Boston (MA) Liberator, "Stop 'Em!," August 19, 1853

                 From the Western Reserve Chronicle.

                           STOP 'EM!

                    BY AMINIDAB, THE ELDER.

Such a time was never seen;

    'Fugitives' from every station

Run unbridled through the land;

    Things are loose as all cration!

'Niggers' flit as shadows by;

    Compromises !--they don't mind 'em!

All mankind are breaking loose;

   Seems as if the purges had got 'em;

Helter-skelter--why the deuce

   Don't somebody go and stop 'em!

White men, too, stark, raving mad,

   Rear and pitch in party traces;

It's more than Government can do

   To keep them in their proper places.

Legislation aint no use,

    People won't be taught their duty,

But walk right off and act themselves,

   And say there's glory in't, and beauty!

All mankind are breaking loose;

    Seems as if the plague had got 'em;

Helter-skelter--why the deuce

    Don't somebody go and stop 'em!

Young men are growing up as wild 

    As eagles hatched with common chickens,

That peck the roosters on the head,

    And take their own way, like the dickens.

Away they go, with 'Hurrah, boys!'

    No precept or restraint can bind 'em;--

'Freedom!' they cry; and first you know,

    In 'Abolition' ranks you'll find 'em.

All mankind are breaking loose;

    Seems as if the plague had got 'em;

Helter-skelter--why the deuce

    Don't somebody go and stop 'em!

Time was when Whigs and Democrats

    Could march the people up to battle,

And 'Haw' and 'Gee' them in the ranks,

    As handy as old working cattle;

But now, they're grown as wild as Cain,

    And headlong as a bull of Bashan,

And how to break them in again

    Puzzles the 'old ones' like the nation.

All mankind are breaking loose;

   Seems as if the plague had got 'em;

Helter-skelter--why the deuce

    Don't somebody go and stop 'em!

The country's all a stamping ground;

   Old things are flying off the handle;

There's no respect for time or place;

   E'en Congressmen are 'food for scandal'!

There's bound to be a great stampede;

    All things appear to alter phases;

And e'en old 'hacks' are looking out

    To 'catch the bits,' and run like blazes!

All mankind are breaking loose;

    Seems as if the plague had got 'em;

Helter-skelter--why the deuce

    Don't somebody go and stop 'em!