Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-20

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ALEXANDER PHILIPSON
c'The Low-Brow Olyn,pus')
ND PHILIP the ruler of Macedon, had
\ A son, Alexander-onef fine strapplng lad
Kings worked for their wages in that distant day,
They had to deliver the good or passay.
The satraps who managed to hold to their jobs
Wore hardware instead Of gold hats on their knobs
No semi chinned joker, with number IL neck
Gould pass for king in the ancient Greek deck
As Homer would say, "Gad to meet you-good-by,
We are saving this throne for a regular guy.
Thebes, Tyre Miletus in turn sicked their princes
On Alex and he made the bunch look like ounces
The foremen of Persia and Ind raised their slogans
Of battle against him and then licked his brogans
Till the banks Of the Nile and the shores of the Ganges
Were lined with the loot of his bronze shod phalanges
Now the ancents we're great folk to ponder and fiddle
Their wits puzzle and many riddle
The Old Greeks 1nvented-sone harder than thunder
But the Gordian knot beat them all-'twas wonder
Whoever united it, the tradition
Would bring the whole world to his feet in submission
Philosophers sages and emperors tried it.
The soldier the trader the priest-none united it.
By the gods, there is way with this knot to deal
"The riddle is plain and the is STEEL
"Who conquers all kings must prevail with the sword
Alexander exclaimed he slasked through the cord.
'No who meant to do lot
Was thwarted by not"
Repair Shops and Garbage Plants
BECAUSE you probably belong in Jail and may
IL yet serve your stretch, prison reform deserves
your close attention.
Nine out of ten men can't face Judge Conscience
and escape sentence.
Most Of us have, in degree broken of the laws
and committed a few Of the crimes for which the
average zebra" his stripes
Do you mean to say that you took part in a
stone battle raded an orchard or discovered" quar-
ter on circus daye
= Are you willing to submit every transaction OF
your business career to the dlStr1ctattOrneyS Officer
And how about the 'almosts'-what and where
would you be to-day if lucky circumstance and self
control had not served you?
Half the inmates of our penitentares
worse, at the time of their commitment, than the
of the outside community.
They were caught. Luck stood against them. They
couldn't hold their tempers. They over-played weak
hands. Some merely mischievous boys who
didn't run fast enough after the lamp broken.
Some threw stone too straight.
Of course, there are "congenital" criminals. But
that's just another name for detectives. They had
bad parents weak They lived in terrible
neghborhoods They chose the wrong grandfathers.
They're paying for the debaucheries and diseases of
dead men. A lot Of them belong in the hospitals
percentage in the insane asylums.
But there thousands of poor devils damned to
the cells by single flaw Of judgment, and thousands
Of hotheads whom God didn't equip with quick
enough brakes.
We can use nine-tenths Of 'em again.
The State can i'll afford to lose the utility of sin
gle man. Society is poorly served by system of
ofcialized revenge. It's unintelligent to eliminate
any citizen from calculations until have dem
onstrated his congental confirmed unftness for
further communal service.
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