Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1918 — TAKE IT FROM FATHER [ARTICLE]

TAKE IT FROM FATHER

Son, I haven’t much to tell you. I have learned that good advice is A prescription which but few of us will take. And my long and windy arguments might forsake You in a crisis— And besides 5 you’ve got your own career to make; I have just this bit of counsel which may help you go the distance With no useless or, unnecessary stop, As you mingle in the melee of the struggle for existence ’ Don’t you ever try to argue with a cop! There are plenty of adventures which a man may get away with, Though the world proclaim them hopeless from the start; You may find a whirring buzz-saw is a pretty thing to play with, And at times a Bengal tiger has a heart; Youth is always doing wonders .and forevermore achieving While the sages sneer and prophesy a Hop; But there are some final limits, it’s a fact that’s worth believing, So don’t ever try to argue with a cop! You might swim the Whirlpool Rapids, you might butt your way through granite. You might set the Mississippi all aflame; But debating With policemen—take a tip from dad, and can it— For the issue is infallibly the same; You are licked before you’ve started with your futile protestations. So just do the way he tells you, on the hop, And unless you have a fancy for a jail’s accommodations Don’t you ever try to argue with a cop! —Berton Braley, in Saturday Evening Post.