HKB
for my girl. I got the job And here I am to-day; I've flourished here, Worked to the top in Fairbanks in eight years, And thus my hat blew off.
What of the girl? Six weeks or more a letter came from her, She crossed the Arctic Circle, went to Nome, Sailed back to 'Frisco where she wrote to me. Sent all the money back I loaned to her, And thanked me for the honor I had done her In asking her in marriage, but had thought The matter over, could not marry me, Thought in the circumstances it was useless To come to Fairbanks, see me, tell me so.
Now, Bill, I'm egotist enough to think This girl could do no better. Now it seems She's dead and never married--why not me? Why did she ditch me? So I thought about it, Was piqued of course, concluded in the end There was another man. A woman's no Means she has someone else, expects to have, More suited to her fancy. Then one morning As I awoke with thoughts of her as usual Right in my mind there plumped an incident On shipboard when she asked me if I knew A certain man in Chicago. At the time The question passed amid our running talk, And made no memory. But you watch and see A woman when she asks you if you know A certain man, the chances are the man Is something in her life. So now I lay And thought there is a man, and that's the man; His name is stored away, I'll dig it up Out of the cells subliminal--so I thought But could not bring it back.
I found at last The telephone directory of Chicago, And searched and searched the names from A to Z. Some mornings would pronounce a name and think That is the name, then throw the name away-- It did not fit the echo in my brain.
But now at last--look here! Eight years are gone, I'm healed of Elenor Murray, married too; And read about her death here in the Times, And turn the pages over--column five-- Chicago startled by a suicide-- Gregory Wenner kills himself--behold The name, at last, she spoke!
So much for waters in Alaska. Now Turn eyes upon the waters nearer home. Anton Sosnowski has a fateful day And Winthrop Marion runs the story down, And learns Sosnowski read the Times the day, He broke from brooding to a dreadful deed; Sosnowski saw the face of Elenor Murray And Rufus Fox upon the self-same page, And afterwards was known to show a clipping Concerning Elenor Murray and the banner Of Joan of Arc, the words she wrote and folded Within the banner: to be brave, nor flinch.
ANTON SOSNOWSKI
Anton Sosnowski, from the Shakspeare School Where he assists the janitor, sweeps and dusts, The day now done, sits by a smeared up table Munching coarse bread and drinking beer; before him The evening paper spread, held down or turned By claw-like hands, covered with shiny scars. He broods upon the war news, and his fate Which keeps him from the war, looks up and sees His scarred face in the mirror over the wainscot; His lashless eyes and browless brows and head With patches of thin hair. And then he mutters Hot curses to himself and turns the paper And curses Germany, and asks revenge For Poland's wrongs.