“Some time afterward, it was reported to me by the city officers that they had ferreted out the paper and its editor; that his office was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and his supporters a few very insignificant persons of all colors.”
—Letter of H. G. OTIS.
IN a small chamber, friendless and unseen,
Toiled o’er his types one poor,...
From “a Fable for Critics”
LET us glance for a moment, ’t is well worth the pains,
And note what an average grave-yard contains;
There lie levellers levelled, duns done up themselves,
There are booksellers finally laid on their shelves,
Horizontally there lie upright politicians,
Dose-a-dose with their patients sleep faultless physicians,
...
From “a Fable for Critics”
THERE are truths you Americans need to be told,
And it never ’ll refute them to swagger and scold;
John Bull, looking o’er the Atlantic, in choler.
At your aptness for trade, says you worship the dollar;
But to scorn i-dollar-try ’s what very few do,
And John goes to that church as often as you do.
No matter what...
From “The Biglow Papers,” No. III.
GUVENER B. 1 is a sensible man;
He stays to his home an’ looks arter his folks;
He draws his furrer ez straight ez he can,
An’ into nobody’s tater-patch pokes;—
But John P.
Robinson he
Sez he wunt vote for Guvener B.
My! ain’t it terrible? Wut shall we du?...
