{"id":7842,"date":"2021-12-29T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=7842"},"modified":"2021-12-29T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T06:00:00","slug":"the-criminals-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-criminals-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"The Criminal’s Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From <\/em>The Seattle Star, December 29, 1913<\/em><\/a>. By Berton Braley.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yes, I\u2019m guilty, right enough;
It ain\u2019t no use to throw a bluff,
An\u2019 yet, I guess, Society
Kin share the guilt along o\u2019 me!
I ain\u2019t the kind to weep an\u2019 whine,
But say\u2014wot chance, wot chance was mine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in a dirty, reeking slum,
Where decent sunlight never come,
An\u2019 starved for food an\u2019 starved for air
Through all my years of boyhood there,
While evil things, an\u2019 low an\u2019 mean
Was nearly all the life I seen,
Of course, I growed to be a tough,
A hoodlum, and a bad young rough!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even then I might uv been
Reformed to be some use to men,
If, every time I left the trail,
They didn\u2019t slam me into jail
Where thieves an\u2019 all that rotten crew
Would teach me worse than all I knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yes, I\u2019m guilty; that is clear,
But every guy who\u2019s listenin\u2019 here
An\u2019 all you swells an\u2019 goodly folks,
Who sniffs at me an\u2019 such-like blokes,
Is guilty, too\u2014along o\u2019 me,
An\u2019 will be till the world is free
Of stinkin\u2019 slums an\u2019 rotten holes
That poison people\u2019s hearts and souls,
An\u2019 cheats \u2018em from their very birth
From every decent chance on earth.
I ain\u2019t the kind to weep an\u2019 whine,
But say\u2014wot chance, wot chance was mine?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Seattle Star, December 29, 1913. By Berton Braley. Oh yes, I\u2019m guilty, right enough;It ain\u2019t no use to throw a bluff,An\u2019 yet, I guess, SocietyKin share the guilt along o\u2019 me!I ain\u2019t the kind to weep an\u2019 whine,But say\u2014wot chance, wot chance was mine? Born in a dirty, reeking slum,Where decent sunlight never […]<\/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-7842","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\/7842","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=7842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}