WHEN legislators keep the law, <br />When banks dispense with bolts and looks, <br />When berries--whortle, rasp, and straw-- <br />Grow bigger downwards through the box,-- <br /> <br />When he that selleth house or land <br />Shows leak in roof or flaw in right,-- <br />When haberdashers choose the stand <br />Whose window hath the broadest light,-- <br /> <br />When preachers tell us all they think, <br />And party leaders all they mean,-- <br />When what we pay for, that we drink, <br />From real grape and coffee-bean,-- <br /> <br />When lawyers take what they would give, <br />And doctors give what they would take,-- <br />When city fathers eat to live, <br />Save when they fast for conscience' sake,-- <br /> <br />When one that hath a horse on sale <br />Shall bring his merit to the proof, <br />Without a lie for every nail <br />That holds the iron on the hoof,-- <br /> <br />When in the usual place for rips <br />Our gloves are stitched with special care, <br />And guarded well the whalebone tips <br />Where first umbrellas need repair,-- <br /> <br />When Cuba's weeds have quite forgot <br />The power of suction to resist, <br />And claret-bottles harbor not <br />Such dimples as would hold your fist,-- <br /> <br />When publishers no longer steal, <br />And pay for what they stole before,-- <br />When the first locomotive's wheel <br />Rolls through the Hoosac Tunnel's bore;-- <br /> <br />Till then let Cumming blaze away, <br />And Miller's saints blow up the globe; <br />But when you see that blessed day, <br />Then order your ascension robe.<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/latter-day-warnings/
