From the Rock Island Argus, March 18, 1913.
 By S. E. Kiser.
 

 “Man wants but little here below”—once that perhaps was true;
 I have no right to think I know, no more, indeed have you;
 Man may have once been satisfied to skimp along somehow,
 But it is not to be denied that much is needed now.
 
 There was a time when eggs were not quite worth their weight in gold,
 When bacon did not cost a lot and steaks were cheaply sold.
 When beans and bread and milk and cheese had not, in fact, obtained
 A place among the luxuries from which the poor abstained.
 
 Man needs a fortune here below to live in comfort now;
 No wonder that the wrinkles show so plainly on his brow;
 He has to have a lot to drive starvation from his door,
 And month by month they still contrive to keep him needing more.