McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History of William McKinley's Assassination

Publication information

Source: Echoes from the Beat
Source type: book
Document type: poem
Document title: “Retribution”
Author(s): Hair, Dell
Volume number: 3
Publisher: Newell B. Newton Company
Place of publication: Toledo, Ohio
Year of publication: 1908
Pagination: 128

Citation

Hair, Dell. “Retribution.” Echoes from the Beat. Vol. 3. Toledo: Newell B. Newton, 1908: p. 128.

Transcription

full text

Keywords

Leon Czolgosz (execution: poetry).

Named persons

Leon Czolgosz; William McKinley.

Notes

From title page: Echoes from the Beat: A Collection of Poems.

From title page: By Dell Hair, the Policeman Poet.

Document

Retribution

There was silence in the chamber;—
     Czolgosz seated in the chair,
Wires hummed the sad death rattle,
     Flashing blue light here and there.

The warden grasped the lever
     That switched the well-aimed blow,
And asked the trembling culprit:
     “Are you ready, sir, to go?”

               Czolgosz Replies:

“I own I shot McKinley,
     For shooting is my creed,
Nor can I say before I die
     I’m sorry for the deed.

“I swore that I would kill him,
     The deed at last was done,
And now that death doth claim me—
     Farewell! my race is run.

“Turn on the current! I’m ready!”
     No sign of pain he bore;
A corpse now in the chair he sat—
     The murderer is no more.

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