Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/130

POEMS OF MANHATTAN Like a house, or a horse and carriage!

Midnight talks,

Moonlight walks,

The glance of the eye and sweetheart sigh,

The shadowy haunts with no one by,

I do not wish to disparage;

But every kiss

Has a price for its bliss,

In the modern code of marriage;

And the compact sweet

Is not complete,

Till the high contracting parties meet

Before the altar of Mammon;

And the bride must be led to a silver bower,

Where pearls and rubies fall in a shower

That would frighten Jupiter Ammon!

I need not tell

How it befell,

(Since Jenkins has told the story

Over and over and over again,

In a style I cannot hope to attain,

And covered himself with glory!)

How it befell, one Summer's day,

The King of the Cubans strolled this way,—

King January 's his name, they say,—

And fell in love with the Princess May,

The reigning belle of Manhattan;

Nor how he began to smirk and sue,

And dress as lovers who come to woo,

Or as Max Maretzek and Jullien do,

When they sit, full-bloomed, in the ladies' view,

And flourish the wondrous baton.

He was n't one of your Polish nobles,

Whose presence their country somehow troubles,

And so our cities receive them; 100