An Employment Seeker

From the Evening Star, January 21, 1915. By Philander Johnson.

I long to serve my native land
    With efforts intellectual.
I seek to lend a helping hand
    To struggles ineffectual.
I will appeal to wealth and ease
    And likewise to the gallery.
But first one question, if you please;
    Let’s talk about the salary.

I fain would educate mankind
    To standards altitudinous.
The manners we must leave behind
    That are considered rude in us.
This world we’ll turn into a school,
    Likewise a sanitarium;
But, touching on the golden rule,
    What is the honorarium?