{"id":7815,"date":"2021-12-16T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=7815"},"modified":"2021-12-16T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T06:00:00","slug":"necessary-evils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/necessary-evils\/","title":{"rendered":"Necessary Evils"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From <\/em>The Seattle Star, December 16, 1913<\/em><\/a>. By Berton Braley.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the days of old Rameses, when he ruled along the Nile,
There were human sacrifices of a rather gory style.
And if tender-hearted people at this sort of thing demurred,
\u201cIt\u2019s a Necessary Evil,\u201d they were told, when it occurred.
\u201cFor the mighty gods require it, and we mustn\u2019t tell them \u2018No,\u2019
Or the crops would cease to prosper and the Nile would cease to flow!\u201d
Yet in time this custom perished, \u2018spite of priest and king and thrall,
For a Necessary Evil\u2019s no necessity at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the time of Mr. Nero, who was emperor of Rome,
There were Necessary Evils which were very much at home.
There were gladiators\u2019 battles and a lot of other games,
Such as feeding Christian martyrs to the lions or the flames.
But the reign of Nero ended and he had his little day,
And those Necessary Evils were completely swept away\u2014
Swept away like little sandhills in a sudden windy squall\u2014
For a Necessary Evil\u2019s no necessity at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were good and kindly people who defended slavery
As a Necessary Evil which was simply bound to be.
Yet it\u2019s washed away forever by the blood of noble men;
It\u2019s a Necessary Evil which will not come back again!
So the Barroom and the Brothel, which are ever talked about
As two Necessary Evils which we cannot do without\u2014
They shall go like those before them, they shall crumble to their fall\u2014
For a Necessary Evil\u2019s no necessity at all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Seattle Star, December 16, 1913. By Berton Braley. In the days of old Rameses, when he ruled along the Nile,There were human sacrifices of a rather gory style.And if tender-hearted people at this sort of thing demurred,\u201cIt\u2019s a Necessary Evil,\u201d they were told, when it occurred.\u201cFor the mighty gods require it, and we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-7815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-seattle-star","tag-berton-braley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815","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=7815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}