Explore "Ida Chicken" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
After I had attended lectures / At our Chautauqua, and studied French / For twenty years, committing the grammar / Almost by heart, / I thought I'd take a trip to Paris / To give my culture a final polish.
So I went to Peoria for a passport --
(Thomas Rhodes was on the train that morning.)
And there the clerk of the district Court / Made me swear to support and defend / The constitution -- yes, even me --
Who couldn't defend or support it at all!
And what do you think? That very morning / The Federal Judge, in the very next room / To the room where I took the oath, / Decided the constitution / Exempted Rhodes from paying taxes / For the water works of Spoon River!