The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-08-30
POETRY.
THE DEFECTIVE NAIL.
BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.
Hooked at carpenter mailing one day
Some weather boards on in a wOrkmanllke
And saw that the claw of the hammer he clap
ped
To nail, which the moment before he had
tapped,
And drawing it out, threw it by with jerk;
Took another instead, and went on with his
work.
ssWhat's that for ?' asked him. "Have nails
grown SO cheap
That you toss them away as too worthless to
keepp'
s'No'' he answered, "it bent in the driving,
and 50,
Lest it make bad job, to the ground it must
go.
We draw while we're able,'' he said, with a
grin.
"For ecan't pull it out, once We hammer it
When the nail had been followed by one that
was good,
The mark had been made by the base Of the
Through the strong force exerted the bent nail
to draw;
And there the depression, to eyesight quite
plain,
Though twice painted over, will doubtless re-
main.
No marvellous incident, certainly, still
1t set me to thinking, as little things WILL
How habits, like nails, be they wrong ones or
right,
Can't be drawn from their places when nam
mered in tight
And, though drawn ere they sink ITO the head,
leave behind,
By their drawing, some traces on body and
mind.
When young man seeks money, and nothing
And, quoting Ben Franklin his meanness to
hide,
Does small things for peif and, with muck
rake III hand,
Shows the crown overhead, petty gains to com
mand.
Though it end in that wealth he is anxious to
will,
He has struck a bent nail, and has hammered
itin..
When dashing young man, at the outset OF
life,
Who has won some pure maiden, and made
her his wife,
Leaves his home and his wife for some low,
murky den,
When he drinks and carouses with dissolute
men,
y i ne HAL ne Is uTlVlIl8 may cTOOkeU u SILL
Better pull it out quickly not hammer it in.
When some neighbor of those sees their faults
through glass,
That makes them too large for the censor to
pass,
And, with sense of their wickedness, right
eously hot
Calls one a mere miser, the other a sot-
He is handling nail that is not worth pin,
Like corkscrew twill twist if he hammer it in.
When a girl shows the world that she surely
thinks less
OF her culture and conduct than gadding and
dress;
When she eagerly seeks for confab with
those
Whose talk solely runs upon dresses and
beaux,
Neglecting home duties some street yarn to
spin
That nail will give trouble if once hammered
When wife finds her temper grow peevish
and sour,
And the tones that once charmed her have lost
all their power;
When She scolds till her husband in fury and
PAIN,
Like q fool, in whisky seeks oblivion to gam
'Twere better by far did she never begin
To tap on that nail, much less hammer it in
When some woman-wiie, widow or splnster,
the same
Too eager to blow the dull Goals to \ flame
The faults OF her sisters brings closer TO view,
Calling this one street gadder and that one a
shrew,
Her nail has a flaw, is ill-shapen and thin,
As she'll find to her cost when she hammers il
i'll.
Enough for the lesson. The nails that VIZ
drive,
Not through boards that are pulseless, bu,
frames that are live,
Examine them WELL closely scan ere too late;
Should they prove Of firm mental, well-cu
and quite straight,
Regardless OF sneering, or clamor. or din,
Place each where it should be, and hammer i
in