Adam Weirauch by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

I was crushed between Altgeld and Armour.

I lost many friends, much time and money / Fighting for Altgeld whom Editor Whedon / Denounced as the candidate of gamblers and anarchists.

Then Armour started to ship dressed meat to Spoon River, / Forcing me to shut down my slaughter-house, / And my butcher shop went all to pieces.

The new forces of Altgeld and Armour caught me / At the same time.

I thought it due me, to recoup the money I lost / And to make good the friends that left me, / For the Governor to appoint me Canal Commissioner.

Instead he appointed Whedon of the Spoon River Argus, / So I ran for the legislature and was elected.

I said to hell with principle and sold my vote / On Charles T. Yerkes' street-car franchise.

Of course I was one of the fellows they caught.

Who was it, Armour, Altgeld or myself / That ruined me?