Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/124

POEMS OF MANHATTAN Watching, with upturned faces pale,

The scurrying index mark its tale;

Hearing the bid of Israel Freyer,—

That ominous voice, would it never tire?

(If it breaks your firm, if it cracks your heart,)

I'll give One Hundred and Sixty!"

One Hundred and Sixty! Can't be true!

What will the bears-at-forty do?

How will the merchants pay their dues?

How will the country stand the news?

What'll the banks—but listen! hold!

In screwing upward the price of gold

To that dangerous, last, particular peg,

They had killed their Goose with the Golden Egg!

Just there the metal came pouring out,

All ways at once, like a waterspout,

Or a rushing, gushing, yellow flood,

That drenched the bulls wherever they stood!

Small need to open the Washington main,

Their coffer-dams were burst with the strain!

It came by runners, it came by wire,

To answer the bid of Israel Freyer,

It poured in millions from every side,

And almost strangled him as he cried,—

"I'll give One Hundred and Sixty!"

Like Vulcan after Jupiter's kick,

Or the aphoristical Rocket's stick,

Down, down, down, the premium fell,

Faster than this rude rhyme can tell!

Thirty per cent the index slid,

Yet Freyer still kept making his bid,—

—The sudden ruin had crazed his heart, 94