Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-12
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THE WORM TURNS.
by Don Marquis in New York SUM.
This is the lament of the bourgeois, of
the middle classes, Of the COM
monplace majorities,
or who / am which;
This is the song of the ant
He laboreth all the summer,
And passeth his time in frugal labor.
And some big boob Of robin eats
him,
Or he falleth' prey to = spider,
And as he entereth the gizzard Of his
destroyer he murmureth to him
self:
"Wot't'eil? Was it for this that ! en-
dured tha heat and burden OF
the day
With the sweat running down In my
eyes,"
This is the plant of the bee;
She maketh honey.
She devoteth her life to making honey
that she may eat thereof
And her days be long IN the land,
And there cometh crooked old
apiarist
Or whatever you call him
With horny hands and robbeth her
hive,
And she stingeth herself to death cry
ing:
"Bilked! Bilked! Bilked!"
This IL the wall Of the middle classes,
This is the plant Of the majorities,
OF them that are neither plutocrats
nor yet socialists.
Nor millionaires, nor yet anarchists,
OF who / am which.
He is cussed from Sheridan square to
the Nevsky PrOspekt,
Even from Greenwich Village to Pet
rograd;
Neither from Lenine nor from Bernard
Shaw nor from Fothefgil Finch
getteth he good word,
He is anathema to the anarchist.
And the capitalist kicketh him In the
Stats,
And rolleth him down hill,
And taketh from him the wad where
with he had planned to pay the
rent.
Is there a government Of the capital
lists?
Is there a plutocratic government?
<hnra m n1foo rch0y ~ rnnnov7
Is there an empire?
Is there a conservative frameup?
Then doth the bourgeois, the middle
\ class, accumulate its little store
In the sweat OF its bean,
And if it kicketh what say the rulers
and the tax CATERERS
To the middle class ?-They say:
Go to-, Thou art able to pay,
And pay thou shalt or be evicted!"
And the Bourgeois diggeth into his
jeans and payeth.
Do the radicals triumph?
Is there little group of revolution
aries on the job?
Are the extremists in the saddle?
ID the country being ruled Over the
Left?
What do the revolutionists say,
Even them that call themselves lib
erals and the hope of democ-
racy?.They say:
Go to! Thou are bourgeois! Thou
art middle class!
Thou art worse than the capitalist, for
you have his notions
Without his power,
Therefore thou shalt pay,
Swine that thou art!
Aforetime it was written that the en-
perors and the capitalists
Should give the thy choice between
thy money and thy life;
But now we say unto thee that thou
shalt have no choice
We want both,
Hand them over and with ID few
words!"
And he handeth them over.
Who is it that is the Horrible Exam
pie Of the Artist?
The Middle Glass
Snug he is called, and unimaginatiye.
And he is damned from Rotterdam to
Damascus
What saith the Intellectual,
Even he that gathereth into little
groups
And putteth the sign intellectual"
upon his forehead,
Lest, hearing him speak, and hearken-
ing unto his words,
The world should not know that he
hath Intellect?
What saith the intellectual?
He saith: Stupid!
Bourgeois!
Verify. he is worse than the capitalist.
For that he will not fall for me,
And without him my claim to be The
Majorities is nothing!
Therefore his bean to the block and
his nut to the guillotine,
And in the fullness OF time,
When the ways of Righteousness and
revolution shall be established
on this earth,
I shall inherit his estate"
This is one small installment Of the
plant
OF the middle classes,
OF the majorities,
OF who l. am which
And there IL more to come,