Elliott Hawkins

I looked like Abraham Lincoln.         I was one of you, Spoon River, in all fellowship,         But standing for the rights of property and for order.         A regular church attendant,         Sometimes appearing in your town meetings to warn you         Against the evils of discontent and envy         And to denounce those who tried to destroy the Union,         And to point to the peril of the Knights of Labor.         My success and my example are inevitable influences         In your young men and in generations to come,         In spite of attacks of newspapers like the Clarion;         A regular visitor at Springfield         When the Legislature was in session         To prevent raids upon the railroads         And the men building up the state.         Trusted by them and by you, Spoon River, equally         In spite of the whispers that I was a lobbyist.         Moving quietly through the world, rich and courted.         Dying at last, of course, but lying here         Under a stone with an open book carved upon it         And the words "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."         And now, you world-savers, who reaped nothing in life         And in death have neither stones nor epitaphs,         How do you like your silence from mouths stopped         With the dust of my triumphant career?