Mrs. Williams    I was the milliner  Talked about, lied about,  Mother of Dora,  Whose strange disappearance  Was charged to her rearing.  My eye quick to beauty  Saw much beside ribbons  And buckles and feathers  And leghorns and felts,  To set off sweet faces,  And dark hair and gold.  One thing I will tell you  And one I will ask:  The stealers of husbands  Wear powder and trinkets,  And fashionable hats.  Wives, wear them yourselves.  Hats may make divorces --  They also prevent them.  Well now, let me ask you:  If all of the children, born here in Spoon River  Had been reared by the County, somewhere on a farm;  And the fathers and mothers had been given their freedom  To live and enjoy, change mates if they wished,  Do you think that Spoon River  Had been any the worse?
					                            						
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