The Washington critic., 1889-03-02
THE sANpAL-MAKEn OF BABYLON

He was rather pictrres lue old man aud
built prettily complex plan,
With grim ability, never hid, to superintend
what others did,
And state-an efforts race being run
how things that were done should have
been done.
Nought e'er was made but he could tell
how he could have made II twice as well;
Nought c'er destroyed but he would bet
that he could have smashed It finer yet.
And this erratim of mankind sat all day,
moral and mentel cat,
And threw the claws Of HIS intellect at
every merit aud defect,
Aud into the palace and the cot, and into
what men were and were not,
And into the deeds they struggled throughi
and into the things they failed to do,
Using the most uncalled-for cares with
other people and their affairs,
And viewed with supcrcilious smile the
work Of the world, and made, mean
while,
The poorest sandals under the sun--the san
dalmaker of Babylon.
No one was ever, since earth began, relig-
i0us enough to please this man;
No one to the gods e'er bowed knee that
could have done II as low as he;
The tower of Bclus itself, he thought, ~
men had buildcd Il rs they ought,
Had been much pleasnnter to the eye, and
several hundred times as high.
lie knew just how II came to pass that Me-
buchadnozzar was fed with grass;
Could he have only had his way, the mon
arch's feed should have been of hay.
In fact no person, high or low, had fault
to conceal or merit to show,
But he could figure It to notch, and hold
ii up to the world to watch.
And yet, withal, his moral gait was that of
deep old reprobate,
Full Of foolish actions shrewdly done the
sandal-maker Of Babylon.
No man was better able to tell how deal
men might be living and well.
He knew the parts of the human frame,
and every organ he called by name.
A theory Of his own had he, that man wasn't
made as he ought to be;
Could have creation by him been done the
job would have been a better one.
No III to mankind ever came, but he had
remedies for the same,
suffering man was dead.
And yet, IN spite of his mental wealth, he
never had any kind of health.
The sickliest creature under the sun was
the sandal-maker of Babylon.
You'd think, to hear him talk, that he in-
vented money itself. He'd sec
| The gonc-by chances Of every trade-how
every bargain should have been made.
He'd tell the rich why they were so; the
poor, why they were not; could show
| How even the kings great national purse
might have been managed better or
worse.
| Yet had lie one financial lack; he might be
Kicked to Susa and back,
An not a coin of any shape from his ha6ii
ments would escape;
| Wealth always had contriycd to shun the
sandal-maker of Babylon.
But he began, unluclly elf, at criticising the
king himself
And so his head, as one might say, endaug-
cred even itself one day;
For soon the king, with humorous sense,
requested of him an audience;
And said: 81 have heard you cannot live
beneath such government as / give;
| There's no necessity for the same, aud no
one but ourselves to blame.
So, sage Of the lapstone, do not greve;
will give you every chance to leave;
This gallOws you shall be hanged upon, O,
sandal-maker of Babylon ~
The engine of death the old man scanned,
and murmuredn in accents soft and
bland,
"Well, hang, If II does you any good; but
want It expressly understood
That were this gallows made by me, dead
lier weapon It would be.
go to the other world; no doubt things
over there need strengthening out.n
The monarch laughed, and lightly said:
"You'd be nuisance, alive or deal.
Go back to your stall aud pound away, and
think your thinkings and say your say.n
"a foolish plan you have hit upon,'' said
the sandsl-maker of Babylon.
And never again the old man sta'd one
happy day at his double trade.
~ do not like To retain my head by any
body's permit he said.
'If king were ! and the king, wouldn't
have spared him for anything"
And slow and surely, day by day, he lost
his vigor and pinned away.
They found him lying dead alone-sad
sandal-maker of Babylon.
And even now throughout this earth Il tell
the story for what tits WORTH
They say his restless spirit runs, and makes
its home with various oucs.
Few families are SO happy they have not a
visit from him some day;
Few towns so blessed with fortunes smile
that he doesn't live there for while.
lie will find fault till earth Is done-erank
sandal-maker of Babylon.
--IWnl Carleton in IIarper's Weekly.