Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 07

<h2>THE LOST INVENTOR</h2> <h3>BY WALLACE IRWIN</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Patriotic fellow-citizens, and did you ever note<br/></span> <span class="i0">How we honor Mr. Fulton, who devised the choo-choo boat?<br/></span> <span class="i0">How we glorify our Edison, who made the world to go<br/></span> <span class="i0">By the bizzy-whizzy magic of the little dynamo?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Yet no spirit-thrilling tribute has been ever heard or seen<br/></span> <span class="i0">For the fellow who invented our Political Machine.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Sure a fine, inventive genius, who has labored long and hard,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Till success has crowned his research, should receive a just reward.<br/></span> <span class="i0">The Machine's a great invention, that's continually clear,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Out of nothing but corruption making millions every year&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Out of muck and filth of cities making dollars neat and clean&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Where's the fellow who invented the Political Machine?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Hail the complex mechanism, full of cranks and wires and wheels,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Fed by graft and loot and patronage, as noiselessly it reels.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1386" id="Page_1386"></SPAN></span><span class="i0">Press the button, pull the lever, clickety-click, and set the vogue<br/></span> <span class="i0">For the latest thing in statesmen or the newest kind of rogue.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who's the man behind the throttle? Who's the Engineer unseen?<br/></span> <span class="i0">"Ask me nothin'! Ask me nothin'!" clicks that wizard, the Machine.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1387" id="Page_1387"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />