A New York Child’s Garden of Verses

By Franklin Pierce Adams 1881–1960 Franklin Pierce Adams

(With the usual.)

In winter I get up at night,

And dress by an electric light.

In summer, autumn, ay, and spring,

I have to do the self-same thing.

I have to go to bed and hear

Pianos pounding in my ear,

And hear the janitor cavort

With garbage cans within the court.

And does it not seem hard to you

That I should have these things to do?

Is it not hard for us Manhat-

Tan children in a stuffy flat?

It is very nice to think

The world is full of food and drink;

But, oh, my father says to me

They cost all of his salaree.

III

When I am grown to man’s estate

I shall be very proud and great;

E’en now I have no reverence,

’Cause I read comic supplements.

New York is so full of a number of kids

I’m sure pretty soon we shall be invalids.

A child should always say what’s true,

And speak when he is spoken to;

And then, when manhood’s age he strikes,

He may be boorish as he likes.

Biography

Franklin P. Adams, or F. P. A. as he was known to his readers, was best known for his witty and satirical column "The Conning Tower," which was syndicated in the New York Tribune, the New York World, the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post. In his column, to which he had a cult-like following, Adams wrote limericks, puns, and satirical prose to dissect political events, review books and plays, and parody the age. A . . .

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