| THE PRESS of the Spoon River Clarion was wrecked, | |
| And I was tarred and feathered, | |
| For publishing this on the day the Anarchists were hanged in Chicago: | |
| “I saw a beautiful woman with bandaged eyes | |
| Standing on the steps of a marble temple. | 5 |
| Great multitudes passed in front of her, | |
| Lifting their faces to her imploringly. | |
| In her left hand she held a sword. | |
| She was brandishing the sword, | |
| Sometimes striking a child, again a laborer, | 10 |
| Again a slinking woman, again a lunatic. | |
| In her right hand she held a scale; | |
| Into the scale pieces of gold were tossed | |
| By those who dodged the strokes of the sword. | |
| A man in a black gown read from a manuscript: | 15 |
| ‘She is no respecter of persons.’ | |
| Then a youth wearing a red cap | |
| Leaped to her side and snatched away the bandage. | |
| And lo, the lashes had been eaten away | |
| From the oozy eye-lids; | 20 |
| The eye-balls were seared with a milky mucus; | |
| The madness of a dying soul | |
| Was written on her face— | |
| But the multitude saw why she wore the bandage.” | |
