Explore "Roy Butler" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
If the learned Supreme Court of Illinois / Got at the secret of every case / As well as it does a case of rape / It would be the greatest court in the world.
A jury, of neighbors mostly, with "Butch" Weldy / As foreman, found me guilty in ten minutes / And two ballots on a case like this:
Richard Bandle and I had trouble over a fence, / And my wife and Mrs. Bandle quarreled / As to whether Ipava was a finer town than Table Grove.
I awoke one morning with the love of God / Brimming over my heart, so I went to see Richard / To settle the fence in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
I knocked on the door, and his wife opened;
She smiled and asked me in. I entered --
She slammed the door and began to scream, / "Take your hands off, you low down varlet!"
Just then her husband entered.
I waved my hands, choked up with words.
He went for his gun, and I ran out.
But neither the Supreme Court nor my wife / Believed a word she said.