Black Beetles in Amber - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 7

TWO STATESMEN

In that fair city by the inland sea,Where Blaine unhived his Presidential bee,Frank Pixley's meeting with George Gorham sing,Celestial muse, and what events did springFrom the encounter of those mighty sonsOf thunder, and of slaughter, and of guns.Great Gorham first, his yearning tooth to sateAnd give him stomach for the day's debate,Entering a restaurant, with eager mien,Demands an ounce of bacon and a bean.The trembling waiter, by the statesman's eyeSmitten with terror, hastens to comply;Nor chairs nor tables can his speed retard,For famine's fixed and horrible regardHe takes for menace. As he shaking flew,Lo! the portentous Pixley heaved in view!Before him yawned invisible the cell,Unheard, behind, the warden's footsteps fell.Thrice in convention rising to his feet,He thrice had been thrust back into his seat;Thrice had protested, been reminded thriceThe nation had no need of his advice.Balked of his will to set the people right,His soul was gloomy though his hat was white,So fierce his mien, with provident accordThe waiters swarmed him, thinking him a lord.He spurned them, roaring grandly to their chief:"Give me (Fred. Crocker pays) a leg of beef!"His wandering eye's deluminating flameFell upon Gorham and the crisis came!For Pixley scowled and darkness filled the roomTill Gorham's flashing orbs dispelled the gloom.The patrons of the place, by fear dismayed,Sprang to the street and left their scores unpaid.So, when Jove thunders and his lightnings gleamTo sour the milk and curdle, too, the cream,And storm-clouds gather on the shadowed hill,The ass forsakes his hay, the pig his swill.Hotly the heroes now engaged—their breathCame short and hard, as in the throes of death.They clenched their hands, their weapons brandished high,Cut, stabbed, and hewed, nor uttered any cry,But gnashed their teeth and struggled on! In brief,One ate his bacon, t'other one his beef.