“Breathes there such a being, O ceruleo Nasal
Or is he a mythus, ancient name for humbug
Such as Livy told about the wolf that wet-nursed
Romulus and Remus.
“Was he born of woman, this alleged De Sauty,
Or a living product of galvanic action
Like the Acarus bred in Crosse’s flint solution
Speak thou Cyano Rhynal.”
BLUE NOSE.
“Many things thou askest, Jacknife-bearing stranger,
Much conjecturing mortal, pork and treacle waster
Pretermit thy whitling wheel thine earflap towards me
Thou shalt hear them answered.
“When the charge galvanic tingled through the cable
At the polar focus of the wire electric,
Suddenly appeared, a white faced man among us,
Called himself De Sauty.
“As the small opossum held in pouch maternal
Grasps the nutrient organ whence the term mammalia,
So the unknown stranger held the wire electric
Sucking in the current.
“When the current strengthened, bloomed the pale-faced stranger,
Took no food or victual, yet grew fat and rosy,
And, from time to time in sharp articulation
Said, ‘All right,’ De Sauty.
“From the lonely station passed the utterance spreading
Through the pines and hemlocks to the grove of steeples,
Till the land was filled with loud reverberations
Of ‘All right,’ De Sauty.
“When the current slackened drooped the mystic stranger,
Faded, Faded, Faded as the stream grew weaker
Wasted to a shadow with a hartshorn odor
Of disintegration.
“Drops of deliquescence glistened from his forehead
Whitened round his feet the dust of efflorescence,
Till one Monday morning when the flow suspended
There was no De Sauty.