The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-02-02
PRUDENCE rRuE,s CRAZY QUILT.

In seventeen hundred seventytwo.
Did the good maiden, Prudence True,
A sanity soul. devoid OF guilt,
Begin her famous crazy quilt.
And told her helpmeet, Goodman True,
Shed finish In a month or two,
And Goodman True, as good men do.
Believed his good wife, Prudence True.
And when he founl his supper late.
Brave Goodman True in silence safe,
And waited till his good wife built
Another square of crazy quilt.
lie did not rave or loudly speak
Much married life had made him meek
For he had learned from his sweet bride
A husbands part Is to subside,
To sit serene, composed and dunno.
And in domestic peace succumb.
He on the martyr plan was built.
And lived martyr to that quilt.
Good Prudence True, as good DANES do,
Each day her loved task would pursue,
Each evening her brave husband tried
To look content and edited,
And those slow. patient hours beguile
With his sad, long-enduring smile;
Long years did that poor, sad soul wilt.
Then die at iast-of crazy quilt.
Long years passed on and Widow Prue
Toiled on. as all good widows do.
And in her calm seclusion curled;
Heard not the voices of the world.
The echoes OF the Concord fight,
The battle fought on Bunkers Height,
The cannonade from Yorktown blown,
That scared King George upon his throne.
She needed as a trivial thing.
For what are conqueror or king
To good dame whose life Is built
Into her darling crazy quiltY
She never thought If she preferred
George Washington TO George the Third;
Her quilt was life's supremest thing,
Both under president and king.
While loyal 10 her quilt and true,
She thought. that either George would do
Gray full OF years. the good soul died,
And passed on 10 the glorified,
And left this scene Of woe and guilt
And her unfinished crazy quilt.
And then her youngest daughter Ruth,
In all the hopefulness OF youth.
That knows no obstacle or fears.
Took up the mighty task of years
Her smile was sweet, her eyes were bT1gAt.
Her touch was fairy-like and hight;
And lovers read within her eyes
The tale Of happy destinies;
And many came ana kneit ana suea;
But on the Quilt her eyes We're glued
She saw them not as there they knett-
Loves hurting dart she never tslt-
But gave them all TO UNDERSTAND
She had mission great ana stahI'
noble and exalted ann
ReyonE preposterous Cupid,s claim:
\ great ambition. grand ana high.
To finish up that Quit anu ole'
Ard brave Ruth kept her purpose good
Through fourScoTe years OF mliueialool.
And SO she lived and died a maid.
And when she in the grave was latd,
Her sisters youngest daughter, Sue,
Took her unfinished quit 10 90
Meantime old empires passed away.
ola Kingdoms fell m slow decay,
And senile monarChs, weary grown,
Slippei down from many totteIlns
Ola re S1,i ms we're conquered by their foes,
ora Kingdoms fell. new nations rose
And long engendered wars thar tent
Tn, bases Of 4 continent
Swept on their pata OF ire AMI death
And shrfvelled with their fatal nTealn
me slog-butIt fabric OF the years.
Ard left a track 81 llood and tears
Rut while the Rh'rliug world did range
Adown The ringing grooves OF ch4hSs.
While Times TesistieSs Snffent HoW@d
Young Sue she sewed ana sewed ana seNeo
Ana s.swe5 ana sewed and sloHly calit
The squares upon that crazy quart.
And now she's old and bent and gray.
Her Youthful friends have passed away,
Her loving husbands TOMB Is boilt-
Rut she stin works upon her cunt.
And now deserted and fofiorh'
M generations Yet UNBORN,
when she has left this wofil OF sHllI
she'll pass along her crazy quit
In SIX short days the world was done,
The world the planets ana ne SUM-
Tt,st in a hundred years are oeat
a fraction OF a crazy CUNT , -,