Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MINNESONG. Once a falcon I possessed ; And full many a knight and vassal Watched him from my father's castle, As, in gaudy ribbon dressed, He would seek with fiery eye Battle in the roomy sky, And return to be caressed. Once a lover I possessed ; On the field of battle knighted, And at tournaments, delighted, Did I watch his fiery crest. Woven from the silken strands By my own unaided hands, Was the baldric on his breast. But one day my bird did soar, When the sky was black and stormy ; And my knight, whose fondness for me Seemed as changeless as before, Rode away in the crusade ; And as years successive fade, They return to me no more. Ah ! In every land and tongue— Loved by emperor and vassal, Serf in hovel, knight in castle— Ever old yet ever young, Sung until the hours grew late, Was the song of love and fate Which the minnesinger sung. THE GRANGER'S TEXT. Long the Topeka convention wrangled, " Good men for office " got into a balk, Grange nominations were hopelessly tangled, Sargent got up and gave them a talk; Said to the delegates quarreling so: " Smooth it over and let it go." Many a time I have thought of the quarrel That "good men for office " so often reach; Many a time I have thought that a moral Shone like a lantern in Sargent's speech, When he suggested to friend and foe, " Smooth it over and let it go." When a fierce editor, boiling with fury, Paints you with hot editorial tar, Don't start a libel suit, don't hire a jury, Don't seek redress from the bench or the bar; Lies sometimes vanish, facts always grow, " Smooth it over and let it go." When you consent to be placed on a ticket, When you have made up your mind to run,Speed it your best—the political thicket Tears off your clothes,...