He smiled a cheerful smile (the day
  Was straightway overcast)—­
The poison oak along his way
  Was blighted as he passed!

REJECTED

When Dr. Charles O’Donnell died
They sank a box with him inside.

The plate with his initials three
Was simply graven—­“C.O.D.”

That night two demons of the Pit
Adown the coal-hole shunted it.

Ten million million leagues it fell,
Alighting at the gate of Hell.

Nick looked upon it with surprise,
A night-storm darkening his eyes.

“They’ve sent this rubbish, C.O.D.—­
I’ll never pay a cent!” said he.

JUDEX JUDICATUS

Judge Armstrong, when the poor have sought your aid,
To be released from vows that they have made
In haste, and leisurely repented, you,
As stern as Rhadamanthus (Minos too,
And AEeacus) have drawn your fierce brows down
And petrified them with a moral frown! 
With iron-faced rigor you have made them run
The gauntlet of publicity—­each Hun
Or Vandal of the public press allowed
To throw their households open to the crowd
And bawl their secret bickerings aloud. 
When Wealth before you suppliant appears,
Bang! go the doors and open fly your ears! 
The blinds are drawn, the lights diminished burn,
Lest eyes too curious should look and learn
That gold refines not, sweetens not a life
Of conjugal brutality and strife—­
That vice is vulgar, though it gilded shine
Upon the curve of a judicial spine. 
The veiled complainant’s whispered evidence,
The plain collusion and the no defense,
The sealed exhibits and the secret plea,
The unrecorded and unseen decree,
The midnight signature and—­chink! chink! chink!—­
Nay, pardon, upright Judge, I did but think
I heard that sound abhorred of honest men;
No doubt it was the scratching of your pen.

O California! long-enduring land,
Where Judges fawn upon the Golden Hand,
Proud of such service to that rascal thing
As slaves would blush to render to a king—­
Judges, of judgment destitute and heart,
Of conscience conscious only by the smart
From the recoil (so insight is enlarged)
Of duty accidentally discharged;—­
Invoking still a “song o’ sixpence” from
The Scottish fiddle of each lusty palm,
Thy Judges, California, skilled to play
This silent music, through the livelong-day
Perform obsequious before the rich,
And still the more they scratch the more they itch!

ON THE WEDDING OF AN AERONAUT

Aeronaut, you’re fairly caught,
  Despite your bubble’s leaven: 
Out of the skies a lady’s eyes
  Have brought you down to Heaven!

No more, no more you’ll freely soar
  Above the grass and gravel: 
Henceforth you’ll walk—­and she will chalk
  The line that you’re to travel!