Keep silence--keep peace--and let all the profane From our holy solemnity duly refrain; Whose souls unenlightened by taste, are obscure; Whose poetical notions are dark and impure; Whose theatrical conscience Is sullied by nonsense; Who never were train'd by the mighty Cratinus In mystical orgies poetic and vinous; Who delight in buffooning and jests out of season; Who promote the designs of oppression and treason; Who foster sedition, and strife, and debate; All traitors, in short, to the stage and the state; Who surrender a fort, or in private, export To places and harbors of hostile resort, Clandestine consignments of cables and pitch; In the way the Thorycion grew to be rich From a scoundrelly dirty collector of tribute! All such we reject and severely prohibit: All statesmen retrenching the fees and the salaries Of theatrical bards, in revenge for the railleries, And jests, and lampoons, of this holy solemnity, Profanely pursuing their personal enmity, For having been flouted, and scoff'd, and scorn'd, All such are admonish'd and heartily warn'd! We warn them once, We warn them twice, We warn and admonish--we warn them thrice, To conform to the law, To retire and withdraw-- While the Chorus again with the formal saw (Fixt and assign'd to the festive day) Move to the measure and march away! Pure Food Agitation BY MARTIN LUTHER (German religious reformer, 1483-1564) They have learned the trick of placing such commodities as pepper, ginger, saffron, in damp vaults or cellars in order to increase the weight.... Nor is there a single article of trade whatever out of which they cannot make unfair profit by false measuring, counting or weighing. They produce artificial colors, or they put the pretty things at the top and bottom and the ugly ones in the middle; and indeed there is no end to their trickery, and no one tradesman will trust another, for they know each other's ways. Wall Street BY HABAKKUK (Hebrew prophet. B.C. 600) They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they sacrifice unto their nets, and burn incense unto their drags; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. BY MARTIAL (Latin poet, A.D. 43-104) If you are a poor man now, Aemilianus, a poor man you will always be. Nowadays, riches are bestowed on no one but the rich. BY CATO, THE CENSOR (Latin, B.C. 234-149) Small thieves lie in towers fastened to wooden blocks; big ones strut about in gold and silver. Prosperity (_From the Book of Job_) (Hebrew, B.C. Fourth Century)