Hog Butcher for the World, 
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, 
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; 
Stormy, husky, brawling, 
City of the Big Shoulders: 

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I 
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps 
luring the farm boys. 
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it 
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to 
kill again. 
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the 
faces of women and children I have seen the marks 
of wanton hunger. 
And having answered so I turn once more to those who 
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer 
and say to them: 
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing 
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. 
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on 
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the 
little soft cities; 

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning 
as a savage pitted against the wilderness, 

Bareheaded, 
Shoveling, 
Wrecking, 
Planning, 
Building, breaking, rebuilding, 

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with 
white teeth, 
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young 
man laughs, 
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has 
never lost a battle, 
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, 
and under his ribs the heart of the people, 

Laughing! 

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of 
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog 
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with 
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.