The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-09-13

THE DEGENERATE DAYS.

CAMBRIDGE SATIRE AND VAIL OVER FOLKS AND
THINGS
The world turns mild; democracy, they say,
Rounds the sharp knobs Of character away;
And no great harm, unless at grave expense
Of what needs edge Of proof, the moral sense;
For man OF race is on the downward path
Whose fiber grows too soft for honest wrath.
And there's subtle influence that springs
From words to modify our sense of things.
A plain distinction is Obscured Of late.
Men if they will may pardon; but the state
Forgets it's function if not fixed as fate
So thought our sires; a hundred years ago.
Ii men we've knaves, why, people called them
so,
And crime would see the prison-portal bend
Its brow severe at no long vis'as end;
In those days for plain things plain words
should serve;
Men had not learned to admire the graceful
Swerve
Wherewith the aesthetic natures genial mood
Makes public duty slope to private good;
No muddled conscience raised the saving
doubt;
A soldier proved unworthy was drummed out,
An officer cashiered, a civil servant,
(No matter though his piety We're fervent,) ;,
Disgraceiully dismissed, and through the land
Each bore for life stigma from the brand,
Whose far-heard hiss made others more
averse
To take the facile step from bad to worse.
The ten commandments had meaning then
Felt in their bones by least coNsiderate men,
Because behind them Public Consclenc, stood
And without wincing made their mandate
good.
But not what Craftsmanship" is lust way
To dodge the primal curse and make it pay;
Since office means a kind OF patent drill
To force an entrance to the nations till,
And populations something rather less
Risky than if you spelt it with an S;
hat TO lx,1 ovr- MT.
When rogues the slres, their milder soDs cal
smart,
And Slightly irregular" dilutes the shame
Or what had once somewhat hlunter name.
With generous curve we draw the mora
line;
Our swindlers are permitted to resign;
Their guilt is wrapped in deferential names
And twenty sympathize for one that blames.
Add national disgrace to private crime,
Confront mankind with brazen front sublime
Steal hut enough, the world is unsevere-
Tweed is a statesman, Fisk a tnancier;
Invent mine and be-the Lord knows what
Secure, at any rate, with what you've got.
The public servant hat has stolen or lied,
If called on, may resign with honest pride;
As unjust favor put him in, why doubt
Disfavor, as unjust, has turned him outi
Even if indicted, what is that but fudge
To him who counted in the elective judge?
Whitewashed, he quits the politicians strife
AZ etahe III iHilus Will PoOhcts ultcu IoI Iie,
His lady glares with gems, whose vulgar blaz,
The poor man through his heightened taxes
pays,
Himself content if one huge Kohinoor
1 Bulge from shirt front ampler than before, -
But not too candid, lest it happily tend
To rouse suspicion of the peoples friend;
A public meeting, treated at his cost,
Resolves him back more virtue than he lost;
With character regilt, he counts his gains;
What's gone was air, the solid good remains;
For what is good except what friend and foe
Seem both unanimous in thinking so,
The stocks and bonds which in our age o.
loans
Replace the stupid pagan's stocks and stones.
With choker white, whereon no cynic eye
Dares see idealized hempen tie,
At parish meetings he conducts in prayer,
And pays tor missions-to be sent elseN here
On change respected, to his friends endeared,
Add but a Sunday school class, and he's reveret
And his too early tomb will not be dumb
To point a moral for our youth to come.
J. r. Loreu in the Neic York Nation.