Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

The Gentleman Inside

Runyon, Damon

Damon Runyon

(Contemporary American writer)

THEY’S a banker that’s a trusty workin’ on the warden’s books;

I kin see him from the rock pile where I’m sittin’,

An’ on his case I’m basin’ this advice to feller crooks:

You’d better git a plenty while yer gittin’.

Now, this guy wrecked a county an’ he copped his neighbor’s dough;

He got six hundred thousand, which is some change, as you know;

They give him one or two years, an’ the softest job here—Oh

It pays to git a plenty while yer gittin’.

Wit’ me little flask o’ nitro an’ me bar o’ laundry soap,

I blew a safe, an’ then, as was befittin’,

I took me ten years smilin’, glad I didn’t get the rope!—

But the next time! Oh, a plenty while I’m gittin’!

For this guy tore off half a state an’ shook the other half;

He robbed his friends an’ neighbors an’ he handed both the laugh—

But you oughta heard him holler at that one or two year gaff.

You’d better git a plenty while yer gittin’!

An’ so he’s here a trusty, while I wear a ball an’ chain—

(They say he beat most every statoot written.)

He’s got a fortune planted an’ all I’ve got’s a pain;

You’d better git a plenty while yer gittin’!

He cost the state a million bucks before they put him here;

He had ten lawyers for his trial, w’ich lasted most a year;

An’ the jedge who had to sentence him pronounced it wit’ a tear—

It pays to git a plenty while yer gittin’!