heels,
Rend and ravel and tear and pick;
What can resist these hooks of steel,
Sharp as the claws of the ancient Nick?
Cast-off mantle of millionaire,
Pestilent vagrant's vesture chill,
Rags of miser or beggar bare,
_All_ are 'grist' for the shoddy-mill.

Worthless waste and worn-out wool,
Flung together--a specious _sham_!
With just enough of the 'fleece' to pull
Over the eyes of poor 'Uncle Sam.'
Cunningly twisted through web and woof,
Not 'shirt of Nessus' such power to kill.
Look! how the prints of his hideous hoof
Track the fiend of the shoddy-mill!

A soldier lies on the frozen ground,
While crack his joints with aches and ails;
A 'shoddy' blanket wraps him round,
His 'shoddy' garments the wind assails.
His coat is 'shoddy,' well 'stuffed' with 'flocks';
He dreams of the flocks on his native hill,
His feverish sense the demon mocks--
The demon that drives the shoddy-mill.

Ay! pierce his tissues with shooting pains,
Tear the muscles and rend the hone,
Fire with frenzy the heart and brain;
Old Rough-Shoddy! your work is done!
Never again shall the bugle-blast
Waken the sleeper that lies so still;
His dream of home and glory's past:
Fatal's the 'work' of the shoddy-mill.

Struck by 'shoddy,' and not by 'shells,'
And not by shot, our brave ones fall.
Greed of gold the story tells.
Drop the mantle and spread the pall.
Out! on the vampires! out! on those
Who of our life-blood take their fill.
No _meaner_ 'traitor' the nation knows,
Than the greedy ghoul of the shoddy-mill!

* * * * *

Some years ago, a German writer informed his astonished readers:
'Thieves are so rare in America, that I observe, from reading their
journals, that those who are curious in such studies are obliged to
offer a reward to find them.' To judge from a recent attempt at
imposition in New-York, one might suppose that negroes were so rare in
this country that we are obliged to imitate them, by way of keeping up
the supply. Not long ago, a young woman, named Perry, and a Dr. Perkins,
of Oneida county, engaged with a broker of the curb-stone persuasion to
show off the lady as a case of gradual external carbonization; it being
asserted that for four years her body had gradually been turning to
charcoal! Examination by Dr. Mott and others revealed the fact that 'the
supposed epidermi