Too Much Hiawatha

Then the band played Hiawatha,

Played it up and down the highways,

Tooted it along the byways,

At park concerts played it loudly,

Played itself back from the graveyard

To the ever haunting measure,

While the people who will whistle

Joined in misfit key the chorus,

And e'en some dared raise their voices

In a dee-de-dum-ti-dumdum,

Lacking words to grace their meaning

Or, it may be, lacking meaning;

At pianos idly thumping

Tender maidens also played it

Till the atmosphere resounded

With the strains of Hiawatha.

Then, when shades of night had fallen

And the push was silent, tired out-

Then, ah, then we found with sorrow

That It all had been for nothing,

All our suffering for nothing,

For of all the ardent tooters,

All the whistlers so persistent,

All the hummers cracked or raucous,

All tho thumpers of pianos,

Not one of the whole blamed outfit

Had In one erratic measure

Struck the note that kills mosquitoes,

And throughout the long nights darkness

Still the insects buzzed about us

That same tune with variation.

So much suffering Is futile!

- Indianapolis News.