  We hoped to end our troubled days Far from the maddening strife, Erstwhile to chortle roundelays Of peaceful country life; But now the phone rings night and morn, The trolleys crash and bang; We hear the fearsome auto horn Where once the thrushes sang. We hoped the children that we raised, Those stalwart girls and boys; Would follow in the trail we blazed That selfish ease destroys; But now, when men are needed so To fight the mailed fist, Our girls won't let their husbands go, Nor will our sons enlist. We hoped the pirates all were dead, Those horrid buccaneers, Who dyed the ocean's waves with red, In wicked bygone years: But now we mourn, as happy days, That sanguinary past, Since Kaiser Bill a hundred ways, Has Captain Kidd outclassed. Since Charles I. lost his head, And Bonaparte was overthrown, For painting Europe red; But now we have the greatest kill Since cave men fought with stones. Behold the Kaiser's butcher bill! Ten million dead men's bones. |
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