The Reserved Section

BY WILBUR D. NESBIT

(At the time of the great anthracite coal strike of 1902, George F. Baer, head of the coal trust, was quoted as declaring: "The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by labor and agitation, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom has given control of the property interests of this country")

IN

N the prehistoric ages, when the world was a ball of mist

A seething swirl of something unknown in the planet list; When the earth was vague with vapor, and formless and dark and void

The sport of the wayward comet-the jibe of the asteroid

Then the singing stars of morning chanted soft: "Keep out of there!

Keep off that spot which is sizzling hot-it is making coal for Baer!"

When the pterodactyl ambled, or fluttered, or swam, or jumped,

And the plesiosaurus rambled, all careless of what he

bumped,

And the other old time monsters that thrived on the

land and sea,

And did not know what their names were, any more than

today do we

Wherever they went they heard it: "You fellows keep out of there

That place which shakes and quivers and quakes—it is making coal for Baer."

The carboniferous era consumed but a million years; It started when earth was shedding the last of her baby tears,

When still she was swaddled softly in clumsily tied on

clouds,

When stars from the shop of nature were being turned out in crowds;

But high o'er the favored section this sign said to all: "Beware!

Stay back of the ropes that surround these slopes-they are making coal for Baer!"

The Monthly Rent
(From "The Game of Life")

BY BOLTON HALL

(American lawyer and single-taxer, born 1854)

They sheared the lamb twelve times a year,
To get some money to buy some beer;
The lamb thought this was extremely queer—
Poor little snow-white lamb!-OLD SONG.

OD tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," said the deacon.

"I will shut the gate of the field so as to keep him warm," said the philanthropist.

"If you give me the tags of wool," said the charity clipper, "I'll let the poor creature have half."

"PLEASE, GOOD MR. DEVIL, FETCH MY MAMMA, TOO.

NICE AND WARM IN YOUR HOUSE"

THOMAS THEODOR HEINE

IT'S SO

"The lambs we have always with us," said the wool broker.

"Lambs must always be shorn," said the business man; "hand me the shears."

"We should leave him enough wool to make him a coat," said the profit sharer.

"His condition is improving," said the land owner, "for his fleece will be longer next year."

"We should prohibit cutting his flesh when we shear," said the legislator.

"But I intend," said the radical, "to stop this shearing." The others united to throw him out; then they divided the wool.

Penguin Island

BY ANATOLE FRANCE

(French man of letters, born 1844. In this masterpiece of social satire the aged and half-blind Saint Maël has by mistake baptized a flock of penguins. After a consultation of the heavenly powers, the penguins are turned into human beings)

Now

OW one autumn morning, as the blessed Maël was walking in the valley of Clange in company with a monk of Yvern called Bulloch, he saw bands of fiercelooking men loaded with stones passing along the roads. At the same time he heard in all directions cries and complaints mounting up from the valley towards the tranquil sky.

And he said to Bulloch:

"I notice with sadness, my son, that since they became men the inhabitants of this island act with less wisdom than formerly. When they were birds they only quarelled