I saw two youths: both were fair in the face, <br />They had set out foot to foot in life's race; <br />But one said to the other, 'I say now, my brother, <br />You are going a little too slow; <br />The world will look on, and say, 'See Josy John,' <br />We must put on more style, now, you know.' <br /> <br /> <br />So he tipped a plug hat on one side of his pate, <br />And strutted along with a Jockey Club gait; <br />And he carried a cane, and said, 'It is plain, <br />I am too fine a fellow to toil. <br />I can gamble and bet, and a good living get; <br />But my hands are too pretty to soil. <br /> <br /> <br />'My friend in the rear, you are slow, I am fast; <br />I am up with the times-I am first, you are last. <br />So I guess I will leave you-aw, if it won't grieve you; <br />I'll wait for you when I get through; <br />Or, when up on the hill, I'll remem-bah you still, <br />And-aw, mayhap I'll come and help you.' <br /> <br /> <br />I saw him pass on with a strut through the street; <br />Saw him stopped by a score of 'good boys' for a treat. <br />While the calm 'Josy John' went quietly on, <br />And kept his lips free from the bowl; <br />Worked at whatever came, turned from sin and from shame, <br />And wrote 'Purity,' 'Truth,' in his soul. <br /> <br /> <br />I saw two men: one was fair to behold; <br />The other, a drunken sot, bloated and bold. <br />One stood on the mountain and drank of God's fountain, <br />The other drank beer in the street. <br />Yet both started alike; but one made a 'strike,' <br />Which ended, you see, in defeat.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/what-i-have-seen-3/
