• Author: Various
• Editor: Murphy, Francis A.
• Newspaper: The Eastern Echo volume 8
• Page Number:
• Date: 06 Summer 1963
• Tags:
• poetry

The Chair's Plea by George Melden

O’ Lady of ultimate Justice Extending your mercy rare, Lend ear where the ash and the dust is, To me your electric chair.

For years I have faithfully striven To serve as your perfect tool, While death’s embrace | have given The famished, the weak and the fool.

Each life you have called forfeit, I fried it, Indulging your lust to kill, Each qualm that brought torture I'd hide it While serving your iron will.

My soul is now weary and sick of The common blood you abhor, It yearns for what I’ve had no pick of And thirsts for a richer gore.

I’m tired of the spawn of the gutter, The fool and the drunken rake, I’m sick of my bread without butter And crave for a Human cake.

O Harlot of Death, change my diet, Add spice to my bill of fare; Tradition’s enslaving, but try it— And send me a millionaire.

'The Guy in the Glass'

M. B. Smith June 1912

(Submitted by Rev. Ted V. Voorhees) THE “KEYSTONE,” Pitt., Pa.

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf, And the world makes you King for a day, Then go to a mirror and look at yourself, And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife, Who judgment upon you must pass, The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest, For he’s with you clear up to the end, And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test, If the guy in the glass Is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum, And think you’re a wonderful guy, But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years, And get pats on the back as you pass, But your final reward will be heartaches and tears If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.