Black Beetles in Amber

"O venerable patriot, I pray

Stand not here coatless; at the break of day

We'll know the grand result—and even now

The eastern sky is faintly touched with gray.

"It ill befits thine age's hoary crown—

This rude environment of rogue and clown,

Who, as the lying bulletins appear,

With drunken cries incarnadine the town.

"But if with noble zeal you stay to note

The outcome of your patriotic vote

For Blaine, or Cleveland, and your native land,

Take—and God bless you!—take my overcoat."

"Done, pard—and mighty white of you. And now

guess the country'll keep the trail somehow.

I aint allowed to vote, the Warden said,

But whacked my coat up on old Stanislow."