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issued a policy on his life for a twelve-month, but he was not only alive, but in good health, to eat his Christmas turkey—i. e., if they in dulge in the luxury of turkey eating in that savage country. The chances are that he would die a natural death Anally and establish the line of Kara georgeovitches if his oldest son, Prince George, was not a most repul sive degenerate. Just why the Ser vians have let Peter live puzzles those who remember that they murdered Alexander and his queen publicly and that no effort has ever been made to punish the murderers. •t THE PRESIDENT’S FUTURE. Many persons who take President Roosevelt’s declaration that he will not again be a candidate for the pres idency expend considerable ingenuity in arranging his future after he quits the White House. .Some make him president of Harvard, some the great mogul of the isthmian canal, some send him to the United States senate as successor to the effete Platt, while still others insist that he shall be made perpetual president of The Hague peace tribunal, which shall be sufficiently endowed by Andrew Car negie to support its president in royal state. One thing may be certainly assumed, and that is that Colonel Roosevelt will And something to do and will command his own salary. In this connection it is pertinent to, state that only four ex-presidents have held offices of any prominence. John Quincy Adams served seventeen years in the house of representatives after his presidential term expired, Andrew Johnson was elected to the United States senate, John Tyler died a member of the Confederate con gress, and George Washington was lieutenant general during our troubles with France. Colorado is peculiar in having a minister of the gospel for governor, Dr. Henry A. Buchtel. There never was a gang on this earth more in need of a spiritual adviser than the Repub licans of Colorado, who two years ago stole the governorship from that splendid citizen and Democrat, Alva Adams, as barefaced a piece of politi cal grand larceny as even the records of the Republican party can show. The beneficiary of that theft did not dare to accept the gubernatorial nomination when it was tendered to him, so it was given to Dr. Buchtel, and, to the surprise of everybody, he was elected. Let us hope that he is at least better than his party in Colorado. If he is not, he’s in a bad way. Hon. H. J. Simmons, representa tive from Shelby county in the Mis souri legislature and prominent can didate for speaker, has prepared an elaborate bill providing for nominat ing all officers, from United States senator to constable, both inclusive, by primary election. In general out lines the Simmons bill resembles the South Carolina primary law, perhaps the best in the Union. Mr. Simmons is serving his fourth term in the legis lature, has had ample opportunity to form an idea as to the desires of the people and by reason of his long service, large experience and wide ac quaintance! is in good position to obtain favorable results. There is no doubt that the primary election idea is spreading. It It is peculiar how Republican statesmen fall into the habit of imi tating Thomas Jefferson even in small thing's, although they one and all de nounce him. The papers are making a great hullabaloo because Mr. Post master General George Bruce Cortel you keeps scrapbooks headed “True,” “Partly True,” “Fake,” “False,” etc., and give that as a Ane sample of his system in all things. These writers may 'be surprised to learn that even this is not original with Mr. C., but was precisely the way in which Jefferson labeled newspaper articles. If Republicans continue to copy from him they will get to be pretty fair Americans after awhile. It seems that ithat eminent lawyer, senator and publicist of Pennsylva nia, Hon. Philander C. Knox, has waked up to the fact that the late Senator George of Mississippi was a lawyer of exceptional ability, a fact known by thousands while the great Mississippian was still in the Hesh. Better late than never is a dictum applicable to Senator Knox’s recent discovery. CHAMP CLARK. A SPLENDID POEM IN PERFECT ENGLISH. It is our purpose to give to the readers of the Weekly Jeffersonian some of the beneAt of a course of reading which has now extended over a period of forty years. We will se lect, from time to time, poems, es says, short stories, etc., which seem tu us to have the highest merit. Tn this way our readers will get the ben eAt of browsing around among thou sands of books which would other wise never come within their reach We begin this reproduction of old masterpieces in literature with a se lection from Thomas Hood, the Eng lish poet. We begin with this for several reasons. One is, “The Lay of the Laborer rings with true democracy; another is, it is absolute ly perfect as a specimen of English. If it contains a word which is not anglo-<Saxon in its brevity, strength, compactness, and purity, that word has escaped my attention. Again, as a specimen of true poetry, it seems to me to breathe the right spirit and to clothe itself with the right words. THE LAY OF THE LABORER. A spade, a rake, a hoe! A pickaxe, or a bill, A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, A flail, or what we will, And here’s a ready hand, To ply the needful tool, And skilled enough by lessons rough, In Labor’s rugged school. To hedge, or dig the ditch, To lop or fell the tree, To lay the swarth on the sultry Aeld, Or rough the stubborn lea, The harvest stack to bind, The wheaton rick to thatch, And never fear in my pouch to And The tinder or the match. To a darning barn, or farm, My fancies never roam, Are I yearn to kindle and bum, Is on the hearth of home, Where children huddle and crouch, Through dark long Winter days, Where starving children huddle and THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAW. To see the cheerful rays, Agiowing on the haggard cheek And not in the haggard’s blaze. To Him who sends a drought To parch the Aelds forlorn, The rain to ffood the meadows with mud, The blight to blast the corn, To Him I leave to guide - The bolt in its crooked path, To strike the miser’s rick, and show The skies blood red with wraths A spade, a rake, a hoe! A pickaxe, or a bill, A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, Assail, or what you will, The corn to thrash, or the hedge to plash, The market team to drive, Or mend the fence by the cover side, And leave the game alive. Ay, only give me work, And then you need not fear That I shall snare his worship’s hare, Or kill his grace’s deer; Break into his lordship’s house, To steal the plate so rich, Or leave the yeoman that had a purse To welter in the ditch. Wherever Nature needs, Wherever Labor calls, No job I’ll shirk of the harvest • work, To shun the workhouse walls, Where savage lords begrudge, The pauper babe its breath, And doom a wife to a widow’s life, Before her partner’s death. My only claim is this, With Labor stiff and stark, By lawful turn my living to/earn, Between the light and dark, My daily bread and nightly bed, Aly bacon and drop of beer, But all from the hand that holds the . land, And none from the overseer. No parish money or loaf, No pauper badges for me; A son of the soil by right of toil, Entitled to my fee; No alms I ask, give me my task, Here are the arm, the leg, The strength, the sinews of a man, To work, and not to beg. Still one of Adam’s heirs, Though doomed by a chance of birth, To dress so mean, and to eat the lean, Instead of the fat of the earth; To make such humble meals, honest labor can, A bone, and a crust with the grace to God, And little thanks to man. A spade, a rake, a hoe! A pickaxe, or a bill, A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, Assail, or what you will, Whatever the tool to ply, Here is a willing drudge, With muscles and limb, and woe to him Who does that pay begrudge. Who every weekly score, Docks labor’s little mite, Bestows on the poor at the temple door, But rob them over night. The very shilling he hopes to save. As health and morals fail, Shall visit me in the New Bastile, The Spital, or the Gaol! Thos. Hood. 1 THE WORKER’S CORNER. What did you think of the ffrst is sue from Atlanta? You have been sending us so many new recruits, we feel sure you can do even better now. We have been delighted with your success in the past and we know it is your ambition to make this paper the largest and best, from a standpoint of circulation, of any in the country. Why not? No paper goes into the homes of a more patriotic, big hearted, home-lov ing people. Certainly no paper has as many tin sel Ash, devoted workers in the Aeld, and the end is not yet, for almost ev ery mail brings us a modest request from others who wish to compete with you in the struggle for the Jefferson ian’s success. All this that they may experience that unspeakable pleasure which comes to us from the consciousness of duty well done. We were in such a fever of excite ment and haste last week that we didn’t have our usual little chat with the men in the Held, but our heart and our thoughts went out to them just the same. And noble work it was they did, too. From out in Chillicothe, Afo., Dix on and Langford had sent in a club of twenty-nine subscribers to the Weekly Jeffersonian; P. F. Blood worth, Perry Fla., twenty-four; F. O. Wimberly, Cochran, Ga., twenty one; from Newnan, Miss., W. D. Thompson sent in three, while from here in Georgia, S. B. Tarver, of Bartow, S. B. McCall, Athens, J. W. Dickey, Musella,. J. W. Allgood, Temple, B. F. Lee, Thomaston and ■S. F. Strickland, Alpharetta; M. P. Roone, Atlanta, W. E. Elrod, Jeffer son, J. M. Gilbert, Washington, J. J. Costello, Georgetown, J. A. Bag wejl, Lawrenceville, F. J. Vining, Thomaston, and Miss Willie Cox, Met ter, sent in clubs ranging from two to ten, while there were dozens of single subscriptions. Our who have club bing atiJngements with us did the handsome thing, too. The Atlanta Journal, The Georgian, and The Con stitution all sent in good lists, and so did the Tallahassee Sun, Editor Claud L’Engle’s paper; The Royston Rec ord, The Conyers Free Press, The In vestigator, of Omaha, Neb., Mr. Bry an’s Commoner, The Sylvester Tele phone, The Barnesville Union News, The Elberton Star. A few of those who have sent clubs to The Monthly Jeffersonian are T. A. McWilliams, Graves, Ga.; Miss M. G. Wilson, St. Louis, Mo.; C. L. Burns, McHenry, Ga.; Byron Bowers, Athens, Ga.; Lester C. Culver, Sparta, Ga.; Union News, Barnesville, Ga*-; Frank E. Ajnderson, Philadelphia, Pa.; The Watchman, Cleburne, Tex.; R. H. Cleveland, Pleasant Shade, Tenn.; J. W. Steeley, Hartford, Ala.; J. M. Johnson, Flippen, Ga.; The Commoner, Lincoln, Neb.; A. P. Da vis, DeKalb, Miss.; A. C. Shuford, Newton, N. C. All this is very gratifying, and we feel sure that as we make each suc cessive issue of The Weekly Jeffer sonian and of Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine better and brighter and more attractive, the workers in the Held will have still greater success to 3