Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/125

ISRAEL FREYER'S BID FOR GOLD Shattered his senses, cracked his brain,

And left him crying again and again,—

Still making his bid at the market's top

(Like the Dutchman's leg that never could stop,)

Till they dragged him, howling, off the floor.

The very last words that seller and buyer

Heard from the mouth of Israel Freyer—

A cry to remember long as they live—

Were, "I'll take Five Millions more! I'll give,—

I'll give One Hundred and Sixty!"

Suppose (to avoid the appearance of evil)

There's such a thing as a Personal Devil,

It would seem that his Highness here got hold,

For once, of a bellowing Bull in Gold!

Whether bull or bear, it would n't much matter

Should Israel Freyer keep up his clatter

On earth or under it (as, they say,

He is doomed) till the general Judgment Day,

When the Clerk, as he cites him to answer for 't,

Shall bid him keep silence in that Court!

But it matters most, as it seems to me,

That my countrymen, great and strong and free,

So marvel at fellows who seem to win,

That if even a Clown can only begin

By stealing a railroad, and use its purse

For cornering stocks and gold, or—worse—

For buying a Judge and Legislature,

And sinking still lower poor human nature,

The gaping public, whatever befall,

Will swallow him, tandem, harlots, and all!

While our rich men drivel and stand amazed

At the dust and pother his gang have raised,

And make us remember a nursery tale

Of the four-and-twenty who feared one snail.

95