Masters, Edgar Lee: Spoon River Anthology - Carl Hamblin

  The press of the Spoon River Clarion was wrecked,

  And I was tarred and feathered,

  For publishing this on the day the

  Anarchists were hanged in Chicago:

  "l saw a beautiful woman with bandaged eyes

  Standing on the steps of a marble temple.

  Great multitudes passed in front of her,

  Lifting their faces to her imploringly.

  In her left hand she held a sword.

  She was brandishing the sword,

  Sometimes striking a child, again a laborer,

  Again a slinking woman, again a lunatic.

  In her right hand she held a scale;

  Into the scale pieces of gold were tossed

  By those who dodged the strokes of the sword.

  A man in a black gown read from a manuscript:

  "She is no respecter of persons."

  Then a youth wearing a red cap

  Leaped to her side and snatched away the bandage.

  And lo, the lashes had been eaten away

  From the oozy eye-lids;

  The eye-balls were seared with a milky mucus;

  The madness of a dying soul

  Was written on her face--

  But the multitude saw why she wore the bandage."