The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-02-07
THE KNAyE MAKERS.

So thin their blood it could not inspissate
10 swell aud warm and fire at country'S fate,
Those pygmean hearts that were alas too small
10 beat impulSive to their cOuniry'S call;
Or nerve the men, grown deaf IN slaySh fears,
10 heed a Nation thund ring in their ears.
Thank God they go! the stables then may
stand,
And reek and rot-until the brain and hand
OF Herc.les shall turn the swollen stream
OF outraged sense on that they love TO deem
Too clean for purge heroic, though OH brink
of something more than an immoral stink.
TeXaSward the course of Crime takes its way,
And holds o'cr law its stern unyielding sway
And Anareh hnds her greatest strength Ill
Who aid the Devil with a host of rules
Blown from mass of mdigested schemes,
To help themselves-and equalIze the beams
OF Justice in such way, that Right and Wrong
Shall in harmonious phalanN move along
10 yindicate that statesman, at the polls,
Whose equal merit Right and Wrong eXtOlS,
What need to cavil if the carcass speak,
And justify the yulture's bloody beak
What need, but that part Is still alive,
And feels and strikes So long rs it survive!
Turn to the North and view the hungry brood
Steal from their dens TO deeds OF blood for
food;
Yet, in that land-where hunger often speaks
Its madness unreStrained-mark him who
breaks
The law. Whate'er the cause of his abuse,
In other crimes for his finds no excuse.
Yet here in this bIest Land where Nature
smiles,
And woos to comfort with her sweetest wiles
And State and Nature aid to live and learn;
Where Weakness, unabaShed by side of Might,
PursueS its path secure in ev'ry right;
Where soul, and mind, and b dy all are free
Alas! is found the germs of Anarchy!
Here men i'll turn play Communist and VAN
DIAL
And Legislators fear to check the scandal!
Here blatant fools and knaves contend the
floor,
To waste their time in probing Nonsense to the
core.
The Judgment of Billy goat they show,
In chasing Bombinanto throu-h Nacuo.
With zeal OF whet ling lung and creaking JOINT,
Hound down fly Speck on a needles point,
Ere they have caught and bound it TO the rack
Who only ape the Statesmen gone before,
BY passing through leg slati door,
Who think the State located In their section,
And Wisdom dead save i'll their own direction
Nor Scruple they to count a sections need,
Above ten thousand hearts elsewhere that
bleed;
Who use the Constitution like whore,
And under Loves pretenSe abuse the more:
At shadows of fact they start and buck;
With every craze of fancy run muck;
With giant words DOrtentOuS learning show,
Most eloquent to tell what least they know;
And show the lOftieSt thing that daZZleS Fame,
Must certain be that one euphOneOus name.
They aimed at nothing and they hit the mark,
And what they found obscure they leave more
dark
Hope called them here the open way TO show;
Despair on crooked paths has seen them go.
Though from poor man his blessings fast are
reft
This solace-it might still be worsn-is left
If but one extra sessions cursed by you,
Think, friend, how beSS'd you are It's not two
Now that men are too base to act, fOrsOo:h,
The Heavens redden at the shameful truth;
And natures blush incarnadin' the West
AS each new day OF shame is laid to rest;