The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1908-05-14
THE PRINCETON UNION:
SAINT PETER AT THE GATE.

SAINT PETER AT THE GATE.
st. Peter stood at the golden gate
With a solemn mien and an air sedate,
When up at the top of the golden stair
A man and woman ascending there,
Applied for admission. They came
and stood
Before St. Peter, so great and good,
In hope the City of Peace to win,
And asked st. Peter to let them in.
The woman was tall and lank and thin;
With scraggy beardlet upon her chin,
The man was short and thick and stout,
His stomach was built so it rounded
out;
His face was pleasant, and all the
while
He wore kindly and genial smile;
The choirs in the distance the echoes
awoke,
And the man kept still while the wo-
man spoke.
80, thou who guardest the gate,"
said she,
''We come up hither, beseeching thee
To let US enter the heavenly land,
And play our harps with the heavenly
band.
Of me, St. Peter, there is no doubt,
There's nothing from Heaven to bar
me out;
I've been to meeting three times
week,
And almost always I'd rise to speak.
"I've told the sinners about the day
When they'd repent of their evil way;
I've told my neighbors- told
them all
Bout Adam and Eve and the primal
fall,
I've shown them what they ID have to do
If they'd pass in with the chosen few,
I've marked their path of duty clear,
Laid out the plan of their whole career.
"I've talked and talked to them loud
and long,
For my lungs are good and my voice
is strong;
So, good St: Peter, you'll clearly see
The gate of Heaven is open for me;
But my old man, regret to say,
Hasn't walked exactly the narrow way.
He smokes and chews and grave faults
he's got,
And I don't know whether he'll pass
or not.
"He never would pray with an earnest
vim,
Or go to revival or join in a hymn;
So I had to leave him in sorrow there
While I in my purity said my prayer;
He ate what the pantry chose to afford,
While [ sang at church in sweet accord;
And if cucumbers were all he got,
It's chance if he merited them or not.
"But O, St. Peter, I love him so,
To the pleasures of Heaven please let
him go;
I've done enough-a saint I've been.
Won't that atone? Can't you let him
in?
| But in my grim gospel I know tits so,
That the unrepentant must fry below;
But ism It there some way you can see
That he may enter, who's dear to ne?
"It's narrow gospel by which I pray,
But the chosen expect to find the way
Of coaxing or fooling or bribing you
So that their relations can amble
through;
And say, St. Peter, it seems to me
This gate isn't kept as it ought to be,
You ought to stand right by the open
| ing there,
And never sit down in that easy chair.
"An 1im say, St. Peter my sight is
But I don't like the way your whiskers
are trimmed:
There re cut too vide and outward
toss;
They'd look better narrow, cut
straight across,
Well, we must be going, our corwns
So open, St. Peter, and we'll pass in. :"
St. Peter sat quiet, he stroked his
But in spite Of his Office he had to
laugh:
Then he said, with a fiery CLEAN in
his eye,
"Who's tending this gate, you or ~"
| And then he arose in his stature tall,
! And pressed the button upon the wall,
And said to the imp who answered the
bell,
"Escort this lady down to-Hades. "
The man stood still as a piece of stone
Stood sadly, gloomily there along:
A lifelong settled idea he had
That his wife was good and he was
bad;.
He thoug ht if the woman went down
below,
That he would certainly have to go;
That if she went to the regions dim,
There wasn't a ghost of a chance for
him.
Slowly he turned, by habit bent,
To follow wherever the woman went.
St. Peter standing on duty there
Observed that the top of his head was
bare,
He called the gentleman back and said,
Friend, how long have you been
wed?'
Thirty years" with a weary sigh,
And then he thoughtfully added,
'Why?"
St. Peter was silent.
With eye cast down.
He raised his head and scratched his
crown;
Then seeming a different thought to