Jack McGuire -- Spoon River Anthology

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Jacob Goodpasture >>>

This poem was included in the original 1915 edition.

THEY would have lynched me
Had I not been secretly hurried away
To the jail at Peoria.
And yet I was going peacefully home,
Carrying my jug, a little drunk,
When Logan, the marshal, halted me
Called me a drunken hound and shook me
And, when I cursed him for it, struck me
With that Prohibition loaded cane--
All this before I shot him.
They would have hanged me except for this:
My lawyer, Kinsey Keene, was helping to land
Old Thomas Rhodes for wrecking the bank,
And the judge was a friend of
Rhodes And wanted him to escape,
And Kinsey offered to quit on
Rhodes For fourteen years for me.
And the bargain was made.
I served my time
And learned to read and write.

Comments

Paul Houle , 9 months ago

Jack's story is further told in the Spooniad. Jack shot the marshal when the town was in a riot over the prohibition of alcoholic beverages -- a struggle that dominated local and national politics between the civil war and WWI. Although Spoon River Anthology was published before the eighteenth amendment was ratified, Spoon River was one of many towns that passed a dry law on a local basis.

Wynter pitts , 6 months ago

I thought it was sad he was new and got shot over a few bad words. But he shouldn't hit and called names to Jack McGuire

T. Daly , 4 months ago

I agree with Wynter.

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Search Spoon River

Talks about

Kinsey Keene

Talked about by

The Town Marshal

Thomas Rhodes

Blind Jack

Alfred Moir

Willie Metcalf

The Spooniad

Prominent Words

drunken (in 2 documents)
halt (in 2 documents)
Lynch (in 2 documents)
peacefully (in 2 documents)
quit (in 2 documents)
secretly (in 2 documents)
cane (in 3 documents)
drunk (in 3 documents)
Kinsey (in 6 documents)
hound (in 4 documents)
Hurry (in 4 documents)
jail (in 4 documents)
Marshal (in 4 documents)
offer (in 4 documents)
Prohibition (in 4 documents)
escape (in 5 documents)
Fourteen (in 5 documents)
load (in 5 documents)
shook (in 5 documents)
lawyer (in 6 documents)
McGuire (in 6 documents)

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