{"id":6845,"date":"2020-09-11T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poetry.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=461"},"modified":"2020-09-11T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T05:00:00","slug":"the-real-friend-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-real-friend-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
From the Omaha Daily Bee, September 11, 1912<\/a>.<\/em>\n \n\n If ever I find a people\u2019s friend,\n \u00a0 Who does not brag about himself;\n And doesn\u2019t seek some selfish end;\n \u00a0 Is not acquiring wads of pelf,\n But strives in honor day by day\n \u00a0 And always does the best he can\n To smooth the rough and rugged way,\n \u00a0 Over which must pass his fellow-man,\n I\u2019ll cling to him with all my might,\n \u00a0 And sing his praises as I go.\n His speech will not be stale and trite,\n \u00a0 And in his eyes a light will glow.\n \n He will not spend his days in ease,\n \u00a0 While busy men are at their work.\n Mouthing the phrases thought to please\n \u00a0 To hide the fact that he\u2019s a shirk.\n Nor will his bank account grow fat\n \u00a0 The while he fights the people\u2019s cause;\n He will not seek the glory that\n \u00a0 Depends alone on men\u2019s applause.\n But if he loves his fellow-men,\n \u00a0 And tolls for them, he will not care\n That he must labor often when\n \u00a0 There\u2019s neither cheers nor spotlight\u2019s glare.\n \n Too many pose as public friends\n \u00a0 Who merely work their tireless jaws,\n And use, to cover selfish ends,\n \u00a0 The mantle of the people\u2019s cause.\n Too many drop all useless work\n \u00a0 To thrive upon this empty plea,\n That all the burdens now that irk\n \u00a0 Some day they\u2019ll take from you and me.\n A people\u2019s friend is one who strives\n \u00a0 Without a thought of gain or fame,\n To happier, better make our lives\n \u00a0 Than what they were before he came.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
 If ever I find a people\u2019s friend,
\n   Who does not brag about himself;
\n And doesn\u2019t seek some selfish end;
\n   Is not acquiring wads of pelf,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-omaha-daily-bee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}