One after one, they fall asleep
And the pension agents awake to weep,
And orphaned statesmen are loud in their
wail
As the souls flit by on the evening gale.
O Father of Battles, pray give us release
From the horrors of peace, the horrors
of peace!
INSPIRATION.
O hoary sculptor, stay thy hand:
I fain would view the lettered
stone.
What carvest thou?—perchance
some grand
And solemn fancy all thine
own.
For oft to know the fitting word
Some humble worker God permits.
“Jain Ann
Meginnis,
Agid
3rd.
He givith His
beluved fits.”
TO-DAY.
I saw a man who knelt in prayer,
And heard him say:
“I’ll lay my inmost spirit
bare
To-day.
“Lord, for to-morrow and its need
I do not pray;
Let me upon my neighbor feed
To-day.
“Let me my duty duly shirk
And run away
From any form or phase of work
To-day.
“From Thy commands exempted still
Let me obey
The promptings of my private will
To-day.
“Let me no word profane, no lie
Unthinking say
If anyone is standing by
To-day.
“My secret sins and vices grave
Let none betray;
The scoffer’s jeers I do not crave
To-day.
“And if to-day my fortune all
Should ebb away,
Help me on other men’s to fall
To-day.
“So, for to-morrow and its mite
I do not pray;
Just give me everything in sight
To-day.”
I cried: “Amen!” He rose
and ran
Like oil away.
I said: “I’ve seen an
honest man
To-day.”
AN ALIBI.
A famous journalist, who long
Had told the great unheaded throng
Whate’er they thought, by day or
night.
Was true as Holy Writ, and right,
Was caught in—well, on second
thought,
It is enough that he was caught,
And being thrown in jail became
The fuel of a public flame.
“Vox populi vox Dei,” said The jailer. Inxling bent his head Without remark: that motto good In bold-faced type had always stood Above the columns where his pen Had rioted in praise of men And all they said—provided he Was sure they mostly did agree. Meanwhile a sharp and bitter strife To take, or save, the culprit’s life Or liberty (which, I suppose, Was much the same to him) arose Outside. The journal that his pen Adorned denounced his crime—but then Its editor in secret tried To have the indictment set aside. The opposition papers swore His father was a rogue before, And all his wife’s relations were Like him and similar to her. They begged their readers to subscribe A dollar