His Opportunity

I wish I was an editor

Of some big magazine;

It is a yearning I have had

     Since I was young and green.

Just think! They print whate’er they want,

     And can the other stuff;

I wish I were an editor,

     I’d be right up to snuff.

Those fellows who have thrown me down –

     (I’ve got ‘em listed all)

If they should send their stuff to me

     I’d hang ‘em, great and small.

“Revenge is sweet,” the poets say,

     Which is no idle spleen;

‘Tis sweet, when paying back the man

     Behind a magazine!

I wish I were an editor,

And had the right o’ way;

I’ve got a hundred manuscripts

That have come back to stay.

I’d tool ‘em out, and dust ‘em off,

     And throw ‘em on the screen,

If I were editor in chief

     Of some big magazine!

April 7, 1913

For Sat.

Apr. 12