not; 
 
 The wheel whirred 
 
 "More!" 
 
 And took the power to itself 
 
 To whirl in dervish ecstacy, 
 
 Avowed it would outwhirl 
 
 The World ! 
 
 Demand begot supply 
 
 From sheer distress, 
 
 Until one day 
 
 The safety valve said 
 
 "No." 
 
 But all too late. 
 
 Revolving swift with planetary speed 
 
 Up like a rocket, 
 
 Down like the stick of it 
 
 The wheel soared skyward 
 
 In a great parabola 
 
 And fell 
 
 Flat, 
 
 Impotent, 
 
 Upon the world it sought to dominate. 
 
 Whereat 
 
 The people, Ixion unbound, 
 
 Scrapped and made junk of it. 
 
 And wrought another wheel 
 
 Less revolutionary. 
 
 i6 
 
THE BAKER 
 
 "Who into glory him received 
 Where now he sits at the right hand of Bliss." 
 
 Upon a time in France 
 
 In days of stress like these 
 
 There lived a man 
 
 Who called himself 
 
 A King. 
 
 The People 
 
 Crying to him for the bread 
 
 He gave them not 
 
 In gamin argot of the pave 
 
 Nicknamed him 
 
 "Baker." 
 
 His wi"fe, the queen, 
 
 In zeal for wheatless days 
 
 Proclaimed 
 
 "Let them eat cake," 
 
 And earned the brevet of 
 
 "The Baker's wife." 
 
 Then in due course the People's guillotine 
 
 Cut off their heads. 
 
 God send that we 
 
 A People like to that 
 
 Which voiced the Marseillaise 
 
 If left ungagged 
 
 In Freedom's cause 
 
 Have courage to demand another head 
 
 And hear it thud 
 
 Upon the shaking platform of 
 
 "Democracy !" 
 
 17 
 
THE HOLIDAYS 
 
 "The house of woe and pain!" 
 
 Now does the Nation know at last 
 
 It has a War I 
 
 Now does it see at hand 
 
 The loss and suffering and death 
 
 That comes from sieges, blockades and bombardments 
 
 Engineered by skilful foes afield 
 
 Brought fell upon it by stupidity 
 
 Within. 
 
 At last wide open do the myriad eyes 
 
 Half closed till now, 
 
 Bedazzled by the glow of words 
 
 Proclaimed from time to time 
 
 For later swallowing. 
 
 Look to the battle front 
 
 Where chieftains take their stand 
 
 To see the Nation's leaders there, 
 
 And find them not. 
 
 Behind its might arrayed 
 
 Thin phantom shapes of men 
 
 Twisting and turning, 
 
 Circling hither, yon, 
 
 Like ghosts of whirling dervishes 
 
 Whisper and gibber through the corridors 
 
 Of whited buildings 
 
 Bomb and bullet proof, 
 
 Poor v/ired marionettes with wires cut, 
 
 Lieutenants of a phantom leadership. 
 
 With but one choice, 
 
 The Nation makes it, swift> 
 
 And carries on. 
 
 And with but shades to lead 
 
 Leaps forward on the way 
 
 Its fathers' risen ghosts point out 
 
 To Victory. 
 
THE LISTENERS 
 
 "He seemed 
 For dignity composed and high exploit, 
 But all was false and hollow . , . yet he pleased the ear." 
 
 High sat the Prophet President 
 Beneath the clouds of War, 
 Scions of Hebrew Kings and Judges 
 At his feet, 
 
 Magi from Middle West and Solid South 
 At either hand, 
 
 The while a blithe Hibernian bard, 
 Tumultuous, 
 
 Poised swift skilled fingers o'er the keys 
 Expectant on the oracle. 
 
 The banner of the Newest Thing in Freedoms 
 Flopped, 
 
 White as a craven's liver 
 Or a well bleached skeleton 
 Where once the Stars and Stripes had waved. 
 While on the velvet carpet to the throne 
 Columbia's royal bird, turned Democrat 
 And vegetarian. 
 With pinfeathers for plumes, 
 Pecked at the grape nuts 
 Cast by the Master's hand. 
 Then roused the Prophet President. 
 With frowning gaze 
 Into the farthest vacuum 
 He fixed the vision that he there beheld 
 Upon his mind. 
 
 And with Olympian hem and haw 
 And nod 
 The Seer spoke- 
 As winged the words away 
 A German snickered. 
 Tongue stuck in his cheek. 
 An Englishman drawled 
 "Rot." 
 
 A Frenchman shouted 
 "Meud !" 
 
 19 
 
And lost his gift of speech. 
 
 A plain American 
 
 Said "Hell !" 
 
 While all the Hebrew counsellors and Magi 
 
 Leaped from their seats 
 
 With waving hands outspread 
 
 Expounding and explaining 
 
 Black was white. 
 
 Then from the clouds 
 
 The lightning crashed 
 
 And to the Prophet President 
 
 The Hebrew counsellors and Magi clung 
 
 More tightly than before. 
 
 More swiftly swept the fingers of the bard 
 
 Across his instrument 
 
 As from the oracle 
 
 Flowed phrases and philosophies 
 
 Snatched visioned from the void 
 
 Again to be expounded and explained 
 
 With hands a-wave. 
 
 But other hands had laid upon 
 
 The whited shroud 
 
 And hauled it down, 
 
 And in its place unfurled 
 
 The Nation's battle flag. 
 
 And seeing this 
 
 The German looked askance, 
 
 The while the Englishman 
 
 And Frenchman 
 
 And American 
 
 Agreed to say 
 
 "Hear! Hear!" 
 
 "Sublime !" 
 
 "Great Stuff!" 
 
 To all he said 
 
 And carry on the job they had in hand. 
 
 20 
 
STAND BEHIND THE PRESIDENT 
 
 "Awaiting what command their mighty chief 
 Had to impose." 
 
 Long- has the Nation now been urged 
 
 To stand behind the President. 
 
 Long sought the Nation room 
 
 Behind 
 
 To stand upon, 
 
 And edging in at last 
 
 It got a leverage 
 
 And pried him out 
 
 In front. 
 
 Thus shoved out to his place beneath the sua 
 
 He found it to his taste, 
 
 And seeing near at hand 
 
 A pedestal. 
 
 He leaped upon it. 
 
 Bowing, affable. 
 
 To talk the war to death. 
 
 Some, looking upward, dazzled by the sun. 
 
 Thought they beheld another leader there , 
 
 And chorused loud 
 
 The praises of his satellites. 
 
 Some, with clear visioned eyes undimmed, 
 
 Saw presage in his past performances 
 
 And pressed ahead again, 
 
 To serve their country's honor at the front. 
 
 Leaving behind them those who claimed to serve 
 
 By standing still 
 
 To wait upon his nod. 
 
 But with self-exaltation came 
 
 A certain stiffening of spine 
 
 Till bristled it with points belligerent 
 
 As armament of fretful porcupine, 
 
 And these he cast, long range. 
 
 Upon the enemy. 
 
 But glancing from the toughened Teuton hide 
 
 Back home they boomeranged 
 
 And punctured him. 
 
 Until he stood the New Stylites 
 
 21 
 
On his pedestal. 
 
 So now united does the Nation stand 
 
 Behind him 
 
 On one foot, 
 
 And with the other poised 
 
 Await the Godsent opportunity. 
 
 22 
 
DR. GARFIELD 
 
 **Such implements of mischief as shall dash 
 To pieces and o'erwhelm whatever stands 
 Adverse." 
 
 Over There our Sammy, 
 Chucking bombs from trenches, 
 Takes his fun out on the Hun 
 Or busts a bunch of scenery. 
 
 Over Here our Heinie, 
 Throwing monkey wrenches, 
 Puts three Sundays in a week 
 And stops all our machinery- 
 
 23 
 
THE TEMPLE 
 
 "And higher yet the glorious Temple reared 
 Her pile." 
 
 The righteous nations of the world allied 
 Embattled to withstand 
 Against the brutes of it 
 Yet dreamed to raise a temple 
 Unto Peace. 
 An architect 
 On parchments manifold 
 Draughted a vision in the clouds 
 And builded it, 
 
 Foundation laid on fourteen pediments 
 Each one engraved and protestant 
 That this and that, 
 The seas 
 
 And these and those 
 Were free. 
 
 But stress and weight thuswise distributed 
 Brought settlings and thrusts 
 At fourteen different points. 
 And so 
 
 Before the sacred fires were lit 
 The temple fell. 
 
 New wisdom gained from out catastrophe 
 With pediments reduced to four 
 As corner stones 
 He builded once again, 
 But that most easterly- 
 Was rested upon sand 
 The rains turned quick. 
 And once again the temple 
 Tilted, 
 Tottered, 
 Fell. 
 
 Then on five other corner stones 
 New quarried from the everlasting hills. 
 Engraved with the most magic formulas 
 Known to the adepts of the inner shrine 
 Of politics 
 
 24 
 
He builded once again. 
 
 And came an earthquake rumbling down 
 
 From the Carpathians 
 
 And laid the temple low. 
 
 Then fared the people to a battlefield 
 
 And by a pit 
 
 A shell, Vesuvian, 
 
 Had made its crater, cavernous, 
 
 They built great furnaces 
 
 And in them cast 
 
 The steel and iron from the battlefield. 
 
 Lead of spent bullets, 
 
 Copper of tangled wiring, 
 
 And all the gold and silver in their treasuries. 
 
 And flowed the molten streams 
 
 Into a mighty ingot 
 
 In the pit. 
 
 Then with a pigment of the soil of France 
 
 Turned red indelible 
 
 With the dear blood of their own sons 
 
 They wrote upon the wall of it 
 
 The one Vi^ord 
 
 VICTORY, 
 
 And builded upon this 
 
 The temple stood. 
 
 25 
 
"UNLESS" 
 
 "For all his tedious talk is but vain boast 
 Or subtle shifts conviction, to evade." 
 
 He shot an arrow in the air. 
 
 He either did not know 
 
 Or did not care 
 
 About the use the cunning foe 
 
 Might make of it 
 
 When it should come to earth 
 
 From soaring in the skies, 
 
 But sped it forth. 
 
 Then, panicked, sought to still the startled cries 
 
 Of those who spake of it. 
 Till time of need it lay 
 
 Stored with the bombs and shells of poisoned gas 
 More deadly than a serpent coiled 
 Until there came the day 
 When it had come to pass 
 The hellish schemes were foiled. 
 Then back into his face 
 The schemers cast it straight, 
 More swift than it had flown 
 To seek to save their own, 
 While nations saw their fate 
 Sure destined by their swords 
 Wait while he played with words 
 As boys would toss their toys. 
 Still would he not confess 
 The mess he'd made. 
 Still with his words he played 
 While blazed the front. 
 And sought with "merely" to make blunt 
 "Unless.'"' 
 
 26 
 
CONCESSIONAL 
 
 "Who therefore seeks in these 
 True wisdom finds her not." 
 
 Thou who with ceaseless watch and ward 
 Doth curb unruly tongue and pen, 
 Who poulticeth with silences 
 The fevers of our pubHc men, 
 All Silent One, do not forget ! 
 He'll do it yet. He'll do it yet. 
 
 The Tumultys and Bakers go. 
 The Houses and the Creels depart. 
 Still stands against the cunning foe 
 The Nation's little apple-cart, 
 Down at the tail but not upset ! 
 He'll do it yet. He'll do it yet. 
 
 Bluff called, the echoes fade away. 
 Amazed the people still inquire 
 Why phrases of but yesterday 
 But served to light the kitchen fire. 
 All Silent One, do not forget! 
 He'll do it yet. He'll do it yet. 
 
 If drunk with sight of power he think 
 That Truth be visioned in mere dizziness, 
 God! dam the ceaseless flow of ink, 
 And teach him how to mind his business. 
 All Silent One, do not forget! 
 He'll do it yet. He'll do it yet. 
 
 For loyal hearts with will to serve, 
 Hot with the flames of righteous wrath. 
 For willing feet that will not swerve 
 From their appointed chosen path, 
 From foolish phrase and paltering word 
 Thy Mercy on Thy People — Lord. 
 
 Ameti. 
 
THE WAR GARDEN 
 
 "This Garden, planted with the trees of God." 
 
 An owner of rich fields 
 
 Thought much on war and gardening, 
 
 And though debarred by years 
 
 From overseas activities 
 
 Was keen to do at home 
 
 What in him lay. 
 
 Mindful of an adjacent training camp 
 
 Where drilled his son 
 
 That he in turn might drill 
 
 A Hun, 
 
 "I too can give 'em beans," 
 
 He said, 
 
 And settled on that lentil for his crop, 
 
 And its high destiny 
 
 The Cantonment. 
 
 War beans they were to be. 
 
 Not puny pea, dwarfed, bleached, 
 
 All snapperless. 
 
 But red, of calibre of buckshot, 
 
 Highest caloried. 
 
 Nitrogenous as T. N. T. itself, 
 
 "Mohawk" by name, 
 
 Fit food for v/arriors. 
 
 Then, that success might be assured, 
 
 Applied he to the Government 
 
 For one high-schooled in beans 
 
 To take full charge. 
 
 Down came post haste in answer to his call, 
 
 High browed and spectacled, 
 
 One of the chosen ones grown wise enough 
 
 In culture of the fields 
 
 To drop the ferrule of the pedagogue 
 
 And turn to making hay 
 
 While shone the Democratic sun. 
 
 This one professed 
 
 That he knew beans 
 
 From pole to pod, 
 
 A veritable Bachelor of Beans, 
 
 28 
 
And entered on his ministry. 
 
 To such an one there is no higher joy 
 
 Than backing his own visions 
 
 With another's cash. 
 
 Soon in the fields appeared the latest things 
 
 In tractors, harrows, plows ; 
 
 Manures, phosphates, nitrates, 
 
 Condiments so rich 
 
 As well nigh to impoverish 
 
 The one who pays for them. 
 
 While on the sward close by their boundaries 
 
 Sprung up the tents 
 
 Of scouting boys and girls, 
 
 Fair farmerettes and tired business men, 
 
 Where shrill Victrolas shrieked 
 
 "The Long Long Trail" and "Over There" 
 
 From "Colors" on to "Taps." 
 
 Thanks to one Hiram, 
 
 And another. Josh, 
 
 Who'd served the owner of the fields 
 
 And them 
 
 Some thirty years 
 
 The seed was sown, 
 
 And with its latent energies set free 
 
 Up swift the Mohawks sprung 
 
 As if from ambuscade 
 
 Or as the fabled crop from dragon's teeth. 
 
 In the fierce warfare with their enemies, 
 
 Moth, rust, and blight 
 
 And all the other fifty-four varieties 
 
 Of ills the flesh of beans is heir to 
 
 Did they prevail, 
 
 And in due course were harvested 
 
 And fared them on their way 
 
 To serve their destiny. 
 
 Stowed in the latest thing in motor trucks, 
 
 Professor at the wheel. 
 
 Such was his pride in them 
 
 His first ripe fruits of Victory 
 
 It well had seemed 
 
 He'd turned from Bachelor 
 
 To fatherhood. 
 
 29 
 
Uplifted was he 
 
 As he dwelt upon the words, 
 
 Few but well chosen, 
 
 Which would advise the Commissary 
 
 Of the rare gift 
 
 Straight from the soil of Liberty, — 
 
 And some few little things like that. 
 
 For now the gift had come to seem 
 
 His own. 
 
 Upon the outskirts of the nearby town 
 
 There thrust upon his revery 
 
 The raucous cry of newsboy voicing loud 
 
 The Last Reply, to date. 
 
 To the last Chancellor 
 
 In the last Gabfest Gotterdammerung, 
 
 And putting on the brake 
 
 He stooped and paid, 
 
 And grasped the message of his master's voice. 
 
 Sped on again. 
 
 Eyes biased. 
 
 Entranced by the profundity 
 
 Which could proclaim behind 
 
 Three question marks 
 
 A stern imperative, 
 
 Until the wayward eye quite failed to see 
 
 A STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, sign 
 
 Across a railroad track. 
 
 So in the end did the Professor 
 
 Spill the beans. 
 
 Whereat he who had hired him 
 
 Straight up and fired him. 
 
 30 
 
HAYFOOT 
 
 "and care 
 Sat on his faded cheek but under brows 
 Of dauntless courage." 
 
 I guess 
 
 I'm kind of out'er step 
 With this here war. 
 
 There wa'n't no use 
 In sayin' I'd enhst 
 
 For I'd got born 
 Too late for '6i, 
 
 Too soon for '17, 
 And though I'll make a day of it 
 
 With any of the boys 'round here 
 On coonies, fox or pa'tridges — 
 
 And beat 'em too, — 
 They keep a-goin' it 
 
 Day in, day out, 
 While I lay off 
 
 Next day. 
 'Sides that, 
 
 I couldn't chew a pumpkin pie 
 Without my plate, 
 
 And if I busted it 
 Bitin' some German 
 
 In the leg, 
 I'd starve to death 
 
 Right on their hands. 
 So I got shet of that idee 
 
 Right off. 
 'Tain't natch'ral either 
 
 For the Perkinses 
 Have always been on hand 
 
 In goin's-on like that 
 Till me. 
 
 I thought there must be somethin' 
 I could do 
 
 While crops was growin' 
 To help things along, 
 
 So when those pesky submarines 
 Got raisin' hell 
 
 31 
 
I set a spell 
 And thought of a contraption I once see 
 
 A feller usin' fishin' on the lake 
 To keep a line off where he wanted it. 
 
 It worked, too, 
 So I went and whittled out 
 
 A model of the thing 
 And sent it on express 
 
 To Washington. 
 I guess it's down there yet 
 
 So far's I know, 
 And by gosh 
 
 If I lived a hundred years 
 I'd keep on say in' it would do the job 
 
 In proper hands. 
 Then Sarah got this knittin' fever, 
 
 Bad, 
 And plugged away on sweaters and the like 
 
 To keep the soldiers warm. 
 Now any man who's ever run a fox 
 
 And shivered on a runway on a hill 
 In January 
 
 Knows 
 You'll freeze to death in spite of all the wool 
 
 Off fifty sheep 
 When just a jumper 
 
 And a layer of hide 
 Will keep you warm. 
 
 So when I see, some back 
 They'd took the sheepskin coats 
 Off'n the boys in camp 
 
 Say's I, 
 Here's somethin' that I KNOW, 
 
 And I wrote a letter showin' plain 
 Just how it was 
 
 And sent it on to Washington, 
 But somehow I 'ain't heard as how the boys 
 
 Have got their coats again. 
 Last Sunday I was glad 
 
 I had on mine- 
 My boy come up to say good by 
 
 Before he went to camp 
 
 32 
 
And brought along a magazine 
 
 That offered a big prize for some new words 
 
 The Country p'raps could use 
 For a new song. 
 
 Wal, I've been writin' verses for the Grange 
 And funerals and weddin's and such times 
 
 For forty years 
 And so I wrote 'em some 
 
 And sent 'em on. 
 But somehow I 'ain't heard 
 
 The Country singin' of 'em 
 Yet. 
 Then there's the 'taters. 
 
 When come spring 
 Seed was as high as Haman ever hung, 
 
 But aimin' help along 
 I planted all I had 
 And went in debt 
 
 For more, 
 And put 'em in on new ploughed ground, 
 And cultivated 'em, 
 
 And sprayed 'em. 
 Fought the bugs 
 
 And barreled 'em. 
 And now they stand me in 
 Jest forty cents a bushel 
 
 Out. 
 One thing I did do, — 
 
 Two things come to think — 
 I got two bonds. 
 
 One Sarah's, 
 
 One for me. 
 It ain't no job to lend your cash 
 
 Most any time. 
 But there ain't no sense talkin', 
 
 If you're goin' to War 
 You've gotta GO! 
 
 And seein' as I can't 
 I guess I'll jest den up 
 
 And suck my paw. 
 
 33 
 
THE EGGS 
 
 "Oh Parent, these are thy magnific deeds." 
 
 An hausfrau set a carrion crow 
 
 Upon a clutch of eggs 
 
 Sent down fresh gathered 
 From the Hohenzollern farm 
 
 At Junkerfeld, 
 Sweet village of the plain 
 
 Of Brandenburg. 
 
 They hatched, 
 And wriggled from the slime and broken shells 
 
 Of all save three 
 
 A brood of vipers 
 
 Helmeted with horns, 
 
 And from those three 
 A fledgling trinity of vulture breed 
 
 More fierce and foul 
 Than any lammergeier of the Alps, 
 
 Hate, Fear, and Frightfulness. 
 These did the foster-parent brood 
 
 And cherish to its breast. 
 These did the hausfrau, proud and pleased 
 
 To find the stock all thoroughbred 
 
 Feed high on witches' broth 
 
 Of newt and toad and carrion, 
 
 Until at length, full grown. 
 
 She turned them loose 
 
 To feed and sate themselves 
 
 Abroad. 
 Forth did they go. 
 East, West, to North and South 
 
 On belly or on wing 
 And ravaged and laid waste and gorged 
 Until their chosen food was gone. 
 Then turned they home again , 
 
 To feed. 
 And while the hausfrau starves 
 
 She shrieks 
 
 And stops her ears 
 Against the murmur of the gliding scales 
 
 And beat of heavy wings. 
 
 34 
 
THE FOURTH LOAN 
 
 "We war, if war be best, or to regain 
 Our own right lost." 
 
 Why talk of sacrificial offerings 
 
 To Victory 
 
 When the high priest has bowed his head 
 
 To Baal! 
 
 Why pledge the country's honor, blood, and gold 
 
 Against a phrase 
 
 That may make waste of all ! 
 
 Why? 
 
 That this People may maintain its vow. 
 
 Despite its phrasemongers and palterers. 
 
 Of righteous retribution 
 
 On the steel spiked heads 
 
 And beat them down. 
 
 So let the People that has stood behind 
 
 Now stand before 
 
 And take this war of theirs 
 
 Into their hands 
 
 And handle it! 
 
 35 
 
INSURANCE 
 
 "for such another field 
 
 They dreaded worse than Hell." 
 
 What need of Leagues, Alliances and Covenants 
 
 Of peoples freed from Kings 
 
 For Peace ! 
 
 What need of delegates abroad in conference 
 
 For fashioning new laws 
 
 And graving them 
 
 Upon the sands of Time 
 
 When every People holds within its hand today 
 
 Its destiny 
 
 Of Peace or War ! 
 
 Let each enact 
 
 When in the chambers of Democracy 
 
 Men lift their voices up 
 
 In speech of War 
 
 With all its ravings, wavings and phrasemongerings. 
 
 That those of the elect who speak the words 
 
 Shall make them good 
 
 With their own bodies in the forefront line 
 
 Or swallow them. 
 
 And if the great adventuring 
 
 Be one of righteousness 
 
 The Demagogues alone 
 
 Will choke. 
 
 36 
 
THE VOTE 
 
 "The fairest of her daughters, Eve." 
 
 Our mothers cannot vote ; 
 
 Our daughters will ; 
 
 Friend wife still pairs with us. 
 
 Our sisters are the wives of other men. 
 
 Swathed widows seek heartsease 
 
 In other things. 
 
 But why, with War 
 
 And bargain counter set 
 
 For surcease from the cradle and the stove, 
 
 Seek now the Women People of the land 
 
 This further ferment 
 
 For their own 
 
 With politics adjourned? 
 
 They seek not slaughtered sales 
 
 When stores are closed 
 
 For window dressing 
 
 For the coming day, 
 
 But watch and wait, 
 
 And then rush in 
 
 And storm the marked-down Paradise, 
 
 Taking this home for 
 
 .98 
 
 Or that for 
 
 .49. 
 
 But now the die was cast. 
 
 Fate answered 
 
 "No," 
 
 And fair Columbia 
 
 Mother of us all 
 
 Again was freed 
 
 From slavery. 
 
 What worth had been the prize if gained 
 
 Had it but served to be the precedent 
 
 That even in grim times like these 
 
 One man 
 
 Can come dragooning on a hobby horse 
 
 And over-ride the will 
 
 Of Sovereign States 1 
 
 37 
 
What were your puny votes to theirs ! 
 
 Let be, 
 
 And when your men come home again 
 
 From battlefield, or camp, or hospital, 
 
 From making the world safe 
 
 Abroad 
 
 They'll make it safer 
 
 Here. 
 
 They who have faced machine guns in their lairs 
 
 And choked them dumb 
 
 Can face a typewriter. 
 
 They who laid low Death's Head Hussars 
 
 Can handle 
 
 Broomstick Cavalry. 
 
 And when rebuilding of the Nation's house 
 
 Shall come 
 
 And in new order of establishment 
 
 Safe shall it stand, 
 
 Their love for you regained. 
 
 Their memory of those who with all lost 
 
 Could give 
 
 Of woman's care and tenderness. 
 
 Their new-born wonder 
 
 At the new-born loyalty and comradeship 
 
 Of all of You 
 
 Will make it sure as sets the sun that day 
 
 Some night they'll bring you home 
 
 A Ballot Box 
 
 With roses wreathed 
 
 And full of chocolates. 
 
 38 
 
HENRY FORD ENTERS THE SENATE 
 
 "Then stayed the fervid wheels." 
 
 Throttle open, every nut sprung loose, 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 The Senators sighed sadly and they said 
 
 "What's the use !" 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Hennery skidded up the Avenue 
 
 Followed astern by the Peace Ship crew, 
 
 All cranked up and no place to go 
 
 Till Hank got the W^ double O ; 
 
 Honking paeans in the victor's praise. 
 
 Scattering roses from their big bokays. 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Then came the Pacifists in full platoons ; 
 
 Pifflers and Palterers and smug Poltroons ; 
 
 Brass-lunged orators and loud-mouthed bluffs; 
 
 White livered whisperers and pussyfoot muffs ; 
 
 Big white feathers in their new silk tiles, 
 
 Faces shining with their greasy smiles, 
 
 Following hot-foot after Hen, 
 
 To get their feet in the trough again. 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Hennery braked her at the White House door. 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 The President was listening and said 
 
 "One more!" 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Then said Hen: "Mr. President 
 
 You wrote for to run, so I run, hell bent. 
 
 That Cincinnati feller who left his plow 
 
 He hain't got nothin' on Detroit, I vow. 
 
 When he knocked off for t© go to fight the Turks, 
 
 For I blew the whistle on the whole dern works." 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Then said the President "You sure done good. 
 
 I thought my meaning would be understood. 
 
 Now just to save you from the writers' cramp 
 
 May I not present you with this rubber stamp?" 
 
 "Fine," said Hen, "mighty handy too. 
 
 39 
 
Stampin' is the very best thing- I do. 
 
 I've stamped out Lizzies and I've stamped out boats, 
 
 I've stamped out vice and I've stamped out votes. 
 
 I'll stamp this here on anything you say ; 
 
 I'm the best little stamper in the U. S. A." 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Said the President, watching the procession pass, 
 
 "A useful anymile is the ass. 
 
 A few big words and a few soft pats 
 
 And the world grows safer for us Democrats." 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 When they came under the Capitol dome 
 
 They all united in Home Sweet Home, 
 
 Roaring it up like cannon thunder 
 
 Clean to the roof of the rotunda. 
 
 Until Hen left the joyous din 
 
 And went to the Chamber to be sworn in. 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Tom stepped down from the lofty rostrum 
 
 Glad hand out with an "Ecce Nostrum !" 
 
 "Do you solemnly swear to do as you're told? 
 
 All right then ; come into the fold. 
 
 Now you're a seated Senator." 
 
 "Sure," said Hen, "Whadja take me for? 
 
 Speakin' of seats, where's the one I get? 
 
 I've bust a tire and I'd like to set." 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 Says Tom, "You'll find a vacant chair 
 
 With those good Democrats over there. 
 
 Of course you are non-partisan 
 
 But that gang there is Republican-" 
 
 "I guess," said Hen, " 'Twould be more my style 
 
 If I squat right down in the middle of the aisle." 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 When he had come to the appointed spot 
 
 Says Hen, "Boys, here's a little speech I've got. 
 
 I stamped it out just before I come 
 
 And it's a humdinger too, by gum !" 
 
 Soon as Hennery began to read 
 
 The Senators started on a mad stampede 
 
 Each one dashing for the open door 
 
 Yielding to Hennery the whole blamed floor, 
 
 40 
 
All but Tom for the getaway, 
 
 And he, poor devil, was paid to stay. 
 
 (Can you hear the whizzy whirring of the wheels, 
 
 The whizzy lizzie whirring of the wheels?) 
 
 41 
 
NEW HAMPSHIRE 
 
 "Till by two brethren . . . sent from God to claim 
 His people from enthralment they return." 
 
 Hold fast, New Hampshire ! 
 
 Praises be 
 
 That still your granite hills 
 
 Which gave to build 
 
 The Plymouth sands 
 
 Have kept sufficient grit in them 
 
 To serve your freemen and yourself 
 
 When turned they quick 
 
 Beneath the foot of Liberty 
 
 When sought she them again! 
 
 More praises be 
 
 That still New England has the backbone 
 
 Standing stiff 
 
 Where liand of God erected it for time of need 
 
 With politics regained ! 
 
 Let Washington. 
 
 Aye, Jefferson, 
 
 Proclaim your honor bright 
 
 With beacon lights, 
 
 And with them on your path. 
 
 The Keyes to Wisdom's treasure house in hand 
 
 And your own chosen Moses guiding you, 
 
 Seek you the Promised Land of leadership 
 
 In Truth ! 
 
 43 
 
OLD PAPERSIDES 
 
 "My voice thou oft hast heard and hast not feared." 
 
 Aye, tear the Constitution up ! 
 What is it between friends 
 But frayed and faded fussiness 
 That stays us from our ends ! 
 Down with such outworn paper scraps 
 With Emperors and Kings ! 
 Long Hve the Demautocracy 
 The Newest Freedom brings ! 
 
 Let Senators in silence sit 
 
 While some old moss-back prates 
 
 Of Bill of Rights and Articles 
 
 And Sovereignty of States. 
 
 Let Legislatures rage and roar 
 
 At lost prerogative 
 
 They say they only meant to yield 
 
 And not to grant and give. 
 
 What matter little things like these , 
 When the All-Wise has planned 
 To hold the Nation's fate within 
 The hollow of his hand! 
 Aye, tear the Constitution up ! 
 It makes for party war. 
 How can it serve grim times like these 
 When one man's will is law ! 
 
 ENVOI 
 
 From Democrats and Demagogues 
 
 Demautocrats evolve 
 
 To press their points upon the world 
 
 And all its problems solve. 
 
 But as the mind dwells on these things 
 
 The legend seems to linger 
 
 Of one who pressed a point too hard 
 
 And found he'd pricked his finger. 
 
 43 
 
THE SPOILED CHILD 
 
 "He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
 Desperate revenge." 
 
 Surrounded with the gifts of all his clan, 
 
 Proud father, mother. 
 
 Grandmothers fond to foolishness, 
 
 Uncles and aunts, by blood or by brevet. 
 
 Sat the spoiled child. 
 
 King in his father's house. 
 
 High on the painted walls of germproof nursery 
 
 An endless file of fat white ducks 
 
 Paraded in their waddling processional. 
 
 Below 
 
 Young Peter Rabbits skipped behind the bright array 
 
 Of flags of foreign lands 
 
 With Stars and Stripes 
 
 Above the Bed of State. 
 
 Here was the Throne. 
 
 There the arrayed appliances 
 
 Of toilet table for the Grand Levee. 
 
 Fruits and confections rare 
 
 Lay stored at hand for him 
 
 And princely robes of wool and silk 
 
 Or diaper. 
 
 Here stood the flaring instrument 
 
 Through which his Merry Man 
 
 And Fiddlers Three 
 
 Might seek to win his smile 
 
 And friendly audience. 
 
 Here was his library of pictured scrolls 
 
 And tablets cubeiform of wood. 
 
 Here were his fighting men. 
 
 Horse, foot, dragoons and guns. 
 
 Here lay his naval armament 
 
 Careened, 
 
 And here his airplane fallen to the earth 
 
 Beside the trackage for his special train 
 
 Derailed 
 
 In fierce collision with the new red motor car. 
 
 While in a corner stood his Arab steed 
 
 44 
 
Unexercised and eating off his head. 
 
 Here ebon Dinah sat, 
 
 Duenna of the pink-cheeked white-trash odalisques 
 
 Who had supplanted her, 
 
 With button eyes fixed grim 
 
 Upon the prostrate form of one in khaki clad 
 
 Who seemingly like amorous Arabian 
 
 Had sought to love and die. 
 
 Gorged but not sated 
 
 Cried he still for more. 
 
 And howling like an infant catamount 
 
 Slapped the sad face of her who gave him life 
 
 Because she would not let him choke himself 
 
 Upon a sugar tit. 
 
 45 
 
THE PIE 
 
 "Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods." 
 
 At the Thanksgiving table of the world 
 
 Sat the grim keeper of the boarding house 
 
 Intent upon the serving of the new mince pie 
 
 Of Peace. 
 
 Counting with frowns the noses 'round the board 
 
 She cut 
 
 As Rhadamanthus would 
 
 According to her will, 
 
 First into fourteen segments, 
 
 Then four more. 
 
 Then five. 
 
 And placed the sweetmeat in the housemaid's hands 
 
 To pass the mangled fragments 
 
 Of her equity. 
 
 Whereat young Tommy, 
 
 Speaking for himself 
 
 And Tony and Gaston 
 
 Said with a grin, 
 
 "Thanks awfully old dear, 
 
 We're quite fed up 
 
 And are not taking any." 
 
 46 
 
**THE REAL COLOITEL HOUSE" 
 
 "Armed with Hell flames and fury." 
 
 The human eye will only see 
 In me a man of Destiny 
 Sent to our great democracy 
 To save it from its fall, 
 And by my skilled diplomacy 
 Wrapt in its veils of secrecy 
 Maintain its due supremacy, — 
 But that ain't me at all ! 
 
 For I'm a Texan bold and free ! 
 
 Yip! Yip! Yip! 
 
 The ranger's is the life for me ! 
 
 Hip! Hip! Hip! 
 
 I love the joys of border strife 
 
 With smoking gun or bowie knife ! 
 
 Oh hully gee ! That is the life ! 
 
 Zip ! Zip ! Zip ! 
 
 With Emperors and Kings I lunch. 
 With Premiers and all that bunch, 
 And hand 'em all the latest hunch 
 I've had on their affairs. 
 But though they never seem to see 
 A thing the way it looks to me 
 The President and I agree, 
 So who in Texas cares ! 
 
 For he's with me and I'm with him. 
 
 Yip! Yip! Yip! 
 
 My other name is Whispering Slim. 
 
 Hip ! Hip ! Hip ! 
 
 If I can't knock the steerin' gears 
 
 Off all them other Texas steers 
 
 I'll be bucked off and buy the beers ! 
 
 Zip ! Zip ! Zip ! 
 
 47 
 
I fixed the war so now I'll grease 
 
 The fourteen wheels of Perfect Peace 
 
 And fix some laws so wars shall cease 
 
 Forever and a day. 
 
 So I shall be a resident 
 
 Of gay Paree while I invent 
 
 A League that wants a President 
 
 Who'll do just as I say. 
 
 But I'm a Texan bold and free ! 
 
 Yip! Yip! Yip! 
 
 The ranger's is the life for me! 
 
 Hip! Hip! Hip! 
 
 Then back to Texas I shall hie 
 
 And die as all good rangers die 
 
 And in my boots and spurs I'll lie. 
 
 R.I.P. R.LP. R.I.P. 
 
 48 
 
THE PUBLICISTS 
 
 "A solemn coiincil forthwith to be held 
 At Pandemonium." 
 
 With Dove returned again 
 
 From clearing- skies, 
 
 Emerge the Publicists 
 
 Like woodchucks from their holes, 
 
 Noses a-twitter. 
 
 Furtive eyes alert 
 
 For sniff or sight of lurking danger near 
 
 And popping back again, 
 
 Or finding peace assured 
 
 Up on to tail 
 
 To chatter to the Universe. 
 
 No minds or business of their own 
 
 They set them up to mind 
 
 The business of the world, 
 
 Flinging a billion here, 
 
 An harvest there, 
 
 Pawing the fragments of a shaken continent 
 
 As idiots delight 
 
 In jigsawed puzzledom. 
 
 Within the galaxy that seeks to shed its light 
 
 High, self-exalted, sit 
 
 The long-haired men 
 
 And short-haired women folk 
 
 The whole world's massed artillery alone 
 
 Could still. 
 
 Come forth again 
 
 To find blood-brothers 
 
 In the Bolsheviks 
 
 And milk of human kindness 
 
 In a Kurd. 
 
 With them grim-visaged virgins sit. 
 
 Come from the cooking of their mid-day calories 
 
 On patent oilless lamps 
 
 In lonely kitchenettes. 
 
 Wise in their utter ignorance of all 
 
 That might have made them worth 
 
 Their keep. 
 
 49 
 
Yet holding themselves out 
 
 As ones most fit and formulaed 
 
 For universal motherhood. 
 
 Here those who prate 
 
 As patriots 
 
 And flaunt the flag they wave 
 
 Above their own self-seeking heads 
 
 In touching it, 
 
 Yet seek to bear the glory of it forth 
 
 As standard bearers 
 
 For the world. 
 
 There brood the bloodless intellectuals 
 
 All body less, 
 
 Who needs must claim to brains 
 
 Or stand in Bankruptcy 
 
 To Life. 
 
 At hand with these 
 
 Those who with shiny eyes 
 
 Upon the Social Evil fixed, 
 
 Gloat over it 
 
 And find it private good 
 
 For what obsesses them 
 
 In secret thoughts and picturings, 
 
 Canting obscenities in pseudo-science phrase 
 
 And hounding down 
 
 The promenading prostitute 
 
 Whose chiefest sin was 
 
 That she would have none of them. 
 
 Here those so drunk with spiritual arrogance 
 
 No lesser stimulant will serve their needs. 
 
 And claiming to be 
 
 Prohibitionists 
 
 Make desert places where the vineyards were 
 
 And seek by a New Miracle 
 
 To turn red wine 
 
 To ditchwater. 
 
 Here sit in high degree 
 
 With liars, plain and damned, 
 
 The statisticians, abacus in hand. 
 
 Telling its beads 
 
 As priests upon their rosaries, 
 
 Prepared to put the Q. E. D. 
 
 50 
 
To any ass's bridge. 
 
 With lights so dim and fogged 
 
 Let us cross none at all 
 
 Until we come to them 
 
 But stagger on in faith 
 
 As we were wont to do. 
 
 And see things in the light 
 
 That may be given us 
 
 As it was wont to be. 
 
 51 
 
THE SPIDER 
 
 "Whence and what art thou, execrable shape?" 
 
 Like spider fallen in the cheapened mucilage 
 
 With which our stamps and envelopes 
 
 Are sparsely smeared 
 
 For future loss or opening, 
 
 With hooks and claws upstuck 
 
 And clogged for functioning 
 
 He crawls within the web 
 
 Of tangled cables, wires crossed, lines wireless, 
 
 Star routes and routes beneath the stars, 
 
 In which he makes his lair. 
 
 One line alone runs straight, 
 
 Down Pennsylvania Avenue 
 
 Thereto, 
 
 From never ceasing clicking typewriter 
 
 To ever listening ear 
 
 Attuned harmonious 
 
 To every hint 
 
 Of still more v^^ire entanglements, whereon 
 
 The freedom of the Nation's speech 
 
 May be impaled 
 
 And make the world more safe 
 
 For Demautocracy. 
 
 This high resolve in mind. 
 
 At idle times 
 
 He listens in on other private lines 
 
 Which, found vibrating inharmonious. 
 
 He disconnects. 
 
 And hands the excommunicated ones 
 
 To the Attorney-General. 
 
 Secretly serviceable spies. 
 
 Detectives and inquisitors 
 
 Bring him, Special Delivery, 
 
 The well steamed mail. 
 
 Abated or delayed. 
 
 Of those marked down suspect 
 
 Of Non-Conformity, 
 
 Or lovers' kisses cabled in a code 
 
 For stern deciphering. 
 
 52 
 
The wires flutter full 
 
 Of victims 
 
 Yet he seeks 
 
 To spread the web still tighter 
 
 On the land 
 
 Until at length 
 
 With public service turned 
 
 To public servitude. 
 
 Master and man may rest 
 
 And be content. 
 
 53 
 
THE NEW FREEDOM 
 
 "A cry of Hell-hounds never ceasing barked." 
 
 The Kings are dead ! 
 
 Long live the Bolsheviks ! 
 
 Those other Hairy Ones 
 
 Who keep the flames of Liberty alive 
 
 With castles, shrines, and factories 
 
 And bombs 
 
 The while our gentle Goddess-down-the-Bay 
 
 Exalts her puny torch. 
 
 Itself paid tribute to the Minotaur 
 
 Of Capital. 
 
 Now let us salvaged Democrats proclaim 
 
 The Verities, 
 
 Our Freedom Absolute 
 
 With theirs 
 
 On land as on the seas, 
 
 Each one to be his brother's judge 
 
 And executioner 
 
 At will 
 
 In case his sense of equity be dull 
 
 And he refuse to share with us 
 
 His wife and goods 
 
 In equal opportunity of love and squandering. 
 
 That is the life ! 
 
 And having drained it to the dregs 
 
 Upon the well worked world 
 
 Let us lie down, drunk equally 
 
 And die, 
 
 And free our rotted souls in the equality 
 
 Of Time 
 
 And Space. 
 
 54 
 
BARNEY BARUCH 
 
 "From what consummate virtue I have chose 
 This perfect man." 
 
 Barney Baruch, what is this that we're hearin' now, 
 
 Lavin' the bulls and the bears a-careerin' now, 
 
 Droppin' yer shears in the midst o' the shearin' now, 
 
 All fer a job fer a dollar a year? 
 
 Barney Baruch, tell us what is the mystery ; 
 
 How come ye sittin' there in the consistory 
 
 Lavin' the ticker to go makin' history ! 
 
 Oi, yer the knowin' one, Barney me dear ! 
 
 Lave the byes in on it ! 
 
 There'd be no sin on it. 
 
 Sure, and they'd win on it, 
 
 Backin' yer luck. 
 
 Here's to the plootocrat! 
 
 Here's to the noovocrat ! 
 
 Yer the foine Dimocrat, 
 
 Barney, me buck! 
 
 Barney, we're done with the war and the fightin' now. 
 
 Look on the wall and ye'll see some more writin' now 
 
 Tellin' ye plain that ye soon will go kitin' now, 
 
 Rattlin' round loike the peas in a pod. 
 
 Barney Baruch, what the hell are ye doin' there! 
 
 Barney Baruch, don't ye see trouble brewin' there! 
 
 You and the loikes of ye'll make wreck and ruin there. 
 
 Sure we have had enough of ye, be God ! 
 
 It's the high climb ye had ; 
 
 It's the foine time ye had; 
 
 Now out ye go me lad 
 
 Back to yer push. 
 
 We'll do the best we can 
 
 With an American 
 
 More on the good ould plan, 
 
 Barney Baruch ! 
 
 55 
 
READJUSTMENT 
 
 "Oh glorious trial of exceeding love." 
 
 With peace declared, one Jack 
 
 A gob, 
 
 Came back from raging main 
 
 And found a Jane 
 
 Was holding down his job. 
 
 So what to do with him 
 
 Now Uncle Sam was through with him. 
 
 While Boards, Commissions, Statisticians 
 
 Fought and wrangled 
 
 And got their red tape and themselves 
 
 Tied up and tangled 
 
 Jack never tarried. 
 
 And now they are married. 
 
 56 
 
ON PARADE 
 
 "Pursue these sons of Darkness, drive them out." 
 
 ^What are the bugles playing for? Who's havin' the 
 parade? 
 
 "The Fightin' Nint's come home again," the color ser- 
 geant said. 
 
 "An' who is that a-leadin' 'em up there behind the band?" 
 
 "It's Eddie Logan back again, up where he oughter 
 stand. 
 
 They thought they'd put him on the bum 
 
 Back over there in France. 
 
 They took away his epaulettes, 
 
 They took away his pants. 
 
 If Baker'd had his sneaking way 
 
 He'd never had a chance, 
 
 But Eddie Logan's wearin' 'em this mornin'." 
 
 "Where are the boys a-headin' for, a-marchin' on 
 parade?" 
 
 "They've started on a long long trail," the color ser- 
 geant said. 
 
 "I never seen 'em totin' packs a-marchin' on parade." 
 
 "They've got a damn long ways to go," the color ser- 
 geant said. 
 
 "The're goin' to get Charlie Cole. He's down to City Hall. 
 
 They tried to queer our brigadier, the best one of 'em all. 
 
 And then the're goin' up to pay the Grand Old Man a 
 call. 
 
 And start off on the trip tomorrow mornin'." 
 
 "Where are they goin' to from here, a-marchin' on 
 parade?" 
 
 "The're goin' west, the're goin' west," the color sergeant 
 said. 
 
 "Ain't Leonard Wood out there somewhere commandin' 
 a brigade?" 
 
 "The're goin' to bring him home again," the color-ser- 
 geant said- 
 
 "For they dirty double crossed him when he tried to 
 make 'em start 
 
 57 
 
To get in line with decent men and let us do our part, 
 And now he's out in Kansas a-eatin' out his heart, 
 But he'll be feelin' better some fine mornin'." 
 "Where are they goin' to from here, a-marchin' on 
 
 parade?" 
 "The're goin' down to Washin'ton," the color-sergeant 
 
 said. 
 "What are they goin' to do down there, a-marchin' on 
 
 parade?" 
 "Clean out the whole damned Bakery," the color-sergeant 
 
 said. 
 "For they've seen enough of slackers and they've heard 
 
 enough from clerks ; 
 They've fought with God's own fightin' men and know 
 
 'em by their works. 
 And little Snootie Baker, the boss of all the shirks, 
 Will get what's comin' to 'um in the mornin'." 
 
 58 
 
THE MIRRORS 
 
 "War seemed a civil thing 
 To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped 
 Upon confusion rose." 
 
 High through December skies 
 
 Like their own snowflakes flying on the wind 
 
 Wing the white doves of Peace 
 
 Foregathering palaceward 
 
 Where the Black Eagle hatched 
 
 Its monstrous egg. 
 
 Below them 
 
 On the wreck strewn seas 
 
 Swift ships surge on the way 
 
 With flying banners, 
 
 Flaming lights, 
 
 And bands a-blare 
 
 In joyous junketting 
 
 Where all so recently 
 
 Reigned silence and the blackness of the night. 
 
 Or sounded shots and shrieks. 
 
 Through shellpocked fields. 
 
 Past shattered skeletons and ghosts 
 
 Of homes 
 
 Rush roaring engines 
 
 Training palaces 
 
 In mock of them ; 
 
 Refectories with birds and bottles stored 
 
 Where famine stalked ; 
 
 Well lighted offices 
 
 Replete with clerks and copyists. 
 
 Pale faces peering forth through window panes 
 
 To see where heroes died 
 
 Beneath the sky. 
 
 And in these ships and trains come 
 
 Men 
 
 To pass upon the problems of the world. 
 
 But first 
 
 To pass before the mirrors in the gallery 
 
 And see themselves 
 
 Where one King saw in his reflected self 
 
 59 
 
The State; 
 
 Another, 
 
 Death. 
 
 So let these men take heed 
 
 In their own crystal gazing there 
 
 That all that each one sees 
 
 In turning to twist collar or cravat 
 
 In surreptitiousness 
 
 Is but a man, 
 
 In all his weakness 
 
 And his strength ; 
 
 In all his justice 
 
 And his knavishness ; 
 
 In all his wisdom 
 
 And his vanity; 
 
 Alone, 
 
 Save for the Spirit 
 
 Of his native land. 
 
 60 
 
APPEAL 
 
 **I when no other durst, sole undertook 
 The dismal expedition." 
 
 Stay, brother Demos of the flaming heart 
 
 With torch of Liberty in hand ! 
 
 Stay ! 
 
 Hast thou then given the once over 
 
 All so recently 
 
 To thine own old home town 
 
 And found all's well 
 
 That thou dost fare thee forth 
 
 To cast thy light 
 
 On Timbuctoo 
 
 And Samarcand? 
 
 Dost thou, unlearned in tongues, 
 
 Dare rush into the Babel of the world 
 
 To wag thine own 
 
 In fevered phrases 
 
 Indeterminate 
 
 And definitions 
 
 Of the undefinable? 
 
 Hast it in mind 
 
 To enter thy Leviathan 
 
 And cross the seas 
 
 As Jonah did 
 
 To utter prophesies ? 
 
 Art thou so apt and versed 
 
 In thy geography 
 
 That thou canst give in winged words 
 
 The metes and bounds and capital 
 
 Of Oklahoma 
 
 Here at home 
 
 That thou shouldst seek to toy 
 
 With ancient monuments, 
 
 And set up citadels 
 
 Abroad ? 
 
 Hast ever marvelled why the brotherhood 
 
 Of Damon and his Pythias 
 
 Has stood remarkable? 
 
 Dost thou not know the brotherhood 
 
 Of men 
 
 Though brothers born 
 
 6i 
 
Must be assured 
 
 Ere Nations glow with it? 
 
 Dost thou not know 
 
 That what through thine own spectacles 
 
 Is visioned Truth 
 
 Through those of other men as wise 
 
 Is foolishness? 
 
 What are thy godlike attributes 
 
 To let thee plead 
 
 And serve as arbiter 
 
 Upon thy cause? 
 
 Stay> brother, stay ! 
 
 Turn in thy transportation overseas 
 
 And turn thyself 
 
 To kindred subjects nearer to thy hand. 
 
 In thy solicitude 
 
 For lesser nationalities, 
 
 Now in the coming year 
 
 Let the poor weak minority 
 
 Within this greater one 
 
 Work out its destiny in self-development 
 
 Autonomous 
 
 And have a look-in now and then 
 
 Upon the Nation's business 
 
 Vouchsafed with kindly smile 
 
 And jovial word- 
 
 If thou wouldst render colonies 
 
 To Caesar 
 
 Back again. 
 
 Transplant those settled in our midst 
 
 From fair Hibernia 
 
 And send them home to her 
 
 To rule Brittania 
 
 As they would rule us. 
 
 If thou wouldst succor Poles 
 
 And make them free 
 
 Or further license 
 
 Bolsheviks, 
 
 Seek out the sweat shops where they toil 
 
 In bondage 
 
 To their Jewish overlords. 
 
 If seekest thou the freedom of the seas 
 
 Make thou the trip to Coney 
 
 Free 
 
 62 
 
And there suspend the fees 
 
 That cleanliness must pay 
 
 To prudery. 
 
 Wouldst have free trade? 
 
 See to it that the apple woman sits 
 
 And earns her pittance 
 
 Without tax imposed 
 
 By the patrolman's petty larcenies, 
 
 And let the smiling sons 
 
 Of Greece and Italy 
 
 Push their perambulating fruiteries 
 
 Free 
 
 From tribute paid 
 
 To Tammany. 
 
 Seekest thou Brotherhood 
 
 With thou 
 
 The biggest, wisest brother 
 
 In the company? 
 
 This too is at thy hand. 
 
 Seek thou as midnight peals 
 
 One of those myriad caravansaries 
 
 Upon the Great White Way 
 
 Most bright 
 
 When blackest is the night, 
 
 And sitting in with some chance group 
 
 Of thirsty free Americans 
 
 Purvey them beverages 
 
 Freehandedly. 
 
 When tolls the parting knell 
 
 And feet uncertain set upon 
 
 Their devious paths 
 
 Each man of them 
 
 Will clasp you to his breast 
 
 In brotherhood ! 
 
 Surely, but thou wilt stay 
 
 For this ! 
 
 Thou wiltest not? 
 
 Farewell ! 
 
 63 
 
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