They Play Their Parts

The man who beat his wife last night

     And drove his children out of doors

And made a wreck of every room

Is leading man, the hero whom

     The matinee girl just adores.

That man who sprang into the street

     And stopped a maddened runaway,

And saved a life and risked his own

Then tried to steal away “unknown”,

     He is the villain in the play.

Aug. 2, 1901