Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1911 — The ONLOOKER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The ONLOOKER

by WILBUR D. NESBIT

He always had been mild to man and maid and child, He never said a word that wasn’t" kindly, He never criticised or sharply analyzed His fellows’ deeds, but looked upon • them blindly— And yet his gentleness did not, as you might guess List him among the men we view as noted, He might say pleasant things of commoners and kings , —t ji ■ • But never in the papers was he quoted. He wanted to be known, he would not stand alone, He would not be a meek and humble cipher, So finally he said: “I might as well bo dead If I don’t Join the bludgeoner and knifer. I’ve thought that things were wrong, but let them drift along Disliking to toe wounding others' feelings. I’ve thought men might be pained If I said what they’d gained Might truthfully be mentioned as their stealings. j *Tve held aloof from strife, to lead a happy life, < ! But find that policy to be a loser.’’ ,He then went out and said that banqueters were fed t On liquid things as though each was a boozer; He said our common schools were, raising crops of fools. That women were all simpering and silly; He said that all thfe men were chuckleheads, and then ' .. . - v \ That all the churches were extremely chilly. • He said some caustic things of emperors and kings, He threw some verbal bricks at modern writers; He said that modern art should find the garbage cart, - ) " Our sculpture should be smashed by dy- ' namiters; He said that as a race we held no worthy place. That history would pass us without mention. That marriage was a fraud, that lore should be outlawed— And straightway he commanded full at- > tention. He wrote “Just What I Mean” for Some One’s Magazine, He wrote a. problem novel—’twas a winner; He lectured here and there, he wore a lot of hair. He roasted every one he met at dinner. But O, the wondrous change!“The man who'once was strange To alt the world, today Is called a wonder. The lightning of his wit kas helped a little btt But all enjoy the rolling of his thunder.