The poem was severely criticised in several of the prudish American papers, and assigned by some of them to the pen of A. C. Swinburne, although as unlike his style as anything could well be.
The controversy that arose created a tremendous demand for the poem, and many thousands of copies were sold in a few days, from which however, the author derived no benefit whatever, owing to the disgraceful state of the international copyright, or want of copyright.
As Mrs. Kendal has recited the poem in public on several occasions, it may be taken for granted that it contains nothing indelicate, or objectionable, although the outcry raised in the States was so great that the principal newspapers took sides on the question, and debated the merits of the poem with almost as much heat as a Presidential Election. One well-known humorist attempted to ridicule “Ostler Joe” in the following ballad:—
Teamster Jim.
It ain’t jest the story, Parson, to tell in a crowd like this,
With the virtuous maiden a-frownin’ an’ chidin’ the giggling miss,
An’ the good old deacon a-noddin’, in time with his patient snores,
An’ the shocked elect of the Capital, stalkin’ away through the doors.
But then, it’s a story that happened, an’ every word of it’s true,
An’ sometimes we can’t help talkin’ of the things that we sometimes do.