"Pansy-girl refuses to occur?"
So much for the Poet and his Purpose. Should any one of the readers of this Cycle doubt the enduring greatness of the lines, let him consider that I, Wolfgang Copernicus Addleburger, have seen fit to introduce them to immortality.
(1) Since the salary-books of the Metropolitan Street
Railways show, during the year 1906, 182 conductors named
Smith in their employ, 38 of whom were named William Smith
and 12 William Henry Smith, it is easy for the reader to
conceive my task in establishing the identity of our Poet.
W. C. A.
THE LOVE SONNETS OF A CAR CONDUCTOR
PROLOGUE
Did some one ask if I am on the job?
I sure am to the pay-roll with my lay,
A hot tabasco-poultice which will stay
Close to the ribs and answer throb-to-throb.
Here have I chewed my Music from the cob
And followed Passion from the get-away
Past the big Grand Stand where the Pousse-Café
Christens my Muse as Jennie-on-the-Daub.
Hark ye, all marks who break the Pure Fool Law,
How I, the Windy Wonder of the Age,
Have fought the Tender Passion to a draw
And got my mug upon the Sporting Page,
Since Love and I collided at the curve
And left me with a Dislocated Nerve.