Lambert Hutchins

I have two monuments besides this granite obelisk:         One, the house I built on the hill,         With its spires, bay windows, and roof of slate.         The other, the lake-front in Chicago,         Where the railroad keeps a switching yard,         With whistling engines and crunching wheels         And smoke and soot thrown over the city,         And the crash of cars along the boulevard, -         A blot like a hog-pen on the harbor         Of a great metropolis, foul as a sty.         I helped to give this heritage         To generations yet unborn, with my vote         In the House of Representatives,         And the lure of the thing was to be at rest         From the never - ending fright of need,         And to give my daughters gentle breeding,         And a sense of security in life.         But, you see, though I had the mansion house         And traveling passes and local distinction,         I could hear the whispers, whispers, whispers,         Wherever I went, and my daughters grew up         With a look as if some one were about to strike them;         And they married madly, helter-skelter,         Just to get out and have a change.         And what was the whole of the business worth?         Why, it wasn't worth a damn!