While I was handling Dom Pedro <br />I got at the thing that divides the race between men who are <br />For singing "Turkey in the straw" or "There is a fountain filled with blood" -- <br />(Like Rile Potter used to sing it over at Concord); <br />For cards, or for Rev. Peet's lecture on the holy land; <br />For skipping the light fantastic, or passing the plate; <br />For Pinafore, or a Sunday school cantata; <br />For men, or for money; <br />For the people or against them. <br />This was it: <br />Rev. Peet and the Social Purity Club, <br />Headed by Ben Pantier's wife, <br />Went to the Village trustees, <br />And asked them to make me take Dom Pedro <br />From the barn of Wash McNeely, there at the edge of town, <br />To a barn outside of the corporation, <br />On the ground that it corrupted public morals. <br />Well, Ben Pantier and Fiddler Jones saved the day -- <br />They thought it a slam on colts.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/jim-brown/
