Harry Carey Goodhue by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

You never marveled, dullards of Spoon River, / When Chase Henry voted against the saloons / To revenge himself for being shut off.

But none of you was keen enough / To follow my steps, or trace me home / As Chase's spiritual brother.

Do you remember when I fought / The bank and the courthouse ring, / For pocketing the interest on public funds?

And when I fought our leading citizens / For making the poor the pack-horses of the taxes?

And when I fought the water works / For stealing streets and raising rates?

And when I fought the business men / Who fought me in these fights?

Then do you remember:

That staggering up from the wreck of defeat, / And the wreck of a ruined career, / I slipped from my cloak my last ideal, / Hidden from all eyes until then, / Like the cherished jawbone of an ass, / And smote the bank and the water works, / And the business men with prohibition, / And made Spoon River pay the cost / Of the fights that I had lost.