Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 03

<h2><SPAN name="THE_PLAINT_OF_JONAH" id="THE_PLAINT_OF_JONAH"></SPAN>THE PLAINT OF JONAH</h2> <h3>BY ROBERT J. BURDETTE</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Why should I live, when every day<br/></span> <span class="i0">The wicked prospers in his way,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And daily adds unto his hoard,<br/></span> <span class="i0">While cutworms smite the good man's gourd?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">When I would rest beneath its shade<br/></span> <span class="i0">Comes the shrill-voiced book-selling maid,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And smites me with her tireless breath&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Then am I angry unto death.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">When I would slumber in my booth,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who comes with accents loud and smooth,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And talks from dawn to midnight late?<br/></span> <span class="i0">The honest labor candidate.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Who pounds mine ear with noisy talk,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Whose brazen gall no ire can balk<br/></span> <span class="i0">And wearies me of life's short span?<br/></span> <span class="i0">The accident insurance man.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">And when, all other torments flown,<br/></span> <span class="i0">I think to call one hour mine own,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who takes my leisure by the throat?<br/></span> <span class="i0">The villain taking up a vote.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_486" id="Page_486"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />