From Lays of Sergeant Con, by Norbert Lyons, The Times Press, Manila, 1914
THE LAYS OF
Happy Juan
In the Ay-un-ta-mi-en-to where the ilustrados rule
There is bustle there is hustle in the insurrecto
school;
While the Osmenistas worry and the progresistas rile.
And the new tercer partido is just spilling o’er
with bile,
While the fate of independence is a hanging in the
scales,
And the tribunes of the “peepul’ are indulging
in sad wails
‘Cause its date is not “mañana’ and its jobs are
but so few,
And the veto pow’r will render the poor masses
hard to do-
Juan de la Cruz
Is pushing at his plow
And planting in his rice field
For he doesn’t care nohow.
On the streets and in the alleys the politicos engage
In the wildest maledictions and in airy persifage
O’er the Jones bill’s misdemeanors, o’er its insults
and its eon,
While they work their little hammers on poor
Manuel Quezon.
Though the nacionalista spielers are some wobbly on
their legs
And are making preparations to hold forth on
empty kegs,
Though you’d think the country’s going to the bow
wows mighty fast,
And the end of all creation is approaching nigh
at last,
Juan de la Cruz
Is silent as a clam.
And wears a happy smile because
He doesn’t give a damn.
