Mayor Curley's Assistant Mourns for Old Days--Sends Doggerel to Crimson as "Latest if Not the Last" Sigh

Even the Mayor's office in the old Boston City Hall seems to be sighing for the days before Prohibition according to a "yellow doggerel" sent to the CRIMSON yesterday by Mr. Joseph Smith, assistant to Mayor Curley.

"I am sending you," said Mr. Smith, "this latest if not the last, sigh of the thirsty. Take it as a peace offering and an evidence from Boston, and its City Hall that Harvard still holds a high place in its esteem and respect, and a sporadic case of bad manners is not the standard of Harvard conduct. Even the ghastly humor, and tragic dialect of the Lampoon will not wring our winners or change our views."

Mr. Smith's poem follows:

The Moving Spirit

The Moving Spirit of our land

Keeps vigil off our coast.

Defying Volstead's heavy hand

And arid Humbug's host,

O Spirit of our Pilgrim sires

Save us from foes accurst,

And quench the fires of our desires

For lo,--we are athirst

Oh Moving Spirit of the Age

When men were really free,

When Humor, Wit and Persiflage,

Sang hymns of praise to thee.--

Come back to us, bring back the mirth

Thy flowing bowl evoked,

And recreate that joy on earth

With which it once was soaked.

O Moving Spirit, come ashore

With thy Olympian smile;

Bring back our lost esprit de corps;

And banish gloom and bile.

For we have learned the bitter truth,

Why saints and sinners sigh--

That Heav'n is wet, for Heav'n has ruth,

And only Hell is dry.