world seemed young and bright, and every hour had its delight; and, as
I brush away a tear, a snowball hits me in the ear.

THE POOR MAN'S CLUB

The poor man's club is a genial place--if the poor man has the price;
there's a balmy smile on the barkeep's face, and bottles of goods on
ice; the poor man's club is a place designed to brighten our darkened
lives, and send us home, when we're halfway blind, in humor to beat our
wives. So hey for the wicker demi-john and the free-lunch brand of
grub! We'll wassail hold till the break of dawn, we friends of the
poor man's club! It's here we barter our bits of news in our sweat
stained hand-me-downs; it's here we swallow the children's shoes and
the housewives hats and gowns. It's here we mortgage the house and
lot, the horse and the muley cow; the poor man's club is a cheerful
spot, so open a bottle now! From brimming glasses we'll blow the foam
till the midnight hour arrives, when we'll gayly journey the long way
home and merrily beat our wives. We earn our dimes like the horse or
ox, we toil like the fabled steer, and then we journey a dozen blocks
to blow in the dimes for beer. While the women work at the washing tub
to add to our scanty hoard, we happily meet at the poor man's club,
where never a soul is bored. We recklessly squander our minted brawn,
and the clubhouse owner thrives; and we'll homeward go at the break of
dawn and joyously beat our wives.

WORDS AND DEEDS

A fire broke out in Bildad's shack and burned it to the ground; and
Bildad, with his roofless pack, sent up a doleful sound. And I, who
lived the next door west, hard by the county jail, went over there and
beat my breast, and helped poor Bildad wail. Around the ruined home I
stepped, and viewed the shaking walls, and people say the way I wept
would beat Niagara Falls. Then words of sympathy I dealt to Bildad and
his wife; such kindly words, I've always felt, nerve people for the
strife. If I can kill with words your fears, or argue grief away, or
drown your woe by shedding tears, call on me any day. I have a
sympathetic heart that bleeds for others' aches, and I will ease your
pain and smart unless the language breaks. And so to Bildad and his
mate I made a helpful talk, with vital truths that elevate and break
disasters' shock; I pointed out that stricken men should not yield to
the worst, but from the wreckage rise again like flame from torch
reversed.

Then Johnson int