Free Speechlessness.

How vain! Oh mortal man, to strive
Against the Devil of your day;
The means by which he keeps alive
May he destroyed, yet will he thrive,
Another way

The men who yelled Democracy
And cursed the things that monarchs do,
Built up with Democratic glee
A camouflaged autocracy
And never knew.

A hundred, hundred years men wrought
That all might freely write and say
Exactly what they really thought
Without a summons to the Court—
A fine to pay.

How vain! To think the Devil dies
Because he has a Phoenix growth;
He's back in patriotic guise—
And every teacher parrot-wise
Must take the oath.

R. W. C