“_De mortuis nil nisi bonum._”
“Speak no evil of the dead:”
Standard story that of Cain;
Sence his vitle spark has fled,
Dast a soul of him complain?
Did his brother mortle harm,
Lied about the thing, to God;
His’n the fust abandoned farm;
Skipped to Canady or Nod.
Like some latter-day ex-gent,
Sorry—for his punishment.
Judas did a traitor’s deed,
’Scuse, I beg, the mention here,
Bein’ his life has gone to seed
(Scattered far and wide, I fear),
Of him may no ill be sayed,
Though this miscreant for gain
The one perfec’ Man betrayed
To be crucified and slain:
Went and killed hisself withal—
After readin’ Ingersoll.
Stay! That max’m mayn’t be true;
In old heathen Rome ’twas bred;
Livin’ men should have in view
What’s the status of ’em dead.
Conduc’ stands—time don’t forswear’t—
Even to a lord’s disgrace,
When with Cain and Judas Scairt
He has went ter his own place.
Cains and Judases, don’t guess
Death will make you a success.